Chaplainmike

Mr Toad And Pentecost

Sunday coming is the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, or in the pre-1970 calendar, the 8th Sunday after Pentecost. So you may be thinking that this is a bit late to be mentioning the Great Feast, the Birthday of the Church, and you would be correct. It’s just that recently I’ve been thinking about theContinue reading “Mr Toad And Pentecost”

Joe and Marge

Marge died today. A petite, pretty octogenarian, she had been wandering in the world of Alzheimer dementia for many years. I’ve known her for a few of those years, at least I’ve known the lady who rarely sat still, who moved continually from one place to another, looking out the windows, fluffing and straightening theContinue reading “Joe and Marge”

Follow Up on the Conservative/Progressive Discussion with Rachel Evans

Today, we continue our discussion by listening to the personal perspective of someone who feels caught in the midst of the battle between a more conservative evangelical faith and a more mainline progressive faith. As part of her excellent post, “Liberal Christianity, Conservative Christianity, and the Caught In-Between,” Rachel Held Evans wrote the following aboutContinue reading “Follow Up on the Conservative/Progressive Discussion with Rachel Evans”

Daily Bread in Days of Drought

According to a new report released by the National Climatic Data Center today, the 2012 drought disaster is now the largest in over 50 years, and among the ten largest of the past century. Only the extraordinary droughts of the 1930s and 1950s have covered more land area than the current drought. 55 percent of theContinue reading “Daily Bread in Days of Drought”

Today We Visit the Liberal Circus

One of the main acts in American Christianity’s liberal version of the “circus” — the Episcopal Church USA — completed its triennial General Convention here in Indianapolis last week and, as usual, created a lot of conversation. You can read a summary of the General Convention and the decisions they made HERE, but here areContinue reading “Today We Visit the Liberal Circus”

Just A Thought

I have been reading through the book of Job lately. You know the story. Job suffers the loss of his wealth, his source of income, and most of all, his family. Then he’s visited by some friends who, if you read their words carefully, speak words that would not be out of place in mostContinue reading “Just A Thought”

Another Look: Mark Galli on “Transformation”

Note from CM: Mark Galli is Sr. Managing Editor of Christianity Today. In 2009 he wrote an article that proved rather controversial. It was called, “The Scandal of the Public Evangelical,” and in it Mark said things about the evangelical buzzword “transformation” that many didn’t like. Our friends at Mockingbird, being devoted to promoting graceContinue reading “Another Look: Mark Galli on “Transformation””

Saturday Ramblings 7.14.12

I am old enough (and I turn yet another year older on Tuesday) to remember getting up on Saturday mornings and staying glued to the TV from 8 in the morning until 11, watching the Looney Tunes cartoons. Bugs, Daffy, the Road Runner … all my favorites gathered into one nice, long program. Only afterContinue reading “Saturday Ramblings 7.14.12”

Another Look: How I Got to “OK”

Note from CM: For the past couple of days I’ve been trying to write a post summarizing our discussions on the kind of discipleship being promoted by teachers like Francis Chan. I’ve made fits and starts and have not been satisfied with how the words were coming out. Then, in looking through the archives, IContinue reading “Another Look: How I Got to “OK””

The Forgotten Character

This morning we looked at the most popular author residing on Christian bookstore shelves, the handsome, polished, smiling and totally spineless Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart writes under many different names and on myriad topics. But one topic, or rather one person, is seldom if ever mentioned in Lockhart’s works. It would take a great deal ofContinue reading “The Forgotten Character”