In Depth:  Josh Moody

Josh Moody

I grew up in a boarding school. My father was a boarding school house master, and we lived on the grounds of this community.

I did not grow up in a manse or vicarage or parsonage. My children, of course, are growing up ‘Pastor’s Kids’ (PKs). How can I help them flourish in that environment?

Josh Moody

Recently I have been involved in an international conference in Kiev, Ukraine, seeking to develop a ‘Ukraine Without Orphans’.

Why describe this, you ask, in 'Letter from America'? Because American Christians, too, are becoming focused on adoption. Russell Moore, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, emphasises this point in his teaching. And recently Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, sparked no little controversy by banning adoption of Russians by Americans.

Josh Moody

Ah, wasn't life easy when it was assumed that Billy Graham would give the inaugural prayer?!

Non-political, widely respected, eminent, senior, an establishment figure who could also appeal across generations. Those dulcet Southern tones mixed with the gravitas of a man who had also prayed with everyone from the President of China, you would think, to the piano repair man next door.

Josh Moody

As I write, this day Washington legalised marijuana use.

Predictably there will be a whole host of commentary about it, both from the secular media, and also from Christian pundits. What does the Bible have to say?

Josh Moody

‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s...’ This is the famous pronouncement of the Master in response to a particularly intense period of Pharisaic grilling. But what precisely does it mean as Christians in America negotiate a cultural landscape that appears less friendly to traditional Christian values and the message of the gospel than in the recent past?

The blogosphere is not short of answers, but I suggest that 1 John, in particular, provides a compelling look at the right way to respond. In the context in which John was writing, there was an incipient ‘Gnosticism’ that was advocating a toned down spirituality, denying that Jesus was the Christ in ‘flesh’, and therefore that it was possible to be spiritual without actual practical commitment to the local church or, indeed, without practising righteousness. In other words, in response to pressures from a pagan environment, the church was susceptible to a form of teaching that allowed it to live in a less combative fashion with its neighbours — understandable in its own right — but by means of denying core doctrines (‘Jesus is the Christ’) and core moral behaviour (‘practising righteousness’).

Josh Moody

Is everything wrong with practically everything these days?

You can hardly turn over a blog page, or flip through a list of scrolling tweets, or listen to some startling statistic, without being given the impression that this is the case.

Josh Moody

Many at this stage in the election cycle are cynical of the motivations of our elected leaders.

Some may despair of finding effective (let alone godly) government. Yet, here are five reasons why you should pray for the government.

Josh Moody

A group of pastors gathered in Wheaton, outside Chicago, in May for a three-day course on Bible exposition.

Vaughan Roberts from Oxford and yours truly provided the instruction sessions and expositions for this course, but the real heart of this Simeon Trust workshop is the small group ministry that takes place. Dave Helm, head of the Simeon Trust in America, has provided a wonderful set of material and a framework which serves many pastors up and down the country to encourage them to preach the word faithfully.

Josh Moody

Suffering is hateful. Bloody. Nasty. Indiscriminate. Horrible.

Just ask Job if you don’t believe me. For all the books out there on suffering — and there are many — it is a topic that will not go away because the easy answers do not work.

Josh Moody

When John Stott’s memorial service in America took place, I was fascinated to hear the influence of British evangelicalism.

Person after person who spoke talked about how some of the luminaries known to readers of this paper — John Stott, Dick Lucas, and others — have had an outsized influence on developing a thinking person’s approach to biblical Christianity. The work of the Simeon Trust (www.simeon.org) generates similar conferences to that of the Proclamation Trust and frequently quotes Dick Lucas aphorisms.

Josh Moody

One of the strange delights of living in a country where you did not grow up is the joy of exploring a whole different sporting culture.

For instance, take basketball. Well, when I went to school, basketball was played as distinctly second-rate also-ran game. For an Englishman I was not that bad. But I remember an American we had with us who was on our team and seemed to spend the whole time running up and down putting the thing in the appropriate basket. I could catch, pass, but throwing the ball through the rim was a whole different ‘ball game’.

Josh Moody

Watching St. Paul’s from a distance has been an interesting experience recently.

I was then intrigued to discover (from Challies.com) that a Christian street preacher in Calgary was comparing his treatment with that of ‘Occupy Calgary’ — anti-capitalist occupiers who have been left to openly flout many of the same bylaws that he has been routinely arrested for.¹ Artur Pawlowski comments: ‘I have stood over 70 times in the courts. We have been charged over 100 times. Eight arrests’, he says. ‘Just because I believe in Jesus Christ, I’m treated differently.’

Josh Moody

Serious economic activity indicators are all around us, and earnest disciplined parents drive their children to succeed.

When such is the case, it is easy to feel that life is about working hard and forget the adage that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. I came across this quotation from C.S. Lewis recently: ‘It is only in our “hours-off”, only in our moments of permitted festivity, that we find an analogy. Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for “down here” is not their natural place. Here, they are a moment’s rest from the life we are placed here to live. But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of heaven’.

Josh Moody

To even attempt to broach this demanding topic in a few hundred words is to rush in where angels fear to tread.

So first a preliminary word: this will not be exhaustive. It will not be ‘exhausting’ either, for which you may breathe a sigh of relief, because of its appropriate brevity.

Josh Moody

The American economy has had a lower than expected increase in employment.

Other indicators from around the world seem to contribute to an expectation that if this economy is improving, it is doing so slowly.

Josh Moody

One of the most interesting pieces of news is perhaps a little buried beneath the headlines.

An Illinois court has made the ruling that pharmacists will not be required to stock the morning after pill. This is a remarkable victory for some battling Christian small business owners who have been threatened with going out of business because of their commitment to Christian values. As part of the process it emerged that the original mandate to force all pharmacies to carry Plan B was actually autographed by Planned Parenthood. Under the instruction of the previous Mayor of Chicago the wheels were set in motion. But now, though of course the ruling will be appealed, there is reason for celebration. Much prayer, faithfulness, clarity has allowed Christians to continue to operate within this area of medical practice.

Josh Moody

(Warning: flagrant self-promotion to follow.) My book No Other Gospel (Crossway, 2011) has just been published and I have duly been doing the rounds of radio interviews on Christian radio in the US.

They have certainly been fascinating. Whereas in the UK there is Premier Radio listened to by a loyal audience, no doubt, in the US there is a very large population of Christians who listen to Christian talk radio, with news and music, and regular preaching programming. Some of it perhaps classifies as ‘naff’ or ‘cheesy’, but much of it is genuinely edifying and helpful.

Josh Moody

Some remarkable new studies have emerged about the changing patterns of marriage in America.

For decades, it has been assumed that the more educated elites tended towards being more liberal in this and many other ways, while the lower echelons, the less educated with minimal if any college education, are assumed to be more conservative with relation to marriage and anything else.

Josh Moody

The financial crisis of 2008 caused many a surprise, but perhaps none as unusual as the recent discovery made by John Bollen of Indiana University.

Bollen has analysed messages sent through the website Twitter during that crisis. He expected that the emotional content of these ‘Tweets’ would mirror the market. But he was wrong. The Tweets did not reflect the market; they predicted it by two to three days, and at an accuracy of about 86%.

Josh Moody

John Piper is one of the most influential of his generation of evangelical leaders, and this month Crossway have come out with a ‘festschrift’ in his honour.

The book lists a remarkable catalogue of friends and colleagues with whom Piper has collaborated over the years. And it is surely a testament to the way God has used John Piper that such a book could be put together.

Josh Moody

After Glenn Beck (a Mormon Fox News commentator) organised and led a massive rally in Washington DC recently, calling on the need for reviving America, many discerning Christian commentators were disconcerted — to say the least – to discover that evangelical Christians seemed able to embrace Beck as one of their own.

Justin Taylor has since posted a repeat of the ESV Study Bible’s teaching about what is different between Mormonism and Christianity¹, and Russell Moore has opined successfully that the problem is not that Beck is an effective leader, nor that he is allowed to speak his mind in religiously free America, but that some evangelical Christians are so undiscerning.²

Josh Moody

A book which deserves a much longer review is James Davidson Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Later Modern World.

