Scott Aniol’s new book, By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture, argues at length against the architects of missional evangelism—not because Aniol thinks the attractional model (of Hybels, Warren, et al.) is better, but because he doesn’t see...
Culture
Love Does Not Equal Tolerance of Whatever You Want to Do: A Prooftext
I like it when people think clearly enough to advert to their epistemological controls, their critical foundations. I think it's a rare gift in a world in which most educated people seem to hold tightly to moral relativism and scientistic absolutism at the same time,...
Review: Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational and Scientific
Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational and Scientific by Martin A. Lee My rating: 2 of 5 stars Indefatigable. Argument by avalanche. That's the method here. Story after anecdote after study after reason why cannabis should not only be...
Review: Black Boy by Richard Wright
Black Boy by Richard Wright My rating: 4 of 5 stars Stirring, insightful, and beautiful. So many memorable and powerful vignettes. I do see why the Book of the Month Club dropped the second part, but I was glad to read it, too. I did keep feeling as if Wright...
Working Class People and the Evangelical Conversation
There are other major, often unreached for the Gospel demographics that are maybe not as prestigious but no less spiritually important and in some cases far more numerous. A gun-owning middle aged white man in West Virginia or central Pennsylvania who’s a truck driver...
BJU on CSPAN
BJU was featured on CSPAN along with other Greenville features. I enjoyed hearing the history of Falls Park, too.
A Must-Read Article on Female Characters in Popular Culture
Excerpts from a lengthy, incisive, must-read from Alastair Roberts: The supposed shallowness of pop culture is deceptive: It is a realm where brilliant and talented people go to try to shape minds at their most unguarded and impressionable. It is on the ground of...
Review: Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel
Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel by Kate Bowler My rating: 4 of 5 stars I'd had this book on my wishlist for a while; it seemed like the prosperity gospel was as popular as it was egregiously wrong—and it was increasing in both respects. It seemed...
Tradition
A good quote I just ran across, a helpful reminder during the time in which people are fighting over ownership of the label "conservative": Tradition ist die Weitergabe des Feuers und nicht die Anbetung der Asche. Tradition is the passing on of the flame and not the...
Mark Ward Sr on Football
I thought my post on football might bring my father, with his careful reasoning, out of the woodwork; he didn't disappoint. I asked his permission to post the email he sent me, and it was granted: I’ve followed your football blog posts and respect your thoughtful...
Football
I used to watch a lot of football growing up. It was our family thing on Sunday afternoons. I played football, too, with pads and everything, for three years in junior high: left guard, defensive end, kicker, punter, even quarterback. There is an honorable tradition...
My Skagit Valley Herald Pro-Life Article
After I saw the Center for Medical Progress videos (I forced myself to watch every one), I knew I had to do something—something even more tangible than a vote—to combat the evil of abortion. I almost attended a protest at an abortion clinic in Greenville, but it just...