tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-282676662012-02-16T03:39:43.669-06:00by Leroy Howe<br /> Columns on faith, theology and everyday lifeDr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comBlogger2041100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-54925881987327047622010-05-24T12:41:00.001-05:002010-05-24T12:43:44.467-05:00

This column completes eight years of putting up on this website short essays on faith, theology, and everyday living. It began and it ends, in this form at least, as a part of the outreach ministry of First United Methodist Church, Richardson, Texas.What I have tried to do in all of these pieces is to bring the resources of scripture, the Christian tradition, experience, and reason to bear on the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-11293176117352574572010-05-10T16:06:00.002-05:002010-05-10T16:10:28.065-05:00

Sometimes, I like to imagine myself standing with a few inquiring friends just outside the door of that upstairs room in Jerusalem and witnessing the Holy Spirit's descending on Jesus' followers before the whole neighborhood went ballistic. I still wonder what we would and would not have heard and seen that morning. Most likely, we would have heard the sudden outbursts in other languages. But

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-57434087023233465072010-04-26T07:30:00.002-05:002010-04-26T07:33:21.494-05:00

On March 10, 2006, the St. John’s Catholic Church in Westminster, Maryland, held a funeral service for Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Nearby, members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, displayed signs of protest which included the following: God Hates the USA, Pope in hell, Fag troops, and Thank God for dead soldiers. After the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-63494588232799703752010-04-12T07:26:00.001-05:002010-04-12T07:29:05.749-05:00

Recently, I came across several highly regarded studies that question the effectiveness of anti-depressant medications on all but the most severely depressed patients. According to these studies, mildly to moderately depressed people do about as well on placebos as they do on meds. One reason this is so may be that more than a few people in the placebo groups believe they are getting the real

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-44367711304220970542010-03-29T06:55:00.002-05:002010-03-29T06:58:13.939-05:00

When I got converted, I had the trembles inside, like most of my religious friends had been praying that I would. But it was not those trembles that, as they loved to say, "led me to Jesus." It was God and not Jesus who played the prominent role in first opening up a new way of life to me, and a God of a quite different sort than the god who had been laying in wait for eons to stick it to his

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-34685301341912118782010-03-15T10:18:00.002-05:002010-03-15T10:23:31.645-05:00

It is quite a leap, theologically, from the idea that Jesus loves the world’s children to the idea that Jesus died for the world’s sins. “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners,” Paul wrote, as a kind of bottom line statement of what grown up Christians are supposed to believe. (Romans 5:8a) Even so, the first idea still seems the better one, particularly when to the second is added the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-51278846434230541032010-03-01T07:59:00.002-06:002010-03-01T08:03:33.069-06:00

When I was a kid, the time of the week I dreaded most was Sunday morning. On every one of them, my mother and I trundled off to church on the city bus at the time my father headed out in the family car for the golf course. It never seemed quite fair to me, Dad lining up long putts while I suffered through hell-fire and damnation sermons and Sunday School classes that always began with "Jesus

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-12217398497383227722010-02-15T08:45:00.006-06:002010-02-15T08:53:17.881-06:00

From the perspective of moral decision-making, the Bible's single reference to a tree whose fruit contained the knowledge of good and evil seems to call for trusting and obeying rules unconditionally --- e.g., Curb your curiosity --- and never asking for the underlying ethical principles that would render the rules morally approvable in the first place --- e.g., Pushing the limits of our finite,

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-58099907326996626932010-02-01T08:10:00.001-06:002010-02-01T08:13:05.775-06:00

Here is a little story that I heard about for the first time in third grade Sunday School. It pretty much spoiled my whole day. Once upon a time, there was a garden planted by the Creator of the universe. There, human beings and every other creature of the fields and the air were meant to live happily, forever. Right in the middle of the garden were two glorious trees. One, called the tree of the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-67305094260420491082010-01-18T06:31:00.006-06:002010-01-18T22:20:49.743-06:00

About the time I graduated from seminary, a major era in American religious life was just beginning its slow, irreversible decline. In specific, a cluster of Protestant denominations professing to constitute the Christian mainstream in this country was about to lose a dominant position in American culture. It took the first twenty years of my professional life for me to see the partial drying up

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-88016646287262616722010-01-18T06:30:00.004-06:002010-01-18T22:18:13.679-06:00

Last year, I gave several talks at the end of which readers of this column came up to me and expressed both their appreciation for it and helpful suggestions for making it better. One suggestion was to re-run some of the columns which were favorites at the time, since we are now into the eighth year of Howe About and since new readers may not yet have ventured into searching out the earlier

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-89627959677725436092010-01-04T07:52:00.003-06:002010-01-18T15:36:53.263-06:00

Some of the most interesting research I came across in the year just ended was by Mark Chaves, a Duke University sociologist, who has been running what he calls the National Congregations Study (NCS) since 1998. The early phase of this study is described in his splendid book, Congregations in America, from Harvard University Press. Chaves redid the study in 2006-7 and made it available at

