November 2008

“Is it not the great end of religion, and, in particular, the glory of Christianity, to extinguish the malignant passions; to curb the violence, to control the appetites, and to smooth the asperities of man; to make us compassionate and kind, and forgiving one to another; to make us good husbands, good fathers, good friends; and to render us active and useful in the discharge of the relative social and civil duties? ”

-William Wilberforce

According to the Baptist Press, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) sponsored a bill, which was subsequently signed into law by President Bush, that seeks to protect unborn babies who have been diagnosed with down syndrome or other conditions.

“The Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act requires parents who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or another disability to be provided the latest information regarding the condition and be informed of support services available. The law also establishes a registry of families willing to adopt children with special needs.”

Read more here.

OK, I know there are very few movies about this overlooked holiday, but if you and your family are looking for an informative and entertaining movie over the Thanksgiving break, you cannot do much better than The Mayflower Voyagers.

Then again, with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is pretty classic, as well…

Update: ABC is showing both, as a back-to-back holiday special, at 7 p.m. (CST) this Tuesday, Nov. 25!

Sarah Palin is taking some heat for doing a press interview in front of some turkeys being bled out on a turkey farm.  It seems some in the media find that offensive.  One quick-witted NRO reader had this to say,

She should tell the media that she apologizes and she’ll do her next interview inside an abortion clinic.

Zing!

Having just finished the work, I estimate otherwise, and believe The Shack could more appropriately be called a pilgrims regression. Why do I say that?

First, while the work paints itself as fiction, it is clearly designed to contain teachings about the nature of God. And it is the author’s (mis)understanding about God—especially the Trinity—that presents the most problems. I do not think it spoils the plot to tell you that, amid a great tragedy, the protagonist meets the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in a remote shack, each of whom is a separate person. The Father (or “Papa” as He is called) manifests Himself as a large, African-American woman with somewhat lacking grammar. The Son, meanwhile, is presented as a sort of fuzzy teddy bear, and the Holy Ghost (also a woman) is nebulous and even apologizes at one point to “Mack,” the main character. There is also a dialogue in which the Holy Spirit is approvingly equated to the legendary American Indian’s Great Spirit.

Read the rest of this entry »

A special thanks to Brian Hobbs for passing along a story from The Baptist Messenger’s Bob Nigh.

Along with passing the proclamation to emphasize prayer for the next President of the United States, Oklahoma Southern Baptists also heard a passionate address from BGCO President Alton Fannin, pastor of FBC Ardmore.  Read the rest of this entry »

I had the wonderful experience of attending the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma annual meeting in Broken Arrow, Okla. Personally, it was a great experience for many reasons.

One reason I would like to share with our blog readers is my appreciation of a resolution that BGCO messengers passed. I am truly thankful for the conservative values represented by Oklahoma Baptists, and they were emphasized in many of the proposed resolutions. But one resolution holds significant encouragement.

Read the rest of this entry »

It always amazes me how many versions of the Bible there are to purchase. They come in so many different shapes and sizes.

This latest version, The Green Letter Bible, though, boggles my mind. Essentially, it is produced from all-natural materials, and the ink is made of soy. Where it gets controversial is, instead of highlighting the words of Christ in red, it highlights verses that relate to the environment.

Another red flag for me, so to speak, was that Emerging Church liberal Brian McLaren was part of the project. But decide for yourself.

The Family Research Council thinks so.

A new analysis says, “The traditional, historic, and natural definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman was a winner on Election Day, despite the simultaneous victories for Democrats in capturing the White House and expanding their majority in Congress.”

Read the rest here.

In a key vote that our blog has been following closely, “South Dakota voters once again rejected a proposed law that would have banned most abortions.” Read the rest here.

Also, “Voters [in Washington] approved Initiative 1000, an assisted suicide measure that would make Washington the second state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patients seeking to hasten their deaths.” If you can take it, read more here.

Lastly, Colorado rejected a pro-life “persohood amendment.” Read about it here.

Happy Election Day, to the brightest readership on the Web.

OK, I’ll admit this is trite to say, but… we implore you to vote today. I’d hasten to remind you not only to vote, but vote pro-life.

May God help us.

“If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.”

-the late British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan

Over at Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good, Maggie Gallagher, President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, and President of the National Organization for Marriage, has an excellent article titled, Marriage Matters: For Kids, for Parents, and for Religious Liberty.  If you are one of the ones wondering what the fuss is all about, this article should give you a very nice introduction to the issue, which goes well beyond “fairness.”  Some highlights:

• Marriage between a man and a woman is rooted in our nature–”in biology, not bigotry”–sex between men and women makes babies, society needs babies, and babies need a father as well as a mother. But the proponents of same-sex marriage want the government to declare in law that there is no difference between same-sex and opposite-sex unions, and anyone who thinks otherwise is promoting bigotry. This will have major ramifications for those who believe in marriage in the traditional sense–especially religious citizens and organizations.
• Equality, especially racial equality, trumps religious liberty in our constitutional scheme. Indeed just a few weeks after declaring that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right (because sexual orientation is a protected class just like race), the California Supreme Court explicitly affirmed that the government has the right and obligation to punish a Christian doctor who refused to perform the insemination procedure on a lesbian couple. Treating two women in a union any differently than a husband and wife is now the same as discriminating on the basis of race under California law–and it is a well-established principle of law that religious beliefs do not give an individual or an institution a right to violate norms of racial equality.
• Everyone acknowledged that a union of a black man to a white woman could be a marriage–which is why these unions had to be banned to maintain a racial classification system in the law. Calling same-sex unions ”marriages,” by contrast, requires the law to redefine the very meaning of the word, and to strip marriage as a public, legal status of its ancient, honorable, and distinctive relationship to responsible procreation.

You should read the whole article to see how this attempt at redefining marriage will affect you, your family and your church.  It won’t be pretty.