Is that an Evangelical Telling Southern Baptists They Are Pushy?

Last updated on: June 8, 2018 at 3:17 pm By D. G. Hart

I don’t mean to pick on John Fea but he is on a roll of late. For the uninitiated, John is a fine historian who teaches at Messiah College. He also self-identifies as evangelical. Please remember that after reading what Eric Price wrote about Southern Baptists and John deemed as “excellent“: The Southern Baptist twittersphere has been up in arms about the Revoice Conference. One of the most extensive criticisms is from Owen Strachan of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Strachan’s... Read more

Reformed Does Not Equal Calvinist

Last updated on: June 8, 2018 at 8:16 am By D. G. Hart

One of the best features of Paul Schrader’s new film, First Reformed, is that it introduces to popular culture the variety of Protestantism known as “Reformed.” The four original branches of Protestantism were Lutheran, Reformed, Anabapist, and Anglican. Lutheran, Anabaptist, and Anglican are fairly easy to identify. But Reformed is a word that could be confused with a certain kind of school, a specific form of political activism, or even a catalytic process in chemistry. Reformed technically is short for... Read more

Moral Clarity Is Over-Rated

Last updated on: June 6, 2018 at 4:48 pm By D. G. Hart

Justin Taylor recalls the prayer that FDR prayed on D-Day seventy years ago: Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy... Read more

Jonathan Merritt Has Some ‘Splaining To Do

Last updated on: May 30, 2018 at 12:46 pm By D. G. Hart

Where did the controversy over Paige Patterson come from? For instance, on April 5, 2018 the Baptist Press ran an overview of conferences on preaching sponsored by Southern Baptist seminaries. It included a summary of Paige Patterson’s talk at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: Paige Patterson The doctrine of salvation is the most important element in God’s Word, Patterson said in his message. “Every doctrine is important, and the Bible is about many things,” he said, “but from the earliest chapters... Read more

Are Some (of Paige Patterson’s) Sins More Heinous than Others?

Last updated on: May 25, 2018 at 3:03 pm By D. G. Hart

In the land of Presbyterianism, we profess, with the Westminster Shorter Catechism, that “some sins in themselves and by reason of several aggravations are more heinous in the sight of God than others.” That’s a line that comes to mind in the discussion so far about Paige Patterson who has stepped down as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after allegations that he gave bad counsel and used sermon illustrations offensive to women. The way some are reacting to the... Read more

Has President Trump Turned Evangelicals (the 19%) into Fundamentalists?

Last updated on: May 22, 2018 at 4:55 pm By D. G. Hart

Last week I had a brief exchange with Heath Carter about the limitations of George Marsden’s off-the-cuff definition of fundamentalism — namely, an evangelical who is angry. @johnfea1 so evangelicals who are angry at evangelicals for voting for Trump are really fundamentalists? — D G Hart (@oldlife) May 16, 2018 George Marsden’s point about fundamentalism was that Protestants who qualified as such were not all that different from evangelicals. Both groups shared the same beliefs, such as inerrancy, Christ’s second... Read more

Who Would Have Thought the Shelf Life on Richard John Neuhaus’ Legacy Would Be This Short

Last updated on: May 17, 2018 at 3:44 pm By D. G. Hart

When Neuhaus died almost a decade ago, the former Lutheran pastor turned Roman Catholic and founder of First Things, his brand of Roman Catholicism seemed secure. His understanding of the relations between Roman Catholicism and the United States, for instance, drew heavily on the arguments that John Courtney Murray had made in the 1950s and at the Second Vatican Council. Murray was a great proponent of religious liberty and natural rights and argued that the Founders had drawn, either explicitly... Read more

If Politics Undermines Theology, Why Is Your Theological Affirmation So Political?

Last updated on: May 15, 2018 at 3:59 pm By D. G. Hart

Yet another evangelical statement is seeking signatures. Reclaiming Jesus is a “Confession in a Time of Crisis.” I suppose that means this affirmation is neither a declaration (like Manhattan) nor a statement (like Nashville). Reclaiming Jesus has no attachment to place, but the fingerprints of the United States are not hard to detect. In the introduction, the authors make this admission: When politics undermines our theology, we must examine that politics. The church’s role is to change the world through... Read more

Damned If You Scold, Damned If You Don’t

Last updated on: May 10, 2018 at 3:28 pm By D. G. Hart

John Fea reminds (as is his wont) of the hypocrisy of evangelical Trump supporters, this time by recovering Franklin Graham’s condemnation (in the Wall Street Journal!!!!) of Bill Clinton’s “private sins”: Few people have lived a more public life over the past 50 years than has my father, Billy Graham. I can assure you that the Billy Graham you see in public is the same one we children have seen at home. He has spent a lifetime making sure that... Read more

France Does Not Have This Problem (which may not be a good thing)

Last updated on: May 9, 2018 at 4:53 pm By D. G. Hart

Thomas Chatterton Williams chastises Ta-Nehisi Coates for ripping Kanye West. First Coates: When Jackson sang and danced, when West samples or rhymes, they are tapping into a power formed under all the killing, all the beatings, all the rape and plunder that made America. The gift can never wholly belong to a singular artist, free of expectation and scrutiny, because the gift is no more solely theirs than the suffering that produced it. Michael Jackson did not invent the moonwalk.... Read more