If it is true that where there is smoke there is fire, it is also true that where smoke-bans are expanding, freedoms are burning.
Smoking is a terrible behavior. It is habit-forming. It stinks. It destroys health. It is obnoxious. It ought never to be done. For Christians, such a barrier-building behavior is inexcusable. But in a democracy it is not the government’s place to keep it from happening. The Dallas Morning News reports that anti-smoking groups, the mayor, and several council members are pushing to expand already draconian restrictions on smoking in Dallas. The expanded ban would prevent smoking even in bars and taverns. People who disdain tobacco’s noxiousness and who do not visit bars and taverns anyway might be tempted to think they are unaffected (at least negatively) by the proposed ban. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments:
At this point in the text, God has created a world which has no form and is empty though He is pervasively present in it. So the next thing He does is make clear that His presence will not be secretive. The activity with which He will give shape to the formless and content to the void is revelatory–it is speech. This point, though it may seem strained with a reading of nothing but Genesis 1, is undoubtedly a portion of this event as it is recognized throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 19 is one of the best examples. Creation language deliberately marks the first six verses of that Psalm, a poem about how God reveals Himself first through the creation, then through the law, then through individual lives. Another way of saying it is that without God’s revelation, all is formless and void. It is important to point out that this reading is not allegorical. If the scripture were not all inspired by the same God, it could be characterized as reader response theory. But since God inspires all the scriptures, including later passages’ readings of earlier passages, it is perfectly legitimate to point out what the passage comes to mean throughout Hebrew history in scripture.
Expanded Paraphrase:
So God began to give form to the world by speaking–
The objection to force and violence, whether entirely or only for Christians, is misguided. The nature of God, the role of believers, and the universal nature of ethics all attest to the same thing regarding violence. The argument of this post is one small step among many intended to make clear why pacifism is wrong. There are some things people do solely for the benefit it brings. A man buys gasoline not because gasoline is good, but because getting where he wants to go really fast and without sweat is good. Gasoline is good only insofar as it is useful for accomplishing another good. That usefulness is called utility. The fact that gasoline is only valuable because of its utility is what makes transitioning to different sources of energy possible–what makes the prospect of non-gasoline-consuming cars which could run just as well as gasoline cars but without petroleum’s side-effects so appealing.
Also, there are some things which are what they are only because other things are what they are. If it is hot outside Read the rest of this entry »
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life recently released results of another huge survey of American religious views. One of the more reported features of the survey (it’s on page three–five, as they number it–of the eighteen page summary) involves the claim that some twenty-one percent of those who call themselves atheists also say they believe in God! What’s more, about forty percent of agnostics say they are certain there is a God! The Secular Coalition for America, a group which mistakenly associates secularism with freedom and which claims to promote the interests of atheists, agnostics, and humanists, tries to make the case that these odd statistics along with some converse statistics indicating that seven percent of protestants do not believe in God are evidence of how difficult it is for an atheist to “come out of the closet.” Clearly, the data is not in support of their claim. In fact, quite to the contrary Read the rest of this entry »
Here is the next message from the book of James. It’s on chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. I delivered it as interim pastor at First Baptist, Madisonville, TX. This passage deals with the most fundamental ethical issue, and with the reason practical discipleship (practiced Christianity) often fails. It deals with the inherent problem with egoism (of any form), and the value of altruism. The reason Christians often end up with unanswered prayer and acting as the enemy of God is not that they imitate just any immoral, worldly behavior, but that they choose self over others. It is a very important passage for contemporary theology and practical Christian living. Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also freely available on the sermons page, which is also linked on the sidebar, including as an RSS feed (for subscriptions, like with iTunes).
As with every audio link on this blog, you can click the text just left of the playable arrow and the audio will open in a new page, or you can right-click that text and select “save linked file” (or something similar) and download the file to your hard drive, or you can click the little arrow next to an audio file and it will play the sound right on this page.
Can a woman have surgery so that she appears to be a man? Yes. Can she take hormones and suppressants so that she appears even more to be a man? Yes. Can a culture decide it wants to use the word “man” to describe people who work really hard at appearing to be a man? Unfortunately, yes. But can a man stop taking hormone therapy and then naturally produce an egg to combine with another man’s gametes and end up with an embryo? No. Only a woman who has worked really hard at appearing to be a man to the point where her culture was willing to call her a man can do so. The New York Times (click here for the article) thinks the “pregnant man–’Mr.’ Beatie”–described in their story has “powered past traditional definitions of gender.” But notice that the entire Read the rest of this entry »
A good friend from San Angelo cut a cross-section of bell pepper and sent out a picture of it. There it is, randomly appearing from completely unrelated circumstances–the shape of Texas! She only sent the picture out for fun. But…
What could this astonishing concomitance of events mean? Oddly, there is a reason to ask that otherwise ridiculous question.
