https://www.ilfordipc.co.uk/the-bible-teaches-the-sacred-secular-distinction/
This was a refreshing read to say the least. It exhibits the very rare case in which someone seems to be able to grasp that while every aspect of our lives is shaped by our faith, there is nevertheless still a critical distinction between the sacred and secular and that it's something explicitly taught in Scripture.
I had no intention to offer any comment on the death of Dolly Parton, a subject I deem to be a waste of time. However, the Christian community has chosen to celebrate this woman and seen to want to claim her as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
https://ministrywatch.com/mclean-bible-church-lawsuit-lives-on/
This sort of article both frustrates and baffles me. Everyone claims to follow the Scripture and yet this is a clear (and recurring) instance of indisputable Christian disobedience and the complete setting aside of Scriptural imperatives.
Christians do not use the courts.
But they especially do not sue other Christians.
This AI-related article is mildly interesting but also dubious at points. In addition to other issues, it touches on the growing concern surrounding the AI-bubble. Regardless of what AI does or fails to do, this hype alone and the potential for a burst and the economic fallout that results is becoming a substantial story on its own merits.
https://rootedthinking.com/2026/04/09/did-god-call-me-to-my-work-is-calling-a-christian-notion/
There's some good balance in this article. By the time I was a third of the way through it, I wanted to know who the author is. I was surprised to find that he's a Fundamentalist. This smacks of the older Fundamentalism that is all but obsolete in our day. While I cannot agree with them doctrinally there is a counter-cultural and ethos of antithesis about them that I always find refreshing - I just don't find it much any more.
American Family Radio continues to push the Great Replacement theory and one means by doing so is by linking up with Michael Youssef - a millionaire mega-church pastor from Atlanta who has marketed his Egyptian heritage. I've listened to him many times on the radio and not only have I found his teaching to be defective, there is something of the charlatan and fraud about him. There are so many 'experts' that emerged after 9/11 that have cashed on on Middle-Eastern and Islamic backgrounds - and yet so many have been exposed as frauds.
https://ministrywatch.com/st-andrews-chapel-salaries-well-above-median-salary-in-the-region
This report matters because these are 'respected' ministries and leaders and yet their conduct (as reported in the article) raises eyebrows. I think it is glimpse behind the veil. I think this kind of corruption is far from being an anomaly. There are abuses of power on many levels, corruption, and rank greed. The numbers involved aren't on the level of a Wall Street scandal that makes the national news but for individuals these are serious salaries that pay for a very nice lifestyle and the people in these institutions and bureaucracies are not going to just give them up and go away quietly.
The Right would have us believe that the Liberals are out to destroy the United States and reduce its might and wealth. This is patently ridiculous - as I have argued on many occasions. The Left (so-called) is just as invested in the Empire as the Right is. The leaders of the DNC and the so-called Liberal Media are all avid capitalists and support the US Empire, its projects and its wars.
However they do like to have it all packaged with a nice humanitarian and legally justified veneer - even if it's all rubbish. They attach interpretive narratives as to how it all works so that it can appear legal, humane, and enlightened. In some respects I find myself despising them all the more for their hypocrisy - though there's plenty to go around.
I was reminded of this listening to NPR's Steve Inskeep interview Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan. It was quite chummy with Inskeep employing his trademark over the top laugh. He was hardly an impartial or watchdog reporter let alone an adversarial one.
https://petehurst.com/wealth-is-not-the-problem/
I was sorry to see (but not terribly surprised) the confused publishers of The Aquila Report endorsed this article by republishing it.
Hurst is a former PCA pastor who still speaks in PCA/OPC circles. He retired from the ministry and decided to get into real estate and get rich. He justifies this by means of Kuyperian argument. He is unapologetic in his celebration of wealth and the 'good life'.
https://virgilwalker.substack.com/p/the-sermons-the-church-refuses-to
Once again Virgil Walker manages to raise some valid points and then miss the larger point. Has the modern Church succumbed to worldliness in the realm of gender and family structure? Absolutely, and this is even a problem in circles that otherwise are deemed to be very conservative.
Generally speaking I have appreciated Tom Hervey's commentaries that have appeared at The Aquila Report - I even bought his book of essays on Amazon. I'm sorry to say this was an exception. He excoriates those in the PCA that in 2020 condemned the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and these same Presbyterians even described them as heinous.
This article inadvertently reveals some of the misperceptions of life under communism. You certainly could attend church but if you did, there was a price.
Along with the bulk of the public, as a church attender you would not be a member of the Communist Party. In addition you would find many jobs and places to live closed to you. You could live and make a living, but as a Christian you were part of an underclass.
https://virgilwalker.substack.com/p/from-rome-to-rainbow-flags-when-empires
Walker is right in a sense but he largely misses the point. Perversion is a symptom of decadence which is part of a larger complex of events and cultural shifts that signals collapse.
I happened to listen to a recent Family Life Network (FLN) piece on gambling. This is a frequently visited topic as it concerns both New York and Pennsylvania, the network's listening area. Both states have in recent years opened up online betting and New York and Pennsylvania have both been involved in casino expansion. In New York, the Indian reservations have become popular venues, while Pennsylvania has allowed some casinos to open up in the Poconos and there are a few horse racing venues in the state.
https://julieroys.com/aaron-renn-might-be-right-christians-face-negative-world-but-is-it-new/
After months of hearing on the radio and from podcasts and pulpits about 'the negative world' and Aaron Renn's interpretive paradigm, it's refreshing to discover at least a few voices that recognize his narrative as problematic.
The battle continues over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The courts in some cases resist the attempts to shut it down - in other cases the courts are facilitating its termination.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/ted-cruz-blasts-spiritual-component-of-modern-left.html
Without a doubt the Church is filled with compromisers and led by men that have capitulated and even bowed to the world. We were warned of this in the New Testament.
But this condemnation does not belong exclusively to theological liberals and/or those that have embraced Left-wing politics. The same is true when it comes to those that have embraced Right-wing thinking, Enlightenment categories of economics and politics, those that promote mammonism, nationalism, and champion war and empire - even while denying they do so.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/considered-good-income-america-dave-113400372.html
Worldliness dominates Ramsey's thinking. 'A good income' is defined not by the New Testament and the ethics of the Kingdom but by the world, as indeed all of Ramsey's thought is dominated by the world's categories and economic theories. The fact that churches use this man's materials for Sunday Schools and the like is not only disgraceful, it's a sign of growing apostasy and the abandonment of Scripture. It's a sign of judgment. This is even while they continue to throw the word 'Biblical' in front of everything they do.
I've been asked about this before and it has actually been on my mind as of late. Having visited several churches lately, I keep encountering Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, a 'ministry' run by Samaritan's Purse – one of Franklin Graham's cash cows. Between Samaritan's Purse, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and his other endeavours, Mr. Graham pulls in well over a million dollars a year.
https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/6390cc89fad8bafe3a9ec787
At about the twelve minute mark we come to:
5. Be on a Budget
Budgets are very helpful, but contrary to the narrative being
provided, there are people who spend years trying to get that money set aside
for tires or whatever and can never get there. Life keeps happening and because
the margins are too tight, they can't meet those goals. Others have volatile
incomes – shift workers whose hours change every week, or those who are
self-employed. A sickness can throw everything off and then while you're trying
to get it back on track – a car repair comes up that you can't pay for.
Sometimes it can take months to get back on track, but by then something else
has likely happened. These people are not necessarily doing anything wrong –
they're simply struggling.
