These brief ruminations are offered in response to the latest episode of Unbelievable featuring a dialogue between David Bennett and Justin Lee. Bennett and Lee are both gay, but Bennett insists that celibacy is the only morally acceptable option for the gay Christian while Lee insists that the gay Christian can pursue monogamous samesex relationships. […]
ethics
Transgender Hospitality Redux
In my article “Transgender Hospitality: A Response to James Anderson,” I defend the propriety of accommodating at least some of the requests of transgender people on the basis of hospitality. Anderson offered a couple replies but, unfortunately, then left the conversation with several of my rebuttals unaddressed. [Note: since posting this follow-up, Anderson has rejoined […]
The Cross and the Lynching Tree: A Review
Cone, James. The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 2011). The next time somebody responds to the Black Lives Matter movement by saying “All lives matter,” you might want to suggest that they read black liberation theologian James Cone’s magisterial reflection on the abominable history of lynching in America. The year is 1918 when a […]
A Review of Blue Babies Pink: A Southern Coming Out Story
There is an idea, popular among evangelicals, that Christian theology is simply a matter of counting Bible verses. While that simple notion has had a major impact on evangelicalism — for example, it’s the basic method of Wayne Grudem’s bewilderingly popular and very bad textbook Systematic Theology — it is based on a myth. Theology and doctrine […]
Which sins are the most serious? And why?
Which of the following dark revelations would most undermine your trust in a respected religious leader? 1. He had an affair.2. While a patron at a restaurant, he used a racial slur after becoming angry at the waiter.3. He is charged with tax evasion.4. All are equally bad. — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) October 12, 2018 […]
The Kavanaugh Effect, or Coming to Terms with Rape Culture
Yesterday, USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers published a powerful article titled “I was sexually assaulted and thought it was my fault. It’s past time for a 1980s reckoning.” The article begins as follows: “When I was 15 years old, I passed out at a party after being fed all sorts of alcoholic concoctions by older […]
Is divine command theory a danger in the hands of the mentally ill?
Last year, Christian radio host Justin Brierley published his apologetics book, Unbelievable. It’s a delightful book — clearly argued and engaging to read — so much so that it even earned an endorsement from yours truly! It also earned a book-length response from several atheists, predictably titled Still Unbelievable. Ever the hospitable host, Justin has invited two […]
The Bible depicts God commanding moral atrocities. Should we believe it?
The Bible includes some descriptions of divine action which are fundamentally at odds with the moral perceptions of properly functioning human beings. In some cases, God is presented as performing actions that appear to be wicked. In other cases, he is presented as commanding humans to perform actions that appear to be wicked. Of the latter, […]
Should evangelicals be denied the right to adopt?
Today the courts in Alberta reversed a decision that denied an evangelical Christian couple the right to adopt a child based on their views of gender and sexuality. Initially, it all seemed very promising. Government workers had provisionally concluded that the couple would provide a stable and loving home for a child. (Notably, the couple […]
Pro-life Carpet-bombers: On the moral incoherence of neocon conservative Christians
What does it mean to be pro-life? Time and again, I find that Christian conservatives seem to endorse a pro-life vision that is almost completely limited to the fetus-in-utero. Consider, for example, this tweet from Michael Brown: I was just interacting with a pastor friend who referenced a mega church in his area that supported […]
Can a soldier be a Christian?
The catalyst for this brief rumination is a tweet from Bruxy Cavey: "One cannot be aware both of the history of Christian war and the contents of the Gospels without feeling that something is amiss. One may feel that in the name of honesty, Christians ought either to quit fighting or quit calling themselves Christian." […]
The Complementarian Dilemma
Egalitarianism is the view that all offices of church ministry and leadership should be open to both genders. By contrast, complementarianism insists that some offices of ministry and leadership should be restricted to males. I am an egalitarian and yesterday I posted this tweet expressing my concern that complementarianism is not just wrong, but potentially […]
We especially welcome applications from women and visible minorities
When I was looking for a teaching position in the early 2000s I repeatedly encountered a variant of this statement in countless job descriptions: We especially welcome applications from women and visible minorities. That was a bit discouraging, as you can imagine. To be sure, I understood the reasoning: society in general, and academic institutions […]
Would you disciple a Muslim child against his parents’ wishes?
Yesterday on Twitter I posed the following question: Your 15-year-old Muslim neighbor is really interested in Christianity, but his parents have forbidden him from going to church. He just asked you to help him defy his parents' wishes by secretly taking him to church youth group. Do you agree? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) February 19, […]
