Tag Archives: LDS

Apologetics

It has come to this: The Mormons won’t visit even if I invite them.

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Seriously.  It is hard to imagine being less popular.  We’ve often joked that we are on Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness “do not call” lists, because I’m glad to take the time to visit with them when they come to my door.  

But this was different.  Some Mormon neighbors were having a Christmas party and put in a plug for the missionaries they were hosting.  I introduced myself, told them where we lived and said, “We should talk.”  They were excited at the time, but never came by.  Hmmmmmm . . .

These folks are notoriously hard to convert, but if they are going to come to you then you might as well be equipped to offer some brief challenges to them. You never know how God might use your efforts to save someone – especially when one of their pair is usually a junior member who hasn’t been in the cult as long.  Worst-case scenario: You keep them from telling their falsehoods to one of your neighbors.

More importantly, you and your loved ones should know the basics of why these are cults. It is easier to play defense (keeping people out of false religions) than offense (converting them away from false religions).  Far too many people, including some of their members, think they are just different Christian denominations.

My standard approach with Jehovah’s Witnesses is to focus like a friendly pit pull on a couple things: First, their Bible’s mistranslation of John 1:1 (“a God” instead of “God,” as all the ancient manuscripts say). They will try to change the subject but I keep bringing them back in the most polite ways.  With so much evidence regarding what the originals said, why would their Bible get it wrong?

Then I offer them literature, knowing they aren’t allowed to take it. I emphasize how my religion — Christianity — tells me to test everything and hold onto the good, and to test everything in light of scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:21, Acts 17:11) . Hopefully it plants a seed that they are in a cult that won’t let them examine alternative views.

With Mormons, I focus on Galatians 1:8-9. I ask if their Gospel is the same as Paul’s. If yes, then the rest of their works are redundant. If no, then I should immediately reject it.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

CARM.org has great information on both Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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Spend Your Day with Eternity in Mind

Missionary Adoniram Judson said this (read these words carefully):

A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated for eternity. The same may be said of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks which we put upon it, will exhibit forever. Each day will not only be a witness of our conduct, but will affect our everlasting destiny. How shall we then wish to see each day marked with usefulness? It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future is in our power. Let us then each morning resolve to spend the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at night, let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone indelibly marked.

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CALIFORNIA VOTES To Allow BOYS TO SHOWER WITH GIRLS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

But the kicker is this statement contained in the bill:

“SECTION 1. Section 221.5 of the Education Code is amended to read:”

“(f) A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”

In other words, any boy who claims he is a girl, even though he is anatomically still a boy, would be allowed to use the same locker rooms and showers that the girls use. On the opposite side, a girl claiming to be a boy but is still anatomically a girl would be allowed to shower with all the boys. They don’t even have to be undergoing any form of sex change therapy, just say they are the opposite sex from what they really are and they can parade around in all their glory in either locker room or shower.

That is what you get from Democrats in California.

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My Apology to Mormon Readers — a devastating critique.  All Mormons should read this.  I believe in religious freedom and appreciate the general pro-life / pro-family views of Mormons, but by their own words Mormons are not Christians.

I am sorry that the science of genetics has refuted claims made in the Book of Mormon concerning the relationship between Native Americans and Semitic people. These refutations undermine the entire historical premise of the Book of Mormon.

I am also sorry that while archeological discovery supports the claims of the Bible it clearly does not support the claims of the Book of Mormon. Battles that were supposed to have occurred in specific locations in North America simply never took place. The archeological evidence just isn’t there.

I am sorry about the plagiarism of the Holy Bible that runs through the Book of Mormon. I am sorry that Mormons cannot see that Joseph Smith’s refusal to reveal the golden tablets is strong evidence of their nonexistence. The heavy plagiarism in the Book of Mormon puts the lie to the rest of the story of Smith, the former seeker of the lost treasures of Captain Kidd.

I am sorry that my Mormon readers have put all their eggs in one basket by constantly writing to me quoting Matthew 7:16. So I am sorry that I must now apply that verse to the very first Mormon.

I am sorry that among the 33 well-documented plural wives of Joseph Smith, there were close to a dozen unions in which the wife was already married to another man.

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Audio: IRS agent tells pro-life group, “Keep your faith to yourself.” — Surprised?

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Every time you hear or read about the George Zimmerman trial, ask why equal time wasn’t spent on the Kermit Gosnell trial.  Which had more dead bodies?  Which were cold-blooded killings?  Which had deliberate and consistent breakdowns in government oversight that allowed the crimes to continue?  And so on.

