Pragmatism vs. Principle: Contraception and the 1st Amendment

This week the White House offered a compromise to the Roman Catholic church regarding the earlier health care bill’s requirement that all hospitals (including Roman Catholic ones)  be required to provide access to artificial contraceptives to their patients.  The White House compromise was, in effect, to mandate that the insurance companies pay for the contraceptives […]

Should Protestants be Concerned about Roman Catholic convictions regarding Birth Control?

The new health care initiative, popularly known as “Obama-care,” has been one of the most controversial entitlements in recent memory.  A few months ago the debate was about whether it was constitutional for any government to force someone to “buy” anything, whether it be a lawn mower or a health care policy.  In the last […]

The West as the “fastest growing mission field in the world”

Some readers of this blog may not know that I had a life as a missiologist before I became the President of Asbury Theological Seminary.  I had the privilege of teaching in the area of missiology for nearly two decades.  I have a long appreciation for the significance of the emphasis on unreached people groups […]

Christian Smith’s “The Bible Made Impossible”

Occasionally I utilize my blog to commend a really great book. Other times, I point out why a book, or more to the point, why a particular argument made in a book should be avoided. This is the case with Christian Smith’s book The Bible Made Impossible. Christian Smith is a sociologist at Notre Dame […]

Lessons my Mother taught me

There is an old African proverb which says, “the mother feeds the baby when it has no teeth so that the baby will someday feed the mother when she has no teeth.” The truth of that proverb came home to me powerfully this week when my 84 year old mother fell and broke her hip. […]

Auld Lang Syne and 2012: The Year of the Prophet?

In what has got to be one of the cruelest twists of history, Robert Burns (The great bard of Scotland) was the author of some of the most powerful and thoughtful poetry ever written by a common pen (To a Mouse; A Man’s a Man for a’ That;  Scots Wha Hae, etc…).  Yet, the one […]

Why we need the Gospel of John at Christmastime

We are all aware of how any distinctively Christian celebration of Christmas can so easily be lost in “frosty the snowman,” “Jack Frost nipping at your nose,” “Santa Claus finding out who’s naughty and nice,” “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” and the list goes on and on.  What is hard to find is any […]

Costa Rican Methodism

Julie and I just returned last night from Costa Rica where I had the joy of speaking at the Methodist Conference of Costa Rica. I also spoke at the graduation of the Evangelical Methodist Seminary, founded over thirty years ago by Bishop Luis Palomo, who is also a Trustee of Asbury Theological Seminary. The highlight […]

Declaring the Wonders of God!

My wife, Julie and I just returned from spending Thanksgiving in Kwamadebe, Tanzania. Our daughter, Bethany, lives there along with a team of ten Christians in the hopes that the 40,000 Alagwesa people who live there might come to know Jesus Christ.  The travel which is required to get to this remote location is, in […]

Discipling Nations

One of the key themes in the Gospel is the declaration that the Gospel will be preached in “all nations.” Jesus, as the Risen Lord, commanded His disciples to make disciples of all nations. It is interesting that, on the popular level, we often interpret this as making disciples of “individuals.” However, Jesus said we […]