The Power of Words (Proverbs 1:1-7) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “The Power of Words: Wisdom, Counsel, and Decision Making” (Proverbs 1:1-7), was originally preached on Sunday, July 25, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

Man, have I messed up. I’m a Christian, but I walked away from the Lord and got involved with a non-Christian girl. I think I love her. She is sweet and we get along, but she’s not a believer. We got involved in some stuff, sexually, that we shouldn’t have (and I was the one persuading her to do it). Before long, I became convicted about the sexual sin and about being unequally yoked with an unbeliever. I broke off our relationship.

I just heard from her though, and she is pregnant, with my baby. So here’s my question. Do I marry this girl, and become unequally yoked or do I not marry and have my child be born into a family in which his or her parents aren’t married to each other?

I know I’ve really messed up. I’m just trying to figure what to do now, to keep from making it worse.

A Shotgun Sinner

Shut Up (Proverbs 6:12-19) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Shut Up” (Proverbs 6:12-19), was originally preached on Sunday, July 18, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

The Power of Words (Proverbs 4:1-27) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “The Power of Words” (Proverbs 4:1-27), was originally preached on Sunday, July 11, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Not-a-Neoconfederate,

As I write this, I can see on my wall the flag of my home state of Mississippi, and I’m deeply conflicted about it. The flag represents home for me. I love Christ, church, and family more than Mississippi, but that’s about it. Still, the flag makes me wince because emblazoned on it is the Confederate Battle Flag, which was used so often in my home state, and elsewhere, as an emblem of backlash in support of the ugly epoch of Jim Crow. I supported a referendum changing the flag in 2001, but the voters of the state kept the old flag design by a vote of 65 to 35 percent. The more I think of it, the more I believe my conflicted feelings about that flag aren’t all that unusual for a Christian.

When it comes to Robert E. Lee, I can’t agree with those who would equate this picture with one of Adolf Hitler. Virtually every biography, by his contemporaries and future historians, would commend the General for his personal character and his sacrificial leadership. As biographer Roy Blount Jr. demonstrates Lee’s views on race were, in some ways, much more progressive than those of Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and other Northerners.

Lee, like many in the army he led, saw himself as fighting, not for slavery, but for home. This doesn’t mean they were right, but it does mean that an easy caricature isn’t possible. Based on Lee’s own writings, he sounds much like an antiwar American who, nonetheless, when drafted, fights for his country.

The question is complicated more by the home for which Lee was fighting. As a localist Agrarian-leaning political type, I agree with a good bit the Vanderbilt scholars of I’ll Take My Stand found commendable in some isolated economic/cultural aspects of the antebellum South, especially compared to the whirl of the industrial rootlessness that came after. But the agrarians, right as they were on so much, were still too close, I think, to the Civil War to see the moral enormity of the slavery question.

But the Confederate States of America was constitutionally committed to the continuation, with protections in law, of a great evil.

The idea of a human being attempting to “own” another human being is abhorrent in a Christian view of humanity. That hardly needs to be said these days, thankfully, but we ought to remember just what was at stake. In the Scriptures, humanity is given dominion over created things but he is not given dominion over his fellow image-bearing humans (Gen. 1:27-30). The southern system of chattel slavery was built off of things the Scripture condemns as wicked: “man-stealing” (1 Tim. 1:10), the theft of another’s labor, the destroying of family ties, and on and on and on.

In order to prop up this system, a system that benefited the Mammonism mostly of wealthy planters, Southern religion had to carefully weave a counter-biblical theology that could justify it (the spurious “curse of Ham” concept, for instance). The abolitionists were right.

So what should a pro-civil rights son of the Confederacy do with the memory of those who fought for a Lost (in more ways than one) Cause?

Several comments on the original post pointed out how tainted virtually all history is. Yes, Lee fought for slavery, but so did the American Founders, in writing in allowances for it into the American Constitution. Does the picture of Thomas Jefferson I have in my study endorse his theological liberalism and his slave-holding or does it recognize his far-sighted commitments to human dignity and religious liberty? Does the bust of Theodore Roosevelt endorse his Darwnism or his awful views on eugenics?

The problem with a simple view of history is that it leads to a totemic use of historical figures. Some have romanticized, for instance, the American Founders in a way that doesn’t allow an honest conversation about the real problems there. Fourth of July sermons that treat Jefferson and Franklin and Adams as exemplars of evangelical Christianity aren’t really defending the gospel, nor are they honoring those founders. They are simply not treating persons as persons, turning them into slogan-supporting icons instead. The same thing is true with the cult of the Confederacy that has emerged in the last century, except often in much more malevolent forms. The Confederate dead have become a kind of cultural short-hand for white supremacy and racial resentment. It is a long drop indeed from Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson to George Wallace and David Duke.

The fetishistic use of historical figures is precisely what leads to the kind of “absolute good vs. absolute evil” characterizations we often see among Christians in the way they view current leaders. Why did so many evangelicals send around email forwards with the urban myth that the then-President of the United States had led a little girl to pray to receive Christ on a rope line? It’s because so many wanted to think of this political leader as a spiritual leader too.

That’s the kind of hagiography that led to George Washington’s cherry tree inability to tell a lie. Well, George Washington was a great man, but he was also a liar. And so am I, and so are you. Unless there was a star shining over Washington’s birthplace (and there wasn’t), then Romans 3:10-19 applies to him as well as to all of us.

