All Articles : Page 59

By Mark Elfstrand, Cultural Affairs Writer
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02.13.24
It was 1995 and I was hosting an afternoon talk show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A buzz had formed around an announcement that the Pittsburgh mayor had planned to conduct a feasibility study of proposed riverboat gambling on the city's three rivers. This study would generate estimates of how many outsiders would travel to Pittsburgh to gamble.

By David E. Smith
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02.12.24
We are calling your attention to an alarming and pathetic bill that is currently pending in the Illinois General Assembly. We are hoping and praying that there is a strong response in opposition to this totalitarian effort to this outrageous effort to dismantle parental rights in Illinois.

By David E. Smith
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02.11.24
Did Jesus have anything to say about homosexuality? Do we have any authority to say that any sin is worse than another? Just how important is the issue of homosexuality to the church today? In the video below, Dr. Robert Gagnon sets the record straight during his session at the IFI Worldview Conference in 2022...

By Rev. Calvin Lindstrom
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02.10.24
The first two commandments God gave Israel are theologically very significant. Yahweh alone, the Triune God, was to be recognized and worshipped by Israel. And the only true God was not to be captured by human imagination and expressed through man’s ingenuity and creativity. All idols or images of the true God and all false gods were and are totally abhorrent.

By Thomas Hampson
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02.09.24
Our ability to protect children from sexual exploitation is declining every day. The environment has become sexually saturated. Prime-time programs on broadcast television promote casual sex, even for teens. Pornography is impossible to avoid short of disconnecting all electronics. Standards of dress and conduct have become eroticized. Societal taboos about sexual experimentation have severely eroded, and internal inhibitions have steeply declined.

By Mae Arthur
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02.08.24
We are expecting our third child, due to join us in about a month. Life is full, a little stressful, often mundane, and infinitely more purposeful and joyful than it would be without our kids. I’m tired a lot of the time, but that’s a small price to pay in exchange for my daughter’s unbelievable sense of humor, the weight of my son on my chest when he snuggles after his nap, and the rolls and kicks I feel in my abdomen as I write.

By Mark Elfstrand, Cultural Affairs Writer
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02.07.24
Jesus forgave the sinner. He didn’t accommodate the sin. We read about this in John, Chapter 8 — often referred to as the “Woman caught in the act of adultery.” (John 8:2-11) Any of us who have read or heard this story about the adulterous woman should be asking why the Pharisees were not so hot on the idea of dealing with the sin of the adulterous man. And we should clearly see that Jesus is a God of mercy and forgiveness. Does He then excuse adultery? Hardly.

By Ecce Verum
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02.06.24
Online sports gambling has been around for a while, but it has really put the pedal to the floor over the last few years. This is partly because the activity enjoys much more legal leeway now than it has in the past. Only just a few years ago, states were forbidden by federal law from operating or sponsoring sports lotteries, but the Supreme Court struck down that law in the case Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (2018).

By David E. Smith
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02.06.24
One of my favorite Bluegrass Gospel renditions is sung by a group known as Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. The song is titled, “He’s In Control” and the beginning reminds us: "There are days that darkness seems to gather in from every side. But my Lord is in control."

By Oliver Perry
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02.05.24
Would you like a government that reflects your Christian beliefs? If so then congratulations, you’re a threat to democracy! Or so says Rob Reiner, who produced a movie meant to alarm you about Christian nationalism, He even tweeted that Christian nationalism is “a danger to Christianity itself.” His message, and his movie, joins an already noisy crowd just dying to tell you that applying Christianity to politics is wrong.