Worth Reading - 5/5

1. How to hold any view on an issue and remain an Evangelical:

“I know how to hold any view in Evangelical churches and remain in good standing.
This process of passive aggressive dissent is so effective that in the hands of a winsome person it can be used to allow “good standing” while doing almost anything and believing almost anything. The exceptions will be actions or beliefs that are viewed as vile by both the Evangelical culture and the Democratic Party. These beliefs or actions will be condemned and you will be unable to get any traction trying to change Evangelical minds. If you want to dissent and have a career, with very little work, you need a belief that Evangelicals reject, but American secular elites accept.

For example, if you wish to dissent the American consensus on monarchy or a church state give it up. Mainstream Evangelicalism will never accept you and there is no process that will help achieve that goal.”

2. The real dangers of marrying someone who doesn't believe in Christ:

“Over the course of our ministry, the most common pastoral issue that Tim and I have confronted is probably marriages—either actual or proposed—between Christians and non-Christians. I have often thought how much simpler it would be if I could remove myself from the conversation and invite those already married to unbelievers do the talking to singles who are desperately trying to find a loophole that would allow them to marry someone who does not share their faith. That way, I could skip all the Bible passages that urge singles only to “marry in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39) and not “be unequally yoked” (2 Corinthians 6:14) and the Old Testament proscriptions against marrying the foreigner, a worshiper of a god other than the God of Israel (see Numbers 12 where Moses marries a woman of another race but the same faith). You can find those passages in abundance, but when someone has already allowed his or her heart to become engaged with a person outside the faith, I find that the Bible has already been devalued as the non-negotiable rule of faith and practice. Instead, variants of the serpent’s question to Eve—“Did God really say?” are floated, as if somehow this case might be eligible for an exemption, considering how much they love each other, how the unbeliever supports and understands the Christian’s faith, how they are soul-mates despite the absence of a shared soul-faith. Having grown weary and impatient, I want to snap and say, “It won’t work, not in the long run. Marriage is hard enough when you have two believers who are completely in harmony spiritually. Just spare yourself the heartache and get over it.” Yet such harshness is neither in line with the gentleness of Christ, nor convincing.”

3. Danny Akin review Richard Mouw's recent volume on the life of the mind:

“There’s little doubt the evangelical mind is in peril and the object of rightful concern on many levels. This problem was clearly brought to our attention some years ago when Mark Noll penned The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Eerdmans, 1995). Noll’s concern was the absence, or at least the malformation, of the evangelical mind as a whole. Given the absence of careful theological thinking in many of our churches, and with what often passes as worship and preaching in evangelical communities of faith, one could hardly disagree with his assessment. Of course, he also had in his sights certain other evangelicals, including dispensationalists and young earth creationists.

Mouw shares these concerns, though he mentions them only in passing. While I have my own concerns regarding elements within these particular camps, I find the quick dismissiveness of these brothers and sisters, whose numbers are large and passion for the gospel strong, rather uncharitable in too may instances. Still, though many in the evangelical word exuberantly love God with their heart (think primarily emotions), they fall way short in loving him well with their mind. Failing to be transformed by the renewing of their mind, they get squeezed, molded, and conformed to the fallen ways of this present evil age (Rom. 12:2). Bottom line: too many people who claim the name Christian do not think Christianly.”

4. Russell Moore on how to be and find a mentor:

“Last week I was asked a question I’ve been asked before, probably over a thousand times before. This time the question came from a young man in ministry in Central America. He’d grown up in the foster care system, without many male role models in his life. He wanted to know how he could find someone to mentor and disciple him. Maybe you’re in a similar situation. If so, here’s what I’d say.

Don’t ask someone to mentor you. Don’t misread me to be suggesting that you shouldn’t seek out a mentor. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is, don’t use that language when you seek someone out.

First of all, it’s kind of awkward. I remember once having someone say to me, “Do you think you and I could be friends?” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be friends with this person; it’s just that that’s not really how friendships form. They form naturally, and then at some point one realizes, “This is my friend.” Mentoring is most often kind of like that.

More importantly, the person you’re asking is going to be, more than likely, intimidated by the request. Partly that’s because mentoring means different things to different people. He might be blessed with the sort of humility that leads him to feel unqualified to be chief disciplemaker in every area of your life. Or, he might not be sure that the two of you will “click” relationally in such a way that the mentoring won’t end up being a burden to you both. But there’s a way to get around that.”

Worth Reading - 5/4

1. Twenty-Five maps that help explain the English language:

“English is the language of Shakespeare and the language of Chaucer. It’s spoken in dozens of countries around the world, from the United States to a tiny island named Tristan da Cunha. It reflects the influences of centuries of international exchange, including conquest and colonization, from the Vikings through the 21st century. Here are 25 maps and charts that explain how English got started and evolved into the differently accented languages spoken today.”

2. All I really needed to know I learned from Evangelicalism:

“Sometime in the mid-1990s, sickened by what I perceived as the shallowness of evangelical culture in suburban Wheaton, Illinois, I launched into the post-hippie, proto-hipster nightlife of Chicago. I roamed not yet fully gentrified streets with dropouts and homeless people, under the L-tracks and along the wind-battered shores of the third coast. The counter-culture then radiated from Belmont Avenue, which I imagined to be something like what Haight-Ashbury (since colonized by Ben & Jerry’s) must have been in 1969.

Following one such night of seeking suburban Wheaton’s opposite, I experienced a moment of transfixing beauty. I wandered into Lincoln Park Zoo at dawn and had it all to myself—a solitary Adam among the animals. Then, as I watched sea lions frolic in the shallows of their tank I braced myself for a return to Wheaton College where I would reluctantly (and barely) finish my undergraduate degree. In my arrogance, I may have even thought to myself that I was returning to splash in the shallows with evangelicals like the animals before me.”

3. Free Trade Frees Us - And the Poor - For Better Things:

“The problem with affluence and prosperity in 2015 is that there isn’t enough of it for enough people. Right now somewhere in the third world there is a woman walking to a dirty waterhole where animals bathe. She is collecting water for cooking and drinking and doing the backbreaking work of hand-washing clothes for her family. She doesn’t get to come home and fill a plastic cup with ice and clean water fortified with fluoride. Our scenario is unfathomable to her but mundane to us. The lack of free trade keeps the poor in chains.

On both economic and moral grounds, free trade is a no-brainer. For the sake of those who do not yet fully benefit from it, we should encourage as much of it as possible. Let’s hope Congress has enough wisdom to realize that”

4. A recent report from Duke University indicates that the infamous noose that made national headlines was not a racist emblem, but a insensitive pun from another student:

“A University investigation into the noose hanging in a tree on the Bryan Center Plaza April 1 found that the action was caused by a lack of cultural awareness and was not a statement related to racism, Duke announced Friday afternoon.What do you think?

The student who hung the noose has gone through the student conduct process and after receiving a sanction is eligible to return to campus next semester. The student left campus the day after the incident occurred and has written an open letter of apology to the Duke community, which can be viewed below. What do you think?

Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta declined to comment on the timeline of the student conduct investigation and the time at which the letter was sent.What do you think?

”My purpose in hanging the noose was merely to take some pictures with my friends together with the noose, and then texting it to some others inviting them to come and ‘hang out’ with us—because it was such a nice day outside,” the portion of the letter explaining the cause of the action reads.What do you think?

All other investigations by law enforcement have also been closed.”

Weekend Reading

1. Walter Strickland brings the gospel to bear on the racial issues in Baltimore. This is worth watching:

2. The sale of books are up in the U.K., while e-book sales are down:

“British book stores have good news for bibliophiles, reporting that more people have been buying physical books recently. What’s more, sales of e-readers have apparently slumped according to their reports. Waterstones, a U.K. book store chain which also sells Amazon’s Kindle, told the Financial Times that demand for the e-reader has all but disappeared.

