Hall Boulware

Troy U ‘24 ⚔️

[Pastor Rich Lusk @Vicar1973]

At least where I live in the Deep South, a lot of political candidates use Christian faith to get elected instead of getting elected in order to govern in a Christian way. We need to change this. The South not nearly as “Christian” or “conservative” as most Southerners think.

[Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth]

The flyovers will continue until morale improves.

[Ann Coulter @AnnCoulter]

Thomas footnote: T. Aquinas, Summa Theologica:

[F]oreigners “were not at once admitted to citizenship” because “if foreigners were allowed to meddle with the affairs of a nation as soon as they settled down in its midst, many dangers might occur, since the foreigners not yet having the common good firmly at heart might attempt something hurtful to the people.”

[Pastor Rich Lusk @Vicar1973]

"The history of the United States is that of a battle between the two Johns of Geneva, John Calvin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and it seems that Rousseau is winning."

-- Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddin, 1972

[Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog]

The actual “birthright” belongs to my children, and the children of all real Americans. They have a birthright to live in a country that resembles the one our ancestors established. And now that birthright, the only true birthright, has been destroyed in favor of the imagined “birthright” of children born to parents who don’t even belong in this country and who have no ancestral or cultural ties to it whatsoever. Total madness. Suicide. Words cannot describe how evil this is.

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

🚨 JUST IN: Justice Clarence Thomas SLAMS the Supreme Court decision strike down President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order

Thomas writes that the 14th Amendment "was enacted in the wake of the Civil War with the ONE pervading purpose of securing equal citizenship for the FREED SLAVES."

He goes on to say that the Court, meaning the majority now, has REPURPOSED the 14th Amendment to protect its own set of preferred rights that the Reconstruction Congress NEVER contemplated, and that CANNOT find support in the text today.

[JD™ @LostMyHats]

Christians, gather your children and read them the promise of Genesis 12. Then, read them Galatians 3, which says the promise is THEIRS.

Then show them this video as an example of how evil people will prey upon Biblical ignorance to steal their inheritance and enslave them.

[John Slaughter, Esq. @JSlaughterEsq]

A couple of Germans on a road trip have done more to inspire patriotism ahead of America’s 250th anniversary than the entirety of the U.S. government.

[Clay Travis @ClayTravis]

Cinderella still exists in college baseball — Troy to Omaha.

[Jox 94.5 @WJOX945]

"This is the biggest thing to hit this town since I've been here... This has a chance to really be IT!"

Voice of @TroyTrojansBSB @barrymcknight talks first Super Regional In program history 🙌

@3ManFront | #CollegeBaseball

[Eric Conn @Eric_Conn]

Many people need to hear this: Having a desire for a good thing does not mean you are "making an idol of it."

This is an old Tim Keller trick.

Ironically, the things that got labeled as idolatrous were the family, marriage, and children. Never the pet sins of the Left.

[middleclassparty @middle_class_us]

Boomers had pensions.

Gen X got 401ks.

Millennials got the 2008 crash.

Gen Z got a pandemic, a hiring freeze, AI layoffs, $7 milk, $800 car payments, $4,600 rent, and a student loan bill that follows them like a shadow.

Every generation got a harder version of the same promise.

Gen Z got the version where the promise is just gone.

And they are called entitled for noticing.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

I’m not the only one who has been warning about this kind of lawfare being deployed in the PCA, but these recent cases are exactly what many of us have been talking about.

Consider two examples: Burke Parsons and @ZacharyGarris.

I would be surprised if either suspension ultimately stands if appealed all the way through the process. But that is exactly the problem.

The process is long. In the meantime, these men are suspended from office. They are sidelined from pastoral ministry. Their churches are disrupted. Their people are left without their shepherd. Even if the suspension is eventually overturned, the process itself becomes the punishment.

That creates a dangerous incentive structure. Men can use the courts of the church to temporarily remove pastors over charges they likely know will not hold up under final review. The accusations are often tied to elastic applications of ninth commandment violations, claims of “harshness,” or other highly subjective standards.

