I finishing up my last paper of the semester, writing about the Italian movie L'Eclisse (The Eclipse) and how the paranoia of the closing montage is fed by the present (for the 1960s) fear that people could destroy the whole world.

Since the world began it was God's to destroy, apocalypse meant that God would be bringing the world to an end for a purpose: judgment, the kingdom, joy, a feast, no more crying, eternity, etc. There are lots of perspectives on the end of the world, but the big picture is that it means God is doing something new or in full---bringing the world to rights as N.T. Wright describes it. ... more

The final three parts of my five part review of Everything Must Change will deal more with the application of McLaren's theories to our contemporary world and how McLaren's thinking changes our Christian perspective of global crises by changing our interpretation from a modernist/capitalist/American narrative into a King Jesus/Kingdom of God narrative.

For McLaren, the security system is the foundation of the global system and framing story because it allows the other two systems: prosperity and equity, to develop and grow in "peace." ... more

Does this church sign go too far?

"Obama, Osama, hmmm, are they brothers?"

Video: A Pastor compares Obama's name to Osama's name...

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This is the first section of a four part review of Shane Claiborne’s new book Jesus for President.  I will be reviewing each section of Shane Claiborne and Christopher Haw's new book, the first section being "Before There Were Kings and Presidents."

With a bumper-sticker title like Jesus For President, the first reaction to this book might be a collective groan.  Not another one!  Just like in McLaren’s book, the subtitle is equally important with Claiborne’s new tome, for it reads: Politics for Ordinary Radicals.  Ordinary Radicals?  Sounds like an oxymoron.  Yet what Claiborne means by ordinary and by radicals becomes apparent in the opening paragraph:

Once up on a time there were no kings or presidents. Only God was king.  The Bible is a story of a God who is continually rescuing humanity from the messes we make of the world.  God is bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth.  God is leading humans on an exodus adventure out of the land of emperors and kings and into the Promised Land.  Out of Egypt, God first saves a group of slaves from the tyranny of Pharaoh.  God is their deliverer, the one who saves them from their tears and sweat and points them toward something better than the empire they have known.  Out of the nations, God is forming a new kind of people---a “holy nation” that will light up the world. (25)

To be radical is to disown the system of empires, democracies, and monarchies established on this earth.  What is ordinary about that is that as Christians we are supposed to be “set apart,” like Israel was.  Therefore, an ordinary radical is a Christian who considers himself to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God and not a citizen of earth. ... more

This past Sunday was National Sanctity of Life week in many American churches, and I could not help but wondering when the topic of the death penalty is going to start popping up in Evangelical circles.  We show gruesome pictures of fetuses violently tortured and killed, yet we stand by the wayside when our country more humanely anesthetizes criminals to death.  They are still being killed, just like embryos and fetuses, yet do we justify it because they have sinned?

The time has come for a new great awakening, and Jim Wallis has written a book about it, which is what I assume to be the Fifth Great Awakening in the United States.  Following in the footsteps of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, Dwight Moody, and the Jesus Movement comes the Fifth Great Awakening of political upheaval and every politicians favorite word: change.

This year for Christmas I'm trying to get past the traditional consumerism of our culture by doing something a bit unconventional. Instead of doing the traditional splurge on buying gifts, there will be a new spin on it: we're going to purchase gifts to give to one another in the form of unique donations and fair trade items to benefit the poor, hungry and recently freed slaves in the world. So instead of giving someone your old stuffed goat, you can actually ''give'' a loved one or friend a real goat that will feed and economically sustain an impoverished family in the third world!

During Wednesday's CNN/YouTube GOP debate, the candidates were asked the following question by a YouTube user: ''The death penalty, what would Jesus do?'' The funniest answer came from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who after being pressed to say definitively whether or not Jesus would endorse the death penalty responded, ''Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office.'' (You can see the full answer more

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently stated in an interview that the Iraq War is a worst instance of violence and imperialism than the British Empire.

An excerpt from the AP article Anglican leader blasts US over Iraq:

''It is one thing to take over a territory and even pour energy and resources into administrating it and normalizing it,'' said Williams. ''Rightly or wrongly, that's what the British Empire did---in India for example.''

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