Text Messages

Text Messages

Bible Archives

R. Crumb’s literal Genesis comic

posted by Patton Dodd | 8:45am Thursday January 15, 2009

The famous comic artist has been laboring over a comic retelling of Genesis for ages, and it’s apparently coming in 2009. Everywhere I’ve seen this mentioned on the web, people use the word “literal” to describe it, as in “it’s [...]

Have you had Scripture Shock?

posted by Patton Dodd | 7:17am Thursday January 15, 2009

Jeff Sharlet, in his review of Peter Trachtenburg’s The Book of Calamities at Search Magazine, coins a phrase–”scripture shock”–to describe reading rattling, blood-curdling Bible passages. Consider Psalm 137 (where the psalmist blesses the one who would bash the heads of Babylonian children), [...]

The Old Testament, Suffering, and Sin

posted by Patton Dodd | 4:41pm Friday January 9, 2009

This Beliefnet discussion on the OT and suffering is, of course of course, perennial and ancient and never-ending. But anyone who reads the Bible regularly has to face this question all the time. Is the Old Testament a record of suffering [...]

Epiphany, Sunday School, and Telling the Truth

posted by Patton Dodd | 2:25pm Monday January 5, 2009

The Christmas season is all but past and we’re coming now to the Feast of Epiphany, which celebrates the revelation of God in human form as Jesus. Often (depending on which tradition one is in), Epiphany involves the remembrance of [...]

Previous Posts

The Last Text Message
Today is my last day with Beliefnet, and my last day as the author of this blog. The Text Messages archives will remain live at this location, but posting will cease. If that sounds gloomy, it's an accurate reflection of my mind this afternoon. I've chosen to pursue new opportunities, but I'm n

posted 3:47:12pm Feb. 04, 2009 | read full post »

Quitting Church: A Q&A with Julia Duin
Why do people stop going to church? This big question is the subject of Julia Duin's small book, Quitting Church: Why teh Faithful are Fleeing and What To Do About It. Duin is not a disinterested observer of the phenomenon of church-dropping; rather, she's a churchgoer who wants churches to work wel

posted 4:03:51pm Feb. 03, 2009 | read full post »

Rob Stennett vs. Marilynne Robinson
I'm overjoyed that my good friend Rob Stennett has won the Award of Merit from Christianity Today for his novel The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher. (Here's CT's review of the book.) Stennett's hilarious book is about a real estate agent who joins a suburban church in order to reach the Christian h

posted 2:36:44pm Jan. 30, 2009 | read full post »

What is spiritual restoration?
Slate asked for an essay on Ted Haggard's spiritual restoration. I'm okay with what I came up with for now, but the more I think about it, the more I think we need better thinking on what restoration looks like for very public, outspoken, influential men and women like Haggard:Most people who fail n

posted 9:00:56am Jan. 29, 2009 | read full post »

It's Not TV; it's Ted TV
A blog might not be the best medium for an essay like this. But I want to offer some more considered thoughts on Ted Haggard and his HBO documentary; I hope this performs some kind of service in a story that I hope will end--in its public iteration--very soon. This was written as a stand-alone essay

posted 3:57:44am Jan. 28, 2009 | read full post »


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