“One day last winter Margarite posed naked before her bathroom mirror, held up her cellphone and took a picture. Then she sent the full-length frontal photo to Isaiah, her new boyfriend. “Both were in eighth grade. “They broke up soon after. A few weeks later, Isaiah forwarded the photo to another eighth-grade girl, once a friend of Margarite’s. Around 11 o’clock at night, that girl slapped a text message on it… Then she clicked open the long list of contacts on her phone and pressed ‘send.’ “In less than 24 hours, the effect was as if Margarite, 14, had sauntered naked down the hallways of the four middle schools… Hundreds,…
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What are we doing in Libya?
In case you haven’t heard, the United States has begun a third war in the Middle East. President Obama will address the nation tonight to explain why he has led the United States into the Libyan civil war. On this topic, I think Ross Douthat is on the right track in his column today for The New York Times. He poses four questions that President Obama needs to answer in his address to the nation. 1. What are our military objectives? 2. Who exactly are the rebels? 3. Can we really hand off this mission? 4. Is Libya distracting us from more pressing American interests? These aren’t pedantic questions, especially…
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On Doctrinal Controversy
I just read another blog post by someone who is grieved by the response to Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. The complaint is that people aren’t giving Bell a fair hearing and that we all need to be a little bit more humble about our theological commitments. The post is one among many sounding a similar theme. There just seems to be the idea abroad that all doctrinal controversy is unchristlike and unhelpful to the kingdom. With respect to the Bell controversy in particular, folks are saying that the tone has been too shrill and divisive before a watching world.
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Rob Bell, what if you’re wrong?
Sally Quinn of The Washington Post asks Rob Bell what’s at stake if he’s wrong about hell. She also asks, “If there’s no hell, then why did Jesus die for our sins?”
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New Sovereign Grace Album
Sovereign Grace Music has just released a new worship album titled “Risen.” Here’s what C. J. Mahaney says about the project: “In time for our upcoming celebration of Easter, the newest Sovereign Grace Music album was released yesterday: Risen. “What I love about this album—what I love about all the albums produced by Sovereign Grace Music—is the gospel-centered sound doctrine that informs the lyrics. Here in these 13 songs our hearts and affections are focused on the resurrection of our Savior, where God the Father publicly demonstrated his satisfaction with the Son’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins and where our hope of future resurrection finds its guarantee.” “Risen”…
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Mohler Responds to McLaren
Albert Mohler has responded to the McLaren article that I noted yesterday. In his conclusion, Mohler says this: “This is…why a response to Brian McLaren is now in order. He is to be credited with taking theology seriously, with making clear arguments, and with a willingness to engage the conversation. I return his candor with my own, and I am ever more convinced of why this controversy is both inevitable and clarifying. “We are talking about two rival understandings of the Gospel here — two very different understandings of theology, Gospel, Bible, doctrine, and the totality of the Christian faith. Both sides in this controversy understand what is at stake.…
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McLaren Takes on Mohler
In a recent blog post, Brian McLaren takes issue with Albert Mohler’s review of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins. Using a baseball metaphor, McLaren argues that Mohler has made four errors in his analysis of Bell’s book. Here is my summary of McLaren’s concerns. 1st base – Mohler claims to “know” the gospel story. McLaren says that Mohler only knows his interpretation of the gospel, which shouldn’t be confused with the gospel itself.
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Post-feminist Regrets
Jennifer Moses thinks that sexual liberation did not deliver on its promise to deliver the good life. And now, the specter of past sexual exploits haunts post-feminist mothers who feel hypocritical for trying to lead their own children to practice some sexual restraint. In an OP-ED for The Wall Street Journal, she writes: It has to do with how conflicted my own generation of women is about our own past, when many of us behaved in ways that we now regret. A woman I know, with two mature daughters, said, “If I could do it again, I wouldn’t even have slept with my own husband before marriage. Sex is the…
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Rob Bell on “Morning Joe”
I thought I was done with the Rob Bell posts. But when I heard that he appeared this morning on my favorite talking-head program “Morning Joe,” I knew I had one more. The video of Bell’s appearance is above. There’s nothing new here and certainly nothing hard-hitting. The only thing new that I got from this is that apparently Mika likes what he’s selling. The others sounded like they weren’t very interested in the interview. FWIW.
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Martin Bashir Talks about Bell Interview
I wrote earlier this week about Martin Bashir’s hard-hitting interview with Rob Bell. If you’ve been under a rock this week and haven’t seen it yet, be sure to take a few minutes and watch it now. Commenters under that earlier post have been asking about Bashir’s own faith commitments. They note that some reports paint him to be an atheist while other reports indicate that he is a Christian. What’s the truth? Bashir answered that question earlier today when he was interviewed on Paul Edwards’ “God and Culture” radio program. Bashir discloses that he is a committed Christian and that he attends Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New…