Category Archives: Culture

Texas Ten Commandments – a Little More

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

One of the new laws in the state of Texas mandates the posting of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. You walk into a classroom and you see a poster that looks like this: Several interpretive questions come … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Church & State, Culture, Current events, Ethics, God, Jesus, Language, Public Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Popularity of Manichaeism

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Though you’ve likely never heard of Mani, Manichaeism or a Manichaean view of the world is still very popular. When Manichaeism looks at the world they see an absolute distinction between good and evil. There is no middle ground, nothing … Continue reading →

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Jesus vs the gods

Posted on September 17, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

I just finished a sermon series on Jesus vs the gods. The “gods” I referred to in the messages were names from the ancient world: Greco-Roman names plus one, Mammon, from the Semitic world. Those their names aren’t as much … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas – Minds Worth Making Up?

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued our discussion of Stanley Hauerwas’s essay from The Christian Century (1991), “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community.” We spent most the time talking about our culture’s infatuation with autonomous individualism and how that infatuation shows up … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Culture, Discipleship, Ecclesiology, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Failure of “Liberalism” in Texarkana?

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

I see our town has made the OPED page of the NY Times. I see many scholars quoted (& I’ve read many of their books and value their perspectives), but I don’t see that they talked to anyone in Texarkana, … Continue reading →

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Thinking about BLS Statistical Reports

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

BLS reporting has been in the news lately. I only took one statistics class in college, so I recognize my limitations. Nonetheless, I have some “meta” questions: Are “good” statistical reports ones that clearly “show my team’s policy to be … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas – Beyond “Friendly” Church

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued working through Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community.” (Link to audio) We began with a quick return to the second paragraph which we’d started on last week: That the church has difficulty being … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Consumerism, Culture, Discipleship, Secularization, Stanley Hauerwas | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Discussion on Hauerwas on Church & Discipleship

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Tomorrow is Stanley Hauerwas’s birthday. Coincidently, we began reading his 1991 essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community” today. This essay from The Christian Century can still be found online HERE. We got through most of page 1 … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Discipleship, Doctrine, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology, United Methodism | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lockean Self-Ownership

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Do you think many Americans today agree with this claim of John Locke? “Every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of … Continue reading →

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Contending with the “World, the Flesh, and the Devil”

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Fathers’ Day is this weekend. If you’re an attentive Christian dad you’ve seen that the world, the flesh, and the devil are coming after your kids. As Christian dads, one of our essential jobs is standing against these powers for … Continue reading →

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