A former Chicago radio producer and friend of mine has established quite a reputation for alerting us to the myriad of ministry leader “missteps” surfacing in recent years. On one hand, it’s important for us to be aware of such mistrusts and to know that we must never elevate anyone in ministry beyond what they are: human vessels intending to accomplish what God has apparently called them to do.
It was a Lifeway Research report earlier this spring that “triggered” my interest on church security. Most of us in the faith community seem to go about our weekly church business not too concerned about safety at our house of worship. Fortunately, others take this quite seriously. Church security is a broader topic than one might think. I recall my membership in a Dallas megachurch in the 1980s where building and parking garage security was a must. Occasional visits from relatively non-threatening types often needed to be escorted from the premises. Even the pastor had a personal security detail present before and after services. Times have changed.
In September, Wheaton College dean Ed Stetzer interviewed National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins on his podcast, “Church Leadership” about why Christians who want to obey Christ’s command to love their neighbors should get the Covid vaccine and avoid indulging in misinformation.
Posted in Religious Liberty
|
Tagged Billy Graham Center, Christianity Today, City Journal, COVID–19, David Brooks, David French, Down Syndrome, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Ed Stetzer, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Francis Collins, Gavin Newsom, George W. Bush, Joe Carter, John MacArthur, LifeWay, Michael Gerson, N.T. Wright, National Institutes of Health, Pete Wehner, President Obama, QAnon, Rick Warren, Russell Moore, Southern Baptist Convention, The Atlantic, The Daily Wire, The Gospel Coalition, The New York Times, Tim Keller, Time Magazine, Vinay Prasad, Washington Post, Wuhan lab
|
There was a troubling recent story in Christianity Today that reveals many churches are failing the call to be in the world, but not of the world. It seems that most young Evangelical Christians now embrace cohabitation, living together before marriage. Most Evangelicals under the age of 45 have cohabited, or plan to do so in the future, or are open to the possibility.
It should come as a surprise to no one that the formally Christian childcare agency Bethany Christian Services has fully capitulated to homosexual activists and Big Brother—also known by Jesus as Caesar—in deciding to place children in the homes of homosexuals for fostering and adoption in all 32 states where it operates.
It should come as no surprise because the 77-year-old Bethany Christian Services, “the largest Protestant adoption and foster agency in the United States,” began capitulating several years ago when homosexuals began demanding children from Bethany, first in Philadelphia and then in Michigan.
What might surprise Christians is the …
Good job, David French, Ed Stetzer, Christianity Today, Lincoln Project, and other assorted Never-Trumpers. The senile, morally corrupt President-Elect of the once great United States of America just nominated a delusional man with a cross-dressing fetish to be the assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services. Now decent people won’t be able to teach their young children about our president's cabinet. With Dr. Richard "Rachel" Devine's appointment will come Big Brother's prohibition of “misgendering” Devine. In other words, Big Brother and his minions will command all Americans to mis-sex the burly Dr. Devine. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
Posted in Federal
|
Tagged 1619 Project, adoption, Catholics, Christianity Today, David French, Donald Trump, Ed Stetzer, George Orwell, God, Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden, Joe Biden, Mike Pence, Never-Trumpers, Planned Parenthood, Rachel Devine, Supreme Court, The Equality Act, The Lincoln Project, United States, Wheaton College
|
Good job, David French, Ed Stetzer, Christianity Today, Lincoln Project, and other assorted Never-Trumpers. The senile, morally corrupt President-Elect of the once great United States of America just nominated a delusional man with a cross-dressing fetish to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Now decent people won’t be able to teach their young children about our president’s cabinet. With Dr. Richard “Rachel” Devine‘s appointment will come Big Brother’s prohibition of “misgendering” Devine. In other words, Big Brother and his minions will command all Americans to mis-sex the burly Dr. Devine. Not gonna do …
In his recent Christianity Today (CT) blog post, New Testament scholar Scot McKnight defends recently retired CT president Mark Galli’s hubristic diktat about the necessity—in Galli’s view—of Trump’s removal from office:
Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.
Trump’s removal from office would inarguably result in the election of a man or woman who endorses, among other things, human …
Posted in Faith, Media Watch
|
Tagged Anthony Esolen, Christianity Today, Donald J. Trump, Karl Barth, Mark Galli, Martin Luther King Jr., Pete Buttigieg, Randall Balmer, Scot McKnight, Thomas Jefferson, Timothy Dalrymple
|
President Trump is a lightning rod for opinions in American Christianity. As a pastor, I know. Some of my Christian friends love Donald Trump’s personality, while others find it appalling. Some strongly support his policies, while others think he is a tyrant ruining America. Few are unsure about their opinions on Trump.
Last week, Mark Galli shared his opinion about Trump. He spoke not as an individual but as the voice of Christianity Today (CT). He spoke with biblical authority or at least tried to. In Galli’s essay,“Trump should be removed from Office,” he intentionally draws a biblical …
Posted in Faith, Federal
|
Tagged Alan Dershowitz, Annalisa Merelli, Christianity Today, CNN, impeachment, Joseph Story, Mark Galli, Matthew Schmitz, New York Times, Quartz
|
The more you look into the “gay but celibate” movement advancing rapidly into once theologically orthodox Christian churches, the more disheartened you become by church leaders who have been slow to counter it, or worse, are embracing it.
The conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a small but influential denomination that separated from liberal mainline Presbyterianism in the early 1970s, is at a tipping point because of Revoice, a ministry that claims to be “observing the historic Christian doctrine of marriage and sexuality” but whose inaugural conference last summer included workshop titles like “Redeeming Queer Culture: An Adventure.” An ecumenical …
Posted in Faith, Sexuality
|
Tagged Chicago Metro Presbytery, Christianity Today, Denny Burk, EQUIP, Eve Tushnet, Greg Johnson, LOVEboldly, mixed-orientation marriages, Nashville Statement, Pieter Valk, Presbyterian Church in America, Revoice, Revoice Conference, romoerotic gaytriarch, Rosaria Butterfield, Southern Baptist Convention
|
Although the tempest surrounding World Vision’s policy change and abrupt reversal of policy change on hiring men and women in homosexual unions recognized legally as “marriages” has died down, the trickier issue of trust restoration remains.
For many theologically orthodox Catholics and Protestants, trust cannot be restored unless there are leadership changes at World Vision U.S. Those board members who voted to allow the U.S. branch of World Vision to hire men and women in legal homosexual “marriages,” need to resign in order for many Christians to believe that the policy reversal reflects biblical orthodoxy rather than financial considerations.
In …
