A full listing of Keynotes, Sermons & Talks by Dr. Ralph Blair.

Posts

Bible Studies

  • The Scripture’s Sources, Scope, Sum & Substance
    In the 400th Anniversary Year of the launching of The King James Version of the Bible The 2004 Winter Bible Study Series at The City Church, New York The last supernova was seen from Earth exactly 400 years ago – in 1604. That spectacular astral explosion of light and energy was visible through both darkness…
  • Truth & the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. John
    The Fall 2003 Bible Study Series by Dr. Ralph Blair at the City Church, New York FIRST STUDY Three hundred years ago today, Jonathan Edwards was one week old. And considering how very precocious he was, he was already well on his way to becoming America’s foremost theologian. One day, he wrote the following on…
  • Plain Christianity
    A Study Series for The City Church, New York, Winter, 2002 By Dr. Ralph Blair Introduction Three weeks ago I was in California for a wedding. On Sunday morning, I was taken to Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral where “never is heard a discouraging word.” At least that’s the intention at the palace of “possibility thinking.”…
  • Our Only Comfort
    Our Only Comfort Our Only Comfort in Life and in Death Meditations in The Heidelberg Catechism Dr. Ralph Blair The City Church, New York, October 6, 13, 20, 27, 2002 FIRST LESSON The interruption of everyday life by sudden death and destruction was never as massive here in America as on 9/11 a year ago….

Keynote Addresses

  • “The Peace that Transcends Mere Human Understanding”
    Keynote for EC’s 2023 ConnECtion by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.)    Twenty centuries ago, the Apostle Paul mentored early Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, giving them pragmatically spiritual support that we all still need today.  He warned that, as Christians, we’ll be persecuted.  Still, as he tells us all: “Don’t be…
  • 2022 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
     “From Creation & Insurrection to Redemption & Resurrection:   God’s Grace Overcomes All of Our Self-Destructive Self-Deceptions.”by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here)    Through all of the ages of God’s Gracious Revelations to humanity, from generously Creating us in His Image to flourish as human beings, through all of the ages of our ungrateful responses…
  • “But, what about you?  Who do you say I am?”
    Ralph Blair’s 2022 EC ConnECtion Keynote (PDF version available here.)     Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, was more than an eight-hours walk from Galilee.  Its stone cliffs were pockmarked with pagan shrines in honor of Zeus, Nemesis, Pan and The Dancing Goats in risqué fertility rites of bestiality, along with “The Gates of Hades”,…
  • 2021 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    Three Presentations  We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. (Read Presentation here.) Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags (Read Presentation here.) Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. (Read Presentation here.) by…
  • Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?
    Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity? Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”  That’s a very ancient riddle.  It’s a philosophical puzzle on the world’s beginnings and a question about all sorts of other sequences…
  • Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands
    Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) After surviving the dreadful storms of their Atlantic crossing, The Mayflower’s Pilgrims were swept to a safe harbor far to the north of their expected landfall in Virginia.  It was just in time to shelter…
  • We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!
    We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Each year, in late October or early November, it’s usually singles, who’re asked a friendly question many find awkward to answer.      Yet, in 2020, given lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, it wasn’t so awkward to…
  • Loving Others in the Energy of God’s Loving Us
    connECtion 2021 Keynoteby EC founderRalph Blair (PDF version available here)    All real love is the most profound of all connections and it is generated and energized by the One Who is, Himself, Love, The Eternally Triune God.    Yet, lovingly created in God’s Image and called to connect with one another by love, we fail…
  • The Meanings of Words & The Word of All Meaning
    The 17th Annual Octoberfest of Evangelicals Concerned EC’s 2020 Octoberfest Keynote by EC founderRalph Blair (PDF version available here.) “What’s the matter?”  Have you ever been asked this question by anyone?  Has anyone ever asked this of you?  What does the question mean?  What’s meant in the mind of the one who asks?  What’s meant…
  • “Awakening from Fear to Faith in Christ”
    ConnECtion2020EC’s 80th ConnECtion over 40 Summers By Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.  He saw they were anxious and as helpless as lost sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt 9:36)   Jesus saw what Hebrew Prophets and the Psalmist saw and grieved over, so many centuries earlier: “All, like…
  • BEWARE of BOASTING and BLAMING!
    by Dr. Ralph Blair BEWARE of BOASTING and BLAMING! is Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the 79th EC Summer ConnECtion, May 31 – June 2, 2019 at The Kirkridge Retreat Center atop the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania (PDF version available here.) Three weeks ago, 150 years ago, a single word was telegraphed all across America. …
  • Christian Faithing and Self-Esteem
    Christian Faithing and Self-Esteem by Ralph Blair 1985 (PDF version available here.) Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 1976. This booklet is an expanded version of Ralph Blair’s keynote address at the summer connECtions85 held in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and California. “We are what we…
  • HOPE’S GAYS AND GAYS’ HOPES
    HOPE’S GAYS AND GAYS’ HOPES by Ralph Blair 1983 (PDF version available here.) This morning, at the end of my flight from New York City to Grand Rapids, the flight attendant said, in her best commercial airlinese: “We hope you have an enjoyable stay in Grand Rapids, or wherever your final destination may be.” Without…
  • Gifted to Give
    Gifted to Give    by Ralph Blair 1993 (PDF version available here.) Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 1976. This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1993, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, which were held in Pennsylvania…
  • From Whence Cometh Our Help?
    by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) From Whence Cometh Our Help? is Dr. Blair’s keynote address at the 25th annual eastern and western connECtions of Evangelicals Concerned, in the summer of 2004. Once upon a time there was a psychologist who had never matured beyond the use of inkblots. One day he was…
  • Ethics & Gay Christians
    by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Introduction I approach this topic with some sense of uneasiness, not only because of the recurring poverty of ethics in my own life but also because I know that due to some understandably bad experiences with oppression at the hands of homophobic church people, discussion of ethics in…
  • “Gifted with GOD’s Way as Our Way!”
    by Ralph Blair “Gifted with GOD’s Way as Our Way!” is Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the 78th EC Summer ConnECtion, June 1-3, 2018 at The Kirkridge Retreat Center atop the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. (For PDF version click here.) Who knows folks who think everything needs to go their way?  Anyone come to mind? …
  • Life More Abundant?
    by Ralph Blair   This is the text of Ralph Blair’s keynote at connECtion2oo6, the summer weekend gatherings of Evangelicals Concerned, held at Kirkridge Retreat Center on the Appalachian Trail (June 2-4, 2006) and on the campus of Reed College in Portland, Oregon (July 27-30, 2006). Jesus told some Pharisees: “Unlike those who come to…
  • One in What Spirit?
    by Ralph Blair One in What Spirit? is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote at the connECtions2005 at Kirbridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. A new resident introduces herself to two new patients on the psych ward. “Good morning. I’m Dr. Brown.” “I’m Julius Caesar.” “How do…
  • Freed for Freedom!
    by Dr. Ralph Blair Freed for Freedom! is Ralph Blair’s 2010 keynote at the eastern and western Evangelicals Concerned connECtions at Kirkridge, on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, and at the Marriott City Center in Oakland, California. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!” – Paul A graffiti artist tags trash bins…
  • “Were You There?”
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote ConnECtion2017 June 3, 2017 Were you there when this question and response was heard each week across America?  “What sort of day was it?  A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times – and you, were there.”  Were you, there? Those words were spoken…
  • Wesleyan Praxis & Homosexual Practice
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is a slightly expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the Annual Michigan Area United Methodist Pastor’s School, August 22, 1983 on the campus of Ferris State College in Big Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Blair’s address followed one by Dr. Robert Lyon, Professor of New Testament Interpretation…
  • The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries
    The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries An expanded version of a lecture by Dr. Ralph Blair to Courage Trust at the Anglican Church of St. James the Less, Pimlico, London, November 2, 2001. (PDF version available here.) When it comes to the subject of gay and lesbian evangelical Christians, most evangelical Christians agree with most…
  • Undoing Every Do; Doing Every Don’t: The Ten Commandments, the Religious Right & the Lesbigayt Left
    by Dr. Ralph Blair Based on Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtions2000, Evangelicals Concerned’s summer conferences at Kirkridge in Pennsylvania and at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. A couple months ago, in Uganda, under the banner of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, more than a thousand men, women and…
  • Immortal Intimacy: Where, When, Who, Why & What of Heaven
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1991, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, at Kirkridge and at the University of Denver. Copyright ©1991. Ralph Blair, 311 E. 72nd St New York, New York 10021 Peggy Lee sings of going to “the greatest show on…
  • Empathways
    by Ralph Blair Empathways is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s address at connECtions98 in the summer of 1998. INTRODUCTION “Can I see another’s woe, / And not be in sorrow, too? / Can I see another’s grief, / And not seek for kind relief?” What William Blake here had in mind was empathy as…
  • Anger!
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is an expanded version of his address on anger at connECtion95, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge and Mills College, June and July, 1995. ©1995. Ralph Blair, 311 East 72nd Street, New York, New York 10021 INTRODUCTION In a promo for New York City’s Lesbian and Gay…
  • [The] Overcoming Outrage!
    by Ralph Blair [The] Overcoming Outrage is Dr. Ralph Blair’s keynote at the 2009 Evangelicals Concerned summer connECtions held at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at the Holiday Inn in Palm Springs, California. [The] Overcoming Outrage © 2009 by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Have you noticed any rampant outrage these days?…
  • “Five Centuries of Reformation Proclamation”
    The 2016 Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove Preaching Festival Columbus Day Weekend October 7-9, 2016 “Five Centuries of Reformation Proclamation” “1516, 1616, 1716, 1816, 1916” John Foxe   John Owen   John Berridge   Francis Asbury   J. C. Ryle   Eugenia Price  Including Three Sermons by Dr. Ralph Blair “Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One”, “Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of…
  • Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of Us
    “Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of Us” “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version here) Along with Philippians 4:13, Tim Tebow’s favored eyeblack is John 3:16, the second most…
  • Participating in His Providence
    “Participating in His Providence” “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’.”   Jeremiah 29:11 (PDF version here) Each of the three top-tweeted Bible verses reveals that God initiates our relationship with Him and…
  • “THY Kingdom Come”
    “THY Kingdom Come” by Dr. Ralph Blair Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 2016, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains. (PDF version here) Have you noticed how “un-Presidential” presidential campaigns can get? Instead of what we might assume befits a wannabe president, we get mere precedent and more…
  • ENTHUSIASM
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is based on material presented by Dr. Blair at the two 1997 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned held in Pennsylvania and California. Copyright 1997 Evangelicals Concerned, Inc. INTRODUCTION There’s way too much enthusiasm. And there’s also way too little. That’s because there’s enthusiasm and enthusiasm. So we’d better not…
  • Paul Who?
    Paul Who? by Dr. Ralph Blair This is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion87, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned. The section on homosexuality was also presented at the 199th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1987. (PDF version available here) He was not the first Jew for Jesus….
  • Evangelism: Proclaiming God’s Good News—with every bad -ism crossed out
    Evangelism: Proclaiming God’s Good News—with every bad -ism crossed out by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1994, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at Chapman University in Orange, California. Introduction Have you ever seen the guy…
  • Jesus Who?
    Jesus Who? by Dr. Ralph Blair This publication is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion86, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, an organization he founded in 1976. Copyright 1986 (PDF available here.) “If you could spend an evening with any one person, living, deceased or fictional, whom would you choose and…
  • Homophobia in the Churches
    The following text, HOMOPHOBIA IN THE CHURCHES, was a keynote address delivered by Dr. Blair at the Strategy Conference on Homophobia in the Churches on May 5, 1979. Two other keynote addresses were given during the weekend conference by Joan Clark (a staff person in the Dallas office of the Women’s Division, Board of Global…
  • Evangelicals(?!) Concerned
    Evangelicals(?!) Concerned by Dr. Ralph Blair EVANGELICALS(?!) CONCERNED is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s address delivered at both eastern and western connECtion82 summer conferences, July 1982, in Pennsylvania and California. (PDF version available here) Have you ever noticed that Grape-Nuts is neither? To evangelicals, Christian Science is neither. To most gay people, the Moral…
  • Doubtful Christians Make Queer Saints!
    Doubtful Christians Make Queer Saints! by Dr. Ralph Blair A shorter version of this text was presented by Dr. Blair at connECtion83 during July, 1983, at San Juan Bautista in California and at Kirkridge in Pennsylvania. (PDF version available here) Introduction Doubtful Christians make queer saints. Do “queer” Christians make doubtful saints? To too many…
  • Christian Tolerance & Totalitarianism
    Christian Tolerance & Totalitarianism by Dr. Ralph Blair Christian Tolerance & Totalitarianism was Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion84, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned. (PDF version available here) The Christian’s way is always a pilgrim’s way. It’s a life on the road. It’s the adventure of a pioneer. The Christian’s vision is always the…
  • A Time and Place For Us
    A Time and Place for Us by Dr. Ralph Blair A Time and Place for Us is an expanded version of the Keynote address given by Dr. Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions2001. (PDF version available here) Frasier has dragged Niles and their father to a basketball game for “a good night of male-bonding”…
  • Your Story in His Story
    Your Story in His Story The 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove October 9 – 11, 2015   Thornley Chapel Commemorating the Centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington Including Three Teachings by Dr. Ralph Blair “The Bible Tells Me So”, “This is My Story” and…
  • Self-Righteous Enslavement
    Self-Righteous Enslavement Dr. Ralph Blair Evangelicals Concerned 73rd Connection, May 30, 2015 In 1946, a 20-year-old Flannery O’Connor came north to take part in the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. But, privately, she was writing prayers: “Dear Lord, please make my mind vigilant about [loving others]. I say many, many, too many uncharitable things about people…
  • Fall Festival 2014 – CHRIST & the Cosmos
    CHRIST & the Cosmos CHRIST & the Cosmos is the text of the teachings Dr. Ralph Blair presented at the 2014 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival in Ocean Grove, NJ, October 3-5, 2014. On the first evening, he presented biographical background on five Christians honored: The 300th Anniversaries of Matthew Henry, James Hervey, William Romaine and…
  • Self-Centered to Serve:
    Self-Centered to Serve: From Selfish Self-Centeredness to Self-Centeredly Informed Service for Others Ralph Blair’s Keynote for connECtion2014 At the time, it was called the “greatest single event in human history”.  That was in 1964.  Guess what it was!  If you were born in 1964 – that wasn’t it.  Since it was only 50 years ago,…
  • Fall Festival 2013 – Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign
    Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign is the text of the teachings Dr. Blair presented at the 2013 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival in Ocean Grove, NJ, October 11-13, 2013. On the first evening, he presented biographical background on four Christians we honor in this, their bicentennial year: David Livingstone – Soren…
  • To Reject or Receive God’s Reign
    To Reject or Receive God’s Reign Matthew 13:1-30, 36-43   In July, Time magazine published The 100 Most Influential People Who Never Lived.  Editors drew up this list of fictional characters with some help from “contributors” such as F. Murray Abraham, Jodie Foster and Chris Colfer.  The public then voted for its top choices from…
  • The Humility of God’s Reign
    The Humility of God’s Reign Matthew 18:1-10 One day, Jesus did more than merely tell a parable.  He produced a parable. He portrayed a parable. He presented a little child in tableau vivant – a “living picture”. Then, as now, a picture can mean more than mere words.  But, still, just as ears must be…
  • God’s Revolution and Reign
    God’s Revolution and Reign Mark 2:16-17, 21-22; Luke 5:36-39   Let’s hear God’s word: “When the scribes of the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples: ‘Why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?’ ” “Sinners” was a catchall term for all Jews who didn’t follow…
  • Obedience begins with Awe!
    EC Connection 2013 Keynote by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Here’s how Jesus wrapped up what’s called, “The Sermon on the Mount”.  Let’s hear God’s Word. “Don’t sit in judgment on others, unless you want to be judged with the same harshness.  For, it will be on the basis of your judging others that…
  • NONE SO BLIND: The Suppression of God’s Truth
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s 2012 connECtion Keynote Let’s hear God’s word. “God’s wrath is revealed against all godless suppression of God’s truth.  For what can be known of God is clear.  God has made it clear.  The visible has always been evidence of the invisible – God’s Power, God’s Person.  No one has an excuse.  For,…
  • Living Together / Our Liberty in Christ
    A keynote address by Dr. Blair at the 68th & 69th ConnECtions of Evangelicals Concerned, 2011 On the night before he sacrificed himself for sinners, consuming the cup of wrath with all its debris, decay, death and utter destruc­tion – the forewarned fallout of our fall into sin – Jesus prayed for his followers. He…
  • “Anointed – or just Annoyed?”
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the GCN Conference in Seattle, Washington, January 4-7, 2007 At first, they were impressed – a bit surprised, but impressed. But when the guest preacher began to “reinterpret” Scripture, they were confused.  As he went on, they were shocked.  Finally, they were furious.  They knew their Bible.  And, for starters,…
  • COMING OUT AHEAD: Disconnecting, Connecting, and Reconnecting for Christ
    An expanded version of the Keynote address given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions 2003 INTRODUCTION Earlier this year I was at Wheaton College for the centenary of that brilliant observer of the 20th century, Malcolm Muggeridge. He was the consummate insider who was ever the outsider. In his memoir, Chronicles…
  • Jesus Christ is Lord! So What!
    An expanded version of the Keynote address delivered by Dr. Ralph Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions 2002. INTRODUCTION “Jesus Christ is Lord!” So what! There’s no more foolish non sequitur than that. Yet among so many Christians, there’s no more frequent folly. Of course, among non-Christians, this dismissive statement seems no non sequitur….
  • Enthusiasm
    Based on material presented by Dr. Blair at the two 1997 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned held in Pennsylvania and California. “An enthusiastic religion is the perfection of common sense. And to be beside oneself for Christ’s sake is to be beside Christ, which is our chief end for time and eternity.” – Henry Drummond…
  • TRUST
    Based on an address Dr. Blair gave at the eastern and western connECtions96 in the summer of 1996. (PDF version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair INTRODUCTION Tennessee Williams used to say that “at New York cocktail parties, I drink martinis almost as fast as I can snatch them from the tray.” He said it…
  • Anger
    An expanded version of Dr. Blair’s address on anger at connECtion95, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge and Mills College, June and July, 1995. In a promo for New York City’s Lesbian and Gay Community Center, cartoonist Howard Cruse depicts a gay guy asking his lesbian friend: “Where’s the meeting for people who’re…
  • Temptation & The Truly Alternative Lifestyle
    This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1992, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at Chapman University in Orange, California. (PDF version available here.) (PDF of book format available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair “Though vine nor fig-tree neither Their wonted…
  • The Lord’s Prayer
    Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 197 6. This booklet is based on Dr. Blair’s keynote at connECtion1990, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, at Kirkridge and at San Francisco State University. (PDF version available here.) By Dr. Ralph Blair An unknown gloss adds…
  • Nevertheless, Joy!
    NEVERTHELESS, JOY! is Ralph Blair’s keynote address at the connECtion89 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned held in the states of Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin. Dr. Blair has been practicing psychotherapy for twenty years. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 1976. (PDF version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair During the Great Depression, one of the hit…
  • What’s The Bible?
    This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at the 1988 summer connECtions of Evangelicals Concerned. (PDF version available here.) (PDF book version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair Believe it or not, pornographers sometimes solicit me. But they don’t want me to pose; they want me to purchase. Sometimes a sample…
  • Ethics & Gay Christians
    Introduction. I approach this topic with some sense of uneasiness, not only because of the recurring poverty of ethics in my own life but also because I know that due to some understandably bad experiences with oppression at the hands of homophobic church people, discussion of ethics in the lives of lesbians and gay men…
  • Getting Closer: Structure For Intimacy
    KEYNOTES-Getting Closer: Structure For Intimacy This material is based upon Dr. Ralph Blair’s address at connECtion 1981,the summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned, Inc. © Copyright 1981 by Ralph Blair According to social psychologist Daniel Yankelovich, “Surveys and my own interviews show a widening acceptance of cultural pluralism. We are not going back to … the…
  • Getting Close: Steps Toward Intimacy
    This material was originally presented by Dr. Ralph Blair at connECtion 1980, the summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned, Inc. I am going to begin with a neglected passage from Ecclesiastes 4:1 and 4:8-12. Then I looked again at all the injustice that goes on in this world.  The oppressed were crying, and no one would…

