Posted on 11/06/2001 3:04:47 PM PST by Church Lady
It is a credible thesis that our experiences encountering evil can help us to learn goodness. To make the thesis palatable is beyond my capabilities. (paraphrase of argument in C. S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain which I would recommend)
Santa Barbara supes ok Boy Scout Initiative; bans discrimination against Scouts in public facilities
Look here. This is a teeny example of some of the rethinking of things that is going on out there. People are fearful and trying to live with their own doubts, OWK. That is all I was trying to say. It is a rough call for people grappling with conscience problems, but the Boy Scouts is one of the issues that has been discussed from almost every perspective on FR. For the most part, almost everyone here thought the treatment of the Boy Scouts was disgraceful.
I have always been taught to walk a mile in someone else's moccasins. As far as I can see, Jerry Falwell is not a terrorist, but he most assuredly has been terrified.
Likelihoods however are another question.
History itself has shown that a nation can't get sloppy and continue to survive with few ills. And logistically, America has always been a sitting duck for terrorism problems. We're not a tight closed police state like China which has much better chances of jumping on any domestic terrorism problems -- but at a price in openness, prosperity, and freedom that we do not want to pay. If God will not be our guard, then we will have to try to make do with much more police. Do we want that?
This guy still doesn't get it.
Falwell wasn't apologizing for the Bible, but rather for misapplying scripture in order to dump judgement and condemnation on those groups he doesn't like.
He was one of many delusionsal individuals who claimed Sept 11 was God exacting vengence for their personal pet peeves. (some environmentalists even claimed God was mad because Americans drive big polluting SUVs).
The idea that anyone would exploit such a horrific crime against so many humans as an opportunity to push their agenda is warped and meanspirited.
Perhaps when Mr. Falwell and the above author are in the hospital with some terminal disease, someone should show up and tell them it is really God punishing them for some sin they or their family has committed.
Sick.
It is not popular to call sin ..sin...
Gal.1:10For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
"Will you tell me?". . . "No"
Also, what is the question. For example, in light of 9/11, what would have been the question that would have brought it on?
As I understand the topic, the question is whether God has removed His protective hand from the United States. Those who suspect the answer to that question is "yes", might then ask Him to reinstate it. Think of Abraham trying to bargain with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. God agrees not to destroy them if 50 righteous men can be found, etc. When the number gets down to one or less, the answer then becomes 'no".
It is a credible thesis that our experiences encountering evil can help us to learn goodness.
This is tantamount of accusing God of evil that good may come. Paul very clearly denounces this view: Rom 3:8 "And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just."
No good ever come from evil. Evil is a negative. Good only come from good, and anything that obscures the light is evil.
My screen name, by the way is Narnian in origin. I prefer Miracles, which I consider the only good apologetic writing extant.
Hank
It looks a whole lot like that already happened to large extent with the election, and re-election, and escapades, of Bill Clinton. How on earth could someone like that get such a pass for so long by better than half of America? It defies reason.
The only explanation I can think of is that there were enough righteous men in the United States to forestall our collective punishment.
Doesn't God get to define evil? Would you call the distruction of Sodom..all the women and children evil? Or would you call it just?
There is no question in my mind that the writer and Falwell single out genunely sinful and harmful items. There is no question in my mind that they aren't good for America, and bring on it all manners of undesirable consequences.
My problem is with the implied one for one correspondennce. It is with the writer's absolute assurance that if America does well, things will go well; if it does badly, things will go badly — with the implied corrollary that if things are going poorly, then America must be doing poorly, and if things are going well, America must be doing well.
Well said.
This is one of many problems with Falwell's (and the author's) misapplication of the scriptures on the consequences of sin.
By the same token we could use the Bible to claim that those who are prosperous and experiencing good fortune are being blessed because they are doing what's right in God's eyes........and on the other hand those who are experiencing hardship, or illness or are victims of crime are cursed because they must be doing evil.
This simple-minded misinterpretation of Biblical doctrine contradicts other teachings in scripture, such as the fact that Christians can expect persecution and suffering for their faith, that God makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on both the righteous and the wicked.
It's too bad some people only want to pick and choose from the Bible in order to fit their own personal self righteous agendas.
"Doesn't God get to define evil?" Yes!
"Would you call the distruction of Sodom..all the women and children evil? Or would you call it just?" Since it is God that is defining evil (and justice), why ask me?
My point was only what Paul said about it being wrong to commit evil that good might come. If you have an argument with that, you'll have to take it up with Paul.
Hank
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