In the latest edition of First Things , friend David Mills (one of a small group of loyal Roman Catholic readers of Ref21) comments on an article in the left wing Brooklyn paper, Indypendent , about 'transgender rock bands,' that the word trans now appears as trans*. The Indy explains this on the...

The Rev. Gustavo Monteiro has recently been ordained by the Presbyterian Church of Brazil to work under the oversight of the Session at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Ambler, Pa. in reaching out to the Brazilian community in the Philadelphia area. We are very excited by this new venture...

As you can see, advance publicity is already being leaked for the new epic Alliance-sponsored biopic, Witchfinder General: The Todd Pruitt Story . Directed by the Puppetmaster, it looks fantastic, with its scenes of violent book burnings ('Please, I'd rather you didn't use church money to buy Jesus...

....when Katie Couric is asking you the hardball questions and making you look stupid. On this week's MoS , the team takes on a challenge set by a listener: to comment on the recent interview between Katie Couric and Pastor Carl Lentz without using the words 'utterly' or 'ridiculous.' As Todd...

The Daily Beast has picked up on the publishing sensation that is Jesus Calling , a book which Todd Pruitt actually made me read for a forthcoming MoS podcast. That is ten dollars and two hours of my life which are gone forever. Am I a better person, though? I somehow doubt it. The book is an odd...

I may be the only person to suffer from this, but every now and then I have this overpowering sense that I am actually Terry Eagleton trapped in the body of a hack church historian. Or at least I wish I was. Hey, if the LGBTQQC etc. community can use the language of bodily confinement relative to...

Tying up a few loose ends at the end of the week. First, in answer to inquiries -- No, Reformation21 is not paying the Rev. Furtick to provide me with material. He is kindly donating it to me for free, for which I am very grateful. The American phrase is 'the gift that keeps on giving,' I believe...

While the evangelical world is no doubt gasping in horror at the expose that the mass baptisms at Elevation Church have been engineered (who could have seen that one coming?) in a way that would leave Charles Finney drooling at the anxious bench, it is worth remembering that us paedobaptists are in...

Some months ago, Peter Leithart declared that it was time Protestantism came to an end . In a fine response, Fred Sanders offered a trenchant critique of the article. Then, two weeks ago, Fred contacted me to ask if I would be willing to be part of a debate on the future of Protestantism with...

Reading Todd's last post , I am shocked to see yet another apparent act of megachurch pastor plagiarism, or, to give it the modern technical name, 'mistakes that have been made.' It seems that the Sunday School material he posts is based upon the syllabus we use at my church. Judge for yourselves...

Elevation Church for their statement of faith , or, to use the modern idiom, "core values." Or, as they put it in their uber-cool but perhaps a bit creepy way at EC, 'The Code'...... Perhaps the Puppetmaster might offer a prize to anyone who can explain what core value 7 means. It makes the debates...

For those who still write to me every now and then congratulating me on my greatest comic creation, Paul Morgan Lewellyn Ap-Levy, there is finally proof of his independent existence. For some years, I have thought of him as my sole ally in the never-ending war against the aristos of the parachurch...

Regular MoS listeners will know that, with the addition of Aimee, we have made the transition from being' not nice' to being 'nice.' That's what having a Housewife Theologian's touch has done for us, as she has laid down the law on a number of fronts: no more dirty laundry left on the studio floor...

While it may be good news for those suffering from coulrophobia, reports are coming out in the national press that America may be facing a critical shortage of clowns in the very near future. One may scoff at such news but when one remembers how many sectors of the economy depend upon a thriving...

It is true. When it comes to the 'criticism sandwich' of my sermons, the present Mrs T is on what I can only with some charity describe as a no-carb diet. Nevertheless, I wonder if some of the Pope of Ealing's ex cathedra criticism of my book plug is rooted in the fact that he has his own...

A couple of cheery things to note. Over at First Thoughts I reveal the secret of a long and happy marriage, at least as proposed by American psychologists. Here, meanwhile, I am happy to bring your attention to a cheerful little book spotted yesterday by Mark McDowell: Calvin, The Psychopath by...

At a Monday meeting to talk about future strategy and the forthcoming Ref21 makeover with the Puppetmaster, I was able to hold him at bay on the chessboard and thus postpone him taking Mortification of Spin off the air. It was particularly encouraging to hear that people thought the podcast had...

Meanwhile, it has just been brought to my attention that Steven Furtick over at Elevation Church also promotes books from his pulpit . Astute readers may spot a couple of subtle differences between the Cornerstone approach and that of Mr. F.

I have two traditions at Cornerstone. One (shamelessly stolen from Capitol Hill Baptist Church) is giving away good books to adults and children. The other is Tabletalk. Tabletalk has been going on for nearly ten years now. Numerous times each year, myself and the present Lady Trueman invite the...

Over at his Patheos blog, Scot McKnight has published a guest post by his friend, John Frye, lamenting the lack of lament in contemporary church life. It seems from the comments (and twittering elsewhere) that an earlier draft pointed the finger at Calvinism. The current version has softened that...

Readers of this blog may know that I am an admirer of the work of Jim Garretson. Jim has done more than anyone else to make available the pastoral wisdom of the Old Princeton tradition, as the list of his publications indicates. Indeed, while I have read the forthcoming volume on Samuel Miller on...

Aimee claims that, since her arrival on the podcast, our numbers of women listeners have gone through the roof, and that we have become the Reformed housewife's choice. Thus, in the latest MoS , while we may not have managed to reunite The Jam, Mott the Hoople, or even the Bay City Rollers, we have...

The latest MoS is up. This week we look at the issue of politics, public moral issues and how the church should respond to such matters. While we agree that the church has to holds certain positions on certain issues, when it comes to church strategy, there are disagreements among us. Thus, it is...

There is a fine interview over at National Review Online with legal philosopher, Francis Beckwith, on the issue of abortion. For my money, Professor Beckwith is one of the sharpest minds out there working on the interface of law and ethics, especially on the matter of abortion, and this interview...