Former pastor Rob Bell recently stated that the church is on the cusp of embracing gay marriage. Owen Strachan has penned an open-letter responding to that claim. Strachan writes: Rob, you’re a gifted communicator. You drew many folks to your church in Michigan, and now you have a show on Oprah’s network. It’s clear that you’re charismatic, funny, and adept at making complex realities simple to understand.But—excuse my own attempt at brevity—you’re dead wrong on the church and gay marriage. The church isn’t giving an inch on this issue. Sure, there are scattered congregations who are moving in this direction. But in terms of tens and tens of thousands of…
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Broken Together
[Source: Igniter Media]
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New York Times Op-Ed agreeing with Judge Roy Moore?
I was reading an Op-Ed in The New York Times this morning about Alabama’s legal battle over gay marriage and was stunned to read this paragraph (underline mine): Since the United States Supreme Court will rule on gay marriage in June, it’s easy to dismiss the Alabama court’s ruling as quixotic. But it raises a real issue: not what state courts can do, but rather what they should do. Because state and federal courts operate on entirely separate tracks, the state court’s position that it need not follow lower federal court rulings is technically correct. Yet if our judicial system is to function smoothly, both court systems must, from time to time,…
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Do Liberals Stifle Intellectual Diversity on Campus?
NPR hosted a fascinating debate at George Washington University on this proposition: “Liberals are stifling intellectual diversity on campus.” All four debaters were liberal, but two of them argued in favor of the proposition (Greg Lukianoff, Kirsten Powers) and two of them against (Angus Johnston, Jeremy Mayer). Students in the audience were polled before and after the debate about their agreement with the proposition. This allows everyone to see what people’s views were coming in and whether they were persuaded to adopt a different view as a result of the debate. Here are the results:
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Ana Marie Cox, having come out as a Christian, goes on “Morning Joe”
Ana Marie Cox wrote a compelling testimony several days ago titled “Why I’m coming out as a Christian.” She is a liberal/progressive writer, and she shares that she has been most reluctant to announce her new found faith for fear that Christians won’t accept her. Happily, she reports that the opposite has happened since her article came out. Watch above.
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Should I attend the same-sex “wedding” of a friend or family member?
The March issue of Christianity Today has a forum titled: “Should I attend the wedding of a gay friend or family member? The invitation will come soon enough.” The article includes three respondents—two Roman Catholics (Eve Tushnet and Sherif Girgis) and one Anglican (Lisa Severine Nolland). Girgis and Nolland contend that Christians have a moral obligation not to attend same-sex weddings. Tushnet argues that “it’s best to show up.” I’m with Nolland and Girgis on this one because attendance at a wedding is not like attending a concert, where attendance suggests nothing about your own views on the proceedings. A wedding is a public recognition of a union, and those…
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The SBC will look different this summer
This post is a bit of inside baseball for all my Southern Baptist readers. I just learned that our annual meeting will be quite different this June. Pastor Ronnie Floyd will preside over a revamped program that moves all convention business, resolutions, and seminary reports to Tuesday morning and afternoon. Tuesday evening through Wednesday will have a focus on ministry and mission. Wednesday afternoon will feature the convention sermon as well as a panel discussion on “The Supreme Court and Same -Sex Marriage: Preparing Our Churches for the Future.” Panelists include Albert Mohler, Russell Moore, and others. You can look at an overview of the schedule below. This year’s meeting…
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How has “The Breakfast Club” aged after 30 years?
John Hughes’ classic “The Breakfast Club” turned 30 this year. To put this in perspective, we are as far removed now from “The Breakfast Club” as the “The Breakfast Club” was from James Dean’s “Rebel Without a Cause” (let that one sink-in, GenXers). Daniel Drezner asks in The Washington Post how “The Breakfast Club” has held up after three decades. Drezner says that he watched “Rebel Without a Cause” in 1985 and found it completely outdated and unrelatable as a teen-angst drama. He wondered if that’s how teens would view “The Breakfast Club” now. So he decided to watch “The Breakfast Club” with his 14-year old son to gauge whether…
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Researchers claim same-sex couples may soon be able to produce biological children together.
This seems kind of important. PhillyMag.com has the story: Researchers at Cambridge University and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science say they have discovered a way to “create human egg and sperm cells from the stem cells in the skin of two adults.” Which means, for instance, an egg can be created from the stem cells of two men, and sperm cells can be created from the stem cells of two women… Researchers in the study say that we could be seeing same-sex couples producing children together in as little as two years. Read the rest here.
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Christian florist gives first interview
On Friday, I gave an update on Barronelle Stutzman’s case. She is the Christian florist who is risking everything to stand for religious freedom. Yesterday, she gave her first interview since the court ruled against her. You can watch it above.
