Lincoln, Luther, and King

Injustice in America takes many forms. Often it takes the form of when justice is not administered by the legal system. "Don't be corrupt when administering justice. Never give special favors to poor people, and never show preference to important people. Judge your neighbor fairly." - The Bible Sometimes crime pays handsome dividends due to ridiculously light court sentencing. This is the story of how Anthony (Tony) Shaw, an Army acquisition manager at the US Army Tank Automotive Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC) in Michigan, used kickbacks from an Army contractor to bail himself out of personal debt. Tony ends up being the winner, despite being ordered to pay restitution and serve almost 4 years in prison. In an episode that reminds us of the government bailout of AIG, Shaw personally benefited from taxpayer funds that bailed him out of over-leveraged real estate investments in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. Thanks to Tony's light court sentence, ...

God is calling every one of us out of darkness and into his wonderful light.  We understand that Jesus has commanded us not to blithely blend into this world's darkness, but to be different so we can shine a li ght into the darkness. It's easier said than done. We need to be reminded of our calling often, because it's a lifetime endeavor, and we all wrestle with what it really means to get out of darkness. The Apostle Peter reminds us: "...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who  called you out of darkness into his wonderful light ." (1 Peter 2:9) Should we as Christ-followers celebrate Halloween? The question bears asking. Let me start by saying my purpose here is not to call anyone out on the carpet, or to judge your Halloween practices. The purpose of this examination is to ask ourselves the question of whether the celebration of Halloween is truly innocent fun? I don...

The world’s most misapplied and ripped-out-of-context snippet of scripture may very well be Jeremiah 29: 11. Believers love to quote this verse as if it applied unequivocally to their lives without condition or qualification. The verse famously says,  “For I know the plans  I have for you,” declares the  Lord , “plans to prosper  you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)   One should understand from the very first word, “for” that this is not a stand-alone statement! But how many people who quote this verse even know what went before? How many know who God was giving his promise to? Or what it truly implies, given its context?  Funny. How come believers never quote Jeremiah 18:11, indiscriminately assuming that it applies to them too? “This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you.” (Jeremiah 18:11) It appears that believers assume they will be the rec...

Every radiometric dating method assumes (and therefore asserts) that God did not create the material being dated. Very few people ever ask the cross-examining question, “If this material was created supernaturally by God in the beginning, what would its radiometric ratios be?” Truth, is, that question is just as unanswerable as the question, “How old did Adam appear to be in the first moments after his creation?”

One of the things I regret seeing in the Christian tradition is the dumbing down of children’s/youth groups, reducing them to mere entertainment instead of focusing on making disciples of Christ. Though we can certainly use an entertaining approach at times, we have turned it into a mandatory approach that supplants all else.  If we were to superimpose such an approach on any of the scenarios described in the Bible, they would seem ludicrous. Can you imagine Jesus looking up at Zacchaeus in the tree and belting out a stand-up one liner about short people to make everyone laugh? Or Paul and Silas chained up in jail with their whipped backs bleeding and singing “Jesus is the rock and he rolls my blues away, bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop, wow”?   I remember many times in junior high or high school where our youth groups did silly things that had no tie-in whatsoever to spiritual matters. I remember singing “Whose side are you zodding on? Zodding on the Lord’s side. Izod Izo...