Recently, I posted my Spider-Man Bible Study / Discussion Guide. Simultaneously, I dropped a few comments on some blogs that referenced a different Spider-Man Bible Study produced by Fuller Theological Seminary’s professor Craig Detweiler. Some GodBloggers have been critical of the whole “movie-based Bible study” enterprise. Not surprising, really: using…
Spider-Man 3 Bible Study / Discussion Guide
My Spider-Man 3 movie-based Bible Study is here, at long last! I have permission from CTI to provide the study here on my site. Over the next few days or weeks, I’ll post the previous combo-study I wrote for Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 as well. Warning: the following contains…
Spider-Man 3 Movie-Based Bible Study Coming!
Update: The Spider-Man 3 study can be found here. In early 2005 I wrote a Bible study for the Spider-Man 1 & 2 movies, currently only available via ChristianityToday.com. Last week I stopped by the offices of Christianity Today International and “volunteered” to freelance the Bible study for Spider-Man 3,…
Virgina Tech Massacre and … Repentance
How to get arrested at Central Bible College. Plus: The Unremarked Transgendered Issue
I was surprised to read of a recent arrest at Central Bible College when some folks arranged a non-violent protest and an attempt to “dialog” with allegedly “homophobic” school officials over Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered issues recently: Central Bible College: Our First Act of Civil Disobedience (via Soulforce) The blogger,…
Christian Blogosphere Blogroll
Michele, blogging at Reformed Chicks Blabbing and Life Under the Sun has taken over where the former “Christian Bloggers blogroll” (defunct since October, 2006) has left off. Her mission: Get every orthodox Christian blogger linked up. It’s an ambitious task. I’m here to help. While not as selective nor exclusive…
Misplaced Love: On Greed, Addiction, and Bad Affection
Greed is the surprising accompaniment to almost all our sins. We all like lists. They help create organized presentations, and they are easy to remember. Perhaps that is why God chose a list format to present some of his most well-known laws. But what if we took that list — the…
Eternal Certainties: The Hope of Heaven
While things are confusing down here, we can always trust in the hope of heaven. About an hour northeast of Indianapolis on April 26, 2006, a tractor-trailer drifted across the Interstate 69 median. In its path: ten students and staff in a Taylor University van. The tractor ripped through one…
Apostasy: Rejecting Ideas
In some cultures and eras, apostates face certain death. In America, it’s the church that’s dying from apostasy.
Apostate – it’s not exactly a common word. But for those doomed to hear its rare pronouncement, it can mean imminent death or serious eternal consequences.
Like repentance , apostasy implies a rejection or abandonment of a practice, ideal, or belief. And one religion’s penitent is another one’s apostate
Top 20 Bloggers (PneumaBloggers, that is)
For some time I’ve wanted to provide some sort of real-world ranking system so that those of you who want to know who the “big fish” are can find them, and so those of you who have successfully worked your blog into the stratosphere would get a little praise for…
Yet more PneumaBloggedy Goodness: PneumaWidget, Power Reader and More!
In a mad dash of creative craziness, a few more things have popped up on the PneumaBlogs tool-set. So, for your blog-reading enjoyment, here’s a quick summary of everything not covered in my previous post (“PneumaBlogs, PneumaSphere, PneumaSearch“). FireFox Search Plug-in First off, fellow PneumaBlogger Christoph Fischer (“my cup of…
PneumaBlogs, PneumaSphere, PneumaSearch
In case you haven’t noticed, over the past several days I’ve been trying to bring my “Pneuma” pages up-to-snuff within the new design and to make them all a bit more usable. Just now I’ve added a third page to my collection: PneumaSearch. Yes, that’s right, I’ve gone crazy with…
Internet Evangelism Thoughts
My friend and fellow PneumaBlogger, Frank N. Johnson over at Strategic Digital Outreach, was recently highlighted on GospelCom’s GospelCon blog. In “Flawed Follow-Up or a Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?” Frank writes: “[T]hose of us involved in internet evangelism in the West have, in many cases, devalued face-to-face relationships and neglected (or even abandoned) the local aspect of Christian community. . . . [W]e … are much too quick to assume that virtual community is just as ideal as face-to-face community. . . .
Jesus Camp and BlogRodent on Word-FM
Last year, on October 3, I did a live interview with John Hall and Stephanie Fraschetti from Word-FM about the “Jesus Camp” documentary that was then the height of Evangelical fear-mongering (start here if you don’t know what I’m talking about: “Jesus Camp: Brainwashed in the Blood — or Is it…
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Imminent post on the Ted Haggard debacle
I have been silent on the outing of Ted Haggard, not because I have nothing to say, but I needed to know more of the story before writing anything. And I needed time for my heart to break. Now that most of the relevant data are in, I will do…
Eric Brian Golden sentenced to life. Or 14 years. Whichever comes first.
An alert reader notified me that on Tuesday, October 17, Eric Brian Golden admitted to murdering his wife, DeeDee Marie Golden late one night 11 months ago, on November 17, 2005.
If you’re new to t…
A/G Podcasts? Maybe. But meanwhile…
Found yesterday on the AG-NEWS announcement list: AG News wants to know if podcasts of sermons/messages by the local church is widespread. Take the short AG News poll and let us know! Click here to begin… I took the poll. I listen to a lot of sermons and other spoken…
On Values, Part 2
Yesterday, I wrote about values, and what I think they are — especially how our values are revealed by behavior, along with some suggestions on how to assess your own core values. So, I was asked some pointed values-questions by email from an online friend who knows my position. I thought…
On Values, Part 1
I’ve always been suspicious of the word “values” when used as anything other than a verb. As in: “Johnny values his bicycle.” I’m suspicious because it feels like a noble word that has been debased by liberal educators in order to pander “values-based” curriculum. (Remember the dreaded “values clarification” exercises?…
The Apostle: Give it to me, Lord
This is a review of The Apostle that I dashed off back in 1998, about half a year after that film was released. I wrote it for a discussion list that is now defunct. I thought, in light of the other recent movie I reviewed (Jesus Camp, it would be interesting…
Against torture
I recently received this question in an email: « Where does it say that we are not to torture others? No where in Scripture does it say “Thou shalt not torture.” » While it is true the proscription against torture can be nowhere found in the Book, we can also…
Jesus Camp: One Edit Away From Propaganda?
That two unbelieving directors don’t understand Pentecostals — or Evangelicals — isn’t surprising. That they produced a film rife with ignorance and bias is also unsurprising. But that ordinary people who can normally tie their shoes and avoid bad movies like Gigli don’t see how insufferably biased this documentary is … well, that’s…
Jesus Camp and BlogRodent on MSNBC
At 2:40 PM (CST) on Tuesday, September 26, I “appeared” on MSNBC’s ‘Net review: The Most, with Alison Stewart. Alison’s producer spoke with Mark Moring, editor for the Christianity Today Movies channel, wondering if he’d be willing to answer a few questions about Jesus Camp on-air. Since I’d seen the…
Jesus Camp: Brainwashed in the Blood – or Is it Spin?
Jesus Camp , what an experience. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s investigation into the hidden world of one Pentecostal kids’ camp simultaneously delighted me, fascinated me, and embarrassed me. I love…
September 11 and a Terrible Joy
Marc, over at Spudlets , posted a reflection on 9/11 and its aftermath, now five years gone.
“At the very least, whether it s the day after or five years later, it comes down to how you have made…”