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1149095613610985622010-01-01T07:12:00.002-06:002010-01-18T22:36:33.700-06:00

December, 21, 2009, Christmas TruthDecember 7, 2009, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive..."November 23, 2009, Forgiving Our Enemies: The Fort Hood Shootings November 9, 2009, Another 3:16 To PonderOctober 26, 2009, Conservatizing The Bible October 12, 2009, Conversion, Conviction, And Conscience September 28, 2009, Revisiting The Ninth Commandment September 14, 2009, Sin, Health, And The Sin Of Not

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-18463226723325927432009-12-21T07:37:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:37:58.071-06:00

One Advent Sunday morning, standing in a crowded narthex while the early worship service was letting out, I could not help overhearing an interchange between two fellow parishioners about the Sunday School class they had just attended:What a downer! Here we were, primed and ready for Christmas, and our teacher suddenly decides to tell us that the Christmas story is just that --- only a story.

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-25615537033709469142009-12-07T07:40:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:37:58.071-06:00

This is the time of the year when I get asked most often, and not only by people outside the church, whether Christians still have to believe that Jesus came into the world by supernatural means. Put another way, the question is whether belief in the virgin conception of Jesus (virgin birth is not the same issue) remains a core belief for the Christian faith. One column will not quite answer both

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-7647117067799108382009-11-23T07:55:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:34:34.604-06:00

Throughout the Gospels, there are many sayings and teachings ascribed to Jesus whose authenticity Biblical scholars have been questioning for a long time. Take, for example, his alleged statement in Matthew that he had not come to change anything about the Law (5:18). It is difficult to reconcile this statement with what all of the Gospels together present about his ministry as a whole. By means

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-55072088625633265142009-11-09T07:16:00.000-06:002010-01-18T15:34:34.604-06:00

It still catches my eye when football fans evangelize from the stands by holding up placards that read JOHN 3:16! This was my favorite of all the Bible verses I had to memorize growing up. It contained just about everything that my nowhere near Christian mind could then manage to comprehend of the Christian message. At least, the first half of the verse did. The idea that God came to earth out of

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-59071238761809623322009-10-26T08:15:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.604-06:00

All translations of the Bible are influenced by theological assumptions and convictions that sometimes obscure rather than illuminate earlier meanings. For example, the Latin word for sacrament was no way to render the Greek word for mystery, and our understanding of both the sacraments and the mysteries of the faith have suffered as a result. Or, a gender neutral translation of the Bible, such

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-57958886618752615652009-10-12T07:30:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.605-06:00

Soon after my high school conversion experience, my born-again Christian friends began hinting that the big event may not have been the real deal. I could report no stroke-like symptoms, bright lights, or angelic choruses, not even a basso profundo voice from above the clouds. I did not need to be helped to my feet after it was all over, or anyone to tell me what had happened or what it meant. I

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-62507082244120255662009-09-28T07:53:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.605-06:00

Our many failures across the country this past summer to reason together about matters of social importance surely reached their nadir with a Congressman’s not easily forgotten “You lie!” shout to the President of the United States. Under the circumstances, the President’s response seemed appropriate enough --- “that’s not true” --- but also a little lame. Perhaps we can help him out --- the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-72696876745264733102009-09-14T06:35:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.605-06:00

As serious as were the consequences of “original” sin --- toilsome work for Adam, painful childbirth for Eve, and eventually, death for both (but not on “the very day” they sinned) --- one thing that apparently neither of our First Parents had to suffer as punishment for it was bad health. It did not take long, however, for the idea to get going among their descendents that everybody else’s

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-51610273577160985212009-08-31T10:13:00.005-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.606-06:00

Riotous town hall meetings on the reforming of health care are finally ebbing, and Congressional debate on the subject can gear up again aided by the usual and quieter back alley lobbying and back room dealing. Right now, I am wondering whether faith communities across this country will glean enough from their own traditions to make a significant difference, and quickly, to a discussion that

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-38623011603108180782009-08-17T07:17:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.606-06:00

On the face of it, it seems reasonable to insist on having the first at our personal disposal and the second at our government’s. The argument goes like this: There are bad people on our streets and untrustworthy foreign powers beyond our borders who want to do us harm and who have at their disposal, respectively, both means of doing it. And so, it is our personal and societal right and

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-12961707159393716922009-08-03T08:13:00.009-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.606-06:00

There is a passage in The Book of Colossians that in my mind nicely links the Christology of early church teaching with the cosmology of recent scientific speculation: “In (Christ) everything in heaven and on earth was created, not only things visible but also the invisible order of thrones, sovereignties, authorities, and powers: the whole universe has been created through him and for him. And

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-66878901427313510322009-07-20T08:13:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.607-06:00

