May 2009

Last year, I posted a blog about the show Jon & Kate Plus 8. Like many who are up on Jon and Kate’s recent marital problem, I do feel for the Gosselins, including their twins and sextuplets.

What I believe to be the best thing for the reality TV couple to do is cancel the show. Many will disagree with me or give a negative response, knowing they won’t cancel, especially after the recent season premiere scored a rating of 10 million viewers. That would be all the more reason for this media mayhem to end. There is too much attention and not enough support to help them heal and restore their marriage. That can only happen in private.

I know this won’t happen overnight. It would be a long process to get out of public viewing, but it can start if they will allow it.

Lynn Roush also gives a solid Christian perspective about the Gosselins, their show and healing their marriage.

Rush Limbaugh is one of the most polarizing figures in American politics. The Left simply can’t stand him. As soon as his name comes up, so does an inordinate amount of bile. Almost without exception in some circles. It was no surprise then, that Rush’s suggestion to Colin Powell to “go be a Democrat” has caused much consternation, even from some on the right. The GOP, we’re told, must be more inclusive! “Stop pushing out people who disagree with you,” critics tell us. I think that’s horrible advice, and I’m not alone.

Read the rest of this entry »

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

– C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters

“Are Christians being more influenced by Jack Bauer than Jesus Christ?” a new Christianity Today piece asks.

“A new survey shows most churchgoers support torture.” Read more about this disturbing trend here.

Bill Shuler gives 10 provoking points that I hope encourage more people to value the sanctity of life. As he says, “There is no higher standard that a nation can adopt than to value and to protect life.”

One of my favorite authors and professors, Dr. Timothy Paul Jones, answers “How should Christians respond to the new movie Angels & Demons?” You can read his entire press release here, but for a taste:

“As in The Da Vinci Code, Brown blends history and fiction so smoothly that it’s difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. The difficulty comes when readers fail to explore the claims and inadvertently trust fiction as a fact. According to Angels and Demons, ‘References to all works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome are entirely factual, and the brotherhood of the Illuminati is also factual,’” says Jones.

The Illuminati

“In Angels and Demons, The Illuminati is depicted as an organization that began in the 1500’s, whereas it actually began in 1776,” Jones says.

Persecution of Galileo?

“And as for the supposed persecution of Galileo: While Galileo was correct that the earth moved around the sun, his reasoning was wrong. Galileo’s ‘proof’ was the movement of the ocean; he said that the tides came in and out because they were sloshing around on a spinning earth. We know now that that’s not what causes the tides. He was never tortured, and he wasn’t convicted in court because of scientific irregularities. It was because he lied under oath. He was exiled to a luxuriant villa where he carried out scientific research until the day of his death.”

The Death of Copernicus

“Angels and Demons declares that Copernicus was murdered by the Roman Catholic Church for his scientific research when, in truth, Copernicus was a Polish priest who died a natural death,” Jones says.

Me: Dr. Jones provides some worthy analysis. Yet unlike The Da Vinci Code,  this movie seems to be drawing a yawn from critics, the media, Christian apologists. Just about everybody, including me.

“America may have a president and Congress that support abortion rights, but a new Gallup poll suggests that for the first time such a stance is not the majority view.”

Gallup said on Friday that a new poll, conducted May 7 to 10, found “51 percent of Americans calling themselves ‘pro-life’ on the issue of abortion and 42 percent ‘pro-choice.’ This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.”

“The new results, obtained from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50 percent were pro-choice and 44 percent pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46 percent, in both August 2001 and May 2002.”

by Morris H. Chapman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)– I am truly amazed at the excellence of many of our Christian colleges and universities. I serve as a trustee of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and we have remarkable students from around the world and a first-class faculty to train them. Several times throughout the year we send out graduates who will elevate the professionalism in their respective fields but also who will transform the world with the message of the Gospel.

But in celebrating accomplishments like these, I now wonder if our focus in the evangelical community should shift at least in part from training our children during the transition to adulthood to placing greater emphasis on training up a child in the way he should go. I’m not advocating the neglect of what we have already established in higher education, but simply a course correction in an area that seems to have suffered neglect — the protection and nurturing of the spiritual health and growth of children and adolescents. In far too many public schools throughout the country our children are being bombarded with secular reasoning, situational ethics and moral erosion.

Read the rest here.

“The Bible Answer Man” radio program broadcasts on weekdays from 5-6 p.m. (CST).

It is arguably the most insightful program in Christian Talk radio. Even if I do not agree with him on every single issue, Hank Hanegraaff, has done much to defend the faith and is an indispensable apologist.

This Wednesday and Thursday, he is going to take on major skeptics who are attacking the veracity of the Scriptures. Read more about the program here.

“There is no room for torture as part of the United States’ intelligence gathering process, in Richard Land’s view. The practice known as ‘waterboarding’ is torture, he said.” Read the rest here.

Excepting his views on the Red River Shootout, I think I may have never disagreed with the man.

First Things has an important read on how to create a family-center economy in America today. Let’s just say the Cato Institute would not agree with their touting the policy planks proposed by the likes of Ramesh Ponnuru, Ross Douthat, and Reihan Salamsuch.

Here was the crescendo moment of the piece:

The conservative movement today seems weaker than at any time since Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater. There are no free-marketeers in the foxholes, and it is hard to find an economist of any stripe who does not believe that the government must provide some kind of economic stimulus and rescue the financial system.

But the present crisis also might present the conservative movement with the greatest opportunity it has had since Ronald Reagan took office.

Christianity Today interviews “Joe the Plumber,” a fixture of the 2008 circus, I mean campaign. Glad to see he is a professing Christian.

I submitted this to The Oklahoman, which seems to have passed on it, so here it is
The Oklahoman published my thoughts on The Flaming Lips Flap:

I learned something in the last couple of weeks. I learned that one Oklahoma band likes the Communist party. I also learned that some Oklahomans like bands that like the Communist party, as well as that the State House does not. Most importantly, I learned that when the State House “snubs” a band that likes the Communist party, we have a governor that will swoop in and save them. Sadly, that same governor is sympathetic to those who like to destroy human life in the name of economic growth. Maybe if we wrap those embryos in the Hammer and Sickle our fine governor could be bothered to protect them.