“Experts believe Islamic State’s trafficking in religious artifacts is both to make money and to culturally cleanse the region. The Islamic militants have converted churches in Qaraqosh and other Iraqi cities into torture chambers, according to the Sunday Times. One priest from the region, who gave his name as Abu Aasi from Mosul, told the... Continue Reading

“Misconception 1: The Ten Commandments are the most important part of the Bible. Since I don’t know anyone who actually holds this view, and I have never seen this view expressed in print, it appears to me unlikely that this is a “common” misconception.”   This post is a critique of the “Puffington Host” post:... Continue Reading

“The problem is the way the relationship between Moses and the God of Israel is presented. In the Biblical telling, Moses, like many of the other heroes of Israel, was compelled to pass through a long period of testing and purification in order to prepare himself to receive the divine word. Only when he had... Continue Reading

“Most concerning, however, was the worldview taught in his Ethics and Hermeneutics classes. “One of my professors was touting who he was calling theological masters. He included Barth and Bonhoeffer, but then he included James H. Cone, a liberation theologian.”   Students who, like me, grew up a part of an Assemblies of God church... Continue Reading

“There has long been a great deal of cynicism surrounding the U.S. posture toward Cuba, which was dramatically altered earlier this week by President Obama. Cuba has, for the almost five and a half decades of its existence, used the U.S. policy as one of the many scapegoats for the miserable failure of their own... Continue Reading

“We should let God be the one who determines how he will bless us, knowing that his ways are best.  Then, sometimes God not only gives us what he wants but he gives us what we wanted too, once we have first placed it into his hands.  This happened for Jacob, because God did restore... Continue Reading

“What is the role of a man who has strong spiritual convictions?” he says. “What rights does he have when he’s in secular company? Does he impose his faith? Those are tough questions. To have the balance to walk that straight and narrow path and not offend, it’s an imperfect science. You don’t want to... Continue Reading

“The incarnation compels our praise, not our foolish and self-serving notions of its replication. There is one incarnation under God. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is the only incarnate One. He submitted to the Father and took on human flesh. To honor God in worship and in mission is to celebrate and proclaim this Beloved, incarnate... Continue Reading

“Throughout long centuries of enslavement based on race followed by decades of racism enshrined in the laws of Jim Crow, African Americans have endured constant assaults on their image-bearing status. Being counted as 3/5 a person for voting purposes, living under the morbid rule of “separate but equal”, and absorbing the subtle blows of micro-aggressions... Continue Reading

“The Bible makes it rather clear that we were made for community. We gather together for the worship of God. The Bible makes it rather clear that there are structures of authority in regards to spiritual matters. The Bible makes it also rather clear that when we fail to honor and remember the past, we... Continue Reading