I had some interaction with someone on Facebook about the subject of same-sex relationships in the context of Christianity and the Bible. I thought that it might be of interest to a wider audience. and thus am sharing it here. Since I haven’t asked my conversation partner for permission to name them, I have left them anonymous. Our interaction started with the following comment that I left on a post of theirs about recent developments in the Church of England... Read more
A lot of people are expressing dismay about AI, mainly in relation to how they fear it will impact churches and educational institutions. I think that it is important to highlight and explore precisely those parallels. Let’s look at ChatGPT as author of modern sermons and translator of ancient ones. ChatGPT and AI as Preacher? A Facebook friend shared this cartoon: The context was an expression of concern over how well ChatGPT can write a sermon. Here is how... Read more
In “Empire of Death” the Doctor and a host of others take on Sutekh. Yet before long there’s almost no one else left alive in the universe, just the Doctor, Ruby Sunday, and Mel. The obvious question is one that the Doctor poses to Sutekh. Why? Why is the Doctor allowed to continue living, along with these couple of others? The reason, we are told, is because Sutekh is even more curious than we are about the mystery of Ruby... Read more
First things first: Why study Religion or Religious Studies at a college or university at all? What even is Religious Studies? Don’t worry, that’s where we’ll start, after one key preliminary. This article isn’t about why you should study religion and nothing else. If you want to do that, by all means do so. In addition to the many careers that have an obvious connection to religion, the truth is that you can do almost anything with a degree in religious... Read more
The latest episode of Doctor Who, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” began to bring the season arc towards resolution with the mystery (okay, the legend) of Ruby Sunday, the mystery woman who appears in each episode, and more. The episode opens with the Doctor arriving at UNIT headquarters to ask for their help identifying a woman he has been encountering everywhere. It turns out they’ve been watching another woman matching that description, Susan Triad. S. Triad is an anagram of... Read more
While the Southern Baptist Convention is always a convention, it also holds conventions for pastors and an annual meeting at which business is conducted. For those who don’t know the history of Baptists, it may not be apparent just how much the SBC is prone to veer from the historic characteristics of Baptists. On one subject, however, they proved more Baptist than many of us expected when push came to shove at this year’s business meeting. They took a vote... Read more
Today is the day that Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist is officially released meaning that it will do things like appearing on the shelf in local bookstores. Some readers of my blog placed advance orders and got their books before today. If that’s you, please don’t ignore this post! This post includes some things that all of my blog readers can do to make this special day a huge success. If you haven’t bought the book yet, please... Read more
“Rogue” is quite an episode of Doctor Who. We’ve gone from absolute silliness at the beginning of the season through the mysterious, spooky and frightening to now be offered a tale of romance set in the 19th century. As Ruby describes it, “This is so Bridgerton.” In the midst of this glimpse of the bygone Regency Era as it has become a familiar part of storytelling through period dramas, “Rogue” also offers viewers a romantic storyline, highlights but doesn’t address... Read more
There’s always a Twist at the end and this episode of Doctor Who, “Dot and Bubble,” is no exception. (And, as many fans and now the characters on the show have been noticing, there is also Susan Twist in each episode). But in the narrative sense, this is an episode that explores a fascinating premise that addresses one societal trend in our time and potential future, and then suddenly at the end turns its attention to another societal issue. Spoilers... Read more
I decided to try my hand at creating a custom GPT. Since I have been working on an article relevant to this topic, I decided to see what kind of sermon-generating GPT I could make. Given my penchant for puns I of course called it ChatGPreachT. (I have made it publicly available so you can try it out.) I asked it to draw on biblical scholarship while emulating the style of the best sermons from ancient times down to the... Read more
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