parables of a prodigal world

I spent the weekend pondering/praying through some of the issues raised during last week's debate between N.T. Wright and Bart Ehrman on " The Problem of Evil ." Given the time restraints and the format imposed by the organizers, Wright and Ehrman could really do no more than to give their overarching views on the issue. I was hoping to see more interaction, more dialogue than debate. Nevertheless, this is such a huge topic, perhaps the hugest of all topics, maybe we were all expecting more than could have been delivered in a single evening (or in a single lifetime). But enough points were raised, enough new angles offered, to keep me busy, spiritually and intellectually, for the greater part of the weekend. Here's what I came away with, in no particular order other than the order in which these pop to mind. I'll start with my most controversial discovery: 1. Some professing atheists are more Christ-like than many professing Christians. 2. We tend to pose "T...

I thought long and hard about the angle with which I'd approach the topic of Blog Action Day. I considered a post about how I, an upper-middle class white male living in the United States and having essentially little or no dealings with "the poor," am utterly unworthy to even speak of such an issue. I decided ultimately to incorporate that unworthiness into my topic, and to allow someone to speak on the issue who, in my humble opinion, is worthy and has earned the right to do so. So here's a snippet from N.T. Wright that concerns, generally, the presence of evil in the world and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ speaks to that general issue. It, I believe, is the proper angle from which to view a biblical response to "The Problem of Evil" (and you can replace the term "Evil" here with "Poverty," "Starvation," "Oppression," "Genocide," "Injustice," etc.), i.e., the question of why a good God would all...

I was recently feeding my year-and-a-half old son a bowl of Cheerios. Its one of my favorite pastimes. We sit on the kitchen table, me on the chair and him on my lap, looking out the window, him with one spoon to play choo-choo and me with one to sneak in an occasional spoonful into his mouth. As he starts to get full, he likes to take a spoonful and spill it onto the table. I don't mind if its a piece of cereal or two, but he eventually moves up to a whole spoonful, which creates quite a mess, so I tell him "nooo," and he stops. Usually. On this last occasion, he did something that really tickled me, at first, and then really got me thinking. He prepared a heaping spoonful to spill onto the table, heard me say "noooo," looked sheepishly into my eyes as if contemplating something, pointed out the window and said, "Look!" and proceeded to spill the heaping spoonful onto the table. My 1-1/2 year old son has learned the art of diverting my attention in o...