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Anthony's Faith Statement.

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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.

Should Christian Parents Encourage Children to Believe in Santa Claus?

Posted by Anthony on December 17, 2008

I noticed that I was getting some traffic related to this question that is linked to my recent post comparing and contrasting Santa Claus with Jesus, arguing that in spite of atheistic pot shots about the difference between belief in Santa and belief in Jesus is that kids grow out of belief in Santa, the fact is that there is historical evidence for Santa- and even more evidence for Jesus.

But these searchers want to know if Christians should promote the belief in the commercialized myth of Santa.

Personally, I would answer as ‘No. No, you should not.’ The reasons are varied. For one thing, I think that the general rule is that parents ought to tell their children the truth about reality. Believe it or not, but I have actually encountered atheists- in real life and online- who indicated that finding out that ‘Santa isn’t real’ undermined their certainty in the existence of God and in Jesus’ resurrection. You don’t have to believe it and you don’t have to agree with these atheists in the extension of their logic, but nontheless, there they are.

As indicated in the previous blog entry (linked above) I think that there is value, however, in pointing out that there was in fact a historical person behind the Santa story. I expect that this will have the opposite effect of what I just described, where young people will see that their parents tell the truth, but also that just because something is old doesn’t mean it isn’t true or valid. Though no one when pressed admits that they are dismissing something (ie, like the idea that Jesus even existed) merely because the data is old, in actual attitude that is precisely why they are dismissing it. Examples of this are a dime a dozen. By explaining that can distinguish between fact and fantasy from the historical record most of the time, one puts themselves in a position where they can lay important groundwork for trusting the New Testament accounts.

You might say that it seems a little ridiculous to be worried about such things when we’re just talking about something as innocent as Santa Claus but the facts are what they are. Read the rest of the entry… »