Amen to James Kushiner‘s recent post on the Touchstone blog. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Read below. I’ve been watching this phenomenon now for several years: Christians reassessing their engagement with politics and their views of candidates and the parties, nuancing their pro-life and pro-family views so that their no longer “just” about abortion and “gay marriage.” Similiar nuancing seems to be at play when it comes to some basic Christian doctrines. . .
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Response to Donald Miller on Abortion
Christianity Today recently interviewed Blue Like Jazz author Don Miller about his invitation to pray at the Democrat National Convention. CT pressed Miller on his political views vis a vis abortion. In his response, Miller reflects on how he thinks a Republican President and Congress have fallen short on the issue of abortion: “As we elect a Republican House and Senate, and as we elect Republican leadership in the executive branch, we see very little changes on that issue. We’re electing someone who agrees with us on abortion, being sort of a tragedy in our country, and yet can’t get anything done. . . The executive branch doesn’t have that…
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First Female Preacher at Irving Bible Church
Last May, I wrote about the egalitarian shift at Irving Bible Church (IBC). The elders had just completed an 18-month long study and had concluded that they would allow women to preach in their church. Yesterday, IBC had a female preacher fill the pulpit for the first time since the elders’ findings were published. The preacher’s name was Jackie Roese. Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News wrote Saturday about the changes at IBC, and he quoted from my forthcoming JBMW editorial on this topic. But the best lines from the entire news article come from Tommy Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church: The Rev. Tom Nelson of Denton Bible…
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Steven Curtis Chapman on ‘Good Morning America’
(HT: Justin Taylor)
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Steven Curtis Chapman Speaks to Press about Grief
Many of you will remember the tragic accident that took the life of Steven Curtis Chapman’s five year old little girl this past May (see here). Chapman and his wife are now talking publicly about their grief and will be doing two high-profile interviews this week. The first one will appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, August 6 at 7am. The second will be on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Thursday, August 7 at 9pm Eastern Time. ABC has already posted an excerpt of their interview which you can watch here. Having only seen the excerpt, I was struck how Chapman spoke of his grief in the very…
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Lambeth 2008: Talk is cheap, but the gospel isn’t.
The proceedings of the 2008 Lambeth Conference were overshadowed by the growing schism in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality. The liberal wing of Anglican bishops (including the Episcopalians in America) overwhelmingly favors the ordination of gay bishops and the consecration of gay unions. The conservative minority does not. The basic issue is whether the Bible’s teaching on these matters is authoritative. Obviously, the conservatives think that it is, and the liberals think that it is not.
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John Piper on the Death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Don’t miss John Piper’s tribute to Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Piper writes: ‘Yesterday Alexander Solzhenitsyn died at the age of 89. I pause here on my vacation in the woods of Wisconsin to say, Thank you, heavenly Father, for the inspiration of this man’s life. ‘No one did more than Solzhenitsyn to expose the horrors of the failed communist experiment in Russia. Hitler’s purge would pale, if such things could pale, when compared to ten times the carnage in Stalin’s gulags. ‘Solzhenitsyn inspired me because of the suffering he endured and the effect it had on him. Here is the quote that I have not forgotten. It moves me deeply to this…
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One Hope for One Dollar
Pastor Joe Blankenship had a formative gospel influence on me during my college and early seminary years, and I am privileged to let you know about a great work that he is leading in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The ministry is called One Hope, and it’s mission is simple: “The goal of One Hope is to use the hope-giving and life-changing message of Jesus Christ to combat the cycles of racism, prejudice, abuse, violence, and poverty that exist in the inner city of Tulsa, and to train college-aged men and women to replicate the One Hope model in other urban areas” (see press release). One Hope engages inner-city and under-privileged kids through…
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Neuhaus Excoriates “An Evangelical Manifesto”
In the most recent issue of First Things, Richard John Neuhaus has sharp criticism for “That Evangelical Manifesto.” Actually, sharp isn’t a strong enough word. The sting of Neuhaus’ essay is not so much his critique of the Manifesto’s substantive proposals, but his analysis of the motivations underlying it. Neuhaus thinks the Manifesto is an attempt by some evangelicals to gain acceptance with the broader culture. In one of the more scathing sections of the article, Neuhaus critiques Os Guinness’ Christianity Today essay “A Gentle Plea for Civility.” Guiness is largely responsible for the wording of the “Manifesto,” and “A Gentle Plea” was a part of the initial roll-out of…
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C. A. W. Clark, 1914-2008 (R.I.P.)
Rev. C. A. W. Clark, pastor of the Good Street Baptist Church here in Dallas, TX, passed away on Sunday. He was 94 years old. He pastored Good Street for over 50 years and was widely regarded as the master of the “whooping” style of preaching. Whooping is a style of black preaching that begins slowly then builds to a crescendo with fervor and the musical repetition of key phrases and intonations. Rev. Cleophus LaRue, a professor of homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary says that “He did it better than anybody in the 20th century.” If you’ve never seen whooping before, you really should take a moment and watch the…