The COVID-19 War

Christianity, Christians, COVID-19, Dr. Dan Eichenberger, economy, God, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Politics
The United States incurred an unprovoked attack, and the enemy (COVID-19) has inflicted casualties. The President declared war and already invoked the Defense Production Act, essentially forcing private companies into the production of what the government demands. Since the war has been declared, the expectation is there will be casualties, both of those on the front lines and the innocent. No realistic individual can believe wars come without lives lost. Yet the war strategy is marred with ill-defined goals and no clearly defined end-game. The strategists of this war appear to be politicians, epidemiologists, scientists, and actuaries. The President declared war; however, he is not relying on the general principles of warfare necessary to win. Wars are never won by near-complete withdraw and a shutdown of a country’s economy, limiting…
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The Redefinition of Love—Resulting From the Loss of Truth

Apologetics, Christianity, Culture, FreeThinking Ministries, God, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Love, morality, objective morality, Politics, Redefinition of Love, Rich Hoyer, Right and Wrong, society
By Rich Hoyer Most people agree that we should love one another. But what does it mean to love others? Love can’t mean what our culture says it means.  It can’t be untethered from a transcendent moral standard (i.e., God’s word and natural Law) and left to be defined subjectively by our feelings, to be molded and fashioned into whatever shape current societal trends bend it. The average person in the US today is a Popular Secularist[1] and has accepted the Popular Secularist definition of love. When most people speak of love today, to speak of “loving others” means something like, “I want you to have whatever you want; to exist in whatever state you think will make you happy.” Love is now defined in terms of the core Popular Secularist…
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From Pfizer, Scientism and Self-Congratulation

art, authority, Brian Miller, C.S. Lewis, China, coronavirus, COVID-19, Creativity, Discovery Institute, Douglas Axe, economic collapse, entertainment, history, mask, medical science, Medicine, Michael Egnor, music, pandemic, Pfizer Inc., philosophy, Politics, religion, Rich Lowry, Robert J. Marks, scientism, social distancing, totem, Wesley Smith, worship, Wuhan
In the race to defeat the coronavirus, good fortune to Pfizer Inc., among others. The drug giant said last week “it will begin testing of its experimental vaccine in the U.S. as early as next week.” But this new ad from Pfizer goes over the top in its self-congratulation: They say: At a time when things are most uncertain, we turn to the most certain thing there is: Science. Science can overcome diseases, create cures, and yes, beat pandemics. Because when it’s faced with a new opponent, it doesn’t back down. It revs up, asking questions till it finds what it’s looking for. That’s the power of science. Well actually, that’s the power of creative ingenuity in general, a capacity unique to human beings, that is put to use in…
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The Separation Doctrine Between Church And State

Christianity, Church, Culture, Jason Jimenez, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Politics, society, Stand Strong Ministries, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Jason Jiménez In 1830, upon arriving to North America from France, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “The religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.  In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions.  But in America, I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.”[1] The Constitution of North Carolina (1776) proclaims: “…all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences.”[2] It is astonishing to think that despite all the evidence indicating our nation was…
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Why Religious Freedom Should Matter to Absolutely Everyone

Apologetics, ApologeticsGuy, Christianity, Culture, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Mikel del Rosario, Politics, Religious Freedom, society, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Mikel Del Rosario Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic Society Why should religious freedom matter to everyone? Because the value we put on religious liberty shows how much we really care about freedom. If you’re going to be able to work for the common good—with people from all sorts of backgrounds—the law has got to protect your freedom to live by your convictions. But what is religious freedom? Religious freedom is a civil right that comes from God, not the government. Why should it matter even to people who aren’t religious? Because religious freedom upholds freedom of conscience for both religious and non-religious people. What is Religious Freedom? Religious freedom is a civil right that doesn’t ultimately come from the government. The founders of our nation knew this. All they…
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Balancing Lives, Economics, and Public Policy in This Plague

borders, calculus, Congress, constitutional rights, coronavirus, COVID-19, Culture & Ethics, Economics, elderly, epidemiology, ethics, euthanasia, experts, governors, health, incubation period, Medicine, neurosurgeon, polis, Politics, President, Principle of Double Effect, probabilities, psychology, public policy, scientists, Senate, social distancing, sociology, Thomas Aquinas, triage, ventilators
I am a physician, and while I don’t treat coronavirus patients personally (I’m a neurosurgeon), I work in a regional coronavirus center and have first-hand knowledge of the medical impact of this pandemic. The danger the virus poses to life is substantial — in vulnerable people, it causes severe pulmonary compromise, often requiring the patient to be placed on a ventilator, and a substantial portion of these ventilated patients will die. The virus is highly contagious, and has a rather long incubation period, which helps it spread — people who have it continue to walk around and spread it for quite a while before they become sick and realize that they are contagious.  A Framework for the Wisest Decisions For a variety of reasons, the coronavirus plague is devastating to…
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Why Do Christians Tend to Align With “Conservative” Economics?

Apologetics, Christianity, Culture, Economics, Faithful Thinkers, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Luke Nix, Politics, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Luke Nix Introduction A while back, I saw an intriguing question on social media from a person who is in the middle of a worldview transition. This person is concerned about why so many Christians follow conservative economic theories and not more liberal ones. As I have thought about the question more and more, I have noticed not just a viable answer but also an apologetic opportunity in addressing this concern. Here is the question in the questioner’s own words and how I would respond: The Question: “I am going through a transition… From an atheist to someone who may not be Christian but does believe in a higher power. My background is economics, and I am struggling with the fact that Christianity has aligned its self so heavily…
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LGBT activist calls for “hardball” “fight” to empty the church pews of Christians

Agenda LGBT, Apologetics, Christian Right, Christianity, Culture, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, LGBT Activist, Politics, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Wintery Knight
By Wintery Knight Transgender woman calls for “hardball” “fight” to “empty the pews” Previously, I blogged about how transgender activists shut down a discussion of transgender issues on a university campus in Canada. You might think that suppressing debate and disagreement is something that only happens north of the border. But an LGBT activist with 50,000 Twitter followers is being re-tweeted by prominent people on the left after demanding a “fight” to “empty the pews”. Look at this Twitter thread from “Chrissy Str00p“, a transgender woman: The Christian Right has won its culture war under the noses of “liberal elites.” Long before Trump, abstinence-only #FakeSexEd came to dominate public schools. Abortion became effectively inaccessible in most areas. We’re fighting to take ground back and even to realize rights that have…
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