Here's my most recent blog post, which I posted on the website of the church that I pastor at:
http://www.huronbaptistchurch.org/pastors-ponderings/2012/8/1/wwjw-what-wouldnt-jesus-watch.html
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Is Canada a Moral Sinkhole?... or, the Making of a Moral Malaise
There have been 2 shocking decisions by Canadian courts recently that, disturbingly, don't seem to actually have many people shocked. I'm sure if I were to say that Canada is in a woeful moral decline there would be those that balk, and yet as I read about Canada taking the final steps into legally endorsing open prostitution and, far worse yet, barely punishing the open murder of a healthy and fully born baby (to use only two examples), I can come to no other conclusion.
How Did We Get Here?!
How did we come to a place where people are not at their MP's and MPP's doors outraged at such legal decisions? How is it that a mother who strangled her baby to death and threw the body over a fence into her neighbor's yard is given barely any jail time* and Canadians nationwide barely seem to care? And even that short sentence is referred to by her lawyer as "unjust" and "almost mean".
And how has our nation come to the point where we don't see a problem with people selling themselves sexually? What possible line of logic is there that makes it acceptable amongst decent people to condone people paying women to have sex with them?
*Note: Through the various news articles I read I wasn't able to get a clear indication of exact time she spent in jail, but 3 year suspended sentence was referenced as well as references that seemed to indicate time spent under some sort of supervision at home.
Step by Step
Sadly, the progression down the ever lowering moral path seems to have a pretty easy history to follow. For decades we tell people that sex isn't really a sacred thing to happen only within marriage. That's old-fashioned, archaic even. We reinforce that constantly through movies and tv, with a sitcom that even has it's six main characters have 85 sexual partners altogether in just 10 years (cuz, y'know, that's healthy and normal). And as we're minimizing sex that way we also loosen up further by more and more freely dispersing explicit sexual material over the years. After all, if it's okay for people to get paid to have sex in order for porn to get made, how exactly is that meaningfully different from prostitution?
On the other issue it started decades ago with the argument that unborn babies weren't really babies, just "tissue", or "fetuses". So getting rid of that is okay. So by that twist of logic the door is opened. Years pass of it becoming increasingly normal and common, and suddenly I noticed in arguments that the old lie isn't even being used anymore. After all, with our increases in technology it's become ridiculous to still try and claim that the unborn baby isn't, in fact, a baby. Now it's just become so common and people so desensitized that we'll admit we're killing babies, but for some reason that's okay. So then the story of a mother strangling her healthy, newborn baby to death comes up and, instead of shock, we get a judge giving virtually no sentence and comparing what she did to abortion. And we get British ethicists saying that killing a baby is no different from abortion (to which I agree), and then concluding that we should never do either.... no that'd be silly, what they actually concluded was that people should have the right to do both. Yes, they actually argue that parents should be allowed to kill their newborn babies. This is what the bright minds of ethicists for Oxford University concluded.
After all, if we can kill babies in the womb, and we can kill babies in the middle of being born, why wouldn't it be okay to just kill them after they're born too?
Brave New World
As I consider these two issues, and the many more I could have used as examples, I can't help but think of the atheists that I've talked with who insist that God isn't needed to have morals and a moral society, and there are better moral foundations than the long-held teachings of the Bible. And then I look at the "progress" our society has made and shudder. In just a few decades we've gone as a culture from valuing the morals of sex only within marriage, to mocking the idea and giving the okay to prostitution, pimps (we'll call them bodyguards for prostitutes though, because it sounds more civilized) and brothels. And we've gone from valuing life above all to throwing a suspended sentence to a person who threw her dead baby over a fence.
Unless there is a major spiritual re-awakening in our culture can we honestly expect things to get anything but worse?
Addendum
A friend of mine who read this suggested I should add in what the solution to all of this is, saying that if there isn't one it looks like I'm just complaining. I disagree in that trying to wake people up to the reality of what's happening around them is more than complaining, but nonetheless the common sense suggestions are also the obvious ones: First and foremost, prayer. Second, speaking up to your government representatives in any way you can, until hopefully somebody somewhere starts to listen. Here's a handy website that lets you find your local MP using your postal code.
How Did We Get Here?!
