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TechnoratiPOST PUBLISHED INApril, 2011
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How much evil could God allow for a greater good?
April 29th, 201109:32 AM ETIn "Does God ever visit Ronald McDonald House?" I asked a question that crushes me. But as a Christian theist how can I not ask it? A few responses from the skeptics in our midst were, as I expected, incredulous. For example, Ray replied with the following: "The good of consolation is only a runner-up prize to the good of not needing consolation. ... -
Christians and the sin of hating homosexuals
April 28th, 201104:10 PM ETIn "Why conservatism is riskier than you might think" I pointed out that those who maintain the status quo are sticking their necks out like everybody else given that the status quo is sometimes wrong. (When you think about it this is so blindingly obvious that it is a surprise we should need to be reminded of it. But it is another thing when it is... -
Does God ever visit Ronald McDonald House?
April 26th, 201109:44 AM ETSeveral years ago I worked with a fellow who volunteered regularly at Ronald McDonald House with terminally ill children and their parents. Every couple months he'd come to work in pieces because another child had died. I always wondered what it was that drew him back. Could it be due to the fact that his family situation growing up could charitabl... -
The Always Prayer Shawl: A Reflection on Living Tradition
April 25th, 201107:11 PM ETWhen my daughter was younger I bought her hundreds of books. The vast majority were forgettable tripe tied in to product lines like "Thomas the Tank Engine", "Dora the Explorer" and "Caillou". Almost all of those early books are long gone, having been donated or discarded without a second thought. But a precious few were treasures which have remain... -
When the resurrection comes to Afghanistan and Wall Street: An Easter Reflection
April 24th, 201106:12 PM ETOver the last two days I watched two of the 2011 academy award nominees for best documentary: "Restrepo" and "Inside Job". ("Inside Job" took home the little gold statue.) "Restrepo" follows journalist cum documentarians Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington as they spend a year with a battalion of Army troops in the notoriously violent Korengal Wa... -
Death to happy clappy Christianity: A Holy Saturday Meditation
April 23rd, 201110:02 AM ETHoly Saturday tends to get lost in the hubbub between Good Friday commemoration and Easter Sunday celebration. We spend Holy Saturday hiding chocolate eggs and hammering out the details for Easter Brunch. But when we do that we miss something important: we live on Holy Saturday. Theologians call it the "already/not yet" in which the kingdom of God ... -
Conservative evangelicals, environmental hatred, and bad language
April 22nd, 201110:33 PM ETA couple days ago I posted my review of the documentary "Gasland". The comments from two readers were striking and prompted this article. Some anonymous individual code-named "jrmd32" commented as follows: "If you are so concerned about the environment, then why don't you stop the massive pollution created by this very Internet article, which requ... -
The Death of Jesus, the rape of a woman, and a concept called “Imputation”
April 22nd, 201112:28 AM ETOn Good Friday two billion Christians around the world turn their eyes to that mysterious event two thousand years ago when Jesus Christ died "for our sins". It is a time for somber, pietistic reflection. But it is also a time to ask the hard theological question: what does that mean? Perhaps the most common explanation, at least among Protestants... -
“Gasland” on fracking up the landscape: A Review (for Earth Day)
April 20th, 201109:03 PM ETI finally got to watch "Gasland", a 2011 nominee at the Academy Awards for best documentary. The accolade was well deserved. The film, directed by Josh Fox, tells a story of truly staggering proportions. In the search for sources of energy other than foreign oil, the United States (and Canada too, I later discovered) is increasingly turning to natu... -
Rock stars have feelings too: My encounter with Kip Winger
April 19th, 201101:32 PM ETI have a few modest claims to fame. Back in 1991 I saw Chris Rock at a suburban shopping mall in L.A. My friend and I followed him for three stores until the body guard started eyeballing us. Next, when I lived in London my home was a block or two away from one of the homes of Charles Dickens. And that's about it, I guess. Actually, that's not a... -
Why no professional philosopher would use Dawkins’ argument
April 18th, 201102:36 PM ETI have been accused of being unfair to Dick Dawkins. Well let's look at what Dawkins calls "the central argument of my book" (The God Delusion, 187). He summarizes it in six steps. Steps 4-6 are not directly relevant to the core of the argument against God, so I've only reproduced steps 1-3 (see The God Delusion, 188): 1. One of the greatest chall... -
Pedophiles and rock stars: A reflection on “The Woodsman”
April 16th, 201111:08 AM ET"The Woodsman" opens with convicted pedophile Walter (Kevin Bacon) returning home after a twelve year stint in prison. Not surprisingly, he finds that his entire support network has evaporated. After all, who wants to be associated with a pedophile?But how blurred the criteria of social condemnation can be. In the late eighties the glam metal band ... -
A great “godless” book
April 15th, 201109:34 AM ETPete Hautman. godless. Simon Pulse, 2004. 198 pp. ISBN: 10: 1416908161 It is summer in St. Andrew Valley and Jason Bock is fifteen, awkward, disenfranchised and bored. Needless to say the Catholic Church he is forced to attend by his parents doesn't add much in terms of excitement. Father Haynes is "a thousand years old at least" (33) and his serm... -
Cool Christians riding on The Wildside
April 13th, 201110:50 PM ETLast time I griped about the profound uncoolness of the Christian Motorcyclists' Association. If they want to achieve the goal of bringing Christ to the Peter Fondas and Dennis Hoppers of the open road (which is at least part of their mandate), then they need to lose their very uncool branding. A friend of mine who read the post (a former undercov... -
The problem of uncool Christianity
April 12th, 201101:08 PM ETApologists are those who want to convert you to a particular view, whether it be Christianity, atheism, capitalism, democracy, or anything else. Very often the assumption is that the apologist should focus on reasoned arguments for one's view. And of course that is indeed a part of what they should be concerned with. But the field is broader. What ... -
“Is God a Moral Monster? A Review (Part 4)
April 11th, 201103:10 PM ETPaul Copan. Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8010-7275-8. 252 pp. The time has come to draw this review to a close. In this final installment of the review I'll focus on Copan's treatment of human sacrifice, genocide and ethnic cleansing in scripture. Then I'll wrap the t... -
“Is God a Moral Monster?” A Review (Part 3)
April 09th, 201108:09 PM ETIn this section of the review (a review which will now likely be at least four parts) I want to focus on a dilemma Copan faces: either admit that certain actions undertaken by the Israelites which they attributed to divine direction were morally barbaric and should be rejected, or affirm that these actions really were morally good, contrary to our ... -
“Soul Surfer” and the idea of “faith-based films”
April 08th, 201102:17 PM ETAmong the new crop of movies this weekend is "Soul Surfer". It tells the story of Bethany Hamilton, a surfer and a young woman of deep Christian faith who lost an arm surfing when she was thirteen due to a shark attack. Incredibly, she was back on her surfboard a month later and has since won several surfing championships. (I first came across her ... -
“Is God a Moral Monster?” A Review (Part 2)
April 08th, 201111:42 AM ETPaul Copan. Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8010-7275-8. 252 pp. Note to the reader: this was originally going to be a two part review. I've decided to extend it to three (or more) parts so I can stretch my legs a bit. The back cover of Copan's Is God a Moral Monster? i... -
Burned before you know it
April 01st, 201106:42 PM ETThere is a popular idea among Christians that there is some age of accountability before which point a person who dies without having made a cognitive confession of faith in Christ still gets to go to heaven. But after that point failure to pray the appropriate prayer will result in eternal damnation. Here's an illustration to illumine one problem...
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An exploration of faith, knowledge, reason and doubt (with the occasional trite pop culture reference thrown in for good measure).
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