Sales for physical books at Waterstones were also up 5 percent last month, which the company chalked up to its store renovations and allowing store managers to take more control in order to tailor inventory to local tastes.”

3. Anne Bradley discusses the biblical view of employment:

“The Barna Group reports that “three-quarters of US adults (75%) say they are looking for ways to live a more meaningful life.” Many are looking for meaning in “family, career, church, side projects or elsewhere.”

This search is not reserved just to Christians. In a February article, the Wall Street Journal explained:

’In part, professionals are demanding more meaning from their careers because work simply takes up more of life than before, thanks to longer hours, competitive pressures and technological tethers of the modern job. Meanwhile, traditional sources of meaning and purpose, such as religion, have receded in many corners of the country.’

The search for meaning isn’t new. We’re wired to desire something beyond what the world offers us.

But now, more than ever, the desire to see the connection between work and lasting meaning has intensified.
”

4. You could read the Bible twice in the time it would take you to read the Game of Thrones series.

Worth Reading - 5/1

1. The reassuring derision of the Lord:

“In the long run, there is nothing about God–no activity or attribute–that cannot be a comfort to the Christian. That might strike some of us as too sunny a view on things. I mean, everything? Obviously, attributes like his compassion and his mercy are comforting, and his creation and salvation, but what about his jealousy, or his anger? Or how about this one? His derision.

What possible comfort and blessing is there in knowing God holds certain things in contempt and derision?”

2. Pregnant at Harvard. This is an important read, but it is emotionally raw.

“I still remember freshman orientation, when the Office of Student Life had us all bond with our entryways by sending us on a dorky scavenger hunt through Harvard’s plethora of campus resources, from the Bureau of Study Counsel to the Office of Career Services to Room 13. In the Women’s Center, my friends and I giggled awkwardly at the rainbow condoms and joked about a brochure entitled “Pregnant At Harvard?” I never dreamed that it would be relevant to my life. And yet two and a half years later, I walked sobbing out of a clinic in Boston after having an abortion.

Okay. Rewind needed.

When I came to Harvard, I was very much the stereotypical Harvard freshman. I fit in well with the high school student body presidents, star soccer players, first violinists, and newspaper editor-in-chiefs. I’d never done drugs. The most I’d ever had to drink was a glass of champagne with my parents. I had a steady boyfriend of two years. Life wasn’t picture-perfect; it never is. But mine was almost scarily wholesome.”

3. Trillia Newbell on the impact media has on our perceptions, and sharing hope we can see the good news out of Baltimore and not just the bad:

“A picture of an African American boy handing water out to police men lined up with their shields and weapons is making its way around the web. The picture, posted by Prophetic Deliverance Ministries senior pastor Bishop M. Cromartie, provides a beautiful picture of humanity in the midst of destruction since the funeral of Freddie Gray.

As my friends share another photo of clergy, black and white, walking hand-in-hand to protest peacefully, I’ve seen phrases like, “Share this. It won’t be shared broadly,” as though only depressing news is coming out of Baltimore.

If we rely on our Facebook feeds or cable news for news, we might not see the peaceful protests or the little black boy handing out water to the police. We tend to see the fire, the destruction, the anger, the hate.”

4. An interesting post from someone within academe about the chilling effect the refusal of many to encounter contrary ideas is having on educators, even liberal ones:

“This isn’t an issue of hypocrisy. This is a matter of real, palpable fear. Saying anything that goes against liberal orthodoxy is now grounds for a firin’. Even if you make a reasonable and respectful case, if you so much as cause your liberal students a second of complication or doubt you face the risk of demonstrations, public call-outs, and severe professional consequences. My friends and colleagues might well agree that the student-teacher relationship ban is misguided, but they’re not allowed to say as much in public.

C-can you guys see the problem, here?

Personally, liberal students scare the sh** out of me. I know how to get conservative students to question their beliefs and confront awful truths, and I know that, should one of these conservative students make a facebook page calling me a communist or else seek to formally protest my liberal lies, the university would have my back. I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican, so long as I did so respectfully, and so long as it happened in the course of legitimate classroom instruction.

The same cannot be said of liberal students. All it takes is one slip—not even an outright challenging of their beliefs, but even momentarily exposing them to any uncomfortable thought or imagery—and that’s it, your classroom is triggering, you are insensitive, kids are bringing mattresses to your office hours and there’s a twitter petition out demanding you chop off your hand in repentance.”

Worth Reading - 4/30

1. Four ways to change the world before breakfast:

“There are two equally damaging lies about this life.

One is that we were meant to merely “get by,” never moving beyond ourselves to do anything truly great. So many people live unconcerned with anyone or anything other than themselves.

The other lie is that the only way we can accomplish anything truly great is through huge, grand acts or complicated sacrifices. Some people spend their life chasing all but impossible tasks to demonstrate their desire to make things better.

Neither of these extremes are the solution. They present a false dichotomy between impotent actions and empty words.

But I don’t think it has to be that way. I think you and I can change the world for good and we can do so before we even eat breakfast in the morning.

Here are four practical ways you can make a lasting, if not eternal impact, on this world before you’ve even had your first cup of coffee.”

2. Far from disproving Scripture as an accurate historical record, archaeologists continue to find evidence of authenticity of Scripture. This post relates fifty individuals who have been dated consistently with the biblical timeline through archaeological processes:

“In “Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible” in the March/April 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Purdue University scholar Lawrence Mykytiuk lists 50 figures from the Hebrew Bible who have been confirmed archaeologically. The 50-person chart in BAR includes Israelite kings and Mesopotamian monarchs as well as lesser-known figures.

Mykytiuk writes that “at least 50 people mentioned in the Bible have been identified in the archaeological record. Their names appear in inscriptions written during the period described by the Bible and in most instances during or quite close to the lifetime of the person identified.” The extensive Biblical and archaeological documentation supporting the BAR study is published here in a web-exclusive collection of endnotes detailing the Biblical references and inscriptions referring to each of the 50 figures.”

3. Recognizing the death of a tire magnate:

“François Michelin (1926-2015), former leader of the the world’s second-largest tire maker, died early today at the age of 88. Michelin was actively involved in the French tire company, Group Michelin, until 2002, driving unprecedented growth for the company. His “passion for innovation” and “his uncompromising attention to quality” no doubt caused the tire company to thrive. Automotive News reported a statement from current Group Michelin CEO Jean-Dominique Senard: “On behalf of the Group’s employees, I would like to pay special tribute to this exceptional man who was universally respected for his values, his convictions, and his vision.””

4. Why being a strict parent is really a sign of love:

“Buzzfeed is calling for all the kids who had strict, conservative, fundamendalist parents to grouse about how horrible it was to grow up guided by two strong pairs of hands. I guess they wouldn’t know it from, you know, observing other people, but perhaps the only thing worse than having strict parents is having lax parents.”

Worth Reading - 4/29

1. A blogger takes on the often misconstrued and abused passage, Philippians 4:13. This treatment is a helpful corrective the notion that Jesus is an energy drink:

“It has been printed on posters and inspirational wall art. A quick internet search reveals that you can buy key chains, rings, buttons, t-shirts, stickers, postcards, bracelets, handbags, and other Christianized trinkets with the words of this verse emblazoned, embroidered, or embossed upon them. This verse even gained some notoriety among college football fans a couple years ago when a championship quarterback sported the verse on the glare-reducing strips he wore under his eyes.

But the irony is that, by taking this verse out of context, many people have actually turned it on its head—making it mean the opposite of what it actually means. They have turned it into a slogan of personal empowerment—a declaration of self-achievement, ambition, and accomplishment. For many, this verse has been trivialized into some sort of motivating motto for material prosperity, career advancement, or athletic success.

But in reality it is nothing of the sort.”

2. Justin Taylor summarizes an important sermon dealing with "hyper-headship" and the scandal of domestic abuse in the church:

“Jason Meyer, pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, gave a powerful and important sermon this past Sunday.

