Authenticity, Schmauthenticity
Ever since the First Pretty Good Awakening (at least), a kind of conservative Protestant has looked for indications of genuine faith — such as religious affections, or unwillingness to compromise with...
View ArticleMale Pattern Sensitivity
Who is more sensitive? Bill Smith in response to Thabiti Anyabwile on crazy Confederate uncles? I should not have to say these things, but I will, though I know some, perhaps including Brother...
View ArticleDoes the L in TULIP Stand for Living in Denial?
A while back Bill Smith, Presbyterian in exile, made this observation about the ongoing debates in Reformed circles over antinomianism and sanctification: I think I understand the problem the...
View ArticleHo Hum
According to David Hall, not much of significance occurred at the PCA General Assembly: It was a par-for-the-course General Assembly, which pronounces another resounding “Meh,” to the idealist...
View ArticleChristian Homeland
Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t Go Home Again, a book that I once started but could not finish even after visiting the Wolfe home in Asheville, NC. If Christians could go home again, where would it be?...
View ArticleThe Reformed Episcopal Church
The only communion where you kneel to receive grape juice and you have a priest who is able to mix it up with the BBs. Consider the following exchange (over Tim Bayly’s recommendation of a Roman...
View ArticleA Fundamentalist Is A Mean Evangelical
It wasn’t supposed to work out this way. Evangelicalism of the Billy Graham variety was supposed to present a kinder gentler conservative Protestantism. But as Tommie Kidd recently observed,...
View ArticleWhere Do You Stop?
If you object to the Confederate Flag, why not to Alabama’s and Florida’s. If you notice the design, you have a diagonal cross similar to the Scottish flag, but with a white background and maroon bars....
View ArticleCollective Guilt
At first I thought I was clear because I’m not Tim Bayly, Tim Keller, or PCA: Bayly Blog has published a piece by Lucas Weeks, an assistant pastor at Clearnote Church, in which he argues that the root...
View ArticleJust A Goat Breeder
The Christian Curmudgeon has moved to “Just a Curmudgeon.” The reason could be that he doesn’t think Christians own being curmudgeonly any more than folks who trust Jesus (or Abraham Kuyper) own the...
View ArticleBetween the Times
Curmudgeon reminds me of a thought I had last night while looking at holiday decorations on homes in the neighborhood. We are in that mysterious and wondrous period when Halloween decorations are still...
View ArticleAdvancing the Conversation?
It was not so long ago, after Michael Brown’s death, that lots of people in Reformed circles were calling for a conversation about race. After almost two years and after listening to some of the...
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When Pastors Talk about Politics without Righteousness
Sometimes pastors make sense. This makes me think about the issues that are most important to me. Here is a list that is neither exhaustive nor in any particular order: 1) respect for the Constitution...
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He’s Only a Priest and Only Gives Homilies (now)
But Bill Smith still raises good questions for any pastor, priest, bishop, or pope who pretends to think his spiritual jurisdiction gives him credibility in the civil realm. His questions also apply to...
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I’ll See Your Year and Raise You an Age
Bill Smith makes a weak (sorry) case for the church calendar: There is small minority of Presbyterians who observe no Church Year as a matter of principle. They believe it would be sin so to do. Then...
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Return of the Bible Thumper
Bill Smith tries to pull the church calendar out of the solar year: Does Dr. Hart really think that the solar year and the interadvental age are at odds with one another? Does not the interadvental age...
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Mitt ’16
Trigger warning: what follows is a post on a series with lots of profanity and — get this — lots of prayer. If you want to contemplate the disparity between profaning and praising God’s name, see what...
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It’s Only Politics
Matt Tuininga echoes the idea that politics is evidence of sanctification (integration of faith and life and all of that): Will Republican evangelicals who see their sisters and brothers – their...
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At Least It Makes You a Curmudgeon
Presbyterianism, that is. Bill Smith a good on-line friend is kicking up a little dust of late against Reformed Protestantism or Presbyterianism and maybe a tad triumphal about his own communion...
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You Can Take the Curmudgeon out of Presbyterianism . . .
But you can’t take Presbyterianism out of the Curmudgeon. The best priest we know serves up even more reasons for thinking New Calvinism is a sham: Drs. Moore and Mohler have also been involved in...
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