By: Stu Cocanougher on April 5, 2018
Last year I wrote more than one article about prosperity theology. Some of the books that our doctoral cohort has read touched on the subject. These included Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat and Nation of Rebels, Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. …
By: Chip Stapleton on April 5, 2018
[Note: This post was written with very spotty – and much slower than advertised – cruise ship internet, so please excuse errors and the lack of usual visual elements…. I get it, I am definitely not complaining, but it did take 10 minutes just to get the cursor to start typing!] This week our class…
By: Dan Kreiss on April 5, 2018
The polarizing effect of our incessant moralizing is evident all around us. From the most recent US presidential election to the debates over the morality of same-sex marriage. From the disagreements over illegal immigrants and ‘DACA’ status to the food stamp and unemployment benefits programs. Let’s be honest, these strong points of view are even…
By: Mark Petersen on April 5, 2018
If you favour CNN over Fox, or are Anglican rather than Baptist, you might be bewildered by the apparent intransigence of those who believe and vote differently than you do. Jonathan Haidt, in his book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, offers compelling research that begins to unpack how…
By: Dave Watermulder on April 5, 2018
There is a memorable scene from the movie “Good Will Hunting” that takes place in a bar near Harvard University. A beautiful young college student named Skylar comes up to talk to Will Hunting, a young man who is trying to figure out how to use his extraordinary gifts in the larger world. After chatting,…
By: Katy Drage Lines on April 5, 2018
“The Bible is clear on this.” How many times have you heard that statement, or one similar to it? Growing up in a church that took the Bible literally, it was common to hear, “just read the Bible and you’ll understand.” I heard these declarations in light of women preaching, leading communion, or baptizing (we…
By: Jennifer Williamson on April 5, 2018
A few years back I was at a conference for American missionaries serving in France. One of the keynote speakers was the Director of the National Council of French Evangelicals (NCFE) and he was asked to teach about how missionaries could best be of service to the Kingdom of God in France—a large topic to…
By: Mary Walker on April 5, 2018
Affirming persons requires granting them respect, and that includes respect for their autonomy, their relationality, and their well-being.[1] In his book, Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community, Andrew Marin sought to build bridges between the LGBTQ community and fundamentalist Christians. Marin asked open-ended questions in order to start the dialog…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on April 4, 2018
Throughout the ages, Christianity has continually attempted to define marriage, relationships, and God’s role and expectations of both. Within each culture, denomination, and era, what used to be acceptable at one time might not be acceptable today. For instance, polygamy was widely practiced among many of the patriarchs in the Bible but is now considered…
By: Greg on April 4, 2018
“In recent years, cheating has got so out of control that, three years ago, in a small Chinese town in Hubei province, a group of gaokao (University entrance exam) invigilators found themselves under siege as enraged parents and students trapped them in their office and threw rocks at the windows, shouting, “We want fairness! Let…
By: Jim Sabella on April 4, 2018
Allow me to begin this post by stating that I don’t ever remember feeling so uncomfortable writing publically about a particular subject or subjects. This does not mean that I am not willing to engage. On the contrary, engagement is critical for me as a person, leader, student, and Christian. I am an undeterred seeker of…
By: Lynda Gittens on April 4, 2018
http://www.truthfollower.com/2015/08/woman-is-gods-finest-and-beautiful.html Author Adrian Thatcher wrote his book, God, Sex, and Gender: An Introduction, for three reasons. They are: 1. “To introduce students and general readers to the exhilaration of thinking theologically about sex, sexuality, sexual relationships, and gender roles. 2. To introduce students and general readers to a comprehensive and consistent theological understanding of…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on April 4, 2018
First of all, I thought it was interesting and rather bold (and to many, offensive) that the UK version of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion has a cover with a middle finger in place of the “i” in Mind of the title. I guess those Brits can handle…
By: Jay Forseth on April 3, 2018
Our small town in Columbus, Montana has a population of 1800, with about 25% of souls attending church on a Sunday morning (nearly 50% attend on Christmas and Easter). We have more dogs/cats than addresses. There are 9 churches in our town, with nearly the same number of casinos. More people attend our Friday night…
By: Chris Pritchett on April 3, 2018
In his book, “The Righteous Mind,” Jonathan Haidt offers his findings in moral psychology that seek to explain why some people are “liberals” while others are “conservative.” Or to put it another way, “Why is everyone who disagrees with me so stupid?” According to Haidt, it is not because some of us used pure reason…
By: Jason Turbeville on March 31, 2018
In writing his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion Johnathan Haidt dismisses the old cliche, “It is not polite to discuss politics and religion”. In bringing these two topics to the forum he asks a very good question. Why are people so divided by these two topics? It does…
By: Mike on March 30, 2018
Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion is a frustrating read for people who are unwilling to consider radically opposing points of view. The Righteous Mind is an evolutionary biased book that says humans have “primate minds with a hivish overlay” and that life is simply a game.…
By: Kyle Chalko on March 29, 2018
Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind lays forth a convincing argument for why people choose emotional heart decision or judgments, and then quickly use their head and reasoning to back up what they’ve already decided. This has been written about before within other topics such as Emotional Intelligence and Begin with Why, but Haidt applies…
By: Trisha Welstad on March 24, 2018
In Bad Religion, Ross Douthat has written a fascinating version of what’s gone wrong in American religion over the last seventy years. He reveals through an historic account, the drift of the Christian church from the doctrinal pillars it once knew to pop versions of spirituality primarily outside the walls of church buildings. Of course…
By: Jason Turbeville on March 24, 2018
I was extremely interested in getting to Ross Douthat’s book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics for one reason, I agree with him. A little about me first, I grew up going to many different churches, Methodist, Episcopalian, Non Denominational, and Baptist, and the one thing I remember about religion growing up was,…
