“Pentecostalism – whatever else it is – is a religion of the extraordinary and the new.  Its leaders at times find the pursuit of the exciting to be exhausting.  (Interestingly, Charles Grandison Finney, the apostle of excitement, warned in his Lectures on Revival that excitement long continued would be destructive.)”   In 1926 Aimee Semple... Continue Reading

“Luther himself endured many instances of depression. He described the experience in varied terms: melancholy, heaviness, depression, dejection of spirit; downcast, sad, downhearted. He suffered in this area for much of his life and often revealed these struggles in his works. Evidently he did not think it a shameful problem to be hidden.”   The... Continue Reading

Just to be clear what this means. The Obama administration is announcing its intent to coerce through force of law every public school to accept this. He expects your local school to allow boys to use bathroom and shower facilities with girls and vice versa. So long as the child’s parents are willing to go... Continue Reading

I wonder to what extent we are going to see people like this conservative Christian high school principal leaving the public schools over all this. Imagine that you are an Evangelical, conservative Catholic, or Muslim elementary school teaching in the Fort Worth ISD. Your administration has now ordered you to present material to your students... Continue Reading

I am no right-wing knee-jerk opponent of government. I wrote a book called Republocrat, for pity’s sake, calling for a healthy degree of non-partisan pragmatism in our political thinking. But we are living in a world where this government has promoted an attitude to life which now aspires not simply to referee public behavior but... Continue Reading

“The liberal arts school was named after 19th Presbyterian missionaries named Whitman who were killed by Cayuse Indians enraged by measles inadvertently spread by newly arrived settlers. There are no plans evidently to rename Whitman, which was originally founded as a Congregationalist seminary but long since has shed any church affiliation.”   Whitman College in... Continue Reading

After ignoring the warnings signs about Ketcham (which, according to ABWE’s policies, could have resulted in his termination in 1974), ABWE compounded its error by questioning the girl extensively over two days to confirm her story and encouraging her to “confess,” according to the Pii report. Other errors, according to Pii investigators, included ABWE’s choice... Continue Reading

This latest evidence of Trump’s questionable character and judgment forces us to face a serious question. How would Trump respond to critics if he were to assume the presidency? What if those critics were making a religious case against some policy President Trump wanted to pursue? And what if those critics began to sway public... Continue Reading

“Through reading the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass I learned several lessons. The most significant lessons were on conviction and resolve. Douglass’ life along with the life of other African-Americans can contribute to our understanding of the Christian life and theology.”   Black history is part of the... Continue Reading

I wish Hybels hadn’t tried so hard to ride the fence as closely as he can. What does he mean when he says “gay Christian?” Specifically, when dealing with such a topic it’s helpful for our church leaders to clearly define their terms. What does an “open embrace” look like? What does “inclusive” mean and... Continue Reading