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February 2025

February 09, 2025

An Unexpected Speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast

The annual National Prayer Breakfast happened last Thursday. I don't know what happened or what...

December 2024

December 27, 2024

Will we ever fill the hungry with good things?

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the liturgical calendar, the day that...

December 22, 2024

The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Mother Mary Comes To Me

Three years ago I had the privilege of giving the Advent 4 sermon at Trinity...

December 15, 2024

Why Faith Can’t Avoid Being Political

I've been steering away from politics here ever since last month's election and intend to...

November 2024

November 15, 2024

Christianity and Power

So how are you doing ten days after the election? In the wee hours of...

April 2024

April 14, 2024

Designing God

Voltaire once wrote that if God did not exist, we would have to invent him....

February 2024

February 22, 2024

Did Jesus Misread Human Nature?

The Gospel reading for last Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent, is the account of...

February 20, 2024

The Difference Between Pardoning and Forgiveness

On this day after Presidents Day I'm thinking about a specific power that presidents uniquely...

January 2024

January 18, 2024

Real Wives of the Ancient Middle East

Last Sunday's lectionary reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is the story of God's call of...

November 2023

November 22, 2023

I Don’t Think That Parable Means What You Think It Means

Simone Weil once observed in a notebook entry that “the stories of miracles complicate everything.”...

November 14, 2023

What to Do When Your Conception of God Does Not Line Up with Reality

Last Thursday I posted my second recent essay revisiting the problem of evil, arguing that...

November 09, 2023

Why Traditional “Solutions” to the Problem of Evil Don’t Work

In the most recent episode of their podcast “The Bible for Normal People,” Pete Enns...

October 2023

October 31, 2023

What Atheists and Theists Can Agree On

If God is both all-good and all-powerful, why is there so much evil in the...

August 2023

August 05, 2023

When What I Want to Believe Isn’t True: Reflections on the latest indictment of Donald Trump

What do you do when virtually all of the evidence relevant to an important matter...

July 2023

July 23, 2023

You Say You Want a Revolution?

There is a saying, particularly popular among conservatives, that “A conservative is a liberal who...

February 2023

February 26, 2023

To Whom Shall I Bow Down?

Today is the first Sunday of Lent; the gospel reading is Matthew's account of Jesus’...

January 2023

January 15, 2023

Mansplaining in the Bible

At a department meeting not long ago, our department chair wondered whether it might be...

January 12, 2023

What Compost Piles Teach Us About Faith

Over the past year or so I have read several books by Peter Enns, a...

December 2022

December 10, 2022

Things are Getting Real: A Conversation Between Jesus and John the Baptist

In a second season episode of “The Chosen,” a multi-year cinematic treatment of the life...

November 2022

November 29, 2022

Living the Social Gospel: Your faith is not just about you

In the interdisiplinary and team-taught honors course I am teaching in this academic year, we...

November 10, 2022

The Lady Macbeth School of Leadership

Last weekend I attended a student production of Macbeth on campus, the first such production...

October 2022

October 16, 2022

Mapping Ghosts and Believing Things that Aren’t True

Over the years that I have been writing this blog, those who describe themselves as...

August 2022

August 25, 2022

Anniversary Week for “Freelance Christianity”: Here’s the #1 post in the past decade

This week marks the tenth anniversary of this blog--hard to believe! It has been on...

July 2022

July 02, 2022

On Independence Day, Be Glad that the United States is Not a Christian Nation

Christianity, or any branch of it, loses its Christian character when its self-proclaimed supporters outnumber...

June 2022

June 30, 2022

Cassidy Hutchinson and a Story from Ancient Syria

Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the January 6th Select Committee last Tuesday was both powerful and...

May 2022

May 30, 2022

Loving My Country and Loving God are Not the Same Thing

The June edition of The Atlantic contains an excellent and sobering article by Tim Alberta. Titled...

March 2022

March 12, 2022

Is a Ukrainian Life Worth Higher Gas Prices?

A regular reader of my blog asked the other day whether I might want to...

March 03, 2022

What if Jesus Turned the Stones into Bread?

The Gospel reading in this coming Sunday’s lectionary for the first Sunday of Lent is...

February 2022

February 22, 2022

Faith and Insecurity

Have you never felt like one of those pawns forgotten in a corner of the...

January 2022

January 12, 2022

Throwing Away the Image of God

At the beginning of a recent episode of “Consider This,” NPR’s daily afternoon news podcast,...

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