Recent content by PloverWing

I find that reading entire passages, instead of isolated words in isolated verses, sharpens my literary thinking. The chapters in question have already been cited, and we all own Bibles. I am content to end my participation in the discussion at this point.

Correction: the sin recorded in Genesis 19 is attempted rape. This is consistent with Jude 1, in that rape is a sexual act that is deeply immoral. On Ezekiel 16, I'm not so sure it was just the women. In the whole chapter, various nations are personified in feminine terms, as "daughters" and...

To my American ears, this sounds like you're complaining about the ways that US civil rights laws have made racial segregation illegal. Is that really what you meant to say?

Yes, but it's not because there were non-kosher animals in Peter's vision (Acts 10). Rather, Peter's vision and the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) declared all people clean, including gentiles (like most of us) who do not follow the Jewish law.

I would say, rather, that the councils had very high confidence that their decisions were correct. "Absolute certainty" is extremely rare.

Assuming your user interface is something like mine: Go to your profile, and look for a button that says "More options". If you click it, you get a drop-down menu, and one of the menu entries is "Edit profile banner". That takes you to a page where you can upload a picture.

A cornfield might make a good banner picture. The display area for the banner is very wide and not very tall, so I looked for a picture that worked with that ratio. I could see tops of corn stalks against a blue sky being a good picture that fits those dimensions.

My banner is one of my own photographs, as is my profile picture. Both are pictures of an area of Virginia Beach that's at the south end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This beach is a couple of miles from the house where I grew up, and it has a lot of sentimental value for me.

You can look at my profile to see one.

As I sit here, I'm looking at a coffee mug on which is the name of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, so I will nominate him for the list. Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian who went to Alabama in 1965 to join in the civil rights work there. From Wikipedia: Source: Jonathan Daniels - Wikipedia...

I think the Catholic Church is showing great wisdom here.

I'd add The Late Great Planet Earth (Hal Lindsey, 1970) to your list of failed predictions. Lindsey guessed that the Second Coming would be during the 1980s. The book was popular when I was in high school. It was my New Testament professor in college (a Christian college) who pointed out to...

Actually, that was the issue. Insofar as public schools are a part of the government, if a teacher leads a class in prayer, then, for those few minutes, the government is requiring the students to participate in whatever religion the prayer represents.

I suppose I should add something about my personal beliefs, in case anyone's wondering what label describes me. I tend to use the word "Progressive" to describe the cluster of social/ethical issues and "Liberal" to describe the cluster of scholarly/theological issues. (I acknowledge that...

I agree that the Nicene Creed helps keep us anchored. The words of the liturgy do, as well. It's not so much personal offense that's the issue. It's more that her descriptions of Liberal/Progressive beliefs are "off" in their wording, described using phrasing that Liberals or Progressives...