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I did not vote for Barack Obama, but I did wish him well, even publicly so on the pages of Perspectives in early 2009. As I wrote, I was not so much opposed to Mr. Obama as worried that a strongly Democratic Congress would push their former junior colleague in directions he might not on his own prefer. As such, I'm little surprised but much disappointed in what has happened in less than two years. Congress has always had difficulty…

I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and half-way through this term I am more confident than ever that America and I chose well. From the night he gave that televised speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, I have thought that this man has a vision for America grounded in some of the noblest hopes that this country has offered to its people, to immigrants, and to its admirers around the world. I find President Obama's vision and…

Discussions between theologians and economists can dissolve into a great mass of frustration and confusion. Since the subject matter often involves issues of public policy, like globalization, health care, recession, finance, workers' rights, or corporate wrongdoing, it is tempting to compare these episodes to the dysfunctional dialogues between the Republicans and the Democrats in Washington. At best, we attribute the problems to a simple failure to understand the academic discipline of the other party. I think it is more common,…

Enter the world of Facebook--over 400 million users with 60 million status updates per day. The average face on Facebook has 130 "friends."1 You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you categorically submit to the pre-determined sections of interest. You begin your virtual life by putting your best foot (or rather, face) forward. Post the picture of the "young you" photo-shopped in on a Caribbean cruise liner: tanned, strong, happy, and fulfilled. Your hobbies can be…

In 1898 Abraham Kuyper came to America to give his famous Stone Lectures on Calvinism at Princeton Theological Seminary. Coming from the "old European Continent," he noted the fresh currents of Christianity that distinguished the new nation he had traveled to. Referring to himself in the third person, Kuyper said: "Compared with the eddying waters of your new stream of life, the old stream in which he was moving seems almost frost-bound and dull; and here, on American ground, for…

Ironically, people in the Reformed tradition, people who can pride themselves on razor-sharp dogmatics even at the expense of good worship, may today be practicing the sacraments better than they understand them. On the one hand, a recent article in the Calvin Theological Journal complains of a general "stagnation of Reformed and evangelical sacramental theology," attributable to Puritan and revivalist influences.1 On the other hand, given the rich liturgical resources that have emerged in recent decades from the Christian Reformed…

Although our church uses the New International Version of the Bible, I've taken to quoting the New Revised Standard Version's translation of the Shema in my preaching and teaching: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone." Recently someone noticed. That was different from the translation we're used to, she said, the one that ends "the Lord is one." It is. The NIV translators have good reason for telling us "the Lord is one." Not only is…