The View from Mudsock Heights: The Space Time Continuum from a Porch

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 11, 2009 at 23:30:42

It’s enough to give you a headache.

A few years ago I was working on a book with Dr. Morris E. Chafetz, and in the course of conversation he said, “Maybe time doesn’t really exist. Maybe it’s just something we’ve created for our own convenience.” As a child of the space age, I’d heard speculations of all sorts and now, with a book to get out, I didn’t see where we had time to discuss it. “Yeah, maybe,” I replied.

The View from Mudsock Heights: Deep Philosophizing in a Parking Lot

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 4, 2009 at 23:14:41

There was no way to tell whether the old fellow thought he recognized me or would have begun the conversation with anyone who happened by. Nor, really, did it matter. Our meeting outside the store on one of the warm days week before last began with his question. “What do you think of that tomb of Jesus they say they found?”

To Comfort Today’s People, We Must Turn to the Past

By Jason Kettinger | Jan 10, 2009 at 16:49:54

I have written in the past about various challenges in evangelical Christianity centered around history and memory, or the lack thereof. We as Evangelicals have often slunk towards ahistorical views, and this is exactly the last thing people need today. Perhaps a turn back to traditional forms in worship can help the problem.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Culture War

By Timothy R. Butler | Dec 16, 2008 at 23:53:51

Few gestures can be as delightful as a hearty “Merry Christmas” this time of year. Yet the phrase has become embroiled in a “culture war,” the most recent salvo of which came from the pro-Christmas American Family Association, which sought to get its members to turn against retailer Costco, after Costco started favoring “holiday” over “Christmas.”

Perception Is Everything

By Ed Hurst | Dec 10, 2008 at 0:26:16

In a recent commentary at ZDNet, software developer Jeremy Allison considered one of the most problematic issues with adoption of the Linux operating system: even in cash strapped parts of the world, people don’t want it. I’m not too deeply disturbed those poor souls in Africa don’t want Linux. What strikes me so deeply has to do with perception.

Principle of Worship

By Ed Hurst | Dec 2, 2008 at 16:7:42

Churches are constantly trying to find ways to bring in people and convince them to come back each and every Sunday. Often the method of drawing people in has to do with offering a particular “style of worship” to get the people excited. OFB’s Ed Hurst examines how we worship in an attempt to reach a “principle of worship.”

Big Church Conference: Circus of Sin

By Ed Hurst | Nov 21, 2008 at 9:37:41

Churches have these huge expensive meetings in big expensive cities. Of course, huge expensive meetings require similarly huge advertising too. The only way to get advertising is buy it, and it’s broadly more effective to go with the eager sponsors in the corporate setting. How much do we sacrifice spiritually? To what degree do we prostitute ourselves when we use the ways of the world because they are “smart” in the business sense? If, as Barna says, church and the gospel are merely a matter of marketing, then it’s all good.

Worshipping the Mirror

By Timothy R. Butler | Nov 17, 2008 at 10:15:46

For centuries, the holy grail of a certain segment of the elite has been to boil down religion into something common to all faiths, thereby eliminating what is seen as one of the “major negatives” of religious belief – sectarianism and fighting between religious groups. Now, members of the TED Conference, at the behest of author Karen Armstrong, want to give it another go with the “Charter for Compassion.” Inevitably, it will fail.

Oh, Canada

By the St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Jun 10, 2008 at 14:35:9

In the 21st century, freedom of speech, long revered as the cornerstone of democratic thought, slowly but consistently is being eroded worldwide. This troubling pattern is not confined to illiberal places such as China, Russia or the Middle East, but increasingly is showing up in nations once thought to be paragons of liberal democracy - even Canada.

Rejected Words

By Jason Kettinger | May 21, 2008 at 0:23:21

“Shouldn’t you say some words?” The humor and the weight of the story hung over me. Dr. David Calhoun, a master storyteller, related a tale of a man who had never tried sweet maple syrup straight from a tree before. The man’s friend offered to rectify the situation, and he accepted. As the man prepared to humble himself by letting his friend pour the sweetness into his mouth, he paused for a moment and asked that question. And it contains the profoundest wisdom; I summarize it thusly: We humans instinctively need to mark the moments of our lives with ceremony, with ritual.