rant

Tonight I shared Shabbos dinner with friends. As is always the case when I spend time with them, conversation makes its way to Christianity and to perceptions of Christianity. Throughout the evening we talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that is currently in Seattle and Christian misappropriation of the scrolls. The resignation of the Rev. Ted Haggard from his church and from his leadershop role within the National Association of Evangelicals also came up. When things like this happen, I find myself having to explain that Christianity is not a monolithic institution and that the Evangelical Right and progressive Christianity share very little in common except a profession of faith in a God as revealed in and through Jesus of Nazareth. Here is where most of our commonality ends. And it is here that progressive Christians need to learn to proclaim who we are and not only what we we aren't.

continue reading "taking the bible seriously means i can't read it literally"

The Idolatry of Scripture

I was reading and posting on a fundamentalist blog recently, and one discussion really caught my attention. I tried to post my thoughts on that blog, but my article was never posted (I don’t know if was because of content or technical difficulties). Regardless, I felt that my ideas would be received in a more constructive manner on fatihcommons. I look forward to any replies made to my post.

continue reading "The Idolatry of Scripture"

As I pointed out in another post, some evangelicals miss the point when talking of engaging culture. McLaren, Silva and now Driscoll set up weblogs but disallow comments. They don't get it. Here's the latest on Mark Driscoll's new site which he set up just after (or perhaps just before) he broke with the Emergent crowd and McLaren over McLaren's unwillingness to condemn homsexuality.

continue reading "Mark Driscoll Interviews Colson on Culture and Misses the Point"

I left the rant below in the long and sometimes long winded list of comments (mine was number 102) to a post by Keith DeRose titled Characterizing a Fogbank: What Is Postmodernism, and Why Do I Take Such a Dim View of it?. The blog is sponsored by the University of Missouri department of philosopsy and called Certain Doubts.

continue reading "A Rant Against a Rant Against Postmodernism"

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to puke at the flailing of spittle and vomit from the galloping herd of opportunistic political pundits and uninformed social commentators.

There's always plenty of blame to go around. The Republicans do control the federal government but they don't run the southern states. The Democrat party, that enjoyed almost absolute rule of the southern United States—including Louisiana—for the hundred year period from Reconstruction until the 1990s, is trying to blame all of the social and economic ills of that state on the Republican executive of the federal government in Washington D.C. Slavery? Genocide? Which party was in power when lynching was still going on in the 1950s? Which party did George Wallace belong to? Hello?! Give me break!

continue reading "First Katrina, Then the Criticism Storm"