Introduction: Given the fact that a number of Christians have adopted the idea that a person can have a gay identity, and yet live a full Christian life, just so long as he or she is committed to celibacy, it is time for us to go back and review some basics. There are many areas …
Revoice, Bundling, and the Borders of Celibacy
Introduction: One of the good things coming out of the Revoice conference is that it is making us thrash out a number of things we should have thrashed out years ago. It is making us confront the fact that these things should have been confronted a long time ago. “For there must be also heresies …
Pursue Justice First, Your Agenda Second
Introduction: Well, it seems that Jake Meador has “took out” after me. First he cites a quote from Francis Schaeffer about those who “practice untruth.” He says that I offered a “bizarre defense” for Patterson. Putting it all together, he argues that my approach to things like this means that I have forfeited any right …
The Paige Patterson Test
I have not yet said very much about the Paige Patterson affair in the Southern Baptist Convention. This has been a function of my general busyness, my lack of knowledge about the back story, and assorted other stuff. The one thing I wouldn’t want it to be is a function of timidity. Depending on who …
Up Near the Spigot
As I was reading what Warhorn was saying about the Revoice conference in St. Louis (a critique in four parts), I noticed that Wesley Hill was one of the main speakers. I also noticed that he had a new book out, called Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian, which …
Sand in the Sugar Bowl
Introduction: We certainly live in crazy times, but they are a particular brand of crazy times. The more advanced the lunacy gets, the more difficult it becomes to remember what normality might look like. And the weirder it all gets, the more we seem to cultivate our appetite for the weird. Our cultural apostasy is …
Dirty Omniscience
Introduction: The next time you find yourself in need of a deeply unsettling experience, I suggest that you click here, and then scroll through some of the things that Dylan Curran found out about himself, as stored up by some of our brainier brethren. All the same stuff has no doubt been stored up about …
The Beauty of Discrimination
Introduction: A few older people remember how the verb to discriminate once was a term of praise. He is a “discriminating reader,” or he has a “discriminating palate” when it comes to fine wines, or she has “discriminating taste” when it comes to her art collection. In all such expressions, while someone might react to …
Two Strippers Instead of Four
And now let us speak of how National Review has finally donned some silk undies, and begun their regimen of hormone shots. When I first subscribed to National Review I was in high school, which puts that time at almost fifty years ago. In other words, it was a lot closer to the time when …
Outrage Overload
Introduction: There are two ways to develop a sensitive conscience, one good and one bad. The first is to accept, own, and practice the weightier matters of the law. Once you have mastered the great principles, or rather have been mastered by them, it becomes possible to move into the more refined questions. This is …