The rise of the liberal groomer
‘Since the sexual revolution, there has been a knocking on the door of progressive respectability by individuals with an intense interest in assisting the sexual development of children, and sometimes — as in the case of Foucault — questionable motives for doing so. Such activists invariably come armed with the logic of liberalism: using phrases such as “agency”, “consent” and “education”. The resulting queasy blend of pleasure, freedom, education and adolescence burst into flames this week, with news of a theatre production…’
The hidden threat to freedom of conscience in the Conversion Therapy bill
‘Perhaps even more worrying is the fact that the existing bill, if passed, risks criminalising Christians who attempt to dissuade people from being gay. As a devout atheist who has actively supported gay rights, I’m amazed that almost nothing has been said about this aspect of the bill. It will be interesting to see what the exact wording of the new law will be, because at the moment it would appear to be a serious threat to religious freedom, indeed to freedom of conscience itself.’
40 random pieces of advice for the Christian life
This one is from Tim Challies. The overwhelming majority of these are excellent.
The skepticism of my father and how it built my faith
‘I wanted to please my dad. I didn’t want him to think I was blindly gullible. It drove me to study—through high school, college, and even now—the historical claims of Christ. If Jesus, a man claiming to be God, truly rose from the dead, I wanted to know that for certain, even if it meant going against the warnings and wishes of my own father.’
Britain isn’t in the middle of a migrant crisis
This line is often trotted out. It isn’t true. My friend Dave addresses it here.
Woe to the pretenders of godliness
‘Some teachers of the truth should be listened to but not imitated. Simply holding a leadership position in a church or preaching a good sermon does not mean we are godly. The Pharisees were often a picture of this.’
From the archive: Can we reject paedobaptism and welcome paedobaptists?
‘It is generally deemed a Baptist minimum that true baptism requires faith on the part of the baptismal candidate, usually determined by a credible profession. If there is no profession of faith – for the Baptist – there is no evidence of the thing signified and thus it cannot be considered a proper baptism. Baptism marks entrance to the visible church because it signifies the prior existing membership of the invisible church. Unless there is an assumption that the children of believers are regenerate and have been baptised by the Holy Spirit (which stands at odds with Baptist, and wider-Evangelical, theology and is not the argument of most Reformed paedobaptists), it is difficult for a Baptist to affirm paedobaptism as valid.’