John Adams once said that our Constitution presupposes a moral and a religious people. It is wholly unfit, he said, for any other. One of the places where this undoubted truth is most obvious is when we enter the realm of economics — the place where many Christians refuse to bring the lordship of Christ …
The Atlantic Is Not a Theological Point
I would like to take a moment to tie up the various concerns expressed about my two recent MTW/PCA posts, and deal with them in a bundle. Some of them came up in the comments, and one set came in a very gracious letter of concern from a PCA friend. Here are some thoughts, in …
Two Lines/Romans 24
INTRODUCTION: We are now on the threshold of a vexed portion of the book of Romans. Christians have long divided over whether Paul is describing his pre-Christian life or his post-conversion life. Is the description of anguish in Romans 7 characteristic of the Christian life? Or is it a description of his experience prior to …
Snippet from a Work in Process
“If someone is disposed to argue this particular point with me, they could win that argument by making a list of all the denominations that have begun to ordain women in the last generation, and show me how this was followed by an explosion of moral chastity, purity, and fidelity. Looking for flourishing chastity in …
Nethaniel and Emily
If you look around for a moment, you should see at once that we worship and serve a God who delights. He delights to create and make, and He delights to create and make beautifully. When we learn the nature of the divine majesty from that which is made, as Paul indicates, we learn much …
For They Do Gender Strife
After sub school, I spent about a year and a half on the USS Tusk, a vintage submarine of the WW2 type. I think it was commissioned the year after the war, but it was that kind of critter. I was just eighteen, full of beans, and had come from a family that placed a …
Capernaum Had No Gay Pride Parades
It used to be possible to say that the issue of homosexuality was one on which few believing Christians were confused. However, there was still a problem, and it led to our current cultural impasse. Over the years, much of the strength of Christian opposition to homosexuality has been instinctive and cultural, rather than a …
The Temple Pulled Inside Out/Pentecost 2009
INTRODUCTION: We are all generally familiar with what happened on the day of Pentecost. But we also need to take note of where it happened . . . and where it did not. THE TEXT: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly …
All to the Good
Today is my mother’s ninetieth birthday. Below is a poem I wrote twenty years ago, for her seventieth. The poem assumes what needs to be stated outright, which is that my mother is one of the most remarkable women I have ever known. What I owe her will never be repaid, and that is all …
Rednecks and Homosexuals
Just a few more comments on Miss California, and then I am done. Done, that is, until the next revolution on this merry-go-round that we call cultural commentary. First, one commenter in the previous thread on this had a “physician, heal thyself” question which I thought would be better to answer here. He said that …