Voting about the words and deeds of Jesus – ee gads! This is how many people respond when they hear about the Jesus Seminar. In this post, we will pick up on our two previous posts about translating and interpreting Biblical texts with a look at Westar Institute, home of the Jesus Seminar. (In the […]
Present
Blog posts relating to the present such as social justice issues
The Trials and Tribulations of Translating Scripture 2: Pitfalls and Challenges
In Trials and Tribulations 1, we presented an overview of the history of the Bible and the various ancient manuscripts that scholars have used over the centuries to translate Biblical texts from the original languages into other languages. We noted that translating from ancient languages and incomplete manuscripts copied centuries later present challenges to translators […]
The Trump Effect
I’ve refrained from commenting directly on the 2016 presidential campaign, but I feel the need to share a new publication from an extremely important organization that I have supported for years, the Southern Poverty Law Center. Our schoolchildren are being greatly affected by the rhetoric of the election, and I encourage everyone to read The […]
Abortion and the Paranormal Evidence
Abortion is often in the news, but it has reappeared again lately in three guises: the controversy around Planned Parenthood and the supposed sale of fetal tissue, the violent attacks and murders in a Colorado Planned Parenthood facility by an anti-abortion radical, and the comments by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump that women who have […]
The Ethical Imperative for Making America Better: Learn from our Peer Nations
For physicians, the Hippocratic Oath forms the ethical basis of their practice. Our leaders in Congress take a solemn vow to defend the Constitution of the United States. Law enforcement officials make promises to “serve and protect.” Whether these promises are actually kept or not, the people making them are, in effect, undertaking an ethical imperative […]
Capital Punishment from the Perspective of the “Other Side”
The United States is one of the few Western industrialized nations that still allows the death penalty. Americans who favor capital punishment justify it for several reasons: someone who commits a heinous crime deserves to die; the death penalty is a deterrent to violent crime; and death is the only punishment that comes close […]
Good Government versus Bad Government: Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water
We Americans have a long history of ambivalence toward government at all levels. We have recently witnessed the stand-off in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon between authorities and anti-government protesters. Republican presidential candidates cry out for abolition of government agencies – and have been doing so for decades (recall Ronald Reagan’s frequent rallying […]
Fear, The Enneagram and Political Decision-Making
Danger and threats (perceived or real) are all around us – terrorists, violence, illegal immigrants, out-of-control cops, a volatile stock market, wild weather … It is understandable that we react to these threats with fear. As individuals and communities, we want and need to reduce these threats as much as possible. We are always seeking […]
Reincarnation and Genetics: A Novel Approach to Facing Racism
Paranormal evidence points to the fact of reincarnation. Near-death experiences, reputable psychics and mediums, the seer Edgar Cayce, out-of-body experiences, electronic voice phenomena, past life regressions in psychotherapy, and instrumental transcommunication together combine to show that most human beings have lived multiple lives on earth – some estimates suggest in the neighborhood of 85-100. Given […]
Paul’s Female Colleagues: Not Keeping Silence in the Churches
Sixteen years into the 21st century – despite the reality of women in the workplace, women in leadership positions in business and government, and the ordination of women in many Protestant denominations and in Judaism – we can still find preachers railing against the leadership of women in Christian organizations. (We will concentrate here on […]