Challenging the notion that some violent responses to violence are justified often seems to cause people to respond with greater vehemence than if their most deeply-cherished convictions about the nature of God had been questioned. I suspect there are two…
Do you want a pastor-in-chief?
With the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate, religious history was made. Some historians believe this is the first presidential, major party ticket that does not feature a Protestant running for president or vice-president. Romney is Mormon…
The surprising religious makeup of the 2012 presidential race
For the first time in our country’s history the Republican party is set to nominate a presidential ticket that does not include a Protestant. Mitt Romney is a Mormon and his newly announced running mate Paul Ryan is a Catholic. This is…
Do we really care about senior adults?
First, a disclaimer: I’ve never experienced life as an “old” person. Like many of my fellow young Americans, I do not ponder what life will be like at 80. Though firsthand experience of old age escapes me, startling statistics around…
An Open Letter to Dan Cathy at Chick-Fil-A
An Open Letter to Dan Cathy From a Concerned Baptist Pastor July 19, 2012 Dear Mr. Cathy, I don’t expect you to remember me. You and your father spoke at chapel during my freshman year of college in 2000. You…
Our rhetorical Civil War
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” —Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861 So it was then, March, 4, 1861, that Lincoln uttered these words to a struggling, soon-to-be-divided United States. We hear these words 151…
Should we abolish the death penalty?
On July 3 the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, called on all member states to abolish the death penalty. The worldwide trend is away from the death penalty. In 2000, 31 countries carried out an execution. In 2011,…
Loch Ness Found in Classrooms
Seeing isn’t believing; believing is seeing—at least when it comes to the Loch Ness Monster. As it turns out, students in private Christian schools across Louisiana use textbooks that claim the monster was a dinosaur that existed at the same…
Welcome the moneychangers?
Although Jesus did through the moneychangers from the Temple, perhaps we would be well served to welcome them back. With summer nearly, officially, underway not only have beautiful flowers, graduations, and Romney/Obama attack advertisements arrived, but a so too has…