For a couple of years, it was possible from this website to access a book-length collection of short studies that I wrote under the title: Explorations in Faith and Belief. During the time that this material was up and running, I received a number of e-mails from readers that I found gratifying and challenging, and that encouraged me specifically to refine and focus the material around a better

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-57265490338729781682009-07-06T07:07:00.000-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.608-06:00

I would like to think that it is a sign of maturing in faith and not just aging into crankiness that some of my favorite passages in the Bible have begun to trouble me as much as they comfort me. Two examples, both from my very favorite Gospel, should suffice to illustrate at least some of my --- and, I believe, our --- troubles. Since modern translations do not help very much to alleviate the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-28322583107989624792009-06-22T07:31:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.608-06:00

The cold drizzle that enveloped all of us during the burial service abated somewhat, and two brothers hung back to reminisce a little more about their father before turning to the many friends of the family who were maintaining their distance respectfully. Silently praying for the last time over the casket, I could not help overhearing the brothers’ speaking gently and lovingly, but also

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-43173922127329473472009-06-08T08:19:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.608-06:00

June has long since lost its status as the magic month for weddings --- people get married just about anytime anymore --- but I have been around long enough as an officiant to keep turning my thoughts especially at this time of the year to our society’s fantasies and hopes for marriage. And so, as I have during several previous Junes through these columns, I am focusing again on couples and on

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-89082364435915291832009-05-25T08:15:00.000-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.609-06:00

People who are struggling with questions about faith deserve answers that reflect both the best in the Christian tradition and the best that their own reasoned judgment can bring to life's challenges in the here and now. In general, the most helpful answers are discovered for oneself, with the encouragement of others. Nevertheless, earnest questions about the Christian faith are frequently met

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-22643643043103943592009-05-11T10:02:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.609-06:00

In many respects, the United Methodist Church’s internal debates about gays and lesbians reflects uncannily the shape and scope of American society’s own ambivalence about homosexuality and about homosexuals in general. For Methodism’s mission, this is not a good thing. It is difficult to be an effective witness to God in God’s world when one is too much a part of, rather than a solution to, the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-59936959309598230912009-04-27T10:52:00.004-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.609-06:00

Deeply embedded in current debates about how to present the Christian message with integrity is a clenched-teeth holding to a central core of beliefs as an indispensable sign of saving faith. For all practical purposes, Fundamentalists in all of the major world religions have declared a holy war on the questioning of vesting control of religious institutions and even whole societies in anyone

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-34609204603435468722009-04-13T08:11:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.610-06:00

The Christian story, as I learned about it growing up, is a story about a good man who was badly treated and eventually killed, but who was raised from the dead by God to show us his true identity as the way to, and the truth about, eternal life. The more I learned of the story in later years, even by doing a theology degree or three to learn it, the harder it got to come up with other ways of

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-19257899434120093872009-03-30T07:03:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:34:34.610-06:00

Lately, several people have asked me about books to read in their struggles with questions about faith. Together, we have been looking into a number of recent writings on the subject. And I have been thinking a good bit all over again about how the Christian tradition articulates not only what those beliefs are that Christians are supposed to uphold, but the reasons for our believing that they

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-68514946753776402782009-03-16T08:38:00.000-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.163-06:00

In vitro fertilization has long been a controversial issue for our society, except for couples who want children and for whom IVF is either their best or only option. It violates the (in my judgment, debatable) teachings of more than one religious tradition. Its failure can leave crushing disappointment and hopelessness in its wake. Its high cost creates pressure for quick success, and tempts

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-2895973746666984452009-03-02T09:11:00.003-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.163-06:00

Along with everything else that we are facing in these troubled times, many people are also struggling with unanswered questions about faith. Some turn to spiritual guides who offer only the kind of answers that discourage further exploration. Others, myself included, believe that a healthy respect for questions and doubts is what makes for a trustworthy guide on matters of faith.There is nothing

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-21314285964470569062009-02-16T06:30:00.000-06:002010-01-18T14:20:58.112-06:00

Richard Mouw is a highly respected evangelical Christian leader and President of one of the finest evangelical seminaries in the world. When he speaks I want to listen. And what he writes I like to read.Recently, Newsweek magazine published a brief essay by Mouw whose purpose is to invite evangelicals and those who are angry with them to begin talking more respectfully to each other. He hopes to

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-55553708693946045922009-02-02T07:48:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.163-06:00

While Barack Obama was taking the oath of office, my wife and I were helping our daughter recover from a severe bronchial infection and trying to keep things less scary for our grandaughter in the process. Happily, the infection is cleared up; our grandaughter is cheered up; and though we are back home in Texas we are still catching up on the huge week and more that we missed. Enough is still

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-22454895721814738002009-01-19T07:52:00.001-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.164-06:00

