In a recent response to Nick Gier, I wrote that all sins are deserving of death. And in the sight of God they are deserving of death, which is why all of us, being sinners, eventually die. But not all crimes should be treated equally by the civil magistrate. Murder and stealing someone’s lawn flamingo …
Sometimes An Excuse Is Just An Excuse
Just finished a book called The Lost Message of Jesus, by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann. The book was a mix — a small handful of good insights, a few places where I was glad they didn’t give that part of the store away, a few sections of thundering naivete, and overall that general bleh …
John Knox Meets Siddhartha
In a recent post to Vision 20/20, one of our adversaries (Nick Gier) listed fourteen ways in which we kirkers differ from other conservative evangelical Christians (what he calls CECs). Normally this kind of superficial analysis would not warrant a response on the merits, but because purveyors of this kind of superficial analysis appear to …
Oh Yeah
Some time ago, I unsubscribed from a community listserve discussion called Vision 20/20, though in calling it a “discussion” my charitable faculties are fully extended. A less strenuous description of it would have to include words and phrases like fulmination, jeremiad, screed, baying at the moon, and other forms of progressivist yodeling. Anyhow, I unsubscribed …
Naming the Intoleristas
My wife is a lovely Puritan, and a great advocate of lifting God’s Word back to Him as we continue to deal with the goose-stepping forces for tolerance and storm troopers of enforced diversity. She was reading in Isaiah yesterday, and noted a few phrases that delighted us. About idolaters, Isaiah said, “They are their …
Headed South Again
Dr. Tracy McKenzie is a professor of history at the University of Washington, and he was the one who first identified the citation problems with the original edition of Southern Slavery As It Was. In the most recent edition of World magazine, he wrote the editor with two basic points. His first point was that …
When Push Comes to Shove
At the end of April I appeared before the Latah County Commissioners to register my concerns about the discriminatory harassment that is being directed at our ministries. The tax-exemption complaints that have been filed against Anselm House, New St. Andrews, Logos School, and Community Christian ministries were complaints that, if consistently applied to others in …
The Worst Kind of Puritans
Yesterday Nathan Wilson and Aaron Rench released another press release on the zoning mess in Moscow. As a public-spirited citizen, I am happy to post that press release here. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 23, 2005 The Future of the Zoning Complaint Industry in Moscow Public Statement from Aaron Rench and Nathan Wilson We have filed …
Cookie Cutter Diversity
Radical application of the Scriptures does not consist of taking one set of verses and applying them like crazy, while leaving another set of verses entirely neglected . It can look radical, but that is because we tend to associate the words extreme and radical. Jesus said that if your hand causes you to sin, …
A Little Seven On Five
This morning I filed a public records request with the City of Moscow. In that request I asked for “all notes or records of communication between city council members and any other person, regarding a ‘neo-confederate’ resolution and Black History Month proclamation entered at the Moscow City Council meeting of February 3, 2004.” I also …