Denny Burk https://www.dennyburk.com A commentary on theology, politics, and culture Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:43:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 25262794 Trans Tide Continues to Recede – CBMW Podcast https://www.dennyburk.com/trans-tide-continues-to-recede-cbmw-podcast/ Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:43:36 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49914 In this episode of the CBMW Podcast, I join Colin Smothers and Jon Swan to discuss a stunning article in the The Atlantic that admits the “science” doesn’t support the transgender propaganda that they and the Left have been peddling. This is an extraordinary development because The Atlantic is a mainstream leftwing publication.

Watch below or listen at the Spotify or Apple Podcast links below.

]]> 49914 A Confrontation with Jesus – John 4:16-26 – SBTS Chapel https://www.dennyburk.com/a-confrontation-with-jesus-john-416-26-sbts-chapel/ Wed, 18 Feb 2026 05:06:16 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49911 Earlier today I delivered a message in Southern Seminary’s chapel titled “A Confrontation with Jesus” on John 4:16-26. The video is below.

]]> 49911 Must-See Interview with Senator Ben Sasse https://www.dennyburk.com/must-see-interview-with-senator-ben-sasse/ Wed, 18 Feb 2026 04:00:22 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49891 I can’t even begin to express what Ben Sasse’s testimony has meant to me since announcing his cancer diagnosis in December. He is absolutely defiant in his suffering, trusting Christ, and taunting death. Where does this confidence come from? He’s a living, breathing testament to the power of God in the gospel. Hallelujah.

He also reflects on his life and what he would do differently. He is pointing us to the permanent things. Thank you, Senator Sasse.

Watch all of this, but especially the last 20 minutes or so.

]]> 49891 A Piece of My Childhood Goes up in a Cinder https://www.dennyburk.com/a-piece-of-my-childhood-goes-up-in-a-cinder/ Mon, 02 Feb 2026 02:54:36 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49871 The picture you see above is something that happened in my hometown yesterday. To most people, I’m sure this looks merely like an old building that has just burned, but for me it’s so much more than that. It’s also a precious piece of my childhood going up in a cinder.

This building was for many years the old Uptown Newsstand, owned and run by Mr. Johnny McDaniel. If Norman Rockwell ever painted a picture of a Newstand and its owner, it would look like Uptown and Mr. Johnny. I rode my bike there religiously every week for comic books and —when I had enough money left over — Delaware Punch.

Uptown was one of only a few places in town that sold what seemed to me a very exotic drink. But I had to have it (at least I thought I did!) because my orthodontist had instructed me to lay off carbonated drinks after installing braces on my adolescent teeth. He told me to try something like Delaware Punch instead. And there it was at Uptown.

After seeing Back to the Future in the summer of ‘85, Uptown was the place where I bought skateboard magazines like Thrasher (yes, I had a skateboard phase). Again, Uptown was the only place in town I could buy a title like this. For a kid in small town south Louisiana, Thrasher was like a window into a whole other world—mainly Southern California in the heady days of the upstart Powell Peralta and its professional skate team.

There is no way for me to put into words the thrill it was to walk into that shop every week. Long before the Avengers and X-Men became household names, they were the exclusive domain of a small comic book universe that I grew to love. You could keep your Supermans and Batmans and Wonder Womans and the other DC titles. I was a Marvel-only kid, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

I still own hundreds of these comics right now, all wrapped individually in plastic bags, preserved just as they were when I bought them 40 years ago. I’m pretty sure the collection is worth a nice sum of money by now because so many of them are collector’s items. But they are priceless to me, and I don’t want to sell them. I bought most of them right there in that building that is now destroyed, and I got more than my money’s worth in memories and joy.

Someone reading this is probably thinking, “Wow, Denny. Sounds like you were a real nerd.” Yeah, I think I was. Maybe I still am. But who cares anymore about that? I love my hometown, and I cherish these memories warts and all.

There are a handful of places in DeRidder, LA that I wish I could remake into what they were when I was a kid, and the Uptown Newsstand is one of them. It is long gone now, but I will never forget it.

]]> 49871 Interview with “Issues, Etc.” Podcast about Cities Church https://www.dennyburk.com/interview-with-issues-etc-podcast-about-cities-church/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 05:03:47 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49864 I spoke with “Issue, Etc.” this morning about the mob action at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota yesterday morning. Listen below:

]]> 49864 The Desecration of Cities Church https://www.dennyburk.com/the-desecration-of-city-church/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 03:59:13 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49843 I was mad as a hornet when I saw what happened this morning to Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota. For those of you who haven’t seen the news, a group of leftist radicals shut down Cities Church’s worship service by shouting down the pastor, marching around the sanctuary yelling protests against ICE, and haranguing the men, women, and children who were gathered for worship.

