When I worked at FRC (2006-2008) I would have happily swapped jobs with almost any other employee—except for Leo. Having manned many a guard post while in the military, I couldn’t imagine having to do such a boring, repetitive, often-thankless job.

The new Presbyterian Church USA hymnal will need fewer copies, since the denomination is sadly in membership free fall. But maybe some Presbyterians, hungry for militant hymns, can occasionally visit a Methodist church.

We also neglect the theological doctrines that once breathed life into our democratic capitalistic system. Consider the incarnation, God born of a woman into political chaos and socioeconomic oppression. The incarnation of Jesus gives us hope in every possible circumstance, but guards us against false hope and utopian promises. I like the way Novak phrases it: "One of the most poignant lessons of the Incarnation is the difficult teaching that one must learn to be humble, think concretely, face facts, train oneself to realism."

A student judiciary at the State University of New York at Buffalo has given InterVarsity Christian Fellowship reason to hope it might regain its official status just in time for the start of the school year.

“Borders” in other words are psychological and spiritual as much as physical, and the Jordan (like many rivers) carries multiple symbolic meanings. To say that “we” live on this side of the river also means that they, those foreigners, those unclean people, live on the other shore, and are nothing to do with us.

Great preachers are the ones who preach really bad sermons. The difference is that they preach really bad sermons when they’re young, and are sharpened for life by critique.

Taken in that simple context, the Obama metaphor makes some sense. It might even find some justification from the Bible, in its various warnings against pride and arrogance. Problem is, though, that the Obama warnings didn't come in a Sunday school class or as a theological treatise against pomposity and self-centeredness. They came in the middle of a political campaign for the office of president.

When the amped sound of the praise band overwhelms congregational voices, we can’t hear ourselves sing–so we lose that communal aspect of the congregation and are encouraged to effectively become “private,” passive worshipers.

So John Piper and others coined the expression complementarianism. One of its virtues was its newness: it did not (yet!) have a history of wretched connotations. Denotationally it encapsulated what many of us were trying to say

The Bible is God’s Word written. As an atheist, Libby Anne does not affirm this, but it’s a significant difference. Christians aren’t so freed up in their understanding of the Bible. So, we believe God graciously gave the Scriptures to man when humankind was in the dark. The Bible is what He wanted written down, and this same body of literature uses masculine pronouns and metaphors extensively in reference to all three Persons of the Trinity.