No Wonder People Get Mad At Christians!

Did you ever have one of those epiphanies where once the light went on, you had a little more understanding and maybe compassion for someone you disagree with?  I had one of those while reading Robert Jewett’s book, Mission and Menace.  It is a fascinating journey through the history of the US and highlighting how religion, [...]

Theologizing Superheroes (or, Revealing my Inner Geek)

Last night I satisfied for a brief moment my inner comic book fanboy and watched Superman: Doomsday, the cartoon adaptation of The Death and Return of Superman series.  [Some of you may be saying, “Superman died?!”  Others will be rolling your eyes that I even need to explain that, and there will undoubtedly be a [...]

From John Brown to Jack Bauer

A week ago I saw 24: Redemption a two-hour special between seasons 6 and 7 of one of my favorite TV shows. After studying myths and narratives in American Culture this fall, tracing how they surface in this TV show was as much fun as the action in itself.
The show that centers around the fictional [...]

And then …

Whether the need is, as Wuthnow puts it, to be “examining our [nation’s underlying] assumptions” (Wuthnow, American Mythos: 220) or whether it is, as Jewett writes, “a need for theological reflection” (Jewett, Mission and Menace: 302), commentators both Christian and secular are aware of the state of America: we have bought, often unthinkingly, into the [...]

Those People were Crazy

The more I read about the New England Puritans in Robert Jewett’s book Mission and Menace the more I think that they were crazy.  I know that calling people crazy is not the right thing to do but come on.  Robert Jewett writes, “If New England was to play the role of God’s New Israel [...]

Prophetic Realism

Last weekend during my church’s worship service, during the sincere and legitimate call for us to respond to this season that bids us stop and be thankful, I felt led to stop and repent.  After reading Robert Jewett’s Mission and Menace, I couldn’t help but see Thanksgiving in a new light.  The first celebration of [...]

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 [...]

America’s Dark History

I must confess that Robert Jewett’s Mission and Menace has changed my entire understanding of who we are and where we have come from as Christians within this country. Given that this book sets out to demythologize the common understanding that the United States is a Christian nation, it does not prove otherwise. It gives [...]

Christians and War…A Conflicted Relationship

 
God’s people and war…what a conflicted relationship!  It’s like that couple that fights, breaks up, gets bitter, gets sad, gets back together and repeats.  We all just wish they would make up their minds and either get their act together or get on with it.  In Robert Jewett’s book, Mission and Menace, he takes a [...]

A New American Mythology

I love going to the movies.  There is just something about getting lost in the story and spectacle unfolding on the screen that makes it almost a religious experience for me.  One genre of movie that is almost guaranteed to be a hit with myself and in the US is the superhero movie.  The top [...]