• Culture,  Theology/Bible

    Grieving over and Praying for a Fallen Pastor

    You cannot have missed the sad news about the former President of the National Association of Evangelicals and Pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I haven’t written about it until now because I simply could not have an opinion about a situation that I know so little about. The first couple of days of reporting included little more than speculation and the transmission of hearsay. But as of today, the picture has become fairly clear. The overseers at New Life Church issued a statement yesterday announcing the ouster of their pastor, and a letter from the pastor was read to the congregation today. Among other things,…

  • Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Wayne Grudem on President Bush

    Thanks to Justin Taylor for bringing our attention to Dr. Wayne Grudem’s “Memo on prayer and the Nov. 7 election.” In this memo, Grudem gives an extended explanation of how he prays and why he is thankful for President George W. Bush. Grudem writes, Overall I am so very very thankful for an outstanding, I think excellent President. He has done right. And he is changing world history in a right direction,

  • Politics

    Losing Santorum Is a Loss for the Country

    Someone asked me several months ago who I favored for President in ’08. I told him Senator Rick Santorum would be my pick. I meant it then, and I still feel that way now. It seems to me that there are too few politicians who successfully bring their faith to bear upon their politics in a way that is consistent with a Christian worldview. In my view, Rick Santorum is one of the few who does it and who does it well.

  • Humor,  Politics

    “Halp Us Jon Carry!”

    Despite Senator John Kerry’s insulting remarks about U.S. soldiers in Iraq (see previous post), I’m glad to see that our G.I. Joe’s haven’t lost their sense of humor. The New York Post has the story about the picture: “GI’s Drop Smart Bomb on Kerry.”

  • Politics

    John Kerry: I Was for the Troops before I Was against Them

    In a speech on Monday, Senator John Kerry implied that only uneducated dullards end up fighting for the U.S. in Iraq, saying “Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” In a subsequent news conference, Kerry refused to apologize for the comment, saying that his remarks were just a “botched joke” (source). It turns out that no one is laughing, and now Kerry has the American Legion calling for an apology even as a Democrat congressman complains, “I guess Kerry wasn’t content…

  • Politics

    Santorum: The Pro-life Candidate

    Not long ago, I wrote about Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s re-election bid and his debate with his Democrat challenger Bob Casey on “Meet the Press.” This campaign has been an interesting one to watch if for no other reason than that both candidates are ostensibly pro-life. But the “Meet the Press” debate revealed that Bob Casey is not a principled pro-lifer, as it became clear that Casey does not support the right to life from conception to natural death.

  • Culture,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Gay “Marriage”: A Debate about a Word?

    A common misunderstanding about the debate over gay “marriage” is that this whole dust-up amounts to an argument about a word. The misunderstanding goes like this: “Conservatives want the word ‘marriage’ to refer to heterosexual unions, and liberals want the word to refer to heterosexual and homosexual unions.” If this were all that was as stake in this debate, then all that would be required is an updated edition of the dictionary.

  • Politics

    Peggy Noonan Hopes the Republicans Lose This November

    Peggy Noonan suggests that the Republicans need to lose their congressional majorities this November so that they will be chastised for not being consistently conservative in their governing philosophy (See “Is There Progress through Loss?“). Noonan says this as one who was once a staunch supporter of President George W. Bush, but who now thinks that he and the Republican majority in Congress have strayed from the straight and narrow path.

  • Theology/Bible

    Complementarian in Principle, but Not in Practice?

    In a previous post, I noted that Dwight McKissic’s letter to the trustees of Southwestestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) included a call for “a more inclusive role of women in public worship.” Specifically, McKissic has in mind a role for women in “public proclamation” in the church. He cites as examples many prominent women who do just that and who are regarded widely by Southern Baptists to be exercising a faithful ministry. Among those he lists are Beth Moore, Betty Criswell, Ann Graham Lotz, and Dorothy Patterson.