IRS Subjects Dr. James Dobson and Family Talk Action to Viewpoint Discrimination
IRS delays application for 501(c)(4) status for Dobson’s organization
Family Talk Action’s attorney asked her when the IRS would issue its determination letter. Ms. Medley responded saying, I don’t think your Form 1024 (application for exemption) will be granted because Family Talk Action is “not educational” because it does not present all views. She continued, saying that Family Talk Action sounded like a “partisan... Continue Reading
Abusers in the Church
How to recognize and respond to those who use abusive tactics to gain power and control in the church
If you are a faithful pastor or church member, the probability that you have met one or both characters in this evil duo is quite high. In Scripture, Diotrephes and Jezebel were both abusers. Today, they still exist within many if not most churches. Masquerading as pious saints, they set themselves up in power and... Continue Reading
Look, It’s Rubbish!
You can tell a lot about someone's theology from what they do in worship.
And then finally, the pièce de resistance, the moment to which the whole service had been leading, the climactic moment when the congregation was taken to the very gates of heaven: the service ended, not with a benediction or even a prayer, but with another chance to meditate, this time not to waves crashing on... Continue Reading
Is God Angry with Sin?
Thoughts on the PCUSA's decision not to include "In Christ Alone" in their hymnal
In choosing to remove this beautiful song from the hymnal, the committee suggests that this notion of God’s wrath is no longer compelling to the majority of PC(USA) congregants. I fear that this is yet another symptom of our loss of any sense of sin that is personal (rather than systemic) and of our cheapening... Continue Reading
Sanctification, Homosexuality, and the Church
The “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” approach to sanctification is error of such prodigious import that it threatens the very essence of the Christian church
But those churches who would accept sinners “as they are” (whether homosexuals or any other variety of sinner) into their memberships, and who would encourage such sinners to ponder the glories of justification rather than repent, engage in a great evil. Such acceptance violates this and every biblical text on church discipline, destroys the purity... Continue Reading
Mark Driscoll, Tribalism, and the Church
We need pastors and churches that preach the gospel, not "tribal leaders" and Twitter accounts
I find this distasteful. The church is the body of Christ. From the church’s institution, the office of pastor has been of central importance. Christianity has its own traditions, language, and culture. Why would Driscoll jettison those things in favor of trendy jargon? Tribes and tribal chiefs. Sounds decidedly pagan to me. I don’t... Continue Reading
Are the Metro Evangelicals Right?
Metro-Evangelicals have developed a kind of “theology of the city” that roots city-centric strategy in biblical proof-texts
Of course, God blessed Paul’s urban strategy to build the church, but I’m not sure metro-evangelicals are gathering the right lesson from this history. It is true that Paul avoided the countryside for the most part, but not because he expected to find more open-minded folks in the cities. ‘Cause that isn’t what he found.... Continue Reading
The Church Should Be A Taboo Free Zone
If someone confesses a sin or struggle to you, don’t be shocked.
There are certain things we don’t talk about much in church. Like eating disorders. Or cutting. Or depression. Or same sex attraction. Or sexual enslavement. The list could go on, but you get my point. The reason we don’t talk about these things is because, frankly, they make us uncomfortable. If we struggle with a... Continue Reading
Court Rules Against German Homeschool Family Seeking Asylum
The Justice Dept. is arguing that German law banning home schooling does not violate the family’s human rights.
Uwe said he was extremely disappointed that their petition to seek asylum was appealed by the Obama administration. “If we go back to Germany we know that we would be prosecuted and it is very likely the Social Services authorities would take our children from us,” he said. Uwe said German schools were teaching children... Continue Reading
Tenth Presbyterian: A Philadelphia and Theological Fixture
Tenth remains content to follow the confessional standards of the Reformation - the Westminster Confession and Catechisms in particular - and let the chips fall where they may
He once told me that he found Christmas and Easter services the least effective, relative to ordinary Sundays – and Sunday-evening services perhaps most effective – in mediating redemptive grace. Indeed, his ministry confirms the observation of British historian Herbert Butterfield that “the church has best served civilization not on the occasion when it had... Continue Reading

