American Grievance Politics Birthed from Cain and Abel

Our political culture has been captured by grievance politics.  Grievance politics is when political thinking comes first and foremost from the grievances people have and centers those grievances.  Now it’s important for politics to respond to people’s grievances, but I don’t think we will have a healthy political culture when political engagement and thinking is driven, inspired and motivated by grievances.  More than that, these […]

Israel and Gaza: Modern Day Nephilim

Like many people, I’ve been horrified at what has been happening in the war between Hamas and Israel.  I find myself having deep conflicting feelings, emotions, and thoughts about what is happening.  I am someone who is supportive and sympathetic to Israel and is quite critical and skeptical of Hamas.  So, when this war broke […]

Elijah and Evil

Our church is going through a series called “Wondering Why” where we are considering the question of, “If God is all knowing, all loving, and all powerful, why is there evil in the world?”  The classic Biblical story that deals with this problem in depth is the Book of Job.  If you haven’t read it, […]

Can Christians Support Deportations?

Recently, I have seen lots of posts from people about immigration and how a Christian should think about immigration in America.  As I read many of these posts, I have felt a conflict and maybe even a contradiction within myself.  These feelings come up in relation to the deportation of immigrants who are here illegally […]

Does Omniscience Determine

As a Christian who believes in an omniscient God, I’ve struggled with the idea of freedom/free will.  How could I be truly free to do anything if God already knows what I’m going to do? If God knows what I’m going to do, then doesn’t that mean I have to do the thing that God […]

Is Truth Real?

My journey through the nature of truth has personally yielded many unexpected and insightful realizations.  Early in Blackburn’s book, Truth, he suggested that the dichotomy of absolutism and relativism is probably more of a false dichotomy than a reality.  After a closer look at the issues, Blackburn has shed some light on the nuance that […]

A Prophet’s Pathos

Instead of seeing prophets as primarily predictors of the future, Heschel wants us to see them as expositors of divine pathos.  The prophets have a deep relationship with Yahweh and thus are attune to his emotional life.  The Heschel quote for this paper states that a prophet is in “fellowship with the feelings of God”.  […]

Black People Mixing Religion and Politics

There are legitimate reasons for wanting to keep politics and religion separate.  There are definitely ways of separating beliefs you have about the world into beliefs that are specifically religious.  That being said, it is much more difficult and nuanced than it may seem for black communities to separate religion from political engagement.  In some […]

Malcom and the “White Man’s Religion”

One Christianity’s fiercest critics in recent history was none other than Malcolm X.  Malcolm himself was a very religious man who admired and revered many figures in the Christian faith.  He also was very familiar with the faith itself.  His father was a pastor and Malcolm has spent much time studying the bible.  This meant […]