Posts by Kevin Schaal
Social Media Deplatforming and the Law – Maranatha Baptist University
Recent events have highlighted the very real dangers to online viewpoint expression represented by the editorial actions of major social media platforms. The power of words to influence (for good or evil) underscores the importance of God’s people graciously engaging the culture with wisdom and discretion. I wrote this article for the American Association of…
Read MoreDon’t Mourn the Decline of Churches that Preach a False Gospel
In a May 28, 2024 article for Mere Orthodoxy, Matthew Loftus mourned the precipitous decline in church attendance among historic mainline denominations (read historically modernist denominations). Church attendance for mainline denominations has now dropped to 9% of the population. For the sake of clarity, historically mainline churches while not all theologically liberal, aligned themselves with…
Read MoreWhen Big Banks Discriminate | Alliance Defending Freedom
Beginning five years ago, a New York state official launched a targeted attack on the National Rifle Association. Her tactic was simple but authoritarian. Wielding state power, she actively pressured financial institutions to cut ties with the Second Amendment advocacy group, using back-channel meetings, public investigations, and threats of fines. As one might expect, the…
Read MoreThe Great Dechurching Will Hurt Poor People
Churchgoing is good for the poor and vulnerable in a variety of ways: it gives people moral guidance on how to live their lives. It gives them opportunities to directly serve others as a community. It results in tithes that are then spent on a wide variety of charitable works. These things are not salvation,…
Read MoreWhat Does “Train Up” Mean in Proverbs 22:6?
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Probably the most quoted verse in Proverbs is 22:6. Over the years, the verse has held as a precious promise to parents that if they do everything right, their kids will turn out right.…
Read MoreIs This the Start of an American Stasi?
Last year, a whistleblower exposed an FBI memorandum that proposed infiltrating churches to deal with “radical traditional Catholics,” who were characterized as a domestic terror threat. The bureau interviewed clergy as part of the effort, and at least one undercover agent was involved. When this was exposed, FBI director Christopher Wray initially claimed that the…
Read MoreChristianity and the School Choice Movement
By 2015 or so, it seemed like the Christian School movement in the US was close to death. For thirty years, many church-based schools strangled their mother institutions. Some church-based schools thrived but only with very careful control of enrollment. Homeschooling overtook Christian Schools as the Christian Education of choice, but that left many students…
Read MoreUnited Methodism: How Conservatives Won the Debate, but Lost the Denomination | Jack Jackson | First Things
Going forward a few things are noteworthy. First, the UMC is fast lurching to the left. Second, progressives didn’t take over the denomination by presenting a compelling vision so much as by simply ignoring the denomination’s democratic form of church law to such a degree that the denomination itself became ungovernable, leading to a mass…
Read MoreThe false promise of keeping a loved one ‘alive’ with A.I. grief bots | America Magazine
With the creation of A.I., anthropomorphized chatbots are one critical example of how the rapidly advancing technology is testing the limits of the human condition. Source: The false promise of keeping a loved one ‘alive’ with A.I. grief bots | America Magazine
Read MoreThe Glory of God, Alcohol, and My Brother in Christ
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31) I have been preaching a series through the Book of Proverbs recently, and I finally got to the subject of social drinking. Proverbs has a lot to say on the subject. The language is clear.…
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