One thing that continues to fascinate me about theology in the life of the church is the passion of all the truly great theologians to bring together the wisdom of the ages with the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ; neither excludes the other. One especially powerful illustration of how this works is a rich tradition that begins with St. Paul and culminates for United Methodists (who still

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-85440353009851613942009-01-05T08:19:00.001-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.164-06:00

It is a good thing that the stories of Jesus' birth eventually went far beyond merely commemorating his role as Messiah to the Jews. And it must not have been easy to get the extrapolation going. At every step of the way, the earliest Jewish Christians had to fight the temptation to keep their Lord all to themselves. After all, their leaders in Jerusalem kept clinging to just that kind of narrow

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-44038968398089241262008-12-22T07:35:00.000-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.164-06:00

Modern psychology describes the early stages of grieving, in Sigmund Freud's classic phrase, as a "painful dejection" best coped with in three stages. We face up to the fact of loss, however shattering the loss may be. We consign the once here and now relationship to a special place in our memories. And finally, we invest ourselves in other relationships and causes. At each stage, it helps to

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-87700744601893556242008-12-08T09:06:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.165-06:00

The Sunday afternoon was sunny and delightfully cool, the Fall leaves were gorgeous, and the refreshments kept coming as the room kept filling. Happy greetings, broad smiles, hugs, and mounting chatter said it all: for those who had felt deep sorrow, there were now times of joy and a readiness to celebrate new life. To this particular gathering, everyone who had ever participated in a grief

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-49212308638272459062008-11-24T06:49:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.165-06:00

The Monday before Thanksgiving several years ago, I made pastoral calls on two parish families whom I knew to be grieving painful losses. The two households could not have been more different. In one, the dining room table was already set for the feast to come, and on the chair at its head stood a large picture of the grandfather whose funeral I conducted the previous year. Other family pictures

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-56876020421276565662008-11-10T07:13:00.002-06:002010-01-18T15:36:15.165-06:00

Given what lies ahead for our next President, it was something of a relief that the Obama family shared a lighter moment with us that involved reconciling conflicting ideas about the next canine occupant of the White House. I loved the way the President-elect summed up the dilemma: finding a mutt who won't bring about allergic reactions. It got me to thinking about another dilemma facing the next

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-76092086608545238712008-10-27T08:44:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.166-06:00

It may be a long time before we hear another Federal Reserve Board Chairman admit the kind of mistake that Alan Greenspan did recently. Typically, gurus neither admit mistakes nor concede even the possibility of making one. There has been no bigger guru around than former chairman Greenspan these past few years, so his very public confession is a big deal, and he deserves a lot of credit for

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-57243554243207275932008-10-13T08:42:00.003-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.166-06:00

In theological circles, a debate has been going on for some time about how to read the early chapters of Genesis on the marriage relationship. Tradition infers from them that a woman is intended to be her man's helper. Feminism does not take the ribbing in stride; women are mens' partners, and men are womens' partners, whether God said so or not. Hierarchy and subordination should not enter the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-60243369062202703692008-09-29T10:57:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.166-06:00

As a rule of thumb, when times turn bad imagination turns psychotic and people run for cover that is no longer there. Apocalyptic thinking overwhelms careful analysis of options remaining, decisions beckoning, and outcomes possible. Futuring collapses into catastrophizing, and the wisdom of the many is denigrated by the posturing of the few, who demand unquestioning acceptance of their prophecies

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-39916896231246591012008-09-15T09:46:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.166-06:00

Lately, I have been conjuring with a way to settle once and for all the question of which Presidential candidate is the most committed to bringing about "real" change, that is, change that will really matter to real people and not just to Washington-minded bureaucrats. My idea was inspired by a re-reading of Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus' words about feeding the hungry, quenching peoples' thirst, being

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-67635409131577973372008-09-01T07:18:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.167-06:00

About the time that this year's Presidential Campaign reaches its peak intensity, many Finance Committees will be launching their churches' Stewardship Campaigns for the purpose of underwriting 2009 budgets. In megachurches at least, the slickness of the latter is likely to match and even exceed the flimflamness of the former. Hopefully, in spite of all the political and theological hype to come,

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-62431350648165604852008-08-18T10:18:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.167-06:00

Over twenty years ago, the Federal Communications Commission deep-sixed a policy on its books which required message-oriented broadcasters to make air time available to people with opposing viewpoints. As much of an irritant as it was, it never amounted to a lot as policy. For one thing, it did not carry the full force of law. For another, it provided less than the equal time that its own "

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-35272022720438351912008-08-04T11:00:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.167-06:00

Who would have thought that people could get out of sorts over the authorship of a prayer? Particularly a prayer as magnificent as this one: "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." But out of sorts some are, ironically over who should get the credit

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-72032573207370005482008-07-21T08:59:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.168-06:00

There was a time during my years on a theology school's faculty when I began to wonder whether seminaries were becoming the place to go for healing from the abuses that sick churches heap upon their members in the interest of saving souls from hell. A number of my students told me very disturbing things about growing up in the church, and were worried whether they would ever fully recover from it

