Stanley Fish, dean emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago Stanley Fish has contributed an opinion editorial in today’s New York Times titled “Devoid of Content.†As a professor who teaches Greek and hermeneutics to undergraduate students and who has graded many papers, I have observed the same thing that that Fish has. Too many students are “utterly unable to write a clear and coherent English sentence . . . Students can’t write clean English sentences because they are not being taught what sentences are.†Though I am in substantial disagreement with Fish over hermeneutical theory (he is a reader-response critic), his analysis of the literacy crisis and the…
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From the Halls of the M.A.S.H. Unit to Shores of the Abortion Clinic
The opinion editors of The New York Times have struck again. In one of today’s editorials, an attempt to be patriotic on Memorial Day weekend appears to be just one more cynical tip-of-the-hat to the culture of death. With a manipulative appeal to the compassion that Americans have for victims of rape and incest, the editors urge that our patriotic duty includes financing abortions for military women serving overseas who might not have access to affordable “healthcare†(In case you didn’t know, “healthcare†has become one of the left’s euphemisms for abortion). Here is one more example of why the abortion debate in America remains stifled. The piece contains no…
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D. A. Carson Slams the Emergent Church
Carson, D. A. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. 250pp. $14.99. If you were wondering whether D. A. Carson had an opinion on the so-called “emergent church†movement, wonder no more. In his new book, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications, Carson delivers a biblical and theological wallop against a movement that he argues has been animated by the values of postmodernity. Carson saves what is perhaps his severest denunciation for the very last page of the book, and it packs quite a rhetorical punch against emergent thought: “Damn all the false antitheses to…
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Pro-Choice Groups: “No Comment†on Killing Infants Born Alive
President George W. Bush signs the Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 in Pittsburgh, Pa., Monday, Aug. 5, 2002. In April, President George W. Bush issued a directive instructing doctors to make every effort to save the lives of premature babies born after failed abortions. The new measure is a step towards enforcing the 2002 law known as the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Under this law, an infant that survives an abortion procedure is no longer a fetus, but a person entitled to emergency medical care and protection against child abuse and neglect. This law was aimed at preventing situations created by botched abortions, where the baby survives the…
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Exploding the Myths of Pro-Choice Arguments
The results of a new study in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology say that women who have an abortion are 1.7 times more likely to give birth prematurely in a later pregnancy. This finding has the potential to explode some of the myths of pro-choice advocates who do not want to admit that any adverse consequences result from abortion. The only way to keep this bomb shell from going off is to keep it buried and out of public view. Let’s see if we hear anything about this story in the news in the coming weeks. Don’t hold your breath. Sources: “Revealed: how an abortion puts the next…
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“Jesus and the Hooters Girl”
“Jesus and the Hooters Girl” is a must-read. Click here, and you will be directed to the appropriate web-page.
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Counseling Shake-up at SBTS
Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), is taking some hits in the local and national media for his shake-up of SBTS’s counseling program. Moore comments about the hubbub on his blog. The Louisville Courier-Journal (here) and the Associated Press (here) portrayed the changes in a negative light. The editorial in the Courier-Journal (here) was particularly critical. The editors said that the changes represented a “retreat from the mainstream of American life.†I suppose that’s supposed to be a derogatory remark, but it sounds awfully good to me. The last thing that we need is a Christian counseling program taking its cues…