To so many of my Christian brothers and sisters who disagree with today’s SCOTUS decision: Continue reading
Category Archives: Culture
A Son and His Dad
The “prodigal son” story is really about “prodigal sons“.
Even the son who stays home, who works hard to please his father—to be just like his dad—can miss the nuances that make all the difference: It wasn’t the kind of business dad ran or its success, but (as the younger son recognized) how he treated his employees and those around him. It wasn’t the words he spoke, but why he spoke them…and to whom…and how. Continue reading
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Yom ha Shoah
Today (from sundown yesterday to sundown today) is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. I’ve been honored and humbled in my lifetime to meet four holocaust survivors and discuss with them their experiences. Two of these moments were shared with my oldest daughter. These are moments that she will not be able to experience by the time she is my age .
May we always remember.
In humility we remember the tragic and unthinkable human capacity for evil.
In hope we remember the strength of life and goodness to survive.
In honor we remember those who suffered such great pain and loss.
In remembering may we strengthen the commitment to always stand against such suffering and persecution.
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“I give myself up to the sacred frenzy.”
Johannes Kepler was born today in 1571. Using the work of Tycho Brahe, he confirmed and expanded Copernicus’ theories that the sun was the center of the planetary system and not the earth (which ran counter to official teaching at the time). Kepler was at the forefront of what would become the Scientific Revolution and an understanding of the principles and the laws of planetary motion that were further confirmed by Newton almost 70 years later. Kepler lived during a period when the understanding of everything in Europe was changing: religion, society, finance, and cosmology. The Reformation was taking place, the crusades had exposed Europe to other complex cultures, free markets were developing, and the globe had been circumnavigated.
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The Government, Undocumented Children, and the Church: Why Tony Perkins Should Retract His Statements
There’s this piece gaining momentum on Facebook status updates that was written by Tony Perkins with the Family Research Council. In it, Perkins tells the story of one Tuscon pastor’s failed attempt to get aid to the unaccompanied and undocumented minors being held at the Nogales Placement Center in Arizona, and then uses this anecdotal story as evidence to accuse the US government (specifically, President Obama) of “banning” the church from helping. He says: Continue reading
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The Noah Movie and Its Sources
Christianity Today has a good interview with Darren Aronofsky which provides some background on the material in the new Noah movie. It seems that Aronofsky and Ari Handel researched a wealth of ancient, primarily Jewish, traditions and texts for material in the movie. These traditions/texts ranged from the Book of Enoch, the Jubilees material, the Genesis Apocryphon text from Qumran and other ancient collections such, Genesis Rabbah, the Talmud, etc. Some of these date from well before the time of Jesus and down to a period 500 years after the New Testament.
I’m not sure how much material from these texts will be used, but here’s just some of the Flood related content in three of them:
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Initial Thoughts on this Phil, GQ, and A&E thing:
I have been keenly aware in every job I have ever had that I could be suspended, fired, or forced to resign for “saying what I think.” I haven’t always liked this reality, and I’ve been known at times to push the boundaries. However, I have never considered my employer’s right to terminate me for such behavior a “violation of free speech.” My guess is that if you have ever been employed, you are aware of this as well—and I think we all really want it to work that way.
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“The biggest thing you can do is just be kind to another human being.”
The powerful story and images about (then) 18-year-old Keshia Thomas in 1996, who at risk to her own safety protected a white supremacist from a violent crowd:
…in a flash, the crowd went from controlled protestors to an angry mob, hitting the man with sticks and kicking him as he lay on the ground. In that moment, Thomas separated herself from the mob and threw herself on the man to protect him.
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Hollywood’s “Whitewashing” of the Bible
As Hollywood seems to be expressing a new interest in the Bible (Noah, Son of God, Exodus, et. al.), Jonathan Smith has some thoughts that I resonate with regarding the lack of ethnic diversity and accuracy in casting:
With the abundance of talent in the cast of Exodus, I should be perfectly fine with these actors in their character roles, but I’m not. Whitewashing biblical movies presents the characters of the early Western creation story as a homogenous, Euro-centric bloc instead of acknowledging the diversity of that has existed in our society for thousands of years . . . Would biblical stories be any different or less impactful if the characters were all dark skinned?
You can read the entirety of Jonathan’s post here.
(Title image is from Warner Bros. movie The 10 Commandments)
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Whom Would Jesus Inaugurate?
I can’t help but wonder how Jesus would have responded if he had been invited to pray at inaugural ceremonies for Tiberias in 14 AD, or what Paul’s response to such a request would have been for any of the emperors during his lifetime.
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