The three candidates for the Presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention just completed a two hour discussion about the issues facing Southern Baptists. They discussed CRT, the sex-abuse task force, and a variety of other issues. You can watch the video below.
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Overturning Roe and the Attempt To Delegitimize SCOTUS
I’ve been watching the fallout from last night’s bombshell leak of a draft opinion from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Of course, this is only a draft and not the court’s final ruling. We won’t know for sure how the court has decided this case until the Court releases it final official ruling. But if this one holds, all I can say is Hallelujah. Roe v. Wade has presided over the legal killing of over 60 million human beings since 1973. That is the holocaust times ten. The regime of Roe v. Wade has effectively given us abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy. And with the body…
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Thank You, Coach O.
Tonight LSU’s head football Coach Ed Orgeron released a statement announcing his parting of ways with LSU. As usual, he’s as honest as the day is long about why he must leave. He just didn’t win enough games over the last two seasons. He writes: A Letter from Ed Orgeron pic.twitter.com/eDzbLgBb5V — LSU Football (@LSUfootball) October 17, 2021 Coach Orgeron and LSU athletic director also held a press conference to announce the news. Don’t be surprised if you sense a certain ambivalence from LSU fans about Coach Orgeron’s departure. The ambivalence is real because two things are true at the same time. It’s the right decision, and it’s a really…
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Lisa Beamer Shares Candidly Twenty Years On
Every now and again, I will think about Lisa Beamer and wonder how she and her children are doing. It’s usually around the 9/11 anniversary that I will remember her husband Todd and then recall her. More than once, I have searched on the internet for news or an interview. But there really isn’t much there. What is there is really dated. It’s like she disappeared. But then earlier this evening out of nowhere, I learned that she spoke at Wheaton College to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It is great to see her again and to hear her share so candidly. Don’t miss this one. You can watch…
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Lisa Beamer’s Account of Todd Beamer on Flight 93
Todd Beamer was an evangelical Christian and one of the heroes of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. His last conversation with a telephone operator named Lisa Jefferson bears witness to great courage and grace. The account below is from Lisa Beamer’s 2002 book Let’s Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage (Tyndale House). Todd Beamer left behind a pregnant wife and two children. Read every bit of this, and remember. Lisa Jefferson indicated to me that at several points during their fifteen-minute phone call, Todd put the phone down, moved around the plane to talk with other passengers, and then returned to their conversation. Lisa told me, “If I hadn’t known it was…
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A Meditation on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11
I’ll never forget where I was on September 11, 2001. My wife and I were in our second year of marriage, and we were living in Louisville, Kentucky while I was working on my Ph.D. On the morning of the attacks, I had a seminar later that day, and I was in our apartment when she called me from her work to tell me to turn the television on. I think both buildings had already been struck by the time I tuned in, but I was watching live television as the towers eventually crumbled to the ground. Americans were horrified by what we saw that day. As the flames engulfed…
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9/11: One Day in America
Earlier this week I finished watching the new National Geographic documentary titled “9/11: One Day in America.” I cannot recommend this program highly enough. The documentary does not focus on pundits or politicians and what they did that day. Rather, it focuses on the lives and stories of the people at ground zero in Manhattan. We became familiar with many of these faces 20 years ago in the immediate aftermath. It is good to see so many of them again telling their stories in long form. I know that there are many retrospectives that have been produced in the lead-up to the 20th anniversary. But this one really is the…
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The Verdict
Earlier today, a jury in Minneapolis delivered three guilty verdicts against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed George Floyd. The jury deliberations were relatively short, which seemed to signal in advance that guilty verdicts were in the offing. And indeed they were. I was not able to watch the whole trial (who could?), but I did read news coverage as it progressed. I also caught some of the closing arguments from both the defense and the prosecution. From what I saw, it was clear to me that the prosecution was very effective at proving its case. The key features that the trial confirmed were cause of death and…
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Southern Baptists Prepare To Expel Gay-affirming Church
The Associated Press reports on items of controversy facing Southern Baptists at the Executive Committee meeting next week. Among other things, the report states: On the agenda [is] a recommendation that a church in Kennesaw, Georgia, be ousted from the SBC because it accepted LGBTQ people into its congregation, contravening Southern Baptist doctrine… Jim Conrad, the pastor of Towne View Baptist Church in Kennesaw, said he’s at peace with the likelihood that his church will be “disfellowshipped” by the executive committee during its meeting Monday and Tuesday. But Conrad sees broader challenges for the SBC as its stances on various sensitive issues are questioned from inside and outside. “The problem…
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Why Conservatives Don’t Trust the Media about the Election
Ross Douthat has an insightful analysis of why so many conservatives believe that the election was stolen. In particular, he explains why they aren’t listening to the tsk-tsking of the news media and elites who are upbraiding them for believing in conspiracy theories: [The media’s] story of the spring and early summer starts with our country’s leaders and experts calling for unprecedented sacrifice, with lockdowns and closures that disproportionately affected small businesses, churches and families with children — all conservative-coded groups and institutions — while liberal professionals on Zoom were in better shape and the great powers of Silicon Valley expanded their influence and wealth. Then, based on a single…
