“Every culture has blasphemy laws. They are not always called that, but no society allows citizens to rail against the reigning deity. In our pluralistic times, these blasphemy laws are called ‘hate crimes’ legislation, among other euphemisms, but they are really religious protections to keep the reigning god, demos, from being blasphemed” (The Case for …
Your Kindness is Forever Sure
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Torment is my lot, deliver me, I hold tight to Your law. God, plead my cause, deliver me, And quicken me, fulfill Your Word, Keep all Your promises to me. Salvation is a distant isle From all these wicked men. They do …
Sacrificial Violence
We know from the Scriptures that those who maliciously seek to inflict violence on others—whether verbally, or physically, or within the confines of their own bitter hearts—are incurring guilt. But at the same time it is important for us to note that this is not what they are seeking to do. They are not trying …
Gladness and Strength
God delights to feed His people. In Psalm 104:15, we learn that wine has been given to make glad the heart of man. We learn in the same verse that bread was given to strengthen the heart of man. Strength and gladness are therefore here on this Table before us. God has given us the …
Lots of Death Spirals
Mark Driscoll has some good things to say here about the Episcopalian death spiral. HT: Justin Taylor Speaking of death spirals, seven Canadian women have decided to take the innovative thinking about marriage (that is all the rage these days) to the next so-called level. They have decided to marry themselves, which should at least …
With Wooly Mittens On
Watching church conflicts from a distance is like watching a water polo game — much of what constitutes the actual game is not happening above the surface, where you can see it from the back row. You can tell when the ball goes in the goal, but what you actually don’t see are the three …
Bloodless Syllogisms
Jesus taught us to evaluate arguments and doctrines on the basis of the lifestyle of the teachers — by their fruits ye shall know them. Gnostics want detached, abstracted arguments that can be evaluated in the pristine laboratory of the brain. Gnostics like to pretend that the ad hominem is a necessary fallacy, which means, …
Salt and Vinegar
I spent a good portion of the day in the air, working my way back to you, babe. No, no, that’s not right. Working my way to the ACCS convention in Covington, KY. And, as is my wont on airplanes, I got a goodish bit of reading in. The book I finished today was Ann …
The Pursuit of Hospitality
Hospitality, where it is still practiced in the church, is largely an unstudied virtue. The demands of modernity and the frenetic pace of life around us dictate that we neglect our responsibility to have our brothers and sisters into our homes. Nevertheless, the Bible is very plain in requiring us to be disciplined in our …
No Kidding?
“When you do away with the old High-Low [brow] hierarchy, people become more obsessed than ever with status” [John Seabrook, Nobrow (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), p. 168].