• Christianity,  Politics

    Fetal Surgery and Abortion

    A moral schizophrenia afflicts our culture on the issue of abortion. There are inconsistencies both in our nation’s laws and in people’s attitudes about the moral status of the unborn. Nevertheless, too many people still seem unable to see the contradictions. A case in point appears in today’s New York Times. Pam Belluck reports on a new study appearing in the The New England Journal of Medicine. A rigorous clinical trial has shown that fetal surgery can help babies with spina bifida to walk and experience fewer neurological problems if operated on before being born rather than afterward. Here’s a summary of the study’s findings:

  • Christianity,  News

    An Egalitarian Gets Biblical

    Rachel Held Evans is an egalitarian, and she wants to live according to the Bible for one year… just to see what it’s like. Her aim is to follow all the commands that are directed to women. Among other things, this project will include “submitting” to her husband as Colossians 3:18 teaches. She invites everyone to follow along on her blog to track her progress. Thomas Nelson has agreed to publish a book in 2012 describing her year of living obediently. There is an irony here. She says that she is going to obey the Bible’s commands as “literally” as possible. She seems to be admitting that the “literal” interpretation…

  • Christianity,  Culture

    The Evangelical Divide on Gay Rights

    In the video linked at right, Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches and Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute discuss changing public opinion on gay rights. Several things are interesting here. 1. Assumption – There is an underlying assumption that skews this conversation. Posner and Jones virtually equate “gay rights” with the right to “homosexual marriage.” The assumption seems to be that support for gay marriage indicates support for the basic human rights of homosexual persons and that opposition to gay marriage indicates opposition to the basic human rights of homosexual persons. I think, however, that this equation is a mistake.

  • Theology/Bible

    Richard Hays on Homosexuality

    I’ve been working on an article about the New Testament’s teaching on the moral status of homosexuality. In my research, I have been helped time and again by Richard Hays’s careful scholarship. Today, I’ve been reading an article that he wrote back in 1986 on the meaning of “nature” in Romans 1:26-27. In particular, Hays confronts an assumption that is often held by Christians and non-Christians alike. The assumption goes like this. Actions are sinful only if they are chosen. If an action is not chosen, then it cannot be sinful. With respect to homosexuality, some people argue that homosexuality is an orientation that one is born with, not something…

  • Christianity,  Sports

    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.”

  • Christianity,  Personal

    Dr. Harold Hoehner (1935-2009)

    I just received word that one of my old professors from DTS has passed away, Dr. Harold Hoehner. The seminary has a tribute posted on their website that you should take a minute to read. Here are some random remembrances of what it was like to be his student. Dr. Hoehner was more than just a professor at DTS. He was an institution. His tenure overlapped that of four different Presidents of the school: Dr. John Walvoord, Dr. Donald Campbell, Dr. Chuck Swindoll, and Dr. Mark Bailey. Dr. Hoehner taught at DTS for 42 years.

  • Theology/Bible

    Let’s Get Technical: The Meaning of authenteō

    WARNING: This post is going to be a little bit technical. Enter at your own risk! Commenters under my previous complementarian posts have been debating the meaning of authenteō in 1 Timothy 2:12—whether it has a negative meaning (“usurp authority, domineer”) or a neutral one (“exercise authority”). In particular, the comments have called into question the work of Henry Scott Baldwin who has argued that authenteō does not have a negative meaning.

  • Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Were the Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq Just?

    My friend Scot McKnight posed a fair question in the comments section of a previous post (comment #65), and I think a proper response deserves a new post. Here’s Scot’s question: “Do you really believe our invasion of either Afghanistan or Iraq was just war?” Before answering the question, I need to clear the decks with a couple of clarifications. First, please note that Scot is not asking whether I hold to some form of the just war position. He’s a pacifist and knows that I am not. He is not asking me to justify just war theory. He’s asking if these two particular invasions can be reconciled with the…

  • Christianity

    Carl Trueman: Linguistic Soul-patches

    You gotta love Carl Trueman. He hits another homer with this short essay, “Done? You Have Been.” Here’s an excerpt, but you must go on to read the rest. “A couple of months back, I made some observations on the advent of that most ridiculous facial accoutrement, the soul patch. The size of these absurd tufts of hair is surely inversely proportional to their eloquence: any Christian man the wrong side of forty, or, to avoid sexism, any woman of any age, who sports one clearly suffers from that common Christian ailment of taking themselves far too seriously. The faux-rebellion such things express is really rather sad: along with dog…