The Today Show on Monday had an interview with David Purdam about his Vanity Fair story on the Bush presidency. One comment which struck me was his report that some in the Bush White House had concluded that the Bush presidency was “a wasted opportunity.” They claimed that after 9/11 Bush had an opening to [...]
Archive for December, 2008
a series of most unfortunate presidents
Posted in Christian Worldview, Politics on December 31, 2008 | 12 Comments »
the theology of Carrie Underwood
Posted in Christian Worldview, Theology on December 28, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Here is a Radio Bible Class devotional which I just finished. I still have time to make changes before I submit it, so any suggestions for improvement are welcome.
on whose terms?
read > Jonah 2:1-2
“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. He said, ‘I cried out to the LORD in my [...]
just another Wittmer Christmas
Posted in miscellaneous on December 26, 2008 | 11 Comments »
Every Christmas the Wittmers play a game of backyard basketball, and every Christmas the game ends pretty much like this. That’s my older brother, Tim, lying on the ground after taking an inadvertent elbow to the sternum. As you can see, he is pretty dramatic.
evangelicals and obama
Posted in Christian Worldview, Politics, Theology on December 25, 2008 | 17 Comments »
Al Mohler recently posted on Rick Warren giving the invocation at Obama’s inauguration, and at the end of his fine essay he added a postscript saying that he himself would not accept such an honor because of Obama’s views on abortion. Mohler wrote:
“President-elect Obama has pledged to sign legislation including the Freedom of Choice Act, [...]
as we worship so we believe
Posted in Christian Worldview, Theology, tagged Add new tag, Christian Worldview, new creation, plato, platonism on December 21, 2008 | 14 Comments »
Here in Grand Rapids we are snowed in today, just as we were on Friday and expect to be again on Tuesday. The stores were busy yesterday as Christmas shoppers used a break from the storms to get out while they could.
Nearly every church in Grand Rapids cancelled services today, except the one that [...]
student funnies
Posted in miscellaneous on December 19, 2008 | 10 Comments »
I was grading my way through 35 papers on baptism when I came across a paper that began with this truism: “The issue of baptism is as old as itself.” That reminded me of the numerous funny quotes that I have collected over the years from my students’ papers. Here are the best quotes, with [...]
possibly the worst essay you will ever read
Posted in Politics, Theology on December 17, 2008 | 14 Comments »
I have been swamped with end of semester grading this week (which is what happens when you spend exam week in Liberia), and I only have a couple days of it left before I can start my Christmas break. But I did want to mention the Newsweek cover story on gay marriage which I saw [...]
home from liberia
Posted in Uncategorized on December 15, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I just returned from teaching an early church history class to 25 pastors in Liberia, and, knowing that most people aren’t that interested in hearing about someone else’s trip, I’ll limit my report to a few observations.
I just spent more than a week without access to email, the Internet, CNN, and any news from the [...]
liberia
Posted in miscellaneous on December 6, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I’m on my way to Monrovia, Liberia, to teach a class on early church theology to about 30 pastors and Bible college teachers. It’s a special privilege to teach this class to Africans, as most of the leading figures in this period–Augustine, Cyprian, Tertullian, Clement, and Origen–were Africans. So I get to give back to them [...]
“as much” or “more than”?
Posted in Emergent Church, tagged Add new tag, belief, conversation, emergent, Ethics on December 5, 2008 | 18 Comments »
This week I had a conversation with a friend who is somewhere in the Emergent field. At one point in our discussion he said, “You probably aren’t going to like this, but I value the conversation more than being right.”
What troubles me about his comment is the phrase “more than.” If “conversation” reflects the ethical, [...]
