Quality interweb mischief from Jared Bridges
Ken Myers highlights a needed area of improvement in the church: I meet many students who struggle with keeping their faith intact while in college. There are numerous ministries devoted to encouraging them in that struggle. That encouragement often takes the form of well-crafted arguments defending basic Christian beliefs, and these are obviously valuable resources. … Read more
David Gelertner’s Commentary article, “Americanism—and Its Enemies,” brings to light a number of elements that form the impetus for the American ideal of democracy for all mankind. Gelertner’s premise is that Americanism is a religion unto itself—the modern-day incarnation of Puritanism, as a matter of fact. Gelertner buttresses a pedigreed Americanism against the tide of … Read more
Though I’m a confessing Baptist, I sometimes cringe at the actions of others who claim that denomination. Much like the way most Americans feel when Michael Moore or Barbara Streisand claim to speak for America, I want to dissociate from those who are only Baptists in name. One such church is the infamous Westboro Baptist … Read more
Albert Mohler’s column today regarding Ralph Keyes’ new book, The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life is especially insightful. This paragraph got me thinking: As evidence of this cultural acceptance of lying, Keyes notes the rise of euphemisms for deception. “We no longer tell lies. Instead we ‘misspeak.’ We ‘exaggerate.’ We ‘exercise poor … Read more
A while back a perceptive reader, Patrick Bowerman, alerted me to the most recent National Geographic, which had “Was Darwin Wrong?” as its cover story. Geographic’s website only offers an excerpt, but I finally did get to read the article in the library recently. It was much what I had expected—a plea for the poor, … Read more
As I’ve written here before, the term “fundamentalist” is as tricky a moniker as they come. Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom, has written an excellent piece (subs. req.) in last week’s Weekly Standard that should help all of us forge new ground regarding the use/abuse of the term. Citing … Read more
It’s more than understandable why African bishops in the Anglican Church would want to distance themselves from those in America and the rest of the world—where homosexual unions have been celebrated. The African bishops are uncomfortable with such practice in the church, and some are now seeking to develop a separate theology: The global Anglican … Read more
If you’re into horoscopes, a typical ice-breaker to conversation might be, “What’s your sign?” Ostensibly, if you know someone’s particular sign of the Zodiac, you already know a great deal about them. Many people read horoscopes with the same enthusiasm of reading a fortune cookie—they’re seen as merely forms of entertainment, never taken too seriously. … Read more
David Wayne, a.k.a. the Jollyblogger, has posted a must-read on what “the gospel” really means. It’s a good corrective to the popular evangelical thinking that the gospel simply serves as a “ticket to heaven.” Go read it now.
When James says that the “tongue is a fire,” he means to show that what we say can cause catastrophic damage. Blogger Euguene Volokh points out one such catastrophe in recent comments made by Jimmy Swaggart. Swaggart, the televangelist who once fell from prominence after he was found with a prostitute, apparently made the following … Read more