David Dockery Responds to NY Times on Baptist Colleges

Last week, I commented on an article that appeared in the New York Times about the battle that’s going on for Baptist colleges in various states around the country. In a Baptist Press piece today, David Dockery also responds to the New York Times. The integrated vision of faith and learning that Dockery commends is the ideal that we all should be striving for. Therefore, I recommend his article to you: “Christian commitment & intellectual inquiry.”

Is Embryonic Stem-Cell Research Murder?

Does the destruction of human embryos amount to murder? White House spokesman Tony Snow put this question on the front burner last week when he described President Bush’s position as follows:

The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it’s inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He’s one of them. The simple answer is he thinks murder’s wrong (source).

The New York Times on Southern Baptist Colleges

The New York Times reports today on the struggle between Baptist Colleges and the state Baptist conventions that run them. Many people are aware of the conservative resurgence that began in 1979 in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). That resurgence returned the convention’s institutions and seminaries to conservative evangelical principles.

Rob Bell’s Change of Heart on the Women’s Issue

Gender-News.com has a fascinating report on Pastor Rob Bell’s transition from a complentarian position to an egalitarian position. The story is titled “Engaged by the culture: Michigan megachurch goes egalitarian.” The article also narrates the story of Rob Bell’s role in changing his church’s constitution so that women would be permitted to serve as elders.

A few things are troubling about this story and are in stark contrast to my previous post about Al Mohler’s change of heart in the other direction.

First of all, if this story is accurate, then

Al Mohler’s Change of Heart on the Women’s Issue

It is widely known that Dr. R. Albert Mohler is a staunch proponent of complementarianism. What is not so widely known is that Dr. Mohler was at one time a staunch proponent of egalitarianism.

On his “Conventional Thinking” weblog, Dr. Mohler recounts the story of a conversation with Dr. Carl F. H. Henry in the mid-1980’s that provoked his change of heart.

Bill Frist’s Incoherent Position on Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Senator Bill Frist is a political conservative. He is a Republican. He claims to be pro-life. And he is dead wrong on embryonic stem cell research.

Senator Frist contributed an opinion editorial to the Washington Post on Tuesday titled “Meeting Stem Cells’ Promise — Ethically.” In this piece he makes an absolutely morally incoherent argument in favor of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Why is his argument incoherent? Because he claims to hold the pro-life convction that from conception all life has value, yet at the same time he claims that some of those valuable lives can and should be killed.

‘Wow, look at that.’

The Baptist Press reports that my good friend Dr. T. J. Betts witnessed a Hezbollah rocket attack while he was on an archeological dig in Israel last week. T. J. heard the explosion and saw the smoke billowing up after the rocket detonated about a mile from where he was working. My favorite part of the report is T. J.’s understated reaction to the attack: “Wow, look at that.”

I’m happy to learn that T. J. and his team are now evacuated and back in the U. S. You can read the rest of T. J.’s story here: “Prof witnesses rocket attack at Israeli archaeological site.”

The Procussions Take the World by Storm

I like to listen to hip-hop. Okay, surprise, surprise. But it’s true. What can I say? I like the beat.

However, I am often not listening to hip-hop because frankly so much of it is too foul to tolerate (see Philippians 4:8).

I am happy to find that this is not the case with “The Procussions” latest single “The Storm,” which is iTunes’ free download of the week. Go download the song. If you are any kind of hip-hop fan at all, you’ll really like this one.

Southwestern Prof. Comments on Rob Bell’s Tour

Perhaps you have read about Rob Bell, an emerging church pastor from Michigan who is traveling to major cities across the country this summer and preaching in non-traditional venues (e.g., bars, concert halls). The tour has received some significant media attention that includes articles in both the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle.

My good friend Jim Hamilton, who is a professor of biblical studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, commented on Rob Bell’s national tour in the Houston Chronicle. Go check out Jim’s remarks in “Christianity Gets a Reality Check.”

Media Bias? Yeah, so what?

E. J. Dionne’s Washington Post op-ed really surprised me in its candor about media bias. Dionne articulates a strategy for Democrats and the media as they try to undermine Republican foreign policy.