Benjamin Franklin's Moral System Leads to Pride

Even the best of humanists devise systems of ungrace to replace those rejected in religion. Benjamin Franklin settled on 13 virtues, including:

Silence: ...

Monk Runs Seven Years for Enlightenment

It's amazing what some people will do to be spiritual. On September 18, 2003, Genshin Fujinami, 44, a Buddhist priest nicknamed the "Marathon ...

Prisoner Frightened by Freedom

In the film The Shawshank Redemption, Ellis "Red" Redding has spent his prime wasting away in prison because of a reckless act of violence he ...

Substitutes for Transformation

Pastor John Ortberg reflects:

Conforming to boundary markers too often substitutes for authentic transformation.

The church I grew up in had its boundary ...

Legalism: When Application Trumps Intent

In an interview with Preaching Magazine, preacher, professor, and author Haddon Robinson warns against the danger of legalism:

When an abstract concept ...

Sin Outlawed . . . Again

A news article about the religious history of the Chicago area began with this paragraph about Zion, a small town north of the city: "Rev. John Alexander ...

Deadly Legalism

The pharisaical legalism pictured in the parable of the good Samaritan is alive and well. As a result, a 15-year-old African-American boy in Chicago is ...

God Is Neither Psychic nor Policeman

Looking to God for ad hoc psychic direction in each situation is only a short step away from looking to Him for written rules and regulations for each ...

The Seemingly Right Thing

At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged ...

Freedom and True Goodness

Above all, Christians are not allowed to correct with violence the delinquencies of sins. For it is not those that abstain from wickedness from compulsion, ...