Maybe you didn’t marry Mr. Right. Good news -- no one does. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Working with young adults, I’ve heard it too: the millions of excuses why a relationship ended, and why the other person wasn’t “the one for them.” But as Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City wrote…
So what’s better: denying all religions or accepting all religions? I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Just before midnight at the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, Cee Lo Green sang John Lennon’s song, “Imagine.” But instead of singing Lennon’s original lyrics which said “Nothing to kill or die for/And no religion too,” he substituted “And all…
MLK and Religious Freedom Day are both today and it’s fitting. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Today is the day set aside to honor one of America’s great leaders and heroes Martin Luther King whose Letter from a Birmingham Jail is one of the great written documents in our nation's history. This year, Martin Luther King day…
Know the Word, know the world. And, here’s how. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. German theologian Karl Barth advised young theologians to “take your Bible and your newspaper, and read both.” It’s good advice. While other religions -- especially Eastern ones -- encourage us to seek escape from the world, Christianity doesn’t. We’re to be in the…
Maybe apatheism isn’t the best word for it...I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Yesterday I mentioned a growing segment of the population who don’t really care about spiritual things, or as one atheist blogger called them “the apatheists.” I suggested that the way Christians often talk about spirituality may actually contribute to apatheism. When it’s all about my…
Theist, atheist, or apatheist? I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. If you think there is a God, you’re a theist. If you think there’s no God, you’re an atheist. But a growing segment of the population, according to a recent USA Today article are being called apatheists -- they don’t think it matters. For example, 44% of respondents…
Ideas like this defeat themselves. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Yesterday I mentioned an article by Jerry Coyne that claimed to know with certainty that free will is an illusion and that physics and chemistry really determine our thoughts and actions. Of course, if that’s true, Coyne’s article was pre-determined by the same mindless process. And so…
Free will is an illusion, he says. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary scientist at the University of Chicago, ignited a debate with his recent USA Today article in which he definitively says free will is only an illusion of our evolutionary development. In reality, Coyne says, we are “puppets performing scripted parts written…
The atheist billboards are back, and still missing the point. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Last year, atheist groups placed billboards throughout the U.S. and Britain with messages like, “Millions are good without God,” and “Don’t believe in a god? Be good for goodness’ sake.”
His name is synonymous with government corruption. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is the Point. It’s not every day that you get to talk to two men who made the most hated list in politics, but I had that opportunity a few weeks ago. Chuck Colson was Nixon’s hatchet man and famous for once saying he’d run over his grandmother…
Cute movie, but a big mistake. I’m John Stonestreet and this is the Point. A few weeks ago I caught the original Miracle on 34th Street on TV. While trying to convince a small girl to believe in Santa, her mom says, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.” Ironically, the existence of Santa is finally legitimized…
Is it ok to miss Chris Hitchens? I’m John Stonestreet, and this is the Point. Christopher Hitchens lost his battle to cancer last week. Hitchens had the courage to say and the brilliance to effectively communicate what he believed on a range of topics, but it was what he said about God, especially in his book God is not Great:…
To err is human. Or is it? I’m John Stonestreet, and this is the Point. Gnosticism, the earliest heresy to challenge Christianity, taught that anything physical was evil and corrupt. So, for the gnostic, Jesus couldn’t have become human, because having a physical body would make him evil. He looked human, but he wasn’t really.
He expected a response, but not that one. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is the Point. When Stephen Anderson, a Canadian high school teacher, showed his ethics students a picture of an Afghan teenager whose nose and ears had been chopped off because she had attempted to escape abuse by a Taliban fighter she had been forced to marry, he…
So what did Mary really think? I'm John Stonestreet, and this is The Point. Last week, listening to one of those 24 hour Christmas music stations, I heard a somewhat recent song about Mary, the mother of Jesus which basically imagined what her emotions must have been. There’s similar songs about Joseph, the Wise Men, the Shepherds, and pretty much…
