I do not blame you if, when you think of the black church, you think of it as an emaciated and anemic institution. It would be an easy intellection to hold, especially when an entire book can be written about the state . . . Continue reading →
What difference should the visible church make in the broader culture? How significant should it be? How one answers this question tells us something about how one views the relations between Christ and culture and the evident death of Christendom. Defining Christendom . . . Continue reading →
The First Amendment guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion, and if that provision means anything, it prohibits a State from enforcing its own preferred interpretation of Holy Scriptures. Read More» Justice Samuel Alito | Dissenting opinion in Yeshiva University . . . Continue reading →
Seattle Pacific University, a private school associated with the Free Methodist Church, claims its rights are being violated by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office launched an investigation into the school’s hiring practices. At issue is the school’s policy, prohibiting . . . Continue reading →
Abraham Kuyper offers one non-liberal route for the state to organize itself in a way that is supportive of the basic truths of the divinely ordained natural law within a system that is more tolerant of diversity than the Constantinian settlement. Kuyper . . . Continue reading →
In this episode Bob Godfrey continues his series examining the Christian life after Christendom. How should Christians respond? How have Christians responded to similar challenges in the past. He turns here to Psalm 82 and what it says about governments and authorities, . . . Continue reading →
…My subject is not Capital Punishment in particular but that theory of punishment in general which the controversy showed to be almost universal among my fellow-countrymen. It may be called the Humanitarian theory. Those who hold it think that it is mild . . . Continue reading →
In Kennedy v Bremerton, the Bremerton, WA School District argued that, were Coach Kennedy allowed to go to the 50 yard line to pray after games, student-athletes might feel pressured to join him for fear of losing playing time etc. Continue reading
Everybody needs to learn about the dynamics of conformity. Blatant censorship, hostility to free speech, and campaigns to demonize mainstream American views were all unthinkable scenarios for most Americans just a few years ago. But here we are. When we start self-censoring . . . Continue reading →
Held: The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression…. …Here, no one questions that . . . Continue reading →
The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives. Pp. 8–79. …(a) The critical question is whether the Constitution, properly understood, confers . . . Continue reading →
I see no warrant for the claims that our “society” is experiencing an unprecedented level of disharmony and disjunction. To say that, of course, is not at all to suggest that all is well, that we have no reason for concern about . . . Continue reading →
In terms of the relationship between Church and State the policies so far mentioned and the reactions to them may be classified between two extremes. There was the ‘totalitarian’ view set forth by Eusebius, caricatured by Athanasius picture of Constantius shouting ‘Let . . . Continue reading →
It is graduation season. This academic year (and the one preceding it) has been rough on students and parents alike. If you have not been paying attention here are a few examples of what we’ve learned is taking place in your local . . . Continue reading →
Abortion is desecration. That is why it raises such passionate emotions on both sides of the debate. Sex and conception create new life and that means they possess—or should possess—a mysterious aura of the sacred. Attitudes about them therefore go to the . . . Continue reading →
The classic Reformed theologians distinguished between three uses of the moral law (e.g., the Ten Commandments): 1) the pedagogical use, whereby sinners come to know the greatness of their sin and misery; 2) the civil use, whereby the moral law—traditionally both tables . . . Continue reading →
And I started to recognize another danger to this approach: If we assume that winsomeness will gain a favorable hearing, when Christians consistently receive heated pushback, we will be tempted to think our convictions are the problem. If winsomeness is met with . . . Continue reading →
The SCOTUS unanimously ruled today, in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, that the City of Boston’s decision to exclude the “Camp Constitution” organization from a public flagpole, available to other groups, violated the Constitution of the United States. As Justice Kavanaugh explained, “This . . . Continue reading →
In the meantime, he grieves his separation from his family, mourns his country’s suffering, and hopes in the gospel. “I believe the Lord is using this terrible situation to advance his gospel,” he said. “That’s the only hope for the world.” Minakov . . . Continue reading →
Shawnee State University will pay a professor $400,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to settle a lawsuit over not using a student’s preferred pronoun. In 2018, Shawnee State philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether called a transgender student “sir” during a lecture when she . . . Continue reading →