You can watch the video below.

This kind of inane analysis is all over the place right now, including on the ESPN program “First Take” this morning (see video below). After watching “First Take,” I can hardly believe how much people are blinded by Kiffin Derangement Syndrome. Yes, Lane Kiffin has earned his bad reputation. I get it. But at some point you have to get past that and look at the facts–which too many fans and commentators are steadfastly refusing to do. Here are the facts.

The NCAA wronged a bunch of college athletes by making them think they had to leave their college programs when they really didn’t have to leave after all. And now after granting another year of eligibility to their class, they won’t let them come back for their final year. That’s unconscionable.

This is not about whether NFL players should play in college football. Nobody thinks they should. This is an exceptional case. It is about righting a wrong that the NCAA foisted upon these players. The players are right to sue for their fifth year of eligibility.

Also, this is not an LSU-only issue. Cole Hutson is a Texas Longhorns offensive lineman. He participated in two NFL minicamps in the offseason–one with the Dallas Cowboys and another with the Cleveland Browns. Neither of those teams wanted him, so Hutson sued the NCAA in Texas and got his fifth year back. He is playing with the Texas Longhorns right now.

Mark Mitchell finished four seasons playing basketball for Missouri. He went through the 2026 NBA Draft process and played in NBA Summer League with the Denver Nuggets. He didn’t make the team and then sued to get his fifth year of eligibility in college. He won and eventually made his way back to Missouri where he is now a part of that team.

We could go on and on with stories like this. The lawsuits are happening all over the country, and they are being brought by players from the class of 2022 that are looking to get their fifth year of eligibility. The lawsuits are not being brought by universities but by PLAYERS. And some courts are giving them permission to play.

Schools across the country are choosing to recruit and play these athletes if they are ruled eligible by the courts. It’s no different than when Trinidad Chambliss sued for an extra year of eligibility and won his court case. Chambliss is Ole Miss’s quarterback (in defiance of the NCAA’s ruling) because a court said he could play.

I’m not asking folks to fall in love with Lane Kiffin. I’m not asking anyone to trust Kiffin or to like LSU. Feel free to hate them with the irrational hatred that only a fan can have.

I am asking for you to consider the merits of the case that these student athletes are making in the courts. The vast majority of them have no connections to LSU, and many of them would never have left their university in the first place if they’d known they had a fifth year of eligibility. They only left because the NCAA failed to tell them in time that they had another year to play.

This is not opening the flood gates to pro players coming into college sports. It applies to one narrow group of the 2022 signing-class who have another year of eligibility left. It’s a one-off and won’t happen again after this year. This is not setting a precedent but is based on a very specific set of non-repeatable circumstances.

You wouldn’t know any of this from the inane analysis by talking heads like what is on display in the video below. Stephen A. and Paul Finebaum are being irrational. Their analysis is that Lane Kiffin is evil and is trying to open up the NFL for college recruiting. That is such a distortion of what is actually going on.

But good luck explaining that to anyone. They are too busy with Kiffin Derangement Syndrome to rationally consider the merits of the case these athletes are making. But that doesn’t have to be you. Know the facts, and make a judgement based on the merits of the case.

I suspect her passing will be a bigger event in American life than some might anticipate. She is loved and admired by almost everyone from all sides of the cultural and political divides in our country. That’s really difficult to achieve, but she somehow did it for multiple generations.

She was extraordinary. Her songwriting alone could have made ten careers. But on top of that she was the consummate performer, not only as a singer but also as a film star.

Her most iconic roles were in Nine to Five and Steel Magnolias, and she earned an Oscar nomination for the latter. That movie will always be special to our family because it was filmed not far from my hometown in south Louisiana, and also because the character Weezer was named for a real life Weezer, who was the mother of my wife’s best friend.

If I had to pick a favorite song, it would not be her most famous one, “I Will Always Love You,” although I always preferred her version over Whitney Houston’s. Nor is it “Islands in the Stream,” even though yours truly and “the missus” once did a karaoke rendition of that one. No, I think I would pick “Hard Candy Christmas,” even though it may have been the most melancholy thing she ever sang.

The video below is how I always picture Dolly Parton in my mind’s eye. She is frozen in time there. Funny. Self-deprecating. Captivating performer. An iconic figure in the American story. A passing star of my parent’s generation.

I suspect this celebrity death will hit differently with many people in our nation. She really is beloved by almost everyone. Who doesn’t like Dolly Parton? She always seemed like she genuinely loved people. Her philanthropy reflects that spirit. She loved her fans, and they loved her back and then some.

Life is such a vapor. “All flesh is like grass, and all its loveliness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass” (Isaiah 50:6-7). “Surely every man at his best is a mere breath… he amasses riches, and does not know who will gather them” (Ps. 39:5-6).

All of us great or small are going to make the transition that Dolly Parton made today. The day will be here before we know it. Every death reminds us of that, but the point lands with particular resonance when the end comes for one of the great ones. Even the most luminous among us are heading to the same end as the most forgotten and unseen among us–which must be why the Psalmist prayed as he did:

“LORD, make me to know my end,
And what is the extent of my days,
Let me know how transient I am…
Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths…
And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.”
–Psalm 39:4-7

Dolly Parton was 80 years old. Rest in peace.

If you remember that era of Truth music, you will remember that song was huge. It was certainly huge in Brian’s life. Yesterday, the worship pastor at Lakeview did an extraordinary thing. He surprised Brian by bringing in former Truth member Russ Lee to sing “Holy of Holies” with the church choir–right before Brian was to preach Hebrews 9:11-12.

Russ Lee has never sung “Holy of Holies” before, and it is a difficult song to pull off. It was originally sung by Andy Chrisman. On the night Brian was converted, Jody McBrayer sang it. But Russ Lee was the singer who prayed with Brian to receive Christ at the close of the concert. So it was an extraordinary moment when Russ Lee walked out on that stage to sing with the choir. Brian was understandably overcome with emotion.

I don’t know how Brian preached after that, but he did. Watch Russ Lee and the choir perform the song in the first video and see the whole thing unfold. Then watch Brian’s masterful exposition of Hebrews 9:11-12, which is the second video.

If you live in the vicinity of Auburn, Alabama and don’t have a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church, you need to get to Lakeview.

You can watch the interview at the YouTube link below, or you can listen at Spotify or Apple podcasts below that.

He was really interested in how egalitarian interpretation of the Bible relates to LGBTQ+ affirmation.

You can watch the YouTube version or listen to the Spotify podcast linked below. You can buy the book at Amazon here.

Thanks, Becket!

The YouTube video of our discussion is below along with Spotify version below that.

What then do we do with the fact that the Bible presents God as a God-centered God? A God who regularly calls upon His creatures to worship Him? What do we do with texts like John 12:27-50 in which God says “I will glorify myself”? I discuss this and more in my most recent message for Kenwood Baptist Church. You can listen at Spotify or Apple podcasts below.

It’s in two parts below. Part one is about complementarianism more generally, and part two is about my new book Mere Complementarianism specifically. I put part two first since it’s about the book.

Thanks for the interviews, Fred!

Part 2

Part 1