Blog - Page 303 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Gains & Losses of Orthodox Feminism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:36-05:00February 10th, 2006|Categories: Feminism & Women|

Women have made great gains in modern Western society. Except for the poorest of the poor these gains have benefited almost all women in some way. These gains are the result of a significant social revolution that we have undergone as a society over the past fifty years.

Perhaps the most important early influence in this massive social change was Betty Friedan, who passed away last Saturday (February 5). Friedan was always interesting and often inflammatory. She spoke out on a number of issues over the course of her eighty-five years of life, at times offending the very feminist movement she helped to nurture and grow. Her 1963 bomshell, The Feminine Mystique, was a best-seller. It clearly expressed the agenda for a radical break from the post-World War II Eisenhower era and shattered what has been called “the cozy suburban ideal.” A 1999 New York State University survey of 100 examples of the best journalism of the century voted the book No. 37 on the list.

Showing that she could listen to some of her more conservative critics Betty Friedan’s […]

The Fraud Goes On

By John Armstrong|2006-02-09T07:52:34-06:00February 9th, 2006|Categories: Science|

Professor Peter Singer, of Princeton University, is one of the leading advocates in out time for the culture of death. Last year Singer wrote: “During the next 35 years the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse under pressure from scientific, technological, and demographic developments. By 2040, it may be that only a rump of hardcore, know-nothing religious fundamentalists will defend the view that every human life, from conception to death, is sacrosanct. In retrospect, 2005 may be seen as the year in which that position became untenable.”

Jonathan Alter, writing in Newsweek, further chortled that “The South Korean” efforts in cloning human embryos to produce stem cells would prove to be a “brilliant scientific breakthrough” that would expose the “perverse” position of the “Bush bitter-enders and the pope.” Wow! What a major contribution to the human family that “breakthrough” might prove to be. And exposing the “perverse” position of Bush and the pope is truly a marvel […]

A Homosexual Challenge Met with Grace and Wisdom

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:36-05:00February 2nd, 2006|Categories: Homosexuality|

Soulforce’s Equality Ride is coming to Wheaton College, April 20-21. I didn’t even know what Soulforce was until this morning. The goal of the Soulforce Equality Ride is to change the policies and practices of the institutions they plan to visit, which includes fourteen Christian colleges that are member institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

Soulforce states its purpose to be: “Freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.” A visit to the Web site of Soulforce http://www.soulforce.org/ reveals that the organization has built its Equality Ride agenda around the philosophy and practices of the 1960s Civil Rights movement. In their own words: “At military and religious colleges around the nation, bans on gays, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender enrollment forces students into closets of fear and self-hate. These bans devalue the life of GLBT people and they slam the door on academic freedom. The Equality Ride empowers young adults to challenge those college bans.”

So why visit Wheaton College? Well, Wheaton […]

A Sobering Fact About Generosity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:37-05:00January 31st, 2006|Categories: Donors and Funding|

I study the issue of generosity a good bit. Since my own ministry depends upon the generosity of Christians I need to understand how to respond to issues that relate to charitable giving. Thus, I confess that I was a bit surprised when I learned a few weeks ago that the year-end IRS statistics about giving in America reveal that the poorest in our society are in fact the most generous givers.

Each year IRS compiles statistics about household giving. The most recent figures, for 2003, show the following:

1. Households with adjusted gross incomes of $10,000 to $15,000 gave 11.6 percent to charity.
2. Households with incomes of $50,000 to $55,000 gave 4 percent.
3. Households with incomes of $200,000 to $500,000 gave only 2.5 percent.

Regardless of what you how you break down giving among other income levels what is most surprising is that the families in the lowest income levels are the ones that gave a tithe or more, on average.

The second amazing thing I noted in this data was that there is […]

How Should We Respond to Growing Income Inequality?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:37-05:00January 28th, 2006|Categories: Economy/Economics|

A national report, issued on Thursday (January 26), shows that the gap between the nation’s top wage earners and lower- and middle-income families is growing over the past two plus decades. This gap began to grow in the 1980s (slowed from 1996-2002) and continues to increase off and on since. Liberals and conservatives view the gap very differently. These difference allow us to think about social and economic policy seriously.

Consider, for point of reference, that the study shows that the richest 20 percent of families had average incomes 6.8 times as large as the poorest 20 percent in the early 2000s, up from 5.4 times in the early 1980s. And the highest incomes in the early 2000s were 2.5 times as large as the middle 20 percent, up from 2 times twenty years ago. Average incomes for the richest people were up 51% overall and only 21.5% for middle income families. Average incomes for the poor rose by 20.5% during the same period!