In it, he defined things like “hyper-headship”:

Hyper-headship is a satanic distortion of male leadership, but it can fly under the radar of discernment because it is disguised as strong male leadership. Make no mistake—it is harsh, oppressive, and controlling. In other words, hyper-headship becomes a breeding ground for domestic abuse.

Meyer also addressed the issue of domestic abuse, highlighting three lessons in particular they had learned:

1. Not all abuse cases are the same, even though they may share certain things in common. If you have seen one abuse case, you have seen one abuse case.

2. We need to distinguish between two types of marital sinfulness: normative sinfulness and abusive sinfulness.

3. There are spectrums and varieties of domestic abuse. A good working definition of domestic abuse is “a godless pattern of abusive behavior among spouses involving physical, psychological, and/or emotional means to exert and obtain power and control over a spouse for the achievement of selfish ends” (John Henderson).”

3. How John Deere is trying to change the concept of ownership and why that is a bad idea:

“IT’S OFFICIAL: JOHN Deere and General Motors want to eviscerate the notion of ownership. Sure, we pay for their vehicles. But we don’t own them. Not according to their corporate lawyers, anyway.

In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”

It’s John Deere’s tractor, folks. You’re just driving it.”

4. The story of Daniel Boone's journey across the Allegheny mountains, from Smithsonian:

Worth Reading - 4/28

1. The Southern Baptist Convention recently agreed with Dr. Ben Carson to not include him on their slate of speakers for the annual Pastor's Conference. Here's Thomas Kidd's analysis on why this matters:

“Carson has also made statements about Muslims, Jews and Christians all being “God’s children,” perhaps implying that there are multiple paths to God. Hosting Carson and other Republican candidates, the critics said, continues to convey the impression that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is “in bed with the Republican Party,” as Baptist21 put it. Leaders of the Pastors’ Conference “mutually agreed” with Carson that he would withdraw.

This was a welcome outcome to what had the potential to be a serious snafu for the SBC. Whatever the organizers’ intentions, Baptist21 has this exactly right – hosting any political candidate carries a tacit implication of endorsement. Baptists and other evangelical denominations would do better to stop platforming political candidates at all. This includes handing out political pamphlets and “voter guides” at church.

The Carson controversy highlights a major question of identity that has been with Baptists a long time, as my new book (with Barry Hankins) “Baptists in America” suggests. Are Baptists insiders or outsiders in American politics and culture? The early experiences of Baptists in colonial America left no doubt — Baptists were persecuted outsiders. Horsewhipped for illegal preaching in Virginia, fined for failing to pay taxes to the Congregationalist Church in New England, they were widely reviled as troublemakers and outlaws.”

2. The Atlantic posted a gallery of some of the top finisher's in the 2014 photography contest. They are impressive and worth a few minutes to look:

3. Relationships are part of God's mission for his people. A recent post at IFWE:

“Scripture calls us to connectedness from the very beginning. We as individuals are called to play a part in the biblical narrative, but for the most part we do our work in the context of community.

Economists call this idea comparative advantage; it is using the talent and gifts that God has given you to do the things you are best at doing. Comparative advantage is the glue that holds communities together.

As we each do what we are best at doing, we all add to the common good. We are to fulfill our call to be good stewards in community and connection with one another. This is what God intended from the beginning.

Comparative advantage brings about flourishing. This is why flourishing only takes place in community.

It is through Christ’s redemption that we are restored to a right relationship with our heavenly Father. That in turn allows Christians to seek the fullness and wholeness of living and being good stewards in community.

When we do this, we bring a level of flourishing to our families and our communities through our work, which reflects the glory of God to a world that is in desperate need of finding something greater than itself.”

4. How hiring a convicted felon changed a life:

“No doubt about it: hiring a convicted felon is a gamble. For someone out of prison, it can seem as if no one wants you. You’re too much of a risk.

Then someone takes that risk. And it changes everything.

For a man named Three Feathers, who had spent more than 28 years in either state or federal prisons, it meant a chance at life – literally. He told his employer that had he not been hired, he would have committed suicide. “I went everywhere,” Three Feathers said. “McDonald’s wouldn’t even hire me, dude.”

The man that took a chance on Three Feathers is Peter Asch, CEO of Twincraft Skincare in Vermont.”

Worth Reading - 4/27

1. In our culture's rapid movement to "de-Christianize," everyone, Christians included, sometimes forgets how deeply Christianity has impacted the culture. One example is how Christianity helped children become recognized as people:

“We have forgotten just how deep a cultural revolution Christianity wrought. In fact, we forget about it precisely because of how deep it was: There are many ideas that we simply take for granted as natural and obvious, when in fact they didn’t exist until the arrival of Christianity changed things completely. Take, for instance, the idea of children.

Today, it is simply taken for granted that the innocence and vulnerability of children makes them beings of particular value, and entitled to particular care. We also romanticize children — their beauty, their joy, their liveliness. Our culture encourages us to let ourselves fall prey to our gooey feelings whenever we look at baby pictures. What could be more natural?

In fact, this view of children is a historical oddity. If you disagree, just go back to the view of children that prevailed in Europe’s ancient pagan world.”

2. Last week was the 151st anniversary of Max Weber's birth. Here is a post I wrote on the mixed quality of his legacy:

“He was born on April 21, 1864, in the Prussian city of Erfurt. He would become a pioneer in sociology and shape many discussions on the relationship between economics and religion for decades after.

Weber’s best known work is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, originally published in 1904–05 and updated in 1920.

The book was first translated into English in 1930 and is still so influential in modern sociological discussions that it was the book chosen to represent that discipline in a recent volume, Twelve Great Books That Changed the University and Why Christians Should Care.

Weber essentially created the discipline of sociology as it now stands, which is no small feat, no matter what other concerns may come from his theories.

On the anniversary of Weber’s birth, we can celebrate his efforts in forming the discipline of sociology, but we should read his conclusions with discernment.”

3. The marginalia from Ayn Rand indicates how much she really disliked what C. S. Lewis wrote, and what he stood for:

“Ayn Rand was no fan of C.S. Lewis. She called the famous apologist an “abysmal bastard,” a “monstrosity,” a “cheap, awful, miserable, touchy, social-meta­physical mediocrity,” a “pickpocket of concepts,” and a “God-damn, beaten mystic.” (I suspect Lewis would have particularly relished the last of these.)

These insults and more can be found in her marginal notes on a copy of Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, as printed in Ayn Rand’s Marginalia: Her critical comments on the writings of over 20 authors, edited by Robert Mayhew. Excerpts appear below, with Lewis’ writing (complete with Rand’s highlighting and underlining) on the left and Rand’s notes on the right.”

4. 30 tips for improving your academic writing. Maybe it isn't too late for this semester:

“Choosing something that you are passionately interested in to research is a great first step on the road to successful academic writing but it can be difficult to keep the momentum going. Deborah Lupton explains how old-fashioned whiteboards and online networking go hand-in-hand, and offers advice for when it is time to just ‘make a start’ or go for a bike ride.

As part of preparing for a workshop on academic publishing for early career academics, I jotted down some ideas and tips to share with the group which I thought I would post here. In the process of writing 12 books and over 110 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters over a career which has mostly been part-time because of juggling the demands of motherhood with academic work, I have developed some approaches that seem to work well for me.”

Weekend Reading

1. The Economist tackles the trickiness of prepositions:

“Language-learners like to swap war-stories about their struggles, whether with Chinese tones, Japanese honorifics, German articles, Russian cases or Danish pronunciation. Each language challenges the learner with something unique. After twenty years of knowing passable French, Johnson learned today that two French words are masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural: amour (love) and orgue (organ, the musical kind). It is un amour fou, but des amours folles. This kind of thing can only make the learner shake his head: isn’t French grammar complicated enough already, to say nothing of French amours? It is easy to spend an entire lifetime learning the quirks of one’s native language, without having to boggle the mind with a foreign one.

