The other side finds a way to get its people involved, to raise money. Our side is thinking about something else. —James Dobson Druid Hills Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is dealing with the issue of homosexual clergy. The Evangelical Lutheran Church must come to a conclusion on whether practicing homosexual pastor Bradley E. Schmeling of St. John’s Lutheran Church should be relieved of [...]
Since the results of the November 2006 election were so dismal, a number of Christian leaders are reassessing Christian involvement in politics. One editorial writer argued that time and energy have been lost with little to show for the effort. Can you imagine what our nation would be like today if Christians had not become politically active? This is not to say that politics is the solution to ou [...]
Can the gospel and social activism co-exist? Should Christians involve themselves in the world by participating in politics, pursue advanced degrees in education, medicine, science and law, produce films on a wide range of subjects, seek careers in journalism, and develop non-governmental programs for long-term social reform based on a well thought out biblical worldview? Or should Christians spen [...]
It had to happen. What if a Muslim won election in America? On what standard would he bind himself and the declaration of his oath to uphold the Constitution? Well, it has happened. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from the Minnesota House of Representatives who recently became a United States Congressman, is a Muslim who wants to take the oath of office on the Koran. First, the Koran calls for jihad aga [...]
William McKenzie, an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News, has written “Barton: new face of the religious right?”[1] The “Barton” is David Barton of Wallbuilders. Barton has been instrumental in reintroducing Americans to their rich Christian heritage. He is also involved in the Republican Party. Williams considers Barton to be “on the next wave” of leadership of the Christian Right. Th [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
. . . 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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? [...]
