Lions and Eagles

“....Abortion on demand, no limitations of course....” Abortion Is that really what Libertarians believe on abortion? The truth is, not really. “Don't hurt people and don't take their stuff.” That's libertarianism in a nutshell as expressed by Matt Kibbe and many other libertarians. As a Christian, I think that “love thy neighbor as thyself” can be a stronger rule for life, but the libertarian rule is a decent starting point. Many Libertarians, including atheist Austin Peterson , recognize that the child in the womb is a person. If you're going to say “don't hurt people”, that has to apply to abortion as well. Yes, there are pro-life Libertarians. And, yes, it can get contentious. Libertarians may be hesitant to outlaw abortion outright. There are the concerns about women in medical difficulty, and victims of rape who have already suffered a loss of their freedom. Still, it is quite possible to argue in these cases against late term abortion on the ground...

I am a Christian. I am a Libertarian. This is not a contradiction. In fact, I believe that Libertarianism is the most Christian political worldview. I understand that there are many Libertarians who are not Christian, and many Christians who are not Libertarian. But I believe that these two worldviews fit together. Please let me explain. As a Christian, to use the words of Ravi Zacharias, I believe that the supreme ethic that God has given to us is Love. Love for God, love for each other. That is why He gives us free will, and why freedom and liberty are so precious. Without freedom, you can have obedience, but you can't have love. With freedom, you can love, and you can choose to give obedience and love to one who is worthy. The political Left says, we need to care for our fellow humans. And indeed we have that obligation. When we care for each other, we are following God's commandment to love one another. But the political Left's solution is to create a syste...

Yes, it's another Reddit DebateReligion post. In this case, I'm answering a fellow who put forth the idea that God is too "big" to care about our sin, and that demanding a sacrifice to pay for it would be a sign that God is brutal. Here's my answer: If one of my daughters starts wilfully ignoring household rules and basic manners, and starts bugging her sisters, how does it possibly affect me? Why would I expect an apology? The disobedient child's disobedience disrupts the whole household. It reflects poorly on the parents. If my two daughters are fighting, I can't just sit idly by. The form of my intervention may vary from scolding, to temporary separation, to punishment. I've had to take stuffed friends away at night, and from their reactions you would think that I was crucifying them. Certainly they don't think that any punishment is fair when they are going through it. But then, I'm the one with the greater perspective here. We don't...

Yes, it's another Reddit "debate religion" question that I felt driven to take on. And here's what I had to say: I've known people who have been healed of poor vision, breathing troubles, and other ailments from prayer alone. I also know folks just as faithful who have prayed and not been healed. Here's the thing: God is not some genie, you rub a lamp and get your wishes granted. Prayers are not magic incantations, they are conversations and petitions that may be granted, or not. As Gandalf said of himself, do not take God for a conjurer of tricks. In the Chronicles of Narnia, it was often remarked that Aslan isn't a tame lion, after all. No one I know who is really practiced in prayer for healing ever promises 100% results. There are people who make that sort of promise, and they are generally hucksters. It's no contradiction to believe that there are both real healers and fraudsters, any more than it is a contradiction to believe that there are b...

Here's another train of thought inspired by reading atheists on Reddit . "If God is so all-powerful, surely He can prove His existence to me! I might believe if there were any evidence!" Let's be real, atheist friends. I respect you, but I don't think you're giving enough credit here to the human capacity for skepticism. And skepticism can be both good and bad at times. There was at least one time during Jesus's ministry when an actual voice from Heaven told a crowd, "I am the Lord, this is my Son, listen to what he has to tell you." And some in the crowd said, "Meh, thunder." So, even presented with direct proof, people came up with alternative explanations. Can you honestly tell me that if I were to show you a sign from God right now, out of the blue, that you wouldn't look for a hoax behind it? Of course you would, and it's sensible to do so. With photoshoppers and video manipulation neural networks producing more impressive ...

This question was posed by an atheist on on Reddit some days ago, and I have been mulling over how I might answer it since. Instead of replying in that environment, I thought I might put my answer here. Really, I have a number of points to make to answer that challenge. 1) He is much better at giving attention than I possibly can be. For me to give time and attention to one thing, I generally have to take time and attention away from another. God exists outside of time, so He doesn't face this difficulty. Imagine history is layed out like a book to you: You can spend all day reading and rereading one page, or skimming back and forth between chapters. That's what it's like to be outside the timescale experienced by the characters.      Furthermore, our issues of size are not an issue to God. He can look at galaxies in one moment of eternity, then look at atoms the next, and still have plenty of "timeless time" for each of us in between.      ...

Earlier this week I found myself in a Facebook discussion with a friend of a friend. This guy Jim sits on the far opposite side of the political and religious spectrum. I like to try to engage with people who don't see the world as I do, it can be very enlightening. In this conversation, I had just espoused my preference for Senator Ted Cruz as a presidential candidate, given my perception that his honesty is unwavering and he has a strong understanding of and allegiance to the Constitution. Jim replied with his own opinion that Senator Cruz would be "worse than Trump", and described him as a "Dominionist". I like to think that I am reasonably aware when it comes to political and theological "isms". In the political world, I know about conservatism, libertarianism, liberalism, progressivism, communism, socialism, and more. In the Christian theological arena, I have heard of dispensationalism, pre- and post-millenial tribulationism, gnosticism, Ariani...