How to Beat “Hate Speech”?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Tom Slater: One month on from the Charlie Hebdo massacre, free speech is still under attack. The outpouring of public revulsion at the bloody silencing of ‘blasphemous’ cartoonists after the attack was inspiring. It was a visceral display of support for the right to speak one’s mind – as crudely, offensively and blasphemously as one chooses – that has been absent for some time. But deep-rooted ambivalences have remained – and now these look to be exploited by policymakers looking to institute... Read more

“Pastor”: Drop the Caricature (by John Frye)

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Because of the drift away from Jesus the Pastor (Shepherd), the pastoral landscape is awash with convoluted definitions of pastoral work squeezed into an American cultural mold. I desire to be a voice for and champion of the local church pastor with the understanding that Jesus is the Supreme Example of and Empowering Reality for defining the pastor. The four Gospels are pastoral manuals written to deal with pastoral issues in the early church. Sometimes, we forget this. There is... Read more

An Old Idea Returns

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

I was talking with a pastor not that long ago who told me the most intense problem in their church fellowship was what he called an evangelical kind of “pietism,” which term for him described those who come to church, are good people, but who want to be left alone as they are and not be pressed to grow in their faith. [He was not referring to the classic sense of pietism in the Lutheran tradition.] In King Jesus Gospel I... Read more

Sports and Your Circadian Rhythms

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Jia You: Not good at sports? Maybe you’re just playing at the wrong time of day. In a new study, researchers analyzed the lifestyles of field hockey and squash players using detailed surveys and diary entries. Based on the athletes’ natural circadian rhythms, or internal clocks, the researchers classified those who naturally rise and sleep early as “larks,” those who do the opposite as “owls,” and the rest as intermediates. The scientists then conducted a cardiovascular fitness test six times... Read more

Beware the Owl!

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Sarah Larimer: If you don’t believe me — a human being who has both been chased by a goose as a child and pecked in the head by a tiny winged attacker as an adult — then maybe you should believe Ron Jaecks, a runner who was targeted by an owl at an Oregon park. Reports the Statesman Journal: Jaecks was jogging near the baseball field about 5:15 a.m. Suddenly in the morning darkness his stocking cap was pulled from his head, and... Read more

Kingdom Competition (by Allan Bevere)

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Competition for the Kingdom (by Allan Bevere) Years ago there were two churches in a certain community, a Methodist church and a Baptist Church. The Baptists were temporarily without a pastor when a church deacon died. The family asked the Methodist pastor if he would conduct the funeral service. This was the Methodist’s pastor’s first year in the ministry, and he felt he needed approval from the bishop of the area. So he sent a telegram asking, “May I have... Read more

Darwin’s Doubt and Intelligent Design (RJS)

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By RJS

A couple of years ago Stephen C. Meyer published Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design as a continuation of the argument he began in Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design. I’ve read Signature in the Cell, and we discussed it in a series of posts in early 2010. I have not (yet) read Darwin’s Doubt – not out of any desire to ignore the Intelligent Design (ID)... Read more

Douthat and President Obama as a Niebuhrian

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Ross Douthat from NYTimes: PRESIDENT OBAMA, like many well-read inhabitants of public life, is a professed admirer of Reinhold Niebuhr, the famous mid-20th-century Protestant theologian. And more than most presidents, he has tried to incorporate one of Niebuhr’s insights into his public rhetoric: the idea that no society is innocent, and that Americans in particular need to put aside illusions about our own alleged perfection. The latest instance came at last week’s National Prayer Breakfast, when the president, while condemning the... Read more

FBCTLH: 1st Baptist Tallahassee

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

I’m on sabbatical and we are in Florida, and it’s not been a bad gig to be gone from the winter blizzard and snows in Chicago this winter. We do miss the chatter we all loved in talking about how bad the weather is! I’m working on a commentary on Colossians and Philemon (NICNT). But First Baptist Tallahassee invited me to do a weekend with them on gospel and kingdom so Kris and I drove up to Tallahassee (first time)... Read more

Is it Really a Church You’re Leaving (Sean Palmer)

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Is It Really A Church You’re Leaving? (by Sean Palmer) Sean Palmer is Lead Minister at The Vine Church in Temple, TX. He is a sought-after speaker and teacher. You can read more from Sean at www.thepalmerperspective.com and follow him at him on Twitter, @seanpalmer. If there’s one thing everyone wants, but few people work for- it’s church and community. You can’t swing a dead cat in the Christian blogosphere without someone – regardless of theological persuasion – writing, and... Read more