Category: Culture
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5 Ways to Love Gays
Read more: 5 Ways to Love GaysYou can’t love God and hate homosexuals. On the contrary, loving God means loving gays. Really, truly, honestly loving them. (Are you listening, Westboro Baptist cult?) That doesn’t mean voting “no” on Proposition 8 or waving rainbow flags in the nearest pride parade. No, biblical love for gays is far more extraordinary. It’s a Christ-centered…
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Beyond the Underground: Scripture in Society
Read more: Beyond the Underground: Scripture in SocietyA friend of mine, whom I love for his warm but temperate heart, expresses the concern that the Christian faith, once normalized in the prevailing culture, will suffer a weakened witness. In many places a normalized church has been a worldly church, and one does not wish to see (for instance) the Church in China…
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Lecrae’s ‘Gravity’ Reviewed and Analogized (Guest Post)
Read more: Lecrae’s ‘Gravity’ Reviewed and Analogized (Guest Post)Incapable of fully communicating the nuances of a fine wine with mere words, connoisseurs have at times resorted to using analogous terms like “tastes like a meadow” or even “tastes like a damp sock” (uh?) to describe its elusive and difficult-to-pinpoint qualities. Along similar lines, if someone were to ask me to describe Lecrae’s latest…
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The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 2 (Guest Post)
Read more: The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 2 (Guest Post)Most of the readers of this blog will be familiar with the Law/Gospel distinction that is present in the New Testament. While this distinction grew out of a particular set of controversies involving a particular law code and its relevance to a particular cultural situation (something that we Protestants often forget to our own exegetical detriment),…
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On The Role Personal Insecurity Plays in Academic Discourse
Read more: On The Role Personal Insecurity Plays in Academic DiscourseIn David Bartholmae’s article “Inventing the University”, he states that in order for the student to succeed in the university as it was currently (1985) constituted, the student must, “invent the university by assembling and mimicking its language, while finding some compromise between idiosyncrasy, a personal history, on the one hand and the requirements of…
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Abortion, Obama, and Biblical Convictions
Read more: Abortion, Obama, and Biblical ConvictionsBiola’s President, Dr. Barry Corey, on the university’s decision. Last week, two new Christian Universities, Grace College and Seminary (Indiana) and Biola University (the first California school to join the discussion) joined an existing lawsuit against the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, and the controversial requirements for employers of 15 or more employees to include…
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The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 1 (Guest Post)
Read more: The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 1 (Guest Post)It should go without saying that art is a powerful thing. When it is done well it can easily change the way we see the world, subverting our perspective in a way where other forms of communication would struggle or fail. We are surrounded by well executed art, yet it is an exhilarating rarity to…
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Star Wars, Canon, and Biblical Hermeneutics
Read more: Star Wars, Canon, and Biblical HermeneuticsIf you were going to introduce the Star Wars saga to someone who has never seen the movies, how would you do it? Since there are two trilogies that were not produced in chronological order a true dilemma emerges. I just read a brilliant article by Rod Hilton addressing this topic. I highly recommend that…
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A Year For Christian Hip-Hop (Part 2): Suddenly in the Spotlight
Read more: A Year For Christian Hip-Hop (Part 2): Suddenly in the SpotlightI grew up in a household that, at least on paper, dictated that I listen only to “Christian” music. What this meant, functionally speaking, is that I could only listen to music sold at Christian bookstores, or the oldies station that my Dad would tune into on the radio. Those were my options, musically speaking,…
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The Bones of Biblical Preaching (Guest Post)
Read more: The Bones of Biblical Preaching (Guest Post)Accuracy in preaching has never been more important than it is today. In the 800s, it mattered less if preachers thought the Bible taught the earth was the center of the universe. Everyone believed that. In the 1400s, it mattered less if preachers taught a flat earth. People believed their clergy more than university professors….