Prickly Theologian
Friends of historian and theologian John Stackhouse (Regent College) know how sharp-tongued and entertaining he can be. Recently, in blogging about the termination of a female professor of Hebrew at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Stackhouse called the school's president a "wuss" for not sticking to principle and barring all female influence on future pastors. Prickly, prickly. But that's the blogosphere.
Stackhouse responds:
I am delighted that my long-time friend David Neff noted my blog as one of his favorites.I regret, however, that he happened to single out the one blog entry I have yanked! Gender issues, which were at issue there, provoke pain, sadness, and anger from many, and I remain unhappy about the subject of my post. But I also am unhappy with myself for aggravating the situation by writing as I did. The blogosphere certainly doesn't need my little quotient of intemperance! I trust that visitors to my blog now will find it–well, perhaps not Happy Valley, but also not as "prickly" as David found it.
Quirky Scholar
Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, interacts with currents in theology and society, but his take is often quirky. Consider, for example, his recent claim that anyone who believes in the God of the Bible is a theocrat. (Saying you're a theocrat, according to Mouw, sounds almost like admitting you're a pervert.) Since Mouw speaks and writes so prolifically, you wonder how he has time for blog entries. Well, these are sometimes outtakes: He recently had to shorten a lecture on Abraham Kuyper, for instance, and turned the leftovers into a commentary on the difference between Anabaptist and Dutch Calvinist thinking on politics. Anabaptist thought predates democracy, so its stance is mainly cautionary. Today, Anabaptists are part of the body politic, and some have asked the Calvinist Mouw how to engage at the local level.
Blogger With Bite
Fleming Rutledge is an Episcopal priest, an itinerant preacher, a wife of 45 years, and a grandmother. She is also a blogger with bite, who regularly responds to the mainstream media from the perspective of a rock-ribbed orthodoxy. Recent posts have noted how the overly violent Pan's Labyrinth beat the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at evoking a parallel reality, why liberals are wrong to resist the idea of a "judgmental" God, and the irony of evangelical enthusiasm for Wilberforce when we can't quite manage good race relations ourselves.
(This originally appeared on p. 75 of the June 2007 issue of Christianity Today.)
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