Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Holistic Mission Unites Evangelism, Creation Care – Part 4
How do environmental ethics work out in practice in Christian contexts? We can often see tension between caring for the environment and focusing on human concerns. In the past, environmental nongovernmental...
May 24, 2017
Dylann Roof Appeals Conviction, Death Sentence in Emanuel AME Church Massacre (Charleston Post and Courier) Victims Want LDS Church to Return Ill-Gotten Tithing Money (KUTV) Southern Baptists Praise Trump’s Israel Trip...
6 Approaches to Christian Environmental Ethics – Part 3
In 1967, Lynn White proposed that the roots of our contemporary ecological crisis lay with the concept of dominion found in Genesis, and that Western technological development and approach to nature has been based on a...
A Century of Religious Unrest in the Middle East – Part 2
One hundred years after the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the world is still struggling with the same questions concerning Christians and Muslims in the Middle East. Can Muslims and Christians...
U.S. Adults Affirming Creationist View at All-Time Low
The percentage of U.S. adults affirming that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so" declined 8 points in 2017 to an all-time low of 38 percent. "This...
May 23, 2017
Trump Effect Inspires Radical Christians in Military (Newsweek) Texas Senate Approves ‘Religious Refusal’ Adoption Measure (Washington Post) In Israel, Trump Urges New Middle East Harmony But Faces Old Suspicions...
Things look different …
Monday was a day of playing tag with security forces preparing for Donald Trump’s visit to the Old City of Jerusalem, trying to work in what we could amid the upheaval of business as usual. We started early, as usual....
3 Principles to Help You Navigate Memorial Day Service
A pastor new to his church removed the American flag from the sanctuary. He received a death threat as a result. His leadership in that church was brief and unhappy. Meanwhile, at another church, a patriotic holiday...
‘Dorothy Day – The World Will Be Saved by Beauty’
Dorothy Day is alleged to have said, "Don't call me a saint; I don't want to be dismissed that easily!" A new biography on her by her granddaughter, Kate Hennessy, "Dorothy Day - The World Will Be Saved by Beauty: An...
A Century of Religious Unrest in the Middle East – Part 1
One hundred years ago, on Nov. 2, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Lord Balfour, issued a letter on behalf of his government that favored the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in...
May 22, 2017
Trump’s New Tune on Islam Unconvincing, Experts in Mideast Say (CNN) Franklin Graham Embodies all the Contradictions of Trump’s America (The Atlantic) Protesting Students Walk out of Pence’s Commencement Speak at...
Over, under, and through
Sunday was a day of experiential ups and downs for the Campbell University Divinity School/Nurturing Faith Experiences group traveling in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. We’re in Jerusalem now, doing our best to work...
From Palm Sunday to Palestine
Another day, another full quota of new experiences for the Campbell University Divinity School/Nurturing Faith Experiences group traveling in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. We began this day (for those willing to get...
March 20, 2017
The Theology Beneath the Trump-Comey Conflict (Christianity Today) Muslim Travel Ban Architect Writing Trump's Speech on Islam (CNN) Trump Begins His Religion World Tour (The Atlantic) A Conservative Christian College...
Back in the land of promise …
Friday began with another crack-of-dawn wake-up call for the Campbell University Divinity School/Nurturing Faith Experiences group traveling in Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank. After two days in Jordan, including a...
‘Lean into beauty’
By John D. Pierce William L. (Bill) Hendricks was a gifted theologian who died in 2002. Long before meeting him personally, I read his books and heard him speak to large gatherings of college students. Though less...
What Your Church Can Do to Help Foster Children
Did you know that being a foster child or otherwise in the care of child protective services is a risk factor for being a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking? In 2013, 60 percent of the child sex trafficking...
Maybe It’s Time You Start Recycling Your Blessings
In order to try to save trees and do a little bit toward helping the environment, I try to do a couple of things: I try to print double-sided (saving paper) and I try to re-use bits of paper on which I have only...
Why Reading Your Bible Isn’t for the Lazy
I was walking through the halls of a senior living facility in Belgium on my way to visit the elderly father of a church member. Over the speaker system came the chant, "The whole world is watching, the whole world is...
May 19, 2017
Trump's Risky Religious Pilgrimage (CNN) Is the Old Testament Dying? (RNS) Bible Verse to Come off Patrol Cars Immediately, Montgomery County, Virginia Sheriff Says (Roanoke Times) Colorado House Wrestles with...
Rockin’ in Petra
Some stories are best told in pictures, and this blog will be mostly that – a bunch of pictures from Petra. Travelers with the Campbell University Divinity School/Nurturing Faith Experiences group were given a choice...