On the Sunday of All Saints yesterday, a new saint was added to the number of saints who constitute Christ’s church. My new grandson, Thomas Gene Edward Hensley, was baptized. “When[the church] baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected
Flying into California for my grandson’s baptism, I had to connect through LAX. This was on Friday, the day of the shootings at that airport. That happened in the morning. My plane was coming in that afternoon. We heard about the shootings just before we
Belgium is considering a law that would extend “the right to euthanasia” to children, so that they could request their own deaths. The Washington Post story about this, excerpted after the jump, gives a grisly survey of existing euthanasia laws. It also quotes an Archbishop
Church historian Martin Marty discusses how conservative Christians are pulling back from the culture wars. He cites the leadership of Pope Francis for the Roman Catholics and Russell Moore for the Southern Baptists. An additional factor is the increasing secularization of the conservative movement, citing
All Saints’ Day is the Christian Memorial Day, a time to remember loved ones who have died and who now are with all of the other saints, enjoying everlasting life with Christ. The custom on All Saints’ Day in church is simply to list those
Tip of the hat to my former student Nathan Martin, who is involved with this program in Louisiana that teaches students in troubled high schools to be electricians, welders, or other well-paid skilled technicians. Read about it after the jump and then consider my questions.
Today is Reformation Day. Children will wear masks, symbolizing vocation (as in the princesses, ballerinas, and cowboys) or our sinful nature (as in the witches, zombies, and monsters). We will give them the free gift of candy, symbolizing the Gospel in all of its sweetness.
Pastor Joseph Abrahamson has a running project of refuting the notion that Christian holidays derived from pagan festivals. You have got to read what he says about the history of Halloween. (more…)
Thanks to Colin Cutler for alerting me to this Christian defense of Halloween, including its scary parts. The author is Roman Catholic, so I’m not sure I can untangle what she’s doing with the Reformation Day reference! But still, does she make a good point?
Back in the 1990s, I was asked to be on the council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, an organization dedicated to applying the solas of the Reformation to contemporary Christianity. Organizations change, and I’m not a part of it anymore. But I was recently
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