Category Archives: Christianity

Don’t shrink-wrap the truth

Posted on March 28, 2015 by salooper57

I suspect that if any of the “new atheists” were to describe to me the God they don’t believe in, I would congratulate them for not believing and explain that I don’t believe in that God either. The God they … Continue reading →

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Fascinating: the role of emotions in human life

Posted on March 14, 2015 by salooper57

Would Captain Kirk skip out on Mr. Spock’s funeral? Not on your life. So when William Shatner, who played Kirk in the Star Trek franchise’s television show and movies, missed Spock actor Leonard Nimoy’s funeral, people were outraged. No, Kirk … Continue reading →

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One place even God will not go

Posted on March 7, 2015 by salooper57

In “Burnt Norton,” the first poem in T. S. Eliot’s celebrated Four Quartets, the renowned poet writes, “…human kind cannot bear very much reality.” Eliot seems to have been thinking specifically of the deep-seated reluctance to face the end to … Continue reading →

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The boot is now on the other foot

Posted on February 28, 2015 by salooper57

During the 1990s, a person couldn’t turn around without bumping into the word “tolerance.” Tolerance was everywhere: tolerance for people’s sexual orientation, tolerance for people’s religious beliefs (or lack thereof), and tolerance for people’s choices regarding career and family, to … Continue reading →

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Whoever exalts himself will be humbled

Posted on February 21, 2015 by salooper57

NBC anchor Brian Williams stopped reporting the news and became the news after several soldiers contradicted his sensational account of a 2003 trip to Iraq in which, he says, the helicopter he was in was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. … 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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Unanswered prayer: a thorn in theology’s side

Posted on January 24, 2015 by salooper57

Every branch of knowledge has its ongoing problems. Philosophy has the free-will problem, economics has the gambler’s fallacy, physics has the problem of why there are three space dimensions but only one time dimension. Sociology, mathematics, astronomy – they all … Continue reading →

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Freedom of speech is an opportunity, not an excuse

Posted on January 17, 2015 by salooper57

On the same day that twelve people were killed in the attack on the French satirical weekly paper Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly), I heard a commentator interviewed on National Public Radio say that people “are going to, you know, perhaps … Continue reading →

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Salvation-lite: Great Benefits…Less Responsibility?

Posted on January 10, 2015 by salooper57

It was once quite common to hear people say, “I was saved in Vacation Bible School,” or “I was saved in a small group Bible study.” What did they mean by that? Saved from what? Saved for what? In what … Continue reading →

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We need the Answerer more than the answers

Posted on January 1, 2015 by salooper57

Our church has been on an emotional roller coaster in the last few weeks. We had three young families, all expecting their first babies within a few days of Christmas. The first of the babies, a beautiful little girl named … Continue reading →

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