It was a good year for Pyro, thank the Lord. Reports of our death were premature. Our traffic just about doubled over 2013, which is not too shabby for some "middle-aged white Reformed guys."
Lists! Everyone's doing it and it looks like fun. So I asked Frank, and he was kind (and smart) enough to figure out which were our top ten posts of 2014. Actually, he figured out the top 100, but I'm only listing the ten!
Note: these aren't necessarily the top ten written in 2014, though the second, third, fourth, fifth... well, some are.
Here you go:
- Pornographic divination. Really terrific post by Phil from 2011; really upset a lot of people; really prescient. Pity it wasn't heeded more robustly.
- John Piper and Mark Driscoll: Lessons Not Learned? Hated by the Top Men's egoguard, but others found value in it.
- Seven revelations of Ferguson. Finding preventative answers in the Gospel and God's Word, not in endless fuelling of bitterness, resentment, self-pity, statism, and career victimism. Yet Bryan Loritts says (white) evangelicals are silent on such matters, and no one challenges him. Ditto Frank Turk's powerful posts on the subject.
- Truth worth dying for? Anyone? Bueller? Today, anyway? About the vital nature of truth, and the airy chatty indifference of professed leaders in dealing with truths for which our theological forefathers actually and literally died.
- Some here, some there —” September 12, 2014 (special #TGCBlockedParty edition). More fun than Bibley types should be allowed to have. Yet have it, we did.
- A. W. Pink: glorifying God by disobeying Him? This one continues to gather a trickle of angry attempted comments. Invariably they reflect no interaction with the post's contents, and can be reduced to "But he's A. W. Pink! He was a great man, because: books! How dare you! You're guilty of horrible sins!"
- The most offensive verse in the Bible. This actually is our most popular post, ever, if I'm reading the stats right. It's been used by Dr. Georgia Purdom of AIG, reprinted, and noised about. Even some whose official position is that we don't exist in any significant way noted it, which is nice. For my part, it just feeds my slow-coming conclusion that I can never predict a post's impact. This one just bubbled up and was easy to write, and quickly written. Other posts that I was sure would have a far greater impact fizzled with a muted pop. Thank God for the uses others have made of it.
- Of leprechauns, mermaids, and "loving homosexual couples." Biblically cutting through the gooey squish of modern religious thought.
- Answering Todd Friel about the emblematic charismatic Michael Brown.
- Pyromaniacs: Some here, some there — September 5, 2014. Not sure why; maybe it was The Elitists' Crisis Management System flowchart?
Thank you all for reading. We appreciate you, and we're looking forward to meeting some of you in person for the first time in a few weeks!
11 comments:
Regarding MD's visions of porn, etc. His preoccupation with sex was just one among many warning flags/reasons that he was and is not qualified for the ministry. I continue to see comments about how he has not disqualified himself...wake up and smell the coffee. A spiritual leader should not be as preoccupied with sex as the world is.
My experience tells me that the largest demographic in the U.S. who fit the "bitterness, resentment, self-pity, ... and career victimism"
label are professing Christians. When will we see a posting teaching them a lesson?
Re : #9 Friel & Brown:
Gained much.
Would like to see a longer post about the responsibility of pastors, pulpits and leaders in church to not promote someone just because they are right on a few issues or living a life that illustrates one biblical point.
For instance: "Mother" Teresa or D. Bonhoeffer for their sacrifice or whatever.
For longer posts visit Tony Miano's blog! Hahaha!
Truth.
Tangential: it'd be funny to start a blog named "TLDR."
I could recommend some contributors. Traffic might be high, but time-on-page would be short.
Michael,
You could be right although you make a broad generalization.
Could it be that most of the time we (christians) are pointing out how the new tolerance and diversity crowd contradict themselves?
I think the original context of the phrases I cut and pasted is a broad generalization. Look, there is no doubt that the cult.ure of this nation is devolving drastically. And the left are getting the changes they seek. But Jesus told us we'd be hated insofar as the world hates Him. You think pointing out hypocrisy is going to counteract Jesus' own foreknowledge? And a constant drum beat of how we're the victims of the militant this group or that group is unseemly. African Americans should just get over it I guess and let Bible believing Christians take the label of "oppressed" now. Sorry, I decline. Christ's Kingdom has never been the U.S. Or any other place. It is made up of people who need to go about the work he set out for us. It was the Pharisees who thought the Messiah would be a political/military/economic revolutionary to overthrow the government and ungodly culture they didn't like.They were mistaken. I'm not a Pharisee.
"You think pointing out hypocrIsy ..."
No and I agree with the bulk of this comment.
Just didn't get this is what you meant in your first comment. Thanks for explaining.
My pleasure, AJM
I recognized most of these just by the titles ("Most Offensive Verse" is no surprise). Y'all certainly enhanced my 2014 (and 13, and 12...) Many thanks for all your work!
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