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Category: Lawson Stone

Enter the Hero

The last article, before we were interrupted by the republican debates, noted how liminal situations underscore the role of  exactly the kind of folks who populate Quentin Tarantino’s movies. Seen in this context, we realize

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Why Donald Trump Should Not Apologize

Everybody was appalled at Donald Trump’s reaction to Fox News’ journalist Megyn Kelly as she did her job: posing hard questions that draw out a candidate’s real positions. When his peeved resentment grew into an

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Will Bill Kill the Bible?

So the figures in the book of Judges have been blurred out of focus by tradition, VBS programs, and perhaps also our inability to see biblical characters as real people. In short, the main characters

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An Invitation You Can’t Refuse

Another piece of poetry I always pull out and savor at Easter is the Easter Homily of John Chrysostom. I have not gone back and found the actual “official” published version of it, and I’m

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Now For Something A Little Different

    A recent writing project sent me back to a type of literature scholars typically call “heroic.” It’s the ancient version of the action-adventure flick. I won’t bore you with the details, which you can read about in my

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Recollection of a Hanging

  Ever since Seminary, I’ve had a deep interest in Islam and all things Arabic. It began with a course on introductory literary Arabic, taught mainly as an aid to comparative semitic grammar. But the sinuous script

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Bible Study Clichés that Must Die (3)

It’s Sunday. We’re with family and friends, enjoying our Sunday dinner. And what’s on the menu? Roast preacher! We’re talking about what the preacher said, and how she got it wrong, or right, and how

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How Practical is Relevance?

The cry to “make the Bible relevant to today’s world” not only implies that the Bible itself lacks relevance, a point discussed yesterday, it also makes another assumption that is quite startling. This has to

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What Goes Around

Jerusalem is loaded with curious stories linking stunning archaeological finds with utterly obscure people who are then associated with intriguing currents of politics, culture or religion. Sometime in 1880, a kid living in Jerusalem named

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