• Theology/Bible

    New Issue of JBMW

    The latest issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (JBMW) is now available from the CBMW website. If you are not yet a subscriber to JBMW, you should be. Subscription information is posted on the JBMW page. There are several articles that are available for download now.

  • Theology/Bible

    A Critique of Rob Bell’s Feminine God Language

    In his latest NOOMA video, Pastor Rob Bell argues that the Biblical depiction of God is often a feminine one: There is this maternal impulse, this ancient nurturing instinct. And it transcends time; it transcends culture; it transcends economics. There is an ancient mothering impulse, and it’s also a divine impulse. Throughout the Bible, God is described as compassionate. In Hebrew, the original language of the Scriptures, it’s the word “raham.” It’s also the word for “womb.” So, God is compassionate. God is “womb-like”? This is a feminine image for God.

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Using “God’s Will” To Manipulate

    I couldn’t agree more with S. M. Hutchens’s remarks about how some would-be suitors appeal to the “will of God” in manipulative ways. “A young woman whose family I have known for years called me for advice. She had just been told by a young man that after long and earnest prayer, after seeking the face of God for days, the Holy Spirit had informed him it was God’s will she form a romantic attachment with him. With little deliberation and equal gravity I informed her she could tell her swain and his Spirit to go jump in the lake, and add a boot in my name to their collective…

  • Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Anti-Americanism and Human Evil

    Joe Loconte of The Weekly Standard reports on a poll showing the anti-Americanism of America’s European allies. Loconte gives an explanation for this antipathy that is in part theological: ‘The poll, conducted between July 15 and August 31 and involving over 16,000 respondents, suggests that America’s European and NATO “allies” are in fact infested with legions of anti-American conspiracy theorists.

  • Book Reviews,  Theology/Bible

    John A. Broadus: A Living Legacy

    Michael Haykin edits a series for Broadman & Holman called “Studies in Baptist Life and Thought.” The volume on John Broadus was just released in August, and my good friend Mark Overstreet has an essay in it titled “Now I Am Found: The Recovery of the ‘Lost’ Yale Lectures and Broadus’s Legacy of Engaging Exposition.” Other contributors include Timothy George, David Dockery, Richard Melick, and Tom Nettles. John Broadus is a towering figure in the history of Southern Baptists. Charles Haddon Spurgeon called Broadus “the greatest of living preachers.” Broadus served as the second president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition,

  • Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Responding to David Gushee

    I mentioned on Monday that David Gushee penned an opinion piece for USA Today in which he criticizes conservative evangelicals who support Sarah Palin’s candidacy. He writes: “It is an uncomfortable fact that many of the theologically conservative Christians who have endorsed Palin’s nomination would not be willing to endorse her or any other woman for service as pastor of their church. Women cannot serve as pastors in groups such as the Churches of Christ, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America, most non-denominational Bible churches, and an influential advocacy group called the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).” I belong to two of the groups that…

  • Christianity,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

    David Gushee Highlights ‘Inconsistency’

    This is a no-frills post. I am writing this from my phone because Hurricane Ike has left me without electricity. So I apologize in advance for the raw links and the pictureless post. David Gushe writes about the so-called “Palin Inconsistency” in today’s USA TODAY: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/09/the-palin-predi.html We have already discussed on this blog the issues that Gushee raises. Nevertheless, I will try to respond more fully when I have electricity. For now, I will just say that it would really help if Egalitarians like Gushee would take Complementarians on their own terms. For years, Complementarians have been addressing the very questions that he raises. There is a biblical and theological…

  • Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Hell and the Religious Right

    Lisa Miller at Newsweek magazine has this to say about the beliefs of Sarah Palin’s pastor: “The senior pastor of that church, in sermons that circulated online before they were taken down last week, preaches hell for anyone who isn’t saved by Jesus. America does not know enough yet about what Palin personally believes, but her church background—she now worships at a nondenominational Bible church—puts her squarely in the tradition of the old-school religious right.” What is fascinating here is that Miller treats this as a newsworthy item—that Christians believe that there is such thing as hell. It says a lot about where we are as a nation that such…

  • Christianity,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Complementarian Hypocrisy?

    In my previous post, we were addressing the question raised by the “On Faith” forum in light of Sarah Palin’s candidacy (a joint venture of The Washington Post and Newsweek): “Women are not allowed to become clergy in many conservative religious groups. Is it hypocritical to think that a woman can lead a nation and not a congregation?” In answer to that question, I noted that the Bible specifically enjoins believers to order their homes and their churches in light of a principle of male headship. There is no complementarian consensus, however, on how these matters apply outside of the home and the church. One other item is related to…