If you haven’t listened to Albert Mohler’s “The Briefing” podcast today, you need to. He covers two stories that need to be front-and-center for every person who cares about marriage and religious freedom. You can download the audio here or listen below.
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Russell Moore talks to Anderson Cooper about Trump
Moore is right. I haven’t heard a groundswell of evangelical enthusiasm about Donald Trump’s candidacy either.
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Dueling articles on transgender at The Public Discourse
There is an important conversation going on at The Public Discourse—two articles with dueling views on transgender. Jennifer Gruenke makes the case for a biological basis for transgender identity. Greg Brown responds with a strong counterargument exposing some critical weaknesses in Gruenke’s essay. I am with Brown on this one, and I commend his careful response to you. I would add just a few brief observations of my own about Gruenke’s article:
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Culpable Ignorance: You have no excuse for not knowing what abortion is.
The third video exposing Planned Parenthood was just released today (see below). It is the worst one yet as it depicts the actual carnage of abortion. It is difficult to watch, but everyone who supports the legality of this barbarism is morally obligated to watch it. It is clearly a human being that has been torn apart and killed in utero. If you did not know that before, you will know after seeing this video. The images don’t lie. If you support this kind of thing being legal and don’t watch the video, your ignorance of the horror will not absolve your indifference. One of Jesus’ last utterances from the…
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Recent Sermons on Biblical Womanhood
I just finished preaching a couple messages on biblical womanhood at my church. It was a real joy to prepare and deliver these messages, and I am happy to share them with you.
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Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice
I contributed a chapter to a new book just published by Crossway: Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice. My chapter deals with transgender, but the rest of the book deals with gender issues more broadly. All of the contributors are complementarian. John Piper waxes nostalgic in the Foreword to the volume. He writes: My amazement is that decades into this struggle, there is such a widespread and robust embrace of the beautiful biblical vision of complementary manhood and womanhood. This may strike you as an evidence of small faith on my part. Perhaps it is. But if you had tasted the vitriol of…
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Facing down the heresy of our time
In a short piece at First Things, Ryan Anderson makes a point that every Christian needs to hear. The defining heresy of our day is anthropological in nature. It’s about who God created us to be as male and female in His image. So many of our social and spiritual pathologies are downstream from this key theological point. He writes: Debates about the nature of God, of salvation, and of the Church never disappear, of course. But today, the most pressing heresies—the newest challenges for the Church’s teaching and mission—center on the nature of man. The tribulations that marked the twentieth century and continue into the twenty-first—totalitarianism, genocide, abortion, and…
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Wheaton staffer announces support for gay relationships
Julie Rodgers has resigned her position in the Wheaton Chaplain’s office on the same day that she reveals her support for gay sexual relationships. Eric Teetsel has a report here, and I encourage you to read it. In the meantime, some initial observations: 1. Biblical authority is missing. Rodgers’s explanation of her change of heart is long on personal experience and short on Bible. If she has a reasoned biblical rationale for her views, she didn’t share it. It shouldn’t be lost on readers that other considerations seem to be driving her embrace of gay relationships, not God’s word.
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What are our options in post-Obergefell America?
David Gushee has a stimulating column at RNS arguing that “strident” calls for civil disobedience in the wake of Obergefell are empty. Yes, federal policy now disfavors those who adhere to a traditional definition of marriage, but there really isn’t any relevant way for Christians to disobey the government—at least not where things stand now. Instead, he argues that Christians will have to face the crushing consequences of their views and that they have no appropriate way to “disobey” in order to resist:
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Hymn to God the Father
One of my favorite poems of all time is “Hymn to God the Father” by John Donne. If you are not familiar with this poem, you need to be. Donne composed this piece near the end of his life when he was facing death (circa 1631). As he contemplates his demise, he is overcome with a sense of his own sinfulness, and he wonders how he will stand at the judgment. Donne evokes all the anguish of the “wretched man” in Romans 7:24 before he sounds a final note of hope that Jesus will rescue him at the last day. There is a wonderful play on the word “done” in…