Applied Theology
As a child, I believed in Santa. As my age rose into the higher single digits, I began to realize that something wasn’t adding up with the Santa Claus story. I don’t remember my age, but it was definitely before age 10, when I realized that Santa had some parental help. Here is how it... Continue Reading →
I went to bed late but arose early, hoping against all hope that my waking would prove the nightmare of President Obama’s reelection to have been just a bad dream. But it was not a bad dream; it was a bad reality, a sad statement about the soul of our once great nation. I am... Continue Reading →
Thank you, Representative Frank Wolf. A long-time advocate for religious freedom, Representative Wolf (R- VA) is now crying out for Christians in America to advocate on behalf of suffering Christians around the world. The slaughter of thousands of Christians in Syria at the hands of Sunni Muslims and the killing of thousands more Coptic Christians... Continue Reading →
Christians are not the only courageous people in the world. Here on my blog and at our ministry to the persecuted church (Project 13:3), we often highlight cases of Christian courage, telling the stories of those unwilling to yield their faith in Christ to the threats of police, parents, and employers. Such stories of... Continue Reading →
I just read this devastating account of a couple in Lahore, Pakistan, who killed their 16 year old daughter because she was talking to a young man. In many Shariah-compliant Muslim communities, parents are driven to kill their children (almost always their daughters) in order supposedly to preserve the honor of the Muslim family. As... Continue Reading →
One of the great advantages of reading news online is the benefit of immediate feedback. The comment section is like an instant collection of letters to the editor. While reading through such comments recently, I came across an all-too-common refrain: “Stop killing in the name of god. If religious zealots could just learn tolerance, we’d... Continue Reading →
Are there any pro-life Democrats left in America? After the Democrat cave-in which came during the passage of Obamacare, and after the concomitant HHS mandate requiring contraception and abortifacient drugs be covered by all health insurance programs, the answer would seem to be an emphatic, “No!” The national platform of the Democrat party calls more... Continue Reading →
A recent editorial is making news in Malaysia. According to Free Malaysia Today (FMT), the Umno government in Malaysia is making scapegoats of Christians in order to turn attention away from their own failures. The original scapegoat (Azazel of Leviticus 16) was an innocent goat who had the sins of Israel put upon its head... Continue Reading →
Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online has recently conducted an interview with Samuel "Dub" Oliver concerning the recent court filing by East Texas Baptist University against the Health and Human Services mandate in Obamacare. I have listed just a snippet from the interview so you can get a feel for the motive behind this... Continue Reading →
For more than three years now, I have had an unsettling fear that religious liberty in America is on the wane. Turns out, I am not alone. A movement is afoot among state legislatures across the country. According to Baptist Press, there is a plan in place to have caucuses for religious freedom in every... Continue Reading →
For more than a century, Christians have been stretched by the tension of a fundamentalist strand on one side and the evangelical strand on the other, each pulling backwards against the other like a rubber band being pulled apart by two opposing hands. The result has indeed been tension. On the one hand, the fundamentalists... Continue Reading →
The Family Research Council is calling on Christians to pray for those who are filing lawsuits against the Health and Human Services mandate. The mandate—which is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)--states that all employers must provide “preventative” care to all women. The word “preventative” must be put in quotes because... Continue Reading →
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has just released a new study concerning the increase of "Nones." What they mean by that is that there is a rise in the number of people not affiliating with any religion at all. Overall, the study shows that we are still (at least nominally) a Judeo-Christian... Continue Reading →
In his recent U.N. address, President Barack Obama boldly prophesied that the future would belong to those who do not insult the prophet Muhamad. I both hope and suspect his is a false prophecy. The problem with his approach is that it is impossible. Exploring the question of what insults the prophet Mohammed yields answers... Continue Reading →
In response to a couple of posts of late, I offer below two examples of well-known preachers who have made overtly political statements. The first is Bishop E.W. Jackson who calls upon black Christians to leave the Democrat party. It's a short, simple, and powerful video. The second example comes from John MacArthur. You can... Continue Reading →
Gregory C. Cochran 