How Did the Christian Bible Come to Be? *Note: If you choose to comment, please follow these guidelines: Keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, civil and respectful in language (not hostile or argumentative), and void of links and photos. Please do not attempt to misuse my blog to promote your own, alternative beliefs system.* One of the questions I’m asked most often is how the books of our Bible(s) were collected into them. That is,... Read more

Beating a Dead Horse? More about Protestantism’s Decline *If you want to comment here, make your comment relatively brief (no more than 100 words, please), civil and respectful in language, not hostile or argumentative, and do not include any links or photos. Make sure your comment is on topic and do not attempt to misuse my blog to promote your own alternative belief system.* This is a follow up to my immediately preceding blog post about the apparent decline of... Read more

Where Is Protestantism? *Note: If you choose to comment, please keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words), civil and respectful, not argumentative or hostile, and do not misuse this blog to promote your own alternative belief system. Do not include any photos or links. Know this is not a discussion board; it is like an opinion page in a newspaper. Not all “letters to the editor” get published and some that are published are edited.* Where is Protestantism?... Read more

What the COVID Pandemic Means for Churches *Note to would-be commenters: Keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words) and on topic. Also civil and respectful, not argumentative or hostile. Do not include any links or photos.* I doubt we will know what the COVID pandemic means for American church life for a while. It’s possible, OF COURSE, that former church members and attenders will filter back to church over the next few years. Right now, however, all my... Read more

An Excellent, Literary, Christian Novel I have here often decried the lack of good, literate Christian fiction. So much Christian fiction is just bad, cheesy, unrealistic, poorly written. By “Christian fiction” I mean novels in which the main characters are overtly Christian and the “background” story involves Christian thinking about the world and God, etc. I’ve tried reading several such novels, but almost always I have ended up disappointed because the writing is bad and/or the plot is cheesy and... Read more

Are Pentecostals Fundamentalists? Part Two *Note to would be commenters: If you choose to comment, be sure to keep your comment relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, civil and respectful in language (not hostile or argumentative), and do not misuse my blog to promote your own alternative life philosophy, worldview or theology. Do not include any link or photo.* If you have not read Part One of this blog series, go back and read that before reading... Read more

Are Pentecostals Fundamentalists? Part One *Note to would-be commenters: If you choose to post a comment or question, please keep it brief (no more than 100 words), on topic (don’t misuse my blog to preach your own worldview or theology), civil and respectful (not argumentative or hostile), and do not include any links or photos.* What a question! So hard to answer. To outsiders, non-Pentecostals, yes, most often they are thought of as fundamentalists. To insiders, such as I was,... Read more

What Is “Fundamentalism?” A Personal and Professional Perspective *Note to would-be contributors: Lately a lot of commenters here have been ignoring my rules. Please don’t. If you choose to contribute a comment or question (or both) keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic (relevant to what I actually wrote to which you are responding), civil and respectful in language (not argumentative or hostile), clear of any photos or links, and do NOT attempt to misuse my... Read more

Is America Worth Celebrating? *Note to would-be commenters: If you hope that your comment or question will be posted here, please keep it relatively brief, civil, not hostile or argumentative, and on topic. Address it to me as this is not a discussion board. Do not include any links or photos.* Today is an American national holiday, the Fourth of July or Independence Day. Today, we Americans, citizens of the United States of America, are supposed to celebrate our nation,... Read more

Why I Do Not Believe in the “Rapture” *Note to would-be commenters: If you hope that your comment or question will be posted here, make sure it sticks to the topic of my post, is addressed to me (this is not a discussion board), does not misrepresent anything I wrote, I not argumentative or hostile, and does not include any links or photos.* What is “the rapture?” For many conservative Protestants, especially fundamentalists and evangelicals, the rapture is the mysterious... Read more