Record – Newsletter

  • RECORD Winter 2024
    (PDF version available here.) Real Clear Religion reports: “The modern Democratic party is nearly evenly divided by religious voters and secular ones. It’s 52% vs 48% right now. But don’t be surprised when it flips the other way in the next five years. I think that’s just inevitable at this point. The GOP is also…
  • RECORD Fall 2023
    (PDF version available here.) Christianity Today reports on Wheaton College’s racist history: “Though the flagship evangelical institution was founded by abolitionists, over the next century and a half it turned away from concerns about racial equality.  Even when the school’s leadership knew what was right, they frequently lacked the courage to ‘take a more vocal…
  • RECORD Summer 2023
    (PDF version available here.) If you missed EC’s 3 Internet presentations of our 2023 ConnECtion, posted on June 25, check them out in video, audio or in PDF text, at www.ECINC.org.  2023 Pride marchers chanted, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children!”  Decades before these marchers were born, this was the lie Anita…
  • RECORD Spring 2023
    (PDF version available here.) EC is looking forward to another Covid-conscious ConnECtion this summer with our guest keynoters, Cindy Stevens-Pino and Jim Lucas.  It’ll be safely available on our website, www.ECinc.org in June. In 1977, two years after we founded Evangelicals Concerned, a former beauty queen, pop singer and Florida orange juice spokesperson, Anita Bryant,…
  • RECORD Winter 2023
    (PDF version available here.) Jim Lucas and Cindy Stevens-Pino will guest keynote ConnECtion2023 – our 81st summer ConnECtion since 1980.  (Some summers we had more than 1 ConnECtion.)    Jim grew up gay in homophobic Christian Reformed circles and now he does pastoral ministry with LGBT folks.  Singer/songwriter Marsha Stevens-Pino’s life partner, Cindy, does Christian mission…
  • RECORD Fall 2022
    (PDF version available here.) We in EC have fond memories of our visits to Ocean Grove on the Jersey shore – weekends of worship at our autumn EC retreats in Thornley Chapel, built in 1889, and summer Choir Festivals in The Great Auditorium, constructed in 1894.  The inside covers of Ocean Grove’s hymnal, have a…
  • RECORD Summer 2022
    (PDF version available here.) The Patriarch of Russia’s Orthodox Church praises Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that’s resulted in so many thousands of civilian casualties.  What especially pleases this religious leader is that Putin’s attack is a defense against the West’s push for gay pride.  Danusha V. Goska, a college professor and author of, God Through Binoculars, wasborn to Eastern European peasant immigrants…
  • RECORD Spring 2022
    (PDF version available here.) EC’s 2022 ConnECtion keynotes will be presented as texts in June at our website: https://ecinc.org/, due to concerns about Covid-19 in overnight cramped quarters.  Our keynoters are Claire Murashima, Calvin University Student Body President; David Holkeboer, Calvin College grad and an EC Director, and Ralph Blair, EC’s founder.  How many Americans…
  • RECORD Winter 2022
    (PDF version available here.) EC’s 2022 summer ConnECtion guest keynoters will be Claire Murashima, Calvin University Student Body President, and David Holkeboer, Calvin College grad (Class of ‘78) and longtime NYC/ECer.  EC founder, Ralph Blair, will also keynote.  In 2022, as in 2020 and 2021, due to Covid, we won’t be meeting in person.  In June,…
  • RECORD Fall 2021
    (PDF version available here.) 2021’s EC Fall Festival texts will be posted on EC’s website in October.  Titles of Ralph Blair’s 3 lectures: You’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!    Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands    Maturity in the 21st Year of the 21st Century? The Supreme Court declined to hear a case of a Christian florist who…
  • RECORD Summer 2021
    (PDF version available here.) The Keynotes of EC’s ConnECtion 2021 can be read on our ECinc.org website at https://ecinc.org/connection-2021/  They are “Homosexuality & the Christian Reformed Church” by Gayla R. Postma, and “Loving Others in the Energy of God’s Loving Us” by Ralph Blair.  They’re easiest to read in the PDF versions. Hendrik “Henk” Hart,…
  • RECORD Spring 2021
    (PDF version available here.) The 2021 ConnECtion of Evangelicals Concerned, the 41st in the East and the 81st of our ConnECtions across the country, will again be virtual, given the need to observe social distancing.  The three keynotes by our two guests and EC’s founder, can be read online, in June, at www.ecinc.org.  Stay tuned.  …
  • RECORD Winter 2021
    (PDF version available here) Welcome to 2021 and the 500th Anniversary of Luther’s testimony before his papal accusers. Luther concluded by affirming: “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything.” EC’s October 2020 keynote, “The Meaning of…
  • RECORD Fall 2020
    (PDF version available here) EC’s 2020 Octoberfest will be via the Internet due to the need for physical distancing during the pandemic, just as we met via the Internet for our 2020 ConnECtion in June.  In October, we will be remembering the 400th Anniversary of the Puritan Pilgrims’ arrival in the New World.   Roy Clements,…
  • RECORD Summer 2020
    (PDF version available here) EC’s 40th Eastern ConnECtion met via EC’s website over June 5-7.  We’d planned to be in the Pennsylvania mountains where we’d met each summer since 1980.  It was EC’s 80th summer ConnECtion, counting our Eastern, Mid-western and Western ConnECtions across the country. Though physically apart, we connected together in Christ’s ever-abiding…
  • RECORD Spring 2020
    PDF version available here. After decades of secular media’s contemptuous disregard of evangelicals, it celebrates Christianity Today’s exiting editor-in-chief, Mark Galli, with multiple rounds of thrilled approval and full-throttled praise.  Galli’s antigay stands are overlooked to adore his grumpy scolding of those the Left despises: President Trump and his everyday evangelical supporters.  It was all…
  • RECORD Winter 2020
    PDF version available here. EC’s 2020 weekend retreats are announced.  Over Presidents Day Weekend, February 15-17 (Saturday afternoon through Monday lunch) we’ll be at the Kirkridge Farmhouse for our 33rd Winter Bible Study Weekend.  On the weekend of June 5-7 (Friday evening through Sunday lunch) we’ll be on top of the mountain, at Kirkridge’s Lodge…
  • RECORD Fall 2019
    (PDF version available here) EC’s 2019 Columbus Day Weekend at Ocean Grove will honor the Bicen-tennials of Philip Schaff, Julia Ward Howe, and Susan Bogert Warner. Each was born in 1819. EC’s theme for the weekend is: “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His Truth Is March-ing On” – through biblical history, church history, and all time and…
  • RECORD Summer 2019
    “As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or, even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.”  President Trump tweeted this…
  • REVIEW Summer 2019 Vol. 44 No. 3
    “Porn is Slowly Killing Evangelicalism” by Grayson Gilbert, Evangelical Patheos: June 12, 2018. “Of Rats, Voles and Online Porn” by Declan Gernon, Areo, February 12, 2019.  “Does Empathy Have A Dark Side?” by Jonathan Lambert, NPR, April 12, 2019. Full-page ads in the Christian Right’s World magazine carry stats on “pornography and the church”, alleging…
  • RECORD Spring 2019
    The Evangelicals Concerned Presidents Day Weekend Bible Study was held, once again, up in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania.  It was our 32nd annual winter Bible study weekend and we focused on the books of Jonah and Nahum and their respective prophetic callings regarding pagan Nineveh on the Tigris. The 2019 EC ConnECtion will…
  • RECORD Winter 2019
    (PDF version available here) The newest Public Religion Research Institute survey finds that 53 percent of white evangelicals, ages 18 to 29, support same-sex marriage. That’s just 8 percent below the 61 percent of Americans across ethnic and racial groups that support same-sex marriage. Even among white evangelicals, 65 or older, 25 percent support same-sex…
  • RECORD Fall 2018
     (PDF version available here) EC’s 16th Annual Preaching Festival in Ocean Grove, NJ will be on Columbus Day Weekend, October 5-7, 2018.  Registration begins at 4 PM on Friday, October 5th at Grove Hall.  Dinner is at 6 PM at The Starving Artist.  The weekend concludes after lunch on Sunday, October 7th.  The cost is…
  • RECORD Summer 2018
    (PDF version available here) EC’s 2018 ConnECtion will come together over June 1 – 3, 2018 up on the mountain at Kirkridge, where our eastern ConnECtion has met each summer since 1980.    Registration can be done online on the first page at www.ecinc.org    And, here’s a complete list of all of EC’s summer…
  • RECORD Spring 2018
    (PDF version available here) Following his death, Billy Graham was honored with a special issue of Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical periodical he founded in 1956. CT recognizes that, “the forces gathered and unleashed at the Berlin, Lausanne, and Amsterdam meetings [initiated by Graham] constitute a third worldwide ecumenical movement, every bit as important as…
  • RECORD Winter 2018
    (PDF version available here) Justin Lee founded and, for some 16 years, led the evangelical Gay Christian Network in support of biblically-serious Christians in faithfully living their lives as same-sex attracted persons, whether in a monogamous partnership or in celibacy. But, the GCN Board suddenly announced: “Justin and the Board have come to realize they…
  • RECORD Fall 2017
    (PDF version available here) The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), in cahoots with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), has released “The Nashville Statement”, the latest big antigay manifesto.  The Southern Baptists published their first antigay declaration, along with their protest against Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson’s proclamation…
  • RECORD: Summer 2017
    (PDF version available here) 2017 is another milestone year for Evangelicals Concerned.  In early June we held our 75th summer ConnECtion retreat, our Diamond Jubilee (considering all of EC’s summer retreats in the East, Midwest and West, since 1980).  Besides another keynote from EC’s founder, we heard a keynote from Sully screenwriter Todd Komarnicki and…
  • RECORD: Spring 2017
    (PDF version available here.) “Donald Trump’s More Accepting Views on Gay Issues Set Him Apart in G.O.P”.  This was The New York Times headline on April 22, 2016.  Given the LGBT anxiety over the election results – Columbia professors even wrote, “the cluster of suicides this month can have no other meaning” [since retracted] –…
  • RECORD: Winter 2017
    (PDF version available here.) The 2017 Evangelicals Concerned calendar includes our 30th Presidents Day Winter Weekend Bible Study, our 75th ConnECtion and our 15th Fall Preaching Festival.     The Presidents Day Weekend Bible study will be February 18-20 at The Turning Point at Kirkridge Retreat in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. ConnECtion2017 will be June…
  • RECORD: Fall 2016
    (PDF version available here.) Kirk Franklin, black contemporary Gospel singer, is apologizing to gays for the homophobia in the black churches.  Says Franklin: “More than anything, I’m trying to peel back those layers [that] keep people away from God and keep people away from experiencing the love of God, [and all that] gets in the…
  • RECORD: Summer 2016
    (PDF version available here.) “We’re actually looking to revel in the partisan divide”, laments Joe Clark, after the killings at the Orlando gay club, Pulse. Writing at the Presbyterian Church in America’s byFaith website, he observes: “In the wake of mass violence, a common pattern is emerging among tech-literate, socially connected Christians. Rather than hearing the…
  • RECORD: Spring 2016
    The 74th summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned is set for June 3 – 5, 2016. Guest speakers will be Tony Campolo and Abigail Santamaria. Campolo, a world-renowned preacher and a bestselling author, is emeritus professor of sociology at Eastern University. Santamaria is a first-time author with Joy, her acclaimed biography of C. S. Lewis’ late-in-life…
  • RECORD: Winter 2016
    (PDF version available here.) Christianity Today’s “most read article” in 2014 and in 2015 was on a gay issue. In 2014 it was on World Vision’s decision to hire gay Christians in same-sex marriages – a policy quickly dropped in response to hostile donor backlash. In 2015 it was on Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme…
  • RECORD: Fall 2015
    (PDF version available here.) Tony Campolo affirms same-sex couples. On June 8, 2015, he explained: “I have come to know so many gay Christian couples whose relationships work in much the same way as [my marriage]. Our friendships with these couples have helped me understand how important it is for the exclusion and disapproval of…
  • RECORD: Summer 2015
    (PDF version available here.) San Francisco’s most prominent evangelical church no longer requires same-sex attracted members to remain celibate. No longer a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, the thousand-member City Church is now affiliated with the Reformed Church in America. City Church elders call for reflection: “Imagine feeling this from your family or…
  • RECORD: Spring 2015
    (PDF version available here.) 2015 marks the centenaries of two good friends of EC: Bob Rayburn and Charlie Shedd. Bob was the first evangelical leader to encourage us in starting Evangelicals Concerned in 1975. Charlie keynoted EC connECtions in 1997 (East) and 1998 (West). Bob was founding president of Covenant College and Seminary and directed…
  • RECORD: Winter 2015
    (PDF version available here.) 2015 marks the 40th anniversary of Evangelicals Concerned. Ralph Blair founded EC in 1975 and published notice in The Advocate, the national gay paper. In talking with his friend, Bob Rayburn, founding president of Covenant College and Seminary, Rayburn suggested that EC be formally launched during the next convention of the…
  • RECORD: Fall 2014
    (PDF version available here.) Dietrich Bonhoeffer was gay!?  It’s suggested in Strange Glory, Charles Marsh’s new biography of the heroic theologian killed by the Nazis. A University of Virginia religious studies professor, Marsh zeroes in on the unusually close relationship Bonhoeffer had with his student, Eberhard Bethge. ++One response is histrionics from an ex-Religious Right…
  • RECORD: Summer 2014
    PDF version is available here The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism by Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh is the latest volume (2013) in the IVP series, “History of Evangelicalism”.  The subtitle is “The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott”. ++In fewer than six pages (of 283), he looks at…
  • RECORD: Spring 2014
    PDF version is available here The 72nd summer connECtion of Evangelicals Concerned will be held May 30 – June 1, 2014 at Kirkridge in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania.  Our keynoters will be Amy Plantinga Pauw, Professor of Doctrinal Theology at Louisville Theological Seminary, Jim Rayburn III, author, speaker, jewelry designer and son of Young…
  • RECORD: Winter 2014
    PDF version is available here An “ex-gay” rally that promised to bring thousands of “ex-gays” to the Supreme Court Building turned out fewer than ten people.  Among them was Richard Cohen, famous for his “cuddling on the couch” counseling with young male clients. “Grandpa” McIntyre drove his pick-up truck from Texas and claims he’s “the…
  • RECORD: Fall 2013
    Exodus shuts down after nearly forty years of failure at trying to change sexual orientation.  Nearly four decades of claimed success were wishful thinking and deceit. Exodus president Alan Chambers says: “For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.”  He apologizes for the…
  • RECORD: Summer 2013
    (PDF version available here) John Paulk admits: “I do not believe that reparative therapy changes sexual orientation; in fact, it does great harm to many people.”  This former head of Focus on the Family’s “ex-gay” program, former Exodus board president and 1998 Newsweek cover story (with his “ex-lesbian” wife) has, in April, issued an official…
  • RECORD: Spring 2013
    (PDF version available here) The 100th person to keynote an EC summer retreat will be Shari Johnson.  She’s the author of Above All Things: The Journey of an Evangelical Christian Mother & Her Gay Daughter.  Johnson is president of P-FLAG in Odessa, Texas.  The 101st person to be an EC keynoter will be Jared Porter…
  • RECORD: Winter 2013
    (PDF version available here) On November 6, voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington legalized same-sex marriage and Minnesotans voted down a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage.  Six states (New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa and New York as well as D.C.) had already legalized same-sex marriage. Thirty-two states have voted to restrict…
  • Fall 2012
    (PDF version available here) Longtime “ex-gay” leader John Smid says he’s never seen sexual orientation change through all his 22 years in the “ex-gay” movement.  He’s written a book, Ex’d Out, about coming to this public acknowledgement.  EC’s founder, psychotherapist Ralph Blair, endorses it: “However well-intended, the ‘ex-gay’ efforts of the past four decades were…
  • Summer 2012
    (PDF version available here) “So great to learn that God is saving people in gay Christian circles.  I guess I have felt, along with many evangelicals, that once someone drops the traditional view of homosexuality, eventually all the other dominos will fall and the result will be some kind of vacuous liberalism or secular humanism. …
  • Winter 2011
    Conservative Protestantism’s continuing antigay agenda “is likely to mean saving fewer souls.”  This is a conclusion of American Grace authors Robert D. Putnam of Harvard and David E. Campbell of Notre Dame.  Writing in the Los Angeles Times (Oct 17), they confirm a continuing cultural finding: that “intolerance of homosexuality” is proving to be “the…
  • Fall 2011
    After an average of 16 years in mixed-orientation marriage, the same-sex oriented spouse is still same-sex oriented. On the basis of self-reports, there’s no shift toward heterosexual attraction on the part of the same-sex oriented spouse, even though there’s some participation in sex acts within the marriage. When asked about frequency of sexual relations within…
  • Summer 2011
    “Is the Church guilty of beating people with the Bible?” This is the question with which Southern Baptist seminary president Al Mohler begins a recent blog attacking those who say gay people get “clobbered” with Bible verses. Feigning shock, he says: “As strange as that argument might sound, it is actually a powerful weapon in…
  • Spring 2011
    Bloggers on the Religious Right attack bestselling author Philip Yancey for speaking at the 2011 Gay Christian Network conference. After the event, Yancey posted a response at http://www.philipyancey.com/. Noting this “hammering … for [his] agreeing to speak”, he wrote: “I get tired of writing about this issue because it stirs up such a storm of…
  • Winter 2010
    “What was the most significant change in Christianity over the past decade?”  In response to this question from Christianity Today (December, 2009), John Stackhouse of Regent College answers: “The rapid collapse of Christian consensus against homosexual marriage in North America, including among evangelicals.”   “What is the greatest moral issue in America today?”  In October, evangelical…
  • Fall 2010
    Anne Rice: “I quit being a Christian. … I remain committed to Christ … but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” The bestselling novelist, who turned from atheism to Christ in 1988, explains that the…
  • Summer 2010
    There’s a beautiful house for sale on St. Simons Island in Georgia. Over the years it was made even more beautiful by the loving companionship of the two women who made it their home from 1967 to the death of one of them in 1996. In 1961, bestselling evangelical author and novelist Eugenia Price and…
  • Spring 2010
    A major proponent for Prop 8’s ban on gay marriage admits: “It is almost certainly true that gay and lesbian couples and their children would benefit from having gay marriage.” David Blankenhorn, founder of The Institute for American Values, acknowledged this under David Boise’s cross-examination in California in January. Blankenhorn went further. He granted that…
  • Fall 2009
    “People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian-bashers are not working with the facts”, says evangelical pollster George Barna, founder of the research firm, The Barna Group. Reporting in July on a nationwide survey of 9,232 Americans over the last two years, Barna states: “A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a…
  • Summer 2009
    “People like you should be shot and killed!” That’s what was shouted at Don Dent and Terry Tebedo when they visited Northwest Bible Church in Dallas in 1987. They vowed never to go back. Terry died of AIDS the following year. Don has since become a serious Christian and has come to know a younger…
  • Spring 2009
    Evangelical leaders are partnering with progressive think tank Third Way to find common ground in “culture war” issues such as gay rights, abortion and immigration reform. Mercer University ethicist David Gushee says that, at the core of the coalition’s Come Let Us Reason Together agenda is a “concern for human dignity”. He grants that some…
  • Winter 2009
    “Which issue is most important to you in this election?” Evangelical publisher, Christianity Today, polled its on-line readers at the end of October and this was the response to the question: Abortion (29%), Economy (23%), Foreign Policy (8%), Same-sex Marriage (7%), Terrorism (6%), Health Care (6%), Poverty (5%), Energy 2%), Environment (1%), Education (1%), Immigration…
  • Winter 2008
    “Disdain for gay individuals”, according to the latest Barna Research, “has become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith” so far as Americans aged 16-29 are concerned. “Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is ‘anti-homosexual’. Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young church goers say this phrase describes Christianity.” Barna president…
  • Fall 2008
    “That man is really disgusting.” This was Francis Schaeffer’s assessment of Jerry Falwell, “growled” to son Frank once the two were out of Falwell’s earshot. The apologist was reacting to antigay bigotry Falwell had suddenly blurted: “If I had a dog that did what they do, I’d shoot him!” Schaeffer says his father had tried…
  • Summer 2008
    A. J. Jacobs’ first bestseller was on his reading through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Now he’s come up with an equally fascinating and humorous account of his Year of Living Biblically (Simon and Schuster). Christianity Today’s Books & Culture review sums: “At its heart, this is a book about all the various ways religious people…
  • Spring 2008
    The Royal College of Psychiatrists is warning the Church of England to reject so-called “reparative therapy” for homosexuals. The psychiatrists state that attempting to change one’s sexual orientation “can be deeply damaging. Although there is now a number of therapists and organizations in the USA and in the UK that claim that therapy can help…
  • Fall 2007
    “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete.” This is what Alan Chambers, head of the Exodus “ex-gay” network, told the Los Angeles Times in mid-June. He admits to his own continuing sexual attraction to men while now married to a woman and identifying as “straight”. And he’s now joining…
  • Summer 2007
    A Calvin College theater professor has compiled over 100 interviews with gay and lesbian Christians. She’s crafting the material into a play. Stephanie Sandberg says the gay students she’s known over the years have gone through “a lot of stress. They are under a lot of pressure both psychologically and spiritually.” Her play, Seven Passages:…
  • Spring 2007
    Southern Baptist Seminary president and a leader of the Religious Right, R. Albert Mohler, grants that scientific research “points to some level of biological causation” for homosexuality. Such conclusions do not sit well on the Religious Right, where homosexuality is said to be a sin that people choose, and so he has come under attack…
  • Winter 2007
    Denouncing the Religious Right’s demonizing of gay people, a National Association of Evangelicals executive suggests: “Let’s see what we have in common, … rather than stressing our differences.” Speaking to Reuters after Ted Haggard’s departure from the presidency of NAE, Richard Cizik, NAE’s vice president of governmental affairs said: “I think there could be some…
  • Fall 2006
    Four EC keynoters are among the authors of the 50 “landmark” books of the past 50 years, according to the 50th Anniversary issue of Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of American evangelical Christians. Books by Rosalind Rinker, Charlie W. Shedd, Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty rank among “The Top Books That Have Shaped…
  • Summer 2006
    “Q: Is the gradual winning-over of religious fundamentalists a better strategy than confrontation and anger?” This question was posed to readers of the March 14 issue of The Advocate, the gay and lesbian periodical. The response: 53 percent said “yes”, 38 percent said “no” and 9 percent said they were “unsure.” Said one respondent: “My…
  • Spring 2006
    Both Right-wing religionists and Left-wing GLBT activists have called for a boycott of the film, End of the Spear. The film presents the true story of the murders of five evangelical Christian missionaries in the jungles of Ecuador a half-century ago. Their widows stayed on and eventually reached out to their husbands’ killers who, along…
  • Winter 2006
    Same-sex couples in the United Kingdom are now entitled to full legal benefits under the Civil Partnership Act that went into effect in December. Evangelical Alliance UK warns that the new legal provisions will morph into a marriage law in the near future. And EAUK is outraged over the Government’s allowing a reference to God…
  • Fall 2005
    Hurricane Katrina proved to be an even bigger “blame game” inkblot for the projections of preachers than for those of politicians. Though he made his fame decades ago with end-of-the-world predictions in his The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey said (on the Trinity Broadcasting Network) that Katrina shows that “the judgment of America has…
  • Summer 2005
    “Ex-gay” leader Frank Worthen and his wife Anita led a workshop on “Making Your Marriage Work” at this summer’s Exodus “ex-gay” conference in Virginia. Frank Worthen discussed the problem of “ex-gays’” same-sex fantasies while they try to make love with their wives. He said it would be prudent for the couple to wait a year…
  • Spring 2005
    “I’m not going to kick gays,” he said, complaining that the Religious Right “uses gays as the enemy. … I think it’s bad for Republicans to be kicking gays.” These were the words of George W. Bush while planning his run for the Presidency. He did not realize that Doug Wead was secretly recording his…
  • Winter 2005
    One in four gay voters chose to re-elect President George W. Bush. The exit poll numbers “stunned and baffled many gay activists,” according to the gay New York Blade (Nov 12). But many rank-and-file gay people were not so stunned. The Blade reported that gay voters say their backing of the President “has miffed some…
  • Fall 2004
    On August 3, voters in Missouri easily passed a state constitutional amendment to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples Antigay activists in Ohio and North Carolina claim to have enough signatures to put the same sort of antigay constitutional amendment on their state ballots this fall. According to Tony Perkins, a spokesperson for the Religious Right’s…
  • Summer 2004
    A little under half of American evangelical Christians (48%) “say a candidate’s support for gay marriage would disqualify him from getting their votes.” This finding was reported in the “Go Figure” feature in the June issue of Christianity Today, It was also reported that only 44% of evangelicals give Jerry Falwell a “favorable” rating while…
  • Spring 2004
    Opposition to same-sex marriage is bipartisan. Both President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry oppose marriage for gay couples. They each support a constitutional amendment to ban such marriages (Bush supports a proposed Federal ban and Kerry supports a proposed Massachusetts state ban.) But each also says that he favors some other legal arrangements…
  • Winter 2004
    “The court’s logic is persuasive.” So began The New York Times editorial in support of the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that applies the rights and responsibilities of marriage to same-sex couples. Said the Times: “The ban [against gay marriage] is simply about prejudice, the court concluded, much like state laws barring interracial marriage, which lasted…
  • Fall 2003
    President Bush has responded to a coming-out letter from a Bush family friend, Charles Frances, founder of the gay-straight Republican Unity Coalition. Said the President: “I knew you were gay. I didn’t know how to bring it up. Let me just say we’re better friends than ever. Let me also say, I reserve the right…
  • Summer 2003
    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that private sexual behavior between consenting adults applies to same-sex couples just as it applies to opposite-sex couples has given encouragement to gay Americans and their families and has infuriated leaders of the Religious Right. In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said Americans don’t want homosexuals “as partners in their…
  • Spring 2003
    American military action in Iraq is opposed by many gay and lesbian groups. Among these is the largest GLBT organization, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Other antiwar groups: the National LGBT Program of the American Friends Service Committee, Jews Against the Occupation, Al-Fatiha (gay Muslims), the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission,…
  • Winter 2003
    Evangelical ethicist Lewis B. Smedes has died at age 81. A best-selling author who had taught at both Calvin and Fuller Theological Seminaries, Smedes was an outspoken advocate for gay Christians. In the mid-90s he served as a keynoter at both the eastern and western summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned.
  • Winter 2002
    Campus Crusade for Christ has no room for a gay hero. In the aftermath of the World Trade Center terror, Campus Crusade joined with many others in heralding the heroism of Father Mychal Judge, the New York City Fire Chaplain who was killed by toppling rubble while ministering to his fallen comrades at Ground Zero…
  • Fall 2002
    “Dallas has become the new capital of American evangelicalism.” So says the cover of Christianity Today (May 21). Says CT: “Dallas, Texas, has more megachurches, megaseminaries, and mega-Christian activity than any other American city.” According to CT: “In places like Wheaton and Colorado Springs, Christianity is perceived as an influential subculture; here it is the…
  • Summer 2002
    Rosalind Rinker died in Redmond, Washington on January 11 at age 95. She had been a missionary with the Oriental Missionary Society, a staff worker for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and was the author of many books on Christian life, including her bestseller, Prayer: Conversing with God.
  • Spring 2002
    The formerly “ex-gay” U.K. organization, Courage Trust, in changing its focus from attempted sexual orientation change to the integration of unchanged sexual orientation with an honest life of Christian discipleship has been forced to resign from Britain’s Evangelical Alliance. In a joint EA/Courage press release on March 6, it was stated that at “a meeting…
  • Fall 2001
    Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson were quick to blame gays and lesbians, among others they can’t stand, for the terrorist attacks on September 11. Jerry Falwell said this on Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club” television show: “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the…
  • Fall 2001
    The Vermont State Supreme Court ruling to establish fairness for same-sex couples was passed by the House as a “civil unions” bill now wending its way through the Senate Judiciary. The Religious Right has descended on the state with an all-out attack against homosexuals.
  • Summer 2001
    “Homosexuals Can Change, Research Says.” This headline was typical of the overblown reporting of a talk given by psychiatrist Robert Spitzer at this year’s meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Spitzer’s own expressed cautions about the likely misuse of his presentation tended to get lost the mass media and much of the religious press.
  • SPRING 2001
    “Not one of us doesn’t have someone close to us who is gay or lesbian.” These were the words of Republican elder statesman, former Senator Alan K. Simpson, as he addressed an inaugural breakfast honoring the Republican Unity Coalition, a new political group that includes many openly gay and lesbian Republicans.
  • WINTER 2001
    Exodus “ex-gay” network board chairman John Paulk was caught drinking and socializing in “Mr. P’s,” a well-known gay bar in a heavily gay section of Washington, DC, on Tuesday night, September 19. Paulk, the manager of the homosexuality department of the Religious Right’s Focus on the Family, had been the cover boy for a 1998…
  • Winter 2000
    “Why not just let homosexuals `live and let live’?” This is the headline on a recent fund-raising letter from the recklessly antigay television preacher, D. James Kennedy of Fort Lauderdale.
  • Summer 2000
    “These results cannot be taken as evidence that homosexuals change their sexual orientation.” That’s the assessment of Mark Yarhouse, assistant professor in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at (Pat Robertson’s) Regent University. In his “Research Digest” review for Christian Counseling Today (Vol. 8,No. 2, 2000), he examines a follow-up study of 140 participants attempting…
  • Fall 1999
    Roy Clements, a leading British evangelical apologist and pastor of Eden Chapel in Cambridge since 1979, has resigned his various professional positions, separated from his wife, and has reportedly acknowledged his homosexuality and left for a “celibate relationship” with his research assistant, a young man who was also a member of his congregation.
  • Summer 1999
    Gay teen-agers are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide as other youth, according to a Massachusetts study reported this spring in The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Young men are especially at risk. Robert Garofalo, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital at the Harvard Medical School and the lead researcher, noted that…
  • Spring 1999
    Max Lucado, 11-million best selling author and pastor of Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio, was interviewed in a recent issue of Christianity Today. Asked how he’d assess the state of the evangelical movement today, Lucado replied: “We’re struggling to deal with some tough questions, like abortion.
  • Winter 1999
    The American Psychiatric Association, in December, issued its findings on psychiatric treatment and sexual orientation. The APA unequivocally concludes that efforts to “change” a homosexual orientation are based on the faulty assumptions that homosexuality is a mental disorder, that homosexuality should be changed, and that homosexuality can be changed.
  • Winter 1998
    The nation’s largest gay religious group and largest gay political group will co-sponsor what is predicted will be the largest gay civil rights event in history. It is to be staged in Washington, DC in the year 2000.
  • Fall 1998
    Bob Davies, director of the Exodus “ex-gay” network, sent out an appeal for money in September: “Our bank accounts are empty!” That was his bad news. His good news was about “the worldwide media exposure Exodus has received” as a result of the national “ex-gay” ad campaign this summer and all the publicity it generated…
  • Summer 1998
    “Toward hope and healing for homosexuals” was the grab-line at the top of the full-page ad in The New York Times on July 13. (Similar ads appeared in The Washington Post and USA Today.) Under this grab-line was a big picture of Anne Paulk, identified as “wife, mother, former lesbian.”
  • Spring 1998
    Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead, has produced a radio spot entitled “Gays Have Rights, Too.” The Rutherford Institute, a legal organization of the Religious Right, had long been active in attacking the “radical homosexual agenda.” But Whitehead now supports the U. S. Supreme Court ruling against Colorado’s antigay Amendment 2 and is now defending some…
  • Fall 1997
    For “the key to the next 30 years of gay America” writes The New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan, “keep your eye on the churches.” In an essay in The Advocate, the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine, Sullivan states: “No civil rights movement has ever succeeded in this country without the support of the churches.
  • Fall 1997
    For “the key to the next 30 years of gay America” writes The New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan, “keep your eye on the churches.” In an essay in The Advocate, the national gay and lesbian news magazine, Sullivan states: “No civil rights movement has ever succeeded in this country without the support of the churches….
  • Summer 1997
    Amid all the fundamentalist Ellenphobia, with its viciousness as well as adolescent jokes — like Jerry Falwell’s calling her “Ellen DeGenerate” — one sad but overlooked consequence to fundamentalism’s unpreparedness for homosexuality even within its own community is the fact that the father of actress Anne Heche, Ellen DeGeneres’s girlfriend, was a fundamentalist minister who…
  • Summer 1997
    Amid all the fundamentalist Ellenphobia, with its viciousness as well as adolescent jokes — like Jerry Falwell’s calling her “Ellen DeGenerate” — one sad but overlooked consequence to fundamentalism’s unpreparedness for homosexuality even within its own community is the fact that the father of actress Anne Heche, Ellen DeGeneres’s girlfriend, was a fundamentalist minister who…
  • Spring 1997
    Edman Chapel at Wheaton College is named for V. Raymond Edman, the evangelical college’s president from 1940 to 1965. His lesbian granddaughter, Liz Edman, is interviewed in the January issue of the newsletter of the Wheaton College Gay and Lesbian Alumni/ae Association. Liz Edman, a seminary graduate,
  • Spring 1997
    Edman Chapel at Wheaton College is named for V. Raymond Edman, the evangelical college’s president from 1940 to 1965. His lesbian granddaughter, Liz Edman, is interviewed in the January issue of the newsletter of the Wheaton College Gay and Lesbian Alumni/ae Association. Liz Edman, a seminary graduate, has worked for four years as a chaplain…
  • Winter 1997
    In memoriam to theologian/psychol-ogist Henri Nouwen who died in September, the popular evangelical magazine, Christianity Today, devoted all of its November 11th “Reflections” page to excerpts from his works. CT states that this beloved Catholic writer “left behind a wealth of insights that have brought encouragement and ministered to thousands.”

