White supremacy is horrendous. It is contrary to biblical Christianity both by reason of creation and by reason of redemption. All people, regardless of birthplace,… Read More »The Common Problem with White Supremacy and Multiculturalism
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rod Dreher’s much anticipated book, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, is how unremarkable… Read More »The Benedict Option: The Christian Option
Over the past several weeks, we have been looking at Psalm 137 and its relevance for Christian today. I have presented the historical background of… Read More »What Psalm 137 Does
Last week I presented the historical context for Psalm 137, a context of the people of God living in exile among a pagan people. Now once… Read More »A People in Exile
Every pastor and Christian leader feels a certain pressure to be relevant. We do not want Christianity to slip away into an oblivion. We do… Read More »Horatius Bonar on Trendiness in Religion
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.… Read More »God’s People in Exile
The current presidential election in the United States has presented a conundrum of sorts for conservative Christians. My aim here is not to defend any position… Read More »Vote so as to obey the Second Greatest Commandment
The gospel is the boundary of Christian fellowship and cooperation, but the degree to which we cooperate with others who believe the gospel will be… Read More »Cooperation and Culture: Conclusion
Last week I argued that differences among philosophies of culture must necessarily affect cooperation on various levels of ecclesiastical cooperation. Having said this, it is… Read More »Philosophy and applications in the local church
In any political campaign, some politicians would like to reduce policy statements to slogans and soundbites. Soundbites, however, admit no qualifications or nuancing. They resist… Read More »The Heart and Outward Appearances
Up to this point in this series, I have described the essence of conservative Christianity, particularly its philosophy of beauty and culture, and described the… Read More »Differences over philosophy of culture must always affect cooperation
Last week I suggested that biblical cooperation is not an “all-or-nothing” sort of thing, but is rather dependent upon the particular matter under consideration and the… Read More »Fundamentalism and a Conservative Philosophy of Culture
In 2006 an approach to church ministry began to gain popularity. It was called a “two-handed” approach to ministry. One closed hand represented the theology… Read More »The “Two Hands” of Ministry
While watching an Olympic medal ceremony a few evenings ago, I remembered a blog post I wrote over ten years ago (on a now extinct blog)… Read More »National Anthems and the Universal Language
“Classic”–a word that can describe any number of things, including art, literature, music, theology, and tradition. But what does it mean? What makes something classic?… Read More »What makes something classic?
One of the cornerstones of arguments in favor of musical relativism is that musical interpretation is culturally conditioned and therefore subjective—one may not expect someone else… Read More »The Culture of Humanity
In no previous civilization have ordinary people experienced greater leisure than in ours. In the past, leisure was the privilege of the aristocracy. Now, however,… Read More »Leisure
In the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul rebukes the church for its chaotic worship. It seems that the problems included women teachers (14:33b-35), the… Read More »The Holy Spirit and decent and orderly worship
I’ve heard it said many times, often by people I love and respect: “Christians have always used contemporary music in their worship.” Or, it might… Read More »There hasn’t always been contemporary worship music
In 2013, Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theologian Seminary, wrote a kind review in Artistic Theologian of my first book, Worship in Song: A Biblical… Read More »Answering Paige Patterson’s Suggestions for Worship in Song