“I carefully read not only the Salon interview but also the scholarly article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion which gave rise to it. In what follows, I will pretty freely mix the academic article and the popularizing Salon interview.” - Mark Ward

“First IRF summit led by civilians not governments pulls off bipartisan participation as attendees welcome news on next ambassador.” - C.Today

“A federal appeals court on Friday slammed the University of Iowa for punishing InterVarsity Christian Fellowship because it limits leadership to Christians. The court said the school violated the organization’s free speech rights.” - WORLD

“The American Jewish Committee denounced the UCC resolution, a ‘Declaration for a Just Peace Between Palestine and Israel,’ saying the measure ‘demonizes Israel, fails to offer a credible path to Israeli-Palestinian peace, and undermines advances in Christian-Jewish relations.’” - RNS

“The average of 13.8 hours each week on sermon preparation is only less than the 23.3 hours pastors say they spend with their family on any given week.” - Lifeway

“The notion that we are all self-aware software trapped inside computer-generated virtual reality first gained academic credibility in a 2003 paper published by Oxford philosopher and futurist Nick Bostrom… . One of the appeals of simulation theory, [Rothman] thinks, is that it ‘gives atheists a way to talk about spirituality,’ or something like it. It offers ‘a source of awe.’” - Breakpoint

“Perhaps the most potent passage I sometimes take people to when discussing the need for church membership is Hebrews 13:17 which reads: Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls…” - Ref21

Read Part 1.

“Along with issuing an apology last week for pulling the ads because they opposed the evangelical group’s conservative views on LGBT issues, the Blackpool Council in Lancashire also agreed to pay damages of over $150,200 (£109,000).” - C.Post

Also at C.Today: British City Apologizes for Removing Franklin Graham Ads

“Currently, an average 33% of U.S. adults express ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in 14 institutions, marking a three-percentage-point dip since 2020 and a return to the level seen in 2018 and 2019.” - Gallup

Related, at Lifeway: Americans’ Confidence in Church Drops to Near Historic Low

“…just as ‘evangelical’ has become a synonym in the public mind with ‘conservative white Protestants,’ this survey shows that ‘mainline’ has come to mean ‘non-evangelical Protestant.’” - TGC

“some thoughts on a movement within the church called “Progressive Christianity.” Among other doctrines, proponents of this movement have questioned the long-held belief … that Jesus “will come to judge the living and the dead.” Efforts have also been made to re-interpret Jesus’s teaching about hell and judgment…. Following is my attempt to explain why such “progressive” thought does not represent progress, but rather a major step back — not to mention a step away from orthodox belief.” - Scott Sauls

“Two men were arrested after tensions escalated at an event held the evening of July 13 in Salem, Ore. by The Church at Planned Parenthood (TCAPP). Present at the event were counter-protesters, the Proud Boys, and Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.” - C.Leaders

“The Executive Committee had earlier secured Guidepost Solutions for an independent review of its handling of sexual abuse issues; thus, an outside outfit will be doing an ‘independent review’ of how the EC handled aspects of some sexual abuse cases and another outside group composed of Southern Baptists will have oversight of that, the latter group to be advised by a couple more experts in the relevant areas.” - SBC Voices

“Discernment” is shorthand for the skill of identifying what’s good, right, true and most important from among inferior alternatives. The fact that discernment requires a maturing process through “training” (Heb. 5:14) tells us that these inferior alternatives often seem superior. It also tells us we can get better at it.

Good thing! People have instant access to more claims and counter-claims than at any time in human history. Christians need discernment more than ever before.

Statements about the use of guilt-by-association (GBA) have abounded on SI during the time that I have been on SI.

Using the search facility, I have found 22 pages of hits for the words “guilt by association” in the comments on SI, with the earliest comment going back to 2009! This data by itself points to the importance of statements on SI about the use of GBA.

“Christians, individually or corporately, might be suffering because they’ve said or done stupid things, placing themselves under the divinely designed cosmic order, whereby life is tougher if you’re stupid (as John Wayne allegedly said). Or they might be suffering because they’ve engaged in sinful thinking or practices that have social or legal consequences.” - Olinger

“…from those experiences I learned a lot about how to lead when you’re not the best or smartest person on the team. If it hasn’t happened to you, it probably will in the future, so here’s a handful of principles I learned” - Phil Cooke

“We have to start educating the culture of why abortion should be unthinkable in the same way slavery is unthinkable. We have to move the culture to think that way as well,” he said. “Laws follow culture; we have abortion because half of the culture thinks we should have laws that allow abortion.” - C.Post

“…abba was not a childish term of the nursery comparable to ‘Daddy.’ It was a polite and serious term, yet also colloquial and familiar, regularly used by adult sons and daughters when addressing their father.” - Justin Taylor

“Theology matters,” Morgan writes. “I can’t even stress that enough. It matters if a song is weak in theology and is not accurately displaying the Holiness of our God. It matters if churches are spreading a prosperity Gospel that is different from the Gospel found in Scripture.” - C.Leaders

Belcher shares Pastor Tim Keller’s hunch that Stevenson bases his dualistic characters on the Apostle Paul’s old and new man wrestling in Romans 7:4-24; vs. 23 is surely alluded to when Jekyll reveals a “perennial war among my members.” - Ref21

In the previous installment, I began to share a report on this year’s IFCA International Annual Convention, which was held from June 28 to July 2, in Lincoln, Neb.

The convention theme was “The Soon & Coming King—Biblical Eschatology.” Convention attendees ratified a resolution that complemented that theme, titled, “Resolution on Dispensational Premillennialism.”¹

“According to a study from Nashville-based Lifeway Research, 82% of U.S. Protestant pastors say they feel supported by other local pastors in their area, with 44% strongly agreeing. Few (14%) disagree, while 4% aren’t sure.” - BPNews

“The show isn’t just about the transformation of the disciples, it’s about our spiritual transformation, too.” - C.Today

“A regional governing body for a Protestant denomination has seized the assets of a large congregation in Georgia in a dispute over who should be the senior pastor.” - RNS

“As with most good gifts given by God to humans, we are able to corrupt it and use it in ways that harm our neighbors. Yet for the most part, the price system is an ingenious method of communication that has been used to improve the human condition.” - TGC

“Disaffected young evangelicals and those who left the church describe an out-of-touch institution not in line with their political beliefs, a scholar found” - RNS

Several decades have passed since the temple was rebuilt and the worship of Yahweh restored under the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah.¹ The promised King, however, had not yet come (Zech. 9:9), nor had God’s promised glory filled the temple (Hag. 2:6-9). As a result, true worship devolved into dead religion. From Israel’s perspective, God exists solely to grant his people health and material prosperity as a merited blessing.

“Washington, Colorado and Oregon are now among the US states that have legalized the process of converting bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show ‘respect for the body of the deceased.’” - RNS