It is well-known that “Aloha” is the Hawaiian word for “hello” and “goodbye.” It is also their word for love and friendship. As someone who thinks quite a bit about the biblical understanding of “spirit,” I was interested to learn that “Aloha” conveyed a spiritual idea that could be illuminated by its two root words. “Alo” is the word for presence (or face). And “Ha” is the word for the “breath of life” or the...
One of the few widely shared sporting events many of us have been able to experience together during the “Covid Exile” has been ESPN’s “The Last Dance”—the uber-entertaining docuseries set to a masterful, boom bap 90’s soundtrack, offering an insider’s look back at the greatest team in history, led by its greatest player, Michael Jordan. So yes, contrary to the click-bait title, I am not arguing that Kobe was better than MJ on the court....
Complementarianism. Evangelical churches embrace this term to define their position on women and church leadership. But we lack a shared vision of what this might look like in our churches. The idea of complementarianism is rooted in the principle that men and women are better together, or in more Biblical language, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18). Complementarian churches are confronted with a troubling irony then, because when it comes...
A Saudi journalist was on the radio the other day commenting on a striking familiarity he noticed about recent media coverage of American Trump supporters. He described it in one word: Orientalism. I immediately understood what he meant. Edward Said gave shape to the concept of Orientalism as a predominantly “western” (European and American) way of “othering” Arab and Asian peoples by exaggerating and distorting exotic differences in ways that suggest iconoclasm, backwardness, incivility, and...
We’re Getting Christmas Wrong Over the past few Christmases, I’m noticing an uptick in blog posts and essays about how Christians are “getting Christmas wrong,” that our old quaint stories about Jesus being born in an animal stable are historically implausible, and that our hymns and advent traditions are being “spoiled” by eminent historians who are at last able to redirect our wrong-headed traditions by breaking in new shafts of light from the historical insights...
The time was almost ten years ago precisely. Maybe you remember the shocking video I was watching. On my screen was Sarah Palin (in one of her many regrettable public moments), conducting an outdoor interview about pardoning turkeys, casually sipping her coffee, while two turkeys were being strangled to death behind her. I have neither the heart nor stomach to post the video—it isn’t hard to find on your own if you’re so-inclined. The point...
It is getting harder to explain the BTS phenomenon to people without sounding like the facts are being made up. Industry execs and celebrities have resorted to comparing it to Beatlemania — which sounds like an exaggeration until one witnesses ARMY in person (the name for their worldwide and fiercely devoted fan base). ARMY generates more traffic for BTS on social media than Donald Trump and Justin Bieber…. combined. Their latest album has surpassed 1...
The ideal church is like delicious, instant coffee. It doesn’t exist. Problems in church are not only realities, they are dead certainties given the fact that all churches unavoidably involve the inconvenience we dislike most — selfish people. We know from St. Paul’s letters that even the first churches were troubled by some serious problems. And before I go any further, let me acknowledge that there are limits to what kinds of shortcomings we should...
I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about Paul’s language in 1 Corinthians concerning the body, the temple, and the Holy Spirit. The primary texts are fairly well-known for Bible readers. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:15–17 ESV) “Flee from sexual immorality. Every...
Americans don’t like talking about slavery and its aftermath. Of course, many countries and peoples have their truly dark chapters, and none of their citizens “like” talking about those things either. But as is often the case, we do things different in America. Whereas Germany criminalizes holocaust denial and has erected an ineluctable memorial in the center of Berlin for Holocaust victims, and whereas Rwanda has constructed a similar memorial space for the Tutsi lives nearly...
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