That Was The Week That Was

Posted on by Chris Gehrz

Here…

• I belatedly celebrated a pair of blogging anniversaries.

• Want to understand Pietism? Start by singing this hymn.

• I wrestled again with 1 Samuel 15.

• Only 36% of Republicans think that colleges have a positive impact on America. I shared some quick thoughts — including a potential implication for Christian colleges.

…There and Everywhere

• Eugene Peterson supported same-sex marriage.

• Until he didn’t.

I might have more to say about this next week, after some further reflection. But given how ridiculous those who commented too quickly now appear, I’ll just let this tweet stand:

• Is doubt a necessary feature of Christian belief?

• Hope is integral not only to to belief, but Christian action.

• The first fruit of my research on Charles Lindbergh: whether fundamentalist, Unitarian, or anything in between, pastors in May-June 1927 couldn’t praise Lindy highly enough.

Kidd. Benjamin Franklin• It seems I can’t claim that Lindbergh was the first significant American to be “spiritual, but not religious.”

• But hey, at least I’m not the only person writing a spiritual biography about an unlikely subject!

• Apparently, I live in the 35th most post-Christian metro area in America.

• Here’s an intersection of religion and politics that’s not often discussed: why do Hindu Americans not vote Republican?

• Meet the pastor who’s currently serving in the U.S. Senate.

• The progressive academic who went back to church (in a conservative denomination) after last November’s elections and found himself mostly confronting “my own failings—my failings as a Christian and as a citizen; my failings as a father and as a son.”

• The newest blog I can recommend is Paul Putz’s Sportianity. Learn more about the intersection of Christianity and sports in my Anxious Bench interview with Paul.

• I once wrote balefully about how rare it was for athletes who played “the thinking man’s game” to finish their college degrees. Major League Baseball is actually trying to do something about that.

Beeson Divinity School
Beeson Divinity School at Samford University – Wikimedia

• One Baptist university gave up $3 million in denominational funding in a dispute over a campus LGBTQ group.

• If I fancy myself anything like an expert on Christian higher education, then I really ought to pay more attention to this story.

• While Republicans increasingly dislike higher education in general, they strongly support individual colleges.

• If these studies are correct… well, I might live forever.