Review

  • REVIEW Winter 2024 Vol. 49 No.1
    “Why Do All Rabbis Hate Me: How the Orthodox community can cultivate compassion and sensitivity toward LGBTQ Jews” by Chaim Nissel, Tablet,June 28, 2023.  “Yeshiva University’s Dean Chaim Nissel has not acted like a queer ally and is in no position to teach LGBTQ sensitivity”, Orthodox Mental Health, July 11, 2023 by Dr. Ralph Blair…
  • REVIEW Fall 2023 Vol. 48 No.4
    “Dear Friends of Westminster” by Peter Lillback, September 14, 2023 by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Westminster Seminary’s President, Peter Lillback, notes with relief, that, 2023’s June Pride Month “has officially concluded”, but gripes, “its iconography and creeds remain displayed in many shops and private residences.”  He’s been inside their residences?  To him,…
  • REVIEW Summer 2023 Vol. 48 No.3
    “‘I Happen to Believe that Gay Relationships are Not God’s Best’: Rick Warren Backs Split in Church of England”, Premier Christian News, March 22, 2023; “Not an ‘Ordinary Man’: J. Gresham Machen and the Un-Queering of Evangelical Theology” by Austin Steelman, Cambridge Press, March 30. 2023; “Machen and the PCA Today” by R. Carlton Wynne,…
  • REVIEW Spring 2023 Vol. 48 No.2
    “How the Ancient Greeks viewed Pederasty and Homosexuality” by Tim Brinkhof, Big Think, January 13, 2013; “LGBTQ+ Holocaust Victims Remembered for the First Time by German Parliament” by Christopher Wiggins, The Advocate, January 27, 2023; Christianity’s American Fate reviewed by D. G. Hart, The Wall Street Journal, October 4, 2022. (PDF version available here) Big…
  • REVIEW Winter 2023 Vol. 48 No.1
    “The Existential Despair of Godification”by Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage, October 4, 2022; “Homosexuality is being accepted in prominent conservative, Christian circles. Here’s proof” by Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews, October 7, 2021; “Eastern University Changes Its Doctrines on Marriage” by Terry Mattingly, GetReligion, November 24, 2022 (PDF version available here) Greenfield is an Israeli-born conservative writer at Frontpage,…
  • REVIEW Fall 2022 Vol. 47 No.4
    Grand Rapids Church Celebrates Reconciliation with Chaplain to LGBTQ People” by Callie Feyen, The Banner, July 14, 2022; “Republicans Should Reject the Gay-Marriage Bill” by The Editors, National Review, July 21, 2022.  (PDF version available here) On November 2, 1975, Bob Rayburn, the founding president of Covenant College and Seminary, visited me in New York City to…
  • REVIEW Summer 2022 Vol. 47 No.3
    “The LGBT Fad” by Kaylee McGhee White, Washington Examiner, June 7, 2022.“Putin’s Anti-Gay War on Ukraine”by Emil Edenborg, Boston Review, March 14, 2022. (PDF version available here.) White is a visiting fellow at Independent Women’s Forum and writes commentary for the Detroit News, RealClearPolitics, the Weekly Standard and the Washington Examiner.    She notes that a report from The Center for the Study…
  • REVIEW Spring 2022 Vol. 47 No.2
    “The Decline and Renewal of the American Church: Part 2 – The Decline of Evangelicalism” by Tim Keller, Life in the Gospel, Winter 2022. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) In this second of Keller’s four essays on the decline of church life in America, and his musings on its renewal, the founding…
  • REVIEW Winter 2022 Vol. 47 No.1
    “The Decline and Renewal of the American Church: Part 1 – The Decline of the Mainline” by Tim Keller, Life in the Gospel, Fall 2021. (PDF version available here.) This first of four articles by Keller is to be followed by, “The Decline of Faith”, “The Path to Renewal”, and “The Power for Renewal”, concluding…
  • REVIEW Fall 2021 Vol. 46 No.4
    “At the PCA General Assembly, the Little Guys Stood Up” by Carl R. Trueman, First Things, July 8, 2021. By Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Trueman says: “The little guys stood up.”  He’s referring to men who meet their own needs for sexual/romantic intimacy with a wife of mutual choice but trample on…
  • REVIEW Summer 2021 Vol. 46 No.3
    Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality by Greg Johnson, (Zondervan, 2021).  “A Certain Madness Amok: In Canada, trans ‘justice’ has gone haywire” by Bruce Bawer, City Journal, April 1, 2021. By Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) After far too many damaging decades of…
  • REVIEW Spring 2021 Vol. 46 No.2
    “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Kentucky’s Gay Teens Don’t Need Conversion Torture” by Daniel M. Beasley, The Lexington Herald Leader, February 4, 2021, updated February 6, 2021.   “Prohibiting Prayer in Australia” by Carl R. Trueman, First Things, February 8, 2021 by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Beasley identifies as, “an out gay Black man…
  • REVIEW Winter 2021 Vol. 46 No.1
    “Same-Sex Relationships and the CRC”, by Gayla R. Postma, The Banner, October 12, 2020. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Nearly a half-century ago, Christian Reformed Church scholars (e.g., Woudstra, Hart, Olthuis, Smedes, Wolterstorff, et al) supported gay and lesbian Christians.  In January, 1985, midway through his tenure as editor of The Banner, CRC’s monthly, Andrew…
  • REVIEW Fall 2020 Vol. 45 No. 4
    “An impossible choice for Christian Business Owners” by Steve West, World, July 7, 2020; “Why Lying Has Become Normal and Acceptable” by Roger E. Olson, Evangelical Patheos, May 23, 2020. (PDF version available here) World magazine alleges: “A Christian wedding photographer in Virginia faces three bad options: compromising his religious beliefs, violating the law and…
  • REVIEW Summer 2020 Vol. 45 No. 3
    “Identity from within or from the Mind of Christ” by Joshua Gielow, TruthXChange, April 17, 2020“Died: Sy Rogers, Who Testified God Changed His Sexual Identity” by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today, April 23, 2020“Help and Hope for Pastors Battling Porn” by Chris Sicks, byFaith, April 17, 2020 (PDF version available here) Rosaria Butterfield’s new video is…
  • REVIEW Spring 2020 Vol. 45 No. 2
    by Dr. Ralph Blair “A Response to the Editor of Christianity Today” by Dennis Prager, Frontpage, December 27, 2019; “Evangelical Elites are Out of Touch” by Carl R. Trueman, First Things, December 20, 2019. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Prager is an Orthodox Jew, a serious scholar, historian, syndicated columnist and a…
  • REVIEW Winter 2020 Vol. 45 No. 1
    “A Question about Evangelical Churches that are ‘Welcoming and Affirming’ ” by Roger E. Olson, Evangelical Patheos, November 7, 2019; “14 Years After Becoming Transgender, Teacher Says, ‘It Was A Mistake’ ” by Walt Heyer, The Federalist, February 5, 2019. By Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) A Baylor seminary professor raises “a question”…
  • REVIEW Fall 2019 Vol. 44 No. 4
    On Sexuality and Personal Identity, Resolution 5, The Southern Baptist Convention, Birmingham, Alabama, 2019. By Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) “The Friendly Atheist” blog notes that, the Southern Baptist annual meeting took place “on the heels of multiple stories about how sexual abuse thrived in Southern Baptist churches” – even among pastors.  What’s…
  • REVIEW Summer 2019 Vol. 44 No. 3
    “Porn is Slowly Killing Evangelicalism” by Grayson Gilbert, Evangelical Patheos: June 12, 2018. “Of Rats, Voles and Online Porn” by Declan Gernon, Areo, February 12, 2019.  “Does Empathy Have A Dark Side?” by Jonathan Lambert, NPR, April 12, 2019. Full-page ads in the Christian Right’s World magazine carry stats on “pornography and the church”, alleging…
  • REVIEW Spring 2019 Vol. 44 No. 2
    “That Face: The urge to smash a teenager’s face represents a new iconoclasm against masculinity” by Bruce Bawer, City Journal, January 23, 2019. “What’s Really Toxic is ‘Toxic Masculinity’ ” by Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, January 22, 2019. “The New Bigotry” by Noah Rothman, The New York Post, February 3, 2019. Bawer, a champion…
  • REVIEW Winter 2019 Vol. 44 No. 1
    Talking Across the Divide by Justin Lee, (Penguin, 2018), 259 pp. by Dr. Ralph Blair  (PDF version available here) Self-righteousness is the most desperate of motivations as it’s internally sensed to be the least defensible.  There’s no limit to the ruthlessly irrational lengths to which many resort to rationalize their postured, sanctimonious rhetoric, resistance, rebellion…
  • REVIEW Fall 2018 Vol. 43 No. 4
    “Colorado Defies the Supreme Court, Renews Persecution of a Christian Baker” by David French, National Review, August 15, 2018. “Identifying the Sin of Sodom in Ezekiel 16:49-50” by Brian Neal Peterson, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, June 2018. by Dr. Ralph Blair  (PDF version available here) Ina Duley Ogdon was disappointed when plans for…
  • REVIEW Summer 2018 Vol. 43 No. 3
    “Mississippi Church Pushes Back Against History of Racism” by Zoe Erler, byFaith, Q1.18; “A Mouthful of Bluff” by Joel Belz, World magazine, April 14, 2018; “Look Out. Christianity Will Soon be Labeled ‘Hate Speech’ ” by David Rupert, Red Letter Believers: Salt and Light, at Patheos’ Evangelical channel, April 16, 2018; “Did Evangelicals ‘Kidnap’ the…
  • REVIEW Spring 2018 Vol. 43 No. 2
    “Does Genesis 2 Support Same-Sex Marriage? An Evangelical Response” by Brian Neil Peterson, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, December 2017. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Peterson is distracted by recent “cultural changes in the West”, but he fails to take note of the far greater conceptual and cultural changes from ancient…
  • REVIEW Winter 2018 Vol. 43 No. 1
    The Grace of Shame: 7 Ways the Church has Failed to Love Homosexuals by Tim Bayly, Joseph Bayly, Jurgen von Hagen (Warhorn Media, 2017), 165 pp.    by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Tim Bayly’s dad was the late Joe Bayly, IVCF editor, author of The Gospel Blimp, and, for a quarter century, a…
  • REVIEW Fall 2017 Vol. 42 No. 4
    “I’m a gay man, happily married to a woman.  And I’m not the only one”, LifeSiteNews, March 27, 2017; “The Case for Dating Non-Christians” by David and Constantino Khalaf, Progressive Channel, Patheos, December 7, 2016;  For Those Tears I Died by Marsha Stevens-Pino (Canyon Walker Press, 2016), 249 pp.; To Drink from the Silver Cup…
  • REVIEW: Summer 2017 Vol. 42 No. 3
    “Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Cheap Shots: Why the Christian Philosopher’s Case for Same-Sex Marriage is Shallow” by Wesley Hill, First Things, November 1, 2016;  “The Tyranny of Decadence” by Peter Jones, truthXchange, June 5, 2017.   by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) More than a decade before Wesley Hill graduated from college and two years before…
  • REVIEW: Spring 2017 Vol. 42 No. 2
    “Religious Freedom for Me but Not for Thee?” by Paul Crookston, National Review, February 21, 2017;  “Europe’s Islam Problem and U.S. Immigration Policy” by Shannon Gilreath, Washington Blade, January 19, 2017.  by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) National Review’s Collegiate Network Fellow and Gordon College graduate, Crookston, rightly notes: “America’s enshrinement of religious…
  • REVIEW: Winter 2017 Vol. 42 No. 1
    “Keller, Moore, De Young on How to Speak to Our Culture About Sex”, Ryan Troglin, ed., The Gospel Coalition, August 23, 2016.  by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) In 1954, C. S. Lewis was asked about homosexuality.  He recalled 1918, when he was an atheist and his closest friend, a devout Christian, confided…
  • REVIEW: Fall 2016 Vol. 41 No. 4
    “Sexuality and Gender” by Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh, The New Atlantis, Fall 2016.  by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Plain Reasons for the Growth of Sodomy in England, a 1728 tome, blamed tea and the  “pernicious influence” of Italian opera.  Today, there’s still alarm over the growth of what folks…
  • REVIEW: Summer 2016 Vol. 41 No. 3
    “The Sin of Sodom Revisited: Reading Genesis 19 in Light of Torah” by Brian Neal Peterson, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, March 2016 “Christian Rock Singer Announces He Is Gay” by Jim Denison, Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, June 2, 2016 “Salty Christianity” by Richard Doster, byFaith, Q2.16. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF…
  • REVIEW: Spring 2016 Vol. 41 No. 2
    “Celibacy at Gay Christian Network: What’s That All About?” by Stephen Parelli, Other Sheep Exec Site, January 12, 2016; “Why this Christian Lesbian was Not at the Gay Christian Network Conference” by Kimberly Knight, Progressive Christian Channel, January 11, 2016. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) The Gay Christian Network was founded in…
  • REVIEW: Winter 2016 Vol. 41 No. 1
    “A Denomination Hungry for Reconciliation: Grace, Race and the PCA” by Sean Michael Lucas, byFaith, October 19, 2015; “Tied in Knots: Americans Try to Redefine Marriage” by Alan Dowd, byFaith, October 12, 2015.  by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Even after the Civil War, in 1867, R. L. Dabney, a major Presbyterian theologian…
  • REVIEW: FALL 2015 Vol. 40 No. 4
    “The Supreme Court: Greasing the Slippery Slope” by Eric Metaxas, BreakPoint, July 2, 2015; “Statement on Same-sex Marriage: PCA’s View” by L. Roy Taylor, byFaith, June 27, 2015; Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides by Scott Sauls (Tyndale, 2015), 240 pp. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF…
  • REVIEW: Summer 2015 Vol. 40 No. 3
    “A Place for Conscience”, Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, April 20, 2015; “A Buckley Comes Out”, Sean Buckley, The Daily Beast, April 26, 2015; “Reparative Therapy: Is It Harmful?” by Nick Pitts, Denison Forum, April 16, 2015; “How Christians Turned Against Gay Conversion Therapy” by Jonathan Merritt, The Atlantic, April 15, 2015; “Sabrina’s Fable”, Mindy…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2015 Vol. 40 No. 2
    Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Book Review by Guenther “Gene” Haas, December 2014 “Tragedy, Tradition, and Opportunity in the Homosexuality Debate” by Ronald J. Sider, CT Weekly, November 18, 2014. (PDF version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair Haas reviews Gracious Spaciousness: Responding to Gay Christians in the Church by Wendy VanderWal-Gritter. She led…
  • REVIEW. Winter 2015 Vol. 40 No. 1
    Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Book Review by Andrew M. Bowden, September 2014 “Marriage: Can We Have Justice Without It?” by Robert P. George, Plough Quarterly, Autumn 2014 “Judicial Activism, Judicial Abdication”, National Review, November 3, 2014 “Tim Cook: Is Being Gay a Gift of God?” by Jim Denison, Denison Forum, October 31, 2014…
  • REVIEW. Fall 2014 Vol. 39 No. 4
    The Bible’s YES to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical’s Change of Heart by Mark Achtemeier (WJK, 2014), 137 pp; A Letter to My Congregation by Ken Wilson (Read the Spirit, 2014), 196 pp; “Five Questions For Christians Who Believe the Bible Supports Gay Marriage” by Kevin DeYoung, The Gospel Coalition, 2014. (PDF version available here.) We’ve…
  • REVIEW. Summer 2014 Vol. 39 No .3
    Romans 1-7 For You by Timothy Keller (The Good Book Company, 2014) 201 pp “5 Ways to Debate Same-sex Marriage” by Jim Denison, Denison Forum, February 28, 2014 “Polarizing President” by Joel Belz; “For Better, For Worse” by Joel Belz “From Gay to Joyous” by Marvin Olasky, World, February 8, 2014 “Pattern of Deception” by…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2014 Vol. 39 No .2
    Abusing Scripture: The Consequences of Misreading the Bible by Manfred T. Brauch, (IVP Academic, 2009) 293 pp; First Peter by E. M. Blaiklock (Word, 1977) 113 pp; Connecting Christ by Paul Louis Metzger, (Thomas Nelson, 2010) 328 pp.  By Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) A kids’ quiz asks, “Which One Doesn’t Belong?”, e.g.,…
  • REVIEW. Winter 2014 Vol. 39 No .1
    “Sex Without Bodies” by Andy Crouch, Christianity Today, July/August 2013 “Christianity and Homosexuality” by Tim Keller, Redeemer Report, October 2013 By Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) The executive editor at CT thinks: “There is really only one conviction that can hold [the LGBT] coalition of disparate human experiences together [and it’s] the irrelevance…
  • REVIEW. Fall 2013 Vol. 38 No .4
    Paul for Everyone: I Corinthians by N. T. Wright (John Knox Press, 2004) 272 pp. Bible, Gender, Sexuality by James V. Brownson (Eerdmans, 2013) 300 pp. (PDF version available here) A popular Anglican bishop grants that two words in I Corinthians 6:9 “have been much debated” but he claims that “experts have now established [that…
  • REVIEW. Summer 2013 Vol. 38 No .3
    “Marriage and Politics” by Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George, National Review, February 11, 2013 Cal Thomas, “When Public Opinion Trumps Eternal Truth”, Washington Examiner, March 27, 2013 (PDF version available here) Sixty years ago, a homophile monthly’s cover read: “HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE?” (ONE, August 1953)  In 1963, its cover dropped the question…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2013 Vol. 38 No .2
    Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien (InterVarsity, 2012), 240 pp; Kent Van Til, “Singleness and Celibacy”, Perspectives, December 2012; “Opposing the Truth-Trashers” by Joel Belz, World, November 17, 2012; “Our Culture of Deceit” by Joel Belz, World, December 15, 2012; “Where ‘little lies’ Lead”, by Joel Belz, World,…
  • REVIEW. Winter 2013 Vol. 38. No. 1.
    Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christian Debate by Justin Lee (Jericho Books, 2012) 259 pp. (PDF version available here) Since lesbian and gay youth are ridiculed, caricatured, guilt-tripped, kicked out of families, churches and Christian schools, it’s not inexplicable that they’d try to steer clear of their abusers – including the religious ringleaders of…
  • REVIEW. Fall 2012 Vol. 37. No. 4.
    “More Than a Legal Issue”, Christianity Today, July/August, 2012. “The Party Line: No Such Thing as an Ex-gay” by Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint.org, June 6, 2012. (PDF version available here) Over the years my correspondence from CT editors has ranged from bizarre, intrusively personal, even prurient, through gracious and fully supportive. Here, editors who enjoy the…
  • REVIEW. Summer 2012 Vol. 37. No. 3.
    “Old Testament Law and the Charge of Inconsistency” by Tim Keller.  Redeemer Report, June 2012. (PDF version available here) When we’re said to “pick and choose” Bible verses, it can be frustrating.  Keller says: “I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological advisor)…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2012 Vol. 37. No. 2.
    “Alan Chambers: Change We Can Believe In” by Jamie Dean, World, December 17, 2011. “NARTH Statement on Sexual Orientation Change”, NARTH.com, January 25, 2012. “More Unmerited Mercy” by Marvin Olasky, World, February 11, 2012 The Religious Right’s World magazine named Exodus head Alan Chambers its “Daniel of the Year” for 2011, celebrating discordantly that his…
  • REVIEW. Winter 2012 Vol. 37. No. 1.
    The Gay Gospels by Keith Sharpe (O-Books, 2011), 203 pp. A “self-help manual” from a Gscene writer claims we’ve been kept in the dark about Bible passages that “celebrate homoerotic desire and relationships”.  Sharpe “uncovers” what he calls “open and hidden affirmations of LGBT lives in the Bible” and he urges readers to “learn [his]…
  • REVIEW. Fall 2011 Vol. 36. No. 4.
    “Liberty’s Loss” by Tim Dalrymple, World, July 30, 2011. “Born Homosexual? A Parent’s Guide” by Chuck Colson, Breakpoint.org, June 1, 2011. “Evangelicals and the Gay Moral Revolution” by Albert Mohler, Jr., The Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2011. The scary teaser in the Religious Right’s World magazine is: “Same-sex marriage in New York threatens the…
  • REVIEW. Summer 2011 Vol. 36. No. 3.
    I Corinthians by Alan F. Johnson (InterVarsity Press, 2004) This review focuses on a Wheaton College professor’s cursory but careless comments on I Corinthians 6:9, contrasted with his nuanced work on chapter 7.  Noting the two terms in 6:9 that “have evoked considerable debate”, Johnson repeats some tired superficialities and moves on to a careful…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2011 Vol. 36. No. 2.
    Homosexuality and the Christian: A Guide for Parents, Pastors and Friends by Mark Yarhouse (Bethany House, 2010), 256 pp. In his Preface, this psych prof at Pat Robertson’s Regent University urges that we “move away” from discussing “whether orientation can change.”  Having championed the long-discredited and destructive hype for change, he now equivocates but also…
  • REVIEW. Winter 2011 Vol. 36. No. 1.
    Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah Ruden (Pantheon Books, 2010), 214 pp. “What Marriage Is For” by The Editors, National Review, September 20, 2010. A published translator of Vergil, Homer, Aristophanes and Petronius – and now of Paul – Ruden was interviewed recently in Christianity Today…
  • REVIEW. Fall 2010, Vol. 35. No. 4.
    “The Repeal of Proposition 8” by Todd Bouldin (www.toddbouldin.wordpress.com, August 6, 2010). “Marriage Untainted by Religious Motivation” by Alan F. H. Wisdom (The Washington Times, August 16, 2010). “What is the ‘Gospel’ Response to the Prop 8 Ruling?” by Tony Jones (blog.tonyj.net, August 13, 2010). “Same-sex Marriage and the Insignificance of the Nuclear Family” by…
  • REVIEW. Summer 2010, Vol. 35. No. 3.
    The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose (Grand Central, 2009, 319 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 2010, Vol. 35. No. 2.
    “Seeking Truth: Three Views on the Calvin Approach to Academic Freedom” by Anthony Diekema, George Marsden and Nicholas Wolterstorff, The Calvin Spark, Winter 2009 “Can Homosexuals Be Christian?” by C. Michael Patton, Reclaimingthemind.org, January 4, 2010 “Love of Unimaginable Proportions” by Mark Galli, ChristianityToday.com, March 4, 2010.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2010, Vol. 35. No. 1.
    “The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality” by John Piper, www.desiringgod.org/blog, August 20, 2009. “A Moral Crossroads for Conservatives” by Jonathan Rauch, www.nationaljournal.com, August 8, 2009. “Leaving Homosexuality: A Practical Guide for Men and Women Looking for a Way Out” by Alan Chambers (Harvest House, 2009, 155 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Fall 2009, Vol. 34. No. 4.
    Through My Eyes, The Gay Christian Network, 2009. “What to Do about Unbiblical Unions” by Susan Wunderink, Christianity Today online, June 25, 2009. “Is the Gay Marriage Debate Over?”, by Mark Galli, Christianity Today, July, 2009.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2009, Vol. 34. No. 3.
    “The Worst Thing about Gay Marriage” by Sam Schulman, The Weekly Standard, June 1, 2009. “Going with the Flow” by Joel Belz, World, June 6, 2009.
  • REVIEW. Spring 2009, Vol. 34. No. 2.
    Evangelicals Concerned Inc. “Let’s Talk – Seriously”, Christianity Today, February 2009. Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives edited by David Ferguson, Fritz Guy and David Larson (Adventist Forum, 2008, 370 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 2009, Vol. 34. No. 1.
    Evangelicals Concerned Inc. “Get Real” by Joel Belz, World, November 15/22, 2008; “The Plain Truth” by Joel Belz, World, August 9/16, 2008; Exchanging the Truth of God for a Lie by Jeremy Marks (RPM, 2008), 84 pp.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2008, Vol. 33. No. 4.
    “A Dark Day: Post-Christian America?” by Pat Buchanan, The Washington Times, June 2, 2008. “The Christian Pop Cultures of Rapture Ready” by Sarah Pulliam, Christianity Today.com, June 19, 2008. “Tim Russert’s Contagious Faith” by Steve Sjogren, The Church Report, June 20, 2008. by Dr. Ralph Blair Syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan weighs in against the California…
  • REVIEW. Summer 2008, Vol. 33. No. 3.
    “Can Sexual Orientation Change?” by Mark A. Yarhouse and Stanton L. Jones, Christian Counseling Connection, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2008. “Good from bad” by Lynn Vincent, World, February 9/16, 2008.
  • REVIEW. Spring 2008, Vol. 33. No. 2.
    “Homosexuality & the Church: Scripture & Experience” by Luke Timothy Johnson, Commonweal, June 15, 2007. “Is Homosexuality Compatible with Christianity?” by Scott Pruett, Lifeway.com, 2007.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2008, Vol. 33. No. 1.
    EX-gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse (InterVarsity Press, 2007), 414 pp. “Sexual Identity Therapy” by Mark A. Yarhouse, Christian Counseling Today, Vol. 15, No. 2. 2007.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2007, Vol. 32. No. 4.
    “My Romney Problem” by John McWhorter, The New York Sun, August 9, 2007. “Choosing Truth Rather Than Words” by Alan Billings, Church Times, May 25, 2007. “Clobber Passages” by Misty Irons, musingson.com, June 7, 2007.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2007, Vol. 32. No. 3.
    “The Road to Healing” by Anonymous, Christianity Today, April 2007. “My Secret Struggle with Same-Sex Attraction” by Julie Lyons, Charisma, May 2007.
  • REVIEW. Spring 2007, Vol. 32. No. 2.
    “Facts & Fictions About Homosexuality: Debunking the Socio-Biblical Myths of the Religious Gay Community” by Linda L. Belleville. Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture, Winter 2005, Vol. 2, No. 1.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2007, Vol. 32. No. 1.
    Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly with Most Conservative Christians by Joel C. Hunter (Distributed Church Press, 2006) 190 pp.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2006, Vol. 31. No. 4.
    Is the Bible Intolerant?: Sexist? Oppressive? Homophobic? Outdated? Irrelevant? by Amy Orr-Ewing (InterVarsity Press, 2005), 144 pp.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2006, Vol. 31. No. 3.
    “Putting Asunder” by Jamie Dean, World, June 10, 2006. “A Coming Storm” by Lynn Vincent, World, June 10, 2006. “Bus Stop” by David M. Howard, Jr., The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2006. “Open-Door Policy” by Frederick J. Gaiser, The Christian Century, May 2, 2006. “Battle for the Bible” by Mark Noll, The Christian Century,…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2006, Vol. 31. No. 2.
    Jesus, The Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church by Jack Rogers (Westminster/John Knox, 2006) 169 pp.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2006, Vol. 31. No. 1.
    The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The age of Spurgeon and Moody by David W. Bebbington (InterVarsity, 2005), 288 pp.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2005, Vol. 30. No. 4.
    “Losing My Fear of Religion” by Mubarak Dahir, AlterNet.org, September 16, 2005, story 20585. “The Case Against Marriage” by James Withers, New York Blade, September 30, 2005. “Sex and Spirituality” by Deborah Emin, Gay City News, 27 October – 2 November, 2005.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2005, Vol. 30. No. 3.
    What God Has Joined Together? A Christian Case for Gay Marriage by David G. Myers and Letha Dawson Scanzoni (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005) pp. 180. “Sacrificing Science” by Chuck Colson, BreakPoint, May 26, 2005.
  • REVIEW. Spring 2005, Vol. 30. No. 2.
    “Body and Soul” by Marvin Olasky, World, March 5, 2005. “From Mental Disorder to Civil-Rights Cause” by Marvin Olasky, World, February 19, 2005. Gay Religion edited by Scott Thumma and Edward R. Gray (Altamira Press, 2005) 454 pp.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2005, Vol. 30. No. 1.
    “Homosexuality: A review of recent medical research papers” by Kenneth V. Dodgson, The Inspiriter, Summer/Fall 2003. “Choosing Life” by Gerald Bray, Modern Reformation, September/October, 2004.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2004, Vol. 29. No. 4.
