BREAKFAST LINKS 12/10/12: Father Tom Merola, Patheos/The Jesus Creed: “When a life abounds in love, love is not simply present; it teems with it, is filled with it, is rich beyond measure in love.” Thom S. Rainer, Baptist Press: Church for the Nones, Nominals & Nomads J. E. Dyer, Patheos/The Optimistic Christian: “One of the most important things Christians can do, I believe, is practice dismissing resentment from our own hearts. We have an advantage in this regard. After all,... Read more
I was staggering around the internet this afternoon and came across this video of me asking Dr Peter Berger (famed sociologist of religion) a question at the Faith Angle Forum in Miami, Florida, in November 2011. Since there was no Faith Angle Forum this Fall, I am left to drink a little wine and watch videos of forums past and look forward to the next time I can visit Michael Cromartie’s fine event: So what do you think? Is the... Read more
Fred Clark (“slacktivist”) and other hard-left progressives have accused evangelicals of lying about the abortifacient nature of some contraceptives. According to this view of things, evangelicals are really just dead-set on opposing anything associated with President Obama, so they have invented the excuse that some contraceptives are abortifacient (abortion-inducing) in order to give themselves a justification for joining Catholic efforts to overturn Obamacare or at least eliminate its contraceptive mandate. In fact, with his usual charity and subtlety (/sarcasm), Clark... Read more
BREAKFAST LINKS 12/07/12: Karen Spears Zacharias, Patheos/Karen Spears Zacharias: “Friendships have fallen by the wayside after I failed to live up to someone’s expectation. It happens to God a lot, too.” Phil Cook, HuffPost: How Christianity Lost It’s Voice Thom Rainer, Thom S. Rainer: Five Secrets Your Pastor Won’t Tell You John Turner, Patheos/The Anxious Bench: ” There has always been a thin line between intense religious experience and madness, especially in the eyes of those critical of certain varieties... Read more
I was introduced to the leaders of the Rivendell Institute in the summer after my sophomore year at Stanford. I was, by then, majoring in philosophy and religious studies, and working in both departments with men and women who had devoted decades of their lives to justifying intellectually their agnosticism or atheism — or, at best, a kind of habitual faith that ran on the fumes of childhood memory and sentimentalism. It seemed to me, naive as I was, that... Read more
Recently I’ve enjoyed getting to know Mark Goldblatt, who teaches religious history in New York and writes for places like The New York Post and The National Review. He’s also author of Bumper Sticker Liberalism. He’s a fearless and electric writer, and the guest post that follows is…well, potentially offensive. Which is not to say it should be offensive. We should be able to have a frank and honest conversation about race, politics, and the disparate circumstances of “African Americans” from the criminal underclass to... Read more
BREAKFAST LINKS 12/06/12: Tim Dalrymple/Andrew Marin, Patheos/Philosophical Fragments: “Jesus had a strong set of convictions and a definitive theology. Yet he continually engaged not through the court system, but relationally through people; whether the legal system or people agreed or disagreed with him.” Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal: Obama’s Ruinous Course Scot McKnight, Patheos/Jesus Creed: ““You Christians eat your own. Always have. Always will.” Robert Reich, Salon: Three Real “Cliffs” Facing America Joe Carter, Patheos/Joe Carter’s Commonplace: “Commenting on the... Read more
Recently I asked, “Is it Time for Evangelicals to Stop Opposing Gay Marriage?” I followed up with “Ten Things I Believe About Evangelicals and Same-Sex Marriage,” where I think I put the issue much more clearly. The question is not whether evangelicals should abandon beliefs that have become unfashionable and culturally detrimental. The question is whether evangelicals should approach this issue much like they approach the issue of divorce for the sake of convenience: teaching that it is wrong, seeking... Read more
BREAKFAST LINKS 12/05/12: Dwight Longenecker, Patheos: “Wake up and smell the catastrophe. It is all much further along than you think. Remember the Nazis did not start out with thugs in leather boots with swastikas and skulls on their uniforms. They started with legislation by an elected government–legislation put in place by professionals in white coats who quietly began to weed out the mentally disabled, the infirm and the unfit.” Dr. Sreedhar Potarazu, Fox News: Seven Things That Scare Your... Read more
From BluefishTV, here’s a little mood-changer, a break from all the serious talk about same-sex marriage and religious freedoms, and a word of encouragement to all the mamas and the papas out there: Read more
Philosophical Fragments
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