Lamenting Decline or Questioning Premises and Methods

It started with John Frame’s “Warrior Children” piece in 2003. In June, 2012 Anthony Bradley wondered about the decline of popular presbyterians. More recently Bill Evans has elaborated on the theme of the decline of conservative presbyterianism. This morning I wake to . . . Continue reading →

Dr Benjamin Carson’s Address to the Prayer Breakfast

Dr Benjamin Carson’s biography is the stuff of legend and films. Born into terrible poverty, Carson is now the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the founder of the Carson Scholars Fund. A Seventh-Day Adventist, his views on creation . . . Continue reading →

To Split or Stay?

When Is It Right to Leave?

Almost from the moment I came into contact with the PCA, in 1984, people were talking about whether the PCA should split. So it’s not entirely surprising that informal talk of splitting the PCA should still exist. Nevertheless, it was a little . . . Continue reading →

HB Classic: Holograms, Gnosticism, Celebrity, and Mission

[Originally published March 6, 2010] In view of a recent post by Carl Trueman concerning virtual preachers now seems a good time to republish this HB classic. § Two jarring facts came to my attention in recent days. The first of these is . . . Continue reading →

Protestants Looking For Authority Convert to Rome

As part of trend, which has been observed here since October 2009, a retired Episcopal minister, Larry Gipson, has become a Roman priest. Gipson was formerly the rector of the USA’s largest Episcopal church. He’s in process of becoming a Roman priest . . . Continue reading →

America is Exceptional

In the previous post I tried to give some context to the claim that the USA is a “Christian” nation. There are ways in which that adjective is accurate and important ways in which it is not. Sometimes, however, when folk call . . . Continue reading →

The Myth of “Christian America”

Every four years (and in the interim) the question of whether we should regard the USA as a “Christian” nation re-emerges. There are three ways in which this question might be considered, sociologically, historically, and biblically-theologically. Under each rubric the case for . . . Continue reading →

Straining at Hermeneutical Gnats and Swallowing Exegetical Camels

Kathy Keller has reviewed the new book by Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Held Evans is frustrated with evangelical “complementarianism” so she set out to live as if there were no New Testament and as if Jesus’ hadn’t fulfilled . . . Continue reading →

Why the “Nones” Are Growing

USA Today has a story on recent Pew Forum survey that shows that 48% of Americans are “Protestant,” 22% Roman, and 20% are slotted under “none,” and 6% under “other” (the greater share of which one guesses is Islam, which is gaining . . . Continue reading →

Puritans, Slavery, and Criticizing Heroes

Thabiti Anyabwile has a stimulating and thoughtful post about a controversy that, except for the interwebs, I would have missed altogether. It apparently arose over a rap song. Hence my ignorance. Now, if was Al Green, Booker T. and the MGs, or . . . Continue reading →

Good Mormon Families?

When discussing the success of Mormons, who prefer to be known as Latter Day Saints, in spreading their religion,  people point to four points of persuasion: They have good families They are nice people They’ve had an intense religious experience They’re right on . . . Continue reading →

Colson Calls for Doctrinal Boot Camp: But Which Doctrine?

In 1994 Chuck Colson attempted to convince evangelicals that the decline of the culture was so precipitous that they needed to set aside the historic Protestant doctrine of justification in favor of an intentionally equivocal statement about how we are accepted by . . . Continue reading →

Collin Hansen on Evangelical "Self-Inflicted Amnesia"

Sometimes younger Christians give the impression that we have things figured out. We’re the future. We’ve found the old methods wanting, so we’ve developed new ones. We’re the generation that will strike the right balance where our forebears fell over to one . . . Continue reading →