This Church’s Legal Battle Against New York City Shows What Real Discrimination Looks Like
Will those now criticizing the Indiana legislation as “discriminatory” also respond with equal outrage to the actual discrimination that could hurt real people in New York City?
What’s happening in New York City shows why we need religious-liberty legislation, like Indiana’s. Bronx Household of Faith, a small, intrepid church ministering to people in a poor area north of Yankee Stadium, challenged New York City’s anti-worship-service policy back in 1995… If New York had a state religious-freedom-restoration act like Indiana and 19 other... Continue Reading
A Note From Creator Cakes
A fictionalized note from a Christian baker:
Though we’ve never been asked to service a same-sex wedding, and though it looks increasingly that we someday will, we want to notify our customers of a policy that Creator Cakes will pursue. We’ve decided that if asked, we will provide a cake at a same-sex wedding ceremony. But we will take every dollar from... Continue Reading
The Modern University Is Failing Students in Every Respect
From cost to employment prospects, the state of American higher education is dismal for students.
Administrators should decide whether they see students as mature, independent adults who handle life’s vicissitudes with courage and without need for restrictions on free expression. Or should students remain perennial weepy adolescents, requiring constant sheltering, solicitousness, and self-esteem building? Diversity might be better redefined in its most ancient and idealistic sense as differences in opinion... Continue Reading
5,000 Parents Rally In Toronto Against Sex Ed: ‘We Will Not Co-Parent With Kathleen Wynne’
5,000 Ontarians came by foot, subway, stroller, or bus to rally under a blue sky against the Liberals’ radical sex-education curriculum set to rollout this September.
“The government is going to ram something down your throats that you haven’t even been asked about,” MacLaren, MPP for Carleton-Mississippi Mills said. “And if you had have been asked, what would you have said?” At which point the crowd roared, “No!” Charles McVety of the Institute for Canadian Values, rhetorically told Premier Kathleen Wynne... Continue Reading
Sex, God, and a Generation That Can’t Tell the Difference
The only thing Millennials are black-and-white on when it comes to matters of sexual morality is that you aren’t allowed to be black-and-white on sexual morality.
Before, the sexually moral judged the sexually amoral; today, the sexually amoral judge the sexually moral. If you have a sexual ethic more solid than your average Jello mold, you’re free game for Millennial judgment. Millennials are incredibly judgmental when it comes to sexuality—if you’re not doing something you’re a loser, and if you have... Continue Reading
Geneva College President Ken Smith Announces Resignation
The Geneva College Board of Trustees announced on April 13 President Ken Smith’s resignation from Geneva, effective June 30, 2015.
Dr. Bill Edgar, immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees, current chair of the Board of Corporators, and past chair of the Board of Trustees of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, will act as interim president beginning July 1, 2015. During his interim presidency the Board will conduct a search for a new president.... Continue Reading
Optimistic Thoughts from a Pessimist
I’m optimistic because I’m persuaded that spiritual persecution will be the seedbed where biblical Christianity will truly flourish
And you know what? That’s not a bad thing. Why? Because I don’t want to be a “pretend” Christian. I don’t want my family to be a “pretend” Christian family. I don’t want my church to be a “pretend” Christian church. And I want to tremble at that possibility more than I fear the hatred... Continue Reading
Muddying The Distinction Between Justification And Salvation
Justification is a declarative, definitive (once for all) act and sanctification is a gracious work or process.
Traditionalists have corrupted the doctrines of justification and salvation out of fear that gospel of free justification and salvation would not produce the sort of godliness that they want to see in Christians. Ultimately, the Socinians, the Romanists, and the moralists (e.g., Baxter) agreed: the gospel of free justification with God and free salvation must be rejected... Continue Reading
Theological Black Holes
God surrounds us with people who are wise enough to detect the first signs of wandering, and who love us enough to warn us of the consequences.
Every time I see that “opening soon” sign I find myself thinking about people whose theology reminds me of this restaurant. I hear them tell me about some great new theological innovation they have discovered, or some great truth the church had been hiding from them. Or I see them gain a public profile and... Continue Reading
Are You Parenting with Grace and Mercy?
Parenting our children gracefully means that we treat their sin with the same patience we’d want to receive.
When my children come to me with splinters in their hands or feet, I always attempt to pull them out with gentleness and patience, knowing the discomfort the process brings. It requires a great deal of trust to let someone else poke around in a tender wound. In a similar way, correcting a child’s wrong... Continue Reading