• Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    John Piper on Tattoos and Body-Piercing

    I get asked from time to time about the Bible’s teaching on tattoos and body-piercing. Typically, the questions center on the interpretation of Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” I am in basic agreement with John Piper on this question. I suspect that the prohibition of Leviticus 19:28 is rooted in a concern about pagan religious practices. Thus the tattoos and cutting of the body in Leviticus 19:28 were evil relative to their association with paganism. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any reasons to think twice about getting a…

  • Christianity,  Culture

    What Evangelicals Can Learn from Flannery O’Connor

    I just received the latest issue of Touchstone magazine in the mail yesterday. You won’t want to miss Donald T. Williams’ article, “Writers Cramped,” in which he outlines three things that evangelical authors can learn from Flannery O’Connor. The opening of the article sets up and asks a penetrating question: My fellow Evangelicals publish reams upon reams of prose. What we have not tended to write is anything recognized as having literary value by the literary world. What makes this failure remarkable is that our Protestant forebears include a number of people who did: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, George Herbert, John Milton, and John Bunyan, to mention a few. Equally…

  • Christianity

    The Fun Factor and Ministry

    According to an article in the Associated Baptist Press, college students aspiring to ministry not only have an aversion to the local church, but they also have a preference against pastoral ministry in particular. For this reason, many aspiring ministers opt for positions with less leadership responsibility within the church:

  • Politics

    Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Resigns

    This is big news, but not because it remarkably effects the fortunes of the current administration. It’s big news because it does affect the political rhetoric leading into the ’08 election cycle. One of the key strategies of Democratic presidential hopefuls thus far has been castigating the misfires of the Bush administration. Gonzalez’s exit will justify for them adding one more item to their growing list of reasons not to vote for a Republican in ’08. If you vote Republican, you’ll get more of what you got with Bush. Their list of Bush bungles goes something like this:

  • Christianity

    D. James Kennedy Retires

    Evangelicals know him as the author of Evangelism Explosion. Reformed believers know him as a driving force behind the resurgence of reformed theology in America. The people of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida know him as their pastor of 48 years. I am of course referring to Dr. D. James Kennedy who announced today that he is retiring from the church that he founded in 1949. What a blessing Dr. Kennedy has been to the church. Godspeed to him. “Dr. D. James Kennedy Retires” – ALR News Release

  • Culture,  Theology/Bible

    Southwestern Homemaking Degree on NBC

    The College at Southwestern’s new homemaking degree has provoked a great deal of discussion under my previous post, “Drs. Patterson Defend Homemaking Degree.” This morning I watched NBC’s “Today Show” broadcast a story on the same topic. The piece has two parts: (1) a pre-recorded report on the homemaking program including footage from the College at Southwestern, and (2) an interview with two people who have opposing views about the curriculum. Part one presents a fairly well-balanced report. In Part two, the interviewer and the woman speaking against the program dominate the conversation. They don’t give much time at all to the guy from Focus on the Family who was…