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Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

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war

Pro-life Carpet-bombers: On the moral incoherence of neocon conservative Christians

April 21, 2018 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Christian ethics, ethics, Evangelium Vitae, Michael Brown, pro-life, Ted Cruz, war

“Putting down wolves” and other chilling rhetoric

January 24, 2015 by Randal

A few days ago film director and provocateur Michael Moore foolishly jammed a stick in the wasp’s nest by saying that all snipers are cowards (take that Chris Kyle). The comment is equal parts false and incendiary. But what most intrigues me are the responses that Moore’s comment elicited. Consider, for example, Don Mann’s response […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Chris Kyle, Don Mann, police, rhetoric, violence, war

A Wolf in Sheepdog’s Clothing? A review of American Sniper

January 21, 2015 by Randal

American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle (played by a substantially beefed-up Bradley Cooper), at 160 recorded kills, the deadliest sniper in the long military history of the United States. I’m not up on sniper score cards, but that certainly sounds like a lot of blood and brains. Through four tours of duty in […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: American Sniper, Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, ethics, nationalism, review, war

The Hope of Holy War? A Review of The Skeletons in God’s Closet (Part 3)

January 4, 2015 by Randal

Joshua Ryan Butler. The Skeletons in God’s Closet: The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War. Thomas Nelson, 2014. This is part 3 of my review of The Skeletons in God’s Closet. For part 2 click here. Part 3 begins with the story of Rachel, a congregant at Butler’s church who […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: biblical ethics, biblical violence, holy war, Joshua Ryan Butler, morality, Old Testament, review, The SKeletons in God's Closet, war

To bomb or not to bomb. Is this really a question?

April 28, 2014 by Randal

Over the last few days I was taken aback by the defenses of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the discussion thread to my article “How to destroy your enemies.” In a sense, the irony couldn’t have been greater, for the article was concerned to show that the best way to destroy one’s enemies […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: bomb, ethics, Japan, war

The Canaanite genocide as cruel and unusual punishment in extremis

March 5, 2013 by Randal

We’ve now arrived at the ninth installment of my ongoing critique of William Lane Craig’s podcast “Richard Dawkins and Driving out the Canaanites.” And you’re thinking to yourself: “Geez, isn’t this overkill? Move on Rauser.” And I’m thinking: “That pun was in poor taste. And I’m not moving on, because there is just so much […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Canaanite, ethics, genocide, herem, Old Testament, Rwanda, war, William Lane Craig

William Lane Craig thinks the Canaanites should’ve run! (And too bad if they didn’t.)

March 4, 2013 by Randal

This is the eight installment of my ongoing critique of William Lane Craig’s podcast “Richard Dawkins and Driving out the Canaanites.” In this installment we’re going to return to an excerpt from the podcast which I transcribed originally in part 5. In this section Craig argues that the Canaanites had time to “get out of […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Canaanite, ethics, genocide, Old Testament, war, William Lane Craig

On William Lane Craig’s defense of the Canaanite genocide (Part 5)

March 1, 2013 by Randal

In the fourth installment of my critique of William Lane Craig’s podcast defending the Canaanite genocide, Matthew Flannagan reiterated an objection he had posted in response to an earlier installment of the series, namely that Craig does not understand himself to be defending genocide. Matt writes: “Craig has repeatedly explicitly denied that the command was to […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: genocide, Matthew Flannagan, Old Testament, war, William Lane Craig

Does Jesus go with soldiers into battle?

January 4, 2013 by Randal

Let’s set aside the kitschy nature of this image and ask a very important question. What does it mean for Jesus to be placing a hand on the shoulder of a praying soldier and declaring that he is with the soldier always? The allusion is presumably to Matthew 28:20, a passage which caps off the Great […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: ethics, Jesus, militarism, peace, war

Can you ever have too many war documentaries?

April 26, 2012 by Randal

The other day I watched the Academy Award nominated 2011 documentary “Hell and Back Again”. The film was directed by Danfung Dennis and follows a soldier in Afghanistan who is severely wounded in battle and then has to reintegrate to civilian life. Dennis does an amazing job of capturing incredible and shocking footage from his […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Afghanistan, documentary, Hell and back again, war

Urinating on corpses and other costs of war

January 13, 2012 by Randal

A couple days ago a forty second video went viral depicting US soldiers urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan. President Karzai has just condemned the video. Since then at least two of the soldiers have been identified by the Pentagon. I take the event of urinating on dead soldiers to be an example of an […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Benjamin Colton Barnes, militarism, Taliban, war

If “The Bible is not a children’s book” then why do we have children’s Bibles?

August 24, 2011 by Randal

Steve Hays of Triablogue wrote a response to my discussion of teaching biblical genocide to children called “Scout’s Honor!” It includes all the hallmarks of Hays’s critical analysis (or lack thereof) including the claim that I accept the UN as my “moral authority”. (How’s that supposed to work exactly?! “Hmm, has the UN addressed whether […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atonement, Bible, children, David and Goliath, genocide, Jesus, Joshua, Noah, Steve Hays, theology, Triablogue, war

From the caves to the capitals: who are the terrorists?

May 3, 2011 by Randal

My brain is, as they say, fried. And I am only one day into a five day stint of 36 hours of lecturing. The first casualty is sleep. The second is my voice. Alas, the third is the snappy and penetrating blogging which more than a dozen people spanning the globe have taken to reading. […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: realpolitik, terrorism, war

The Beatitudes and Banksy on Remembrance / Veterans Day

November 11, 2010 by Randal

Matthew 5:3-10 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn,    for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek,    for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,    for they will be filled. 7 Blessed […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Banksy, Beatitudes, peace, Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, war

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