One of the arguments made by yesterday’s Tar-Baby emailer that while the words separation of church and state do not appear in the Constitution “the concept clearly does.” If the concept is there, then why didn’t the founders phrase the constitution to fit the concept? The concept of “separation of church and state” is older than the Constitution, was not invented by Thomas Jefferson, and is a lon [...]
As you can imagine, I get lots of emails. I try to answer most of them as soon as I get them. Some emails take a little more time. Every once in a while I get what I call a “Tar-Baby”[1] email. Once you respond to a “Tar-Baby” email, there is no way to extricate yourself from it. No matter what evidence you offer in response, the emailer, instead of answering the evidence, brings up another line o [...]
While there is great disdain for mixing traditional religious principles with science, politics, and morality, secularists mix their own brand of religion with their ideology. “For many,” Douglas Young, professor of political science and history at Gainesville State College in Georgia, argues, “their new religion is politics, their faith is their ideology, and their church is their political party [...]
Conservative Christians are the target of the claim that religion and politics do not mix. But there is almost no criticism of mixing religion and politics by liberal and left-leaning political groups. Alan Colmes, who sits in the liberal chair across from Sean Hannity on FOX’s Hannity and Colmes, follows liberal religion talking points when he claims that Jesus “believed the rich should give to t [...]
Two opinions vie for our attention in current Christian thinking regarding the legitimacy of social involvement and kingdom demonstration this side of heaven.[1] The escapist view proposes that gospel proclamation is the church’s singular duty and no more. Concern for this world is a distraction. Heaven, and heaven alone, is the Christian’s only calling and sole domain. The Christian’s citizenship [...]
If there is one prophetic section of the Bible that is repeatedly turned to for support that our world is on the eve of destruction, it’s Ezekiel 38 and 39. M. R. DeHaan, writing in 1951, identified “the sign of Gog and Magog” to be one of the “three most outstanding signs of the coming of Christ.”[1] In 1972, Carl Johnson wrote Prophecy Made Plain for Times Like These.[2] His chapter on “When Rus [...]
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was the grandson of Thomas Huxley, “Darwin’s Bulldog,” and the author of the futuristic dystopian novel with the utopian veneer, Brave New World (1932). His book The Doors of Perception (1954) was the inspiration for Jim Morrison and “The Doors,” and he appears on the album cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Huxley had the fateful distinction of [...]
How can there be civil discourse with someone who believes he has “heard it from on high” and enacts laws based on the certainty of belief in a highest authority? “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!” It’s the idea of absolutism mixed with the compulsion of civil government that is troublesome to many people. What few people seem to realize is that there are all types of non-religious [...]
All the God-talk in politics is upsetting some people. The media are picking up on this uneasy feeling among the electorate and are fanning the flames of a growing hostility in order to disenfranchise Christian conservative votes. Mitt Romney was so pressured by those questioning his Mormon faith that he addressed the issue similar to the way JFK did in September of 1960. It hasn’t helped that rad [...]
George Washington Next on Professor Geoffrey Stone’s list of historical witnesses is George Washington. During the War for Independence, Washington wrote the following to Brig. General Thomas Nelson: “The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. [...]
Professor Stone centers his analysis of what he conceives to be the “distorted version of history that has become part of the conventional wisdom of American politics in recent years”[1] on the religious views of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Paine, so that’s where I’ll concentrate my efforts. Keep in mind, however, that America’s founding rests on [...]
It’s been said (by me) that two half-truths don’t make the whole truth. Geoffrey Stone’s response to Mitt Romney’s “religious assurance” speech begins by stating that it “called to mind a disturbingly distorted version of history that has become part of the conventional wisdom of American politics in recent years."[1] If there was ever a distorted version of American history, it’s Professor S [...]
The ostrich with his head in the sand is the usual picture we get of cultural indifference. This image assumes the ostrich knows there’s a problem and by hiding his eyes, the problem will go away. I believe a more accurate illustration is based on an old Chinese proverb that goes like this: “If you want to know what water is, don’t ask a fish.” Never having experienced another environment, a fish [...]
Connecticut Valley Atheists have erected a 10-foot tall sign in celebration of the winter solstice that includes a message reminding us that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were done in the name of a particular set of religious beliefs. The message “Imagine no religion,” a line taken from John Lennon’s atheist anthem “Imagine,” is placed over an image of the Twin Towers before they were taken d [...]
Conservative columnist George Will has written that evolution is a “‘fact,’ and anyone who does not recognize this elementary truth endangers the ‘conservative coalition.’”[1] Charles Krauthammer has accused advocates of Intelligent Design as “perpetuating scientific ‘fraud.’”[2] In the many years I have been studying the creation-evolution debate, I’ve noticed that those who have bought into the [...]
The debate between evolutionists and creationists has become so specialized that the average person with basic knowledge of biology cannot follow the argumentation. How many educated Americans know anything about pseudogenes,[1] Haldane’s Dilemma,[2] transposons,[3] abiogenesis,[4] junk DNA,[5] RNA,[6] exons,[7] introns,[8] pharyngeal slits,[9] and other terms too numerous to list here? Even knowi [...]
The debate between creation and evolution has a long history. The first public debate between a creationist and a Darwinist was probably the one where Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford, and Thomas H. Huxley, known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” because of his aggressive defense of Charles Darwin, faced each other at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on June 30, 1860. Th [...]
When people are pushed to live consistently with their worldview assumptions, all kinds of revelations come to light. Toni Vernelli was sterilized at age 27 to “reduce her carbon footprint” and “protect the planet.”[1] If pressed, I wonder if Vernelli would decry antibiotics to keep people from dying from disease and peace talks to avert war. While I am saddened that she will never experience the [...]
In Chuck Smith’s Revelation commentary Dateline Earth he informed his readers in 1989 that “the rapture is at hand.”[1] Earlier he wrote, “Very soon there are going to be some strange and terrible things happening on this planet of ours.”[2] These “very soon” happenings are based on his reading of Revelation. He reinforces this claim when he argues emphatically, “Jesus is coming back, and He’s com [...]
Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel and senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, has authored another prophecy book: The Final Act: Setting the Stage of the End Times Drama. The book carries the ringing endorsement of Tim LaHaye, co-author with Jerry Jenkins of the widely popular Left Behind series of prophetic novels. LaHaye offers the following complimentary words: “This unique [...]
