The greatest of men would be silly and lazy
So I would be king…if the world was crazy.

Shel Silverstein, If the World Was Crazy

There’s a difference between a casual “all you need is love” attitude and “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34) … There’s nothing wrong with giving money to the soup kitchen, or with trying to implement policies that help the homeless, nor with voting for politicians who will support such policies. The problem is that too often we call this “loving one another as Jesus loved us” and that’s not how Jesus did it.

Henry Neufeld, Love Without Involvement

Who is your Jesus? … What is he saying, in the context of the world that surrounds you? How does he interpret the old messages attributed to him, for current circumstances? What does he have to say for our time about warfare, medical ethics, sexual morality, and economic justice? What would he do, how would he act, how would he change the world today? … Can you see him mixing with the people around you now? How does he fit in, or stand out?

Jim Burklo, Who is Your Jesus?

…Voters in general really love an ad hominem approach to the political debate. We believe what people say if they’re on our side. We smear groups with the actions of some. The tea party protesters are smeared because some participants cross a line, as they did in Jacksonville, but ACORN is smeared because some people that they hire cut corners and engage in fraud.

My suggestion here is that a debate that so constantly turns to an ad hominem approach can hardly be expected to produce rational results. That’s the trouble with our alternatives. I would gladly vote the Democrats out of office, but then the Republicans would take over. I would gladly vote the Republicans out of office, but then the Democrats would (and have) taken over.

The great equivalence, in my view, is that neither party is willing to have their sacred cow programs examined for effectiveness. They just have a different list of programs they hold sacred.

Henry Neufeld, The Trouble with our Alternatives

Resurrection faith…does not mean believing without evidence in the resurrection as something that has happened and will happen, but rather means trusting in the God who is capable of rescuing even from death. This should be the heart of resurrection faith: trust and hope in God rather than arrogant self-assuredness.

James McGrath in The Burial of Jesus

Now I want to be clear that I believe God can and does speak. If I could summarize the thesis of my book in the size of a tweet, it would be, “God always speaks; we rarely listen.”

Henry Neufeld about his book When People Speak for God

Could the Garden of Eden have lasted very long without predators? Interesting article about death before the fall.