Peter Slevin describes in the Washington Post what qualities President Obama will be looking for as he appoints a new Justice to the Supreme Court. According to Slevin, the quality that Obama is chiefly concerned about is “empathy.” In other words, Obama is not so much looking for a Justice who will interpret the Constitution according to the framers’s intent. Rather, he is looking for a Justice who can go beyond the letter of the law and stand for justice when no one else will. Slevin’s article reveals (perhaps unconsciously) why Obama’s approach to appointing Justices is not sound. Ever since Marbury v. Madison, the Court’s most significant power is…
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Albert Mohler on Gender Confusion in the Culture
There was an editorial in the New York Times on Sunday that is a virtual case-study of the gender confusion that pervades our culture. Dr. Albert Mohler has an insightful riposte that is worth the read. He writes: “The world we know is a world increasingly in revolt against the idea that gender is assigned by our Creator and is thus a fixed category. . . “The Christian worldview is clear at this point. The Bible presents gender as part of the goodness of creation. God reveals his glory in every aspect of creation, and this is abundantly true with respect to the two sexes. God glorifies himself in creating…
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Carl Trueman on Moronic Worship
Carl Trueman has a must-read essay at Reformation21 about unserious worship practices. This paragraph is a gem: “A church service involving clowns or fancy dress or skits or stand-up comedy does not reflect the seriousness of the gospel; and those who take the gospel seriously should know better. Frankly, it is more appropriate to liberal theology which does not take the gospel, or the God of the gospel, seriously. Serious things demand serious idioms.  I heard recently of a church service involving dressing up in costume and music taken from a Tom Cruise movie. Now, if I go for my annual prostate examination, and the doctor comes into the consulting…
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John Piper Preaches John 3:16
Dr. John Piper just completed a two-part series of sermons on John 3:16, and I hope a lot of people will take time to listen to these. Folks often wonder how a Calvinist handles texts like John 3:16 and the other “world” passages in scripture. These sermons are exemplary (in my view) of how Calvinists ought to handle them. Among other things, Piper says this: ‘We may, therefore, say to every human being, “God loves you. And this is how he loves you: He gave his Son to die, so that if you would believe, your sins would be forgiven and you would have eternal life.”
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Headlines
From time to time, I run across headlines that communicate things that the authors did not intend. Here are a couple of recent ones that I thought you might enjoy. “Pope’s address disappoints Muslim leaders.” Didn’t they already know that the Pope gets his mail at the Vatican? I thought everybody knew that! “SBC missions giving up; baptisms down.” The news is really bad out of Nashville. Not only are baptisms down in the SBC, but apparently we’re also giving up on missions! [I guess BP figured out the problem with this one because it’s been corrected.]
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Audio of Boyce College Commencement Addresses
The audio of President Mohler’s and my commencement addresses are available now from the Boyce College website. Today’s commencement marks the end of my first academic year at Boyce College. It has been an honor to serve as Dean, and I believe that Boyce College’s best days are still to come. President Mohler on Colossians 2:13-23 [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/BoycePodcast/20090508_Mohler.mp3] Dean Burk on 1 Thessalonians 2:13 [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/BoycePodcast/20090508_Burk.mp3]
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Boyce College Commencement Speech
Today is graduation day at Boyce College, and I will be delivering a commencement speech during the ceremony. The full text of my address is below.
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Doug Wilson Critiques N. T. Wright’s Remarks
In a previous post, I linked the video of N. T. Wright explaining why he hasn’t published on the topic of homosexuality. I didn’t provide any commentary or evaluation, though I did think the spot to be unsatisfying. Yesterday, Doug Wilson commented on the video, and I think his critique hits pretty close to the mark. He writes,
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Obama Engaged on Gay “Marriage”?
The New York Times has an interesting piece on President Obama’s engagement on “gay issues.” In short, gay activists think that Obama is not doing enough, and they are pressing him to advocate publicly for their causes. Here’s an excerpt: ‘WASHINGTON — President Obama was noticeably silent last month when the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. ‘But now Mr. Obama — who has said he opposes same-sex marriage as a Christian but describes himself as a “fierce advocate of equality” for gay men and lesbians — is under pressure to engage on a variety of gay issues that are coming to the fore amid a…
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Boyce College’s New Website
Boyce College has a new website, and you need to take a minute to check out our new digs. Our website team has done a phenomenal job, and I am really pleased with what they have created. There are many new features here, one of which is the incorporation of the Boyce Blog into the structure of the site. The “Diablogue” that I started last semester to host our podcast is no more. Our podcast now appears on the Boyce Blog.