I remember the time (oh frabjous day!) when I suggested that so much Christian world-and-life-view talk seemed to be little more than a way of dressing up the political and cultural interests of the middle class chatterati in pious Christianspeak. Not many people agreed with me then. But, according...

I wonder if highly observant readers can spot the subtle differences between these two descriptions of the ideal candidates for ministry? Elevation Church : The typical applicant is 23-30 years of age who is a recent college/seminary graduate or someone with relevant experience. However, do not let...

Christianity Today reports that World Vision has reversed its decision of two days ago and will not now employ people in same sex marriages. The letter announcing the decision is interesting. The language of 'mistake' is used, though at least this time as the object of an active verb, not the...

But now I'm in the OPC. I had no idea that, of everything I have ever said or written, it would be my pronunciation of marijuana that would catapult me to celebrity fame. What can I say? Well, actually, I'll let Huey Lewis and the News say it for me.

Big changes were implemented in the Underground Bunker this week when the Puppetmaster announced the appointment of a new Executive Producer, presumably in a desperate attempt to impose some kind of order. For personal reasons, she will be known to the world simply as She Who Must Be Obeyed. She is...

Dale Coulter has a fine piece on the Old and New Calvinism over at First Thoughts . By making the connection (which others have done) between current parties and the Old School/New School debates of the nineteenth century, he offers some useful and historically informed conceptual clarity to those...

Dr. Fred Zaspel, Warfield aficionado and baptist pastor, has launched a new website, Books at a Glance . The idea is to provide short, thoughtful reviews on a large number of theological books. One of the great delights about living at the present time is the wealth of great Christian writing, old...

Kudos to the Christian leaders who have so rightly discerned that recent events at World Vision are far more damaging to the evangelical church than the loony visions, thuggery, cult-like leadership techniques, and all-round high crimes and misdemeanours of church leaders who actually have real...

As one of the all-powerful MoS Triumvirs, it falls to me to place the last tempting product of the week. It comes from the IPC catwalk. What every uber-cool pastor-about-town and his wife are wearing in the more hipster oriented parts of London. Oh, and don't forget to use your Paypal account when...

Logos Software have just released a 24 volume set of the works of Peter Taylor Forsyth . I number him, along with John Henry Newman, among my guilty theological pleasures: I profoundly disagree with many things he believed but find him a brilliant writer, a stimulating thinker, and often spot on in...

This story came to my attention this morning. A person on trial for a series of killings is using a unique defense: s/he has had a sex change, is now a woman and so, as Donna, cannot be held responsible for crimes that s/he committed when s/he was Douglas. Words fail me somewhat, but I wonder if...

Dave Moore, whose interview with William F. Buckley Jnr is well worth a look, has a characteristically trenchant but winsome article about omerta over at Two Cities . A taster: "I have been around many leaders. Some I've worked with, some I've interviewed, and some are friends. All are human, yet...

In the second post in Ref21's brief series which Todd started yesterday with ' What Is Not Happening ,' I want to focus on the last qualification for eldership, 1Tim. 3:7, 'Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders....' At first glance, that is an odd qualification for Paul to include in...

This week's MoS is now available, where the team interview the lovely Barb Duguid. As usual, we ask the questions nobody else dares to touch, such as 'Is Iain's preaching any good?' In the meantime, the addition of La Byrd to the team has indeed started to change the dynamics. Here is a recent snap...

Kevin DeYoung has an interesting post over at the Gospel Coalition, addressing the issue of celebrity pastors. By and large, most of the points are incontestable and certainly the first half dozen helpful. Even so, as he addresses a large number of the issues I raised over at First Thoughts last...

About twelve months ago, I was invited to start writing for the magazine, First Things , which was founded by the late Richard John Neuhaus and which continues to offer critical comment on the intersections of religion, culture, and politics from a broadly conservative perspective. Later on, I was...

Logos has today launched a set of Reformed base packages . For those who do not use Logos products yet, I can highly commend them. Not only do they help cut down the amount of shelf space needed for all those tomes which the rest of your family simply find annoying, they also offer amazing access...

Jim Garretson's wonderful new book on Samuel Miller and the pastoral ministry is on sale at half price this week at the WTS Bookstore. And let me at this point say, with hands on heart, that the fact that the two managers are both members at Cornerstone, and one serves on session with me, in no way...

This week we did something slightly different for the Mortification of Spin: Bully Pulpit . In line with that vital rule of private eyes and historians -- 'Follow the money' -- we did the show undercover in a Christian bookshop. Looking at the shelves in such an emporium gives an excellent idea of...

When I raised the 'celebrity pastor' issue a few years ago, my primary concern was the distasteful self-promotion and the cultivation of cults of personality which it seemed to involve. The first time that I caught serious flack for this was when I mentioned an incident where a group of European...

You know society is in trouble when the politicians start stooping so low that they begin to adopt practices akin to those of celebrity megachurch pastors in order to inflate their cultural share price. I knew politics was a dirty, desperate business. But that dirty and desperate? Oh dear. Oh dear...

The Transadvocate reports another case of dastardly and unacceptable cisgender oppression. This time, a transgender person has been refused permission to compete as a woman at the Crossfit Games. In a letter apparently 'reeking of transphobia and cisgenderism' (but, to give them credit, not trans*...

For those who think that the world of Reformed chick lit is by and large dominated by very nice ladies who write poetry (sort of), love children and have sweet thoughts about everything from cooking to husbands (the present Mrs T particularly struggles with that aspect of the genre), we know that...

Todd has his work cut out at the moment. A number of very fine and helpful books have been published recently, so we must assume that the Witchfinder General will be canceling all leave for his pitchfork-wielding underlings in order to deal with the unusual workload. Jim Garretson's magisterial...