Protestantism Archives
May 6, 2007
The Nature of Evangelicalism--a difficulty
As everybody and his uncle in the blogosphere seems to have now heard, Prof. Frank Beckwith, my colleague at Right Reason, has returned to the Roman Catholic Church and has consequently resigned his position as president of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Though I am not Roman Catholic, I have the greatest respect for Frank and wish him all the best in service to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we both worship and follow. This has to be an intensely difficult time for him, complicated by the whole ETS presidency issue, and I have not the slightest desire to add in any way to that pressure. This post, then, though occasioned by Frank's recent decisions, is intended to be a discussion of a conundrum that faces some evangelical organizations today.
Continue reading "The Nature of Evangelicalism--a difficulty" »
May 26, 2007
Let's keep the church political
Now that I have your attention...
My Right Reason blog colleague Dan Bonevac has a post on the "emergent church" and "church growth" movements in evangelicalism and their goal to move evangelicals to the left in political activism. To my mind this is numinously evident from overwhelming evidence, one prominent bit of which is Rick Warren's switcheroo from listing abortion as a "non-negotiable issue" in 2004 to his appearing recently with none other than Barak Obama to oppose AIDS. (Was someone in favor of AIDS?) His response when challenged is given by a commentator in Dan's thread: "Left wing, right wing. I want the whole bird!" This, to my mind, more or less defines "shallow," but apparently not everyone agrees.
September 4, 2007
Gratitude
When this blog was brand new (several months back) our esteemed editor, Paul Cella, posted a piece referring to conservatives as "the party of grateful men." I think that's quite right and have recently been reminded of some perhaps rather unusual things for which to be grateful.
In particular, it occurs to me that I have a special personal duty to be grateful to all the people who created and who continue to maintain the culture of Baptist and other Protestant evangelical Christianity. While I am now a continuing Anglican of low-church sympathies, my upbringing was entirely, even aggressively fundamentalist Protestant, and I've not entirely lost touch with it. As things presently stand, that culture provides me with most of my closest physically-present friends.
Recently we were privileged to have some of these friends over--a very large and very musical family.
October 27, 2007
Rick Warren Tells Lies?
Wow. This story is a year old, but I learned about it only last night. And I owe a "hat tip" for it right at the outset to someone who does not blog--my husband, Tim. In fact, one of the "smoking gun" links was something he found, though obviously someone else put it out there to be found. But it isn't mentioned, that I know of, on another blog. I'll note that one when I get to it.
Here's the story, as initially covered by Joseph Farah, of WND: Last year, Rick Warren, of Purpose Driven (TM) fame, went to Syria and fell all over himself talking about how wonderful and tolerant Syria is. He was so reported in the Syrian news (of course). He also made the stunningly ignorant statement that St. Paul was Syrian, but I suppose that's by the way.
So far, so unsurprising.
November 7, 2007
Kent's "Church"
Where the sacred and profane meet... (HT: Rod Dreher at Crunchy Con)
We've plummeted a long way from The City of God to City Church. St. Jude, pray for us.
November 23, 2007
Is it Just Me, or Is This Really Tasteless?
A friend of mine forwarded to me these introductory comments made by Pastor John Piper in a chapter in a book he co-edited with Justin Taylor, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ:
Continue reading "Is it Just Me, or Is This Really Tasteless?" »
December 7, 2007
A Wild Pitch By Frank Pastore
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Apparently, talk show host Frank Pastore has made an argument (and I use the term "argument" loosely) as to why Al Qaeda supports the Emergent Church. Like Ted Olsen of Christianity Today, I am no fan of EC. But that does not excuse horrid reasoning on the part of critics like Pastore, a former major league pitcher, who, it seems, has lost his logical control since his days as an MA student in philosophy at Biola University. Given his pedigree and outstanding teachers (such as J. P. Moreland), Frank can do much better than this.
Update: You can find Pastore's essay, "Why Al Qaeda Supports the Emergent Church," here. |
December 11, 2007
Pastore Throws Another Wild Pitch, but Brett Kunkle Hits It Out of the Park
 | Talk-show host Frank Pastore has done it again. (Read about the first wild pitch here). In his most recent Townhall.com column, Pastore offers a fallacy-riddled and uncharitable assessment of J. P. Moreland's recent ETS paper, which I wrote about on this blog last month.
In a tightly-argued reply to Pastore's wild pitch, Brett Kunkle of Stand To Reason hits it out of the park against the ex-major leaguer. Here are some snippets from Kunkle's reply: |
Continue reading "Pastore Throws Another Wild Pitch, but Brett Kunkle Hits It Out of the Park" »
December 16, 2007
John Mark Reynolds Weighs in On Moreland Paper Controversy
Director of Biola's Torrey Honors Institute, John Mark Reynolds, offers a wonderful assessment of J. P. Moreland's 2007 ETS paper and its critics, about which I have blogged here, here, and here. Under the title, "Moreland’s Modest Proposal Stirs Up An Immodest Response," Reynolds published his comments on the blog to which he and Moreland contribute, The Scriptorium Daily. You can read Reynolds' thoughtful entry here.