Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of what we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web.
Book Review of the Week
Making Gay Friends Post-Orlando, Sam Allberry. This is a helpful review of Brad Hambrick’s Do Ask, Do Tell, Let’s Talk: Why and How Christians Should Have Gay Friends. Even if we get the question of sexuality right, we may be missing the heart of Christ if this simply becomes an issue for us. Gay people aren’t simply a demographic; they are people, and God has called us to reach them with his love.
Articles of the Week
Can You Vote for Donald Trump with a Clear Conscience? Andy Naselli. I (Chris) will personally give $5 to anyone who can prove that they saw our current presidential race coming. It’s been wacky, and the next few months are sure to be filled with spirited debate. With Donald Trump as the official Republican nominee, many evangelicals—who would otherwise vote for a Republican candidate—are asking, “Can I actually vote for Trump?” Naselli raises some important and troubling questions about Trump’s character.
Why Voting for Donald Trump Is a Morally Good Choice, Wayne Grudem. When it comes to the Trump question, the answer is rather clear for Grudem, one of evangelicalism’s most respected theologians: he sees Trump as a “flawed” candidate who represents a stream of political thought much more likely to lead to wholistic, long-term societal good than that of Hillary Clinton. Interesting stuff. You need not agree with Grudem’s conclusion, though, to see that he highlights some of the bigger picture issues that Christians ought to think through in this (and every) election—ranging from abortion to religious liberty, from fiscal responsibility to individual liberty and restraints on judicial activism. I (J.D.) can only pray this: May God give us wisdom in the days to come on how to be the people of God in this terrible predicament, and may he have mercy on the United States of America. We have a lot of work to do in the days ahead of us.
Four Ways the World Will Pressure You to Conform, Trevin Wax. Older evangelicals view the United States like Israel—God’s chosen land enjoying God’s unique pleasure. Younger evangelicals tend to view the U.S. as Babylon—an increasingly hostile land in which God’s people are sojourners and exiles. Neither one captures our situation perfectly. But we’re always exiles, to some extent, so Wax’s words here are timely ones. The Babylonians tried to break God’s people in four ways; and our Enemy wants to do the same thing in us today.
Five Ways to Lose Your Ministry, Eric Geiger. We all know stories of pastors who have had to step down after some shameful affair came to light. But in almost every case, it wasn’t the huge affair that started things down the wrong path. The path to destroying your ministry starts in simple, subtle ways. Geiger points out five of the most common. If you’re in ministry, don’t ignore this list.
On The Lighter Side
I’m a big fan of check-lists. So this is true of me:
Wisdom For Your Weekend is presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with occasional guidance from J.D. Greear. This is our attempt to reflect Proverbs 9:9: “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”