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-20278611880947778352008-07-07T09:44:00.001-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.168-06:00

Most Christians I knew when I was a teen-ager talked and acted like they had all read Horace Bushnell's Christian Nurture together. They were comfortable with their faith, saw to it that their children had opportunities to learn the same things that they themselves learned in Sunday School, and worked hard to make their churches places to which everyone in their families would want to come. It

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-66168458717808340292008-06-23T09:12:00.002-05:002010-01-18T15:36:15.168-06:00

My first week in Divinity School, I fell in love with its chapel-dominated residential quadrangle. On the southwestern corner of the quad sat a residential building, my own, named after the nineteenth-century American pastor and theologian, Horace Bushnell. It soon occurred to me that a proper respect for my surroundings should include gaining at least a minimal understanding of Bushnell's legacy

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-42750102912238712812008-06-09T10:24:00.000-05:002008-06-09T16:39:09.721-05:00

Many good things have come from this year's Presidential Primaries. Especially among the Democrats, younger voters got involved early and stayed involved, even if by themselves they could not determine the outcome. At the same time, among the Republicans, early concerns about the winner's age were finally trumped by perceptions of his competence. Now, there are real issues and very divergent

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-44339497746117926102008-05-26T10:24:00.000-05:002008-06-09T16:39:09.721-05:00

For some time, Donald Haynes has been writing interesting and challenging columns for the United Methodist Reporter, a high quality denominational newspaper. In a recent piece, he details what he believes has gone wrong with the denomination's efforts to transmit its theological heritage effectively to its members. One assertion in particular is a real eye-poker, to the effect that emphasis on

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-18680210543734413742008-05-12T10:24:00.003-05:002008-06-09T16:39:09.722-05:00

Recently, the United Methodist Church's General Conference reaffirmed the denomination's long-standing position that homosexual practice is "incompatible" with Christian teaching. In the minds of many, the harshness of this position can still be offset by holding to a distinction between personhood, orientation, and practice, and confining the condemnation (it amounts to just that, a condemnation

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-62427892129349807902008-04-28T10:10:00.002-05:002008-06-09T16:39:09.722-05:00

Paul's letters make embarrassingly clear that all was anything but well a lot of the time in some of his congregations. To his frequent dismay, power struggles often trumped sacrificial actions, posturing overwhelmed humility, and a worn-out legalism kept drowning out his message that all things were becoming new. As if all of this were not enough, God's own Spirit may have been making matters

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-17326587257024968182008-04-14T07:00:00.001-05:002008-06-09T16:39:09.722-05:00

For more years than I like to remember, conservatives and liberals in the church have been going at each other with toxic combinations of calumny, caricature, and contempt, pitting true believers against thoughtful ones, rejecting theology for ideology, and making a mockery of oneness in Christ and fools of themselves in the bargain. If God had had any idea that "reasoning together" (Isaiah 1:18

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-69990642303906410572008-03-31T15:05:00.002-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.788-05:00

If a recent decision of the State Board of Education in Texas is any indication, there are a lot of ways not to get this right. After approving "broad guidelines" for an elective course on the Bible in high schools, the Board apparently then found itself flummoxed by the Texas Legislature's initial mandate that left unspecified whether all school districts will or will not be required to offer

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-25569177329086188052008-03-17T11:19:00.000-05:002008-06-23T17:21:41.784-05:00

Recently, the highly respected Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a well-researched study on religious affiliation in America. Its findings yield an interesting mix of confirmation, surprise, and questions for further reflection. In the first place, the study confirms a prevailing opinion of researchers that a large majority of Americans identify themselves as religious, but not

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-6112603557693521292008-03-03T11:19:00.003-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.788-05:00

One thing that church history makes plain is the ease with which Christianity's original and relatively simple message, about God's love for all and our obligation to be loving to all in his name, can be deformed into an impenetrably thick system of rationalizations for channeling that love only to some, beginning most typically with the system's perpetuators. Old arrangements, based upon ideas

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-59834216305056932242008-02-18T11:55:00.002-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.789-05:00

One of the most grating and inextinguishable commercials currently running on TV is for an outfit that promises cash advances to people who have settlements and annuities coming to them. "Now" is the key word, screamed by really lousy performers who want the world to know whose money it is and when they want it. Stumble into this commercial more than once, and you are likely to begin fantasizing

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-50078674376023484052008-02-04T10:41:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.790-05:00

Among the many things we can still learn from Freud, even though psychotherapists with nothing better to contribute have relegated him to library archives, is that there is a big difference between wishes and truths, and that most of us wish that this were not so. Just as the show was getting under way this election year with the first primaries, I found myself full of hope over the prospect of

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-72721389248430140362008-01-21T07:52:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.790-05:00

