As a sometimes struggling adult Bible study leader, I generally agree with what Bill Tammeus writes from Kansas City. Kansas City Star | 04/01/2006 | Teach for understanding’s sake Authority in our culture has lost much of its appeal and credibility. If either of these teachers had presumed simply to announce what we, as Presbyterians, [...]

Lexington | The rebirth of outrage | Economist.com Worse, many partisans don’t accept the legitimacy of their opponents. Plenty of conservatives don’t just dislike liberals; they don’t regard them as real Americans. (“I never use the words Democrats and Republicans,” James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the interior, once said. “It’s liberals and Americans.”) Many [...]

Thanks to daughter Linda for pointing me to this interesting article. My education about things Presbyterian continues. The American Thinker With the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA scheduled to convene in June for the first time since the 2004 GA passed a notorious anti-Israel divestment resolution, supporters and detractors of divestment are discussing [...]

Christians believe that the church was ordained by God and represents the presence and influence of Jesus Christ on earth. The casual observer may be excused for looking askance at that assertion. Christians also believe that the church members are not exempt from human failings, an attribute commonly ascribed to the influence of the Devil. [...]

I’ve added Gruntled Center to my blogroll. Here we have a sociologist and Presbyterian elder who sees himself as a centrist in the church, whatever that is. His daughter wrote a series of articles on meliorism (I learned a new word today) that seems to reveal the man-centered religion that is so pervasive in the [...]

One phrase of church-speak that really irritates me is talk of “doing church.” I’ve never thought too much about why it does until I read the following on the Kruse Kronicle: Kruse Kronicle: Toward an Evangelical Public Policy: Chapter 3 So, if I may be forgiven from cribbing a quote from a quote from a [...]

Presbyterians struggle to know their own mind about modern day Palestine and Israel. The Zionists among us are intrigued by the idea that today’s Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy about events preceding the return of Christ. They tend to exalt Israel and demonize the Palestinians. Others, myself included, consider present day Palestinians, especially [...]

I am an elder and clerk of session in my church, First presbyterian, Quincy, Illinois. I find myself more and more taken up with church affairs and figure it’s time I start talking about it more on the Orlop. I have added the subcategory “Presbyterian” under “Bible and Religion.” My denomination is the Presbyterian Church [...]