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Oddly, countless people will get up even earlier than usual on a day off to fight traffic and massive crowds to save a few dollars, yet are shocked — shocked!, I say — to learn that corporations will shift jobs to equally effective countries to reduce their taxes by more than half.  Or that if you raise taxes that people — even politicans! — might change their behavior to avoid them.

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Are Non-Mormons Considered Christians by the LDS [Mormons]? — Short answer: No.  They started marketing themselves as a Christian denomination a few decades ago but they don’t really believe it.  Glenn offers a big pile of evidence in their own words.

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Some of the union insanity that killed Twinkies and are killing many other companies as well:

It isn’t only a matter of Hostess being forced to pay extravagant salaries for menial labor. There is also lunacy like this:

“The snack giant endured $52 million in workers’ comp claims in 2011, according to its bankruptcy filing this January. Hostess’s 372 collective-bargaining agreements required the company to maintain 80 different health and benefit plans, 40 pension plans and mandated a $31 million increase in wages and health care and other benefits for 2012.

Union work rules usually required cake and bread products to be delivered to a single retail location using two separate trucks. Drivers weren’t allowed to load their own vehicles, and the workers who loaded bread weren’t allowed to load cake. On most delivery routes, another “pull up” employee moved products from back rooms to shelves.”

It’s amazing that Hostess managed to sell Twinkies for less than $20 apiece — but still more amazing that anyone thinks bailing out industries rotted through with unionization (e.g., the auto industry) won’t lead to national bankruptcy in the end.

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Teachers face termination for refusing to promote gay marriage — Coming soon to a country near you.  We’ve been warning for years that legal recognition of “same-sex marriage” would necessarily reduce the freedoms of speech, religion and parental rights.

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Good points about re-thinking post-abortion testimonies

First, “I regret my abortion” is the easiest pro-life pitch to refute. That is, all the other side has to do is put up a woman who says, “I don’t regret mine.”

Second, a heavy emphasis on post-abortion testimonies often works against the Christian tradition. Christianity entails confessing your sins, then forgetting them in light of the grace given us. . . .

Third, there’s a plausible danger that subjective testimonies will dictate pro-life policy. For example, I’ve seen some (by no means, all) post-abortion pro-lifers object to graphic depictions of abortion on grounds that the images are mean-spirited. Never mind that pictures work; all that matters is that we not make people feel bad.  . . .

Finally, how do the husbands feel? In most cases, post-abortion testimonies involve a previous relationship, not a current spouse. If the wife’s ministry centers on retelling what she did with her ex, how does that help the current marriage relationship move forward and flourish?

The Christian gospel is the fantastic news that God the Father declares guilty sinners righteous in virtue of another–the sinless Lamb of God. Isn’t it time we focused more on that blessed declaration and less on our own canceled sins?

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From the “I am not making this up” department, the new Massachusetts Highway Safety Department leader has had 34 issues on her driving record.

Given the outrageous hypocrisy of our liberal rulers — who govern by the motto, “Do as I say, not as I do” — it would be hard to imagine a better bureauweenie to head the Massachusetts Highway Safety Department than Sheila Burgess:

[C]onnections [with the likes of Hanoi John Kerry] helped her secure her $87,000-per-year government job even though she had no experience in the field of highway safety.

Her personal experience with traffic violations, however, are extensive.

[The Boston Globe] reports that she has had 34 different entries on her driving record since 1982.

Those charges vary, and include four speeding violations and two instances where she refused to stop for a police officer. There are single counts of times when she was cited for not having her license or registration in her possession, not staying in her lane, and not wearing a seat belt.

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If they are consistent, those making the pro-abortion “parasite” / bodily autonomy argument would judge this woman not guilty of any crime or moral wrong as long as she slit the infant’s throat and stabbed her before the umbilical cord was cut or while she was breast feeding.

Cassandra Elyse Norwood cut the throat of her newborn son almost immediately after giving birth two weeks ago in her eastside Athens home, according to Athens-Clarke police arrest warrants.

The death was apparently premeditated, according to the warrant, which states that Norwood “did unlawfully and with malice aforethought cause the death of Baby Norwood … by cutting the throat of the infant and stabbing it in the abdomen almost immediately after it was born.”

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Sad Elmo’s Very Bad Week — too bad for Kevin Clash (the voice of Elmo on taxpayer-funded Sesame Street) that these allegations didn’t come out until a few years from now when the moral freaks on the Left will have made the case to the public that pedophile homosexuals were “born that way.”

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Obamacare: Tales from the front lines — I urge people to take note of these examples and share them.  It will only get worse as more of it gets implemented.