But this messy historical ambiguity ought not to surprise those who are being shaped by the Bible. Think of the brutal honesty with which the Scriptures give us the sins and foibles of our fathers in the faith, while honoring them just the same. Think of the very sinful, conniving picture we get of Jacob in Genesis and then think of the fact that he is commended in Hebrews 11 as a man of faith. Think of the genealogy of our Lord Jesus, filled as it is with scoundrels. And we know they were scoundrels because the Bible tells us so.

The Christian isn’t called to a rootless, ahistorical existence. We are commanded to show honor to our fathers and mothers (Exod. 20:12). That doesn’t mean hagiography. Jesus pointed out that his fathers had died in the folly in the wilderness (Jn. 6:49). Peter pointed out that the revered David was now just a pile of bones, and thus at least one sin short of a Messiah (Acts 2:29-35). This means we have a skeptical honor that recognizes both the good graces God has given to sinful men and women, and the fact that even the best among us is a sinner.

Should you keep up that picture of Lee, with his quote about what it means to be a gentleman? I don’t know. I can’t tell you one way or the other because what’s more important than a single picture is the general ethos of a home. Years ago, I had an African-American civil rights activist friend with a portrait of Lee in his home, and I never questioned whether he might be a Klansman. I have a portrait in my office of Fannie Lou Hamer, who supported the Equal Rights Amendment (I think), but I don’t think anyone sees that picture as an apologetic for feminism.

The issue is love of neighbor and the mission of Christ. That’s why the Apostle Paul refuses to lay down simple rules about eating vegetables or eating meat (Rom. 14:1-23). If that picture would hinder your being able to show hospitality and love with your brothers and sisters of every background and race, take it down.

But, if you keep it up on the wall, let it be, like every historical portrait, a warning.

I’d like to think that if I’d been born in 1841 Mississippi instead of 1971 Mississippi that I’d have been leading slave escapes. I’d like to think that if I’d been born in 1941 Mississippi that I’d have been singing “We Shall Overcome” at the 1963 March on Washington. And maybe I would have.

But a gentleman as devoted to character as Robert E. Lee, who had thought long and hard about the evils of slavery, was so conditioned by his time that he couldn’t see past his blind spot. So what makes me think that I could have escaped a similar blind spot? And what is so common in our culture right now that we can’t even see it, as we think we’re serving the Lord?

Jesus addresses something of this when he says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrite! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets’” (Matt. 23:29). Those are chilling words for one whose bloodline has come down from the slave-holding South through the Jim Crow oppression to the present day.

As I look at that Mississippi flag, I can’t demonize it. I’m grateful for the people, the family, the place it represents. But I wince at the symbol that was used to enslave the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, to bomb little girls in church buildings, to terrorize preachers of the gospel and their families with burning crosses on front lawns by night.

All that ought not to prompt a pretending that you come from somewhere other than where you’ve come. That would be ingratitude. It ought instead simply to lead you to say, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).

None of us is free from a sketchy background, and none of our backgrounds are wholly evil. The blood of Jesus has ransomed us all “from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” (1 Pet. 1:18), whether your forefathers were Yankees, Rebels, Vikings, or whatever. The gospel also then frees us to give honor to whom honor is due (Rom. 13:7), without the pretense that any human being is without sin or dishonor.

Robert E. Lee was a complicated figure, a sinful rebel (in more ways than one) who bore the image of God. And so are we. Lee was gifted in commendable ways even as he used those gifts sometimes in ways that ought to horrify. So do we. We ought to be honest, in both directions, about Lee and about our neighbors and ourselves. And that ought to cause us to search out our own lives for that hidden sin, that secret hatred, that conforming to the pattern of this age that we don’t see and don’t think to ask about. Ultimately, no matter how we seek to whitewash our heritage or our personal stories, we’ll only conquer it all at the resurrection from the dead. Until then, we watch our hearts, pray for wisdom, work for justice, and love our neighbor.

Deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome some day.

What’s your ethical dilemma? Send me an email at questions@russellmoore.com

Blessed Are the Ignorant (1 Sam 28:1-25) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Blessed Are the Ignorant” (1 Sam 28:1-25), was originally preached on Sunday, June 27, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

I’m a young minister in Texas, and a faithful reader of your stuff. Here’s my problem. In my home, I have on the wall a painting of General Robert E. Lee. Underneath is his quote on the definition of a gentleman. A close Christian brother and I have been in a kind of an intense debate about it.

My friend agrees with me that General Lee actually personally condemned slavery. But he thinks history’s representation of Lee (fighting for the Confederacy with all the accompanying issues of human slavery) could make my display of this painting a stumbling block to the cross, citing Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.

What do you think?

Not a Neo-Confederate

A Gospel That Will Get You Arrested: Preparing Our Children to Be Persecuted (Acts 25:22-26:8) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “A Gospel That Will Get You Arrested: Preparing Our Children to Be Persecuted” (Acts 25:22-26:8), was originally preached on Sunday, April 25, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

We are a couple thinking about whether we should marry. We love each other, and we love Jesus. We’ve been dating a while now, get along great, and everyone in our lives thinks we are made for each other. We agree, except for one thing.

One of us is a longtime member of a conservative evangelical (some would say “fundamentalist”) Bible church. The church is five-point Calvinist in the way it understands salvation, baptistic in the way it understands the church, dispensationalist in the way it understands the end-times, and definitely is not charismatic in any way in understanding the Holy Spirit. This one of us (just call me “Calvin”) agrees with my church’s doctrine. The doctrines of grace are really important to me in the way I understand God’s sovereignty in salvation, and in every aspect of my life, but I’m not one of those guys who beats every one over the head with Reformed theology.

