There are many organizations that consider themselves watchdogs of the first amendment, assuring that there is a complete separation of church and state in government organization. The American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) and Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) are perhaps the most well-known, and we’ve covered a few of their attempts to silence Christians in the public square. We’ve maintained that their agenda stems from a misunderstanding of the first amendment, which is about powers and not ideologies. The state shall not exercise authority over the church, and likewise the church has no authority over the state. That is very different from the dividing wall of hostility promoted by these organizations.
The headline read “Bishop receives hate mail” and, Of course, I had find out why. After all, who would write a bishop hate mail, if not other Christians? I’m sure our catholic readers will understand this more than us protestants, but the conflict was around a ruling the Pittsburg bishop’s made to allow congregants to eat meat on Good Friday. Why would he do such a thing, when centuries of tradition teach the eating of meat on Good Friday is a sin? He did so because this year the Christian holiday fell on Saint Patrick’s Day - and what goes better with green beer than corned beef?
In high school, friends and I started a Bible club at our public school. It was a place where Christians and those who were Jesus-curious could come together and discuss the relevance of the Bible and of a relationship with God. We called it “Academic Bible Club” which helped us overcome objections from the administration about permitting an obvious religious group meet at the school. The school was very hostile to any attempts my friends and I made to influence students and teachers with the message of Jesus. We adhered to the law, however, and they had to capitulate.
Placing one’s hand upon a Bible before taking an oath used to be a standard in so many American traditions. While we still do so for some of the highest offices in the land (President, for instance, and supreme court justice), but it has largely fallen by the wayside as the nation has tried to become more accommodating to other religious or non-religious peoples. In court we’ve moved on from placing a hand on the Bible to raising our right hand, and from all the corruption among politicians and lawyers I can’t say its an improvement.
During our studies of Luke and Acts we overcame one powerful factoid that has been mentioned in pulpits across the country, namely that women in Jesus’ day were uneducated and treated as property. Any close reading of the New Testament denies such an understanding, as we see women owning businesses and supporting both Jesus and Paul’s ministries. There is a second factoid Think-Biblically.com would like to correct, that children were treated unfairly and largely ignored. While this may have been true outside Israel, it was certainly not the case inside its borders. We’ll consider the evidence, starting with the nation’s earliest days
When I grew up in public schools many teachers and administrators tried to bully Christians into living for their jobs instead of Jesus, and it would appear that not much has changed since then. Today we bring you the case of one Ms. Toni Richardson, a public school teacher in Augusta, Maine. Her school district has ordered her to stop phrases such as “I will pray for you” and “you are in my prayers” or seek employment elsewhere. What is more, the phrases weren’t used in the classroom but privately to another employee, who also happened to attend the same church with Ms. Richardson.
It’s a word that Apple used first and other tech companies started picking up on. Watch any of the past Microsoft events, or Google’s IO conference and count how many times you hear the word “re-imagine” or any of its variants. Apple “re-imagined” the phone and then every other product category they entered, Microsoft “reimagined” the tablet, then Windows itself and Google has re-imagined the Android OS, intelligent devices and autonomous cars. I’m uncertain as to their correct usage of the term, but it leads me to ask a question of my own: What if we re-imagined our relationship with God?
This marks the start of a prolonged series on the Gospel of Luke. As we’ve already examined the book of Acts, it seems reasonable that the first Gospel we study should be Luke as both share a common author. Ask anyone to compare the gospels and two facts will almost always be mentioned: (1) that John is the Gospel of Love, and (2) that Luke is the Historical Gospel. While it is true that John gives us a look into Jesus’ personal struggles and relates stories not contained in any other gospel account, it is not true that Luke is purely a historical account.
Paul was one f the most dynamic Christian leaders in Church history, and responsible for writing much of the New Testament. Yet few Christians know where he came from and how he came into his role of persecutor prior to his conversion on the road to Damascus. Paul’s early life was marked by affluence; his parents were prosperous and owned enough property to qualify as citizens of Tarsus, a well-heeled college town of the first century. His father was a Pharisee and of the tribe of Benjamin. The family spoke Greek, but Paul was also fluent in Aramaic and had memorized large portions of the Septuagint.
Back when I led tours at the Museum of Nature and Science for BC Tours there were a few facts we liked to stress. The first was that it was okay to question what you saw and read; those dinosaurs with the feathers and colorful skin tones are more art than fact since skin doesn’t fossilize. A close second is that fossils do not require millions of years to make. Of course the museum employees hated us. After doing tours for several years I learned from a museum insider that the reservation desk would warn the other employees when we would be coming in so they could avoid a confrontation.
Yesterday we asked a question, what happens to a culture when honesty no longer matters? Dishonesty trickles down, impacting other social structures along the way. One such case happened recently in Pueblo, Colorado when a young police officer faked body camera video to make an arrest. Police officer Seth Jensen admitted before the case went to trial, that the body-cam footage he submitted as evidence was a “recreation” of events rather than the objective, first-hand accounting it was supposed to be. The best thing we can say is that Officer Jensen didn’t let his dishonesty stand, and confessed.
What strikes fear in your heart? For my sister who celebrated her birthday last weekend it might be a spider. For you, it could be losing your job. Or perhaps the very thought of your significant other walking away from you. What else? Cancer? There are a great many things we might fear. A little fear can be healthy, but the kind of fear that paralyzes, that keeps us up every night with worry, that keeps us from doing what we know is right must be overcome. Thankfully, God gives us guidance on breaking through fear, and promises help along the way.