Tony Reinke recently asked John Piper the question, “Was Chris Broussard right?” This question comes in the wake of Broussard’s very public comments about Jason Collins’ homosexuality. Download Piper’s response here or listen below. [audio:http://cdn.desiringgod.org/resources/ask-pastor-john/2013/apj-092.mp3] (HT: Tony Reinke)
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This Is No Ordinary Scandal
“We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate,” says Peggy Noonan in her weekly column for the Wall Street Journal. Noonan argues that this is no ordinary scandal. The IRS’s targeting of groups according to their political beliefs is serious, sinister business. She also reveals the breadth of the scandal in a way that few have. This is not simply about denying tax-exempt status to certain groups. It goes beyond that. The IRS scandal has two parts. Noonan writes:
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A must-read on religious liberty in America
R. R. Reno is the editor of First Things, and his recent lecture at Hillsdale College on “Religion and Public Life in America” is not to be missed. Reno’s analysis of the current landscape may be the best that I’ve ever seen. I won’t summarize the entire article. I will leave it to you to take the time to read the whole thing. Just to give you a taste, however, here’s the intro:
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Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Deep Roots”
Steven Curtis Chapman has a new album out that I want to commend to you. It’s called “Deep Roots”. I suspect that the name reflects the fact that Chapman is not only going back to his musical roots in bluegrass, but also that he’s reprising songs that have meant a lot to him over the years. The song selection includes classic hymns and old gospel songs. His duet with Ricky Skaggs on “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” may be the best track on the record. But probably my favorites are his fresh acoustic renditions of some of his early work. And by “early work,” I mean material that…
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Should Christians use birth control? See new JBMW.
The most recent issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood has just released. The lead article is from Albert Mohler, who takes a critical look at the “contraceptive mentality” that so much defines the spirit of the age. Mohler writes: The effective separation of sex from procreation may be one of the most important defining marks of our age—and one of the most ominous. This awareness is spreading among American evangelicals, and it threatens to set loose a firestorm… A growing number of evangelicals are rethinking the issue of birth control—and facing the hard questions posed by reproductive technologies. Several developments contributed to this reconsideration, but the most…
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Governor Mark Sanford practices Buddhist meditation
Former Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, has been trying to rehabilitate his political career after a personal scandal that seemed to end it only a few years ago. In his recent bid to reclaim his old congressional seat, he has been talking about the Christian theme of redemption and second chances. In an article with Yahoo News, he also explains his regular practice of Buddhist meditation. Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:
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Is proselytizing outlawed in the U.S. military?
I have been troubled by recent reports about alleged religious liberty violations in the United States military. Some of the reports have turned out to be more hype than help, but there has been enough reporting to suggest some serious issues of concern.
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Married man and father of two sons becomes a woman
A transgendered person is one who self-identifies with a gender role that does not match his/her biological sex. The video above tells the story of such a man who “transitioned” himself into a “woman.” Even though he was married with two small sons, he wanted to stop being a man and become what he always felt himself to be—a female. A couple of things to note about this video: (1) NBC presents this story simply as “the changing face of the American family.” In other words, this is supposed to indicate the new normal. They are showing us this family so that everyone can understand that this is just the…
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How not to engage the evangelical gender debate
I was taken aback by a recent article that appeared on Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog. The author, Rachel Pietka, is a Ph.D. candidate at Baylor University, and she criticizes John Piper’s recent remarks about whether men ought to read Biblical commentaries written by women. On the basis of 1 Timothy 2:12, Piper argues that while women ought not be pastors, men might well benefit from reading a commentary written by a woman. On the basis of Piper’s remarks, Pietka deduces that Piper has some sort of a hang-up with the physical presence of women. Women can teach men, she charges, so long as their bodies aren’t physically present during the…
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Broussard, Bigotry, and the NBA
After the news broke earlier today that Jason Collins has come out as the first openly gay player in the NBA, I didn’t really plan to comment. But that all changed after watching Chris Broussard’s commentary for ESPN (see above).