One of us is a longtime member of an Assemblies of God church, and a convinced Pentecostal. I (just call me “Aimee”) speak in tongues, privately and sometimes in church services. I’m not an “evangelist” for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I don’t think speaking in tongues makes a person any more holy or mature than any other Christian. I just think that’s what the Bible teaches. I also think salvation is a free choice, and that somebody can choose to stop being a Christian and, then, lose his salvation. That’s what my boyfriend says makes me a “five-point Arminian,” although I’d never heard that language before.

In case you misunderstand, we’re not arguing about this. It almost never comes up. We talk a lot about Jesus and a lot about the Bible, but, probably out of love for each other, we don’t bring up speaking in tongues, miraculous healing, or predestination! Here’s our question: should we marry?

We know it’s not right to marry an unbeliever (we agree on that part of 1 Corinthians!). But is it okay to marry a fellow believer in another denomination? If we do marry, should we continue to go to our separate churches? Is that unsubmissive of Aimee to follow her conscience to be in a church that doesn’t, as she sees it, “forbid to speak in tongues” (1 Cor. 14:39)? And when there are children, what should we do then: raise them in the Bible church or in the Pentecostal church, or carry them back and forth?

We really love each other, and want to be married. We also want to do what is honoring to the Lord and we don’t want to marry if it’s wrong or if it will hurt the other. We both are really interested in what you’ll have to say.

Quizzically Yoked, Calvin and Aimee

In this talk, I tell our students why I believe there is a single, very public Second Coming of Jesus, after the final “shaking of all things” in tribulation. I also tell them why I love the folks who disagree with me on that (including the people who led me to Christ). And, finally, I tell them I’m happy to be wrong.

Dear Dr. Moore,

My wife has been hurt horribly by a secret no one knows but her parents and me.

Years ago, when she was shortly out of high school, she was brutally raped by a man she had known since childhood. For various reasons, she didn’t report it at the time (I know that was a mistake, and she does too). The man later raped again and, ultimately, committed suicide. After her rapist’s death, it started to be known in our small hometown that he had done this before, many times, including the molestation of minor children. That’s in the past, but we’ve got a real ethical dilemma in our present and in our future.

This rape resulted in a pregnancy. During this time, she and I started dating and we were both convinced (and still are) that abortion is wrong, so she carried her baby to term. We married, and have raised this child together. He is nine years-old. He’s gentle, loving, and a delight to me. I couldn’t love him any more if I were biologically his dad. He recently professed faith in Jesus and was baptized.

Here’s my problem. He doesn’t know. I know from reading Adopted for Life that you think children should know about their adoption from the very beginning. Whether you’re right or wrong, that’s just not what we did. He only knows me as his Dad. Maybe even more important, we just don’t know how to tell him he was conceived in rape.

I don’t think a nine year-old could understand that. I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to understand that, without it shaping the way he thinks about himself. Might it even lead him to think that he’s genetically “predisposed” to that kind of behavior himself (whether rape or suicide or whatever)?

So here’s my question. Is it my Christian obligation to tell my son about the circumstances of his birth or is it my obligation to protect him from that knowledge? If I do need to tell him, at what age and how?

In Christ,

Agonized Dad

Dear A.D.,

I am sorry to hear of this horrible hurt that your family, particularly your wife, have been through. This won’t be easy. Here’s what I think your ethical obligations are.

You’re to pattern your fatherhood after another, an already existing eternal Fatherhood of God (Eph. 3:15). But our Father in the heavenly places also adopted his children after a horrific tragedy (Rom. 8; Gal. 4; Eph. 1). Model your parenting of your son through this after the way our Father has parented us.

Yes, you must be honest. God honestly speaks to his children about the circumstances of their backgrounds, whether back there in Ur or back there in Egypt or back there in the “power of the air.” You must not hide this from your son. Imagine what it would be like if he were to find this information out from someone other than you. He would then wonder whether everything in his life is fraudulent and illusory.

Having said that, you must not “exasperate your son” (Eph. 6:4) with knowledge he can’t handle. A nine year-old lacks the maturity to understand this horror in its fullness.

Our Father God doesn’t tell us everything he has to say to us as soon as he announces the gospel after the Fall (Gen. 3:15). He speaks for thousands of years “in many times and in many ways” until finally in “these last days” he speaks to us in Christ (Heb. 1:1-2). It isn’t until the “fullness of time” that God reveals the mystery of Christ in a way not known to the previous generations of prophets (Gal. 4:4; Eph. 3:5). But God did, in all those times, reveal Christ. When we received the full revelation of the mystery, everything else he said tied together in Christ.

You must do the same, preparing your son to be able to see himself apart from the circumstances of his conception.

I’d start by, as the years go by, telling stories about children who came from an evil parent or an evil situation. Take time to find these themes, and not just in Bible stories (Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker will do, if that’s what your son likes), and teach the truth of Scripture that one isn’t biologically determined toward his forefathers’ sin. Point out all the evil and treachery in Jesus’ family line, evil and treachery that didn’t implicate him in the least.

In your son’s life, show him all the ways he resembles you, and tell him why: because a son learns to be like his father by watching his father (John 5:19).

Start out, very soon, by telling your son, when you tell him his adoption story, that he was born after a lot of hurt and a lot of pain, but that God brought good (your son) even out of some of the most tremendous times of hurting. You don’t need to go beyond that, for now. But start showing your son how God continually brings blessing out of curse, even out of sin.