For over two hundred years, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's idea of "civil religion" has continued to influence Euro-American thinking about traditional Christianity's mesh with modern values of individualism, freedom, and the separation of church and state. For Rousseau, civil religion represented an understanding of God and the world whose source is common sense and reason operating independently of

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-40511993246049339772008-01-07T17:10:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.790-05:00

While many of us were otherwise occupied during the holidays, more politically conscientious fellow citizens were keeping the faith by following a long train of presidential candidates along backroads and into musty halls while struggling politely but forcibly to resist frenzied media representatives' substituting spin for candidates' words. We owe these friends of democracy a lot, even though

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-41293257808272306622007-12-24T07:06:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.791-05:00

The Book of Revelation and I do not get along very well, theologically. Too much of it is devoted to depicting all the horrible things that are in store for people who do not pass muster with the Heavenly Authorities. In its gloating over others' soon to come punishments, hope gets swallowed up in terror, judgment crowds out love, and new creation almost vanishes from sight. That narratives like

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-81224591321084675832007-12-10T10:54:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.791-05:00

Does anybody know whether the Chicago Bears have any of those free #87 jerseys left?Now hold on, fellow Cowboys fans, and let me explain. The jersey offer to which I am referring showed up last month alongside the story on a media website about the Bears' 38-20 victory over the New York Giants. Recent events have drawn me back into that story a little, for reasons other than the help the win gave

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-75004477739623554972007-11-26T09:17:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.791-05:00

An early Christian hymn, which Paul incorporated into his letter to the Philippians, told of a man who had all of God's own completeness in him, who nonetheless put himself utterly and sacrificially at the disposal of others, ultimately at the cost of his own very human life. He humbled himself, even to the point of placing himself in bondage to others' needs, hopes, and animosities. And he died

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-47688146190223163712007-11-12T13:43:00.000-06:002008-04-12T22:48:21.792-05:00

Between orientation meetings and worship services my first week of seminary, I managed to squeeze in a reading of H. Richard Niebuhr's classic study, The Social Sources of Denominationalism. Two among its many important points still stand out prominently. The first is that social and economic struggles had as much to do with the development of Protestant denominations as theology did, and even

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-82399967392377333062007-10-29T14:05:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.793-05:00

One belief that many Jews and Christians share in common is that when the Jewish people finally reassemble in what is a Holy Land for both religions, the Messiah will return and usher in God's Kingdom. From this conviction, though, others spin in very different directions within both groups, often leaving in their trails a dangerous mixture of confusion, over-zealousness, mutual suspicion, and

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-62478352034318313182007-10-15T11:53:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.793-05:00

It is hard to imagine the Founding Fathers anticipating just how far we would eventually push our freedom to express whatever might be in our hearts and minds at any given moment. Many of them were rightly suspicious of their fellow human beings, enough to build into the Constitution all kinds of blocks to using power for purposes of self-aggrandizement. But they also believed that, in most

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-45730775425086198682007-10-01T11:46:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.794-05:00

As weary as many people must be in Jena, Louisiana of outsiders messing with their lives, it is not likely that they will be free of their stunned and outraged critics any time soon. A genuinely repentant District Attorney might help, or at least a judge or two. Not to mention white barbers who will cut blacks' hair without anyone else's having to make a federal case for it. As for deep-down

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-21333467467798396562007-09-17T11:02:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.795-05:00

And then there was the fellow who complained all the time about his bad luck, and thrust his fist skyward to ask why the Almighty had not helped him win the lottery. He pressed his question for months, and finally the answer came. One afternoon, he heard a voice coming out of gathering storm clouds: "Harry, buy a ticket."Of all the theologically-toned lottery leg-pulling I have witnessed over the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-64213506872581632662007-09-03T08:49:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.795-05:00

The Gospels of Mark and Matthew convey a disturbingly candid portrait of Jesus' spiritual torments during his last hours on earth. According to their accounts, he was terrifyingly alone in the Garden of Gethsemene while oblivious disciples slept. And he was despairingly alone on the cross while uncomprehending antagonists mocked. In Luke's Gospel and John's, it is as if this portrait had proved

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-32602281053594794972007-08-20T15:21:00.001-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.796-05:00

Toward the end of a course on professional ethics I had been teaching for pastoral counselors in training, one of the members reported on a recently completed session that she said had unnerved her to the point of making her dread its follow-up. Her case unnerved all of us, too, partly because at the time none of us, myself included, had dealt with anything like it. Over the years to come, all of

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-51803480077859647252007-08-06T07:41:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.796-05:00

Several years before some of my former classmates would be heading to Woodstock, I spent a memorable Holy Week with a bunch of fellow preachers on a Florida beach, striking up conversations with kids willing to pause long enough in their chugging to do a little praying. The evenings were spent under a big tent in the sand, engaging in coffee-house style give and take on, of all things, the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-51985076643504279942007-07-23T10:43:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.797-05:00

The old adage, that sticks and stones break bones but words never hurt, is only half right. Sometimes, words hurt even more. Mispronounce or misspell one in literate company, and you may never recover from the sudden revelation of what to others' jaded eyes is now your defective upbringing, education, mindfulness, or all three. Use one among perceptive and caring people to curse or to let off

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-79268848127939709302007-07-09T08:36:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.797-05:00

Of all the rational arguments against the God of the Bible, I think the most powerful is still that of the 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume. As elegant as it is simple, the gist of his argument went like this: an all-powerful and supremely benevolent Creator should have made a better job of putting together a universe hospitable to humans than he appears to have done with this one.