Take Garris. He was suspended for poking fun at Dr. Anthony Bradley by saying there are some things so complex that even a PhD cannot understand them. Frankly, that is funny. Dr. Bradley regularly invokes his credentials in ways that invite that kind of jab. To have a church lose its pastor, even temporarily, over something like that is absurd.

This kind of judicial maneuvering does real damage.

It chills ordinary pastoral speech. It rewards strategic accusations. It destabilizes local churches. And it sends a clear message to younger men: enter this denomination, and you may find yourself sidelined for months over charges that will eventually be overturned.

If the older conservatives in the PCA do not step up and use their authority to stop this sort of procedural abuse, younger men are going to ask a very reasonable question:

Why would I come into, or remain in, a denomination where the process itself can be weaponized against faithful pastors?

This is not mainly about whether these particular men win on appeal.

It is about whether constitutional process in the PCA will be used to secure justice or to exercise ideological control by other means.

#SavethePCA

[Troy Athletics @TroyAthletics]

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙉𝘿𝘼𝙍𝘿.

#OneTROY⚔️

[Robert Sterling @RobertMSterling]

I just had the craziest experience at the airport.

We are about to board a flight to Atlanta when the pilot from the incoming plane walks out of the jetway. Guy is probably late 50s, salt and pepper hair, military look. The kind of pilot you instantly feel good about seeing on your flight.

Pilot walks over to the counter, gets on the PA system, and starts addressing everyone. “Folks, I’ve been doing this a long time. Flying one of these jets is easy. The hard part is looking at 130 people and telling them their flight is going to be delayed.”

Audible groans throughout the boarding gate. Most people here are flying to Atlanta as a layover before another flight. 130 people just had their day become a complete mess.

The pilot goes on. “I get it, trust me. But here’s the deal: During our landing, we had a small mechanical issue. I’m not your pilot for the next leg, but I don’t feel confident the jet’s safe to fly until we have a mechanical team look it over, and I don’t feel comfortable asking the next pilots to fly you guys until we get confirmation.”

He points at the agents next to him behind the counter: “Now, none of this is the agents’ fault. Please be kind to them. I’m the one who made this decision, not them, so any inconvenience you experience is my fault. Just please know that I don’t do this lightly, and I’m only doing it because I believe it’s in the best interests of everyone’s safety.”

Now this is where the story gets crazy. The pilot puts the microphone down, grabs his suitcase, and all the people in the gate…

Start clapping.

I’m not joking, everyone starts clapping for the guy. 130 people who just had their travel plans ruined give an ovation to the guy who made the decision and delivered the message.

All because he addressed them with decency and transparency, took ownership of the decision, made it clear that it was necessary, and explained why it was in everyone’s best interest.

It’s honestly one of the best examples of strong communication—of strong leadership, for that matter—that I’ve seen in a long time.

@Delta, whoever your Atlanta to Wichita pilot was this morning, he’s one of the good ones. Please tell him the delayed passengers of flight 1637 appreciate what he did.

[Mitt @MittCPA]

buy the ticket, take the trip, post nothing

[The Aramaic Wire ܣܘܪܝܐ @AramaicWire]

Evangelicals are partly to blame for the collapse of Middle Eastern Christianity.

They are the biggest supporter of wars which destroy Christians.

But it goes way deeper than that.

They view Christians like Assyrians in Iraq as a pawn to expand their footprint as "authentic" Christians.

They can be so brazen that they even set up local organizations & try to convert *Apostolic Christians* to *their* brand of American Christianity.

Imagine destroying an Apostolic, Aramaic speaking Christian community which is 2000 years old.

Then setting up an NGO to convert them to Megachurch Protestantism through bribery & handouts.

Isn't that insane?

[History With Jacob @HistoryWJacob]

The concept of "teenager" is a modern invention.

