Bees, monarchs and theology
Lotte Möller’s Bees and Their Keepers was a recent gift that I enjoyed consuming. The book was published in Swedish in 2019 with the English translation out the next year. …
Personal foul
The irrelevance of truth in public life in America was on full display this week. Yet again. One of its clearest examples continues following Sen. Eric Schmitt’s smirking bungling of …
Choosing dread over devotion
During a week of study long ago at the United Theological College of the West Indies a professor from the nearby university in Kingston came over to explain the tenets …
Just run it by Jesus
When preparing to prune a weeping Japanese maple for the first time I turned to the source of all authority — YouTube — for guidance. In the first video, …
Manhood shouldn’t be so tough
In Bozeman, Montana, there is graffiti inscribed on an old grain silo that caused me to smile. In fading white paint it reads: “Bucky Cummings eats sushi with a fork.” …
About that ‘Judge not’ thing
When noting an inconsistency between an ideology poorly branded as “Christian” and Jesus’ actual teachings, one can expect a familiar, defensive two-word rebuke: “Judge not!” Those words are extracted from …
Why say so?
Here is some widely known but often suppressed unvarnished and verifiable truth: White Americanized evangelicals, more than any other subgroup, empower and accommodate an overtly corrupt, vulgar and vicious national …
Hobbled by a one-footed gospel
“You really stepped on my toes today, preacher.” It takes a certain vintage and denominational heritage to recognize those words. They would be uttered by a departing worshipper to the …
Unacknowledged racism is still racism
Unacknowledged, even unrecognized, racism is still racism — and it is fueling a frenzy within American life to advance the age-old, sin-drenched idea that social power belongs exclusively to white …
A short, challenging pop quiz
Here’s a short quiz. Where in the four Gospels does Jesus call for believers to accept him as their personal savior? (Some Jeopardy music would be nice should anyone be …