    “Husbands and Wives: What gay marriage won’t change” by Tod Lindberg, The Weekly Standard, August 2, 2004. “Justly Protecting Marriage” by Bob De Moor, The Banner, May 2004. “The Prohibition of Gay Marriage” by Collin Hansen, christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2004/jul15.html
  • REVIEW. Summer 2004, Vol. 29. No. 3.
    The Truth About Same-Sex Marriage by Erwin W. Lutzer (Moody Publishers, 2004, 115 pp.).  “Love Supreme: Gay nuptials and the making of modern marriage” by Adam Haslett, The New Yorker, May 31, 2004. Angry traditionalists in Massachusetts launched an effort to stop what they said was a fatal blow to marriage, the family and childrearing…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2004, Vol. 29. No. 2.
    The Truth About Same-Sex Marriage by Erwin W. Lutzer (Moody Publishers, 2004, 115 pp.). “Love Supreme: Gay nuptials and the making of modern marriage” by Adam Haslett, The New Yorker, May 31, 2004.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2004, Vol. 29. No. 1.
    “The Gay Embrace” by James M. Kushiner, Touchstone, May 2003. “The Folly of Racism, Then; Of Sexual Liberation, Now” by Russell D. Moore, SBC Life, October 2003. “Biblical Marriage” by William G. Johnsson, Adventist Review, October 2003.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2003, Vol. 28, No. 4.
    “The Gay Dilemma,” by J. Lee Grady, Charisma, October 2003. “The Marriage Amendment,” by The Editors, First Things, October 2003. “Sowing Confusion,” by Charles Colson, Christianity Today, October 2003.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2003, Vol. 28, No. 3.
    “The Pride Game” by Joel Belz, World, June 28, 2003. “Line in the Sand” by Joel Belz, World, July 19, 2003. “Christ and Commitment” by Marvin Olasky, World, June 7, 2003.
  • REVIEW. Spring 2003, Vol. 28, No. 2.
    “The Gospel vs. Scripture?” An interview with Walter Brueggemann by Julie A. Wortman, Voice of Integrity, Winter, 2003. “Telling Our Stories: Good Words Offered About Good Sex” by Anonymous. “Being Normal May Hurt Us All” by Frank Faine. “Sexual Ethics on the Margin Shaped by Personal Experience” by Jim Sauder, Dialogue, Fall, 2002.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2003, Vol. 28, No. 1.
    “Initial Empirical and Clinical findings Concerning the Change Process for Ex-Gays” by Warren Throckmorton, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, June 2002, Vol. 33, No. 3.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2002, Vol. 27, No. 4.
    The Bible and Homosexual Practice by Robert A. J. Gagnon (Abingdon, 2001), 520 pp.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2002, Vol. 27, No. 3.
    “NIV’s Twisted Sister,” World, February 9, 2002. “Word Games” by Joel Belz and “Sad Day” by Marvin Olasky, World, February 16, 2002. “Claim it – or Concede it” by Joel Belz, World, May 25, 2002. “Should We Trust the TNIV?” by Susan Olasky. “The His-and-Hers Bible” by Emily Nussbaum, The New York Times Magazine, February…
  • REVIEW. Spring 2002, Vol. 27, No. 2.
    “No Easy Victory” by Anonymous, Christianity Today, March 11, 2002.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2002, Vol. 27, No. 1.
    “Can Christians Be Gay?” by Bill Shepson, Charisma & Christian Life, July 2001.
  • REVIEW. Fall 2001, Vol. 26, No. 4.
    Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments catholic and gay by James Alison (Crossroad, 2001), 239 pp.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2001, Vol. 26, No. 3.
    “Expanding Alternatives to Same-Sex Attraction and Behavior in Men” by Mark A. Yarhouse. “Overcoming Male Homosexuality: Growth into heterosexuality” by Alan Medinger, Christian Counseling Today, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2001.
  • REVIEW. Spring 2001, Vol. 26, No. 2.
    Homosexuality: The use of scientific research in the church’s moral debate by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse (InterVarsity Press, 2000), 189 pp.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2001, Vol. 26, No. 1.
    “Homosexuality: Speaking as Followers of Jesus” by John Suk. “What I Learned About Homosexuality” by Al Hoksbergen. “The Church’s Response to Sexual Disorder” by Melvin Hugen. “Why We Cannot Heal Among You: An Open letter to Our Christian Community” by Don and Carmen Bergman. “Homosexuality, First Person” by Paul Wise; and two related news items….
  • REVIEW. Fall 2000, Vol. 25, No. 4.
    Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A historical perspective by Martii Nissinen (Fortress Press, 1998), 208 pp.
  • REVIEW. Summer 2000, Vol. 25, No. 3.
    Welcoming But Not Affirming: An Evangelical Response to Homosexuality by Stanley J. Grenz (Westminster John Knox, 1998, 210pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 2000, Vol. 25, No. 2.
    “The Triumph of Theology Over Tradition” by Dennis Wheeler, The Web site of the Georgia Council of Conservative Citizens, November 3, 1999. “Rather off his Rocker: Calculating every little innuendo to make abnormal seem normal” by Joel Belz, World, January 22, 2000.
  • REVIEW. Winter 2000, Vol. 25, No. 1.
    “My Daughter – a Lesbian?” by Kathleen Bremner as told to Candace Walters. Update, December 1999. Witness: Gay and Lesbian Clergy Report from the Front by Dann Hazel (Westminster John Knox, 2000), 147pp. by Dr. Ralph Blair This sad account of a lesbian daughter has been circulating in the “ex-gay” movement for years. That it…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1999 Vol. 24 No. 4.
    “Called to Hate? How antihomosexual crusader Fred Phelps discredits the church” by Jody Veenker, Christianity Today, October 25, 1999.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1999 Vol. 24 No. 3.
    “Like the Wideness of the Sea” by Lewis Smedes, Perspectives, May 1999. “Accepting What Cannot Be Changed” by David G. Myers, Perspectives, June-July, 1999.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1999 Vol. 24 No. 2.
    “How Homosexuals Fight” by Lynn Vincent; “…And How to Fight Back” by Roy Maynard; “Tossing the Last Taboo: Psychologists hail the benefits of pederasty” by Gene Edward Veith; “Who is a Widow?” by Marvin Olasky, World, April 10, 1999
  • REVIEW. Winter 1999 Vol. 24 No. 1.
    “Are You Tolerant? (Should You Be?)” by Daniel Taylor, Christianity Today, January 11, 1999. “When Clients Seek Treatment for Same-Sex Attraction: Ethical Issues in the ‘Right to Choose’ Debate” by Mark A. Yarhouse, Psychotherapy, Summer 1998. by Dr. Ralph Blair Twelve little line drawings on the front of evangelicalism’s leading magazine are supposed to illustrate…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1998 Vol. 23 No. 4.
    Not Afraid to Change: The remarkable story of how one man overcame homosexuality by John Paulk with Tony Marco (Winepress, 1998), 252 pp.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1998 Vol. 23 No. 3.
    “Oscar & Ellen” by Calvin Miller; “The DeGeneres Degeneration” by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.; “Freedom from Homosexuality” by Linda Joyce Zygiel, SBC LIFE, August 1997.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1998 Vol. 23 No. 2.
    “One on One” by Dan Woog, “Bedtime Story” by Anne Stockwell, “Meditations on Monogamy” (an interview with Deepak Chopra) by Judy Wieder, “High Fidelity” (an excerpt from a book by Eric Marcus), “Hip to be Square” by David Heitz, “The Other M Word” by John Gallagher, “What Century is this Anyway?” by Edmund White, The…
  • REVIEW. Winter 1998 Vol. 23 No. 1.
    Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship edited by Robert E. Goss and Amy Adams Squire Strongheart (Harrington Park, 1997), 290 pp.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1997 Vol. 22 No. 4.
    “The Bible Condemned Usurers, Too” by John Corvino, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Fall 1996; “My Absolutely Inappropriate Religious Bias” by John Suk, The Banner, July 29, 1996; “Homosexuality Gets on Our Agenda” by John Suk, The Banner, April 14, 1996; “If You’re Offended by What We Print, Read On” by Harvey A. Smit,…
  • REVIEW. Summer 1997 Vol. 22 No. 3.
    “Revelation and Homosexual Experience: What Would John Wesley have said about this Debate in the Church?” by Don Thorsen. Christianity Today, November 11, 1996.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1997 Vol. 22 No. 2.
    Erotic Justice: A liberating ethic of sexuality by Marvin M. Ellison (Westminster John Knox, 1996, 142 pp.) by Dr. Ralph Blair Ellison teaches Christian ethics at Bangor Seminary. He claims that “my social location as a gay man … shapes my moral vision.” There’s more to it than that. Positing authority in himself, he urges…
  • REVIEW. Winter 1997 Vol. 22 No. 1.
    “When We Interpret Scripture Differently” by Roberta Hestenes. reNEWS, October 1996.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1996 Vol. 21 No. 4.
    Strangers and Friends: A new exploration of homosexuality and the Bible by Michael Vasey (Hodder and Stoughton, 1995, 276 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1996 Vol. 21 No. 3.
    Biblical Ethics and Homosexuality: Listening to Scripture edited by Robert L. Brawley (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996, 162 pp.) “Where God Makes a Way” by Alice Ogden Bellis, The Other Side, March – April 1995.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1996 Vol. 21 No. 2.
    “The Marrying Kind” by Bruce Bawer, The Advocate, September 19, 1995 and The New York Times, March 8, 1996. “Get Married?” by Alisa Solomon, Village Voice, January 9, 1996. “Why We Should Fight for the Freedom to Marry” by Evan Wolfson and “Tying the Knot of the Hangman’s Noose” by Victoria A. Brownsworth, Journal of…
  • REVIEW. Winter 1996 Vol. 21 No. 1.
    “EC Laguna’s Statement of Sexual Integrity”, Good News: The EC Laguna Newsletter, November-December, 1995.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1995 Vol. 20 No. 4.
    “Homosexuality: What we know for sure” by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse, Christian Counseling Today, Summer 1994; Jay L. Hollman, “The Future of Medical Science: Ethical and Theological Implications”, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, March 1995; The Newsletter of the American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation, July/August 1995.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1995 Vol. 20 No. 3.
    “Debate: ‘An Evangelical’s Theological Meltdown’, Tapia Poses Questions (by Andres Tapia) and Offner Offers Answers (by Kevin Offner)”, re:generation Quarterly, Spring 1995.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1995 Vol. 20 No. 2.
    “Truth and Compassion in the Church’s Ministry to Homosexual Persons” by Melvin D. Hugen, Calvin Theological Journal, November 1994.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1995 Vol. 20 No. 1.
    “Ordination of Women and of Gays: Are They on a Par?” by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Calvin Seminary Forum, Spring 1994. Flannery O’Connor knew that “it seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it.”  Now even the Pope is taking a few tentative steps to admit…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1994 Vol. 19 No. 4.
    “It’s Behavior, Not Orientation” by Frederica Mathewes- Green, World, October 29, 1994. by Dr. Ralph Blair World is a slick, full-color, Right-wing newsmagazine published in North Carolina. Its aim is “To help Christians apply the Bible to their understanding of and response to everyday current events”, including, of course, a favorite target: homosexuals and gay/lesbian…
  • REVIEW. Summer 1994 Vol. 19 No. 3.
    Coming Out of Homosexuality: New Freedom for Men and Women by Bob Davies and Lori Rentzel (InterVarsity Press, 1993, 202 pp.). “APA Halts Conversion Therapy Change”, Christianity Today, July 18, 1994.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1994 Vol. 19 No. 2.
    “Homosexuality” and “sexuality, Sexual Ethics” by David F. Wright in Dictionary of Paul and his Letters edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid (InterVarsity Press, 1993).
  • REVIEW. Winter 1994 Vol. 19 No. 1.
    “What Does Scripture Say? How Shall We Listen? The Bible and Homosexuality” by Victor Paul Furnish, Open Hands, Summer 1993. The Message – The New Testament in Contemporary English by Eugene H. Peterson (NavPress, 1993, 544 pp.).
  • REVIEW. Fall 1993 Vol. 18 No. 4.
    “The Loving Opposition: Speaking the truth in a climate of hate” by Stanton L. Jones, Christianity Today, July 19, 1993.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1993 Vol. 18 No. 3.
    Our Story Too: Lesbians and gay men in the Bible by Nancy L. Wilson (Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, 1992, 10 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1993 Vol. 18 No. 2.
    “The Biblical Understanding of Homosexuality” by Marion L. Soards, ReNews, February 1993. “The Family Man” by Kim A. Lawton, Christianity Today, November 9, 1992.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1993 Vol. 18 No. 1.
    “Dr. Dobson Answers Your Questions.” Focus on the Family, October 1992. by Dr. Ralph Blair Fundamentalist psychologist James C. Dobson’s high tech version of mid-century mid-American nostalgia reaches many millions of people every day. His Focus on the Family produces several radio programs carried throughout the U.S. and to 24 other countries. His 15-year-old organization…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1992 Vol. 17 No. 4.
    “Can gays and lesbians come out to be faithful Catholics?”, U.S. Catholic, August 1992. “Born gay?” by Joe Dallas, Christianity Today, June 22, 1992.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1992 Vol. 17 No. 3.
    “A Different Reading of Romans 1” by Hendrik Hart, More Light Update, May 1991. Outlook, November/December 1991. “Romans Revisited”, The Other Side, July/August 1992.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1992 Vol. 17 No. 2.
    A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson (HarperCollins, 1992, 260 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 1992 Vol. 17 No. 1.
    “A Common Thread of Opposition to Homosexuality Runs Through the Bible” by David A. Seamands and “Understanding Homosexuality in the bible’s Cultural Particularity” by Victor Paul Furnish, Circuit Rider, December 1991 / January 1992. “Can Homosexuals Change? Many leading psychiatrists and researchers say yes” by Sy Rogers and Alan Medinger, Good News, September / October…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1991 Vol. 16 No. 4.
    Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuals: A New Clinical Approach by Joseph Nicolosi (Jason Aronson, 1991, 355 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1991 Vol. 16 No. 3.
    “What Jesus Said About Homosexuality” by Timm Peterson, WAVES, March 1991 reprinted in The Voice of Integrity, Summer 1991
  • REVIEW. Spring 1991 Vol. 16 No. 2.
    “Dr. Dobson Answers Your Questions” and “What Homosexuals Need Most” by Bob Davies, Focus on the Family, March 1991. Winning the New Civil War by Robert P. Dugan, Jr. (Multnomah, 1991, 226 pp.) by Dr. Ralph Blair Oscar Wilde’s wisecrack that “there is no sin except stupidity” is not nearly wise enough. But it does…
  • REVIEW. Winter 1991 Vol. 16 No. 1.
    Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God by Carter Heyward (Harper & Row, 1989, 195 pp.) by Dr. Ralph Blair The Journal of the British Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement recently carried a review of one of my monographs. The reviewer, a seminarian, called it “informative and persuasive”, “a level-headed…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1990 Vol. 15 No. 4.
    Homosexuality and the Truth by Sy Rogers and Alan Medinger (Exodus International, 1990, 4 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1990 Vol. 15 No. 3.
    Are Gay Rights Right? By Roger J. Magnuson (Multnomah, 1990, 149 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1990 Vol. 15 No. 2.
    “Arts/Media” by Gerald Wisz, World, February 17, 1990. The Walking Wounded by Beverly Barbo (Carlsons’, 1987, 247 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 1990 Vol. 15 No. 1.
    “Sexual Ethics: Experience, Growth, Challenge” by Nate Gruel, Chair of The Task Force on Sexual Ethics of Dignity, Dignity/USA, December 1989. by Dr. Ralph Blair First: some perspective. In spite of all the supports from state and church, the sex lives of Christians remain far from the professed ideal. For example, Josh McDowell reports that…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1989 Vol. 14 No. 4.
    “Coming Out” by Tim Stafford, “I found Freedom” by Colin Cook, “Homosexuality According to Science” by Stanton L. Jones, Christianity Today, August 18, 1989.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1989 Vol. 14 No. 3.
    “The Biology of Homosexuality” by Jerry Woolpy, Earlhamite, Winter 1989. Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic by Elizabeth R. Moberly (Attic, 1983, 1986, 56 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1989 Vol. 14 No. 2.
    “Exit from Homosexuality” by Andrew Comiskey, Pastoral Renewal, June 1988.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1989 Vol. 14 No. 1.
    Dirt, Greed, and Sex: Ethics in the New Testament and their Implications for Today by L. William Countryman (Fortress, 1988, 290 pp.) 20 Hot Potatoes Christians are Afraid to Touch by Tony Campolo (Word, 1988, 235 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Fall 1988 Vol. 13 No. 4.
    The New Paganism by Harold Lindsell (Harper & Row, 1987, 279 pp.) True Sexuality by Ken Unger (Tyndale House, 1987, 240 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1988 Vol. 13 No. 3.
    “AIDS: An Evangelical Perspective” by Ron Sider, The Christian Century, January 6-13, 1988.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1988 Vol. 13 No. 2.
    “Sin, Sickness, or Status? Homosexual Gender Identity and Psychoneuroendocrinology” by John Money, American Psychologist, 1987, Vol. 42, No. 4. “Neurohormonal Functioning and Sexual Orientation: A Theory of Homosexuality-Heterosexuality” by Lee Ellis and M. Ashley Ames, Psychological Bulletin, 1987, Vol. 101, No. 2.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1988 Vol. 13 No. 1.
    Overcoming Homosexuality by Ed Hurst with Dave and Neta Jackson (David C. Cook, 1987, 119 pp.) “The Double Life of Finis Crutchfield”, by Emily Yoffe, Texas Monthly, October 1987.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1987 Vol. 12 No. 4.
    “Private Lives” by Stefan Ulstein, Christianity Today, July 10, 1987. “AIDS and God’s Mercy” by Joel Belz, World, June 22, 1987. “Gays and God’s Love: Compulsions and Affirmations” by Louie Crew, Christianity and Crisis, March 17, 1986.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1987 Vol. 12 No. 3.
    Homosexuality and Hope: A Psychologist Talks about Treatment and Change by Gerard van den Aardweg (Servant Books, 1985, 134 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1987 Vol. 12 No. 2.
    “Reaching Homosexuals with the Gospel” by William S. Barker and “I’ll Never Tell Anyone I Have a Problem with Homosexuality” by Stephen M. Crotts, Presbyterian Journal, February 25, 1987. “Listening to the Homosexual” by Sheldon Vanauken, Catholicism in Crisis, April 1986. “How to know if You Have Fallen in Love” by David and Carole Hocking,…
  • REVIEW. Winter 1987 Vol. 12 No. 1.
    The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues by Victor Paul Furnish (Abingdon Press, 1979; Revised Edition, 1985, 142 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Fall 1986 Vol. 11 No. 4.
    Evangelical Ethics: Issues Facing the Church Today by John Jefferson Davis (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1985, 299 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1986 Vol. 11 No. 3.
    “The Use of Scripture within the Christian Ethical Debate Concerning Same-Sex Oriented Persons” by Gerald T. Sheppard, Union Seminary Quarterly Review, 40, 1 and 2, 1985.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1986 Vol. 11 No. 2.
    Homosexuality: An Open Door? By Colin Cook (Pacific Press Publishing, 1985, 48 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 1986 Vol. 11 No. 1.
    “Homosexual ‘Marriage’” by John R. W. Stott, Christianity Today, November 22, 1985.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1985 Vol. 10 No. 4.
    “Homosexuality: Classification, Etiology and Treatment” by E. Mansell Pattison and “Homosexuality: Social Psychological Consequences” by Paul Cameron in Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology edited by David G. Benner (Baker, 1985, 1,223 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1985 Vol. 10 No. 3.
    “A Ministry to the Fallen” by Jerry Falwell “Homosexuality and the Bible” by Paul D. Feinberg “Counseling Homosexuals” by Paul D. Meier “Such were Some of You” by Michael Braun “Helping Children Grow Up Straight” by George A. Rekers, The Fundamentalist Journal, March 1985.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1985 Vol. 10 No. 2.
    “Homosexuality” by R. E. O. White in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology edited by Walter A. Elwell (Baker Book House, 1984, 1,204 pp.). Sexuality by Letha Dawson Scanzoni (Westminster Press, 1984, 113 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 1985 Vol. 10 No. 1.
    Gay/Lesbian Liberation: A Biblical Perspective by George R. Edwards (Pilgrim Press, 1984, 153 pp.) Foreword by Norman K. Gottwald.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1984 Vol. 9 No. 4.
    The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion by Leo Steinberg (Pantheon, 1983, 222 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1984 Vol. 9 No. 3.
    “Willa Cather’s Secret” by John J. Timmerman, The Reformed Journal, March 1984. The Christian Confronts His Culture by Richard A. Fowler and H. Wayne House (Moody Press, 1983, 218 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1984 Vol. 9 No. 2.
    “AIDS: An Interview with James Jekel, M.D.”, The Presbyterian Journal, January 11, 1984.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1984 Vol. 9 No. 1.
    The Homosexual Network: Private Lives and Public Policy by Enrique T. Rueda (Devin Adair, 1982, 680 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Fall 1983 Vol. 8 No. 4.
    The New Testament and Homosexuality by Robin Scroggs (Fortress, 1983, 160 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1983 Vol. 8 No. 3.
    Archimedes, AIDS and Antigay Antagonists
  • REVIEW. Spring 1983 Vol. 8 No. 2.
    “Buried in the Church” by Robbi Kenney, The Evangelical Beacon, January 1, 1983.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1983 Vol. 8 No. 1.
    “Homosexual Myths Exposed” by Walter J. Chantry, The Banner of Truth, November 1982.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1982 Vol. 7 No. 4.
    Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality by George A. Rekers (Moody Press, 1982, 158 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1982 Vol. 7 No. 3.
    “How Homosexuality Happens” by E. Mansell Pattison, Eternity, May 1982. Pat Robertson’s Perspective: A Special Report to Members of The 700 Club by Pat Robertson, Fall 1981.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1982 Vol. 7 No. 2.
    “Developmental and Ethical Issues in Homosexuality: Pastoral Implications” by Enos D. Martin and Ruth Keener Martin, Journal of Psychology and Theology, Spring 1981. by Dr. Ralph Blair Repeatedly attacking those who, concerning homosexuality, do not look to the established church as “traditional interpreter of spiritual values” – a strange approach for two Mennonites who trace…
  • REVIEW. Winter 1982 Vol. 7 No. 1.
    “Developmental and Ethical Issues in Homosexuality: Pastoral Implications” by Enos D. Martin and Ruth Keener Martin, Journal of Psychology and Theology, Spring 1981.
  • REVIEW. Fall 1981 Vol. 6 No. 4.
    Out of the Closet, Into the Light by Michael S. Munger (Pacific Press, 1980, 144 pp.) “Homosexuality: Why Can’t I Love the Way I Want?” by David A. Hubbard (Fuller Evangelistic Association and “The Joyful Sound”, n. d.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1981 Vol. 6 No. 3.
    “Changing the Homosexual?” by Robert K. Johnston, The Reformed Journal, March 1981.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1981 Vol. 6 No. 2.
    “Homosexuals CAN Change” by Tom Minnery, Christianity Today, February 6, 1981.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1981 Vol. 6 No. 1.
    “ ‘Ex-Gays’: Religiously Mediated Change in Homosexuals” by E. Mansell Pattison and Myra Loy Pattison, The American Journal of Psychiatry, December 1980. by Dr. Ralph Blair The American Psychiatric Association’s scientific declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder did not prevent the publication of this article that views it as a sort of spiritual disorder….
  • REVIEW. Fall 1980 Vol. 5 No. 4.
    Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century by John Boswell (The University of Chicago Press, 1980, 424 pp.) The Unmentionable Vice: Homosexuality in the Later Medieval Period by Michael Goodich (ABC-Clio, 1979, 164 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1980 Vol. 5 No. 3.
    Gay is Not Good by Frank M. duMas (Thomas Nelson, 1979, 331 pp.) Shadow of Sodom by Paul D. Morris (Tyndale House, 1978, 164 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 1980 Vol. 5 No. 1.
    “Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality” by Walter Wink, The Christian Century, November 7, 1979. “The Christian Suspicion of Homosexuality” by Hugh A. Koops, New Brunswick Theological Seminary Newsletter, March 1979. by Dr. Ralph Blair Wink teaches biblical interpretation at Auburn Seminary; Koops is dean of New Brunswick Seminary. Both discard references to Sodom since, as Wink…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1979 Vol. 4 No. 4.
    Such Were Some of You by Kevin Linehan (Herald Press, 1979, 231 pp.) Homosexuality: A Biblical View by Greg Bahnsen (Baker Book House, 1978, 152 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Summer 1979 Vol. 4 No. 3.
    “A Case Against Homosexuality” by Paul Cameron, The Human Life Review, Summer 1978.
  • REVIEW. Spring 1979 Vol. 4 No. 2.
    The Gospel and the Gay by Kenneth Gangel (Thomas Nelson, 1978, 202 pp.) The Right, the Good and the Happy by Bernard L. Ramm (Word, 1971, 188 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Winter 1979 Vol. 4 No. 1.
    Homosexuality and the Church by Richard Lovelace (Fleming H. Revell, 1978, 158 pp.) by Dr. Ralph Blair Church historian Richard Lovelace fails to comprehend and resolve his basic error: interpreting a natural and morally neutral phenomenon, homosexuality, to be, in all cases, unnatural and, if expressed, sinful. Rather woodenly citing pittances from Barth, Brunner and…
  • REVIEW. Fall 1978 Vol. 3 No. 4.
    The Unhappy Gays by Tim LaHaye (Tyndale House, 1978, 206 pp.). Jonathan Loved David by Tom Horner (Westminster Press, 1978, 161 pp.). “Homosexuality” by Harold I. Haas, Currents in Theology and Mission, April 1978.
  • REVIEW. Summer 1978 Vol. 3 No. 3.
    The Bond that Breaks: Will Homosexuality Split the Church? By Don Williams (BIM, 1978, 170 pp.) The Homosexual Crisis in the Mainline Church by Jerry Kirk (Thomas Nelson, 1978, 192 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1978 Vol. 3 No. 2.
    Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? by Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott (Harper & Row, 1978, 176 pp.) Healing for the Homosexual by Betty Schonauer, et. al. (Presbyterian Charismatic Communion, 1978, 64 pp.) “Sex and Homosexuality: A Pastoral Statement” by Bennett J. Sims, Christianity Today, February 24, 1978.
  • REVIEW. Winter 1977 Vol. 2 No. 1.
    The Third Sex? by Kent Philpott (Logos International, 1975, 208 pp.) The Sexual Revolution by J. Rinzema (Eerdmans, 1974, 107 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Fall 1977 Vol. 2 No. 4.
    The Secrets of Our Sexuality by Gary R. Collins, Ed. (Word Books, 1976, 185 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Spring 1977 Vol. 2 No. 3.
    The Church and the Homosexual by John McNeill (Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1976, 211 pp.) Who Walk Alone: A Consideration of the Single Life by Margaret Evening (Inter-Varsity Press, 1974, 222 pp.)
  • REVIEW. Fall 1976 Vol. 1 No. 4.
    The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay E. Adams (Baker, 1973, 476 pp.) The Gift of Inner Healing by Ruth Carter Stapleton (Word, 1976, 115 pp.)

