Audio of July 14th KFUO interview

Posted by Anthony on July 15, 2010

Below is the MP3 of the KFUO radio broadcast on July 14th.  My segment is the last one, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The topic is, broadly, ‘the uniqueness of Christianity.’

  July 14th KFUO Interview (12.5 MiB, 21 hits)

KFUO radio 5:30 p.m. July 14; The uniqueness of Christianity

Posted by Anthony on July 14, 2010

I’ll be on KFUO radio at 5:30 p.m. on July 14, 2010 discusing the uniqueness of Christianity.  Listen here:  http://www.kfuoam.org/TT_Main.htm

I’ll update this with the archived file when I have it.

A Heart Like the King

Posted by kathym on July 8, 2010

I wonder if we realize how vast God’s love is for humanity. Beyond those who believe, but those who aren’t sure or do not (for whatever reason).

I imagine one of my kids walking along a path and me placing sure footing in front of each step they take. Even if they hated me I would still do it. Even if they committed the worst sin I would still do it.

I think there is too much Pharisaical thinking in a lot of us today. When one of us goes down, or at the very least, does not look like what we think they should, we are ready to form an opinion.

I think God is very different. I know God is very different.

When anyone “went down” in the Bible, God’s response is not how I often see responses today. We take David’s adultery and murder as our reference point; forgetting about guys like Saul of Tarsus and Peter.

And concerning anyone who was not status quo, Jesus didn’t seem to get as ruffled as we do today. We’re ready to label some people as rebellious or fill-in-the-blank, without getting all the details (and do we need to know all the details?)

Much of this we base on Old Testament examples. Not that I am dismissing the OT. Just saying.

Imagine that God is thinking differently about humanity than we do with our interpretations and opinions; our revelations and enlightenments. I think that God is continually going out of His way to rearrange the messes we get ourselves in to make it right or at least make it better for our souls.

I think that God is placing sure footing in front of each step we take. All of us. Everyone.

That may make us glad. Or, we may find ourselves sitting outside the city waiting for its destruction and have to find out that the heart of the King is to provide a quick growing plant to shade us from the heat.

We quickly and silently form opinions as to why someone is in the predicament they are in. I wonder if most of the time God really doesn’t care as to the why as much as He does as to how He will bring brighter days our way. It may be as simple as the close of a horrible day filled with everything going wrong, and seeing a ball of orangey red setting behind the trees, displaying cotton candy clouds that lift your child-like heart, promising a better tomorrow. Or a billion stars in the summer sky as if to reflect the thousands of fireflys dancing in the air. All a reminder of a God that is watching us and even cheering for us. Because He has the bird’s eye view; the end from the beginning. And it was love that prompted His dying for sinful man and it is love that continues to cover sinful man.

I imagine Chrisitans everywhere displaying that same kind of love. ‘Cuz most of the time we don’t have it. Love that covers, not exposes. Thoughts and intents, words and actions that are not critical, filled with snobby opinions, but sincerely placing the interests of another front and center.

If we’re going to use the OT as a resource, then perhaps we should consider Job’s three, so-called friends that analyzed his situation and came to some conclusions that ended up being dead wrong.

Interesting- they shall know Me by your love for one another. Do we do much better than the world? Really? There’s a whole lot of kindness going on out there. How do we rate in comparison?

I think we could do much better. Can’t we always do better? The letters to the churches in Revelation seem to suggest we can. And it’s not doing, doing, doing in prove a point. It’s having a heart like the King.

A Christian Defense of Capitalism? Or Just Freedom?

Posted by Anthony on July 6, 2010

I posted a column this morning at the Cypress Times explaining why I so often come down on the side of ‘capitalism.’

In this essay, I’d like discuss what I really believe the relationship between capitalism and Christianity is, and if anyone likes what I have to say, you can make up for my loss of friends on Facebook by becoming my new friends. 

In truth, I am not interested at all in ‘capitalism.’ I am interested in freedom. I know that economists and dictionaries describe capitalism as an ‘economic system’ that can be set against socialism, communism, fascism, etc, but I don’t think of it in that way at all. In these latter examples, the common thread of the ‘isms’ is that the government itself is DOING something whereas in capitalism the basic notion is that the government is NOT DOING anything. In its purest, laissez-faire form, capitalism is just business without restrictions or interference of any kind from the government. (I doubt we’ve ever seen anything of the sort ever actually implemented, by the way).

