Dias, 34, was a computer teacher at two of the archdiocese’s East Price Hill, Ohio, schools — Holy Family and St. Lawrence — in 2010 when she told officials she needed maternity leave. That surprised officials because Dias is single and having a child outside of marriage violates Catholic teaching. When she told them how... Continue Reading

Roughly twenty years ago, I began teaching the course on Presbyterian Denominational Standards at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. About a fourth of the course addressed Presbyterian polity and three-fourths addressed Presbyterian worship. Students in those days will recall that I often expressed concern about performing choirs and overly-loud organs. In each case (performing choir and overly-loud organ)... Continue Reading

We all, especially clergy as the “shepherds” of the church, have a duty to protect the innocent, which includes ensuring predators are kept away from children. The charges brought against SGM are grave, and (though we must hold our conclusions until the legal system does its work to find truth and deliver justice) we ought... Continue Reading

Back to Ben Franklin’s “What is the use of a newborn baby?” In his time, the question was understood as satirical. Babies are not “of use”; they just are. They are the future—not a sappy metaphor, but a literal fact. The current generation produces the next generation and so it’s always been. But an odd... Continue Reading

For most married men and women today, marriage looks pretty good. It may not be a “24/7 Sleepover Party,” but it is basically equal, fair, and happy. And that’s the real and often unreported good news about marriage in America today.   There is only one problem with the dour and dismal portrait of heterosexual... Continue Reading

Modesty is an attitude of the heart (1 Timothy 3:2) as well as a manner of dress (1 Timothy 2:9). Modesty considers how we think about ourselves in relation to God, which is reflected in the way we dress. Modesty realizes that being “in Christ” means the believer does not need to gain lustful attention... Continue Reading

There are few theological issues more important and more difficult than the relationship of the Christian to the law. In recent years in particular there have been a lot of conversations and controversies about the proper use of the law in the believer’s progressive sanctification. We all know we are justified by faith apart from... Continue Reading

A Faith Worth Teaching is a volume that I heartily recommend. Payne and Heck have served the church well with this addition. I expect that most of you will find this book, devour it, and enjoy it as much as this reviewer did. Even more importantly, with the contributors to this book, my overriding hope... Continue Reading

This historical reality is a good reminder that the canon is not just a man-made construct. It was not the result of a power play brokered by rich cultural elites in some smoke filled room. It was the result of many years of God’s people reading, using, and responding to these books.   For whatever... Continue Reading

The godless exult in it, of course, like the bad boys brought by Honest John to Pleasure Island, given permission to drink and smoke and wreck the place and do all the things good little boys don’t. They do not see that it’s a trap, and that after they make jackasses of themselves they become... Continue Reading