The 2012 season marks 10 years since Major League Baseball began testing for performance enhancing drugs, precipitating the end of what has come to be known as the Steroids Era. Fans everywhere nodded in approval while mumbling that it was about time they did something. They then collectively fell asleep as scores started dropping and became frustrated when their kids lost interest in a sport that featured fewer measuring tape homeruns hit by players resembling...
Maybe you’ve never heard of mewithoutYou. That saddens me. This post-hardcore melodic folk band from Philadelphia is certainly one of my favorites. Their 5th studio album, Ten Stories, was just released on May 15, 2012. This is their first album released after their record-label contract with the Christian record company, Tooth & Nail, expired. What sets mewithoutYou apart from other Indie Rock bands is the beautiful oddity of their frontman. Perhaps there has never been a lyricist as...
As 2012 continues, so does the grind of the election year, and certainly no one is more excited for November 6th than the candidates themselves. I can’t imagine the drain and the grueling stress this brings for the candidates). This atmosphere, combined with the patriotism associated with Memorial Day this weekend, had me pondering the sort of questions that I believe many of my generation begin to think about: what does the 21st century manifestation of obedience...
Last week was the first Conference engaging with the Harry Potter series at a high academic level. We know, hard to believe huh?! Well, yours truly from The Two Cities, John Anthony Dunne and Nathaniel Warne, were among the lucky few selected to give papers at this landmark event. The topics covered at the conference were wonderfully diverse. There were fascinating papers on: Food and British national identity in the series, Hermoine in the HP...
For those who haven’t noticed, traffic here at the two cities has taken a considerable focus on sincerely contributing to the discussion of homosexuality. Always a hot topic, and pinging especially large on our reader’s radar in light of President Obama’s Statement on the matter and the recent publication of the Biola Underground, we at T2C feel it especially relevant to contribute towards the conversation. Following Andrew’s helpful positioning statement, and Bryan’s penetrating evaluation of the biblical paradigm for...
This Thursday and Friday (May 17 and 18) the School of English at the University of St Andrews will be hosting an international conference on Harry Potter called, “A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature.” Today I am leaving Las Vegas to return to Scotland for this event. I’ve been excited for this conference since before I was even accepted to study at St Andrews. Initially I just thought I’d attend, but...
Last week, President Barack Obama affirmed his personal support for gay marriage, pushing the issue into the political spotlight once again. Of course, it’s much more than politics. It’s a spiritual issue, too. When faced with the question of gay marriage, Christians will often rattle off buzz verses that explicitly condemn homosexual practice, such as Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, or the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Others take us to the garden, where God established...
We, The Biola Queer Underground, are a group of like-minded LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) students and allies who have formed a private underground community in which we share our life struggles, as well as our love and support for one another. The main problems that we see in the Biola community are the isolation, pain, and fear of LGBTQ people. Our desire is to create a place of love and unity for...
Last weekend, numerous people throughout the country collectively invested $200.3 M into 2 hours and 23 minutes of their time. This investment was the purchase of a movie ticket to escape the world of reality to play in the super-hero fantasy world of The Avengers. I’ll confess: I tossed a few bucks into the pot myself, after being cajoled and nudged by my friends. Don’t worry, no spoilers in this entry, except for letting you...
I don’t know what to think about church growth anymore. I’ve always believed it’s God that causes a church to grow–and I still do. But what role does the leadership of the church play in bringing more people in? I’m afraid the answer to this question I’ve long held to is actually little more than a caricature: If it’s God that does the growing, then the pastors need only preach the Bible and sit back...
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