How did we come to a place where people are not at their MP's and MPP's doors outraged at such legal decisions? How is it that a mother who strangled her baby to death and threw the body over a fence into her neighbor's yard is given barely any jail time* and Canadians nationwide barely seem to care? And even that short sentence is referred to by her lawyer as "unjust" and "almost mean".
And how has our nation come to the point where we don't see a problem with people selling themselves sexually? What possible line of logic is there that makes it acceptable amongst decent people to condone people paying women to have sex with them?
*Note: Through the various news articles I read I wasn't able to get a clear indication of exact time she spent in jail, but 3 year suspended sentence was referenced as well as references that seemed to indicate time spent under some sort of supervision at home.
Step by Step
Sadly, the progression down the ever lowering moral path seems to have a pretty easy history to follow. For decades we tell people that sex isn't really a sacred thing to happen only within marriage. That's old-fashioned, archaic even. We reinforce that constantly through movies and tv, with a sitcom that even has it's six main characters have 85 sexual partners altogether in just 10 years (cuz, y'know, that's healthy and normal). And as we're minimizing sex that way we also loosen up further by more and more freely dispersing explicit sexual material over the years. After all, if it's okay for people to get paid to have sex in order for porn to get made, how exactly is that meaningfully different from prostitution?
On the other issue it started decades ago with the argument that unborn babies weren't really babies, just "tissue", or "fetuses". So getting rid of that is okay. So by that twist of logic the door is opened. Years pass of it becoming increasingly normal and common, and suddenly I noticed in arguments that the old lie isn't even being used anymore. After all, with our increases in technology it's become ridiculous to still try and claim that the unborn baby isn't, in fact, a baby. Now it's just become so common and people so desensitized that we'll admit we're killing babies, but for some reason that's okay. So then the story of a mother strangling her healthy, newborn baby to death comes up and, instead of shock, we get a judge giving virtually no sentence and comparing what she did to abortion. And we get British ethicists saying that killing a baby is no different from abortion (to which I agree), and then concluding that we should never do either.... no that'd be silly, what they actually concluded was that people should have the right to do both. Yes, they actually argue that parents should be allowed to kill their newborn babies. This is what the bright minds of ethicists for Oxford University concluded.
After all, if we can kill babies in the womb, and we can kill babies in the middle of being born, why wouldn't it be okay to just kill them after they're born too?
Brave New World
As I consider these two issues, and the many more I could have used as examples, I can't help but think of the atheists that I've talked with who insist that God isn't needed to have morals and a moral society, and there are better moral foundations than the long-held teachings of the Bible. And then I look at the "progress" our society has made and shudder. In just a few decades we've gone as a culture from valuing the morals of sex only within marriage, to mocking the idea and giving the okay to prostitution, pimps (we'll call them bodyguards for prostitutes though, because it sounds more civilized) and brothels. And we've gone from valuing life above all to throwing a suspended sentence to a person who threw her dead baby over a fence.
Unless there is a major spiritual re-awakening in our culture can we honestly expect things to get anything but worse?
Addendum
A friend of mine who read this suggested I should add in what the solution to all of this is, saying that if there isn't one it looks like I'm just complaining. I disagree in that trying to wake people up to the reality of what's happening around them is more than complaining, but nonetheless the common sense suggestions are also the obvious ones: First and foremost, prayer. Second, speaking up to your government representatives in any way you can, until hopefully somebody somewhere starts to listen. Here's a handy website that lets you find your local MP using your postal code.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Book Review: Is God a Moral Monster by Dr Paul Copan
I haven’t done a blog post in a while, but I’ve been spurred into action by having read an excellent and provocative book by Paul Copan entitled “Is God a Moral Monster: Making Sense of the Old Testament God”. If you’ve ever heard about the supposedly terrible things that God did in the Bible, or ever wondered about the seemingly bizarre food laws, or if you’ve ever squiggled uncomfortably at the many mentions of slavery in the Bible, this book is for you. Many of the major attacks portraying God as a sadistic being or the Bible as a morally out of date relic are addressed in this work, and Copan manages to cover it all surprisingly in less than 250 pages.
