I’m sorry, but legalizing same-sex marriage won’t do a thing to rescue marriage. But then, neither will its rejection. A marriage renaissance will only be possible when we repudiate Marvin v. Marvin and revitalize marriage’s importance by returning to a strict policy mandating that couples actually get married before acquiring conjugal rights.   How did marriage lose... Continue Reading

Is it just me or is there a lot of pressure on parents to provide their children with the absolute perfect environment for growth? We are told that our children need to be breast fed, need listen to classical music, need to be able to read by age four, need to play sports, need to... Continue Reading

I‘ve often wondered what it would have sounded like if they’d had the modern “missional” celebrity pastors in the early church, and how they would have handled issues like Roman pressure to compromise on the Lordship of Christ or the exclusivity of Christianity. I sense it might have gone something like this: Archaeologists working in... Continue Reading

Several weeks ago, a lesbian couple in Gosport, England, took their son to St. Mary’s Anglican Church to be baptized. The retired Rev. Gebaur was officiating services while the parish looked for a new priest and expressed a willingness to perform the baptism. All seemed well until the Rev. asked the couple who “the mother”... Continue Reading

“First of all, we’re not an anti-BSA organization,” Stemberger said. “We’re not an anti-anything organization. We honor the legacy of the Boy Scouts of America and the contributions it has made to us and our families. The men and boys we have left behind are not our opponents. They are our brothers and our friends.... Continue Reading

How many missionaries, home or foreign, might have been sent out with the monies expended to study such issues as women in the military or the length of the creation days? Vigorous, informed theological discussion is healthy for the church, and I have myself participated in it from time to time. But not every discussion... Continue Reading

In the evangelical and reformed world, there is often a wedge driven between so called emerging missional churches that preach a “go and be” message and confessional ordinary means of grace churches that have a “come and see” philosophy. These two entrenched camps usually end up launching grenades at each other across the theological divide... Continue Reading

“There was kind of this collective decision to forget,” Hankins said. “The question is, ‘What is our responsibility for the past?’ Sure it happened a long time ago, before we were here, but it was still hurtful and sinful. It was clearly wrong and needed to be put right.”… As they strategized over how to... Continue Reading

As Christians we are redeemed from both the guilt of sin and the power of sin.  It seems to me that we desperately need theological language that enables us not only to describe that glorious transition from wrath to grace in justification, but also to denominate the sanctifying transformation that takes place within us, and... Continue Reading

Before Dr. Fletcher left the exam room he stopped, turned his head, looked at me and said emphatically, “If you remove wallpaper or paint again you need to use a mask.” Two weeks later I scraped, caulked and painted the last room in the house that needed painting and I wore a mask. I did... Continue Reading