Short ‘Commercial’ for the Misquoting Jesus Podcast by Bart Ehrman
Christians criticize him (very often unfairly and without reading him seriously) for trying to deconvert people of faith. He does not. He is sincerely a scholar who does not presuppose the infallibility of scripture, but studies it as any historian would study essential tests from any era.
Brief Thoughts after reading “Why the Bible Began,” by Jacob Wright (2023)
Defeated populations viewed their subjugation as a source of shame… opting instead to extol the golden ages of the past… The thread that ties together [the Hebrew Bible] is a question that was trailblazing at the time: What does it mean to be a people? -J. Wright
Pro Social Justice Thoughts on (Re)Reading James
“But I wonder if squelching James’exhortations about the poor and rich – its pre-pro-union and pre-social justice verses – may be of particular concern to preachers and Christian leaders today.”
Thoughts on Frank Herbert’s Dune, Politics, and Religion
“God and faith is wallpaper for what’s really at work in Dune. The human struggles for power and knowledge, justice and love, drive and define religion.”
A Few Thoughts on Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses”
“Rushdie offers at least one scenario for how redactors might work – they are human beings concerned with truth, politics, the veracity of their leaders and traditions. They add, subtract, alter – sometimes for noble purposes; occasionally for personal reasons. This is true, most probably, for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity – all religions of The Book.”
An Atheist’s Brief Argument for Reading the Bible
“And yet, when considered and studied as a work of collective history, myth, legend, religion, literature, and sometimes high metaphoric poetry, it is an amazing and intriguing collection of books that can enrich even a secularist’s understanding of Judeo-Christianity and middle eastern culture.”
Notes on Ezekiel 18: Does God Change His Mind about Sin?
“The whole thrust of Ezekiel 18 is the exact opposite of what we find in the Ten Commandments. Just one example will illustrate this contradiction. In chapter 18:20 we read: “… The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
Bible belief drops - CNN
“Bible Belief Drops: Just 20% of Americans now believe that the Bible is "the actual word of God," according to Gallup. That's the lowest percentage recorded dating back to 1976. A plurality (49%) believe the Bible was inspired by God. A record-high 29% say the Bible is a collection of "fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man."
Some First Thoughts on Jeremiah: God and Sexual Assault
“Yet, in Jeremiah 13, there is a new, almost subtle addition to the Holy Word’s rape imagery. This time it is God, and not humans, who is at the center of the language and the very deliberate cause of the violent actions.”
Room for Doubt: When it comes to trust, what are we looking for?
“It is not that some things are not worth saying about: “This is absolutely true.” It is that the posture that spoke most clearly to me, at least, was one of agnostic humility even while holding a firm belief, opinion, or set of convictions. There was, in other words, room for doubt. To me, this made the possibility of truth worth investigating, as a process of learning together, rather than a top-down, authoritarian mandate.”
Some Thoughts on Ecclesiastes – a short review
“But Ecclesiastes is different [from the Psalms and Proverbs]. The writer(s) of this work are keenly aware of several key tensions in the world of lived experience. One is the counter-pressures between vanity and futility on the one hand, and the assumption God is somehow in charge on the other.”
“The Problem of the Priest” in Reading the Bible and Theology
“The question Genetically Modified Skeptic proposed was simply this: If you accept the bible as God’s word, why would a perfect God choose to communicate via so flawed and ambiguous a medium – i.e., a literary text?”
First Impressions: On (Re)Reading the Bible All the Way Through
“There is very little, or no, evidence from Genesis to Psalms that God’s love is unconditional in any way. The Lord (or, most accurately, the human authors of the books portrayal of His character) makes very, very clear, in passages too numerous to count, that this self-proclaimed “jealous God” will love and protect His people conditionally.”
The Psalms: Sadness and Fear in Healing
“Is it that they want to ignore the dark side of a God who’d punish sin through disease, even to those who are righteous, but wish to praise Him just to be safe?”
Reading Trump as Biblical Text
“It occurs to me that President Trump has turned into a sacred text for some of his more dedicated followers.”