Category Archives: Debate

Apologetics, Atheism, Debate, Mp3s, Philosophy, Promotionals, Theology, Videos

Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?

Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?

Stan Guthrie moderates a Christian Book Expo panel with Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig, Douglas Wilson, Christopher Hitchens, and Jim Denison.

The New Atheists usually make two charges against Christianity: (1) that it is untrue and (2) that it is harmful. A panel of apologetics experts responds to an atheist critic with evidence from Scripture, science, and history about why the faith is both reasonable and good for the world. Christianity Today’s Stan Guthrie moderated this panel on March 21, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Go to the link above to watch the video recording of the event. Here is a link to download the audio in mp3. This is a really good discussion panel and everyone did a great job, even Christopher Hitchens. I can only pray and hope that one day God will save Christopher so that his name will finally be fulfilled.

Culture, Current Events, Debate, History, Law and Faith, Politics

Obama’s Attack on Medical Civil Liberties

Here is a disturbing list of things that President Obama has already done since he’s been in office for under 3 months (by Newt Gingrich and Rick Tyler):

  • Efforts to roll back freedom of conscience protections are only the latest in a series of aggressive actions that demonstrate intolerance for those whose conscience is convicted in support of a culture of life:
  • In the first month of his presidency, Obama reversed the established Mexico City policy that kept taxpayer money from being used by international organizations for abortions as a method of family planning protecting millions of American from paying for a procedure that they find morally objectionable.
  • Last week, the President unilaterally lifted embryonic-stem-cell research restrictions.
  • In the President’s recent healthcare summit, groups that support abortion were invited but pro-life groups with a stake in healthcare were excluded.
  • With the President’s support, Congress recently approved $50 million in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA is complicit in China’s unspeakably cruel one-child enforcement policy, which employs forced abortion and sterilization.
  • The President’s nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be the new Secretary of Health and Human Services prompted George Weigel who leads Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center to question whether “conscience-rights protection for pro-life physicians and health-care workers [will] be sustained, amended, or eliminated.”
  • In February, the Administration decided that it would no longer extend hiring protections to faith-based organizations but would instead review on a “case-by-case basis.

. . . . . . .

Yet, the most hostile assault against the civil liberties in the medical profession may be yet to come.

In 2007, Obama promised a Planned Parenthood gathering on the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade that, as president, he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). If enacted, FOCA would repeal all federal and state restrictions on abortion including the ban on partial-birth abortion. FOCA would force all public hospitals and health programs offering maternity services to provide abortions. Moreover, provisions in state constitutions that protect speech and the free exercise of religion of those whose conscience is opposed to abortion could be invalidated.

Having no reason to believe that President Obama will not fulfill this radical campaign pledge, some Catholic bishops are talking openly about engaging in civil disobedience to protect Catholic hospitals and their doctors from being forced to perform abortions.

The chilling effect of the Obama administration forcing doctors and nurses to choose between their losing their careers and being compelled to participate in abortions against their moral and religious belief is incalculable. Not only will pro-life doctors and nurses be driven from the professions, but patients will lose the ability to choose doctors who reflect their own religious and moral convictions, doctors who now help them to make healthcare choices based upon them.

The fact is, there are doctors and nurses who have no moral objection to abortion. Why then, should some medical professionals be compelled to do something that compromises their conscience? It is one thing to hold fast to the pro-abortion position as a matter of a personal opinion, it is quite another to force someone else to compromise their moral integrity.

Now the clock is ticking on the thirty-day review and public feedback period where public opinion might change the administration’s direction toward religious freedom. Let’s hope. [Continue Reading…]

Culture News, Current Events, Debate, Law and Faith, Politics

Culture News: Ban Marriage in California… that will solve everything!

Prop. 8 Opponents Begin Effort to Strike ‘Marriage’ from Calif. Law

By Lawrence Jones
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Mar. 11 2009 08:19 AM EDT

Proposition 8 opponents received permission Tuesday from the California Secretary of State’s office to begin collecting petition signatures toward a repeal of the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

The initiative would side step the issue of same-sex marriage by making all couples eligible for marriage benefits regardless of their sexual orientation. If approved, the initiative would strike the word “marriage” from all state laws and replace it with the term “domestic partnership.”

The measure would also repeal Proposition 8, California’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown submitted the official title and summary for the measure on Monday, about a week after the state Supreme Court heard arguments challenging the validity of Proposition 8.

The official and title summary for the measure is as follows:

Substitutes Domestic Partnership for Marriage in California Law. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
Replaces the term “marriage” with the term “domestic partnership” throughout California law, but preserves the rights provided in marriage. Applies equally to all couples, regardless of sexual orientation. Repeals the provision in California’s Constitution that states only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

The proponents of the measure are two Southern California college students, Kaelan Housewright and Ali Shams. They must collect around 695,000 signatures, or 8 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2006 gubernatorial election, by August 6 in order to qualify for the 2010 ballot…

[Continue Reading…]

Apologetics, Culture, Current Events, Debate, Denominations, Politics, Pop Christianity, Reforming

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Michael Spencer has a very provocative article that was published in the March 10th edition of the Christian Science Monitor. I encourage you all to read it. Here is an important excerpt:

WHY IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to “do good” is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

[Continue Reading…]

Culture News, Current Events, Debate

Give your girlfriend a gift card for abortion!

