I had the best of intentions to post a “Mondays with Mark” and a reflection on Original Sin and Romans 5. But, instead, I spent most of the day in doctors’ offices, at the pharmacy, getting another MRI, and being fitted for a leg brace. My disc herniation has worsened significantly, leading to “foot drop” in my left foot. I’ll have a microdiscectomy next Wednesday. I’m also going to winter camp with my kids’ school this Wednesday through Friday. I’m... Read more
I’ll be on Todd Friel’s “Wretched Radio” program today at 3pm EST to talk about my recent posts on Original Sin. His show is on Sirius Radio and online. Call in! UPDATE: Not going on the show today. Todd and I just spoke on the phone. He didn’t really want to talk about Original Sin but use that as a jumping off point to justification and soteriology. He made it clear that he thinks I am “knocking on the door”... Read more
Scott M drops some historical and biblical context on Original Sin: For that matter, Ethan, I could have pointed to the very first controversy that resulted in the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. I didn’t do so because the Scripture was not yet in the canonized state (or indeed even existant) at that time. But it does have some illustrative use in this discussion even so. You see, in that dispute, using Scripture as the sole authority, the judaizers... Read more
Andrew Sullivan weighs in on that question. Traditional newspapers are dying, to be sure (although I think that some of them will have a future as non-profits). Andrew thinks that traditional publishing (ink-on-dead-trees) is in a similar state. Money quote: My own view is that the publishing industry deserves to die in its current state. It never made economic sense to me; there are no real editors of books any more; the distribution network is archaic; the technology of publishing... Read more
Is Ted Haggard gay or straight? Neither. Few of us are. Most of us, instead, are on a spectrum between the two, as Becky knight explains. Money Quote: What was missing from the conversation was the awareness that sexual orientation exists on a spectrum. Between the polarizing categories of “gay” and “straight,” there is a diversity of experiences and orientations. Intuitively, I think we understand this, yet our culture loves to categorize people into easily-definable boxes. Read more
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson Read more
Pro-Slavery vs Anti-Slavery States2000 Electoral College Read more
The Original Sin SeriesIntro–Intuition–Definition–Genesis–Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-Conclusion I’ll take a break on substantive posts on this topic over the weekend, and launch back in by tackling Romans on Monday. (It is interesting how many commenters on the last post were unwilling to deal with Genesis on its own merits but instead jumped straight to Paul. Also interesting how many already assume how I’ll deal with Paul when, in all honesty, I don’t know how I’ll deal with Paul.) I’ll have a post on... Read more
Last night, I watched the HBO documentary, The Trials of Ted Haggard, and then caught the second half of Ted and Gayle Haggard’s appearance on Larry King Live. I went in quite skeptically. I know a couple persons who knew/know Ted, and they describe him as something of a meglomaniac. No surprise, Alexandra Pelosi paints Ted as a sympathetic figure. In fact, using footage from her earlier documentary that features Haggard, it’s clear that she has a real affection for... Read more
Why does a close examination of the doctrine of Original Sin matter? Because it is the “foundation” upon which much other Western doctrine is based. Scott M, take it away: Hmmm. Part of the problem may be that we have fixed names for these characters, ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’. In truth, if it is used as a proper name, ‘Adam’ is not so used until Chapter 4. Before then, the references are to ‘ha-adam’. (Pardon me for any inaccuracies. I’m hardly... Read more
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