Category Archives: Church

Don’t Ignore the Past, Believe in the Future

Posted on July 23, 2016 by salooper57

There are two kinds of people at a party. There are those whose words and actions announce, “Here I am!” and those whose words and actions say, “There you are!” The “Here I am” person might be the life of … Continue reading →

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The Perilous State of Religious Liberty

Posted on July 9, 2016 by salooper57

Religious liberty in the United States is in peril. Many of the people empowered to decide which behaviors merit civil protections and which do not are not religious people. They fail to understand religious liberty because they do not understand … Continue reading →

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Is the church just after your money?

Posted on March 5, 2016 by salooper57

Is the church just after your money? If anyone wants to believe that’s true, he or she will have little trouble finding supporting evidence. There are the TV preachers, crowding the airwaves, urging their video flocks to send them money … Continue reading →

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Bible reading for rugged individualists

Posted on February 6, 2016 by salooper57

(Note: The effects of strident individualism on theology generally and on biblical interpretation specifically deserves a more developed treatment. I hope this article will wet some readers appetite to go further. ) Herbert Hoover, that stalwart Republican champion of smaller … Continue reading →

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Without this, Christianity ceases to be Christian

Posted on November 1, 2015 by salooper57

Some religions are impossible to imagine apart from their founders. Can anyone picture Islam without Muhammed, or the Latter Day Saints without Joseph Smith, or Scientology without L. Ron Hubbard? In other religions the human founder is historically important but … Continue reading →

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How does a church measure success?

Posted on October 26, 2015 by salooper57

The other day my wife accused me of harboring a secret desire to be a race car driver. We were on vacation in Tennessee, hiking state parks and national recreation areas. Getting to those places sometimes meant driving serpentine roads, … Continue reading →

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Be careful not to stare into the wrong eyes

Posted on August 8, 2015 by salooper57

I was in the Istanbul airport this summer, standing at Passport Control, while a uniformed officer went through my papers. He was scowling. He looked at my passport picture, then at me, then back at my papers. I couldn’t tell … Continue reading →

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Why I’m Still an Evangelical

Posted on June 6, 2015 by salooper57

In 1987, the controversial Catholic priest Hans Kung famously published a book titled, “Why I am Still a Christian.” For some reason that book, which I read many years ago, came back to my mind recently, and started me thinking … Continue reading →

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Give your message “street cred”

Posted on February 7, 2015 by salooper57

When my children were still young and I was pastoring in another city, my wife and I took the kids downtown one Sunday afternoon and walked around the square and up and down the street. Downtown was unusually empty that … Continue reading →

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Why does more wedding equal less marriage?

Posted on January 31, 2015 by salooper57

If you spend more than $20 thousand on a wedding, you are almost twice as likely to divorce as a couple spending between $5 and $10 thousand. Spend less than $1 thousand, and you are more than twice as likely … Continue reading →

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