As I say, I cannot possibly do this book justice in these few words, other than to say that if you are interested in the problem of cultural change in our day you really should read it. I don’t agree with everything that Hunter says. For instance, it is frustrating that Hunter (so sure footed elsewhere) makes if not monumental gaffes in historical summary, at least takes a particular side in the historical debate about particular events without seeming to realise that the side he is taking is far from non-controversial. He seems to regard it as an open and shut case that Luther was at least partly responsible for the German genocide of the Jews, and that Calvin was entirely responsible for the judicial execution of Servetus on religious grounds. As a historian (admittedly my period being a century or so later among the Puritans and the early Evangelical Awakening), those two statements are debatable and not to be taken at face value. That frustrates me, because to some extent it undoes a lot of the good work that Hunter does, of significant service to the church. Talking of the Puritans, you would also think that a brief survey of Protestantism would mention them quite a bit, especially writing as an American.

Josh Moody

Let me talk about an important book bearing on the American scene.

Sebastian Junger’s War (New York, 2010) is a specifically non-religious book, but with great relevance to assessments of the effects and experience of war in Afghanistan for American troops. Junger ‘embedded’ himself with the ultimate front line troops in a far flung outpost of Afghanistan to experience daily life in combat.

Josh Moody

The growing environmental crisis in the (Mexican) Gulf, following the breakage of the BP oil pipe, is doing something unexpected to evangelical environmental concerns: there is a developing tenderness.

Dr. Moore, Senior Vice President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes winsomely and captivatingly about his epiphany after his recent exposure to the issue in the Gulf area (http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/06/01/ecological-catastrophe-and-the-uneasy-evangelical-conscience/).

Josh Moody

I understand the normal apologetic narrative of evangelicalism’s standard engagement with contemporary culture, and by and large agree with it.

Typically, we are told, that we now live in an age where ‘modern’ scientific certainty has given way, or is in process of giving way, to more ‘postmodern’ relativistic assumptions about the meaning of life. Along with this shift, and at its root, is an epistemological issue, which impacts how our language, conversation, preaching, evangelism and truth claims are made, or heard to be made at the least.

Josh Moody

Josh Moody interviews Professor Douglas Moo on this important issue.

JM: Dr. Moo, would you explain to us (in 100 words or less!) what the current state of play is ‘theologically’ with regard to the issue of justification?

Josh Moody

It wasn’t long after the current crisis in Haiti broke that I was sent the following YouTube clip of Pat Robertson ascribing the devastation of Haiti to the work of the devil, indeed a pact of the devil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59NCduEhkBM). Cue usual snorts of derision from non-Christians (and many Christians no doubt too), and cue usual despair that the rather more sophisticated — it’s not hard to be rather more sophisticated — apologists are not given the same airtime.

Then there was also the link I was sent of some former evangelical professor who seemed to suggest that the ‘clever ones’ (or some such phrase) offering an attempted theodicy would be trying to so do by saying it was all a ‘mystery’.

Josh Moody

Whether or not — and to what extent, and at what speed — the international market economy is recovering is beyond the scope of this paper, and certainly beyond my expertise as a writer.

But from the ground up it still looks like, to say the least, we are in ‘interesting’ financial times, and some list it as ongoing through 2010 at least (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010). What does this mean for the church?

Josh Moody

The city ‘that never sleeps’ and which is the cure for ‘small town blues’ has rather incongruously become the location for a gathering of evangelical, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox ministers to issue a joint statement against the current cultural moral decline called the Manhattan Declaration. Since then, a firestorm!

Those evangelicals who signed it are accused of compromising because throughout the Manhattan Declaration the term ‘Christian’ is used to define all three groups. Plus, very little mention is made in the declaration about the gospel itself (inevitably given the different views on the gospel the original signatories of the document hold).

Josh Moody

The current story of Pope Benedict inviting Anglicans to Rome (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125615995448599769.html?mod=article-outset-box) is no doubt covered elsewhere, but it has a particular ring within the context of the US.

In certain circles of American evangelicalism, being more high churchy, if not downright sacramental, has become a little bit attractive. I am told that for every one evangelical who moves to Rome, three move from Rome to evangelicalism, so it’s not as if we have a major issue, but nonetheless it does make you scratch your head. Coming recently from a part of America (New England) where the Roman Catholic churches are struggling after the disaster of the priest child abuse cases, it is — let us say — downright astonishing to find a good ol’ Bible bashing evangelical getting all funky about candles, bells, and men in dresses (I mean ‘cassocks’, excuse me, brethren).

Josh Moody

Every Saturday millions of Americans watch their little tykes play soccer, little league baseball, or the equivalent.

The suburban parks are full of mini-vans, the parents shout and cheer each tiny kick or hit, holding expensive name brand lattés in their hands. Is this wicked? What does the gospel have to say to such folk? Pack up and go to the inner city? Or is there something redeemable about living ‘in the world but not of the world’ in the suburb land of the city (and not just the inner city).

Josh Moody

A movie that few men of my generation have not seen at least once, if not multiple times, Clint Eastwood’s Spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly makes a fitting summary of the conclusions reached by a stellar panel at Southern Theological Seminary.

There’s a link to the hour-long discussion at Justin Taylor’s http://theologica.blogspot.com/ posted on Friday September 4 2009.

Josh Moody

Another holiday season is coming to an end as I write and I wonder ‘What is the point of it all?’

If I remember rightly from my early modern history at Cambridge, summer holidays (as a distinct and expected season of rest for a large majority of the population) is a fairly recent invention.

Josh Moody

Twitter is, as it self-defines, ‘a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?’ As a web page resource it appears to be becoming increasingly popular for fast paced interaction.

Recently (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=81195), pastor Rob Bell was asked to ‘Twitter’ the gospel. A Twitter post has to be 140 characters or less, so the challenge is not incommensurate to the challenge to summarise the gospel very briefly. It gets at the issue: what is the gospel at its heart? If you had to leave out everything but 140 characters what would you say? No doubt the challenge to Twitter the gospel also gets at the difficulty of offering the gospel (preaching the gospel) in an appealing way in such short compass. Is that possible? Can you actually summarise the essential elements of the biblical gospel in just a few short sentences? What would you write?

Josh Moody

Josh Moody talks to Ben Peays

JM: Ben, tell us briefly what the original vision was behind The Gospel Coalition (TGC)?

BP: The vision for TGC came during a lunch in Manhattan between Don Carson and Tim Keller. They discussed the questions, ‘What would it take to recover, or rejuvenate, the centre of confessional, Reformed evangelicalism?’ and ‘What could be done to stop the endless drift of evangelicalism?’ The last couple of decades had seen the erosion of the gospel in many churches. They decided to initially call together 40 pastors, from a broad group of denominations, generations and racial groups. These were all people committed to the ministry of the word. From here they began to think and pray about what could be done. That was in 2005.

Josh Moody

Military theorists will often espouse that the tendency of all armies is to be prepared to fight the last battle. Because it takes time for large institutions to change, because humans typically respond to experience, there is an inertia towards preparedness for yesterday’s battles. The classic example of this is the French army’s readiness to fight a World War 1 style of battle on the eve of World War 2.

Well, new data from the American Religious Identification Survey (March 2009) shows, it claims, that ‘the challenge to Christianity in the US does not come from other religions but rather from a rejection of all forms of organised religion’. If that is true, and it seems to have some purchase, then what we need as a church is a way of doing church that answers that question about organised religion. Instead, of course, what we find is a highly organised mega or traditional church that is geared to answer the question of felt needs through a multitude of programmes. We have an army ready to fight World War 1 on the eve of World War 2.

Josh Moody

Various trends within evangelicalism, and the surrounding culture, seem to be combining to present, if not the perfect storm, at least a tipping point where things could either move forward in exciting new ways or backwards alarmingly.

