Don’t miss Michael Gerson’s column in today’s Washington Post. Here’s a snippet: James Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who helped discover the structure of DNA in 1953, recently pronounced the entire population of Africa genetically inferior when it comes to intelligence. And while he hopes that everyone is equal, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”
-
-
Does God Permit Divorce?
Does God permit divorce? Not all evangelicals agree on what the Bible teaches on this question. David Instone-Brewer has written a scholarly book on the subject, but his recent article in Christianity Today has stirred up some conversation in the blogosphere. Instone-Brewer argues that God allows for divorce in cases of adultery, abandonment, and physical/emotional neglect. John Piper has responded that Instone-Brewer’s conclusions do not faithfully render the Bible’s teaching. Piper also argues that divorce is not allowed under any circumstances. Andreas Köstenberger responds to both of these articles arguing that Jesus permitted divorce in cases of adultery and abandonment.
-
An Historic Election in Louisiana
A good thing happened in my home state over the weekend. The voters of Louisiana made history by electing the first Indian-American ever to serve as a state governor, Bobby Jindal. The result was good for a couple of reasons. First, Jindal ran on an ethics reform platform. Anyone who knows anything about Louisiana politics knows that if Louisiana needs anything, it’s ethics reform. Politics in the bayou state has a sordid history (think Huey Long, Edwin Edwards and David Duke), and Jindal represents a break from that checkered past.
-
Dallas Morning News Prints Misleading Story about Dr. Jeffress’ Sermon
The Dallas Morning News (DMN) ran a story last week about the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas (where I am a member). The DMN was covering a recent sermon in which our pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress, used Mitt Romney’s candidacy as an occasion to make that point that Mormonism is not a Christian religion but that it is a cult. I heard Dr. Jeffress preach the sermon live, and I can confirm that there are at least two items in the DMN story that are inaccurate. The first is just factually wrong; the second is misleading.
-
LSU Guts Out the Win Against Auburn
There’s no conference like the SEC. If Ohio State had to play the SEC schedule that LSU plays, they would already have lost two or more games. It is tough to win games in the SEC. Nearly every matchup is a hit-you-in-the-mouth street fight. Very few teams can run the gauntlet of the SEC and make it through without losing a game. The contest tonight between LSU and Auburn just goes to show how tough it is. But even though it was close, LSU still pulled out the win. One observation coming out of tonight’s game: the two quarterback game-plan is not working anymore, and with Matt Flynn back in…
-
Wayne Grudem Supports Mitt Romney for President
People don’t usually turn to Wayne Grudem for advice about politics. He’s an evangelical theologian and scholar who has written what is perhaps the most widely used textbook on Systematic Theology among evangelicals. If you’ve got a question about any point of doctrine, Grudem is your go-to guy. Nevertheless, Grudem has just written a compelling article in support of Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president. It’s posted at Townhall.com, and it’s titled “Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney.” His bottom line is this:
-
The Besetting Sin of Worry
Pastor John Piper has a good word for those who battle the besetting sin of worry. His remarks are in answer to the following questions: “Is there a place for worriers in the church? Or is it a problem that some people perpetually worry?” You can listen to him here, or you can read a transcript of his remarks here.
-
The Gnosticizing Joel Osteen
Joel Osteen is making the rounds promoting his new book. He appeared on “Larry King Live” on Tuesday night. The video is available here, and the transcript is here. The interview with Larry King only makes me more wary of Osteen. When King asks him if he believes in an afterlife, Osteen says that his mortal body is like a “coat,” and that the “real me” lives on the inside. Osteen makes the same mistake that many people make with respect to the eternal state. He doesn’t realize that we live for eternity in resurrected physical bodies. The whole exchange smacked of the ancient Gnostic heresy which regarded matter as…
-
Point of Clarification on Bible Versions
The Dallas Morning News has a brief story on Bible translation titled “Christian consumer’s guide to the Bible(s),” and they mistakenly categorize The Living Bible as a translation. It is not. When a Bible is rendered from one language into another, we call it translation. Translation happens anytime a scholar or a group of scholars reads the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew originals and then translates them into a receptor language (like English in our case). There are two basic philosophies of Bible translation: (1) Formal Equivalence, which is a word-for-word approach to translating, and (2) Dynamic Equivalence, which is a thought-for-thought approach. All translations of the Scriptures fall somewhere on…
-
Video of Joel Osteen on “60 Minutes”
The conversation about Joel Osteen is continuing under my previous post, “Joel Osteen’s Christianity without a Cross.” I’m writing this post as a follow-up to alert readers that the entire “60 Minutes” feature on Osteen is available at CBS.com. You can view it at the following link: “Preacher to the Masses.”