The other day I was contacted by religion journalist Daniel Burkewith a question I never expected to be asked, “Is skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee sacrilegious?” The query emerges, of course, from the controversy, first reported by Politico, of a group of United States congressmen drinking and partying at the lake where Jesus walked on water and on the shores of which he carried out much of his ministry. According to reports, one Member of Congress stripped down to nothing and dived in. This journalist wondered whether conservative Christians would be offended by this, as an act of sacrilege at a holy site.
As I told him, conservative Christians, obviously, aren’t for getting naked in public and drunk anywhere.
That said, I don’t think there’s anything here to be outraged about, as some sort of act of desecration. It was, to be sure, immature and stupid. The case could be made that this behavior on a junket is not a good use of the taxpayers’ money or a congressman’s time. Fair enough.
But I don’t see any intent here to desecrate some sort of holy place or to defame anybody’s religious beliefs. Such things have happened, of course. We ought to be outraged when an anti-Semite scrawls a swastika on a synagogue or when activists stomp on the Eucharistic host in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. These are intentional acts of sacrilege. This isn’t.
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More than 250 Southern Seminary students received degrees – ranging from certificates to doctorates – during commencement exercises on the seminary lawn, May 17, 2013. “This great assembly is humbled by the knowledge that you will go where so many of us have never gone,” R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, told the [...]
Veteran Southern Baptist journalist James A. Smith Sr. has been named seminary executive editor and chief spokesman of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, school officials announced May 15. “Jim Smith is one of the most respected journalists and writers in the Southern Baptist Convention. He is a man of great gifts and tremendous experience,” R. [...]
Southern Seminary honored Russell D. Moore for his nearly 10 years of service, April 16, when he preached his last chapel sermon as dean of the School of Theology and senior vice president for academic administration. Earlier this year, on March 26, trustees of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist [...]
And so, you graduate. The Seminary Lawn is filled with hundreds of graduates, faculty, family, and friends. Everyone is playing his or her part. Parents are proud, spouses are glad, friends are happy, and a good number of infants are hungry. The faculty is feeling old and the graduates are feeling wise. And you are [...]
The doctor is a murderer. The trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell ended yesterday, with the infamous abortion doctor convicted of three counts of first degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter. The doctor’s abortion clinic, described by a Philadelphia prosecutor as a “house of horrors,” is no more, but the truth revealed in his [...]
Looking for evidence that our society is losing its mind? Just look at the controversy over so-called “emergency contraceptives” and a federal judge’s effort to make these drugs available, over the counter, to girls of any age. Last month, Judge Edward Korman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York [...]
Mother’s Day is a particularly sensitive time in many congregations, and pastors and church leaders often don’t even know it. This is true even in congregations that don’t focus the entire service around the event as if it were a feast day on the church’s liturgical calendar. Infertile women, and often their husbands, are still [...]
In the beginning was the Word. Christians rightly cherish the declaration that our Savior, the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, is first known as the Word — the one whom the Father has sent to communicate and to accomplish our redemption. We are saved because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Believers [...]
George Jones has died, and I am afraid a lot of people will think he was a hypocrite. George Jones was no hypocrite. He was the troubadour of the Christ-haunted South. The raw emotion, and even whispers of torture, in his voice can teach American Christianity much about the nature of sin and the longing for repentance. [...]
We should have seen it coming. Back in 1989 two young activists pushing for the normalization of homosexuality coauthored a book intended to serve as a political strategy manual and public relations guide for their movement. In After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s, authors Marshall Kirk [...]
Jesus once told of a wealthy man who went on a long journey. Before the man left, he entrusted his wealth to three servants. To one he gave five units, to another just two units, and to the last he gave only one. Each received “according to his ability,” Jesus said. The servant with the [...]
