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Showing posts from October, 2016

Iconoclasm and the Evangelical Preoccupation with Sex

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Evangelical Christians ( by "Evangelical Christians" I am using the term in the sense that modern demographers use it, not in its more theo-historical usage that describes the evangelical activity of the church catholic ) are well known for their strict sexual ethic. In fact, this might be the main thing known about them in the popular imagination. Evangelicals don't have sex before marriage, don't believe in abortion, insist on abstinence only sex-ed, are against gay marriage, and have the highest teen pregnancy rates in America. It is easy to caricature evangelical sexual ethics and too often evangelical institutions get themselves into trouble with the media over their positions on sexual ethical issues ( IVP , TWU , ETS , etc.). While it is easy to poke holes in the logic (or lack thereof) of much that passes for evangelical sexuality, I think this is getting the real issue exactly wrong. The real problem evangelicals have created for themselves is a latent form...

Sin and its Liberal Deniers

The US elections loom above everything these days. There is a profound anxiety and exhaustion present in even the most ordinary public encounters. If this is the state of things in Canada, I can only imagine what our neighbours to the south are going through. Everyone seems to be holding their breath and shaking their heads, hoping that somehow things will turn out alright, knowing that even the best possible outcome is still quite terrifying. How did things get like this? How did a man who is objectively incompetent and singularly unsuited for elected office come this close to becoming the next President of the United States and the most powerful man in the world? While most liberal elites will shrug their shoulders and tell some story about the "uneducated whites" who form Trump's base, the answer is both more simple and more nuanced than that. The basic liberal belief is that education can and will solve all of society's problems. Lost your job? Re-educate yourse...