To me, as a Christian, my first thought is simply this: on what basis do I have to restrict my fellow man in any way?

Now, I am quite certain that the Christian Scriptures do not hold up any economic or political ‘system’ as ideal. I’m equally certain that Christians are given no expectation that we could ever reach that ideal- or even that it is worth our time and effort to even try. Christians are called to serve each other and do good as they have opportunity no matter what situation that they find themselves in. There is no warrant in the Scriptures for Christians to try to erect or tinker with ‘systems.’  We are not on a quest for Utopia.

Read the rest of the column.

Violence is never the answer: Except when it is…

Posted by Anthony on June 24, 2010

Here is a post that is a long time coming.  First some caveats:  my target audience here is the Bible-believing Christian, namely the kind that takes the Scriptures as authoritative.  That said, I believe that Christianity manifests the true account of the moral code, and as such I think that what follows might apply to non-Christians, too.

Ok, now, this will sound like a weird place to start, but stick with me a moment.  I consider myself a conservative (although more precisely, a libertarian-constitutionalist-voluntaryist) but I wasn’t always one.  I grew up on default… that is, more or less as a liberal, especially on political and economic issues.  What changed?  Well, when I came to the place where I decided that Truth mattered, I realized that my belief system should, to the best of my ability, resemble reality.

This notion that I should adjust my mind to the world as it really was was really critical in shaping how I’ve come now.  You see, there are lots of things that I wished were the case.  Unfortunately, they aren’t.  For example, I might wish that the members of the government can be trusted to look after the interests of the citizens, but it just isn’t the case.  (Formative for me on this point was Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky).  History and today’s newspaper reveal otherwise.

I have learned that in life, actions have consequences.  I can try to shut my eyes to them and hope that by magic this time the action will have a different consequence (the one that I wished would happen) or I can accept reality.  Accepting reality made me into a conservative.

Now, I say all of this in prelude because in this post I’m going to tackle something that I think even conservatives don’t get right a lot of times.  I have heard liberals and pacifists and progressives all say something very similar to… “Violence is never the answer.”   But I have heard conservatives say it, too.  A quick google search reveals people across the spectrum making this statement.

But every sane person knows that, in fact, there are times when violence is the answer.  Even most insane people know that sometimes violence is the answer.

So what we have here is a sentiment that is casually flung around that nearly all of us know isn’t true.  In short, in saying such a thing, we are out of touch with reality.  And one of the things I’ve learned about holding sentiments that don’t actually mesh with the real world is that inevitably bad things result.  For example, if you think that you can step in front of a bus going 70 mph without getting hurt, a bad thing will result.  Some times, the ‘bad things’ aren’t immediate or clear, but never fear, God cannot be mocked:  we reap what we sow. Read the rest of the entry… »

KFUO AM radio interview on the existence of God

Posted by Anthony on June 18, 2010

Yesterday I was on KFUO AM radio out of St. Louis, MO.  You can listen to the segment here:

  KFUOInterviewJune17 (12.5 MiB, 34 hits)

I believe I’m in the first half of the segment.

Topic:  “Can you prove there is a God?”

We could tackle this topic another 3 times before we’ve covered a fraction of what could be said.

The Living and the Dead and Rational Thought

Posted by Anthony on June 17, 2010

One of the things I’ve come to realize is the truth of this statement:

As the dead do not know the living, or even that they themselves are dead, so too irrationality does not know rationality.

Augustine argued that evil was not a ‘thing-in-itself’ but always some good thing that has been corrupted.  Evil is a direction away from good.  I think he is right about that and I know now that there are many examples of the same principle.  Rationality and Irrationality are one example.  The Living and the Dead, another.  Morality and Immorality yet one more.  I’m sure there are others, and now that I am more alert to the principle I’ll keep my eye out for them.

But it does raise interesting questions:  if the dead do not know they are dead how are you to proceed if you are a live person in the business of raising the dead?