The world is a serious place. When we examine the ancient world, especially as we look at the more serious (and even tragic) aspects of the history of the West, we are also confronted with images and concepts that normally do not make us smile, let alone laugh. Here we will lighten things up a […]
Political Violence, Individual Behavior and the Rule of Law: Insights from the Paranormal Evidence
Earlier, we examined the intersection between evil, the devil and how these can impact us in our everyday lives. We drew on the work of postmortem Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the late businessman and out-of-body experience (OOBE) expert Robert Monroe, and medium Chip Coffey to show how paranormal evidence strongly urges us to live ethical […]
Some Plausible Reasons for Presidential Poll Results: The Dangerous Role of Fox
In December 2023, anchor Chris Hayes of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes provided viewers and the American public with one of the best explanations as to why poll results and perhaps a general perception of President Joe Biden may be so low. In many ways, it boils down to lies, disinformation and the insidious […]
The Urgent Role of the US Business Community in Defeating Trump
Donald Trump – twice impeached, once defeated for the presidency, four-times indicted in four different jurisdictions, facing 91 felony counts, and found liable in several civil cases – is on his way to becoming the presidential nominee of one of our two major parties. He has spoken openly, and often, about his desire to be […]
St. Paul on Individualism and Community: Guidance for Americans from I Corinthians 12
Several years ago, we examined the very American characteristic of hyperindividualism. We noted many examples of how extreme forms of a characteristic that generally has positive goals and outcomes often leads in our culture to putting the onus, stressfully, on individuals to improve our lives (in contrast to the fact that citizens of our peer […]
Moms for Liberty Again: Implications of Massive Election Losses
Earlier, we warned readers about the innocent-sounding radical right-wing organization, Moms for Liberty. A number of states held elections on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, and the results in many contests are revealing (and, for many of us, a very hopeful sign). Moms for Liberty raised up and supported a number of candidates in both state […]
Update on Removal and Renaming of Confederate Memorials: Moving Ahead!
There was very good news recently on the issue of Confederate-themed memorials, symbols, monuments, celebrations and military bases: according to NPR, all nine Army bases that were named for Confederate generals have now officially been renamed. Journalist Jay Price reports, “Fort Gordon in Georgia is now Fort Eisenhower.” As we noted earlier, decades after the […]
Apocryphal Women in the Early Jesus Movement: Eliciting Fact from Fiction
In past posts, we have examined women in the first couple of centuries of the Common Era (CE) who may well have been real: Evodia and Syntyche mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Philippians; Apphia, mentioned in Paul’s letter to Philemon; and women mentioned in Chapter 16 of Paul’s letter to the Romans: […]
Index to the Eighth Year
Thank you for your interest in these blog posts! Here is a listing by topic for posts since October 2022. (Some posts appear in more than one category.) Social and Racial Justice, Diversity Resources and Some Good News For Black History Month 2023, 2/10/23 Celebrating Women’s History Month: A Reading List, 3/24/23 Science Meets Religion: […]
Civics Lessons from the Era of Trump: Part II
Last time, we examined several ways in which we American citizens have been educated about the workings of our government, in large part because of the words and actions of the twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former President, Donald Trump. We looked at three Constitutional Amendments (1, 14 and 25), laws versus norms, pardoning, the importance of the […]