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Reflecting on the Ten Commandments
News that the Ten Commandments will be posted in all schools and public places in Louisiana and Oklahoma took me back to Mark Twain’s encounter with a sanctimonious businessman notorious for his...
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Confronting Arrogance and Injustice: Insights from God’s Word to Sennacherib
A personal reflection on God’s word to Sennacherib I know your sitting downand your going out and coming in,and your raging against MeIsaiah 37:28 19th-century wood engraving by Gustave Doré depicting...
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Even a Parrot Can Quote Scripture
Pull down thy vanity, it is not manMade courage, or made order, or made gracePull down thy vanity, I say pull down.Learn of the green world that can be thy place . Ezra Pound, Canto LXXLI They’re not...
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Understanding Satan: The Personification of Trickery and Con Artistry
In the eyes of QAnon and Christian fundamentalism, I’m a heretic. I don’t believe in Satan. Not that Satan, the devilish opponent of God. But trying to make some sense of life these days has led me to...
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The New Nationalist Bible and “Happy Holy Week”
Who but a sociopath on his way to trial on charges of buying a porn star’s silence would think the American people would fall for a stunt like this? It’s a short step from selling gold sneakers for...
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The gods Made Trump
“God Made Trump” is a masterpiece of cunning. Borrowing creation images from the Book of Genesis 1-3 and the Good Shepherd of fPsalm 23, Ezekiel 34:2-34, John 10:1-2), the three-minute video posted on...
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The Gospel of the Loser
The beginning of this commentary will sound familiar to those who have read “The Counterfeit Gospel” (Jan. 29, 2022). The beginning through “The Gospel of Jesus the Loser” is edited and amplified....
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I want to be an olive tree
I love olives. I love the Psalms. Well . . . some of them . . . some times. Partly. Like the Psalm that greeted me this morning at the cabin far from the news. Old olive tree in Karystos, Euboia,...
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Be Still! Departing from Collective Madness
Writing Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (scheduled for release by Wipf and Stock Publishers in January), I had a growing sense of its prescience. The subtitle “departure from collective...
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Verse – God’s Plan
Steve sent this @12:26 a.m. today. Though fatigued, he had a “good day” with visits from his high school friend Gary, an 18 year-old he’s mentored since the fourth grade (clarification: since the young...
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Two Religions everywhere
Any and all religions are divided between two types. One shouts; the other listens. One makes war in the name of God; the other makes peace in the name of God. One kills its enemies; the other prays...
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What does God look like?
As a child, I wondered what God was like. I was told God was like Jesus. But I couldn’t see Jesus; neither could the artists who painted God and Jesus. They just made up what they looked like. I never...
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Verse – The Exchange
INTRO: This piece uses the Hebrew terms for man (atham) and woman (athama), descriptions that remind Hebrew readers that human beings are of the dust, of the earth. The Exchange “Did God really say...
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Being Human – nothing more, nothing less
The ISIL fundamentalist extremists who terrorized Paris, San Bernardino, Beirut, and elsewhere in the name of God believe in an eternal reward for sacrificing themselves for a holy cause. Though it may...
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Speaking very clearly
I’m going to speak very clearly now Gordon, in the form of a single question. How in the name of God can you claim to be a Christian and a Democrat in the same breath? I don’t know the person who put...
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When the Breath flies away
It takes only a moment to see oneself in the experience of Andy Catlett in Wendell Berry’s story, “Fly Away, Breath!” Our experience is of time flown away and flying away. Most of us, most of the time,...
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God, Guns and Gravy
J.H. is an astute student of partisan politics. He wrote this response to yesterday’s post on the Confederate flag flying in northern Florida: Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower, could not be nominated for...
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Tribute to Marcus Borg (1942 – 2015)
Cover of Marcus Borg book Marcus Borg’s writing and teaching affected millions. Steve Shoemaker received an email of Marcus’s death yesterday from Barkley Thompson, who had quickly writtten the...
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God wounded in Paris
Today’s news from Paris is chilling. Still reeling from the Charlie Hebdo attack, hostages are taken in a Kosher (Jewish) market in Paris. Fear of extremist Islamic terrorism spreads across France....
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Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans
This sermon was preached the week following guest preacher Tabitha Isner’s sermon that began with her singing and asking, “Church. What’s it good for?” Please leave your story of terror and fascination...
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