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 Pope Francis made the news twice this week, first by seemingly performing an exorcism. Later in the week during one his homilies he said that even atheists can be redeemed, which caught a lot of attention. Michael Horton provides some good thoughts on the Pope's comments.

 Religion has a great and positive impact upon America. This review of sociologist Rodney Stark's newest work is helpful and worth the quick read.

 Legalizing gay marriage is currently being debated in the UK. A number of Christian and Muslim leaders are urging Parliament to amend the bill currently being debated because it could prevent their congregants from advancing in their careers. Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts voted to allow gay scouts to be in the BSA.

 The Supreme Court will reexamine prayers offered at city council meetings. Currently, cities will often allow for inclusive prayers, where any religious group in their city can offer a prayer or invocation at the beginning of the city meeting. This issue led to a conflict in my hometown a few months ago between the mayor and the local atheists.

 The PCA wants to be a player, but it's not. Tom Cannon continues to do an excellent job examining the tensions in the PCA and their historical causes and where that leaves the denomination.

 It's been awhile since I've had a proper post, but I should be able to be posting more regularly over the summer.

 Back in March I put up my first post dealing with the weaknesses of building church unity around the early church's creeds and councils. That post dealt with the facade of a united early church. This post will deal with the need for the church to mature. 

 If church unity and catholicity are built around the early councils and creeds, the church’s ability to change and grow is necessarily limited. Limiting doctrinal standards to the beliefs and practices of the early church defines the essentials, either by limiting new doctrine and practice to that which would not contradict or supersede older tradition, or by limiting new doctrine or practice that is not within the bounds of the early church practice. The Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed1 are often held up as what the church should use as its defining doctrinal standards.

 For instance, it's been noted that the patristic church was more focused on Trinitarianism, Christology, and the nature of God, while the post-Reformation church has been more interested in atonement and justification. Keeping to the early creeds would limit the debates in the church over such things like... 

 Religious liberty in America is changing. R.R. Reno does a good evaluating the changing nature of religious liberty in the U.S. “Right now the Nones seem to have the upper hand in America. But what seems powerful is not always so. If I had to bet on Harvard or the Catholic Church, Yale or the Mennonites in Goshen, Indiana, the New York Times or yeshivas in Brooklyn, I wouldn’t hesitate. Over the long haul, religious faith has proven itself the most powerful and enduring force in human history.”

 The war in Iraq and Syria is a war on Christians. The war in Iraq lead to massive persecution and murder of Christians, which is what the current civil war in Syria is doing.

 Why do we hate the suburbs? There has been a lot of suburb bashing in hipster Christianity for quite a while. I love how this article defends the suburbs.

 Is Mark Driscoll this generation's Pat Robertson? I think the answer is yes, and this article makes a great case.

 Why don't French kids have ADHD? This article examines the differences between the American and French psychology scene and makes some excellent points.

 Pope Francis canonized hundreds of new saints last week. Included were 813 Italians that were beheaded by Muslim invaders in 1480 for not converting to Islam. This canonization ceremony was being watched closely to see how Pope Francis would interact with Islam.

 I am in the midst of studying for finals and writing papers, so no real posts this week, and probably none next week. There have been a number of fascinating articles and stories from this past week though. Enjoy!

 Gay marriage: a case study in conformism. This is a brilliant article on the overnight acceptance of gay marriage in America. When Christians become a hated minority; in a similar vein, this CNN article looks what the current cultural shift means for Christians.

 The United States Commission on International Religious freedom has put out a report on the worst violators of religious liberty. Atheist and Muslim countries top the list, while no countries of Christian heritage are near the top. There has been a mass exodus of Christians from the Muslim world. Christian populations in Muslim countries numbered in the millions per country only a decade ago. This past decade has seen those numbers rapidly decrease. However, church planting is gaining ground in the United Arab Emirates.

 Elizabeth Smart has spoken out against her abstinence only education. Smart, who was kidnapped and forced into a polygamous relationship, said that the abstinence only education she received taught her to be ashamed of having sex, and that her self-worth and value became tied to her alleged purity.

 Ross Douthat makes some great observations about Mark Sanford's god. This article is brilliant, especially Douthat's point about John the Baptist. Here's a sample quote, “Because of course when Jesus told his disciples to forgive sinners seven times seven times, what he really meant was that they should affirm people in whatever they’ve done and want to do and then return them to high office as swiftly as possible.”

  The new legalism. Anthony Bradley argues that the missional movement is not healthy. While he paints the movement in broad strokes, I think he makes very accurate and valid points.

 Pope Francis condemned the work condition in a Bangladeshi factory as slave labor. The factory collapsed last week and killed more than 400 people. Meanwhile, a Kentucky woman was defiantly ordained as a Catholic priest this week.

 In the battle over Christianity, traditional orthodoxy is winning. This TIME article argues that in the ongoing battles between Christian traditionalist/orthodox and Christian progressives (such as the battle over homosexuality), the progressives are losing.

 ESPN is supporting Chris Brussard, one of their reporters, over his comments on James Collins. James Collins is a basketball player who came out as gay last week and Brussard, a known Christian, was asked in an interview what he thought about homosexuality. Brussard said, “I’m a Christian. I don’t agree with homosexuality. I think it’s a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is.”

 A new survey shows that the majority of Muslims in Muslim countries want Sharia as the law of the land. There was a large disagreement about what Sharia constituted. Meanwhile, American female converts to Islam are facing scrutiny.

 The Pentagon is currently being urged to court martial officers who proselytize their subordinates. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is urging the military punish officers who use their authority to push their faith, going so far as labeling bumper stickers and Bibles on desks as proselytization. The Pentagon is listening to this group, which has given a number of observers cause to worry about a purge of Christians from the military.