Menu
As I near retirement from my full-time work (January 31), I’ve been reflecting on what has changed—and not—over the 41 years of my post-seminary ministries in congregations and graduate education. […]
From its earliest days, the Jesus movement, and then Christianity, were comprised of different, conflicting streams. Jesus lived and died in occupied Roman Palestine. But Jews who believed Jesus was […]
One of Phillips’ alums who follows my work posted a response to one of my musings, to the effect: “Be careful about creating an either-or, two-option scenario when there are […]
One of my seminary pastoral care professors was Dr. Tibor Chikes. He was a Hungarian refugee who, along with his wife, survived the siege of Budapest in 1945, during which […]
Last week my family took a two-night camping trip with one night in central Missouri and the second on the Arkansas/Missouri border. On the drive, we passed two different churches […]
It feels odd to work for an organization considered by some of the Powers and Principalities to be an enemy of sound education and good order. For the next few […]
Banned Books Week, celebrating the freedom to read, is next week. In Oklahoma and many other states, pulling “offensive” books or books that discomfort students regarding race, religion, ethnicity, gender, […]
The national motto, “In God We Trust,” has been divisive from the day of its minting. According to historian Harry Stout in his brilliant book, Upon the Altar of the […]
If state legislators were in the legal position of employers, teachers in many states could sue for creating a hostile work environment. And students could sue for legislators doing nothing […]
Scholars who study religion as a form of human expression talk about exemplars: individuals who are not the founders of a religion but whose lives are icons of that religion, […]