Matthew Vines: Rejecting Complementarianism Means Accepting Homosexuality

Last updated on: November 7, 2014 at 10:17 am By Owen Strachan

With others, right now I’m following the Washington, D. C., conference of The Reformation Project. Not protesting it or Twitter-crashing it–just following it. Given my work with the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, I found this quotation of Matthew Vines by Religion News Service reporter Sarah Pulliam Bailey of note (HT: @griffingulledge): Are equal roles for women separate from LGBT inclusion? No, argues @VinesMatthew. Interpretation of Scripture ties them together. #TRPinDC This is not a new argument. Like Vines’s work... Read more

On Ben Sasse and Daring to Hope in Public

Last updated on: November 5, 2014 at 12:11 pm By Owen Strachan

Let’s be honest. If you hold to Judeo-Christian ethics, the last few years have not gone well. They have gone very badly indeed. We’ve watched as the permanent things have taken hit after hit, blow after blow. We’ve seen a tidal wave of change sweep over America. We’ve felt helpless. We’ve felt hopeless. Last night, something extraordinary happened. As CNN reported, in state after state, voters elected candidates to the U. S. Senate–and several governorships–who are meaningfully conservative on social... Read more

You Are Not Your Sexuality

Last updated on: October 31, 2014 at 8:53 am By Owen Strachan

I just wrote a piece for The Federalist on a sex seminar at Colgate University on “consent” in sexual relationships. The event brought students together for late-night discussion of their sexual predilections, which the organizers encouraged with just one moral guideline: consent. Here’s a swatch from the piece: Even as we denounce any kind of sexual misconduct, we must also be very clear: the hookup culture is hugely to blame for these encounters gone awry. Schools like Colgate have abdicated... Read more

Grace and Truth: Reflections on ERLC 2014

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 8:10 am By Owen Strachan

The first national conference of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention was held this week from October 27-29, 2014. I was present for most of the event, entitled “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage,” which lit up social media. I wanted to share five thoughts from my experience. 1. This was a landmark event for Southern Baptists. The tone of the ERLC event was a sea-change from the way that many conservative Christians have spoken... Read more

Secularism Encroaches–But Hope Is Real

Last updated on: October 14, 2014 at 12:17 pm By Owen Strachan

Two weeks ago, on September 27, 2014, I had the opportunity to speak at the inauguration of the Joseph & Alice McKeen Christian Study Center in Brunswick, Maine. The McKeen Study Center serves the students and community of Bowdoin College, my alma mater. Some of you have followed the controversy surrounding the decision of Bowdoin’s administrators to “derecognize” Bowdoin Christian Fellowship, linked to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. As reported on A1 of the New York Times, Bowdoin did so because the group requires... Read more

Vice Sports on Football & Christianity

Last updated on: October 7, 2014 at 11:14 am By Owen Strachan

A Vice Sports piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, “What Would Jesus Think About Football?,” just posed the question to a number of Catholic and evangelical ministry workers. Here’s how Sauer set up the piece: One in three retired NFL players will suffer long-term cognitive damage. The question of football’s morality—or immorality—becomes even more fraught when posed to people who live a life in which the sport and Christianity are intertwined. With that in mind, I asked several football chaplains and other... Read more

Dating + Courtship = Dateship

Last updated on: September 18, 2014 at 6:46 am By Owen Strachan

I just wrote a piece for Boundless entitled “21st-Century Love” that is my attempt at helping singles who want to get married find their way to the altar. I propose a system called “dateship” which is 1/4 cup dating and 3/4 cup courtship. Here are the first two steps of what “dateship” can look like: Step One: Interested Friendship. Men and women go on dates in a low-key, low-pressure way, but with accountability to others. This isn’t secular dating — if anyone does... Read more

Urban Outfitters and Kent State: The Aesthetics of Violence

Last updated on: September 17, 2014 at 10:44 am By Owen Strachan

With many others, I was shocked to see the release of a Kent State sweatshirt by Urban Outfitters spattered in fake blood. The image is to the left; though many of us are accustomed to seeing blood to some degree, this article of clothing as captured in a screenshot is nonetheless unsettling. Here’s what Urban Outfitters said in response to the outcry this item of clothing stirred up: “It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that... Read more

Wayne Grudem on the Hard Work of Human Flourishing

Last updated on: September 16, 2014 at 10:15 am By Owen Strachan

If you’re in the Louisville area next week (Friday Sept 26-Saturday Sept 27) you should attend this exciting conference on faith, work, and human flourishing. The Commonweal Conference features renowned theologian Wayne Grudem and economist Barry Asmus. Here’s a bit more info (register here–if you sign up by this Friday, you get a free copy of The Poverty of Nations!): This conference brings theologian Wayne Grudem (Phoenix Seminary) and economist Barry Asmus (National Center for Policy Analysis) to the Southern Seminary campus... Read more

Men Stand in the Middle: On Ray Rice and the Dignity of Women

Last updated on: September 9, 2014 at 10:12 am By Owen Strachan

The horrifying footage of Ray Rice punching his fiancee Janay (now his wife) has now traveled around the world. Rice was originally suspended for two games for this act of abuse. Now, after the video was leaked, he’s been cut from the Baltimore Ravens and suspended from the NFL. Some have defended him. He deserves a day in court, but this vicious act merits extraordinary punishment, in my limited view. The video’s most haunting footage (described here) to me: Janay,... Read more