When Jesus is Everything, There is Nothing to Fear – Tullian Tchividjian Interview

Last updated on: April 10, 2012 at 12:09 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

I had a fascinating phone conversation with Tullian Tchividjian a few weeks ago. I could not publish it immediately, since I was in the midst of the Jeremy Lin project, but I want to publish it now in installments. Tullian, a grandson of Billy Graham, is pastor of the very prominent (founded by D. James Kennedy) Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a contributing editor to Leadership Journal, and author of books like Unfashionable and Surprised by Grace. His latest... Read more

A Love Letter to Mitt – Why Candidate Marriage Matters

Last updated on: April 10, 2012 at 9:19 am By Timothy Dalrymple

I’m delighted today to have a guest post from my friend, Josh Good: * * * In their inboxes a few weeks ago, millions of Romney supporters discovered A Love Letter to Mitt — an “anniversary gift” written, apparently, from Ann Romney to her husband. Her short note included a 3-minute interview in which Mrs. Romney reflects on her early courtship with the man who still holds a strong lead in the GOP delegate count and is widely expected to... Read more

Faith at Work in the Fields of Play, Part 1

Last updated on: April 9, 2012 at 12:02 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

In a post last week, I wrote: “Training the body is, or can be, a profound and necessary school for the spirit.” I promised that I would flesh this out in later posts. I want to begin that now. First, note the qualifier. Training the body is or can be a profound and necessary school for the spirit. God seeks us in a million and one ways, subtle or stark. Our responsibility is how we respond. We can learn all the wrong lessons... Read more

Want to End Rabid Partisanship? Reform American Academia

Last updated on: April 2, 2012 at 10:03 am By Timothy Dalrymple

After so much talk of uniting Americans and promoting civility and overcoming our political polarization, why do we still observe such hostility between opposing political camps? Why, in an era of unprecedented access to other lifestyles and religions and philosophies, do we seem to understand one another less and less? Why so much road rage on the information superhighway? The hostility between racial groups in the United States is indisputably much decreased from one or two generations ago. Yet the... Read more

Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, and Why God Cares About Sports

Last updated on: March 29, 2012 at 7:29 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

Isn’t it degrading to suggest that God cares about sports? Isn’t that anthropomorphizing? Are we, like the ancient Greeks with their stories of gods who did all sorts of silly and petty and naughty things, really supposed to imagine that God dons a cheese-wedge upon his head and roots for the Packers? With war and famine, death and disease, doesn’t God have better things to do? Aren’t sports beneath his dignity, unworthy of his time and station? In the process... Read more

Write a Book About Jeremy Lin? That’s (L)insanity!

Last updated on: March 22, 2012 at 11:04 am By Timothy Dalrymple

Some of you already know the reason why I haven’t posted to the blog in recent weeks. An exciting opportunity dropped into my lap, and pursuing that opportunity has been exhausting, exhilarating, and edifying (alliteration unintentional). Here are the deets. I was asked (through my agent) on February 15th about writing a book — on an expedited schedule — on Jeremy Lin. It was understood that various authors (some of whom specialize in “crash books”) would be rushing to market... Read more

Romney Flounders in Fishtown

Last updated on: February 18, 2012 at 1:00 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

What’s wrong with the Romney campaign? Even amongst its supporters, it’s a common question. Romney’s Boston headquarters ran a famously tight ship through most of the campaign thus far, but now that ship is listing. If it does not plot a new course, it will founder on the shoals of a Republican populism that refuses to vote for someone who does not inspire, and wants a movement and not just a man. The Romney camp is presently suffering a perfect... Read more

The Indignation Industry, or the Art of Blogging Controversies

Last updated on: February 14, 2012 at 2:03 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

I think we bloggers and writers of online content generally need to confess to something. We often have mixed motives — or we face a complex set of competing incentives — when it comes to potentially controversial material. I was reminded of this by Christian sociologist Jenell Paris — author of The End of Sexual Identity — and her “Memo to the Masses” regarding John Piper’s recent comments on God’s intention for a “masculine feel” to His church. She writes... Read more

These French Never Surrender

Last updated on: February 12, 2012 at 1:03 am By Timothy Dalrymple

Two of the finest people I’ve come to know through my work with Patheos are David and Nancy French. When we decided that we would publish columns at Patheos, David was the first columnist I sought. I had come to know David and Nancy through their work with Six Seeds — as I was getting to know www.sixseeds.org better and explore ways in which we might work together (Patheos’ Family Portal is now produced by Six Seeds). I thought that... Read more

Why Jeremy Lin Matters — With an Unpublished Interview

Last updated on: February 11, 2012 at 6:17 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

My recent post on NBA insta-celebrity Jeremy Lin — “Jeremy Lin and the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations” — garnered a fair amount of controversy. To supply some backstory: shortly after Jeremy’s outstanding off-the-bench performance against the New Jersey Nets, a friend forwarded the video highlights to me with a note that some of her Asian-American male friends were deeply moved at the sight of someone “like them” succeeding on the highest stage against the mega-athletes of the NBA. I... Read more