Happy Thanksgiving! I hope all my readers were able to have an enjoyable day with loved ones. You may have noticed that the blog was suspiciously quiet this week. That’s due to a combination of factors, including that I could not in good faith bring myself to write about the biggest news story of the month. Even a fool is considered wise when he remains silent, and that doesn’t cease to be true even in the world of blogging. I... Read more
In the beginning of his book God and the Gay Christian, Matthew Vines takes pains to tell his readers that he is not a Bible-dismissing secularist or a Bible-minimizing liberal evangelical. The grand thesis of God and the Gay Christian is that it is perfectly consistent to affirm the reliability and the authority of the Bible and also the moral acceptability of monogamous, committed same-sex relationships. As someone who claims to believe in the absolute truths of Scripture, Vines has... Read more
This is pathetic. Thousands are backing a petition calling for the cancellation of the TLC series “19 Kids and Counting” over the stars’ discriminatory sentiments against the LGBT community. A petition on Change.org launched by Jim Wissick of San Jose, California, states that “19 Kids and Counting,” starring conservative Baptists Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children, should be axed because of the LGBT fearmongering promoted by the family. “The Duggars have been using their fame to promote discrimination,... Read more
Today begins a new series called “My Essential Movies,” monthly essays on the finest films ever made. “That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.” Michael Corleone is not lying when he says these words in The Godfather. He means them. He means them so much he joined the military merely to prove them. We learn about that in the penultimate scene of The Godfather Part II, a flashback that surely ranks as one of the greatest filmmaking decisions of all... Read more
That’s the question that Andrew Wilson implicitly asks in his brilliant parody entitled “The Case for Idolatry.” Though Wilson never mentions Vines or any other “LGBT-affirming” evangelical by name, his satire is clearly aimed at arguments in favor of abandoning traditional Christian doctrine on sexuality and marriage. Read Andrew’s terrific piece. Then, read my contribution at Mere Orthodoxy, in which I compare passages between Wilson and God and the Gay Christian author Matthew Vines to discuss whether Wilson’s parody was... Read more
In the weeks since becoming an engaged man, I’ve caught myself meditating a little too much on the past. I suppose the prospect of marriage has stoked my nostalgia. The word nostalgia comes to English from Greek. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the Greek root “nostos” means “a return home.” It goes on to define nostalgia as a “bittersweet longing for the past, or homesickness.” Etyomologically speaking, nostalgia denotes displacement. A longing to go back home is an indication... Read more
Christian bloggers, please don’t report on the movements of Mark Driscoll. I’ll give you four reasons: 1) It really serves no good purpose. Driscoll has been publicly rebuked and has lost his ministry. As bad as Driscoll may have been in leadership, as potentially disqualified as he was from the pastorate, and as much damage as his actions have done to Christian witness, there is no godly or compelling reason to keep tabs on where he goes. I say “no godly reason”... Read more
The word “interstellar” literally means “between stars or planets.” Christopher Nolan’s film is about exactly that: Not a place, but a space between. “Humanity was born on earth,” a character observes early on. “But it was never meant to die here.” Notice the language of destiny there; “was never meant” implies a purpose beyond mere survival. Is mankind meant for something greater than simple reproduction? Unfortunately, that’s the closest that Nolan comes to pointing us beyond the cosmos. For most... Read more
I wanted to point out that the previous “Contact Me” page has been updated to include a commenting policy. I’ve copied the new guidelines below. I greatly appreciate the energetic and thoughtful community at Patheos. Lately, however, I have had to moderate comments far more than I want to (I don’t want to whatsoever). I thought a codified commenting policy might help guide the conversations. As always, thank you for reading! (If you have questions or want to reach out... Read more
I use the term “must-read” sparingly. Most of what is written is not worth reading, and so the amount of material that needs to be read is quite small. But Sean Fitzpatrick’s essay on “Boys, Porn and Education” is truly a must-read article. Carl Trueman recently dubbed pornography the “single biggest pastoral problem in the church.” If you doubt that, it’s likely because you don’t know enough about the people in your church. Pornography’s insidiousness lies in its low profile.... Read more
Samuel D. James
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