Tag 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

Hauerwas vs. Glass Buildings

Posted on September 24, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued our discussion of Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community.” We picked up discovering his preference for brick buildings over glass buildings. Sure, he’s from a family of brick layers and he’s using … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas Lays Brick

Posted on September 24, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Stanley Hauerwas came from a family of bricklayers. It’s natural then, that as he looks for a craft to analogize to discipleship, he settles on bricklaying OUR DISCUSSION of this section of his essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as … Continue reading →

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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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The Chosen, Season 5 Episode 3

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We’re still in Holy Week, racing toward the cross. Jesus knows it. Sanhedrin leaders are plotting for it. The Romans are uneasy. The disciples are confused. Yet in the midst of everything happening this episode had many laugh out loud … 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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A non-Hauerwasian Interlude

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Last week we looked at this paragraph in Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community.” For example, one of the great problems facing liberal and conservative churches alike is that their membership has been schooled … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Doctrine, Ecclesiology, Salvation, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology | 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

AI & Pastoral Education?

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

I ran across this piece at Mere Orthodoxy today. As far as “AI Coming” for transmission of information, I’m sure he’s right. He’s also right that there needs to be more to pastoral education than transmission of information. But our … Continue reading →

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Christianity, Discipleship, Education, Global Methodist Church, Preaching | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Trend toward Finding Christianity “Useful”

Posted on March 27, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

As a preacher, I’m often encouraged to preach “relevant” messages. When I look at those who subscribe to the ethos of “relevance” I see messages based on wisdom. Surely people do need wisdom: wisdom on how to have a marriage, … Continue reading →

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