There are two common errors related to interpreting such circumstances, each derived from an extreme position.
The first error is the one that leads people to line up around the block to see the image of Mary in a window pane or to bid thousands of dollars for a piece of toast with “The Last Supper” etched into it. Whether it is good (like a sign from heaven), bad (like an ominous shadow in a dark room), or contrived (like laser-engraving an image in bread), people commonly intend significance on mundane objects. Some see that tendency as evidence that faith is absurd. They are wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
KJV:
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Comments:
This phrase leaves no room for a deistic view of the world. Deism claims that God started the world, but is no longer involved in it, either normally or at all–depending on how developed the form of deism is. But here Moses uses a word implying that God settles, hovers, or flutters over His new creation. In fact, he uses the same word again in Deuteronomy 32:11. There it is translated as “flutters” and describes how God stayed with and led His people through the wilderness. The importance of God’s constant and total involvement in the world is also made clear in passages like Colossians 1:16-18: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” And when Peter speaks of skeptics who deny that God will ever judge the world, he reminds them that before God judged the world in Noah’s day, He was already maintaining that world (at creation, in the water and out of the water) with the power of his word. That’s the point in 2 Peter 3:5: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” Peter goes on to speak of Noah’s judgment, making the point that God was involved in the world immediately after its creation, and when it was time for that first cataclysmic judgment.
Expanded Paraphrase:
But after God created the cosmos with His word, He did not leave it alone. Instead, His Spirit settled down over it to remain involved in what is not Him, but is most definitely His.
UPI reports that a man has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for desecrating the Koran. It might get more press since 9/11, but there is nothing new about such judgments in Islamic nations.
It is not, however, the case that in Islamic countries a few radicals impose absurdly strict rules on the public. And such judgments are not only the product of what has come to be called “radical” Islam. Islam is a religion which incorporates everything in life under its authority, right down to personal conscience. Just after September 11, 2001 there were posters all over the campus of at least one North Texas school inviting people to come learn about a religion which unifies every part of life: personal, family, community, religion, government. The benefit of bringing integration to Western Read the rest of this entry »
In January of 2004 a pharmacist in Denton across the street from where I teach bioethics refused to fill a prescription for a rape victim. Protesters marched because the prescription he refused to fill was for a contraceptive which, as I was told the story, he believed would be used as a “morning-after” pill. When used for that purpose, the prescription can prevent implantation of an embryo, and therefore…well…which words should be used next? Does it “prevent a pregnancy” since the woman never has an embryo attached to her uterus, and is therefore never pregnant? Or does it “end a human life” since there is a living embryo destroyed as a result of the treatment?
Of course, for someone adamantly and consistently pro-life, the latter language is obviously correct. The consistently pro-choice position is equally firmly committed to the former language. But for many purportedly pro-life individuals, Read the rest of this entry »
If it is true that where there is smoke there is fire, it is also true that where smoke-bans are expanding, freedoms are burning.
Comments:
There are some things people do solely for the benefit it brings. A man buys gasoline not because gasoline is good, but because getting where he wants to go really fast and without sweat is good. Gasoline is good only insofar as it is useful for accomplishing another good. That usefulness is called utility. The fact that gasoline is only valuable because of its utility is what makes transitioning to different sources of energy possible–what makes the prospect of non-gasoline-consuming cars which could run just as well as gasoline cars but without petroleum’s side-effects so appealing.
But can a man stop taking hormone therapy and then naturally produce an egg to combine with another man’s gametes and end up with an embryo? No. Only a woman who has worked really hard at appearing to be a man to the point where her culture was willing to call her a man can do so.
A good friend from San Angelo cut a cross-section of bell pepper and sent out a picture of it. There it is, randomly appearing from completely unrelated circumstances–the shape of Texas! She only sent the picture out for fun. But…
Islam is a religion which incorporates everything in life under its authority, right down to personal conscience. Just after September 11, 2001 there were posters all over the campus of at least one North Texas school inviting people to come learn about a religion which unifies every part of life: personal, family, community, religion, government. The benefit of bringing integration to Western 
When used for that purpose, the prescription can prevent implantation of an embryo, and therefore…well…which words should be used next? Does it “prevent a pregnancy” since the woman never has an embryo attached to her uterus, and is therefore never pregnant? Or does it “end a human life” since there is a living embryo destroyed as a result of the treatment?
