How in God’s green earth are so many people still denying the reality of climate change? Yesterday, a graph was shared by several of my Facebook friends. The numbers don’t lie. It’s a powerful image, showing that of all the mentioned candidates for the cause of climate change, the evidence points to one single cause. The graph considers natural causes like the “wobbling” of the earth’s orbit, the temperature of the sun, and volcanic activity. Neither of these correlate to... Read more
I was interested to learn today that Congressman Keith Ellison is endorsing Bernie Sanders for president. MSNBC reported the development today and included this statement from Ellison: I’m endorsing Bernie because he is talking about the issues that are important to American families,” Ellison told MSNBC in an email via his spokesperson. “His candidacy is important for many reasons, but I believe the most important part of his candidacy is that it has the ability to create a renaissance in... Read more
Stanley Hauerwas, one of America’s most prominent living Christian theologians and ethicists, represents an approach to Christian Ethics that underscores the essential role of narrative in ethics and in the formation of character. For Hauerwas, morality is narrative-dependent, and to do Christian ethics adequately is to attend to the complex ways in which stories shape behavior. Stories form religious communities and, as practitioners of religions reflect on their formational stories, that reflection gives rise to theological concepts. But more importantly,... Read more
Pretend, for a minute, that Christianity is based on hatred rather than on love. Sadly, that may not be as difficult to imagine as it should be. Now for a more philosophical question: Might God ever command someone to hate others? Is it conceivable that God could make hatred a virtue (and love a vice)? Could God make theft, economic exploitation, even murder…good things? It sounds absurd, on the face of it, but this question (and variations on the theme)... Read more
The Justice Department has announced a plan to set 6,000 prisoners free, which as the Washington Post describes, is “the largest one-time release of federal prisoners.” This is only the first step in a larger process of prison reform, which will eventuate in tens of thousands more inmates being released from prison and moved to half-way houses or home confinement. The Post tells us that changes in federal sentencing guidelines could mean that “46,000 of the nation’s approximately 100,000 drug... Read more
After discovering she had brain cancer, Brittany Maynard moved from California to Oregon so that she could die on her own terms, before the disease took her life. Death by brain cancer would surely have been an excruciatingly painful death. With her family’s blessing, she took the ultimate step to cease her suffering–to die gently and mercifully. Just yesterday, the state of California adopted the same “right to die with dignity” which had prompted Maynard to move to Oregon. Governor... Read more
Kathryn Tanner is a first-rate theologian. Her book, The Politics of God: Christian Theologies and Social Justice, is by no means hot-off-the-press (it was published in 1992), but it is still an important resource for exploring the relation between theology and politics. In the book, she tries to untangle the intricate relationship between religious belief (Christian theological doctrines, ideas, concepts, etc.) and practices and attitudes. The question she explores is whether it is possible to extricate Christian beliefs, or elements of Christian... Read more
Obama’s statement to the nation, following the horror of yet another mass shooting, rings sadly true. Here is, in my view, the heart of his statement: Our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America. Next week. Or a couple of months from now. We are not the only country... Read more
Kelly Gissendaner was executed last night for her role in the murder of her husband in 1997. Despite persistent appeals by her family and friends; despite public efforts by teachers and scholars in the prison theology program in which she participated; despite even an appeal by the Pope for stay of execution, the system moved heartlessly forward. A increasingly critical eye is being cast upon the criminal justice system here in the U.S. More and more, people are talking about... Read more
This post is a contribution to the Patheos Book Club discussion on Peter Enns’ Inspiration and Incarnation (10th Anniversary Edition). What is the best way to understand the Bible’s inspiration? Evangelicals have another good chance to pay attention to Peter Enns book, Inspiration and Incarnation. Baker Books has released a 10th Anniversary edition of the book, which includes slight modifications, an expanded bibliography, a new preface, and a reflective postscript. Enns uses an analogy, or a model, to suggest how the... Read more
Unsystematic Theology
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