David Olson, the director of the American Church Research Project, has come out with a new book called The American Church in Crisis. In this book he catalogues the gradual decline in church attendance in America, and predicts that by 2050 there will be around 10% of the population in church. You can find an interview of Olson at http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/feb/28/study-finds-attendance-at-churches-still-falling/living/ In a slightly different take on the same issue, the Southern Baptist pastor Bob Pearle has written The Vanishing Church. He writes that the biblical church in America is being replaced with ‘Wal-Mart’ churches which are geared towards providing what their consumers want. There’s a discussion of this book at http://www.star-telegram.com/religion/story/1230235.html

Josh Moody

I don’t know whether it is conscious or not (and I trust not), but, in my observation, more and more of the discussion in Christian circles is generated by a concern to establish, and then develop, a market niche.

First, you have had a spate of books which are either manoeuvering for religious market share or debating theological angels on a pinhead. I don’t propose to list the titles, but those of us who keep track of such things can nod in agreement now at the numerous books of that form, as well, of course, as the many wonderful books being produced alongside. Then you have the ever-growing Christian conference season. Perhaps it is less pernicious in England, but on this side of the Atlantic while there are worthy conferences, and probably a need for more of that ilk, on the other hand you only have to sneeze to give birth to another conference which is pushing a particular niche brand of Christianity.

Josh Moody

A new Barna poll (January 12 2009) claims to show that most American Christians are adopting a pick and mix attitude towards Christianity and (indeed) other faiths.¹

In itself, such a claim might not appear particularly surprising. It is certainly part of a long observed trend from objective truth to subjective interpretation, and from acceptance of authority to individual choice of belief.

Josh Moody

Everyone is talking about it. Endless chat shows. NPR (National Public Radio), CNN, NBC, Fox – you name it, they’re talking about it.

The economy is having a little teeny-weeny problem right now. Same in the UK, I hear. Same just about everywhere. People are comparing it to the Great Depression (thankfully no one’s claiming it’s going to be as bad yet). People are coming up with plans and building projects. Newsweek is saying it’s worse than we think,¹ The Washington Post reviews books that point the blame at the Government,² CNN discusses our emotions and how they affect the economy.³

Josh Moody

It is not the best of times, nor the worst of times. It is a time of uncertainty.

As President elect Barack Obama waits in the wings, the economy, in particular, appears to be on the verge of something akin to the ‘R-word’ (= R***ssion), if not, some fear, actual Depression. It could get worse. It could get better. It could be one thing. It could be another. People talk about it. People wonder. No one knows for sure. It is, in short, a time of uncertainty.

Josh Moody

Whoever is at fault, and wherever the blame lies, the last few weeks in America have shaken many people’s confidence in the financial system.

You probably know the news as well as I do. What’s really important from an evangelical Christian point of view is the opportunity this crisis has created. We are being called to examine where our hopes lie and witness to a confidence not ultimately in the market but in our God and his Word.

Josh Moody

Whatever you think of America, you can’t deny that its Presidential elections this year are fascinating.

There’s Barack Obama — first African-American candidate for the White House. Now there’s Sarah Palin — first female candidate for Vice-President. And, in between, there’s…what’s his name again?...oh, yes, John McCain.

Josh Moody

When we first arrived in America, some nine or so years ago now, petrol (‘gas’) cost a little over a dollar an American-size gallon. This summer gas registers at over $4 a gallon. That (for the mathematically challenged among you) means a price hike by a factor of four times. What’s more, much of that increase has happened within the last year. For a while beforehand gas prices had hovered more normally around the mid $2 range.

Of course, in England petrol remains far more expensive. But what matters for the impact on the culture is the differential. Petrol is still, when you calculate it all in terms of dollars to pound and gallons to litres, about twice as expensive in the UK as in the USA. But when we arrived the difference was far greater than that. Petrol in the UK was at least four times as expensive back in the late 1990s, if not rather more.

Josh Moody

Obama has finally won the presumptive Democratic nomination for the next President of the United States. If it did not quite go down to the wire (or to the Convention) it came as close as could be. Hilary Clinton, apparently stunning even her close supporters, still did not resign her intentions immediately, but left a day or two before announcing that she accepts that Barack Obama has won.

It must be difficult for Hilary. She, we might guess, thought she had the market cornered on ‘firsts’, running as potentially the first woman President, only to be defeated by potentially the first African-American President. Even as late as this week, her supporters were claiming victory in the ‘popular vote’ (sounds familiar?), others suggesting that Clinton had been subtly disparaged by anti-feminist or misogynist sub-texts — how can you be both tough enough and likeable as a woman in power?

Josh Moody

The ubiquitous cry of children on a long journey (‘Are we nearly there yet?’) has often been at the back of my mind watching the off-again, on-again foray of the Clinton-Obama smack down.

Clinton’s donations receive a massive boost after one win — a million over the internet in 24 hours. Obama plays down the win. Clinton plays up the win. Next round, and this has been going on for month upon month already, and it’s two more states, one goes just barely to Clinton, the other easily to Obama. Played up by Obama, played down by Clinton. Clinton has less money. Obama has more. The pundits talk. The spin doctors spin. The voters vote. The talk show hosts talk. News item after news item. Yawn. ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

Josh Moody

After various senior Moslem and Christian clerics co-signed a document called ‘A Common Word’ in the New York Times, John Piper appeared on YouTube distancing himself from the document. More recently still, Yale University is calling a conference to further develop the ‘common word’ agenda. You can find details about that at http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24022

Here are some excerpts from a document some of our Yale students looked at recently as a response to these new ‘common word’ initiatives:

Josh Moody

‘Cussing’ is American slang for swearing and — yes — there is a preacher who has been given that nickname.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has lots that would commend him to EN readers. He is theologically conservative. He is Reformed. He has grown a church from a plant in 1996 to around 5,000 or so today. And all this in Seattle, after New England the least churched and most secular region of America.

Josh Moody

At the time of writing we have just been through ‘Super Tuesday’. It’s been a fascinating series of Presidential primaries, as the Democratic hopefuls for their party’s nomination dish out to each other, and the Republicans likewise. Mitt Romney has suspended his candidacy.

And so we have left in the field McCain, who appears at the moment to be certain to win, against Huckabee (R), and Clinton against Obama (D).

Josh Moody

As long as it’s not Clinton (and at this stage it still could well be), America will have someone in the Oval office whose name is not Bush or Clinton for the first time in five terms. First there was Bush Sr., then there was Clinton, then Clinton again, then Bush Jr., then Bush Jr. again. Now — well, if Hilary gets it that will make six Presidents in a row coming from two families. Whoever said America doesn’t have ruling elite?

Intriguingly, though, it could be someone different. Huckabee is an ex-Southern Baptist pastor, who, despite his relatively unsophisticated sounding educational or professional background, is gathering a reputation for impressive speaking abilities. Obama — wouldn’t it be something for America to have a President called ‘Obama’? That would certainly strike against those who caricature the current global war on terror, if it be such, as simplistically cultural, or religious, though Obama, of course, seems to be a church attendee of some sort. (Mind you, it’s hard to get anywhere in current American politics unless at some point you say something about your ‘faith’.)

Josh Moody

‘Evangelical Elite’ – can those two words really go together? Apparently they can, and increasingly they do, according to Michael Lindsay’s new book, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. You can read a full and fascinating interview with Lindsay about his new book in Christianity Today at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/november/33.35.html.

Lindsay has conducted an astonishingly wide-ranging and penetrating research into the ‘elite evangelicals’ who function in small cabals at the top of the greasy pole of such institutions as Harvard, Hollywood, Fortune 500 companies, and Washington DC. He finds that they are consistently orthodox in their faith, by his definitions, despite being exposed to such a high level of the power that corrupts. Frequently they encourage one another in invitation-only small groups that meet once a month, like the Boston First Tuesday group convened by Tom Philips, former CEO of Raytheon.

Josh Moody

Willow Creek has become probably the most influential church movement in America and perhaps around the world.

As their pastor, Bill Hybels has introduced a seeker-driven structure to their church whereby the church engages creatively and with contemporary relevance to the needs of the non-Christian. Their discipleship structure has tended to be very programme-orientated.

