UNI Blog - From the Washington Bureau

The minority party in Congress, republicans, are elated over the all time low public opinion polls believing the democrats are getting all the blame. According to a July 1st survey of likely voters by Rasmussen, only 9% of respondents said Congress is doing a good or excellent job, while 52% said Congress was doing a poor job. Republicans are anxious to blame democrats for the poor ratings since they control Congress.

It’s true that the democratic Congress passed a health care bill even though most Americans didn’t want them to do so. Those numbers give the impression to most people that the democrats are going to suffer at the polls this fall. But that’s not the case according to Rasmussen’s Generic Congressional Ballot. It indicates that democrats still enjoy a 12% point lead despite the negative views of Congress as a whole.

Republicans face another problem. A fair share of those polled still thought the republicans control Congress. There are two potential problems facing us this Fall. First, will the news media in general stop it’s biased reporting? Reporters aren’t elected. It’s not their job to spin stories. Just the facts. Please just the facts. Second, will we the people take advantage of the wonderful free voting system our founders bequeathed us, or will we stay home on election day? There are billions of people in this world who would love to have the opportunity to participate in free elections. Voting for the candidates of our choice is a privilege we should not ignore!

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Kenneth Samples says that they certainly are not incapable. As a matter of fact, Samples notes that the Bible mandates intellectual virtues: both the Old and New Testaments implore believers, he says, to value and practice critical thinking principles such as discernment, reflection, testing, analysis, discipline, and intellectual renewal.

Samples has done this himself as he earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy and social science from Concordia University and then his M.A. in theological studies from Talbot School of Theology. He notes that for centuries, Christianity’s greatest philosophers and theologians have argued that faith and reason are indeed compatible with each other. He claims that many of the advancements in the study of logic through the centuries have come from the work of Christian-oriented scholars. In his fine logic textbook, A Concise Introduction to Logic, contemporary logician, Patrick
Hurley, lists ten “eminent logicians,” five of which have deep connections to historic Christianity.

Samples points out that the New Testament calls Jesus Christ “the logos,” which is the Greek for  “word” or “reason” or “logic.” Samples, a scholar at the think tank “Reasons to Believe,” asks, how do atheists justify such enterprises as logic, mathematics, and induction when they assert that their brains and sensory organs were the accidental, chance product of an evolutionary mechanism. He says, that in itself lacks reason. He says that Christians can trust our reasoning because the processes were bestowed upon us by a rational God.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

The strained economy has changed many aspects of business, investing, and fundraising. But the really important question is, “has it affected what Americans consider the really important things in life?”  A study by the Barna Group finds that family and faith in God are still our highest priorities. But the Barna study found replacements like health, leisure, money, and professional success were more common replacements than expected.

The conventional wisdom says that when the economy turns bad people focus on the basics, like family and faith. However, the man who directed the study, David Kinnaman, concludes,  “this research either calls that thinking into question or it tells us that the economy has not been bad enough to cause a significant re-prioritization of family and faith. It is also noteworthy that faith is the most volatile of the elements. It is the only type of priority to go down, then up, suggesting uncertainty about the interaction between faith and finances.”

I’ll tell you what popped into mind when I looked at this study: Job! Yes, the Job of the Bible. Job was a very rich man, he had a large and a close family, he was wealthy, he was healthy until one day he became the testing point of a challenge by Satan to God. When you read the story you wonder how any human could endure such physical, emotional and spiritual devastation. But Job did endure… remaining faithful to God. In the end, God restored Job’s health, family and wealth. Oh that I could be a little bit like Job. He’s a man to admire.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

That opening quote is from writer and journalist, Ernest Hemmingway. Here are a few other typical bumper sticker type statements that you might see while driving around town that denounce Christians and their God, “Too Stupid to understand science? Try religion!” “Worship me or I will torture you forever.” “Have a nice day, signed God!” Here’s a dandy, “He’s dead, It’s been 2,000 years, He’s not coming back. Get over it already!” “The family that prays together is brainwashing children!” “If God wanted people to believe in him, then why did he invent logic?”

