Issues In Perspective

By the phrase ?genuine biblical Christianity,? I mean the faith clearly revealed in God?s Word, the Bible, and validated through human history. Using the seven questions of James Sire, let?s examine biblical Christianity as a worldview.

Mormonism has a strong commitment to the spiritual world, the realm beyond the physical; it is possible to connect with this spiritual world through the specific activities of the believer. As Bible-centered Christians, we believe that as well, but teach clearly that a relationship with God is possible only through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

Without question, one of the most hotly debated issues in American evangelicalism is the role of women in the church. One issue that cannot be debated, however, is that the Scriptures affirm the equality of men and women, both in the image of God, in their position in Christ and as joint heirs.

After US SEALS killed Osama bin-Laden, they brought home a significant amount of intelligence from more than 100 computer storage devices collected from his compound. According to columnist David Ignatius, three major themes emerge from all this intelligence:

Worldview issues?the thoughts, ideas and convictions that explain the nature and qualities of organized civilization. If you believe that there is no God to which you are accountable or that there is no God who has provided redemption for you, you will live your life quite differently than one who affirms such propositions.

The provision in President Obama?s health care law requiring Americans to purchase health insurance or face tax penalties was ruled unconstitutional on 12 August 2011 by the US Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. For the first time since it was passed, this provision of the health care legislation is in real jeopardy.

For the Protestant, Scripture is the final authority. For the Roman Catholic, it is both Scripture and tradition. However, for the Eastern Orthodox, theological authority is internal, coming from the Spirit, Who speaks to believers through tradition.

The downgrading of the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ is significant, yet troubling. That different political groups within the US are trying to make ?political hay? out of this is obvious. But this nation cannot permit politics to determine our response.

As is so often the case, history gives us increased understanding about events of our day. For that reason, I think it helpful to explore how the generation of Arab dictators came to power into the Middle East. To have that background brings an understanding to the current ?Arab Spring? unfolding before our eyes in 2011.

America has been experiencing a crisis for some time now in the area of its immigration policies and practices. In this Perspective, I want to add a biblical perspective to the discussion.

One of America?s premier corporations, Boeing, has built a second production plant in South Carolina (its other one is in Washington State) for its 787 Dreamliner airplane, creating over 1,000 jobs so far. But the National Labor Relations Board, created in 1935 by the Wagner Act, has taken exception to Boeing?s decision.

Mara Hvistendahl has written a powerful and provocative book entitled Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men. She demonstrates that in China, India and other nations, there are many more men than women, the result of systematic campaigns against baby girls. In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. Jonathan Last writes ?this ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that?s as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.? However, in India today there are 112 boys for every 100 girls born. In China the number is 121, with some towns in China over 150! Why this incredibly skewed ratio? One reason?abortion.

Recently, I received in my office at Grace University a single sheet entitled ?The Heartland Proclamation? by the Heartland Clergy for Inclusion. In part, this sheet read, ?As Christian clergy we proclaim the Good News concerning Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons and publicly apologize where we have been silent.

In the United States, there is a growing fascination with the belief in reincarnation. In fact, adherence to this belief is a part of psychiatric therapy?something called ?hypnotic regression? or ?past-lives therapy.? One very famous physiatrist, Dr. Paul DeBell, believes that he was a caveman in a past life and that his eternal soul also inhabited the body of a Tibetan monk and a conscientious German who refused to betray his Jewish neighbors in the Holocaust.

I recently read an op-ed essay by John Garvey of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. I was absolutely stunned by a statistic Garvey cited in his piece: More than 90% of college housing in the US is now co-ed!! Common sense tells me that this is not a good thing for our culture. What are we saying to our young people?the next generation of leaders?about values, about virtue and about sex?

Over the last few years, a surge of tragic stories about unfaithful men has inundated the media. To one degree or another, each one of these men is being held accountable, some more severely than others. But what should be our response as Christians?

Dr. Jack Kevorkian died last week at the age of 83. He had assisted in about 130 suicides in the 1990s and thereby symbolized the right-to-die movement that gained strength during that decade. [Doctor-assisted suicide has gained legitimacy in Oregon, Washington and Montana, but in no other states of the union.] He was a Michigan pathologist who would hook up patients to his homemade suicide machine.

On 10 May 2011, the Presbyterian Church (USA) joined other mainline churches in opening the door to gay ordination. The constitutional change, which has received the necessary votes in the denomination, removes language that had required clergy to live in ?fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.?

In an extraordinary speech last Thursday, President Obama endorsed using the 1967 boundaries as the baseline for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. He is the first American president to do so! [He also prodded Arab governments to carry out the democratic reforms their citizens have demanded in the so-called ?Arab Spring.?] In the 1967 war, Israel?s victory over Egypt and other Arab neighbors expanded its control over territories in the West Bank and Gaza, over the Golan Heights and over East Jerusalem.

The present administration in Washington is against school vouchers and even permitted the very popular and demonstrably effective voucher program in the District of Columbia to die. But Obama resurrected that program as a part of the deal he struck with the Republican Party over the 2011 budget. What evidence is there that vouchers serve students well and give parents a valid option for educating their children?