December 2021 – Southern Reformed Smoker

Severe 2021 Mercies

What Difference a Day Makes is a good song, I would magnify it though to, “What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time my wife and I were toasting one another cheerfully as 2020 drew to a close and many people around us were acting as if the world were ending. EitherContinue reading “Severe 2021 Mercies”

The Canary in a Coal Mine

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Doug Wilson’s tactics may occasionally be obnoxious, but the guy absolutely deserves a gold star for trying things. And he has been perfectly positioned for evangelicalism at large to get a glimpse at what the world really thinks of us, in real time, and what works and doesn’tContinue reading “The Canary in a Coal Mine”

The Stories He Told

This is the final installment of this series. The previous posts can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Introduction I am still digesting the final episode of Mike Cosper’s Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. But am pretty sure my conclusion will not change too much after further pondering. The finale was, inContinue reading “The Stories He Told”

Give this Man a Cigar

I probably interact with Samuel James too much (especially since he never interacts back because he has no idea who I am). But his post It’s too Loud in Here left me thinking,* this is a man in serious need of a good cigar; and possibly a scotch. James wrote a wonderful pice vicariously goingContinue reading “Give this Man a Cigar”

Writing a Risk

There are three things in the Bible Belt that are verboten for those of us in para-church ministry to do: drink alcohol, smoke, or be a Calvinist. Not only do I do the first things I am the third as well. As a result what you read here is something of a risk, both toContinue reading “Writing a Risk”

The Sin of Pithiness

A couple of times now I have expressed my agreement with Doug Wilson and Joe Rigney on their position of empathy being a sin. There has been a lot of blowback, and as is par for the Wilson course it has been pitched and forked with calls for the monsters to be burned with theseContinue reading “The Sin of Pithiness”