Those are all very biased statements that aren’t based on logic, or the truth. But it’s typical of the way some of our fellow Americans believe. Here’s another form of agnosticism that probably is far more damaging than what those statements are because these are beliefs of people who either believe there is a God or who are hedging their bets - beliefs such as “Everyone goes to heaven.” Then, there are those who think just being a good person will get them into heaven.

Here’s a little challenge. A former atheistic scientist became a believer in God when he discovered that the chance of one cell, by chemical accident, divided and started the whole evolutionary process is 1 to the 40-thousandth power. That is a startling number which mathematicians say is the same as saying, it is impossible. Then, think of all the other accidental changes that would be required for the innumerable species of life on earth. The odds; it’s just beyond comprehension. If you don’t believe in God and haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I hope and pray that it will be true someday.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Teenagers are among the most religiously active Americans, with nearly 6 out of every 10 teens engaged in some type of group spiritual activity in a typical week. That’s the finding of research by the Barna Group. Yet, the spirituality of teenagers is also remarkably different. Researcher David Kinnaman says while most teenagers remain spiritually active in some way, it appears that teens are much less inclined toward spirituality than were teens a dozen years ago. Kinnaman pointed out that some of these changes may go unnoticed by church leaders because the most visible activities – teen church attendance and youth group involvement – have not changed much in recent years. Bible reading was also pretty much unchanged.

The most striking change was that teenagers today seem much less inclined to have spiritual conversations about their faith in Christ with non-believers. In 1997 63% of teens said they’d shared their faith, but now that percentage is down to 45%. Sunday school participation has declined from 35% of all teenagers to 30% this year. Small group attendance was down from 30% to 21%; the proportion of teens who reported donating any of their own money to church has softened from 35% to 26%; and even praying has dropped from 81% to 71%. Kinnaman notes that there’s a larger change among Catholic teens than protestant young people.

One positive is that among 13- to 17-year-old protestants, there are actually signs of increased religious activity. Another positive is that so called evangelical teens are actually more involved than teens were a dozen years ago. On that positive note, I conclude today’s Another View of the News.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Not surprisingly, a huge number of scientists have tried to calculate the probability of life arising by a chemical accident. The results of their calculations reveal the enormity of the dilemma faced by evolutionists. In the 1970’s British astronomer Sir Frederick Hoyle, an evolutionist, set out to calculate the mathematical probability of the spontaneous origin of life from a primordial soup environment.

Applying the laws of chemistry, mathematical probability and thermodynamics, he calculated the odds of the spontaneous generation of the simplest known free-living life form on earth - a bacterium. He determined that the probability of such an event is one chance in ten to the 40 thousandth power. Hoyle stated: “the likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40 thousand zeros after it. It is enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution, he said.

Mathematicians tell us if an event has a probability which is less likely than one chance in 10 to just the 50th power, then that event is mathematically impossible. Again we’re talking about one chance in ten to the 40 thousandth power. Prior to his project, Hoyle was a believer in the spontaneous generation of life. This project, however, changed his opinion 180 degrees. Now look around you at the abundance of life you see. How impossible is it that all of what you observed just accidentally formed. If you’re honest with yourself, you must admit the odds of it being accidental are impossible. The only other option is that it was created by God.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

My mother and father made that vow at their wedding. That vow was never broken. They were only parted after 60 years of marriage when mother died. Following the example of my mom and dad, my wife and I were married 38 and a half years when she died. It does my heart good to see our daughter and her husband, now in their mid 30’s walking and holding hands out in public. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bragging. All of us know it is the Lord that has blessed these marriages and helped us keep them strong. And this was also the norm for Christians when we were each married.

Today, it’s a different story. The divorce rate among genuine believers is the same as it is for those who’ve never accepted the Lord. And this despite Paul the Apostle’s instructions for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. What wife has anything to fear from a husband who loves her as Christ loves his church? And no husband will issue selfish edicts to a wife he loves by Paul’s standards.

