Chicago Tribune Says Having Kids Causes Global Warming

This article made my jaw drop.

I really appreciated this response at GetReligion.org.  There are some pretty good comments after the article as well.

Thought of the Day – What does this say about our culture?

“According to a new Nielsen study, the average U.S. household consists of 2.5 people and 2.8 television sets.” [Reuters, 6/9/08 stats. Source: http://www.pluggedinonline.com/cultureclips2/a0004117.cfm]

Top 10 Lies Our Culture Believes – #1 Truth is Relative

To say that truth is relative (or that there is no such thing as absolutes) is a contradictory statement. Is the statement itself included in the assertion? If truth is relative, what if I decide that for my part truth is absolute? You can’t tell me I’m wrong. So then truth is absolute for me. But if for me truth is absolute then truth can’t be relative in any case. And thus we find ourselves arguing in circles about contradictory statements.

Take another example. Once I ran into a teen who claimed to be an anarchist. I posed a question: If both she and I can do whatever we want and make our own rules, what if our rules contradict each other. For example, what if under my rules I’m allowed to steal her stuff, but under her rules I’m not allowed to touch anything of hers. I can argue that I can do whatever I want, and she can argue that she can do whatever she wants, but our ideas conflict. Again we will only argue in a circle. She could not provide a satisfactory answer for the problem.

I propose that anarchy and relativism have the same root – rebellion. No one wants to be told that what they are doing is wrong or that there is a moral standard other than there own. Surely not all moral relativists are anarchists, but the point still remains.

But reality dictates that there is such thing as right and wrong, and this doesn’t change with feeling. People will always try to rationalize why what they did is okay, even up to the point of murder, but the truth is that murder is morally wrong. Moral absolutes exist.

If you doubt the existence of absolutes, take a look at logic. Logical absolutes also exist. 2 plus 2 will always equal 4. The statement “there is no such thing as absolute truth” is a contradiction. These are logical statements that prove absolute truths.

Our culture teaches us that there’s no such thing as absolute right and wrong. The truth is that the culture is lying, our rebellion is misleading us, and truth does exist.

Headline: Scientists Capable of Creating Life

This Chicago Tribune headline reads “Scientists poised to create life.” The article talks about how scientists have synthetically assembled a genome “from scratch” of a simple bacteria. “If the experiments are successful, we could enter into a new design phase of biology,” leading scientist J. Craig Venter said. Ironically it is insisted, “Despite such lofty goals, the new study published online in the journal Science does not demonstrate godlike control over life.”

Listen. How is this not playing God?

It is claimed that this kind of thing is ethical because man has been manipulating genes forever. Just look at the Chihuahua. Forget about the fact that breeding dogs is a completely different thing from splicing up DNA at the molecular level in a lab and putting the pieces of the puzzle together however you’d like. But even a Catholic priest agreed, “that the technique need not raise fundamentally new ethical questions.”

Man has been trying to create things apart from God since the beginning of time. In our time it has lead to the declaration that God is dead and the world living life accordingly. Now science is trying to prove that is true by creating life. Hey, if man can create life, then it is proved once and for all that creation doesn’t necessitate a God, right?

Too bad these kinds of experiments actually prove the argument from design. After all, it did take a group of intelligent scientists a number of years to figure out how to break into a cell and rearrange its DNA to create something new. There wasn’t an explosion in the lab that created a new life form.

But besides this, who can say doing something like this is wrong? Ethics is relative these days, isn’t it? That Catholic priest goes on to say, “From a religious point of view the creation of new viruses or bacteria would not necessarily create a huge problem, depending on how they’re used… The two major principles are to do no harm, and do the work respectfully.”

Interestingly, the scientist behind this whole thing relates in his autobiography “a 2003 dinner in Washington, D.C., during which he described the possible risks of his research to a group of President Bush’s senior science advisers. Venter explained he could synthesize a small virus in less than a week, and more deadly microbes such as Marburg and Ebola in about a month. Venter wrote that one Homeland Security official “just sat there, silently mouthing ‘wow’ over and over.”

Religion, Stereotyping and Sin

I was reading the Chicago Tribune online today and read an article about a man who killed his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and grandson by burning down their apartment. He said he did this because his daughter married without his blessing. Besides killing his daughter and her family, he also put several other families out on the streets as the whole building was destroyed. The family is one of Indian immigrants.

I clicked on the discussion board to see what people were saying about this tragedy. I was appalled at the racial prejudice and stereotyping that I read. The people who commented on this tragedy had lots to say about the religion of the man who committed these murders. They had lots to say about immigration. They contended that people of Hindu and Muslim background should not be allowed into America.

Now you listen to me.

The fact that the perpetrator of murder in this story was a Hindu is besides the point. Murder is not a Hindu problem or a Muslim problem. It is not even a Caucasian problem. Murder is a sin problem.

Sin leads to rebellion against God and against his absolute moral law. Murder has been in existence in this world since the Cain murdered his brother Abel. It didn’t take long for murder to enter the human heart and will; it came to pass with the second generation of humanity.

