The problem of Pharisaism is not solved by dropping the phylactery that is “wider than yours” and picking up the Bible that is “more underlined than yours.” You cannot solve spiritual problems of the heart simply by rearranging the furniture. We are born casting sidelong glances, and the solution to this is repentance, not really …
Hollow As A Jug
I am over in Portland for the presbytery meeting of the CREC, at which we have been doing lots of cool presbyterial stuff. Anyhow, I posted what I did this morning on affected authenticity, and went off to presbytery. When I got back this evening there was a small mountain of comments, etc., which I …
Affected Authenticity
When we talk about the way we dress, we often forget that we are speaking about language. That is, we use the full force of language to get what we want to get, and when called on it, we “plead the dictionary,” to use my earlier example. Suppose a young rebel in your church were …
Learning to Detest Hypocrisy
During a portion of the sermon this last Sunday, I spent a little bit of time on the problem of lowlife authenticity. After the message I had a good conversation with a good friend over my professed bafflement over what causes the attraction to this lowlife ethos. He made the point that the cause of …
Apostles or Refugees?
All Christians at all times live in the culture they live in. The ancient Christian in Ephesus spoke Greek and wore the clothes available for purchase in that city. When he went for lunch, certain foods were available to him and other foods were not. At the same time, he was called to live in …
Better Off?
“Perhaps we should just limit this question to children in the wombs of black women today. If you were a black fetus in Atlanta, Georgia, what were you odds of ever seeing the light of day in 1858? What are your odds in 2005? A lot of kids died back then, but not because the …
Bag of Snakes Seminary
“Suppose a man were to refer to certain respected theologians dismissively as having graduated from Bag of Snakes Seminary. He would instantly be upbraided for his un-Christlike behavior. Unfortunately for the one delivering the rebuke, it was discovered shortly thereafter that the speaker was Christ (Mt. 23:33)” (A Serrated Edge, p. 12).
So Who Believes the Bible In This?
[With regard to the logical distinction between slavery and racism] But we are not positing a separate existence for the two back then. We are positing a separate existence for them in our thinking. A century later, we have a better perspective on some things than they did, and we believe that racism is a …
Satire or Surrender
“For various reasons, satire is studied today as something of a museum piece, in much the same way that a military historian might analyze a crossbow. The learned and respectable among us have agreed to abandon the use of satire, leaving this particular form of abuse to the buffooneries of late night comedians. Our academicized …
If At First You Don’t Secede . . .
“But let me defend them to this extent. They do not want to maintain a distinct Southern heritage because they are afraid that some Yankee judge will outlaw grits. Please note where we actually are as a nation — just a few week away from the full faith and credit clause of the mangled Constitution, …