Visionaries, Susanna wonders why we cannot just continue to recognize marriage as contractual monogamy, expanding it only with regard to the sex of the spouses? She says she can light a cigarette without starting a forest fire, and should also be able to marry her same-sex partner without exposing herself to the unwanted attentions of …
Standby For Polygamy
Visionaries, My question and concern is this. If we stop imposing a particular religious view through the mechanism of civil law (which is, we agree, what our current laws amount to), and if we do this for the sake of allowing homosexual marriage, what logical reason do we have for stopping there? We suddenly cannot …
Imitative Genius
“Debates with Christians who embrace pop culture are frequently hamstrung by the tenacity with which they insist on discussing the audible sound only, and never the actual meaning of the word. Modern evangelicals have a clear eye this way; they have a true imitative genius. They can copy anything the world produces, down to the …
The Ultimate High Ground
This morning I received a copy of a six-page open letter to me, as well as to the members of Christ Church. It was entitled “A Labor of Love for Pastor Douglas Wilson and Church Church.” The letter was, of course, anonymous. The central point of the letter was that the Word of God demands …
The Cultural Mandate
Genesis is the book of beginning — this is too often neglected by Christians. Here we see the beginning of the world, obviously, but also the beginning of marriage, of work, of rest, of music, and of many other of God’s good gifts. In short, the book of Genesis provides us with a basic understanding …
Things We Used to Think
Visionaries, Jan asks, “how can one person swear to be monogamist to more than one person? Is this not an important part of marriage?” This is the point. We used to think so. But then, we used to think that marriage involved a man and a woman. Why do we retain what we retain and …
State Approved Daisy Chains
Dear visionaries, Okay, Chad. This should be fun. Thus far, we have agreed that as far as the state is concerned, marriage is a secular legal contract and nothing more. You persuaded me. Now, let’s follow this out. What interest does the state have, and what basis does it have, for limiting said contracts to …
Atheistic Wowsers
Visionaries, Far from this being a demonstration of how illogical I am, it is actually a demonstration of whether or not ethical relativists have the courage of their convictions. If we reject the Christian morality that marriage consists of one man, one woman, one time, and we base this rejection on the fact that marriage …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXIII
INTRODUCTION: James tells us that the tongue is an unruly member. If we can control the tongue, he says, we can control anything. At the same time, the Bible teaches that the tongue has tremendous power for good. We destroy with our words. We build with our words. THE TEXTS: The wise in heart shall …
All Or Nothing
“But because of an immature ‘all or nothing’ mentality in the evangelical world, as soon as anything is pronounced not inherently sinful, everybody rushes off to splash about in their Christian liberty, about which more later. And this is why the evangelical world today is crowded out to the borders with the culturally retarded. Cultural …