“Give We, the People, your justice, O God. … May we defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.” Read more
LBCF, No. 138: ‘Buck & Hattie & Ray & Chloe’
June 9, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
For the first time, Jerry Jenkins brings all four major characters together in the same place. And yet, somehow, he still manages to have that scene include several phone calls among them. Read more
A groovy relic of the forbidden evangelical past
June 8, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
For my birthday I bought myself a book that’s almost as old as I am. It’s from 1975, as you may be able to tell from the groovy cover design. Even Zondervan Press covers were groovy in the ’70s. Read more
Soap, soup, and support for Supreme Court nominees who will overturn Roe v. Wade
June 6, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
It seems to me that this Great Commission objection has waned in the 21st century. I would count that as a positive development, except that I fear it has simply been replaced by something else that’s even worse. Sixty years ago and 30 years ago, white evangelicals instinctively evaluated every cause or “issue” by weighing it against the paramount concern of proclamation evangelism. Today, instead, everything is weighed against the paramount concern of abortion politics. Read more
The Late Great Planet Earth
June 6, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
The major source of hesitation was still the worry that such other causes — whatever their merits — might distract from the paramount priority of proclaiming the gospel. That was Job No. 1, after all. Jesus commanded us to “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel” not to go ye unto all the world and recycle. Go ahead and worry about saving the ozone layer, but only if it doesn’t distract you from the higher priority duty of saving sinners. Read more
Sunday favorites
June 4, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
Then she pulled the head out of the bag and showed it to them, and said, ‘See here, the head of Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his drunken stupor. The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman.'” Read more
LBCF, No. 137: ‘Buck’s soul-searching’
June 2, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
The authors want to treat Buck’s dawning faith as a typical representation of a typical conversion experience, but Buck is far from typical. The game here is rigged. Unlike those of us here in the real world, Buck has already seen proof of God’s existence. He has seen the hand of God swatting aside nuclear missiles like snowflakes. Buck’s report on that undeniably, unambiguously supernatural event, the authors say, won him a Hemingway Prize. It would also have won him a $1 million check from the Amazing Randi. Read more
A Death Bet Is Morally Repugnant. So Is a ‘Rapture’ Bet.
June 1, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
Ask these Rapture-Christians about climate change and they’ll assure you there’s no need to worry about famine and flood in 2050, because they’re “certain” that Jesus is coming back before then. Ask them about their teenage child’s plans to major in art history or theater arts and they’ll give you a very different outlook. Read more
The not-so-secret secret of evangelicals and Planned Parenthood
May 31, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
“There are many more women like her, all around the country. Women who grew up in conservative Christian environments that push abstinence-only education, unwavering anti-abortion attitudes, and adherence to the Republican party line — and who, out of necessity, are secretly visiting Planned Parenthood clinics for pap smears, birth control, STD tests, and other reproductive health services, including abortions.” Read more
‘The WHY of this turn to the body’
May 30, 2017 By Fred Clark 0 Comments
This is key: “The why of this turn toward the body … remains an important question in evangelical history.” And thus it is an important question regarding the white evangelical present, and any white evangelical future. And, because of the vital role that politicized white evangelicalism has come to play in American politics, it remains an important question for the entire nation. Read more
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