In response to some concerns about hospitality toward atheists and the nonreligious here at the new site I started to write about why that saddened me and why its terribly important to me, personally, that my own faith and the various faiths of my new friends here not in any way be perceived to be exclusive or unwelcoming to the contributions of anyone, but somehow what started out as a description of why and how much I value the presence... Read more

I’m still learning to drive the new car here in WordPress/disqus land, and there’s more flexibility to it than I’ve yet learned to navigate. So consider this an open thread on comments and the comment system here. What’s good/better with the comment system and structure? What’s bad/not working? I don’t want to lose any voices from the ongoing conversation or, worse, to silence/shut out anyone who wants to participate and is having trouble doing so here. So please let me... Read more

Couple new items up on the new site: "Honoring the Mad Farmer" and "The Gate to the Genius Next Door" Read more

That picture there (by AP photographer Charles Dharapak) shows President Barack Obama presenting Wendell Berry with a 2010 National Humanities Medal on Wednesday at the White House. Wendell Berry scares me. He is a poet, novelist, essayist, farmer, husband, conservationist, radical and gentleman. He writes with an unrivaled clarity of language, clarity of thought and clarity of conviction. It’s that conviction that scares me, because often when I read Wendell Berry I can’t help but think that if he is... Read more

I have two envelopes. The first is labeled, “To an Honest Man Who Argued in Good Faith and Was Truly Afraid.” The second is labeled, “To a Dishonest Man Who Has Been Lying Deliberately and Who Will Say Anything in Pursuit of Power.” I am not sure if I will need to use the first envelope. * * * * * * * * * In an 8-1 decision announced Wednesday the Supreme Court of the United States overwhelmingly struck... Read more

"Supreme Court strikes down key argument of same-sex marriage foes" Read more

Or we could look at it this way. What we’re really talking about here in our dispute with Team Hell isn’t just “What about Gandhi?” — it’s also “What about Ninevah?” Scores of evangelical pastors and authors have condemned Rob Bell for asking “Will billions and billions of people burn forever in Hell?” and for expressing discomfort at the idea. But Bell’s question echoes this earlier question: And should I not be concerned about Ninevah, that great city, in which... Read more

What I particularly like about that Rob Bell video that caused all the ruckus this weekend is the way Bell grounds his discussion in the character of God. “What is God like?” Bell asks. Not, mind you, “What does God like?” or, worse, “Who does God like?” but “What is God like?” What do we know of the character of God and how do we know it? The Christian answer to both of those questions is, as that word Christian... Read more

The evangelical blog world seems all atwitter over a forthcoming book by Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich. The book’s title, “Love Wins,” is apparently regarded by many American evangelicals as an astonishingly heretical and controversial claim. Love wins? How dare anyone suggest such a thing? Even more controversial is the book’s subtitle: “Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived.” Bear in mind that the book hasn’t hit shelves... Read more