It is difficult to watch or listen to the news, talk shows or pick up a newspaper or magazine that does not at least comment on the question of same-gender “marriage.” What has not to my knowledge been mentioned, even by conservatives who are speaking out against same-gender “marriage,” is the false premise which has been used to market this idea to the public. The essential claim is that gays are being denied their Constitutional right to marry. The appeal to Constitutional rights can really play well. It plays well among Liberals and Progressives because the claim gives it the air of credibility, especially because so few of them have any inkling of what the Constitution actually says. For that reason they may not even be aware that the essential claim is false.

Continue reading …

It is that time of year again. The faithful celebrate the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Liberal media will trot out “experts” like Bart Ehrman who will assert that the resurrection never occurred or John Dominic Crossan who will offer up that the body of Jesus was buried in a shallow grave and eaten by dogs. (When asked for the evidence he merely responded that it just makes sense to him). The Bible, according to them, is little more than religious myth and fables for faith. In response to Ehrman I offer “Interrupting Ehrman” and in response to Crossan I offer up “The Hysterical Search for the Historical Jesus”. For some Erhman, Crossan and others will raise doubts or even further facilitate unbelief for those who already doubt. For others the responses in the above articles will encourage and demonstrate a defense against these particular attacks.

Continue reading …

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 …

Last week I risked souring the fruit of the Spirit when I expressed my “discontent” with self-proclaimed “Thought Leader” Steve McSwain’s “6 Things Christians Should Just Stop Saying.” However, my feeble attempt at wrath only had room for three. Here are the others.

The rapture of Jesus is imminent.

Again, if you want to believe in some secret rapture of Christians from the earth just before the Tribulation, if you want to believe in and carry around in your hip pocket detailed charts and graphs of how its all going to happen, then so be it. But do the rest of us a favor and stop saying so in public.

So far, your record of correctly predicting the future earns a flunking grade. And I and scores of other Christians are frankly tired of apologizing for your arrogant — and so far, absolutely wrong — predictions as to when it’ll happen.

If you’ve been following along in the last post, you will see a familiar theme. Steve, in a flurry of tolerance, admits that Crazy Christians can believe whatever they want but really should just keep it to themselves. Trouble is that Steve doesn’t take the time to distinguish his targets and and does the columnist equivalent of carpet bombing Damascus. There is a HUGE difference between those who believe there will be a rapture at any time and those who think they can play pin-the-tail on the Antichrist. Let’s do a quick test,

Continue reading …

Dear Reader, I was prepared to write this week about a really bad  Abortion Argument on Salon.com. But it seems that stupid arguments must alas trump bad arguments. Self-proclaimed “thought leader” Steve McSwain decided to vent his frustration with American Christianity by posting “6 Things Christians Should Just Stop Saying” at the mixed-bag that is Huffington Post. This particular post follows his other attempts at criticism such as “I Wish Christian Preachers Would Just Shut Up“  and “Why Christianity is Dying but Spirituality is Thriving.”

As I read through McSwain’s commentary I was struck with what I hope is righteous indignation but I’m humble enough to admit is probably my sin nature bathed in deep and cultivated sense of sarcasm. My friends, there are some things that people say with such thoughtless disregard for both decency and logic, that perhaps the only appropriate response is sarcasm.

Douglas Wilson has defended the use of sarcasm in Christian commentary with his book, A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking. He points out several examples of the use of satire in the Bible. When Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal who were desperately trying to make a altar burn, I smugly imagine he was feeling the way I was when I read McSwain.  Before I launch into my snark, I would like you to know that I have thought and prayed over how to respond to McSwain’s post. I even sought council from several Godly people to make sure I wasn’t simply wallowing in angst or just trying to make a name for myself. After seeking their council, they agreed:

Continue reading …

[Warning from Dr. Jonathon Miles:  The following Blog Post contains a frank discussion of prime-time television, reader discretion is advised]

Recently I had the dreaded stomach flu that is going around and to put it in Victorian terms, I was indisposed. It seemed that the only thing that helped with nausea (besides the prescriptions) was watching sit-coms. I got the 3rd and 4th season of the Big Bang Theory from my library because I am a geek and the show is very funny. In my last post, I said something about the difference between watching a 22 minute show and watching a 3 DVD season of a show:

But one wonders if Aristotle’s philosophy can hold up to an age of Netflix and the 4 DVD collection of Season one of Downton Abbey. One wonders if Paul and Aristotle would scratch their heads or shudder at the thought of  us setting up the theater in our homes every single night after dinner.

Watching back-to-back seasons of Big Bang Theory did confirm to me there is a difference between imbibing a little television and downing the equivalent of a box of Merlot. But I also noticed something else. The sexual content of the show is more noticeable after a 4 hour straight viewing session. As a philosopher I like to engage in thought experiments. So I imagined if I were an alien race listening in on our prime-time television, what they deduce from watching our prime-time sitcoms. One thing is for sure,  they would definitely think sex is one of our top priorities–having, losing it, getting better at it. So suppose this same alien race were to compile a dossier of our sexual behavior via prime-time television. I think it would look something like this:

Continue reading …

Some years ago a youth pastor from a nearby community called me. He was concerned about a large group of Vampires that gathered regularly in his town’s park. He thought there were perhaps 300 and some of the churches would show up with bull horns to announce loudly that the Vampires needed to repent. It didn’t seem to be working. I have to confess, other than in films and books I had never heard of any actual vampires roaming the countryside and thought it might be interesting to check it out. We arranged a time to meet and a few of the MOCI volunteers and I headed out on a Friday evening to meet up with the youth pastor. When we arrived we saw several hundred youth, all engaged in something which did not seem to me to be overly threatening so I suggested we swim into the crowd and find someone to talk to. We even took video equipment to record some of the conversations. About a half dozen agreed to sit down and talk and the first question was quickly answered. What they were doing was a role playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. Each participant had developed a character to play in the acting out of the game:

Continue reading …