Someday, we may be able to leave the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case behind us. I know I’m tired of it. Yet it depends on whether others are willing to let it go or whether they are more invested in promoting racial disharmony. We are supposed to be citizens of the United States; we should all be identified as Americans. But what do we see? There is a concerted effort to divide us by ethnicity, gender, age, and whatever new category… Read more »
Everywhere Finney went, revivals followed. Often, those of a different theological persuasion chastised him for believing Christians could actually work to bring people to a state of repentance. Seeking to put all the onus on God, they left out the agency of man in God’s plans. Conversely, others would be envious of what Finney accomplished in his preaching and teaching. He deals with both views in this section of his Revival Lectures: A revival may be expected when ministers and… Read more »
Last Saturday, in my weekly C. S. Lewis post, I quoted him on the subject of free will. He had quite a lot to say on that doctrine, and I like what he has said. Therefore, I’m giving him a wide berth today by relating a passage from Mere Christianity that makes the point even more forcefully than the quote I used last week: God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or… Read more »
When I teach, I try to impress upon students certain truths. I know that sounds impertinent to the ears of some. “What is truth?” they may say. I seem to recall a historical figure named Pontius Pilate who asked the same thing. Jesus, standing before him, had already made it clear He was the truth. So, yes, I believe truth exists. There are certain things I’ve gotten in the habit of telling students over the years, so last summer, before… Read more »
I’ve made pretty clear in my last two posts that I don’t think race had anything to do with the events on the night Trayvon Martin was killed. Yet we are now mired once again in racial tension over the verdict in that trial. America doesn’t need this. We’re already a severely divided nation; this only increases that divide. Unfortunately, there are some who want to foment unrest over the trial’s outcome. One of the premier agitators is the Rev…. Read more »
Yesterday I mentioned the three groups most responsible for ramping up the racist angle in the Zimmerman-Martin case. The Florida prosecutors and the perpetually aggrieved, self-identified civil rights activists who are still living in the middle of the twentieth century were two of them. I believe, though, that the third group—the mainstream news media—was the catalyst for all the trumped-up drama we’ve witnessed. Right from the start, the media played this tragedy as a racial thing, as if this one… Read more »
I deliberately held off saying anything more about the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin media event until after the verdict had been reached. Now that Zimmerman has been declared not guilty by the jury—that includes both the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges—here is what I take from the drama that has mesmerized a large number of our citizens for weeks. First, it appears the jury did its duty. This was no snap decision; the six women that comprised the jury took plenty… Read more »