When you determine that your son has the maturity to receive this knowledge, tell him. Expect him to be hurt by this news. There is no easy way to take it, for all kinds of reasons. Honor your wife in this. Show your son what a hero she was in protecting and loving her son. Point out all the ways he is like her.

Assure him that, despite the human horror of his conception, he’s not an accident. God watched out for his mother, and for him, by seeing to it that he would have a father who would love him and raise him.

And then tell him what your Father has told you in Christ: “You are my beloved son, and with you I am well pleased.”

Do you have an ethical question? Send it to me at questions@russellmoore.com. I’ll keep it anonymous and change all the identifying details.

Happy Daze: How to Avoid Apostolic Christianity, and Never Really Miss It (Acts 24:22-27) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Happy Daze: How to Avoid Apostolic Christianity, and Never Really Miss It” (Acts 24:22-27), was originally preached on Sunday, April 18, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Reclaiming Our Testimony (Acts 21:37-22:31) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Reclaiming Your Testimony” (Acts 21:37-22:31), was originally preached on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Good News for Future Corpses (Col 3:1-4) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Good News for Future Corpses” (Col 3:1-4), was originally preached on Sunday, April 4, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Skull Place: Curse and Blessing in the Gospel of Christ (Gal 3:10-14) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Skull Place: Curse and Blessing in the Gospel of Christ” (Gal 3:10-14), was originally preached on Sunday, March 28, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Bloody Words (Acts 20:17-38) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Bloody Words” (Acts 20:17-38), was originally preached on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

My wife has been hurt horribly by a secret no one knows but her parents and me.

Years ago, when she was shortly out of high school, she was brutally raped by a man she had known since childhood. For various reasons, she didn’t report it at the time (I know that was a mistake, and she does too). The man later raped again and, ultimately, committed suicide. After her rapist’s death, it started to be known in our small hometown that he had done this before, many times, including the molestation of minor children. That’s in the past, but we’ve got a real ethical dilemma in our present and in our future.

This rape resulted in a pregnancy. During this time, she and I started dating and we were both convinced (and still are) that abortion is wrong, so she carried her baby to term. We married, and have raised this child together. He is nine years-old. He’s gentle, loving, and a delight to me. I couldn’t love him any more if I were biologically his dad. He recently professed faith in Jesus and was baptized.

Here’s my problem. He doesn’t know. I know from reading Adopted for Life that you think children should know about their adoption from the very beginning. Whether you’re right or wrong, that’s just not what we did. He only knows me as his Dad. Maybe even more important, we just don’t know how to tell him he was conceived in rape.

I don’t think a nine year-old could understand that. I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to understand that, without it shaping the way he thinks about himself. Might it even lead him to think that he’s genetically “predisposed” to that kind of behavior himself (whether rape or suicide or whatever)?

So here’s my question. Is it my Christian obligation to tell my son about the circumstances of his birth or is it my obligation to protect him from that knowledge? If I do need to tell him, at what age and how?

In Christ,

Agonized Dad

Post your responses to this question below. If you have an ethical dilemma, send it to me at questions@russellmoore.com. I’ll protect your anonymity, may change some details or merge it with other similar questions into a single case study.

Too Quiet a Riot: Why It’s Good News When Your Idols Fight Back (Acts 19:21-40) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Too Quiet a Riot: Why It’s Good News When Your Idols Fight Back” (Acts 19:21-40), was originally preached on Sunday, March 14, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

I am a young single Christian woman. I made a commitment at a very young age to remain sexually chaste, and I’ve done so. I have dated other boys, but always just in groups in a very casual setting. Now, however, I am seeing a young Christian man who seems great in every way. We have dated for about a month, and I really like him. He treats my family (my father is deceased but my mother and sisters live near me) great, and all my friends like him.

Here’s my question. I am wondering what his sexual past looks like, in order to know what I’m getting into. Has he been with other women, sexually? If so, how many and in what way? Has he ever had a problem with pornography? With every week that goes by, I’m more and more in love with him, and I’m afraid to keep getting my hopes up only to have them dashed when we’re right at the point of marriage.

I’m not saying that any particular information would necessarily kill the relationship, but I’d sure like to know something about this to know what I’m getting myself into. It sure seems awkward, though, to say, “So tell me about your sex life?” Would that be forcing too much intimacy too soon? Is it right for a woman to be so forward with a man who’s not her husband? Do I ever need to know this?

My question: should I ask him about his past? If so, how should I ask it, and at what point in the relationship?

True Love Waiting

Dear True,

First of all, I agree with you that this is something important for you to know, should this man become your husband. His body and his sexuality, the Bible says, will belong to you (1 Cor. 7:4). Moreover, the sexual union is not, whatever our broken culture might try to think, simply a neurological or even emotional response. The sexual union, mysteriously, forms a personal union (1 Cor. 6:16). Your husband’s “past” will, in a very real sense, become part of your story too.

Having said that, though, this question can be very dangerous for you, at this point. As you seem to recognize, dating is about discerning whether someone would be a good prospect for marriage. I’ve seen several budding relationships wrecked by a “DTR” (”define the relationship” talk) about such matters that formed, prematurely, an inappropriate emotional intimacy.

I do not think, at this time, you need to delve into the details (or lack thereof) of his past. What’s important for you to know is how he views sexual immorality. A man who will brush off past fornication as “no big deal” from which he’s “moved on” is a man with a conscience trained to do the same thing with future adultery.

