Category: Culture

  • Dan

    Create or Consume

    We are a consumer-driven society. Creativity is at low ebb. There is a new “Karate Kid” movie coming out. Really? Re-hash something from the mid 80s? Is that the best we can do? All that money in Hollywood… and we get another Karate Kid. Wow. This article makes the case for creativity and says so many things I have thought…

  • Dan

    Three Voices We Need to Hear Again

    Through church history, especially since the Reformation, I am convinced we are only rehashing old problems. We are just doing it with greater speed. (Kind of like our fashion trends these days. Did the 80s styles have to come back SO fast?) Three voices need to be heard once again, in my view. 1. Soren Kierkegaard. While I can never…

  • Dan

    More Thoughts on Piper’s Leave of Absence

    Christianity Today weighs in on Piper and it’s a good thought. Here are a couple of comparisons: We just seem to applaud workaholism. We applaud a Dick Cheney who has stents put in his heart and he’s back on the job the next day. Urban Meyer, football coach at the University of Florida, can’t quit. He saw some sort of…

  • Dan

    Getting Unsaved

    As I am preparing my lectures for Church History II I am studying Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard in Denmark during the 19th Century dropped on a bombshell on that nation when he said Christianity no longer existed in Denmark. There were churches all over the place. People chalked it up to Kierkegaard’s melancholy. Luther once said that the first half of…

  • Dan

    Healthcare Reform, the Kansas Jayhawks, and the Apocalypse

    All was not lost on the weekend. Joe Mauer signed a long-term deal with the Twins. We’re pretty happy about that. That came hours before the final vote on healthcare “reform,” so it helped soften that blow. Couple that with the crushing defeat of the Kansas Jayhawks  in the NCAA tournament, and, well, it’s a wonder the Apocalypse didn’t sweep…

  • Dan

    Social Justice

    One of things I try to be in life is “an equal opportunity offender.” In that spirit, I am going to poke the sacred cow of Glenn Beck. I am a Pentecostal pastor who was raised conservative (politically as well as theologically). I am still more conservative politically than liberal, but I have no qualms with calling things out. On…

  • Dan

    Popularity of Mysticism

    Who woulda thunk it? This Ross Douthat column in the New York Times reflects on the popularity of so many mystical practices, but it has its downside. We are dabbling in so many things, we are diving into nothing. We are not fully entering into ANY of the practices, so we might think we are mystics, but the proof is…

  • Dan

    What is My History?

    I am attending my first Society for Pentecostal Studies meeting, mainly because it is on the campus where I teach. The event has been a good one for me. The sessions have been a learning experience. I am keeping track of big words I need to look up later. 🙂 A plenary session I attended has challenged my thinking in…

  • Dan

    Compassion and Conservative Christians

    Who knew? Obviously, no one had any idea “conservative” Christians could be compassionate… that is until someone like the New York Time officially recognizes that, hey, conservative Christians actually do some good! Okay, NOW, conservative Christians can be considered as compassionate. (It was like the media “discovering” Pentecostals in 2006, the 100th Anniversary of Azusa Street.) Nicholas Kristof gives a…

  • Dan

    Hard Work and Determination

    I am reading a book with my church staff about the “Me Generation.”  It is a study, with some very funny sharp opinions, about our current generation. There are some very admirable things about this current generation. One thing I was admittedly surprised about was they seem to have high goals. The downside is they don’t seem to want to…