Over the years, I have seen many hard cases of difficult kids not effectively loved by their fathers. Because I don’t see the problem disappearing, I thought I would post a series of short pointed exhortations to a dad who has a problem child. The child actually has a problem dad, but the child doesn’t …
The Great Cretan Gaffe
A few weeks ago, N.T. Wright responded to a few of his critics on the debt relief issue here. A more detailed interaction needs to wait for another time, but I want to put a few thoughts up now. As Wright himself put it, “I don’t have time for a full answer, but I hope …
Not Neutral At All, As It Turns Out
My nephew Davis Wilson recently had a paper published in the Seton Hall Law Review, a paper entitled “Judgmental Neutrality: When the Supreme Court Inevitably Implies That Your Religion is Just Plain Wrong.” The paper exhibited clear thinking in a straight line from beginning to end, and for those who want to read the abstract, …
No Monochrome Deity
As you read the newspaper, as you follow political campaigns, as you watch the evening news, you will see outrage after outrage. But I am not referring to the outrages of private criminals, which can certainly be horrendous. I am referring to the outrages of our elected officials, our appointed justices, our magistrates. Now all …
An Exhibition of Grace
Our confessional standards, the Westminster standards, say that when rightly used, grace is exhibited in the sacraments. There are two sides to this. First, note that the sacraments can be, and have been, wrongly used. When that happens, as it happened at Corinth, the apostle says the observance does more harm than good. This is …
Kent and Alyssa
A few minutes spent watching the evening news should be sufficient to establish—to the satisfaction of all faithful Christians—that we live in sexually confused and troubled times. From issues like the demand for homosexual marriages to women in combat, from women in combat to the demand that women be ordained to the Christian ministry, and …
An Axe at the Root of the Tree
I would like to recommend some really heartening thoughts from the UK, here and here. Having said this, I should probably explain why such blunt, discouraging analysis should be registered in the “heartening thoughts” column. The answer is that in times of crisis, the truth is your first and best friend. If you have a …
All Other Sins Are Outside the Body
The New Testament has one other general word for sin, which is hamartema, a word used a total of four times. The first is found in Mark 3:28, where Jesus says that all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, along with their blasphemies. He goes on to say that blasphemy against the Holy …
Cutting the Throat of Sin
“I do believe in my heart that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry; and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter thoughts against God; while, at another time, I …
And That, To Use An Old-Fashioned Word, Is False
“The great fallacy of our time, Malcolm Muggeridge has written, is the one that says that we may pursue collective virtue apart from personal behavior” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 264).