Blog - Page 218 of 318 - John H Armstrong

An Evening with Steve Brown

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:31-05:00September 9th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

Last Friday evening we celebrated the 17th Anniversary of the mission of ACT 3. My very good friend Steve Brown came from Orlando to speak for us at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton. We had a wonderful evening. The attendance was far and away the best we have had for such an event in many years. And more than half of those who came had never been to an ACT 3 event previously, which thrilled us.

Steve spoke about The City of God, following the teaching of Jesus and St. Augustine’s classic book. He showed how you can love your country, the city of man, very deeply. But he also showed that Christians must keep their priorities clear and make the city of God their greater pursuit. His central point was that people in the city of man cannot hear the message the city of God gives to them unless they see "our tears." He took his central thought from the […]

ACT 3 Luncheon Forums : Preaching as Worship with Michael Quicke

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:31-05:00September 8th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

Do Women Face a Different Standard?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:31-05:00September 8th, 2008|Categories: Feminism & Women|

Did anyone see the interviews this week with former aides to Senator Hillary Clinton during the RNC? Several of these former Clinton aides have openly criticized the “sexist” attacks on the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. These attacks have led many to question her devotion to her family. Check out politico.com for more.

Howard Wolfson, a former top Clinton adviser, said: “There’s no way those questions would be asked of a male candidate.” And Paul Singer, who worked with Wolfson on the Clinton presidential campaign, said: “There’s no question that the issues a woman has to deal with are different. The real indictment that needs to be prosecuted is about her views, not her personal life.” He believes Hillary was victimized by sexist news coverage as well. Singer cited articles “on Clinton’s cleavage,” and whether she had the personality of a “bitch.” Palin has already heard various statements about her appearance as well. The even more tourbling stuff is the scandalous rumors about her family and the suggestion that she is being a bad mother. Is anyone as sick of […]

Did Governor Palin Sell Her State Jet on e-Bay?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 7th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The main stream media (MSM) is all abuzz today about the supposed lie that Governor Palin told in her acceptance speech on Wednesday evening. I thought to myself, as I read all of these accusations, "I do not recall her saying she sold the jet on e-Bay" but rather that she listed it there and sold it. But one commentator after another is writing about her lie. So I decided to go back and read her speech and find the offensive line that is being debated so heatedly.

Here is what she actually said:

"That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay."

Read her words slowly. She doesn’t say she sold it on eBay but that she "put it on eBay." The truth is that is exactly what she did. It did not sell on eBay so it was sold later and thus she said nothing untruthful or misleading at all. If this is how we hear […]

What Can a Climatologist Know About the Future? A Sane Look at Climatological Models

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 6th, 2008|Categories: The Future|

This question about the future of the climate is the leading idea of John R. Christy’s essay in the book, The Way We Will be 50 Years from Now (Thomas Nelson: Nashville, 2008). Christy is professor of atmospheric
science, and the director of the Earth System Science Center, at the
University of Alabama in Huntsville. He was awarded NASA’s Medal for
Exceptional Scientific Advancement for developing a global temperature
data set based upon the microwave data observed from satellites. He was also the
lead author for the UN reports on climate change. He shared in the same Nobel Prize that was awarded to the whole group of scientists and former Vice-President Al Gore. As a result of this fact I did not think his essay would provide much more than the usual "religious" babble on climate change. I was pleasantly stunned. As a result I now read Dr. Christy’s reflections wherever I can find them on the Internet. (Do a Google search with his name.)

Christy […]

The Real Nick Saban Has a Real Wife and It Makes a Real Difference

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 5th, 2008|Categories: College Football|

No coach in all of America gets the attention these days that Nick Saban, the head coach at The University of Alabama, gets in the media. (Readers know I went to Alabama for two years and remain a shameless die-hard Tide fan!)

Saban’s uncompromising commitment to excellence in every phase of the football program is beginning to yield success for the Crimson Tide. The veteran head coach has achieved resounding success on the college level with three different programs. He has justly earned a reputation as an outstanding tactician, leader, organizer and motivator. Those qualities have sparked impressive turnarounds at every stop in his college career. (The one exception, critics will cite, was his two-year stint with the professional Miami Dolphins, where he had a sub-par winning percentage.) Coach Saban’s teams have often overcome adversity to achieve victory and like him or not he is a brilliant coach.

Saban can be abrasive, angry and sometimes cute. He is never dull. He […]

Planned Parenthood and Politics

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 5th, 2008|Categories: Abortion|

President John Adams was right when he said, "Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

The facts about abortion, and the relationship between easily accessed abortions and politics, are patently plain. There is no debate about these facts. Let no pro-life Christian be deceived about them either. A 2007 Wall Street Journal report noted that Planned Parenthood received over $1 billion in revenues. Read that figure again. This means Planned Parenthood is big, really big. How much of this revenue came from tax-payer monies? Answer: $336 million, or almost 34%.

Planned Parenthood is putting an estimated $10 million into candidates for political office this year. Obviously not a penny will go to an anti-abortion candidate so we know where the money […]

America's Blessings and Africa's Trials

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 5th, 2008|Categories: Current Affairs|

I have, like some of you I am sure, been listening to the various promises of the political parties and candidates over the past two weeks. This week it is the Republican Party’s turn to take the stage and tell us why we should vote for McCain–Palin on November 4. While all of this has been going on our nation has also faced another great storm that hit our southern coast Sunday–Monday. The truth of the matter is obvious—we face trials for sure but we are the most prosperous nation on the planet and may well be the most self-indulgent and self-centered as well. (Most European nations excepted, but then they do not enjoy our wealth either!)

This all came home to me as I listened to all the talk about our gloomy economy over the past two weeks. How many of us realize that we are not in a recession, that our unemployment numbers are the envy of most Western nations, and that even the storms that hit our coast are nothing like the trials of the life-and-death many in the […]

Sarah Palin Hits a Grand Slam

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 4th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The mainstream media (MSN) in the United States clearly has a high opinion of itself. Again and again they have expressed this view by telling us that they should have been directly involved in vetting Sarah Palin for the vice-presidency. Plainly they are not happy. But nothing, and I mean nothing, in either the history of this process, or the Constitution, requires the media to approve who a candidate chooses to run with them for the vice presidency. The candidate for president gets to make this choice, regardless of what we think. It is then for the voters, not the MSM, to decide if the candidate made a good choice or a bad one. Now the person chosen by Senator John McCain has presented a bit of her life to us, along with her political views. It will be our choice as to which ticket we now will elect on November 4.

The near unanimous opinion, even of McCain’s harshest critics, was […]

How the Left and Right Connect

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 3rd, 2008|Categories: Current Affairs|

Sometimes the radical ends of a spectrum touch one another much like a circle will get you closer to the same point on the edge of the circle if you keeping going around it. Take as an example, Communism and Fascism. One comes from the left and the other from the right but in the end they are very much alike. So it is with conspiracy theories from the left and right as well. And often it happens in popular and political culture as we’ve seen the past five days.

The response to Sarah Palin’s nomination for the GOP ticket from the far left and the far right is remarkably similar. On the left we hear about how she should stay home and raise her children. She is told that her family responsibility disqualifies her from holding high office. On the far right we hear the same thing, especially from Christians who seem to live closer to "The Little House on the […]