Christian Reconstruction Strikes Back?
"Biblical Economics," Classical Christian Schools, Masculinity, Complementarianism, Family, etc.
"Christian Reconstructionists must not continue to produce materials that are mainly suitable only for upper division college students or even graduate school students. We have to begin to produce materials that are suitable for college students. We must recruit and train the next generation. What I am calling for, therefore, is a new program of recruiting." --G. North
Our Civic High Priest
Polls consistently report that Americans want their presidents to have a strong faith in God
Most Americans find religious rhetoric to be inspiring, reassuring and soothing in such situations and appreciate a president’s evoking of God’s aid, calls for prayer and thanksgiving to the divine in times of war, natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other tragedies
5 Myths about Reformed Theology
Calvinists can be pains in the neck. I should know—I’ve been one myself on occasion.
The leading theologians of the Reformation were often pastors who also wrote devotional guides, hymns, prayers, and catechisms. They were also often scientists, artists, poets, and linguists, who also founded orphanages and poor houses on the side. When Calvinists founded the early Ivy League colleges in America, they did not imagine that they might have to make a choice between the Bible and classical pagan literature or between theology and science or between piety and the arts. In their view, it was all of one piece
The Filioque Cause: Why the West Is West and the East Is East
A look at the social theory that the filioque produced, and the social practice that followed from it
If the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, the Spirit is not only representing a Spirit, but God in flesh. And if the Spirit is representing the God-man Jesus, the Intercessor between God and man, then by necessity the central place in our theology is not an incomprehensible deity whom it takes... Continue Reading
Why Is Love So Stupid?
During my first premarital counseling I awoke to the stupidity of love
What should we do when a loved one is overwhelmed by that chemical-combustion-mistaken-as-love? Here is one answer: I don’t know. I have yet to find anything that neutralizes it. Tackle the victims, tie them down, bring in a hundred witnesses to scream at and berate them, send them to boarding school—these are all fine ideas.... Continue Reading
A Mainline Collapse: The Twilight of Liberal Christianity?
Is stewardship of the earth and having children incompatible?
This transformation in the Episcopal Church was done to make the church “relevant and vital.” Instead, people stopped going because, as Douthat points out, there was nothing these churches offered that they “[couldn’t] already get from a purely secular liberalism.” In 2006, the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, told the New York Times... Continue Reading
An alternative to ‘in thesi’ declarations
Better, I continue to think, an amended confession than an impotent declaration.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, through her Testimony, has in effect long been amending the Westminster Standards, so I don't think my proposal as controversial as some might conclude.
Churches, Pacifism, and Gun Control
Pacifism is increasingly popular among many evangelical elites, especially in academia.
All government is premised on force. Every government everywhere, at all times, if it has any power, will dispatch armed individuals to apprehend any persons who violate its laws and, ultimately, detain them in places surrounded by armed individuals empowered by lethal force.
An Academic Auto-da-Fé
A sociologist whose data find fault with same-sex relationships is savaged by the progressive orthodoxy
Those who are attacking Regnerus cannot admit their true political motives, so their strategy has been to discredit him for conducting "bad science." That is devious. His article is not perfect—no article ever is. But it is no scientifically worse than what is routinely published in sociology journals. Without a doubt, had Regnerus published different findings with the same methodology, nobody would have batted a methodological eye.
4 Debilitating Fears that every pastor faces
"Where is the church going to get mature pastors if immature pastors leave"
Four fears tempt every pastor. They are: 1. My fear of me…2. My fear of others…3. My fear of circumstances…4. My fear of the future.