Blog - Page 214 of 318 - John H Armstrong

What Kind of Supreme Court Will We Have in 2012?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:22-05:00October 15th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

On the issue of who they would appoint to the Supreme Court John McCain and Barack Obama could not have more radically different views about what a justice should do on the highest court. We can thank Rick Warren for helping to make their differences starkly clear when he asked both men which current justices they would not have chosen if they had been the president. (If you think about this, the question is brilliant, as were many that Warren asked in that Saddleback Forum.)

Obama said that he would not have appointed Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts and Samuel Alito (he voted against the last two in the Senate). McCain said that he would not have appointed John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and Stephen Breyer (he voted for Roberts and Alito in the Senate).

Besides the usual debates about Roe vs. Wade (abortion), there is much more involved in these answers than many people realize. McCain […]

Embracing the Prophetic in My Life

By John Armstrong|2008-10-14T19:25:46-05:00October 14th, 2008|Categories: Uncategorized|

Many of you know that I do not come from a Christian tradition that is inclined to put a lot of serious stock in prophetic words. By this I am not referring to eschatology but rather to prophetic gifting and hearing God speak to you through others, especially others who are part of a group or church that exercises "all the gifts of the Holy Spirit." I do not think of myself as a denominational charismatic but I have been open to all that God gives to his church for some years. Over the course of the last ten years I have "heard" God speak to me in some ways that I would never have understood in the past. I now am gaining discernment in how to listen and to respond. At the same time, God is sending people into my life almost every day who affirm this calling and speak words of faith and hope to me. Some of these people tell me I am to exercise a prophetic ministry. I do not know all this entails, but I believe I […]

The Case Against Barack Obama

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:22-05:00October 14th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

David Freddoso, a political reporter for the National Review Online, has written what seems to me to be the best book against the election of Barack Obama. The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate came out in July and became an immediate best-seller. I have mentioned several times before that I have followed Obama's political rise in Illinois for some years. But even I didn't know a number of the things that Freddoso includes in this well-written critique. What separates Freddoso's book from other similarly critical works about Senator Obama is that he does not use the silly charges that have been thrown against Obama by far right critics. Freddoso dismisses, for example, the idea that Obama is really a Muslim, that he was sworn into office on the Koran, that he hates the American flag and the national anthem. He avoids character assassination and thereby sticks to the central claim of the Obama campaign: Barack Obama is […]

ACT 3 Luncheon Forums : How I Changed My Mind About Women in Leadership with Alan Johnson

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:22-05:00October 13th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

The Willingness to Suspend Belief

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:22-05:00October 12th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

I think Thomas Sowell said it but there is, in this present political campaign, "a willingness to suspend belief." I sure agree with him. Both candidates, and the people in general, are seemingly willing to suspend belief and go with their emotions and feelings. In this scenario Obama wins the election easily. McCain has actually made the case for himself much worse since the Wall Street meltdown. I could not have imagined this a few weeks ago. I am not sure anyone could. But McCain's response is so bad that it is almost beyond belief. Obama's response is more measured at the end of the day.

First, McCain has launched an unfocused attack on greed and corruption. Well, yes, there is greed and corruption all around, but McCain offers no real solutions. Neither does Obama for that matter. But then I have come to believe the winner of this election may be the biggest loser […]

Financial Freedom

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:22-05:00October 11th, 2008|Categories: Economy/Economics|

Pope Benedict XVI, in one of his World Youth Day messages, said: "It is incumbent upon religious people to demonstrate that it is possible to find joy in living simply and modestly, generously sharing one's surplus with others."

This comment strikes me as both balanced and extremely important, especially given our present financial crisis in the U. S. Money is a tool given to us by God to accomplish responsibilities that he has entrusted to us. When money is viewed as an end in itself unhealthy desires will grow. The Catholic Catechism (No. 2536) says: "Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written: 'He who loves money never has money enough.'"

There are many philosophies among Christians about making, managing and giving money. There are a clearly a number of legitimate, and illegitimate, ways to make money. I think the pope's counsel is wise to keep before us regardless of the way we seek to make wealth.

We have clearly overextended ourselves as a society, or should we say many of us have personally […]

The Cubs Drought Reaches 100 Years

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:22-05:00October 10th, 2008|Categories: Baseball|

I have noted several times this year that the Chicago Cubs might make the post-season in 2008 but that they would likely fail in their mission to finally win their first world series since 1908. I could not imagine that I would be proven right so quickly and with such ease. The Dodgers, as baseball fans know, swept the Cubs in three games late last week. This means that the Cubs have lost nine consecutive post-season games dating back over their last three appearances.

Former player Dan Plesac put this well in our local paper. He said the players were tight, error-prone and playing not to lose. I am of the opinion that the fans bring this about as much as any single source. Loyal fans even began to boo their beloved Cubbies when they self-destructed this year. There can be no doubt that the atmosphere around the Cubs was very tense. Dan Plesac said before game three, that "this team is too […]

The Death of Common Sense

By John Armstrong|2008-10-09T05:00:00-05:00October 9th, 2008|Categories: Culture|

The following piece on "common sense" was sent to me by a reader of this site. I found it both humorous and all too real for comfort. I checked the dictionary and to find that common sense was "ordinary good sense or sound practical judgment." Here is the witty but all too true article.

My parents told me about Mr. Common Sense early in my life, and told me I would do well to call on him when making decisions. It seems he was always around in my early years, but less and less as time passed by, until today I read his obituary. Please join me in a moment of silence in remembrance. For Common Sense had served us all so well for so many generations.

Obituary
Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

[…]

Two Senators Debate the Issues

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:23-05:00October 8th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The second of three presidential debates was held last night in Nashville, Tennessee. The final debate will be held next Wednesday, October 15. We are now less than four weeks from the presidential election. I am not a political pundit but I have no serious doubt that Barack Obama will win this election. I have watched both debates carefully, as well as the vice-presidential debate, and I have seen nothing to dissuade me from this view. Baring a last minute "shift" that is rooted in events that we cannot foresee, Barack Obama is the solid leader in all the polls and should win, perhaps in a landslide.

What happened last night could best be described as two senators having a debate (a discussion seems the better word to my mind) about how to solve major problems that our nation faces. McCain needed to stop Obama's momentum and he simply failed. Why? I have no idea. I think both of these candidates debated like two men […]

How the Modern Generation Lost Its Way Morally and Socially

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:23-05:00October 8th, 2008|Categories: Emergent Church|

Time and time again David Gelernter, a national fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and professor of computer science at Yale, speaks precisely to something that I have been thinking about for some time. It was David Gelernter who argued, in the pages of The Weekly Standard about three years ago, that America needed another great awakening on the college campus and that it just might actually happen. He spoke of the typical campus as “biblically illiterate” and thus a veritable “tinder-box” for a spiritual fire if the Bible were to become relevant again to students. I pray daily that he is right and I work to this end with all that is inside of me.

Well, David Gelernter did it again in a recent (October 6) article in The Weekly Standard. In an article titled: “Obama in Leftland,” Gelernter writes:

[…]