On one of the roads leading into my small city a billboard has recently appeared. It is part of a larger campaign by a nationally known evangelist who is to have a revival in Knoxville. The sign is simple. In very large bright yellow letters (all caps), the sign says: HELL IS REAL. In small letters beneath it, in white, that can be read as your car nears the sign is the statement: so is heaven. Like the small bulletin boards outside of many Southern churches, this sign belongs to a part of our culture that has been with us a long time. But everytime I see this sign, my mind turns to the subject of ontology (the study of the nature of being). Thus I offer today some very basic thoughts on the subject of being – a classical part of Christian theology.
The first thing I will note is that you cannot say Hell is real and Heaven is real and the word real mean the same thing in both sentences. Whatever the reality of Heaven, Hell does not have such reality. Whatever the reality of Hell, Heaven is far beyond such reality.
(The Real Hell – Is There Such a Thing?)
State Senator Mike Delph got pretty intense on Twitter in the waning hours of HJR-3. I particularly liked this exchange:
Critic: Mike, when was the last time you had a REAL interaction and build a relationship if (sic) communication with a gay person?
Delph: My brother Steve, my entire life.
Second critic: I feel HORRIBLY sorry for your brother. I know what it’s like to have bigoted siblings. But mine aren’t SENATORS.
Third critic: have you ever been exposed to real gay people? Everybody needs love. Why try to steal love from people who aren’t like you?
Delph (to third critic): This kills me! Go talk to my brother Steve. He calls me Mr Rogers.
Whatever I think about the wisdom of a legislator actively debating by Twitter, let alone what I might think about the suitability of some of the things Senator Delph Tweeted (which generally were reported out of context), I at least like him giving the lie to the stupid accusation that “you’d feel different if it were your [sister, brother, son, daughter, wife, mother, father, close friend, etc.]. That tacit accusation of either (a) deficient empathy or (b) rank hypocrisy ranks right up down there with “you are on the wrong side of history.”
Judging from some of his Tweets, Senator Delph apparently is vying, by his lights, to be on the right side of eternity. He probably even prays the same for his gay brother.
While I’m at it, had you heard the shocking news that a pro-gay national commentator compared gay people to unrepentant murderers!?
Christians serve unrepentant murderers through prison ministry. So why can’t they provide a service for a same-sex marriage?
(I just couldn’t resist since dishonest lefties pull this kind of crap on conservatives all the time.)
I hope not to get stalkerishly obsessed by this Kirsten Powers person. I understand now that she’s a Fox news commentator, so that probably means (a) she’s an empty suit but (b) the suit is blond and really good-looking.
No, I haven’t even Googled her image. Not as I type these words. No guaranty about what I’ll do in a minute, though …
Now, uh, where were we? Oh, yeah. Kirsten Powers thought Jesus would bake a cake for unrepentant murderers or something like that. Erick Erickson went to the trouble of explaining just exactly why she’s so wrong right about that – and where she goes absurdly wrong.
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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 