God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

In a recent Sunday School session, one of the attendees asked our Lutheran pastor what the Bible means when it says we are made in the image of God. This is a question that has bedeviled the church and synagogue for thousands of years. Our good pastor gave a credible and modern answer to the inquirer. It is certainly not our physical characteristics that make us in God’s image. After all, Jesus told us that “God is Spirit, and He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” It is our intellect, the pastor explained, our ability to know right from wrong, to dream, create, emote, and relate to God as our Father. I agree with all of that. After all, God the Father does not have genitalia. He does not need to pee after a drink of water. Only we do that. There are several ways to unpack the two creation accounts in Genesis 1-4. In Genesis one, “the Adam” is a title applied to both male and female. God speaks and things pop into existence, including man and woman, both at the sa...

  When a Blackhawk helicopter crashed into a commercial passenger jet on January 29, 2025, newly elected President Trump came to the podium to offer the expected condolences and clarify new information. He surprised the nation by suggesting that DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) may have had something to do with the crash. By the time he addressed the nation he had obviously been briefed that the two Blackhawk pilots were women. The suggestion to anyone not half asleep is that women shouldn’t be flying helicopters because they are not as fit as men. Which leaves the question, would they say the same about a Black or Latino pilot? A kerfuffle on The View TV show arose when the women began to discuss the new press secretary for the Trump administration, blond, 25-year-old Karoline Leavitt. At some point Joy Behar exclaimed that she got the job because Donald Trump thought she was a “10.” That actually got Behar fired from the show. As a comeback, Alina Habba, Counselor to th...