Problems in our behavior can be both mental health problems and “sin problems.” Part of the confusion on the topic of mental health among conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists is the assumption that a life problem has to be one or the other.

Consider a physical health analogy: Suppose I lose a leg in an accident. Because it’s a lot harder to walk now, I lay on the couch excessively, experience a lot of unhealthy weight gain, and neglect important duties.

I started with a health problem and developed a sin problem. The two are interconnected yet have distinct…

In a previous post I meditated a bit on the prophets’ repeated description of God as “one who relents concerning calamity” (Jonah 4.2). And as I noted at the time, that assertion introduces what appears to be a significant theological problem.

The Scripture says repeatedly that God does not repent:

The use of the term passion has seen a huge uptick in conservative evangelical life in the past 25 years or so, roughly paralleling the sharp rise in influence of Reformed Charismatism in conservative evangelical theology and hymnody. The term passion is used in an overwhelmingly positive sense as the antidote to lethargy and ambivalence toward God and spiritual things—a problem that young, restless Christians seem perpetually to discover in previous generations.

But is Christian “passion” the correct antidote? I’m not so sure that it is. My first exposure to…