I got married the day after Trump’s inauguration, and ironically, boarded a cruise ship to Mexico for an awesome honeymoon. I got back and was shocked to hear about everything that had happened in a week. What was even more shocking (sort of) was how much discord there was between Christians. Facebook itself looked like a war zone with many Right and Left leaning blog posts being lobbed at the other side. What was interesting,...
Democracy is not looking up here in America. It has been a tough election season, and in an unique turn of events, we have two candidates that are, well, tough to vote for. Even after two insane presidential debates, there are most likely a few people who are unsure who they are going to vote for. While most evangelicals have denounced Hillary for being for abortion, a majority of them have also championed the “pro-life”...
Symbols and their usage can be a powerful thing. Within literature, music, and film, symbolism is used to communicate a particular abstract truth by using concrete images. These mediums employ natural objects in order to discuss and explain ideas and truths that resonate deeply with us. Sometimes a symbol can be a building or a geographical location that holds historical significance. At other times, a symbol can even be a song lyric or a quotation....
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” In our world and in our current political climate, it seems that there are more things that divide us than unite us. Our world is supremely broken up and...
In an impossibly unnerving Presidential election year, where no sensible choice seems possible for Christians, there emerges a tendency among Christians (and other morally like-minded people) to “choose life” and vote for Trump in the mode of the reluctant, single-issue voter. A recent example of this can be seen in Wayne Grudem’s recent controversial endorsement of Trump as the “morally good choice” for President. [1] Reviewing his essay again, it is clear to me that...
My Favorite Proverb There is one particular biblical verse with which I have been infatuated for some time and which I have made a constant conscious commitment to follow. That verse goes a little something like this: “Ten cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of each board…” No… no… wait. Hold on, that’s Exodus. That’s not it… let me see here… ah, yes. Okay –...
This year has been a bit crazy. American politics are more than ever divided between the right and the left. Terrorism abroad and at home have people in fear and often their neighbors have become a source of that fear. Racial tensions are a powder keg of emotion and pain. It seems that there are divergent viewpoints on almost everything. In the theological world, pastors and scholars are under careful scrutiny for everything they do...
This past week has been tough. Orlando, Paris, Tel Aviv, and many others have been a constant source of tears, heartache and mourning for the global community I know for me, death has hit home in a different way. Last week, my Grandma passed away at 89 years old. She was an amazing woman who was first and foremost, a Christian. She loved Jesus in so many ways, and in every way she embodied a older...
**UPDATE, June 9, 2016. The California Senate Appropriations Committee struck down SB-1888 (proposed by Assemblyman Evan Low), which was the primary legislative bill focused in the article below. However, SB-1146 has been approved by the Appropriations Committee and is moving forward for a vote in the California Senate. SB-1146 was authored by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), an active supporter of the LGBT community. Further clarity is needed, but it appears that the self-disclosure regulations of the...
Adam Kolman Marshak. The Many Faces of Herod the Great. Eerdmans, 2015. 400 pgs. $35 (Paperback). ISBN 978-0-8028-6605-9. In The Many Faces of Herod the Great, Adam Kolman Marshak offers a fresh and compelling historiographical account of one of the more misunderstood figures in antiquity. While he agrees that Herod does, at times, play the part of ruthless tyrant and political opportunist, Marshak contends that the monarch’s tactics of oppression and repression “cannot account for...
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