Father and God, we confess to You that as a nation we have not wanted the prophets to do anything but prophesy smooth words. We have hired flatterers and liars, and spin doctors, and then when the unavoidable truth comes upon us, we wonder why we were not warned. We chase away any who would …
A Hunka Hunka Burning Love
Here is yet another reason why I am glad the word risible is still around. Is the evangelical church on the verge of a “gay awakening? Jay Bakker, son of Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye, and now a pastor in a Brooklyn nightclub, thinks so. Lest anyone laugh at his dismissal of what he calls …
And Biscuits in the Oven
Frances Fox Piven has now told us that the Tea Party is all about sex, and I would like to be the first conservative to rise in an oblique defense of her crazy point. She says that the teapartiers grew up in an America when there was a steeple in every quaint little town, and …
If It’s Not Baroque . . .
“For a Christian rhetoric, perspicuity is the foundation of al the canons of style. Clarity of thought must always be the preacher’s aim. Clarity is the basic beauty of eloquent oratory and the driving power that persuades one’s listeners. The beauty of teaching is making clear the truth, for it is in the truth itself, …
Neither Skeletal Nor Boneless
“We sometimes have trouble understanding how tenderness and strength can go together. In order to be strong, we harden ourselves in a wrong way, a way which makes tenderness impossible. Or we opt for tenderness, and render ourselves incapable of functioning” (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 149).
Full Report
I mentioned the other day that the Missouri Presbytery of the PCA has cleared Jeff Meyers of all the doctrinal allegations that had been made against him. For those interested in pursuing it, the full report is available here.
Quickly or Not at All
“That is something the conscientious Christian preacher needs to learn, but the place to learn it is in the schools. On the other hand, the art of public speaking is a talent; some people have a natural inclination for it and some do not. Augustine quotes a saying of Cicero’s that people learn rhetoric quickly …
The Unforgiveable Sin of Being Lame
I want to follow up on the concept of cool-shaming. As we are in the process of airing this place out, this word is a key that can unlock a lot of the rooms, especially the mildewed ones. After my post on cool-shaming, I was contacted by an alert reader (thanks, Eric), who pointed me …
Education for the Pulpit
“On the authority of Augustine the liberal arts education would be revived by the universities of the High Middle Ages. When the preaching orders, notably the Franciscans and Dominicans, began to think about how preachers were to be trained, they carefully studied Augustine’s De doctrina christiana and tried to give their young friars exactly this …
One Purpose
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #25 “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building” …