FIRST-PERSON: Jesus did not die so you could be cool
Owen Strachan admits to watching VeggieTales with his kids and being influenced by Gospel hip hop, embracing the fact that as a Christian, he isn't called to be "cool" in the eyes of the world.
FIRST-PERSON: John the Baptist & The Nashville Statement
The Nashville Statement on biblical sexuality, Owen Strachan writes, "is not problematic for Christian witness. It is Christian witness" as well as an key landmark in "an age when there is little clarity on sexual matters."
FIRST-PERSON: Only Jesus can clear our name
Christians can expect to face times "when one's character is impugned and one's doctrine is reproached" in a culture rife with hostility, Owen Strachan writes. "The world may hate us, but if we are held secure by Jesus … that is enough, fathoms more than enough, for us."
CULTURE: Not just naughty behavior
Owen Strachan compares contemporary culture's view of sex to God's "brilliant and gracious design." It is "a gift of God, part of a worldview of delight," Strachan, a Christian theology professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes. "To a neo-pagan society, we say: Your view of sex, of love, is not too big. It is too small."
FIRST-PERSON: We don’t own a white flag
To those who say the church is "going to give on gay marriage," seminary professor Owen Strachan writes, "They've said this about us before" on abortion, racism and the loss of theological conviction. "The church isn't about to give up the truth," Strachan writes. "The only thing we are ready to part with is our comfort, our safety, our small plans and, if we must, our lives."
FIRST-PERSON: How ’50 Shades of Grey’ harms women & Jesus saves them
Seminary professor and author Owen Strachan counters the claim that the Bible is oppressive to women in his critique of "50 Shades of Grey." Today's secular culture aims to "entice young men to sexually abuse women while exhorting young women to engage in harmful sexual practices," Strachan writes. "Honestly, what kind of twisted, deviant culture is this?"
FIRST-PERSON: Millennials & a new social witness, Part 2
Seminary professor Owen Strachan sets forth key ways that Millennials can advance the cause of Christ in America by "speaking love and truth, never giving up, never abandoning our neighbor, never falling silent."
FIRST-PERSON: Millennials & a new social witness, Part 1
Seminary professor Owen Strachan, a Millennial, laments that many of his generation "are quiet as a church mouse on public square issues." In view of the courage of Christians in previous eras, Millennial Christians "must offer a new social witness."
iPhones, Androids, dads & families
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- We have all seen it. The father, surrounded by T-shirted kids clamoring for his attention, lost in the alternate universe of his iPhone. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" they shout, little arms straight up in the air, as if they can physically pull his attention back to them. It's enough to make a casual bystander want to jab the guy in the ribs.
FIRST-PERSON: Homosexuality & humanity
In opposing same-sex marriage, Christians are not treating others inhumanely but are instead showing kindness to fellow sinners by pointing them to God's perfect design, says columnist and professor Owen Strachan.
