CT‘s interview with Anne Rice is a fascinating read. I have to say that I am astonished to discover how much she enjoys reading conservative, Protestant interpreters of scripture. She lists D. A. Carson, Craig Keener, and N. T. Wright among her favorites, and says, “Of all the people I’ve read over the years, it’s their work that I keep on my desk.” Here’s a piece of the relevant exchange:
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Why I don’t care for Glenn Beck’s politics
The video above is a case in point of why I don’t care for Glenn Beck’s politics. It doesn’t matter to me that he is an economic and national defense conservative. He treats the greatest human rights crisis of our time (abortion on demand) as an afterthought, and he’s totally out to lunch on gay marriage. This is libertarianism, and I’m not a fan. Here’s a bit from the exchange on gay marriage:
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McKnight Interviews McLaren
Scot McKnight recently sat down and asked Brian McLaren three questions about what exactly McLaren believes (see above). I have the three questions transcribed below, but I think the last question is the most important. In the third question, McKnight asks McLaren if he’s a universalist. Don’t hold your breath for a direct answer because McLaren doesn’t give one. McLaren says that he is not an exclusivist but that he can’t say that he’s a universalist either. He won’t commit to either view. McLaren’s says that he’s working within a new “narrative” in which those old questions of heaven and hell don’t make sense anymore. In spite of McLaren’s obfuscation,…
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The Faith of Katy Perry
The most recent issue of Rolling Stone has an interview with pop music sensation Katy Perry. I’ve written about Perry before and have noted her past life as Katy Hudson—a Christian music star and the daughter of two charismatic youth pastors. What I found interesting about this interview in Rolling Stone was her remarks about her current spiritual state and practices. She describes it this way: “Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as ‘Pass the salt.’ A lot of religions use meditation or chanting as a subliminal prayer language, and speaking in tongues isn’t that different–it’s a secret, direct prayer language to God. If I felt intuitively that…
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Inconsistent Pro-life Evangelicals
Randy Alcorn has been a heroic pro-life advocate for many years. His part in the fight has cost him greatly. Nevertheless, he soldiers on. Mark Driscoll has recorded a series of conversations with Alcorn about the issue, and it would be well worth your time to watch all of them. The most recent installment focuses on inconsistent pro-life evangelicals—that is, those who call themselves pro-life but then don’t vote their stated conviction. Here are links to all three parts. Part 1 – Why Does Bestselling Author Randy Alcorn Make Minimum Wage? Part 2 – How God Uses Evil for Good Part 3 – Are Young Pro-Life Evangelicals Inconsistent?
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Evangelical Bigots?
Carl Trueman notes that for Americans under 35 years of age, homosexual marriage is not even an issue. That figure indicates a great generational divide over attitudes toward homosexuality. The trend lines in our culture are moving decidedly in the direction affirming homosexuality as normal. Trueman predicts, therefore, four challenges that lie ahead for Christians. Here’s the fourth challenge that Trueman mentions: “Those evangelical leaders, academics and evangelical institutions that prize their place at the table and their invitations to appear on `serious’ television programs, and who enjoy being asked to offer their opinion to the wider culture had better be prepared to make a choice. As I have said…
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Kevin DeYoung Gives Me My Purpose in Life
Kevin DeYoung’s message from the NEXT conference is outstanding. He calls us to cease our fixation with ecclesiastical revolution and instead to become “visionary plodders.” That little phrase—visionary plodders—is one that you can hang your hat on. The idea is that we should take the long view on our Christian walk. Revolutions can occur, but they are more likely to occur over a lifetime. What that means is that we are called to be faithful in the small things every day. A life that accumulates that kind of faithfulness over the long haul is a revolutionary life. Kevin DeYoung hasn’t literally given me my purpose in life, but he has…
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Wendy Long on Prop 8
Wendy Long provided the best legal analysis I’ve heard of yesterday’s ruling in California. She calls the decision the “prime example of judicial tyranny.” Listen below. [audio:http://fetch.noxsolutions.com/laura/mp3/080510_wendy.mp3]
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The End of Prop 8: A Moral and Legal Revolution
Yesterday, a federal judge overturned California’s ban on gay marriage—a measure that was added to the state’s constitution through a 2008 ballot effort called Proposition 8. Federal district judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that Proposition 8 was a violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment (p. 109). The judge immediately stayed his own decision pending appeals, so gay marriages will not be performed until the issue is resolved in the higher courts. Read the decision here. The next stop for this case is the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—a court well-known for leaning left on social issues and which will almost certainly rubber-stamp…
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Federal Judge Strikes Down Prop 8
This is a terrible decision, and I will have more to say about it later. For now, here’s a snippet and a link from the story in The New York Times: “Saying that it unfairly targets gay men and women, a federal judge in San Francisco struck down California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, handing supporters of such unions a temporary victory in a legal battle that seems all but certain to be settled by the Supreme Court. . . “‘Proposition 8 cannot survive any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause,’ wrote Mr. Walker. ‘Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a…