For most of human history, a boy of 13 was already a man, apprenticed in a trade or fighting in a war.

George Washington was a professional surveyor at 16.

Alexander Hamilton managed a trading company at 14.

In medieval Europe, noble boys could be pages at 7 and squires by 14.

In Rome, a boy put on the "toga of manhood" at 14.

The idea that an 18 year-old is "still figuring things out" would have been incomprehensible to our ancestors.

I believe this is why we think teenagers are so troubled. They are men and women stuck in a society that treats them as children. Of course they are going to "rebel".

We should give them more responsibility and expect much more of them.

[Pastor Rich Lusk @Vicar1973]

There's nothing more stupid in the church today than evangelicals doing a play-acting "Seder Supper."

First, we don't need to do a fake Passover. The church already has the Lord's Supper which is (among other things) the fulfillment of the old covenant Passover. Jesus gave us a meal. Why do something other than what he commanded? Why do another religious meal when Jesus already gave us one?

The reason some evangelicals get interested is the Seder is that, having eviscerated the true sacraments of their meaning and efficacy, they go looking for substitutes. They have emptied the true sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper) of mystery, yet, being human, they still yearn for meaningful and mysterious rituals, so they either borrow from Jewish tradition (the Seder as a substitute for the Lord's Supper) or they create their own (such as the altar call). The answer to this longing for meaningful rituals should be satisfied by reclaiming and understanding what Jesus gave us. Doing a Seder is not a way to return to the church's roots; it is the church engaging in idolatrous syncretism, no matter how well intentioned.

Second, most of the Seder is not actually rooted in Scripture. It's not the ritual described in Exodus 12 or later OT Scripture. Most of it comes from later extra-biblical traditions; indeed, most of it comes from rabbinic Judaism, and was established long after Christian faith and Judaism were clearly distinct and very different faiths. Even if those rabbinic traditions get infused with Christian symbolism, they are not "our" traditions and symbols. They comes from the Talmud, not the Bible. Christians have no more business doing a Seder than than they do keeping Ramadan or celebrating Kwanza. The church has her own meal, her own traditions, her own calendar, her own story. Why borrow from apostate Judaism? Why syncretize the Christian faith with a rival?

I have argued elsewhere that one deep-seated reason dispensational evangelicals are attracted to modern Israel is because they have rejected Christendom but still long to have an earthy, embodied cultural manifestation of the faith. The same thing is happening here - having minimized the power of the Christian sacraments, these same evangelicals look to Judaism to provide what they (wrongly) think their own religion lacks.

Third, for Christians to try to perform an old covenant Passover in any way is virtually blasphemous - and it's impossible anyway. Will the Seder meal only be for the circumcised per Exodus 12, and those who keep the cleanness laws of Leviticus? Where are are Levitical priests going to be found to administer the ritual? How does taking this pseudo-Passover meal outside of Jerusalem get justified in light of Deuteronomy 16? How will a lamb be sacrificed at the temple, per the old covenant requirement, since the temple was destroyed in 70AD? Will 2 year olds be welcome to eat the Seder since the Passover meal was for the whole household and obviously included young children? What about the shedding of blood after Jesus' death on the cross - on what basis could any Christian revert to an animal sacrifice when the final sacrifice has been offered?

The Passover was part of a system that God ended in 70AD. To turn back to it (especially in rabbinic/Talmudic form) is no better and no different from turning to paganism (cf. Gal. 4:8-11). The whole point of the Last Supper is that Jesus has transformed the old covenant Passover into something better - the new covenant meal of the Lord's Supper. Doing a Seder is participating in a religious system that rejected Jesus as Messiah.

There's more that could be said, but these reasons are fully sufficient for Christians to reject the Seder. Do the meal Jesus gave us. Do it every Lord's Day, like the apostles did. Read Calvin on the real (Spiritual) presence and embrace a theology of sacramental efficacy. Use good bread and real wine. We don't need weird non-Christian rituals to give the season meaning.