When I first arrived on the campus of St. Cloud State University in January to teach Introduction to the New Testament, a couple of the students mentioned the preachers who come to campus. It seems that, as a Christian minister myself, they thought I should know how Christians are seen on campus. Last Thursday, as class was about to begin, they asked if I’d been around the previous day to see the traveling preachers make their annual appearance. I hadn’t,... Read more
This week, Sam asked us a question about God’s omniscience (you can find Sam at her blog and on Twitter). She asks, I recognize this sounds cheeky to Christians now that I no longer am a Christian but I’ve never had a good answer to it and even when I put on my old Fundamentalist hat I can’t come up with an answer. God seems surprised to learn mankind became so wicked in the time of Noah, so he decides... Read more
I read a lot of people referring to last week as “America’s Worst Week,” what with the Boston bombing and the Waco explosion and rivers flooding and Lindsay Lohan getting a new TV show. But, you know what, we live in a pretty good time, especially for those of us in the U.S. So, as a Saturday reality check, I point you toward these twelve graphs that show how good life really is right now. Click on the graphic to... Read more
-Disqus is now fully functional. Thanks to BlogOps at Patheos for getting it up and running. All of your former comments should now be imported into the Disqus system, so please let us know if you see any glitches. -Disqus allows for some things that I’ve wanted and some of you have asked for. It allows for deeper and more intuitive threads on conversations. And, best of all, it allows you to “like” a comment — comments (and threads) with... Read more
Last year, I was talking about gay marriage with a Christian leader whose name you would know. After pushing back on my arguments for a while, he finally shrugged his shoulders and said, “It doesn’t really matter, since no-fault divorce laws have already pretty much gutted marriage in our country.” I was honestly shocked. Having survived a no-fault divorce (that was nevertheless contentious and exorbitantly expensive), I had never heard someone make this argument before, much less state it as... Read more
Next week, Little League season begins again. This will be my fourth year coaching my son, Tanner, and his teammates. The other coaches and I end every practice and game teaching the boys one new term or phrase of baseball lingo — you know, “battery,” “frozen rope,” “can o’ corn,” that type of thing. So, as you can imagine, after four years I’m trying to avoid too many repeats. So I send it out to you readers: What is your... Read more
This morning on Marketplace Morning Report, Krissy Clark filed a story entitled, “What Does ‘Welfare’ Mean to You?“: Once upon a time, the word welfare simply meant, faring well. That’s how the framers of the U.S. Constitution used it in the preamble. Right after the part about “forming a more perfect union” and before the part about “securing the blessings of liberty”, there’s a charge to “promote the general welfare.” And yet, if you go out on to the street and... Read more
Last week’s question was about God’s benevolence. This week, Sam has a question about God’s omniscience (you can find Sam at her blog and on Twitter). She asks, I recognize this sounds cheeky to Christians now that I no longer am a Christian but I’ve never had a good answer to it and even when I put on my old Fundamentalist hat I can’t come up with an answer. God seems surprised to learn mankind became so wicked in the... Read more
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