Should we pray for Christopher Hitchens? Yes. Should we talk about it. No. At least that’s the advice that’s Ross Douthat offers in a short blog post today. Douthat argues that Hitchens’s cancer is not an occasion for victory laps thinly disguised as prayers. He reminds us of Jesus’ words: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.…
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Bauer Reviews “In the Land of Believers”
Susan Wise Bauer has a critical review of Gina Welch’s In the Land of Believers, and Ms. Bauer is not a happy camper. As I noted in my review, Gina Welch loathes evangelical beliefs, but she comes to love evangelical believers (at least the ones she gets to know at Thomas Road Baptist Church). Bauer finds Welch’s stance to be a patronizing one. She writes: ‘That’s a staggeringly stupid thing for anyone who claims to understand evangelicalism to write, but Welch is unable to believe that people she likes could really hold well-thought-out, strongly held beliefs that she finds repellent. (“If somehow Evangelicals were forced to co-exist with gay people,”…
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How Old Is Earth?
Dr. Albert Mohler delivered what would have to be considered a barn-burner of a theological address at the 2010 Ligonier Conference. You can watch the video of the address here or read a transcript here. The title was “Why Does the Universe Look So Old?” and at the heart of his argument is this contention. The most straightforward reading of the creation narratives in Genesis presents a young earth view of creation. It is the view with the fewest complications. In his own words: “An understanding of creation in terms of 24-hour calendar days and a young earth entails far fewer complications, far fewer theological problems and actually is the…
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Leeman on Complementarianism
Jonathan Leeman has an excellent essay in the latest 9marks journal. In short, he argues that Complementarianism is crucial to discipleship. It’s worth reading the whole essay, but I want to highlight one section that I found particularly helpful. It will frame the way I engage the “borders” from now on. He writes:
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Does it matter if the Bible contradicts itself?
The short answer is yes. A case in point appears in a recent article by retired Anglican minister Albert Radcliffe. Radcliffe argues that the Bible is a “library of conflicting viewpoints,” and cannot be the last word on the Church of England’s debates on the moral status of homosexuality and women pastors. He argues that even within the pages of the Bible we read about “rigorists” who prefer the letter of the law and about the “humanitarians” who don’t allow the Bible to be the last word. According to Radcliffe, someone like Ezra was in the former category, and Jesus was in the latter. As you might imagine, the upshot…
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First Baptist Meets Lenny Kravitz… Literally!
On June 25, the youth choir from FBC Lewisville, Texas was in New Orleans doing an open-air performance of Lenny Kravitz’s song “Fly Away.” Guess who happened to be nearby, heard them singing, and came over and joined them? You guessed it. Lenny Kravitz himself. The whole thing was caught on video and posted to YouTube (see above). The Dallas Morning News has a report on the encounter. This never happened on any of the church choir tours I went on in high school. But then again we weren’t singing Lenny Kravitz songs!
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Irrelevant SBC?
Jeffrey Weiss has an interesting story at PoliticsDaily.com on the declining media coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Weiss argues that the SBC has taken unpopular stands over the years and as a result has become increasingly irrelevant to the mainstream of American culture. Even though media coverage was overblown in past years, he argues that the coverage is too little now.
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An Interview with Derek Webb
I guess I’ve written so much on this blog about Derek Webb that folks feel the need to alert me whenever they hear about him in the news. I’m grateful that they do. A reader recently alerted me to an interview that Derek gave to a Canadian radio host named Drew Marshall. You can download it here or listen to it below. [audio:http://drewmarshall.ca/audio/100626derekwebb.mp3] As you might expect, this interview includes material about Derek’s controversial song “What Matters More” and his recent tour with Jennifer Knapp. Up until this point, Derek has been (at best) unclear about his views on the moral status of homosexuality. This interview isn’t much better, but…
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Final Mohler Program
Tune-in to the final episode of “The Albert Mohler Program” at 5pm today at AlbertMohler.com. I am grateful for Dr. Mohler and his daily efforts to bring the Christian faith to bear upon issues in the news. He’s done it faithfully and effectively for nine years, and I’m sad that it is coming to an end. It’s been a great run for a great show. Don’t miss the final installment today at AlbertMohler.com. You can also stream it live below. I should mention what are probably two of the low-points of the program’s 9-year run: June 30, 2008 and October 22, 2009. The guest on both of those days was…
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Boys and Music
Doug Wilson has 7 principles on “how to motivate young men of middle and high school age to enjoy singing well to the glory of God.” You may not agree with all of this, but I think there is some pretty good stuff here. Principle 1 talks about the priority of raising boys to be masculine. Principle 2 follows with this: “We learn by imitation, and imitation involves persons and personal characteristics. If the music master is not the kind of man that the boys would like to be when they are grown, then they are generally going to avoid the musical pursuits that this man is offering to train…