Get Equipped: What Is Marriage?

Last updated on: January 9, 2013 at 9:34 am By Owen Strachan

The Heritage Foundation just hosted a helpful discussion on what marriage is featuring Robby George, Sherif Girgis, and Ryan Anderson. The discussion draws off a book, What Is Marriage?, just published by these three thinkers. If you want to be equipped on a strong, accessible public square argument for marriage based in sharp thinking and reason, this is a great place to go. George is always terrific; I also found Ryan Anderson’s comments filled with wit and easy to understand. Here’s... Read more

The Key to a Strong Marriage: Humble Repentance

Last updated on: January 8, 2013 at 9:07 am By Owen Strachan

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Every marriage is under attack. Marriage is given to humanity by God as, ultimately, an expression and picture of his love for his people. Satan, the anti-aesthete and anti-tutor, wants to tear this living image down. There is much to work on in marriage, but it strikes me that there is a single key that unlocks the door to health: humble repentance. As sinners living together under the same roof, husband and wife will annoy one another, hurt one another,... Read more

Beginning Work at the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood

Last updated on: January 7, 2013 at 10:22 am By Owen Strachan

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I am excited, officially, to work at the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood as Executive Director. CBMW is an organization that has had a major impact on my life and theology. I trained under leading complementarians Bruce Ware (former CBMW president), Al Mohler, and Mark Dever. Under these figures (and others) I learned about the Bible, the gospel, and God’s good design and plan for men and women. Complementarianism, it turns out, is all about the flourishing of God’s... Read more

Evangelicals Have Incredible Reasons to Engage the Life of the Mind

Last updated on: January 5, 2013 at 10:12 am By Owen Strachan

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor... Read more

Is Mark Noll Right? Is There No Evangelical Mind?

Last updated on: January 7, 2013 at 7:02 am By Owen Strachan

Paul Miller just wrote a fun post at Schaeffer’s Ghost, a blog I commend to you, reviewing Mark Noll’s Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Paul largely agreed with Noll’s polemic: But I have to say that I think Noll is basically right—or, at least, he was right when he wrote this twenty years ago. I say that with some trepidation for fear of offending our vast readership. I fear that in agreeing with Noll it will sound like an accusation that every... Read more

Finding Law and Grace in the New Les Miserables Film

Last updated on: January 3, 2013 at 2:55 pm By Owen Strachan

Timothy Dalrymple has a terrific breakdown of the differing perspectives on law and grace held by Valjean and Javert in the new Les Miserables film, which I highly recommend. The performance by Anne Hathaway as Fantine is jaw-dropping. One of the best bits of acting I’ve seen in a film, ever. The tension between the two lead men is arresting (no pun intended). It elegantly highlights the biblical tension between law and grace, as Dalrymple shows. I’ll quote at length from this... Read more

Bill Bennett: Gun-Free Zones Are Really “Defenseless Victim Zones”

Last updated on: January 2, 2013 at 1:06 pm By Owen Strachan

Bill Bennett wrote a pot-stirring essay at CNN a few weeks ago on gun rights. I’ve been mulling it over ever since. It includes a fascinating stat that has not been discussed in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting: John Lott, economist and gun-rights advocate, has extensively studied mass shootings and reports that, with just one exception, the attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011, every public shooting since 1950 in the U.S. in which more... Read more

To Teach and To Love: Wright’s Law

Last updated on: January 1, 2013 at 1:38 pm By Owen Strachan

Some stories in life make you want to live full-throttle for God’s glory. They affirm life, meaning, love, and the image of God. This is one of those stories. If you watch it, I think it will make you want to help others, and as a Christian, to spread the gospel and its goodness to the suffering. I’m thankful to Denny Burk for linking this. Read more

Will Amazon Soon Go the Way of the Bookstore?

Last updated on: December 31, 2012 at 11:42 am By Owen Strachan

This is a really interesting article from Forbes on how Amazon.com is set for a major challenge from competitors. Here’s Suw Charman-Anderson has to say in building the case: Amazon may still be at the top of the tree in terms of market share, but it’s there because people are in the habit of linking to and going to Amazon, not because of any inherent advantage in doing so. That habit is being eroded, slowly but surely. JK Rowling’s Pottermore, for... Read more

The Incredible Story of Louisville Basketball’s Peyton Siva

Last updated on: December 29, 2012 at 2:36 pm By Owen Strachan

Today, right now in fact, is the Battle for the Bluegrass: the basketball game between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. There are many cool things about living in Louisville–recently named the top travel destination in America by Lonely Planet–but this is surely one of the best. (Others include Quill’s coffee–Louisville has amazing local coffee–Seneca and Cherokee Parks, Southern Seminary, Anchorage Cafe, and Crescent Hill/St. Matthews.) I don’t know a great deal about U of L point... Read more