19Feb 2025 by Post

Christianity and Abortion, Part 2: The Early Church’s View of Abortion

abortion, Apologetics, Christianity, Church History, conception, ethics, FreeThinkingMinistries.com, Gospel, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Peter Rasor, prochoice, prolife, Sanctity of Life
In Part 1 of this series on abortion, we discussed that abortion has been practiced for millennia. It is nothing new although the means of destroying a child in the womb have varied. We also briefly looked at why abortion has been a human preoccupation throughout history. For philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, they firmly believed it was to ensure that the best progeny would be born and eventually be leaders of the state. It was also because they feared possible overpopulation. For these reasons and several others, they thought abortion was justified. Contrary to these pro-abortion views was the Christian view. Throughout the history of the church, abortion has been viewed as a wicked, sinful act, specifically because it was considered murder (i.e., the unjustified taking of an innocent life).…
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17Feb 2025 by Post

Christianity and Abortion, Part 1: A Brief History of Abortion in Antiquity

abortion, Apologetics, Christianity, Church History, conception, ethics, FreeThinkingMinistries.com, Gospel, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Peter Rasor, prochoice, prolife, Sanctity of Life
It is always a temptation in an industrial and technological society such as America to fall into what C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery.” This is the belief that the present ideas and practices are superior to, or could never have been imagined by, those who went before us. This is no less true concerning the practice of abortion. Many believe abortion is a relatively new idea and that those who preceded our advanced age could never have imagined having the means to abort a human person in the womb. They did not, after all, have the biological and medical knowledge we have today. Right? Nothing could be further from the truth. Abortion, or some equivalent practice, is just about as old as humanity. Those in antiquity may not have had…
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05Feb 2025 by Post

Should Christianity Be Taught In Public Schools?

1st Amendment, Apologetics, Christianity, freedom of religion, Gospel, Her Faith Inspires, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, online Christian courses, separation of church and state, Shanda Fulbright, State Religion, Theocracy
My sixth grader ran through the front door sounding slightly short of breath. “My teacher is teaching a unit on world religions,” he huffed. “He’s going to teach us about Islam, Christianity, Egyptian gods and who knows what else!” As a fifth grade teacher I was aware of the California standards for fifth grade but this surprised me. World religions was part of the sixth grade standards? Low and behold, written into the California content standards for sixth grade social studies is the requirement for students to learn “ancient civilizations, religion, slavery, and delving into Hammurabi’s laws, sections of the Torah (first five books of the Bible), and Confucius.”[1] My surprise wasn’t because I was worried about him learning opposing worldviews. I was surprised the curriculum took the students deep…
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27Jan 2025 by Post

A Guide To Choosing a Humanities Professor

academia, cancel culture, college, Culture and Politics, Goodness, https://drowenanderson.com/, humanities, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Owen Anderson, philosophy, wisdom
Why Does It Matter? I am currently a tenured full professor of philosophy and religious studies at Arizona State University where I have been teaching for 25 years.  During that time, I have seen many humanities professors who claim to be wise but who cannot even teach their students what is good.  They lie to these students and say that their classes and degrees will help them get a job better than other, much more useful degrees.  I wrote this Guide to help you choose a professor.  Choose wisely. If you’re planning to study philosophy, religion, literature, or history, you’ll be taking humanities classes. Even if you don’t major in these fields, you’ll still need to take general education courses in the humanities to graduate. A good humanities class should…
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20Nov 2024 by Post

The Widening of God’s Mercy – Book Review

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Christianity, Christopher Hayes, Culture and Politics, Duke, Fuller, gay marriage, Gospel, Homosexuality, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, LGBTQ, New Testament Ethics, Progressive Christianity, Richard Hayes
In the mid-1990’s a Theology professor at Duke Divinity School, named Richard Hayes, wrote a book called The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation, A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics. It made waves in the Evangelical world because it was the first time a relatively liberal theological scholar took a definitive stance on the biblical sexual ethic. For decades conservative Christian scholars and pastors have cited Hays’s work in this book as evidence that scripture speaks clearly on issues concerning human sexuality and morality. There were other, more conservative, names that had come to the same conclusions as Hays prior to and after his book was published. However, the very fact that someone of his pedigree, hailing from such a scholarly institution as Duke University, so…
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11Nov 2024 by Post

Is Deconstruction the Same Thing as Doubt?

