My talk for the @CenPasTheo conference was on Bearing God's Name in the Public Square. I considered a case study: the bill requiring every public school classroom in Louisiana to post the Ten Commandments. Is this legislation a victory? Or misguided? 1/ Eric Metaxas' Letter to the American Church calls for the U.S. to be "a force for spreading the Gospel and Gospel values throughout the world" (xii). I think he would celebrate the Louisiana bill.
But what exactly does the bill accomplish?
2/

Last week I spent 3 days in Chicago for the Center for Pastor Theologians conference.
The theme: "Kingdom Politics."
The aim: to help pastors think well about politics so that they can shepherd their congregations in the weeks leading up to the election.
Some take-aways:
1/ Colin Hansen of @TGC spoke about Tim Keller's approach to politics. I appreciated his call for "learned, principled, courageous, and humble leaders who are prepared to lose power and be dismissed."
2/

I fear that some people who loved my article yesterday will think it's ok to critique any part of the Bible we don't like.

And some who found my article deeply problematic clearly didn't understand what I was doing.

Important clarifications:

🧵

https://twitter.com/carmenjoyimes/status/1723025587369898172

Do people in the Bible always do the right thing?
Of course not. Everybody knows that.

So why is the idea that Ezra and Nehemiah misapplied the Torah causing some people consternation?

2/

My church isn't perfect. (Yours isn't either).

But I consistently find God meets me there. The liturgy, the songs, the scripture, and the sermon so often reach past the swirl of thoughts and emotions and speak to me in a living way.

1/ Sitting side by side with others who have oriented their lives to this rhythm of gathering to worship is a consolation that empowers me for service.

2/

My first print article just dropped for @CTmagazine. Eve surprised me as I read her story more closely.

Yes, she rebelled. That reputation is well-earned.

But that's not the whole story. 1/ The enmity that arises between Eve and the serpent is a good sign. With eyes wide open, Eve and her seed are determined to bring creation into submission to the command of God.

As with any Bible character, Eve’s moment of failure does not fully define her. 2/

16 hrs into this poll, it looks like colleges and seminaries are equal contributors to Grudem's sales.

People are saying it's Baptist and easy to read.

I'm surprised at its prominence because I hear a lot of pushback to his poorly-argued version of complementarianism. 1/

https://twitter.com/carmenjoyimes/status/1650283984608190465

There's a reason I haven't read it.

For me, Grudem is the face of the movement that has tried to keep people like me from contributing to the Evangelical Theological Society.

His version of Christianity is male-by-design. 2/

27 years ago, one of my professors sat down across the lunch table from me in the cafeteria and said, "I've noticed you in class. I'd like you to consider being a lab instructor for Bible Study Methods." This surprised me for two reasons: 1/ (1) It was a very big class, probably over 100 students. How had he noticed me? (Now that I'm a professor, I totally get it.) (2) I'm a woman. I wasn't sure the Bible even allowed for women to teach Bible. I told him so. 2/

I thought it was just my incredibly niche timeline of Southern Baptists thrown together with Anglicans ... but apparently not. David and Bathsheba are trending. A few points that I'm not hearing clearly enough: a 🧵1/ This will be a *short* sermon, since we're on Twitter and that's how things work. If you want the *long* version, since some of you clearly prefer that, here's a link: soundcloud.com/prairiecollege… 2/