Roger McKinney



Articles by Roger McKinney

Biblical Critical Theory Is Not Biblical. It’s Watered-Down Marxism

Christianity Today magazine, founded by Billy Graham, chose Christopher Watkin’s book, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, as one of its 2024 Book Awards and the book most likely “to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” Other Christian organizations promote the book too.
Nonreligious readers won’t care, but they need to keep in mind that most people won’t take a class or read a book on economics. I can clear a crowded room just by mentioning economics. But they do read books like this one or listen to pastors who do. Evangelicals make up about 25 percent of voters. So, any plan to change the direction of the country’s economic policies requires reaching them.
Watkin, a lecturer in French studies at Monash University in

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Biblical Critical Theory Is Not Biblical. It’s Watered-Down Marxism

Christianity Today magazine, founded by Billy Graham, chose Christopher Watkin’s book, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, as one of its 2024 Book Awards and the book most likely “to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” Other Christian organizations promote the book too.
Nonreligious readers won’t care, but they need to keep in mind that most people won’t take a class or read a book on economics. I can clear a crowded room just by mentioning economics. But they do read books like this one or listen to pastors who do. Evangelicals make up about 25 percent of voters. So, any plan to change the direction of the country’s economic policies requires reaching them.
Watkin, a lecturer in French studies at Monash University in

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There Is Something Wrong with the Economic Views of Theologians

Review of Kathryn Tanner: Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism
An old professor told our class decades ago to believe nothing from the popular press about economics and only half of what the financial press writes. I would add that if a theologian tries to teach you economics, hide your wallet and lock up your daughters! Kathryn Tanner’s Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism is a good example of such the tragic comedy produced by most theologians.
Tanner has taught at Yale Divinity School since 2010 after 16 years at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is an influential past president of the American Theological Society. Rosemary P. Carbine and Hilda P. Koster say, “Kathryn Tanner is, quite simply, the most accomplished theologian of her generation,” in their

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Killers of the Flower Moon Is about Government Failure

The newly-released movie "Killers of the Flower Moon" depicts what happens when politically-connected people can use the state to carry out nefarious deeds. Unfortunately, government failure is one lesson that is sure to be lost here.
Original Article: Killers of the Flower Moon Is about Government Failure

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Killers of the Flower Moon Is about Government Failure

Most reviewers of the motion picture Killers of the Flower Moon distill just one lesson from the story: greed is deadly. The love of money leads to evil. But the real lesson should be of government failure.
The movie follows the book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. It tells the story of the Osage tribe during the 1920s oil boom in Oklahoma. Tribal members became very wealthy because of the discovery of oil on tribal land, and many white people committed fraud and murder to steal that wealth.
People should read the book and watch the movie, but they should also read Angie Debo’s book published in 1941, And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes, because what happened to the Osage tribal members was just a small

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Government-Enforced Paid Family Leave Is Not Pro-Family

Christianity Today magazine enthusiastically endorses government-enforced family leave, calling it “pro-family.” Government coercion, however, is still violence, not something to be championed.
Original Article: Government-Enforced Paid Family Leave Is Not Pro-Family

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Government-Enforced Paid Family Leave Is Not Pro-Family

Paid family leave—meaning the government paying or forcing businesses to pay for one or more parents taking time off to spend with a newborn—seems like a slam dunk idea to the Christian Left. According to a recent article in Christianity Today, “Christians Shouldn’t Need a Mandate to Provide Paid Family Leave,” “We should provide the best family leave possible. Christians who own or manage businesses ought to lead the way on family leave.” The article lists three benefits of parents taking time off to be with newborns:
Parental leave could save lives. “There is clearly a link—even if indirect—between maternity leave and babies surviving.”Old Testament purification rules, “which in practice gave new mothers a rest after birth,” are similar.Men need to spend time with their children in the

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