This just in: The LSU Athletic Department has begun preparations to install purple field turf in historic Tiger Stadium in time for the 2010 home opener against Mississippi State. “It’s now time to expand the traditions that surround our football program,” LSU head coach Les Miles said. “LSU is going to take the lead in what we think will become the wave of the future and that’s field turf in the colors of your school. The installation of the purple field turf will add to the excitement of a Saturday Night in Tiger Stadium and this team will enjoy the opportunity to play on what will be the finest surface…
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Why John Piper Invited Rick Warren
John Piper has received some criticism for inviting Rick Warren to speak at the 2010 Desiring God National Conference. In this video, he explains why he invited him. There is a slightly longer version of this video available here.
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Gina Welch at the Zoo
Over the weekend, I watched @GinaWelch interviewed by Richard Metzger of the LA Times, and I thought it worth passing along.
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A Christ-Haunted Atheist
Anne Rice, the famous vampire novelist and author of Interview with a Vampire, shares her story for the “I Am Second” campaign. When she was a young woman, her faith gave way to existentialist philosophy, and she became what she calls a “Christ-haunted atheist.” Her apostasy lasted for 38 years before she returned to the faith of her youth. It really is a remarkable story. (HT: @drmoore)
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John Piper’s Leave
John Piper has announced that he will be taking an 8-month leave of absence from his duties at Bethlehem Baptist Church. As I was leaving church today, I received an e-mail from DesiringGod.org with a letter from Piper explaining why. He writes: “I asked the elders to consider this leave because of a growing sense that my soul, my marriage, my family, and my ministry-pattern need a reality check from the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, I love my Lord, my wife, my five children and their families first and foremost; and I love my work of preaching and writing and leading Bethlehem. I hope the Lord gives me…
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Mohler, Hamilton, Ware on NPR News
NPR News recently reported on Southern Seminary’s forum on Brian McLaren’s new book A New Kind of Christianity. The report includes remarks from Jim Hamilton, Bruce Ware, and Albert Mohler. You can listen to the report below or read the article here. [audio:http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2010/03/20100326_me_07.mp3?dl=1] Brian McLaren also speaks in this interview. His remarks confirm what was already clear in his book. McLaren rejects penal substitutionary atonement and says that he no longer believes in a “God who needs blood in order to be appeased.” McLaren also indicates that Jesus is not the only way to be saved. The report is slanted from the outset. She calls Hamilton and Ware “angry” and…
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Don’t Waste Your Cancer
Thank you, brother Zac. (HT: @John Piper)
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Country Music, and Antinomianism
The Towers recently interviewed Russell Moore about his love of country music. It’s a fascinating piece, and you should read it. I thought one exchange was particularly insightful and prophetic: Towers: Americans are said to live within a contradiction in which a deep religiosity exists alongside a fairly pronounced ethical Antinomianism and many see country music as reflecting that paradox. Do you agree with that? Moore: Yes, but I don’t think it’s American, I think it’s Southern Baptist. Most of the country music that we hear is coming from a person who has either been redeemed through a Southern Baptist version of Christianity or damned by a Southern Baptist version…
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The Future of Publishing
Be sure to watch this through to the end. (HT: @Matt Perman)
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Review of “In the Land of Believers”
[PDF version of the following review.] Gina Welch’s In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church is the narrative of the author’s two-year sojourn in the late Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC) in Lynchburg, Virginia. As a life-long liberal atheist, Welch had always regarded evangelicals with an elitist contempt. Uncomfortable with her disdain, she goes undercover and joins the church in order to find out what evangelicals are really like. At the outset of her project, Welch observes miles of ideological distance between her and the subjects of her study. With respect to Jerry Falwell, she writes, “I considered him…