I realize this is not an entirely new subject here, but I have new readers and I am deeply involved in a research project related to this subject. So I am going to raise the question again: “Why do so many people think so poorly about the word ‘denomination’?” As editor of the 14th edition of the Handbook of Denominations in the United States (Abingdon Press) I have the privilege of contacting denominations to ask what might have changed since... Read more

This morning I had 69 new comments to moderate. And many of them violated the rules I posted in my “Note to Potential Commenters” at the end of my post about transgender. Please feel free to continue discussing hell and other subjects I have talked about here, but due to time limitations I cannot moderate the discussion about transgender (“gender dysphoria”). Besides, it seems to me just about everything worth saying about it has been said and posted here. From... Read more

Saving Hell Now National Geographic has stepped into the evangelical debate about hell (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160513-theology-hell-history-christianity/) (I do not make URLs here hyperlinks because, for whatever reason, hyperlinks I include always lead to the wrong place. Please simply cut and paste the URL into a web browser to read the article “The Campaign to Eliminate Hell” at National Geographic’s web site.) We have discussed hell here many times since the birth of this blog several years ago. I find the National Geographic... Read more

A Serious Question about the Meaning of “Transgender” I think everyone would be helped by a better, clearer understanding of what people mean when they say they are “transgender” and when non-transgender people talk about the phenomenon of what I will call (to coin a word) “transgendering.” (One person here has corrected my language—as happens frequently when stepping onto ground protected by the “PC police”—and informed me the correct term is “transitioning.” That term, however, is too vague, too applicable... Read more

The Holy Spirit: Shy Member of the Trinity? Today is Pentecost Sunday. That’s our Christian celebration of the birth of the church as recounted in Acts 2. You know the story. Jesus’s disciples and others were gathered in an “upper room” in Jerusalem after Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension. He had told them to go there and wait to be “endued with power from on high” that would then make them witnesses to him throughout the world. As they were... Read more

A Rare “Television” Entertainment Series about Religion: “The Path” (On Hulu) I subscribed to the internet-based streaming service Hulu to watch the mini-series based on my favorite Stephen King book 11-22-63 which is about a man who travels into the past to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I loved the book; I hated the mini-series. But I stuck with it to the bitter end in spite of so many plot changes from the book. One thing that... Read more

A Question for Christian Supporters of U.S.A. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Here’s my question to you—Christian supporters of Donald Trump for president of the United States: Why? Now, to prevent an avalanche of responses I can’t moderate, let me narrow the field of welcome responses that have a good chance of getting through and appearing here. First, campaigning for any candidate is not welcome; please don’t bother. It will be a waste of your time and mine. I will not... Read more

Is God always Gentle with Us? Calling for a Retrieval of the Balanced Biblical View of God Sometimes I think I should stop going to church; the cognitive dissonance I often experience is painful. As a veteran theologian I can’t help noticing theological faux pas in the worship services. One example is the common pulpit phrase “Let us build the Kingdom of God.” Nowhere does Scripture talk about us “building” the Kingdom of God and the phrase implies postmillennialism or... Read more

Dreaming of the Ideal “Mission Trip” For those of you who don’t know what a “mission trip” is: Many churches of all denominations send their people, usually young people (but not always), on “mission trips” to work and witness in a different culture from their own. Often (but not always) such one-to-two-week excursions aim at a place far from home perceived to be “needy” in some sense. The church people go in vans, for example, pulling trailers loaded down with... Read more

Tempest surrounding Bathrooms: Gender Controversy du Jour Again, I fearlessly (not) go where angels fear to tread—out on a (possibly breaking) limb, onto thin ice, into a social-cultural minefield. But I think I may have some thoughts (or just musings) on the subject worth putting down on “paper” and asking others to consider. According to news reports the North Carolina legislature has passed a law requiring persons to use the public bathroom/restroom/locker room/changing room that corresponds with the sex on... Read more