The UmBlog

I used to have an abundance of pro-life blog posts on here. I took them down because I no longer think my male opinion carries even the weight of electrons on this blog. I do consider myself pro-life, not just pro-birth, and believe the church and the government should support not only pregnant mothers but post-natal mothers and children. Please see my post from last year. " policy proposal: pay pregnant women and at home parents ". If you are an evangelical woman who has had or is considering an abortion and if wracked with guilt, I'd like to offer a minority report on the biblical exemption for abortion. We start with Exodus 21 . The first eleven verses fall into the category I've written about many times here under the label, "not everything biblical is Christian", meaning these slave laws are awful and not Christ-like at all. Starting at verse 12 though we get to the capital crimes. Again, I'm pro-life so I don't think a Christ follower should be...

This proposal comes from the intersection of Tish Harrison Warren's article, Pro-Lifers Aren’t Hypocrites , at Christianity Today and Tori William Douglas's article, How I became radically pro-choice , on her blog, with some assistance from Andrew Yang's policy proposal of universal basic income . Here is an important quote from William Douglas's piece. The second was a quote, shared by my friend Jon, by Sister Joan Chittister, which you’ve likely read all over the internet by now. "I do not believe that just because you are opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, a child educated, a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is." Harrison Warren...

My blog has plenty of evidence to demonstrate I am a pro-life person. My twitter account will also show I am not anti-choice, acknowledging that the mother's circumstances and decision does not need to be explained or justified to me or any other man. I'm also pro-life in that I am against the death penalty. I'm also pro-life in that I think government should offer enough aid for the flourishing of children long after they are born medically, educationally, food security, and healthy living conditions ...sort of like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Certainly getting rid of lead paint had a tremendous positive impact in the lives of a generation and likely led to the dramatic drop in crime in the 90's instead of the racially biased stop and frisk. But now we have a greater risk, climate change. The build up of CO2 in our atmosphere is directly correlated to the burning of hydrocarbons , basically compressed forests from ages past, and slash an...

Today's gospel reading in the lectionary got me thinking about this problem I used to have with the Bible. Mark 12:28 One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”  29-31 Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”  32-33 The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!” 34 When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “Y...

Before he passed away from brain cancer, David Kuo , a Republican speech writer and political activist wrote his memoir about the clash between his earnest faith and the politics that kept prevailing over it, Tempting Faith, and inside story of political seduction . Kuo's last job in the White House was in George W. Bush's office of faith based and community initiatives. This office was formed from Bush's campaign promises of compassionate conservatism, which promised to unleash public funds to faith based groups in order that they may serve the needy alongside secular or non-religious aid programs. A promise of $8 billion dollars for this program was never followed up on and only 1-3% of that amount ever trickled down from the Bush White House and Republican controlled Congress. Kuo fought hard for that funding, his faith in Jesus Christ, aligned with his desire to see more people aided not only materially but also spiritually. His credentials include a long list of ...

How does an illiterate escaped slave, Harriet Tubman , help 200 fellow slaves escape their plight from the antebellum southern United States? After reading this biography by her friend Sarah Bradford , I'd say she gives God all the credit. Her Christian faith is very prominent and unashamed, which is a shock to this reader 150 years later, but much appreciated. Bradford wrote the book to raise funds for Harriet's ministry in her old age, providing a rest home for aged former slaves. Regarding Tubman's faith, Bradford writes, Harriet's religious character I have not yet touched upon. Brought up by parents possessed of strong faith in God, she had never known the time, I imagine, when she did not trust Him, and cling to Him, with an all-abiding confidence. She seemed ever to feel the Divine Presence near, and she talked with God "as a man talketh with his friend." Hers was not the religion of a morning and evening prayer at stated times, but when she ...

I've developed this habit, when I'm included in the occasional email blast from friends and family who forward to everyone in their contact list the latest conspiracy, of looking up the claim at Snopes and replying all to the original message. I find the same person rarely includes me on the next e-mail blast, either because they decided to look first before forwarding or because they think I'm rude. Sometimes they will continue to forward something because the message says snopes has verified the conspiracy, which is usually not true. Anyway, after I replied all in response to an email blast about no one in Obama's class at Columbia remembers him, I hit "reply all" with the findings at Snopes, the Columbia records . But the sender wants to know about my motives regarding my defense of Obama. He asks, and I thought I might as well answer here, 1) DID U VOTE FOR OBAMA? 2) DO YOU BELIEVE IN COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM AS A GOOD THING, A CHRISTIAN THING? 3) DO U BELI...

Early on in Christendom, the Didache was esteemed as holy scripture by some churches and early leaders after the apostolic age, but was eventually kicked out of the canon. I appreciate the efforts of Tony Jones to bring to the Christian reading audience an old book to complement their efforts to worship God rightly, especially in their lifestyles with his book, The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing and Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community . I found out it was on sale in the Kindle store for under a dollar and grabbed it. The text itself is uncomplicated. It is brief and speaks simply. There is not much nuance. I appreciated some of these verses. 1:6 Let your alms sweat in your hands until you know to whom to give them. 2:2 you shall not murder a child, whether it be born or unborn 2:7 Hate no one; correct some, pray for others, and some you should love more than your own life. 3:3 My child, don’t be lustful, for lust leads to illicit sex. Don’t be a...

