Blog - Page 209 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Hour I First Believed

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00December 2nd, 2008|Categories: Books|

Wally Lamb has written two hugely successful best-selling novels: She's Come Undone and I Know This Much. He has been called "a modern-day Dostoevsky" because his characters are introspective and search for a "mocking, sadistic God" in the process of coming to grips with life.

Lamb's new novel, recently released after some ten years in the making, is over 700 pages long and titled: The Hour I First Believed. The new book deals with tragedy in general and the teen killings at Columbine in particular. While Lamb was writing this novel 9/11 shattered our daily lives in an unusual way. Then this horror was followed by the widening war in Iraq and Afghanistan and Hurricane Katrina. Says Lamb, "I worried this novel into existence." A reporter writes that at one point Lamb was so vexed that he offered to pay back a large royalty advance and give up the entire project.

Lamb believes the media did not portray the shooters at […]

Oliver Stone's W.

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00December 1st, 2008|Categories: Film|

The film producer Oliver Stone has made more than his share of biopics that have created considerable controversy. Some of his films feature elements that are intentionally mythic and hugely debatable. I have seen most of Stone's films, movies like Nixon, JFK and the war movies. Stone's most recent film is W. I was certain when I saw that this film was being released that I would not like it, at least until I began to read a few reviews. I then saw it several weeks ago and found it a sympathetic and engaging portrait that plays with some really big ideas that make President George W. Bush look like a personable and warmly human figure who is also tragic. I then saw Governor Mike Huckabee interview Oliver Stone on his Fox News Channel program. I found the interview very interesting. To hear Stone explain what he was trying to accomplish in this film and how he wrote and produced it was quite convincing to […]

The Blood of the Martyrs

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00November 30th, 2008|Categories: The Persecuted Church|

There were more martyrs for the Christian faith in the last century than in any previous century. I am not totally sure about this fact but I think there were possibly more martyrs in the 20th century than in all the previous 19 centuries total. This fact is clear: martyrdom is still a major trial for the church and there is little or no evidence that it is declining in the 21st century.

My good friend Dr. Timothy George is the Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama.
Beeson Divinity School is one of my top-five schools for training ministers in America. It is evangelical, ecumenical and outward looking in an unusual way. It has a superb faculty and is a great place to get into a smallish community of learners and worshipers. I have frequently recommended Beeson and not one student I have urged to enroll there has […]

Does Christianity Foster Hate?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00November 29th, 2008|Categories: Christ/Christology|

There can be no doubt that certain kinds of Christianity have fostered hate. This has been true historically and it is still true in some places today. I am not speaking of "hate crimes" as defined by secular legal minds in our own time but rather of the type of hatred that makes people see Christians and Christianity as mean-spirited.

I am convinced that the good news of Jesus, properly understood, never breeds a hateful faith, only a gracious faith. The reason for this is that Jesus himself is at the center of real faith and Jesus never modeled hate speech or mean actions. He was firm, especially with religious conservatives who failed to keep the spirit of the law, but he was never mean. He exemplified love and grace and always displayed the virtues of love, patience, meekness and humility in his dealings with people. Since he is our model we should do the same, in so far as we follow him.

What I am really saying is that faith is primarily relational. This […]

Benedict XVI Gets It Right

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00November 28th, 2008|Categories: Abortion|

Yesterday I wrote about how the abortion issue has shifted within our culture. I suggested that we needed to take a new approach to creating a culture of life and to the end of saving as many of the unborn as possible.

First some history. Evangelicals came to the pro-life issue several years after Roman Catholics. They initially even showed a willingness to accept it until people like C. Everett Koop, Francis Schaeffer and Harold O. J. Brown began to inform them of their mistakes. Then evangelicals responded the way they often respond. They got emotionally and passionately involved. Some even made this the "single most important issue" of our time. The rhetoric employed made it sound like a Nazi-like holocaust was unfolding in the United States. This approach, in my view, made things worse. Even if you believe that a real human life is taken in an abortion, and I strongly do, serious ethical consideration will force you to approach this issue […]

