• Sports

    The Tigers Get ‘er Done

    It wasn’t pretty. LSU turned the ball over once, and they had 7 penalties for 61 yards. On top of that, the Gators were in rare form under Tebow. LSU’s vaunted defense didn’t look so good for about the first three quarters. The Tigers trailed the Gators until about the last minute and a half of the game. I don’t have the heart to gloat (even though I’m normally not above such things πŸ™‚ ). Tebow is good. Really good. Vince Young good. I have a new respect for him and his team. Nevertheless, Jacob Hester has every bit as much heart and brawn as Tebow, and Hester was truly…

  • Politics

    James Dobson Speaks about Third Party Option

    Don’t miss Dr. James Dobson’s Opinion piece in today’s New York Times: “The Values Test.” He writes about the decision that was reached by a subgroup within the Council for National Policy. He writes: “If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. . .

  • Christianity,  Personal

    C. F. D. Moule, R.I.P. (1908-2007)

    His was not a household name, but C. F. D. Moule was a luminary in my field. He was a great scholar who also had a reputation for having a warm evangelical spirit. For me by far, his most influential book was his first book, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek. I have benefitted from this book immensely over the years and can say that some of the ideas in my own publications can be traced backed to nuggets found in this little volume. Would that we all could be as careful and prolific as C. F. D. Moule. R.I.P. “C. F. D. Moule: Last of the Gentlemen-Scholars” Γ’β‚¬β€œ…

  • Culture,  Personal,  Theology/Bible

    The War: Some Reflections

    I just finished watching the last episode of Ken Burns’ documentary “The War.” The film is not entertainment. It’s an historical depiction of real evil and of the heartrending, gut-wrenching consequences of human sin. It’s also a reminder of the great courage and heroism of a generation of Americans who went out to fight a necessary war. I am grateful for them and their sacrifice, even as I thank God for the blessings of liberty and peace that I too often take for granted.

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Are You A Convergent Christian?

    Last week, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina hosted a conference addressing the Mark Driscoll wing of the emerging church. The plenary speakers included Mark Driscoll himself, seminary president Danny Akin, and others. I was particularly interested to hear Driscoll’s message. Driscoll is widely known as an emerging church pastor. But because many Southern Baptist leaders tend to treat the emerging church as a monolithic movement, Driscoll has been regarded by many as theologically liberal (like Brian McLaren and Tony Jones). But this characterization is certainly unfair.

  • Christianity,  Politics

    Religious Right To Bolt If Republicans Choose Rudy

    James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and some others within the Council for National Policy are threatening to leave the Republican Party if Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination, according to The New York Times. This is big news. I for one am happy to see these leaders standing on principle, and I intend to stand with them. I don’t care if Giuliani believes in lower taxes and smaller government. If he’s wrong on the greatest human rights crisis of our time (abortion on demand), then he’s not qualified to be President. “Giuliani Inspires Threat of a Third-Party Run” Γ’β‚¬β€œ by David Kirkpatrick (New York Times)

  • Christianity,  Politics

    Doug Wilson on the Politics of N. T. Wright

    This is likely the first and last time you will see the word “turd” in one of my blog posts. But this is the metaphor that the inimitable Doug Wilson chooses to describe the current polarities of the American political landscape. In his commentary “The Fox News Jesus or the CNN Jesus?,” Wilson responds to Joseph Laconte’s critique of N. T. Wright that appeared last week in the web version of The Weekly Standard (see my “More Wrong from Wright“). Wilson’s basic point is that choosing between the “Fox News Jesus” and the “CNN Jesus” is like choosing between cat turds and dog turds. They’re certainly different, but neither one…

  • Theology/Bible

    David Gushee Takes on Complementarians

    David Gushee tries to undermine Complementarianism by suggesting that Complementarians do not live up to their own principles. He asks four questions that are supposed to reveal flaws in the Complementarian view. He writes: “I believe these types of questions expose weaknesses in complementarianism that cannot be mended from within that paradigm. These weaknesses contribute to my embrace of the egalitarian view.”

  • Politics,  Theology/Bible

    More Wrong from Wright

    I have given my assessment of N. T. Wright’s politics in previous posts on this blog (here, here). Readers may remember that Wright is pretty unrealistic in his appraisal of how the West should respond to Islamo-fascism. Not only does Wright excoriate the American-led war in Iraq, he also dismisses America’s toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan as an “immature lashing out.” Wright has said that “the only way to fight terror is by working for mutual understanding and respect” (He’s serious!). For Wright, the American “empire’s” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan amount to fighting “one kind of terror with another.” One would expect this kind of moral equivalence from…