All this diversity, when not a headache, is something to admire. But one quirk unites the world’s languages rather than dividing them: the weirdness of prepositions. Not all languages have prepositions as such: some languages use word endings instead of prepositions. But whether standalone or as endings, they are odd all around.

Prepositions seem simple enough. A child learns them as spatial relations, perhaps in a book with deceptively simple pictures. The box is on the table. Now it is under the table. The ball is in the box. Now it is next to the box.”

2. Why God's nature determines morality:

“I want to suggest that it is the theology of man made in the image of God that not only grounds morality, but also underpins our response to the Euthyphro dilemma. Because we are made in the image of God not only do we have reason to be moral, but what is moral is also that which is like God. But what does it mean to be made in the image of God?

In Genesis God decides “let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness”[1]. The traditional understanding of the image of God has been the one filtered through a Greek mindset. A concept which focuses on the abstract and tries to locate what it means to be made in God’s image in terms of some property of existence. However, in the last century there has been much study into the concept of the image of God in its original Hebraic context. The Hebraic understanding of man made in the image of God gives a much more functional, and in many ways fuller, understanding of what it means to be human.”

3. Southern Baptists, race, and the gospel:

“In general, some evangelicals who are keen on the race issue propose that the gospel and responsible gospel action are the solutions to the current racial divide in this country and beyond. I am an African-American Southern Baptist scholar with a multi-racial heritage. I published a book called One New Man (B&H Academic, 2010) where I made this very point. Another set of evangelical biblical scholars, Kenneth Mathews (white) and Sydney Park (Asian) published The Post Racial Church (Kregel, 2011) and made a similar point. However, when one listens to the different perspectives on race, gospel, and racial reconciliation that come from the pulpits of the evangelical movement in general, and from Southern Baptists in particular, one might wonder whether they really know what they are talking about.

Certain Southern Baptists view racial reconciliation as a social issue instead of a gospel issue because of an incomplete understanding of the gospel and race. For example, Randy White, a white Southern Baptist pastor in Texas, wrote a piece in 2014 titled “I Don’t Understand the Evangelical Response to Ferguson.” He argued that racial reconciliation is not a gospel issue but rather a social issue. He limited his definition of race to skin color. He strongly criticized fellow Southern Baptists Matt Hall (Southern Seminary), Russell Moore (ERLC), Eric Mason (Epiphany Fellowship Church), and Ed Stetzer (Lifeway) for suggesting, in light of the sad events in Ferguson, that the Christian gospel speaks to issues of race and racial reconciliation.”

4. Pray for the people of Nepal as they unbury and mourn the effects of a recent, powerful earthquake:

“More than 700 people are known to have died in a powerful earthquake that struck Nepal, with many more feared trapped under rubble, officials say.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara, the US Geological Survey said.

Tremors were felt across the region, with further loss of life in India and on Mount Everest.

A Nepali minister said there had been “massive damage” at the epicentre.”

5. David Platt started doing "Secret Church" meetings as times of intense discipleship for his local congregation, which were designed to simulate the covert, hours-long meetings of Christians in countries where Christianity is de facto or de jure forbidden. In an ironic, but saddening turn of events, the Church at Brook Hills, at which Platt was lead pastor until he was called to the SBC's IMB presidency, was threatened on the night of their coming Secret Church meeting in an apparent attempt to disrupt the meeting. The venue was moved:

“The Church at Brook Hills in north Shelby County is no longer hosting an expected 2,000 people tonight for a religious gathering called Secret Church featuring well-known Pastor David Platt after receiving a threat against the event this morning.

Church at Brook Hills communications director Chris Kinsley said a threat received by the church this morning resulted in evacuation of the building due to safety concerns as members of Birmingham-area law enforcement searched the grounds.

Nothing suspicious or threatening was found at the church, but Kinsley said tonight’s Secret Church event will not be held at the Brook Hills location. “We’re going ahead with the simulcast but this particular location of the event will be changed,” he said.”

Worth Reading - 4/24

1. Remembering the 100th anniversary of an awful genocide:

“For centuries, the Armenians lived in relative peace in the Ottoman Empire. The Koran’s stance towards non-Christians is inconsistent. At some points, it advocates the persecution of all non-Muslims (kaffirs), but in others it advocates tolerance for Christians and Jews, as they are “peoples of the Book.” The Ottomans applied the latter passages with regards to the followers of Abrahamic religions in its millet system, which gave religious minorities self-rule.

This ended abruptly in 1894-6, when Sultan Abdul Hamid II massacred at least 200,000 Armenians and occasionally Greeks and Arab Christians in his attempt at Islamizing the Ottoman Empire. By 1908, the Young Turks overthrew Hamid’s autocratic rule and introduced constitutional democracy. The Young Turks were nationalists and religious chauvinists. Although they detested religion and wanted French-style laïcité for Turkey, they turned Islam into a marker of national identity. On April 24th, 1915, the Young Turks began the mass murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians, whom they saw as an obstacle to the creation of an ethnically and religiously homogenous state and whose pro-Russian sympathies they distrusted. This was the twentieth century’s first genocide.

In his Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, Peter Balakian argues that Abdul Hamid’s massacres sparked the “first international human rights movement in American history.” Throughout the nineteenth century, American Protestants sent missionaries to Armenia, finding the already-Christian Armenians more willing converts than the Muslim Turks. The missionaries set up a college as well as many schools and a hospital. Thanks to these missionaries, Armenia was a familiar name to many Americans by 1894.”

2. Are we too busy or do we have just enough time?

“We all know busyness. Everyone is busy. And everyone complains about being busy. Busy, busy, busy. Busy is a buzzword (even phonetically). Most of us have grown fairly comfortable with busyness.

But to call busyness (meaning a frenetic, distracted lifestyle) “moral laziness” suddenly makes us uncomfortable. It means that busyness is not something that merely happens to us. It is something we choose. As objections begin to rise in our minds, it is helpful to remember what Jesus said to busy Martha: “Mary has chosen the good portion” (Luke 10:42). Martha, you have chosen something else.

So why do we choose busyness? Prof. Hindmarsh says that too often we make it a “statement of self-importance.” We use busyness as way of telling ourselves and, maybe more importantly, others how essential we are. Busyness is a way of posturing our significance. Ouch. I’ve done this.”

3. An explanation of why Baptists require baptism for church membership:

“Baptism is how you publicly identify yourself with Jesus and with his people (Acts 2:38–41). It is how you visibly signify that you are united to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:1–4). It is how you become identified before the church and the world as one who belongs to the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). It is how you publicly embrace Jesus as your Savior and submit to him as Lord (1 Pet. 3:21).

Baptism is where faith goes public. It is how you nail your colors to the mast as Jesus’ disciple. Therefore baptism is how a new Christian shows up on the whole church’s radar as a Christian. Baptism is like a jersey that shows you’re now playing for Jesus’ team. Because of this purpose Jesus has assigned to baptism, a church may publicly identify itself only with those who have publicly identified with Jesus in baptism.”

4. We are saved from God's wrath by the cross, but not from discipline:

“The cross of Jesus satisfied the condemning wrath of God against us (Romans 3:21-26). Now, through faith alone, we step into the circle of divine acceptance forever. But Hebrews 12 also reminds us that, precisely because we are now God’s beloved children, he will discipline us along the way. Our justification and adoption are not at stake. That was settled at the cross, and we received our full reinstatement with the empty hands of faith. Now God is deepening us in our sanctification, which includes painful disciplines. That is the “wrath” the prophet spoke of in 2 Chronicles 19:2. It means that our Father is not emotionally detached as he grows us up. It means he is emotionally engaged. When he disciplines us, his heart graciously feels fatherly indignation, grief and anger as part of his love. If, when we offend him and harm others, God felt nothing but a placid equanimity, could we even trust his heart? He is really connecting with us.

