Don’t miss Nick Kristof’s generous tribute to John Stott in Sunday’s The New York Times. He sees Stott as a kind of kinder, gentler evangelical. Given their diametrically opposed worldviews, Kristof’s words come as a bit of a surprise (at least to me). It is not often that you hear a liberal columnist at a secular bulwark like The Times giving honor to an evangelical. But what is perhaps even more surprising about this article is Kristof’s generous tribute to evangelicals in general (at least some of them), which he bases on interactions that he has been having with them over the last several years. He writes:
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Iranian Pastor Faces Execution for Christian Faith
The situation of Iranian pastor, Yousef Nadarkhani, is getting more dire. Right now, he is facing one of two outcomes. Either he must face execution or be forced to become a Muslim. Here’s the latest: A pastor in Iran found guilty of leaving Islam is awaiting the outcome of a judicial investigation into his spiritual background to see if he will be executed or forced to become a Muslim, according to Christian groups with ties in Iran… The court’s ruling, which took a month to reach Christian and human rights groups outside of Iran, said that according to Islamic Republic Criminal Law, the matter must be “further investigated to prove…
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Michele Bachmann and Wifely Submission
The Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog is hosting a discussion of Lisa Miller’s column on evangelical “feminism.” But don’t confuse this “feminism” with egalitarianism. Here’s what Miller means by “feminism” of the evangelical stripe: A “feminist” is a fiscally conservative, pro-life butt-kicker in public, a cooperative helpmate at home, and a Christian wife and mother, above all. Rep. Michele Bachmann is Exhibit A. With her relentless attacks on big government and a widely circulated 2006 video in which she credits her professional success to the submission of her will to Jesus and her husband, Bachmann represents “a new definition of feminism.” The roundtable discussion that follows includes three other women…
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Majority of Americans Say Homosexuality Is Okay
From ChristianityToday.com: From 1973 to 2010, the General Social Survey (GSS) has asked Americans if they think sexual relations between same-sex couples are wrong. Up until 2008, a majority of Americans have answered that such behavior is ‘always wrong.’ But the latest GSS, conducted in 2010, finds that only 46 percent of Americans hold this position.
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John Stott, RIP (1921-2011)
Christianity Today is reporting that John Stott passed away this afternoon at the age of 90. His death comes after “complications related to old age.” In his final hours, family and friends gathered to him to listen to Handel’s Messiah one last time. He passed away at 3:15pm London time. It is be difficult to overstate the influence that John Stott has had on generations of evangelicals. He combined a pastor’s heart with an academic mind and was prolific in both his preaching and his books. In the coming days you will hear testimonials from evangelicals worldwide who have been shaped by his ministry.
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A Year with George Herbert
If you are not familiar with the poetry of George Herbert, you need to be. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, “I love George Herbert from my very soul.” In fact, Spurgeon loved the poetry of George Herbert so much, he used to have his wife read the poems to him every Sunday evening after church. Mrs. Spurgeon described their evenings this way: I read on and on for an hour or more, till the peace of Heaven flows into our souls, and the tired servant of the King of kings loses his sense of fatigue, and rejoices after his toil.
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Her Dad Was a Porn Addict
Michelle VanLoon has a gut-wrenching testimony of her father’s porn addiction. She shows that pornography not only destroys marriages, it also wreaks havoc on relationships between children and parents. She writes:
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Anders Behring Breivik is not a Christian, but we already knew that.
Contrary to early reports, Anders Behring Breivik is not a Christian. In fact in his 1,518 page manifesto, the perpetrator of the atrocities in Norway has specifically disavowed any real commitment to Christ. In his own words:
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The Oxymoron of Christian Terrorism
The New York Times describes the perpetrator of the Norweigan massacre as a “religious, gun-loving Norwegian obsessed with what he saw as the threat of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration to the cultural and patriotic values of his country.” Other early reports (including The Times) have highlighted an alleged religious motivation, calling him a “Christian extremist.” Others have even used the term “Christian terrorist.” The “Christian” label was seized upon by media reports after a police official in Norway called him a “fundamentalist Christian.”
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Twitter Is Like Poetry for John Piper
I really like John Piper’s take on his use of Twitter: “Tweets for me are a kind of poetry. I make no claim to be good at it. But that’s the way I think about it. I want it to sound and look good. I will never use 2 for to. Or Shd for should. Why? It’s not a telegram. It’s a poem. “I love words. I rarely think of them as efficient, but as precious. God made them to carry the freight of truth and beauty. Nothing is more valuable than God’s truth and beauty.” Read the rest here.