Latest Articles
Innovative moment
It would be a shame if the crisis in seminary education didn’t lead to fresh thinking about how the church calls, trains and places leaders.
Gutting our creatives
I worry that our iconoclast history was more of an act of conquest than it was an undertaking with enduring theological gumption. We know the many rituals of conquest: force military might, imprison the charismatic leaders, scatter the intellectual base, rape the women, enslave the children, and defile the sacred images. Now as Protestant people, the trajectory of the treatment of our images has twisted into something terrible.
What I had to learn
The subjects themselves weren't young, which is to say they weren't kids. They were adults, and, often as not, they were either at or approaching senior citizenship....
Reading a Different Story, by Susan VanZanten
VanZanten grew up in a Dutch Reformed context, and much of her life has been steeped in the Reformed tradition, though some of the schools where she’s taught English are more evangelical than Refor...
HBO filmmaker’s loss of faith parallels his subject’s: Darwin
c. 2014 Religion News Service
(RNS) A new film charting Charles Darwin’s passage from Christian to nonbeliever propelled its maker on a similar journey....
A Bible verse on a stick
Our local state fair advertises nearly everything on-a-stick, so why not Bible verses? The verse our ministry fair chose? Micah 6:8, of course. "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
Distractions of the devil
Satan has had an awfully good 2014. He might get a statue on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol. Actually, he probably won’t, but the New York-based Satanic Temple has proposed to have the goat-headed image of Baphomet built so that it can be seen by all visitors to the state’s seat of government.
Earthy vocation
U.S. society has shorn food production of its spiritual dimension. Fred Bahnson and Ragan Sutterfield explore this issue from different directions.
Bob Jones fires firm hired to investigate sexual abuse
Bob Jones University has fired an independent firm hired to investigate sexual abuse reports just one month before the group planned to release its 13-month review findings....
Violence interrupted: A video course on Jesus as forgiving victim
The theme of James Alison’s video Bible study is the main theme he sees in scripture: that the creation of scapegoats must end.
That word "Bible-minded"
I try not to post TOO many "you forgot about us mainline Protestants!" posts. The idea comes up almost daily when I'm going through the news and the blogs, but I know that kind of thing can get old so I try to set the bar pretty high.
If a person wanted to make this the focus of a blog, however, a person could do worse than to keep a close eye on the Barna Group.
Things I’ve Learned from Dying, by David R. Dow
Dow is a law professor and founder and director of the Texas Innocence Network....
Marianne Williamson’s prayerful bid for political office
c. 2014 Religion News Service
LOS ANGELES (RNS) It’s not a typical campaign for U.S. Congress, and that’s the point....
Justice Department extends rights to same-sex couples
In a major victory for same-sex marriage rights, the Justice Department will soon grant married gay and lesbian couples the same rights in legal matters as other married couples....
Something old, something new: Innovation in theological education
Why is theological education necessary? What are the conditions of its fruitfulness? Such questions are both basic and perplexing.
The hard work of choosing life
I played competitive tennis as a teenager. At one point, a new player started working with my coach. He was a natural athlete—quick, agile, and well coordinated. I was impressed.
My coach was not. He said, “That kid will never be any good.”
A church without a font
Baptism is the ritual doorway through which we enter Christian life. So I always found it strange that one of my churches had no font....