Over the weekend, Glenn Beck held a rally on the National Mall at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The political left, of course, hated every minute of it. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, though, was unimpressed for other reasons and posted this very thought-provoking article on the event. It’s so chock full of great quotes that if I tried to sample them, I’d likely end up pasting the entire article, so head over to russellmoore.com and read the entire article yourself. I will, though, at the risk of “ruining” it for you, quote his closer, because it’s a good one:

It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.

And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer.

Feel free to comment below.

A few days ago on Twitter, I said this: “If you’re living your Christian faith in a way that no one knows you have one, you’re doing it wrong.” I’d like to discuss that in a bit more detail.

In Christian circles, we talk a lot about a “personal faith” in Jesus Christ, or a “personal walk,” etc. While I think those terms are appropriate, I think there’s some confusion about the word “personal.” For many, both in the Church and out of it, “personal” has come to mean “private.” Certainly, there are many outside the church that would be happy if we were treat our faith as private, keeping it to ourselves and “out of their faces.” Inside the church, many Believers are perfectly content to sit on their hands, so to speak, enjoying their faith in silence. Unfortunately for them, that’s not what the Bible tells us.

All through the Gospels, we see clear indications that, while our faith is personal (that is, it’s a faith that each of us must hold, not relying on that of another), it’s meant to public. For example, in Matthew 5, we are told that we are “the light of the world,” that “a city set on a hill can not be hidden,” and to “[l]et your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” The apostle Peter wrote in I Peter, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Most importantly, Jesus’ last words to his disciples before his ascension included what we call The Great Commission. In this short piece of Scripture, we’re told to go, to make, to baptize, to teach. While the nature of you’re involvement is not something someone else can tell you, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re not involved in this great commission in some way, you are, indeed, doing it wrong.

Brian McLaren is “a prominent, controversial voice in the emergent church movement.” Like many in the emergent church movement, though, he has been, at least for me and apparently a few others, difficult to pin down on exactly what he thinks. That has all changed, it seems, with the publication of his book, A New Kind of Christianity. Melinda at Stand to Reason has a nice discussion of the tome, including some counter-arugments at the end. If you’re a fan of McLaren’s, or, like me, wondering what he believes, this should be a very helpful discussion.

As you’ve likely heard by now, a massive earthquake has hit the island of Haiti, killing thousands. While it’s impossible to know for sure, the estimated death toll ranges from 100,000 to 500,000. Half a million people. The size and scope of the devastation is hard to grasp, despite the heart-wrenching pictures and videos filtering out of Haiti. Also making news, though perhaps not quite as widely, is yet another disaster: Pat Robertson. Read the rest of this entry »

Douglas Groothuis has written a nice piece for the Christian Research Institue on a topic near and dear to my heart, apologetics.  In his piece, he address the six enemies of apologetic engagement.  It’s a good, quick read, and a nice sanity check for those of who labor (or don’t ;) in this area of The Work.

For the impatient, here’s his list:

1. Indifference
2. Irrationalism
3. Ignorance
4. Cowardice
5. Arrogance and intellectual vanity
6. Superficial techniques or schlock apologetics

Check out the article for the full treatment.

One of the more popular religious games to play, for both the sectarian and the secular, is “What kind of politician would Jesus Be?” Would He be a Republican or a Democrat? Sometimes this branches out into more a economic realm with would He be a capitalist or a socialist? This former flavor of the discussion was recently brought op on twitter. Since 140 characters at a time is a tough format in which to have a serious discussion, I thought I’d try to share my thoughts in longer form here. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Turek, of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist fame, writes in his blog at crossexamined.com that Bob Cornuke, “a Christian Indiana Jones,” claims that the real Ark of the Covenant has been found. I won’t duplicate his post here, so go there and read it for the details. As Turek notes, who knows if this is true, but wouldn’t that be something if it is…

In a recent speech on the floor of the US Senate, Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) made a great, principle speech on why the GIVE Act (HR 1388). While there are many great, political reasons to oppose this boondoggle, one of the provisions of the bill that bothers me the most is this:

SEC. 1304. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to read as follows:
SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
[SNIP!]
(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.

The way I understand that is this: If, say, your son gets a federally subsidized student loan, he will be compelled to enter a period of public service. However (above and beyond Senator DeMint’s excellent case against government-mandated volunteerism), your son will not be able to choose as his service anything that might spring from his personal faith. Want to help out at your local denomination-sponsored boys’ home? Too bad. If the name of Jesus (or Jehovah, Allah, etc, to be fair) happens to be mentioned by the group you’d like to serve, they are enjoined from receiving any GIVE help. The message, then, is that you can help, but only if you’re humanistic or atheistic in whom you want to help. To force someone to “volunteer” is bad enough¹, but then to deny them their rights of free speech and exercise of religion is beyond the pale.

The government intrusion into private life and the erosion of personal rights continues apace, and the band plays on.

(h/t Michelle Malkin)

¹ The “volunteering” here is, indeed, forced. I can think of no other instance where one gets a loan and is forced to perform some sort of service. I certainly don’t pull weeds for my mortgage company.

Peter Jones recently attended the National Pastors’ Conference, sponsored by Zondervan and Intervarsity Press. In a brief report filed at truthXchange, he describes what Michael Horton (whom he mentions in post) so aptly dubs “Christless Christianity¹.” The report is not a good one.

(Hat tip to Brandon Dutcher)

¹ Dr. Horton uses the term “Christless Christianity” to describe that “flavor” of Christianity that likes to talk about being nice to people, etc., but avoids discussion of Christ, who he was, why he came, why we need him, etc. It’s a nice, catchy phrase that embodies the rebirth of the Social Gospel, in which salvation through Christ has been all but completely removed (and in some cases, no longer “all but”) from any teachings and we focus on making people like us. Dr. Horton probably has a better description of his term, but that’s my take on it from what I’ve heard him say. Dr. Horton podcasts regularly at the White Horse Inn if you’d like to hear more.

The Internet Monk, which, I have to confess, I just heard of today so I don’t know much about him, has a pretty good analysis of the two prayers given at today’s inaugural. My favorite quote is this:

You can’t talk reasonably and genuinely about a God of many understandings. Not with actual believers in Jesus, Yahweh, Allah and Buddah around. You might as well pray to the cat. (It probably would be better to pray to the cat.) But you can talk about the God who created, the God who reigns and the God we know as we know and believe Jesus.