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-21820722544085185342007-06-25T09:43:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.797-05:00

When I first learned to sing "Jesus Loves Me," in a circle on the floor of my first grade Sunday School room, it was over the distractions of being poked, prodded, and tickled by buddies on both sides. They received my retaliatory gestures in the same impish spirit with which I delivered them, and somehow we all managed to keep our dis-graceful behaviors out of the view of a struggling teacher

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-37175842810468509682007-06-11T11:15:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.798-05:00

One of the hardest things about running a reform movement is keeping all the reformers on the same page. The Protestant Reformation was and is a good illustration of this daunting reality. Maybe if Luther had counted to eleven instead of ten before he nailed his ninety-five theses to that Wittenberg church, and knocked on its door with only a Top Ten list, he might have gotten more Catholics to

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-27168241717141996662007-05-28T11:44:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.798-05:00

Across the five years that I have been writing these columns, two rules for interpreting the Christian faith sensibly have been especially important to me. One calls for acknowledging and respecting the sometimes very wide differences between the apostolic age and the present-day, and the adjustments that we must make to the fact that, in James Russell Lowell's words, time can make ancient good "

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-83049678093502410742007-05-14T06:56:00.000-05:002008-04-12T22:48:21.799-05:00

The reception was in full, boisterous swing, and having done my duty as the newly-weds' officiant, I was quietly making my way to the parking lot. Standing near my car was a young couple with whom I had chatted during the cake-cutting. Now, she was almost hysterical and he, clearly unsuccessful in comforting her, had settled for trying to shut her up. Perhaps it was the tone of my voice, or the

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-65866765950513072372007-04-30T08:18:00.000-05:002007-04-30T08:20:17.066-05:00

It may come as a surprise to learn that the most comprehensive and clearly articulated views on divine justice come not from Western religions, but from Eastern ones. For Hinduism and Buddhism, what goes around does indeed come around, over and over, inevitably, across unfathomable eons of time. The wheel's turning pushes evil-doers lower and lower on the great chain of being, and elevates the

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-25014453712824807432007-04-16T10:04:00.000-05:002007-04-16T10:06:44.908-05:00

One question I often think about during the Lenten and Easter seasons is whether historical knowledge about Jesus can help us much to believe that he is Christ and Lord. I try to keep an open mind on the possibility that it can, because modern methods of historical study do bridge all sorts of gaps between the present and the past, and because I continue to seek encounters with a very present,

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-35349807379362224982007-04-02T07:02:00.000-05:002007-04-02T07:08:19.517-05:00

There we were, at our agreed upon end of a Lenten study on John's Gospel, and I was nowhere close to covering its final chapters. Then, some members of the group suggested that we continue by way of noon-time meetings the first four days of Holy Week. For me at least, it was a great suggestion. I only brought the lessons; they brought the lunch. Little did we know that we were establishing a

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-65769755537030630732007-03-19T07:17:00.000-05:002007-03-19T07:18:25.069-05:00

More than once in my ministry, I have taken communion in churches where, by virtue of my not being a member, I was not supposed to. I knew what I was doing, experienced no remorse over doing it, and whenever another occasion presented itself, I went and did it again. And now that my "sin" is out in the open, in order not to get barred from the chancel rail by the Reverends who may come across its

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-22363203333377628522007-03-05T06:16:00.000-06:002007-03-05T06:27:46.651-06:00

It is easy to get the sillies over the recent "revelation" that Jesus' bones have been collecting dust for 2,000 years in an ossuary while Christians the world over have been celebrating his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. Shame on you, James Cameron, for raining on our Easter parades. From the standpoint of building an audience for your documentary on all this, your sense of timing

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-28756999832182454732007-02-20T21:22:00.000-06:002007-02-20T21:24:26.342-06:00

For dealing with disagreements about belief and action in the church, a long-standing rule of thumb says that the buck stops at the Bible. Lip service to this rule notwithstanding, however, most Christians violate it a lot. Thank goodness. Here is one recent case of Bible wrangling that may make the reason for my gratitude a little clearer.Recently, officials of a near-by seminary denied a

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1170676958053348892007-02-05T05:56:00.000-06:002007-02-05T06:03:08.200-06:00