I would recommend asking this man what his convictions are about protecting himself, and his future marriage, from sexual immorality. You might ask him how he would counsel his son to flee pornography or other forms of immorality. I think you’ll be able to gauge a lot from the wisdom and gravity (or lack thereof) he displays.

As the discernment process continues, though, your need to know further will expand. By that time, you will know more about the character and trajectory of this man.

There’s a really critical peril here though.

On the one hand, a man who glibly dismisses his past immorality is dangerous, for your future marriage and your future children.

On the other hand, your dismissing him automatically on the basis of immorality is also dangerous. If he is repentant, seeing his past sin as hell-deserving but crucified, then you should receive him (all else being equal), just as you have been received.

You are not “owed” a virgin because you are. Your sexual purity wasn’t part of a quid pro quo in which God would guarantee you a sexually unbroken man. Your sexual purity is your obligation as a creature of God. And you have rebelled at other points, and been forgiven. If you believe the gospel, you believe the gospel for everyone, and not just for yourself.

If your future husband is repentant, and forgiven, and yet you are “tortured” by the thoughts of his past, then the issue for you is one of personal pride and a refusal to see oneself as a gospel-forgiven sinner.

The issue for you with your future husband is discerning whether there are ongoing patterns, whether he agrees with God about the severity of this sin, and whether he has been cleansed from it by Golgotha Hill blood and Garden Tomb power.

Jesus was a virgin. His Bride wasn’t. He loved us anyway.

Do you have an ethical question? Send it to me at questions@russellmoore.com. I’ll keep it anonymous and change all the identifying details.

This sermon, “You Are Not Your Worldview: Finding the Freedom to Let the Faith Defend Itself” (2 Corinthians 4:1-6), was originally preached at Alumni Chapel at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Thursday, March 4, 2010.

Great Commission Humility, Great Commission Power (Acts 18:24-28) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Great Commission Humility, Great Commission Power” (Acts 18:24-28), was originally preached on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Philippi Prison Blues: Finding Freedom in Gospel and Mission (Acts 16:25-34) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Philippi Prison Blues: Finding Freedom in Gospel and Mission” (Acts 16:25-34), was originally preached on Sunday, February 14, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Worse Than an Atheist: Work, Family, and Male Headship (1 Tim 5:8) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Worse Than an Atheist: Work, Family, and Male Headship” (1 Tim 5:8), was originally preached on Sunday, January 24, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Crucify Your Charity: Generosity and the Triumph of Christ (2 Cor 9:1-15) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Crucify Your Charity: Generosity and the Triumph of Christ” (2 Cor 9:1-15), was originally preached on Sunday, January 31, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

This sermon, “You Are Not Your Gift: Finding the Freedom to Fail in Ministry” (1 Kings 1), was originally preached at Alumni Chapel at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Thursday, February 4, 2010.

I want to get a tattoo. I’d like it on my stomach, with a cross, with the words, “Flee Immorality: You Were Bought with a Price.” I’d like this as a measure of accountability for myself as the years go by, in case the zeal I have for the gospel ever wanes and I’m ever in a place of temptation this will be an ever-present reminder of what I know to be true.

I am really convicted that this is what the Lord would have me to do. Here’s my problem.

I am 19 years old and a college student. I live at home with my parents. I work and pay for my own school, but I live with them. I love my parents and truly believe I honor them, but where does “honor your father and mother” end? I really believe this is an issue of obedience in doing what the Lord seems to be directing me to do.

You probably agree with my parents that I shouldn’t get the tattoo and I can respect that. I’ve thought it all through. My question isn’t whether I should get the tattoo; it’s whether I’d be sinning against God and my parents if I did it.

If I am under their authority right now, when does that end? When I’m 21? When I’m out of the house? Or does it ever end, when it comes to making decisions like this?

Sincerely,

Bought with a Price

Dear Bought,

First of all, I hope my sons grow up to be like you, in all sorts of ways seen in this question. Your letter evidences a lot of commendable qualities: a desire to identify yourself radically with Christ, the recognition that you must protect yourself from your own potential future rebellion, concern for honoring your father and mother.

The command to honor father and mother never ends. It is part of the holy will of God, and is applicable to every person, regardless of age. When you’re ninety, you’ll still have an obligation to honor your parents, even if only in memory and in speech. The way one honors one’s parents changes, though, throughout the span of life. Jesus lived this life before you. His honoring of his father Joseph and his blessed mother Mary was of obedience in all things in childhood (Lk. 2:51), of listening to pleas for help in adulthood (Jn. 2:1-5), and of caring for weakness at the end of life (Jn. 19:26-27). All of this was an honoring of father and mother.

What you’re asking is less about Exodus 20 than about Ephesians 6. When does your obedience to parents end or, better put, when are you responsible for making your own decisions?

It isn’t at eighteen. The Bible never puts eighteen or twenty-one as some arbitrary mark between childhood and maturity. Instead, in Scripture, maturity is less a chronological or biological matter than an economic one. When are you able to establish a household, a household for which you are responsible? The creation pattern is that a man is equipped to provide for his household (Gen. 2:15). He then “leaves father and mother” as he cleaves to his wife and forms (within the larger tribe) a new household (Gen. 2:24).

Between childhood and maturity, your parents are working to prepare you for this responsibility, handing over more and more of it to you as you prepare to give yourself over for the provision and protection of a wife and family (Eph. 5) or for the sake of the mission (1 Cor. 7).

