When Religious Leaders Lose Their Credibility: Part 3

Pastor Oliver “Buzz” Thomas’s article seeking moral justification for homosexuality based on science and the Bible appeared in USA Today (November 20, 2006) under the title “When religion loses its credibility.” He argued that science, like the science that Galileo proposed to support his theory of a restructured cosmos, is overwhelmingly in favor of the claim that homosexuality is genetically det [...]

The Ten Commandments and the Supreme Court

When Pastor Todd DuBord of Lake Almanor Community Church in Northern California listened to the tour guide at the Supreme Court building describe the friezes, he was in shock. I’ll let him tell it: When she began to speak about the history and architecture of the four marble friezes, which circle the top of the walls on the inside chamber of the Court, I listened intently. The first shock ca [...]

Penguins, Dog Vomit, Cannibalism, and Human Sexuality

And Tango Makes Three is an illustrated children’s book about two male penguins that raise a baby penguin. It’s based on a true story of two male penguins in New York City’s Central Park Zoo that “adopt” a fertilized egg and raise the chick as their own. Some concerned parents see the book as a homosexual propaganda piece and want it removed from the library’s regular shelves. A parent would have [...]

Kill or Murder: Does It Make a Difference?

Barry W. Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a lawyer, and the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. In his latest book Piety and Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom, Mr. Lynn levels a left-wing attack on biblical ethics. Consider his discussion of the Sixth Commandment: The Sixth Commandment states, “You shall not kil [...]

Why Did Conservatives Lose...

. . . Because they weren’t conservatives. Consider Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. I believe that conservative voters were indifferent to his campaign rhetoric because of his support for Arlen Specter in a primary race that he had with Pat Toomey in 2004. Toomey narrowly lost to the liberal Republican Senator Specter. Here’s how one post-election commentator sized up Specter’s narrow win over the o [...]

The Reverend Double Standard

Barry W. Lynn is an ordained United Church of Christ Minister and an attorney. Since 1992, Mr. Lynn has been the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He has been a constant vocal critic of conservative Christians bringing their understanding of the Bible on moral issues into the realm of politics. American Vision invited Mr. Lynn to debate Herb Titus at its 20 [...]

Conservatism Without God is Dead

Heather MacDonald, writing in USA Today, argues that “conservative principles . . . are best grounded in reason and evidence, not revelation.”[1] She goes on to state that “conservatives atheists and agnostics vigorously support the two-parent family because the life chances of children raised by both their biological parents are demonstrably superior to children raised by single mothers. Moreover [...]

The Rise of Sheilaism

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 [...]

Secularism is the Problem

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, [...]

The Invisible God Called Reason

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 [...]

Pro-Choice. . . In Education

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 [...]

Harry Potter's Not the Problem

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 [...]

Film-Making: An Opportunity, Not an Obstacle

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 [...]

The World Can't Wait: The October 5th Non-Event

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 [...]

VeggieTating? Try Meaty Tales!

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 . . . [...]

What Would the Founders Have Done?

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 [...]

It's Not all Rosie

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 [...]

Newsweek Gets it Right (sort of)

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 [...]

Should Public Schools be Supported by Christians?

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 [...]

The Baloney of Strict Constructionism

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 [...]