What Was That? The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics generated significant controversy over a performance that looked like it was a blasphemous presentation of The Last Supper. While many will argue about that, what is apparent is that the ceremony was a worship service of a new religion. The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Games was shocking and divisive. Among the conflicting reports is hard to know now exactly what Thomas Jolly, the creator of the Opening Ceremony, had in... Read more
Louisville, We Have a Problem Albert Mohler is one of the conservative lions of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Since he assumed the presidency at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, KY, Mohler has led the seminary to turn sharply to the right on theological, social, and political issues. Long reviled by moderate and progressive Baptists, Mohler has portrayed himself and SBTS as guardians of conservative orthodoxy in the SBC, protecting the faith from the onslaught of liberalism... Read more
The 2024 SBC Annual Meeting Even for those who are members of a Southern Baptist Church, the machinations of the Southern Baptist Convention can be a bit bewildering. At the close of the SBC Annual Meeting, it is helpful to summarize what the SBC did in Indianapolis this week. As always, there were controversies and oddities. This is the SBC, after all. Controversies included women pastors, IVF, and the Nicene Creed. IVF In a very controversial move, the Messengers[1]... Read more
The SBC 2024. The SBC and the Nicene Creed The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is gathering in Indianapolis this week for its annual meeting, and the agenda is full of controversial votes. Messengers will vote on the Law Amendment which addresses the role of women pastors in the SBC. That amendment will have the most publicity. What is arguably more important though is the amendment proposed by Research Professor of Theology at Southwestern Seminary, Malcolm Yarnell, to add the Nicene... Read more
Scenes From Normandy The beach is calm now. The only sounds are from the wind, the soft breaking of small waves, and the small talk from the remaining tourists. 80 years ago, no calm could be found. The thunderous boom of artillery pierced the morning air, and battle cries of men charging the Nazis were only slightly muffled by the beach sand. Machine gun fire pierced the air and flesh. Screams of the wounded filled the air. The sounds of... Read more
Does the SBC Have a Systemic Sexual Abuse Problem? While they have many disagreements, the men running to be president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) agree on at least one thing: there is no systematic sexual abuse crisis in the SBC. Individuals have committed abuse. Local congregations have failed to protect their members and have even enabled abuse in some cases. The SBC, however, remains unsullied. According to these candidates, their supporters, and other SBC members, there is no... Read more
Internet Atheists There are at least two types of atheists online. There is the angry, ax-grinding sort and there is the serious intellectual sort. The former I ignore because the only thing they want to do is impugn the intelligence of a theist to make themselves feel superior. Their attitude seems to be, “Believers are unenlightened boors who must be mocked.” Having read the works of Nietzsche or Dawkins and certain in their smug enlightenment, their tactic is to demean... Read more
Is the EC or SBC at Fault in the SBC Sexual Abuse Scandal In a recent interview the President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Dr. Bart Barber, discussed the sexual abuse scandal in the SBC among other topics. In the interview Barber says, What the investigation found after looking hard to see if they could find a time when the convention or the executive committee knew about abuse and failed to report it, or facilitated an abuser being able... Read more
What Happens When Hope Dies? Ben Franklin once said that many people die at 25 and we only get around to burying them when they reach 70. Whatever his motivation for the saying, if he were referring to the death of hope, then he was right. When hope dies, the power to strive dies along with it. Funerals for dreams and imagination soon follow. When hope dies, the only things that remain are our coping mechanisms. Food, substances, pleasure,... Read more
Jesus Walks on the Water and Jesus’ Divinity In my social media adventures over the last several months, I have noticed a group of people denying the divinity of Jesus. Because it is social media, it is hard to tell if it is a large movement or if it is just a small group whose voices seem more numerous because they are concentrated on Twitter. Some of them are following the work of UNC professor Bart Ehman, who has sold... Read more
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