March 12, 2015

An excerpt: When Anselm of Canterbury wrote Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man) in the 11th century, the Church gradually changed the nature of the understanding of God, salvation, grace, law, sin, and crime. God became increasingly a “sentencing Judge”, salvation became something earned, sin, crime and law became separated from their natural settings of mercy and grace. Sin was changed into something so terrible, it evoked the most destructive imaginable wrath of God…

This paper is on David Cayley's website here. You may read about David Cayley's website here. David has broadcast and written about Ivan Illich numerous times. He is currently (2015) working on yet another book on him. An excerpt: One could say a lot more about the segregation of the secular from the religious in the modern world, and about the fateful imperial reorganization of other civilizations and cultures along these lines during the colonial…

When I lived for nearly two years in the basement of noted Evangelical scholar Clark Pinnock's home, I was a student at Regent College (1974 - 1976). Clark was my mentor in occasioning two conversions: 1. that the Gospel had to do centrally with the social and political because it had to do centrally with relationships; 2. that the way of doing the social/political was the nonviolent way of the Cross. These have remained unshakeable…

Arguably the two greatest New Testament era historians in the world today are James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright, both British. In this piece by N.T. Wright, we see Paul as the towering dissenter against (Roman) Empire. Paul was impossibly radical, whose life and ideas shatter social conventions of the civitas terrena (City of Man), and most status quo. This in favour of the "Empire" of God rooted in the bedrock of God's…

Such a letter now by rights should be written to Harper, a man of immense delusion who believes his own falsetto. He is a genuine menace to world peace and security. Please click on: Open letter to Chrétien Sept 13 2002

The letter here speaks for itself. It was written in 2002. What Harper is currently doing (2015) is far worse: "enemizing" the other in the name of security (internally towards criminals, externally towards Muslims or whomever), effecting in fact the inverse. Harper and current government policy is arguably the greatest long-term threat there is to Canadians' security. Please click on: Open letter to Chrétien October 17, 2002

Brian Stewart is a well-known Canadian journalist who a dozen or so years ago found his way to Christian faith. The piece here was a Convocation address to a bunch of Presbyterian seminary graduates. I showed this piece to a friend who long since, though raised a Christian, disavowed the Church as an evil institution throughout history. While I certainly have sympathy for the view that the Church in Jesus' name has done indeed much…

This is an excerpt from a book with that title by David Gushee and Glen Stassen. It recovers the Sermon on the Mount/Plain teaching as eminently practical, not as impossible high ideal. An excerpt: The Pattern Continues Throughout The Sermon We have examined three of the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and have seen that their basic pattern is threefold. They are not impossible ideals but transforming initiatives based on God’s grace. They…

"Empire" by nature is gargantuan evil. There is none known to history that has not been such. Most American Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics amongst other religious instinctively oppose thinking the United States is precisely such an Empire. Billy Graham and a host of lesser religious routinely prayed for Empire victory since Empire ascendancy after World War II. This paper discusses the phenomenon in brief. An excerpt: The Jewish-Christian story culminates in the displacement of…

Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a tireless Eastern Catholic voice for nonviolence. Shee his: Center for Christian Nonviolence website. This is a sermon preached in 1993 on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, executed by the Nazis 50 years previously for his refusal to kill for the Nazis. More about him may be found here: Franz Jägerstätter. A movie was also done (with subtitles) on his life, entitled: