In Part I, we examined some recent research on Pompeii, focusing on archaeological studies. Here we will look at British scholar Peter Oakes’ 2009 book, Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul’s Letter at Ground Level, which combines archaeological insights from Pompeii with an exegesis (analysis) of important aspects of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. St. […]
justice
The Band-Aid Approach: The Inadequacy of Charitable Giving for Tackling Social Problems
The United States consistently ranks among the most “generous” countries in the world – we citizens routinely rank very high in the categories of helping someone we don’t know, donating money to charity, or volunteering our time to an organization. A Marketwatch article from December 2019 cites results from the World Giving Index, an instrument […]
When the “Bad Guys” Commit Suicide: Insights from Paranormal Research
The death by apparent suicide on August 10, 2019, of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has again raised the issue about how victims achieve justice when the accused perpetrator kills him- or herself while in prison. Epstein may potentially have more victims than most serial killers: dozens (?) of women whom he trafficked for sex, assaulted […]
Hate in the White House: A New Tool from the SPLC
Is it not tragic that we must speak of hate in the People’s House, our beloved White House in the seat of our national government? Unfortunately, we must call a spade a spade: the Trump Administration, from the top down, fosters hatred, bigotry, and animosity – citizen against citizen – on a regular basis. Donald […]
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 […]