The month of November 2013 witnessed the anniversaries of two quite significant events in American history?Lincoln?s Gettysburg Address (the 150th anniversary) and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (the 50th anniversary). Both are important for our history and both are symbolically quite powerful.
The Supreme Court?s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 changed America. Abortion remains one of the most contentious issues in our culture, with positions on both sides of the divide uncompromisingly hardened. For many, it is the touchtone issue of life. And perhaps because it deals with life and its value, it will never diminish in its importance to American civilization. Several thoughts:
Dr Eckman’s continues Paul’s discussion on Christian liberty & the importance of individual conscience in our actions & decision-making.
The debacle surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is a case study in the fallacious argument that government can do things better than the private sector. But the way it has been presented and the public promises made by the president about the law also indicate an intentional and willful decision to deceive the American people. Several thoughts:
The apostle Paul discusses Christian liberty, and how we are to wisely exercise our liberty & freedom in Christ in the choices we make daily.
At the center of the Postmodern worldview is the doctrine of personal autonomy–the idea that as free humans we are a law unto ourselves. In Postmodernism, the self defines reality. There are virtually no boundaries for behavior and there are few authority figures that matter anymore. Autonomy impacts all aspects of culture?entertainment, business, law, leisure and religion. The autonomous self defines reality because there is nothing transcendent to do so. If there is a god, he is a deistic god, who is more therapeutic than sovereign, and who serves at the behest of the human. Such a claim has a haunting ring of familiarity to it, for the book of Judges has as its refrain, ?Every man did what was right in his own eyes.?
Paul gives further clarity on God’s view of the martial commitment & how it can impacts one’s relationship with Christ.
In 2005 David Barton was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential evangelicals. Presumably, this recognition resulted from the organization he leads, WallBuilders, a ministry committed to championing the proposition that America was founded as a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state as defined today is wrong. He also advocates conservative political views that reflect conservative Republicanism or those posited by the Libertarian movement in the United States.
Paul continues his instruction on Christ’s view on the vows & commitment of marriage, as well as guidance on one’s life after conversion to Christianity.
Modern technology is changing the definition of fatherhood and the rights that go with it. Consider two cases: (1) A pregnant woman wants an abortion. Her husband does not. Should he have a say in her decision? (2) A woman wants to become pregnant with frozen embryos. Her ex-husband opposes the decision. Should he have a say in the decision? Legally, the answer is no to the abortion case and yes to the frozen embryo case.
