“Prior to the birth of the first of my three daughters, I assumed that I would struggle early as a Dad, but eventually figure out what I was doing. Instead, what I’ve found is that the moment I think I know what I’m doing will be followed by a reminder that I have a long... Continue Reading

“Lest readers think that Protestants were the ones who gave the Christian world a prosperity gospel, Jake Meador provides a useful reminder that Luther’s objections to Roman Catholicism concerned precisely the profits that church officials made from selling forgiveness for sins that held deceased Christians in purgatory.”   Sarah Pulliam Bailey has a piece today... Continue Reading

Churches are what the FBI would call a “soft target,” security consultant Mike Gurley said. They are an open-door, welcoming environment. And they don’t just open one door, they open all doors, to anyone who wants to come in.   Defenseless people. That’s how Wilson County Sheriff Joe D. Tackitt Jr. described the members of... Continue Reading

“The increase of baby carriages coming before marriage is terribly alarming among the working poor. Working-class women are nearly three times more likely to have babies out of wedlock than upper-class women. Poor women are about five times more likely. These two groups are far less likely to be married overall and twice as likely... Continue Reading

“Bob Kellemen brings this side of Luther to light in Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied The Gospel to Daily Life. Kellemen—vice president for institutional advancement and chair of the biblical counseling department at Crossroads Bible College—explores the theology and methodology of Luther’s pastoral care ministry.”   For the average person, “pastoral care” and... Continue Reading

“Fame is sought for the sake of fame. Even in the church we seek celebrities more than faithful servants. Some pastors become too big to fail. They are kept in the pulpit or put back in the pulpit when they have clearly disqualified themselves by their behavior. In the end, it is the church who... Continue Reading

“Although Phillips sells baked goods to anybody regardless of their sexual orientation, he objects to participating in certain events that violate his religious beliefs such as gay weddings and even Halloween cakes. The commission ordered Phillips to undergo sensitivity training and change his policies to conform to state law.”   A group of African-American rights... Continue Reading

“Knowledge has already separated from the human mind to be embodied in artificial intelligences like Siri. Navigation, once done by reference to the heavens, has become an exercise in submission to apps like Waze. Divine omniscience is replicated in the surveillance of life-tracking devices like the Fitbit.”   There are reasons to be skeptical of... Continue Reading

“The first stop in a survey of Reformation geography is in the regions of Germany, known then as the Holy Roman Empire. The German political nation as we know it today did not exist, and it would not exist until the nineteenth century. In 1500, it was a patchwork of various principalities and regions, all... Continue Reading

“In the end, these three movements–traditionalism, individualism, existentialism–capture what Sola Scriptura was designed to prevent. And thus we see something that is perhaps surprising on this Reformation anniversary: one need not be Catholic to reject Sola Scriptura.”   Well, Oct 31st, 2017 is finally here.  All year long, churches and organizations around the world have... Continue Reading