Albert Mohler has a short article on Rick Warren’s decision to pray at the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. At the end, Mohler explains why he would not accept such an invitation: “Would I deliver the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States? Well, I have not been asked, but I can imagine that it would be difficult to turn down this invitation. After all, the inaugural ceremony is a national event, not a personal ceremony. Yet, in the end, the context of this inaugural ceremony would not allow me to accept. President-elect Obama has pledged to sign legislation including the Freedom of Choice…
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Gay Activists Oppose Rick Warren at Inauguration
Barack Obama has invited Rick Warren to pray at the upcoming presidential inauguration, and the Politico is reporting on the reaction from gay rights activists: ‘Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.’
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Newsweek Comes Out for Gay ‘Marriage’
I would be remiss not to comment on Lisa Miller’s cover story in this week’s Newsweek magazine, “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage.” The title of the article says everything that you need to know about this piece. In essence, Miller argues that a right understanding of the Christian tradition would actually favor gay “marriage” rather than oppose it. She appeals to the Bible and to history to make her point. This piece is disappointing on a number of levels, and the subsequent critiques have been sharp and justified (e.g., Albert Mohler, Christianity Today, Mollie Hemingway). For the most thorough response, see Robert Gagnon’s 23-page essay (HT: Justin Taylor). I…
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Sojourn Advent Songs
My good friend Rob Plummer recommended to me a Christmas album that is available as a free download, and I want to pass along the holiday cheer to you. The album was produced by Sojourn Community Church here in Louisville, Kentucky and is available at NoiseTrade.com. You can listen to samples of the album on the widget below.
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Boyce College Student Nominated for Grammy
The Protestant Reformation has come to the Grammys! On Saturday, one of our students here at Boyce College was nominated for a Grammy award. His stage name is “Flame,” and I wrote about him here in October. He’s a hip-hop artist with a gospel message—one that is rooted deeply in the reformation tradition. According to the Grammy website, Flame’s “Our World Redeemed” has been nominated for “Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album.” CMSpin.com has the details of the story, and the Associated Press reports that the Grammy Awards will be broadcast on February 8 on CBS. You can be sure that we’ll be pulling for Flame. Here’s a link to…
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Did Pro-lifers Kill the GOP in 2008?
In yesterday’s New York Times, Ross Douthat takes on the conventional wisdom among pro-choice Republicans who blame the pro-life movement for losing the presidency in 2008 (HT: Russell Moore). Douthat notes how pro-choice GOP’ers such as Christie Todd Whitman and P. J. O’Rourke have charged uncompromising pro-lifers with alienating the American mainstream in 2008.
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German Martyrs in Hitler’s Germany
TIME magazine has re-released an article from 1940 that reports on “German Martyrs” during Hitler’s regime. Among the more interesting items in this essay is an extended quote from Albert Einstein: “Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. . . . “Only…
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D. A. Carson Conference on Gender
D. A. Carson will be speaking at a half-day conference on gender just before the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference this February. Here’s the announcement from CBMW: CBMW and the Fidelis Foundation are pleased to announce a half-day conference on gender with Dr. D.A. Carson. Different by Design 2009: A Crucial Call to Faithfulness on Gender Issues will be held at the Minneapolis Hilton in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 2nd, 2009, just prior to the start of the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference. The schedule will begin at 1:00pm and conclude by 4:30pm.
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LA Times on Women in Ministry
The editors of the The Los Angeles Times weighed in on the topic of women in ministry on Sunday (HT: Albert Mohler). The editorial talked mainly about the state of affairs in the Roman Catholic Church, but there was some commentary about Protestant churches as well. The editors conclude that continuing limitations on women are due to tradition in the Roman Catholic Church and the Bible in Protestant churches (texts like 1 Timothy 2:12). They write, “In either case, the arguments that keep women from full participation are attributed to a higher authority. So why do they sound so much like the complaints about assertive women that long have issued…
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A Roman Catholic Sizes Up Evangelicals
David Mills is the former editor of Touchstone magazine and is one of the most compelling writers I know. He is a Roman Catholic, but I see him about once at year the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). He attends not as a member, but as a sympathetic observer. If there’s one thing I like about David, it’s that he knows that there are differences between Evangelicals and Catholics and that he thinks we should all be honest about them. In an age in which glossing over such distinctions is the order of the day, I find that kind of clarity refreshing indeed.