In a recent post at the Resurgence by Justin Holcomb we find yet another example that a robust theology is not falling for political partisanship. The questions are good ones: How should Christians think about and interact with the political realm? Should Christians see any value in politics? Holcomb meanders to Augustine and Chuck Colson and NT Wright then Augustine and Calvin and then also James Davison Hunter. Conservative evangelicalism, in the 80s, fell for partisan politics and aligned itself... Read more

By Perri Klass: In the pediatric office today, parents often bring up spoiling, as that mother did last week, in reference to young babies, sleep and feeding. It’s as if the later, more confusing questions about how to respond to a child’s demands crystallize in those early months when the new baby cries and the parents worry. The official pediatric line — I said some version of this to that mother last week — is that you can’t spoil babies... Read more

It was named by politicians in committee, so the name is “Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.” It is our President’s proposal to begin resolving those who were brought into the USA by someone else. Under the new policy, people younger than 30 who arrived in the United States before the age of 16, pose no criminal or security threat, and were successful students or served in the military, can get a two-year deferral from deportation and apply for... Read more

Last weekend we were at Lincoln Berean in Lincoln NE. Wonderful experience — they have just finished a series of sermons called “Simply Jesus” and they asked me to tie some of this together into the gospel, so I spoke about the gospel of Peter in Acts 10:34-43. We were kindly treated by Mark Mathewson, the theologian in residence (and it shows). If your church is a megachurch, you need a theologian in residence — not the senior pastor —... Read more

This from Morgan Guyton: As Paul Krugman has observed, there really are two entirely different moral visions operating in America right now. I disagree with Krugman about where the fault-lines come down. The deepest debate is not over whether the state or private charity should provide a safety net for the poor. Within that conversation (which is still a Christian one), there is still a common underlying presumption that society should provide for its poor, and the debate is over how this can be... Read more