Where is Ambrose When You Need Him?

Those who demand that people with religious views should keep their beliefs personal and private are inconsistent in the way they apply the principle. I’ve noted on various occasions how the anti-slavery and civil rights movements grew out of Christian political involvement. The self-righteous left praised ministers and congregations who led the way to overturn unjust segregation laws. But now tha [...]

Kicking the Koran and Other Crimes Against Humanity

I know you’re as shocked as I am that the Pentagon confirmed for the first time that a U.S. soldier deliberately kicked a Guantanamo prisoner’s copy of the Koran—the Muslim “holy book”— in violation of the military’s rules for handling the “sacred” text. Personally, I can’t believe that many Americans are concerned about this. The usual suspects in the media are stoking the flames in o [...]

Is It Ever Right to Fight?

Today we remember those who have fought and died in wars to defend America. Most Christians would generally agree that fighting a defensive war is morally justified. Some Christians take issue with America’s war with Great Britain in what has been described as the “Revolutionary War.” America’s “revolutionary war” was neither anarchistic nor revolutionary in the modern sense. The [...]

Christians Should be "Tortured" and "Prosecuted" for their Faith, and for Good Measure, "Fed to the Lions"

Periodically American Vision gets some interesting correspondence from people who don’t like what we do. Most of the really bad stuff comes in the form of anonymous emails. In the early days, people would leave profanity-laced voice messages on our answering machine. There were times when we got some death threats. Sometimes we would get a real treasure. On April 11, 2005, a caller left a rambling [...]

Looking Heavenward for a Savior

One of our readers wondered why we are offering Alien Intrusion, a book on UFOs. He asked it this way: “How in the world can this be a part of ‘Equipping and Empowering Christians to Restore America’s Biblical Foundation.’?” This is a very good question. Not only are UFOs in the news, but there is a worldview behind their interest that sees their existence as a competitor to the Christian worldvie [...]

"Socially Irrelevant, Even if Privately Engaging" - The Disengaged Christian Under the Microscope

The title for this article is taken from Os Guinness’s underrated and underread book The Gravedigger File.[1] There are numerous Christians who believe that a personal, private faith is all the gospel requires. Guinness described this as “The Private-Zoo Factor.” Much of “1925–1975 Evangelicalism”[2] was based on the idea that Christians could make peace with the world by doing the church thing an [...]

A Hole in the Dike--Dutch Leaving in Droves

People in the Netherlands are worried. Holland used to be a Christian nation. Over a period of time, the government adopted a form of religious pluralism, giving equal standing, first, to all Christian denominations, then to religion in general, and finally to every worldview imaginable. Holland has lost its worldview base. It has become a haven for drugs, prostitution, and euthanasia–all le [...]

You gotta dance with the one who brung ya.

Before Kenny Rogers embarked on a solo country and pop musical career, he had been the lead vocalist for The First Edition. One of the group’s most popular songs was “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).” In countering the tenets of unbelieving thought, we can change the song’s title to help us understand the best biblical and rational way to present [...]

Bill Maher-Secularism's Stooge

You must have heard by now that Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” claims that people who hold religious views are unenlightened. Here’s just some of what he said: We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based in [...]

Tough Love and Alan Keyes' Queer Liberal" Daughter "

We’ve just learned that Alan Keyes’ daughter, Maya Marcel-Keyes, is a self-described “queer liberal.” The Keyes’ family joins the ranks of Phyllis Schlafly, Dick and Lynne Cheney, Randall Terry (an adopted son), Sadie Fields, head of Georgia’s Christian Coalition, all prominent conservatives, who have a child who is a self-proclaimed homosexual. Julianne Malveax, writing for USA Today, castigates [...]

Shaking the Earth

“O God, I am thinking thy thoughts after thee.” – Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)[1] Two views of life dominate worldview thinking. The first view maintains that all that really matters is the world in which we live and the physical universe that surrounds us. Only those things that can be evaluated by the senses are real and ultimately important. Any other proposal for meaning beyond the [...]

W.D.T.B.S? (What Does the Bible Say?)

Stephanie Salter, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, attempts to instruct President Bush on what Jesus would do in terms of war based on the verse “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). It’s possible to disagree with President Bush’s decision to go to war against Iraq, but it’s not possible to argue that the civil magistrate cannot wage war against “all enemies, both [...]

Immoral Inclusion in the Name of Jesus

Rev. Joyce Hollyday, an associate conference minister for the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ and co-pastor of Circle of Mercy congregation in Asheville, North Carolina, is an advocate of “diversity” and “pluralism.” She doesn’t just mean ethnic and cultural inclusion within the body of Christ following Paul’s admonition that there is “ [...]

Going for the Head

In the 1950s, the John C. Winston company, later to become part of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, published “Adventures in Science Fiction,” a series of juvenile hardcover novels that made up a collection of thirty six books. Some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers got their start with the series: Arthur C. Clarke, best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ben Bova, Lester Del Rey, Don [...]

This is Not the Time to Pray

For decades, Christians have been reluctant to get involved in politics. These Christians either don’t vote or when they do vote they do so in terms of what government can do for them. Government is seen as their earthly savior. They are more concerned about where their next flu shot is coming from rather than the appointment of judges who with one vote can turn the Constitution on its head. [...]