Follow-up to Criticism of my Support of Homosexual Civil Unions

Recently I wrote a blog post entitled: Why I support Homosexual Civil Unions as a Christian (https://redeemed42antihero.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/why-i-support-homosexual-civil-unions-as-a-christian/).  I received the following comment on Facebook, and instead of writing a really long comment back, I decided to make it a follow up post to address the issues brought up

Why I Support Homosexual Civil Unions as a Christian

One of my dear friends recently took a stand as a Christian who is in support of gay rights.  Wanting to join in on the discussion myself, I thought I might throw in my two cents, but as is usually the case with me, what started off as a simple comment ended up turning into a blog-post length essay on my thoughts on the Christian and Gay rights.

I support my friend on the idea that homosexuals should be afforded the same legal right to have a civil union (and the legal benefits afforded thereof) as heterosexuals do to the institution of marriage.  I feel that legally, homosexuals should have the same right to all of the civil (key word here being civil) benefits of a traditional marriage, such as tax cuts, estate planning benefits (such as sharing in an inheritance of your spouses estate), government benefits (such as receiving social security benefits, medicare benefits, disability benefits, etc.), employment benefits (Obtaining insurance benefits through a spouse’s employer, taking family leave to care for your spouse during an illness etc.), medical benefits, death benefits, family benefits, consumer benefits, and other legal benefits that heterosexual married couples enjoy.

We are not called to win souls to Christ

I received a comment on another blog post of mine with the following comment: “Our soul [sic] purpose is to spread the Gospel and win souls to Christ.”

Instead of writing a ridiculously long reply-comment (that is off topic to the point the commenter was making) to this one sentence, I decided instead to make this a blog post instead in order to 1) address this sentence and why I disagreed with it, and 2) This is a topic I think many people haven’t thought through, and I wanted to share my thoughts and get people’s feedback on it.

Peter Kreeft on Atheists’ use of the Genetic Fallacy

In an excerpt from his book Socratic Logic, Peter Kreeft explains how people commit the Genetic Fallacy in regards to a person’s psychological reasons for believing in the existence of God, and why using a form of the Genetic Fallacy does not refute the existence of God, or any other belief for that matter. (By the way, the Genetic Fallacy is thinking you have refuted a belief or argument because you have explained the origin of that belief or argument). The excerpt (with my interjections in [ ] brackets) is as follows:

Open Letter About My Advocacy of Marijuana Legalization

Dearest Rick,

I am writing you this open letter because you recently made a comment on a Facebook post I recently made about cannabis’ ability to fight and sometimes cure cancer.  I can understand your curiosity towards my interest in and position on this sensitive issue, and because I have been asked about my stance on and activism for the legalization of marijuana by others in the past, I felt I could address all of these questions and concerns in an open letter posted to my blog so that you and others could comment.

There’s no Such Thing as a Good Guy or a Bad Guy

There are no such things as good guys and bad guys. There are only people, all of whom were made by God, all of whom He loves and cherishes dearly. We are simply human beings, broken, fallen, sinful men and women living in a world that doesn’t always make sense to us. We are all imperfect, and we all experience things that hurt us, that don’t make sense and that cause us (sometimes unnecessary) pain and suffering. It is what we do in response to this world and the things in it that causes us to be labeled either as good or bad, but the truth is, each one of us has the capacity to do great good and/or great evil.

My Reply to “Defending God?”: Thoughts on Apologetics and Evangelism

I just read an article by Ryan Fouts entitled “Defending God?”   This blog post is a collection of my thoughts in reply to that article, which can be found at his blog: http://ryanfouts.com/defending-god

I think this article has some good points, namely that God doesn’t need defending, and  that you can have all the sound arguments you want and all the answers to their refutations of your arguments ready, but at the end of the day, there will always be people who remain unconvinced and refuse to “see the light” or acknowledge the truths of your point.  This I think is not a matter however, of us living in a country where Logic is not king (though I agree that our country is a unique blend of modern and post-modern thinking with a splash of Eastern thinking increasingly making its way in), but is rather a matter of the way in which we form and hold to our beliefs.

Faith and Eternity

As Christians, I think it is easy for us to misplace our faith. We seem to have a tendency to place our faith in the idea that God exists, and that Jesus is who he claimed to be. While I think having faith in these two propositions is good, and more than good is important and essential, the problem is we do not need to rely solely on faith to support/ sustain our belief and confidence in the truth of these facts. There are a many good reasons to believe these two things, and we can rest assured that our faith in them is well placed because there is good evidence to support these beliefs.

God, Suffering, and Freewill

I just wanted to put my two cents in on the question of why God allows suffering and doesn’t stop us from harming ourselves and others. Some have questioned and said that they couldn’t understand why God would allow a child to get raped, or why He would allow innocent people to suffer in various ways when He could do something to intervene.

Other Justifications for a Rational Belief in God

Evidence is only one way of justifying a belief in a god or gods.  I can think of at least two other things that would rationally justify a belief in the existence of a god or gods:  Personal experience with such a being, and the personal testimony/witness from a reliable source.