Clik here to view.
My Most Popular Blogposts of 2010
The year past marks the first full year of Retired Pastor Ruminates and once again I turn to Google analytics to have fun with the numbers. The site had 14,234 visits, with 21,648 pageviews and 9,744...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Epiphany Ruminations on the Mystery of Baptism
I have been schooled to consider baptism with a theologian’s precision, what it is and what it isn’t, what happens and how, the various forms and their respective pitfalls. Nonetheless, baptism...
View ArticleThomas Aquinas ("Venus" by Bananarama)
My high school buddy Larry Grubman put me onto this hilarious video. No need to slog through the Summa anymore. It's all here on YouTube:
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ridiculous and sublime: Richard Bauckham's “The Pooh Community”
More and more I am finding satire the proper vehicle to address some of the more foolish antics of both the church and the academy. So I was delighted to come across Richard Bauckham's delicious...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Ten Guidelines for Oversharers
Our little family was on one of those cool Hebridean car ferries, traveling from Oban to Mull on our way to Iona, when I first ruminated on the American national trait to share way too much information...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Rumination on Loss
A therapist friend of mine believes that most of us, most of the time, given the choice, will choose to feel guilty rather than powerless, since guilt implies that we might have done something...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“He Wants A Piece of Your Cookie!” A Rumination on the Assault against our...
The assault on unions now taking place in Wisconsin and elsewhere seems to me to be part of a larger war in which the enemy has been defined as our great public institutions (of which we were once so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Don’t Know Much about Geography:” Mike Huckabee’s Map of the World
So let’s not be too hard on poor Mike Huckabee for saying that President Obama was born in Kenya. I don’t know about you, but I always confuse Kenya with Hawaii. They’re both far away and they both...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My top ten “opinions” that might get you fired
The head of National Public Radio had to resign this week because one of her fund-raisers told some prospective donors that many in the Tea Party were “seriously racist.” The donors were actually...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Don’t Know Much about History:” Michele Bachmann stumbles with the facts again
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.Minn.), who has been reported to have Presidential ambitions, told prospective voters in Manchester, New Hampshire, “What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remember when there were grown ups in politics? Me either.
Several of my “friends” have posted this on Facebook:“Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took billions in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ronald McDonald for President: It could happen!
Fast food icon Ronald McDonald shocked the political world today by announcing his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president in the 2012 election. Early poll numbers have been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Was Christ's atoning death an expiation or a propitiation? Ruminations on the...
One of the perennial questions about the meaning of Christ's atoning death is “was it an expiation or a propitiation?” In other words, was the atonement performed towards us, or towards God? Both...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ruminations on hearing of the Death of Osama Bin Laden. Can Christians Rejoice?
The death of Osama Bin Laden stirred up so many emotions in me I have been having trouble sorting them out. I recalled the horrors of 9/11, the innocent victims and their families, and some of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Check out Darkwood Brew: Who knew a mainline congregation could do...
Last week I enjoyed getting to know a fellow United Church of Christ pastor named Eric Elnes at a Colorado mountaintop retreat. On Friday Eric inconvenienced himself to get up early and drive me a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who said it: Mark Twain or Clarence Darrow?
I ended my ruminations on the death of Osama bin Laden yesterday with this quote: “I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”I said it was by Clarence Darrow,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who will be saved? Ruminations on Universalism
I haven’t read Rob Bell’s hot new book Love Wins (and I probably won’t) but we theologs owe him a debt for igniting a spark of interest in an old doctrine. When universalism makes the cover of Time...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Spring comes late and slow to the Berkshires
We had a tough winter here in the Berkshire Hills, tons of snow and only now in May are we enjoying a brief and somewhat damp and cool Spring. Nonetheless, it is beautiful. I heard this poem of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy 125th Birthday, Uncle Karl!
Today is Karl Barth's birthday. The pastor of Safenwil, the drafter of the historic Barmen Declaration, and the author of the monumental Church Dogmatics was born this day in 1886, and died on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy 163rd birthday, P. T. Forsyth!
It is not every week that one gets to celebrate the back-to-back birthdays of one's two favorite theologians, but this is the time. Yesterday we raised a glass to Karl Barth's 125th birthday and today...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A book review of Elizabeth Strout's “Abide with Me”
Reading Elizabeth Strout’s Abide with Me reminded me how fiction can sometime capture the truth of things better than a factual account, just as a fine painting can sometimes be more truthful than a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ruminations about the End of the World on May 21: Howard Camping and William...
The final return of Jesus Christ on the last day is an article of Christian belief, but the track record of those who have predicted the day is not good. In fact, so far, they are batting .000.And...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reflections on The New Century Hymnal
Reflections on The New Century HymnalRichard L. Floyd(Note: In 1995 the United Church of Christ had just published The New Century Hymnal, which was the first denominational hymnal to take a radical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ruminations on hermeneutics for adult Christian education
When I wrote my A Course in Basic Christianity (which I thought of as remedial catechesis for adults) in 1994 I outlined a set of criteria and assumptions behind my method. The final assumption dealt...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Retired Pastor Ruminates” is moving and changing its name
I'm not moving, but my blog is, and I'm giving it a makeover.First of all, I am changing the name. Several friends and colleagues have lately challenged me on whether there actually is such a thing as...
View Article
