September 1, 2024
Gender dysphoria is real. To treat them with anything less than compassion is not Christian. What is up for debate is the efficacy of the current practices in transgender healthcare for youth. Recently, England released a scathing review that challenges the established gender affirming care model.
March 15, 2017
By Jim Tune The New York Times reports people spend close to three hours a day looking at a mobile screen, and that excludes the time they spend actually talking on the phones. In a 2015 survey of smartphone use by Bank of America, about one-third of respondents said they were “constantly” checking their smartphones, and a little more than two-thirds said they went to bed with a smartphone by their side. One teenager reports, “I bring my [iPhone] everywhere. I have to be holding it. It”s like OCD””I have to have it with me. And I check it a
November 2, 2016
By Jim Tune There seems to be a lot of anger in our culture. People are seething about something . . . or everything! The economy, politics, the culture war””the list goes on. The “rant” has become a contemporary art form. And the church seems to have followed right along. We”re angry too. We”re mad at liberals, Democrats, Muslims, Hollywood, and homosexuals. New York Times op-ed writer Tim Kreider calls this modern epidemic “outrage porn”: So many letters to the editors and comments on the Internet have this . . . tone of thrilled vindication: these are people who have
February 27, 2016
By Matt Johnson Everyday Theology, as its subtitle promises, tells us How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends. How does your faith speak to human rights, pop music, or designer funerals? Is there any benefit to buying a ticket for the latest Hollywood blockbuster? When should we embrace the hurry of modern American culture, and when should we slow down? What does the proliferation of the blogosphere mean to our culture and the church? Complicated questions have complicated answers, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something less than the gospel. So I appreciated Everyday Theology (Grand Rapids:
November 3, 2015
By Mark A. Taylor Once again it”s Election Day in America, and as Christians march to the polls to express their convictions, it”s time to remind ourselves why we go and what we hope to accomplish. Do we expect to change America through the ballot box? As candidates bob and weave to attract the Evangelical vote ahead of caucuses, primaries, and the presidential election a full year from now, how much hope are we hanging on their positions and pronouncements? Jennifer Johnson offered her answer in her message Saturday morning at the International Conference on Missions (ICOM) in Richmond, Virginia.
November 19, 2013
By Mark A. Taylor If there”s one thing too many Christians avoid, especially with other Christians in church settings, it”s conflict. Bad situations fester because leaders fail to confront. Inferior ideas get implemented, and sometimes enshrined, because someone in charge is afraid to say no. A better way goes undiscovered because those discussing the future are too willing to follow the first plan proposed. A minority voice sways a decision because others in the group will not stand up and say, “Brother, you”re wrong.” Yet the greatest progress is often the product of freewheeling dialogue where dissent is welcome. Bob
August 10, 2008
By Ken Idleman You”ve probably heard the story of the woman who had twin 10-year-old sons, one an incurable pessimist, the other a cockeyed optimist. One day, at her wit”s end, she asked a counselor for advice. Together they came up with this plan for the boys” birthday: get two refrigerator boxes and fill the pessimist”s box with a wonderful assortment of new toys, and the optimist”s box with manure. On the big day, the woman sent her boys to their separate rooms, where the boxes had been prepared. She shut their doors and then waited outside with the counselor
By Paul E. Boatman Feeling Strains, Baptist Colleges Cut Church Ties.” The July 22, 2006, New York Times headline drew me into a report noting “a half-dozen colleges and universities whose ties with state Baptist conventions have been severed in the last four years” and “more than a dozen Southern Baptist universities . . . have ended affiliations over the last two decades.” These partings are described as sometimes “amicable,” but often “tense, even bitter.” With no sense of smugness, I observed this just does not happen among the schools affiliated with the Christian churches. I wondered why. It would
April 7, 2026
John B. Penrose Jr
April 7, 2026
David Faust
March 27, 2026
Rick Cherok