Leaders speak with an authority accorded to them by their position. When Barack Obama gave the Ohio State University Commencement Address, he did so as President of the United States. With the authority of that office behind him, it will be few students that would question his direction to reject cynical voices. What are those voices saying? Continue reading …

Some groups which could be classified as cults or abusive religious groups by Evangelicals strongly discourage thinking independently from the groups leadership. Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower Bible and Tract Society went so far in the 1980s as to run articles which boldly declared to “Avoid Independent Thinking.” Once the organization has made a decree the followers must simply hear and obey. When I teach on this I often find Evangelicals shaking their head with a sort of tsk, tsk reaction. But many Christians, it seems, are not in much better shape. Extra biblical official positions are handed down and lots of Evangelicals march in lock step. If someone dares question, they are viewed as an anti-Christ or at least back slidden in the faith.

We find this quite a bit in dealing with apologetics and false teachers. For example, in 1999 there was a great deal of hype and hoopla about Y2K. Michael Hyatt, Chuck Missler, James Dobson and many others were pronouncing the end of the world as we know. At midnight on December 31, 1999 all of the computers in the world would shut down, electricity production would cease, coffee makers would stop functioning and cars would no longer start. Back to horse and buggy days and Hyatt even suggested that his readers needed to decide how far would they be willing to go in protecting their food supplies. Kill the hungry hordes of invaders perhaps? Continue reading …

One of the underlying themes behind the healthcare debate is the question, “Should Adults be Trusted to Make Adult Decision?” Should an adult be allowed to decide they do not want to purchase health insurance? Perhaps they are part of health care sharing though an organization like Samaritan Ministries. Others may not want any provision for potential medical expenses for a variety of reasons. Liberals, in love with the nanny state concept do not really want to allow for adults to make decisions about their lives. After all, they may make the wrong decision and put themselves at risk.

Some of folks plagued with the problem of independent thinking rail against Federal control of their lives with policies like this. However, the liberal press and liberal/progressive politicians view the Federal Government as all knowing and all caring and have full time bureaucrats who know what is best for each individual. Avoid independent thinking for questioning their authority is rebellion and those who do so will likely be punished.

Many in the conservative camp are fighting against this kind of government intrusion into the lives of citizens but, as is so often the case, there is also a blind spot on the part of at least some conservatives in areas of their teachings. Continue reading …

Last week Jonathan in “Whitney Houston’s Missing Will” looked at biolologist Jerry A Coyne’s view that we do not have a will. Coyne is a physicalist (we are simply a physical being) and contends that what anything we view as decisions or actions we may take are essentially preprogrammed into our genes. We don’t have a “will” and any “choices” we make are predetermined, which essentially makes us victims. We may have thought we wanted to do something different but have to ability to act differently than we do. Physicalism is not the only view that holds we are little more than victims in a culture of victims who cannot act differently than we do because we are controlled by something other than our will. Two other areas with a similar view, although the basis is different, are psychology and some segments of the church. I have no doubt that some will react strongly to what I have to say but that doesn’t mean that the following is any less true. Even as I typed this I was reminded of an incident some years ago when I was a pastor of a small church. Joy and I wrote a weekly article for the area newspaper and one of those articles was about what we called the “cry-baby boomer” generation. After if was printed a message was left on the church phone from a disgruntled reader. (By the way, has anyone met a “gruntled” reader?). She began by saying she didn’t know how old we were but why do we always pick on her generation? Joy and I chuckled that the caller was proving our point by seeing herself as the victim of the article. When I called and we talked about it she too saw the irony and was able to laugh at herself as well. But I digress. Continue reading …

In the 1970s Johnsons Baby Powder ran a television ad with a lady standing in front of her bathroom mirror saying, “Who am I? What am I? Why’d I cut my hair, I look like a squirrel.” It was a humorous way of telling the potential consumers who were viewing the ad how to stay cool and collected with their product while in stressful situations like having a hair style that conforms to societal expectations. “Who am I,” our self identity, is often confused or mixed up with my conformance to certain group expectations. I have had to think about this a lot over the years as I have counseled with people leaving cults and false religious groups. In leaving they have walked away from a certain set of beliefs which comprise and inform their worldview and in many cases they have left family and friends who remain in the group. How do they recover and where do they begin rebuilding their lives? This is a question some who have started a new Facebook page, ATI Survivors and subsequently a website, Recovering Grace have asked me.

For those who are unaware, ATI stands for Continue reading …

“Huckabee announces White House bid” was the title of the article by Aaron Sadler at the Arkansas New Bureau on January 29, 2007. Outside of Arkansas not too many took notice. I had suggested to several in the media shortly afterward that they may want to keep an eye on this not very well known Arkansas politician, mostly due to his ties to Bill Gothard. This was pretty much met with a collective yawn. I am not going to get in to the merits or lack thereof with regard to Huckabee’s candidacy and positions. As a religious not-for-profit organization I am not really at liberty to do that and the point of this writing is not really political in nature but rather to ask some questions. According to several former employees from the late 1970s era Bill had a landing strip built at his 3,000 acre Big Bear lodge retreat in the Northwoods and he had it built to accommodate Air Force 1. I am told that he indicated God had told him that one day presidents to come to him and he wanted to be prepared. Will this happen in the near future? Well, if Bill has his way it may. It is not difficult to believe. as we pointed out in our book A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian Life that Gothard often claims special revelation and mystical understandings of Scripture from God.

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On March 26th of 1997 national news carried the headlines that 39 people in the group headed up by Marshall Applewhite that called themselves Heaven’s Gate had committed mass suicide. Were these suicides the result of Applewhite’s teaching? The answer is yes. He had redefined suicide as remaining on in their bodies and not being able to board the space ship that he claimed was following the Hale Bopp Comet. Since his followers believed his teachings they were obligated to escape their “container.” A direct link can be made between his teachings and their actions. False teaching has consequences and in some cases very catastrophic consequences.

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