One of the drills that we go through here in our local controversies is this: our adversaries quote some outrageous thing from us, we say in reply that that’s “out of context,” and they say, “Yeah, right. You guys always complain that ‘it’s out of context.’ You just don’t like getting caught.” And so that …
The Matter Closed?
I said at the end of the previous post that I considered the matter closed. By that I meant that the Food Coop has done what they needed to do — they reprimanded an employee for distributing bigoted materials, and in so doing they have acknowledged that this kind of bigotry does exist in our …
Thanks to the Food Coop
A young lady, an employee of the Food Coop, has acknowledged on the radio that she was the one distributing the “boycott list” of kirker businesses out of the Coop, and that she was reprimanded for doing so. I want to publicly thank the Food Coop for taking action, for doing the right thing, and …
The Scapegoat
The first thing we must do is distinguish the scapegoat of Leviticus, and a coinage of William Tyndale, from the scapegoat of popular usage. Girard has something to say of the former, of course, but his focus is on the latter. He spends a good bit of time defending his approach against those academic skeptics …
The Chuckle of Faith
This is the last of our exhortations on civic involvement, at least for the present. And so, let me offer a series of final exhortations, as simple bullet points. Regardless of what happens, we do not win or lose at the polls. God is always sovereign, and His position is absolutely unthreatened. He establishes the …
Primarily Food, Not Medicine
We speak a great deal about the grace of contentment. But there is a discontent that can be healthy, and that of course would be a discontent with the level of Christian maturity in your life. But even here we must be extremely careful. I said that this discontent can be healthy, but most of …
Bigotry Is As Bigotry Does, Sez I
Okay, so I have a question. I would appreciate a public answer on this from any recognized spokesman for the Moscow Food Coop. A flyer identifying downtown businesses that are connected to “kirkers” — folks in our church community — has in recent weeks been handed out at the cash register of the Food Coop …
Rampaging Christian Wowserism
Darryl Hart concludes his next chapter with the correct observation that “the phrase ‘under God’ raises more questions than it apparently answers” (p. 123). This not only is a fair challenge, but it is one we need to take up. If I might, I would like to borrow a metaphor from Warfield, and apply it …
Gentiles Under the Law
In my most recent post responding to Green Baggins’ review of my book, I briefly discussed my understanding of law and gospel. As a result of that, a discussion broke out in the comments section of my blog here, and so I want to follow up on a couple of things that came to mind. …
Spiritual Excrement
NB: For some mysterious reason, I cannot find the notes I had for the second half of Mark 6. Oh, well. On to chapter 7. In this next passage, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ rejects man-made piety in the strongest possible terms, and in a way calculated to offend the devout. “Then came …