Carl R. Trueman is a professor in the Calderwood School of Arts and Humanities at Grove City College, Pa., and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Faith and Freedom. Carl is former Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he held the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History.
TODAY’S GUEST: Carl R. Trueman is a professor in the Calderwood School of Arts and Humanities at Grove City College, Pa., and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Faith and Freedom. Carl is former Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he held the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History.
“To some Americans, white Christians are partly to blame for facilitating this hate-filled political era, in which Hispanic immigrants are demonized and fringe, white-nationalist figures have been empowered.”
“Some pastors, like [Jason] Morriss, forcefully argue that America’s most powerful leaders, including President Donald Trump, have to be held responsible for their rhetoric and ideas, including vilifying Hispanics and immigrants, the very people mentioned in the manifesto allegedly connected to the El Paso shooting.”
Did President Trump call neo-Nazis “very fine people” during a famous press conference following the Charlottesville riots of August 2017? The major media reported that he did. But what if their reporting is wrong? Worse, what if their reporting is wrong and they know it’s wrong? A straight exploration of the facts should reveal the truth. That’s what CNN political analyst Steve Cortes does in this critically important video.
This is the rant of someone angry about a society he doesn’t feel a part of and doesn’t comprehend. It is all-too-typical of most of these young male killers who tend to be loners and marinate in notions they absorb in the hours they spend online. They are usually disconnected to family, neighborhood, church, colleagues at work, or anything apart from their online universe.
This is one price we are paying for the decline in what the late sociologist Peter Berger called the “mediating institutions” that help individuals form cultural and social attachments. These are churches, business and social clubs like the Rotary, charitable groups, even bowling leagues, and especially the family. Government programs can never replace these as protectors of troubled young people.
“So while we support the legitimacy of owning guns, given the violence of our land and God’s hatred of violence, we also see a need to regulate the purchase and use of guns. In particular, we Christians should work to ban weapons whose main purpose is to kill a lot of people very quickly, to keep guns in general out of the hands of unstable personalities, and to ensure that everyone who buys and owns guns can demonstrate they know how to use and store them safely.”
“As a spiritual leader for your community, you are charged with guiding your congregation along the right path.”
“We are reaching out to you as part of the Northern Michigan Vaccine Preventable Disease Task Force. Local health departments are no longer permitted to discuss religious concerns related to vaccination when counseling a parent who is seeking to waive vaccine(s) for their child(ren). Individuals or families with doctrine-related questions about vaccines will be encouraged to seek out the guidance and perspective from their clergy on these matters. Therefore, with representatives from Munson Medical Center, the regional Health Departments, and community stakeholders, we have created a Toolkit for Religious Leaders.”
“Please use this toolkit to help guide your parishioners on immunizations against the various contagious diseases. You can also educate parents about the risks of having an unvaccinated child.“
Some young couples getting married today are making just one vow: That their wedding will look nothing like a traditional ceremony from their parents’ time.
More couples are on the hunt for customized, personal weddings. With only 25% of couples marrying in a religious institution, according to a recent survey of 18,000 couples by wedding-planning website WeddingWire, couples are faced with the challenge of creating ceremonies from scratch. This could even mean outsourcing vows to online consultants, who may also officiate the wedding and design the ceremony.
Jon O’Meara, 34, and Hannah Guthrie, 31, a Philadelphia couple who plan to marry in October, think of their coming wedding less as a promise of commitment, which they’ve already made, than a celebration of their relationship with friends and family. The couple lives together and has bought a house.
I REQUIRE and charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgement, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured, that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God’s Word doth allow are not joined together by God; neither is their Matrimony lawful.
“Patterson was over halfway through an unprecedented seventh term of distinguished service as Oakland County executive. Since taking office on Jan. 1, 1993, he transformed Oakland County with his 21st Century vision and no-nonsense leadership. His mission was to make Oakland County one of the best places to live, work, play and raise a family. In addition, he served with distinction as Oakland County prosecutor from Jan. 1, 1973 – Dec. 31, 1988.”
TODAY’S GUEST: Carl R. Trueman is a professor in the Calderwood School of Arts and Humanities at Grove City College, Pa., and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Faith and Freedom.
“As an educator, I personally value knowing with precision and accuracy what reaction anything that I say (or write) will instill in my audience, and I got this one wrong.”
“So while we support the legitimacy of owning guns, given the violence of our land and God’s hatred of violence, we also see a need to regulate the purchase and use of guns. In particular, we Christians should work to ban weapons whose main purpose is to kill a lot of people very quickly, to keep guns in general out of the hands of unstable personalities, and to ensure that everyone who buys and owns guns can demonstrate they know how to use and store them safely.”
PAUL EDWARDS: A Convicting Quote and a Sincere Confession
“Social media are the prime example of disconnection, functioning like the digital version of bumper-sticker Christianity. On these media we parade our views on any number of issues with casual indignity. After all, we won’t ever see half the people who read our tweets. But we also won’t know half the disrepute we bring to Jesus’s name. It’s just like a shiny, chrome fish symbol stuck on a lift gate that has been crowded out by tacky, passive-aggressive decals. Our gospel is obscured…as much as people can be won to Christ through our witness, they can also be lost by our words. Our endless social commentary and political engagement can be off-putting. So better to be quiet and respectful than bold and boorish. Better to sometimes be silent.”
I made a commitment two years ago to no longer post politically divisive things on Facebook or Twitter. During the Democratic Debates last week I violated that commitment with posts containing personal attacks directed at the candidates and not the issues. I allowed my flesh to overrule the Spirit. I did not let the peace of God rule.
