Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

RAVI ZACHARIAS DELIVERS A TREMENDOUS TALK ON "DOES TRUTH MATTER?" AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Today I had an opportunity today to listen to a tremendous talk by Ravi Zacharias on "Does Truth Matter?" delivered at Temple University this past spring.  He punctuates his talk with memorable and moving stories to emblazon on our minds just how crucial and important truth is to our lives and culture.  

 

PIERS MORGAN - "THE BIBLE NEEDS TO BE AMENDED"

From  Eliana Johnson:

CNN’s Piers Morgan, who has come under fire for his vocal support of gun control and his strident opposition to gun enthusiasts, one of whom he denounced on his show as an “unbelievably stupid man,” has stepped in another hornet’s nest.

In an interview with evangelical pastor Rick Warren, Morgan asserted that the Bible, like the Constitution, is “basically inherently flawed” and that, with regard to gay rights in particular, “it’s time for an amendment to the Bible.” “I do not believe the Bible is flawed,” Warren responded. “What I believe is flawed is human opinion, because it constantly changes.”

 

OS GUINNESS - "TRUTH - WHY TRUTH MATTERS"

I greatly appreciate Os Guinness' emphasis on truth.   (This video may also be accessed at the Lausanne Congress website.)

Following is a transcript of much of Guinness' talk:

WILLLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. ON "FINAL TRUTHS"

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since William F. Buckley, Jr. passed away.  Jack Fowler, over at the Corner, points to something WFB wrote back in 1962 to the newsletter of Young Conservative Club of Walt Whitman High School in the Bronx.  Fowler explains WFB was "responding to their inquiry about something he had written in Up from Liberalism concerning "final truths."  Fowler quotes WFB: [my emphases]

In the passage you quote from Up From Liberalism I intended, indeed, to refer to the religious truth that is our central heritage and to the moral philosophy and human insight that derive from it. Sometimes this position is referred to (in a phrase going back, I believe, to the days of the Roman Empire) as “the morality of the last days”—by which is meant the world-view of men who know that death is close. But, in the long view, we all stand sentenced to death, and whether it comes in 1995 or tomorrow makes no difference. That is why the morality of the last days always applies to what is “finally important in human experience.” All our techniques of social welfare, all our science, all our comfort, all our liberty, all our democracy and foreign aid and grandiloquent orations—all that means nothing to me and nothing to you in the moment when we go. At that moment we must put our souls in order, and the way to do that was lighted for us by Jesus, and since then we have had need of no other light. That is what is finally important; it has not changed; and it will not change. It is truth, which shall ever abide in the future. And if it is “reactionary” to hold a truth that will be valid for all future time, then words have lost their meaning, and men their reason.

Me:  I might mention that I also enjoyed Rich Trzupek's post, "Two Years After His Death Buckley's Message Lives On."

IS SNOPES ACCURATE? IS IT BIASED TOWARDS LIBERALISM?

Ben Witherington posts an e-mail that poses the question and concludes that Snopes is not always and entirely trustworthy.

EMERGENT CHURCH: IS TRUTH REALLY PLURAL?

Albert Mohler offers a major review and critique of John R. Franke's Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth,  (HT: Between Two Worlds).

In recent years, John R. Franke, a professor at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, has been among the foremost proponents of the embrace of a postmodern worldview. A major figure in the emergent church, Franke has been a significant critic of modern evangelicalism. In his new book, Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth, Franke offers an argument that pushes the postmodern envelope and offers what amounts to a completely new way of understanding truth. Truth, Franke argues, is inherently plural.

Franke's new book is part of the "Living Theology" series published by Abingdon Press in cooperation with Emergent Village. The book deserves close attention, for it presents a vision of truth we are sure to confront in years to come.   [more . . .]

A POSTMODERN APOSTLE PAUL ADDRESSES HEARERS AT MARS HILL

Douglas Groothuis' helpful book, Truth Decay, has just entered its 10th printing.  I love his description of what a postmodern Apostle Paul would sound like "preaching" in Athens today:

Relativism and Christian Kids: Almost Totally Seduced

Chuck Colson has a "BreakPoint" commentary that I find chilling.   Middle School "Christian kids" resist the reality of Christianity's truth claims vis-a-vis other religions.  Colson writes:

I was dismayed a while back when I learned that a Barna survey found that “less than one out of every ten churched teenagers has a biblical worldview.” But a survey is just that, a survey. Things couldn’t be that bad, could they? Well, I recently heard a shocking story that vividly illustrates just how far relativism has infected the Church—to the point where Christian kids balk at the idea that Christianity would claim to be, of all things, true.

Four years ago, the BreakPoint staff and I launched Centurions, an intensive, year-long education program designed to equip 100 people each year to defend a biblical worldview and teach it to others.

One of our Centurions participants takes that call very seriously as she works with students at a local middle school. She sponsors a Christian club at the school, voluntary of course, and in accord with all the state laws. The students lead the club, and she mentors those leaders.

The club has been studying the ReWired curriculum, which BreakPoint created with Ron Luce’s Teen Mania. The DVD explores the four basic worldview questions: Where do I come from? Why is the world in such a mess? Is there a way to fix it? Is there a purpose for my life?

Everything was going fine until the group reached lesson 10. Lesson 10 leads the kids through a series of choices to learn to recognize the difference between matters of truth and matters of taste. One of the choices, “believing Islam, Buddhism or Christianity,” flashed on the screen.

Our Centurion—I’ll call her Joanne, told me what happened next: “The students went nuts. All but one of the eight leaders completely balked at

Al Sharpton's Career of Malicious Racial Demagoguery

Michelle Malkin once again has the goods.  It's amazing to me how Al Sharpton gets away with running away from his past.

Update:  Other posts on Sharpton the liar and racial hustler.
           John Perazzo - The Nine Lives of Al Sharpton
           Jeff Jacoby - Al Sharpton: The Democrat's David Duke 
           Tawana Brawley Grand Jury Report - Pagones v. Maddux,  Mason and  Sharpton

"Truthiness" and Our Moment in Time

A friend has alerted me to an essay on "truthiness"  by Dick Meyer, the editorial director of CBSNews.com based in Washington.  Truthiness is a new word.  Meyer writes:

Webster's has now sanctioned truthiness with two definitions: "truth that comes from the gut, not books" and "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts of facts known to be true."

Meyer does us the service of noting its philosophic pedigree:

Truthiness actually has a long philosophic pedigree. It is called "emotivism," a term resurrected by a Scottish philosopher who lives and works in America, Alasdair MacIntyre. In 1981 he published one of the most influential works of moral philosophy in the later part