Click Here to Read my Blog | My ChristianPost Blog Entries

Sign up for Apologetics Newsletter

Anthony's Faith Statement.

Discussion Forum

Anthony in the media

Video Ministry
(And on Youtube...)

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.

What I don’t like about Santa Claus

Posted by Anthony on December 29, 2009

We don’t teach our kids that Santa Claus is ‘real’ but that doesn’t mean I find the idea horrid. See this post for my reasons for not raising my kids to ‘believe in Santa Claus’ and the ironical result that the oldest boy nonetheless… believes in Santa Claus.

Apart from the discussion linked above, this morning I was reminded of another element of the modern day Santa Claus phenom I don’t like.

We celebrated Christmas today as a family because we were traveling over the holiday. In the morning, my oldest- whom I just said believes in Santa despite our efforts- sized up the presents and counted the ones ‘from Santa.’ Some are listed as being from Santa just for his sake.

He didn’t spot any for one of his brothers and announced to the brother, “You must be on Santa’s naughty list because you don’t have any presents from him.” I confronted him immediately on this and then told his brother (who was beginning to tear up) that mommy and daddy were Santa Claus but, “Shhhhh, your brother doesn’t know that yet.” (This was said in the hearing of the eldest.)

While I like the idea of celebrating God’s gift to humanity by giving gifts to each other, the Santa Claus mythology has a twist that I just don’t appreciate: On Christmas we celebrate God’s free gift to a very naughty humanity that did nothing to deserve it and can do nothing to cause God to withhold it, but Santa Claus only gives his gifts to those who are not on his ‘naughty list.’

This is devilish twist of God’s grace that just bothers me and one more reason why we don’t tell our kids that Santa Claus is ‘real.’ Granted, this devilish twist doesn’t have to be there… parents could counter act it. I’m not here judging anyone, I’m just making an observation.