Category Archives: Diversity

It’s Not Just Us

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Or, The Problem of Catholicity The work of the Spirit to make us one body in Christ works against the nationalisms, ethnocentrisms, and individualism that keep us penned up and comfortable with our own tribes.

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International Students

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

It’s been depressing to see the level of animosity directed at international students by the current administration. Having friends who were international students was one of the highlights of my college experience. The college I attended only had about a … Continue reading →

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Thinking about a “Normal” World

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

When we consider any population, characteristics are not equally distributed to ever member of the population. This is visibly obvious when it comes to height. Every person has some height – they can be measured. Perhaps its also obvious – … Continue reading →

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Positive and Negative in United Methodism

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Richard Heyduck

Since reading Alasdair MacIntyre’s Whose Justice? Which Rationality? thirty-something years ago, I’ve found great value in the definition of a tradition that he he offers there (p. 12). A tradition is an argument extended through time in which certain fundamental … Continue reading →

Posted in Alasdair MacIntyre, Discipline, Diversity, Doctrine, Ecclesiology, Theology, Tradition, United Methodism | Leave a comment

Thinking about Doctrine

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Richard Heyduck

I have been thinking deeply about doctrine since the 1980s. I wrote my PhD dissertation (revised and published in 2002) on doctrine, specifically with the United Methodist Church in mind. From what I saw then (and now), our official doctrine … Continue reading →

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Not So Much Unity

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Richard Heyduck

Lovett Weems sees more unity than I do when he writes, What if the General Conference addressed matters of doctrine, mission, and values and gave freedom (such as Central Conferences already have today) in structure and regulations, including clergy standards? … Continue reading →

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Our United Methodist Mission

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Richard Heyduck

The mission of the United Methodist Church is “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” As a slogan goes, it has deeper rooting in the Christian tradition than our marketing slogan, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, … Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Discipline, Diversity, Doctrine, United Methodism | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

What About MOOCs?

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Richard Heyduck

Academia is being shaken to its foundations. There’s the funding crisis: College costs have outpaced inflation for a generation now, and the states and the feds are beginning to grumble. Right next door is the debt crisis: students are graduating … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Current events, Diversity, Education, Higher Education, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Downside of Demonizing

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Richard Heyduck

“Demonizing” our opponents can be great fun. When we demonize groups we offer reasons why any compromise or shared action must be ruled out before we begin. Knowing that over demonization is not politically correct, we never admit to it … Continue reading →

Posted in Alasdair MacIntyre, Clash of Civilizations, Diversity, Ecclesiology, Islam | Leave a comment

Small Town Living

Posted on August 2, 2008 by Richard Heyduck

I just ran across this Chesterton quote at Alexander Pruss’s blog: Chesterton says, “It is not fashionable to say much nowadays of the advantages of the small community. We are told that we must go in for large empires and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Diversity | 4 Comments