By Henry Neufeld I really likes this article on MSNBC/Newsweek written by Patti Davis. Based on her own experience with becoming addicted and overcoming it, Davis looks at the celebrities going in and out of rehab and heading straight back into trouble.
Davis’s article has something that is often lacking in these discussions: An assumption that people are responsible for their choices. She says:
Abusing ourselves with any kind of substance abuse is a violation of the gift of life—it isn’t what any of us were put here for. And treating rehab like it’s just a strategic career move is practically blasphemous.
Good stuff. Yet we treat people who are massively irresponsible and regard getting by with their irresponsibility as a right as though their lives were worth watching. They deserve to be ignored. MSNBC should consider the irony of including a picture of Lindsey Lohan as an illustration. If they had a picture of her being arrested, perhaps. Otherwise, not.
By Henry Neufeld I have previously expressed my concerns about Bible classes in public schools, even as electives. These objections come from multiple directions. Because I support separation of church and state, I prefer to keep such classes out, even though in principle they have been held to be constitutional. As a Christian, I believe there is [...]
By Henry Neufeld One of the earliest things I learned in political science classes (I fell 4 quarter hours short of an undergraduate minor) was that the United States is not truly a democracy, but rather a republic, a representative form of government. It’s an important difference, and one that seems to fade in and out of [...]
By Henry Neufeld I was looking for something else, but I can’t resist posting this quote:
I advise you never to use the words wisdom, reason, or knowledge, by way of reproach. On the contrary, pray that you yourself may abound in them more and more. If you mean worldly wisdom, useless knowledge, false reasoning, say [...]
By Henry Neufeld Suzanne McCarthy has now responded to the latest objections to her work on Junia (Romans 16:7), a distinguished apostle and a woman. He whole series has been excellent, and I recommend it highly. You can go there for links to the various stages of this debate, including postings by her various critics.
The more [...]
By Henry Neufeld In A Tale of Two Museums the Evangelical Ecologist gives the following challenge to those of us who are Christians and accept the theory of evolution. (Yeah, that’s why we use “theistic evolutionist”–it takes less time to type!):
But clearly it’s not a scientific method that’s being debated here, though I suppose that’s part of it. At the root of the difference between these two museums is an infinitely divergent world view. One museum unabashedly acknowledges God as Creator and the Bible as a competent standard to establish the context for man’s place in the history of the biosphere. The other, not.
So to those of you espousing the evolutionary view, before you condemn in toto what the folks in Kentucky are doing, I offer this challenge: Gather like-minded souls together, raise $25 or so million dollars, and build a museum on a Biblically-based evolutionary model that expressly brings mankind closer to the Creator rather than driving people further away from Him.
But I have several problems with that challenge. First, the museum in Kentucky is not about acknowledging God as creator. If it was, they could do just that. It’s about acknowledging one interpretation of Genesis as superior to all forms of science. It is the scientific method that is being debated here. Young earth creationism is profoundly anti-science of all varieties.
Second, I don’t need the new Museum. I do not desire a science museum that acknowledges God. Where should it do so? Should there be an addition to each sign that says, “And God did it?” One of the great values in science is that anybody can do it, if they’re willing. Results must be replicable. A Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Christian, an Atheist all should be able to come to the same scientific conclusion. If they can’t, it’s either a bad conclusion, or one of them is not doing science.
I’m going to stick with the my own knowledge that my heavenly father made all this and let the science museums stick with describing it.
By Henry Neufeld Ten years in the U.S. Air Force have made me look differently at the news and feel differently on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day, of course, is to remember those who have fallen, but rarely do I attend a Memorial Day service any more at which there is not something done to [...]
By Henry Neufeld OK, as the parent of a Chicago Cubs player (John Webb, currently with the AAA Iowa Cubs), I have to link to this great post about baseball, God’s game. (HT to Moderate Christian Blogroll member Come to the waters.)
Of course, pay particular attention to this:
8. It has its Suffering Servant, viz. the Chicago Cubs, the “Cubbies,” a team annually “like a sheep led to the slaughter” (and crucial to the game is the play called the “sacrifice”). But “Cub fans love the Cubs, warts and all, no questions asked. This quality is called faith” (Peter Glenbock).
Of course my totally objective opinion is that the Cubs will win the world series again when they call John up. (I remind people that as a stepfather I am not subject to the normal failings of parents who have exaggerated opinions of their children’s abilities.) He has some big league time, but that was with the Devil Rays, not the Cubs.
By Henry Neufeld I blogged previously about the Answers in Genesis creation museum that’s going up in Kentucky in How to Waste $25 Million. Now the museum is about to be opened, and they held special events for the true believers yesterday.
This museum is a monument to the desire to avoid scientific evidence and to present [...]
By Henry Neufeld I found the following article interesting but in no way surprising:
Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released Friday by the Senate Select Committee on [...]
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Asides February 1 Christian Carnival Posted
(2012/2/2)
… at All Things New. Thanks to Deb for hosting! ()
Even-Tempered Response to Mark Driscoll
(2012/1/14)
Eddie Arthur provides an even-tempered response to a recent interview by Mark Driscoll. ()
I Can Haz - the Ontological Argument
(2011/12/30)
… or not. I’ve always thought the ontological argument for the existence of God was pretty silly, so I can’t resist linking to the kitteh version. ()
Is the American Church in Prison?
(2011/12/29)
Christians in many countries face imprisonment, but is it possible the American is imprisoned metaphorically by our way of thinking? Eric Carpenter thinks we are, and suggests some things to rethink.
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Worship Music Criticism Criticized
(2011/12/18)
… by Lisa Robinson. And she does a good job of it. ()
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