In the Sunday School class my wife and I attend, our gifted teacher was commenting wisely on the meaning of Christ's being "seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). Then, some members of the class wondered out loud about God's other hand. When the teacher asked if I could contribute anything to the discussion, I did the only thing a theologian of my learning and stature could do in a

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1169466604254308292007-01-22T05:42:00.000-06:002007-01-22T05:50:40.993-06:00

Having spent almost 30 years on the Southern Methodist University faculty, I think I have a pretty good understanding of how fitting the place is for a Presidential Library that will honor George W. Bush. Mr. and Mrs. Bush are loyal Texans and professing Methodists; many of SMU's wealthiest and most prominent trustees and donors have been affiliated with Bush-style politics for a long time; and

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1168259556271628332007-01-08T06:30:00.000-06:002007-02-18T22:32:30.640-06:00

I almost missed it. My focus had been on the deaths of Saddam Hussein and Gerald Ford, and on keeping my hostility in check over being forced to confront their two stories side by side on the same newspaper pages. Mr. Ford deserved better. Then, on my way from first page highlights to back pages commentaries, I came across another story whose significance should not be lost on any of us.On

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1167619613941539682006-12-31T20:43:00.000-06:002007-01-01T15:20:22.826-06:00

Across many years and miles, John Miller, a good and wise friend who teaches philosophy in Florida, has been gently challenging me to think straighter and more inclusively about religious beliefs. John takes not only my own religion, but all the world's religions very seriously, and so it did not surprise me how he closed his Christmas letter this year, with a beautiful paragraph on the Fourth

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1165842819762454952006-12-11T07:06:00.000-06:002006-12-11T07:14:57.146-06:00

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, staging individual swearing-in ceremonies for newly-elected members of the House of Representatives, with their hands held piously atop favorite family Bibles. After all, why should the President get all the photo-ops? When you are finally elected to Congress, why should all your religious supporters back home settle merely for your standing on

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1164052922463420482006-11-20T14:00:00.000-06:002006-11-20T14:02:02.476-06:00

If stores that sell things to the public get better to the extent that they get bigger, then Wal-Mart has not only been going on to perfection --- it has almost arrived. The number of its employees roughly approximates the number of uniformed personnel in the U.S. military. The chain's economic clout has been characterized as greater than that of the Federal Reserve. We are talking big here,

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1162817200315479422006-11-06T06:38:00.000-06:002006-11-06T06:46:40.560-06:00

A New Right to Life IssueWhen the rules for human relationships became too complicated, Jesus cut through the casuistry with a startlingly simple way of expressing what God wants from us. In the words of his second commandment (of only two), we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Later, the philosopher Immanuel Kant would put it this way: treat every human being as an end in himself

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1161601879402264342006-10-23T06:03:00.000-05:002006-10-23T06:11:41.676-05:00

Bless 'em, those California Episcopalians are sinking deeper and deeper into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, whose minions now are threatening to yank their church's tax-exempt status. It was a sermon that got the whole rangle going, by bringing up issues like the war in Iraq and abortion in what the IRS worried was too "partisan" a way. The tax officials could have a point, but if and

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1160392185449136952006-10-09T05:50:00.000-05:002006-10-22T08:35:47.950-05:00

It was excruciating to read some of the words that Charles Carl Roberts left behind, along with lubricating gel, following his execution of innocent Amish schoolgirls. He wrote of hating himself and God, of "unimaginable emptiness," of molestation, and of getting even, as if somehow his widow and children, along with the rest of us, should find in these phrases a credible explanation for acts so

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1159187364257472352006-09-25T07:27:00.000-05:002006-09-25T07:33:21.550-05:00

Getting our mouths washed out with soap was a threat my buddies and I heard countless times during our childhood, all across the neighborhood. We worried some about it, but never saw any of our elders actually carry it out. Maybe the time finally has come to translate these off-putting words into action, especially among religious leaders, as a counterpart to getting our feet washed by some of

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1158167860778690842006-09-13T12:15:00.000-05:002006-09-14T22:30:12.983-05:00

One Catholic writer I try to keep up with is Donald Cozzens, lately of John Carroll University. He is out with a new book, Freeing Celibacy, that is simply stunning in its eloquence and integrity. The thesis of the book is an old one: the right kind of decision to live out one's life without sexual experience, for the greater good of the gospel, is the outward expression of an inward, spiritual

Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28267666.post-1156358853184563492006-08-23T13:36:00.000-05:002006-09-05T21:03:26.103-05:00

On a recent walk through our neighborhood park, what especially caught my eye were the more than usual skin colors of the families enjoying themselves in spite of blistering summer heat and blazing outdoor grills. Among the Moms and Dads, there was a lot of hand holding and even some smooching going on, in between delivering hot dogs at the pace of a ball park vendor. On my way home, I waved to

Dr. Leroy Howenoreply@blogger.com