Yesterday I watched the self-proclaimed not-particularly-religious Bernie Sanders address thousands of evangelical students at Liberty University, my alma mater (class of 2005). His appeal was to a “common ground” of justice, even quoting Amos as evidence of their common goal. For every moment of applause there were just as many moments of silence, or worse, […]
Bible & Culture
We Literally Do Not Read the Bible Literally
With all the press around Kim Davis and her refusal to issue a marriage license for gay couples, blog posts like this and news articles like this, are flying off the proverbial shelves. Each of them defending or dismissing those who “take the Bible literally.” May I ask a favor? Can we please all just […]
Jon Stewart on the Charleston shooting: sort of like a prophet
Last night I watched this clip of Jon Stewart commenting on the tragic shooting in Charleston. And I thought to myself, “This is what prophets do.” No, Stewart isn’t exactly like a biblical prophet–although I think personalities like Jeremiah or Ezekiel were quite good at holding an audience and had no problem using the shocking and […]
Fox News, American Sniper, Jesus, and…well…I can’t even
Word is making its way around the blogosphere that Fox News is doubling as a theological think tank. I don’t like picking on Fox News when they talk religion of any sort, including Christianity. It’s too easy and it gets boring. But I can’t help myself here. According to the Fox News website, Michael Moore–who really hates […]
the Newsweek Christmas rant on the Bible: naive, over-the-top–and basically right
Kurt Eichenwald’s Christmas missive in Newsweek, “The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s A Sin,” has predictably gotten it’s share of strong reactions. As others have pointed out, Eichenwald’s rhetoric is inflammatory, and his grasp of the issues is second-hand–at points rather naive, at least from the point of view of those who have been around the block a […]
Sandy Hook, 2 years ago today
I tuned into NPR on the way home from church today and was reminded that the Sandy Hook tragedy happened 2 years ago today. This still unnerves me, as a father of 3 (thankfully) grown adult children. Here is what I wrote 2 years ago. The NPR report was on Jimmy Greene, father of Ana Green, and […]
what would the apostle Paul think about evangelicals and the conflict in Palestine?
It is for this reason that Paul would have scratched his head over the current Evangelical fascination with the modern secular state of Israel and its supposedly Bible-mandated right to do what it pleases with Palestine and its inhabitants. This way of reading the Bible misses the whole point of the story; it robs the […]
stop me if this sounds familiar…
I’ll see your “clarified” statement of faith and raise you a lawsuit—more good times at Bryan College
A few days ago The Herald News (serving Dayton, Tenn., and Rhea County communities since 1898) reported the next, and I suppose inevitable, development in the Bryan-College-brazenly-moves-the-statement-of-faith-goal-posts-as-a-way-of-weeding-out-dangerous-faculty-who-don’t-think-the-Bible-is-a-science-book saga. Two faculty members–professor of natural science Stephen Barnett and professor of education and chair of the education department Steven DeGeorge–are suing their employer (see the full story […]
Bryan College and evolution: maybe the board and president should listen to the faculty and students on this one
Inside Higher Education posted recently the latest developments in the unfortunate yet expected and predictable events at Bryan College over evolution. (See my earlier post here.) You will recall that college’s board voted to “clarify” the colleges original statement on human origins from this: “that the origin of man was by fiat of God in […]
