Are You Mom Enough?
A great article for mom’s addressing the mommy wars:  Time Magazine recently joined the fray with the provocative cover of a beautiful young mother visibly breastfeeding her four-year old son next to the title, “Are You Mom Enough?”  The message screamed at moms from this issue of Time, from television, Facebook, blogs, and Pinterest is: unless you are fit to run marathons, breastfeed into the preschool years, own a spotless and creatively decorated home, tend a flourishing garden, prepare three home-cooked meals per day, work a high-powered job, and give your husband expert, sensual massages before bed, you are not mom enough.

‘One Another’ Infographic
The New Testament contains at least 40 passages that contain the words “one another” and each one points to a way that Christians are to treat, or are not to treat, each other. This graphic seeks to display the whole lot of them.

Spoiler Alert!  Reading the Gospels from Back to Front
We hate spoilers, wishing to maintain our naivety and experience the surprise of discovery. But the Gospels all resist this straightforward retelling of Jesus’ ministry and place the cross/resurrection at the center of their narrative as the focal point of Jesus’ life.

First and Foremost Citizens of Heaven
Worship gatherings give us the opportunity to remember that, like our father Abraham and the patriarchs of old, this world is not our final destination (Hebrews 11:8-10; 13-16).We are a chosen race purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are citizens of a heavenly country who owe our highest allegiance to God, whose authority is unrivaled.

Sermon on the Mount Cops
Watching video of demonstrators facing off with the police and watching police reactions have led me to the observation that police in these situations are nearly expected to behave as if they were following the Sermon on the Mount, while a demonstrators, in exercise of their right of free speech are pretty much uncriticized unless they actually attack a policeman (one cop was stabbed in the leg). They taunt, provoke, even throw urine and feces at police, while police are supposed to stand there and take it. Which is pretty much what they did.

The Problem of Evil
Flew’s conclusion was that the God of Christianity is dead; He has died the death of a thousand qualifications. And it was the problem of suffering and evil that motivated this conclusion.

CNN had a fantastic article by Albert Mohler addressing the question as to why there is a focus on homosexuality.  I appreciated CNN’s presentation of Mohler’s article.  Make sure you read the whole thing as Mohler addresses some of the questions you may have, or have been asked, about when the topic of the Bible and homosexuality comes up (things like slavery, polygamy, eating shellfish, etc.).

Here’s Mohler’s concise and clear answer as to why Christians speak about homosexuality:

Why are Christians so concerned with homosexuality? In the first place, that question is answered by the simple fact that it is the most pressing moral question of our times. Christians must be concerned about adultery, pornography, injustice, dishonesty and everything the Bible names as sin. But when my phone rings with a call from a reporter these days, the question I am asked is never adultery or pornography. It is about homosexuality.

Read the rest.

From the Catholic News Agency:

Washington D.C., May 21, 2012 / 10:39 am. - Forty-three Catholic dioceses and organizations across the country have announced religious liberty lawsuits against the federal government to challenge the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.

The announcement was applauded by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who called it “a compelling display of the unity of the Church in defense of religious liberty.”

“We have tried negotiation with the Administration and legislation with the Congress – and we’ll keep at it – but there’s still no fix,” said Cardinal Dolan, who is the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Time is running out, and our valuable ministries and fundamental rights hang in the balance, so we have to resort to the courts now,” he explained in a May 21 statement . . .

Several Catholic universities around the country also joined in the lawsuits, including The Catholic University of America, the University of Notre Dame and Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins, C.S.C., said the lawsuit was filed “neither lightly nor gladly, but with sober determination.”

“We do not seek to impose our religious beliefs on others,” he explained in an email to Notre Dame employees.

Rather, he explained, “we simply ask that the Government not impose its values on the University when those values conflict with our religious teachings.”

Read it all – interesting implications during an election year.

How to Share the Gospel with Muslims
“How do you pray?”Ahmed and I had been sitting at a little teashop talking about various things when he asked this question. Like many other Muslims, he was curious about how Christians pray. I began to explain how our hearts need to be purified in order for us to approach God in prayer. He agreed and wanted to know more. “What do you say when you pray?” he asked. I told him that we can speak to God as a loving father. I then went on to show him the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6.

Are You for Your Husband?
Husbands are fragile people.  We have sensitive egos.  We may come across as strong and indifferent, but that’s just presentation.  We’re actually quite needy.  I wonder if wives know this.  Do you know this?  I wonder if wives are aware how much their husbands need them.

Do You Believe Homosexuality is a Sin?
Interesting survey results from LifeWay:  ”Americans remain evenly split on the moral and religious questions of whether homosexual behavior is a sin,” McConnell said. “It likely reflects different beliefs about Scripture and different beliefs about who defines sin.”

Learning to Suffer Well: Trusting God’s Absolute Sovereignty
One of the things that is striking throughout the book of Lamentations is that Jeremiah finds no solace in attributing the destruction of Yahweh’s covenant people to secondary causes. Rather, he attributes the agonizing desolation of Israel to Yahweh Himself.

Why God is Selfish: a.k.a. Theology Slays Barbie Religion
Our culture provides our values, goals and wants. It tells us to be Barbie, to have our Ken, the car, the house, the health, everything. God only enters in to get us what we want. This is the most basic form of idolatry–making God a means to a higher end, the American Dream. If God is supreme in his own heart, the American Dream cannot keep its hold on us forever. Francis Schaeffer warned thirty years ago that personal peace and affluence had become the God of American evangelicalism. We cannot apprehend a self-centered God without utterly renouncing our captivity to the American Dream. No one can serve both God and Barbie.

