The “On Faith” forum (a joint venture of The Washington Post and Newsweek) is hosting a discussion that raises a question about the theological consistency of evangelicals who support Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential nomination: “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?” One of the contributors is David Waters, and he singles out Southern Baptists in particular as having a double-standard.
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Radio Debate with the Pastor of IBC
On Monday I wrote about Irving Bible Church (IBC) and their elders’ recent decision to allow a woman to fill their pulpit. On Monday evening, I debated IBC’s pastor Andy McQuitty on the topic. The discussion occurred on my good friend Barry Creamer’s radio program “Live from Criswell.” If you are interested in hearing the discussion, you can listen to it below or download it here. [audio:http://barrycreamer.com/audio/broadcasts/LFC-2008_08_25.mp3] I think you’ll find that this discussion leaves much to be desired in one very important sense. There just wasn’t enough time to talk about everything that needed to be talked about. But that’s just the nature of the beast in a one-hour…
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First Female Preacher at Irving Bible Church
Last May, I wrote about the egalitarian shift at Irving Bible Church (IBC). The elders had just completed an 18-month long study and had concluded that they would allow women to preach in their church. Yesterday, IBC had a female preacher fill the pulpit for the first time since the elders’ findings were published. The preacher’s name was Jackie Roese. Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News wrote Saturday about the changes at IBC, and he quoted from my forthcoming JBMW editorial on this topic. But the best lines from the entire news article come from Tommy Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church: The Rev. Tom Nelson of Denton Bible…
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McLaren Endorses Obama
(HT: Tim Challies)
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Blomberg Calls TNIV the Standard English Version
Dr. Craig Blomberg has recently rotated on to the NIV/TNIV Committee on Bible Translation. At a blog hosted by Zondervan Academic, Blomberg comments on the TNIV and its place among other English translations of the Bible. His remarks deserve a response, so I will give a brief one here. He writes: ‘What about the big debate over gender-inclusive language for humanity at its peak in the late 1990s? After over a decade since the NIVI Britain’s first stab at an evangelical, inclusive language translation) was produced, I am convinced more than ever that it is the right way to go.
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Is Egalitarianism a Heresy?
S. M. Hutchens is not known for pulling his punches when it comes to egalitarianism. He’s a strenuous opponent who charges egalitarianism with falling outside the bounds of Christian orthodoxy. In a recent post on the Touchstone blog, he writes the following: ‘To the best of my judgment, egalitarianism is as significant and seductive an error as Arianism; it is an anthropological heresy that infects theology proper through the attack on Christology it necessarily entails. I claim no special authority to make this judgment, but simply join mine, whatever it might be worth, to that of greater men, and submit it to the Church.’
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C. A. W. Clark, 1914-2008 (R.I.P.)
Rev. C. A. W. Clark, pastor of the Good Street Baptist Church here in Dallas, TX, passed away on Sunday. He was 94 years old. He pastored Good Street for over 50 years and was widely regarded as the master of the “whooping” style of preaching. Whooping is a style of black preaching that begins slowly then builds to a crescendo with fervor and the musical repetition of key phrases and intonations. Rev. Cleophus LaRue, a professor of homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary says that “He did it better than anybody in the 20th century.” If you’ve never seen whooping before, you really should take a moment and watch the…
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My Dad Will Be Presenting a Paper at ETS
The program for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society is now available for download from the ETS Website. Page 28 says that “Dennis Burk” will be doing a presentation on Paul’s righteousness language. I guess that means that my dad will be presenting a paper. I’m just kidding, of course. Even though I have gone by “Denny” my whole life, every now and again “Dennis” still pops up, and that’s okay. I am grateful that the program has updated my institutional affiliation (Thanks, Dr. Ware!). Seriously though, if you are interested in seeing the tentative program, click below. Program for the 60th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological…
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Witherington on CNN (and my thoughts too)
New Testament scholar Ben Witherington appeared on CNN to talk about an ancient pre-Christian tablet that has recently caused some controversy among biblical scholars. Witherington’s brief remarks are good, and to them I would add a few of my own.
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Hauerwas and Dever on Patriotism
Stanley Hauerwas and Mark Dever had a fascinating conversation about patriotism on July 3 with Russell Moore on “The Albert Mohler Program.” Moore asked both men for their opinions about the propriety of patriotic church services. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/totl/2008/AMP_07_03_2008.mp3] Hauerwas said that such observances are idolatrous. He also compared the American military to that of the 3rd Reich in Nazi Germany. Moore’s rejoinder to this latter point in the third segment is insightful. “Should We Be Patriots In The Pew?” – The Albert Mohler Program