Just finished McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christian. All in all, taking one thing with another, the book is an almost perfect jumble of cant, cliche, and bad trouble. A number of very true points are made throughout the book, but the problem is that they are offered as part of a breathless discovery …
The Aroma of Burnt Marshwiggle
In a world gone mad, it can be difficult to keep your bearings. When everyone around you appears to have lost their grip, it is hard to keep believing that the rest of the army is out of step. Athanasius was probably tempted, more than once, while packing his luggage for yet another exile, to …
Three Toddlers
I am continuing through the unfortunate book A New Kind of Christian, and a thought occurred to me about the very name postmodern. This came to me because the spiritual mentor in this book (a man named Neo) is primrose pathing the other guy, and one of the first things he does is draw out …
You Are Here
As part of my neo-fundamentalist masochism, I have been reading quite a bit of quasi-postmodern Christian writing lately, and the more quasi I read the more queasy I get. The latest entry that has found its way into my briefcase is Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christian. One of the most frustrating aspects of …
Foundations of Marriage XI
Introduction: So what are the duties of husbands? We have discussed what their orientation and demeanor toward their wives should be (masculinity), but this is all still theoretical unless we make a point of applying ourselves in close imitation of the Incarnation. What are the duties of husbands? We may divide them into two broad …
Intolerista, Baby
Dr. James Dobson is ticking off all the right people again. For the last two nights, I have watched (on national news!) the controversy between Dobson and SpongeBob SquarePants unfold. Well, actually, the controversy is not unfolding there, it is simply being perpetuated from one monomanaical vantage point. Those who want to find out the …
Bad At Dodgeball
A goodish bit of indignation has been expressed by the Intoleristas over the apropos application of the word Intolerista. Remember when we were kids and used to play dodgeball with those red, rubber school balls? And there was always that kid who thought that getting hit by a ball constituted a foul and an outrage, …
Objective Exegesis
In a recent entry on his web page, Andrew Sandlin makes an important point about the incarnational nature of the Christian faith (“The Faith is What We Are”), but in my view misses the biblical balance dangerously. In rejecting an objectivity outside ourselves (that when detached from how we actually live should be rejected), I …
The Devil’s Dictionary
When we consider the question of how we can know the truth, know what is lovely, and know what is good, we frequently neglect to address the more fundamental issue, which is the nature of the knowers. We assume certain things about the problem of knowledge, and this drives the solutions we come up with. …
Savior and Healer
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 30 As we make applications of biblical principles, one of the primary places we should make application is in the realm of health. In Scripture, the word for savior and healer are the same word. A central part of Christ’s …