Monthly Archives: June 2008

Gay Rights Theologians: Remolding Scripture to Suit

Today’s Los Angeles Times highlights disagreements among Bible students over homosexual “marriage.” Among the various views presented, I strongly endorse this one from a Catholic priest in Inglewood (emphasis added): “The church says that homosexuals should be treated with love and respect, but redefining the natural and divine institution of marriage is simply something we …

June 19, 2008 – 3:21 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Life and Choices | Tagged | Comments (9)

Christian Carnival 229

“The carnival’s in town!” [Link: Christian Carnival 229 | RodneyOlsen.net]

June 19, 2008 – 3:17 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Miscellanea | Comments Off

Canadian Judge Overrules Daughter’s Grounding

Americans, this is awfully close to home: Quebec Superior Court judge Suzanne Tessier has ruled invalid a father’s mundane punishment of a disobedient child. The father grounded his 12-year-old daughter after she repeatedly violated his instructions. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum, however, the girl sued—and won. [Link: Magic Statistics]

June 18, 2008 – 11:41 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Unfiled | Comments (3)

On Comment Policies

I’ve been thinking about a new way to view the discussion policies here. This does not change what I’ve written before, Rather it is about the spirit that underlies the rules. I love a good debate, and I welcome it. I have long thought how great it would be if the regular commenters here could …

June 17, 2008 – 9:20 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Unfiled | Comments (1)

Awesome Christ

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series What Kind of Man Was Jesus?

I gave this 30 minute talk at Colonial Harbor in York County, Virginia on June 15, 2008. The point is simple: Jesus Christ is the most awesome person of history. To be specific: people in all times since he walked this earth have had to deal with him. Many have tried to mold him into …

June 16, 2008 – 11:56 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, The Faith | Tagged | Comments Off

Is “Erroneous” Erroneous?

Someone in the family just asked me, “How do you spell erroneous?” I answered, “e-r-r-o-n-e-o-u-s.” Then I wondered, was that, or was that not, erroneous? Maybe I should have answered something like “e-r-r-o-n-e-q-u-s.” That would certainly have been erroneous – which is what they were asking for, wasn’t it?

June 15, 2008 – 11:03 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Just For Fun | Comments (2)

The Great Dismal Swamp

Yes, there really is such a place, and it’s burning. A wind shift brought the smoke our way again last night, and we had to get up and close up the house in the middle of the night. It reminds of living in Orlando in 1998 when they were calling it “Florida on Fire“–except this …

June 14, 2008 – 7:26 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Miscellanea | Comments Off

Who Is My Neighbor?

From “The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God” (Dallas Willard) (p. 111); on the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37): The story does not teach that we can have eternal life just by loving our neighbor. We cannot get away with that nice legalism either. . . . But in God’s order …

June 13, 2008 – 5:51 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Tagged , | Comments Off

Jesus: Who Was He, Really?

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series What Kind of Man Was Jesus?

There sure are a lot of versions of Jesus out there. Can we know the real Jesus? How? It’s almost embarrassing–yet not the least bit surprising–how many different views of him the world offers. Dallas Willard writes in Divine Conspiracy of one such opinion (p. 134), Far too often [Jesus] is regarded as hardly conscious. …

June 13, 2008 – 4:11 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Just For Fun, The Faith | Tagged , | Comments (5)

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

By way of Challies.com: The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a …

June 11, 2008 – 11:53 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Tagged | Comments (1)