Via The Zoom Read more
Via The Zoom Read more
On Facebook, I had my attention drawn to an interesting article by Margaret Wente about the decline of the liberal church, focusing on the United Church of Canada. It is an interesting article, but it deserves to be read carefully, since it acknowledges that pretty much the only churches not in decline are connected with immigrant communities for whom religion and cultural identity (and the preservation thereof) are closely connected. And so its real point is very much like that... Read more
The Facebook group “Christians Against the Tea Party” has turned a few more quotes from me into posters. Feel free to share them! Read more
HT Unreasonable Faith Read more
I confess that I was truly shocked when someone I went to school with wrote a comment on something I posted on Facebook, which read as follows: No since Barack is an absolute moron and possibly the most worthless president that ha been elected It wasn't the spelling and lack of punctuation that bothered me, nor surprise at this person apparently being on a first-name basis with the president. It was shock that someone would actually write that, someone I... Read more
I’ve heard the argument made that the government taxing the wealthy and redistributing that wealth to those less fortunate than them is not taxation, but robbery. I wonder how many of those who say such things are Christians or Jews , and would also think Deuteronomy 26:12 was robbery. Israelites had to set aside 10% of not only their wealth but their crops and everything they produced. Most years the tithe of 10% was given to the Levites, who were religious functionaries.... Read more
We don’t need to fear science — including the social sciences. Science is based on curiosity, hypothesis and observation of the way things are. In other words, it’s about truth, and we should never fear seeking truth — even if that means continually updating and expanding our current level of insight and understanding. We need to develop a way of reading the Bible that lines up with reality, a way of practicing our faith that fits with the full depths... Read more
Jim West drew attention today to the fact that Phil Long will be hosting the next Biblical Studies Carnival, featuring posts from this month, July 2012, and has asked for submissions. Phil has also taken it upon himself to take up Jim Linville’s fallen mantle, and organize the upcoming Biblical Studies Carnivals, since Jim’s blog has, alas…how shall I put it? Ah, I know… Mate, that blog wouldn’t “voom” if you put four million volts through it! It’s bleedin’ demised! It’s... Read more
Via Facebook Read more
There have been several excellent books in the genre “A year of” doing this or that: A. J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possibleand Rachel Held Evans’ A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master immediately come to mind. If I were to write a book of this sort, I think it would... Read more
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