Can Humanists Be Good?

The other day as I was reading my church's bulletin I ran in to an article about the AHA, or the American Humanist Association. The article talked about the groups recent use of adverts to push their agenda of secularizing America. Of course just saying that is a little of an oversimplification of their cause. Near as I can tell from their website their number one goal is to promote, "a progressive society where being good without gods is an accepted way to live life."

Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice, Mourn With Those Who Mourn

Now this should come as no surprise to any of you but I am not a mother. However a friend of my wife's and mine writes a blog about being a mother that I drop in on every now and than. Sometimes the topics go well over my head, others don't connect with me at all; being a father and not a mother that is to be expected. But the other day she posted about a personal loss that she is suffering through, her loss of an unborn child.

Forgiveness

I stumbled on a few interesting articles today. One was about justice, and the thrust of the article was that jail time is not always the best solution when someone breaks the law. I tend to agree. Often restorative justice is better than punishment for transgressions.

The other was an article that surprised me. It was about the not so former pastor Ted Haggard (fill in your joke/comment of disgust here) and his return to ministry. Haggard now is the pastor of a church plant in Colorado called St James. The GQ article wrestled with the idea of forgiveness, trust and could if a person could change. The article left the question hanging, will people forgive Ted, and can he return to a place of trust?

Spoiler Alert!

I hate spoilers! It drives me nuts to find out what happens in movies, games, books or TV shows before I am supposed know. I want to have the complete experience, I want to discover information as the author(s) intended. So if you have seen, read or played something I plan to but have not yet done so, please don't tell me anything about it.

Conviction and Coffee Round 2

Coffee shops never cease to provide me with encounters ordained by God. Today seems to be no exception. For the past hour or so I have been eavesdropping. It's a bad habit I know, I ought not to do it. Granted they are speaking so loudly the only way to avoid it would be to plug in earphones, which I don't have, or leave which I am not going to do. I came here to get a head on some lesson plans and by goodness I swear I will!

To My Reader from Slovenia

hvala zakaj čitanje

I Have No Wounds To Nurse

So my experience with the Nursing students was good. They had a lot of questions, everything from the difference between brands of Christians to the style of clothes they could expect to see clergy in. We talked about abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, prayer, healing and a number of other things. In the end we talked for solid 2.5 hours. In my best moments I felt a little like a professor.

Nurse, Nurse!

Today I am a bit nervous. A few weeks ago I agreed to talk with a group of nursing students working on a class project about Christianity and Nursing. It sounded like such a good idea when I agreed, but now I am nervous.

When You Have Nothing To Say

Take it from me, I am rarely at a loss for words. Maybe it is my personality, maybe it is my calling, maybe it is the household I grew up in but I rarely find myself short of things to talk about. Today seems to be one of those rare days. My words are stored up somewhere deep in the back of my mind, and I can't seem to access them. There were three or more ideas I toyed with for today, but nothing seemed right. Nothing flowed.

Would You Rather?

There is a common method of argument being used by Christian and Non-Christian alike right now. The argument lays out a number of possibilities and then asks the question; which of these would you rather?

The 'would you rather' method does have a number of  very legitimate uses. If you want to find out what celebrities your friends are willing to make out with, or given a choice how they would die, this type of question is very helpful.