Planned Parenthood has decided to offer gift cards for people to purchase that can be used towards funding all their services. Now all those boyfriends and parents who don’t want their girlfriends and daughters having babies can give them gift cards for Christmas to kill their unborn children! Imagine if Joseph gave this wonderful gift to Mary when he found out she was pregnant before they were married… what would the world be like then?!

And what will they think of next??? One week abortion vacations to help you forget that you just murdered your baby before “it” was born? Let’s all thank president-elect Obama for wanting to fund organizations like this with our tax money! We should all be soooo thankful this holiday season… or not.

=========================

Planned Parenthood offering gift option
Published: Nov. 26, 2008 at 12:24 PM

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 26 (UPI) — Planned Parenthood in Indiana says it is selling gift certificates this holiday season for the first time in its history.

Chrystal Struben-Hall, Planned Parenthood in Indiana vice president, said the reason for the controversial sales move is due to current economic woes nationwide and how such problems may impact women’s healthcare needs, WISH-TV, Indianapolis, said Wednesday.

“People are making really tough decisions about putting gas in their car and food on their table, so we know that many women especially put healthcare at the bottom of their list to do,” she said.

The gift certificates, which are only available in $25 increments, can be used on a number of Planned Parenthood services, including abortions.

Struben-Hall told WISH-TV while the decision to place abortion services under the certificate umbrella would undoubtedly prompt criticism, Planned Parenthood did not want to restrict those seeking healthcare.

“They really are intended for preventative healthcare,” she said. “We decided not to put restrictions on the gift certificates so it’s for whatever people feel they need the services for most.”

Apologetics, Books, Culture, Current Events, Debate, Movies, Promotionals, Theology, Videos

Hitchens vs. Wilson: A Collision of Lives – Part II

This post stands as a compilation of the recent debate and commentary on the debate that has been posted by Doug Wilson, Nate Wilson and Christianity Today. Below I have also included links to one of my fellow Bloggers who wrote some good commentary about Presuppositional Apologetics last year during the Christianity Today debate between Wilson and Hitchens.

Here is an interview of Wilson and Hitches on the Debate/Book tour:

by Doug Wilson

  1. Common Ground
  2. The Helichopper Was Fun
  3. No Moderator, and We Both Behaved
  4. Teaser Trailer

by Nate Wilson

Christianity Today Debate – 2007

  1. “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Part I
  2. “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Part II
  3. “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Part III
  4. “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Part IV
  5. “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Part V
  6. “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Part VI

Commentary on the Debate – by James Grant

Here is that awesome video preview of the documentary again:

Here is a link to the published book of the debate hosted by Christianity Today in 2007. You can support out ministry by purchasing this book and others through our book store.

Apologetics, Books, Culture, Debate, Evolution, False Religion, History, Humanism, Intelligent Design, Movies, Promotionals, Videos

Hitchens vs. Wilson: A Collision of Lives

I have to say, I cannot wait for this to come out on DVD! Enjoy the preview, especially the music and the camera work. 🙂

Here is some more information about it:

Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson squared-off in a recent series of debates over atheism. Hitchens is an atheist with an acerbic wit who thinks Christianity to be a blight on society. Douglas Wilson is a Christian who wants to show the reasonableness of the Christian faith. The video above is a trailer for a forthcoming documentary that describes the debates. (HT: Denny Burk)

Apologetics, Atheism, Culture News, Debate, Eschatology, False Religion, History, Movies, New Testament Theology, Promotionals, Reforming, Theology, Videos

Bill Maher and John Piper

2 Comments

Denny Burk says:

You have probably seen by now one of the ads for Bill Maher’s new documentary “Religulous.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s a movie that was produced for the expressed purpose of denigrating religion. The fundamental point seems to be that having faith in any religion is ridiculous—thus “Religulous.” In the trailer for the movie, the following exchange takes place between Maher and a person dressed up like Jesus.

Maher: Why doesn’t [God] just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world?

Jesus Impersonator: He will.

Maher: He will?

Jesus Impersonator: That’s correct.

Maher: What’s he waiting for?

The whole point of the exchange is to show how ridiculous it is that the Christian God will not do anything about evil in the world even though He’s supposed to be both good and all-powerful. Even though it’s delivered with sarcastic humor, Maher is asking a serious question. At bottom the exchange is really about the classical question of theodicy, and the whole thing is framed in a way to discredit the Christian faith.

In a recent blog post, John Piper answers Maher’s question, though he doesn’t mention Maher’s name. Nevertheless, the title of Piper’s essay reads like an allusion to “Religulous”: “Why not destroy the devil now?” Piper gives an answer that is (as you might expect) grounded in God’s passion for His own glory. God is most glorified by allowing Satan to remain for a time. He writes:

“The glory of Christ is seen in his absolute right and power to annihilate or incapacitate Satan and all demons. But the reason he refrains from destroying and disabling them altogether is to manifest more clearly his superior beauty and worth. If Christ obliterated all devils and demons now (which he could do), his sheer power would be seen as glorious, but his superior beauty and worth would not shine as brightly as when humans renounce the promises of Satan and take pleasure in the greater glory of Christ.”

Maher’s question deserved a serious answer, and I am grateful that Piper took the time to write one. You should read the rest.

“Why Not Destroy the Devil Now?” – by John Piper (desiringgod.org)