Date: January 24, 2023
We Become What We Attend To
NOTE: In this, my final blog for Phillips Theological Seminary (I retire on January 31 after 29.5 years in theological education and 24.5 at Phillips), I’ve tried to sum up […]
Category: Blog Posts
Date: January 17, 2023
A Message from Our Home
With apologies to the author of Job 38:4-30 When your species talks about history, your timeline is too short. Not unimportant but truncated. You’re too focused on yourselves. I need […]
Date: January 11, 2023
They’ll Know We are Christians by Whom We Shame and How We Love
Early in my ministry, when the United Methodist Church’s arguments about the place of homosexuals among the clergy were a decade old, I recall there was a young queer person […]
Date: January 3, 2023
Public Faces of Religion to Watch in 2023
As the new calendar year dawns, pundits and journalists often review the top stories of the previous year or predict which will be the big stories of the new year. […]
Date: December 20, 2022
Linus, I Need to Hear “The Story” Again
Historian David Hollinger argues that liberal, ecumenical, old-mainline Christianity in the U.S. prepared a sizeable part of the population to shift toward more tolerant and accepting attitudes. He credits moderate-to-liberal […]
Date: December 13, 2022
We Belong to the Earth and Not Vice Versa
Once again, a human-made object takes a picture of the earth from near the moon. Once again, everyone who sees the picture is reminded of how rare the earth is. […]
Date: December 6, 2022
The Government as the Church Militant is ALWAYS a Terrible Idea
A Prayer by the Oklahoma Governor, 2022, speaking in front of the state Capitol, “Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in […]
Date: November 29, 2022
Misshapen by Deception
Deception is hardly new. The serpent lied to Eve. Cain lied to God. Laban and Jacob deceived each other so badly they had to set up a cairn as a […]
Date: November 15, 2022
Woke or Awakening?
(Note: after writing this blog, I discovered there is a substantial, serious literature from conservative voices claiming that “woke” and “awake” represent very different religious values and social mandates. It […]
Date: November 9, 2022
Three Earthquake-level Changes in Seminary Education
From 1977 to 1981, I was a seminary student. From 1993 until the present, I’ve been an educator in graduate theological seminaries. Every level of education has been changed, most […]