Religion Dispatches
…accept huge numbers of refugees by governments already seen as aloof and unconcerned. No person of color can sit by and watch the circulation of memes like #WhiteGenocide, or the rise of groups like PEGIDA, and remain entirely unmoved. Would the arrival of great numbers of refugees, mostly but not wholly Muslim, without any authority having any reliable indicator of who they are, or how they would be cared for, make things better or worse? Seekin…
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…d, divided, and altogether backwards, while America runs the planet. More uncomfortably, these folks bring evidence from that world, which suggests they may not be making this up. So: Is it dangerous delusion, prophetic ideology, or something more? The journey to figure that question out sets The Mirage going. Ruff’s neat asides, where he quotes a Wikipedia-like resource every few chapters to give us background are fun (when did the Arabs come tog…
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…could not make up for the murder perpetrated by the Nazis. But they did launch Germany’s reckoning with itself, and perhaps provided a road map for how a great civilization might make itself worthy of the name.” More than money The two cases, post-Holocaust Germany and post-slavery-and-segregation America, are, of course, not identical. The German state’s most severe crimes against the Jewish people were concentrated into a relatively short and ex…
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…e background on the DUP: The party was founded on evangelical Christian principles and has been denounced as homophobic by critics. One of its former MPs, Iris Robinson, the wife of former DUP leader and Northen Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, has described homosexuality as an “abomination”. Another MP, Ian Paisley Jr, whose father Ian founded the DUP, said he was “repulsed” by homosexual acts. “I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism”,…
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…ely the phenomenon is not limited to Springfield. For example, the City Council of Charlotte, NC also considered a nondiscrimination ordinance this year. At the public meeting where it was debated and ultimately voted down, pastor Flip Benham accosted a transgender woman who had gone into the women’s restroom. According to the woman, Benham called her “young man,” “punk,” and “pervert.” Flip Benham, if you’re unfamiliar, is a prominent pastor and…
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…r or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” In other words, to be reconciled to God, we must also be reconciled to one another. Salvation may be personal, but it is not private. Love for God and love for one another are connected. 1 John 4:20 puts it this way “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”…
Read More…de so when that happens and you have those kinds of intimate, frank conversations with students, it goes from your head to your heart”. Premier of Alberta Jim Prentice said: “This is a case of a government responding to what they are hearing from the citizens of the province, including young people, who have had a significant say in this, who have moved me, and who have moved the minister. Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman was moved to tears by the amen…
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…as a Master’s student at Fuller working the switchboard part-time, and the number one phone call that came through went something like this: “Can you connect me to C. Peter Wagner’s Church Growth Institute? I’d like to buy some materials.” No one was happier than I was when he retired from Fuller and moved to Colorado Springs! I felt like I worked at a catalog call-in center. Seriously. I would never have expected to be talking about Wagner in con…
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…o have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church.” Indeed, in 2004, the denomination became the first in the Anglican Communion to consecrate an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson. Last year, however, Bishop Robinson inexplicably told LGBTQ+ Episcopalians, incensed that the denomination had invited noted-homophobe Max Lucado to preach from the Episcopal-run National Cathedral…
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…d for a theological category to come to terms with our context, the word concupiscence leapt out at me. A theme that emerges in Augustine’s corpus is how we have misguided desire, or lust and passion, in relation to the material world and other human beings. How does Augustine define lust and passion? He often describes it as concupiscence: strong desire, especially sexual, that sometimes implies sin or evil. Concupiscence refers to compulsive and…
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