• Christianity,  Sports

    Lin Leads Knicks to 7th Straight Win

    The Knicks snagged their 7th straight win tonight with Lin as a starter. I know the last couple of weeks have been all about Jeremy Lin, but you’re missing his contribution if you’re only counting the points he puts up on the board. Lin is leading these guys to play team ball—the kind of ball that led the Mavericks to a championship last year. Tonight’s stats bear this out. Lin only scored 10 points, but he had 13 assists. No player for the Knicks had more than 19 points, yet the team still managed to put 100 points on the board. In a league filled with selfish superstars, this new…

  • Christianity

    Blogging and Controversy

    Timothy Dalrymple offers some apt reflections on blogging and controversy. He outlines five things to think about before jumping into the latest viral fray: 1. Am I responding to a controversy or creating one? 2. Have I fully digested and assessed this issue? 3. Do I really have anything important to add to the conversation? 4. Assess your motives. 5. Remember the power of compassion. Bloggers, this is worth your time to read the whole thing. (HT: Tim Challies)

  • Christianity,  Sports

    Lin-sane in the Membrane

    It has been my long-standing custom not to pay attention to NBA basketball before the playoffs start. But Jeremy Lin has changed that. I’m tuning in now along with the rest of the country. If you missed tonight’s game, it was another great performance (highlights above). What a remarkable player, what an underdog, and what an inspiration for corny puns. They say that puns are the lowest form of humor, but that hasn’t diminished the corny punning on Lin’s name. In fact, many are finding quite hard to resist. Mark it down. I’m all Lin for the rest of the season. As long as he’s bal-Lin, I won’t be stall-Lin…

  • Christianity,  News

    MacArthur Study Bible to Be Released with NIV

    Zondervan announced today that the MacArthur Study Bible notes will be available with the new NIV translation of the scripture beginning in the Fall of 2013. In Zondervan’s press release, John MacArthur says: The New International Version is read and studied by more English-speaking believers than any other modern translation of Scripture. I’m delighted that the MacArthur Study Bible notes will now be easily accessible to NIV readers. My prayer is that these insights and explanations, together with the acclaimed readability of the translation, will help illuminate the true meaning and unleash the divine power of Scripture for NIV readers. The MacArthur Study Bible has been available with a variety…

  • Christianity,  Politics

    Scholars and Leaders Line-up to Protest Mandate

    The statement below was put out by the Beckett Fund, and it says that President Obama did not “accommodate” religious liberty concerns in his recent “compromise.” The healthcare law still requires religious groups to pay for chemical abortions and contraception. I want you to notice the names on this list. It is signed by 160 scholars and leaders, and signatories include D. A. Carson, Albert Mohler, Robbie George, Russell Moore, Danny Akin, David Dockery, and many others.

  • Christianity,  Culture

    Where’s the Outrage about Nicki Minaj?

    I don’t usually do this, but I watched the Grammy’s last night. I was curious to see how they would acknowledge the death of Whitney Houston, so I tuned in. The program featured the normal stream of pop culture pabulum that one has come to expect from the Grammy’s, but this year’s edition moved from lowbrow to insult when Nicky Minaj took the stage. It was so bad that I hit the fast-forward button through Minaj’s performance. Not only was it an aesthetic and artistic nightmare, it was a distasteful sacrilege. Michael Gerson is right to ask why hardly anyone was offended by Minaj’s impious spectacle. He writes,

  • Christianity,  Sports

    Colt McCoy Talks about Losing BCS Championship and Idolatry

    Even for me as a fan, it really stung to watch my team lose the BCS national championship. I can only imagine what it would feel like as a player. Colt McCoy is the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Brown, but two years ago he led the Texas Longhorns to the BCS title game to play against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Both teams were undefeated, and it was a big game. It was the game that McCoy had been preparing for his whole life to play in. McCoy was driving the Longhorns down the field and looked like he was going to lead them into the endzone for the first…

  • Christianity,  Politics

    There Went Religious Liberty…

    Albert Mohler takes a hard-hitting look at Nicholas Kristof’s cavalier dismissal of religious liberty in the wake of the new healthcare mandate. Mohler’s critique is important because Kristof’s column is emblematic of a sentiment that has become quite common among the American left. For them, religious liberty is no longer an inalienable right, but something that can be abridged when it comes into conflict with the secular state. Neither Kristof nor any other American liberal I know of supports throwing Christians to the lions (yet), but they are laying the intellectual and legal ground for it whether they realize it or not. That is why the President’s healthcare mandate deserves…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    The President Is Not Telling the Truth

    Yesterday, President Obama issued an “accommodation” to religious employers who object to that portion of Obamacare that forces them to pay for contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortions. In his statement (view it above), the President claims, Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services -– no matter where they work.  So that core principle remains.  But if a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company -– not the hospital, not the charity -– will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive…

  • Christianity,  Politics

    Albert Mohler Hits Hard on the President’s “Compromise”

    Albert Mohler has a must-read article on the unacceptability of President Obama’s so-called “compromise.” He concludes: Only an accounting maneuver hides the fact that we will all be paying for chemical abortions under the President’s prized Affordable Care Act. Added to this is coverage for sterilizations… Anyone who celebrates this “compromise” as a victory is hiding behind an accounting trick. That accounting trick cannot hide the great moral tragedy at the heart of the President’s policy — a policy that leaves religious liberty in peril and Planned Parenthood smiling. This is an important explanation of what happened today, and you need to read the whole thing.