Category: Christian Worldview
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xenophobia
This excellent article on what ex-gay men can teach us about marriage got me thinking. These thoughts are not fully developed, but I offer what I have in hopes that someone might be able to correct or add to them. Our culture’s highest value seems to be inclusion—no matter what, we must love the other.…
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fork in the road
I’m already weary of the gay marriage debate issue (the debate seems to be over), though I am sure it’s an issue we’re not going to be able to ignore, and here’s why. These are two links from CNN, one which reports that last Friday the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America elected its first openly…
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whose justice? whose morality?
I awoke this morning with a thought experiment that might be interesting to try out. When someone says that opposition to same sex marriage is immoral (or disrespectful, demeaning, unjust, unloving, or whatever term they might use), ask them how they know this. On what basis is it immoral? They can’t just say it’s obvious,…
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tertullus
Last night our family read Acts 24, in which the lawyer Tertullus brought this charge against Paul: “We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him”…
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marriage
I just saw the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, and while I appreciate the argument from the homosexual perspective (I’d be angry too if I had to pay an estate tax when in my mind I was married to my partner), it seems to be the further unraveling of the meaning of marriage. I don’t…
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metadiscourse on sports
If LeBron James winning back to back championships proves anything, it’s that there is a God and for some reason He really, really hates Cleveland. Akron did get a shout out from LeBron after the game, but only to remind the world that a kid with his humble beginnings had come a long way. I’m…
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for the love of doctrine
I am put off by the title of a Christianity Today interview with Jamie Smith. The title is “You Can’t Think Your Way to God: Christian Formation means shaping our loves, says Jamie Smith, not just educating our minds.” The title is true enough, but I wonder why it singles out “thinking” as the way…
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against naturalism
This is the title of Alvin Plantinga’s opening chapter in a collegial debate he recently wrote with atheist Michael Tooley called Knowledge of God. Plantinga thanks Tooley for “his clear, rigorous, and detailed statement of a version of the atheistic argument from evil (p. 151),” and then pretty much dismantles it. As I read Plantinga’s…
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I am very interested in this question
I blogged a few months ago about the inconsistency of defending abortion while lamenting the horrible shooting in Newtown. An editorial in USA Today picks up on this theme, noting that President Obama demurred during the Gosnell trial to comment on its proceedings, but… “now that the trial is over, reporters should ask if President…
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the new legalism?
Anthony Bradley’s essay in World magazine is receiving some well-deserved attention. If that piqued your interest and you want to read more on the subject, I highly recommend Larry Osborne’s recent book, Accidental Pharisees. Osborne wisely and pastorally explains how we’re never free from the temptation to legalism. In fact, the more zeal we have…
Mike Wittmer 