Tag: Christianity

Historic California church heavily damaged by fire, cause unknown

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Fire heavily damaged a 140-year-old California church building in Forestville, California.

A spokesperson for Forestville No. 3 Fire District said the fire was prevented from spreading from the building owned by the Forestville Church of Christ.

The Press Democrat reports the church was built in 1879 with old-growth redwood and was a, “piece of local history as well as a religious gathering place.”

The cause of the fire remains unknown.  The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation.

Does Christianity really cause criminal behavior?

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Only 0.1 percent of U.S. federal inmates are atheists; a much smaller percentage than the country. Doesn’t this mean that religion causes people to be criminal; or at least that criminals tend to be religious?  This question, or some form of it, is often presented by atheist debaters seeking to win a debate rather than arrive at truth. It cites a correlation and asks the non-atheist to draw a conclusion based on very limited information. It plays on the problem of rival causal factors. These are the things a researcher has not considered that could affect the outcome of an experiment or study.  My eyes were opened to this when I took criminal justice research in college.  Data alone may be an indicator, but why it is not proof?

Is it possible that marginally religious people turn to their religion when they get in a pinch?  Is it possible that some atheist inmates will claim religion to gain sympathy? I could go further with this line of questioning, but the point is, outside of assumption or special pleading, one cannot draw the conclusion that the causal factor of criminal behavior is religion without ruling out other probable causes not shown by raw data.  Too, if the atheist debater has drawn this conclusion, it is up to him or her to provide evidence.  It is not true simply because someone else doesn’t have information ready to demonstrate the conclusion to be false.

By the way, if you are rolling your eyes because you are convinced that data alone is enough to draw this kind of conclusion, you might want to check out military intelligence analyst Tyler Vigen’s book Spurious Correlations.  He uses correlating data in a hilarious way to show just how silly it is to draw such conclusions.  For example, he has data to show the number of people who drowned in a pool actually DOES correlate with films featuring Nicolas Cage released in the same year.  He also found that the per capita consumption of margarine correlates with the divorce rate in Maine. Do you really thing the causal agent in these two correlations can be decided without further study to find the real causal agent?

Why do you think some people who are otherwise logically-thinking individuals concerned with numbers and statistics, etc., seem to want to find malice in Christianity, even when it means abandoning very basic concepts of research?

What are your thoughts?

Vandals paint messages of hate on Ohio church building

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A congregation in Deerfield, Ohio was targed this week by vandals who painted swastikas, racial slurs, and Satanic symbols on the church building.

Pastor Rodney Hedge of Kings Mills Baptist Church told Fox 19 in Ohio he got an early morning phone call about what was called an “all hands on deck” situation. He told the TV station it was the first time his congregation had to deal with this type of vandalism.

A church representative made a Facebook post showing damage left by the criminals.

The motive of the vandals has not yet been determined.

HighRoad Releases Highly-Anticipated Debut Album on New Day Records

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High Road

NASHVILLE, TN (NOV 15, 2019) —  Produced by multiple Grammy® nominee, Ben Isaacs, the debut self-titled album by HighRoad released today, is packed full of beautifully written  songs sure to lift listeners’ spirits. HighRoad, 2018’s Singing News New Artist of the Year features Sarah Davidson (vocals and piano), Kristen Bearfield (mandolin, guitar, banjo, and vocals), Kinsey Rose (guitar and vocals), and Lauren Conklin (fiddle). This tremendously talented quartet, whose members have toured with George Jones and Mark Wills and backed up Jimmy Fortune and Bradley Walker on Gaither Homecoming videos, has certainly delivered their best album to date.

HighRoad is jam-packed with hit songs, from the Ralph Stanley classic “Two Coats” and Thomas Dorsey-penned standard “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” to future fan-favorites co-written by group members Davison, Rose, Bearfield, and Conklin, along with some of today’s greatest composers including Michael Farren, Tony Wood, Kenna West, Devin McGlamery, and Nathan Woodard. Farren and Wood combined with Davidson to bring us “Nothing At All,” HighRoad’s first radio single off the album.

A cut that may well become the group’s theme song is “High Road,” written by Pete Sallis and Tia Sillers.  This is a triple-rarity of sorts, which may prompt fans to beg radio to play “High Road” by HighRoad from HighRoad.  The song has an incredibly uplifting feel, expressing perfectly the joy these gifted ladies bring to their ministry and this album.

The new album arrives on the heels of HighRoad’s recent crossover success in the bluegrass genre. The band’s 2019 single, “Heaven’s Back Yard,” from the hit bluegrass album Gonna Sing Gonna Shout reached the coveted #1 position on the Singing News National Bluegrass Gospel chart.  The album features HighRoad, along with Claire Lynch, the Cox Family, Marty Raybon, and many others.

With a packed national schedule and a brand new album to tour, don’t miss the chance to see HighRoad in a city near you in the coming months.  It is a musical and inspirational experience.  For more information on HighRoad, visit highroadmusic.com.  The new album is available at a retailer near you and on all major digital subscription platforms.

Why do Christians die even after praying?

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Is a Christian’s death from terminal illness proof that prayer has no meaning?  Is it proof that there is no God? The questions are fair, and to answer them we should consider why we pray, and how we are told to pray.

Prayer is about communion with God. He wants us to bring our concerns, worries, and feelings to Him. We share these things with our family, for example, because that’s what you do with people you care about. Sharing our cares with loved ones bonds us together, and bringing our cares to God brings us closer to Him.  So, why do people sometimes die even when they ask God to spare them?

Romans tells us, “…sin entered the world through one man….and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” And Hebrews tells us man is appointed once to die.  If a Christian prayed that he or she would never die, they would be asking God to go against Bible. Consider that Luke tells us when Jesus prayed before his execution, he said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.” Yet Jesus was executed anyway.  He brought his cares to God the Father for communion, not to place an order.  He didn’t ask for his desire without concern of God’s will; he asked for only what is in the will of the Father.

Christians pray to have communion with God.  All people, even Christians, die because we live in a world made imperfect by sin, and their deaths are certainly not proof there is no God.

What are your thoughts?