Dr Paul Allen

The generation introspection we are experiencing in the United States and worldwide has reached a fever pitch.  We’re changing the names of high school mascots, buildings on college campuses and even subdivisions. We are looking at what we once took for granted, the institutions we erected around us. Mountains, monuments and memories are being purged of the past. Ulysses S. Grant, Christopher Columbus, and Thomas Jefferson statues and a bevvy of Civil War figures have fallen. A statue of Abraham Lincoln erected by freed slaves is being threatened. Splash Mountain in Disneyland is being remade because of its 1942 Song of the South theme.  Meanwhile,  a statue of Lenin still stands in Seattle. It’s a sifting of the past, wiping away any veneration of flawed leaders or unenlightened thinking. We’re rethinking how we talk, how we do business and how we interact with each other. Some of these changes are formulated out of thoughtful introspection and dialogue. Others are simpl...

The good Samaritan is perhaps the most misunderstood parable in the Bible . Dozens of ministries have been started with a desire to emulate the good Samaritan. Hundreds of theologians have tried to pull out hidden truths from this parable and have come up with completely different ideas. Some teach that Jesus desires to expose the Jericho road and that we would live in a day and age where good Samaritans are no longer needed.  Others expose the need to tear down walls between enemies, and others–probably the typical evangelical Christian –see in the good Samaritan a call to love other people and to be involved in social justice. But is that what Jesus is saying in this parable? In short, the point of the good Samaritan is not to go out and try to love someone like the good Samaritan did.  The point of this story is to point out the fact that you cannot save yourself. You simply can’t love perfectly like Jesus can. Jesus is doing personal evange...