One of our local critics has gone into print again, reiterating his story, to which he is sticking, that we are somehow “calling for the execution of homosexuals.” Which he says is “just plain ugly.” This canard has been answered more than once, but I want to do it yet again, just for the record. …
Culture Pouts
“Avant-gardism, money, status, Le Chic, and even the 1960s idea of sexiness – it all buzzed around Pop Art. The place, without any question, was Leo Castelli’s gallery at 4 East Seventy-seventh Street. Castelli had Johns, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, most of the heavies. It was there that the Culture buds now hung …
Vouchers and State-Sponsored Theft
[Speaking of school vouchers] “This essay is not calling for tax revolt — a refusal to pay taxes because I am being stolen from. Rather, the point is that we should stop clamoring for yet another program that would require the government to steal still more. The reason we are stolen from is that we …
Imputing Motives and Justice
One of the many valuable things I learned from my father was the strict instruction to refrain from judging the motives of others. This is a blessing beyond compare when it comes to cultivating a healthy marriage and family, and it is oil on troubled waters in many relational conflicts. But it is not an …
The Lion and Antelope
In the institution of the Last Supper, our Lord warned Peter about the spiritual peril he was in. He said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you.” The Lord went on to say that He had prayed for Peter, that after his return from failure, he would strengthen his brethren. We live in …
Words and Worship
James tells us not to bless God with our tongues while we go on sinning with our tongues. You are coming now to sing, to pray, to say amen, to fellowship with the saints. This means you must pay attention to your words. You have frequently heard that you are not to impute motives when …
Ezra Nehemiah 10
Introduction: Times of reformation are not times when sin goes away, when no recurring temptations present themselves. Rather, history reveals periods of reformation as those times when the sin was dealt with as it should have been, often at great cost. Reformation is not like a figure skater gliding smoothly across the ice; it is …
Bohemian Lockstep
“It was all sheer rhetoric, of course, the antibourgeois sing-along of bohemia, standard since the 1840s, as natural as breathing by now and quite marvelously devoid of any rational content . . .” [Tom Wolfe, The Painted Word (New York, Bantam Books, 1975), p. 48.]
Or Eminent Domain Maybe
“The Bible teaches that the civil magistrate may require a certain level of taxation (Rom. 13:6-7) and that Christians are required to pay those taxes cheerfully. But the Bible also teaches that civil authorities are capable of breaking God’s law, including His prohibition of stealing. Even if Ahab had had his wits about him and …
More on Driscoll and McLaren
There is more here on the confrontation of Brian McLaren by Mark Driscoll. These are not trivial issues, and we should not think that this is just about one article by McLaren that was perhaps thoughtlessly written. All the foundations for this collapse on homosexuality are clear in his books. He who says A will …