I really appreciate this testimonial from Jen Pollock Michel, who calls herself “The Accidental Complementarian.” Writing for Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog, she writes: Misunderstandings about complementarians abound. At a recent women’s conference, I heard a speaker describe her egalitarian upbringing, saying it wasn’t until college that she recognized the breadth of theological difference on this issue. “I was shocked. And to be honest, I was heartbroken. It had never occurred to me that in this day and age, so many people just like me were being sidelined,” she said. Her implication? Complementarianism was theology that should have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Like me, the closet complementarians in the…
-
-
A Christian at the New York Times shares his story
Michael Luo is an editor at the New York Times. He’s also a Christian and a member of Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. King’s College recently hosted an address by Luo in which he describes his faith and how it informs his work at the nation’s paper of record.
-
Why the GOP is embracing gay marriage
The Pew Research Center recently conducted a poll on support for gay marriage. Among those who identify as Democrats, there are no surprises. A solid majority supports gay marriage. But opinion among Republicans is quite divided at the moment. The division is not regional (red state vs. blue state) but generational. While only 39% of Republicans support gay marriage overall, a whopping 61% of Republicans under the age of 30 favor legal gay marriage. What does this mean? If demographics is destiny, it is very clear what is going on here. The Republican party’s future will be no different from the Democratic party’s present on the issue of marriage. It…
-
The Barronelle Stutzman Story
I have written numerous times about the florist in Washington state who is being sued for her refusal to participate in a gay wedding. Her story in particular is really troubling. She has been happily serving gay people in her shop for years. She served one gay couple for nearly a decade and had become good friends with them. But when they asked her to participate in their wedding ceremony, she politely declined. She is a Southern Baptist Christian, and she told them that she couldn’t participate because of her relationship with Jesus. Word of her refusal spread through social media, and the attorney general of the state of Washington…
-
Pot is in, and social conservatism is out at CPAC
John Murdock has an apt analysis of last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In short, he says that pot was in and that social conservatism was out. Traditionally, the conservative coalition has been concieved as a three-legged stool: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and foreign policy conservatives. Murdock says that the social conservative leg was missing at CPAC and that Libertarianism is on the rise. There were no sessions devoted to pro-life issues. Nor were there any sessions given to advance a traditional view of marriage. These staples of social conservatism simply weren’t on the agenda. Nor were they major emphases of the headline speakers–not even of those who are…
-
A gold star son honors his dad
Steve Hartman recently reported a story for “CBS Evening News,” and it was all he could do to make it through. You can literally hear him choking back the tears during his report. Why? Because he was reporting about an 8-year old boy named Myles Eckert, whose father was killed in Iraq just five weeks after Myles was born. Myles never knew his father, but he misses him deeply. In the video above, you’ll see how that affection for the father he never knew came forth in a recent encounter with a soldier. Don’t miss this one.
-
The South’s Stunning Embrace of Gay Marriage
You might think that support for gay marriage exists mainly among America’s coastal elites and urban centers. It’s an easy explanation to believe that public opinion in blue states is one thing and that public opinion in red states is another. But that is actually not the case when it comes to gay marriage. A study released last year shows that support for gay marriage is increasing rapidly across the country in both red and blue states. In an article today for The Atlantic, one of the authors of the study—Robert Jones—writes about his findings.
-
The New Calvinism Considered
Jeremy Walker, New Calvinism Considered: A Personal and Pastoral Assessment (EP Books, 2014). 126pp. $10.99. If you are wondering what the so-called “New Calvinism” is, Jeremy Walker has just written a short book trying to explain it. In The New Calvinism Considered: A Personal and Pastoral Assessment, Walker explains what the theological hubbub is all about. Walker identifies four characteristics of this movement. First, and most obviously, it is Calvinistic. But its Calvinism tends to be limited to soteriology as there is a good bit of diversity on other aspects of Reformed faith.
-
Refusing to Photograph a Gay Wedding Isn’t Hateful
Conor Friedersdorf does not agree with Christian views on sexuality. He doesn’t think homosexuality or premarital sex is a sin. He supports legal gay marriage. Nevertheless, he believes it is wrong to accuse Christian business owners of being bigots for refusing to participate in gay weddings. He also defends Ross Douthat against such ugly accusations. Writing for The Atlantic, Friedersdorf argues that “Refusing to Photograph a Gay Wedding Isn’t Hateful.”
-
Do complementarian gender roles result from sin?
Egalitarians often claim that gender roles are a result of the Fall of man into sin. They might agree that the husband appears to be the “head” of the wife in some biblical texts but that those texts are reflecting an imperfect situation. Male leadership in marriage is not rooted in the order of God’s good creation but in sinful human pride. For example, Rachel Held Evans has written, In the biblical narrative, hierarchy enters human relationships as part of the curse, and begins with man’s oppression of women—’your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you’ (Genesis 3:16). But with Christ, hierarchical relationships are exposed…