Are Christian colleges still free to be Christian in this country? You may think that an unserious question, but if you’ve been paying attention to recent events surrounding Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, you know it’s a very pressing question indeed. Last month, Gordon College President Michael Lindsay added his signature to an open letter asking President Obama to include a religious exemption in a forthcoming executive order. The executive order will bar federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Thus any group receiving federal funds would be subject to this order. Those who signed the letter—including Rick Warren, Gabe Lyons, and several others—are…
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Do you know who our last living WW1 veteran was?
I have been enjoying William Manchester’s magisterial three-volume biography of Winston Churchill. Right now, I’m in the first volume when Churchill served as the First Lord of the Admiralty during World War 1. Reading about that war got me to wondering whether there were any American veterans of that conflict still alive today. It turns out that our last one passed away three years ago, and his name was Frank W. Buckles. Not many people born during the administration of President McKinley lived to have a Facebook page, but Mr. Buckles did. He was 110 years old when he died in 2011.
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First trailer for the movie “Unbroken”
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29 celebrity impressions in one “Perfect” song
Here’s a little humor for your Thursday morning. In the video above, Rob Cantor performs an original song with 29 different celebrity impressions. It’s quite impressive. I was most entertained by Ray Romano, Gwen Stefani, Shakira, and Britney Spears. What are your favorites?
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Wild Goose Festival as pagan nature worship?
A couple weeks ago, I made mention of this year’s Wild Goose Festival—an annual confab of progressive “Christians” and ex-evangelicals. Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis, and Frank Schaeffer all had a part in program. The group Jars of Clay was among the musical acts that performed. This year’s Festival also featured a program called Carnival de Resistance. Alexander Griswold’s description of the “Carnival” sounds like borderline nature worship. Here’s an excerpt:
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A chilling new front in the war on religious liberty
The ACLU and other groups supporting gay rights have announced that they are withdrawing their support for the Employment Non-discrimination Act of 2013 (ENDA). ENDA is a controversial measure because the bill would make it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or sexual identity. Why would the ACLU and gay rights groups remove their support for such a measure? Because the current form of the bill provides an exemption for religious employers. The ACLU et al. have decided that the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision gives too much ground to religious liberty. To curtail that trend, these groups will not support the bill as long…
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Trailer for new Moses movie starring Christian Bale
Ridley Scott has directed a new adaptation of the Moses story from the biblical book of Exodus. It stars Christian Bale and will hit theaters in December. The film is titled Exodus: Gods and Kings. The newly released trailer is above.
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Are evangelicals changing their views on gay marriage?
Jim Hinch has a rather ambitious analysis of evangelical piety at Politico titled, “Evangelicals Are Changing Their Minds on Gay Marriage: And the Bible isn’t getting in their way.” The title reveals the fundamental flaw in this article. The flaw also appears in the fact that Hinch treats members of the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Church of Christ as bellwethers of evangelical opinion. Hinch appears to be a little fuzzy as to what an evangelical is. These are very strange evangelicals indeed—those who give little heed to the authority of scripture and who are members of liberal mainline churches.
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9 Terrible Habits You Need to Stop Immediately
A productivity expert at Time magazine offers “9 Terrible Habits You Need to Stop Immediately.” This is not written from a biblical point of view, but there are nevertheless some wise, adaptable things to consider in this not-to-do list. The “terrible habits” are listed below. Click here to read the explanation for each one. Do Not Answer Calls from Unrecognized Numbers Do Not Email First Thing in the Morning or Last Thing at Night Do Not Agree to Meetings or Calls With No Clear Agenda or End Time Do Not Let People Ramble Do Not Check Email Constantly Do Not Over-Communicate With Low Profit, High Maintenance Customers Do Not Work…
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NY Times highlights young woman who deconverts
The New York Times ran a story on Friday highlighting the deconversion of Sarah Jones, a recent graduate from a Christian college. Jones is a young woman who grew up in a fundamentalist home, attended a Christian college, and then fell away from the faith. She has now crossed all the way over to the other side and works for a liberal interest group that opposes Christianity. It is a sad story, and perhaps the best response to her situation is simply to pray for this girl and her family. The Lord’s arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1). The original version of this blog post questioned whether…