October 31 will be celebrated as the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.  It’s an arbitrary date, in many ways.  It ignores earlier reformers like Wycliffe and Huss.  It picks the date when Luther may or may not have posted his “95 Theses on Indulgences”–simply an invitation to debate, so they appeared.  At that point,…

For eleven years, I did young adult and campus ministry for the Catholic Church, first as a campus minister at UCSB, then as archdiocesan director for Galveston-Houston. The foundational document of the US Catholic Church for young adult ministry is the 1996 pastoral plan, Sons and Daughters of the Light. It was a breath of…

PBS recently showed the new documentary, “Martin Luther: The Idea that Changed the World.” I watched it online, as you can here (until September 27). I was skeptical, but was quickly impressed. This is very thorough, exploring the most important aspects of Luther’s theology, giving real insight into his person, through the shared perspectives of solid…

After 9-11, the United States and its allies went to war, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq, ostensibly for the purpose of punishing those directly responsible for the attacks that day on the US.  For the 2,996 who died on 9-11. What has been the price the world has paid in the 16 years of…

The North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church posted this statement on September 9, 2017: The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America is concerned about the impact that the decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program may have on the lives of 800,000 young men and women in the United…

I recently heard a sermon by a pastor, in a large US city, telling members of his congregation that it was time to leave.  They should seek the Lord, but they should plan on getting out of the city.  To leave the “trash.”  To abandon what is now worthless. And this was a pastor who…

Originally posted on Pax et bonum:
This afternoon I stumbled upon an article by David B. Hart, “The Lively God of Robert Jenson.” Jenson was one of my professors at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg. In fact, when I was still a student at Loma Linda University, my professor, Paul Landa, knew I was…

Originally posted on Pax et bonum:
Some of my Adventist readers will be familiar with the name of Charles W. Teel, Jr. He’s a professor at La Sierra University (which was the La Sierra Campus of Loma Linda University during my time there in ’84-’85). I first got acquainted with Charles at midnight one night…