On October 15, 2006 Antonin Scalia participated in a one-hour televised debate with American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen.[1] Scalia defended a number of his opinions and stated that neither homosexual rights nor abortion can be found in the Constitution. “On controversial issues on stuff like homosexual rights, abortion, we debate with each other and persuade each other and vot [...]
There is a battle raging today over the role religion plays in public and political life. To hear secularists tell it, religion is the problem and reason is the solution. Fundamentalists of all types are being singled out as the inhibitors of progress and the instigators of terror. Christian fundamentalists are no different from Islamic fundamentalists, according to liberal politicians, scholars, [...]
Reason is all the rage today, as Sam Harris tries to demonstrate in The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason . If people were only reasonable, he and others argue, all would be right with the world. Harris does not tell us whose version of reason we are to follow. The reason of the French Revolutionaries who didn’t meet a head that didn’t need lopped off or the reason of the St [...]
Americans can choose where they want to send their children to school. They can even educate them at home, something that is not allowed in some countries.[1] When Jerusalem was plundered by Nebuchadnezzar and his army, certain young men were brought to Babylon “to enter the king’s personal service,” that is, to further the kingdom of Babylon (Dan. 1:5). This was partly accomplished through educat [...]
Laura Mallory is a concerned mother of three. She wants the Harry Potter books removed from the library of J.C. Magill Elementary School in the Gwinnett County, Georgia, public school system where her children attend because she says the books, which have world-wide sales of more than 300 million, glorify witchcraft. Mallory first took her complaint to the county school board in September 2005. In [...]
My wife and I spent yesterday going through the Ft. Myers, Florida, laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison. Edison had 1093 patents to his credit. The patents that have done more to change our world are the electric light, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, the three necessary ingredients that went into creating the film industry. It’s a shame that Christians did not see the worldview potent [...]
Muslims are killing other Muslims, blowing up planes, trains, and nightclubs, threatening to wipe Israel off the map, warning the Pope that if he comes to Turkey he will be killed, and promising to take over the world and force everyone to bow before Allah in a convert-or-die evangelistic thrust. So when I saw a full-page advertisement in the September 20, 2006 issue of USA Today warning America a [...]
If you like your roast beef with gravy If you talk to your pork chop If you smile when you see baloney And hang out at the butcher’s shop . . . (Have we got a show for you!) MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales . . . Bacon . . . Fillet Mignon . . . Turn the grill on . . . MeatyTales! Barbeque . . . [...]
Richard Brookhiser has written a new book that asks the question, “What Would the Founders Do?”[1] Of course, in answering this question, it matters what founders we ask. This is especially true when the issue of religion comes up. There is a diversity opinion among leading founders like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.[2] But these men are better described as second and third [...]
Homosexuals have commandeered the entertainment business. It seems that every movie or TV program has a token homosexual featured in unnecessary story-line roles so viewers will grow numb to the idea that their behavior is what’s at issue. How many times have you watched Home and Garden Television (HGTV) to see a show featuring homosexual “couples” and their new homes or renovation projects? It’s [...]
The September 11, 2006 issue of Newsweek carried a news item in the “Beliefwatch” section on the candidacy of Katherine Harris and the topic of the “separation of church and state.”[1] The article begins by stating “that Katherine Harris recently told a religious journal that separation of church and state was ‘a lie,’ . . . that the idea of separation of church and state was concocted by 20th-cen [...]
A few days ago I received an email from Jim. He was upset with my dogmatic stance on the need for Christians to abandon “public schools,” that is, schools run by local, state, and federal governments. I offered a number of exceptions to his points in the following article. In a later email, he did apologize for some of his statements. He even admitted that his “daughter home schools her three chil [...]
In the Empire Strikes Back, “Episode V,” in the six-part Star Wars saga, viewers are introduced to the Cloud City of Bespin and its ruler Lando Calrissian. Cloud City was a man-made satellite community that hovered in the midst of valuable gas reserves. The image of a city floating in the midst of clouds reminds me of the United States Constitution. Without acknowledging an outside authority—a hig [...]
Adolf Hitler “Nazified” Germany, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to “homosexualize” California. Extreme language? I don’t think so. The governor signed a bill that would require all schools, churches, businesses, and any group receiving state funding with no exception for faith-based organizations or business owners with sincerely held religious convictions—even if it’s a state grant for a stud [...]
The blame game will continue as politicians and political action groups jockey for position and funding for the upcoming elections in 2006 and 2008. Acts of heroism, self-sacrifice, and just plain hard work will be rightly honored. Religious organizations will gain new respect from the people being ministered to in both body and spirit. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will probably be rebuilt after [...]
The talk from both ends of the political spectrum is that “democracy” will cure the ills of Iraq, Iran, and the surrounding Muslim nations. What if the “liberated” people of Iraq, with their newly acquired right to vote, decide that they want a Taliban-style social and political system whose goal is to defeat the infidel West and impose Sharia law on all Muslims? Democracy in the hands of wild-eye [...]
Is it possible to change a society? Has there ever been a time in history when progress could be measured against the spiritual and cultural decay of a previous era? When the church suffers a setback after a period of progress, is this a sign of the end, or does the possibility exist that God will graciously redeem and restore His people? What has the church’s position been toward social reform? [...]
Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal minister and writer living in Durham, North Carolina, claims that the religious debate on the subject of abortion “is one best captured in shades of gray rather than . . . in black and white.”[1] Ehrich asks where God stands on the issue and then only quotes Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1:5. The Bible has a lot more to say on the subject. The Bible attributes self-consciousness [...]
No one can escape the advocacy of right and wrong. It’s an inescapable concept. Some will call good evil and evil good (Isa. 5:20), but there is no way to hide from the inevitability of proposing that some things are good and other things are bad even if we disagree on what those things are. Others will claim to be moral relativists, but in practice they do believe in moral absolutes, especially w [...]
Our elected officials have denounced cigarette smoking as a health hazard and a drain on the nation’s healthcare system. They tell us that even second-hand smoke can kill you. To get people to stop smoking, laws have been passed to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes at the federal, state, and local levels. The federal per pack tax is 39 cents. The highest combined state-local tax rate is $3. [...]
