Today in the Humanities Staff meeting, Dr. Ritchie was handing around this sheet of paper with newspaper clippings glued to it. Once it got around to me, this is what I saw:
I guess I look like Sasha Cohen? Maybe I kinda look like her in the one where she is looking down and has her arms at her side. I dunno, I guess I have never really been known for a “tiny build and a porcelain complexion”. But whatev.
Kris says I look like DJ Tanner from “Full House”..
It’s been a while since I have posted photos here. Below are some highlights of the weekend.
Playing in the sink room with Shelly and Meghan
BFF Senior Picture
Family Photo– head tilt and hands lightly touching the person sitting
Spring Break Missions Trip “Retreat”
Ethiopian food
2/3 of Team Foley
Celebrating Me and Leslie’s acceptance to the nursing program
w/ lots of meat
Humanities Staff Visit to the MIA
the profs.. thinking hard.
Hark!
Jesus with a mullet!!!
The rest can be found here
Especially if the question is “Why do you believe in God?”. Jim Beilby came and talked to RIOT leaders today. One of the things he talked about was this survey that was conducted at a Wisconsin college about belief in God. Students were asked if they believed in God and if they said no, they were asked to indicate what their reason was by checking an appropriate box. Overwhelmingly, the answer to the question was “the hypocrisy of Christians”. They had many boxes to choose from including things like “the problem of evil” and “evidence of evolution” etc. But the majority of the respondants said “hypocrisy”.
I seem to have an answer for everything. I can tell you why I believe in evolution and still believe in God. I can tell you what I think about bible contridictions, predestination, the nature of the trinity, Christology, eschatology etc. If someone challenges me, I am quick to respond with an answer. I have thought a lot of this stuff through and have temporarily developed some limited and immature opinions on these matters. However, I cannot seem to formulate a good answer for why I act the way I do, even though I believe in God.
Now believe me, I love apologetics as much as the next theology nerd… but I read this quote and I changed my mind sorta:
“Christianity is under attack today, and it must be defended. There are attacks from within–from cults, sects, and heresies. And there are attacks from without–atheists, skeptics, and other religions. The discipline that deals with a rational defense of the Christian Faith is called apologetics. It comes from the Greek word apologia (cf. 1 Peter 3:15) which means to give a reason or defense.”
I think it is especially poignant that Norman Geisler (the author of this quote taken from his writing that can be read here) uses 1 Peter 3:15 as his cornerstone for his work:
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”
But Geisler leaves out the rest of Paul’s sentence. Note that there is a comma after “respect” in verse 15. Verse 16 goes on to say: “keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
I think that is the key we’re missing. Apologetics has become our way of life instead of first and foremost keeping ourselves pure so that our conscience is clear and our lives speak more to Christ’s existence and work than our actual words.
Apologetics is absolutely necessary in this fallen world. But I have to stop and think..
Will they know we are Christians by our love or by our defense of why we don’t love like we should?
If you are looking for my sidebar, it’s way down at the bottom of the page. Don’t ask me how this happened because I don’t know.
Any ideas for “Fun Day Saturday”??
After reading about the creation of Darwin: Live and in Concert I decided to start writing an intelligent design counterpart.
It will be called “Intelligent Design The Musical: 3 acts of singing, dancing and defending creation” and it will star this man:
I am confident this musical will bring new meaning to the term “irreducible complexity” as the abstruse joys and trials of Phillip E. Johnson’s life are revealed through song and dance.
Cameos will include: a lifesize bacterial flagellum made of foam and any living descendants of the late William Jennings Bryan.
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