I was recently asked to respond to a new teaching popular in some Reformed circles according to which empathy is a sin. The article that provides the basis for my understanding of this teaching is titled “Have you heard the one about empathy being a sin?” The author, Mark Wingfield, is attempting to summarize the […]
sin
Drunkards, Sin, and God’s Kingdom: A Reappraisal
I 1 Corinthians 6:10, Paul tells us that drunkards are unrighteous and that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In short, Paul seems to view the alcoholic as a wicked sinner in rebellion against God. But what if we think about alcoholism from the perspective of modern psychiatry as primarily a therapeutic rather […]
What is sin?
Read Chapter 14 of What’s So Confusing About Grace? and find out how to be damned by a cookie
You can read the chapter at my blog confusedaboutgrace.com.
On Praying for Milo
We live in an age where extreme and hateful voices like that of Milo Yiannopoulos get way more attention than they deserve. I was disgusted when Bill Maher hosted Milo on Real Time last week (and I applaud Jeremy Scahill for withdrawing from the show in protest). By the time the video surfaced of Milo advocating for […]
Are you (ever) embarrassed to be human?
I am. Today, at least, I am. Many things have happened this week which would be sufficient to induce that misanthropic state of mind. But this week the straw that broke this camel’s back came with the story of Grayson Smith, a terminally ill three year old who suffers from more life-threatening medical conditions than most people […]
The Oft-Overlooked Sins of Omission
There is an important distinction between sins of commission (the evil action) and sins of omission (the evil failure to act). Note how reference to both is included in this familiar liturgical confession: We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have […]
Sin Junkies: addiction, punishment, and the new problem of hell
In December, 2015 America’s new drug czar, Michael Botticelli, gave a revealing interview with 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley. The interview included this exchange: Scott Pelley: Are you saying that the way we have waged the war on drugs for more than 40 years has been all wrong? Michael Botticelli: It has been all wrong. Blunt force didn’t […]
The Making of an Enemy? The Tuggy-Spiegel Interview on Atheism
This week on the Trinities Podcast Dale Tuggy interviewed James Spiegel on his 2010 book The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief. Since my new book Is the Atheist My Neighbor? is one long rebuttal to folks like Spiegel, I listened to the interview with some interest. (You can read my earlier review […]
43. Can pedophiles be saved? A conversation with Scott Drennan
Over the last year we’ve tackled many topics on the Tentative Apologist Podcast from big bang cosmology to biblical interpretation. But no topic is as difficult or immediately gripping as the topic of this podcast. Today we are tackling the topic of pedophiles: their crimes … and their redemption. Redemption? To many, talk of redeeming and restoring these […]
Why Jesus was NOT “tempted” (and why it matters)
The following is a repost of an article originally published at The Christian Post in 2009. * * * In their trials and temptations many Christians have drawn strength from Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been […]
The fall of Tim Lambesis
If you know your heavy metal you know Tim Lambesis, the lead singer of As I Lay Dying, one of the fiercest, critically acclaimed, and most popular metalcore bands. To be honest, it is something of a misnomer to call Lambesis a lead singer. He really was the lead growler-barker-screamer, a vocal style that doubles as […]
A hell of one’s own making
I will never forget the day in kindergarten when we baked gingerbread cookies. Each child got to decorate his or her own cookie with candies and sparkles. Then we placed them in the oven and waited. Soon after the teacher removed them from the oven and left them on the cooling tray. I waited eagerly […]
The most sinful man in the room
Back in the early 1960s many people considered Harrry Blamires, a budding Anglican theologian and literary critic, to be a younger C.S. Lewis. In his incisive book The Christian Mind (1963) Blamires explores the question of how one’s Christian convictions ought to change the way one thinks. Like all great books, The Christian Mind has aged gracefully and its […]
