NPR dumped Juan Williams. Here’s the report, and then I have another take. To recap, Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly faced heat last week after remarks he made about Muslims on “The View.” He was discussing those comments with Williams on “The O’Reilly Factor” when Williams made the remarks NPR found objectionable. “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” Williams said. “But when... Read more
From H. Norman Wright, interviewed by Carla Barnhill: So if a child does rebel, despite the parent’s best efforts, it must be devastating. How can parents deal with the emotions that come with a prodigal child? I counsel parents to start by allowing themselves to grieve the loss they’re experiencing. This is a major upset. Your family is not turning out the way you hoped it would and that brings on a whole myriad of emotions—guilt, anger, blame, confusion, doubt.... Read more
Pastor DeForest Soaries Jr, with some profound wisdom about living debt and delinquency and deficit free. The strategy has four Gs: Get started, Get control, Get ahead, and Give back. Kris and I have been living this wisdom for 35 + years, and we are glad — at this age — that we made that commitment decades back. My congregation embarked upon a debt-free mission five years ago that has reaped tremendous rewards for many of our families. The mission... Read more
We’ve been looking at the essays in a book Theology After Darwin centered around a simple question: What are the implications for Christian theology if Darwin was right? In conjunction with this we are also looking at three articles in the recent theme issue of the ASA Journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (v. 62 no. 3 2010) Reading Genesis: The Historicity of Adam and Eve, Genomics, and Evolutionary Science. On Tuesday we began a discussion of the article by Daniel C. Harlow, After Adam: Reading Genesis in an Age of Evolutionary Science We discussed the portion of his article where he puts forth his reasons for a literary interpretation of Gen 1-11 as story in the last post. The next part of his article looks at the consequence of taking Genesis 2-3 on its own terms and looks as well at Paul and his discussion in Romans 5. Dr. Harlow upholds what he considers a viable doctrine of both original sin and the fall. He finds the biblical support for these doctrines, not in Genesis or the Old Testament, but in Paul. The doctrines don’t stand or fall with a historical Adam, he suggests, but with the gospel of Jesus Christ preached by Paul. Read more
Churches also need to have spiritual disciplines. In James Bryan Smith’s new book, The Good and Beautiful Community: Following the Spirit, Extending Grace, Demonstrating Love (The Apprentice Series), we get a sketch of the disciplines that can characterize — not just an individual — but a community of faith. The seventh characteristic is “worship.” I’ve got a question: If you had to define “worship,” what would your answer be? I’d really appreciate your attempt to answer this question. What do... Read more
A new argument for hell. (HT: BoN) Read more
We haven’t seen our premiums or options for next year yet, but wondering if any of you have … and what do you foresee? From CNN.com: Employees’ share of premiums for a family plan is up an average 14%, to $3,997, vs. just a 3% rise in the total bill, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And it’s not just premiums that are spiraling higher. You’re also likely to be hit with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums as well as... Read more
In my next book, called One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow, I map the path from kingdom vision to church vision. One of our mistakes is to get to church vision before we catch the One.Life vision of the kingdom. The kingdom vision of Jesus is the Dream vision of God for this world, and the church takes its cues from the kingdom vision. What God has planned can be called the dream of God, and God made us to give... Read more
From First Things, Hart ruminates — as he always does — on the connection of atheism and morals in the recent turn to radical atheism by Joel Marks and his moral theory of “desirism.” [The first sentence in the first paragraph is worth writing out.] The real question of the moral life, at least as far as philosophical “warrant” is at issue, is not whether one personally needs God in order to be good, but whether one needs God in... Read more
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