A female high school student in Minnesota is competing in wrestling competitions against male students, and John Piper has some counter-cultural advice to fathers about it. ‘Come on, dads, have some courage. Just say, “Over my dead body are you going to wrestle a girl.” Of course, they will call you prudish. But everything in you knows better. ‘Yes, I am talking to the boys’ fathers. If the girls’ fathers don’t care how boys manhandle their daughters, you will have to take the lead. Give your sons a bigger nobler vision of what it is to be a man. Men don’t fight against women. They fight for women. ‘They called…
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Proposition 8 Revisited
Amanda Shaw reports on the First Things blog that the Supreme Court of California is considering the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative passed last November that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. At issue is how marriage should be defined vis a vis human rights. Shaw writes: “To hear media accounts of legal rights, a particular definition of marriage is assumed, and assumed to be fixed, while that definition is precisely what is in question. Today, the proposition is being challenged on the basis that it was improperly posed and passed as an amendment, while in fact—by supposedly restricting minority rights—it falls into…
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Paul Harvey, R.I.P. (1918-2009)
ABC News is reporting that the man who made his living telling us “the rest of the story” has passed away. ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson has released the following statement: “Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation’s history. As he delivered the news each day with his own unique style and commentary, his voice became a trusted friend in American households.
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A Compromise on Same-Sex “Marriage”?
Last Sunday, David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch penned an op-ed for the New York Times and made the case for a compromise between those on opposite sides of the same-sex “marriage” debate. Here’s what they proposed: “It would work like this: Congress would bestow the status of federal civil unions on same-sex marriages and civil unions granted at the state level, thereby conferring upon them most or all of the federal benefits and rights of marriage. But there would be a condition: Washington would recognize only those unions licensed in states with robust religious-conscience exceptions, which provide that religious organizations need not recognize same-sex unions against their will. The federal…
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Gospel Living in an Oscar Culture
The movie “Milk” is based on the true story of a homosexual activist from the late 1970’s named Harvey Milk. Among other things, the movie depicts Milk’s fight against Proposition 6 (a ballot measure aimed at keeping homosexuals from teaching in public schools), a measure which seems to parallel the recent passage of Proposition 8 in California. If you watched the Academy Awards last night, then perhaps you saw the two speeches from the two winners who were related to this movie. The first winner was Dustin Lance Black who won the award for Best Original Screenplay, and second was Sean Penn who won the Best Actor Award. In their…
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24 Things About to Disappear in America
Rod Dreher has a list of 24 things that are about to disappear in America. I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version below, but don’t miss reading the entire article. Here are the 24 items in his list:
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Abortion Outrage: Face to Face with a Human Being
I just read a report in the Associated Press that is too awful to believe. But it is true nevertheless. An 18-year old girl went to an abortion clinic near Miami, Florida to abort her 23-week old unborn baby. After the procedure had begun, the abortion doctor did not show up in time to kill the baby before it was delivered. Here’s the description from the AP.
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Are Calvinism & Complementarianism Related?
A couple of weeks ago, we noted Molly Worthen‘s piece in the New York Times about Mark Driscoll and about the revival of Calvinism among evangelicals. In a letter to the editor in yesterday’s New York Times magazine, Douglas Groothuis took umbrage with one aspect of Worthen’s description of Calvinism. Here’s his complaint in his own words: “Mark Driscoll’s emphasis on gender hierarchy in the church is not a logical implication of his Calvinist beliefs, as your article states. Calvinism argues that women and men are equally depraved and unable to save themselves from God’s wrath. While many Calvinists teach that women are restricted in their opportunities to serve through…
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Robert George on Roe v. Wade
Princeton professor Robert George has some worthy reflections on the legacy of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, which was handed down 36 years ago today. He writes: ‘The Roe justices were also wrong to imagine that legal abortion would prove to be enlightened or in the slightest respect humane. On the contrary, the policy imposed by the Court has proven to be an unmitigated disaster. In the thirty-six years since Roe and Doe, abortion has taken the lives of more than fifty million unborn victims—each a distinct, unique, precious human being.
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National Sanctity of Human Life Day
Today President George W. Bush declared January 18, 2009 as “National Sanctity of Human Life Day” (NSHLD). President Reagan began the tradition of designating this annual observance (which typically falls on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, 1973). One thing to note about the President’s action today. Reagan, Bush, and Bush all made the annual proclamation, while Clinton did not. Given his record of support for abortion rights, it is unlikely that Obama will continue the tradition during his administration. So this is probably the last presidential proclamation of NSHLD that we will see for at least the next 4-8 years. Here’s the entire…