Headline Highlights: Week of August 10th, 2012

Highlights are back, but being reduced to a once-a-week frequency to help balance other responsibilities.  Enjoy.

Newspaper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I link these articles here because I believe the issues are important for Christians to be mindful of and to carefully weigh out.  Some articles are of a controversial nature, and their inclusion here does not necessarily express my agreement with either the political or theological views of the source.  I simply find these articles worth discussing and bringing to the attention of my fellow believers (or worth reminding about).

Ephesians 6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Romans 12:18: If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

As Christians, we absolutely MUST remember these verses as we weigh out our positions on moral-civil issues and then seek to enact and support laws, policies and practices in society that reflect our positions.  It is not the people who disagree with us that we “fight” against, but the devil behind them (whether or not they are aware of it).  Because the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors, we must extend a Christian grace even to those with whom we disagree.  When we fail to extend such a grace, we fail as credible ambassadors of Christ.

Issue 1: A Trending Lack of Discernment:  “Knowledge is the soil in which the Holy Spirit sows the seed of understanding” (modified from this article).  There is a tragic illiteracy of Scripture among modern Western Christians, and that illiteracy and lack of knowledge is growing into a possibly more tragic lack of understanding of, and discernment between, false teachings or sound doctrine.  This lack of discernment also plays into how we will (or won’t) respond to the other two issues in this Highlights post.

Ligonier: Where East Meets West; Desiring God: Fight the Poverty of Attention and Do We Ignore the Bible.

Issue 2:  Religious Liberty vs. “Discrimination” based on Homosexuality (or other sin issue):  Chick-fil-A aside, “tolerance” vs. Religious Liberty and Christian Morals remains a prevalent issue in current events.  Conservative Christians are castigated by the political (and religious) left because of a firm belief that homosexuality is outside of God’s design and morally wrong.  The hypocrisy in some Christian groups is that they lack of grace towards this particular sexual sin, while silently condoning or not actively fighting other sexual sin within their congregation.  The hypocrisy of the far left is their “tolerance” of everyone but Conservative Christians, and it is particularly ironic with regards to this issue because they are “tolerant” of Conservative Muslims, who are violently anti-homosexual (in nations where Sharia law is in place and enforce, homosexuality is a capital crime punished by death).

World Magazine: Philosophical Differences and Vanderbilt Squeeze:
Excerpt from Philosophical Differences: “A sharp-eyed reader [of the average anti-discrimination policy] will grasp both the central issue and the embedded fallacy. The issue: An institution (such as a Christian college) that refuses hiring on the basis of homosexual practice is thereby discriminatory. The fallacy: If a non-discrimination policy includes religion in its list of protected categories, then any institution religiously opposed to hiring a [person practicing a lifestyle contrary to the institution’s beliefs] is itself discriminated against…”

Desiring God: Not Your Mother’s Kind of Tolerance and No One is More Tolerant Than God:

A strongly recommended book for this discussion: D.A. Carson, Intolerance of Tolerance.

Issue 3:  Systemic Academic Antagonism of Christianity:  This issue is more of the same lack of “tolerance” for Christians, but in a more narrow scope than the above issue.  I also have personal experience on the untolerated end  of this particular issue, which I may write about later.

World Magazine: Soaping the Slippery Slope, Into Exile, Good Deeds Punished, and Vanderbilt Squeeze:

On a brighter note… Christianity Today: Missouri Students Can Now Opt Out of School Assignments on Religious Grounds:

Related articles

• Headline Highlights: 2012, July 31st  (thinkrhema.wordpress.com)
• Headline Highlights: 2012, July 30th (thinkrhema.wordpress.com)
• Headline Highlights: 2012, July 28th (thinkrhema.wordpress.com)