Jason Albertson

This post is the first in a series of two on anger and forgiveness. Today, an exploration of where anger comes from. Created in God’s Image to Rule When God created us in His image, He also blessed us with the responsibility and authority to rule over Creation on His behalf and in fellowship with Him (Gen. 1:26-27). Because God gave us that authority, every one of us rules over a little kingdom where we have legitimate authority to choose what happens. For example, you could close this blog post right now. That choice legitimately belongs to you.  Overlapping Kingdoms These little kingdoms can overlap—there can be areas where several people have a legitimate right to choose what happens. When kingdoms overlap, they can do a lot more together than they would alone, whether for good or evil. It’s really good—enjoyable, fruitful, fulfilling—for my little kingdom to be in alignment with my coworkers’ little kingdoms. Voluntarily sharing our resources and having patience for each other’...

Humans seem to be fascinated with superheroes.  Nowadays we have the Flash and Captain America, but it's bigger than America—think of Finn MacCool in Irish folklore or the Greek demigods delivering humanity from monsters. And it's not just comic books: consider Sherlock Holmes from detective fiction or the many “long-prophesied chosen one” characters in fantasy, like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. By superhero, I mean a character who is both human and gifted with superhuman ability to solve the problems regular humans can't solve.  Sherlock Holmes is good at noticing stuff. Hercules is really strong. The Flash is the fastest man alive (except when his latest nemesis steals his speed). Why so many superheroes? I think it's because we recognize that humanity faces problems too big for us on our own. I think it's because we long for a Savior, someone like us but better than us, too. But here's the weird thing: when we tell stories about superheroes, people equipped...

College classes are video games in most of the ways that matter.  The developer controls the challenges and rewards for the user. Unlike the student's social or spiritual life, everything that happens in their academic life is within a constructed environment. Architect: you, within the boundaries set by accrediting agencies and the institution you work for. Engagement is voluntary.  You might try a computer game because your friend said it was good, but you probably won’t stick around for your friend’s sake. Similarly, some students may come to college classes because influential people in their lives said they should, but that isn’t what will make them stay. Both distort the passage of time to accelerate skill acquisition.  Video games often do this by making skill acquisition take a lot less time than it would in real life.  College does this by forcing students to read, write, remember and practice more in a semester than they typically would in a year (or five)....

Matthew 13:24-30 (NET) He told them another parable:  The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.  So the slaves of the owner came and said to him, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?”  He said, “An enemy has done this.”  So the slaves replied, “Do you want us to go and gather them?”  But he said, “No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.’” Jesus teaches us that  God didn’t intend for there to be evil people. God plans to remove evil people ultimately.  But God often leaves evil people alive, which is for t...

I’ve heard the story from Judg. 4-5 ( Judg. 4:4-9 in particular) used to justify this claim: It is shameful when the lines between gender-roles are blurred. Judg. 4:8-9 in particular are the basis for that claim. The argument might go something like this: Barak said he wouldn’t lead if Deborah didn’t come with him (v. 8). Barak failed to lead alone, like a man should—he failed to perform his masculine role. God was displeased by Barak’s lack of leadership, so God shamed him by giving the glory of killing the enemy general to a woman (v. 9). Conclusion : Men should not look to women for leadership, but should take leadership upon themselves as their masculine duty. There are several assumptions/beliefs involved in this argument. Men and women have different roles in relation to (1) other people, (2) society and (3) creation in general. Those roles flow from the differences in what it means to be male and female. Those differences are so pervasive that men and women share almost no comm...

I grew up in the Christian homeschooling movement. The movement has some dappled shadows; there are good aspects, and there are really bad aspects, and which aspects you experience depends on which area you grow up in. While my family didn't take it on, I grew up on the border of one particularly harmful shadow: belief in hyper-distinct masculine and feminine roles. For homeschoolers, this belief was popularized by figures like Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips. The same beliefs show up in lots of manifestations of religious fundamentalism, from Islam to some of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. In the Christian homeschool context, that hyper-gendering (HG) takes the form of theology about what it means to be a man or a woman. HG theology leans heavily on the KJV translation of Gen. 2:18—thus the term “help meet”: And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. (Gen 2:18 KJV) HG theology proponents interpret the phr...