Blog - Page 205 of 318 - John H Armstrong

A Cultural Earthquake

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:56-05:00January 15th, 2009|Categories: Culture|

Cardinal J. Francis Stafford told an audience at The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in November that the election of Barack Obama was a "cultural earthquake." The media responded to this comment by calling it a "rant" and a "diatribe." This is the same media that sees the new president as the consummation of all things progressive and as "that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet . . ."

Which is it? Colin Powell says Obama has the potential to be a "transitional figure." I think this gets a little closer to reality. If you take Obama's record on some issues, especially on abortion, bio-medical ethics and civil unions then he could create a "cultural earthquake." But I tend to think he merely reflects where the country is already going so his election […]

The Tunnel: A Great German Film

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:56-05:00January 14th, 2009|Categories: Film|

The Tunnel is a riveting and stunning German film. It lasts 167 minutes but will keep you on the edge of your seat after the first hour. The director Roland Suso Richter stays on his story and the result is a gripping, tense and powerful movie. The Tunnel is truly a great human story (escape from East Berlin during and just after the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall in August of 1961) that includes love, death, birth, sacrifice, betrayal, hair-breath escapes and much, much more. It is one of the best foreign films I’ve seen in months and I watch quite a few foreign films.

The Tunnel is an escape movie filled with passion and human love. The movie is historical fiction but the storyline is real. More than fifteen tunnels were dug under the Berlin Wall in attempts to get people out of East Berlin after the wall was put up. The viewer is directly confronted with the political […]

Wheaton College Basketball and a Game to Remember

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 13th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

Each winter I try to see several Wheaton College Thunder basketball games. Wheaton is an NCAA Division III athletic program. This means that no single player ever receives any scholarship aid for playing a sport there. This also means that the players are generally smaller, less highly recruited by Division I and II programs and play purely because they love the sport. The action is never quite as crisp or fast and powerful as the at the big-time schools but it is often very good in its own way.

Wheaton has had some very good basketball teams in recent years, a few advancing quite far in the NCAA tournament in March. This year’s team is clearly as good, or better, than any since the 1950s, when Wheaton won its own national title in men's basketball. Wheaton is presently ranked No. 1 in the nation. The team is undefeated. They have a good mixture of young players and two really, really great All-American seniors who carry the team. I am particularly interested in the team […]

The Gators Really Are No. 1

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 12th, 2009|Categories: College Football|

The college football season is history and the Florida Gators are, very deservedly, the number one team in the land. Those who want a playoff system will inject their angst into the discussion, making for a fun off-season, but the Gators won out and proved their mettle last Thursday evening in the Fed-Ex BCS Championship Game in Miami.

What a game it was. Tim Tebow was not his best but he proved again that he simply takes over a game and makes things happen. He clearly has to be one of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. He just does what it takes to make his team win. There are better passers, and one was on the other side of the field last Thursday, but there is no better quarterback, no better team leader who makes his team excel. And the game was won, as it usually is won, on defense. Florida stopped the high-powered OU offense in its tracks. A […]

ACT 3 Luncheon Forums : Faith and the Economy: Friends, Enemies, or Uneasy Partners? with P. J. Hill

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 11th, 2009|Categories: ACT 3|

Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 10th, 2009|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Father Richard John Neuhaus passed away on Thursday, January 8, following a continued struggle related to a long-term battle with cancer. The day following Christmas he was admitted to the hospital and lost consciousness on Tuesday. He departed this life at the age of 72 years, a few days later. Joseph Bottum, the Editor of First Things, the great magazine begun by Father Neuhaus, writes, "My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted."

Neuhaus was a Lutheran minister for many years. When I first met him, at a conference near me in Carol Stream, Illinois, he was just developing a national reputation on the subject of faith and pubic policy. He was a seminar speaker for a conference hosted by the Christian Legal Society. I was impressed with his mind and his obvious ability to engage many things profoundly.

Later, Neuhaus […]

Albert Einstein and the Modern Atheists

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 9th, 2009|Categories: Apologetics|

Albert Einstein was clearly a brilliant man. He was once asked if he believed in God. He said: "I'm not an atheist. I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books, but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws."

Einstein was asked other questions about his beliefs over the years. He tried to express his feelings as clearly as possible. In the summer of 1930, amid […]

Pearls, Swine and the Problem of Forcing Character Formation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 8th, 2009|Categories: Biblical Theology|

Yesterday I wrote about Matthew 7:1 and Jesus' teaching on judgment and fault finding within the Christian community.

Paul writes: "For what have I to do with judging those who are on the outside? Is it not those on the inside you are to judge? God will judge those outside. 'Drive out the wicked person from you'" (1 Corinthians 5:12-13, NRSV). The irony of our time is that the church judges those who are outside the church and accordingly fails to deal with sin on the inside of the church. The world notices and our witness is severely harmed accordingly. In this practice we are more like the Corinthians than mature Christians.

But in Matthew 7 the governing thought seems to me to be that God treats us in the way that we treat others. This is, in reality, a rather sobering thought. If we are judgmental and critical then we will receive the same. In Matthew 7:5 […]

Newly Redesigned ACT 3 Weekly

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:57-05:00January 7th, 2009|Categories: Uncategorized|

If you enjoy reading this blog, you’ll enjoy my weekly email commentary, ACT 3 Weekly

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Fault Finding: Don't Jump on People's Failures

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:58-05:00January 7th, 2009|Categories: Biblical Theology|

One of the most common statements Jesus made, and he likely made it repeatedly, is actually a saying found throughout the ancient world. In Matthew 7:1 we find his familiar words: "Judge not, that you be not judged." Let me state, before I even explore this text, that Jesus is clearly not forbidding all forms of judgment. Criticism has a proper place. And the church, not individual Christians, is called upon to judge its own members.

John Calvin says, "Jesus' words here are intended to cure a disease that is natural to us all. We have the tendency to flatter ourselves while passing severe censure on others. This vice provides us with a kind of strange enjoyment, for hardly anyone exists who is not tickled with the desire of asking about other people's faults. Yet we also acknowledge that it is an intolerable evil to overlook one's own vices while being critical of others."

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