The March 2012 "Towers" is now on stands and online.

“Dead Among the Living” isn’t a new band stirring mosh-pits or a new show on the AMC network – though it might work for both. Rather, it’s a word-picture of a too-common group of people who borrow the presumed benefits of church-goers: a conveniently powerful God and a feel-good community of, well, just good ‘ol people. They’re sitting in the pews of your church and mine. They probably look like you. But they’re dead.

In this March 2012 issue of “Towers,” Steve Watters, along with Timothy Paul Jones, helps readers think through this phenomenon, then Mike McKinley helps pastors learn to reach the spiritually dead who sit in the pews at church, the dead among the living.

Also in "Towers," Andrew Peterson talks about the Christian imagination and Bruce Ware tells parents how to teach the Bible to their children.

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Southern Seminary Resources publishes “Towers,” Southern Seminary Magazine and other seminary publications digitally as well as physically. Check out the Resources page for an improved online reading experience.

In his most recent “My Take” column at CNN.com’s Belief Blog, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, suggests that GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum's comments about former president John F. Kennedy were, despite ill-advised rhetoric, correct.

Recently, Santorum told ABC's "This Week" that President Kennedy's statement that American should be a place "where separation of church and state is absolute," made him physically sick.

"I almost threw up," Santorum said. “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”

Mohler comments: "Santorum should have avoided gastrointestinal references in his comments, and he clearly missed some of the careful nuances of Kennedy’s speech, but his criticism of Kennedy’s argument is both timely and essentially right. Furthermore, it is high time that Americans understand that the ideas Kennedy espoused in that speech have led us to an impasse in current debates."

Mohler goes on briefly to assess Kennedy's position and increasing secularization of American public political discourse.

He concludes: "We need to speak to one another with care, courtesy and full conviction. Massively difficult issues loom before us, but this nation is sufficiently mature so that we can have this conversation without losing our lunch."

The entire article, "Santorum’s right, JFK wrong on separation of church and state," is available at religion.blogs.cnn.com

The February 2012 "Towers" is now available on-stands and online.

In Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character, Christian, journeys with an incredible burden of sin on his back. Today, many church leaders and Christian men and women travel through life with a massive burden of guilt from pornography use. Christian, in the allegorical story, finds relief from his burden at the cross of Jesus Christ. At the same cross today, those weighed down by the burden of pornography can say with Christian: “Must here the burden fall from off my back? / Blest cross! blest sepulcher! blest rather be / The Man that there was put to shame for me!”

That's what this issue of "Towers" is about. Russell D. Moore contributes to the issue twice, writing about a culture of "Arousing Ourselves to Death" and giving advice to pre-marriage couples in the February Marriage, Family and Seminary column. Southern Seminary's R. Albert Mohler Jr. and Randy Stinson also contribute to the discussion. Focusing on pornography, for some, only increases their burden of guilt. Jeremy Pierre asks "How Desperate Are You?" and offers encouragement beyond the burden of sin.

The February 2012 "Towers" features an interview with James Hamilton Jr. about his new commentary, Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches. Also included is a Southern Story about the Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship and a History Highlight that looks at Basil Manly Sr.'s preaching about "The Duties of the Conjugal Relationship."

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Southern Seminary Resources publishes “Towers,” Southern Seminary Magazine and other seminary publications digitally as well as physically. Check out the Resources page for an improved online reading experience.