In Scripture, submission of any kind has limits. If your parents demanded you to sin against God, you couldn’t do it. But that’s not what they’ve done.

It seems to me, though, that this is less about obedience than about listening to wisdom. And I think your parents are right.

I’m not making an anti-tattoo statement here. Whether tattoos are permissible for followers of Jesus is debatable, but really extraneous to this discussion. Your parents understand, I’m sure, your zeal. They’re also though able to imagine a fuller arc of life than you can right now. They know there are a lot of things one can decide at eighteen that one would see differently at a later time.

A tattoo is (apart from expensive, extensive work) a permanent decision, a permanent decision made by a very young man that his older self, his wife, his children, and everyone in his life will, in some way, have to live with.

It may be that getting this tattoo is precisely what you ought to do. If so, then work toward being on your own, cultivating the maturity and the wisdom to hear outside counsel and to think this through with the mind of Christ. In the meantime, though, be a sign of the gospel by submitting to your parents even in something in which you think they’re short-sighted. Submission, after all, isn’t to things one readily sees as good ideas; that’s called “agreement.” Submission is often in matters in which one thinks one knows better. God will bless that.

One more thing: a tattoo won’t stop you from wrecking your life, no matter what it says. The rebellious heart gets what it wants, and will do what it takes to get there. An immoral man can easily scoff at the tattoo, or even blaspheme as a result of it in the throes of his rebellion. Instead of working to embed the gospel on your skin, embed it on your conscience. Cultivate repentance, confession, and seeking the life of Christ. The answer for you isn’t your own skin ink but Someone Else’s nail scars.

Your Christ-Haunted Credit Card Statement: Why Your Finances Test Your Readiness for the Kingdom (Deut 8:1-20) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Your Christ-Haunted Credit Card Statement: Why Your Finances Test Your Readiness for the Kingdom” (Deut 8:1-20), was originally preached on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

One Gospel, Unabortable (1 John 3:10-24) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “One Gospel, Unabortable” (1 John 3:10-24), was originally preached on Sunday, January 17, 2010 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

I want to get a tattoo. I’d like it on my stomach, with a cross, with the words, “Flee Immorality: You Were Bought with a Price.” I’d like this as a measure of accountability for myself as the years go by, in case the zeal I have for the gospel ever wanes and I’m ever in a place of temptation this will be an ever-present reminder of what I know to be true.

I am really convicted that this is what the Lord would have me to do. Here’s my problem.

I am 19 years old and a college student. I live at home with my parents. I work and pay for my own school, but I live with them. I love my parents and truly believe I honor them, but where does “honor your father and mother” end? I really believe this is an issue of obedience in doing what the Lord seems to be directing me to do.

You probably agree with my parents that I shouldn’t get the tattoo and I can respect that. I’ve thought it all through. My question isn’t whether I should get the tattoo; it’s whether I’d be sinning against God and my parents if I did it.

If I am under their authority right now, when does that end? When I’m 21? When I’m out of the house? Or does it ever end, when it comes to making decisions like this?

Sincerely,

Bought with a Price

Okay readers. This is an edited compilation of three overlapping questions. What would you tell Bought? Should he get the tattoo? Wait and get the tattoo after he is out of his parents’ home? What kind of issues should he think about as he makes this decision? I’ll weigh in later.

Round Yon Violence: Why the Virgin Birth Ought to Scare You to Death (Luke 1:26-38; Gen 3:15) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Round Yon Violence: Why the Virgin Birth Ought to Scare You to Death” (Luke 1:26-38; Gen 3:15), was originally preached on Sunday, December 20, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

A Way to the Manger: Why Bethlehem Matters (Micah 5:1-5) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “A Way to the Manger: Why Bethlehem Matters” (Micah 5:1-5), was originally preached on Sunday, December 13, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

As a missionary in a West African country, I’m in a difficult situation. Here poverty is everywhere, and many people sell their young boys to the Taliban leaders at the various mosques. These half naked boys are sent into the streets to beg with a large tomato can and a stick. They are truly hungry and afraid; that was obvious to me. The Christians here have explained that if the boys do not collect enough money, they are not fed and beaten—sometimes worse.

What should I do? Should I give the boys money for the Taliban hoping they will be safe? Should I refuse to support a group that proudly murders knowing that the precious eyes you are refusing could be beaten without my help?

Sincerely,

On Mission

Dear OM,

Now that’s a hard one.

It’s a hard question because I’m not sure, first of all, whether it is known that all of these children are being used by Taliban leaders in this way or just that this does happen from time to time. If the latter, it could be similar to the kind of “He’ll just use it to buy liquor and drugs” argument against giving to the homeless in the United States. Let’s assume, though, the assessment here is exactly on target: these children are being raised and profited from by Islamic terrorists.

Scripture tells us we are to care for the widows and orphans in their distress (Jas. 1:27). You’re face to face with a lot of them, right now. In caring for orphans and widows, Christians should work for justice on both the macro and the micro levels. These levels aren’t ultimately in conflict with one another, though they may seem to be in the short term.

On the micro side of things, these children are going to grow up, typically, with a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. They’re going to see their captors as sympathetic figures because these terrorists are the ones who fed them and clothed them (all the while brutalizing them). Here is a perversion of the design God has embedded in the creation, that children should identify with those who feed and clothe them.

If all these children see, when they think of followers of Jesus, are the people who avert their eyes from them in need, such will only fuel their suffering and their identification with these oppressive terror cells.

When faced with individual children in need, I think you should give money when you can. All the while telling them that you’re doing so in Jesus’ name. But that’s no solution to the problem.

