Dr Paul Allen

This week, The New York Times is not only publishing the news, but it is also the news--standing at the centre of controversy well worth watching. As it turns out, this development serves as a parable about massive worldview changes in the United States with urgent lessons about the culture. Earlier this week, The New York Times ran an opinion piece by United States Senator Tom Cotton with the headline, “Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops.” Senator Cotton was elected to the United States Senate in 2015 after serving a term in the United States House of Representatives. Born in 1977, Thomas Bryant Cotton went to Harvard University where he earned his baccalaureate degree and then went on to graduate from Harvard Law School. After graduating from Harvard Law, Tom Cotton decided to enter the military. He could have joined as a military lawyer, but he wanted to serve in the infantry. He eventually became a captain in the 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. His milita...

COURTESY OF CHINA AID Weibo photos of recent cross removals. When a megachurch's walls  came tumbling down in China's Jerusalem  last month, the forced demolition drew widespread international attention thanks to photos circulating on Weibo, China's version of Twitter. Now, Weibo photos have documented how local authorities have continued their campaign this May to de- Christianize the skyline of wealthy Wenzhou , one of China's most Christian cities, and surrounding areas. IMAGE: WEIBO A cross removed from a Wenzhou-area church The latest in the reported "Three Rectifications and One Demolition" campaign comes from the city of Ningbo, where famous missionary James Hudson Taylor once worked. Officials have ordered services to halt at the 1,000-member Xiaying Holy Love megachurch, and  demolition work has reportedly already begun after the church refused to tear down the large cross atop its 10-story building. Meanwhile,  The New York T...

St Mary Coptic Orthodox Church (Photo credit: Christopher Chan ) When it comes to Jesus , the gullibility of the religious academy and its media know no bounds. This past Easter , the U.S. media buzzed with excitement over the announcement of an ancient Coptic (Egyptian) papyrus fragment with the phrase, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife….’” One more footnote for the story of how a powerful ecclesiastical elite suppressed the diversity of Christian voices and made its own variation “orthodoxy.” Harvard Divinity School has long been a place where “alternative Christianities”—especially Gnosticism —are defended with “fundamentalist” zeal. Karen L. King , Hollis Professor of Divinity , has been a distinguished evangelist for this “other Christianity.” Properly skeptical journalists might have paused before rushing to the keyboards and cameras. Not with this story. I saw headlines with words like “Certain,” “Confident,” and “Proved.” No question about it: the fragment is authentic and de...

90 Minutes in Heaven  by Don Piper It is not often that a book races to the top of the bestseller charts and opens up the way for a whole new genre of Christian literature . But such is the case with Don Piper’s  90 Minutes in Heaven , a book that spurred an entire genre of what I refer to as “Heaven Tourism” books. Don Piper was involved in radio and television ministry when he determined that he had been called to be a pastor. In 1985 he was ordained as a Baptist minister and was soon serving in Houston as a minister of education and single adults. It was shortly thereafter, in 1989, that he had an experience that would forever change his life and ministry. Fifteen years later, in 2004, he would team with Cecil Murphey and Baker Publishers to release  90 Minutes in Heaven , the book in which he described his experience. On January 18, 1989, Piper was driving through rural Texas, returning from a Christian conference that had ended a little bit e...