Are Churches Secularizing America? (We’re talking about evangelicals here!!)
So while evangelicals are often quick to launch public protests against “secular humanists” for diminishing the role of God in American society, it would seem that the more likely source of secularization is the church itself. I am not claiming that evangelicalism is “atheistic” or even “deistic” in principle, but that in practice it is... Continue Reading
Chilling Almost Beyond Belief – This means that abortion is taking place in your neighborhood, and in mine
Americans generally know that abortions happen, but the reality of abortion is kept out of sight and, for most, largely out of mind. To acknowledge that abortions do occur does not require any actual knowledge of the numbers of abortions performed and the scale of the catastrophe. News reports that emerged in recent days will... Continue Reading
Another Thought on the Federal Vision and the PCA: Despising a Confessional Birthright (and a response)
Editor’s Note: Following is a blog post written by a PCA Teaching Elder, in fact by one of the 29 signatories to the Jeffrey Meyers Letter of Concern that is currently in the news. His post is followed by one of his respondents on the blog site. The Presbyterian Church in America is a confessional... Continue Reading
Letter to the Editor: The AC Funding Debate – Opportunity to be Rekindled and Refocused
I pray that we may be rekindled through this debate to be once more that creative, faithful, outward-looking body of God’s people who love Him and each other. Dear Editor: In his article advocating the adoption of the proposed funding plan, RE EJ Nusbaum correctly analyzes the immediate problem we confront in the PCA with... Continue Reading
Pastoral reflections on fathering (pastor’s) kids to love and protect them
Do they know that I love them enough to stand up for them? Protect them? Fight off the world for them? Because they are MY children! Not in a manner that is blind to their sin, but in a manner that communicates that if they come to me with a deep pain they know I... Continue Reading
Free Expression Is Not Coercion – Stripping away reminders of America’s Christian heritage
The common thread in these cases is the confusion of expression with coercion. It would be nice if the new Congress found some way to coerce federal judges into living up to their oaths. The jurists should be upholding real constitutional rights instead of twisting the Constitution into a battering ram against any public edifice... Continue Reading
Should We Have a Sex Tax? – The High Cost of Extramarital Coupling
Politicians are always talking about taxes. Some of them want to “soak” the rich; others want to raise “sin” taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. But I can think of one “consumer item” we’ll never see a tax on: sex. But maybe we should. Sex-the wrong kind of sex, that is-is driving up the cost of... Continue Reading
The Tucson Tragedy and God’s Gift of Moral Language
In such a world we are no longer moral beings with the propensity for great acts of righteousness and great acts of evil. We are instead, at least when we are bad, the mere product of our circumstances, our society, our upbringing, our biochemistry, or our hurts… We are so awash in the language of... Continue Reading
The PCA’s New Dilemma about Deacons (IX)
We need to keep in mind that what we are dealing with is not merely the question of the office of deacon, but also the larger question of ecclesiology. Quite often that point is either neglected or forgotten in the current discussions surrounding deacons. The “deacon question” is merely one isolated comment in a much... Continue Reading
Do We Really Need Bishops?
Editor’s Note: Mr. Jordan has been blogging since 2004, focusing on issues of interest to North American Anglicans. This article was originally intended for that audience. I do not find in the Bible any support for the post-apostolic concept of a monarchial bishop-a bishop who governs or rules his see as a prince might govern... Continue Reading