A brief Introduction:While studying to be a pastor in college I abandoned my faith. In fact, I abandoned everything I thought I believed and rebuilt.
To my own surprise at the time, I found that Christianity was much stronger than I had thought. As I rebuilt my belief system, I realized that there needed to be people out there responding to the questions people have. I had them myself. So, while not continuing on to be a pastor, I have focused on educating people about what Christianity is all about and responding to the various charges and accusations made against it.
There are some obvious challenges to being successful in that capacity, but a big part of it consists not in arguing with atheists and skeptics, but rather in providing Christians with accurate information in the first place to prevent them from leaving the faith in the first place.
Questioning is a very normal and natural part of growing up, and I am convinced that it is not wrong to ask questions of God at any age. God doesn't strike people down. On the other hand, if people are going to reject Christianity, it is my aim to at least make sure they reject the real Christianity and not a false view of it. Also, much heartache can be avoided by educating Christians properly to begin with. My experience has helped me... but it was unnecessary.
Paul said that some plant, some water, and others reap the increase. My job is to go out into the land and move rocks- or break them if necessary- till the land, and struggle through knee deep fertilizer... all in the effort to allow those who come later to plant, water, and reap the harvest. I look forward to the prospects of either serving you as someone who needs to haul rocks out of the field, or as someone who can look at the field, detect problems, and help farmers more effectively plant, water, and reap.
It may seem that something like health care is well out of bounds of a Christian apologetics ministry but it is not true. The divorce made between faith and politics, often made by Christians themselves, is usually wrong headed. That is not to say that I advocate a ‘theocracy.’ It is to say that there is a clear connection between beliefs and actions, and ideologies and consequences. The current health care debate illustrates this very well in that a person’s preferred solution often depends on one’s overall ideology.
Not all ideologies are created equal. Some result in increased freedom for all. Others result in slavery. Sometimes the ideology leads people to embrace slavery as being less harmful than the cost of freedom. Sometimes, people get hurt. And that’s generally bad, and something that I as a Christian apologist should like to try to prevent if I can.
Many folks seem to concede that turning over the management of our health to the Government is giving up some of our personal freedoms, ie, a form of slavery… but the need is great and so the ’solution’ justifiable. When you object to this ‘soft tyranny‘ the retort is: “Oh yea? What is your solution?”
This always strikes me as in the “When did you stop beating your wife” category. I can almost see the Nazis standing over the trenches, ready to slaughter another hundred Jews; one bystander protests and the Nazis retort, “Oh yea? What is your solution?” Uh, well… This is not to say that all those pushing for American Socialism have in mind National Socialism. I’m just trying to illustrate the principle.
I’ve been announcing the winners of the Athanatos Christian Ministry’s Christian writing contest but failed to do so right here on ACM’s very own blog. Oops.
Over $2,000 in awards are being disbursed (in fact, checks are in the mail) and the winner’s entries can all be read online.
The 2010 contest is also already accepting applications.
There are plenty of folks about insisting that there is a universal right to health care. Obviously, health care is a hot topic right now, but the question of ‘rights’ permeates many other areas of our existence, so I thought I would address it. I doubt I break any new ground, but it’s on my chest and I want it off.
We have no rights. At least, not strictly speaking. If there is a God, he has as much ‘right’ to destroy us as to sustain us. If there isn’t a God, we have no more rights than an antelope being chased by a lion. Whether there is a God, or isn’t, we have no rights.
However, if there is a God, we can have rights relative to each other, if also God has bestowed them. In this case, for all practical purposes, we do have rights, and no one of us can change that, though we can refuse to acknowledge it. The rights are not intrinsic to ourselves but are imparted from a higher authority and no lower authority can abolish them. If there is a God, we might plausibly talk about something like health care being a ‘universal right.’
Many of the people insisting that health care is a universal right don’t believe in God. Read the rest of the entry… »
I haven’t chimed in on the health care debate but I don’t suppose my regular readers believe I haven’t any strong feelings on the matter. Let me represent a line of thinking that I haven’t heard even among the most strident opponents to the legislation being advocated by the current administration.
I was spurred on to post this because events are unfolding which I predicted privately but I won’t get any credit for, and I should like a little.
