I just received the latest issue of Touchstone magazine in the mail yesterday. You won’t want to miss Donald T. Williams’ article, “Writers Cramped,” in which he outlines three things that evangelical authors can learn from Flannery O’Connor. The opening of the article sets up and asks a penetrating question: My fellow Evangelicals publish reams upon reams of prose. What we have not tended to write is anything recognized as having literary value by the literary world. What makes this failure remarkable is that our Protestant forebears include a number of people who did: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, George Herbert, John Milton, and John Bunyan, to mention a few. Equally…
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The Fun Factor and Ministry
According to an article in the Associated Baptist Press, college students aspiring to ministry not only have an aversion to the local church, but they also have a preference against pastoral ministry in particular. For this reason, many aspiring ministers opt for positions with less leadership responsibility within the church:
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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Resigns
This is big news, but not because it remarkably effects the fortunes of the current administration. It’s big news because it does affect the political rhetoric leading into the ’08 election cycle. One of the key strategies of Democratic presidential hopefuls thus far has been castigating the misfires of the Bush administration. Gonzalez’s exit will justify for them adding one more item to their growing list of reasons not to vote for a Republican in ’08. If you vote Republican, you’ll get more of what you got with Bush. Their list of Bush bungles goes something like this:
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Mother Theresa and the Dark Night of the Soul
A new book sheds an unexpected light on the iconic Mother Teresa. The description in TIME magazine has shocked many, and when you read the following excerpt you will see why.
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D. James Kennedy Retires
Evangelicals know him as the author of Evangelism Explosion. Reformed believers know him as a driving force behind the resurgence of reformed theology in America. The people of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida know him as their pastor of 48 years. I am of course referring to Dr. D. James Kennedy who announced today that he is retiring from the church that he founded in 1949. What a blessing Dr. Kennedy has been to the church. Godspeed to him. “Dr. D. James Kennedy Retires” – ALR News Release
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Southwestern Homemaking Degree on NBC
The College at Southwestern’s new homemaking degree has provoked a great deal of discussion under my previous post, “Drs. Patterson Defend Homemaking Degree.” This morning I watched NBC’s “Today Show” broadcast a story on the same topic. The piece has two parts: (1) a pre-recorded report on the homemaking program including footage from the College at Southwestern, and (2) an interview with two people who have opposing views about the curriculum. Part one presents a fairly well-balanced report. In Part two, the interviewer and the woman speaking against the program dominate the conversation. They don’t give much time at all to the guy from Focus on the Family who was…
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Sex Tourism and Outrage
Be outraged and appalled when you read Michael Gerson‘s shocking article on sex tourism. According to the article, one quarter of worldwide sex tourists come from America. He writes: ‘One sexual predator, when interviewed by the FBI, described his experience with foreign child prostitutes this way: “It’s like being a star. They want to try my food. They want to see what clothes I wear. They want to watch my television.” Such “stars” are the global consumers of innocence, exercising a particularly brutal form of power over the poorest, most vulnerable children on Earth.’ That “sex tourism” is even a viable industry is an indictment on the banality of our…
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Un-stinking-believable! Rangers Run Up the Score
Even if you’re not a Rangers fan, you’ll want to hear about this. The Texas Rangers rolled over the Orioles today, and the final score was 30-3. No, you’re eyes aren’t deceiving you. The Rangers scored 30 runs! So much for the 10 run rule! No team has scored that many runs in a single game since 1897. This is definitely one for the books.
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Literacy & the Gospel: Did you read a book last year?
The Associated Press reports that one in four adults did not read a single book last year. “Of those who did read,” the story said, “women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.”
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Russell Moore’s New Website
My good friend Dr. Russell Moore teaches a Bible Study at Ninth & O Baptist Church (my former church) in Louisville, Kentucky. The class now has a website offering a great deal of content, including audio recordings of Dr. Moore’s Sunday morning teaching. Go check it out. Here’s the link: www.DeansClass.com.