John March

Category: Ethics

  • Sin

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in , , ,

    Gary Anderson says sin has a history.  He’s not talking about the history of our personal sin — why we did it or what it’s enduring effects were.  He’s talking about the history of the way we talk about sin.  He says this is evident by the change of metaphors that are used to describe/define…

  • Is Voting Our Christian Duty?

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in ,

    Throughout the day, I’ve had countless Christians and particularly Christian leaders urging me and all their other social network connections to vote.  It’s left me wondering, is voting our Christian duty? Surprisingly, theologians differ.  Some, characterized by the hard religious right (e.g. Dobson) and the progressive Christian left (e.g. Wallis) believe so.  They see voting,…

  • Glenn Beck, What Would Jesus Do?

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in ,

    Glenn Beck is a polarizing figure. People seem to land in one of two camps — they either love him or loathe him.  He’s either the savior of our democratic state or a catalyst to toxic political debates around the country.  Just a week ago, he held a rally that drew thousands, if not hundreds…

  • A Seminary Student is a Sinner, Gasp!

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in , , ,

    I just came across an article about a male Gordon-Conwell student (the seminary I attended) who allegedly broke into a female student’s dorm room and setup a video camera with the intent of filming her.  You can read about it on the Boston Herald or the Salem News sites.  I feel badly for this young woman.…

  • Happy Families Are all Alike

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in , , ,

    “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ~ Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina This, the opening line to Tolstoy’s novel, Anna Karenina, is packed full of meaning, and the rest of the book expounds in story form what he means.   We read of one miserable family owing its…

  • Hate, on film and in community

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in ,

    A new movie documentary, The Anatomy of Hate, is coming out that explores the origins and reasons for hate.  The film documents hate in the lives of people from white supremacists in the south, Christians who define themselves as anti-gay, to the Arab-Israeli conflict.  It looks fascinating.  As a pastor who believes deeply in community,…

  • Was Iraq God’s War?

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in

    These are possibly the most disturbing images I’ve seen regarding the Iraq war.  They aren’t grotesque.  They aren’t gory.  They aren’t gruesome.  But they are some of the most ridiculous appropriations of Bible texts I’ve ever seen.  Below is some of the article text, and here is the link to the slide show, which shows the images…

  • Torture and the Church

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in ,

    A sadly revealing survey has just been released that found evangelical Christians are the most likely group to support torture.   White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely…

  • Resident Aliens

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in , , ,

    This book is written to challenge churches to avoid become places filled with nice people, pastors, and purposes.  Too often in the American church landscape, the church co-opts the language and issues of the day and then simply rephrases them in Christian speak.  They don’t say anything too controversial or counter-cultural.  Willimon and Hauerwas challenge…

  • Worst Job in America: CEO

    —

    by

    webadmin
    in ,

    Norm MacDonald, former SNL weekend Update man, used to joke about which job was the worst in America. Every year the results would come in and the worst job would be something like: Assistant Crack Whore. Everyone would laugh because it’s the superlative of worst-ness in the vocational world. Joking aside, I believe this year’s…