On Saturday, John Piper exhorted pastors to use the occasion of Martin Luther King Day to shine the light of the gospel on racism. He also quoted at length from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Dr. King’s description of Jim Crow South is one of the most gut-wrenching things you’ll ever read. It’s hard to believe that people once spoke so openly in racist terms, but they did. Here’s Dr. King in his own words:
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MLK Day: “I have a dreamâ€
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Church Discipline Gets Chastised in WSJ
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about the practice of church discipline in American evangelical churches. On the whole, the story is negative, focusing on cases which are less than exemplary. A church here in Dallas is mentioned in the article, Watermark Community Church, as well as First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Alabama. The article says,
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Pat Robertson Knows Who Will Be Next President
Pat Robertson is saying that God revealed to him who will be the next president of the United States, but Robertson also says that he will not reveal what he thinks God told him. He did say, however, that he is not happy about what God told him and that he hopes that he heard God wrong. Here’s the video:
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First Human Clones Created in California
The Associated Press and NBC News reports that a group of scientists in a California lab have recently created embryonic clones of two men. The embryos were created in a lab using a donated human egg and DNA material from human skin cells. What’s the value of this new technology? According to the AP report, “Scientists say stem cells from cloned embryos could provide a valuable tool for studying diseases, screening drugs and, perhaps someday, creating transplant material to treat conditions like diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.” The ethical questions raised by this development are manifold. It is a staggering devaluing of human life. These human beings are being created with…
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Revival of Calvinism in the SBC
Christianity Today reports today on a revival of Calvinism within the Southern Baptist Convention. According to the report, only 10% of SBC pastors are Calvinists. But the number of recent seminary graduates holding to Calvinism is at about 30%. “Long considered more Arminian in orientation—emphasizing an individual’s need to respond to the gospel rather than God’s election in salvation—the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is grappling with doctrines of grace and election amid a seminary-led revival.”
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Should a Woman Be President?
I am a regular podcaster of Dr. Albert Mohler’s daily radio program. On Tuesday, Dr. Mohler discussed whether Christians should be concerned with the prospect of having a woman as head of state. He and callers discussed how God-ordained roles for men and women are to be realized in the secular world. You can hear the show by clicking on the following “play” button: [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/totl/2008/AMP_01_15_2008.mp3]
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Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches
I’m writing this note to draw your attention to a new book titled Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches, edited by Thomas White, Jason Duesing, and Malclom Yarnell (Kregel, 2008). This book is a collection of essays taken from the “Baptist Distinctives Conference” held on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in September of 2006. Mark Dever, Danny Akin, Greg Wills, David Allen, Malcolm Yarnell, and others are all contributors. The sundry essays address the topics of church membership, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, church discipline, and the priesthood of belivers.
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Obama’s Church’s Connection to Farrakhan
A significant amount of media coverage has focused on the religious beliefs of the Republican candidates for President (especially Romney’s and Huckabee’s). But Richard Cohen turns the spotlight on Democrat Barack Obama’s church in a column in the Washington Post. Here’s the heart of it:
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Caitlin Flanagan’s Remarks on Teenage Sexuality
Anti-feminist Caitlin Flanagan writes in the New York Times about what she would do if her teenage daughter became pregnant out of wedlock. The column is inspired by the movie “Juno” (which produced 3 Golden Globe nominations), and here are some of Flanagan’s observations: “The bitterly unfair truth of sexuality: female desire can bring with it a form of punishment no man can begin to imagine, and so it is one appetite women and girls must always regard with caution.”