A Physician’s New Reality Under ObamaCare: Patients Ask Me to Break the Law…

“Ironically, but expectedly, the ones who do this now arelikely to have supported Obamacare.”

..there is the “annual ” or “preventative” exam, which according to Obamacare is “free” …
What they did not tell you, and I am, is that it covers absolutely nothing more than the bare minimum.

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Here’s another one: Obamacare hits academia — You’ll have a tough time suppressing the schadenfruede.

Normally it would be highly inappropriate to guffaw at the fate of those who will be thrown out of work or have their hours dramatically cut as a result of ObamaCare. But considering that the percentage of academics who voted for Obama is probably in the 90s, an exception can be made for this:

“Pennsylvania’s Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is slashing the hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare.

“It’s kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don’t have the money to pay for it,” said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis.”

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Whoa — this originated from HuffPo?  Six ways for women to stamp out the risk of divorce.

  • Skill #1: Do at Least Three Things a Day for Your Own Pleasure
  • Skill #2: Relinquish Control of People You Can’t Control
  • Skill #3: Receive Gifts, Compliments and Help Graciously
  • Skill #4: Respect The Man You Chose
  • Skill #5: Express Gratitude Three Times Daily
  • Skill #6: Strive to be Vulnerable
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Two excellent and free resources to download — a robust Gospel tract and a brief but thorough refutation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.

Click to download

Gospel tract: The Great Exchange

Mormons & Jehovah’s Witnesses: Who’s Really Knocking at Your Door?

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The White House leaks should be a huge issue in general, and especially for this campaign.  If these leaks were made out of stupidity it would have been bad enough.  But they were made for personal gain.  In a rare display of the Left crossing the aisle, even some Democrats have admitted the leaks are wrong.

Intelligence and Special Operations forces are furious and frustrated at how President Obama and those in positions of authority have exploited their service for political advantage. Countless leaks, interviews and decisions by the Obama Administration and other government officials have undermined the success of our Intelligence and Special Operations forces and put future missions and personnel at risk.

The unwarranted and dangerous public disclosure of Special Forces Operations is so serious — that for the first time ever — former operators have agreed to risk their reputations and go ‘on the record’ in a special documentary titled “Dishonorable Disclosures.”

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A great summary of the “tolerance” movement:

Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant. Then it tries to silence good.

That is exactly what has happened in this country.

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I was glad to see Kevin DuJan writing again at Hillbuzz.  Good tips about ways to stay up on pop culture references without wasting time and money on lousy movies:

I love the website TheMovieSpoiler.com because it offers “spoilers” of films currently in theaters.  A “spoiler” is a detailed synopsis of a movie that I can read very often the day a movie comes out and know everything that happens in it even if I never intend to see it.  I like doing this so that if a movie hits big in pop culture I can get any jokes derived from it even if I’ve never seen it myself.  When I was a kid growing up in Catholic School in Cleveland the nuns who taught us used to take a weird pride in not knowing anything at all about current movies, TV shows, music groups, etc.  ’Oh, I don’t know who that is,” they’d delight in saying, claiming to have never heard of Indiana Jones or Darth Vader or whomever.  I really don’t think they were kidding, either, or just trying to pretend that they didn’t know anything about current movies to make them seem more pious or whatever.  They really thought it was best to completely avoid pop culture and not “contaminate” themselves with it.

I think a lot of conservatives do this too, even in the year 2012, and I think it’s stupid.  You don’t need to sit through 2 hours of a bad movie just because it’s currently popular, but you should at least try to know what people are excited about in pop culture.  The Left beats conservatives in the ever raging culture wars because conservatives think “taking the high road” means avoiding knowledge of what’s currently hip and popular, but that’s just idiocy.  So many dumb things Republicans do are attributed to “taking the high road”.  Aren’t you tired of this, yet?

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Can a materialist question Darwinism without having his career ruined?  Short answer: No. It is an analysis of how even atheists get destroyed by the Darwin lobby for daring to point out its flaws.

Darwinism beyond the level of simple micro-evolution has never been observed or tested experimentally. And what’s more – the proponents of Darwinism do not want their theory to be subjected to criticism or testing. It fulfills a religious purpose, and therefore they are very concerned that it not be taken away from them. They are fighting against having to care what God things, and they will strangle any good experimental science that shows that their religion is wrong. You can see the same fundamentalism at work in the atheistic war against the experimental science that confirms the Big Bang theory, which describes the origin of the universe out of nothing.

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I’m glad to see some Darwinists admit that the movement really did think there was “junk DNA.”  Too bad so many of them are trying to re-write history and not admit the failure of their theory.

