On this 43rd Earth Day I thought I’d reflect just briefly on a biblical approach to caring for the environment. Which can, of course, be a tricky thing, as the Bible can be a challenging book to interpret. It is just diverse enough, and the history of its interpretation just broad enough, that readers can come to very different conclusions about any number of issues. Indeed, over the history of the church, the Bible has been interpreted so as to support a huge variety of positions, even those that may seem diametrically opposed. For instance, there were biblical arguments used to justify opposition to slavery and to support slavery. And...

Heated conversations about homosexuality have been occurring in the church for the better part of the last twenty-five years, reaching a fevered pitch in my own denomination with a vote to recognize same-gendered relationships and ordain ministers in such relationships in 2009. Since then, the issue has not abated and, given the number of states voting this fall to define marriage, in some ways has only grown in significance. Given all these discussion, I have been regularly surprised by how little Christians seem to know about what the Bible actually says about homosexuality. For this reason, and in light of ongoing conversations and the...