The Pence Rule and Wisdom
If a man meeting with a woman alone leads to sexual temptation, then there is a serious problem with the heart.
As Christians we despise sexual immorality, and seek to flee from it. For these reasons, false teaching sounds appealing and it is hard to put a finger on what is wrong with it. It isn’t that it is completely wrong. It’s that it is almost right, which in many ways is far worse. Almost right... Continue Reading
The Sex Education We Need
In seven chapters, Pearcey takes on the most contentious issues of our time—abortion, euthanasia, sexual morality, marriage, transgenderism.
Pearcey is evangelical in her outlook but ecumenical in her tastes. She draws on scripture, tradition, and a breadth of contemporary Christian leaders—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—to present the possibility of a unified Christian understanding of human anthropology and dignity. Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions About Life and Sexuality is Nancy Pearcey’s timely attempt to... Continue Reading
How Jesus Answers the Cries of Our Heart
Many of us have favorite psalms—perhaps even some we’ve memorized—which give us hope in the midst of sorrow, fear, loneliness, or grief.
Jesus fulfills all the deepest cries of our heart. Jesus is God’s ultimate answer to all that the psalmist cried out for. Just as the psalmist turned to God as his salvation in the midst of his sorrow, grief, and fear, we also must turn to Christ as our salvation in our own emotional turmoil.... Continue Reading
Should I Try to Be My Child’s Friend?
Your job is not to be the best, coolest friend of your child.
Jesus knew when he came that he would be despised and rejected for who he was, for what he said, and for what he did. But he was willing to do it, because he loved us. That’s the kind of love you want to give to your children. The Nature of True Parental Love... Continue Reading
The 2016 Election and The American Church
What has the 2016 election revealed about the state of the Church and its place in American culture, and how ought we (the American Church) move forward from here?
Overall, the 2016 election has shown how the Church’s political engagement is shot through with ressentiment—the Nietzschean concept warned about by James Davison Hunter, in which we ground ourselves “in a narrative of injury. . . a strong belief that one has been or is being wronged.” Surveying our political landscape driven by rights, wrongs, and... Continue Reading
Worldview Education: the Good and the Not So Good
The importance of a responsible and intellectually stimulating worldview education
A good worldview book is all many people can process, but they almost surely should process that much. Read Nancy Pearcey’s Total Truth not as the last word on any topic, but as a good word from a careful Christian public intellectual. As for the rest of us who write, if we disagree with Pearcey, then we... Continue Reading
An Advent Meditation
Human death is the most unnatural thing in the world. It is a great insult to our humanity. It is humiliating. It is a frontal attack on human dignity.
Because Jesus became one with us in mortality, we can be sure he knows our feelings about death. Because he died, we can be sure he knows what we will face when walk through the valley of the shadow. Because he wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus, we can be sure he knows... Continue Reading
The Theory, the Practice
Putting sin to death is at once so simple and so excruciatingly difficult.
This makes a fitting conclusion to Owen’s instructions on putting sin to death. With all the instructions made, we have now only to look to Christ, to trust in Christ, and to rely on his Holy Spirit. So simple. Yet it is the Christian’s lifetime work. Putting sin to death is at once so simple... Continue Reading
Strassel: Piano Sonata in FTC Minor
Music teachers, beware. The feds are onto you. Better not try to raise the price of your lessons.
In March of this year, a small nonprofit in Cincinnati—the Music Teachers National Association—received a letter from the FTC. The agency was investigating whether the association was engaged in, uh, anticompetitive practices. Teddy Roosevelt busted Standard Oil. The Obama administration? It’s making the world safe from rapacious piano teachers. Every month, it seems, brings... Continue Reading
Reflections on the 2013 PCA General Assembly and the Age of the Earth
Some thoughts on the state of creationism in the PCA and on the seminar at the PCA General Assembly on young earth creation
My semi-educated guess is that there is a fairly even split between committed young earth and old earth proponents in the PCA. Now that doesn’t mean the PCA is split 50-50 on the issue. What I mean is that there is a strong core of committed young-earth-only proponents and a similar core of those convinced... Continue Reading
