Here I take up Chapter Six of Rodney Clapp’s book Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. The title is “The Anarchistic Tendency and Christian Citizenship.” If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, only ask a question. I often tell my students to read the last paragraph of a chapter first. Often an author tells his or her thesis there. Here it is: “Let us, then, embrace the Christian anarchistic tendency... Read more

I have been reading a relatively new book about the meaning of “image of God” (“imago dei”) concept in Christian theology. It’s title is Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God; it’s author is theologian John F. Kilner. It was published by Eerdmans in 2015. So, yes, I’m a little late coming to it. Kilner’s book is 402 pages long, including the bibliography and index. 330 pages of text. So it’s something of a tome. And it is... Read more

Here I continue my discussion of Rodney Clapp’s book Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. This week’s chapter is Chapter Five: Christian Nationalism: An Alternative to Living Out of Control. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment but stay on topic. If you have not read it, you may ask a question. According to Rodney (I call him by his first name as we are friends), Christian nationalism, at least as he... Read more

Martin Luther King believed and said that “man’s law” is not the “higher law” and that the “higher law,” which he specifically identified as “the moral law” or “God’s law” justifies civil disobedience to man’s law. This was stated in his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” MLK was a Christian theologian and a prophet. He openly based many of his claims about justice on biblical prophets and on Jesus’s teachings. His Christianity was in the forefront of his ministry and... Read more

  This is another installment of the current book discussion of Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom by Rodney Clapp. Here I will take up Chapter Four: Prefigurative Politics and Secularity. If you have read this chapter, feel free to comment. If not, feel free to ask a question. The thesis of this chapter is that the Christian church should not attempt to control culture or society but only “prefigure the world as it will... Read more

The conspiracy to assassinate Hitler was wider and deeper than many people realize. One of its members was Ulrich von Haskell, an aristocrat and diplomat for the German government. He was arrested by the Gestapo in July, 1944 and tried and executed on the same day (July 29). The Gestapo then arrested his daughter AND two little sons, one four and one two, at their home in Northern Italy. There was no reason for their arrest and following detention than... Read more

In Chapter Two (of the book currently under discussion here—Living Out of Control by Rodney Clapp), Rodney argues that true Christianity, like the best of the Jewish tradition, has always been non-coercive when it comes to the kingdom of God and its values. I couldn’t agree more. There is no hint in the Bible that God’s people are called by God to enforce biblical religion on people. Yes, yes, don’t say it, I know portions of the Old Testament can... Read more

  Recently, according to news reports, a leading mega church pastor and evangelist with close ties to President Trump promised followers that if they sent her ministry $1K she would provide them with “blessings.” One such was to be making God their enemies’ enemy. What follows here is my opinion, not of the pastor-evangelist herself or of her character but of her promise. While many have criticized her for this, few, if any, have recognized this promise as a promise... Read more

This is a follow-up and clarification of my two recent posts in which I talked about “soft Christendom” and especially values to be taught in public institutions, especially schools. I told a true story about a public school district that invited “community leaders” to create a list of “community values” to be taught in public schools. All the leaders gathered topped their lists with “love” as the highest value and virtue—to be taught in public schools in their district (something... Read more