The Theology of Riots: Part I
Christians should not participate in actions that lead to confusion.
The one thing our Christian calling does not include is this: any kind of participation in social unrest. Christians do not agitate. Christians do not engage in disorderly conduct. Christians do not riot. Christians do not throw bricks. Christians do not loot. Christians do not shed innocent blood. This summer season has become a... Continue Reading
The Epidemic Of Fatherlessness
Fredrick Douglas: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
We are witnessing the fruit of fatherlessness, with a stage four prognosis, and it has metastasized throughout the entire culture. This brave new world we are watching unfold will not usher in the utopia that many imagine—it will destroy everything in its wake. It doesn’t have plans to rebuild anything at all. Fatherless men were... Continue Reading
Is It Really About Race?
Contemporary progressivism, in the name of freedom, naively wants to erase all reference to the Creator, deny anything outside of the human or the natural, in favor of a system based on one’s right to self-define.
Christians desire the good for human society, but such good eventually can come only through a spiritual revival. We must confess any form of racism in our hearts and pray that the Spirit of God will lead our divided culture to an understanding of God’s tender-heartedness for lost sinners. I will never forget the... Continue Reading
Does Systemic Racism Exist?
George Floyd’s murder is a horrific injustice. But it isn’t evidence for systemic racism.
That doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist anymore. Of course, it does. I’ve been racist against other people. And other people have been racist against me. Just like every kind of sin, racism will never end—not until Jesus returns. Nevertheless, the concept of systemic racism today has become underlined by a form of cultural relativism, a... Continue Reading
What the PCA Study Committee on Human Sexuality Did Not Study
The Report fails to present any serious theological discussion of sexuality in the light of the biblical doctrine of Creation.
Homosexuality is not only “sinful,” but, as Paul says in Romans 1:26, it is “unnatural.” It is not “unnatural” just because most people don’t understand it or don’t identify as homosexuals. It is unnatural because it is out of order with the physical cosmos as God made it. It is thus both a rejection of... Continue Reading
Put a Fork In It; Evangelicalism, That is
Put a fork in it, Evangelicalism is done! The social pressures of the current situation have revealed the simple truth, “there is no there there.” At least not anymore.
The sad fact is that evangelicalism, with its historic and reflexively individualistic focus on saving souls, simply doesn’t have much of anything distinctive to offer in response to the pressing social questions of the day, and to the race question in particular. And seventy or so years of evangelical preoccupation with “Christian worldview” apparently hasn’t... Continue Reading
A Great Anthropological First: An Honest Conversation About Race
Two simultaneous truths: First, that we are among the most racist of all societies. Second, we are among the first nations in history to care one iota about racism.
It’s time to acknowledge simultaneously that we have come a long way from where we once were, and we still have a long way to go. These are not only consecutive narratives, they are concurrent narratives of the racial journey we are on in this country. If the true story is ever going to be... Continue Reading
Racism in the PCA
The PCA has published a statement that is nothing less than kneeling before the golden statue of Critical Theory.
Since there are several layers to this statement as a performative speech act, this article will not be able to handle all of them. The nature of discourse in our country is laden with propaganda and propagandizing speech acts. The nature of a speech act is not located in the meaning of the propositions used... Continue Reading
Race and Redemption
Slavery and Jim Crow were evil and systemic. Racism is sinful. But the solution is not to replace the church’s theology of forgiveness with a secular atonement narrative.
As Green and others have noted, the new anti-racism has become a new religion with its own original sin (white racism), baptismal liturgy (confession of whiteness), and new birth (to wokeness). But there is no redemption, and its ethic encourages people to practice what Jesus condemned, “Do not judge, lest you too be judged” (Matt.... Continue Reading
It’s Hard to Pillage While Pushing a Wheelchair
The incessant need to rage withers under the strain of caring for a disabled family member.
Some of America’s 65 million caregivers could probably work in a peaceful protest. The caregiver and loved one can simultaneously get some fresh air, participate in a good cause, and get some exercise. Burning down the system, however, simply takes too much energy. It’s all about the math — the number of hours one logs in the... Continue Reading
