Category Archives: Christianity

A Christmas Case of Mistaken Identity

Posted on December 17, 2016 by salooper57

You either love Christmas or you hate it, or you do both at different times. The playwright George Bernard Shaw clearly hated it. He wrote, “Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; … Continue reading →

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“Red Letter Christianity” and the Bible

Posted on December 10, 2016 by salooper57

Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne recently published an op-ed piece in the New York Times titled, “The Evangelicalism of Old White Men Is Dead.” They write that evangelicalism (or at least its reputation) is a “casualty” of the recent presidential … Continue reading →

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An American Brand of DIY Spirituality

Posted on December 3, 2016 by salooper57

For decades pollsters consistently reported that 40 percent of Americans were in church on any given Sunday. But a long-term count of actual attendance in real churches suggests that good Christian people weren’t telling pollsters the truth, and actual church … Continue reading →

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Now That the Election Is Over, What Should We Do?

Posted on November 19, 2016 by salooper57

I refused to support Donald Trump in the primaries and in the general election. I was sure he was the wrong person for the job. (For clarification: I was equally certain that Hillary Clinton was the wrong person.) So what … Continue reading →

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Confessing Jesus Is a Revolutionary Thing to Do

Posted on November 12, 2016 by salooper57

A paradigm is a mental model about how things are or how they work. Until recently (in historical terms), almost all humans held a mental model in which the earth was the center of the cosmos and around it the … Continue reading →

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Religion Is Not an End in Itself

Posted on October 29, 2016 by salooper57

When Jesus, whom orthodox Christians believe to be the eternal God incarnated as a human being, was on earth, he faced ongoing hostility and opposition from two groups. One was comprised of the political power brokers of the day, whose … Continue reading →

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Evil Likes to Work the Angles

Posted on October 22, 2016 by salooper57

I recently received an invitation to speak at a conference in the UK. The church that sent the invite asked me to speak on a theme I often address in sermons and in print. I forwarded the invitation to my … Continue reading →

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Morality Does Not Have a Reset Point

Posted on October 15, 2016 by salooper57

According to geologists, earth’s tectonic plates are in constant flux. The seven major plates (and many minor ones) move in relation to each other. This movement has in pre-history had a significant effect on the current arrangement of the continents. … Continue reading →

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The Once and Future Faith

Posted on October 8, 2016 by salooper57

Christianity has changed over the years. This change has not taken place in Christianity’s core beliefs, which are substantially the same as they were at the beginning. The change has happened in its outward expressions. The soul of the faith … Continue reading →

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Promising a Better Future, Delivering a Better Present

Posted on October 1, 2016 by salooper57

The British ocean liner R.M.S. Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. As people rushed to the lifeboats, a woman passenger asked the captain what to do. The captain, according to Erik Larson’s book, Dead Wake: … Continue reading →

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