Namely, this morning the news reports that Obama is willing to ‘consider’ taking the public option off the table. Already the section that apparently gave doctors a material motive for having ‘end of life’ conversations has been dropped. I said privately that I thought that the final health care bill would be vastly different: As presented, it would include as many of the liberal and socialistic dream policies as they think they might reasonably be able to get passed, but as passed, a large number of these would be dispensed; but many would be retained.
This may strike the average, patriotic American, as fair. Compromise is one of those things that we think fair play requires. There is only one big problem: liberals who are operating on the activist play book (Read: Obama standing on Alinksy’s shoulders), have an entirely different notion of ‘compromise’ then the average fair minded American. Consider this long quote from Alinksy’s bookRules for Radicals:
…to the organizer, compromise is a key and beautiful word. It is always present in the pragmatics of operation. It is making the deal, getting that vital breather, usually the victory. If you start with nothing, demand 100 per cent, then compromise to 30 per cent, you’re 30 percent ahead. (pg 59 emphasis mine)
I’ve been getting some hits on my site regarding a past post about Rowling’s outing of Dumbledore as ‘gay.’ I couldn’t figure out but having scanned the news a bit I guess I get it. Some readers have taken offense to my ruminating about Rowling’s motives in having Dumbledore as gay, wondering if perhaps she was just trying to stick it to Christians.
I don’t know if that was her reason. But my post rankled some people, getting me accused of being arrogant, egocentric, ignorant, and most bizarrely, a liberal Christian. Wow, can’t remember the last time that charge was leveled.
Like I said, I don’t know if that was her reason. Honestly, I’m still waiting to hear the reason. I’d love to hear the reason. If it was some ploy towards the ‘acceptance’ themes in her books, then the brave and right thing to do was to have outed him in the series itself, and not afterwards. Learning that he was gay adds nothing that I can think of. If someone is aware of any place where she explains this, I’d be happy to hear it.
But imagine my surprise when I read that I am not the only person wondering about Rowling’s motives and speculating that perhaps it was just to rile up a certain segment of the population. None other then Daniel Radcliffe himself, the actor who plays Harry Potter in the movies, said,
“I think it’s wonderful that Dumbledore was outed as gay … Half of me thinks Rowling just did that to see if she could p*ss off the right-wing, but I’m not sure how true that is. I think she had it planned, I think she always knew he was gay.”
That Daniel Radcliffe! He’s so arrogant, egocentric, and ignorant! Oh, and a liberal Christian! Can you believe that guy? Positing ‘dark agendas’ is just ridiculous…
Well, and perhaps it is. But the reason for the speculation is that the ‘outing’ is positively mystifying. Besides simply not adding anything to an understanding of the series, if anything it darkens it. For example, I actually read someone wondering if Dumbledore’s interest in Harry wasn’t exactly platonic, if you get my gist. Ridiculous?
Well, I would have thought so until Rowlings started issuing post hoc revelations re-interpreting the text.
Anyway, I don’t know what Rowling’s motives were (both in conceiving of Dumbledore as gay and in revealing it) and would be happy if someone could direct me to any statements of her’s that clear it up.
I wanted to alert regular readers of this blog that if they are a Missouri resident, they will have the opportunity to hear me present in the Jefferson City area August 9th and in Lincoln, MO, on August 10th.
On August 9th, I will be speaking at Trinity Lutheran Church in Jefferson City during their Bible Study hour. The topic will be pro-life in nature with some apologetics thrown in.
That afternoon, from 2-4 p.m., I will be speaking at Faith Lutheran in Jefferson City. The title and description of this session is
“Life and Life to the Fullest!” The Value of an intelligent Pro-Life Witness and Keeping Teens Closer to Jesus and the Church
In Lincoln on the 10th, at Heit’s Point Lutheran camp, I will be speaking from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., telling the story of the birth of our daughter, who was born with spina bifida. Like Down Syndrome children, spina bifida children are often aborted, many times at the strong suggestion of doctors, nurses, and even relatives. For more about this aspect of my story you can pick up my book, We Chose Life: Why You Should Too, at http://www.wechoselife.com
For an example of a presentation that I’ve given, you may watch this video of a presentation I delivered at a St. Louis area Lutheran high school in the spring:
Besides a CP blogger, I am also the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries. I am proud to announce that our ministry will be hosting its first annual online apologetics conference this May, 2010. […]
I’ve been remiss.