Coerced Consensus

By John Armstrong|2008-11-27T05:12:00-06:00November 27th, 2008|Categories: Culture|

Sociologist James Davison Hunter has coined a term that very effectively describes what is going on in our culture in terms of how people are taught to define reality. Hunter writes that there is a "coerced consensus" that comes about through the imposition of a particular viewpoint on a people at large. The ultimate goal of this consensus, adds Bishop Michael Sheridan (Colorado Springs), is "unconscious acceptance." When this happens reality is then defined through the multitude of messages that are fed to us continually through a media saturated culture. Bishop Sheridan believes that this "unconscious acceptance' makes dissent an act of "virtual treason." Through the clever use of media the enemy of our souls has accomplished, in less than one generation, a complete reordering of the moral life of most people, even most Christians. Bishop Sheridan calls this the "principal tool of the culture of death."

This "coerced consensus" permeates our society through television and film stereotypes and an anti-religious social system. When a Christian challenges these messages they are made to feel as if they are […]

Where Did John McCain Go Wrong?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00November 26th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

After a general election it is common to ask the question: "How did the losing candidate go wrong?" We often see a myriad of studies and opinions given. I find all of this more than curious since someone always loses an election when there is more than one candidate. The person who loses may have really done very well but the pundits insist there had to be some blame to place on the loser's campaign and party. In the case of John McCain he actually did not do badly in a very hard year for Republican candidates.

For starters we should be very clear about this much. There was no Republican candidate who could have won this election, period. Second, the economic collapse blew up every real chance McCain had to win. He was leading in all the polls in late September and then the crisis hit big time. He never led again. Never has an election taken place […]

The Same-Sex Marriage Debate Continues

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00November 25th, 2008|Categories: Abortion|

The ballot initiatives on November 4 demonstrated that Americans are still not ready to embrace same-sex marriage as law. They clearly favor legal protection and recognition, but not marriage. The most surprising vote of all was Proposition 8 in California. And perhaps the most surprising fact of the entire California issue was who voted for and against the measure. White, educated voters supported gay marriage heavily. African-Americans and Hispanics overwhelmingly opposed it. The same voters who supported Barack Obama in large numbers voted against same-sex marriage in very large numbers. Now the radical proponents are attacking groups like the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church, which remains a continual target of such groups.

Arizona and Florida also voted to approve an amendment to ban same-sex marriage, as have more than thirty states now. The simple fact is that most Americans still do not want same-sex marriage as law. For those who agree I would caution you to think that this somehow ends the debate. The […]

Maxed Out

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:15-05:00November 24th, 2008|Categories: Economy/Economics|

Maxed Out is a documentary that every reader of this blog should take time to watch. It takes you on a journey deep inside the American style of debt. Given our present problems we all need to face this crisis honestly. How has the credit crisis impacted you, me and almost everyone else that we know unless they earn $200,000 plus annually. (In one sense even the wealthy are often misusing credit but they can recover in most cases since their income is so large.)

The villains are to be found everywhere. First, the consumer is often clueless. Some of this is clearly their fault. They were never taught to save or to live within their means. They have been taught to spend now and pay later. An entire generation is hooked. Our president has actually encouraged it and Congress tried to stimulate it with checks this year.

Students are hooked in their first year in college and […]

What's Happened to the Campus Greek System?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:16-05:00November 23rd, 2008|Categories: Evangelism|

I was never a big fan of the campus Greek system while I was at the University of Alabama (1967-69). There was just too much silliness and nonsense for my tastes. And when I saw how the Greeks partied and how they "cheated" on exams I became less than impressed.

I was thus surprised to read in a recent AP report that a new fraternity and sorority exists at my old campus in Tuscaloosa. The Lambda Sigma Phi house, right in the middle of fraternity row, is a Christian Greek house. Here Bible study and mission projects trump booze and late night orgies. Lambda Sigma Phi is part of a wave of Christian fraternities and sororities that have gained a foothold on college campuses in America. There are 210 fraternities in this group nationwide. Some of these exist where schools have made it very difficult for them to be accepted. Members of these houses focus on prayer, Bible study and service projects as […]