Have you ever noticed what stupid questions we ask little kids? Like this one: What’s your favorite color? How does a kid answer that question? Let’s say she’s a girl, and let’s say she chooses pink. Maybe an adult responds, “That’s a pretty color, just like you!” Or say she chooses blue. Someone responds in a confident tone, “That’s a…
When I taught theology, the doctrine my students found most offensive was neighbor love. The idea that you are obligated to love the person right next to you, regardless of anything they might have done to “deserve” your love, was patently absurd to them. Now I teach writing. You have to have something to write about, so my students write about…
Second in a series. Our chapel series here this semester is on reconciliation. This week, among other things, the sermon invoked Bonhoeffer’s “cheap grace” and exhorted us not to seek a “cheap reconciliation.” I’m thinking about that as I sit down to explain why the universal basic income will not only give more power to racism, but also build the Wall…
First in a series. A couple of speakers at the Faith at Work Summit presented the public policy idea of a Universal Basic Income as if it were unambiguously good and it had no downsides that needed to be mentioned, implying that all good people on both sides of the political aisle were, or should be, in favor of it.…
This the latest in a series of articles sharing insights from a joint curricular development initiative of the ON, the Theology of Work Project and three ON schools (Asbury, Assemblies of God and Western). Reprinted from the Oikonomia Network. My previous article provided an overview of the relevance of some broad Old Testament themes for exploring faith and work issues. This article, part two,…
On any list of my favorite authors, Dorothy Sayers is near the top. I’ve been a fan, especially of Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, for years. I still remember walking into a used book store Before the Internet to see if they had any more copies of her mysteries. When I told the proprietor what I was searching for, he…
Sixth in a series. The epic of Babel points to the question: Where is our work taking the world? In the faith and work movement, we used to discuss all the time what Steve Garber has called “the fate of the widget.” Is our work shaping the material world to prepare it as much as we can for Christ’s return,…