The cross removes God’s condemning wrath. It does not remove God’s disciplining wrath. Condemning wrath sends a sinner to hell. Disciplining wrath prepares a sinner for heaven. God is psychologically complex enough — even human fathers are complex enough — to cherish his erring child and to chastise his erring child, both at the same time, plus more, with the various emotions appropriate to every aspect of the relationship.”

Worth Reading - 4/23

1. Kevin DeYoung writes about the importance of honesty in communication. The God of justice hates false reports:

“This post is not about any one thing in particular. And at the same time, it is about a great many things that take place on the internet. Here’s the Bible passage I want us to reflect on for a few minutes:

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit” (Exodus 23:1-3).

I see at least four prohibitions in these verses.”

2. Daniel Heimbach on the role of natural law in the public square:

“How should evangelicals wishing to restore the moral foundations of public life respond to fellow citizens and self-proclaimed atheists like James Sansom, who believe that natural law supports an ethic of self-indulgence against the sort of morality we mean to restore? Should we appeal to the same philosophical system on which atheists rely, or is there a better strategy? Should the success of evangelicals engaging the public square depend on hoping supernaturally grounded moral standards can be restored by alleging no need to rely on God or supernaturalism of any kind? Or is there some more effective strategy?

I will argue that once secular society generally denies the reflected presence of divinely imposed moral standards in nature, appealing to nothing other than nature as it is can no longer be a viable strategy for reviving confidence in the possibility of discovering such standards; and that under such conditions restoring the possibility of discovering such standards depends not on alleging to agree with the irrelevance of supernaturalism, but rather on appealing directly to the reality and relevance of supernaturalism for discerning the reflection of moral order in nature.”

3. Karen Swallow Prior came to visit us at Southeastern a few weeks ago. She was talking about her most recent book, Fierce Convictions, and the importance of intellectual rigor and social engagement:

“In order to change the mind of Parliament about the slave trade, More realized she would first have to change the people’s perspective. Her abolitionist efforts were some of the first propaganda campaigns seeking to influence public opinion.

”The tracts were politically and religiously conservative but socially liberal,” Prior said. “They supported traditional hierarchies and work ethics, yet empowered the poor in arguably radical ways by providing reading material that improved literacy with the use of elevated language accessible to readers.”

The tracts became very popular in London since they combined entertainment and instruction, she said. The tracts’ timing made them applicable to poor classes who were becoming literate.

”The tracts included not only lessons in morality and religion but also recipes, thrifty hints, and tips for self-improvement,” she said.”

4. Gavin Ortland on writers and editors working together. Some helpful thoughts:

“Humility means we don’t just affirm in the abstract that we “we see in a mirror dimly” (I Cor. 13:12), but we genuinely receive this truth with our hearts, and put it into practice in our day-to-day interactions. Other people can see things we cannot see, and editors in particular are sensitive to things that writers cannot see—especially issues of formatting, publicity, and style. In dealing with an editor, as in all of life, we must heed James 1:19: “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

It can be really hard, especially when you are painstaking about the details of your writing, to receive editorial changes and comments that feel slipshod or insensitive to your voice or meaning. The temptation is to get annoyed and reject the whole thing. But “a wise man listens to advice” (Prov. 12:15), and “he who listens to reproof gains intelligence” (Prov. 15:32). Even in relatively poor editing there are usually things we can learn.

My experience is that writers tend to either not care at all about edits (especially if it’s an interview or they don’t write regularly), or they get bent out of shape at any changes. The goal is to strike a balance between the two, and so we need to know our temptation. In so many areas of life it is important to “submit to the process.” If we submit to the editorial process, though it can be uncomfortable at points, it will strength and broaden our writing over the long-term.”

Earth Day Reading - 4/22

1. The Gospel Coalition ran a post I wrote about engaging culture through Earth Day as Christians:

“Our churches spend vast amounts of time and money on outreach programs to engage our communities outside the church. We have a strong interest in engaging our neighbors with the gospel. Participating in Earth Day activities is one way we can meet with fellow citizens—many of whom need to hear the gospel—by engaging in activities for the common good and building meaningful relationships.

As people of the cross living in a world that needs to hear and see the message of the gospel, becoming cobelligerents for the common good through certain forms of environmentalism may provide opportunity to connect to our communities by being good neighbors.

When we use resources wisely, pick up trash, and maintain the landscaping in our parks, we demonstrate thankfulness for God’s work in creating the world around us. We also point forward to a future state of flourishing when a frustrated creation will be set free from “its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Caring for creation can powerfully demonstrate God’s love. ”

2. On the same topic, here is the interview I did with Steve Noble a couple of weeks ago on his radio show, Called2Action:

3. My posts on environmental ethics here at Ethics and Culture:

4. The American Enterprise Institute shared an infographic representing public opinions on the environment.

Worth Reading - 4/21

1. Bruce Ashford on what American evangelicals can learn from Augustine:

“One rarely finds oneself trampled by herds of evangelicals making their way to the Augustine section of the local bookstore. One reason for this, of course, is that evangelical bookstores don’t even have such a thing as an “Augustine section.” Where would they find the room amidst all the Precious Moments figurines, test tubes of anointing oil, and tins of Test-a-Mints? The mighty Augustine can’t compete.

A more significant reason for Augustine neglect is the mere fact that he lived a very long time ago. We Americans rarely read old books, and Augustine’s are old books. We tend to limit ourselves by era, tribe, and category—we read books written in our day, by people just like us, and that can be placed in one or two limited genres. We find it hard to imagine that a bishop living 1,600 years ago might have something to teach us. But this sort of epistolary reductionism is to our detriment: older books are precisely the ones that can help us to escape the limitations of our current era, learn from those who are not a part of our local tribe, and transcend the categories to which we have become accustomed. Plus, we get the added benefit of having time itself weed out the bad works, leaving us with the gems.”

2. Hugh Welchel from the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics explaining how a limited worldview has truncated a sense of responsibility for faithful living in this world:

“Scripture begins with the creation of all things and ends with the renewal of all things. In between it offers an interpretation of the meaning of all history. In his book The New Testament and the People of God, N.T. Wright says that the divine drama told in Scripture “offers a story which is the story of the whole world. It is public truth.”

The biblical story makes a comprehensive claim on all humanity, calling each one of us to find our place in God’s story.”

3. Karen Swallow Prior explain why the argument that Jesus never explicitly said something is an example of bad hermeneutics:

“Red Letter Christians emphasize the words of Jesus printed in red in some modern versions of the Bible. The movement made its official entrance onto the evangelical platform nearly ten years ago, setting out “to take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out his radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture, and embracing the lifestyle prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount.”

Red Letter Christians claim, “You can only understand the rest of the Bible when you read it from the perspective provided by Christ.”

But practice can’t be separated from interpretation.

While the highest levels of biblical and literary hermeneutics seem to confound us, a basic and valid interpretive lens for reading the Bible can be as straightforward as approaching a great literary work. (Of course, as most college freshmen will tell you—and this English professor will confirm—skillful reading of literature doesn’t come naturally. It must be learned.)

The inspired Word of God, the Bible is also a literary work written with artistry, a narrative arc, and themes both major and minor. Just as there are valid and invalid approaches to reading Huckleberry Finn, there are right and wrong ways to read the Bible. As readers, whether our text is God-breathed or merely mortal, we must take into account genre, purpose, audience, structure, and point of view. We find meaning by understanding each passage within context of the whole.”

4. The latest edition of Themelios, the journal of The Gospel Coalition, is out and available free online. I've got a book review in this issue in the Systematic Theology section.

Worth Reading - 4/20

1. When Charles Spurgeon almost quit the ministry:

“The evening of October 19, 1856 commenced a season of unusual suffering for Spurgeon. His popularity had forced the rental of the Surrey Garden Music Hall to hold the 12,000 people congregated inside. Ten thousand eager listeners stood outside the building, scrambling to hear his sermon. The event constituted one of the largest crowds gathered to hear a nonconformist preacher — a throwback to the days of George Whitefield.

