• Theology/Bible

    TIME Magazine Takes a Whack at President Bush (and misses)

    Well, I can say this much. The cover story of the latest issue of Time magazine is at least provocative: “The End of Cowboy Diplomacy: Why the Bush Doctrine no longer guides the foreign policy of the Bush Administration.” I wish I could say that the article is as insightful as its title is provocative. But it’s not. It is one of the sorriest pieces of analysis that I have read in a long time.In a nutshell, the article argues that the current litany of global crises have put to the lie “the Bush Doctrine” of foreign policy. In other words, an unpopular war in Iraq, a growing insurgency in…

  • Culture,  Personal,  Theology/Bible

    Podcast of Interview with Dan Wallace

    For those who are interested in listening to the interview I did with Dan Wallace (see previous post), I will have a podcast available for download next week. The producer of the radio program usually gives me the mp3 of the program on the day after the show. But since today is Friday, the earliest I’ll get the mp3 will be on Monday.In the meantime, you can sign up for the podcast by searching for “Denny Burk” in the iTunes music store. Or you can add the podcast directly to iTunes using the following link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DennyBurk-Podcast. Past shows in which I have participated include interviews with a wide variety of…

  • Personal,  Theology/Bible

    Dan Wallace on Reinventing Jesus

    I will be co-hosting the radio program “Jerry Johnson Live” today, and our guest on the show will be my old mentor Dr. Dan Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Wallace has just published a book titled Reinventing Jesus, in which he takes on the likes of Bart Ehrman and his radical views on the Bible.As you may know, Bart Ehrman has been making the media rounds promoting his book Misquoting Jesus. In this book, Ehrman mounts a full-scale assault on the doctrine of inerrancy. Unlike his more scholarly tomes, Ehrman is reaching a popular audience with this particular book. The wide reach of Misquoting Jesus is attested by Ehrman’s…

  • Book Reviews,  Personal,  Theology/Bible

    Barry Breaks-in to Blogosphere

    My best friend of 22 years, Barry Joslin, has a new blog, on which he has posted a favorable review of a certain book (a book whose name I don’t want to mention seeing as how I don’t want to appear self-serving, though please don’t expect me to direct your attention to any negative reviews of said book ).Go check out Barry’s new site. As the kids say, it’s da bomb!

  • Culture,  Politics

    Ken Lay, R.I.P.

    In May, I wrote about what I thought was the political significance of the Enron convictions and of the Ken Lay saga. It turns out that the end of the story happened this morning when Ken Lay died of a massive heart attack. R.I.P.“Enron Founder Ken Lay Dead of Heart Attack” – Washington Post

  • Culture,  Theology/Bible

    Newsweek Promotes God’s Girls

    In an article titled “God’s Girls,” Newsweek magazine reports that many major Christian Churches are behind the times in promoting women to the highest levels of denominational leadership. Women make up 61 percent of all Americans who attend religious congregations, but they still struggle for their place in some denominations. A national study led by researchers at Hartford Seminary found that only 12 percent of the clergy in the 15 largest Protestant denominations are women. And some 112 million Americans belong to denominations that don’t ordain women at all, including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Southern Baptists, Mormons, Muslims and Orthodox Jews (source). Is Newsweek really suggesting that the high…

  • Culture,  Politics

    July 4th and Jimmy Stewart Populism

    Well, I guess I’m still a Populist. At least I felt like one as my family and I spent our July 4th evening watching Jimmy Stewart stick it to the man in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. There’s nothing like a little Jimmy Stewart to get you fired up about July 4th. Take a listen to a snippet from this speech from Mr. Smith. It’s almost as good as when Jimmy Stewart told off Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life.Enjoy and happy 4th!

  • Culture,  Theology/Bible

    Who do Wiccans worship?

    There’s an interesting item in today’s Washington Post about a soldier killed in Afghanistan who was a Wiccan. The fact that a veteran’s cemetary is not letting his widow put a pentacle (a pagan symbol, pictured right) on his memorial is a controversy in itself.But what jumped off the page to me in the Post article was it’s description of Wicca: Wiccans still suffer, however, from the misconception that they are devil worshipers. Some Wiccans call themselves witches, pagans or neopagans. Most of their rituals revolve around the cycles of nature, such as equinoxes and phases of the moon. Wiccans often pick and choose among religious traditions, blending belief in…

  • Culture,  Politics

    James Taranto on Media Bias

    James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal compiles a summary of left-leaning media bias in reports on last week’s Hamdan decision. I think the summary deserves our attention: “The Supreme Court on Thursday repudiated the Bush administration’s plan to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law. . . . The decision was . . . a sweeping and categorical defeat for the administration.“–New York Times “The Supreme Court yesterday struck down the military commissions President Bush established to try suspected members of al-Qaeda, emphatically rejecting a signature Bush anti-terrorism measure and the broad assertion of…

  • Culture,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Where Atrocity Is Normal

    Patrick Stone’s essay in Christianity Today is powerful and poignant. In “Where Atrocity Is Normal: Understanding Christian soldiers who have seen the horrors of war,” Stone recounts his own experience in Vietnam and reminds us of the atrocities of war and the impossible moral choices that face Christians who participate in them.Not only are the war stories tragic, but so also is his description of what his experience has been since coming home from Vietnam: Following my return from Vietnam I spent most Sunday mornings in a church pew wondering, “What does this have to do with what I saw and did in Vietnam?” . . . Since leaving Vietnam…