The Coming Public Conflict Over Human Cloning
Wesley J. Smith, First Things
To the contrary, we are currently in a temporary period of calm until scientists announce the creation of the first human cloned embryos. When—not if—that happens, the heated public debate will make the ESCR brouhaha seem like a day at Disneyland.
Louie Giglio and the New State Church
Russell Moore, Desiring God
President Obama kicked up some controversy by announcing that evangelical pastor Louie Giglio would be praying at the inauguration.
Federalism and Marriage
Edward Whelan, National Review Online
The Supreme Court should stay out of the way.
Sneering Social Constructionists
Mark Bauerlein, Public Discourse
Sneering at persons who are not social constructionists has become commonplace. Until defenders of inherent virtues, natural laws, divine beings, and other things that transcend social reality learn to overcome this initial set-up, they will be forever on the defensive.
Maybe the homosexuals should all move to Canada…It would not drop our population by that much though; which is surprising given the overwhelmingly overt presentation of how common it is to encounter homosexuals in our everyday lives. Sad how deceptive the media truly is.
BCody, your comments about gays are generally contemptuous and hateful. You rarely have anything to offer about any topic unless it’s about homosexuality, in which case you have at least paragraph that drips with scorn.
Why is that? What have we done to you? Did you have a bad experience with a gay person? Were you assaulted physically? Were you insulted? Was your life impacted in some profoundly negative way by a gay person?
Please explain.
I came back and reread my comment. I apologize for it. It is wrong for me to type away with no regard for who is reading. Also, it really is a ridiculous notion that I suggested. As for the attention given to the sin of homosexuality, I have seen the insidious evil of sexual sin and since the sexual sin that appears most frequently on this blog is homosexuality I have chosen to speak up about it. When sexual sin is addressed in the scriptures the admonishment is to ‘flee from it’. So I speak out against homosexuality because I want others to see it as evil and life-taking. People who struggle with the temptation of homosexuality are not ‘gay’. The ones I have conversed with are struggling and dealing with a lot of pain.
I can say this: I hate homosexuality–along with every other sin. Why? Because God hates sin.
Sin is what destroys lives. Sin is what separates us from God.
I will watch my tone on this blog. Thank you for the accountability.
What you say is understandable. All sexual behaviors outside the Scriptural mandates are sinful, and from personal experience I can tell you that these sexual sins do often carry with them real demonic bondages, not just bondages to the sins themselves. There are people I have dealt with who have had to be delivered from demons that attach themselves to pornography for example, so I certainly agree with your assessment B Cody, that sexual sin is evil in all it’s forms. What we need to remember, something I have often forgotten myself, is that the main purpose of any talking about these sins is not only to inform, but to bring the knowledge of salvation. Jesus can deliver the homosexual, the one caught in pornography, the adulterer or adulteress, etc. The answe to all these ills is repentance, confession of sin, deliverance from unholy and unclean spirits in the name of Jesus, and receiving from Him the grace for a new life. We must all keep our focus on the cure.
Thank you, BCody. It is appreciated. I understand we will probably not agree on these issues, but I will also attempt to respond without haste or out of heated emotion.
I do detect a tinge of contempt in Mr. Cody’s comments, but I do not understand why they are “hateful.” Surely disagreeing, say, with the policies of the state of Israel does not make one anti-semetic, nor does disagreeing with the political agenda of the gay rights movement make one hateful. Indeed, it is depressingly common to attribute such disagreement with personal experiences (or flaws), while it is also quite possible it is a sign of how much one loves the commandments of God. One can love those commands, and still love those who violate them, and pray (lovingly) for their repentence and redemption. Right?
Deacon Harmon, I generally don’t subscribe to the notion that disagreement equals “hate”. I disagree with many of my parents’ religious beliefs and simply find them untrue, yet I don’t love them any less because of them.
Likewise, I’ve heard people express their opposition to homosexuality framed within a religious context without any sense of contempt at all. In a couple instances, I have even written in support of such folks being able to express these ideas (whether it’s in a public or university setting). Political correctness will, in the end, only stifle any conversation from ever happening, whatever the topic.
At the same time, I have seen in this issue a certain fixation by some folks to the point where it is all they talk about it. They find every blog that discusses things like gay marriage and spend copious amounts of space arguing against it using the most spiteful language imagineable, sometimes even bordering on the profane. Were there no personal impact to the writer, it would make no sense (at least not to me). I’m simply trying to understand where this is coming from, that’s all.
Mr. Bradshaw: I quite appreciate your comments and agree with them. But it is also true that many public assaults on the orthodox Christian view of marriage are also excessive and insulting in the extreme. It is correct to say that Christians should not reply in kind, but I have observed that even the most reasonable Christain statements of objection have received quite vicious attacks. It was not the Christian side that brought the word “homophobia” into the language, you know. If you poke even a gentle dog with a stick often enough, it will snap at you. Do it continually, and it will snap at anyone.
Yes, we are morally accountable human beings, not dogs. But this has hardly been a rational debate in many quarters, and that includes the side promoting same-sex “marriage,” I assure you.