Tim Challies offers a counterpoint to John Piper’s claim that Christianity has a “masculine feel.” Challies writes: John Piper sparked quite a storm with his biographical message on the “frank and manly” J. C. Ryle. One of his conclusion was that Christianity is meant to have a masculine feel to it… I find that I do not agree. For those of you who are given to over-reaction, just breathe—I am allowed to disagree and I’m sure Piper is just fine with people disagreeing. If you don’t have a category for charitable disagreement on secondary matters, you need to develop one! I still love the man, but want to offer an…
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Progressive Christian Scorn for Conservative Christians
Here’s a thoughtful post from Timothy Dalrymple chastising “progressive evangelicals” who publicly blame conservative Christians for the culture wars that have given Christianity a bad name. He concludes, There is a growing genre — call it Progressive Christian Scorn Literature — about the scorn progressive Christians have for conservative evangelicals. It seems to be celebrated on the Left as a kind of righteous comeuppance for the Christian Right, and it wins the applause of the Left for the Christian Left. But it’s wrong and it needs to be called out. It’s neither winsome, nor loving, nor constructive, nor right. It will not improve our witness because it’s soaked through with…
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Explosive Study on Children of Homosexual Parents
In the debate over gay marriage in our country, one of the chief bones of contention has to do with the effects that gay marriages have on child-rearing. There have been many studies in the past showing that children of intact biological families fare better than those of single or cohabitating families. But there have not been very many studies showing how children of homosexuals fare. Indeed in 2008, Robert George et al. observed that, The current research on children reared by them is inconclusive and underdeveloped—we do not yet have any large, long-term, longitudinal studies that can tell us much about how children are affected by being raised in…
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Kevin DeYoung’s Lectures on Preaching
When I was in seminary, Dr. Howard Hendricks used to tell us what he thought about preachers who wanted to make the Bible relevant. He thundered, “The Bible’s not irrelevant! You’re irrelevant!” What he was trying to tell us also applies to preachers who desire to mitigate what they find boring in the Bible. The Bible’s not boring! You’re boring! The point is that as communicators we should strive to have a delivery that serves and reflects the message we wish to preach. And boring sermons say in a non-verbal way something profoundly untrue about God’s word.
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Complementarianism or Patriarchy? What’s in a name?
Rachel Held Evans recently made a splash with a blog post suggesting that complementarianism is merely patriarchy masquerading under a less offensive name. Her post generated a good bit of discussion not only on her blog but on Scot McKnight’s as well. Evans is riffing on remarks that Russell Moore recently made about complementarians who are big on gender orthodoxy but not so much on orthopraxy. Here’s how Moore expressed his concern, “What I fear is that we have many people in evangelicalism who can check off ‘complementarian’ on a box but who really aren’t living out complementarian lives.” Evans agrees with this statement and then offers three reasons why…
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Jerry Vines Interacts with Mohler on Soteriological Statement
For those following the conversation among Southern Baptists about soteriology, you will want to note Dr. Jerry Vines’ recent contribution to the discussion, “It’s Time To Discuss the Elephant in the Room.” Among other things, Dr. Vines offers a rejoinder to the impression that the “Traditional” statement is semi-pelagian. You’ll want to read the entire statement and observe in particular this conciliatory note:
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Mohler Responds to the “Traditional” Baptist Statement
Albert Mohler has responded to a recent statement issued by a group of Southern Baptists about the doctrine of salvation. Mohler’s essay is direct and generous. It takes the drafters’ concerns seriously and answers substantively. It’s a clarion call to unity around the BF&M. In short, it’s statesmanlike, which is exactly what we need right now. He writes,
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Paige Patterson’s B21 Video: Classic!
Dr. Paige Patterson filmed a video invitation to the Baptist 21 event coming up in June at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans. This is really classic! Click here to sign-up. (HT: Jon Akin)
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LA Times Profiles Fred Luter
The Los Angeles Times has a profile today of the Rev. Fred Luter, the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Here’s the summary: The Rev. Fred Luter Jr. has long been a prominent African American voice among a largely white denomination with a segregationist history. Now he is poised to become its first black president. Read the rest here. (HT: Jim Smith)
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Les Misérables Is Coming This Christmas
The musical version of Les Misérables is set to be released in theaters this Christmas. It stars Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert, and Anne Hathaway as Fantine. I’m a big fan of Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean. The rest of the cast is exciting as well.