Evangelical roundup for August 17, 2023

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What is happening in Evangelical land?

Evangelical politico Bob Vander Plaats: “Iowa is going to be wide open.”

Good advice on how to send money to evangelical groups working in Maui. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is an organization to avoid according to Warren Smith’s evangelical watchdog website.

Harvard alumni respond to an article about National Association of Evangelical president Walter Kim in Harvard Magazine.

Tim Keller’s memorial service:

The Gospel Coalition covers the service here. Francis Collins reflects on Keller’s life here.

Ligon Duncan shares pics of a post Tim-Keller memorial service dinner:

Here is the full text of Duncan’s tweet:

One of the happinesses of the gathering for @timkellernyc yesterday was the way it brought old friends, and new, and people from around the world, together. I’ve loved seeing pictures of little bands of fellowship and brotherhood, here united for just a short while, posted all over social media (we had such a tight schedule before and after the service that it was hard to really see and speak to more than about 50-100 people). I have been reading @James_DHunter of the@iasculture @UVA since 1991 (Culture Wars) but had never met him (even though he’s taught for us at @RTSNewYork regularly). It was a delight to meet him and listen to his wisdom, and enjoy his interactions with Indita and @GraySutanto of @RTSWashington. He told us the origins of the name “The Dogwood Fellowship.” Just a delightful evening. And it was also so good to be with Sandy and Allison Willson, @collinhansen, @msgwrites, @IvanTable, @MattSmethurst,@SamAllberry, @TrevinWax, @jdgreear, and a number of the @TGC Keller Center Fellows.

Here’s a larger pic. (Do I also see Molly Worthen at that table?):

Lecrae was at the service:

Meet the pastors who are hosting GOP presidential candidates in Iowa.

Southern Baptist pastors on Mexico border.

How are Hispanic Southern Baptist Churches responding to the SBC rules about women “pastors?”

Karen Swallow Prior on Barbie:

Additional reporting on Jenna Ellis and Steven Lee, the conservative Christians indicted in the Georgia election fraud case.

Do evangelicals really love Fox News?

Blast from the past:

Greg Laurie on evangelical fear.

Are only liberal Christian churches on the decline? Focus on the Family thinks so.

More on Flamy Grant.

Complementarian Southern Baptist clergyman Tom Ascol on “theologically astute women”:

I’m sorry to see The Kings College close its doors, but it’s closing really represent that “decay” of “Western Civilization”? TKC professor Joseph Loconte thinks so.

The Museum of the Bible may get an ancient Christian mosaic from Israel.

Charlie Kirk has it all figured out:

An anti-woke evangelical theologian said that if you watch “The Chosen” you are violating the Second Commandment. The creator of ‘The Chosen” responds.

What about Southern Baptists who are biological women, but identity as men? Are they allowed to be pastors?

Lance defends Glenn Beck:

Eric Metaxas talks to Dick Morris on the Trump Georgia indictment. At one point Metaxas suggests that Obama may be behind the indictments. Morris says that Biden needs to stay as president because he is broke and needs the money.

Tony Perkins on the Jerry Falwell Sr.’s birthday:

The modern day “Black Robed Regiment” is coming to Liberty University.

Tom Buck responds to Beth Moore:

Here is Buck’s entire response:

Beth, I want to thoughtfully respond to this. *** You said, “I know you did not just blame Aimee Byrd for a pastor’s adultery.” You’re right, I did not blame Aimee Byrd for that pastor’s adultery. To say I did, would be a complete misrepresentation. He alone is responsible before God for committing adultery. *** You said, “he could’ve had a personal stake in it, using the book to publicly reframe a relationship rightly raising eyebrows.” I brought the book up because the pastor used it to promote the need for men and women in the church to have intimate friendships with one another. He used the book as a means to argue for the change in his position where he had been cautious about that and to encourage others it was a good safeguard to abandon. You’re right that his motivation could have been what you suggest. But it is also possible that the book persuaded him to abandon a guardrail he had put up in his life to keep him from developing a sinful emotional attachment that could lead to sexual sin. I’ve heard you warn in your teaching of the need for guardrails in how women and men relate to one another (e.g., you’ve told women to be careful how they dress in front of your husband and other men). Although there is never an excuse or shifting of blame to someone else, I think we both know there can be factors that contribute to someone committing adultery that should be guarded against. Proverbs is filled with such warnings. Ideas have consequences. *** You said, “Somehow always gotta be a woman to blame for a pastor’s downfall.” This is the most concerning thing you wrote. You see to be saying that I said what I did based on Aimee’s gender. I have never blamed a woman for a pastor’s downfall. I don’t blame the woman the pastor committed adultery with – although if it was consensual, she shares blame in the sin. In addition, it wouldn’t have mattered to me if Billy Byrd had written the book instead of Aimee. My critique had nothing to do with the gender of the author but how the book was being used by some to argue for removing safeguards in our relationships with the opposite sex. Framing it as a gender issue instead of a truth issue is unhelpful at best and a false accusation at worst. If you are okay for your husband to have an ongoing close friendship (apart from you) with a woman just like he does another man, then just say so and argue for why you are. I think that is dangerous and can lead to sin. And I say that whether it is being argued by a man or woman.

Buck also tweeted this poll:

Esau McCaulley and Beth Moore:

This piece at Salon, written in response to Jake Meador’s piece on church attendance in The Atlantic, is making some waves. Meador is the editor of Mere Orthodoxy and Matthew Lee Anderson is one of Mere Orthodoxy’s founders. I am not sure who Josh Daws:

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