Blog - Page 258 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Could a Pro-Choice President Actually Help Advance the Pro-Life Cause?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:56-05:00September 15th, 2007|Categories: Current Affairs|

Could a pro-choice president, one who has openly run saying that he
was pro-choice, actually do more good for the pro-life cause than any of us who
are ardently pro-life could have ever imagined? I have tended to think this could be so for
some months now but I have found few who will agree with me in the pro-life movement. Pro-life people are very
ideological people. They are passionate, rightly so. I agree with that ideology and passion. I am ardently pro-life myself. I have been since 1973. The person who recruited me to the cause was Dr. C.
Everett Koop, who gave the commencement address to my graduate school class
at Wheaton that year, following the infamous Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision made in January. He told us the world we entered would not be the same. He challenged us to make a difference? I took his challenge that day.

But how could a pro-choice candidate make a real difference where
pro-life one’s have not? That is an intriguing question to say the least. (Do
not get me wrong here. President Bush, clearly pro-life, has […]

Bill Clinton on Giving and the Rise of Volunteerism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:56-05:00September 13th, 2007|Categories: Donors and Funding|

Whenever an ex-president releases a new book there is considerable buzz in the media. When Bill Clinton released a new book in Chicago this week the buzz was more than considerable. President Clinton’s new book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (Knopf 2007), is sure to provoke good and important discussion. My hope is that those who love him, as well as those who despise him for whatever reason, will take a long look at his central argument (even it they refuse to buy his book). The argument he makes is simple and he uses stories to make it—each of us can make an important difference in the world, a much greater difference than we’ve ever imagined.

You can see the Clinton interview with Borders online. It is well worth watching. I found this immensely interesting. President Clinton argues, correctly of course, that there is pile of new wealth that has been made by younger and younger people in our American context. More and more of these new entrepreneurs want to give away more and more of their wealth […]

Who is Coach Charlie Weis?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:56-05:00September 11th, 2007|Categories: College Football|

Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis lost a lawsuit to a jury decision in Massachusetts a few months ago. The story might have passed by with little notice but I paid attention to it for several reasons, one being my love for college football and two my complete lack of respect for Charlie Weis as a coach.

In 2002 Weis decided to have gastric bypass surgery. He weighed in excess of 350 pounds at the time. He was an offensive coach for the World Champion New England Patriots when he came to the end of a prolonged personal struggle by making the decision to have the surgical procedure. (I do not criticize anyone who has this surgery at all. It is life-saving for many and may have been for Charlies Weis.) The sad fact, however, is that Charlie Weis chose not even to inform his wife until only days before the surgery. He did, however, share it with his quarterback, Tom Brady. This in itself tells you a lot about Charlie Weis I think. “Football first, family second” as Lindsey Willhite put […]

A Visit to Seventh Reformed Church, Kuyper College and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

By John Armstrong|2007-09-10T16:03:34-05:00September 10th, 2007|Categories: Uncategorized|

Several times each year I visit the Grand Rapids area of Western Michigan. I have a number of friends in the area and have preached in churches here for many years. I am here these three days for ministry at several different places. Last evening I preached at Seventh Reformed Church in the city. Today I spoke at Kuyper College, situated northeast of downtown Grand Radids on the Beltline. Wednesday I speak at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. These campus visits allow for speaking in chapel as well as meeting with faculty for conversation. As you know I aim at impacting the thinking and missional perspective of the next generation of leaders so these typees of venues allow that to happen. This is, by the way, one of the reasons why we need donors to support this mission. The payment for such ministry covers only my expenses, at best. Our board sees this work as an investment in the future of the Church.

Seventh Reformed Church is a historic church that has had a long ministry in this city. It […]

The Passing of Another Christian Right Leader

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:56-05:00September 7th, 2007|Categories: Current Affairs|

D. James Kennedy, the famous pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, passed away earlier this week. Dr. Kennedy was well known to multitudes through his Evangelism Explosion ministry and his worldwide radio and television outreach. He was much better known to the culture-at-large for his efforts in founding the Moral Majority and the Christian right.

Much of Dr. Kennedy’s actual involvement with the Christian right was from behind the scenes (so to speak), leaving to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell the major head line roles. John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life, noted this point by saying that Dr. Kennedy "was active at every stage of the Christian right." He was a founding board member of the Moral Majority and in 1996 created the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ. His goal was to mobilize conservative Christians against gay marriage, pornography and what he called "judicial tyranny." Kennedy also founded the Center for Christain Statesmanship, a ministry I know even more about first-hand, which organized Capitol Hill Bible Studies and other […]

A Miraculous Comeback or a Meltdown?