Josh Moody

So here’s the kind of question I most commonly get asked about our church. Not ‘what do you believe?’, not ‘what is your vision for the church?’, not even ‘what kind of programmes do you have for our children?’ No, the question I most commonly get asked — by outsiders, you understand — is ‘who do people vote for?’

The election is still a year away (November 2008…), but already positioning is going on for the religious vote. Rudy Giuliani, famed former mayor of New York City, is trying to deal with the possible negative repercussions of his well-known pro-abortion stance. Conservatives, it is felt, will not possibly support him for that single reason. And, in fact, an influential group called The Council for National Policy, has voted that if Giuliani is nominated as the Republican presidential candidate they will seek to form a Third Party. That’s fighting talk.

Josh Moody

On July 21 2007, William Lobdell, the Los Angeles Times Religion writer, authored a piece which described how being a reporter for religion caused him to lose his.

Apparently, Lobdell had viewed the post as Religion writer for the LA Times as a calling, an opportunity for a serious Christian like himself to set straight the many inaccuracies that the main stream media foisted on an unaware audience. He had come to Christ years previously at a retreat run by an Evangelical Mega Church. He had accepted Christ in his heart, had sensed that he was born again, and had become part of the culture that encourages quiet times and devotion to God.

Josh Moody

So I can never tell how much any one issue is becoming controversial in the ‘broader’ church — after all, we all live in villages, so to speak.

But one ‘emerging’ issue seems to The Emergent Church (though I bet they’d rather we say ‘the emergent church’; postmodern sensitive dudes seem to like lower case grammar, just read any McLaren book).

Josh Moody

On Sunday June 3, eight of the Presidential hopefuls for the Democratic Party lined up for a publicly televised debate on CNN out of Manchester, New Hampshire.

On Monday June 4, the three ‘first tier’ candidates (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) lined up for a publicly televised event broadcast by CNN out of George Washington University in Washington DC. This time they talked about their faith.

Josh Moody

‘I am the Law’

Rochelle and I have now lived in America for seven years. In that short space of time we have been sued twice. I’m not sure if this is a remarkable regularity for Americans, but given that in my entire existence in England previous to that I had never been sued at all, it does seem somewhat astonishing to us.

On one occasion, a driver, without a valid license or registration for his vehicle, was in an accident with ours and proceeded to sue us subsequently for damages to his jacket and tie. It was raining. We stood outside in the rain together. We actually sheltered under the same umbrella which had been kindly donated to us by a member of the church who happened to be passing. The legal procedure was dropped in the end. I know someone has sued for slipping on a back porch because it was wet when it was raining. I ask you: do people have nothing better to do with their time?

Josh Moody

In the last week, America has been gripped by two very different news events.

Most recently the college campus of Virginia Tech has been rocked by the sudden and unexpected violence of one of its own. A student went on a murderous rampage, killing dozens of fellow students, and eventually (as is all too predictable in such grim farces) committed suicide. This has deeply shocked a nation, for university campuses are still viewed to some extent as havens of learning and reason, and the carnage explodes the myth. As a member of the Yale community I received a forwarded message from Yale’s President Levin expressing the deep condolences of Yale towards the terrible happenings in Virginia.

Josh Moody

What do a US Army General and a left leaning New York magazine have in common? Answer: They both hate torture.

In a fascinating story that spans issues related to the influence of popular media, the actual versus the perceived views of top military brass, the survivability of extreme conservatives even in Hollywood, The New Yorker ran a story this last month that described how the head of West Point (= Sandhurst) confronted the makers of 24 (the hit US drama) about their romanticisation of terror.

Josh Moody

JONATHAN EDWARDS
The Holy Spirit in Revival
By Michael Haykin. Evangelical Press. 228 pages
ISBN 0 85234 599 2

Michael Haykin’s Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival is a fine piece of writing indeed.

Josh Moody

It’s been coming for some time. But now it’s here (or thereabouts). Yes, you’ve heard right: in Pennsylvania (a state in America; not China, or North Korea, note!) 75-year-old Arlene Elshinnawy and 70-year-old Lynda Beckman were arrested for sharing their faith on the public sidewalk.

They faced 47 years in jail for spreading the gospel because of a Pennsylvania ‘hate crimes’ law. This law is, I’m told, nearly identical to HR 254, the ‘hate crimes’ bill reintroduced in Con-gress and apparently on the ‘fast track’ in the House Judiciary Committee.

Josh Moody

This week I highlight three diverse stories from the American continent, which in different ways indicate the growing confusion besetting the evangelical movement.

Politics?

First, there is the story running in the Colorado Springs Gazette, published on January 7 2007, concerning the new situation for evangelicals in Colorado Springs. For years, the city has been dubbed ‘the evangelical Mecca’ or ‘the evangelical Vatican’, host to the massively influential ‘Focus on the Family’ ministry of Dobson, and the, until his recent moral demise, charismatic ministry of mega-church leader, Ted Haggard. Last summer, Ted Haggard sat in his book-lined office at New Life Church, smiled, and said: ‘It’s happened. My whole vision has happened.’ But now, as reported in EN, Haggard has been discredited, and the political connections of the evangelical elite with the Republican Party have suffered a trouncing at the polls. Dobson travelled far and wide in support of Republican candidates, but the Democrats took control of Congress. Dobson blamed the party; pundits blamed social conservatives like Dobson. But the real story is that the evangelical-Republican alliance looks shaky.

Josh Moody

First he denied it. Then he confessed it. Now the dust has settled we need to consider it.

What would make Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Senior Pastor of New Life Church, a 14,000 member charismatic success story, with the ear of the President of the United States, at only 46 years old a respected member of the evangelical dynasty, what would make him engage in homosexual activity with a male prostitute over three years and take crystal methamphetamine?

Josh Moody

Halloween, just past, is an American institution, with its kid-friendly ‘Trick or Treat’ tradition, in a way beyond what we experience in England.

Some churches respond to what children’s books call ‘my favourite holiday’ by putting on alternative Halloween events, a Harvest Festival for instance, with sweets and games, where children dress up as they would at Halloween. Other churches, apparently, stage ‘Hell Houses’. These are similar to Haunted Houses but depict with frightening intensity the woes of sins like drugs or alcohol or extra-marital sex and the terminal destination with Lucifer.

Josh Moody

On the one hand, it’s a small story. It only relates to 50 students or so. Other than a cameo appearance in Love Actually, Wisconsin is not a name brand state.

On the other hand, this is the third in a row. First it was Rutgers University in New Jersey. Then it was Georgetown University. Now the University of Wisconsin has ‘De-recognised’ the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship group. On October 2, IVCF filed suit.

Josh Moody

‘Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy’ may not carry quite the same ring as Sola Fide, but as a rallying cry for the faithful it blazoned on a recent front cover of Christianity Today. Inside, the leader told the story of an emerging network of young, restless and Reformed Christians. What’s going on?

For some while now, John Piper (http://www.desiringgod.org) has advocated a passionate return to Reformed principles through his now well-known mantra of ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him’. A self-styled ‘divine hedonist’, Piper has appealed to a whole new generation of evangelicals through the Passion conferences that stoke the flames of ardour for God, within a classically biblical (and Jonathan Edwards influenced) framework.

Josh Moody

It was not that long ago — though it seems an age — when Yasser Arafat and Clinton and Co. were touting the latest round of peace initiatives.

With cosy pictures in print, editorials eagerly trumpeting a new day, it was appealing to believe that we were on the verge of a solution to the most troubled of troubled places on the earth. Since then the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has not only dragged on, it has flared into new entrenched hostilities. The ‘two-state’ solution to the area appears intractable. I’m reminded of a British Foreign Office report on the area from much earlier in the 20th century that simply calculated that no political solution was possible because the claims of the peoples were directly competitive.

Josh Moody

Several times now I have come across people in a pastoral context whose perception of their experience of God has become dangerously skewed. Some have even thought he was telling them not to eat.

Granted, the Bible does encourage us to fast occasionally. Nonetheless, when the supposed command from God not to eat is taken to a dangerous medical extreme, it is not only legitimate to wonder whether the spiritual experience is genuine, but it is imperative to seek professional help. I have come across other even weirder messages purportedly received from God. The psychological difference between people who think God is telling them to cut their wrists and those who think they are Napoleon is not as great as we might wish.

