Recent days have seen the media and/or new media in an uproar over a couple of incidents that invite a bit more investigation from the intellectually curious. I refer to Rush Limbaugh’s insult of Sandra Fluke, and Kirk Cameron’s gracious response to a question from Piers Morgan about homosexuality. Now in the interests of accuracy, …
How Jerks Define the Golden Life
One of the common problems that pastors have in giving counsel to troubled couples is the problem of determining when a particular sin in marriage is “actionable.” How bad does it have to be before the wronged spouse can walk? I am speaking here of sexual sins, which, given the nature of the case, are …
Competing Like a Lady
One time, many years ago, our family drove up to a summer basketball camp where Nate was participating. While there, we took a look around, and watched some of the action of a girls’ basketball camp, then still in progress. This was a Christian camp, and yet the girls were swaggering around on the court, …
Sexual Reciprocity
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #62 “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife” (1 Cor. 7:4). Here is another reason for recognizing that Paul …
Caryatides and Their Glory
The process of bringing up daughters should be understood as a process of glorification. Just as manhood is where boyhood should be aimed, so also womanhood is where girlhood should be aimed. Before undertaking any task, it unreasonable to begin without knowledge of what the completion of the task ought to look like. Human life …
The Open Hand Rules
INTRODUCTION:This chapter recounts a victory that David has over the Amalekites, a battle that occurs at the same time that Saul is being overcome by the Philistines. David comes into a great victory on the third day, and his persistent adversary Saul dies at the same time. Although this passage tells of David’s victory, a …
Sexual Obedience Outside Scripture
And so here is my final response to the issues surrounding the publication of Real Marriage. The fundamental issue here is hermeneutics — how do we read God’s Word, and more important contextually, how do we read God’s Word in the context of God’s world? This is actually an issue having to do with the …
Dinner for Two at Angelo’s
One of the questions that has arisen here is, basically, how could this happen? How could so much of Real Marriage be so good in so many ways, and yet whiff on something like this? In polemical discourse there is something called swallowing the reductio. Your opponent slyly suggests to you that he who says …
Sexual Dirt and a Gospel Backhoe
Having set the stage with my preliminaries, let me now engage with Mark and Grace Driscoll’s book, Real Marriage. Let me begin by saying that it is a very fine book over all. Before getting to the sections that call out for more discussion and some yeahbuts, let me mention first why this book is …
So Cold, So Sweet, So Sweet, So Fair
If I believe, as I do, that the chief threat to American security is our own government’s wastrel ways, its out-of-control spending, in distinction from Islamic fundamentalism, then why wouldn’t I just full-tilt endorse Ron Paul? I am unwilling to do that, despite appreciating many of the things he says, and liking many of the …