A few minutes after 6 o’clock, someone in the audience shouted, “Fire! The galleries are giving way! The place is falling!” Pandemonium ensued as a balcony collapsed. Those trying to get into the building blocked the exit of those fighting to escape. Spurgeon attempted to quell the commotion, but to no avail. His text for the day was Proverbs 3:33, “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked” — a verse he would never preach again.

An eyewitness recorded, “The cries and shrieks at this period were truly terrific. . . . They pressed on, treading furiously over the dead and dying, tearing frantically at each other.” Spurgeon nearly lost consciousness. He was rushed from the platform and “taken home more dead than alive.” After the crowds dissipated, seven corpses were lying in the grass. Twenty-eight people were seriously injured.

The depression that resulted from this disaster left Spurgeon prostrate for days. “Even the sight of the Bible brought from me a flood of tears and utter distraction of mind.” The newspapers added to his emotional deterioration. “Mr. Spurgeon is a preacher who hurls damnation at the heads of his sinful hearers . . . a ranting charlatan.” By all accounts, it looked as if his ministry was over. “It might well seem that the ministry which promised to be so largely influential,” Spurgeon said, “was silenced for ever.””

2. Evangelicals who aren't actually evangelical:

“Many readers will know historian David Bebbington’s standard definition of evangelicals as Protestant Christians marked by biblicism, crucicentrism (the centrality of Christ’s work on the cross), activism, and conversionism. I have argued – and continue to argue in my forthcoming biography of George Whitefield – that for eighteenth-century evangelicals, an emphasis on the ministry of the Holy Spirit was also a defining mark, one that set them apart from their forebears more than biblicism, crucicentrism, and activism.

I agree with Swaim that the term evangelical, as used in the media, obscures fundamental differences between those lumped together as people who “feel strongly about their faith.” There are at least four types of Christians who often get cast as evangelicals who really are not evangelicals, if that term has any meaning.”

3. An essay on the importance of reading as a discipline of the Christian life:

“Lots of people ask me on a regular basis how I read so much. My answer is that the only way I can keep up with my reading habits is to discipline myself to read. I typically read two books or more a week. Lately, that number has been significantly down as I’ve been busy with the many ministry activities. I notice the less time I have to read that the more I feel overwhelmed. Self-feeding is a very important aspect of ministry. It’s one of the reasons Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:13, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” Notice what Paul says here. He says bring me my “cloak” and his “books, and the parchments”. We don’t know what books the Apostle Paul was talking about here, but the parchments were the Scriptures. Paul wanted godly books to read and his Bible. This shows that the Apostle Paul, a man who wrote thirteen books in the New Testament, who likely had what we would consider today multiple Master’s Degrees and likely two Ph.D.’s still saw his need to read godly material and to read and study the Scriptures.”

4. My mentor, Dr. Daniel Heimbach, did an interview for the school. Here's what he said about his life as a professor and a moral witness for Christ in culture:

“Q: When a student completes your class, what do you want him or her to walk away with at the end of the semester?

A: I want every student to leave my class loving Jesus, the Word of God, God’s holiness, love and glory more than ever before. Also, to be filled with a well-informed passion to engage the world in moral witness more faithfully, fruitfully and relevantly than ever before.

Q: We always say that every classroom at SEBTS is a Great Commission classroom. What does that look like for your class?

A: I teach Christian ethics, which is essential to the Great Commission. I see Christian ethics as being, not just part of the Great Commission, but as understanding the whole thing the right way.

True ethics—God’s one and only true and real way of ordering good and bad, right and wrong, righteousness and wickedness, blessing and cursing, justice, punishment, and accountability, wisdom and foolishness, including God’s purposes, direction, and goals, and what the Bible refers to as “the ways” of God—is the ocean of rightly ordered reality in which we swim as Christians. Understood this way, Christian ethics is what the Great Commission is all about.”

Worth Reading - 4/17

1. Millennial Entrepreneurs are seeking to redeem capitalism:

“Millennials are obsessed with entrepreneurship. A study by Young Invincibles, a national organization working to engage young adults in public policy, found that 54 percent of U.S. millennials either want to start a business or have already started one. Entrepreneurship promises autonomy, creativity, innovation, and artistic expression. These are the things that make millennials tick.

Millennial fixation with entrepreneurship may have risen out of necessity; today’s job market isn’t as strong as it was a decade ago. Economic prospects are particularly daunting for recent college graduates.

In an era of #selfies, ego matters, too. But whatever their motivations, millennials are creating charitable giving apps, extracting honey from rooftop beehives, and pickling vegetables. Millennials are no longer fighting capitalism, but transforming it. Capitalism, it seems, is redeemable.”

2. The average readership for an academic paper is tiny, which means that many intelligent people in higher education are failing to influence public discussions because no one is reading what they write:

“MANY of the world’s most talented thinkers may be university professors, but sadly most of them are not shaping today’s public debates or influencing policies.

Indeed, scholars often frown upon publishing in the popular media. “Running an opinion editorial to share my views with the public? Sounds like activism to me,” a professor recently noted at a conference, hosted by the University of Oxford.

The absence of professors from shaping public debates and policies seems to have exacerbated in recent years, particularly in social sciences.

In the 1930s and 1940s, 20 per cent of articles in the prestigious The American Political Science Review focused on policy recommendations. At the last count, the share was down to a meagre 0.3 per cent.

Even debates among scholars do not seem to function properly. Up to 1.5 million peer-reviewed articles are published annually. However, many are ignored even within scientific communities - 82 per cent of articles published in humanities are not even cited once. No one ever refers to 32 per cent of the peer-reviewed articles in the social and 27 per cent in the natural sciences.”

3. A conversation about faith, work, and the Christian life between a Seminary President and a Facilities Worker:

“There are only two people with permanent, personally designated parking spots on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. As you would expect, one is for the president, Dr. Danny Akin.

The other spot is for Mr. Eugene Smith, the 88 year-old man who works for facilities.

Mr. Eugene, as he is affectionately known, has been working at Southeastern for more than thirty-five years. He started working for the school about the age many people are thinking of early retirement, but he doesn’t really know what retirement is.”

4. Be nerdy and watch this video on how aluminum cans are made:

Worth Reading - 4/15

1. A project to turn corpses into compost:

“The body of the tiny 78-year-old woman, gray hair falling over stiffened shoulders, was brought to a hillside at Western Carolina University still clad in a blue hospital gown and chartreuse socks.

She was laid on a bed of wood chips, and then more were heaped atop her. If all goes as hoped, the body will turn into compost.

It is a startling next step in the natural burial movement. Even as more people opt for interment in simple shrouds or biodegradable caskets, urban cemeteries continue to fill up. For the environmentally conscious, cremation is a problematic option, as the process releases greenhouse gases.

Armed with a prestigious environmental fellowship, Katrina Spade, a 37-year-old Seattle resident with a degree in architecture, has proposed an alternative: a facility for human composting.”

2. The Moral Bucket List from David Brooks. This is a thought provoking read:

“ABOUT once a month I run across a person who radiates an inner light. These people can be in any walk of life. They seem deeply good. They listen well. They make you feel funny and valued. You often catch them looking after other people and as they do so their laugh is musical and their manner is infused with gratitude. They are not thinking about what wonderful work they are doing. They are not thinking about themselves at all.

When I meet such a person it brightens my whole day. But I confess I often have a sadder thought: It occurs to me that I’ve achieved a decent level of career success, but I have not achieved that. I have not achieved that generosity of spirit, or that depth of character.

A few years ago I realized that I wanted to be a bit more like those people. I realized that if I wanted to do that I was going to have to work harder to save my own soul. I was going to have to have the sort of moral adventures that produce that kind of goodness. I was going to have to be better at balancing my life.”

