Category Archives: Social Issues

The Reality of Good and Evil

Here at the First Baptist Church of Granada Hills we are studying C. S. Lewis’s wonderful little book Miracles on Wednesday nights. Chapter five of Miracles focuses on morality and the problem notions of right and wrong pose for thorough-going … Continue reading

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The “Christian Fundamentalist” Terrorist

When I first heard about the explosion in Oslo, Norway and then the shooting that was taking place nearby  I suspected–as I image most people did–that the two were linked and that the two were acts of calculated terrorism as … Continue reading

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America, Government, and Religion

The 4th of July just passed and as always that means that last Sunday service here at First Baptist Church contained some patriotic elements. The bulletin’s cover art was a pretty picture of the Declaration of Independence with an inspiring … Continue reading

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The Ethics of Jesus and the Resurrection

The Christian faith is a complex thing with all sorts of remarkable components: theological doctrines like the Trinity and justification by faith, predictive claims like the resurrection of the dead, and ethical imperatives like turning the proverbial cheek are all … Continue reading

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Jesus the Pacifist?

            In Sunday’s sermon I drew attention to the scandalous results of a recent Pew study which indicates that Christians approve of torture in even greater numbers than do religiously unaffiliated people.  I said that this study reveals that however … Continue reading

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War Is Not Peace

            This November Californians will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 8.  If passed, Proposition 8 would reassert California’s historic practice of recognizing that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, thus disestablishing so-called “gay marriage”.   … Continue reading

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Goodness and Greatness

            Thirty-nine years ago, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin brought the Apollo 11 mission to its climax.  On July 20, 1969 two people, after traveling hundreds of thousands of miles, climbed out of a cramped multi-billion dollar box and … Continue reading

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The End of Faith

          A little while back I decided that I ought to read more books that present views with which I disagree; it just seemed fair.  After all, I spend a lot of time encouraging non-believers to read Christian books and … Continue reading

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Spiritual, But Not Religious?

          Every so often some group of researchers conducts a survey of the religious beliefs of Americans.  Generally speaking the results are predictable: most people identify with either Catholicism or one of the thirty-one flavors of Protestantism, a smaller percentage … Continue reading

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