Some Sites that will Challenge You

[Soulfyre]

I keep a growing list of my favorite links at my homepage, Soulfyre's Brown Study, but I have decided to list a few sites here that I truly enjoy for their challenging content:

• First is the blogsite of my buddy James Mechaley, called jamesquinn. He is a member of our forum, and a Marine recently returned from Iraq. He is an intensely committed Christian whose transparency in his Christian walk, his strong sense of conviction, and his desire for consistency and obedience is lived out before us in his blogsite. He does not profess to be a teacher or a leader, but his keen observations and penetrating questions will not only invite you to enter into his struggle, but will often cause you to re-assess your own sense of conviction. I have had the pleasure of conversing at length with James on the telephone, and found him to be engaging, well-studied, and his Christian commitment sincere and heartfelt. Don’t miss the opportunity to interact with this young man of God.
• Mere-Orthodoxy is not about Eastern Orthodoxy, but rather like G. K. Chesterton, treats of the more generic concept of “orthodoxy” as it relates to Christian belief and practice. Like Chesterton and his contemporary among the Inklings, C. S. Lewis, these “classically educated, conservatively oriented, Christian guys opining on issues of faith, philosophy, culture and politics” will assail your thinking about issues which, to our great detriment, are rarely subjected to a truly Christian reasoning process by many evangelicals today. Logic, philosophy, politics, culture, literature...all are treated with scholarly perspicacity (look it up...I used it correctly) by these “guys”. If Jesus Christ is to be Lord of ALL of our life (for he is indeed the Lord of all, or effectively, the Lord of none), then we also should challenge ourselves with these observations.
• Pajama Hadin is an utterly fearless website. The reason that I say this is that “theodicy”, or the problem of the existence of evil in the creation of a wholly good and sovereign God, is one over which philosophers and theologians have been wrangling for millennia. Most pastors and teachers, evangelical or otherwise, deftly skirt the issue, preferring not to confront its stark questions, fearful perhaps that they will have their faith shaken. Not so for the author of Pajama Hadin, who confronts the issue directly with a disarming frankness and cogent reasoning that you will find illuminating. If this were the only issue he chose to consider, his website would be worth the visit. Of course, it is not. By the way, this website may take a while to load. It is worth the wait.
• A Physicist's Perspective is written by David Mobley, a postdoctoral researcher in biophysics (which is itself a mouthful). As you might surmise, one of the topics he undertakes is the issue of evolution, always a barn burner in areas of religious discussion (an issue which Pajama Hadin also confronts). His patient, illustrative, didactic manner will assist you through sound reasoning processes that will enable you to think more clearly about the topic. Now this does not mean that you will be automatically equipped to discuss fine issues of science (I recommend that you occasionally compare Answers In Genesis, a website dedicated to issues of Intelligent Design, and the Talk.Origins Archive, a site committed to the extermination of Intelligent Design like a disease, to get a grasp of the arguments), but he will give you a framework for approaching the issue.
• DrThrockmorton.com bills itself as “celebrating truth, faith, and life.” Dr. Warren Throckmorton is Professor of Psychology at Grove City College, and is the Director of the College Counseling Service there. One of his primary research foci is sexual orientation and homosexuality, topics which are points of great controversy among the religious (although less so among those more fundamentally oriented, including Christians). His understanding of the subject, his clear commitment to a lively Christian walk, and his clear delineation of issues makes this website a must-read resource for churches and laypeople, especially parents, who will be increasingly confronted with this issue. Simple dogmaticism, without an understanding of the issues, is both fruitless and in the case of raising informed children, dangerous. This site is of great assistance.
• I would be remiss if I didn't list the blogsite of our own Melinda (melinky), melinky101. Melinda is a capable writer with a keen mind and a keen eye. Her observations, both in our forum and on her blog will not fail to engage you. She is a tremendous resource, and a woman of discernment and encouragement. Be sure to visit her soon.

I hope you will find these websites both helpful and mentally envigorating!

God bless and keep you all,

Matthew (soulfyre)