On the sixteenth of September, I interviewed Timothy Goeglein, author of The Man in the Middle, who served for nearly eight years as President George W. Bush’s liaison to conservatives. In the middle of one of his clear and elegant sentences, my wife entered my office and informed me that her water had broken and it was time to get to a hospital for the birth of our second daughter. “I have to go!” I said. Goeglein cheerfully noted that,... Read more
Walter Russell Mead is my favorite blogger. If you’re not reading him, you should. Mead was the Henry Kissinger Chair on the Council on Foreign Relations, a position of enormous prestige. Ever since he left that chair, he’s been a blogging powerhouse. Here’s a nugget on the growing threat of cyberwarfare: We are close to the point at which an effective cyberstrike against our information infrastructure could do more damage and even kill more people than a repeat of 9/11.... Read more
You know the Perry camp wanted Chuck Colson to take their side, but Colson apparently agrees with my take: Mormons are not Christians as I understand the term, but Christians can certainly vote for Mormons in good conscience: …there may be no other group of people I appreciate more as co-belligerents than the Mormons. They are stalwarts on life, traditional marriage and religious liberty issues. To sum up, I’m with Luther, who reportedly said that he would rather be governed by... Read more
Not quite as catchy as the military-industrial complex, but no less real: Some of the biggest immediate beneficiaries of the green revolution, ironically, may have been politicians themselves. Executives of the top 50 recipients of the government’s green-energy aid have donated more than $2 million to federal campaigns since Obama took office. Some of the biggest recipients of green stimulus money—including NRG Energy and Consolidated Edison—made six-figure donations to candidates and interest groups. The industry as a whole has ponied... Read more
I do my best to interact with commenters at Philosophical Fragments. I get a lot of thoughtful rejoinders to what I write. To “The Cult of Rick Perry,” the best (or at least the most enjoyable) response I received was this one: Seems like Mr. Jeffress has an easy way of figuring out who’s Christian and who isn’t. So do I. I check to see if they have that fish sticker on that back of their car. Problem solved. I... Read more
I had the pleasure of meeting Eric Metaxas a couple months ago, when he was addressing a room full of pastors and Christian thought leaders in Atlanta. He let me record the talk, with the intention of publishing it somewhere down the line. That line has turned out to be longer than I expected, but I was working on the transcript today and I enjoyed this part on how the evil of Naziism not only robbed Germany of its present... Read more
Disheartening. Profoundly disheartening. That’s the word I would use to describe the kerfuffle over Robert Jeffress and his comments on Mitt Romney and Mormonism, as well as the strange, confused, often-angry conversation that has followed. I’ve been too buried in diapers and onesies to participate, but now that I sit down to write, I feel only discouragement — as a conservative and as an evangelical Christian. Let’s be clear. However often we forget it, this is the first question we need... Read more
I’m sorry to have posted sparsely this week. My newborn is facing some health complications — yet she seems, thankfully, to be pulling through. (You may also note that there are some changes to the blog, including the URL. We have a redirect established, but please take the time now to update your bookmarks or subscribe or connect with me through Facebook or Twitter. Thanks) This is the third, final — and, in my opinion, most profound — installment in... Read more
Last night I had the occasion to share some thoughts on the theology of vocation. One of the greatest legacies of the Protestant Reformation, the doctrine of vocation has fallen on hard times. In the midst of economic crisis, in the midst of public pressures to private and compartmentalize our faith, and in the midst of a church-wide reexamination of the proper ways and means of cultural influence, the church must recover its theology of vocation. As I was preparing... Read more
When I heard that Steve Jobs had passed away, the first person I asked for thoughts was Andy Crouch. Jobs was clearly a “culture maker” in multiple senses, and Andy (author of Culture Making) has established himself as one of America’s preeminent commentators on Christian faith and the shaping, consumption, and especially the production of culture. Presumably Andy was already putting his thoughts together, as he responded with this link and permission to reprint from his own site: Steve Jobs... Read more
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