The Family Devotional, Reinvented

June 18, 2013 By Timothy Dalrymple

My nearly-five-year-old daughter loves ABCMouse.com. And I have to admit: it’s pretty terrific. Sure, the images and animations are very simple, and sometimes they games seem way too easy for the designed age group. But I like that she’s engaging in something educational and entertaining at the same time, and she likes that she’s singing along with dancing squirrels or assembling digital puzzles or popping all the red bubbles that come tumbling out of the magical bubble-maker. It’s often led... Read more

I love on private property.

June 13, 2013 By John Mark N. Reynolds

My Dad once pointed at that all my toys belonged, legally, to him. This was frightening until he explained further: I had visions of him swooping up my army men, Teddy, and Sir Gordon and his horse Bravo (not dolls, but action figures). He comforted me quickly: he had the right to my toys, but this right secured my use of them until I was a man. How? I was very small and my swords were all plastic, Dad would protect... Read more

An Evangelical Christian Looks at Homosexuality – by Peter Wehner

June 11, 2013 By Timothy Dalrymple

I’m honored again to have a guest post from my friend Peter Wehner, former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush. Wehner served also in the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, serves now as a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and coauthor with Michael Gerson of City of Man and with Arthur Brooks of Wealth and Justice. * An Evangelical Christian Looks at Homosexuality By Peter Wehner I recently had a series of exchanges... Read more

Prevailing over Depression

June 3, 2013 By John Mark N. Reynolds

Sorrow in my life comes several different ways. If I sin, fall short of God’s standards, then my sin makes me sorrow. If I hold onto sin, then my depression deepens, eventually becoming a “new normal.” The only cure for this sort of sorrow is change: Jesus releases me from the guilt and empowers me to live a new life. I can recall the calm and joy settling on me when I gained victory over sin’s sorrow. Only a fool... Read more

Virtuous Minds – Faithful Christianity in College

June 2, 2013 By Timothy Dalrymple

Recently I published the first part of an essay from professor Douglas Groothuis and adjunct professor Sarah Geis, both of Denver Seminary. As of this posting, it ominously has 666 shares. In spite of this ill omen (please, all ye who assume evangelicals are idiots, see my tongue firmly planted in my cheek here), I’m going to forge ahead with the rest of the series. The care and nurture of faith in the college years is a subject near and... Read more

The Merits (and Demerits) of the “Radical” Movement

May 28, 2013 By Timothy Dalrymple

As noted below, an important and complex discussion has arisen around the “radical” movement. My thanks to Barton Gingerich of the Institute on Religion and Democracy for his contribution to this conversation: * Remember Your Baptism: A Message for Radicals, Legalists, Wheat and Tares By Barton Gingerich American evangelicals are finally debating the merits of the “radical” movement. Several prominent characters, ranging from activist Shane Claiborne to pastors Francis Chan and David Platt, initiated an assault on “comfortable Christianity.” As... Read more

On the Grad Glam Shots

May 22, 2013 By John Mark N. Reynolds

My high school graduate picture combined bad taste on my part with artless camera work on the photographer’s part with hair so puffy that it had no part. A great blessing of being (almost!) fifty is that such pictures are hidden: a blessing I share with the world by not sharing with the world. Recently I received a question about high school pictures, a good question from a very bright student: I have been recently receiving a lot of graduation... Read more

Simply Wrong

May 21, 2013 By John Mark N. Reynolds

An odd temptation of blogging is to hold forth in righteous indignation against evils that you cannot impact and nobody suspected you supported. It is a big world and lots of people someplace are doing something wretched about which I can work myself into a fit of moral indignation, but my rule has been before launching jeremiads to have the love for the rebuked that Jeremiah had for Judah. Otherwise the rebuke can become moral posturing: “Thank thee Lord that... Read more

The Best Reaction Ever

May 16, 2013 By Timothy Dalrymple

I write most often at this blog on the faith dimensions of social, cultural and political issues. But every now and then I can’t resist sharing a little from my family life. So from time to time I’ll write about Why We Have Children or Why We Marry. One of the weapons in my daddy arsenal, something I can pull out to entertain children, is my patented Duck in a Propeller noise. This is produced by making a quacking duck... Read more

Now Save Gosnell

May 14, 2013 By Timothy Dalrymple

The defenders of abortion “rights” are quick to decry comparisons between abortion and the Holocaust as irrational, morally monstrous and dangerous invitations to violence against abortion providers. Yet Gosnell’s house of horrors has a distinctly Auschwitzian feel about it. Baby’s feet collected in jars, dying babies flailing in toilets, playing with newborns before “snipping” their necks. When the world didn’t know what took place behind the doors of the Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia, abortion rights proponents would have been... Read more