So, what are we to make of this data? Ah, there’s the problem. Liberal economists see […]

Praying and Working for Christian Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:37-05:00January 24th, 2006|Categories: Unity of the Church|

The real Lord’s Prayer, that is the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples (John 17), makes it abundantly plain that he desires the unity of all believers. The simple point made in the text is beyond serious doubt (John 17:21). There are many ways Christians have approached this text, and several major explanations have been offered and accepted, but the basic direction of the prayer cannot be in doubt. When we are in a relationship of oneness, or unity, with fellow Christians the world will believe our message. The key word here, I am convinced, is relationship. What Jesus desires is our relational oneness. The problem comes when we seek to apply this to macro issues like the unity of the whole visible Christian church. (In reality, most Christians have the real problems in how they handle everyday relationships with other believers in the same congregation!) Most evangelicals tend to give up when they get to this issue and believe they are safe by making no real effort to pray for, or concerted attempts to experience, this God-given unity. God is teaching me […]

Joseph F. Girzone on the Trinity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:37-05:00January 23rd, 2006|Categories: The Trinity|

ACT 3 exists to advance the missional mandate of Jesus Christ through Scripture and Tradition. We seek to do this by means of three core commitments that we have prayerfully established. The first commitment is to advance worship. We put this commitment in the following way:

To advance worship in culturally accessible forms, through orthodox theology that is deeply rooted in the classical doctrine of the triune God and through humble collaboration and cooperation within the whole Christian Church.

I think about each of our three ministry commitments nearly every single day. It helps me focus my life on the purpose we believe God has given to us as a ministry. One thing it also does is direct my reading and writing on a regular daily basis. When I recently picked up a little book by Joseph F. Girzone, titled simply Trinity, I was drawn to it with profound interest. (It was on sale for $4.99, which surely helped my interest!) Girzone, for those who do not know, is a bestselling author who is retired from the active Catholic priesthood […]

How Should Government Deal with Poverty?

By John Armstrong|2006-01-19T11:35:18-06:00January 19th, 2006|Categories: Poverty|

A regular argument made, at least from some evangelical political voices from the political left, is to cite numerous Old Testament texts about poverty and then suggest that one of the central concerns of a just government is to solve the problems associated with poverty. Republicans are heartless promoters of bigger business while Democrats care deeply about the little guy and people’s needs.

No one who has an ounce of compassion disagrees that Christians should care about poverty and its associated social ills. The issue here is not "Should we care about poverty and the problems related to it?" Rather, the question is, "What is the best way to respond to poverty?" The evangelical left, expressed through voices like that of Jim Wallis of Sojourners, often acts as if they alone hold the high ground in this debate. They care deeply about the poor and conservatives do not. Frankly, I believe it is time that we smoke this myth out into the open for what it is, nonsense.

I confess that Ronald Reagan, and what he stood for, has had […]

The Religion of American Teens

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:37-05:00January 18th, 2006|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

There is a lot of back and forth among various pollsters about the beliefs and religious practices of modern young people in America. The evidence is quite strong that an increasingly large, and growing, number of young adults between 18 and 29 do not go to church at all. Some say it is less than 10% nationally. But what about teens, in particular, who are religious and do attend church?

The best summary that I have seen, rooted in extensive recent research by reputable social scientists, states that the religious faith of modern teens could best be summarized as: "moralistic, therapeutic, Deism." Kids have been taught that they should keep laws that are important to their well-being and that a vague god of some sort wants to make them happy and healthy, thus the therapeutic Deism reference. I think this sums up the bad news about much of what has been taught in our churches and in garden variety youth ministries. Keep the kids out of trouble and keep entertaining them so they will have a positive self-image.

The good news […]

The 300th Birthday of Benjamin Franklin

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:37-05:00January 17th, 2006|Categories: History|

Some have noted that this is the 300th birthday of a truly great American, Benjamin Franklin, born on January 17, 1706. Franklin played an immensely important role in the early history of this nation. But who was Benjamin Franklin, really? Better yet, what did he believe and what difference does it make now?

Franklin was most certainly not an orthodox Christian in the confessional sense of the word. Like many of the founders he had confidence in the principles of right and wrong and most assuredly believed in a God of providence. Franklin often wrote down these principles and certain ideas he was considering at the time. He once wrote what he called "The substance of an intended creed, containing as I thought the essentials of every known religion, and being free of every thing that might shock the professors of any religion." This creed listed the following beliefs of Franklin:

That there is a God who made all things.

That he governs the world by his providence.

That he ought to be worshipped by adoration, prayer and thanksgiving. […]