Josh Moody

I was recently alerted to a rather surprising clause in an application for missionary funding from a major denomination in the United States.

As all large sending agencies, this denomination admirably desires to ensure that its missionaries will be exemplary witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then there is the surprising clause.

Josh Moody

It is an interesting experience having lived for so long as a foreigner. Before coming to America, I lived for a year in the former Soviet Union, and before that for a year in Canada, but by and large most of my life was spent in England (a good ten years of it in Cambridge).

Having now lived for seven or so years in America, it’s becoming increasingly true that I feel the sense of being without home that, for the Christian, underlines the spiritual reality of this world not being our home but that we are ‘just a-passing through’.

Josh Moody

From an English perspective, American industrial might is something to be admired. But America’s giant carmaker General Motors (GM) is in serious trouble. A Peter Pan-like fantasy of forever extendable ‘financing’, or living on ‘the never never’, is taking its toll.

Detroit has long been the centre of the American auto industry; now, however, various factors are combining to make profitability in the Detroit area hard to find. One of the parts suppliers for GM, once itself a part of the GM group, is close to bankruptcy, an issue which will radically affect the profit margin of GM, through delayed or cancelled orders. In terms of business systems, several different issues seem to be involved. To begin with, the global economy, in particular cheap labour and parts from the East, are undercutting the American auto industry’s ability to maintain its market share. GM’s share of cars bought in the US has been slipping for sometime. Also, however, there appear to be archaic, and inevitably unprofitable, expectations in terms of salary from the workers. The much-vilified new president of the parts supplier quipped in one public speech that it was no longer economically feasible to pay $65 per hour for someone to mow the lawns.

Josh Moody

Readers of a certain ilk may recognise the reference to an album from the aged rock group Supertramp: ‘Crisis? What crisis?’ The picture on that album ironically captured a man sunbathing with icons of industrial waste in the background.

For many today, the American establishment’s refusal to act on warnings of global warming has a similarly absurd, ostrich-like head in the sand feel. It would be funny if it were not so tragic.

Josh Moody

Each year 60,000 people cram into a stadium on a Sunday to watch the Super Bowl.

This year the Rolling Stones provided half time entertainment. Around the nation far more gather around the TV. There are ‘Super Bowl Parties’, events where friends gather to chomp on snacks and watch the game. Advertising for the commercial slots in between breaks in the game are at a premium. Companies pour millions of dollars into their few seconds of fame.

Josh Moody

Driving back over the Appalachians from a family wedding in Canada we passed Stockbridge. This town was the lesser-known base of operations for Jonathan Edwards’s missionary labours. More famously, Edwards resided in Northampton, the central location for the dramatic revivals of the Great Awakening in New England of the 18th century.

Being something of an Edwards aficionado I was aware of the Edwards Stockbridge connection. I wasn’t cognisant of the even less well-known relationship between Edwards and McDonalds until, as we hurtled by Stockbridge in our minivan, we decided that the time had come to eat. And there and behold we did what surely would have surprised the famous evangelical leader: we picked up a Drive-Thru McDonalds.

Josh Moody

A new list of the top ten highest paid Hollywood stars has recently been posted. Julia Roberts tops the bill earning a massive $10 million per film. Ex-Friends star Jennifer Aniston comes in last at a measly $9 million a movie (poor thing).

Statistics are notoriously unpredictable because their seeming precision belies a host of assumptions. Nonetheless these numbers above are pretty straightforward. They give me something of a shudder when I compare them to another statistic someone reported to me the other day: every minute 6,000 people die of hunger.

Josh Moody

To be accorded the accolade of ‘first class nut’ by none other than Jerry Falwell is no small achievement. Yet that is a relatively mild epithet for the extremely controversial Fred Phelps. Phelps is the pastor of Westborough Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

The church is primarily (some say exclusively) made up of his children and grandchildren. It resides in a protected ‘compound’ (with an Olympic size swimming pool for baptisms — it is said filled in either after one of the family almost drowned, or when their tax exempt status became problematic).

Josh Moody

Strange as it is may seem to environmentally minded Europeans, the fact remains that many Americans do not think much about global warming.

Could it not be, some wonder, that global warming, including its detrimental side effects like the shrinking polar cap, is merely the result of an unavoidable cyclical increase in global heat? If so rising temperatures are not ultimately due to gas-guzzling SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles), and similar industrial pollutants.

Josh Moody

Katrina did her worst. For many years geologists have predicted that the Mardi Gras city of New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. Situated between a river, a lake and the ocean, New Orleans is also significantly beneath sea level. There are levees (like the Dutch dikes) which exist to prevent the city from being swallowed by the sea. The old French settlers discovered that the city went under water in the summer and so built their houses on stilts.

Despite all such man-made attempts to turn back the basic rules of nature, hurricane Katrina, a force four, ripped through the barriers and destroyed a famous city at the end of August. The news and the pictures and the stories coming out of the area are simply horrific. Not now is there simply the natural disaster (of biblical proportions as one secular commentator noted), but there is also the human chaos inflicted on a society broken down, and rumours and eyewitness accounts of brutality and looting begin to abound.

Josh Moody

Time magazine recently sported a new front page article recording the latest evolution v. creation educational debate.

In America, ever since the much storied Scopes trial (the ‘Monkey Trial’) in 1925, the culture wars have been shaped by the controversial and, in the end, almost universal teaching of evolution in High School classrooms. Various attempts by conservative Christians have been made to challenge this educational hegemony, but none so successful as the contemporary ‘Intelligent Design’ movement.

Josh Moody

At the grand old age of 86, Billy Graham is said to be conducting his last American crusade in the city of New York.

The format appears to have changed little. The build up to the evangelistic message now includes more modern contemporary music from the likes of Jars of Clay, but George Beverly Shea (now, amazingly, 96) still sings immediately previous to Billy Graham?s sermon and the altar call is heralded with, of course, a full rendering of ?Just as I am?.

Josh Moody

From the beginning, American Christianity appeared legalistic to many British sensibilities.

With Puritanical emphases on purity of church practice, or the fundamentalist controversy in the 1920s, American faith often tended to be viewed as fixated on the law. Of course, the role of the law in Christianity is a theological matter of great significance. But irrespective of exegetical considerations, the ‘feel’ of American Christianity — with its support for Prohibition at one extreme to some Christians’ tacit (even vocal) support for racial segregation at the other — seemed to many in Britain to be motivated by law as much as grace.

Josh Moody

A disease is pandemic not merely epidemic when it affects people over a very wide geographical area. The 1918 influenza was pandemic, as also is the global reach of HIV. Michael Jackson’s trial is an extreme example of a very widespread cultural infection: a crisis of the child.

Michael Jackson, of course, is still most famous for that moonwalk dance and his massively successful Thriller album. Soon enough, though, the decade or more long scandals surrounding his Neverland Ranch and accusations of child molestation in that environment will compete for immediate word association with the Jackson brand name. The ‘Gloved One’ could become ‘the handcuffed one.’

Josh Moody

Pope John Paul II was without doubt an astonishing individual.

Josh Moody

Chuck Colson delivers a daily radio commentary which is listened to by an estimated one million people.

On February 21 he discussed Jim Wallis’s new approach to abortion and poverty issues, suggesting that, by advocating an ethical stance on both, Wallis was working out of a framework of ‘moral equivalency’. Jim Wallis replied with an Open Letter. Colson ditto.

Josh Moody

George Bush's State of the Union Address this year packed a punch. Bush is not normally known for rhetorical effectiveness - compare Bill Clinton's speeches for pure entertainment value - but there was a defining moment in this State of the Union Address which was charged with emotion and will not easily be forgotten.

Bush had already introduced a human rights activist from Iraq. 11 years previously her father had been assassinated by Saddam Hussein's intelligence service. Three days ago, Bush said, she was able to vote. The applause was long and predictable and the emotional levels raised.

Josh Moody

American Pie was the title of a risque comedy. I might receive a letter or two for saying it, but I sometimes wonder whether popular American piety might be sardonically dubbed 'American Pie'. Except, of course, it's not funny.

Statistical as well as anecdotal evidence combine to paint a far from pretty picture. Long ago Francis Schaeffer called it The Great Evangelical Disaster: 'Here is the great evangelical disaster - the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth... The evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirit of the age'. More recently, Gallup addressed a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders saying, 'We find there is very little difference in ethical behaviour between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously. The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkably similar in both groups'. Barna would go further, identifying patterns of extra-marital sex, racism, and the physical abuse of spouses as at about the same level as 'in the world.'

Josh Moody

Evangelism just got harder. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs (or should I say 'rights and lefts') of the recent election in America, biblical Christianity is now firmly associated in many people's minds with conservative Republican politics. These two sets overlap: there are moral issues that Republicans hold in common with Christians, there are Christians who are Republicans, etc. But they are not the same: there are Democrats who are Christians too.

Saying such things within biblical Christian circles in America is becoming a hard trick to pull off without being accused of being morally limp-wristed. Even more alarming, fringe Christians and 'seekers' are distancing themselves from biblical churches because they do not want to be told how to vote (nor do they want to be thought of as Republican). As I say, irrespective of the moral issues that may be at stake, this means that evangelism just got harder.

Josh Moody

Bush did it. George W. Bush won the White House and US Presidency for a second term.

Not only that, the Republicans increased their lead in both the house and the senate. What's more, Bush won the popular vote (Anoraks Anonymous: the 'electoral college' - the winners of each state - does not always match the popular majority vote) for the first time since his father did the same in 1988. Even more startling, Bush won the largest ever majority of the popular vote in Presidential history. On top of this, against all those who say that gay marriage is inevitable, in every single state where there was a referendum on same-sex marriages the legislation for a traditional view of marriage as between a woman and man only was supported.

Josh Moody

The first Presidential Debates have come and gone. In the past these prime-time TV events have been turning points for or against candidates.

Ronald Reagan memorably doused Jimmy Carter's enthusiastic attacks with the four words: 'There you go again'. Reagan said he thought those four words won him the election. Bill Clinton was a master on this stage. Poor old President Ford confidently stated that the Soviets were not in control of any portions of Eastern Europe, effectively underlining his reputation as a bungler.

Josh Moody

Schwarzenegger's appearance at the Republican convention was a real eye opener. One gets the impression that if this Austrian born immigrant had instead been a US citizen by birth, he would be a genuine contender for the Presidency himself at some point in the future.

Still, there he was, cheering on the troops, rallying the faithful behind George W. Bush. Several things stood out for attention. One was Schwarzenegger's sheer rhetorical effectiveness. The man who earned his initial reputation from pumping iron not massaging words (and even his later more sophisticated acting was marked by a clownish bluntness of speech) began the speech with well delivered quip after quip, hit all the right emotional buttons, and ended with a raucous chant of 'four more years' which was intoned loudly throughout the auditorium.

Josh Moody

The Statue of Liberty has opened for visitors for the first time since 9/11. Perhaps the flaming torch on the old lady of democracy provides a glimmer of hope to American sensibilities.

Mind you, nowadays while you can again go into the Statue of Liberty you can no longer go up to the crown for security reasons. A glimmer of hope, perhaps, but the flaming torch appears to some jaundiced eyes to be something of a smoking flax in need of Jesus's gentle mercy. You can go as high as the statue's feet - enjoying the indignity of a new anti-bomb device that blasts air into your clothing to detect particles of explosive residue. Not quite what the original framers of the Constitution had in mind to gild their well worn evocative phrases in praise of Liberty.

Josh Moody

Today is July 5. Yesterday was July 4. Wow, talk about being on the ball; don't tell me, and the day before that was July 3?

The point is that July 4 is the day that America cheers for freedom. July 4, 2004 was no exception. There were the usual parades. Parks were packed with revellers and grills and children and loud music. It was a perfect day, weather-wise. Not a cloud in the sky. Nothing except on the horizon the storm crow Iraq.

Josh Moody

Known affectionately as 'Dutch' (or the 'Gipper' after one of his movie roles), Ronald Reagan became the epitome of conservative politics in the United States. He was credited with having renewed the Republican Party, ended the Cold War, and begun a long period of economic prosperity. It is hard to overestimate the influence that Ronald Reagan has had on conservative politics in the United States.

By all reports Reagan was an endearing character. His wife described him as someone with 'absolutely no ego', who was 'happy in his own skin' and, therefore, did not feel he had to prove himself to anyone. His correspondence to fans, friends and family speak of a person with a kindly heart, a consideration of others' perspectives, a winsome way with words, as well as an ample supply of down-to-earth common sense.

Josh Moody

And so it happens. American soldiers are caught on camera performing acts of barbaric cruelty. Not only so, but acts within the same old haunts as frequented by the Butcher of Baghdad himself, Saddam Hussein. The prison, Abu Ghraib, was infamous for its torture cells under the previous regime. Bush's most powerful rhetoric in favour of the war had been to stop the torture. Now, in the same prison, American soldiers are doing the same thing.

And so it happens. An American civilian is brutally and sadistically decapitated, and the murder is recorded on video tape and published on the internet. There may be no direct link between these two news stories but the cycle of violence - of crime leading to hate leading to crime - has become vicious.

Josh Moody

Indiana Jones finally made his way into the inner cave where the Holy Grail was said to be kept. To his dismay he discovered not one cup but thousands. Which one was the true Holy Grail?

Right behind him rushed in the baddy, the evil Nazi leader kitted out with maniacal laugh and monocle and all. This 'evil leader' surveys the scene and pounces upon by far the most prestigious and expensive cup in the room. He drinks from it and dies horribly. Indie then has to choose. He also looks around the room. This time, though, he picks up a simple wooden cup. 'That's the cup of a carpenter', he says and he drinks from it to no ill effect. As Indiana Jones races back to save his father from dying by the means of the healing properties of the Holy Grail, the last knight guarding the cup says, 'He chose wisely.'

Josh Moody

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) continue to create political tension for George W. Bush. At the Oscars Sean Penn scored an easy laugh with this side swipe: 'If there's one thing actors know - other than that there aren't any WMDs - it's that there is no such thing as 'best' in acting.'

Bush is therefore launching an earlier than expected counter-attack in this presidential election year. John Kerry, leading Democratic hopeful, is to be portrayed as the snivelling elitist in the pocket of the rich liberal hierarchy. His prevaricating voting record will be pointed out. In his own stab at humour, George Bush recently said referring to Kerry: 'The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions. They're for tax cuts and against them. They're for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They're for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They're in favour of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts.'

Josh Moody

This year the Super Bowl was between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers. During the Super Bowl I went to a Super Bowl party.

A Super Bowl party means eating and watching the game on TV, or at least the commercials which air in between the frequent time outs and other interruptions which so bemuse a British observer. The commercials are particularly expensive to air during this prime time viewing moment of the year and consequently vie for being the most memorable or funny.

Josh Moody

The final instalment of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings opened in America on my birthday. I have long been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkein's fantasy about Hobbits and Sauron and the 'ring of power'.

I even remember telling a Cambridge don during my interview at Cambridge that Tolkein was one of the foremost literary geniuses of our age. He was a bit bemused by this ('fanciful' I seem to remember was his judgement of Tolkein's work) but I stand by my assessment. As a story, The Lord of the Rings is without parallel in modern literature, at least in the way it tackles the great themes of good and evil, suffering, heroism and adventure. Nothing in The Lord of the Rings is real; much of it is true.

Josh Moody

In November 1999, Rochelle and I flew out to America. We had with us three suitcases, a laptop and printer. Little did we know that we were arriving just before Thanksgiving, and all that implies in America. We had nowhere to stay. We were going to begin a new venture in our lives. We believed that God had called us.

The church that I began to pastor then was made up of no more than 20-30 people. The name of the church: Trinity Baptist Church.

Josh Moody

Recently, the Massachusetts State has ruled that homosexual marriage is legal. This is an enormous, ground-breaking piece of legislation for a number of reasons.

First, it runs against the legislative norms of any established society in the history of the world. Never has there been a society where homosexual marriage has been deemed as on equal footing, legally speaking, to heterosexual marriage. Obviously, homosexual activity has long been a part of human society. Societies have dealt with it in various ways. Some have swept the matter under the carpet. Others have persecuted homosexuals. Others have lauded homosexual behaviour as an ideal form of love. None have legislated it as a full and equal part of marriage. This is for obvious reasons: homosexuality is not procreative. It is an interesting side bar to this current debate that population levels are actually decreasing in many Western societies today.

Josh Moody

I recently went to hear Chuck Colson, the famed author of Born Again, once notorious as an insider in the political Watergate scandal. He was sent to prison. But in the midst of the maelstrom surrounding him, Chuck Colson became 'born again'. Ever since, he has been the highly regarded and influential leader of Prison Fellowship.

Colson was speaking about Jonathan Edwards. In his lecture he touched on a wide variety of contemporary themes and issues that are facing evangelicals. In particular, he suggested, the drift towards moral relativism was likely to face a turnaround as a result of September 11. It's hard, was the gist of what he was saying, to swallow the idea that there is no evil in the world when you watch airplanes on suicide missions colliding into buildings containing thousands of human lives.

Josh Moody

In 1951 Bill Bright and his wife, Vonette, made a simple sort of 'contract' with Jesus. They pledged all their resources to the spread of the gospel. Then they sold their food business and later an Oklahoma oil drilling company. And they used the finances thereby gained to help found Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). Today CCC is perhaps the largest Christian para-church organisation in the world. It works in 191 countries, has a full-time staff of 26,000 as well as more than 225,000 trained volunteers.

On July 19 Dr. Bill Bright died. He may not be the last famous post-war evangelical pioneer to die in the next year or so. While wishing to avoid all reference to Mark Twain's famous quip about his prematurely reported passing ('Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated'), both John Stott and Billy Graham are, after all, in their 80s.

Josh Moody

'This is our generation's Vietnam.' Such was the opinion of one person talking to me the other day about the war in Iraq. Is he right? We all surely hope not. But if George Bush's current request to Congress for US$87 billion for the war on terror is anything to go by odds are on for Vietnam Reloaded.

It all started with three digits and two towers. The destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre on September 11 2001 ('9/11') set in motion a chain of events whose destination remains uncertain. Wherever we are going it is somewhere unpredictable. No longer do we hear talk of the New World Order. More like the New World Chaos.

Josh Moody

Jonathan Edwards is 300 years old on October 5 2003. He is dead. And yet he speaks, writes Josh Moody.

His works - ever a source of inspiration and fascination for Reformed evangelicals - have recently gained a much wider following. And his influence continues to grow with each passing anniversary.

Josh Moody

The New York Times does not always tell the truth. This may not come as a surprise to the critically minded. But the extent to which one New York Times journalist managed to foist fiction as fact is a shock. His stories not only stretched the truth, they were entirely made up. One particularly harrowing piece for evangelicals was about a so-called (and fictional) evangelical group engaging in some rather weird and wonderful worship practices.

Josh Moody

As an Englishman in New Haven, I couldn't help but notice last month's EN front page article about English preachers deserting England for America. I've met Ken Brownell once and know East London Tabernacle and was delighted with both experiences and interactions. I think Ken has a good point. Here's a different view.

The assertion, first popularised by Jim Packer, that American Christianity is a thousand miles wide but only two inches deep is intended as a perspective of the Bible belt. Actually, American Christianity as a whole is at least only 800 miles wide. That is, there are significant geographical and cultural pockets of America where gospel Christianity is a rarity. It's not that it's ephemeral or superficial; it doesn't exist. In particular, the North West of America and the North East of America are graveyards for gospel ministry.

Josh Moody

Over-kill is the equivalent of using a hammer to crack a nut. To 'over-kill' in a particular situation is to go to an extreme, to 'over-react', in order to accomplish an otherwise commendable goal. Cracking a nut is fine; using a hammer might seem impressive but it is probable that the resulting innards of the nut will be either scattered to the four corners of the room or smashed to pulp.

It is my growing conviction that 'Over-kill' is setting in among conservative Christians in America. Perhaps you'll recognise the same phenomenon closer to home. While I presume that my theologically conservative credentials are assumed because I am writing for Evangelicals Now, it is perhaps nonetheless worth stating what to me and anyone who has heard me preach is obvious: I am a theological conservative. To say that I am somewhat right of Attila the Hun theologically speaking might not be a 'nice' way to put it, but you get the idea.

Josh Moody

Perhaps the most surprising turn of events in recent months has been the re-surfacing (in a positive light) of the idea of 'empire.' A new book has come out assessing the history of the British Empire non-pejoratively and, indeed, daring to suggest that America should embrace 'empire' as its new manifest destiny.

Few agree. The history of empire, domination, however you cut it, by another power, has little innate marketing appeal. And as President Bush indicated in his recent speech atop a massive aircraft carrier, while some nations had stayed and conquered they had come and now they were going home.

Josh Moody

Here are some of the more interesting things reported in the press in America. Interesting, that is, from an evangelical perspective.

1. Run DMC famous rap star is shot in recording studio

Josh Moody

There are two great challenges facing evangelicals in America today. The first is contemporary. How can evangelicals effectively minister in an atmosphere where war is looking increasingly likely? What is their role? Are they to tacitly support the administration, passively ignore the political realities, or actively campaign for a pacifist response?

Each of these approaches have had their supporters in conflicts past. The other challenge is historic. Because the revival of American evangelicalism over the past 50 years has, by and large, been based in para-church organisations, the gut-feeling of many American Christians is one that is thoroughly unused to being committed to a local church. This - as anyone with a moment's reflection could see - might easily transpire to produce enormous problems for the Christian community at large in the future.

Josh Moody

Soon enough, the remembrance parade of September 11 will pass. Right now, as I write, American TV companies and media outlets (and churches, be it said) are gearing up to remember September 11. It's a tricky feat. There are innumerable sensibilities. And the date is still too recent to be able to draw helpful or accurate conclusions about the American response to the terrorist atrocities.

Of course, from a European perspective, America's reaction to September 11 is increasingly looking revengeful. The sabre rattling currently going on with regard to Iraq is controversial, to say the least. In America, statistics of popular support for an invasion of Iraq were until recently highly in favour. Now, even in America, war fever is beginning to give way to the long game and the need for the gathering of allies and all that. There are doves and hawks in the administration. Donald Rumsfield urges immediate action, Colin Powell urges caution, and Bush listens and speaks eloquently.

Josh Moody

A federal court has recently ruled that the phrase 'under God' in the traditional pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional.

In a case brought by an atheist with children at public schools (equivalent to English state schools) in California, the ninth circuit court has declared that the phrase 'under God' should not be a part of the pledge of allegiance.

Josh Moody

When I was an undergraduate at university in England, our college hockey team solicited corporate sponsorship from Arthur Anderson accounting LLC. The team used to sing, in raucous and irreligious fashion: 'Arthur Anderson had many sons' to the well-known church tune of 'Father Abraham had many sons'.

Little did I think at the time that Arthur Anderson would be the syndicated accountancy firm hired by Enron. Enron, famously now, has been caught up in an accounting scandal that destroyed the once corporate giant. Now, bad news following upon bad, WorldCom has declared that it overestimated its revenues by several billion dollars. Fast on the heels of that news, venerable stock-safe-haven Xerox has mentioned that it too has overestimated its revenues to the tune of a few billion dollars.

Josh Moody

Finally the moment has arrived. As new terrorist warnings are daily delivered from the various governmental offices of the USA, as Wall Street holds its breath over the fragile economy, and as Osama Bin Laden remains presumed in hiding, now, at last, the excavation has finished. 'Ground Zero', the site where the World Trade Centre once stood, is clear.

Now comes the big question. What to do with it? In typical New York fashion, various developers are already touting the site as a 'fantastic opportunity'. Others pale at the idea of the scene of so much carnage, and emotional trauma, being thought of in terms of expensive square feet. New York needs the office space (The World Trade Centre used to house an acre of office space per floor), but many would rather the glass boxes were stationed elsewhere now.

Josh Moody

'The moral authority of the Catholic Church is in jeopardy', Bishop Gregory reported that he said to the pope and other senior prelates at the Vatican, before the Pope's summons of the American bishops to a crisis conference.

It's hard not to agree with Bishop Gregory. The recent sex scandals in the Roman church must have dented its credibility. Paedophilia and piety do not make good bedfellows. What's more, there is some extraordinary blindness in this. One local priest got himself on a news radio programme and said that this scandal was not as bad as it seemed because often the victims were over 10 years old. Older children, he explained, recovered more quickly.

Josh Moody

I found it hard to believe. Americans I mentioned it to also found it hard to believe. But, nonetheless, it was true.

Terrorist Grand Marshall

The Grand Marshall chosen for this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in Rockland County, New York, was a convicted IRA terrorist. This celebration - the second biggest in the State - attracts 40-65,000 spectators. It is only outsized by New York City itself which draws two million visitors. The Grand Marshall was to be one Brian Pearson. Brian Pearson is a former IRA member who served 12 years in prison in Northern Ireland for driving the getaway car after the Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks were bombed in 1975. Mr. Pearson came to the US illegally but gained political asylum status in 1997. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) is, apparently, appealing and reviewing his residency status.

Josh Moody

I wonder how many EN readers will recognise that as a quote from the Bible? Ecclesiastes 10.19 'Money is the answer to everything'. While there may be much that British evangelicals would wish to feel that they have to teach their American cousins about, for instance, the integration of the mind and faith or maintaining the purity of the church, in this matter, American evangelicals seem to be far more comfortable with the plain reality of life which the Bible here acknowledges.

If you want something done, it's going to cost money. If you want to hire someone to do a good job it will cost money. American evangelicals on the whole tend to have much more of the attitude that 'you get what you pay for'. They want a healthy, growing church; and they know that one component of that is a godly, Bible teaching pastor, and so they intend to find money to pay for one.

Josh Moody

President Bush delivered his State Of The Union address to predictable applause. Bush has become one of the most popular Presidents in American history. His handling of the 'War on Terrorism' has endeared him to the patriotic hearts of Americans. And, of course, State Of The Union addresses are always peppered with loud approval. Their basic theme - America is great and we're going to make it greater - and their tradition combine to make applause all but mandatory. Pity the poor person who has to deliver the opposition party's response in a quiet room, somewhat alone, and with most people switching their TVs to other channels.

One of the most revealing - and encouraging for Christians - aspects of President Bush's tenure so far has been his outspoken faith. Even in the midst of this political speech par excellence Bush managed to make mention of 'God', and the presence of God which he felt many had found to comfort them in their hour of distress and need.

Josh Moody

There is another war going on beside the war on terrorism. It is the war to decide what interpretation of the events of September 11 will gain general credibility.

A few weeks ago, retiring New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis suggested that Attorney General John Ashcroft, a committed Christian, is as much an 'enemy of decency' as terrorist mass murderer Osama bin Laden. For 'Certainty', says Lewis, 'is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft.'

Josh Moody

It's been quite a year in America. First, there was the 'millennium' (remember that?), then there was the tech-bust, and then (of course) September 11, Afghanistan, the Taliban, and one Osama Bin Laden.

In some ways, you might be forgiven for feeling if you lived in America that despite all this nothing has changed at all. Shopping is still the national sport. Pundits are still predicting a soft-landing for the economy. Microsoft is still selling Apple Mac's software cunningly disguised as Windows.

Josh Moody

A threat that's hard to assess is a fear that's hard to keep away. The fear of the unknown is a primeval instinct of humanity. Such fears have been played upon in years past by documentaries and movies about biological warfare. The fact that some such tactic seems to have been employed by terrorists, and that some people have actually died from anthrax infection, means that there is a new cloud of unease hanging over American heads.

Of course, the likelihood of contracting anthrax is negligible, especially compared to other risks that we daily run. But that this risk, unlikely as it may be, is delivered by way of the mail and whose victims seem so random brings all within its scope of fear. The visit of the mailman certainly has a new dynamic to it these days in America. Few things could have been better calculated to unsettle the ordinary citizen than a deadly infection spread by the mail that in its early signs of contagion is practically indistinguishable from the 'flu.

Josh Moody

'When I use a word it means what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less'. So said Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Caroll's Alice Through The Looking Glass. These days the word 'evangelical' seems to be used in that kind of Humpty Dumpty way. Evangelicalism as a concept is increasingly flexible.

Some therefore wonder whether it should be disbanded altogether. If groups with very diverse theological convictions, and some with very few theological convictions, all feel they can gather under the banner of 'evangelical' is the term in any sense still useful?

Josh Moody

Eerily enough, the date on the calendar was 9/11. 911 is the 999 emergency call in America.

Words cannot describe the horror that has been visited on America. Somehow, with the destruction of the World Trade Center and the devastation of the Pentagon, Americans seem different. They are in shock. They are in mourning. They are angry. They are almost in a national state of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Josh Moody

What is the largest Protestant denomination in the world? By some counts, the answer to that question is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

The SBC is just astonishingly big. Imagine the biggest big thing you can think of then times it by something even bigger. That's about it. Since its organisation in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, the SBC has grown to 15.8 million members who worship in more than 40,000 churches in the United States.

Josh Moody

There is a certain on-going friendly rivalry between Canada and America. One instance of this is the continuing disagreement between the two countries over who won the last war they fought against each other in the 19th century. Americans are taught that they did. Canadians know they did.

Another instance of this friendly rivalry is a radio show in Canada called Asking Americans. In this show, a radio reporter travels down to America and asks Americans various spoof questions. These questions are designed to expose Americans as being woefully ignorant of what is going on in the world outside their national boundaries.

Josh Moody

In America there is a turn of phrase which makes a play on a previous word to indicate mild - sometimes humorous - derision. So someone might say about breaking the speed limit 'Oh speeding, shmeeding'. The 'shm' sound is placed in front to give the sense of the previous word not being important or not being considered worthy of full attention. Pomo is the shorthand word used by some to indicate postmodernism.

Enough of preliminaries! This letter from America wants to say 'pomo - shmomo'. Recently I asked a suitably trendy professor of English at Yale University about postmodernism. He told me in no uncertain terms that postmodernism was passe. This caught me by surprise. Don't you read Derrida any more? I asked askance. Oh yes, he replied, maybe, but that's all out of date now. Hasn't been fashionable since the mid-90s. What's in now? I asked. Ethnicity, he said.

Josh Moody

When I came to America I expected to leave behind me the need to understand class distinctions.

In a sense that has been true. In England your accent immediately places you within a fabric of class distinctions (unless you are blessed to have been born with or cultivated that nondescript nowhere-in-particular accent beloved of TV hosts). Here my accent does not 'place' me, other than being from England (or occasionally Australia).

Josh Moody

Doctrinal controversies are far from uncommon in America. Of course, the ecumenical movement is influential here, with the Evangelical and Catholic attempts to form some kind of statement that can get mutual approval, the broad-based evangelistic campaigns of Luis Palau and the like, and with other, more liberal, ecumenical movements. But, there is still much in the way of doctrinal disagreements and arguments in churches, between churches, in denominations.

One of the most important ongoing battles in this regard is in the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the world, has extraordinarily rich reserves of money and talent, and is very influential throughout the world by way of its vigorous and commendable support of missionaries. Being so large makes it vulnerable to mega-politics.

Josh Moody

Writing from the US, Josh Moody aspires to be an evangelical Alistair Cooke as he begins a series ...

Josh Moody

He was an unusual character. Small, squat and very lively.

A group of bright-eyed, intelligent students were gathered around him, crowding out the large room in which we were meeting. There were books everywhere - wall-to-ceiling bookshelves with line upon line, double-shelved large volumes of theology and philosophy, science, and you name it.