Faith and politics – Verba Sparsa

The President and the Fourth

July 4 is not about celebrating the president, but it’s good to have a president who understands and supports the values that July 4 celebrates.

On observing July 4 as an American Christian

When the Fourth of July falls on a Sunday, Christians need to be careful about how they relate patriotism and worship.

Defining human existence (Psalm 139)

To be is to be known by God. God’s omniscience is knowledge not only of everything but of everyone. There is no one whom God does not know. My existence resides in the fact that God knows me. My identity is this: I am who God knows that I am. And since God speaks, andContinue reading “Defining human existence (Psalm 139)”

Fifty ways to say “there is no God” (riffing on Psalm 14)

We have so many elaborate ways of saying “There is no God” in our hearts without saying it out loud. We are such fools.

The South has risen again

Once again Heather Cox Richardson has compared current developments in US governance to nineteenth-century antecedents, with concerning results. See her post for June 22. She has been doing this well for many months now. I recommend her 2020 book How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the SoulContinue reading “The South has risen again”

The point of Psalm 139

The point of Psalm 139 is not theological speculation, and certainly not prooftexting for contemporary partisan politics, but to move me to desire to seek God’s leading.

Nation-state myth and the Kingdom of God; or patriotism and salvation history

If we are Christian, the story that we tell about our nation will be compatible with and subordinate to the story that God is writing in the history of salvation.