I am astonished at how many evangelicals think that it is okay to observe a Ramadan fast with Muslims. Christianity Today has published remarks from ten evangelicals, five (or perhaps seven) of which think that it’s okay to fast with Muslims during Ramadan. Douglas Wilson is the last of the ten, and he sounds the clearest note against such a practice. He writes: “It is not appropriate to fast alongside Muslims. I wouldn’t make a point, if I were in a heavily Muslim state where everybody is fasting during the day, of fixing a hot dog and walking outside and eating it … but to observe Ramadan along with your…
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Kids Pray the Darndest Things
We often snicker when my three-year-old daughter prays. She knows that she is supposed to kneel, to close her eyes, and to put her hands together. She has heard enough praying in her short life to know what kinds of words to include in a prayer. The only problem is, she hasn’t a clue how to put the words together in an appropriate way. For instance, she’s infamous in her Sunday School class for having prayed, “Lord, thank you for our sin.” Just this morning at the breakfast table, she prayed, “We thank you for God, and we forgive you.” Not exactly model prayers.
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Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License
The Associated Press reports that a Justice of the Peace in Hammond, Louisiana has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple. The Judge says that he is not a racist, but that he has good reason for withholding the license: “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house… My main concern is for the children… I don’t do interracial marriages because I don’t want to put children in a situation they didn’t bring on themselves… In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer… I try to treat everyone equally.”
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Tebow’s Narrow Religion
Tom Krattenmaker has taken a whack at Tim Tebow in a recent article for USA Today. He complains that Tebow’s conservative Christianity has afflicted sports culture in general: “Jesus’ representatives in sports aren’t just practicing faith. They are also leveraging sports’ popularity to promote a message and doctrine that are out of sync with the diverse communities that support franchises, and with the unifying civic role that we expect of our teams.”
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President Obama’s Revolution
On Saturday, President Obama delivered a speech to the Human Rights Campaign, one of the most ardent gay-rights organizations in the country. He promised to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” to abolish the Defense of Marriage Act, and to sign into law the Matthew Shepherd hate crimes bill that was just passed in the U. S. House of Representatives. None of this is surprising, though it does seem inconsistent with his 2008 campaign statements affirming marriage as the union of one man and one woman. What was astonishing, however, was his open admission of what his real goal is. He’s not simply trying to change the law. He wants to…
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Is emotive preaching manipulative and wrong?
The first time I heard John Piper preach I didn’t like it. It was about fifteen years ago. Someone had given to me a cassette tape of Piper speaking on the topic of the supremacy of God in preaching, and in this particular message he stressed that the preacher’s delivery of the sermon should match the emotional gravity of the text. I disagreed with Piper, believing that he had embraced an anthropocentric view of the preacher’s task. As far as I was concerned, the Bible was the point of preaching not the preacher’s delivery. I didn’t understand how Piper could be so wrong.
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Justin Taylor Is Kind of a Big Deal
Justin Taylor is a kind of a big deal when it comes to blogging. He isn’t called the “Evangelical Drudge Report” for nothing. As far as I’m concerned, his site is my one, daily, must-read site. If I don’t read anything else online, I’m going to read what Justin Taylor is saying at “Between Two Worlds.” That is why it’s kind of a big deal that Justin has just moved his website. Starting today, “Between Two Worlds” will no longer be hosted at http://theologica.blogspot.com. Justin has moved all his blogging to The Gospel Coalition site. If you haven’t done so already, go check out his new digs at the following…
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Death-Defying Faith for Gospel Ministry
I was stunned last week when one of my colleagues told me that he didn’t care whether or not he died from Swine Flu. We were talking about the flu season and how the much ballyhooed Swine Flu might affect our campus, and he was simply not very concerned about it. It’s not that he believed the Flu would miss us. He actually felt that things would be okay even if the Lord allowed the worst to happen to him—death. On Monday, I got to hear another colleague preach to Boyce College students on Acts 20:24 (listen here). He told the story of some missionary pilots that he knew who…
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David Robinson Represents
David Robinson was inducted into the basketball hall of fame last week. He gave a short speech that Voddie Baucham has praised in this way: “David Robinson is far from perfect. I’m sure he has as many flaws, foibles and faults as the rest of us. However, for seven minutes, he represented his team, his family, and his Lord very well. And he showed us all how attractive humility and grace can be.” I agree. See video above to watch it for yourself.
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Abortion and the Sexual Revolution
Dinesh D’Sousa argues that the pro-choice movement prevails—in spite of its bad arguments—because of its connection to the sexual revolution. Pro-choicers by and large are not concerned about the humanity of the unborn. Indeed, some will grant that the unborn are human beings, but they will not grant that the unborn have a fundamental right to life. Why? He answers: ‘I think it’s because abortion is the debris of the sexual revolution. We have seen a great shift in the sexual mores of Americans in the past half-century. Today a widespread social understanding persists that if there is going to be sex outside marriage, there will be a considerable number…