The purpose of a judicial process is not, in the first place, to side with the victim. The point of judicial process is to determine, carefully and without jumping to conclusions, who the victim is. Once the truth is established by due process, the Bible everywhere and always sides with the victim. But we live …
Ten Notes on the Driscoll Dogpile
1. In what follows I want to make some observations about what has clearly become the Driscoll dogpile. But in this, I don’t want to say anything that might come off as though I am privy to any back room information. I am not part of the private reconciliation or accountability processes, and so I …
Though There Is a Difference
I want to talk about the recent events surrounding Mark Driscoll for a few moments, and to do so without talking about Mark at all. As you probably know by now, he has been invited off the Acts 29 board, and more than one opinion on it has been voiced on Facebook. For all the …
Sexual Justice
If you stick around, in just a moment I am going to be dealing with the problem created by registered sex offenders attending church. However, before we get there, I want to say something about the cultural context we find ourselves in. And that said, I want to warn you beforehand that the point I …
On Spiraling into Chaos
The trial of George Zimmerman is now over, and there are perhaps a few things we can learn from the whole sorry mess. Perhaps. In the aftermath of this trial, we clearly have a highly polarized society. On the one hand, we have those who believe that a young and unarmed black man was targeted …
I Shot the Sheriff . . .
“Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s” (Dt. 1:17) In an earlier post, on injustice and empathy, a point rose deep in the comments which needs to be bumped …
Injustice and Empathy
Don Carson, Kevin DeYoung, and Justin Taylor have posted a very good statement about the Sovereign Grace lawsuit here. I appreciated it very much. The issue — among thoughtful Christians — should never be whether or not justice should be done. That should be a given. What should we seek out, but to do justly, …
Feeling Like a Confrontation
One of the ways we have allowed egalitarianism to flatten everything can be seen in how we apply trial procedures to everything (to everything that is, except those situations when actual trial procedures would actually be called for). Determining that somebody is a security risk is not the same thing as finding them guilty of …
Psychological Mint, Feelings Dill, Emotional Cummin
Jesus taught us to deal with the big stuff first. He said that the weightier matters of the law took precedence. The Pharisees of His day had justified their neglect of such things by making a big deal over how they tithed out of the spice rack. Look at us go, they seemed to say. …
I Hope He Takes My Call!
Some weeks ago, I did some protestantial hooting about an upcoming encyclical from the pope on global warming. According to an informed source, my post has apparently caused some ongoing consternation among some of our Catholic friends. Although I have promised a handsome apology if it turns out the pope actually thinks that global warming …