There is a theological root among the others that give birth to and feed the embrace of conspiracy theories in the United States, leading to the rioting by Trump supporters. I am referring to idolatry. I don’t mean the devotion towards and faith in Trump that constitutes worship even though his Evangelical supporters would never accept that description of their position. I mean the idolatry that is focused on their own selves. Ultimately what fosters this kind of mindset is... Read more
I cannot hear these words, “You shall go out with joy,” without thinking of the joke about the man who was looking for guidance regarding his romantic life and opened the Bible at random expecting it to speak to him. The verse said “You shall go out with Joy” and so he called Joy and asked her out. Having someone named Joy in the class, as well as her husband, makes the joke all the more relevant, even though this... Read more
January 6th, 2021 will be a day for the history books. On it we saw firsts in Georgia and in Washington DC. Georgia elected its first senators who were of African descent and Jewish, while soon after we saw a coup attempt in the nation’s capitol. The supporters of the president responded to his loss of the election in many ways, all reflecting denial, and eventually it expressed itself in violence. To be clear: People can peacefully protest the shooting... Read more
January 6th is Epiphany. It so happens that two events in the Gospels are associated with this day in the Christian calendar. One is the arrival of the magi as recounted in the Gospel of Matthew. The other is Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. Both interest me, for different reasons. I wrote a short story, “We Three Spies of Parthia Are,” offering a subversive account of the visit of the magi and the motives behind it, which you can... Read more
As soon as I saw Tenet, I knew it was a movie that I would need to see twice before I could comment on it once. Having done that, I am happy to now do so, since the movie has more than one theological aspect to it. One of those is in the very nature of time travel. Being able to move backwards through time so that one benefits from the knowledge acquired while moving in the other direction provides... Read more
The New Testament does not claim that Jesus was unique. That may be a shocking claim, but I think you will find it to be true nonetheless. He stood out from a crowd, from among his peers. Many people do. We might sometimes say certain people have a unique aptitude or are uniquely gifted, but we don’t mean that literally. We mean they excel relative to the population in general. I have been thinking about this as I’ve worked on... Read more
Initially the Doctor Who 2020 New Year’s special seemed to me like a collection of things that the writers wanted to happen at this juncture, mixed together with a revisiting of well-worn Doctor Who plot, and stirred into a mixture that didn’t quite turn into a meringue. Given how much there was that was interesting and enjoyable, I wasn’t quite sure why I felt that way. On further reflection, I feel that the question of whether there is a story... Read more
I will be testing out parts of a new open textbook I am writing on the Bible and music when I teach my class on that subject in a few weeks. I am rather worried, as well as hopeful, with respect to how the fact that not all students will be present physically on all occasions may impact things like listening and singing. I mentioned the book project to my Sunday school class, and now I will also be exploring this... Read more
Sorry to start the year on a somewhat disheartening note. However, if we are to have any realistic hope of the future being better, we need to do more than hope. We must take a long hard look not only at the past, not only at those around us with whom we disagree, but at ourselves. Many of us are asking ourselves a question when we get on Facebook, Twitter, or elsewhere on social media and see things from people... Read more
“Welcome back my friends to the year that never ends…” It is time to bring 2020 to a close. Looking back, January seems so incredibly long ago. It is hard to believe that I started the year by traveling to Australia for the first time in my life. I accompanied students who would be spending the entire semester there (or so we all believed at the time, naive as we were), and had the chance to meet with quite a... Read more
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