William H. Smith
"Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back" by Frank Schaeffer
Crazy for God is a sassy, angry, honest, revealing, vulnerable, unsettling, insightful, frustrating book. In other words, it sums up Frank Schaeffer. It is not, however, the tell-all, reject-all book about his parents and evangelicalism that I thought it might be. I do have serious misgivings. He has been accused of dishonoring his parents, especially […]
There is a book of the Bible from which ministers seldom preach. Though I have lived nearly sixty years, been a minister for thirty-five and married for almost forty, I am one of those who have avoided speaking on this book-the Song of Solomon. Then one day I chose to use it for a wedding […]
Who brought about the greater changes in American Protestantism: Charles Darwin or Jonathan Edwards? Most historians argue that the sea change came after the War between the States. Protestantism had to grapple with the problems created by cities and industries, the challenges of higher criticism, the changes brought about by looking at religion through the […]
One of the most significant decisions taken by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) was the action of the third General Assembly when the Assembly declared: "The Directory for Worship is an approved guide and should be taken seriously as the mind of the Church agreeable to the Standards. However, it does not have the […]
Nothing expresses the heart of Christianity like the Kyrie. It was the cry of blind Bartimaeus, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:47). It was the prayer of the justified publican and the last prayer of John Murray, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13). The Bible makes clear that […]
