The release of "An Evangelical Manifesto" represents an opportunity to revisit the continuing issue of Evangelical identity and to continue a conversation. I was very pleased to welcome author and social critic Os Guinness, one of the Manifesto's authors, to Monday's edition of The Albert Mohler Program [listen here]. Os Guinness is a major intellect in the Evangelical world, and a perceptive critic of the anti-intellectualism and cultural captivity that marks so much of the Evangelical movement. In our conversation, Os clarified several issues. He said that the statement in the Manifesto... [read more]

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Who are the Evangelicals? The issue of Evangelical identity and definition has been central to the Evangelical project from its very beginning in America. Given the nature of the movement, definition is elusive and constantly contested. The release of "An Evangelical Manifesto" on May 7 caught the attention of the national media, and thus it represents yet another opportunity for evangelical definition. The document, released May 7, also represents a challenge, for its framers hope to redefine the movement in the context of our unsettled times. Read Full Blog...

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"It took several centuries to convert Britain to Christianity, but it has taken less than forty years for the country to forsake it." That was the judgment of historian Callum G. Brown in his book, The Death of Christian Britain, released in 2001. Brown argued that, since the 1960s, British society was reshaped, "sending organised Christianity on a downward spiral to the margins of social significance." Read Full Blog...

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The nation of Japan faces a devastating population crisis. The crisis, however, is not a problem of too many people living in Japan, but too few. Japan, with several other nations close behind, faces what we might call a population implosion. Indeed, Japan has experienced 27 consecutive years of declining birth rates. Within just a few short years the nation will experience massive social problems and a complete breakdown of economic activity. Read Full Blog...

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A little boy with an extra chromosome was born on April 18. His name is Trig Paxson Van Palin and his new home is the Alaska Governor's Mansion in Juneau. His mom is Governor Sarah Palin, who along with her husband Todd, has welcomed Trig as their second son and fifth child. Governor Palin has already made a mark on the political scene. A high school basketball star and beauty queen, she was elected Alaska's governor in 2006. She is often mentioned as a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain. The Palins' other children include Track, their oldest son, who now serves in the U.S. A... [read more]

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Several years ago now, I was appearing on a national network interview program and found myself discussing capital punishment with a woman who, during a commercial break, indicated that she had recently seen a combine going through a wheat field. She was horrified. The wheat was being cut down by thousands of stalks a second. She felt grief for the wheat, she revealed. No one person on the panel knew what to do with that off-hand statement. I think it is safe to say that none of us had ever grieved over the intentional harvesting of vegetation. Read Full Blog...

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The United Methodist Church voted this week to maintain its official policy that homosexual activity is "incompatible with Christian teaching." The policy of the church also prohibits the recognition or celebration of same-sex relationships. Meeting for its General Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas, the Methodists voted 517 to 416 to keep the current policy and language in its Book of Discipline. The denomination voted down a proposal to replace the "incompatible with Christian teaching" language with a statement that the church should "refrain from judgment regarding homosexual persons ... [read more]

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The release this week of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV is predicted to be the biggest event in the entertainment industry this year, with some authorities predicting more than $400 million in sales over the next few weeks. While other sectors of the entertainment industry are struggling, video games have seen a 57 percent jump in sales since last March, according to The Washington Post. Forbes reports that the video game market in the U.S. alone is worth $18.8 billion a year. Read Full Blog...

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The Prime Minister of India delivered a brave and important speech on Monday of this week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared his nation's practice of sex-selection abortions to be a "national shame" and called for increased enforcement of laws that would prevent the practice. Sex selection by abortion is widespread in both India and China, although it is practiced in many other nations as well. In both nations efforts to limit the size of families is part of the equation. In China, the nation's draconian "one child only" policy has led to a dramatic imbalance of males to females. In I... [read more]

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Like Israel in the Old Testament, the Church has had constantly to guard against its own paganization. The threat of a pagan invasion has always been real and present, and the paganisms can take the form of any number of ideologies, idolatries, and belief systems. A warning about the danger of paganization in our own times comes in the form of a news story from Religion News Service and Christianity Today. It seems that a significant branch of the Quaker movement is intentionally mixing Quaker thought with explicit nature-based paganism. Read Full Blog...

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