New Testament Book # 01 – Matthew
Does the United States have the moral authority to comment on the Myanmar coup? In a word, No! We have a ways to go before we will have much moral authority at all when it comes to issues like this. For anyone who might have been living under a rock lately, let me explain why.
Does U.S. have the moral authority to comment on Myanmar coup? Read More »
As I said, Christians can learn a lot from political parties. Oftentimes, maybe what to do, but certainly not the way to do them.
After all, it doesn’t matter if Christians are taking a “Biblical” approach to an issue. And yes, I put “Biblical” in quotes for a reason. It’s because when our solution is to go to the government, and / or to act in a way that isn’t loving – it’s also not truly Biblical.
We turn people off. They reject our solutions. But even worse, they reject Jesus’ offer of salvation because we failed to act in a manner consistent with what Jesus taught.
What can Christians learn from political parties? Read More »
I live in Southern California. Part of the original wild west. Add to that the fact that we have Donald Trump, the “law and order” President. And yet, I feel like we’re closer to the wild, wild west of years gone by than we are to anything resembling law and order!
Law and order? or the wild west? Read More »
How do religion and society fit together? Should religion and society fit together? And if those weren’t already tough enough questions, who gets to decide the answers? Religious leaders? Social activists? The government? But hang on a minute. Just when it seems like it can’t possibly get worse, it does. What if religion, everything related to society in general, and the government are all controlled by the same people?
Do you think that’s impossible? It’s not. It’s happening. Right now. In China, they’re well on their way to making it happen. The Communist Party is continuing to strengthen its hold on pretty much everything about official religion and Chinese society. Here in the U.S., many would like it to happen. Who exactly will be in control isn’t officially decided yet. But it appears that the government is winning, with Christians bowing down to the President.
How do religion, society and the government fit together? Read More »
Would you make a deal with the devil if he promised to promote Christianity? The answer’s obvious, right? Wrong! It seems to me there are two answers right now. Most, hopefully, say “No way!” Sadly though, I believe many are pretty much doing that right now. It’s a sobering view of Christianity in the U.S. right now. It’s very sad. Scary even.
I dare say, anyone who even claims to be Christian says no to that question. My concern though is that we don’t all examine what we’re doing through lens of the Bible. What Jesus taught. The examples He gave us both through His own life and through His words. Not do we always pay attention to the letter written in the New Testament by Paul, James, Peter, Etc. If we did, I think we’d be shocked. Dismayed by what we’ve been doing.
Would you make a deal with the devil if he promised to promote Christianity? Read More »
Protecting laws from religion? Management of religious affairs is about protecting what is lawful. That last sentence is the English translation of something from China’s Religious Affairs Regulations. But does that even make sense? China claims their citizens have freedom of religious belief. So shouldn’t laws about religion be concerned with protecting those religions?
What’s this thing about protecting the law from religion? It sounds so backwards. And yet, is it even unusual? We claim to have religious freedom in the U.S. So do many countries. But are we really doing anything different than China? In other words, is the real issue that China isn’t hiding what they’re doing? Let’s find out.
Religion and the law. Are we protecting laws from religion? Read More »
Should Christians be concerned about healthcare for the poor? Of course, the answer is yes. Isn’t it? In theory, it’s hard to argue against the idea. However, in practice, it’s apparently very easy to just ignore it. Does that sound familiar? If you’re Christian, it should resonate, loud and clear. Even if you’re not Christian, chances are you know something about “the good Samaritan”. Even if you don’t know where it came from, that concept is known by all sorts of people.
So let’s look at the question of healthcare for the poor in that light. We’ll see what Jesus says on the topic. After all, Jesus was the One who first put forth the idea of the good Samaritan. And then we’ll see what happens today. How we went from what Jesus taught, to a scenario where that’s pretty much impossible for all but the extremely wealthy people in the world, and how too many Christians have done the unneighborly thing by, well, by doing what we do. We’ll look at that in a moment.
Should Christians be concerned about healthcare for the poor? Read More »
Citizens have freedom of religious belief. That’s the English translation of something from China’s Religious Affairs Regulations. But is it really true?
Remember, China is a Communist country. And an officially atheist one as well. We must be forgiven if we doubt those fine-sounding words. Especially after reading part 1 of this series.
Remember, Article 1 of these regulations included the text, “increase the level of legalification in work on religion” as one of the stated goals for putting them into law. How does that even make sense?
Citizens have freedom of religious belief? Read More »
Christians – are you afraid of politicians? Donald Trump seems to think you are. Or at least hope you are. But really, the question is deeper than that.
But first, let’s get into why the question even comes up. It’s because of an article from Politico, titled‘Dangerous levels of contempt’: Trump deploys a convention to attack Dems on religion. A short excerpt will shed light on what’s happening.
Christians – are you afraid of politicians? Read More »
Will we ever love people like we love money? Lots of people like to talk about loving, or at least caring about people. Few like to talk about how much they love money. But the old saying is true – actions speak louder than words. And our actions say we love money a whole lot more than we love people. And so it seems, we love the god of money way more than we love the God of the Bible.
The impetus for writing this is a recent article on msn.com. It’s titled, Tyson Foods is ramping up development of robots that can cut meat in response to coronavirus outbreaks in meatpacking plants. Do you see the problem? It starts just with the title.
Not to worry though. There’s plenty more.
Will we ever love people like we love money? Read More »
