Sound Teaching  This is the teaching site of the West Side church of Christ in Fort Worth, TX. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials were written and prepared by Stan Cox |
By Stan Cox, on September 25th, 2005
Last autumn, Dover’s (Pennsylvania, SC) school board instructed its ninth-grade biology teachers to tell students the theory of evolution is an incomplete one, and that intelligent design, which says biology’s minutia presents evidence of an intelligent creator, is an alternative argument to evolution”…
…”Supporters of intelligent design say the argument has nothing to do with the Bible, God or the Judeo-Christian account of life’s origins found in Genesis. But a group of doubting parents sued the district in December, saying intelligent design amounts to a religious belief, and has no place in a biology course.
The three-paragraph statement read to students is unconstitutional, they say, because it implicitly endorses a superhuman creator, and that breeches the church-state separation wall. Thompson argues it’s ironic that a group advocating civil liberties would endorse the censorship of a particular idea.”…
…”The Harrisburg trial is not the first to consider the ideas of evolution and religion. There’s the 80-year-old Scopes “Monkey Trial,” during which defendant John Scopes was found guilty of a state law that banned the teaching of evolution. In 1968′s Epperson v. Arkansas, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas statute which prohibited the teaching of evolution. In the 1980s came McLean vs. Arkansas and Edwards vs. Aguillard, which overturned acts demanding schools give equal time to the evolution and “creation science.” And in Georgia, a suburban Atlanta district is still fighting a judge’s order to remove stickers in science textbooks which say evolution is “a theory, not a fact.”
Bill Toland
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Analysis:
Evolutionist advocates have long held it to be inappropriate to entertain in the classroom the viability of the creation account. “That is religion”, they say, “and a violation of the principle of the separation of church and state.”
Now that an argument regarding the intelligent design of the universe is being made based upon scientific principles rather than an appeal to scripture, the complaints remain.
However, the assertion that the concept of a divine being is unscientific, is just that, an assertion. Just because it contains an element of “religion” does not make it invalid. In effect, scientists are not willing to entertain a plausible explanation of the origins of the universe and life just because it does not fit into their arbitrary pigeonholes.
By Stan Cox, on September 18th, 2005
The September 8, 2005 edition of the River Oaks News had a front page article detailing the upcoming September 18th celebration of the First Christian Church’s 150th year of existence.
In 1855, the first church in the city of Fort Worth was chartered as the “First Christian Church.” The small building built at that time has been replaced by the large structure presently occupying that same location.
Continue reading » First Christian Church Celebration
By Stan Cox, on September 11th, 2005
September 8, 2005 (AP)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday that he will veto a bill that would allow same-sex marriages in California.
Schwarzenegger said the legislation, given final approval Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved a ballot initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevents California from recognizing same-sex marriages from other states or countries.
“We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote,” the governor’s press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. “Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto.”…
…The Republican governor had indicated that he would veto the bill, saying the debate over same-sex marriage should be decided by voters or the courts…
…The announcement dampened a celebratory mood among the bill’s supporters, who only the night before cheered, hugged and kissed as the state Assembly narrowly sent the bill to the governor’s desk.
The vote made it the first legislative body in the country to approve same-sex marriage. The state already gives couples many of the rights and duties of marriage if they register as domestic partners.
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in 2003 that the state constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. The nation’s first state-sanctioned, same-sex weddings began taking place in May 2004.
Vermont began offering civil unions in 2000, after a ruling by the state’s Supreme Court. Earlier this year, Connecticut became the first state to approve civil unions without being forced by the courts.
Analysis:
The preceding article indicates a societal trend which violates God’s standards of what is right and moral, not to mention the divine definition of marriage. Rather than what is contended by the immoral today, Jesus, in commenting on marriage, quoted the Genesis account, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4-5).
Our society mirrors the ungodliness of the first century. The apostle Paul condemned the immoral. “Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).
It may be in the future that all states will recognize same sex marriages. If so, it will not change the fundamental fact that the Almighty God of Heaven most certainly does not and will not!
By Stan Cox, on September 4th, 2005
Harrah’s Entertainment’s top executive is recommending the Mississippi government allow the company to build a temporary casino on land to replace its Grand Casino Biloxi riverboat, which was hurled ashore and destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.
The temporary casino, without a hotel, could be built relatively quickly and could “start to generate some revenue” for the state, Chief Executive Gary Loveman said.
Mississippi’s Gulf Coast has been decimated by Katrina. Both its riverboat-based tourist economy and its local economy have been destroyed. When asked about the appropriateness of opening a casino amid the destruction, Loveman said the casino would draw from a wider region and would generate more tax revenue for the state than, say, a hotel.
“We would draw from a three-hour perimeter,” he said. “That would be a start.”
Harrah’s also owns the Grand Casino Gulfport in Mississippi, a riverboat casino that was destroyed, and a land-based casino in New Orleans that sustained only modest damage. Harrah’s owns more casinos that were hurt by Katrina than those owned by any other Las Vegas operator…
…When and where the company will be allowed to rebuild its Biloxi and Grand Casino Gulfport properties and whether they would be farther inland and in more secure locations “will depend on if the law changes,” he said. Loveman later said there was a “good chance it will be changed.”
Mississippi law now requires casinos to be built on boats or pontoons over water, though a change implemented last month allows casinos to be built on pilings over water. Some observers say the riverboat requirement will end because of the damage wrought by the storm, which tossed many riverboats ashore.
Liz Benston
Las Vegas Sun, via lasvegassun.com
Analysis:
It is amazing how quickly corporations and individuals will seek to profit from tragedy. It is my prayer that when New Orleans and the port cities of Mississippi rebuild, they will leave off rebuilding the centers of vice that have become synonymous with that area of the country.
Here is an opportunity for these communities to reject the ungodly practices that characterized the coastal cities of Louisiana and Mississippi. There is no need to rebuild the casinos, and yet the gambling industry will use hurricane Katrina to lobby lawmakers to change the laws, and allow the casinos to leave the coast, and take up residence inland.
Perhaps such destruction should be viewed as a chastisement from God, and repentance should be forthcoming, rather than rebuilding the infrastructure of ungodliness.
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