• Book Reviews,  Christianity

    A Year with George Herbert

    If you are not familiar with the poetry of George Herbert, you need to be. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, “I love George Herbert from my very soul.” In fact, Spurgeon loved the poetry of George Herbert so much, he used to have his wife read the poems to him every Sunday evening after church. Mrs. Spurgeon described their evenings this way: I read on and on for an hour or more, till the peace of Heaven flows into our souls, and the tired servant of the King of kings loses his sense of fatigue, and rejoices after his toil.

  • Politics

    Abolishing the Defense of Marriage Act

    The debate about the debt ceiling has dominated the news for the last couple of weeks. As a result, many people missed a significant news story last week. The Senate Judiciary Committee held the first hearing ever held to consider abolishing The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Michael Foust reports: Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee marked the first time any Senate or House committee ever held a hearing on overturning the 1996 law, which defines marriage for federal purposes as between a man and a woman and gives states the option of not recognizing another state’s gay “marriages.” Gay groups view its reversal as the first step toward…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    The Oxymoron of Christian Terrorism

    The New York Times describes the perpetrator of the Norweigan massacre as a “religious, gun-loving Norwegian obsessed with what he saw as the threat of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration to the cultural and patriotic values of his country.” Other early reports (including The Times) have highlighted an alleged religious motivation, calling him a “Christian extremist.” Others have even used the term “Christian terrorist.” The “Christian” label was seized upon by media reports after a police official in Norway called him a “fundamentalist Christian.”

  • Christianity

    Twitter Is Like Poetry for John Piper

    I really like John Piper’s take on his use of Twitter: “Tweets for me are a kind of poetry. I make no claim to be good at it. But that’s the way I think about it. I want it to sound and look good. I will never use 2 for to. Or Shd for should. Why? It’s not a telegram. It’s a poem. “I love words. I rarely think of them as efficient, but as precious. God made them to carry the freight of truth and beauty. Nothing is more valuable than God’s truth and beauty.” Read the rest here.

  • Christianity,  Music

    The Critic’s Lullaby

    I’ve been in Louisiana this weekend and have had the chance to reconnect with many old friends. While I was there, I got to see one of my favorite bands, “The Critics.” They are working on a new album that will be released one song at a time beginning next week. I found out on Sunday, however, that they released a single not long ago titled “Lullaby.” The lead singer wrote the song as a lullaby for his baby niece, and it’s just a simple word about the hope of the new heavens and the new earth. I love the song and thought it worth sharing with you. The only…

  • Christianity,  News

    Frank Schaeffer Blames Norway Massacre on Evangelicals

    Frank Schaeffer blames the tragedy in Norway on conservative evangelicals and warns that evangelicals will be perpetrating similar attacks in the U.S. in days to come. He writes: In my new book “Sex, Mom and God” I predicted just such an action. I predicted that right wing Christians will unleash terror here in America too. I predict that they will copy Islamic extremists, and may eventually even make common cause with them… The rise of the “Tea Party,” the refusal by far right Republicans to authorize a the debt ceiling extension, the extremist anti-government words of people like Michele Bachmann, all these things are predictors of the violent Christian, white,…

  • Christianity,  News

    Haunted by an Abortion

    All of us are sinners, and we all are prone to cover our works in darkness so that our deeds will not be exposed (John 3:19-20). But we can’t hide our own faults from ourselves, so we have a tendency to rebrand our faults so that they are not faults after all. In other words, our hearts tend to suppress what they know to be true so as to salve our guilty consciences (Romans 1:18). But sometimes, there’s no getting away from the guilt. Even after we do our best to deny the evil of evil, it nevertheless haunts us at a visceral level.