Thanksgiving and American Civil Religion

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. As a little buckaroo, it was through the woods and up the hills to my grandparent’s house in the north Texas country for a day of great food, Dallas Cowboys, and football out by the orchard.
Since I suffer from a chronic lust for new stuff, I find the consumer-zombie buildup [...]

Christmas Carols

I tend to be a “humbug!” sort of person when it comes to Christmas music due to its annual repetitions, but the past two years, I have paused, at least for a moment, to listen to the lyrics of the songs played in every shop and restaurant across America during this month.
Last year, I was [...]

Spirit One Christian Center and Their Sign

Wow. The Muslim accusation just seems ignorant now, and what’s worse is that this sign from Spirit One Christian Center in Wichita, Kansas insinuates that Exodus 20:3 implies that America’s sin is not electing a Christian president. Instead, the verse speak of not having other gods before God.
What does this church want? A sinless president? [...]

The Office of the President Elect

The Office of the President Elect? Really? The words on this sign are meaningless.

Jewett and the Historical Critical Method

Robert Jewett in his book Mission and Menace spells out in his book that America has been plagued with what he has called “zealous nationalism.” This type of nationalism, if left unchecked, can balloon into a global sense of mission. He extrapolates the problem as it appeared in the United States during the Spanish-American War, [...]

Consumer X-mas

In regards to Christmas, I think this country has completely lost it. Here is a video that I think gets it somewhat right.
What if for Christmas the Church was to give a true gift to the world, the Church acting as the Body of Christ?
I think his video hints at what that would look [...]

Left Behind Foreign Policy?

When I was in high school I started reading the Left Behind Series and I have to say I enjoyed the books.  Jerry Jenkins was very good at creating an action packed and entertaining dialogue of characters.  These books depicted a small band of Christians, who are living in a post-resurrection world, that are fighting [...]

Roseanne…Feminist Icon.

Twice in the last month I have run across references to the sitcom “Roseanne” praising its groundbreaking content and even describing Roseanne as a feminist icon.  Feminist icon aren’t my first thoughts when I think of that show or Roseanne Barr, the comedienne.  I think more about the interpersonal mayhem over the show that is [...]

Got so far to go

There’s a dream
In the future
There’s a struggle
That we have yet to win
And there’s pride
In my heart
‘Cause i know
Where i’m going
And i know where i’ve been
As I read the chapter on Martin Luther King Jr. in Robert Jewett’s Mission and Menace, I can’t help but think of our President Elect, Barack Obama. I remember watching the [...]

New Frontiers

The original Maverick wasn’t a fighter pilot. He was a cowboy.
Who is the tall dark stranger there?
Maverick is the name.
Riding the trail to who knows where
Luck is his companion
Gamblin’ is his game.
In Campbell and Kean’s American Cultural Studies, a brief discussion of the effect of the Western mythos on our culture states, “anyone who seeks [...]