For a first person account of what happened, see the video below which was posted by one of the protesters. Please note the vile things coming out of the protester’s mouth and the terrified child being comforted by his father at 1:05.

I don’t know how any Christian can watch this and not feel outrage over this spectacle. One of the signs of being a Christian is that it matters to you deeply when other Christians suffer or are mistreated for their faith (Hebrews 10:34), and that is definitely what happened at Cities Church this morning. A group a radicals marched into that church and shouted down the worship service.

Let that sink in.

You can see the pastor trying his best to tell the protesters to leave, but they shout him down too with a wave of insults and slogans. It is an ugly, ungodly sacrilege. It is a desecration of worship and an affront to the holiness of God.

Former CNN journalist Don Lemon also led a team into the church to “report” on the protest. I put “report” in scare quotes because he wasted no time to find the pastor, take the side of the protesters, and falsely accuse the pastor of “pushing” him (watch here). Don Lemon behaved disgracefully. He can pretend he was there doing dispassionate reporting, but you can see with your own eyes what he was doing. It wasn’t dispassionate reporting on events. It was leftist pot-stirring disguising itself as “journalism.” What a farce. Don’t be gaslit by Lemon.

Among the awful things that Lemon said and did while “reporting” on events was to tell the pastor that the protesters had a first amendment right to shut down the worship service with their protest. Lemon could not have been more wrong about that. It is actually against federal law to disrupt worship services like this.

Ironically, a federal law called the FACE Act – which has been used for years by Democrat politicians to prosecute pro-lifers at abortion clinics (which happened to a member of my own church) – that very same federal law prohibits protesters from disrupting worship services. That is why the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, has already announced that she is all over this:

Don Lemon couldn’t be more mistaken, and he’s probably going to get a call from the Attorney General’s investigators. I don’t see any evidence in the videos that Lemon had anything to do with organizing the protest, and he has denied that allegation. But the claim that he was just there doing dispassionate journalism is laughable. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t that.

So yeah. I’ve been mad as a hornet, and maybe you have been too. And for good reason. But anger probably shouldn’t be our only response. We do, after all, serve a Savior who when reviled did not revile in return or utter any threats but “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). He also gave us our marching orders for situations like this: “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).

If none of those words from King Jesus have crossed your mind since seeing all this, it would be good to remember them now. During the confrontation, these words seemed to be on the mind of Pastor Jonathan Parnell, who acquitted himself admirably in the videos I saw. Like the pastor, our response to these kinds of outrages must be otherworldly if we really wish to bear witness to a kingdom that sinners cannot see with their eyes. If they don’t see it in us, they won’t see it anywhere. Remember that.

Having said that, a part of “entrusting ourselves to Him who judges righteously” means to forsake any kind of personal retribution and to “leave room for the wrath of God” (Rom. 12:19). That means that we trust God to settle all accounts in accord with His perfect justice in the age to come. In this age also, we have governing authorities who can be “a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). Because the government bears the “sword,” you don’t have to. And if the Attorney General’s words are any indication, the sword-bearers are on their way.

In the meantime, be angry, and do not sin (Ephesians 4:26). Pray that Cities Church and all our congregations will be able to lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity and that we will be free from abusive authorities and chaotic protesters (1 Timothy 2:2). Pray that our governing authorities would do their job and use their authority to become a terror to those who do evil (Romans 13:3).

Finally, pray for these sad sinners who desecrated the worship service. They touched the apple of God’s eye today (Zechariah 2:8). If they don’t repent of their sin and trust Christ, they will spend eternity suffering the unrelenting wrath of God in hell (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). Pray that there will be some Sauls among them (1 Timothy 1:13). There may yet be some. God, let it be so.

]]> 49843 Supreme Court Hears “Transgender” Athletes Cases https://www.dennyburk.com/supreme-court-hears-transgender-athletes-cases/ Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:02:02 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49838 On this episode of the CBMW podcast, we discuss the oral arguments of of the Supreme Court concerning “transgender” athletes.

]]> 49838 Was Blind but Now I See – John 9:8-41 https://www.dennyburk.com/was-blind-but-now-i-see-john-98-41/ Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:24:06 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49832 In my last message on John, we turned our attention John 9:1-7 which relays Jesus’ miracle of healing the beggar who had been born blind. The rest of the chapter is the aftermath of that miracle. In spite of the evidence Jesus provides them through the miracle, the Jewish leaders and some of the people aren’t going to see the truth. They are going to remain in the dark. But I would argue that the reason they don’t see is because they don’t want to see. What is the people’s response to Jesus’ miracle of healing a man born blind? I want to draw your attention to four “responses” that follow Jesus’ miracle:

I. The Neighbors’ Ignorance (8-12)
II. The Pharisees’ Contempt (13-17)
III. The Parents’ Fear (18-23)
IV. The Beggar’s Resolve (24-34)

[You can listen to the rest of the message at the links to Apple Podcasts and Spotify below.]

