The Blue Collar Scholar

World War 2 was a total war that affected all areas of life and society in every nation engaged in the war (and also many that did not actively participate). The American (and Canadian) experience was very different from the other major powers - the UK, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Imperial Japan, Italy, and France - because our continent was almost entirely untouched by combat. Hundreds of tho...

Hinduism is almost certainly the oldest active religion in the world. Hindus form the majority community in the most populated nation on earth. In this episode, I will attempt to do a brief, non-expert survey of the Hindu religion. This is not an area of expertise, and I welcome any feedback correcting any factual errors I have made in my lecture prep work.

Our Easter 2026 Sermon Series is "Celebrate with Joy!" Far too often, preachers bring the gloom and the doom and they preach repentance and righteousness. As they should. But we Christians should never forget that it is God's intention for us to live free, liberated, joyous lives, resting in the peace and the joy of Jesus Christ. So, as the Easter season kicks off, let us find joy in the Resurrect...

June 6th, 1944, is probably the most important, pivotal day of the 20th Century. On that day, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the forces of Free France & Free Poland (among other nationalities fighting to overthrow their fascist oppressors) banded together to do the impossible: to penetrate Fortress Europe and expel the Nazi menace from the continent of Europe. Operat...

Having discussed the history of Islam in the previous episode, the Comparing World Religions lecture series now turns to an analysis of the religion of Islam itself. The second largest world religion, and one of the most influential religions in human history, Islam is often misunderstood by the average American who does not understand what the religion teaches. The only interactions that many non...

This sermon series ends with a short story that I wrote years ago. I have picked carefully when to use this story in a sermon. I want to use this tool at the most opportune time in whatever ministry I've served, but I have shared it with every ministry I've been a part of the last 20 years. Since this is the 3rd time I've shared this story on this podcast feed, it will likely be the last time. But...

Italy & France had colonies in North Africa when World War II started in Europe, and so the war crossed the Mediterranean Sea, drawing in first the British -- coming to protect their investment in the Suez Canal -- and then later the Germans, who came to bolster their Italian allies. And, once Japan brought the US into WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (with Hitler inexplicably declaring war,...

Islam is the second biggest religion on Earth, and by many accounts, the fastest growing religion. It has a long and rich history. Every major Empire in Asia, Europe, and Africa has had to interact with the religion of Islam and powerful Islamic states for almost a millennium and a half. In this episode, I try hard to provide a fair, unbiased analysis of the history of Islam, from the career of th...

Christians are tempted to reinterpret every teaching Jesus gives us about wealth, because His insight into wealth is so counterintuitive. Building off last week's teaching about the Upside-Down Kingdom of God, today we will take a look at Jesus' teachings about wealth and dare to take them seriously.

This week is Spring Break in Southeast Kansas, so our classes are taking a break. Instead of the regularly scheduled World War II lecture, I decided to dust off (and re-edit) an old lecture from April 4, 2023. When I taught this class previously, it was called "The World Wars" and I devoted the last quarter of the class to the Pacific Theatre in WWII. To kick off this section of the class, I went...

This one will be controversial. I have concluded that several religions are not part of Christianity because they have changed or abandoned major theological components of Christianity: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the nature of reality, the existence of God, etc. I acknowledge that many of these groups claim to be denominations of orthodox Christianity, and I don't deny their right to define the...

Jesus calls us to an unbelievably counter-intuitive calling: the lead by serving. As He washed His disciple's feet and willingly died as a sacrifice for sin, we too should use whatever leadership we get in this life to love and to serve other people, even if it means that we lose out on this or that advantage or payday.

This episode returns to the Pacific Theatre of World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese conquest of the Philippines. In the 1st six months of the war, Japan racked up an impressive list of victories. Then at the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japan failed to take Port Moresby, and for the first time, they suffered a strategic defeat. However, since the Allies lost more ships in th...

This episode wraps up the Christianity subsection of the course on Comparing World Religions. From here on out, the course will cover religions that are separate from Christianity. (Note: Some of these religions do come out of the Christian tradition, and some of them consider themselves a version of Christianity.) Before we broaden the scope of the class, I thought that it was a good idea to lay...

Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, tells us that the Jews from the town of Berea were "of more noble character" than the Jews from the town of Thessalonica, because when they heard the Gospel, they listened intently, then they went home, searched to Scriptures, and investigated to see if the things Paul was teaching them was true. And from that excellent Bible study, the church in Berea was bor...

The Holocaust is a tragedy on an unimaginable scale. It was the result of unrestrained racism amongst those with absolute power. This episode focuses on the history of antisemitism, the rise of the Nazis as an explicitly antisemitic regime, and the unspeakable evil that they wrought. This was a packed lecture, and a rushed lecture. I did not even have time to talk about Oskar Schindler. During the...

Since the professor and every member of the Comparing World Religions class in Christian, our sub-section over Christianity is several lectures long. Furthermore, since (I believe) we all come from Protestant traditions, I have set aside 2 full lectures to talk about Protestantism. In the previous episode, we took a historical deep dive into the Protestant Reformation. This episode is a broad surv...

One of the most important attributes of God is that He does not change. For if God can change, then He was either imperfect and has changed into perfection, or else He was perfect, and no longer is. Furthermore, if God can change, then we cannot trust His promises. And if an All Powerful Deity could change, even a little bit, then given enough time, His perfection would change so much that He woul...

1941 was the year when the final major chess pieces were put on the World War II chessboard. Neither the United States of America nor the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were full participants in the Second World War when 1941 began, even though the war was in its second year in Europe and its fifth year (or so) in East Asia. But the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany changed all that. First, Na...

This episode goes into both reform and separatist movements in the Church going back long before Martin Luther. And, of course, we discuss the life and times of Luther, Zwingli, And Calvin. This episode briefly touches on Protestant theological developments, the disastrous Muenster Rebellion, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

There is a word that pops up in Scripture from time to time: "rebuke." It is not a word that is part of the average American's vocabulary. A better term might be "correction." A fool hates being corrected and would prefer to go on believing that he is right, even when he is not. But a wise man accepts correction, not because it is pleasant (for neither giving nor receiving correction is pleasant),...

Following the miraculous British evacuation from Dunkirk, the UK stood alone as the sole major, unconquered nation standing in the way of Adolf Hitler. The United States, officially neutral, tried to help out, using a cash-&-carry policy to supply the Brits, then a destroyers-for-bases plan designed to arm the British Navy while remaining neutral, then finally stretching the definition of "neutral...

I am no expert on the Roman Catholic Church, and I know even less about the Eastern Orthodox Church. (Note: This will be true for many of the world religions we cover this semester.) So consider this episode a history buff's (and a Protestant's) honest attempt to better understand these branches of Christianity with incredibly ancient roots.

Here's a nice, short, sub-20-minutes sermon to enjoy on your Valentine's Day. I dusted off the oldest sermon notes I have, at least for any sermon that (apparently) was not recorded when I gave it in 2003. (A few older sermons are available elsewhere in the Blue Collar Scholar back catalogue, using the audio recording from that time.) So I smoothed out, edited, and updated the notes to bring you t...

Blitzkrieg (German for Lightning War) is designed to move quickly, discombobulate your enemy, and achieve victory before they can properly counter attack. In the earliest stages of World War II in Europe, the Wehrmacht - exhibiting an incredible amount of speed and coordination between the Heer (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy), and Luftwaffe (Air Force) - achieved an unprecedented series of conquests,...