One of the most troubling stories in the Bible is the conquest of Canaan in the Book of Joshua. In that book, God demands that the Israelites commit acts of genocide against the people living in the land. If you are unfamiliar with the story, you can read the Book of Joshua. But there is a summary of the conquest in Joshua 11:16-23 that will get you up to speed.  Basically, Joshua enters the land and kills nearly everyone. For example, one part of the land was named Hazor. Joshua 11:11 states, “And they put to the sword all who were in it, utterly destroying them; there was no one left wh ..read more

These poor missionaries didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. I recently went for a run. Afterward, I was enjoying a nice stretch in the warm sun when I saw two guys dressed in suits walking toward me. Ahh, I knew what was about to happen.  I was about to proclaim the Gospel to a couple of missionaries!  The young men kindly greeted me and then started talking about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of them, apparently the leader, started reading from the Book of Mormon. Something from the Book of Jacob, I think.  I listened for a bit, but couldn ..read more

Julia Ward Howe was an important American author and poet during the mid-1800s. She was also a social activist who struggled to abolish slavery and who worked for a woman’s right to vote. She met Abraham Lincoln in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. After meeting Lincoln, she was inspired to write her most enduring and influential piece, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The song instantly became a hit among Union soldiers during the war and its influence in patriotism and war continues today. The first stanza goes like this: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is ..read more

There is an ancient Jewish joke that two people came to a rabbi to settle a dispute. One person gave his perspective. The rabbi immediately said, “You are right.”  The other gave his perspective and the rabbi immediately said, “You are right.” The rabbi’s students watched how their rabbi handled this and were perplexed. They asked their rabbi, “How could they both be right? They are saying two contradictory things.” The rabbi looked at them and said, “You are right!” I tell you this joke because I think it’s so strange that in the ancient world, everyone thought that they were right and t ..read more

Have you ever thought that the Resurrection of Jesus could lead Christians to become narcissistic? Of course, I don’t want to blame the Resurrected Jesus for this. It’s not his fault. Rather, it’s the way that the Christian church has historically depicted the resurrection of Jesus in art. The Western Church and the Eastern Church have very different ways of depicting the Resurrection.* In the East, the Resurrection is almost always depicted by showing Jesus with other people. The Resurrected Jesus is often shown defeating Satan and hell. He then grabs Adam (the first human) by the hand and dr ..read more

I like to be right. Sometimes I even get into theological debates on social media. And I am right. But I am often wrong, too. Because my desire to be right is often the problem. My impulse to be right can create a division between me and others, not to mention the people I love the most. When the point becomes being right, I am often wrong, even when I might be right. That’s because the need to be right can cause a lot of harm in our relationships. The need to be right easily creeps into our theology. Many of us have been told that we have to get God on our side by doing the right things. We h ..read more

Friedrich Nietzsche is a favorite whipping boy among Christians. It’s difficult to blame Christians for this. After all, Nietzsche is known for many provocative anti-Christian statements, but his most provocative statement might be that, “God is dead.” And yet, in his book, A God Torn to Pieces: The Nietzsche Case, philosopher Guiseppe Fornari makes a claim that is just as provocative: “In the end [Nietzsche] was much closer to Christ than many who would claim to be Christians.” Wait…Nietzsche was closer to Christ than many Christians? How could that be? Nietzsche understood the implications o ..read more

It’s Holy Week. For Christians, this is the most important week of the year. Not that I want to start beef between Christmas and Easter. I love Christmas. It might be my favorite holiday. Although, Halloween is pretty high up there. But 2,000 years ago, Good Friday and Easter started a revolution in our understanding of God. I think we are still trying to catch up to the revolution. If you are like me, you grew up with an idea that if we turn our backs on God that God will turn God’s back on us. And at some point, we have all turned out back on God. So, with this understanding, you never know ..read more

There’s a lot of controversy over the term “woke” in Christianity. Some more conservative Christians reject the term, even calling it anti-Christian. But being “woke” is not anti-Christian. Rather, being woke is essential to the Christian faith. What Is Woke? Dr. Elaine Richardson, who specializes in teaching African American literature at The Ohio State University, states that the term woke, “comes out of the experience of Black people of knowing that you have to be conscious of the politics of race, class, gender, systemic racism, ways that society is stratified and not equal.” To be “woke ..read more

What happened at the Council of Nicea? It affirmed the nonviolent God of love that Jesus revealed. There are many misunderstandings about the Council of Nicea. Dan Brown’s fictional thriller The Da Vinci Code claims that the primary goal of the Council was to decide which books belong in the Bible. But the Council of Nicea actually had nothing to do with the canonization of the Bible. That myth started in the 9th century, some six hundred years after the Council of Nicea, with an anonymous document. The document stated that the bishops at the council piled on a communion table all of the possi ..read more