The Roman Catholic Church went through the process and ritual of selecting the next Pope, the head of that institution. By all accounts Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man who has chosen the name, “Francis” has great humility. He cooked is own food, rode the bus rather than having a limo and doesn’t even wear flashy shoes. He is very concerned about the poor but the liberal media is in utter shock! The new pope is not in favor of same gender marriage or abortion. Not even contraception. Imagine, they hired a Roman Catholic to head the church! At times I thought some of the news personalities were going to become apoplectic. On one of the FOX shows Juan Williams expressed his dismay at the Pope’s lack of being up with the times and it was pointed out that the Pope is Roman Catholic and a requirement in taking the position is a pledge to uphold and defend the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Juan than said that lots of American Roman Catholics favor same gender marriage and abortion. The host then pointed out that the Church is NOT a democratic institution. Perhaps part of the problem is that our President and Congress also swear to uphold and defend the Constitution but once sworn in ignore their commitment and go on to do whatever they want in violation of the Constitution. Honesty, integrity and fidelity are not highly valued commodities among liberals and progressives. Continue reading …

This may seem like an odd question but strikes me as being a good corollary to one that I have been asked quite frequently in recent weeks. The questions on this issue can be summed up in a recent email I received:

On political questions like this I and MCOI have to be a little careful not to endorse a candidate or party. However, I think some guidelines for making such decisions are appropriate and can be helpful. The first is to pose the question as to whether or not we should be involved in the election process to begin with? Continue reading …

Isn’t that just like God. Nearly as soon as I wrote last week’s blog, ”Raise the Level of Discourse” Barack Obama gave his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. God, it seems, gave me the opportunity to go back on what I wrote (in my flesh I would love to do that) or ignore the speech (which may be the coward’s way out) or comment on the issues and reserve any personal attacks. Hopefully, God will grant me success in doing the latter.

At a religious events like the National Prayer Breakfast, it seems appropriate to comment on spiritual issues and it often reveals ones worldview as they handle or mishandle the sacred texts of the group to whom one is speaking. This is true in the case of Barack Obama and this speech. As we have documented in our article, Barack and the Borg , for twenty years he attended a church that is steeped in Black Liberation Theology. Anthony B. Bradley’s article, The Marxist Roots of Black Liberation Theology defines and comments on the origins and implications of the theological view which Obama has been steeped in for over twenty years so I won’t spend much time on that here other than to say, it is this life centered and has little to do with our relationship to God or the person and work of Jesus Christ. This may sound odd since Obama stated in the speech: Continue reading …

A second matter, in this regard, concerns the strong indications that for all the deep belief, the genuine piety, the heroic faith, and the good intention one finds all across American Christianity today, large swaths have been captured by the spirit of the age. One does not have to review or redo the research of many social scientists to recognize the extent of this challenge. Consumerism, individualism, the therapeutic and managerial ideologies have gone far to undermine the authority of the Christian movement and its traditions. This problem is especially acute among the young, where, as Christian Smith observes, a “moralistic, therapeutic deism” has triumphed over historical creedal faith and practice.

As Jonathon and I work our way through James Davison Hunter’s book, To Change the World : The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World , we are finding a number of things with which we agree. In fact, we have made similar observations which are similar to the above quote from his book. I do have to say that, although he states he is writing as a Christian, it is unclear what he means by that claim. He seems Continue reading …

Is the celebration of the national holiday called Thanksgiving a time of reflection and thanksgiving or merely the sound of the starting pistol in the race for buying stuff? The answers to this question vary and will be wide ranging. For some these days will be very difficult. I received news early on Thanksgiving Day that a friend’s husband had unexpectedly passed away earlier that morning. The season will be difficult for the family even though they are believers. A few days earlier a friend of my daughter and son-in-law was rushed to the hospital with a heart attack. He is about 40 and to the best of our knowledge, not a believer. We do not know yet if he will survive.

For some the holiday is one of a series of firsts. My mother passed away this year, as did Joy’s older brother and my sister’s husband. For us and other members of our families, this was the first Thanksgiving without someone who was special to us. For those of us who are believers and whose family members whom have passed from this life were believers, we have our feet firmly planted both in the present and the future. While we grieve we recognize that our current feeling of loss is temporary and for that we are thankful. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: Continue reading …

There have been a lot of “I” statements going around the internet lately. Lots of celebrities holding up signs with various statements written (often illegibly) on plain sheets of paper and photographed with camera phones.

Some of these may actually be real and not Photoshopped. Continue reading …

A friend sent me this little picture which many of their left leaning friends are putting in their emails and posting to their Facebook accounts. It demonstrates a lack of biblical literacy and a substitution of socialism for biblically based Christianity. I am not saying that they may not have genuine compassion on those in need but they do not have a biblically informed view of how to address the problem. It assumes that somewhere in Scripture there is teaching that it is the unbelieving, secular government’s responsibility to take resources from those who are working, investing, building businesses and yes, supporting charities of their own choice and redistribute it to others of the government’s choice. If true, the passage would sound something like this:

For I was hungry, and you didn’t allow the government to continue expanding the food stamp program for Me; I was thirsty,  and you tried to get alcohol and cigarettes removed from the food stamp program; I was on taxpayer funded welfare and you expected Me to get a job. I incurred college debt and you expected that I would keep my word and pay my debts.

Obviously, I could go on but you get the idea. This is a mentality that has been the hallmark of the cry-baby boomer generation. In the very insightful article, Listen Up, Boomers: The Backlash Has Begun, after describing the accomplishments of the generation preceding the cry-baby boomers, Walter Russell Mead writes: Continue reading …