By now most readers will have heard about the news concerning the charity World Vision. Founded as an evangelical anti-poverty parachurch organization, the group announced new personnel policies today. President Richard Stearns announced that the ministry would allow employees to engage in sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage. To be specific, any “Christian” in a legal same-sex “marriage” will now be eligible for employment at World Vision. Stearns claims that World Vision does not want to get mixed up in the contentious debate about gay marriage. Rather, they want to focus on the organization’s mission. So they will leave the debate about gay marriage for the churches to sort…
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The most consequential religious liberty case in a generation
One of the most important religious liberty cases in a generation will come before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties will be making their final appeal for an exemption from Obamacare’s coercive “contraceptive” mandate. Obamacare requires employers to provide health coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptive devices. So what’s the problem? Some of the devices—like IUD’s and morning-after pills—can cause abortions. The owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga are Christians and have said that they cannot in good conscience pay for coverage that can lead to killing an unborn human being. So these Christians have a choice. Either violate their conscience and provide coverage for abortion…
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Complementarian changes at Cedarville University
Christianity Today has a report on changes taking place at Cedarville University. The new president, Thomas White, has shifted the school into a decidedly Complementarian direction. According to the report, In his March 10 chapel talk, Thomas White discussed the concept of headship based on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. “We operate with the presupposition of inerrancy. So what I tell you today is not something that I wrote, I made up, or I started,” he said. “I’m just going to preach to you what the text says.” Cedarville, which recently weathered a turbulent year of disagreements and resignations, has also restricted classes in the women’s ministry program—functionally, every Bible class in…
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Children with Down Syndrome can live a happy life
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The Accidental Complementarian
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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.