3. Don Carson discusses the doctrine of inerrancy with Keith Whitfield: 

4. Your systematic theology is showing:

“Systematic Theology is math, a skeleton. It is a system of organizing thoughts so that finite minds can begin to understand an infinite God (in a distinctly western way, mind you). Systematic theology is a support system for the reality of relationship with God. Too often, though, it is put forth as the face of faith instead of being the framework of it. All the “ologies” (soteriology, eschatology, pneumatology, Christology, etc.) you know are not your relationship with God. They are not the true story of God. They support those things for you. They need muscles and veins and organs and skin to make them alive, to adorn them in beauty.

For many people, yea most people, systematic theology is not any more beautiful than algebra. It is intimidating or cumbersome or boring or argumentative. It can even be a deterrent from connecting with God when misused. “Misused” in this instance means thrust in people’s faces, worn as a badge of honor, broadcast as the defining characteristic of faith. People don’t need a systematic, organized understanding of God to be saved. They don’t need to have their beliefs divided and subdivided. They need a relationship, a deep, personal, intimate relationship.”

Worth Reading - 4/14

1. Should you pursue a Ph.D.? Thomas Kidd offers some thoughts on the subject:

“If you are a Christian thinking about graduate school, let me say this: we desperately need serious, thoughtful Christians to be active in academia and publishing, as a matter of Christian witness to both students and other professors. Being a professor is a great life, assuming you can get a job. But graduate work is not for everybody.”

2. A harmless, obviously inoffensive Tweet draws a backlash on Twitter. The "offending" company apologizes. An example of the power of ridiculous outrage:

“pple’s new iOS 8.3 release consists of 300 new emojis, including kissing lips, googly eyes and a smiling poop (we wish we were making that up). But they also include racially diverse emojis, including cartoon faces with brown and black skin.

In its tweet, Clorox seemed to be commenting on why bleach wasn’t included among the hundreds of other household items that Apple had added to its list of emojis. But on social media, offense was taken.”

3. Seven ways to create time to think:

“In our hectic world of go, Go, GO! it seems difficult to simply find time to sit down and think. In my own life, I have felt the pressure of three different jobs, being overrun with the need to produce content (which I have not), while not abandoning my family in the process.

Oftentimes, I do not have time to sit and think simply because I over-commit. Being a publishing director for LifeWay is my full-time job. Being a teaching pastor and elder of The Fellowship is my bi-vocational ministry. Teaching classes like Christian Leadership for Union University has been an addition to it all. So, when you are busy–and we’re all busy–we need principles we hold to in order to simply think, dream, and strategize.”

4. A retelling of the day that Lincoln was shot 150 years ago today:

“Good Friday, April 14, 1865, was surely one of Abraham Lincoln’s happiest days. The morning began with a leisurely breakfast in the company of his son Robert, just arrived in Washington after serving on General Grant’s staff. “Well, my son, you have returned safely from the front,” Lincoln said. “The war is now closed, and we soon will live in peace with the brave men that have been fighting against us.” He urged Robert to “lay aside” his Army uniform and finish his education, perhaps in preparation for a law career. As the father imparted his advice, Mary Lincoln’s seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, observed, “His face was more cheerful than [she] had seen it for a long while.”

At 11 a.m., Grant arrived at the White House to attend the regularly scheduled Friday cabinet meeting. He had hoped for word that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army, the last substantial Rebel force remaining, had surrendered in North Carolina, but no news had yet arrived. Lincoln told Grant not to worry. He predicted that the tidings would come soon, “for he had last night the usual dream which he had preceding nearly every great and important event of the War.” Gideon Welles asked him to describe the dream. Turning toward him, Lincoln said it involved the Navy secretary’s “element, the water—that he seemed to be in some singular, indescribable vessel, and that he was moving with great rapidity towards an indefinite shore; that he had this dream preceding Sumter, Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Stone River, Vicksburg, Wilmington, etc.” Grant remarked that not all those great events had been victories, but Lincoln remained hopeful that this time this event would be favorable.”

Worth Reading - 4/13

1. Conference attendance and porn usage: a tragic and shameful connection:

“I interviewed hotel managers about this when I was teaching in the sociology department at Univ of Virginia. All managers said that porn rates increase during conferences in general. That’s normal because they have more guests. A few admitted that it seems to be the same or a bit more when Christian conferences come to town. One manager was a Christian and he said a line I’ll never forget: “Unfortunately, ‘they know you are Christians by your…porn consumption’ is more truthful than ‘love’ when it comes to this.””

2. The ERLC treats the problem of porn, because it is a real issue in the world:

“God didn’t leave us to fight this battle on our own. He sent His Son for our sake. Think about this — the Creator of the Universe cares about the problem of porn. What a tiny, finite problem for the One who chooses to sustain the burning of gaseous beings in space and gravity’s effect on the tides! This is not to say that sin is some small, overlook-able act. Sinning against God — whether contemplating murder or lustfully clicking your way out of a porn site — is an act of what R.C. Sproul calls “cosmic treason”. We act against the will of the only One who deserves to exist. And still, He gives us grace for even the most shameful, despicable worries.

America’s addiction will never be satisfied. The problem of porn will not go away on its own. We have to fight it. We have to put on the whole armor of God. We have to mortify our sin. John Owen wrote, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you,” and he couldn’t be more right. If we aren’t killing the problem of porn, we will ruin our future hope of human flourishing and pillage the wondrous riches of God’s great grace, launching assault on the Lord’s precious gift to sinners.”

3. Why does college tuition cost so much? The answer may not be what some people claim it is:

“The conventional wisdom was reflected in a recent National Public Radio series on the cost of college. “So it’s not that colleges are spending more money to educate students,” Sandy Baum of the Urban Institute told NPR. “It’s that they have to get that money from someplace to replace their lost state funding — and that’s from tuition and fees from students and families.”

In fact, public investment in higher education in America is vastly larger today, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was during the supposed golden age of public funding in the 1960s. Such spending has increased at a much faster rate than government spending in general. For example, the military’s budget is about 1.8 times higher today than it was in 1960, while legislative appropriations to higher education are more than 10 times higher.

In other words, far from being caused by funding cuts, the astonishing rise in college tuition correlates closely with a huge increase in public subsidies for higher education. If over the past three decades car prices had gone up as fast as tuition, the average new car would cost more than $80,000.”

4. Our irrational fear of flying. A discussion of why it really still is safe to fly:

“It’s still easily one of the safest ways to travel. Public perception has been skewed by recent disasters, such as the Germanwings crash and last year’s two Malaysia Airlines tragedies. Intense media coverage and horrifying disaster photos can make people fear extremely rare events while blithely ignoring more commonplace risks. Statistics show, however, that the chance of a passenger dying on any given flight with one of the world’s major airlines is just 1 in 4.7 million. In any given year, your chance of dying in a traffic accident is 1 in 14,000. You even have a higher chance of dying in a lightning strike (in any given year, 1 in 1.9 million). In the 1970s, an average of 68 commercial planes crashed each year, with 1,676 fatalities. But thanks to vast improvements in cockpit protocols, computerized navigation equipment, and the aircraft themselves, those figures have been almost halved, to 40 crashes and 832 deaths. Last year, about 100,000 flights took off around the world every single day. Of the 33.4 million annual flights, only 21 crashed — an almost miraculous safety record. As aviation safety expert Carl Rochelle puts it, “the most dangerous part of your airline flight is the trip to the airport.””

Weekend Reading

1. The privilege of persecution in Northern India: 

““We will beat them, and all the things they have will be taken.”

This ultimatum from a Hindu extremist group threatened any Christians who would gather to worship in their village. Some members fled to the nearby city of Ranchi, where they found refuge through a local pastor. Those who remained discovered the threats were not empty.

