Free Republic

A Redonkulas Origin Story

Today the conservative talkers are jawing about the supposed "balance" between a person's right not to be discriminated against, and a business owner's rights of conscience. But the problem, you see, is that the first thing is not a right. I don't have a right to force people to like me. Or to hire me. Or to sell something to me. Someone will say that I do indeed have those rights, as created by the Courts or the Congress or Eric Holder (Fleas Be Upon Him). But the government cannot create rights. Only God can grant rights. And a government...

Much of this material was published earlier, in two parts. I hope this more cohesive and comprehensive form will be helpful to those researching and debating the topic. It's another slogan that passes for thought among the thinking-averse: "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality...." The rest of the sentence remains unspoken for fear that laughter might break out. "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality; therefore He approves of it." First of all, that's what's known as an "argument from silence;" a logical fallacy. By this rule Jesus would be made to endorse rape, cannibalism and lots of other nasty stuff....

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... – Dietrich Bonhoeffer The recent dustups over remarks made by Pope Francis and by Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson reveal a common theme: The left's longing to redefine Christianity. It's the common leftist response to everything. They can't change reality and they can't face reality, so they redefine it. But it's funny in a pitiful sort of way when they try their redefinition strategy on Christianity. I, as a non-Muslim, don't try to tell Muslims...

Just are the ways of God, And justifiable to men. – John Milton I saw an atheist's cartoon in which God is saying, "Now I will torture you forever for breaking some rules I made up – because I love you." As wrong as he is about Christian doctrine, I have to applaud the cartoonist for getting one thing right: He's holding God (or our beliefs about God) to account. Christians should do the same. When one of the pagan Gnostics invented a "good" god to replace the cranky, judgmental Hebrew deity, Christians pointed out that a god who's not...

Christians are sometimes challenged as to why we so strongly oppose the normalization of homosexual behavior. After all, there are worse sins — and more imminent threats to national security. Before I begin my answer, as I try to say whenever I write about this topic, the biblical view concerns homosexual acts — not homosexual people. The current paradigm that some are "born gay" seems to be less empirical than political. It's a weapon used to stifle discussion by intentionally confusing disapproval of a practice with hatred for a person. But even if people are born attracted to the same...

I'll admit that I like free air. Who doesn't? You pull into the gas station, find the compressor, inflate your tires to the recommended pressure (thus saving at least one polar bear), and drive off. What's not to like? People resent — I resent — having to insert quarters. "Why do I have to pay for air?" But as a business guy, I suspect that an air compressor is a fairly expensive piece of equipment. Then there's the electricity to run it, maintenance, the salary of the guy who has to go out and unkink the hose every day. And...

In my previous essay I tried to show how two of Jesus' teachings bear on the issue of whether He condones homosexual behavior. These were words directly from His mouth that deal with our question indirectly. In this article I plan to discuss an indirect way He addressed the direct issue, as well as a direct way He dealt with the matter directly. Yes, Jesus had a surprising amount to say about homosexuality. Jesus' commission: The Apostles speak for Him It must have seemed like a good idea at the time: to print the "Words of Christ in Red." But...

It's another slogan that passes for thought among the thinking-averse: "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality...." The rest of the sentence remains unspoken for fear that laughter might break out. "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality; therefore He approves of it." First of all, that's what's known as an "argument from silence;" a logical fallacy. By this rule Jesus would be made to endorse rape, cannibalism and lots of other nasty stuff. Secondly, we cannot know whether Jesus, in His brief earthly ministry, ever mentioned homosexual sin specifically (see John 21:25), so the claim can't be substantiated. But the slogan...

The “Cartesian Split” Is a Hallucination; Ergo, We Should Get Rid of It by Jean F. Drew The Ancient Heritage of Western Science The history of science goes back at least two and a half millennia, to the pre-Socratics of ancient Greece. Democritus and Leucippus were the fathers of atomic theory — at least they were the first thinkers ever to formulate one. Heraclitus was the first thinker to consider what in the modern age developed as the laws of thermodynamics. Likewise Plato’s Chora, in the myth of the Demiurge (see Timaeus), may have been the very first anticipation of...