Throughout the book Dr Copan strives to be “reasonably popular-level” while dealing with the most challenging passages of the Old Testament, in particular with the issues and arguments as they are often spitefully phrased by the New Atheists. The comfortably low page count is probably a part of Dr Copan’s plan of keeping it as an easily accessible book, and for the most part he succeeds in that goal. Dr Copan reaches a comfortable middle ground of using a scholarly level of argumentation and citation while using language and phrasing that doesn’t require a philosophy degree to follow.
One of the first questions I ask when considering the content of a book is who the author is and what his qualifications are on the subject. In this case I’m pleased to say that Dr Copan is stands up to scrutiny. He earned his PhD from Marquette University and is the professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. He’s also the author of more than a dozen books on religious philosophy and editor of many more. Qualified? Check.
Content? There are many touchy subjects and the toughest Bible passages addressed here: God’s rage and jealousy, why in the world were clams and other seemingly random foods forbidden by God to the Israelites, multiple chapters are dedicated to addressing each slavery and supposedly ethnic cleansing ordered by God. Copan goes about this by pointing out the mistaken views that are held when one comes to the text either so casually as to not take other passages into consideration, or with a bias toward only proving the Bible to be barbaric. For a brief example: Copan points out when slavery is mentioned in the Bible people nowadays usually envision the slavery of southern States from a few centuries ago however the two are very, very different. Copan suggests they are in fact so different that it’s not even appropriate for us to use the term slave anymore with the Old Testament passages, but rather bond servant. One of many key major distinctions that Copan points out can be found by considering that slaves in the US context were kidnapped en masse from Africa and forced into slavery, whereas those referred to in the Old Testament were not kidnapped (to the contrary, kidnapping was actually punishable by execution!), but rather voluntarily made themselves a slave (or bond-servant) in order to work off their debt! This is of course just a taste of many subjects and arguments that he delves into, citing supporting passages and scholarly literary work as appropriate.
Overall Dr Paul Copan does an excellent job of addressing many of the toughest passages in the Bible and giving deeply insightful and satisfying answers to the attacks launched by the New Atheists. In a world growing increasingly comfortable with mocking the Bible I would recommend this book to anyone as a first rate resource, whether pastor or layman believer.
Throughout the book Dr Copan strives to be “reasonably popular-level” while dealing with the most challenging passages of the Old Testament, in particular with the issues and arguments as they are often spitefully phrased by the New Atheists. The comfortably low page count is probably a part of Dr Copan’s plan of keeping it as an easily accessible book, and for the most part he succeeds in that goal. Dr Copan reaches a comfortable middle ground of using a scholarly level of argumentation and citation while using language and phrasing that doesn’t require a philosophy degree to follow.
One of the first questions I ask when considering the content of a book is who the author is and what his qualifications are on the subject. In this case I’m pleased to say that Dr Copan is stands up to scrutiny. He earned his PhD from Marquette University and is the professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. He’s also the author of more than a dozen books on religious philosophy and editor of many more. Qualified? Check.
Content? There are many touchy subjects and the toughest Bible passages addressed here: God’s rage and jealousy, why in the world were clams and other seemingly random foods forbidden by God to the Israelites, multiple chapters are dedicated to addressing each slavery and supposedly ethnic cleansing ordered by God. Copan goes about this by pointing out the mistaken views that are held when one comes to the text either so casually as to not take other passages into consideration, or with a bias toward only proving the Bible to be barbaric. For a brief example: Copan points out when slavery is mentioned in the Bible people nowadays usually envision the slavery of southern States from a few centuries ago however the two are very, very different. Copan suggests they are in fact so different that it’s not even appropriate for us to use the term slave anymore with the Old Testament passages, but rather bond servant. One of many key major distinctions that Copan points out can be found by considering that slaves in the US context were kidnapped en masse from Africa and forced into slavery, whereas those referred to in the Old Testament were not kidnapped (to the contrary, kidnapping was actually punishable by execution!), but rather voluntarily made themselves a slave (or bond-servant) in order to work off their debt! This is of course just a taste of many subjects and arguments that he delves into, citing supporting passages and scholarly literary work as appropriate.