Apologetics, Christianity, Deconstruction, Doubt, Family Apologetics, Gospel, Hillary Morgan Ferrer, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, MamaBearApologetics.com, youth exodus
A clip from Skillet frontman John Cooper has recently been making the rounds on social media. In it, Cooper is heard saying that “it is time to declare war on this idolatrous deconstruction Christian movement.” And just like that, the Christian community split. One set of people claims that Cooper is causing further harm to Christians who are already struggling with their faith. The other set of people is praising Cooper for taking a stand against the so-called “Christian deconstruction movement.” So which is it? What Do We Mean By The Deconstruction Movement? The process of deconstruction usually goes like this: an influential, self-proclaimed Christian announces to their thousands/millions of fans that they no longer believe in the faith on which their careers were built. Through the process of “deconstruction,” they…
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28Oct 2024 by Post

Why I am Pro-Life

abortion, Apologetics, Bellator Apologetics, Christianity, Gospel, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, pro-life, S.L.E.D., Tony Williams
Before I go any further, I must state that this is not an attempt to apply guilt or condemnation to any woman who has had an abortion, or any man who has encouraged it. The Good News is that grace is extended to all willing to accept it by grace, through faith in Christ. With that said, I now hope to clearly explain why I am pro-life and hope to encourage you to consider your own views as you read further. Early Ambivalence I wasn’t always pro-life. I was more ambivalent than anything until I was in my 30’s. Yes, I am a man and I had never been in a scenario to have to consider the idea carefully. However, something happened to me to cause me to come completely…
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23Oct 2024 by Post

Dear Friend: To Those Choosing to Abstain or Vote 3rd Party in 2024

2024 Presidential Election, abortion, Abraham Lincoln, Apologetics, Christianity, Democrat, get out the vote, Gospel, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Politics, Republican, Robert Gagnon, slavery, voting, www.FreeThinkingMinistries.com
Editor’s Note: This post from Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon was originally posted on October 14, 2024 at FreeThinking Ministries, in the form of an open letter to everyone who is tempted to abstain from voting in the 2024 election. We’ve tried to preserve that format here at CrossExamined. Dear friend who is inclined not to cast a vote for either Harris or Trump, I agree that Trump deserves criticism for his weakened stance on abortion. His position on abortion has probably changed for the worse since coming to the conclusion that he can’t get elected by holding a consistently pro-life position. But consider Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Even Lincoln was not a declared abolitionist in 1860 (and also by our standards today a racist). He couldn’t have been…
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22Oct 2024 by Post

Personally Prolife, Politically Prochoice: A Response

abortion, Apologetics, Christianity, cultural apologetics, Gospel, John Ferrer, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, pro-choice, pro-life, Pro-Life Apologetics, www.IntelligentChristianFaith.com, “personally pro-life”, “politically pro-choice.”
Can we be pro-life personally but pro-choice politically? The quick answer to this loaded question is: No, we can’t really be pro-life personally if we are pro-choice politically. That’s because pro-lifers recognize that the child-in-utero is a human being, so the decision to abort isn’t a strictly personal decision at all, it’s an interpersonal decision. In that sense, it’s not a “private” decision (for just one person to decide). It’s a public decision (where at least 2 people are involved). Since abortion is an interpersonal act, it bears upon society and politics. Some people might not want to have an abortion, for themselves, but that does not qualify anyone as pro-life. Pro-choicers themselves recognize a “freedom to choose,” even when that includes choosing against abortion. In summary, if you are…
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15Oct 2024 by Post

What the Heck is Artificial Intelligence and Why Does it Matter?

AI, Alex Cramer, Artificial Intelligence, consciousness, cultural apologetics, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, MamaBearApologetics.com, personhood, Science and Technology, Techies
A TikToker programs himself a virtual AI girlfriend and decides to “euthanize” her when she becomes less responsive, and he falls into depression. Entire porn sites are dedicated to stealing the images of female online influencers (specifically Twitch streamers) using AI to create “deepfake” pornography. And creative things that we typically perceive as uniquely human, like art and music, are being generated by AI . . . and they are impressive, to say the least. There’s no denying it. Things are getting really weird. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage in 2023, and why shouldn’t it be? We just got over a pandemic. Time to bring in the free-thinking robots. We’ve got to keep things exciting! If the world isn’t about to end, is it even worth living? No…
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