(In) several books, including The Lost Soul of American Protestantism, A Secular Faith, and From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin, (Darryl) Hart has skillfully demonstrated the pietist post-millennial origins of both American evangelicalism and the social gospel, arguing that these groups have far more in common than most scholars would like to admit

The two self-help experts then elaborated on their ideas, with Osteen urging “activating faith,” because “faith is what causes God to work.” Later, he even spoke of “speaking to the seeds of greatness that God’s placed in all of us.”

Sometimes the Church can be so concerned with personal holiness that it breeds an oppressed community of terrified, isolated individuals who are made to feel like spiritual failures for saying, ‘I can’t do it on my own.’ Why wouldn’t people hide from that?

Embryo adoption would be problematic if the adoptions themselves became a further commodity in the buying and selling transactions of the reproductive technology business or if these adoptions were a widespread incentive for couples to justify the decision to “create” and freeze additional embryos

So I propose that wanting children, or wanting more children, is a legitimate reason to adopt. Christian couples might be God’s gift to orphans, sure, but these children are also certainly God’s gift to us. Let us give thanks

“True Christianity” is a centered set and not a bounded set. Neither I nor any other mere human has the authority to decide who is and who is not a true Christian—other than as a matter of personal opinion. There are times, however, when churches (denominations) find it necessary to decide who is not a true Christian

Are extremists hijacking the Arab Spring? They’re trying to, but this is just the opening chapter in a long drama. Some Eastern European countries, like Romania and Hungary, are still wobbly more than two decades after their democratic revolutions. Maybe the closest parallel to the Arab Spring is the 1998 revolution in Indonesia, where it took years for Islamic extremism to subside.

The analogy to “The Da Vinci Code” rankles academics, of course. “Dr. King said she wants nothing to do with the code or its author,” my colleague Laurie Goodstein notes in her story on the newly discovered text, and quotes King saying: “At least, don’t say this proves Dan Brown was right.” But if they don’t want people to make the analogy, they shouldn’t imitate his arguments.

Let’s stop advocating for traditional marriage, an institution dominated by the curse.  Let’s recognize that our critics may have more to teach us than we may have been prepared to admit.  Let’s advocate instead for Biblical marriage, and the wonderful picture of love and companionship we see presented to us there, a model of mutual... Continue Reading

I am convinced, however, that this phrase reflects an idolatrous longing for something from the man that the woman was created to receive from God alone. As I researched this topic, however, it became clear that my view is in the minority.   Editors’ note: Two views on the meaning of Genesis 3:16, when God curses the... Continue Reading