I attended a creation-evolution conference at Bryan a few years back. Now the college itself, at least according to the New York Times, is facing internal conflict over the issue. Note that the Times doesn't give any figure much more than a sound bite, so it's hard to...
Mark Ward
Everybody Discriminates
Doug Wilson is as sharp and prophetic as any Christian could be on the same-sex marriage debate: Never forget that discrimination is inescapable. Why are people going along with this ludicrous claim that same sex mirage is marriage? Well, it is because Americans have...
A Little Wisdom for Helping Those in Need
In my ministry I receive regular—though I wouldn't say frequent—requests for money from needy non-Christians. The few times I have given out money I have tended to regret it, largely because it made the recipient feel awkward in the future, like he or she owed me...
Information Filters
Today, says sociologist Christian Smith, Anyone can post for global consumption almost whatever content on the Internet, unregulated by traditional standards gatekeepers, without having to account for its relation to everything else on the Internet. Stated...
Race Is in the Eye of the Beholder
A few quotes and notes from The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2006): "Race ... is a construct, an interpretation of nature rather than an unambiguous marker of basic natural differences...
Sociological Insight into Broken Working-Class Families
I minister in a low-income community; I wish I could say I do more for my parishioners than I do. I preach, I love, I pray. And I think about them all the time. A while back I read Coming Apart: The State of White America , 1960–2010 in an effort to understand their...
Hypocrisy: Word and Concept
These are helpful clarifications on the concept of hypocrisy. Here's the meat, from Peter Kreeft: The common, modern misunderstanding of hypocrisy [is] not practicing what you preach. . . . Actually, we have misdefined “hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy is not the failure to...
Flip Your Monitor Vertically
Remember that time when someone showed you how to hit Alt+Tab on your keyboard to switch programs? You were either like, "I can do that with a mouse, so why do I need to learn a keyboard shortcut," or you were like, "WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!" I was WOW WOW. Where had...
Review: The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected by Nik Ripken My rating: 4 of 5 stars A truly remarkable book. Very stirring and edifying. If I say, "a little light on the scriptural exegesis," don't think that in saying this I believe myself to be worthy to...
Pop Music and Twinkies
May conservative Christians pause long enough in our denunciations of pop music to wonder out loud what our biggest problem with it is? Is pop music wrong with a capital WRONG, or is it just, well, dumb? And is it possible to be something other than a cultural...