“But to demonstrate their superiority to such people, the educated elites prefer to build environments full of natural irregularities. For the Bobos, roughness connotes authenticity and virtue. So the educated elites love texture . . . Really rich Bobos will hire squads of workmen with ball-peen hammers to pound some rustic wear into their broad …
Vouchers and Neutrality
“So we either have to grant that we may be taxed so that a Buddhist parent may be funded to instruct his kids that Buddhism is true, or we must say that Buddhist education and Christian education are the same for most of the day. Support for vouchers among Christians reveals that we have not …
Tie Goes to the Runner
I need to begin with a couple of jokes that you may have heard before. But they are offered not so much for the joke value as for what they illustrate about the power of interpretive grids, which is the point of this post. There was a guy who was convinced that he was actually …
My Soul Is Broken With Desire
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Can this poor man a servant be? Deal bountifully with me, That I may live and keep Your Word, That I might walk and never stray, In all the blessings You poured out. And if You open both my eyes, I will …
Bus Fare
One gray afternoon, there were five people standing at a bus stop. There was a minister with his clerical collar, a school teacher, a mechanic, a professor, and a street walker. The bus was running a little late, and so they all lined up eagerly when they finally saw it approaching. But when the doors …
Nothing Can Stop Him
The Lord’s Supper is not impotent. The Lord’s Supper does not need our protection. If I were standing up here with an enormous lion, I do not expect that I would get many questions after the service, wondering “how I protected it.” In fact, I might not get any questions at all. But if I …
Humiliating the Apostle
We must consider another variation on “by their tactics ye shall know them.” When controversy erupts in a church, and it is over the color of the carpet in the nursery, the end result can be a personal and/or ecclesiastical mess. But when the stakes are higher, it is not rare for the civil magistrate …
Crushed Boldness
As we live out our Christian lives, we must always remember that this is not something we do detached from God, for God. Rather, we are to live our lives in Christ, and on the basis of what He has done for us. Our central interest is therefore the gospel, and the great truths of …
In Our Deliverance
Father and God, we praise You now in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank You for this arriving Sabbath, and thank You that we are given the privilege of marking His resurrection from the dead every week. We know that apart from that resurrection, we would all be dead in our sins, and so …
Simple Rhythms of Life
“The educated class has conquered all and hegemonized its Bobo culture over affluent regions from coast to coast. Now the Babbitt lion can mingle with the beatnik lamb at a Pottery Barn, a Smith & Hawken, a Museum Shop, a Restoration Hardware, a Nature Company, a Starbucks, or any of the other zeitgeist-heavy institutions that …