Have Another Tilt at It
Nathan Wilson summarizes a position he obviously doesn't take: People are raped in this world, and rape is evil. Because evil exists, there must be no God. But then he shows where that position ends up: Because there is no God—no authoritative standard over creation—the badness of rape downgrades to a mere matter of societal taste. Ethnic cuisine, ethnic ethics. In God’s absence rape is no longer fundamentally evil. In our country, you’ll get confined to a cell (if caught and convicted), but...
A Truly Great Line from a Truly Great Book
I'm still thoroughly enjoying—and receiving historical instruction from—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859–2009. I just got through the major fight liberal-moderate president Duke McCall had in the 1950s with a group of liberal-moderate faculty. McCall won, and because he was not viewed as liberal, rank and file Southern Baptists viewed his victory as a purge of unsound theology from the school. But they weren't quite right. Wills' little line at the end of this paragraph is...
Jesus and Adam Smith
From American Vision: What would Jesus have done if confronted with the new technology [of horseless carriages]? Would He have endorsed the mass production of the automobile when it was first introduced to the American public knowing that it was a polluter? Actually, Jesus would have said little. He would have allowed common sense and market forces to determine how the new technology would be used. This troubles me. Jesus was not a Republican, much less a free-market fiscal conservative....
Thrilla in Greenvilla, Round 3
I challenged my good friend Brian Collins to a public discussion: electronic books vs. paper books. I started off by listing all the stuff I'd bought from Logos and other electronic sources. (I got one moderately nasty comment that I did not post, someone marveling at how much I'd spent. Remember that 1) I was single during most of those purchases, 2) I was in the foundational stages of building my ministerial library, and 3) a third of the money I spent came from one gift at the end of my...
Free Cartoon Fridays (Sep 18): “Recooperating”
Welcome back to Free Cartoon Friday! Check back each week for a free cartoon I failed to sell to Christian pastors' magazines in 2005! Click image for full size.https://byfaithweunderstand.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/07-recooperate.png