If you’re like me, you’re pretty skeptical about that loaded question. A recent story in The Atlantic made me think more about this subject, though. David H. Freedman’s “The Triumph of New-Age Medicine,” from the July 2011 issue, makes the case for alternative medicine more persuasively than I’ve heard it. You may be skeptical at this point, and you may not come away convinced, but the piece does give you much to chew on. Here’s one anecdote that caught my attention:... Read more
A recent story in the New Yorker entitled “The Invisible Army” chronicled problems with a phenomenon most of us have not heard about: third-country nationals who serve our armed forces overseas. According to Sarah Stillman, workers from economically weak countries are recruited to serve in high-paying jobs in global cities like Dubai. They enthusiastically sign up, fly to Dubai (at great personal cost), and are then–to their shock–flown to U. S. military bases in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, where they... Read more
Really enjoyed this piece from my SAET colleague, Gerald Hiestand. This point, on reading theology regularly in the midst of pastoral work, caught my eye: Make your study time a priority in your weekly schedule. The expectations and demands of your congregation will almost certainly push you away from study and writing. So if you’re going to get after it, you are going to have to make it a priority in your schedule. I’ve found that setting aside my mornings works best for... Read more
How should we who consider grace the central reality of our life think about God’s response to our sin? This is a tricky question, one that defies some of the easy answers we offer to it. Today at The Gospel Coalition, I ask and seek to answer this question in a post entitled “You Can Anger God But Not Lose Him.” Here’s a bit to chew on: The fact that our sins displease God motivates us in practical terms to... Read more
I just received a copy of Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith (Bethany House, 2011) by Matthew Anderson, who has a thriving blog here. I have been looking forward to this book for some time now, having had the privilege to share some thoughts on it with Matt when he was still in the editing process. In short, I think that this book is poised to help many Christians understand the Christian doctrine of the body, a... Read more
My friend Matthew Barrett, a May 2011 graduate of the SBTS PhD program in Systematic Theology (PhD under Bruce Ware), has just unveiled an exciting new online magazine called Credo. Those of you who are like me and love Reformation 21 will find this a similar venture, albeit from a Baptist perspective. I’m thrilled to see this magazine launching in October 2011 (the blog is already going full steam). Contributors include Michael Haykin, Tim Challies, Gregg Allison, Todd Miles, and... Read more
I’m not a big fan of the Huffington Post, but a slideshow on the top ten college entrepreneurs caught my eye. Normally I avoid slideshows, but number nine in the presentation caught my eye. I had not heard of Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, before, but his story is worth reading about: Perhaps the most legendary college paper ever was authored by Frederick W. Smith. As an undergraduate at Yale, he wrote a paper outlining a delivery system that would... Read more
A just-published story in The Atlantic by Lori Gottlieb entitled “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy” raises some helpful questions about modern parenting and how it is stimulating narcissism. There is some strong language in the piece, so I’m not linking to it. I will, however, quote a section to show the strength of the ideas in the article: Another teacher I spoke with, a 58-year-old mother of grown children who has been teaching kindergarten for 17 years, told me she... Read more
Found this little bit of discussion engrossing. Apparently, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a hearing with the House Small Business Committee that it was necessary to raise taxes on small businesses to provide increased government revenue for essential programs. Here’s a snatch from the CNS News story: When Ellmers finally told Geithner that “the point is we need jobs,” he responded that the administration felt it had “no alternative” but to raise taxes on small businesses because otherwise “you... Read more
Over at the BibleMesh blog, Thesis, John Starke has a thought-provoking piece up entitled “Danville, Illinois and the Eschatology of a Five Year Old” about family devotions and the use of Christian books versus the Bible. Starke raises the question of whether our family devotions should include more Bible and less (helpful and well-intentioned) condensed and edited retellings of biblical stories. Here’s a bit to whet your appetite: The story leads me to consider the new peculiar (cruel and unusual?) practice we’ve... Read more
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