However, the implied alternative that God is not “in the selective intervention business” is problematic for Meyers. If God never intervenes in “the utterly capricious and amoral world of motion” he created, why emulate and obey Jesus by asking and thanking God for food (or anything else)? If God has nothing to do with surviving […]
K.A. Straughn
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Pondering religious freedom
Perhaps Weigand could explain how Hobby Lobby’s claim to religious freedom entails that its owners’ religious freedom is more important than that of their employees. How is the religious freedom of employees an issue here? Is taking emergency birth control a religious act or obligation? If it is, how does refusing to finance an employee’s […]
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Welfare recipients denied work ‘blessing’
Christians are to care for the poor, but Jesus here is condemning indifference toward his disciples, not indifference toward the poor. Jesus promises his followers that they will be hated, persecuted and killed (Matthew 24:9). Then in the full parable Wertz cites (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus tells the heaven-bound “sheep on his right” that “whatever you […]
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Reader refutes claim
Yet most Darwin-friendly churches (i.e. established European and American mainline) have been in decline relative to theologically conservative, “magical nonsense” churches. Through most of the 20th Century, “more people moved from mainline to conservative churches than in the other direction,” according to Associated Baptist Press. In “Creation conversation” (Letters, Feb. 23, Gazette) Batchelder asked, “Does […]
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Batch should ‘think globally, act locally’
Nathaniel Batchelder is certainly persistent to demonize Glenn Beck and company when you ask him to prove his smears (Letters, “Saving humanity,” Nov. 17, Gazette). In now his second refusal to substantiate his smear that Beck characterized President Obama as a Kenyan-born Muslim, Batchelder again attacks Fox with falsehood. Batchelder writes that, “Australian multi-billionaire Rupert […]
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Prove or apologize
In his Gazette letter appearing Sept. 29 (“Peacemaking efforts defended”), Peace House Director Nathaniel Batchelder erroneously claims that I “challenged (his) assertion that anti-Muslim and anti-Obama emotions are fomented on Fox Radio by Glenn Beck and others.” I actually challenged his claim that “Beck and other Fox personalities” make “slanderous assertions” that President Obama is […]
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Peace activist should apologize
In “Wesselhöft should take a deep breath” (Letters, Sept. 8, Gazette) regarding a previous letter from state Rep. Paul Wesselhöft, Nathaniel Batchelder, director of The Peace House, claims that the “proposed Islamic community center in New York is at least two blocks away from Ground Zero (it’s not ‘at’ Ground Zero, as Beck and Wesselhöft […]
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Scott Jones resorts to coercion of laws
In “The power of persuasion” (Feb. 10, 2010, Gazette), Scott Jones paraphrases theologian Tripp York as arguing that “when some in the pro-life movement resort to the coercion of laws they are exhibiting a subtle atheism because they assume that the power of the state must be used to compel people to behave.” Allegedly, “the […]
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Start making sense
In his response to Judy Wesselhoft’s letter, science teacher Jeff B. Brown (“Evolution is a fact,” Feb. 3, 2010, Oklahoma Gazette) claims that “nothing in the sciences makes sense without (evolution). “¦ Teaching the myriad disciplines of science and pursuing human endeavors without the unifying genius of evolution and natural selection is as absurd as […]