Category: Cultural Issues
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Selling Out the Gospel at the Altar of Politics
I don’t do politics on social media (nor in the pulpit), but I feel an exception is warranted – on social media, anyway. With the exception that I don’t really care that Donald Trump has not previously held public office, nor do I care that neither Ben Carson nor Carly Fiorina have ever held public office, pretty much…
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Evangelical Typecasts
It is interesting. It is even more troubling. CNN Religion Editor Daniel Burke has posted an article to CNN Politics titled 7 Types of Evangelicals: And How They’ll Effect the Presidential Race. The post is interesting in that it describes differences among those who label themselves “Evangelical”, and creates categories for each. It is troubling,…
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Male & Female He Created Them
Being part of one of the relatively few denominations that still ordains to church office only those who meet the Biblical criteria, I sometimes resonate with whoever the comedian or cartoon character was who was noted for saying: “Nobody understands me.” While that is a bit of an overstatement, as I do not stand alone,…
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Intolerance of Contemporary Tolerance
I recently finished reading D.A.Carson‘s excellent book, Intolerance of Tolerance. It was a long time coming, with several starts and stops and re-starts along the way, but in the end it was well worthwhile. The stops and starts were in no way reflective of the readability of the book. It had more to do with…
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Resources to Help Us Navigate Our New Cultural Reality
The Elders of the church where I serve as pastor met, as usual. Part of our discussion, however, was anything but usual. While it is not uncommon for this group to discuss subjects to help us more effectively minister, even setting aside occasional Saturday mornings to delve into variant viewpoints of issues that affect peoples’ lives,…
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Here We Stand: An Evangelical Declaration on Marriage
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage yesterday, a diverse coalition of Evangelical leaders, gathered by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, drafted and released the following statement. Had I been asked – and if I am asked – I would gladly add my name. ~ WDG *** As evangelical Christians, we dissent from…
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Intolerance of Toleration
Seems apropos in light of the apparent redefinitions of words like “tolerate” and “phobic” that are making intelligent discussion of legitimate differences much more difficult.
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Christian’s Cultural Assessment Toolbox
Here’s an astute observation from Os Guinness: “Christians simply haven’t developed Christian tools of analysis to examine culture properly. Or rather, the tools the church once had have grown rusty or been mislaid. What often happens is that Christians wake up to some incident or issue and suddenly realize they need to analyze what’s going…
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Jesus Outside the Lines
This afternoon I started reading Scott Sauls‘ refreshing new book, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides. It seems timely – at least for me. I for one am growing weary of a culture in which increasingly polemic debates seem never ending. And while I was at first…
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Absence of Grace in the Culture Wars
There has to be some way to better go about this. The Washington Post reported last week of a man in Colorado, Bill Jack, who in attempt to demonstrate the hypocrisy of recent court rulings related to the Traditional Marriage vs. Gay Marriage debates, requested two cakes that together expressed clear anti-gay sentiments. Jack seems to have…
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Repenting of “Biblical” Manhood
The following was written by Kyle Worley, from Village Church in Dallas, and was posted on CBMW‘s web. I thought about editing, but realized there is nothing I could add, nor is there anything for me to delete. So I post it here in its whole, as one who shares this complimentarian perspective (here, here)…
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Heaven Peeper Recants His Story
Not long ago I wrote expressing my skepticism about the claims depicted in the heart tugging film Heaven is For Real. I have no doubts about the reality of heaven, it is just the claims of the boy who claimed to have visited heaven that I found dubious. It is nothing personal about him. I…
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To Stop It or Not to Stop It, That is a Question
The ministry web site, ChurchLeaders.com, reported news of an unfortunate event in Colorado, and then asked the provocative rhetorical question: “How would you have handled it?” After a little thought I decided I would take a stab at taking the question, taking it beyond the mere rhetorical, and actually trying to answer it – albeit…