Sermons

  • 2023 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    “Temptations!”Our Foolishly Flawed Fantasies & Our Father’s Faithful Facts of Life by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here)    Temptations are conceived in self-centered cravings for selfishly driven satisfactions, while ignoring others’ welfare, and with a dire lack of gratitude for the most gracious gift of all, God’s Incarnation of Himself in Jesus, who willingly…
  • “The Peace that Transcends Mere Human Understanding”
    Keynote for EC’s 2023 ConnECtion by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.)    Twenty centuries ago, the Apostle Paul mentored early Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, giving them pragmatically spiritual support that we all still need today.  He warned that, as Christians, we’ll be persecuted.  Still, as he tells us all: “Don’t be…
  • 2021 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    Three Presentations  We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. (Read Presentation here.) Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags (Read Presentation here.) Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. (Read Presentation here.) by…
  • Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?
    Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity? Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”  That’s a very ancient riddle.  It’s a philosophical puzzle on the world’s beginnings and a question about all sorts of other sequences…
  • Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands
    Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) After surviving the dreadful storms of their Atlantic crossing, The Mayflower’s Pilgrims were swept to a safe harbor far to the north of their expected landfall in Virginia.  It was just in time to shelter…
  • We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!
    We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Each year, in late October or early November, it’s usually singles, who’re asked a friendly question many find awkward to answer.      Yet, in 2020, given lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, it wasn’t so awkward to…
  • The Meanings of Words & The Word of All Meaning
    The 17th Annual Octoberfest of Evangelicals Concerned EC’s 2020 Octoberfest Keynote by EC founderRalph Blair (PDF version available here.) “What’s the matter?”  Have you ever been asked this question by anyone?  Has anyone ever asked this of you?  What does the question mean?  What’s meant in the mind of the one who asks?  What’s meant…
  • Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • “Liberty – therefore, Gratitude”
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • “Liberty – therefore, Humility”
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • “Liberty – therefore, Patience”
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • LUTHER 500
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Three Sermons available here: Luther 500: Sola Scriptura Luther 500: Sola Gratia Luther 500: Sola Fide LUTHER 500: An Introductory…
  • LUTHER 500: Sola Scriptura
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) LUTHER 500:  Sola Scriptura C. S. Lewis recognized that, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at…
  • LUTHER 500: Sola Gratia
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) LUTHER 500:  Sola Gratia Well, what did you bring with you this afternoon – besides all that coffee you drank…
  • LUTHER 500: Sola Fide
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) LUTHER 500:  Sola Fide Luther had tried for so long to appease a “Christ” he’d been taught to dread as…
  • HOMOSEXUALITIES: Faith, Facts, & Fairy Tales
    Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is also the founder of Evangelicals Concerned, a national organization of Christians addressing the integration of Christian lifestyle and homosexuality. This booklet is an expanded edition of continuing education lectures given by Dr. Blair to United Methodist clergy meeting at the Churches…
  • Wesleyan Praxis & Homosexual Practice
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is a slightly expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the Annual Michigan Area United Methodist Pastor’s School, August 22, 1983 on the campus of Ferris State College in Big Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Blair’s address followed one by Dr. Robert Lyon, Professor of New Testament Interpretation…
  • Homosexual Counseling Journal
    The Quarterly Journal of The Homosexual Community Counseling Center EDITORIALS Dr. Ralph Blair, Editor 1974 Editorials: Charter Volume, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 1975 Editorials: Volume II, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 1976 Editorials: Volume III, Numbers 1, 2 “Dr. Blair is scrupulously thorough and shows a remarkable analytic ability in his evaluation of the…
  • With Sunshine & Rainfall For All: An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights
    by Dr. Ralph Blair With Sunshine & Rainfall for All: An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights is an expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the 34th Annual Meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society in 1982. Dr. Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is the founder…
  • CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400
    CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400 The 7th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Festival Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 9-11, 2009 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400: An Introductory Lecture Calvin500. It’s not the new line from Calvin Klein. And Arminius400 isn’t Armani’s new fragrance. See, some gay men are queer enough to…
  • Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One
    “Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 Dr. Ralph Blair, Speaker (PDF version here) Martin Luther said: “The Bible is alive. It speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me, it has hands, it lays hold of me.”  The very most significant…
  • Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of Us
    “Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of Us” “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version here) Along with Philippians 4:13, Tim Tebow’s favored eyeblack is John 3:16, the second most…
  • Participating in His Providence
    “Participating in His Providence” “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’.”   Jeremiah 29:11 (PDF version here) Each of the three top-tweeted Bible verses reveals that God initiates our relationship with Him and…
  • “To God be the Glory”
    “To God be the Glory” Your Story in His Story by Dr. Ralph Blair This sermon was part of the 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove, October 9 – 11, 2015 commemorating the centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington. (PDF version here) “What’s the…
  • “This is My Story”
    “This is My Story” Your Story in His Story by Dr. Ralph Blair This sermon was part of the 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove, October 9 – 11, 2015 commemorating the centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington. (PDF version here) Ever hear someone…
  • “The Bible Tells Me So”
    “The Bible Tells Me So” Your Story in His Story by Dr. Ralph Blair This sermon was part of the 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove, October 9 – 11, 2015 commemorating the centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington. (PDF version here) On the…
  • Your Story in His Story
    Your Story in His Story The 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove October 9 – 11, 2015   Thornley Chapel Commemorating the Centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington Including Three Teachings by Dr. Ralph Blair “The Bible Tells Me So”, “This is My Story” and…
  • Christ & His Preparation for Cosmic Life
    Christ & His Preparation for Cosmic Life Ralph Blair When Paul wrote to Colossians, he began with a thankful prayer. He then inserted an early Christian hymn in celebration of Christ’s supremacy over all. Scholars say its insertion here “can be taken as a deft, preliminary counter-blow against a heretical demotion of Christ” (Robert Gundry),…
  • Christ & His Propitiation for Cosmic Liberty
    Christ & His Propitiation for Cosmic Liberty Ralph Blair The Christ hymn that Paul passed on to Colossians affirms that, in Christ, everything in the heavens and on earth was brought into being. Then, there’s this striking parallel: in Christ, everything on earth and in the heavens was brought into reconciliation with God. From heaven…
  • Christ & His Purpose for Cosmic Love
    Christ & His Purpose for Cosmic Love Ralph Blair Aside from details in today’s troubling headlines, they’d not surprise the Roman historian, Livy. And he died when Jesus was still a carpenter in Nazareth. Livy gave voice to his world-weary sighs: “We can neither endure our vices nor their remedies.” And, Livy, neither can we….
  • Fall Festival 2013 – Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign
    Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign is the text of the teachings Dr. Blair presented at the 2013 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival in Ocean Grove, NJ, October 11-13, 2013. On the first evening, he presented biographical background on four Christians we honor in this, their bicentennial year: David Livingstone – Soren…
  • To Reject or Receive God’s Reign
    To Reject or Receive God’s Reign Matthew 13:1-30, 36-43   In July, Time magazine published The 100 Most Influential People Who Never Lived.  Editors drew up this list of fictional characters with some help from “contributors” such as F. Murray Abraham, Jodie Foster and Chris Colfer.  The public then voted for its top choices from…
  • The Humility of God’s Reign
    The Humility of God’s Reign Matthew 18:1-10 One day, Jesus did more than merely tell a parable.  He produced a parable. He portrayed a parable. He presented a little child in tableau vivant – a “living picture”. Then, as now, a picture can mean more than mere words.  But, still, just as ears must be…
  • God’s Revolution and Reign
    God’s Revolution and Reign Mark 2:16-17, 21-22; Luke 5:36-39   Let’s hear God’s word: “When the scribes of the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples: ‘Why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?’ ” “Sinners” was a catchall term for all Jews who didn’t follow…
  • Preaching Festival 2012
    1912 ~ The Centennials ~ 2012 Lottie Moon – William Booth – Francis Schaeffer – Jacques Ellel This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 2012 Preaching Festival.  The 2012 weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons…
  • JESUS: THE ORIGINAL EVIDENCE
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2012 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Jesus: The Original Evidence “Who Invented Christianity?” This provocative question popped up on my computer screen. It was an ad for “an all-star lineup [in] scenic Durham, North Carolina [this weekend]. Four…
  • JESUS: THE ONGOING EVIDENCE
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2012 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Jesus: The Ongoing Evidence The original evidence for Jesus is his resurrection. His ongoing evidence is the Church, his Bride, and what she, by God’s Spirit, gives, in love, to the welfare…
  • JESUS: THE EVIDENCE IN OUR LIVES
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2012 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. JESUS: THE EVIDENCE IN OUR LIVES It’s Sunday morning. We’re meeting on this Sunday morning in the 21st-century because of that 1st-century Sunday morning when God raised Jesus from the dead. Since…
  • Preaching Festival 2011
    1911 ~ The Centennials ~ 2011 Hannah Whitall Smith – Carry A. Nation – Mahalia Jackson – Bob Jones, Jr. This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 2011 Preaching Festival.  The 2012 weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons…
  • The Prosperity of The Poor in Spirit
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2011 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. His fellow Jews despised Matthew.  As the Roman occupation’s local tax collector, they viewed him as a traitor, taking whatever cash Rome required and keeping for himself whatever more than that he…
  • The Privilege of the Appropriately Prioritized
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2011 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Jesus said: How fortunate are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. A New Yorker cartoon depicts a sadsack newly arrived at the Pearly Gates.  St. Peter is inspecting the computer…
  • The Peace of the Persecuted for Christ
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2011 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Six years ago, we celebrated the 1604 launching of the King James Version of the Bible.  After six years’ work on translation, the King James Bible was published.  2011 marks the 400th…
  • Preaching Festival 2010
     1910 ~ The Centennials ~ 2010 William Holman Hunt  – Louis Klopsh – The Fundamentals – F. F. Bruce This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 20120Preaching Festival.  The 201o weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons from…
  • “Ye Olde Postmodernism”
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. “Ye Olde Postmodernism” Prefixing “Postmodernism” with the quaintness of “Ye Olde” and its visions of English village shambles and whiffs of ale and Cheshire cheese, isn’t as anachronistic as “Ye Olde’s” pseudo…
  • “The Good News: It’s a Whole Lot More!”
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J.  “The Good News: It’s a Whole Lot More!” Luke gives us this report: “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were approached by a slave girl who had…
  • “The Light of the World”
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. “The Light of the World” In the biblical book of Revelation, at 3:14-22, we read Christ’s letter to the messenger of the congregation at Laodicea in Asia Minor.  Here it is:   …
  • The Summing Up
    A Sermon by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York on August 31, 2003 As you may know, the night before he died in the Iraqi desert, NBC correspondent David Bloom sent his wife an e-mail that was later read at his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral here in the city. Here’s what he…
  • Pink Slips of Providence
    A Sermon by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York June 22, 2003 Unemployment here in the city is around 9%? That’s far worse than the national rate of 6.1%. But 6.1% is better than the national average over the last 25 years. So what do these figures mean? Well, it’s one thing to…
  • An Atheist’s Advice
    A Sermon by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York on June 22, 2003 An atheist’s advice? Here it is: Christians should be Christians. That was the advice of at least one atheist. Back in 1948, French Dominicans asked existentialist Albert Camus to talk on the topic: “What Do Unbelievers Expect of Christians?” His…
  • Blessed Assurance
    for The City Church, New York on March 9, 2003 As I mentioned, today is the birthday of Phoebe Palmer Knapp. It was 130 years ago, in the Knapp mansion on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, that she first played her new hymn tune for her friend, the blind poet, Fanny Crosby. “What does this tune…
  • Moneyism
    New York, July 21, 2002 “Eternity” is for sale, and so is “Truth” – as high fashion fragrances from Calvin Klein. And they’re not cheap. That’s the point. And these bottled ego-builders are the least of the luxuries available to those who think they need such things. A New York Times advertising supplement on “The…
  • Signs of Jonah
    A Sermon Preached at City Church, New York, June 23, 2002 What do you think is America’s No. 1-selling children’s video? It’s a Bible story starring a talking tomato and cucumber. And in October, more than a thousand big screens across the country will be showing the VeggieTales version of Jonah and the Whale. But…
  • Get it in Writing!
    A Sermon Preached by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, August 26, 2001 Last Sunday’s Style section of The Times featured a report on lavishly crass crosses as statements of fashion if not statements of faith. We’re told that trendsetters disavow Christianity but wear the cross as “a badge of status,” “the latest in hip,”…
  • Bride’s Biography
    A Sermon Preached by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York, on June 24, 2001 It’s June – the month of brides. And the oldest of all brides is here today in church. She is church. She’s us. As scripture says: We are the Bride of Christ. From the creeds that lie behind the…
  • With Sunshine & Rainfall for All
    An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights This is an expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the 34th Annual Meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society in 1982. Dr. Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is the founder and president of Evangelicals Concerned and is a member…

Talks

  • 2023 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    “Temptations!”Our Foolishly Flawed Fantasies & Our Father’s Faithful Facts of Life by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here)    Temptations are conceived in self-centered cravings for selfishly driven satisfactions, while ignoring others’ welfare, and with a dire lack of gratitude for the most gracious gift of all, God’s Incarnation of Himself in Jesus, who willingly…
  • “Awakening from Fear to Faith in Christ”
    ConnECtion2020EC’s 80th ConnECtion over 40 Summers By Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.  He saw they were anxious and as helpless as lost sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt 9:36)   Jesus saw what Hebrew Prophets and the Psalmist saw and grieved over, so many centuries earlier: “All, like…
  • HOPE’S GAYS AND GAYS’ HOPES
    HOPE’S GAYS AND GAYS’ HOPES by Ralph Blair 1983 (PDF version available here.) This morning, at the end of my flight from New York City to Grand Rapids, the flight attendant said, in her best commercial airlinese: “We hope you have an enjoyable stay in Grand Rapids, or wherever your final destination may be.” Without…
  • Holier Than Thou Hocus-Pocus & Homosexuality
    by Ralph Blair 1977 (PDF version available here.) “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5 FROM LEGALISTIC PERSECUTION… In the name of God, negative response to homosexuals over the years has ranged from killing to ridicule, always with…
  • Ethics & Gay Christians
    by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Introduction I approach this topic with some sense of uneasiness, not only because of the recurring poverty of ethics in my own life but also because I know that due to some understandably bad experiences with oppression at the hands of homophobic church people, discussion of ethics in…
  • Ex-Gay
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is based on material which Dr. Blair presented in Atlanta at the 1982 national convention of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies in April and on material he presented in an address in March at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries in Elkhart, Indiana. Some of it has been published…
  • HOMOSEXUALITIES: Faith, Facts, & Fairy Tales
    Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is also the founder of Evangelicals Concerned, a national organization of Christians addressing the integration of Christian lifestyle and homosexuality. This booklet is an expanded edition of continuing education lectures given by Dr. Blair to United Methodist clergy meeting at the Churches…
  • Wesleyan Praxis & Homosexual Practice
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is a slightly expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the Annual Michigan Area United Methodist Pastor’s School, August 22, 1983 on the campus of Ferris State College in Big Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Blair’s address followed one by Dr. Robert Lyon, Professor of New Testament Interpretation…
  • The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries
    The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries An expanded version of a lecture by Dr. Ralph Blair to Courage Trust at the Anglican Church of St. James the Less, Pimlico, London, November 2, 2001. (PDF version available here.) When it comes to the subject of gay and lesbian evangelical Christians, most evangelical Christians agree with most…
  • Homosexual Counseling Journal
    The Quarterly Journal of The Homosexual Community Counseling Center EDITORIALS Dr. Ralph Blair, Editor 1974 Editorials: Charter Volume, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 1975 Editorials: Volume II, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 1976 Editorials: Volume III, Numbers 1, 2 “Dr. Blair is scrupulously thorough and shows a remarkable analytic ability in his evaluation of the…
  • With Sunshine & Rainfall For All: An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights
    by Dr. Ralph Blair With Sunshine & Rainfall for All: An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights is an expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the 34th Annual Meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society in 1982. Dr. Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is the founder…
  • CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400
    CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400 The 7th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Festival Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 9-11, 2009 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400: An Introductory Lecture Calvin500. It’s not the new line from Calvin Klein. And Arminius400 isn’t Armani’s new fragrance. See, some gay men are queer enough to…
  • “Five Centuries of Reformation Proclamation”
    The 2016 Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove Preaching Festival Columbus Day Weekend October 7-9, 2016 “Five Centuries of Reformation Proclamation” “1516, 1616, 1716, 1816, 1916” John Foxe   John Owen   John Berridge   Francis Asbury   J. C. Ryle   Eugenia Price  Including Three Sermons by Dr. Ralph Blair “Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One”, “Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of…
  • Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One
    “Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 Dr. Ralph Blair, Speaker (PDF version here) Martin Luther said: “The Bible is alive. It speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me, it has hands, it lays hold of me.”  The very most significant…
  • “THY Kingdom Come”
    “THY Kingdom Come” by Dr. Ralph Blair Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 2016, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains. (PDF version here) Have you noticed how “un-Presidential” presidential campaigns can get? Instead of what we might assume befits a wannabe president, we get mere precedent and more…
  • A Time and Place For Us
    A Time and Place for Us by Dr. Ralph Blair A Time and Place for Us is an expanded version of the Keynote address given by Dr. Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions2001. (PDF version available here) Frasier has dragged Niles and their father to a basketball game for “a good night of male-bonding”…
  • Your Story in His Story
    Your Story in His Story The 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove October 9 – 11, 2015   Thornley Chapel Commemorating the Centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington Including Three Teachings by Dr. Ralph Blair “The Bible Tells Me So”, “This is My Story” and…
  • Homosexuality and Psychometric Assessment
    Dr. Ralph Blair 1972 (PDF version available here) For too long, it has been an unquestioned assumption that every American boy and girl does or should grow up to be heterosexual. Such an expectation has contributed to much of the suffering of those for whom sexual development is otherwise. This monograph series is dedicated to…
  • Self-Righteous Enslavement
    Self-Righteous Enslavement Dr. Ralph Blair Evangelicals Concerned 73rd Connection, May 30, 2015 In 1946, a 20-year-old Flannery O’Connor came north to take part in the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. But, privately, she was writing prayers: “Dear Lord, please make my mind vigilant about [loving others]. I say many, many, too many uncharitable things about people…
  • Self-Centered to Serve:
    Self-Centered to Serve: From Selfish Self-Centeredness to Self-Centeredly Informed Service for Others Ralph Blair’s Keynote for connECtion2014 At the time, it was called the “greatest single event in human history”.  That was in 1964.  Guess what it was!  If you were born in 1964 – that wasn’t it.  Since it was only 50 years ago,…
  • Preaching Festival 2012
    1912 ~ The Centennials ~ 2012 Lottie Moon – William Booth – Francis Schaeffer – Jacques Ellel This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 2012 Preaching Festival.  The 2012 weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons…
  • Understanding and Implementing the APA Task Force Paper on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation
    by Dr. Ralph Blair – The American Psychiatric Association Convention, May 7, 2012 An integration model for cognitive therapy with clients experiencing dissonance between same-sex orientation and faith commitment is discussed. For optimal psychological coping, clients need a coherent understanding of themselves. Since experienced dissonance is evidence that clients are torn between telic congruence and…
  • Preaching Festival 2011
    1911 ~ The Centennials ~ 2011 Hannah Whitall Smith – Carry A. Nation – Mahalia Jackson – Bob Jones, Jr. This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 2011 Preaching Festival.  The 2012 weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons…
  • Preaching Festival 2010
     1910 ~ The Centennials ~ 2010 William Holman Hunt  – Louis Klopsh – The Fundamentals – F. F. Bruce This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 20120Preaching Festival.  The 201o weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons from…
  • “Ye Olde Postmodernism”
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. “Ye Olde Postmodernism” Prefixing “Postmodernism” with the quaintness of “Ye Olde” and its visions of English village shambles and whiffs of ale and Cheshire cheese, isn’t as anachronistic as “Ye Olde’s” pseudo…
  • “The Good News: It’s a Whole Lot More!”
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J.  “The Good News: It’s a Whole Lot More!” Luke gives us this report: “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were approached by a slave girl who had…
  • “The Light of the World”
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. “The Light of the World” In the biblical book of Revelation, at 3:14-22, we read Christ’s letter to the messenger of the congregation at Laodicea in Asia Minor.  Here it is:   …
  • “Anointed – or just Annoyed?”
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the GCN Conference in Seattle, Washington, January 4-7, 2007 At first, they were impressed – a bit surprised, but impressed. But when the guest preacher began to “reinterpret” Scripture, they were confused.  As he went on, they were shocked.  Finally, they were furious.  They knew their Bible.  And, for starters,…
  • Keeping Faith with the Faith of Our Fathers
    Introductory Lecture for the Jonathan Edwards / John Wesley Tercentenary Preaching Festival of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey September 26, 2003 The evangelical movement sailed forth in the fervor for the gospel of Christ in 18th century “Great Awakenings” on both shores of that ocean out there. As it’s been said, “Evangelicalism emerged precisely…
  • On Evangelical Faith and Homosexuality
    A Lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary March 21, 2003 What’s so immediately evident is this: Of all Christians, Evangelicals have perhaps the most difficulty integrating any expression of homosexuality with Christian faith. But here’s what’s not so immediately evident: Of all Christians, Evangelicals should have the least difficulty integrating at least some expression of homosexuality…
  • The Best Parent and Friend of Lesbians and Gays
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Remarks to Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City, September 8, 2002 Turning to the Bible in a discussion of homosexuality, we don’t have to begin with those few verses that are misused to abuse homosexuals. (You may read my analysis of those verses…
  • The Matchless Match: How to Achieve Sexual Intimacy
    A Workshop Presentation for the Western ConnECtion2002 at Chapman University in Orange, California, July 26, 2002 Half a hundred summer connECtions have come and gone since that first one in 1980. My keynote address that summer was entitled: “Getting Close: Steps Toward Intimacy.” I said: “I am going to begin with a neglected passage from…
  • The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries
    An expanded version of a lecture by Dr. Ralph Blair to Courage Trust at the Anglican Church of St. James the Less, Pimlico, London, November 2, 2001 When it comes to the subject of gay and lesbian evangelical Christians, most evangelical Christians agree with most gays and lesbians. Just as Grape-Nuts is neither grapes nor…
  • I Love To Tell The Story
    Ralph Blair’s opening remarks at Philadelphia’s Pridefest, 1998. Emmylou Harris and Robert Duvall sing a duet on the CD of “The Apostle.” It’s a mid-nineteenth century hymn written by an English woman. Here’s some of what she wrote: “I love to tell the story of Jesus and His love … because I know ‘tis true…

