I wrote about Dr. Francis Beckwith’s return to the Roman Catholic Church several months ago. As you may remember, Dr. Beckwith’s return to Roman Catholicism led to his resigning the presidency of and his membership in the Evangelical Theological Society. Greg Koukl conducted a two-hour interview with Dr. Beckwith on “Stand To Reason,” and you will not want to miss this one. The interview is available for free on the “Stand To Reason” website. Here’s the link: Interview with Francis Beckwith.
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Francis Beckwith Resigns His ETS Membership
Dr. Francis Beckwith resigned from the presidency of ETS over the weekend. He announces today that he is resigning his membership as well. He writes: Although I firmly believe that I can sign the ETS doctrinal statement in good conscience, my high-profile presence in ETS will likely result in the sort of public conflict that occurred during the debate over the openness view of God and the attempt on the part of some members to oust believers in that view. Because, as I noted in my prior posting on this matter, that I deeply desire a public conversation among Christians about the relationship between Evangelicalism and the Great Tradition, a…
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Beckwith’s Book and the ETS Amendment
Francis Beckwith’s new book Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic has just been released. The new book traces his journey back to Roman Catholicism, and the last chapter deals directly with his membership in the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). Beckwith was the President of the ETS when he decided to return to the Roman Catholic Church. Beckwith said then and he contends now that he can still sign the ETS’s doctrinal statement in good conscience. He writes, “On May 5, 2007, I resigned as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and two days later I resigned my membership, one I held for over twenty years. . .…
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ETS Executive Committee on Beckwith
The executive committee of the ETS has just released a statement concerning the resignation of Dr. Francis Beckwith. The executive committee says that Roman Catholic theology is incompatible with the doctrinal basis of the ETS. Here are the relevant lines: The Executive Committee recognizes Dr. Beckwith’s resignation as President and subsequent withdrawal from membership as appropriate in light of the purpose and doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society and in light of the requirements of wholehearted confessional agreement with the Roman Catholic Church. The work of the Evangelical Theological Society as a scholarly forum proceeds on the basis that “the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety, is…
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Why Pro-Lifers Support Laws to Punish Abortionists but Not Mothers
One of the perennial points of debate between pro-lifers and abortion advocates is why pro-lifers don’t support laws to punish women who obtain abortions. Some abortion proponents even argue that this is some sort of inconsistency on the part of pro-lifers—as if not prosecuting women who get abortions reveals that we don’t really believe an abortion actually kills a human being. More recently, abolitionists have agreed with abortion advocates on this point. Abolitionists contend that consistency requires pro-lifers to support the prosecution of the women who subject themselves to abortion procedures. So what’s going on here? Are pro-lifers inconsistent? Should we be passing laws to prosecute post-abortive women? I don’t…
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Why “punish” abortionists but not those who receive abortions?
Yesterday, Donald Trump said in an interview that the law should “punish” women for getting abortions (see above). Trump quickly reversed himself in a subsequent press release. Still, in his initial remarks, Trump was able to accomplish a trifecta of political travesties. First, he projected a caricature regularly perpetrated by pro-abortion people against pro-lifers—that we care only for babies and not for their mothers. Second, while arguing for the pro-life position, he misrepresented what pro-lifers actually believe and alienated viewers from our cause. Third, Trump has put pro-lifers in a defensive position rather than strengthening the cause. All this while he was supposedly trying to help the cause! With “friends”…
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An Uncomfortable and Awkward Question
Francis Beckwith asks conservative Christians an uncomfortable and awkward question: Are you prepared for America to have a First Lady who was a home wrecker and was once the President’s mistress (if Gingrich were to become President)? Beckwith presses the point because he was unsatisfied with Gingrich’s fiery answer to a character question in last week’s GOP debate in South Carolina. Instead of addressing a question about past infidelities, Gingrich opined about everyone knowing what it’s like to go through “personal pain.” Beckwith responds:
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CT discusses Jennifer Knapp
Ted Olsen has a round-up of reactions to Jennifer Knapp’s recent coming-out. There are comments from Matthew Lee Anderson, Joe Carter, and Francis Beckwith. Check it out here.
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Healthy Economies Rely on Healthy Marriages
Pope Benedict XVI has some fascinating things to say in his latest encyclical titled Caritas in veritate “Charity in Truth.” A papal encyclical is a general letter to Roman Catholic Christians, and Popes use such letters to teach the church the Christian viewpoint on key issues. The document is 30,472 words, which translates to about 54 pages of single-spaced text. For a good summary, see Francis Beckwith’s piece at the Christianity Today website. Among other things, I found it interesting that the Pope attempted some “public access” arguments in favor of marriage. Much of this letter is taken up with economic issues, and the Pope insists that healthy economic policies…
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Carl Trueman: An Ironic Catalyst to Roman Catholicism
I have been reading Francis Beckwith’s fascinating book about his return to the Roman Catholic Church from Protestant Evangelicalism. On page 83, there is an ironic little anecdote in which Beckwith says that Carl Trueman was a “catalyst” for his conversion to Roman Catholicism. I won’t explain the whole thing here, but in short Trueman had written an essay in which he claimed that Roman Catholicism was the “default” position for the church in the West. Trueman wrote that, “Rome has a better claim to historical continuity and institutional unity than any Protestant denomination, let alone the strange hybrid that is evangelicalism; in light of these facts, therefore, we need…
