So what's going on over at Christian Govenment this week

Oooh, there's a newsletter from the 30th of June.




Christian Government - Timothy Bloedow

Today I want to continue my response to Redeemer University professor David Koyzis' critical review of "State vs. Church" in the ChristianWeek newspaper. This is a short commentary, but it would be too long if I included my final point, so I will wrap up this response to Koyzis' review in a 3rd commentary next week.

Might be interesting...

I am also hoping to write soon about the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision against the left's use of racism to exploit ethnic minorities. Let's keep rooting for the complete annihilation of that wicked and dehumanizing notion of affirmative action (and related state-ist, group rights concepts). (You can learn more about the serious thinking of conservative blacks by visiting websites on my links page under the sub-title, "Introducing Canada to "Black" conservatism."

Eh, American court decisions and stuff. Maybe not that interesting.
What else you got?

In his third point of criticism, Koyzis said that I showed "little recognition of what Abraham Kuyper called 'common grace' - namely, that there is no human effort, however sinful, that does not in some way manifest God's grace. We can be thankful that this grace allows points of contact with opponents, making possible, if not inevitable, fruitful dialogue with unbelievers."
This is too big an issue to address comprehensively here. A couple of points, though, are worth making. Let's use an extreme example. If someone breaks into your home and steals from you, is it evidence of God's grace in any way that is relevant that he committed this crime clothed rather than naked? Or, using another illustration, should we give a murderer a lighter sentence because he killed his victim quickly instead of making her suffer? My point is that the context of a particular event or situation must determine the relative value given to the various details. The "gracious" details are not always very pertinent. Hence, Koyzis' criticism about not acknowledging "common grace" is not particularly helpful as a general and sweeping statement.

Hmm, if god is too big to understand then who are we to judge the value of actions he promotes or creates. If it's apparent to even us that some actions may be bad, then where is god in this?

To borrow from Epicurus:
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

If it's the devil making people do it, then how did god make such a mistake as to create a being of equi-omni-potence?
Sorry, distracted rant. Hmm, what else?

The fact is, however, that the principle of cause and effect is real. It doesn't
matter whether or not one intends to kill someone by holding their head under
water for 10 minutes, the outcome will be the same. Ideas have consequences. In
a pastoral context, it might be important in many cases to consider a person's
motives for their behaviour, but not every context is a pastoral context. It
would be nice if less Christians were this one-dimensional in their
thinking.

Doesn't that mean that what you believe is less important than what you do? But isn't Christianity all about what you believe? Especially for the theocracy-types?
Anyway, the response to criticism will continue next newsletter. Looking forward to it.
And then?
Plug for, but not an endorsement of, The Institute for Canadian Values.
Some minor quotes nominally about the need to be vigilant in the face of secular-homonist -athiestical-badman opposition.
I do like this one:

"Be more concerned about what's right rather than who's right." - Brian Tracy

Should actually be on my side of this particular culture war.
And the inevitable collection of links to all sorts of ill thought out crap.
Love this headline, as an example.

Public gagged at city's homosex-fest
WorldNetDaily.com - June 29, 2007

Ball gag, anyone? There are your typical link-throughs to "Well, you're not talking about my god.." articles and oppression of Xtian articles and, waaah, wanna cookie type rants.
Can't wait to see what else they offer in the next newsletter.

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