Category Archives: Faith and politics

Keeping the Declaration of Equality

Another Independence Day rolls around. Heather Cox Richardson has written a brief essay for the occasion. You should read it. It refers, fittingly, to the Declaration of Independence. I want to say a little bit about the Declaration myself. Note that the document itself is not titled “Declaration of Independence.” We are in the habitContinue reading “Keeping the Declaration of Equality”

SKANDAL! A Sermon on Mark 9:42–50

For American Christians today, Mark 9:42–50 conveys a stern warning from Jesus about confusing Christianity with nationalism and destroying the credibility of the gospel in other ways.

“Social-justice warrior” as a term of abuse

Have you heard “social-justice warrior,” or the abbreviation “SJW,” used as a term of derision? I always think, when I hear it so used, that there is no clearer way to announce that you either are unaware of or reject the Bible and its God than to use SJW as a Schimpfwort, a hate-word, aContinue reading ““Social-justice warrior” as a term of abuse”

Why Christotrumpians admire Putin

The people who reduce the Trump-Biden choice to anti-abortion versus pro-abortion are victims and perpetrators of the same malignant fallacy as those who reduce the Russia-Ukraine situation to anti-transgender-rights to pro-transgender-rights.

Illegitimate totality transfer (on praying Psalm 44)

Warnings from biblical lexicography James Barr was for many years, I think, the scholar most feared by other members of the biblical-studies guild. He had a knack for spotting and exposing fallacies that were widely accepted by his peers as standard practice. Probably the best-known example of his work was his book The Semantics ofContinue reading “Illegitimate totality transfer (on praying Psalm 44)”

Christmas, typology, and Antichrist

If anyone invites you to a Christmas celebration honoring “Jesus Christ AND . . .,” run as fast as you can in the opposite direction.

Celebrating the birth of Antichrist in Kentucky

In this nativity scene, what lies in the manger is the serpent. But to Congressman Massie and those who see with like eyes, it is sweet baby Jesus. The gun per se, though it has been used for great evil and in truth was designed for such use, is a tool, an implement. As itsContinue reading “Celebrating the birth of Antichrist in Kentucky”