• Christianity,  News,  Politics

    Santorum’s Roman Catholic Faith and Opus Dei

    The Washington Post has a feature length article on Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith and, in particular, on his connection to the lay-renewal group called Opus Dei. I kept waiting for a reference to The Da Vinci Code, but thankfully it never came. Instead, the article tells the story of a man who began as a nominal Catholic but who has become committed to a conservative, Catholic position:

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    A Jimmy Carter Study Bible

    Former President Jimmy Carter has just published a study Bible based on his decades of service as a Sunday School teacher in a Baptist Church. It’s titled NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter, and it “takes Mr. Carter’s years of teaching Sunday school lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, GA, and meshes them with the text of the NIV Bible.” A synopsis on Zondervan’s website describes the book this way: The legacy of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has been teaching directly from the Bible for over 65 years and has taken the Bible’s teachings seriously, implementing them into his life’s work. Now he…

  • Sports

    Peyton Manning Chooses Denver Broncos

    ESPN reports that Peyton Manning will be going to the Denver Broncos and that Tim Tebow will be traded. I’m a fan of Peyton Manning, and I’m glad for him and the Broncos. But it’s still a sad story for Colts fans. I was in Indianapolis over the weekend. While driving into town, I passed a billboard with a picture of Peyton Manning on it and a short sentence: “Thanks for the memories.” I got the distinct feeling that the folks in Indy are still grieving their loss. It’s also a sad story for Tim Tebow. Tebow took a Broncos team that was going nowhere, led them to a string…

  • Book Reviews,  Christianity

    Be sure to read Ted Kluck’s footnotes!

    Just a brief follow-up to my earlier post about Ted Kluck’s new book . I am a professor, and I am therefore a big fan of footnotes. It is my stock-in-trade, if you know what I mean. So please take my advice when I tell you to read all of the footnotes in Ted Kluck’s book. They are the most entertaining footnotes that you will ever read. Here’s a sample from the introduction of Dallas and the Spitfire where Ted goes to a coffee shop and first meets Dallas.

  • News

    Nicholas Kristof Affirms “Kony 2012”

    I appreciate Nicholas Kristof’s take on the Kony 2012 phenome. He answers a lot of the questions that have been raised by critics of The Invisible Children group. He also includes affirmations of the video from former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. This is an important Op-Ed to consider in your evaluation of Kony 2012. He writes, The video doesn’t contain errors, but it does simplify things greatly to hold attention. Complexity is, er, complicated: It has been a leading excuse for inaction during atrocities — during the Armenian genocide, during the Holocaust, during Rwanda, during the Bosnian slaughter. Each episode truly was complicated, but, in retrospect, we let nuance…

  • Book Reviews,  Christianity

    Ted Kluck’s New Book Is a Great Read

    Ted Kluck has just come out with a new book titled Dallas and the Spitfire: An Old Car, an Ex-Con, and an Unlikely Friendship which he co-authored with Dallas Jahncke. I read this book a few months ago and thought it was fantastic. I highly recommend it to you. It’s a true story of discipleship, and in it Ted describes his relationship with a young ex-con named Dallas who has recently come to faith in Christ. Together they work on restoring a broken down car (a Spitfire), which becomes a metaphor for the rebuilding of a young man’s life. Here’s the blurb that I wrote for the book: Dallas and…

  • Culture,  News

    Encyclopaedia Britannica Goes Out of Print

    After 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica is now going out of print. This is not at all surprising, given the ubiquity of the internet. Nevertheless, it still feels a bit like a landmark, doesn’t it? The New York Times reports: In the 1950s, having the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the bookshelf was akin to a station wagon in the garage or a black-and-white Zenith in the den, a possession coveted for its usefulness and as a goalpost for an aspirational middle class. Buying a set was often a financial stretch, and many families had to pay for it in monthly installments.

  • Christianity

    John Piper’s Senior Sermon at Fuller Seminary

    DesiringGod.org has just posted John Piper’s senior sermon from Fuller Seminary. The date is May 5, 1971 when Piper was 25 years old. He preached for nearly 19 minutes on Ephesians 1:6. What is remarkable about this sermon is its consistency with what Piper preaches now. It’s all about the glory of God. You can listen below or download here. [audio:http://cdn.desiringgod.org/resources/sermon/1971/John_Piper-Fuller_chapel_Ser.mp3]