Uncategorized

  • REVIEW Winter 2024 Vol. 49 No.1
    “Why Do All Rabbis Hate Me: How the Orthodox community can cultivate compassion and sensitivity toward LGBTQ Jews” by Chaim Nissel, Tablet,June 28, 2023.  “Yeshiva University’s Dean Chaim Nissel has not acted like a queer ally and is in no position to teach LGBTQ sensitivity”, Orthodox Mental Health, July 11, 2023 by Dr. Ralph Blair…
  • RECORD Fall 2023
    (PDF version available here.) Christianity Today reports on Wheaton College’s racist history: “Though the flagship evangelical institution was founded by abolitionists, over the next century and a half it turned away from concerns about racial equality.  Even when the school’s leadership knew what was right, they frequently lacked the courage to ‘take a more vocal…
  • “The Peace that Transcends Mere Human Understanding”
    Keynote for EC’s 2023 ConnECtion by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.)    Twenty centuries ago, the Apostle Paul mentored early Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, giving them pragmatically spiritual support that we all still need today.  He warned that, as Christians, we’ll be persecuted.  Still, as he tells us all: “Don’t be…
  • 2022 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
     “From Creation & Insurrection to Redemption & Resurrection:   God’s Grace Overcomes All of Our Self-Destructive Self-Deceptions.”by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here)    Through all of the ages of God’s Gracious Revelations to humanity, from generously Creating us in His Image to flourish as human beings, through all of the ages of our ungrateful responses…
  • 2021 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    Three Presentations  We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. (Read Presentation here.) Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags (Read Presentation here.) Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. (Read Presentation here.) by…
  • Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands
    Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) After surviving the dreadful storms of their Atlantic crossing, The Mayflower’s Pilgrims were swept to a safe harbor far to the north of their expected landfall in Virginia.  It was just in time to shelter…
  • We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!
    We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Each year, in late October or early November, it’s usually singles, who’re asked a friendly question many find awkward to answer.      Yet, in 2020, given lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, it wasn’t so awkward to…
  • Loving Others in the Energy of God’s Loving Us
    connECtion 2021 Keynoteby EC founderRalph Blair (PDF version available here)    All real love is the most profound of all connections and it is generated and energized by the One Who is, Himself, Love, The Eternally Triune God.    Yet, lovingly created in God’s Image and called to connect with one another by love, we fail…