I have deleted the posts, and I ask the forgiveness of those who read them, whether or not you were offended by them. And I ask for your prayers that the word of Christ would dwell in me richly so that only out of the abundance of His word in my heart would my mouth speak (and my fingers type!).
I don’t want to win arguments. I want to win people. I don’t want my position to prevail. I want Jesus to prevail.
TODAY’S GUEST: Morgan Mead, Director of the film documentary The Alpha and the Mega.
What is a megachurch?
Within the world of religion there exists a church so large it houses thousands of people, so popular that it brings in millions of dollars every year, so influential that it can sway a presidential election, and so misunderstood that less than 15% of America knows the truth about the megachurch. Over 1,250 megachurches are spread across the United States and with their growing numbers comes growing opposition to their size, their methods, and their ideology.
The Alpha and the Mega explores the megachurch phenomenon with a look at the different types of megachurches, their origins, and of course their opposition.
Sumit Paul-Choudury: “If religions have changed so dramatically in the past, how might they change in the future? Is there any substance to the claim that belief in gods and deities will die out altogether? And as our civilisation and its technologies become increasingly complex, could entirely new forms of worship emerge?”
“…there’s a growing consensus that the future of religion is that it has no future.”
Sociologist Peter Berger in 1968:“By the 21st century, religious believers are likely to be found only in small sects, huddled together to resist a worldwide secular culture.”
“… Religion will continue to grow in economically and socially insecure places like much of sub-Saharan Africa – and to decline where they are stable. When life is tough or disaster strikes, religion seems to provide a bulwark of psychological (and sometimes practical) support.”
“In 2005, Linda Woodhead wrote The Spiritual Revolution, in which she described an intensive study of belief in the British town of Kendal. Woodhead and her co-author found that people were rapidly turning away from organised religion, with its emphasis on fitting into an established order of things, towards practices designed to accentuate and foster individuals’ own sense of who they are. If the town’s Christian churches did not embrace this shift, they concluded, congregations would dwindle into irrelevance while self-guided practices would become the mainstream in a “spiritual revolution”.
“…people have started constructing faiths of their own:
Syncretism: combining elements of multiple faith traditions;
Streamlining: rewrite the Bible with no supernatural elements; “Sunday Assembly” with all the elements of a lively gathering with no reference to God;
Paganism: “Reinventing half-forgotten “native” traditions allows the expression of modern concerns while retaining the patina of age.”
“Munificent economies, good government, solid education and effective rule of law can ensure that we rub along happily without any kind of religious framework.”
Some actual emerging religions:
Transhumanism: “…by giving ourselves over to information flows, we can transcend our earthly concerns and ties.”
The Turing Church: We will go to the stars and find Gods, build Gods, become Gods, and resurrect the dead”
Jediism: the faith of the Star Wars franchise: “Its members are “real people that live or lived their lives according to the principles of Jediism”
Witnesses of Climatology: “…invented to foster greater commitment to action on climate change.
The founder, Olya Irzak and some friends set about building [a religion]. They didn’t see any need to bring God into it – Irzak was brought up an atheist – but did start running regular “services”, including introductions, a sermon eulogising the awesomeness of nature and education on aspects of environmentalism. Periodically they include rituals, particularly at traditional holidays. At Reverse Christmas, the Witnesses plant a tree rather than cutting one down; on Glacier Memorial Day, they watch blocks of ice melt in the California sun.
The Inconvenient Truth About the Flint “Water Crisis”
Democrats constantly repeat the lie that the Republican Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder and his administration is solely responsible for Flint’s “water crisis.” This misinformation featured prominently in the just ended Democratic Debates in Detroit.
The reality is, the decision to switch Flint’s water system from Detroit’s to the Flint River was made by Democrat Mayor Dayne Walling and the Democrat-controlled Flint City Council. In the video above, Democrat Mayor of Flint Dayne Walling is seen actually flipping the switch that created Flint’s water crisis.
Democrats and their allies in the media will tell you that at the time the mayor flipped the switch, Flint was under the control of an Emergency Manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder. However, NPR (you know – that conservative bastion of fair and balanced reporting?) reported: “Walling tells us that he and the city council had been considering signing on to the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline even before Governor Snyder put an emergency manager in place to oversee operations in Flint.” Beyond that, Flint’s Emergency Manager gave Flint’s Mayor FULL CONTROL over decisions related to public works in Flint.
HUNTER BAKER: “What we have is not the operation of racism, but the operation of jingoism, nativism, and Donald Trump’s own sensitivity to being criticized. I have a hard time understanding why the emphasis is so firmly on the color of the people involved.”
DENNIS PRAGER: “Leftists have too much at stake to confront the truth about conservatives. Everything the left has ever believed has depended upon lying about opponents. From the day Stalin labeled Trotsky — who served as the head of the Red Army and who, along with Lenin, founded the Bolshevik Party — a “fascist,” leftists have lied about their opponents.”
“… the President of the United States spent his weekend writing racist tweets about Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings — who as chairman of the House Oversight Committee has been investigating Trump — and his majority-black Baltimore district…”
“The comments I made were ignorant and insensitive, and I now have a deeper understanding of how hurtful they were. I have been and always will be an ardent supporter of the LGBTQ community, and I am going to use this opportunity to better educate myself. Moving forward I will be more informed and thoughtful.”
Southwest released this statement to USA TODAY-Tennessee on Thursday:
“Southwest Employees are known for demonstrating their sense of humor and unique personalities. In this instance, one of our Flight Attendants attempted to have a brief moment of fun with Customers during boarding. Of course, this is not our normal procedure, and Southwest Crews always maintain Safety as their top priority.”
