Blog Spotlight Monday - Pyromaniacs

Phil Johnson, Dan Phillips and Frank Turk co-blog at a site called Pyromaniacs.  "Team Pyro" is an acceptable nickname for the blog, as it is used in their URL and in my labels.  This is one of the blogs in my "I don't always agree" category that I mentioned last week.  A good summary of this blog can be found in its own subtitle, "...Setting the World on Fire."  Team Pyro are in the staunchly conservative, baptistic and Calvinistic strain of the theoblogoshpere.  They are rigid in their beliefs and their certitude is certain.  They don't hesitate to "flame" those with whom they disagree, and it ties in well with the subtitle.  Pyromaniacs is one of the most widely read Christian blogs on the web, and their comments section frequently hits the century mark.

I have read them for a number of years for several reasons.  I keep up with the pulse of John MacArthur type theology which is such a large part of my theological past.  Phil Johnson is MacArthur's right hand man with respect to research and editing MacArthur's books and other written material and I if I remember correctly is a head honcho in MacArthur's radio ministry.  Frank Turk is a longtime Southern Baptist coming from the relatively small Calvinist sector of the SBC, and Dan Phillips, I believe, might be a baptistic type of guy in a Presbyterian(?) environment (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong here.)

In addition to keeping up with the MacArthurite mindset, the many commenters who are pro-MacArthur/pro-Pyro serve as a study in theological phychology for me and are a good reminder of where I used to be.  There are a number of dissenters as well in the comments section, and I have actually blog-befriended several of those who have made well constructed objections to some of their theology.  And vice versa.  Dissenters don't fare very well over there, as one needs to walk a good line to pull it off.  I find dissent at least interesting and at most view-changing.  For me, that is, and most usually not for the Pyros or their supporters.  I occasionally poke the hornets nest when I feel it needs poking, and I also agree with them in the comments section when I feel it needs agreeing with.  One of the more interesting things that happens occasionally over there is the flaming of John Piper upon his inviting of "questionable characters" to speak at one of his conferences.  You know, like Mark Driscoll.  Team Pyro also posts a weekly helping of Charles Spurgeon from his preaching or writing archives from a century ago.

All in all, Pyromaniacs is a necessary link in my blogroll and in my personal reading.