By John Armstrong|2007-09-06T10:05:44-05:00September 6th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

My baseball predictions at mid-season are proving to be only partly right. I am no prophet regarding the future, that much is for sure. But now we have entered the most interesting part of the long, long season—the last four weeks. Who will come on, who will fade? Today I go to Wrigley Field to see the Dodgers play the Cubs. My long time Dodger friend, David Moorhead, is taking a train from Michigan to meet me and enjoy the old ballpark and the outdoors. It will be a fun day to root, root, root for the visiting team.

Yesterday something very unusual happened in the Major Leagues. (Yes, Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs in the same inning, a rare feat for sure.) But I refer to the way the Atlanta Braves, who are all but out of the race now, beat the Philadelphia Phillies, who are not quite out of the race. The real surprise here was how the Braves won in such an amazing fashion. In 517 previous baseball games this year, when one team entered the eight inning […]

Resurrecting the Champ: A Movie with Real Ethical Value

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:56-05:00September 5th, 2007|Categories: Film|

Resurrecting the Champ is a superb movie. Some reviewers agree, some do not. It features two great actors. First, Samuel L. Jackson plays a role that should receive an Academy Award nomination, but likely will not. The co-star is Josh Harnett, who seems to get better in every role that he takes these days. He is a superb actor, period.
This is not simply a boxing movie. It is not even the story of fathers and sons, though that plays a very important part in the drama. It is finally a movie about ethics, the ethics of telling the truth and how you should do it. Some critics think the film is "speechy" and dull but I beg to differ. I often disagree with the professional movie critics so much so that one Chicago reviewer, who pans a lot of very good movies, makes me want to see the movies he most often hates. Like all such art form there is a subjective side to all of this but I assure you this movie is a good story and it is very well […]

More Thoughts on Mother Theresa's Darkness

By John Armstrong|2007-09-04T19:12:12-05:00September 4th, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

I continue to ponder the report, and my own comments as well as those comments of many who responded, to the recent information about the late Mother Theresa going many decades with little or no felt awareness of the presence of God in her heart. In thinking about this question I have gone back to the desert, to the desert fathers of the third and fourth centuries of early Christianity. I believe these desert fathers and mothers have something to say to us about this matter that is almost completely lost on us modern affluent Christians.

Within us all is a voice that says, "I want, I want, I want . . . " This voice is the enemy of our real peace. If we sit still and truly listen then the fact of our death will come to us with clarity and spiritual reality. Attention to this inner voice, or the sense of God or of his absence, will lead us to experience our own fragility and futility. We will then know that we really are creatures, not the Creator. When this […]

Labor Day 2007

By John Armstrong|2007-09-03T20:05:42-05:00September 3rd, 2007|Categories: Culture|

Labor Day is one of those special American holidays that we all enjoy. We mark the end of summer by it, though fall doesn’t begin for several more weeks. This is the time we get back into our non-summer routines and school is now in session for most students and teachers. It is also a time for one final long weekend.

In the liturgy of my own church the benediction from yesterday’s worship said it well:

In the name of Jesus Christ, the carpenter’s son, let your labors be for the glory of God and for the common good.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Mary’s son, let all of your living be for love.

In the name of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, let our labor not be for a paycheck but for a world changed by God’s love and justice.

May God, Creator of the universe, maker and shaper of all things, bless you labor as well as your rest. May the Son of God, the son of a carpenter, bless all of the work that […]

The Methods May Change But the Problem Remains

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:56-05:00September 2nd, 2007|Categories: Evangelism|

A commitment to sharing the gospel with others is at the very core of what it means to be an evangelical Christian. I have tried to share the good news with others since I was seven years old. I also teach evangelism formally at the Wheaton College Graduate School, as an adjunct professor of evangelism. I believe we are commanded to declare the gospel to all creation, to every nation, and to seek for culturally appropriate ways to do this work with effectiveness.

In my lifetime I have seen lots of techniques used in evangelism. Some bother me. Very often they just don’t feel quite right, especially given the nature of the gospel message itself and the God that we represent. Some are just outright wrong, so it seems to me, shamefully so and often even unethical. Such seems to be the case, at least to me, with the way some Southern Baptists are doing evangelism in North and South Dakota this summer.

For the second year in a row Baptists are giving away a new Harley-Davidson at the Sturgis, S.D., […]