America’s declining faith in pastors and churches

January 9, 2013 By Joel J. Miller

When the Gallup organization asked people to “rate the honesty and ethical standards” of various professionals, respondents placed clergy down at number 8. They fared better than chiropractors and lawyers, but nurses, pharmacists, medical doctors, engineers, dentists, police officers, even college teachers were all considered more trustworthy and ethical than pastors and priests. Barely half, just 52 percent, of respondents said clergy’s honesty and ethical standards were high or very high. The number has never been overwhelmingly high. Gallup started... Read more

5 books to fill a gap in church history and doctrine

January 5, 2013 By Joel J. Miller

The Gospel Coalition is offering a four-year reading list to point evangelicals to “some of the key texts that have shaped the movement and its current leaders, and offer an historical sense and context to the current movement. . . .” There are some very good and useful books on the list, but I want to offer some supplemental texts. Up front let me say that these are not texts that have shaped evangelicalism. Rather, they are meant to fill... Read more

Sen. Mark Kirk, his angels, and ours

January 4, 2013 By Joel J. Miller

Having suffered a life-threatening stroke, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk laid in his hospital bed unconscious and plugged into IVs and monitors. In what he described as possibly a dream or the side effect of his drugs, he suddenly became aware of angels — three of them — standing by. “You want to come with us?” they asked. “No,” he said, “I’ll hold off.” With that, he woke up. Kirk recently told his story to the Chicago Daily Herald as he... Read more

Best novel of 2012? Doug Wilson’s ‘Evangellyfish’

December 31, 2012 By Joel J. Miller

What was the best novel of 2012? According to Christianity Today the answer is Doug Wilson’s Evangellyfish. While he’s best known for nonfiction books of theology, Christian living, and education, Wilson, who pastors Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, has written a raucous and ribald novel of manners about a megachurch pastor embroiled in a sex scandal. I’m sure the book will scandalize a few of its readers, too. But as I read it, I couldn’t help but think that the... Read more

An ancient Christmas carol you may have never heard

December 29, 2012 By Joel J. Miller

Most of us are familiar with Christmas carols like “Silent Night,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and “Once in Royal David’s City.” Though these hymns are old and venerable, they are rather new compared to others. The church has been writing hymns since its inception, and that includes hymns to commemorate the Lord’s Nativity. Here is an example, chanted in Arabic by Nader Hajjar. I don’t know exactly how old it is, but there’s a reference at the end linking... Read more

Despite dangers, Middle East Christians express hope

December 29, 2012 By Joel J. Miller

The position of Christians in the Middle East appears today more tenuous than ever. “[T]here is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” said Rupert Shortt in a recent report for the British think tank Civitas, citing estimates that “between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the region have left or been killed over the past century.” Shortt’s report, entitled Christianophobia (PDF here), does not hold Christians blameless for some of the grief they’ve... Read more

Why apostolic tradition matters, part 2

December 28, 2012 By Joel J. Miller

It seems that every time a supposedly “lost gospel” is unearthed the media hypes it as if it were the Second Coming. Invariably, these texts contradict the received understanding of the church. The most recent example is the so-called Gospel of Jesus’s Wife. The scrap of parchment, published to great fanfare but quickly shown to be fake, purportedly demonstrated belief among early Christians that Jesus was married. Before that you’ll recall the froth and frenzy around the 2006 publication of... Read more

Why apostolic tradition matters, part 1

December 26, 2012 By Joel J. Miller

How do know if a particular doctrine is true or false? What defines the boundaries of orthodoxy? We’re not the first believers to face these questions. Within a generation of Christ’s death and resurrection, the church broke free from the orbit of Jerusalem and swerved into the path of the Gentile world and its bewildering array of pantheons, temples, astrologists, sorcerers, philosophers, and mystery cults. Some of the interactions proved beneficial. In Cities of God, Rodney Stark convincingly argues that... Read more

The ordinary courage of Charlie Brown

December 26, 2012 By Joel J. Miller

Faith takes courage. Sometimes that courage rises to the level of the heroic, but other times — most of the time, really — it’s the little displays that make the difference. When Peanuts creator Charles “Sparky” Schulz was given the opportunity to create his now-famous A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, he decided to include a brief scene in which Linus explains the meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown by reciting the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke. The... Read more