In 2007, 138 Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals unanimously came together to declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam. The document that they produced is titled “A Common Word Between Us and You,” and it declares that “love of God” and “love of neighbor” are points of unity between Christianity and Islam. A group from Yale Divinity School drafted a response in late 2007 titled, “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You.” The response has been endorsed by over 300 Christian scholars and leaders, many of whom are associated with the evangelical movement in North America. The evangelical endorsements include…
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Letter from a Birmingham Jail
On Saturday, John Piper exhorted pastors to use the occasion of Martin Luther King Day to shine the light of the gospel on racism. He also quoted at length from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Dr. King’s description of Jim Crow South is one of the most gut-wrenching things you’ll ever read. It’s hard to believe that people once spoke so openly in racist terms, but they did. Here’s Dr. King in his own words:
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Church Discipline Gets Chastised in WSJ
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about the practice of church discipline in American evangelical churches. On the whole, the story is negative, focusing on cases which are less than exemplary. A church here in Dallas is mentioned in the article, Watermark Community Church, as well as First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Alabama. The article says,
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Pat Robertson Knows Who Will Be Next President
Pat Robertson is saying that God revealed to him who will be the next president of the United States, but Robertson also says that he will not reveal what he thinks God told him. He did say, however, that he is not happy about what God told him and that he hopes that he heard God wrong. Here’s the video:
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Alex & Brett Harris for Huckabee
Alex and Brett Harris are in the New York Times this morning in support of Mike Huckabee. It looks like they may Rebelutionize the GOP before it’s all said and done. If you don’t know anything about these two teenage boys, then you might be interested to hear the interview Al Mohler did with them several months ago. [click play button] [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/totl/2007/AMP_08_31_2007.mp3] “Huckabee Splits Young Evangelicals and Old Guard” – by David Kirkpatrick (New York Times)
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Shake-up in “Young Life” Ministry
Colin Hansen at Christianity Today reports on a shake-up going on in the parachurch youth ministry Young Life. The leaders of the ministry recently adopted a sort of statement of faith called the “Non-Negotiables of Young Life’s Gospel Proclamation.” The new measures have resulted in the firing or resignation of 10 staff members in the Raleigh-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. For those of you who are involved in or concerned about the ministry of Young Life, you might want to check out the rest of this story. “Gospel Talk: Entire area Young Life staff out after evangelism mandate” – by Colin Hansen (Christianity Today)
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Mohler’s Candidacy in the News
Last week I noted that Dr. R. Albert Mohler will be nominated this summer to serve as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Some reports have already appeared in the media, and they are worth taking a look at. Not only do these reports describe who Mohler is and his role in the conservative resurgence of the SBC, but they also include some comments from critics of Mohler. Unfortunately, the criticism is not constructive. In both cases, the criticism is at best wrong-headed, at worst subversive to the life of the SBC.
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Hypocrisy in the Anglican Communion?
According to the Associated Press, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., Katharine Jefferts Schori, says that the only difference between gay clergy in the American church and those in other churches in the world is that the Americans are now open about it. Speaking of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop to be elected in the Episcopal church, she says this: “He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop; he’s certainly not alone in being a gay partnered bishop. He is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who’s open about that status.”
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Dr. Mohler To Be Nominated for President of SBC
The Southern Baptist Texan reports that my pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress will nominate Dr. R. Albert Mohler this summer for the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time will know that I receive this news as a very positive development for our denomination. I have a great love and respect for Dr. Mohler, and I can’t imagine a better candidate for SBC President. More later. (HT: Justin Taylor, Henry Institute)
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Lessons from the Martyrs at the New Year
On Sunday, the Associated Press ran a story about Christians in India who are fleeing from persecution at the hands of Hindu nationalists. The article mentions briefly an incident that occurred in India about 8 years ago: “In 1999, an Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, were burned to death in their car in Orissa following a Bible study class.” This line appears in the story to provide background to the current Hindu persecution of Christians in India. But I remember when I first heard about this story, and there is much more to what happened than is indicated in the AP article.