Posts by Don Johnson
Sacrilege and Blasphemy
What makes a thing “sacrilegious and blasphemous”? We’ve seen the terms connected to recent events. Much of the ensuing discussion expresses dismay at the actions of some and ridicule of this dismay on the part of others. I don’t want to get into the specifics of the incident here, we hope the controversy brought about…
Read MoreTaking a Stand Against Canadian Law and Culture
If you follow the Shepherd’s Conference or John MacArthur’s ministry, you may be aware of an email circulated under the auspices of the Shepherd’s Conference called, “A Call to Pastors to Stand United on Biblical Sexual Morality.” In this letter, over John MacArthur’s signature, is a call to join with pastor James Coates and others…
Read MoreI Call Her “Blessed”
Today my mother is 98 years old. I wrote about her a couple of years ago in “Teach Us to Number Our Days.” In that post, I described my mother’s shrinking world with memory loss and limited mobility, urging us all to use our days wisely in the Lord’s service. In today’s post, I want…
Read MoreRepeat After Me
In our study of 1 Peter, we came to 1 Peter 2.21 in our latest message. The verse contains one “big word” that dominates it and the next few verses in the epistle. That word is “example” — translated that way in almost all the English versions I checked. A couple of versions give us…
Read MoreWe’ve No Less Days to Sing God’s Praise, But New Worship Songs Only Last a Few Years | Christianity Today
Worship songs don’t last as long as they used to. The average lifespan of a widely sung worship song is about a third of what it was 30 years ago, according to a study that will be published in the magazineWorship Leader in January. … … the average arc of a worship song’s popularity has…
Read MoreReview: Alcohol Explained
Alcohol Explained, by William Porter manufactured by Amazon.ca, Bolton, ON, n.d. William Porter is, by his own description, “a middle-aged lawyer” who gave up drinking after 25 years. On his website (Alcohol Explained) he says he began drinking and smoking at the age of 14, first giving up smoking and later giving up drinking. He…
Read MoreReview: In the Name of God
In the Name of God: The Colliding Lives, Legends, and Legacies of J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett O. S. Hawkins, B & H Academic, Nashville, 2021 O. S. Hawkins gives us a work of much interest to fundamentalist Baptists, In the Name of God: The Colliding Lives, Legends, and Legacies of J. Frank…
Read MoreAmid Pandemic Turmoil and Curriculum Fights, a Boom for Christian Schools – The New York Times
With public schools on the defensive, is this a blip or a ‘once-in-100-year moment for the growth of Christian education’? … The median member school in the Association of Christian Schools International, one of the country’s largest networks of evangelical schools, grew its K-12 enrollment by 12 percent between 2019-20 and 2020-21. The Association of…
Read MoreExcess mortality during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) – Statistics and Research – Our World in Data
On this page we provide an overview of excess mortality along with charts to explore the data. You can learn in more depth about different measures of excess mortality, their strengths and limitations, and their comparability across countries in our work with John Muellbauer and Janine Aron. Source: Excess mortality during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19)…
Read MoreThe Next 500 Weeks
No doubt our readers may tire of hearing about our milestones. Over the last week, we’ve published three articles marking our 500th week of publication at P&D.1This post will be last, I promise! When institutions or people hit nice round numbers — like 500! — we often mark the milestone. Next year will mark my…
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