What is it like to meet a humble, self-sacrificial person? I have met a few such people in my life and I have always come away from the encounter with the impression that the life which such persons are living is incredibly attractive. C.S. Lewis once said that meeting a humble person is not like meeting someone who is always going around talking about how weak and inadequate he is. “I am nothing in comparison to others,” “I don’t have... Read more
One thing that fascinates me today about the homosexual marriage movement is the utter confidence that so many of its members have in the rightness of their cause. Many of them today are refusing to consider any other view as being possible than their own. This supreme certainty – both morally and emotionally – is especially prominent among American same-sex advocates, and it puts them at odds with a lot of the other cultures of history. I want to focus... Read more
Jesus didn’t die for us so that we could continue to wallow in our sins. He died for us so that we could be transformed into His likeness, in order to live a better way than the old life that we were at one time living. If Jesus were nothing more than the spiritual guarantor of whatever kind of behavioral lifestyle we happened to be embracing at the time that we became Christians, then His death would have been in... Read more
Have you ever wondered why God’s sanctifying power has not been more significant in your life? Have you been a Christian for a long time and been frustrated by your lack of moral improvement? I know I sure sometimes am. One way in which I have found it helpful over the years to think of the indwelling work of God has been to envision God as changing me from within, based on the room that I give Him to bring... Read more
In case you have not been following the story, this last week the high-end Italian fashion designers Dolce and Gabbana expressed in a Panorama magazine interview their concerns about homosexual marriage legalization in Italy. Although they were a longstanding homosexual couple nevertheless they think that the traditional nuclear family has for a long time been essential to the success of Italy’s cultural fabric and that homosexual marriage legalization would jeopardize that. Gabbana, at least, also believes that children have a... Read more
RYGER / Shutterstock.com This post is part of a new feature from Patheos called Head to Head where our best minds debate the big questions of the day. This week, I’m debating the Atheist Channel’s Ryan Bell of “Year Without God”. The question: does emphasizing the incomprehensible nature of god become an expression of atheism? Or put simply does religious faith require a personal God? This topic was brought to us by James F. McGrath. You can see James’ thoughts... Read more
RYGER / Shutterstock.com This post is part of a new feature from Patheos called Head to Head where our best minds debate the big questions of the day. This week, I’m debating the Atheist Channel’s Ryan Bell of “Year Without God”. The question: does emphasizing the incomprehensible nature of god become an expression of atheism? Or put simply does religious faith require a personal God? This topic was brought to us by James F. McGrath. You can see James’ thoughts... Read more
RYGER / Shutterstock.com This post is part of a new feature from Patheos called Head to Head where our best minds debate the big questions of the day. This week, I will be debating the Atheist Channel’s Ryan Bell of “Year Without God”. The question: does emphasizing the incomprehensible nature of god become an expression of atheism? Or put simply does religious faith require a personal God? This topic was brought to us by James F. McGrath. You can see... Read more
When should Christians borrow from the ideas of the non-Christians in their surroundings? Sometimes doing so is a good way of supplementing the intellectual resources of the Christian tradition. For example, early on in Christian history some of the great theologians and philosophers of the faith borrowed from Greek philosophers for their descriptions of complicated concepts like the Trinity and the Incarnation. Another famous example of this in Christianity is the acknowledgment of the importance of religious freedom by... Read more
A widespread narrative that one encounters in the culture these days is that the Christian God is a cosmic killjoy when it comes to sex. Wherever He sees people who look like they are about to have fun with their sexuality, He immediately swoops in and snuffs things out. Does it look like Ashton and Jennifer are about to have a good time in bed? Better jump in there and slap a couple of sexual restrictions on them! Can’t let... Read more
Everyday Ethics
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