Seymour Hersh: It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false,... Read more
And this is news? Should have asked me years ago. Joshua Becker: The capsule wardrobe movement continues to gain momentum. Fast fashion deserves criticism. And our culture’s obsession with ever-changing fashion trends is an artificial pursuit manufactured by those who benefit from it. The capsule wardrobe movement is far from mainstream. But, elevated in the social consciousness by some high-profile personalities, more and more people are applying minimalist principles to their fashion. Many people outside the movement remain skeptical. They wonder why anybody would intentionally choose to... Read more
Repainting Hell: The End of Evil (Jeff Cook) As Thomas Aquinas once offered five ways to know a God exists, so too I hope to offer five ways to know that hell is not “eternal conscious torment.” Like Aquinas, my arguments will be philosophical in nature. Though I think there are many solid biblical reasons for rejecting the traditional view of hell, these arguments will be based on deductive thinking—the first of which is here. A second worthy reason to reject... Read more
An argument can be made that the best apologists often don’t do apologetics. They live with commendable character, they teach and preach and write well, and they minister to others in such a way that their faith is compelling. Dallas Willard was that kind of apologist. In other words he did apologetics but not the way most think of apologetics. Image But he has new book — posthumously edited by his daughter, Rebecca Willard Heatley — on apologetics with a... Read more
Kris and I want to wish all the mothers who read this blog a robust Happy Mother’s Day! Whatever you call your mom — and here’s a good listing — wish her a happy Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s day to my Mom. This is our third Mother’s Day without Kris’ mom, Betty, and we will be thinking of her today. Kris is a mom (Happy Mother’s Day Kris) and Annika (Luke’s wife) is a mom (Happy Mother’s Day Annika). We... Read more
O God, You have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, That we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, Which exceed all that we can desire; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more
Source: Another angle on our complicated, loophole-available tax system. Hasta la vista, Uncle Sam! A record 1,337 Americans gave up their passports in the first three months of the year, according to new data released by the U.S. government. That’s nearly 40% of the 3,415 Americans that renounced citizenship last year, suggesting that U.S. renunciations will again hit a new high this year. In 2014, the number of Americans who gave up their passport was 15 times higher than in 2008.... Read more
One of my favorite places to get to teach: Pepperdine Bible lectures. Awesome location and even greater people. For all the bearded folks, a funny story about beard hygiene: (NEWSER) – Beard hygiene is important unless you want to have the equivalent of a dirty toilet seat growing out of your face, according to a microbiologist who swabbed a bunch of beards and was shocked by the results. “I’m usually not surprised and I was surprised by this,” Quest Diagnostics expert John... Read more
Jason K. Allen: Associated Baptist Press recently reported that Rodney Kennedy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, sprinkled an infant. The event was newsworthy because, by definition, a Baptist church does not baptize infants. To practice the latter is to forfeit being the former. Or at least it used to. The article read as a congratulatory piece, as though it was one small step for a church, but one giant leap forward for Baptists everywhere—no doubt a leap away from... Read more
Some quotations from Marilynne Robinson: It has seemed to me sometimes as though the Lord breathes on this poor gray ember of Creation and it turns to radiance for a moment or a year or the span of a life. And then it sinks back into itself again, and to look at it no one would know it had anything to do with fire, or light. That is what I said in the Pentecost sermon. I have reflected on that... Read more
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