My friend and fellow traveler Robbie Sagers has written an excellent review of Don Miller’s new book To Own a Dragon. Sagers writes the review for the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (JBMW), but you can read it now on the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s website. Miller’s widely acclaimed book Blue Like Jazz left me wondering about the effects of Miller’s dysfunctional relationship with his father. According to Sagers, this book delves deeply into that subject. I haven’t read the book yet, but Sager’s essay has definitely piqued my interest. When Sagers isn’t out late at night getting folks lost in Harlem, he proves to be an…
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Could Carl Henry Be Wrong?
I was struck by something that I read today in Carl F. H. Henry’s watershed work The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947). Fundamentalism is agreed on the main doctrines of God, of creation, of anthropology, of soteriology, and of eschatology in its main peaks (p. 61). What impressed me about Henry’s observation here is that, sadly, it is no longer true. The consensus that used to characterize American evangelicalism no longer exists. One can no longer claim unity among evangelicals on central issues. Current debates among evangelicals about open theism and the adequacy of the penal substitution model of the atonement demonstrate that the old, broad consensus on the…
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Clubbing Clooney
Peggy Noonan has a penchant for rhetoric, and sometimes she can be downright harsh. You should check out her piece on George Clooney’s acceptance speech at last Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, “Boy in a Bubble: What George Clooney doesn’t know about life.†Here’s a devastating snippet: George Clooney is Hollywood now. He is charming and beautiful and cool, but he is not Orson Welles . . . Orson Welles was an artist. George Clooney is a fellow who read an article and now wants to tell us the truth, if we can handle it. The Missional Baptist Blog thinks I was pretty harsh in my critique of George Clooney in my…
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‘Misquoting Jesus’ in the Washington Post
Neely Tucker reviews Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus in last Sunday’s Washington Post (click here). Unfortunately, the review takes up some of the tendentious claims that Ehrman puts forth in the book. One such claim is Ehrman’s contention that the variations in the manuscript copies of the New Testament undermine the Christian faith. The Post review writes: Most of these are inconsequential errors in grammar or metaphor. But others are profound. . . [One] critical passage is in 1 John, which explicitly sets out the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). It is a cornerstone of Christian theology, and this is the only place where it is…
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Have You Heard about Jason McElwain?
This is the kind of story that makes your heart full and your eyes well up with tears. It’s a Rudy-esque tale about a kid with autism. It’s the story of Jason McElwain, and it’s so good that the movie studios are already lining up to make a movie about him. Jason McElwain is the waterboy for his high school basketball team, and he’s also their biggest fan. Because Jason is a senior and the team’s most ardent supporter, the coach decided to let him suit-up with the team for the last home game of the season. Then, the coach actually let him play for the last four minutes of…
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Speak Softly? Not When It Comes to Iran & Nukes
Speaking on behalf of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney vows that the U.S. will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He also will not take the military option off of the table (click here to see the story). In this case, I think the administration is doing the right thing. Sometimes saber-rattling achieves more than “speaking softly while carrying a big stick.” Do you remember the “Axis of Evil”? It’s Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. If Iran thinks that Bush is not serious, they have another thing coming.
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Not a Fan of “Crashâ€
Last night, “Crash†won the Oscar for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. I saw “Crash,†but I am not a fan of the movie. I thought that it was hokey and superficial in its treatment of a serious subject. In an essay for MSNBC.com, Erik Lundegaard sums it up well. But what is [the movie] saying? That we all bear some form of racism. That we all “stereotype†other races. That, when pressured, racist sentiments spill out of us as easily as escaped air. Here’s my take. Yes, we all bear some form of racism — that’s obvious. Yes, we all “stereotype†other races in some fashion — that’s…
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The Gospel according to Hollywood
Christians aren’t the only ones who preach. Hollywood does it too, and with great effect. This was no where more clearly seen than in two men who won Oscars at the Academy Awards March 5. George Clooney and Ang Lee both made a point of saying that movies can and should advocate for causes that the rest of the country may not support. In the acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for best actor, Clooney celebrated the disconnect between his own liberal views and the views of mainstream America. We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it’s probably a good…
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Witherington’s Non-Patriarchal Reading of 1 Timothy 2:12
1 Timothy 2:8-15 has a been a battleground in the recent history of interpretation as scholars have been offering varying interpretations of a passage that at first blush cuts against modern egalitarian sensibilities. Verse 12 has proven to be particularly problematic for modern interpreters who support the ordination of women as pastors. A literal translation of verse 1 Timothy 2:12 reads: “I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over/domineer a man.†At the heart of the exegetical dispute is the problem of translating the phrase “to teach or to exercise authority over.†Dr. Ben Witherington, who will soon be adding to his impressive list of…
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Unspeakable Abortion Tragedy
I read an unspeakably tragic story today in the BBC News (click here to read it). It’s about a 16 year old girl who tried to abort her twins early in her pregnancy. Later in the pregnancy, she found out that one of them survived the procedure. Now, the surviving twin is four years old, and the mother is suing the hospital because “she suffers an impediment in her ability to obtain employment in consequence of her care for the child.†Consider these lines from the mother and weep: “I still don’t know if, or what, I am going to tell Jayde when the time comes. Maybe when she is…