Writings by Dr. Blair

  • 2023 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    “Temptations!”Our Foolishly Flawed Fantasies & Our Father’s Faithful Facts of Life by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here)    Temptations are conceived in self-centered cravings for selfishly driven satisfactions, while ignoring others’ welfare, and with a dire lack of gratitude for the most gracious gift of all, God’s Incarnation of Himself in Jesus, who willingly…
  • REVIEW Summer 2023 Vol. 48 No.3
    “‘I Happen to Believe that Gay Relationships are Not God’s Best’: Rick Warren Backs Split in Church of England”, Premier Christian News, March 22, 2023; “Not an ‘Ordinary Man’: J. Gresham Machen and the Un-Queering of Evangelical Theology” by Austin Steelman, Cambridge Press, March 30. 2023; “Machen and the PCA Today” by R. Carlton Wynne,…
  • “The Peace that Transcends Mere Human Understanding”
    Keynote for EC’s 2023 ConnECtion by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.)    Twenty centuries ago, the Apostle Paul mentored early Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, giving them pragmatically spiritual support that we all still need today.  He warned that, as Christians, we’ll be persecuted.  Still, as he tells us all: “Don’t be…
  • 2022 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
     “From Creation & Insurrection to Redemption & Resurrection:   God’s Grace Overcomes All of Our Self-Destructive Self-Deceptions.”by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here)    Through all of the ages of God’s Gracious Revelations to humanity, from generously Creating us in His Image to flourish as human beings, through all of the ages of our ungrateful responses…
  • “But, what about you?  Who do you say I am?”
    Ralph Blair’s 2022 EC ConnECtion Keynote (PDF version available here.)     Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, was more than an eight-hours walk from Galilee.  Its stone cliffs were pockmarked with pagan shrines in honor of Zeus, Nemesis, Pan and The Dancing Goats in risqué fertility rites of bestiality, along with “The Gates of Hades”,…
  • 2021 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival
    Three Presentations  We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. (Read Presentation here.) Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags (Read Presentation here.) Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. (Read Presentation here.) by…
  • Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity?
    Our 21st Year in the 21st Century: Maturity? Making it to Maturity Means Much More than Amassing More Years. by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”  That’s a very ancient riddle.  It’s a philosophical puzzle on the world’s beginnings and a question about all sorts of other sequences…
  • Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands
    Pilgrims Enlighten the Dawn Lands 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving with the Wampanoags by Ralph Blair(PDF version available here) After surviving the dreadful storms of their Atlantic crossing, The Mayflower’s Pilgrims were swept to a safe harbor far to the north of their expected landfall in Virginia.  It was just in time to shelter…
  • We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!
    We’re Never Alone at Thanksgiving!All Thanksgiving, already and thankfully is, a Togethering. by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Each year, in late October or early November, it’s usually singles, who’re asked a friendly question many find awkward to answer.      Yet, in 2020, given lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, it wasn’t so awkward to…
  • Loving Others in the Energy of God’s Loving Us
    connECtion 2021 Keynoteby EC founderRalph Blair (PDF version available here)    All real love is the most profound of all connections and it is generated and energized by the One Who is, Himself, Love, The Eternally Triune God.    Yet, lovingly created in God’s Image and called to connect with one another by love, we fail…
  • The Meanings of Words & The Word of All Meaning
    The 17th Annual Octoberfest of Evangelicals Concerned EC’s 2020 Octoberfest Keynote by EC founderRalph Blair (PDF version available here.) “What’s the matter?”  Have you ever been asked this question by anyone?  Has anyone ever asked this of you?  What does the question mean?  What’s meant in the mind of the one who asks?  What’s meant…
  • REVIEW Summer 2020 Vol. 45 No. 3
    “Identity from within or from the Mind of Christ” by Joshua Gielow, TruthXChange, April 17, 2020“Died: Sy Rogers, Who Testified God Changed His Sexual Identity” by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today, April 23, 2020“Help and Hope for Pastors Battling Porn” by Chris Sicks, byFaith, April 17, 2020 (PDF version available here) Rosaria Butterfield’s new video is…
  • “Awakening from Fear to Faith in Christ”
    ConnECtion2020EC’s 80th ConnECtion over 40 Summers By Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.  He saw they were anxious and as helpless as lost sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt 9:36)   Jesus saw what Hebrew Prophets and the Psalmist saw and grieved over, so many centuries earlier: “All, like…
  • BEWARE of BOASTING and BLAMING!
    by Dr. Ralph Blair BEWARE of BOASTING and BLAMING! is Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the 79th EC Summer ConnECtion, May 31 – June 2, 2019 at The Kirkridge Retreat Center atop the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania (PDF version available here.) Three weeks ago, 150 years ago, a single word was telegraphed all across America. …
  • REVIEW Spring 2019 Vol. 44 No. 2
    “That Face: The urge to smash a teenager’s face represents a new iconoclasm against masculinity” by Bruce Bawer, City Journal, January 23, 2019. “What’s Really Toxic is ‘Toxic Masculinity’ ” by Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, January 22, 2019. “The New Bigotry” by Noah Rothman, The New York Post, February 3, 2019. Bawer, a champion…
  • RECORD Winter 2019
    (PDF version available here) The newest Public Religion Research Institute survey finds that 53 percent of white evangelicals, ages 18 to 29, support same-sex marriage. That’s just 8 percent below the 61 percent of Americans across ethnic and racial groups that support same-sex marriage. Even among white evangelicals, 65 or older, 25 percent support same-sex…
  • REVIEW Winter 2019 Vol. 44 No. 1
    Talking Across the Divide by Justin Lee, (Penguin, 2018), 259 pp. by Dr. Ralph Blair  (PDF version available here) Self-righteousness is the most desperate of motivations as it’s internally sensed to be the least defensible.  There’s no limit to the ruthlessly irrational lengths to which many resort to rationalize their postured, sanctimonious rhetoric, resistance, rebellion…
  • Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • “Liberty – therefore, Gratitude”
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • “Liberty – therefore, Humility”
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • “Liberty – therefore, Patience”
    Liberty — therefore Gratitude, Humility & Patience The 16th Annual Columbus Day Weekend of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 5-7, 2018 Three Centennials on Christian Liberty, 1918 – 2018 Gardner C. Taylor, Billy Graham & Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn Dr. Ralph Blair’s Centennials Lecture and his Three Sermons for the Occasion (PDF version available here.)…
  • Christian Faithing and Self-Esteem
    Christian Faithing and Self-Esteem by Ralph Blair 1985 (PDF version available here.) Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 1976. This booklet is an expanded version of Ralph Blair’s keynote address at the summer connECtions85 held in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and California. “We are what we…
  • HOPE’S GAYS AND GAYS’ HOPES
    HOPE’S GAYS AND GAYS’ HOPES by Ralph Blair 1983 (PDF version available here.) This morning, at the end of my flight from New York City to Grand Rapids, the flight attendant said, in her best commercial airlinese: “We hope you have an enjoyable stay in Grand Rapids, or wherever your final destination may be.” Without…
  • Gifted to Give
    Gifted to Give    by Ralph Blair 1993 (PDF version available here.) Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 1976. This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1993, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, which were held in Pennsylvania…
  • Holier Than Thou Hocus-Pocus & Homosexuality
    by Ralph Blair 1977 (PDF version available here.) “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5 FROM LEGALISTIC PERSECUTION… In the name of God, negative response to homosexuals over the years has ranged from killing to ridicule, always with…
  • From Whence Cometh Our Help?
    by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) From Whence Cometh Our Help? is Dr. Blair’s keynote address at the 25th annual eastern and western connECtions of Evangelicals Concerned, in the summer of 2004. Once upon a time there was a psychologist who had never matured beyond the use of inkblots. One day he was…
  • Ethics & Gay Christians
    by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Introduction I approach this topic with some sense of uneasiness, not only because of the recurring poverty of ethics in my own life but also because I know that due to some understandably bad experiences with oppression at the hands of homophobic church people, discussion of ethics in…
  • Ex-Gay
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is based on material which Dr. Blair presented in Atlanta at the 1982 national convention of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies in April and on material he presented in an address in March at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries in Elkhart, Indiana. Some of it has been published…
  • “Gifted with GOD’s Way as Our Way!”
    by Ralph Blair “Gifted with GOD’s Way as Our Way!” is Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the 78th EC Summer ConnECtion, June 1-3, 2018 at The Kirkridge Retreat Center atop the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. (For PDF version click here.) Who knows folks who think everything needs to go their way?  Anyone come to mind? …
  • REVIEW Spring 2018 Vol. 43 No. 2
    “Does Genesis 2 Support Same-Sex Marriage? An Evangelical Response” by Brian Neil Peterson, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, December 2017. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Peterson is distracted by recent “cultural changes in the West”, but he fails to take note of the far greater conceptual and cultural changes from ancient…
  • LUTHER 500
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Three Sermons available here: Luther 500: Sola Scriptura Luther 500: Sola Gratia Luther 500: Sola Fide LUTHER 500: An Introductory…
  • LUTHER 500: Sola Scriptura
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) LUTHER 500:  Sola Scriptura C. S. Lewis recognized that, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at…
  • LUTHER 500: Sola Gratia
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) LUTHER 500:  Sola Gratia Well, what did you bring with you this afternoon – besides all that coffee you drank…
  • LUTHER 500: Sola Fide
    LUTHER 500 The 500th Year of Luther’s Reformation The 15th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Fest Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2017 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) LUTHER 500:  Sola Fide Luther had tried for so long to appease a “Christ” he’d been taught to dread as…
  • Life More Abundant?
    by Ralph Blair   This is the text of Ralph Blair’s keynote at connECtion2oo6, the summer weekend gatherings of Evangelicals Concerned, held at Kirkridge Retreat Center on the Appalachian Trail (June 2-4, 2006) and on the campus of Reed College in Portland, Oregon (July 27-30, 2006). Jesus told some Pharisees: “Unlike those who come to…
  • One in What Spirit?
    by Ralph Blair One in What Spirit? is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote at the connECtions2005 at Kirbridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. A new resident introduces herself to two new patients on the psych ward. “Good morning. I’m Dr. Brown.” “I’m Julius Caesar.” “How do…
  • Freed for Freedom!
    by Dr. Ralph Blair Freed for Freedom! is Ralph Blair’s 2010 keynote at the eastern and western Evangelicals Concerned connECtions at Kirkridge, on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, and at the Marriott City Center in Oakland, California. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!” – Paul A graffiti artist tags trash bins…
  • HOMOSEXUALITIES: Faith, Facts, & Fairy Tales
    Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is also the founder of Evangelicals Concerned, a national organization of Christians addressing the integration of Christian lifestyle and homosexuality. This booklet is an expanded edition of continuing education lectures given by Dr. Blair to United Methodist clergy meeting at the Churches…
  • “Were You There?”
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote ConnECtion2017 June 3, 2017 Were you there when this question and response was heard each week across America?  “What sort of day was it?  A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times – and you, were there.”  Were you, there? Those words were spoken…
  • Wesleyan Praxis & Homosexual Practice
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is a slightly expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the Annual Michigan Area United Methodist Pastor’s School, August 22, 1983 on the campus of Ferris State College in Big Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Blair’s address followed one by Dr. Robert Lyon, Professor of New Testament Interpretation…
  • The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries
    The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries An expanded version of a lecture by Dr. Ralph Blair to Courage Trust at the Anglican Church of St. James the Less, Pimlico, London, November 2, 2001. (PDF version available here.) When it comes to the subject of gay and lesbian evangelical Christians, most evangelical Christians agree with most…
  • Undoing Every Do; Doing Every Don’t: The Ten Commandments, the Religious Right & the Lesbigayt Left
    by Dr. Ralph Blair Based on Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtions2000, Evangelicals Concerned’s summer conferences at Kirkridge in Pennsylvania and at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. A couple months ago, in Uganda, under the banner of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, more than a thousand men, women and…
  • Homosexual Counseling Journal
    The Quarterly Journal of The Homosexual Community Counseling Center EDITORIALS Dr. Ralph Blair, Editor 1974 Editorials: Charter Volume, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 1975 Editorials: Volume II, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 1976 Editorials: Volume III, Numbers 1, 2 “Dr. Blair is scrupulously thorough and shows a remarkable analytic ability in his evaluation of the…
  • With Sunshine & Rainfall For All: An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights
    by Dr. Ralph Blair With Sunshine & Rainfall for All: An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights is an expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the 34th Annual Meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society in 1982. Dr. Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is the founder…
  • Immortal Intimacy: Where, When, Who, Why & What of Heaven
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1991, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, at Kirkridge and at the University of Denver. Copyright ©1991. Ralph Blair, 311 E. 72nd St New York, New York 10021 Peggy Lee sings of going to “the greatest show on…
  • Empathways
    by Ralph Blair Empathways is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s address at connECtions98 in the summer of 1998. INTRODUCTION “Can I see another’s woe, / And not be in sorrow, too? / Can I see another’s grief, / And not seek for kind relief?” What William Blake here had in mind was empathy as…
  • Anger!
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is an expanded version of his address on anger at connECtion95, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge and Mills College, June and July, 1995. ©1995. Ralph Blair, 311 East 72nd Street, New York, New York 10021 INTRODUCTION In a promo for New York City’s Lesbian and Gay…
  • CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400
    CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400 The 7th Annual Evangelicals Concerned Preaching Festival Ocean Grove, New Jersey, October 9-11, 2009 An Introductory Lecture and Three Sermons Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) CALVIN500/ARMINIUS400: An Introductory Lecture Calvin500. It’s not the new line from Calvin Klein. And Arminius400 isn’t Armani’s new fragrance. See, some gay men are queer enough to…
  • [The] Overcoming Outrage!
    by Ralph Blair [The] Overcoming Outrage is Dr. Ralph Blair’s keynote at the 2009 Evangelicals Concerned summer connECtions held at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at the Holiday Inn in Palm Springs, California. [The] Overcoming Outrage © 2009 by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Have you noticed any rampant outrage these days?…
  • “Five Centuries of Reformation Proclamation”
    The 2016 Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove Preaching Festival Columbus Day Weekend October 7-9, 2016 “Five Centuries of Reformation Proclamation” “1516, 1616, 1716, 1816, 1916” John Foxe   John Owen   John Berridge   Francis Asbury   J. C. Ryle   Eugenia Price  Including Three Sermons by Dr. Ralph Blair “Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One”, “Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of…
  • Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One
    “Our Sufficiency in The All-Sufficient One” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 Dr. Ralph Blair, Speaker (PDF version here) Martin Luther said: “The Bible is alive. It speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me, it has hands, it lays hold of me.”  The very most significant…
  • Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of Us
    “Affirming The All-Merciful’s Affirmation of Us” “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version here) Along with Philippians 4:13, Tim Tebow’s favored eyeblack is John 3:16, the second most…
  • Participating in His Providence
    “Participating in His Providence” “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’.”   Jeremiah 29:11 (PDF version here) Each of the three top-tweeted Bible verses reveals that God initiates our relationship with Him and…
  • “THY Kingdom Come”
    “THY Kingdom Come” by Dr. Ralph Blair Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 2016, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains. (PDF version here) Have you noticed how “un-Presidential” presidential campaigns can get? Instead of what we might assume befits a wannabe president, we get mere precedent and more…
  • ENTHUSIASM
    by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is based on material presented by Dr. Blair at the two 1997 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned held in Pennsylvania and California. Copyright 1997 Evangelicals Concerned, Inc. INTRODUCTION There’s way too much enthusiasm. And there’s also way too little. That’s because there’s enthusiasm and enthusiasm. So we’d better not…
  • Paul Who?
    Paul Who? by Dr. Ralph Blair This is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion87, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned. The section on homosexuality was also presented at the 199th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1987. (PDF version available here) He was not the first Jew for Jesus….
  • Evangelism: Proclaiming God’s Good News—with every bad -ism crossed out
    Evangelism: Proclaiming God’s Good News—with every bad -ism crossed out by Dr. Ralph Blair This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1994, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at Chapman University in Orange, California. Introduction Have you ever seen the guy…
  • Jesus Who?
    Jesus Who? by Dr. Ralph Blair This publication is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion86, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, an organization he founded in 1976. Copyright 1986 (PDF available here.) “If you could spend an evening with any one person, living, deceased or fictional, whom would you choose and…
  • Homophobia in the Churches
    The following text, HOMOPHOBIA IN THE CHURCHES, was a keynote address delivered by Dr. Blair at the Strategy Conference on Homophobia in the Churches on May 5, 1979. Two other keynote addresses were given during the weekend conference by Joan Clark (a staff person in the Dallas office of the Women’s Division, Board of Global…
  • Evangelicals(?!) Concerned
    Evangelicals(?!) Concerned by Dr. Ralph Blair EVANGELICALS(?!) CONCERNED is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s address delivered at both eastern and western connECtion82 summer conferences, July 1982, in Pennsylvania and California. (PDF version available here) Have you ever noticed that Grape-Nuts is neither? To evangelicals, Christian Science is neither. To most gay people, the Moral…
  • Doubtful Christians Make Queer Saints!
    Doubtful Christians Make Queer Saints! by Dr. Ralph Blair A shorter version of this text was presented by Dr. Blair at connECtion83 during July, 1983, at San Juan Bautista in California and at Kirkridge in Pennsylvania. (PDF version available here) Introduction Doubtful Christians make queer saints. Do “queer” Christians make doubtful saints? To too many…
  • Christian Tolerance & Totalitarianism
    Christian Tolerance & Totalitarianism by Dr. Ralph Blair Christian Tolerance & Totalitarianism was Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion84, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned. (PDF version available here) The Christian’s way is always a pilgrim’s way. It’s a life on the road. It’s the adventure of a pioneer. The Christian’s vision is always the…
  • A Time and Place For Us
    A Time and Place for Us by Dr. Ralph Blair A Time and Place for Us is an expanded version of the Keynote address given by Dr. Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions2001. (PDF version available here) Frasier has dragged Niles and their father to a basketball game for “a good night of male-bonding”…
  • REVIEW: Winter 2016 Vol. 41 No. 1
    “A Denomination Hungry for Reconciliation: Grace, Race and the PCA” by Sean Michael Lucas, byFaith, October 19, 2015; “Tied in Knots: Americans Try to Redefine Marriage” by Alan Dowd, byFaith, October 12, 2015.  by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF version available here.) Even after the Civil War, in 1867, R. L. Dabney, a major Presbyterian theologian…
  • RECORD: Winter 2016
    (PDF version available here.) Christianity Today’s “most read article” in 2014 and in 2015 was on a gay issue. In 2014 it was on World Vision’s decision to hire gay Christians in same-sex marriages – a policy quickly dropped in response to hostile donor backlash. In 2015 it was on Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme…
