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 […]
Category: Blog Posts
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: […]
Date: June 21, 2022
Loyalty May Be Virtue or Vice
Faithful adherence to the sovereign or lawful government; spec. of government employees. Also, in later use, enthusiastic reverence for the person and family of the sovereign. Definition of “loyalty” from […]
Date: June 14, 2022
Is the Future Ecumenical or Parochial?
In the aftermath of World War II, ecumenically-involved Christian churches urgently mobilized to prevent World War III. Churches that believed they were following the commandment of Christ to love one […]
Date: June 7, 2022
Evil and Ill? Yes but…
There is evil afoot as well as some kind of mental illness regarding gun violence in the U.S. On those points I agree with those who attribute America’s excessive gun […]