]]> 49832 Answer Not a Kinist according to His Folly https://www.dennyburk.com/answer-not-a-kinist-according-to-his-folly/ Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:55:06 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49809 There a number of race-baiting kinists, racial realists, and antisemites whose entire schtick consists in sowing error and division online among Christians. They live off of the error and controversy that they themselves manufacture.

Do they have influence among a small section of the right? Yes. Must they be opposed whenever their teaching shows up in a church? Yes. Must pastors lead the way to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict? Absolutely yes, yes, yes.

But I think we need to be realistic about the best way to engage the bad actors mentioned above. Arguing with them online is exactly what they want. They are conflict entrepreneurs. They grow their platform and influence through public conflict on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter). The more their names are mentioned, the more their platforms grow. The higher the profile of the person who mentions them, the more their platforms grow. Some of them have learned how to make a lot of money from it.

Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying, “If you roll around with a pig in the mud, you’ll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it.” Likewise, if you engage in an argument with a fool online, you’ll both waste time on fruitless controversy, but the fool will enjoy it. Why? Because controversy grows their platform. Their main audience is an online army of anonymous malcontents, and the fool gets access to even more malcontents through controversy.

So I suggest it may be time for wise Christians simply to start blocking those voices and ignore them. If you see their content, don’t engage it. If you can, block them. At the very least, mute them. A fire goes out without fuel, so don’t give their fire of foolishness anything to burn. Starve it into oblivion. “For lack of wood the fire goes out, And where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down” (Prov. 26:20).

These people are fools and knaves. Pray for them (Matt. 5:44), but also mark and avoid them (Rom. 16:17-18). Perhaps the best way to do that on a platform like X is to block, mute, and unfollow. It would be an immense public service to the world if a critical mass of us would do just that.

I highly recommend reading Mary Jackson’s article for WORLD magazine titled “Old Prejudice: What is driving the rise of anti-Semitism among young Christian men?”

]]> 49809 Top 10 YouTubes of 2025 https://www.dennyburk.com/top-10-youtubes-of-2025/ Fri, 26 Dec 2025 04:00:06 +0000 https://www.dennyburk.com/?p=49794 It’s time for my annual posting of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of the Year (see last year’s list here). This ranking is totally unscientific, and I gave up many years ago on limiting it to only ten videos. Also, it’s not only YouTube videos anymore, but I’m not changing the title because I’ve been doing it too long to change it now! Only one person was polled to compile this list—yours truly. This year’s slate of videos has both humor and humanity with some other odds and ends thrown in. If you think I’ve left something out, let me know. I’ll think about adding an “Honorable Mention” category at the bottom. Enjoy!

If you’re interested, here are links to lists from previous years:

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

Indie Singer Sings “Happy Birthday”

This parody is lampooning what they call “cursive singing.”

This Guy Cracked Siri

Greatest Commercial Ever?

Anybody Feeling This?

Equipment Manager Deep Sixes a Thief

Here is the California football team reacting to video of their equipment guy taking down a fan who stole one of their helmets. Love it.

Dancing through Snowpocalypse 2025

The Sound of Jello in a Shredder

Gotcha!

— Denny Burk (@DennyBurk) January 15, 2025

Parents Can’t Stop Laughing

Your Golf Swing Will Never Be This Good

Children’s Drawings Come To Life

I gotta say. This is really fascinating. Someone took some children’s drawings and brought them to life with AI or special effects or whatever. Whatever it was, good job!

Fastest Rubik’s Cube Solver Ever

Purdue students obliterate the Guinness World Record for fastest Rubik’s cube-solving robot. This robot solved the cube in only 0.103 seconds, which is faster than the blink of an eye.

Epic Star Wars Christmas Lights

“A 15-year-old programmed his home’s Star Wars–themed Christmas light show, and it’s incredible.”

No School Like the Old School

You love to see it. I just wish Tyson could have done it to Jake Paul.

The Key To This Long Marriage

A nightly ritual of 94-year-old Don Barnett and his 93-year-old wife Marilyn may be the key to a lasting marriage—proving love is best expressed in song.

Perfect Robot Dance

The Infectious Joy of Jamie Carrington

Would that we could have half of the joy and courage of this young man. His name is Jamie Carrington.

Baby Sees Clearly for the First Time

Attaboy!

Kids Respond to Dads Shaving Beards

Trump as Lead Singer of R.E.M.

I don’t know why this cracks me up so much.

SBTS on Jeopardy

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