“One way to understand the so-called “cancel culture” of 2021 which has no tolerance for freedom of thought and expression is that it is the product of a Christian influence that is cut away from its roots in a living Christian tradition. The virtue of, say, racial justice is cut loose from its Christian roots and allowed to wander and do harm.” - Timothy Whitaker

How should we worship on Sundays? The Church has often framed this as an argument between the “regulative” and “normative” principles. This is a simplistic grid―these approaches are more complementary than we realize. This article discusses the regulative principle.

Lawsuit: Twin Cities man says he was fired for refusing to be fingerprinted due to Christian faith

“The fellowship organizers chose I Chronicles 12:32 as the theme verse – ‘And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.’” - P&D

See also: The FBFI Position Statements

“We now have the work of art that defines our age…. The Italian artist Salvatore Garau has created a sculpture entitled Io Sono, which means ‘I am.’ It is invisible; that is to say, there is nothing there. He has sold it for $18,000. Garau claims that it does, in a sense, exist, as a sort of vacuum.” - Veith

“In a judgment that spanned the ideological spectrum, the nine justices agreed Philadelphia violated the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion by refusing to contract with Catholic Social Services (CSS) for foster care services…. because CSS does not place children with same-sex couples.” - BPNews

“Only 12% of churchgoers say they are ashamed of how their church has responded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, pastors will tell you they have heard from every one of these naysayers. But it is important to note that they were a loud but small minority.” - Lifeway Research

“…like many other good things in life, social media can become distorted and twisted, which is one of Bursch’s points: ‘The social-media platforms we create are not just connecting us—they’re changing us. They’re changing how we view reality, understand relationships, process conflicts, and abide with each other’ ” - TGC

By Don Shirk. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

“An Indiana congregation affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has ordained who is believed to be the first confirmed transgender pastor in the denomination’s history.” [CBF broke off from SBC in 1990]. - C.Post

“While the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) recently commissioned its own independent inquiry through Guidepost Solutions, messengers voted at its annual meeting to transfer oversight of that investigation or launch an additional one.” - C.Today

Related…

“A judge has ruled that Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips violated state anti-discrimination law by refusing to bake a pink-and-blue transgender birthday cake.” - C. Post

“…shortly after U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops President Jose Gomez, the archbishop of Los Angeles, opened the floor — the virtual floor, as the meeting is being conducted remotely — for discussion of the meeting’s agenda, the first bishop to speak took the opportunity to rail against Biden and his abortion policies.” - RNS

“Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that my denomination is no longer evangelical, even in a broad sense. I am open to correction, but someone from the denomination will have to tell me how and where its partners in America and around the world are actively inviting people to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior” - Roger Olson

There are so many amazing stories about Jesus in the Gospels that they can vie for precedence and obscure somewhat from our minds their individual greatness. This problem of over familiarity certainly applies to the Temptation of Jesus. I shall follow Matthew’s report:¹

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:3-4)

“Tim Stephens, who serves as pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta, was arrested Monday after refusing to abide by the order from Alberta Health Services to refrain from holding worship services that don’t comply with the provincial COVID-19 rules.” - C.Post

“I haven’t read a great many preaching books, but I feel certain that there are plenty that contain less wisdom and yet more words than Jonathan Pennington’s Small Preaching.” - Mark Ward

“REAP is leaning on the Court’s decision v. Bob Jones University as a legal precedent for its lawsuit. And this lawsuit comes at a challenging moment for evangelical schools that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.” - The Conversation

“In September 2020, about 150 Christians gathered to stage an informal Psalm Sing in the parking lot of Moscow, Idaho’s city hall. They were there to protest the local mask mandate. … One of the event’s organizers was Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow” - C.Today

“Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Ala., defeated Georgia pastor Mike Stone in a runoff Tuesday (June 15)….He succeeds North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, who served an extra year due to the cancellation of the 2020 SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando.” - BPNews

Also…

“Another committee member argued against a fellow member’s request, saying there is no one in the SBC who favors sex abuse.” - RNS Related, at Church Leaders: SBC Executive Committee Vote Shocks As Abuse Survivors Urge ‘Immediate Action’

“As a father and a pastor who prays without ceasing for his own wayward children, I know these pressures firsthand. And as I’ve walked this road of sorrow, four principles have provided support and helped reshaped my perspective.” - TGC

“Ours is not a convenient faith. We are bound by the commands of the word of God no matter how difficult they might be for us. While there was a lot of division in evangelical and fundamental circles regarding our previous president, there is not much sympathy at all for President Biden. It doesn’t matter. Paul said to pray for him.” - P&D

“Bavinck critiques historical criticism as not really historical in the sense of being merely an open-minded search for truth. It is instead the re-telling of history according to a different philosophical axioms and different theological doctrines.” - Credo

“Whatever one thinks of the prudence of the lockdowns as a means for containing the virus, they inadvertently doubled as an extreme experiment in what happens to children when they are over-sheltered and over-protected from the outward journeys of daily life. Yet, to a lesser degree, that experiment was already well underway before the pandemic ever began.” - Acton

Read Part 1.

Throughout the eight years of my high school and college football career, football was the focus for six days a week.

My high school field had no lights. But even if it had, private school football in Wisconsin back in those days was a staple of Saturday afternoons—not Friday nights. Away games could easily take up most of Saturday, and yet, come Monday afternoon—less than 48 hours after the game ended—we were back out under the sun (or rain) in full pads.

“The root problem with critical theory is not how the American story is told, but in pre-empting any critique or debate. That sort of thinking cannot be successfully countered by emulating it. The only way to fight bad ideas is with better ones.” - Breakpoint

“SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Ronnie Floyd announced Friday (June 11) that the Executive Committee has secured Guidepost Solutions for an independent review of its handling of sexual abuse issues.” - BPNews

“Dispensationalists … believe (1) that meaning is contained in words, (2) that words can have a broad semantic range, (3) that that range is limited in any instantiated use of those words by historical context, and (4) that the original intention of the author is both fixed and impervious to evolution.” - Snoeberger

“Perhaps we can simply learn the truth that science is a human enterprise, that its findings are highly provisional, that it is a process for investigation rather than an oracle that delivers absolute truth.” - Veith