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12 QUICK REFUTATIONS OF JIM WALLIS’ LEFTIST, PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES — nicely done response to an article by Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis

Apologetics, Evangelism, Favorites

World religions & evangelism videos

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I came across this post from a couple years ago and thought I’d re-run it.  This is one of my favorite topics to teach, although I prefer not having to cram it all into one hour!  It works better as a 6-8 week series where you can go more in-depth.

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I did a one hour presentation on world religions for a church group and decided to video tape it as an experiment.  I was pleased with the content of the presentation but learned some things about lighting, sound and pace.  That will make the next one much better. I was hoping it would be shorter but it is hard to cover all world religions and some evangelism basics in one easy session.

I covered some foundational concepts that apply to all religions then addressed some key differences of Christianity versus Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Hare Krishnas, Wiccans and atheists (OK, that’s more of a world non-religion).

I shared experiences I’ve had in witnessing to people in these faiths and some things that helped navigate through conversations effectively.  You really can share the truth without starting a Jihad.

Go here to just see the PowerPoint slides.

Major thanks to Stand to Reason, where I learned much of this.

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I enjoyed this analysis of John MacArthur’s preaching.  I listen to his Podcast almost every day and learn a lot.  I go to a Methodist church but appreciate Reformed preaching as well — I suppose I’m just one of those wacky open-minded religious liberals!

Why do so many people listen to MacArthur, this product of all the wrong schools? How can he pack out a church on Sunday morning in an age in which church attendance has seriously lagged? Here is a preacher who has nothing in the way of a winning personality, good looks, or charm. Here is a preacher who offers us nothing in the way of sophisticated homiletical packaging. No one would suggest that he is a master of the art of oratory. What he seems to have is a witness to true authority. He recognizes in Scripture the Word of God, and when he preaches, it is Scripture that one hears. It is not that the words of John MacArthur are so interesting as it is that the Word of God is of surpassing interest. That is why one listens.

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bob's house of video games
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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Shocking: Madonna is a sex-selling hypocrite who doesn’t want her daughter to act like she does.

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Black conservative Tea Partiers — turns out that they do exist, even though they get savaged with all kinds of pathetic personal attacks for their independent thinking.

AP Notices Black TEA Partiers Called Racist Names, But, It’s Not Racism, Cause They’re Conservatives — That’s the MSM way: Unsubstantiated claims of racism by Tea Partiers = real racism.  Substantiated claims of racism by Liberals = not racism.

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Threats of violence by the loving, kind folks at Greenpeace (HT: Red State)

If you’re one of those who have spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions, and cattle-prodding democratically-elected governments into submission, then hear this:

We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.

Think you’ll be hearing about these threats of violence on the MSM?

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Non-Christian quotes about abortion — nice summary by Reason to Stand.  Be sure to check out that blog, it is excellent!  I especially liked this quote.  Even the world’s bloodiest religion is better grounded on abortion than the Left:

You shall not kill your awlad [born or unborn children] due to fear of poverty. We provide for them, as well as for you. Killing them is a gross offence. Quran 17:31

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Dear Liberal friends,

How often did you see this clip of President Obama tripping?  How many times would you have seen it if it had been President Bush?

We now conclude this reminder that the MSM is hopelessly biased.

Love,

Conservative friends

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Mormon update: Still nice neighbors and friends.  Still not Christians.  Same vocabulary, different dictionary.  Many Mormons still as un-/mis-educated about their faith as many Christians are about theirs.  Seriously, watch the whole thing if you have doubts.

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A great response to the Mormon claim that Christianity must be false because it has so many sects (Short version: The LDS religion has many  divisions as well).  Also keep in mind that Mormonism is less than 200 years old and largely localized in the U.S., so they’ve had a lot of divisions, relatively speaking. 

Free advice: Be sure to enunciate when speaking of Mormon sects, Christian sects or any other sects.  I was speaking too quickly in Sunday School once when talking about Hindu sects and got some strange looks.

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Climate Science: The Devil’s In the Details (Which Apparently No Longer Exist) — I am not making this up.  Hat tip: LCB

Raw data? Oh, I’m sure it’s here somewhere. Maybe I left it in my other backpack … yeah, that’s the ticket, my other backpack …

And of course, from the same folks that bring you the tautology of Darwinian evolution, global cooling is evidence of global warming.  And it is definitely man-made, and the only solution is to give much more power to the government, forever.

