Unwashed hands and the internet
After a year without the internet, Paul Miller discovers the problem is with him, not his computer
We can cut ourselves off from every potentially corrupting outside influence in the universe, but we can’t cut ourselves off from the corruption inside us. We can cut off one head, and seven others, even uglier, will appear. We can barricade our homes, churches, and schools against the “world,” and the “world” will still bubble... Continue Reading
Kermit Gosnell Found Guilty on Three First-Degree Murder Charges
The jury in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell returned a verdict of guilty on three of the four first-degree murder charges he faced
Gosnell was found guilty of killing Baby A, Baby C and Baby D and found not guilty of killing Baby E. He was also convicted on hundreds of lesser charges ranging from infanticide to running a corrupt organization. The guilty verdict on these three counts subjects the abortion “doctor” to the potential he will face... Continue Reading
Baptismal Efficacy
The Offer/Reception Model as Antidote to the Federal Vision
I have long thought that the FV is asking some important and even crucial questions but coming up with some unfortunate answers—answers that move it, as it were, beyond the Reformed confessional reservation. While the offer/reception model of sacramental efficacy as found in Calvin and the Westminster Confession does not answer all the questions we... Continue Reading
This Sin but Not That Sin
HOMOSEXUALITY
It is as if the sins of adultery or fornication are wrong, but a sort of normalized wrong, whereas homosexuality is a “weird” or “unusual” sin. What we fail to recognize is that every sin from the mildest gossip to the wildest orgy is a mark of the fall, proof of sins twisting God’s good... Continue Reading
EPC, ECO Continue to See Increase in Numbers
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) experienced growth during the first three months of 2013, adding 26 congregations to its increasing list of church affiliates. With the addition of the new churches, and others are seeking dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to align with the EPC, the denomination now has 444 churches and 135,000 members... Continue Reading
Did Evangelical or Liberal Protestants Have a Better Week?
First came the news of Mark Sanford’s victory in South Carolina’s First District to Congress. For anyone who remembers Sanford’s well publicized marital infidelity, it must have struck many observers as strange that evangelical Protestants — I hear South Carolina is thick with them — would return Sanford to public office. … And then came... Continue Reading
Sneering at Parents, Hiding Behind “Science”
The Emergency Contraception Controversy
Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post saw through the smokescreen. “They lost me on the word women,” she wrote. Parker pointed to the argument “that any interference with the over-the-counter sale of Plan B to any female of any age is blocking a woman’s right to self-determination.” She retorted: “Fifteen-year-olds, where the Obama Administration wants... Continue Reading
Is Belief in the Second Coming of Christ Bad for Creation?
Do you believe that Jesus will return to Earth someday? Then you probably don’t care about environmental devastation and the catastrophic loss of life of future generations. That’s the absurd conclusion drawn in an academic paper published in the latest issue of Political Research Quarterly. Do you believe that Jesus will return to Earth someday?... Continue Reading
Reconsidering Suburbia
Not everybody who moves to the suburbs wants to build a gargantuan McMansion and live the full-consumerist lifestyle. Not everyone who chooses to live in the city is driven by morally pure motives; they could be refusing one kind of consumerist narcissism for the sake of embracing a more attractive version of same. Anthony Bradley,... Continue Reading
Motherhood, Untimely Born
As spiritual parents, we anticipate Christ in glory as he gathers in the nations under his Name alone, the only Name by which we are eternally known. We are able to enlarge God’s tent and ours far beyond parameters restricted by our own name or blood. By intimately ushering the motherless through the practical and... Continue Reading