At the macro level, though, you don’t want to prop up the kind of satanic economy that is enabling this. Why are parents giving their children to these terrorist groups to rear? It’s because they are economically without options.

It seems to me, if this situation is systemic in your area, that God is calling followers of Christ to start some Christ-focused children’s homes and orphanages. Counter the terror with homes the West Africans around you can see are clearly kind and loving to children. Invest your time, long term, in building a ministry that includes skill training, vocational counseling, agricultural support.

If you don’t have the means to do this, appeal to your sending agency to give you help. If they won’t, go around them and appeal to the churches.

And pray for the day when radical Muslims are asking why they don’t have children left to exploit anymore.

What about you? Do you have a question for me to answer about some ethical decision? Email it to me at questions@russellmoore.com.

More than a Mission Trip: The Power of the Gospel of a Nations-Seeking God (Acts 13:44-52) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “More than a Mission Trip: The Power of the Gospel of a Nations-Seeking God” (Acts 13:44-52), was originally preached on Sunday, November 29, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Touchstone, a magazine where I serve as a senior editor, just ran a fascinating article on the theology behind the series. Jonn Granger, who was called by Time magazine the “dean of Harry Potter scholars,” wrote this piece, focusing on what he sees as the distinctively Latter-day Saint theological-literary structure behind the series.

Read it, and think about his thesis. What does the “Twilight” series tell you about what young women in your communities are longing for? What does it tell you about the appeal of Mormonism?

Beyond the Sinner’s Prayer: The Power of the Gospel of a Promise-Keeping God (Acts 13:38-43) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Beyond the Sinner’s Prayer: The Power of the Gospel of a Promise-Keeping God” (Acts 13:38-43), was originally preached on Sunday, November 22, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

My friend Greg Wills, a Baptist historian and expert on church discipline, and I were recently walking into a conference together, and I stopped and asked him about it. Listen to this “Moore to the Point Micropoint” about this issue, and let me know what you think.

As a missionary in a West African country, I’m in a difficult situation. Here poverty is everywhere, and many people sell their young boys to the Taliban leaders at the various mosques. These half naked boys are sent into the streets to beg with a large tomato can and a stick. They are truly hungry and afraid; that was obvious to me. The Christians here have explained that if the boys do not collect enough money, they are not fed and beaten—sometimes worse.

On Mission

Before I answer, why don’t you help me out. Should this Christian give to the starving boys, knowing the money will go possibly to fund the murder and persecution of other Christians? Or should this Christian refuse to give money, knowing it might mean the children passed by will be beaten for coming back empty?

Grave of a Worm-Eaten God: Why Jesus Throws Down Fear, Pride, and Other Alternatives to the Gospel (Acts 12:20-24) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Grave of a Worm-Eaten God: Why Jesus Throws Down Fear, Pride, and Other Alternatives to the Gospel” (Acts 12:20-24), was originally preached on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

Dear Dr. Moore,

Sometimes I go on blogs and websites, in the comments section, especially in places that are taking shots that I know are not true about people I care about, and I’ll use a fake name. The point is just to get the information out there. “The statement you made about so-and-so isn’t true, and here’s why.” Is it okay for a Christian to sign up with a fake name? How about on sites hostile to historic Christianity where they’ve “banned” me because of my outspoken beliefs? Is it okay to go back on with another identity? I guess my question is this, it is okay to be anonymous or use a pseudonym as a Christian? Is that lying?

Anonymous (of course)

Dear Anonymous,

First of all, I admire you for seeking to look out for the names and reputations of others, above yourself. That’s Christian, and commendable. I agree also with some of the comments on the first post that deception is sometimes ethically permissible. Warfare, for instance, inherently involves some deception (you want the opponent to think you’re amassing your troops in one place when you’re really going another).

I am not saying that a fake name is never permissible. A Christian missionary in a closed country (or an intelligence agent with the military) might use a pseudonym to the glory of God in order to keep from sacrificing the mission at hand. I could also see a situation where a pseudonym might not be deceptive or cowardly at all. Say, for instance, you’re a Christian pastor with a background in firefighting. The local newspaper would like a local column on fire safety, but they don’t really want to distract people with your calling as clergy. Writing about smoke alarms as “Sparky the Fire Ant” in that case really doesn’t seem all that ethically problematic to me.

I also don’t have a guilty conscience about posting anonymous questions here (or questions with pseudonyms) since the person sending them in isn’t engaged in conversation with others but is simply offering me a test case to prompt others to think about an issue of relevance to many.

In most cases, though, I think our responses as Christians ought to be authentic, transparent, and honest about our identities. I think that’s especially true in controversy, on the Internet or otherwise. Jesus tells us to let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no,” meaning that our integrity is above questioning by outsiders (Matt. 5:27).

I think, though, the issue becomes much, much clearer if one is using a fake name (or an anonymous note) to criticize, attack, or tear down. There are few things more cowardly or counter-productive than anonymous or pseudonymous attackers of others (whether those others are believers or unbelievers). Our speech, whether spoken or written or typed, is not to be “cunning” (as is the Serpent of Eden) but truthful, and loving (1 Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:15). I’ve seen the Spirit move in some mysterious ways, but never through an anonymous letter of attack to a brother or sister in Christ.

So, short answer: since you’re involved arguing with people in public (and sometimes that’s an okay thing to do), I think you shouldn’t make up a fake name (unless the rules of the site require some type of “handle”). Just be yourself. And I’m still working this out myself. I use the name “Russell Moore,” because doing this pastoral and ethical stuff tends to detract from my main career out there writing songs and singing with my friends.

