Potpourri, February 1996 |
Catholics Convert to ChristObituariesWe are also advised that Lillie Belle Merritt Crozier, one of eight children of Edwin and Kathy Moore of Bluff City, Ark., is now comforted in the bosom of Abraham. Her children and their spouses rise up to call her blessed. Her descendants serve as missionaries, preachers, elders, Bible school teachers, and faithful members of the Lord's body. After the death of her first husband, she maintained a home at 766 EN 15th Street in Abilene (adjacent to the campus of ACU). She rented rooms to ACU students and many will have a fond remembrance of her good influence. DumbfoundingThe Firm Foundation expressed concern, but school officials explained that the university could not be accountable for activities off campus. Now, our amazement has turned into "bumfuzzelment." We are confounded because, and please get this, the Abilene ReporterNews (Oct. 15, 1995) in a full page advertisement blazoned the headline "Diamonds in the Sky Denim on the Dance Floor." It is a special thanks to all those who made the Baron's Ball such a success. It shows a picture of a cowboy and blond in a danceembrace. (We cannot tell from the picture if they are drunk, but they look like it.) We will give you one-only one-guess as to who was one of the sponsors who made the dance hall ball such a success. Give up? Naw - you already guessed - it is Abilene Christian University. Another sponsor was Abilene Christian Schools. You may be interested to know that Hardin Simmons and McMurray Universities (Baptist and Methodist schools) were not included - guess they are too narrow minded. By the way, this was not an ACU directed event, nor was it "on campus," just ACU endorsed. Still more mindboggling is the result of a survey conducted by Abilene Christian University. It contains some information that is ... well ... it is incredible (which means, as you know, absurd, implausible, impossible, improbable, inconceivable). The school claims to have interviewed 631 ministers across the United States (they obviously mean preachers in the churches of Christ) and found that 421 read the Christian Chronicle; 252 read the Spiritual Sword; 210 read Image; 210 read Gospel Advocate - and - and - the survey does not report one person reading the Firm Foundation. No, not one. No, not one. Can you believe it? Also, the survey shows - as you might expect - one in five attend the ACU lectureship; one in six attend the Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop; one in six attend FreedHardeman Lectures; one in twelve attend the Pepperdine Lectures; and not one - no, not one - is reported to attend MSOP or the Denton Lectures. ACU wins! Another also - they found "great agreement" on "certain doctrinal points." The preachers they interviewed believe that Adam & Eve were real historical persons, and the Bible is inerrant in all matters, and the virgin birth was a biological miracle. That is good! Now, what do professors in the Bible Department at ACU think on these same subjects. Does Andre Resner still think that the mother of Jesus was "a sexually questionable woman?" Does Carroll Osburn still think the Bible has errors in geography, history, and science? Or has he turned into a fundamentalist? Osburn says only fundamentalists believe the Bible is inerrant (The Peaceable Kingdom, p. 57). All this valuable information came from Center for Church Enrichment, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX 79699. Wonder who they interviewed? Wonder if they reported all the information that came to them? Wonder if they can tell the truth? Good QuestionWhy has most of the press become a shill for the gay rights movement? Fear is one answer. Most liberals don't want to be labeled intolerant and shy away from any moral code that doesn't support their political comfort level. But perhaps the main reason is that the establishment media have developed a relationship with the political objectives of gay rights activism that has shamefully compromised their ability to report objectively and fairly on the issue.Return to top Wall Street JournalSchlesinger points out that the killer of Yitzhak Rabin and Joan of Arc both heard voices telling them to kill others. He points out that Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Blithedale Romance) said such people "have an idol to which they consecrate themselves highpriest, and deem it holy work to offer sacrifices of whatever is more precious; and never once seem to suspect-so cunning has the Devil been with them-that this is a false deity, in whose iron features, immitigable to all the rest of mankind, they see only benignity and love, is but a spectrum of the very priest himself, protected upon the surrounding of darkness." Hawthorne called it the Unpardonable Sin. Hawthorne said that such people "have no heart, no sympathy, no reason, no conscience." There is an awful arrogance in claiming access to the divine purpose. Do you think God speaks to you directly? What does he say? How does he say it? Those who claim direct influence of the Holy Spirit, whether Promise Keepers or Holy Rollers, put us and them in a chancy position. If God speaks to - directs, influences, guides apart from the Word of Truth - then let the person so directed, influenced, or guided show the proof of it by signs and miracles following. Good for ThemEntertaining PervertsThe Law Is the lawHere and There and EverywhereMaine's highest court has upheld a $40,000 jury verdict against the Fort Kent Golf Club. The club was sued by a golfer whose own golf ball bounced off railroad tracks that cross the first fairway and hit her in the face. Vatican and PriestsA Bare BearHomosexuals for PolygamyPartial Birth AbortionBrenda Shafer, who assisted at several such abortions said, "I still have nightmares about what I saw." The House of Representatives passed a bill to ban the procedure. Abortionists are enraged: in the words of one New York Times story, "Most of the doctors interviewed said they saw no difference between dismembering the fetus within the mother's body and partially delivering it, ... before killing it." National Review commented, "They are, of course, correct." The Red Badge of AIDSShould There Be a Law?The consequence: One million children who, on reaching the age of 13, tend to run into difficulties. The statistics tell us that the child raised by a single parent is likelier, by a factor of 600 percent, to commit crimes, consume drugs, quit school, and sire children out of wedlock. There are mothers and fathers who are unavoidably forced to care for minor children alone because of death, disease, or desertion. We honor, and take note of the fact, that many a noble man and woman have gone it alone when circumstances compelled it, and have provided their children food, shelter, and good teaching so that the kids grew up to be responsible adults, fully able to find their place in society. We lament those single parents who do not take their task seriously, and who contribute in a very bad way to the horrible statistics given above.
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