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Obama’s dog didn’t bark — As I’ve pointed out separately, if the ObamaCare bill doesn’t cover abortions — and he insists that it doesn’t — why aren’t the pro-aborts “barking?”  They are huge supporters of the bill, but if it didn’t include abortion they’d be howling against it, and under no circumstances would they support it. 

If the pro-aborts like Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards were silent on the bill it would be obvious enough that it includes abortion, but they are aggressively lobbying for it.

Now, someone try to convince me that Obama & Co. don’t plan to use the bill to cover abortions, and that they aren’t lying about it.  Go ahead.  Convince me.

Hat tip: Randy

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www.BarackObama.com, the web site that surely seeks to be bipartisan and unite us all, considers many of us here, including me, to be right wing domestic terrorists.  These people are beyond hyperbole.  And they think we’re nuts for being concerned about the President writing curriculum for all the public schools?!

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Three fallacies of evolution — Isn’t it a fact just like gravity?  Uh, not quite.

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Why Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (and not Michael Jordan) is the greatest player in NBA history — OK, I’m a little biased since Kareem was my favorite since I was 10 years old (when he was with Milwaukee), but I thought the writer made an excellent case.  Man, I loved to watch him play. 

I still root for the Lakers but it isn’t the same as in the 80’s. 

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Ann Coulter had a great column on George Tiller.  She exposes the media hypocrisy of falling over themselves saying how Muslims aren’t violent yet projecting Tiller’s murder on the whole pro-life community. 

Why aren’t liberals rushing to assure us this time that “most pro-lifers are peaceful”?

She details the blood money with which Tiller bought off politicans.

And also this:

I wouldn’t kill an abortionist myself, but I wouldn’t want to impose my moral values on others. No one is for shooting abortionists. But how will criminalizing men making difficult, often tragic, decisions be an effective means of achieving the goal of reducing the shootings of abortionists?

Following the moral precepts of liberals, I believe the correct position is: If you don’t believe in shooting abortionists, then don’t shoot one.

I heart satire.

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Mormons lying for the Lord? — an exhaustive and eye opening piece.

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Be sure to check out the Young Cons (Young Conservatives).  Good stuff!  There is hope for the future of the country.

Hat tip: Conservatism with Heart

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Government run businesses = Epic fail — But hey, things are different now.  These guys can definitely run GM, the banks, all of our health care, etc., right?

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Mormon women sure seem to get a raw deal — a summary of some lesser known teachings about marriage and how Mormon women supposedly get into Heaven. 

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Domestic Divapalooza makes some good points on the No H8 campaign — The commercial starts with their favorite false dichotomies: Either you are fully behind the pro-gay agenda or you hate gays.   Either you support “same sex marriage” or you are anti-gay.  Sure.

Then they try the “equality” ploy.  But skin color is morally neutral and sexual behavior is not.  “Same sex marriage” is an oxymoron. They have as much right to it as I have to a square circle.  Pointing that out doesn’t mean I hate gays.

I know quite a few gays.  We get along great.  One is the retired dance teacher for the girls.  I saw him at the Cinderella performance and we hugged (Eek, right?).  A couple of the guys I performed with were gay.  We talked about family, work, etc.  Shocking, eh? 

Hopefully some counter-ads will explain these remarkably simple concepts.

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Obama’s Supreme Court nominee looks like  a jurisprudence train wreck — I won’t blog much about her given that the news is everywhere on this.  Just imagine if a white guy had said a different version of the following:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

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If You Care about Hygiene, Don’t Stay at the Hilton Chicago Hotel — Host to ‘International Mr. Leather’ Deviant-Sex-Fest — Caution: Graphic.  Just one more thing that your friendly liberal Christians support as a “Civil Rights” issue.

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Apologetics

Offense or defense? Both.

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Many evangelistic endeavors seek to bring people out of false religions and cults.  Those are very important and have accomplished great things. 

But their value isn’t just in getting people out of bad things, it is in keeping people from entering them to begin with.

You may be able to count how many people  a group converted from Mormonism, for example, and it may seem like a small number.  But keep in mind that good teaching may have prevented many more people from entering Mormonism to begin with.  It is just that the defensive numbers don’t lend themselves to tracking as well as the offensive ones do.  But both are important.

In the same way, apologetics may seem focused on getting people out of cults and other religions and converting them from atheism.  But it can help keep people from leaving the church (many of whom are unsaved).  I’m not disputing the “once saved, always saved” teaching that I hold to.  I’m just saying that you can’t just assume people are saved because they show up at church wearing nice clothes (I know that of which I speak, as I used to be one of those nicely dressed pagans sitting in the pew). 

So my strategy is to spread sound teachings far and wide and play both offense and defense.