As Glenn Beck continues to rise in prominence, he is becoming a target of Christians. He was already a big target for liberals, the left, and the mainstream media. Conservative Christians have their own objections. To begin with, he's Mormon.

Now, let me concede that I would be uncomfortable having a Mormon as president.  For Beck, I think I might be able to swallow that discomfort, because I think he's the real deal. The other big Mormon on the scene is Romney, and for that man it appears that whatever is politically expedient is what is driving him at a particular time or on a particular issue. His Mormonism is a big strike against him, but as far as credentials for elected office go, he fails on a number of very important levels. Like, can he be trusted at all.

Of course, Beck will never run for the presidency or probably any elected office. He's a media personality. Surely we should take this into account.  That said, 95% of what I have heard...

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Probably the most entertaining thing about reading the article about the 7 year old girl who found her lemonade stand shut down by the Portland health department was reading the comments that followed. Those comments quickly devolved into a contest between 'conservatives' and 'liberals.' That discussion was probably warranted, and while I would sympathize with the conservative comments I tend to think a valuable facet was generally overlooked: the overarching belief in our society that it really is possible to eradicate all unpleasant experiences and even if it is not possible, it is moral and proper to make the attempt.

By 'unpleasant experiences' I mean literally any unpleasant experience, from being murdered to being offended to being made sick by a little girl's lemonade not properly handled.

What we have here is...

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Anthony Horvath is the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries, a pro-life speaker, and the author of the Birth Pangs series of books describing the final fall of America.

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That I know of, I have been de-friended on Facebook four times. Curiously, all four have been Christians who have objected to my view that Christians shouldn't use the government to carry out the Church's charitable duties. Interestingly, the four have been an even mix of liberal and (morally) conservative Christians. The charge seems to be that economic systems are just economic systems and Christians are free to choose from them however they please. Moral issues are different- but economic systems (so I gather) are morally neutral. Worse is that (apparently) I equate...

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The predicament that the United States and the world finds itself in is the result of prevalent wishful thinking. It is honestly and sincerely believed that you can avoid the inevitable consequences of behaviors and beliefs. God cannot be mocked: You reap what you sow. This applies in religion, morality, politics, and economy. It is a general principle: there are rules that govern the world. You defy them at your own peril.  

Many people are pointing to what has happened to Greece and warned that the same thing could happen here in America.  One need not pin the whole argument on Greece's situation.  America has seen its share of economic disasters.   Unfortunately, many Americans don't know that.  Either they didn't experience it (ie, they were born after 1970) or they don't know their history.  The general feeling in America is:  "That can't happen here.  Preposterous."  But it has happened, and it can happen again.

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Friday and Saturday, May 7th-8th, Athanatos Christian Ministries is hosting an online apologetics conference focusing on the communication of Christianity through the arts, and literature in particular.

Presenters include keynote presenter Robert Bowman, an author and apologist and others such as Intelligent Design advocate Angus Menuge, CS Lewis expert Robert Velarde, Tolkien expert Corey Olsen, and plenty of others.

Registration is open until Friday, May 7th, 10:30 a.m. CST.

The conference takes place entirely online, allowing anyone in the world to attend- from home.

Register today!

Link:  http://onlineapologeticsconference.com/

There has been a lot of criticism of late about Christians objecting to the massive government intrusion represented by the passage of the recent health care bill.  "What would Jesus do?" is the cry.  "You only love people while in the womb- after that you don't care about them!"  "I thought Christians were supposed to love and care for people, like Jesus did!"  So on and so forth.  I thought it might be useful to look at some actual passages of the Bible of Jesus in action just so we can put to rest exactly what Jesus would do.

I'm not even going to provide commentary.  I'm just going to cite the passage in full and let the reader decide for himself.  I only ask that you read to the end.  I will be happy to provide more texts in the future that likewise speak for themselves.

Mark 5:24-34
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UPDATE:  This column is an excerpt of A RESPONSE to a writer on psychologytoday.com.  His article is linked in the very next paragraph.  People are apparently reading this thinking that I am the person confused about why Christians would reject universal health care.  This column is my answer to the confused person.  If this confuses you, why don't you just go to my full response now.  (This means you, skeeter.)

This column is an excerpt of my response to this article where the author expresses a sincere desire to know why Christians tend to be against universal health care.  Th...

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The passage last night of the Senate version of health care reform was a deep slash at the heart of liberty.

Of the many, many things about this process and the final bill that disgust me, high on the list is the requirement that Americans buy insurance or be fined - and if you don't pay the fine, face imprisonment.

I will not here issue a discourse about how we got here.   Anyone who knows me knows how hard it is for me to refrain from that discourse.  You can learn more by going to my blog and intelligently using the search tool in the right column.

Having pondered what I can do as a private citizen that could possibly have any effect, I hereby issue this declaration:

"When it seems as though this bill shall actually be enforceable regarding the requirement to obtain insurance or face a fine and possible incarceration, I...

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"You are what you eat."  What about what you breathe?  The culture is the air we breathe in and the water we swim in.  You cannot escape the culture, because even if you mark off your own boundaries and defend them vigilantly, your new country is still... a culture.  Moreover, as history has shown, when there is warfare boundaries can be, and often are, overrun.   Many Christians today have adopted the defensive strategy of the French after World War 1, establishing a line of defensive fortifications- their very own Maginot Line.  Unfortunately, the results are likely to be the same for the Church as it was for France.

The 2010 Online Apologetics Conference is casting a vision for a different approach:  fight the battle we're actually in and not the battle we wish we had.  If the ...

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How often have you heard the impassioned rationale that, "If we hadn't done such and such, it would have been worse."  The flipside of the argument is, "If we don't do this, this horror will happen."

 A recent example of this reasoning surfaced in a news story:

 "You might ask, 'What good is Chicago's handgun law if so many of our young people are still being shot?'" Nance-Holt said. "All I can say is, imagine how many more would be if the law were not there."

Yes, imagine it- for the reasoning here relies only on imagination.  I am not going to say that the logic is completely flawed, since what we're talking about here is basically just cause and effect.  The real flaw resides in the fact that we are asked to set public policy based on these assertions.  I may be naïve and idealistic, but I believe that any kind of restriction on the liberty o...

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