What about you? Do you have a question for me to answer about some ethical decision? Email it to me at questions@russellmoore.com

Dear Dr. Moore,

Sometimes I go on blogs and websites, in the comments section, especially in places that are taking shots that I know are not true about people I care about, and I’ll use a fake name. The point is just to get the information out there. “The statement you made about so-and-so isn’t true, and here’s why.” Is it okay for a Christian to sign up with a fake name? How about on sites hostile to historic Christianity where they’ve “banned” me because of my outspoken beliefs? Is it okay to go back on with another identity? I guess my question is this, it is okay to be anonymous or use a pseudonym as a Christian? Is that lying?

Anonymous (of course)

Okay, before I answer this question, why don’t you weigh in? Should this person send comments into the Web anonymously or under a fake number? How would you make that decision?

I’ll jump in with my own thoughts later. In the meantime, put your comments here in the comments section and remember, if you have an ethics question, to send me your new question to questions@russellmoore.com

After Andy and Julie lost their daughter at birth, they were led to start a fund to empower adoption. Hear from them some recommendations on how to use a fund like this. You can listen here at the site or by subscribing to the Moore the Point podcast.

Below you’ll find the first of the “Micropoint” series here at “Moore to the Point Audio.” These’ll be short, spur of the moment audio pieces (usually less than five minutes long) on some issue. Sometimes I’ll just tell you what I’m thinking about or ask a question, and sometimes I’ll have someone join me.

The first “Micropoint” is with my friend David Prince. We’re talking about whining, and about a really interesting email he received not long ago. You can listen to the micropoint pieces here, or subscribe to the podcast and hear them there.

This morning we’re launching a brand new, fun project here called “Q&E: Questions and Ethics.” I’m raring to go.

Here’s the way it works. If you’re thinking about an ethical dilemma (big or small) that’s got you thinking, send it to me. Maybe it’s something you heard a co-worker talking about, and you wonder: “If that were me, what would I do, as a Christian?”

At Q&E, I’ll try to answer the question (or question the answers) here from a kingdom-oriented, Christ-centered vantage point.

The question could be about anything from whether you ought to let your teenage son get a tattoo to whether you ought to use IVF to get pregnant to whether it’s a lie to tell your Mom she’s gaining weight when she asks you dead out.

It’ll work kind of like “The Ethicist” column by Randy Cohen does over at the New York Times magazine, except, well, completely different.

Here’s why.

I get a lot of “Hey, what should I do if…” questions, and a lot of them are really thoughtful questions. They force me to think about things in my own walk with Christ, and they prod me on to being a better man, husband, father, preacher, writer, bureaucrat, etc. I think our discussion of some of these questions could prompt us to think.

Here’s how.

Send me an email to questions@russellmoore.com with your question. Or, if you prefer send a video link (YouTube, Vimeo, or just off the camera on your computer) of you asking the question. Or, if you use Twitter, you can tweet the question to me @drmoore.

Some ground rules.

I’m not going to use your name, unless you explicitly ask me to. Otherwise, you’ll be “Confused in Corinth” or “Tempted in Topeka” or whatever (just like old Ann Landers used to do it, if you remember back that far).

I reserve the right to change some minor details to protect your identity and I reserve the right to combine several, similar questions into one synthesis test case.

I won’t respond to you personally by email on these. I’d love to, but can’t.

I won’t answer all of them right away. There’s no timeline. I may save some up while I think about the answer, and it might take me a while. So please don’t send me the “Why won’t you answer my questions” email.

Also, there are lots of people with similar problems to yours. Don’t assume if you read something on here that I’m talking about you. Sometimes I’ll address an issue in some venue, and someone will huff and protest, “How did you know about me.” There are all kinds of Bible verses I could refer you to on that one, folks, but Carly Simon lyrics will do for now.

I’m all for a frenzy of discussion on the comments section. Some of these will be “Thus saith the Lord” type answers: “Should I throw kittens in a wood chipper, for the fun and amusement of my friends” (and stay tuned for how I’ll answer that one). Some will be more “Thus leaneth Moore” type answers: “Should I tell my fiance that I always prayed that I’d wind up married to his brother?”

I’ll answer some of them with text, here on the site. I’ll answer some of them audibly on the podcast (see the link over on the edge of this site for how to sign up for the “Moore to the Point” podcast). The decision as to which is which will be completely arbitrary, dependent more on my thyroid levels that day than on any strategic plan.

So, email me your ethical questions and dilemmas, and let’s get “Q&E” rolling out the gates.

And, by the way, my mother is not gaining weight, in case you thought that my example above was from real life.

A Sheet Full of Lizards (Acts 10:1-48) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “A Sheet Full of Lizards” (Acts 10:1-48), was originally preached on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore at our media page.

This sermon, “Blood Soup: Why the Culture of Craving Is Wrecking Your Life, Your Church, and Our Mission—and How Jesus Can Turn It Around” (Gen 25:19-24; Heb 12:15-17), was originally preached at Alumni Chapel at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Thursday, October 15, 2009.

Same Kind of Different as You: A Mutilated Man Meets a Mutilated God (Acts 8:26-39) from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

This sermon, “Same Kind of Different as You: A Mutilated Man Meets a Mutilated God” (Acts 8:26-39), was originally preached on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find more sermons and other audio from Dr. Moore here.