“The point that Kevin makes here is what I call the Cave of Adullam phenomenon. Back in the day, we ran a magazine for about twenty-five years (Credenda/Agenda). It was about forty pages of teaching on family, church life, the civil magistrate, eschatology, and so on. Near the back was one page we called the Cave of Adullam, which was dedicated to skewering what we called the ‘regnant follies.’ We would also occasionally horse around in the masthead, or in an editorial up front, but in the main the bulk of the magazine was clothed and in its right mind. But what would happen is that people would get the magazine, turn immediately to the Cave, read it with a guilty chuckle or two, spend the rest of the evening being harangued by their conscience, and then write us a concerned letter about our writing habits—when they really ought to have been more concerned about their reading habits. This is called reading all the snark and ignoring the rest. This is called picking all the bacon bits out of the salad, and then complaining about the paucity of greens” ().
Belfast Blues
Introduction: Riots recently erupted in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of an attempted beheading, when a Sudanese immigrant attacked an Irishman with a knife. Thing had already been tense ...
The Respectability Ache
“The temptation to ache for worldly respectability is, however, rampant throughout the evangelical world. Vast sections of our evangelical establishment have gone down before this alluring temptation, like dry meadow grass before a sharpened scythe.”
That Book Inside You? Good Place for It
The Winsome Standard
“The desire to be found winsome by the world puts the standard completely in the grasp of Old Slew-foot. He is the one who now determines whether or not you are being winsome. No, no. Scoot farther to the left.”
A Never Ending War
“We are at war with crapola, and are willing to use words like crapola as the occasion demands.”
Boomer Woes
Full Disclosure: I was born in 1953, and therefore have to confess that I am a boomer, right there in the middle of the pack. There were boomers ahead of me, and boomers behind me, and absolutely ...
Not to Mention the Candied Peels
“And if f-bombs were raisins, The Gospel Coalition loves to laud and celebrate movies that would be the equivalent of a five-pound fruitcake.”
Letters That Float Like Leaves Down the River
Letter to the Editor: What is the biblical understanding of forgiveness? What does it mean to forgive someone? I need clarity in this regard because I’m finding it difficult to forgive ...
Debates Where Nobody Wins
“In this kind of debate, unless everybody watches his step closely, things can get pretty stupid—like a couple of dogs, neither of them very smart, debating quantum physics. ‘No! Arf, arf!’”