Generational Blackmail?
It seems like every other day I’m told another reason why young people are leaving the church: because Christians fight too much, or because Christians are too political or anti-gay or don’t care about social justice.  Millennials, we’re told, are leaving the church because the church won’t bless their cohabitation or provide them with contraception for pre-marital sex. They’re leaving because they don’t care about fights over creation/evolution or abortion or worship style or what have you.  In sum, it seems we’re regularly informed that if the church doesn’t change, young people are going to leave.  And what exactly are we supposed to do with these claims?

Catholic University Drops Student Health Coverage – Cites ObamaCare
In its decision to drop coverage, the school cited the contraception mandate, but also a requirement that the maximum coverage amount be increased to $100,000 for policyholders — claiming that would have made premiums skyrocket. A university official told Fox News Radio the students’ basic $600 policy was going to double in cost in the fall and triple next year and that the school’s insurance provider said the increases were the result of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

An insightful article on a hot-button issue.  Well worth your read.

President Obama’s recent statement concerning his views of same sex marriage has generated no small amount of discussion and controversy. In what was doubtlessly a political calculation the President made that statement couched in political and attitudinal terms. That is, this new take is his personal view. He has personally has come to a place where he can now accept and stand behind same sex marriage

This change is not restricted solely to the President. Advocates for Gay rights have tirelessly worked to change the public perception of same sex couples. Over the last 15-25 years America has done a near 180 on the issue. The attempt has been to sanitize and normalize homosexuality.

There have been countless actors, musicians, athletes, and politicians who have publicly spoken out in favor of Gay rights. Many from these same spheres have themselves disclosed that they themselves are gay. It has become commonplace to have television shows and movies with gay characters. Characters like Oscar on The Office have helped to gradually move the meter on public opinion.

Read the rest.

From the National Catholic Register:

When Saraswati Devi awoke from the anesthesia, her clothes were soaked in  blood. She was lying on a grass mat on the floor in excruciating pain, and there  were no medical staff to answer her cries. She was one of 53 women who underwent  surgeries at a “sterilization camp” sponsored by the government of India in its  national campaign to drastically cut population growth.

The campaign is underwritten by tens of millions of dollars in American and  British foreign-aid funds.

Read it all.

The North Carolina Vote
Ryan Anderson writes about the way the vote in North Carolina is being framed. “How we talk about an issue affects how we think about it… . Today’s vote in North Carolina is not about banning anything. Nothing will be made illegal as a result.”

Bigotry on the Ballot
From Albert Mohler: Many of the nation’s leading newspapers serve as advocacy agents for the normalization of homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage. Leading this charge for some time, The New York Times regularly promotes same-sex marriage in its editorials and news coverage. Even so, the paper’s latest editorial serves as a display of how the argument for homosexual marriage is often pressed with what can only be described as undisguised intellectual dishonesty.

How to Win the Public on Homosexuality
President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage is making headlines but not news. That’s probably because he was in favor of same-sex marriage before he was against it and now in favor of it again. Campaigning in 1996 for state senate in Illinois, Obama said in a typed statement, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” Running for statewide and then national office apparently changed his perspective, at least temporarily.

Why Bible Study Doesn’t Transform Us
Much of what passes for Bible study in Christian bookstores and church resource libraries just isn’t: while it may educate us on a doctrine or a topic, it does little to further our Bible literacy. And left to our own devices, we pursue a host of unsavory (and un-transformative) self-constructed approaches to “spending time in the Word.” Here are several that I encounter on a regular basis . . .

Delta Pulls Ads from ‘Daily Show’ Over ‘Vagina Manger’
Being a Christian in modern America means having to learn to live with the most infantile, imbecilic, offensive attacks on your faith and its followers, so in general I try to counsel people who are upset by stunts like this to just let them go, walk way, recite the beatitudes quietly to yourself. Being perpetually outraged at slurs on one’s faith is, after all, a market that’s been cornered by the Muslims, and lord knows we don’t want to make them upset by muscling in on their turf.

Fascinating article from Albert Mohler:

Over the last 40 years, the megachurch has made its presence known, often dominating the Christian landscape within the nation’s metropolitan regions. The megachurch came into dominance at the same time that massive shopping malls became the landmarks of suburban consumer life. Sociologists can easily trace the rise of megachurches within the context of America’s suburban explosion and the development of the technologies and transportation systems that made both the mall and the megachurch possible.

Sociologically, the megachurch model faces real challenges in the present and even greater challenges in the future. The vast suburban belts that fueled megachurch growth in the last few decades are no longer the population engines they once were. Furthermore, cultural changes, demographic realities, and technological innovations have led to the development of megachurch modifications such as churches with multiple locations and sermons by video transmission. From the beginning, the megachurches led in the embrace of new technologies, and these now include the full array of digital and social media.

What about theology? This question requires a look at the massive shifts in worldview now evident within American culture. Trends foreseen by researchers such as James Davison Hunter of the University of Virginia and others can now be seen in full flower. The larger culture has turned increasingly hostile to exclusivist truth claims such as the belief that faith in Christ is necessary for salvation.

Read it all.