Overall Dr Paul Copan does an excellent job of addressing many of the toughest passages in the Bible and giving deeply insightful and satisfying answers to the attacks launched by the New Atheists. In a world growing increasingly comfortable with mocking the Bible I would recommend this book to anyone as a first rate resource, whether pastor or layman believer.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
The Cyclical Nature of Heresies
While reading today I came across a statement that I thought is really important but a lot of Christians might not know about. This post's title gives you an idea what I mean, but to explain with an example, let's talk the "Universal Christ" heresy. Basically the idea behind this is the notion that the ancients realized the spiritual truth that there is a "Christ" in each of us, basically the idea that all of us have an aspect of God in us if we embrace it. It goes on to claim the writers of the New Testament knew about this truth and that Jesus actually taught it. Furthermore it's claimed that the authorities a few centuries later, who wanted another form of control, hid all these truths and manipulated writings into what is now our modern day idea of the Bible. These ideas are all taught in the saddeningly popular and frighteningly inaccurate online "documentary" (I use that in the loosest possible way) Zeitgeist.
Thing is, the universal Christ concept and all the accompanying claims were refuted hundreds of years ago when they first started getting spread around.
With all of that in mind, this paragraph I read seemed to capture things nicely:
"Too often the ramparts of Christian truth are left undefended against ancient heresies. It is actually an odd symptom of success. It is not because the saints of old could not answer their opponent and accuser; in fact, it is because the answers they gave were eventually regarded as so evidently true that their opponents no longer opposed them, and they and their slanders temporarily vanished beneath the waves of time, until subsequent generations of Christians forgot the magnitude of the battle. This explains the recurrence of ancient heresies throughout Christian history, as well as the perception that the heresies are new and incontrovertible."
-Dr Scott Masson, "Emerging from a University in Ruins", Jubilee magazine Spring 2011.
So next time we encounter a "new" heresy, maybe we need to check for responses in ancient books.
God bless.
Thing is, the universal Christ concept and all the accompanying claims were refuted hundreds of years ago when they first started getting spread around.
With all of that in mind, this paragraph I read seemed to capture things nicely:
"Too often the ramparts of Christian truth are left undefended against ancient heresies. It is actually an odd symptom of success. It is not because the saints of old could not answer their opponent and accuser; in fact, it is because the answers they gave were eventually regarded as so evidently true that their opponents no longer opposed them, and they and their slanders temporarily vanished beneath the waves of time, until subsequent generations of Christians forgot the magnitude of the battle. This explains the recurrence of ancient heresies throughout Christian history, as well as the perception that the heresies are new and incontrovertible."
-Dr Scott Masson, "Emerging from a University in Ruins", Jubilee magazine Spring 2011.
So next time we encounter a "new" heresy, maybe we need to check for responses in ancient books.
God bless.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Brad Pitt and Christianity
There's a reasons that people reject Christianity. In this article today I read about why it is that Brad Pitt rejected the Christian beliefs he was raised with. I recommend reading the article (don't worry it's short) because it really got me thinking.
In short, though, Pitt couldn't come to grips with a God who essentially demands to be praised. I've heard this before, but I must say, while I can see where that mental barrier would arise from, I don't understand how it could withstand any significant examination. I mean, the God of the universe, He created all things, He is supremely powerful, perfectly holy, AND was willing to sacrifice His own Son to save each and every ungrateful one of us. Even if one rejects the existence of God on other grounds, I just can't see how one could say, even if all that is true, God is still not justified in demanding the praise He deserves.
...Just doesn't make sense.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
People Leaving Christianity in Record Numbers
So my mentor passed this article my way, and it's one that should hit home with every single Christian, church leaders in particular.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/november/27.40.html
You really REALLY need to read that article. One portion I will highlight is this paragraph:
Another unsettling pattern emerged during my interviews. Almost to a person, the leavers with whom I spoke recalled that, before leaving the faith, they were regularly shut down when they expressed doubts. Some were ridiculed in front of peers for asking "insolent questions." Others reported receiving trite answers to vexing questions and being scolded for not accepting them.
This particularly hit home with, and frustrates, me. In fact I remember asking a question when I was in my teens and I had found what seemed to be a contradiction in the Bible. One of the elders in my church basically said "that's why we have to take it on faith". Another church leader gave a reply so hollow I hardly think he believed it himself. If I hadn't persisted in finding a satisfactory answer with my own studies I, but for the grace of God, could have ended up as one of the statistics mentioned in the article.