A couple years ago, reporters from the Hartford Courant published a book on slavery in Connecticut called Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery and in my immature self-righteous belief that the North did little compared to the South, I refused to read it. I figured it was a white, liberal self-flagellation. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I encountered the book this report focuses on, Ten Hills Farm, The forgotten history of slavery in the North by C. S. Manegold. This time I was ready to learn. And I did. Ms. Manegold smacks my northern arrogance around. She confronts it directly. This matter of station has consistently and perhaps conveniently been confused with ideas about the supposedly "gentle" culture of slavery as it evolved in the North. Yet that assumption breaks down with even the scantiest analysis. The great shibboleth of northern slavery is that it was somehow "benign," softer than its southern cousin, ev...

John Frankenheimer had the privilege of directing the last great black and white action film, The Train , starring Burt Lancaster in 1964. I have to agree that it is a great film. It is greatly filmed and asks great philosophical questions, typical of the era's existential angst. Image via Wikipedia The struggle in the film is the struggle by the French resistance to prevent a trainload of great art from being sent to Germany before the Allies arrive. The protagonist is Burt Lancaster, who doesn't even attempt a French accent. The antagonist is a German colonel played by Paul Scofield who cares more for art than for humans, even fellow German soldiers. The poster for the movie captures that pretty well. It was filmed big which fit well with it's love for trains. The massiveness of those vehicles are felt throughout the film. I don't think I have witnessed multiple train collisions and derailments in a movie before. He used real, full-sized trains to crash into each ...

Here is one of Hart's explosive claims about the revolution that Christ brought to humanity, the concept of human. However, one phrases it, the essential intuition of the great churches remains the same: that Christ is one divine person, who perfectly possesses everything proper to God and everything proper to humanity without robbing either of its integrity, and who therefore makes it possible for every human person to become a partaker of the divine nature without thereby ceasing to be human. The rather extraordinary inference to be drawn from this doctrine is that personality is somehow transcendent of nature. A person is not merely a fragment of some larger cosmic or spiritual category, a more perfect of more defective expression of some abstract set of attributes, in light of which his or her values, significance, legitimacy or proper place is to be judged. This man or that woman is not merely a specimen of the general set of the human; rather, his or her human nature is only ...

I wrote Abortion kills 1,000,000 babies a year, more than lack of insurance does. What kind of moral calculus can fund abortion to kill 1 million babies to save 50,000 adults with taxes on citizens of a country whose majority opposes abortion on demand? God is good jpu at Where do we go from here? on Urbanfaith.com See the varied voices in this post who are believers from all over the political spectrum.

Here is the rest of my sermon notes on Mark 9. The first half is here . After climbing a mountain and being affirmed by God the Father, Jesus told Peter, James, and John about his resurrection again, Mk. 9:9, which they still didn't understand, and he pointed to Biblical prophecy in general, but I look at Isaiah 53 in particular. He explained to them that the prophecy they were thinking about, the arrival of Elijah, predicted in Malachi 4:5 in particular, was fulfilled in John the baptizer, Mk. 9:12-13. They didn't understand the death and resurrection talk in the previous chapter either, Mk. 8:31. He is focused on teaching his disciples but life interrupted in the case of a demonized boy. Jesus delivers the boy then resumes his important teaching. 9:30 They went out from there and passed through Galilee. But Jesus did not want anyone to know, 9:31 for he was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, ...

I found Frank Beckwith's post at Moral Accountability on abortion reduction vs. pro-life very familiar . The Suzy B blog noted that Obama will be funding for embryonic stem cell research by executive order. Scot McKnight is concerned with the neo-reformed . Ben Dubow pointed me there and asked for feedback , so I left similar thoughts there that I did at McKnight's blog.

Marvin Olasky tells the history of abortion in America. He finds it as early as 1652, but that's probably just for non-Indian abortions. The good news is that a lower percentage of babies are being killed now than before the civil war. The responses of the church, both liberal and conservative, at the time are remarkably similar to today. Then as now, theological radicals such as Henry Wright argued that a child's "first claim is to a designed existence, if it is to exist at all." Some said "it was less criminal to kill children before they were born, than to curse them with an unwelcome existence." But pro-life leaders rejected the premise that an "unwelcome existence" was the only alternative to abortion. They looked at three groups of women at risk for abortions and offered programs of education, refuge, and adoption that would help women to avoid unwanted pregnancy or to recover from it, without killing a child. My own friends have responded ...

Chuck Colson writes: If I were to tell you about an ancient document that sheds fresh light on Christianity, your first reaction might be to run for the hills. Most of us have had just about all we can handle of the spurious “Gospel of Judas” and The Da Vinci Code, right? Well, I’m not talking about The Da Vinci Code. Unlike the Gnostic gospels that inspired the novel, the ancient document I’m talking about sheds some real light on Christianity. It’s called the Didache, and it’s one of the earliest non-scriptural Christian writings, written toward the end of the first century. As Christianity Today explains in an excellent article last month, “While no one believes that any of the twelve apostles wrote it, scholars agree that the work is a faithful transmission of the apostles’ teaching, intended primarily for the training of Gentile believers.” So this is no mysterious subject of an ancient conspiracy, just a practical guide to discipleship and obedience—maybe not as thrilling to many...