Reading Time: 8 minutes No love is lost between the Hebrews and Canaanites in the Bible. The narrative roots of their antagonism appear early in Genesis, in which we read about the chosen Israelites and shameful Canaanites descending from different sons of Noah. A few books later, in Joshua, we’re told that the Hebrews, after fleeing Egypt and wandering […]
Religion
Posted inReligious News
Israel and the West: The global fight to outgrow national strife
Reading Time: 10 minutes On March 29, 2022, a gunman from near Jenin in the West Bank killed five people in a district of Tel Aviv. Two were Ukrainian nationals. One was a rabbi who died shielding his two-year-old. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah celebrated the killings, while the Palestinian National Authority joined other world […]
Posted inPolitics
The theological error behind post-liberalism’s bid for political power
Reading Time: 8 minutes On March 29, 2023, Dr. Chad Pecknold delivered the Pio Cardinal Laghi Chair Lecture at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. Secular eyes might roll at the excessive Latinate titles and obscure setting. But Pecknold, a postliberal theologian at Catholic University, represents a movement that merits attention from those who value our secular democracy. […]
Posted inCulture
Israel and the West: Netanyahu and Israeli national politics
Reading Time: 11 minutes On December 29, 2022, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government came into power: a coalition of right wing nationalist and religious groups with a complex backstory and contentious plans for settlement, military action, and civil rights. On January 4, 2023, Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced government plans to limit Supreme Court power and provide […]
Posted inReligion
Easter potpourri: a look at the crucifixion, resurrection, and much more
Reading Time: 4 minutes A number of issues surrounding Easter are dubious: the importance of the crucifixion, the uniqueness of Jesus’s sacrifice, contradictions in the Bible’s own stories about the events, the women at the tomb, the Shroud of Turin, and more.
Posted inHistory
Israel and the West: Western complicity in Middle Eastern trauma
Reading Time: 10 minutes Israel is a strange country—but then, what country isn’t? Canada is sometimes jokingly referred to as three mining companies in a trench coat. Nigeria only became formally independent in 1960, from the painfully divisive lines carved by British colonial rule at cost to a much older and more nuanced array of local nations. And the […]
Posted inReligion
Hitchens’ Challenge: How well has it stood up?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Atheist Christopher Hitchens made a famous moral challenge to Christians. Let’s consider two Christian responses.
Posted inReligion
UK Faith and State report expected to ruffle (certain) religious feathers
Reading Time: 3 minutes A wide-ranging report into the relationship between religion and the state in the UK is set to be released in the coming weeks. The “Independent Faith Engagement Review” has been compiled by Colin Bloom, the former head of the Conservative Christian Fellowship (an organization within the Conservative Party that aims to “inspire and equip believers […]
Posted inReligion
Did Jesus die by crucifixion?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Easter is fast approaching… Apologists like William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Mike Licona often use the “Minimal Facts” argument to “prove” that the Resurrection of Jesus can be shown to be a historical “fact.” This approach seeks to establish—or take as givens—certain claims that most everyone will agree to, and these then supposedly lead […]
Posted inReligion
Polygamy (and other outdated institutions that God approves of)
Reading Time: 6 minutes Let’s look at what the Bible actually says about polygamy and how God regulates it (like another institution we’ve explored …). Our Christian apologist is still confused about critiques of polygamy vs. polygamists.