Don’t miss Molly Worthen’s article “Not Your Father’s L’Abri” in Christianity Today. Among other things, she notes that currents residents at L’Abri are ambivalent about Francis Schaeffer’s legacy and are fond of the writings of emergent church leaders. Some excerpts:
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What is Christian Music?
Brent Thomas has some interesting reflections on the question “What is Christian music?” He writes: ‘We must understand that we have created our own sub-culture which runs by its own rules. Just because something may be purchased at a Christian bookstore does not mean it may be trusted. Conversely, just because something may not be purchased at the same store does not mean the people behind it are not glorifying God in what they do. These issues are not new to anyone involved in “Christian” music or books at any level. However, we must be sensitive to the fact that many well-meaning believers are sincerely swayed by labeling, and the…
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“New Kids” Reunite
When I was in the 11th grade, a group of my friends convinced me that somebody’s uncle knew somebody that was able to get “The New Kids on the Block” to perform at our prom. They were persistent and convincing (I thought), and I’m sad to say that I was just gullible enough to believe that it was true.
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Bad Christian Music
Justin Taylor linked to a YouTube video of some really bad music from an Emergent Christian group. You can see and hear it here. Though I sympathize with the frustration one might have with this kind of a song, we need to remember that Emergents are far from having the market cornered on bad Christian music. See below for one of the all time low-lights.
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Richard John Neuhaus’ Review of Obama’s Speech
I think I have just read the best review yet of Senator Obama’s speech on race. It’s by Richard John Neuhaus and appears in First Things. He writes: “By reviving historic stereotypes, Senator Obama’s speech and the uses to which it is being put has dealt a severe blow to race relations in America. It is giving a big boost to what someone has rightly called the soft bigotry of low expectations. . .
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The Suspension of Peter Enns
Discussions about the recent suspension of Peter Enns from his teaching post at Westminster Theological Seminary have been all over the blogosphere. If somehow you have missed the story, Christianity Today ran a piece yesterday explaining the whole situation. Here’s the heart of it: ‘Westminster Theological Seminary’s board voted to suspend tenured professor Peter Enns last week after a two-year theological debate over his 2005 book, Inspiration and Incarnation. . .
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Obama’s Abortion Extremism
Michael Gerson hits another homerun with his column in today’s Washington Post. He argues that Senator Barack Obama’s record on abortion is anything but moderate. Obama is a radical pro-choicer. Gerson writes: ‘Obama’s record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion. And now Obama has oddly claimed that he would not…
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Did the President Lie? (April fooled you!)
April fools! I confess. I used a little bit of misdirection in the survey that I posted yesterday. Yes, it was tricky. But it was an April Fool’s gag with a point. What was the trick? I began the post by discussing the fact that many people believe that President Bush lied about WMD in Iraq before the war. But in the last sentence of the fifth paragraph, I stopped using Bush’s name and substituted the generic appellation “the President of the United States.”
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Did the President Lie?
March 20 marked five years since the beginning of the war in Iraq, and yet many Americans still don’t understand it very well. Opinions seem to be driven more by partisan politics than by a balanced consideration of the issues. Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the public discourse about the conflict has become increasingly wearisome. For me, the revisionist histories of the run-up to the war have been particularly frustrating. The public’s general inability to recall more than a few nanoseconds of the historical record have given the revisions some staying power.
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Book Notice: “The New Guidebook for Pastors”
My dear friend and colleague Dr. James Bryant has a new book that was released just last year The New Guidebook for Pastors. His co-author is Dr. Mac Brunson, and the publisher is Broadman & Holman. Here’s a description from Amazon.com: ‘The New Guidebook for Pastors is written in the tradition of classics like Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors. But since most pastoral guidebooks available today date back to 1980 or earlier, this new resource by Mac Brunson and James W. Bryant will offer fresh experience-based encouragement to all pastors in their pursuit of excellence and development in their God-called profession.