I hope you take the time to read the article entirely. And if you are a Christian leader, I hope you especially take it to heart. And amongst other things, we need to take peoples' doubts and questions seriously.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/november/27.40.html
You really REALLY need to read that article. One portion I will highlight is this paragraph:
Another unsettling pattern emerged during my interviews. Almost to a person, the leavers with whom I spoke recalled that, before leaving the faith, they were regularly shut down when they expressed doubts. Some were ridiculed in front of peers for asking "insolent questions." Others reported receiving trite answers to vexing questions and being scolded for not accepting them.
This particularly hit home with, and frustrates, me. In fact I remember asking a question when I was in my teens and I had found what seemed to be a contradiction in the Bible. One of the elders in my church basically said "that's why we have to take it on faith". Another church leader gave a reply so hollow I hardly think he believed it himself. If I hadn't persisted in finding a satisfactory answer with my own studies I, but for the grace of God, could have ended up as one of the statistics mentioned in the article.
I hope you take the time to read the article entirely. And if you are a Christian leader, I hope you especially take it to heart. And amongst other things, we need to take peoples' doubts and questions seriously.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Theology of Secular Hard Rock
Okay, 5 min blog while I'm at work. I figure, I've had this blog set up for something crazy like a year without using it, so I should probably post something. So here's what I'm able to put out in the short time I have left of my break here at work.
This post is not about what our theological view should be regarding Christians listening to rock, but rather about the lyrics I pondered recently within a secular rock song. Here are the words:
Animal I have Become by 3 days grace
I can't escape this hell
So many times i've triedBut i'm still caged inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal
(This animal, this animal)
I can't escape myself(I can't escape myself)
So many times i've lied(So many times i've lied)
But there's still rage inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real
help me tame this animal
Somebody help me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
Somebody wake me from this nightmare
I can't escape this hell
(This animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal)
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal(This animal I have become)
Here's the song, if anyone actually wants to listen to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL-DpKbg3cM
Before anyone asks, no, 3 days grace is not a Christian band.
But what I find interesting in those lyrics is how much they capture how I've felt at times with the sins I've struggled with, and how well those lyrics represent the viewpoint of a non-Christian who realizes he/she needs someone to help them change, but doesn't realize/believe anyone really can. It's like they realize the power and control of sin, but can't see that there's a solution. We believers, of course, realize that it is only through salvation by Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that we can really change.
Even with that, being a Christian, I still feel like those lyrics sometimes apply to me. I feel my old self welling up inside, feel sometimes that old temper of mine wanting to break free and explode, and I know it's only by the grace of God that I don't act on those impulses.
Not to mention, I seem to remember the book of James commenting on the tongue being like a wild animal.
Anyways, some very interesting lyrics considering the source.
Well, I'm outta here. Not bad for 5 minutes I think. Later.
This post is not about what our theological view should be regarding Christians listening to rock, but rather about the lyrics I pondered recently within a secular rock song. Here are the words:
Animal I have Become by 3 days grace
I can't escape this hell
So many times i've triedBut i'm still caged inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal
(This animal, this animal)
I can't escape myself(I can't escape myself)
So many times i've lied(So many times i've lied)
But there's still rage inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real
help me tame this animal
Somebody help me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
Somebody wake me from this nightmare
I can't escape this hell
(This animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal)
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal(This animal I have become)
Here's the song, if anyone actually wants to listen to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL-DpKbg3cM
Before anyone asks, no, 3 days grace is not a Christian band.
But what I find interesting in those lyrics is how much they capture how I've felt at times with the sins I've struggled with, and how well those lyrics represent the viewpoint of a non-Christian who realizes he/she needs someone to help them change, but doesn't realize/believe anyone really can. It's like they realize the power and control of sin, but can't see that there's a solution. We believers, of course, realize that it is only through salvation by Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that we can really change.
Even with that, being a Christian, I still feel like those lyrics sometimes apply to me. I feel my old self welling up inside, feel sometimes that old temper of mine wanting to break free and explode, and I know it's only by the grace of God that I don't act on those impulses.
Not to mention, I seem to remember the book of James commenting on the tongue being like a wild animal.
Anyways, some very interesting lyrics considering the source.
Well, I'm outta here. Not bad for 5 minutes I think. Later.
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