Numerous commentators have pointed out some problems with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions citing a passage from the Bible to support regulations about people entering the United States without official government permission. He points to Romans 13:1,2 to say that authorities are ordained by God. I agree with these commentators that it is not so [...]
(This post comes to us from Linda Hodges, one of Westar's Board members) When I agreed to watch the docudrama “Come Sunday,” I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m glad I accepted the invitation. (You’ll want to check out our earlier blog post on the film, as well as the Homebrewed Christianity interview with [...]
Westar's mission is to bridge the gap between religious scholarship and culture. To that end, we've put together a list of resources for those preaching, teaching, leading -- or just wanting deeper exposition -- during the season of Lent and Easter. Our list includes some brand-new material as well as past books, articles, blog posts, [...]
The tone, tenor and plot of Luke’s account of the Jesus birth narrative is very different from that in Matthew’s gospel. It is set on grander scale, Mary is more prominent, and Joseph recedes into the background. Both authors in constructing their fictions have chosen very different ways to tell the story. For those interested in any [...]
Christians carry around in their heads what I call the mush gospel. We mush together the various stories from all the gospels into a single story/gospel that is idiosyncratic. This mush gospel is built up from reading, from hearing the gospel stories read, and from sermons and hymns. We use that mush gospel to make [...]
