• On February 24, 2011 by

    Skeptics Wanted!

    18_munchmel_t

    I need a skeptic. Perhaps you are one. Perhaps you know one. Perhaps you could invite a thoughtful skeptic to participate in my thought experiment.

    I respectfully address myself to thoughtful skeptics. Think with me…

    If it was true that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead in the manner reported in the Gospels (i.e. not merely a temporary resuscitation, but an ultimate triumph over death), would you be willing to believe in Jesus as divine in at least some fashion?

    If you answer no, are you saying that the resurrection of Jesus is inconsequential whether it is true or not?

    If you answer yes, then in what way would you expect the knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection in the first century to reach you in the twenty-first century? In other words, what evidence would you accept as a credible witness to this historical event? Will you accept a credible historical witness?

    If not, what evidence will you accept? If you say something on the order of God writing in the sky or shouting from the heavens, then it seems to me that you are requiring yet another miracle in order to believe the first miracle. It seems you are in effect saying you require something other than a resurrection from the dead in order to believe in Jesus. Is this the case?

    Are you in fact saying, “Even if Jesus was raised from the dead, I would never believe it?” Is this a fair representation of your position?

    I am genuinely curious.

    BZ

    (The painting is Melancholy by Edvard Munch)

  • On February 16, 2011 by

    Love Your Enemies

    (The video is available for purchase from The Work of the People.)

  • On February 12, 2011 by

    Saturday Morning

    il_fullxfull.80504271

    Saturday Morning
    (A thought and a poem)

    Let Christ inform all of your life, but do not become a shallow religious cliché.
    Be a real, earthy human being; belong to the human race.

    So… Read more

  • On February 9, 2011 by

    One Minute to Address the World

    Scher-Whole-World-590

    I’ve got a new thought experiment for you.

    Imagine you have one minute to address the whole world. You and you alone are given this opportunity. Every person in the world will hear what you have to say. You can say anything you want. You can address politics, economics, religion, culture—anything you want to say. But you are given only one minute. Sixty seconds. That’s all. What would you say? The address you compose is probably quite revealing about yourself.

    I worked on my one minute address to the world for twenty minutes or less. (So there’s not a lot of thought in it.) It’s what I would say today. Tomorrow…who knows? My address is 143 words. I can say it in one minute. Here it is: Read more

  • On January 13, 2011 by

    I Am From the Future

    5352714397_943087d7f3

    With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day coming up Monday, I would like for you to engage in a thought experiment. It will require the use of some imagination. The first thing I want you to imagine is a time machine. Maybe it’s Doc Brown’s DeLorean or Doctor Who’s TARDIS or a time machine of your own creation. You need a time machine because you are being sent on a mission that will take you back in time. You are being sent to Montgomery, Alabama in 1850. Your task is to go to the First Conservative Church of Montgomery and convince them to change their position on slavery. Good luck. Read more

  • On December 30, 2010 by

    Beauty Will Save the World

    gogh.starry-night

    A thousand years ago Prince Vladimir the Great, the pagan monarch of Kiev, was looking for a new religion to unify the Russian people. Toward this end Prince Vladimir sent out envoys to investigate the great faiths from the neighboring realms. When the delegations returned they gave the prince their reports. Some had discovered religions that were dour and austere. Others encountered faiths that were abstract and theoretical. But the envoys who had investigated Christianity in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople reported finding a faith characterized by such transcendent beauty that they did not know if they were in heaven or on earth.

    Then we went to Constantinople and they led us to the place where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or earth, for on earth there is no such vision nor beauty, and we do not know how to describe it; we only know that God dwells among men. We cannot forget that beauty. —Primary Chronicle of the Sent by Prince Vladimir of Kiev-Rus to Constantinople

    Read more

  • On December 18, 2010 by

    Laughing Now

    002

    It was late at night not long ago, way past midnight, and I was thinking—thinking about these two things: God is love and Jesus is the Savior of the world. (You’ll find these two thoughts in the fourth chapter of First John.) Just thinking about these two things made me want to laugh. The urge to laugh seemed like a mystical and holy thing. I wrote these words down…

    Laughing Now

    Something is happening to me
    Something is bubbling up in me
    Like I’m about to laugh
    Like I just heard the best news
    Unexpected—but always longed for
    A secret—that I’ve always known
    Everything is going to be alright Read more

  • On October 29, 2010 by

    A Christian Response to Islamic Hatred

    icon_Father, Forgive Them
    by Stanley Hauerwas

    “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” With these words the world is offered an alternative unimaginable by our sin-determined fantasies. Such a politics is not constituted by vague longings for distant ideals but rather by flesh and blood. Flesh and blood as real as Christian de Cherge, the Trappist prior of the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria. Christian and his fellow monks knew their refusal to leave Algeria after the rise of Islamic radicals in 1993 might result in their deaths. Anticipating his death—he was beheaded in 1996 by Muslim radicals—Christian left a testament with his family to be opened on his death. In that testament he asks that those who love him pray that he was worthy of such a sacrifice. He expresses the fear that his death will be used to accuse in general these people, these Islamic people, who he has come to love. He ends his testament observing: Read more

  • On October 27, 2010 by

    American Exceptionalism

    FeaturedImage

    American Exceptionalism: The theory that the United States occupies a special place among the nations of the world and possesses a unique destiny in history.

    I’ve heard it said, “American Exceptionalism is simply a fact.”

    I’m sure it is.

    Just like Greek Exceptionalism and Roman Exceptionalism and British Exceptionalism were facts too.

    If you’re not exceptional, you’re just another nation. “Exceptionalism” is required of a superpower. It’s what gives cred to the “We’re number one!” chant.

    But you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t get too excited about Greco-Roman-British-American Exceptionalism — or any other geopolitical claim to exceptionalism.

    (There really is a big difference between being truly exceptional and merely the latest in a long line.) Read more

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →