Blog - Page 237 of 318 - John H Armstrong

John McCain on Hannity's Sunday Interview

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 16th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

My wife called me this evening to watch Sean Hannity’s interview with Senator John McCain. As many of you know Sean Hannity was extremely critical of McCain during the primaries.
He did a very candid interview tonight and raised several of his objections quite fairly. I felt McCain handled them honestly and without attempting to curry favor with people who do not like him on some "hot issues." What interested me in particular was John McCain’s answer to the Jeremiah Wright/Barack Obama story of the past four days. He told Hannity that he "sincerely believed" Obama’s answers on Friday evening were truthful and that he would not turn this pastor and parishioner story into a political issue. He condemned the pastor’s inflammatory and hateful speech but he also said, "Senator Obama is a decent man and if he says something I believe him. I profoundly disagree with him politically and I will campaign hard against him but I do not intend to turn this […]

Peggy Noonan Asks the Right Question

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 16th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Peggy Noonan was a speech writer for Ronald Reagan. She also wrote a better-then-average biography of Pope John Paul II. A devout Catholic she is both an insight political thinker and a keen observer of what makes a person able to explain things clearly so as to motivate others to follow them.

In her weekly column in the Wall Street Journal this past Saturday Noonan posed several questions about Senator John McCain’s campaign and his reigning philosophy of leadership. She noted:

"One always wonders with Mr. McCain: What exactly does he feel passionately about, what great question? Or rather, what does he stand for, really? For he often shows passion, but he rarely speaks of meaning (emphasis mine). The issues that summon his full engagement are issues on which he’s been challenged by his party and others. McCain, to McCain, is defined by his maverickness. That’s who he is. (It’s the theme of his strikingly good memoir, Worth the Fighting […]

Barack Obama and Racism: How Should Christians Respond

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 15th, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

By now everyone has seen, or heard, some of the exceedingly provocative clips taken from Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons in which he advocates his Afro-centric black liberation views. Under normal circumstances Wright’s opinions would not much matter to a national audience, since there are a number of black pastors (and for that matter many white liberal pastors) who would agree with him about much of what he says in these sermons. But Jeremiah Wright happened to have been Barack Obama’s pastor and friend for the past twenty years.

Over the last 48 hours this has been the biggest political news story in the American media. I have tried to read and listen to this story quite a bit over the past few days. For some this proves once-and-for-all that Barack Obama is a racist. For others it proves nothing of the kind. One thing is clear here: To objectively confront the implications of Obama’s personal relationship with his pastor is an extremely […]

J. I. Packer on Happiness

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 14th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

I was very blessed, about thirty or more years ago, to get to know Dr. James I. Packer as a person. He very humbly responded to me as a younger man and gospel minister and not only preached for me but came to my home on several occasions. This began a long-term friendship that has been one of God’s real gifts to my life. Writing this could sound like I am name-dropping but the fact is we are friends and have shared many hours of personal fellowship, conversation and prayer over these years.

For this, and several other reasons, I found two things about Jim Packer extremely interesting this past week. First, there is his excellent article posted on Christianity Today’s site on "Happiness." I encourage you to click the link and read Packer’s wonderfully warm and evangelical piece. Several years […]

Homeschooling and Personal Freedom

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:05-05:00March 14th, 2008|Categories: Education|

Homeschooling, in various forms, is no longer seriously controversial. Most state governments have come to peace with the practice. I lived through an era when this was not the case (the 1970s). Our children were schooled in public schools, private schools and home school. My wife was a certified Illinois teacher, as was my son. Both taught in the public schools as Christians and had positive experiences in doing so. But both of us chose to home school at certain points in our journey. My grandchildren are currently homeschooled by their mom Adriana, who is not a certified teacher but is a brilliant and self-disciplined teacher if I ever met one. The girls, Gracie and Abbie, are also as bright and well-balanced as they can be, if I do say so myself. (A grandfather is allowed to write this, but in this case it really is true!)

Homeschooling parents can be insufferably difficult people in local church settings. Stereotypically they can be opinionated […]

Check It Out

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:09-05:00March 13th, 2008|Categories: Missional Church|

Don’t forget the new site on the missional Church. Today’s post deals with the "emergent church" discussion. I reflected on this when I was asked a question about this movement in a seminary class in Florida on Tuesday. This site, www.transformissionalchurch.com, is entirely devoted to the purpose and vision of ACT 3:

ACT 3 is a ministry to advance the missional mandate of the Lord Jesus Christ in the third millennium through the witness of Scripture and the wisdom of the Christian Tradition.

I hope you will visit the new site and even consider bookmarking it. I post on the new site a little less frequently but the purpose is more narrow and specific to the mission ACT 3 advances.

If you have not visited the main site of ACT 3 (www.act3online.com) there are a number of new features there as well. We now have not only a weekly podcast and article, called the ACT 3 Weekly, but […]

Creativity Can Be Overrated

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:09-05:00March 13th, 2008|Categories: Personal|

I write a lot. I speak a lot. And I teach a lot. I also share with a lot of time thinking with other people and problem solving. My work is emotionally draining but physically fairly passive. (That’s why I need to push myself to exercise or I will not do it.)

But the truth is I do not think I am a creative person at all. Creativity generally refers to artistic or intellectual inventiveness. Generally highly creative people are very imaginative. I honestly do not think that I have any of these gifts, at least in abundance. When I meet someone who does I am always a bit in awe. But I do work at it. And frankly I think creativity is very overrated.

In a sense that few realize all of us have a creative side, though it may never be used by some. I believe that it is a very important part of your living well and becoming […]

Pastors and Pornography

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:09-05:00March 12th, 2008|Categories: Pastoral Renewal|

I wrote a book, The Stain That Stays,
that deals with the problem of sexually fallen pastors and Christian leaders. I argue that in most every case the minister should resign and only after a long time, and in some cases never, return to pastoral care and leadership. This is not the place to further advance that argument. If you like you can read the book. It is available at our resource link at ACT 3 Online.

Perhaps the most frequently asked question I have gotten over the years is not about adultery in the ministry at all. It is about pornography and addiction to pornography. I wish to make it clear that I do not think this is a small problem. The numbers that I have seen suggest a large number of male ministers are addicted. This presents serious problems to an effective and truly powerful ministry. For one thing most men who are addicts are unable to preach with […]

The Crisis in Quebec and the Lessons It Offers to Us

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:09-05:00March 10th, 2008|Categories: Culture|

Charles Colson is always interesting. I sometimes disagree with his diagnosis but then he is likely closer to the truth on many of these subjects than I am. (I sincerely mean this. I respect Chuck Colson immensely and agree with him about 95% of the time, which is more than I sometimes agree with myself on a really good day!) Chuck wrote a piece today, on PFM’s Breakpoint site, that is one of the more insightful pieces he has written in some time. It goes along well with previous blog on Harry Truman and the spiritual foundation for strong democracy. It is titled; "On the Cusp of a Crisis." He shows how the province of Quebec became secular and what the result has been in the past few years. Anyone who believes that there needs to be nothing but freedom of choice in all moral circumstances should read this very carefully. It is a great argument for the role of both Church and state. […]

Harry S. Truman: A Different Kind of President

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:10-05:00March 10th, 2008|Categories: History|

President Harry S. Truman was a very different kind of politician. First, he could not be bought by special interests and thus spoke his mind pretty openly. He wasn’t called "Give ’em hell Harry" for nothing. Second, he did what was necessary to bring an end to World War II and by his actions allowed history to judge him. I think, as awful was the atom bomb was and still is, he made the right choice given what the resistance of Japan still meant to the world, and to our troops, at the time. Third, he was a committed believer in the essential philosophy that stood behind the American experiment, namely democracy. Truman believed that freedom of the people, by the people and for the people was at the heart of who we were as a people. I find few who understand or believe this very deeply in our time.

President Truman once said:

Democracy is, first and foremost, […]