This week's Newsweek cover story highlights the rise in gay rights worldwide: "Now mature in the west, gay power is growing worldwide, even in the land of machismo [Mexico]." Joseph Contreras of Newsweek writes: "The growing maturity of the gay-rights movement in the West is having a marked effect on the developing world. In the United States, the Republican Party is in trouble in part because it has made a fetish of its opposition to gay marriage. At least some gays in big cities like New York question why they are still holding "pride" parades, as if they were still a closeted minority and … [Read more...] about Newsweek and Al Mohler on Gay Rights
Archives for September 2007
The Christian Publication Industry
Al Hsu of InterVarsity Press offers some wise thoughts (a continuation of his previous reflections) on the inherent tensions in the Christian publishing industry between wanting to bless people with good books and needing to be somewhat profitable. [For what it is worth, I thank God for my meeting Al at an InterVarsity Graduate Student Conference at the tail end of 2002. I went to an "aspiring author" reception hosted by IVP, and told Al and others about a crazy idea for a multi-perspective book on Christian dating. Al was kind enough to correspond with me over the next year, providing a … [Read more...] about The Christian Publication Industry
Helping the Poorest of the Poor
As former director of research for the World Bank and current Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, Paul Collier has spent a lifetime working to end global poverty. Collier's background also lends credibility for his withering criticism of international development agencies such as the World Bank, whose administrators often prefer to work in “developing” countries which (without the help of the World Bank) are already moving toward prosperity on their own. In fact, Collier observes that global poverty is actually falling quite rapidly for about … [Read more...] about Helping the Poorest of the Poor
Christians and Competition
Boundless, a ministry of Focus on the Family, has just published a short article by yours truly entitled "Christians and Competition." Here is the executive summary I originally submitted for the article: How should college students and young professionals think about competition? It goes on all the time, whether we know it or not. Professors compare students with other students in classes (or for merit-based scholarships). We interview "against" our friends for the most attractive summer or full-time jobs. Does it end on graduation day? Nope. Most employers "rank" employees (at least … [Read more...] about Christians and Competition
Nancy Pearcey’s Announcement
Hats off to Nancy Pearcey (author of the outstanding book Total Truth) on her new position as Scholar for Worldview Studies with the rank of professor at the Center for University Studies at Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU), based in Langhorne, Pa. In this assignment, Dr. Pearcey will "teach, speak, and write on the relevance of the Judeo-Christian worldview as a humane and verifiably true alternative to secular, pagan, and humanistic philosophies set forth in the academy, politics, society, and popular culture of today." Dr. Pearcey holds a Distributed Studies Degree from Iowa State … [Read more...] about Nancy Pearcey’s Announcement
Old Testament Citations in the New Testament
Have you ever been reading along in the New Testament when, seemingly out of nowhere, Paul or Peter will grab an Old Testament passage and use it to argue for a particular theological position or to explain a historical event? For example, Peter, in explaining the immediate aftermath of Pentecost, cites Joel 2:28-32. Or Paul, in describing the hardening of Israelites, cites passages in Exodus (9:16; 33:19) originally descriptive, in Moses' day, of Pharaoh. Scholarly debate on the import and precise meaning of such citations has increased in the last ten to twenty years. Now, Baker Academic … [Read more...] about Old Testament Citations in the New Testament