If you haven’t done so already, you need to buy and read Russell Moore’s new book Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches. Not only is this book is a real page-turner, it also makes a compelling case for the cultivation of an adoption culture within churches for the sake of gospel witness. Moore writes, “The gospel of Jesus Christ means our families and churches ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans close to home and around the world. . . Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission…
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Scot McKnight’s Question about Headship
Scot McKnight has invited readers to respond to a letter that he received concerning women in leadership. I’m going to post the letter here and then give a brief response. Here’s the letter: Dr. McKnight, I am in the process of rethinking my views in women in the church, and my wife asked me a question last night that I couldn’t answer. Her sister has been an elder in a church at various times and always struggled with being in a leadership position and believing that her husband was to be the spiritual head of their family. My wife’s question was, if the husband is to be the spiritual head of…
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Abortion and Obama’s Foreign Policy
On March 27, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech to Planned Parenthood’s annual Federation of America Awards gala, and she said the following: “I want to assure you that reproductive rights… will be a key to the foreign policy of this Administration… I was very proud when President Obama repealed the Mexico City policy. (Applause.) As a result, nongovernmental organizations overseas can once again use U.S. funding to provide the full range of family planning services so that women and their families can get access to the healthcare that they need.” President Obama has said that he wants to find “common ground” upon which to reduce the need…
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John Piper on Multi-Campus Churches
John Piper asks and answers the question, “What are the key issues in thinking through the multi-campus church movement?” You can listen below or read the manuscript here. [audio:http://media.desiringgod.org/audio/q_and_a/3952_what_are_the_key_issues_in_thinking_through_the_multi_campus_church_movement.mp3] For Piper, it boils down to this: “The issues, I think, revolve mainly around what it is to be a church: what constitutes a church, and what constitutes an eldership. . . The essential issue is: How do elders, as one, relate to a people and a unified teaching to the people? I think the preacher is an elder, and the way he relates to the people is as a shepherd. And I think it is implied in the way the…
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The New JBMW Online
The Spring 2009 issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood has been released, and you can read the entire table of contents here. Some of the articles are available online from the CBMW website. Here’s an excerpt from my editorial: “I sat in for a portion of the LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics Section at the annual SBL meeting this past November in Boston. What I heard there was both startling and sobering. The presentation that I attended featured a female theologian from a small seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. She delivered a paper on Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians-a presentation which included a variety of vulgar double-entendres involving the text…
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Animals Are People Too?
According to a recent book by a professor at the University of Colorado, animals have a sense of morality just as humans do. In essence, the book says that “different species of animals appear to have an innate sense of fairness, display empathy and help other animals that are in distress.” The book is newsworthy not merely because it contradicts the age-old assumption that only humans can tell right from wrong, but also because it lays the ethical groundwork for extending human rights to animals. The U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper reports it this way: “His conclusions will provide ammunition for animal welfare groups pushing to have animals treated more humanely.” I…
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9Marks at the SBC
Southeastern Seminary and 9Marks ministries are sponsoring an event at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, KY. The event consists of two panel discussions called “9Marks at 9,” which will be held at 9pm on June 22 and 23 in the Kentucky Exposition Center, South B101-102. Dr. Mark Dever will be speaking the first night, and Dr. Danny Akin the second. The events are free and open to the public. Here are some more details. June 22 at 9.00pm Mark Dever, “Why the Nine Marks are Central to the Future of the SBC” Panel Discussion to follow with: David Platt, Michael McKinley, and Greg Gilbert June…
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Sotomayor: “Court is where policy is made.”
This remark reveals a philosophy of jurisprudence that is very problematic. The judge’s role, according to Sotomayor, is not merely to apply the law to a given case but to make public policy. Perhaps she didn’t mean to imply that this is the way things should be, but just the way that things are. I expect that we’ll be seeing debate over this remark in the coming days during the confirmation hearing.
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Blomberg and Wright’s Straw Man
New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg has posted a favorable review of N. T. Wright’s book Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision. In it he characterizes Christ’s active obedience as “his obedience to the law” and Christ’s passive obedience as his vicarious death on the cross. Justin Taylor has pointed out that Blomberg’s definition is in fact incorrect and that Blomberg has reiterated a common caricature of the Reformed view. Taylor writes,
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Notre Dame Students Respond