The cross atop Mt Soledad, in LaJolla has been in place since 1954 but it has been the subject of controversy and continuous and tortuous legal wrangling since at least 1989, when two atheists and the “Society of Separationists” sued in federal court . . . Continue reading →
In Part 1 I sketched the history and current legal status of the Mt Soledad Cross and I indicated some ambivalence about that use of the cross. On the one hand, it seems clear that some opposition to the cross is less . . . Continue reading →
Most worldview champions would probably argue doctrine does matter to one’s worldview. But, if this is the case, then how Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox, much less Lutherans, Calvinists, and Pentecostals, share a worldview is unclear. At best, it seems contemporary evangelicals . . . Continue reading →
I happened across The Robe, the other day. I had never seen it. It was interesting to see how the Christian faith was portrayed to the world in 1953 in CinemaScope and how the film with its new technology was received. It . . . Continue reading →
Anthony Bradley has posted a provocative essay arguing that church planting is insufficient for social change. He appeals to his own experience and to the history of education and Christendom. His post begs some questions and raises others. As to the former, . . . Continue reading →
In July, 2013 Trip Lee published a provocative essay, to which I was just pointed via Twitter. The original piece has been removed but a remnant remains at the Aquila Report. My intent here is not to engage the piece at length . . . Continue reading →
If you’re old enough to remember when blue laws were common, Bergen on a Sunday is a nostalgia trip. Kids play road hockey, skateboarders practice kickflips on open swaths of pavement, and you may suddenly notice the cawing of blue jays. The . . . Continue reading →
Erskine College is in the news this morning for articulating the biblical and historic Christian position on human sexuality: “We believe the Bible teaches that monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is God’s intended design for humanity and that sexual . . . Continue reading →
The New York Times reported yesterday that a sufficient number of presbyteries of the liberal, mainline Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) have voted to approve gay marriage that church order Book of Order will, beginning in June of this year, define marriage no . . . Continue reading →
The conversion of Constantine marks a watershed in the patristic period. In the second and third centuries the Church was a relatively private community, suffering from time to time the threats and the actuality of imperial persecution and looking for the end . . . Continue reading →
One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. —Tertullian, “The Apology,” cap. 39 in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, . . . Continue reading →
Evangelical involvement in politics has perhaps never been more intense. The George W. Bush administration had an office of faith-based initiatives. The Obama administration continues to hold prayer breakfasts and regularly invokes the Christian faith when it serves favored policy goals. The . . . Continue reading →
From the early 4th century, when Christianity was declared a legal religion and properties were returned to Christians and persecution of Christians was forbidden, the Christian church gradually become intertwined with the empire. Gradually, paganism was marginalized and then eventually made illegal. . . . Continue reading →
Darryl Hart raises an interesting question this morning about the adjectival use of “Christian” as applied to pursuits shared by Christians and non-Christians. This has been one of the most persistent and widespread questions facing believing Christians for the last century: how . . . Continue reading →
For me it has been an odd year. I spent a good bit of it on the road between San Diego, where I live and work, and Nebraska, where family lives. That has produced a greater sense of dislocation than usual. Professionally, . . . Continue reading →
1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →
1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →
There are good reasons for Christians to be nervous about their place in the United States. The culture is in a period of rapid change of the sort not seen since perhaps 1967–77. That was the height of the Cold War, in . . . Continue reading →
Here’s today’s episode of Janet Mefferd Today in which we discussed the “social gospel,” Walter Rauschenbusch, the emergent/emerging church movement and what it means that evangelicals seem to be heading back to this well for inspiration. We also talked about some alternative . . . Continue reading →