Date: September 6, 2022
On Using God to Divide
The national motto, “In God We Trust,” has been divisive from the day of its minting. According to historian Harry Stout in his brilliant book, Upon the Altar of the […]
RPLI Posts
Date: August 30, 2022
Using Public Schools as Battlegrounds is Immoral
If state legislators were in the legal position of employers, teachers in many states could sue for creating a hostile work environment. And students could sue for legislators doing nothing […]
Date: August 23, 2022
Destined to Be, and Still Is, an Experiment
Scholars who study religion as a form of human expression talk about exemplars: individuals who are not the founders of a religion but whose lives are icons of that religion, […]
Date: August 16, 2022
The (S)melting Pot
If you have never read the play, The Melting Pot, and you care about what kind of nation, what kind of moral community, the United States should be, I encourage […]
Date: August 9, 2022
Mortared with Lies
In a PhD seminar, Dr. Brian Gerrish led the class through understanding where various Reformation leaders stood on the meaning and consequences of sin. John Calvin, he said, believed human […]
Date: August 2, 2022
States are Not Denominations
One expects to be welcomed in different ways and to have different permissions as one visits religious congregations of various Christian denominations and other religions. But should a similar experience […]
Date: July 26, 2022
Conservative and Liberal are Meaningless Labels
What do the terms “conservative” and “liberal” mean? After much reflection, I think they mean too many things to be meaningful words. Using the words to categorize and accept or […]
Date: July 12, 2022
Becoming Human Is Hard
It takes a lot of work to become and remain a human being. If we think of “human” normatively, in an ethical sense of what our species could or should […]
Date: July 5, 2022
One Cannot Open the Future with the Past’s Blood-rusted Key
“The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) Does this order also apply to texts? Are texts made for people and not people for texts? […]
Date: June 28, 2022
Stink and Grace
Life stinks. I’m not using the word “stinks” as a value judgment. I don’t mean to invoke the scene of a child who dropped their ice cream on the ground: […]