First of all, I’m a yuppie. I drive a Prius and my wife drives a minivan. Thus we are full-hog yuppies. I don’t know if other yuppies are neurotic, but it feels better to project my inner psychological turmoil onto a category of people. What I realized at my three year old son Isaiah’s soccer practice today is how much I personally exude the qualities of suburgatory life that I critique in this abstract ideological category called “yuppie.” So it... Read more
I sent the famous reformed systematic theologian Wayne Grudem an email in response to his editorial in the Christian Post about why he was supporting Pulpit Freedom Sunday, which I wrote two different pieces about here and here. Didn’t expect to hear back and when I did, I was pretty stung by what he had to say. I realize that some of you are going to criticize me for sharing an email exchange publicly, but I feel that when you... Read more
“Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without revelation” (Micah 3:5-6). This is an excerpt from the Daily Office Old Testament reading for October 11th, 2012. It raises a question: what does peace really mean? For those who have enough to eat,... Read more
The abortion debate has become a quagmire in which both political parties have latched onto it as a wedge issue to trap the votes of either women or evangelical Christians. Both presidential candidates have ambiguously moderate positions on the issue. Obama says that he believes in the sanctity of life, but has gotten a lot of mileage out of stirring up fear about the more radical pro-life position of Paul Ryan. Romney was pro-choice when he needed to be in... Read more
I figured it might be good for my hits to push back against an exegetically questionable pot-shot taken at what has been called “Red Letter Christianity” which generated reverberations here and here. As many of you know, I contribute frequently to a website called Red Letter Christians. The guys behind this site, Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne, have recently written a book called Red Letter Revolution (which likely prompted the sniper fire). The concept of Red Letter Christianity is to turn... Read more
Jerry Sandusky was on the TV at the gym this morning, since his sentencing is today. He made a statement continuing to deny all the allegations against him. As I saw the words in his statement on the screen, it occurred to me that hell must be something like that: to spend eternity in denial of the mercy from God that makes facing the truth possible. What would have to happen between now and the time that Jerry Sandusky dies... Read more
A few weeks ago, I started getting spam from Jim Garlow, the pastor of the Skyline megachurch in Lemon Grove, California, about the Pulpit Freedom Sunday initiative that he has been spearheading with Glenn Beck. This past Sunday, about 1500 pastors across the country heeded Garlow’s call to preach about the presidential campaign in defiance of the IRS prohibition on public political endorsements for 501-C3 tax-deductible organizations. Around the same time that Garlow started spamming me, I accidentally stumbled across... Read more
As part of our celebration of World Communion Sunday this weekend at Burke United Methodist Church, we had as our guest preacher Pastor Medardo Serrano of the Centro de Formacion Gran Comision, a Hispanic congregation that meets in our church building. I translated for Medardo, so I wanted to share some of the points that he made in his sermon along with a little bit of my own commentary. The text he preached from was Ephesians 4:1-16. The topic was... Read more
There are two different stories people tell about capitalism. Those who describe capitalism favorably say that it is the story of how the innovation and creativity of entrepreneurs are unleashed through a spontaneity of resources provided in a free market. Capitalism’s critics tell the story of how money-changers are constantly hunting for ways to make money without sweating a drop by leveraging workers and markets against each other and finding loopholes to be exploited. Both of these stories are true,... Read more
Two women appeared before the king. Both were wailing; one was holding a baby. The woman without the baby told the king that the baby was hers and that the other woman had stolen it after she had smothered her own baby in her sleep. They argued back and forth, screaming and cursing each other. The king said to bring a sword and cut the baby in half, but the first woman said, “No, let her keep the baby.” So... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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