Always Reforming

    We conservative Christians are pretty darned predictable, politically speaking.  In some ways that is good.  It means we're consistent.  We stand for the truth.  Regardless of the social climate of the day, we maintain our values and standards.  Our socio-political moorings are sure.  Right?     Unfortunately that's not always the case with American Christians.  Instead of consistently aligning our political viewpoints with the Word of God, we consistently follow what Fox News tells us.  We are pawns of the Republican party.  We reinforce conservative stereotypes with alarming regularity. Anytime someone shares an opinion that is remotely liberal, we're ready to debate, boycott, or protest it, without even considering its merits. Anything we hear or read on the news is automatically filtered through a liberal/conservative filter.  Someone died?  That must mean liberals are wrong--especially if that person h...

    Political correctness--we see it all the time.  A celebrity says something insensitive and is immediately forced to apologize.  A state makes a law that the left doesn't like and are immediately shunned until they change their minds.  Sports teams are forced to change mascots because someone might be offended.  If someone does something that is against the agenda of liberalism, he must be shamed to the point that he concedes, recanting and apologizing, even though we all know that the remorse is fake and forced.  People avoid saying things just because they don't want to be seen as insensitive or backwards.  It's manipulation.  We all know it and it's getting ridiculous.       Thankfully the Evangelical Christian world doesn't have to deal with too much of this liberal PC nonsense, but we do have our own sort of political correctness.  There is a term that gets thrown around quite a bit, especially when someone is ou...

   My generation gets a bad rap from preceding generations.  We are lazy, fat, stupid, and selfish, or so they say.  Some of these may be exaggerations, while others are simply projections of insecurities upon us by our parents' generation, but there is one area in which I am sure we are guilty. We, my peers, are a proud generation.  We know best.  We will not listen to anyone.  We are all experts.  We are all linguists, chemists, biologists, historians, political scientists, and doctors.  We have no need to be taught and don't know how to shut up.  Our opinion is valid as valid as anyone else's.     I've struggled to find an answer to why this is the case.  Is it the moral relativity that has been taught in public schools?  Is it the entitlement mentality that has be ingrained into our social consciousness?  Is it all that positive reinforcement we were given as children?  Is it the carefree, entertainm...

    An issue that has recently been the fodder of cable news, AM radio, and internet debates is the issue of whether or not women who have abortions should be held legally responsible, if abortion were to be made illegal?  The idea made headlines, of course, because of Donald Trump's declaration that they should be (he has since backtracked ).  It has proven to be a divisive issue, even among those who claim to be pro-life, as people are forced to think out the logical conclusions of their belief systems (imagine that!).  Let me offer three things this issue reveals about America.  Then I'll offer my take.     First of all, the fact that there are people who are pro-life and have never actually thought about the woman's responsibility in the act reveals how illogical our culture is.  People who believe both in the death penalty for murder and that abortion is murder are unsure as to whether or not the mother who murders her child should be ...

    People are comfortable with categories.  That's just how they are.   Categories help to take the guess-work out of life.  If you're a Democrat, you are pro-choice, pro-taxes, pro-LGBT, and pro-welfare state.  If you're a Republican, on the other hand, you are pro-life, support tax cuts, have Judaeo-Christian values, and want people to go out and get a job.  Sound familiar?  We complain about the two-party system, but when someone actually challenges it by failing to conform to one of these sets of ideals, we refuse to consider him/her a possibility.  Beyond that we love our musical, literary, and cinematic genres.  We love our simple, clear-cut, black-and-white categories.     The same, I have found, is often true of our theology.  You're a Baptist or you're a Presbyterian. You're a Methodist or you're a Catholic.  You can fill in the blanks with any "ism," "ist," or "an" you like.  It's not simply the deno...

    It never ceases to amaze me how vitriolic we Reformed folks can be towards those who believe and worship differently than we do.  If pressed for an answer for why we are like this, I would say that it is because we like to "principlize" our traditions.  We do things a certain way and we like to think that we do those things for good reasons.  If you don't follow the consensus, you are wrong, even if your reasons for doing so are grounded in logical deductions from Scripture.  Okay, victim rant over.     One such issue that seems to draw much ire is the interval at which we celebrate the Lord's Table (the Lord's Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, or whatever you call it).  I hold to a view often called Weekly Communion.  To some people it is a non-issue, but how often you celebrate the Table says quite a bit about the value you place upon it.  Many churches celebrate it as rarely as once a year. Many churches celebrate it quarte...

    Eschatology (the study of last things) has been one of the most debated areas of Theology in the last two centuries of Christianity.  It is a confusing subject, with many differing interpretive grids and presuppositions.  Personally, the more I study the issue, the more questions and uncertainty I have. The ambiguity of this issue should lead to peaceful disagreements (you would hope), but the debates over the issue are often quite passionate.  My goal today is not to plumb the depths of the issue, nor do I wish to exegete Revelation 20.  My goal is simply to offer a few reasons that I am a Postmillennialist.     Before I begin to list my reasons, let me give a brief introduction to the topic. Within orthodox circles one of the key issues is the placement (not to mention nature and existence) of the Millennium (the 1000 year period prophesied in Revelation 20).  The names of the different positions are based on when Christ will return i...