Archive for February, 2010

Racebased Adoption

Racebased Adoption

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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While I agree with the desire to increase the number of adoptions, what is distressing is the implication, in a blog I read recently, that because trans-racial adoptions may have some negatives, it would be better to let black, Christian families adopt black, orphan children. A question comes to mind, should the social sciences be allowed to dictate Christian ethics? What if anthropologists determined that Anglo missionaries have a destructive impact on primitive tribal cultures? Should that require a moratorium on white missionaries taking the Gospel to New Guinea? Obedience not race or sociology should control.

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The Pen is Mightier than the Camera

The Pen is Mightier than the Camera

Posted on 15. Feb, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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As Bono remarks in commenting on Frank Sinatra’s luscious and sensual vocalizations, “It all begins with the word.” Images (and music) serve to enhance the word, they do not supplant it. Put another way, images are the hired help for words.One good image may be worth a thousand words, but one anointed word can save an eternal soul and transform an angry rebel into a saint–a white-hot lover who will worship God for ever and ever and ever.

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“Please don’t become social activists!”

“Please don’t become social activists!”

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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“Please, don’t become social activists!!”
This is not what I expected to hear from a “left-wing,” anti-capitalist who helped launch the Christian social-activist movement in the early 80’s. Ron Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, had been asked to be the devotional speaker for a conference on Faith and International Development at a local Christian College. Those opening words riveted me but settled like a foreboding fog over the mostly young and zealous audience. But it was just a warm-up for an intolerable “heresy” of scandalous proportions.

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Part Two: Knowing Who Your Enemy Is

Part Two: Knowing Who Your Enemy Is

Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Tim Stoner.

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Our Jewish forefathers had no difficulty identifying the opposition. They were the perverse Canaanites, the Gentile nations, cruel oppressors, unjust leaders, or lying and deceptive acquaintances bent on tearing them down to nothing. But, if C.S. Lewis is correct when he notes that “Christianity is a fighting religion”; if we wake up every morning on an actual battle field, in “enemy-occupied territory,” who or what do we fight against? Who is our enemy?

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