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September 2020

September 06, 2020

What it Truly Means to be Free

Iris Murdoch is one of my favorite philosophers and novelists, but I seldom get to...

July 2020

July 19, 2020

How is Your Optimism Doing These Days?

How is your optimism doing these days? I am an optimist by nature, not inclined...

May 2020

May 18, 2020

We Are On Our Own

In preparation for my next book project, a teaching memoir tentatively titled Nice Work If You...

April 2020

April 18, 2020

9/11, the Coronavirus, and Becoming a Better Person

Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing eighteen-and-a-half years ago...

March 2020

March 20, 2020

If you want to witness the resurrection, then be the resurrection

Lead on King Eternal, the day of march has come Henceforth in fields of conquest Thy...

March 02, 2020

God Is Doing the Best that God Can Do

Frank Tupper, an important Baptist theologian who argued that God is in control of very...

February 2020

February 29, 2020

Jesus I Know . . . But Who are You?

Today is the First Sunday of Lent; the gospel traditionally is a version of Jesus'...

February 20, 2020

Professional Wrestling and the Liberal Agenda

My tattoo-artist oldest son reported in a phone conversation the other day that one of...

February 08, 2020

The Gospel at Gun-Point

In the religious world of my youth and adolescence, Billy Graham was a rock star....

December 2019

December 29, 2019

A Family on the Run, and Dead Babies in the Streets

This Christmas season seems more dissonant than most, with violence across the globe, an impeachment...

November 2019

November 15, 2019

Another School Shooting: Should Teachers Be Armed?

Next Monday, I will be starting the final unit of the semester with my General...

November 12, 2019

One Wife for Seven Brothers: An important lesson from a strange story

A strange story from Luke's gospel was the gospel for the day last Sunday. It...

October 2019

October 13, 2019

Has Donald Trump Lost the Mandate of Heaven?

Evangelical Christian icon and fossil Pat Robertson lost it a few days ago. On his...

August 2019

August 18, 2019

Finding the Light

We are not simply made by God—we are made of God  Julian of Norwich Toward the end of a...

August 08, 2019

We are not better than this, and this is exactly who we are

In the aftermath of two more mass shootings last Saturday, I read a number of...

July 2019

July 02, 2019

Superhero Theology

I think that a lot of people stop taking their birthdays seriously after a certain...

June 2019

June 23, 2019

Do You Want To Be Free? Face Your Demons

The lectionary readings for today include two fascinating texts from Scripture: Elijah collapsed under a...

June 18, 2019

If Norway Speaks, Donald Trump Will Listen—but probably not to this

Norway is in the news—last week President Trump mentioned Norway as an example of a...

February 2019

February 21, 2019

A Year After Parkland: Do Guns in the Classroom Make Sense?

Valentine's Day last week marked the first anniversary of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas...

January 2019

January 15, 2019

We Have Met the Nazis, and They are Us

We ought not to hide from ourselves that Nazi Germany is a mirror for all...

December 2018

December 27, 2018

Murdering the Innocents: A Different Kind of Christmas Story

This Christmas season seems more dissonant than most, with violence across the globe, a partial...

November 2018

November 25, 2018

Does Christianity Solve the Problem of Evil? (spoiler alert: no, it doesn’t)

In the six-plus years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve occasionally been asked what...

October 2018

October 30, 2018

The Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Tomorrow is Halloween!–one of my least favorite holidays of the year. I know that offends...

October 25, 2018

What to Do When You Get Tired of Being Angry

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Ephesians 4:26 Another week, another bunch of...

October 05, 2018

Professional Wrestling, the Liberal Agenda, and Jesus

One of my many fond memories of my sons’ youth was our early Saturday morning...

September 2018

September 25, 2018

Obsessed with the Apocalypse

Last spring I taught a colloquium called "Apocalypse" with a colleague from the English department....

September 20, 2018

Calling God Back to the Mountain

What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both...

September 11, 2018

Seventeen Years Ago Today

Two years ago, the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11 fell on a Sunday. The priest of...

August 2018

August 23, 2018

Getting Over Original Sin

Last Tuesday, on the sixth anniversary of my blog, I posted my first blog post--an...

July 2018

July 17, 2018

Expecting to Find Light

We are not simply made by God—we are made of God  Julian of Norwich I...

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