Murder is usually seen as the measure of evil, and “Well, at least I’ve never killed anyone” has become the justification of many to say that they deserve to go to heaven (regardless of their real relationship to God). Jesus said that if you hate somebody you have already committed murder in your heart.

Sin is the root of evil and suffering.

The only way to escape the sinful human nature is to be born again by giving over your life to God and receiving Christ as Savior. Because of the work of Christ, we can be free from the reign of these things in our lives.

A Great Big I-Told-You-So

Bill Hybels, founding pastor of the suburban Chicago megachurch Willow Creek, has come to a startling conclusion after an intensive survey of his congregation: Programs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Can’t say I didn’t see that one coming. In fact, many have been critical of the megachurch model for this reason.

Saddleback boasts a membership of 20,000. They do kickin’ worship services, small groups, and every kind of program you can imagine. But the survey shows that one in four congregants are not happy with their experience there. It seems that plugging people into so many programs caused God to take a backseat in their spiritual lives. Many have taken on these programs in replacement of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ – salvation itself.

Now for the good news: Hybels has recognized his error. In the booklet containing these survey results he admits the fault. He says he now realizes that the number of people who attend his church and the number of programs offered is not nearly as important as the spiritual growth and wellbeing of the people coming out to these functions.

I have to say, I deeply respect Hybel’s humility in admitting the problem. Now let’s wait and see what (if anything) can be done to fix it.

We’re Back

We are finally situated at our new home and are back online. Thank you for your patience in this time when we haven’t been able to update this ministry blog. We invite you to tune in starting Monday morning as we get back to our regular blogging schedule. Thanks again for your patience, and have a blessed day.

Moving Announcement

We are in the process of moving across the country, from here in Chicago, Illinois to Yakima, Washington. We will be ministering at the Union Gospel Mission in Yakima. My husband spent eleven months there as a missionary two years ago, and it is the place we were married. The Lord is leading us back there to do his work.

Because of this move, this blog is going to be on hold for a little while. Between now and then, I encourage you to explore our archives here, as well as on our other blogs Minds2Mentes and Acts 20:24 Ministries. I hope that what has been written on our blogs have been thought-provoking, challenging and insightful. Most of all, I pray that through this ministry you have come to know God and understand who he is. Thank you very much for your continued readership and your feedback. God bless you all.

Superficial Similarity

Far two many people believe that if two things have one or two superficial similarities then they must be the same.

You are not the same person as your mother or your father, regardless of the fact that you share half of your genes with each, and regardless of if you resemble either of them outwardly. You as a person are unique, in personality, intellect, experience and appearance.

Likewise, just because two religions share one or two points of agreement does not mean the two religions are the same. Both Christianity and Buddhism believe in peace, but it doesn’t take a very large scratch in the surface of either of them to find that they teach extremely different doctrines. Relativism is not excused for this reason.

This also plays out when people accuse Christianity of stealing ideas from other religions. For example, just because other religions and mythologies have three main deities above the other does not mean that Christianity got its doctrine of the Trinity from any of them. No proof is ever given that they are the same other than talking about one superficial similarity. This assumption also puts aside two things: Firstly that the doctrine of the Trinity is taught throughout the Bible; and secondly, they never accuse the other religions of borrowing from Christianity, although this has actually been proven true in some cases of doctrine.

Stop looking at the superficial and believing things are identical.

How many times have you yelled at your parents that you are your own person and not like them at all?

Public School Book Banning

Today in the Chicago Tribune there was an article about what constitutes appropriate literature in the public school system. Parents of Kinzie Elementary School students were protesting the inclusion of the book The Chocolate Wars as mandatory reading for the seventh grade. Their argument is that the book is filled with profanity, sexual themes and bad morals, and therefore is bad reading for their kids.

The defense of the school board is that the book talks about relevant themes that the kids are going to face, and therefore they have no problem with it. I think what bothered me more though was that on the message board almost everybody was saying, “They’re going to learn about that stuff sooner or later, if they don’t know about it already,” and “They already watch garbage on TV so why not read this book?”

Listen.

First of all, just because somebody is bound to learn about gang violence and sex “sooner or later” doesn’t mean that they should be reading about it in the seventh grade.

Secondly, it’s setting our kids up for failure if we think that it’s okay for them to experience these things as part of everyday growing up. Solving your problems with violence is not healthy. And despite popular believe, neither is sex outside of marriage.

Thirdly, the question of what our kids are watching on TV does not have relevance to what is okay for them to be reading in the classroom.

But ultimately what it boils down to is what is okay for a seventh grader to read? What is good classroom reading, and what is unacceptable?

To get to the bottom of this issue, I looked up the school’s vision and mission statements. They read that their goal is to teach kids to be responsible and contributing members of society.

Now let’s take a look at what the book is about. A school is infested with gang violence while the teachers stand by and watch; kids discuss adult themes; kids resort to violence to solve their problems; the only moral character in the book is portrayed as a weakling; ultimately the main character cops out and decides it’s not worth standing up for what he believes in.

With this in mind, does this book line up with the school’s mission and vision statements?

No it does not.

Should it be read in the school?

No it should not.