Theistic Evolutionists - With Friends Like These...

William Dembski has a depressing article at Uncommon Descent. He opens with the following:

In 1993, well-known apologist William Lane Craig debated professional atheist Frank Zindler concerning the existence of the Christian God. The debate was published as a video by Zondervan in 1996 and is readily available at YouTube. The consensus among theists and atheists is that Craig won the debate. Still, Zindler presented there a challenge worth revisiting:

"The most devastating thing, though, that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people, the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve, there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin, there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation, there is no need of a savior. And I submit that puts Jesus, historical or otherwise, into the ranks of the unemployed. I think that evolution is absolutely the death knell of Christianity."

Glenn Beck vs Social Justice

Glen Beck has created quite a firestorm by linking "Social Justice" to socialism, Marxism, Communism and even Nazism last week. In the process, Beck suggested Christians should flee from Churches where "social justice" is preached. This caused Jim Wallis of Sojourners to blast Beck and start a campaign to get Christians to write to Beck proclaiming themselves to be "Social Justice" Christians.

It was, and is, quite a mess. I don’t watch Beck much, but I happened to see a Beck broadcast on Tuesday March 23 where he took on Wallis. One particular quote included in the broadcast was a radio interview where Jim Wallis was asked if he was speaking of "wealth redistribution". Wallis’ response included the words "Absolutely...that's what the gospel is all about". Beck had found, it seemed, the smoking gun and went on to link Wallis to forced government redistribution of wealth. As it turns out, Wallis' comment in context was not necessarily about government seizure of property to pass it along to the poor, but was about voluntary involvement of the rich with the poor, voluntarism Beck admitted in his program was an acceptable understanding of the gospel and a good thing. Which is not to defend Wallis, only to acknowledge Beck's quote of Wallis was not what it seemed.

Why I am a Conservative - Part 1

I keep reading blogs and net entries and titles of books (that I am not interested in reading) that insinuate or outright claim that the link between evangelicals and the Republican party over the years is something of an evil alliance. We are told this alliance was concocted by cynical politicians who took advantage of naïve church folks or worse, was a cynical attempt by religious leaders to seize power through the Republican party apparatus and establish a theocracy.

While there are always opportunists in every movement, I really don’t think that is anything like the truth. To that end, I have decided to jot down a few thoughts on what I think the Christian Conservative movement is really about.

First on the list – limited government.

Jill Stanek

Jill Stanek posted this "debate" between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.