Murder, Mayhem, and Morality in the Beautiful British Countryside

No matter how much we try to run away from it, our moral intuition is part of who we are—and part of the fractured imago dei within all of us. The trick is seeing it in what we read and watch. Here, I revisit a review I wrote for Christ and Pop Culture about one of my favorite procedural dramas.

I love British murder mysteries. As long as someone dies a gruesome death and the suspects use words like “posh” and “peckish,” I’m hooked. Ever since the day Netflix added to their library of macabre mysteries, I’ve been slipping away during the rinse cycle to watch 10-year-old episodes of a British detective series called Midsomer Murders.

Midsomer Murders is one of those shows that has been around forever, and while it’s never been a huge hit, it has maintained a loyal following (which I guess makes it the British equivalent of 7th Heaven). It follows the adventures of Police Detective Tom Barnaby as he solves murders in the idyllic, but fictional, English county of Midsomer. Like Cabot Cove in Murder, She Wrote, Midsomer is white-washed, picturesque, and quaint, but it also has a disproportionately high murder rate. Continue reading →

Moral Intuition in the Television Wasteland

4081596290About two years ago I wrote a research paper called General Revelation: Engaging Culture at the Intersection of C.S. Lewis, Jung, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Originally, the title also included Paul and Calvin, but as usual I tried to cram too much information into a little 15-page paper. Admittedly, I feel somewhat sacriligious for removing Calvin and keeping Jung, but these are the hard choices a writer has to make. Hopefully, when I write my book, I won’t have to edit out anyone.

But while I do think the paper suffered in the end from of too much editing, it did provide me with a lot of fodder for an idea that is near and dear to my heart—and somewhat offensive to a lot of Christians—the suggestion that popular culture can and does reflect God’s moral law and has important things to say about both moral intuition and our longing for transcendent spirituality. Continue reading →

Christian Stereotypes: Evangelical Christians are Conservative

For the next few weeks, I’ll be busy with finals and research papers. For the rest of this month, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of my very first posts from before I had a small, but loyal, following. If you’ve never gone digging in the archives, these may even be entirely new. Have fun!

In some ways, the stereotype that all evangelical Christians are conservative is easy to dispel. All that’s really necessary is to describe the diversity that exists within the faith community on issues such as teaching evolution in schools, abortion, feminism, and gay rights. Even the very question of how faith should influence one’s politics is a topic of debate within the Christian community.

But it’s no fun if we don’t do a little deconstruction first.Where did this stereotype come from? Why does it still have such influence over how Christians are perceived? Why did I add “evangelical” to the title this time? Continue reading →

Christian Stereotypes: Christians are Judgmental

For the next few weeks, I’ll be busy with finals and research papers. For the rest of this month, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of my very first posts from before I had a small, but loyal, following. If you’ve never gone digging in the archives, these may even be entirely new. Have fun!

When I hear someone say “Christians are judgmental” I don’t assume I know what they mean. They could be saying that all Christians are angry, unloving people who (to quote The Philadelphia Story) “have no regard for human frailty” and who can find something to criticize about everyone.

They could mean that all Christians live in some alternative reality where what is “good” equates with whatever behavioral norms they grew up with. For these (usually older) Christians, anyone who lives in suburbia and does things the way they’ve always been done (for the last 50 years anyway) falls within the accepted parameters. Anyone who does not is looked upon with suspicion. Continue reading →

Christian Stereotypes: Christians are Stupid

For the next few weeks, I’ll be busy with finals and research papers. For the rest of this month, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of my very first posts from before I had a small, but loyal, following. If you’ve never gone digging in the archives, these may even be entirely new. Have fun!

It’s a common stereotype that in order to believe the story the Bible tells about a god who sent his son to die for the sins of humanity, a person must have an IQ no higher than Forrest Gump’s.

Now I’m not arguing that there aren’t stupid Christians. In a country where the majority of people call themselves Christian, one is bound to run into a few that fall below the red line on the chart that says “normal.” It’s simply a statistical inevitability. It would have been just as likely for an ancient Egyptian to run into a stupid Ra-worshiper during prayers at Heliopolis. The problem is that many skeptics still subscribe to the stereotype that in order to believe in God at all a person must have abandoned all reason. Continue reading →

Why I REALLY Don’t Like the Word “Practical”

For the next few weeks, I’ll be busy with finals and research papers. For the rest of this month, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of my very first posts from before I had a small, but loyal, following. If you’ve never gone digging in the archives, these may even be entirely new. Have fun!

Recently, while visiting one of my regular blogs, I came upon the often-repeated idea that theology isn’t ”practical.”

Now the idea that learning about God isn’t practical comes in many variations. “Theology is just head knowledge,” one person says. “I want sermons that speak to my life,” says another. “How is a sermon about the nature of the atonement going to help my congregation?” ask the pastor.

For some reason, this time it hit me that there is something more insidious going on here than just a uniquely American prejudice against people who use big words. Continue reading →

Why Michael C. Patton is (still) my Hero

For the next few weeks, I’ll be busy with finals and research papers. For the rest of this month, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of my very first posts from before I had a small, but loyal, following. If you’ve never gone digging in the archives, these may even be entirely new. Have fun!

I don’t know Michael C. Patton personally. The only things I know about his life are the things he reveals on his blog Parchment & Pen. But a few years ago, during a dark time, Michael gave me more encouragement than anyone else in my life. Yes, Greg Boyd, Tim Keller, and Christopher Wright are still my favorite theologians, but Michael surpassed them all as a source of comfort during this brief, difficult season of my life.

The thing I admire most in anyone is honesty. Not just the kind of honesty that tells the truth as opposed to a lie, but the kind of honesty that looks at the world and voices the doubts that we all have. The kind of brave honesty that questions the easy, tidy answers that well-groomed Christians tell each other and finds a deeper faith based on what life is really like. Continue reading →

3 Reasons Why I Don’t Fight the Culture War

The last couple of months have seen a whole lot of activity in what has come to be called the “culture wars.” If the headlines about Chick-fil-a, Hobby Lobby, and the weekly same-sex marriage rallies (both pro and con) haven’t been enough, there’s also the kerfuffle involving Starbucks and something about Bill O’Reilly and Easter that I still don’t understand.

And of course, there is the daily doomsday lament that our country is going to Hell in a hand basket because we’re rejecting the Christian foundations the United States was built on. Continue reading →

Using Pop Culture to Demonstrate Universal Moral Intuition: The “Aha!” Moment

This is a reprint of a post written for the Christian Apologetics Alliance.

I am convinced that one of the easiest things to do as a Community Apologist is to use pop culture to demonstrate that everyone, everywhere (with the exception of the odd sociopath) has a moral intuition. And once people agree that this intuition exists, the conversation can then turn to why it exists and where it comes from.

One of the commenters on my last post asked if I could provide some specific techniques for using pop culture to demonstrate moral intuition. I have not yet gotten to the point where I can tick off a numbered list of steps, but because of his promptings I am developing a kind of mini-curriculum that will premiere here at some point. Continue reading →

Why I Don’t Care About “Post-Christian” or “Post-Evangelical”

This is an updated version of the very first blog post I wrote three years ago. It’s even more applicable today.

For the last several years, I’ve heared a lot about how we live in a “post-Christian” culture. I personally know people who wonder how the United States can survive if it’s not a “Christian nation.”

Now I’m hearing even more smart, scholarly types lamenting the downfall of evangelicalism (however they happen to define it)

I can honestly say that I’m not particularly worried about any of this. Continue reading →