  • “To God be the Glory”
    “To God be the Glory” Your Story in His Story by Dr. Ralph Blair This sermon was part of the 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove, October 9 – 11, 2015 commemorating the centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington. (PDF version here) “What’s the…
  • “This is My Story”
    “This is My Story” Your Story in His Story by Dr. Ralph Blair This sermon was part of the 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove, October 9 – 11, 2015 commemorating the centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington. (PDF version here) Ever hear someone…
  • “The Bible Tells Me So”
    “The Bible Tells Me So” Your Story in His Story by Dr. Ralph Blair This sermon was part of the 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove, October 9 – 11, 2015 commemorating the centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington. (PDF version here) On the…
  • Your Story in His Story
    Your Story in His Story The 2015 Evangelicals Concerned Autumn Weekend in Ocean Grove October 9 – 11, 2015   Thornley Chapel Commemorating the Centennials of Anna Bartlett Warner, Fanny Jane Crosby, William Howard Doane and Booker T. Washington Including Three Teachings by Dr. Ralph Blair “The Bible Tells Me So”, “This is My Story” and…
  • RECORD: Fall 2015
    (PDF version available here.) Tony Campolo affirms same-sex couples. On June 8, 2015, he explained: “I have come to know so many gay Christian couples whose relationships work in much the same way as [my marriage]. Our friendships with these couples have helped me understand how important it is for the exclusion and disapproval of…
  • REVIEW: FALL 2015 Vol. 40 No. 4
    “The Supreme Court: Greasing the Slippery Slope” by Eric Metaxas, BreakPoint, July 2, 2015; “Statement on Same-sex Marriage: PCA’s View” by L. Roy Taylor, byFaith, June 27, 2015; Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides by Scott Sauls (Tyndale, 2015), 240 pp. by Dr. Ralph Blair (PDF…
  • Homosexuality and Psychometric Assessment
    Dr. Ralph Blair 1972 (PDF version available here) For too long, it has been an unquestioned assumption that every American boy and girl does or should grow up to be heterosexual. Such an expectation has contributed to much of the suffering of those for whom sexual development is otherwise. This monograph series is dedicated to…
  • Self-Righteous Enslavement
    Self-Righteous Enslavement Dr. Ralph Blair Evangelicals Concerned 73rd Connection, May 30, 2015 In 1946, a 20-year-old Flannery O’Connor came north to take part in the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. But, privately, she was writing prayers: “Dear Lord, please make my mind vigilant about [loving others]. I say many, many, too many uncharitable things about people…
  • Christ & His Preparation for Cosmic Life
    Christ & His Preparation for Cosmic Life Ralph Blair When Paul wrote to Colossians, he began with a thankful prayer. He then inserted an early Christian hymn in celebration of Christ’s supremacy over all. Scholars say its insertion here “can be taken as a deft, preliminary counter-blow against a heretical demotion of Christ” (Robert Gundry),…
  • Christ & His Propitiation for Cosmic Liberty
    Christ & His Propitiation for Cosmic Liberty Ralph Blair The Christ hymn that Paul passed on to Colossians affirms that, in Christ, everything in the heavens and on earth was brought into being. Then, there’s this striking parallel: in Christ, everything on earth and in the heavens was brought into reconciliation with God. From heaven…
  • Fall Festival 2014 – CHRIST & the Cosmos
    CHRIST & the Cosmos CHRIST & the Cosmos is the text of the teachings Dr. Ralph Blair presented at the 2014 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival in Ocean Grove, NJ, October 3-5, 2014. On the first evening, he presented biographical background on five Christians honored: The 300th Anniversaries of Matthew Henry, James Hervey, William Romaine and…
  • Christ & His Purpose for Cosmic Love
    Christ & His Purpose for Cosmic Love Ralph Blair Aside from details in today’s troubling headlines, they’d not surprise the Roman historian, Livy. And he died when Jesus was still a carpenter in Nazareth. Livy gave voice to his world-weary sighs: “We can neither endure our vices nor their remedies.” And, Livy, neither can we….
  • Self-Centered to Serve:
    Self-Centered to Serve: From Selfish Self-Centeredness to Self-Centeredly Informed Service for Others Ralph Blair’s Keynote for connECtion2014 At the time, it was called the “greatest single event in human history”.  That was in 1964.  Guess what it was!  If you were born in 1964 – that wasn’t it.  Since it was only 50 years ago,…
  • Fall Festival 2013 – Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign
    Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign Jesus’ Parables of God’s Reign is the text of the teachings Dr. Blair presented at the 2013 Evangelicals Concerned Fall Festival in Ocean Grove, NJ, October 11-13, 2013. On the first evening, he presented biographical background on four Christians we honor in this, their bicentennial year: David Livingstone – Soren…
  • To Reject or Receive God’s Reign
    To Reject or Receive God’s Reign Matthew 13:1-30, 36-43   In July, Time magazine published The 100 Most Influential People Who Never Lived.  Editors drew up this list of fictional characters with some help from “contributors” such as F. Murray Abraham, Jodie Foster and Chris Colfer.  The public then voted for its top choices from…
  • The Humility of God’s Reign
    The Humility of God’s Reign Matthew 18:1-10 One day, Jesus did more than merely tell a parable.  He produced a parable. He portrayed a parable. He presented a little child in tableau vivant – a “living picture”. Then, as now, a picture can mean more than mere words.  But, still, just as ears must be…
  • God’s Revolution and Reign
    God’s Revolution and Reign Mark 2:16-17, 21-22; Luke 5:36-39   Let’s hear God’s word: “When the scribes of the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples: ‘Why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?’ ” “Sinners” was a catchall term for all Jews who didn’t follow…
  • Obedience begins with Awe!
    EC Connection 2013 Keynote by Ralph Blair (PDF version available here) Here’s how Jesus wrapped up what’s called, “The Sermon on the Mount”.  Let’s hear God’s Word. “Don’t sit in judgment on others, unless you want to be judged with the same harshness.  For, it will be on the basis of your judging others that…
  • Preaching Festival 2012
    1912 ~ The Centennials ~ 2012 Lottie Moon – William Booth – Francis Schaeffer – Jacques Ellel This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 2012 Preaching Festival.  The 2012 weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons…
  • JESUS: THE ORIGINAL EVIDENCE
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2012 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Jesus: The Original Evidence “Who Invented Christianity?” This provocative question popped up on my computer screen. It was an ad for “an all-star lineup [in] scenic Durham, North Carolina [this weekend]. Four…
  • JESUS: THE ONGOING EVIDENCE
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2012 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Jesus: The Ongoing Evidence The original evidence for Jesus is his resurrection. His ongoing evidence is the Church, his Bride, and what she, by God’s Spirit, gives, in love, to the welfare…
  • JESUS: THE EVIDENCE IN OUR LIVES
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2012 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. JESUS: THE EVIDENCE IN OUR LIVES It’s Sunday morning. We’re meeting on this Sunday morning in the 21st-century because of that 1st-century Sunday morning when God raised Jesus from the dead. Since…
  • NONE SO BLIND: The Suppression of God’s Truth
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s 2012 connECtion Keynote Let’s hear God’s word. “God’s wrath is revealed against all godless suppression of God’s truth.  For what can be known of God is clear.  God has made it clear.  The visible has always been evidence of the invisible – God’s Power, God’s Person.  No one has an excuse.  For,…
  • Understanding and Implementing the APA Task Force Paper on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation
    by Dr. Ralph Blair – The American Psychiatric Association Convention, May 7, 2012 An integration model for cognitive therapy with clients experiencing dissonance between same-sex orientation and faith commitment is discussed. For optimal psychological coping, clients need a coherent understanding of themselves. Since experienced dissonance is evidence that clients are torn between telic congruence and…
  • Preaching Festival 2011
    1911 ~ The Centennials ~ 2011 Hannah Whitall Smith – Carry A. Nation – Mahalia Jackson – Bob Jones, Jr. This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 2011 Preaching Festival.  The 2012 weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons…
  • The Prosperity of The Poor in Spirit
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2011 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. His fellow Jews despised Matthew.  As the Roman occupation’s local tax collector, they viewed him as a traitor, taking whatever cash Rome required and keeping for himself whatever more than that he…
  • The Privilege of the Appropriately Prioritized
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2011 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Jesus said: How fortunate are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. A New Yorker cartoon depicts a sadsack newly arrived at the Pearly Gates.  St. Peter is inspecting the computer…
  • The Peace of the Persecuted for Christ
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2011 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. Six years ago, we celebrated the 1604 launching of the King James Version of the Bible.  After six years’ work on translation, the King James Bible was published.  2011 marks the 400th…
  • Living Together / Our Liberty in Christ
    A keynote address by Dr. Blair at the 68th & 69th ConnECtions of Evangelicals Concerned, 2011 On the night before he sacrificed himself for sinners, consuming the cup of wrath with all its debris, decay, death and utter destruc­tion – the forewarned fallout of our fall into sin – Jesus prayed for his followers. He…
  • Preaching Festival 2010
     1910 ~ The Centennials ~ 2010 William Holman Hunt  – Louis Klopsh – The Fundamentals – F. F. Bruce This is the opening talk by Dr. Ralph Blair given at the 20120Preaching Festival.  The 201o weekend focused on a group of centennial, historical Christians whose journeys and testimonies are an encouragement and inspiration to all.  Sermons from…
  • “Ye Olde Postmodernism”
    The first in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. “Ye Olde Postmodernism” Prefixing “Postmodernism” with the quaintness of “Ye Olde” and its visions of English village shambles and whiffs of ale and Cheshire cheese, isn’t as anachronistic as “Ye Olde’s” pseudo…
  • “The Good News: It’s a Whole Lot More!”
    The second in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J.  “The Good News: It’s a Whole Lot More!” Luke gives us this report: “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were approached by a slave girl who had…
  • “The Light of the World”
    The third in a series of three sermons given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the 2010 Preaching Festival held in Ocean Grove, N.J. “The Light of the World” In the biblical book of Revelation, at 3:14-22, we read Christ’s letter to the messenger of the congregation at Laodicea in Asia Minor.  Here it is:   …
  • “Anointed – or just Annoyed?”
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Keynote at the GCN Conference in Seattle, Washington, January 4-7, 2007 At first, they were impressed – a bit surprised, but impressed. But when the guest preacher began to “reinterpret” Scripture, they were confused.  As he went on, they were shocked.  Finally, they were furious.  They knew their Bible.  And, for starters,…
  • The Scripture’s Sources, Scope, Sum & Substance
    In the 400th Anniversary Year of the launching of The King James Version of the Bible The 2004 Winter Bible Study Series at The City Church, New York The last supernova was seen from Earth exactly 400 years ago – in 1604. That spectacular astral explosion of light and energy was visible through both darkness…
  • Truth & the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. John
    The Fall 2003 Bible Study Series by Dr. Ralph Blair at the City Church, New York FIRST STUDY Three hundred years ago today, Jonathan Edwards was one week old. And considering how very precocious he was, he was already well on his way to becoming America’s foremost theologian. One day, he wrote the following on…
  • Keeping Faith with the Faith of Our Fathers
    Introductory Lecture for the Jonathan Edwards / John Wesley Tercentenary Preaching Festival of Evangelicals Concerned Ocean Grove, New Jersey September 26, 2003 The evangelical movement sailed forth in the fervor for the gospel of Christ in 18th century “Great Awakenings” on both shores of that ocean out there. As it’s been said, “Evangelicalism emerged precisely…
  • COMING OUT AHEAD: Disconnecting, Connecting, and Reconnecting for Christ
    An expanded version of the Keynote address given by Dr. Ralph Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions 2003 INTRODUCTION Earlier this year I was at Wheaton College for the centenary of that brilliant observer of the 20th century, Malcolm Muggeridge. He was the consummate insider who was ever the outsider. In his memoir, Chronicles…
  • The Summing Up
    A Sermon by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York on August 31, 2003 As you may know, the night before he died in the Iraqi desert, NBC correspondent David Bloom sent his wife an e-mail that was later read at his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral here in the city. Here’s what he…
  • Pink Slips of Providence
    A Sermon by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York June 22, 2003 Unemployment here in the city is around 9%? That’s far worse than the national rate of 6.1%. But 6.1% is better than the national average over the last 25 years. So what do these figures mean? Well, it’s one thing to…
  • An Atheist’s Advice
    A Sermon by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York on June 22, 2003 An atheist’s advice? Here it is: Christians should be Christians. That was the advice of at least one atheist. Back in 1948, French Dominicans asked existentialist Albert Camus to talk on the topic: “What Do Unbelievers Expect of Christians?” His…
  • On Evangelical Faith and Homosexuality
    A Lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary March 21, 2003 What’s so immediately evident is this: Of all Christians, Evangelicals have perhaps the most difficulty integrating any expression of homosexuality with Christian faith. But here’s what’s not so immediately evident: Of all Christians, Evangelicals should have the least difficulty integrating at least some expression of homosexuality…
  • Blessed Assurance
    for The City Church, New York on March 9, 2003 As I mentioned, today is the birthday of Phoebe Palmer Knapp. It was 130 years ago, in the Knapp mansion on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, that she first played her new hymn tune for her friend, the blind poet, Fanny Crosby. “What does this tune…
  • Plain Christianity
    A Study Series for The City Church, New York, Winter, 2002 By Dr. Ralph Blair Introduction Three weeks ago I was in California for a wedding. On Sunday morning, I was taken to Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral where “never is heard a discouraging word.” At least that’s the intention at the palace of “possibility thinking.”…
  • Our Only Comfort
    Our Only Comfort Our Only Comfort in Life and in Death Meditations in The Heidelberg Catechism Dr. Ralph Blair The City Church, New York, October 6, 13, 20, 27, 2002 FIRST LESSON The interruption of everyday life by sudden death and destruction was never as massive here in America as on 9/11 a year ago….
  • The Best Parent and Friend of Lesbians and Gays
    Dr. Ralph Blair’s Remarks to Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City, September 8, 2002 Turning to the Bible in a discussion of homosexuality, we don’t have to begin with those few verses that are misused to abuse homosexuals. (You may read my analysis of those verses…
  • Jesus Christ is Lord! So What!
    An expanded version of the Keynote address delivered by Dr. Ralph Blair at the Eastern and Western connECtions 2002. INTRODUCTION “Jesus Christ is Lord!” So what! There’s no more foolish non sequitur than that. Yet among so many Christians, there’s no more frequent folly. Of course, among non-Christians, this dismissive statement seems no non sequitur….
  • The Matchless Match: How to Achieve Sexual Intimacy
    A Workshop Presentation for the Western ConnECtion2002 at Chapman University in Orange, California, July 26, 2002 Half a hundred summer connECtions have come and gone since that first one in 1980. My keynote address that summer was entitled: “Getting Close: Steps Toward Intimacy.” I said: “I am going to begin with a neglected passage from…
  • Moneyism
    New York, July 21, 2002 “Eternity” is for sale, and so is “Truth” – as high fashion fragrances from Calvin Klein. And they’re not cheap. That’s the point. And these bottled ego-builders are the least of the luxuries available to those who think they need such things. A New York Times advertising supplement on “The…
  • Signs of Jonah
    A Sermon Preached at City Church, New York, June 23, 2002 What do you think is America’s No. 1-selling children’s video? It’s a Bible story starring a talking tomato and cucumber. And in October, more than a thousand big screens across the country will be showing the VeggieTales version of Jonah and the Whale. But…
  • The Bond that Breaks the Boundaries
    An expanded version of a lecture by Dr. Ralph Blair to Courage Trust at the Anglican Church of St. James the Less, Pimlico, London, November 2, 2001 When it comes to the subject of gay and lesbian evangelical Christians, most evangelical Christians agree with most gays and lesbians. Just as Grape-Nuts is neither grapes nor…
  • Get it in Writing!
    A Sermon Preached by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, August 26, 2001 Last Sunday’s Style section of The Times featured a report on lavishly crass crosses as statements of fashion if not statements of faith. We’re told that trendsetters disavow Christianity but wear the cross as “a badge of status,” “the latest in hip,”…
  • Bride’s Biography
    A Sermon Preached by Dr. Ralph Blair at City Church, New York, on June 24, 2001 It’s June – the month of brides. And the oldest of all brides is here today in church. She is church. She’s us. As scripture says: We are the Bride of Christ. From the creeds that lie behind the…
  • I Love To Tell The Story
    Ralph Blair’s opening remarks at Philadelphia’s Pridefest, 1998. Emmylou Harris and Robert Duvall sing a duet on the CD of “The Apostle.” It’s a mid-nineteenth century hymn written by an English woman. Here’s some of what she wrote: “I love to tell the story of Jesus and His love … because I know ‘tis true…
  • Enthusiasm
    Based on material presented by Dr. Blair at the two 1997 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned held in Pennsylvania and California. “An enthusiastic religion is the perfection of common sense. And to be beside oneself for Christ’s sake is to be beside Christ, which is our chief end for time and eternity.” – Henry Drummond…
  • TRUST
    Based on an address Dr. Blair gave at the eastern and western connECtions96 in the summer of 1996. (PDF version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair INTRODUCTION Tennessee Williams used to say that “at New York cocktail parties, I drink martinis almost as fast as I can snatch them from the tray.” He said it…
  • Anger
    An expanded version of Dr. Blair’s address on anger at connECtion95, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned at Kirkridge and Mills College, June and July, 1995. In a promo for New York City’s Lesbian and Gay Community Center, cartoonist Howard Cruse depicts a gay guy asking his lesbian friend: “Where’s the meeting for people who’re…
  • Temptation & The Truly Alternative Lifestyle
    This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at connECtion 1992, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, at Kirkridge in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains and at Chapman University in Orange, California. (PDF version available here.) (PDF of book format available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair “Though vine nor fig-tree neither Their wonted…
  • The Lord’s Prayer
    Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 197 6. This booklet is based on Dr. Blair’s keynote at connECtion1990, the summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned, at Kirkridge and at San Francisco State University. (PDF version available here.) By Dr. Ralph Blair An unknown gloss adds…
  • Nevertheless, Joy!
    NEVERTHELESS, JOY! is Ralph Blair’s keynote address at the connECtion89 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned held in the states of Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin. Dr. Blair has been practicing psychotherapy for twenty years. He founded Evangelicals Concerned in 1976. (PDF version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair During the Great Depression, one of the hit…
  • What’s The Bible?
    This booklet is an expanded version of Dr. Blair’s keynote address at the 1988 summer connECtions of Evangelicals Concerned. (PDF version available here.) (PDF book version available here.) by Dr. Ralph Blair Believe it or not, pornographers sometimes solicit me. But they don’t want me to pose; they want me to purchase. Sometimes a sample…
  • Ethics & Gay Christians
    Introduction. I approach this topic with some sense of uneasiness, not only because of the recurring poverty of ethics in my own life but also because I know that due to some understandably bad experiences with oppression at the hands of homophobic church people, discussion of ethics in the lives of lesbians and gay men…
  • With Sunshine & Rainfall for All
    An Evangelical Affirmation of Gay Rights This is an expanded version of an address delivered by Dr. Blair at the 34th Annual Meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society in 1982. Dr. Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He is the founder and president of Evangelicals Concerned and is a member…
  • Getting Closer: Structure For Intimacy
    KEYNOTES-Getting Closer: Structure For Intimacy This material is based upon Dr. Ralph Blair’s address at connECtion 1981,the summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned, Inc. © Copyright 1981 by Ralph Blair According to social psychologist Daniel Yankelovich, “Surveys and my own interviews show a widening acceptance of cultural pluralism. We are not going back to … the…
  • Getting Close: Steps Toward Intimacy
    This material was originally presented by Dr. Ralph Blair at connECtion 1980, the summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned, Inc. I am going to begin with a neglected passage from Ecclesiastes 4:1 and 4:8-12. Then I looked again at all the injustice that goes on in this world.  The oppressed were crying, and no one would…