Militants recruited a mob from 21 surrounding villages in northern India. The group descended on the congregants on Sunday morning, yelling insults, tearing up Bibles, and using large bamboo sticks to strike men and women alike.

One woman recounted the September 2014 attack to pastor Mohan,* whose congregation in Ranchi planted her village church. The mob had chased her, yelling, “Let’s kill her! Finish her off!” When she sought refuge inside her home, they threw large stones on the corrugated roof until it collapsed. Gaining entrance, they beat her with the sticks, smashed every possession, great and small, and stole her legal documents and life’s savings.”

2. The number of women engaged in apologetics is growing, and that's a very good thing:

“At the time, Ordway was in her early 30s and teaching literature and composition at a public college in Southern California. Since graduate school, she had thought of Christians as superstitious, Christianity as a “blemish on modern civilization,” and the Bible as a collection of fairy tales. “I was radicalized as an atheist and hostile toward Christians in general,” says Ordway.

But as she continued talking to her coach and reading works of apologetics—including N. T. Wright’s defense of the Resurrection—Ordway confessed faith in Christ. Now she finds herself in another new country, directing the master in apologetics (MAA) program at Houston Baptist University (HBU), a small liberal arts college in the heart of the nation’s energy capital. There, she is among a burgeoning group of women who are reshaping apologetics in the West.

“These women are expanding the scope of apologetics beyond the traditional male bastion,” says Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ and now on faculty in the MAA program. He sees his colleagues as building a movement that’s “cutting across gender and racial barriers” to draw more people to faith.

“Women bring a deep relational intelligence to apologetics,” says Kelly Monroe Kullberg, founder of the Veritas Forum, a university-based organization that hosts apologetics events across North America and Europe. “They bring a sense that biblical truth is the highest love for human beings.””

3. A dissection of millennial attitudes toward sex by a millennial. There is some very good work here:

“A couple of weeks ago, Cathy Lynn Grossman of the Religion News Service wrote a post providing analysis of this data that was titled, “Millennials are the ‘don’t judge generation’ on sexual morality: Survey.” Unfortunately, that’s not true. Regarding sexual morality, Millennials are judgmental, just in different ways than their parents or grandparents were.

Grossman quotes Robert Jones, the CEO of PRRI as saying, “Millennials seem reluctant to make blanket black-and-white moral pronouncements about issues they see as complex.” That’s where this idea of the “don’t judge generation” comes from. It’s true, Millennials seem reluctant to make blanket black-and-white moral pronouncements about complex issues, and that’s exactly how they are judgmental. Millennials don’t just keep from making black-and-white statement themselves, they think that it is morally reprehensible and “discriminatory” for anyone to make black-and-white moral pronouncements about these issues.

The only thing Millennials are black-and-white on when it comes to matters of sexual morality is that you aren’t allowed to be black-and-white on sexual morality.”

4. Husbands, you can't afford to have your wife stay at home! A tribute to the stay at home mom:

“My wife stays home and takes care of our son every single day. She changes his diapers, feeds him, plays with him, puts him down for his nap, and comforts him when he’s upset. And that’s just the bare minimum. A child can typically get that attention at a day-care. But on top of that, he is her only focus. There’s no other children to tend to. He gets all of her. All of her love, all of her time, all of her energy. She is always there, always near, and always listening. Obviously, this is part of being a parent. You take care of your child and you raise your child. But let’s face it. In our day and age, every service (and I mean EVERY service) is hirable. There is a company ready and willing to do just about anything. So while, yes, my wife is my son’s mother and it is a natural result of being a parent to love and care for your own child, there is also a very quantifiable dollar amount that can be attributed to the services rendered. I am in no way trying to simplify, objectify, or devalue the priceless love of a mother for her child. But let’s be real. Pay day feels good for a reason. Because you’re seeing your hard work appreciated in a tangible way that lets you “treat yo self”. And this is exactly why I can’t afford my wife being a Stay-At-Home Mom. The national average weekly salary for a full-time nanny is $705. That’s $36,660 a year.[1]

We make ends meet comfortably and are by no means scraping the bottom of the barrel. But according to the 2014 tax brackets, we fall nicely in the second tier, right in the $12,951-$49,400 tax range. Even if we were making the maximum amount allowed for our tax bracket, the services rendered of caring for our child every single day of the year would absorb the majority of our income. Flat out, no question, game over, I cannot afford my wife to be a Stay-At-Home Mom. And that’s just the beginning of it.”

Worth Reading - 4/10

1. In the mind of some, all that is lacking from people is opportunity, thus if resources were provided, everyone would be successful. Here is a story that seems to provide evidence against that assumption:

“The fact that Grand already possessed a valuable skill should have been a hint that his homelessness was not going to be “cured” by learning to code. As McConlogue later acknowledges, “Homelessness is not a feature of someone, or a condition.” If homelessness was a “feature or condition” it’d likely make the problem easier to solve. Unfortunately, though, the reasons people are homeless are complex and often rooted in the specific context of the individual.

What then should we take away from this failed experiment? I think there are two things we can learn.

First, this example should make us more humble about thinking that we can solve the problem, even the problem of a single individual’s homelessness, by our own efforts. Sometimes we can, and when we can, we should do what is possible to help the homeless find safety and shelter. But we shouldn’t think that we are going to make much of a difference unless we are able to address the real problems (like mental illness) that often lead to homelessness.

Second, as Christians there is something we can do to help people in this condition: share the gospel with them. While this may seem obvious, it seems we too often think that sharing the good news about Jesus is something that should be done only after we solve their “temporary” problem of chronic homelessness. But as in the case of Leo Grand, we see that the problem isn’t something we can fix and isn’t likely to end anytime soon. If we tarry in proclaiming to them the good news until they have an earthly shelter, they may miss out on finding an eternal home in God’s Kingdom.”

2. What is deism? Thomas Kidd gives some background:

“The fact that Grand already possessed a valuable skill should have been a hint that his homelessness was not going to be “cured” by learning to code. As McConlogue later acknowledges, “Homelessness is not a feature of someone, or a condition.” If homelessness was a “feature or condition” it’d likely make the problem easier to solve. Unfortunately, though, the reasons people are homeless are complex and often rooted in the specific context of the individual.

What then should we take away from this failed experiment? I think there are two things we can learn.

First, this example should make us more humble about thinking that we can solve the problem, even the problem of a single individual’s homelessness, by our own efforts. Sometimes we can, and when we can, we should do what is possible to help the homeless find safety and shelter. But we shouldn’t think that we are going to make much of a difference unless we are able to address the real problems (like mental illness) that often lead to homelessness.

Second, as Christians there is something we can do to help people in this condition: share the gospel with them. While this may seem obvious, it seems we too often think that sharing the good news about Jesus is something that should be done only after we solve their “temporary” problem of chronic homelessness. But as in the case of Leo Grand, we see that the problem isn’t something we can fix and isn’t likely to end anytime soon. If we tarry in proclaiming to them the good news until they have an earthly shelter, they may miss out on finding an eternal home in God’s Kingdom.”

3. What feeds your fear of failure in the workplace?

“Perhaps one of the most iconic plantation homes of the South, Boone Hall is not famous for its stately brick home or elegant column-lined porch.

What makes the home a landmark is the iconic driveway lined with live oak trees.

The branches of the grand trees, originally planted in 1743, meet over the drive to form a magnificent leafy canopy dripping with Spanish moss. Soft sunlight streaming through leaves at the end of the day makes the scene especially magical.

Of course what visitors do not see is the massive system of roots tangled beneath the ground. These roots have nourished and supported the trees above ground for over 200 years and yet are hidden from sight.

I think there is an important parallel to be drawn here between the roots and trees of Boone Hall Plantation and the way the human heart operates.”

4. The Irish Twins from Lutheran Satire are at it again. This time, instead of arguing about the Trinity with St. Patrick, they are undermining Richard Dawkins' critique of Christianity.