NEW SITES

Why, someone asked, have I added "so many" new sites? Unlike some weblogs, most of mine are more informational than personal. My latest site, PREDATOR PREACHER, for example, mentions predator preachers in my own life but the main content is information that will hopefully alert people to this danger. So also, with SILENCING CLAUSE, HOLY HYPOCRISY, GENDER DISCRIMINATION, and GENDER CODE WORDS. To see those and other such sites, click on "View my complete profile" and scroll down.

LEFT BEHIND Reviewed

I got an email today reminding me of the Christianity Today review of my most recent book: "Left Behind in A Megachurch World brims with fascinating accounts of small, 'left behind' churches quietly doing Christlike ministry--often despite conflicts, dysfunction, and rundown facilities. These stories, some from Tucker's early, painful years as a pastor's wife in two fundamentalist churches, make the book highly engaging."

But this minister's wife who emailed me also made reference to a news story in this same November 2006 issue of CT, pp. 26-27 (which was too brief to cover the story adequately, but basically fair as far as it went). Her comment: "It is my belief that too much time is spent fighting issues that will never be resolved while Christ's work and purpose are ignored."

I responded that it is never an easy decision to become involved in "fighting issues." But Paul certainly was not ignoring "Christ's work" while he took up issues with the Church at Corinth. Indeed, he was doing Christ's work even while he was "fighting issues."

TED HAGGARD
"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life."

These are the words of Ted Haggard in a letter to his Colorado Springs mega-church this morning, November 5, 2006. It's too easy for Reformed Christians to point a finger at the charismatics, thinking scandalous sin problems are theirs, not ours. But what about the sin in our own camp? In Haggard's case, the church investigated and acted immediately. It did not cover up the deception and lies. The CRC must learn from this and not prolong a cover-up of deception and lies. But in Haggard's case, some might argue, it was real sin. What is worse, I ask, to fall into temptation and commit serious sexual sin or to fabricate two sets of "notes" in order to destroy a career and damage a reputation?

NUMBER OF HITS ON SITE

I was just asked how many hits I'd gotten on my Calvin Seminary site. I do have a TypePad counter, and if I add up all the hits, it comes to over 15,000. But that's not necessarily accurate. The TypePad counter was down for a few days (including the day after the front page article appeared in the Grand Rapids Press), but then there are other factors that could bring the total number down somewhat. This BLOGGER site also has a number counter but to get a count of all the hits there is a charge (through another Internet service), and I'm just too cheap! The number of daily hits on "My Calvin Seminary Story" had been dropping until 2 days ago (when the Christianity Today article appeared in the hard-copy edition). Today, interestingly, I have been getting more hits on my site "Calvin Seminary Shamed" (at www.calvinseminary.net) than "My Calvin Seminary Story."