I believe I have done more than my share of trying to damn and blast the idolatrous notions of American exceptionalism. Americans have ten toes like everybody else, Americans put their trousers on one leg at a time like everybody else, and Americans have crooked little hearts like everybody else. The Founders were exceptional men …
Blood Up to the Horses’ Bridles
So what do I mean by mere Christendom exactly? I mean a public and formal recognition of the authority of Jesus Christ that repudiates the principles of secularism, and which avoids both hard sectarianism and easy latitudinarianism both. Easier said than done, but there it is. That is what we have to do, and we …
Word Fussers and Whowhomers
In my recent seven-fold set of admonitions for writers, my third bit of advice for them was this: “Read mechanical helps. By this I mean dictionaries, etymological histories, books of anecdotes, dictionaries of foreign phrases, books of quotations, books on how to write dialog, and so on. The plot will usually fail to grip, so …
Boy, Howdy
Hunter follows his chapter on the Christian Right with a chapter on the Christian Left. As with the previous chapter, this one is mostly overview of the players and positions, and it is a helpful overview. While there is a temptation to dash off to engage with some silly thing or other that Jim Wallis …
Types of Preaching
Preachers need to remember that the way to the heart is through the head, but the preacher is to take that route and drive toward the heart without stopping. Too many turn aside at the head to eat bread and drink water, and that is why a lion kills them (1 Kings 13:9-10). Too many …
News Flash: Secularists Support Secularism
To believe in the inevitability of anything is to have a doctrine of history. To deny that one has a doctrine of history and yet to hold to the inevitability of anything is to take back with one hand what you gave with the other. Secularism, the idea that a civilization can function for an …
Hear the Light
This another one from the vault. The phrase in the title was inspired, if I remember correctly, by one of the first magazine ads I ever saw for fiber optic cable. But that is not what the song is about. {audio}HeartheLight.mp3{/audio}
Paul is the Key
When something gets off kilter, and we react to it, we generally fix it wrong. Previous reaction fixes are probably the reason things are off kilter now, and a new reaction fix is just rearranging the problem furniture — and not fixing the problem furniture. I have been preaching in Romans for over a year, …
The Touchdown Dance with the Fist Pumps
I noticed some interesting connections this morning in James 2. Believers are told not to have faith in Jesus in a way that displayed “respect of persons” (v. 1). The meaning of this is illustrated by the scenario he sets for us. If some resplendent rich guy comes into your church, a potential big tither, …
European Style Cancer
A common rallying cry for conservative activists, including Christians, is that we need “to take America back.” Okay, sign me up. Take America back where? Generally the point is that we need to take America back from the liberals and progressives — the secularists in the academy, the homosexuals in the streets, and the raunchy …