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Thomas Schreiner: "Don’t we recognize in a sinful world that sometimes we need to choose the lesser of two evils?"

Thomas R. Schreiner is James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Associate Dean for Scripture and Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as Preaching Pastor of Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. A widely respected New Testament scholar, Dr. Schreiner is the author of many books, including New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ (Baker, 2008) and Galatians in the Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series (Zondervan, 2010).1 Recorded in the 2011 issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, a published sermon... Read more →

#FaithTrumpsFear or #StopSinningbyVotingTrump?

Paul Hastings (source) A video entitled "FaithTrumpsFear" seems to be making its rounds on social media. It's appeared with glowing recommendations on The Resurgent, RedState, Caffeinated Thoughts, and even captures the personal view of the Southern Baptist Convention's Pastors' Conference president, Dave Miller: "Is it time we started viewing things differently? For me, it is. this video encapsulates my view."1 Produced by a small video production company in Austin, Texas run by CEO, Paul Hastings (who is featured in the video), the reason indicated making it was because that by... Read more →

Is shaming others into voting against their conscience the future of evangelicalism? Political Science professor Peter Wielhouwer hopes not.

Here's a worthy essay by my friend, Peter Warren Wielhouwer. As a longtime professor of political science and frequent network news commentator on all things political, Dr. Wielhouwer writes a much-needed plea for Christians to stop alienating each other over politics. I especially liked his focus upon the scriptural record. I might quibble with him a bit on some parts, but nonetheless agree with the broad swaths of his thinking. Please take the time to check it out. "Stop Shaming Other Christians into Voting Against their Conscience" by Peter Warren... Read more →

I voted for Donald Trump today. And, no, I don't feel an ounce of guilt. I feel like an American.

When it became clear to me months ago that Donald Trump would become the only real challenge to a Hillary Rodham Clinton victory for the White House, I became more verbal and perhaps more public about the 2016 presidential election than I've ever been about any election since I started voting in the early 70s. I believe this election remains, so far as this world is concerned, the last hope to preserve what we have left of a democratic republic founded upon our original constitution. Political corruption in both Democratic... Read more →

Is Voting for a 3rd Option a Wasted Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election?

UPDATE: November 4, 2017, a new Heat Street/Rasmussen Reports telephone and online survey of Likely Utah Voters finds Trump with 42% support to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 31%. Republican-turned-Independent candidate Evan McMullin has faded to 21%. In a brief piece entitled, "Election 2016 Thoughts – Part One: A vote for a 3rd Candidate is not a Wasted Vote or a Vote for Clinton" by Baptist21 contributor, Nathan Akin, five reasons are listed as to why Akin believes a 3rd candidate vote for president in the 2016 election is not in vain.... Read more →

Division at Southern seminary concerning the #NeverTrump positions of Al Mohler & Russell Moore

I wrote this on Facebook a few hours ago: Finally someone with clout speaks out on Al Mohler and Russell Moore's nonsensical stance as advocates of #NeverTrump, a position he says will put Hillary in the White House. A member of the Foundation Board of Southern Seminary for years, currently an associate of the foundation, and a financial supporter who's donated thousands as well as given annual grants to professors. Louisville, KY attorney, Jack Richardson says, "I and others on the board could not disagree more with Mohler’s position on... Read more →

Joe Carter, the ERLC and Division over Donald Trump (Part 2)

Below is Part 2 of my critique of Why Evangelicals Are Divided Over Donald Trump written by Joe Carter, a staff member at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC). As we argued in Part 1, to suggest as Carter does that come November 9, evangelicals can just shake hands and go back to being co-belligerents in a worthy cause is too naïve for words. Russell Moore and the ERLC (which obviously includes Joe Carter) have been too verbally offensive to just forget about it... Read more →

Joe Carter, the ERLC and Division over Donald Trump (Part 1)

Joe Carter, Communications Specialist at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC), recently posted a piece on The Gospel Coalition website where he also works as editor. Entitled, Why Evangelicals Are Divided Over Trump, Carter claims the divide over Donald Trump within the evangelical wing of conservatism is clearing new ground since, according to him, up until the present presidential election cycle, “there has been a general sense of unity” among social conservatives. Carter blames Trump’s polarizing persona as the chief culprit: “Few people could... Read more →

Evangelical spokesmen still broadly condemning anyone thinking of voting for Donald Trump as POTUS

In no political election of which I've either participated or followed since I began voting in the mid-seventies do I recall such publicly negative emotion being spewed toward Christian believers. Let me qualify that a bit, for I've certainly observed and, at times, personally experienced, the fiery wrath from those both to the political left of me and unbelievers outside the church. There was a time when those who did not know me would conceivably assume "fascist bigot" was my middle name since it was spoken so often about my... Read more →

Al Mohler is spot-on about Donald Trump but dead-wrong about evangelicals

Within the brokerage world a generation ago, it was said "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen." Hutton was highly influential among brokers. Albert Mohler, Jr. is arguably the most influential Southern Baptist today. Similarly, it might be said in the evangelical world generally and the Southern Baptist world particularly, "When Al Mohler talks, people listen." Well, Mohler talked in the Washington Post yesterday. He talked about the latest news buzz surrounding Donald Trump and the video in which the presidential nominee was heard using explicit and undeniably demeaning sex-talk... Read more →