General Conference: Four Reflections

I’ve been decompressing since General Conference. It was emotionally exhausting, and I wasn’t even a delegate. To those of you who were delegates: I salute you for enduring this marathon of emotional, mental, and physical exertion. I hope you’re getting some time to wind down and relax. You certainly earned it. I didn’t blog or…

Reading the Bible with the Saints

So, I ‘ve been writing a book on biblical interpretation, tentatively titled Scripture and the Life of God. (Incidentally, this is why I haven’t blogged for the last month.) I say that this is the tentative title because I have learned from experience that publishers rarely call books what the authors think they should be…

Making Plans, Gifts from God, and the “R-Word”

There’s an old saying: “People plan; God laughs.” Or, to paraphrase Robert Burns, the best laid schemes of mice and men often go askew. Or, as John Lennon popularized the same sentiment, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” Having a kid with Down syndrome wasn’t in my plans. I suppose it isn’t…

Ten Suggestions for Christian Bloggers

I started blogging years ago, early in my career. Over that time, I’ve thought a lot about public discourse, particularly among Christians–what it looks like at its best and worst, how to engage in respectful disagreement, what to do when others attack you publicly, and ways in which to address difficult topics. In the interest…

Trump, Evangelicals, and the Road Ahead

In 1934, at the age of 28, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to a friend about an upcoming conference that would involve members of churches from several countries and denominations. In this letter, he wrote, “We must make it clear—fearful as it is—that the time is very near when we shall have to decide between…

Reflections from a Hospital Waiting Room

As I write this post, a loved one is having surgery, and I’m sitting in the waiting room, trying to tune out the sound of “The Price is Right” blasting from the television. I’ve spent a lot of time in hospital waiting rooms over the years, particularly because my son Sean has had quite a…

Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

The answer is not as obvious as it may seem. On the one hand, we can say that, to the extent that both religions identify the God disclosed in the scriptures of Judaism as their God, then, yes, both religions worship the same deity. Both religions share some of Judaism’s scriptural narratives, though in Islam these narratives…