Faith and politics – Verba Sparsa

A failure of hospitality is a grave failure (taking a cue from Timothy Snyder)

Timothy Snyder identified failure of hospitality as the first of five failures in the outrageous Trump-Vance reception of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House. This post explores the seriousness of hospitality failure from a biblical, Christian point of view.

An important announcement: I am not changing my Facebook profile pic

So many questions this morning. Some huge, some trivial. I cannot deal with the big questions right now. So I give you my answer to a trivial question that you did not ask: I am not changing my Facebook profile picture. The “Love Anyway” hat stays. It feels heavier and tighter. I felt a powerfulContinue reading “An important announcement: I am not changing my Facebook profile pic”

Always Running: sex, integrity, and Caledonia Community Schools

An unusual little speech by State Representative Angela Rigas in a recent school board meeting in Caledonia, MI, raises questions about the purpose of books in high school and about the importance of integrity in public leaders.

Christian Nationalism and Christian Zionism vs. Christian Scripture

In every attempt to merge Christianity and nationalism, the nationalism dominates and distorts the Christianity, because nationalism is about domination, while the way of Jesus Christ is self-sacrificial servanthood.

A text and a question (2 Chronicles 15:13)

There is nothing special about this text. It just happened to come up today in the course of my reading and rereading my favorite book. Many other Old Testament texts have similar features. But as you will see, if you read on, this text, read in light of current events, left me with a question. Continue reading “A text and a question (2 Chronicles 15:13)”

A text and a question (2 Chronicles 15:13)

Nakba as source of theological insight?

Will the Nabka now force

Longing for Zion (Psalm 72)

Ask me to declare myself a Zionist when you can show me Zion. I am not seeing it yet.

Does the gospel have implications for society?

CNN’s John Blake, in an article that you should read, calls attention to how UAW president Shawn Fain drew upon his Christian faith, and on words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, to fortify the courage of auto workers headed into the recently concluded strike. It’s a good article. For friends who know whereContinue reading “Does the gospel have implications for society?”

Eliminationist homophobia in Ottawa County

Most eliminationist homophobes would be aghast at any suggestion that they are promoting genocide, but from the hateful speech that we hear from some of them, even in public places such as our school board meetings, I believe that some of them, if given access to a button which if pushed would instantly obliterate 400 million people (a very crude estimate of the number of people in the world who identify as LGBTQ), would quickly and gladly push that button.