Date: November 16, 2021
Christianity is Poor Social Glue
A former official from the former administration opined a few days ago that America is one nation under God and requires one religion. I’m sure the religion he had in […]
Category: Blog Posts
Date: November 10, 2021
A Future for Christianity in America
Last week, I finished recording the last two lectures for the online, public course I’ve taught (five of the six lectures are available for anyone to view on the seminary’s […]
Date: November 2, 2021
The Most Wonderful — and Destructive — Time of the Year
The single most climate-destructive annual event of the year is… Christmas. Christmas is a climate disaster. Now, the Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. I love Christmas—the […]
Date: October 19, 2021
A Moment at Lucy’s Therapy Booth
Peanuts, the comic strip written by Charles Schulz from the 1950 until 2000, remains my favorite. I am grateful to my wife who found me a vintage Snoopy-as-professor, my go-to […]
Date: October 12, 2021
Good Thing We Don’t Essentialize Identity
A woman’s family story claimed the family was 100 percent Irish. The family celebrated all things Irish. But then, through DNA ancestry testing, the woman discovered that her dad, who […]
Date: October 5, 2021
Grace for Clergy
Clergy health and well-being have been career-long interests for me. About 25 years ago, I explored the question as to why so many early Methodist circuit riders died or dropped […]
Date: September 28, 2021
Christianity Without Jesus in America
A recent opinion piece in the New York Times highlighted a statement President Biden made after 13 American soldiers, and three-score Afghans, were killed in Kabul. “We will not forgive. […]
Date: September 14, 2021
The Problem of Valuing Freedom More than Love
Love, not freedom, is the highest Christian virtue. We are set free in order to love. We are not supposed to be chiefly in love with freedom. Love is expressed […]
Date: September 6, 2021
Post 9-11 Lessons from my Humbling Garden
We bought our current house seven years ago. We were attracted by the idea of working nearly 2/3 of an acre of yard into gardens of edible delights—for us humans. […]
Date: August 31, 2021
Elimination Diet for the Bible in Public Life
Can the Bible be used to interpret American public life at all without abusing scripture? Sure, I know that is a loaded question, with the two words “without abusing” the […]