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The Rename Game

From First Thoughts

This week, the Southern Baptist Convention announced it is launching yet another committee to examine changing its name. The goal is to better reflect the fact that, aside from folks who live at the North Pole, they’re not necessarily always geographically “Southern” anymore. . . . . Continue Reading »

Let Your Yes Be Yes

From First Thoughts

It’s the heyday of the hidden camera.Though it is by no means a new phenomenon (Richard Nixon gave us the audio, and Marion Barry was busted in black and white), this week’s hidden camera/hidden microphone stings of National Public Radio executives seem to be symptomatic of the new norm . . . . Continue Reading »

Ambiguity, Inception and Interpretation

From First Thoughts

In an interview with Wired about his movie Inception, director Christopher Nolan is questioned about an ambiguous scene in the film:So, there’s no one right answer.Oh no, I’ve got an answer.You do?!Yeah. I’ve always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be . . . . Continue Reading »

Confessing one another’s sins

From First Thoughts

In a new twist on the “drag your wife out to your public confession of adultery” meme, televangelist Marcus Lamb has his wife confess his adultery for him:The confession was apparently prompted to preempt extortionists who were threatening to break the news unless Lamb coughed up $7.5 . . . . Continue Reading »

How to Name an Evangelical Church

From First Thoughts

So, you’ve started a church plant. You’ve gathered together a few faithful families and individuals from within a community, and you’re likely now meeting in homes, rented office space, or more likely—a public school building. Hopefully, you’ve decided (and founded your church) upon . . . . Continue Reading »

Strangers in a Strange Land

From First Thoughts

In addition to a “royal priesthood” and a “holy nation,” the King James Bible speaks of Christians in 1 Peter 2:9 as a “peculiar people.”  Modern translations dispense with the term, but it seems that to at least one sociologist, some Bible-belt Christians . . . . Continue Reading »

A People of the App?

From First Thoughts

This past Sunday, I did something generally considered verboten in conservative evangelical circles. I went to church without my Bible. No, I haven’t cast aside the primacy of the Word in exchange for platitudes, and my reading of the Scriptures was no less than on any given Sunday.  The . . . . Continue Reading »

Eat Well This Christmas

From First Thoughts

When pondering the nativity, I’ve heard much made of the fact that the manger is a place of great humility for the King of Kings to be found, and rightly so. I’ve seldom given much thought, however, to what the manger was —- a feeding place for animals.There’s little evidence . . . . Continue Reading »