My husband and I spent last weekend visiting our daughter in Pasadena, where she is pursuing a MA in Theology at Fuller. Aside from being hot (although not as hot as when we visited her in Budapest two years ago), it was a great visit.  The rooms at the guest house have copies of Mark Labberton’s recent book Called alongside other books.  I picked up this book (relatively short and easy reading) and read through it while traveling. Here I... Read more

Some who embraced the eternal subordination of the Son were political about it: they let others (Grudem, Ware, Burke, Strachan) do the talking, they did the supporting by non-criticism and providing the platform. But because they never wrote about it are not now accountable, but they nonetheless were part of the complementarian (mis)hypothesis of the Trinity. This is how that theory arose, and I am working in this series with Kevin Giles, The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of... Read more

By Kristin Du Mez (at the link read more): Imagine for a moment a team of anthropologists walking through your door, taking a look around, and settling in for a close observation of your possessions, how you interact with them, and what this means about American life. That’s pretty much what happened to 32 middle-class families between 2001-2005. I recently came across the results of this anthropological study, published in 2012: Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open... Read more

About a year ago the story broke when some Reformed theologians with impeccable credentials (names below), many of them themselves complementarians of a sort, said a big “Nein!” on the eternal subordinationism of the Son to the Father as fashioned by the likes of Wayne Grudem, Bruce Ware, Owen Strachan, and Robert Letham. Others who embraced that theory, some of whom now pretend they didn’t believe such things but many of us know better, now pretend they did not believe... Read more

By Becky Castle Miller From Christians for Biblical Equality Abuse is an abstract concept for many people, and it’s a word heavy with cultural misconceptions. When talking about abuse, I’ve learned to bridge the communication gap by defining and describing it: abuse is a pattern of coercive control based in an abuser’s feeling of entitlement to power over another person. An abuser gains and maintains control through various tactics that can be physical, emotional, verbal, financial, sexual, or spiritual. Abusers actually target churches to find victims and... Read more

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP To this prayer we add Our prayers of intercession for those who were injured, for their families, for those who were... Read more

Source: White nationalism is unworthy of American values and totally unacceptable to Christians.  Rally for what is good, oppose what is evil. (CNN)White nationalists and counterprotesters are expected to flood downtown Charlottesville Saturday as the Virginia city braces for the “Unite the Right” rally. By noon, thousands are expected to gather in Emancipation Park, where barricades have been placed in proximity to the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The rally comes hours after a large group of torch-bearing... Read more

Big thanks to Kris for finding so many of the links this week, and she finds many of them most weeks. Joi Marie McKenzie: Some lucky Atlanta students got a huge surprise last week. Mentors encouraged them as they walked into school for the very first time this year. During the welcome, approximately 370 boys at BEST Academy of Atlanta, an all boys school for grades 6 through 12, were greeted with cheers, handshakes, high-fives, hugs and encouraging words from over... Read more

Marian Hatcher: I spent my first night as an inmate at the Cook County Jail dreaming about the day I’d get out. I had no idea that four years later, I’d return every day as a full-time employee of the very place that locked me up. My story broadly follows a pattern that is common for victims of prostitution. Domestic violence led me to the streets, which led me to drugs, which led me to prostitution, which, thankfully, then led... Read more

By John Frye In response to the question in last Friday’s post “Should pastors know who gives and how much?” the comments were divided, not evenly, but split. Those who answered “no” did so primarily because they believe a pastor, based on his or her financial knowledge, will make judgments about people. One commenter, “Organizations tend to tilt towards the largest donors.” The pastor might defer to the “big givers” to the point of overlooking their sin. The pastor will... Read more