Some of our fellow citizens are so concerned about the divorce rate that they are trying to do some strange things to stop it. A Sacramento man has started a drive to get a measure on the June 2012 ballot that would ban divorces in the state of California.  Well, that won’t work unfortunately. People would just go to other states to get their divorce or they’d continue to live together in a constant state of unhappiness. What is the answer? I don’t really know, outside the determination of individual couples to make their marriages work by basing them upon a common faith in Jesus Christ and following God’s will for them individually and as a couple and perhaps issuing a prayer, “God help us!”

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

The British couldn’t do it. The Russians couldn’t do it even though, according to journalist Stephen Malik Shelton, over a million Afghans died in that war. The Soviets, he says, used the used the cruelest of tactics, even burning people alive as punishment or to obtain information. Thank God the U.S. would never resort to such atrocities. But if the Afghans wouldn’t give in under those harsh tactics, can we expect to win?

Some students of military conflict believe the Iraq war was like a Sunday School picnic
compared to the war in Afghanistan. But there are credible Americans who believe we can win in Afghanistan. Senator John McCain believes that we must succeed there for many reasons. But the most important one he says is because the world walked away from Afghanistan once, and it descended into a cauldron of violence, hatred and human rights atrocities. He believes by walking away we set the stage for the worst terrorist attack in history against our own homeland on 9/11. McCain says we know what it takes to succeed in Afghanistan: a resolute commitment to the principles of counter-insurgency, which turned Iraq around during the surge. And he says the entire U.S. Military Command agrees with him regarding the counter-insurgency approach.

One thing is of great concern to every major world power: that is the possibility that the Taliban could step up the war with Pakistan and capture it’s nuclear arsenal. Is there much doubt that the Taliban would put nuclear devices into the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists? So the stakes are high. It is time for Christians to pray about the war. We especially need to pray for our troops and for the Afghan government leaders to run a respectable, honest government that puts the rights of it’s citizens first.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known by his pen name…Mark Twain. He wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn among other well known novels. But he was also a well known humorist and a friend of presidents.

This is what he had to say about Christian citizenship in Collier’s Magazine in 1905. This is a long quote: “Is there such a thing as Christian citizenship? No, but it could be created. The process would be quite simple, and not productive of hardship to any one. It will be conceded that every man’s first duty is to God; it will also be conceded, and with strong emphasis, that a Christian’s first duty is to God.”

“It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. Whenever he shall do that, he will not find himself voting for an unclean man, a dishonest man. Whenever a Christian votes, he votes against God or for him, and he knows this quite well. God is an issue in every election; he is a candidate in the person of every clean nominee on every ticket; his purity and his approval are there, to be voted for or voted against, and no party can absolve his servant from his higher and more exacting fealty to him; he takes precedence of party, duty to him is above every claim of party,”  end of quote from Mark Twain.

The Bible speaks about government, if our leaders don’t do what God commands does that mean we can skip being the citizen that God wants us to be?

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

While the nation’s economy, immigration in Arizona, and the gulf oil spill dominate the headlines, a recent study from the Barna Group examines a major fault line in American social life. Barna claims their research show most Americans take a moderate, rather than hard-line, stance on abortion. But, for people of faith, they still strongly oppose abortion.

Among evangelical Christians, 78% believe that the practice should be illegal in all or most cases. And young born-again Christians retain similar abortion views to older Christians. However, overall a significant number of most Americans prefer retaining legalized status for abortions. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group and the director of the study, commented that, “Abortion continues to divide Americans, but the debate over the subject seems to be changing. The data suggest that among some Americans, though certainly not all, the issue has become less polarizing.”

“Perhaps it appears less relevant to Americans because there are so many other urgent issues.” He said, “still, as Americans appear ready to rethink many different issues, it is important to consider new ways of communicating about and addressing the issues of abortion, life and choice.  Yet, one of the intriguing counter-trends to public support for legalized abortion,” Kinnaman says, “is the fact that younger born-again Christians specifically 18- to 25-year-olds in general seem to be embracing, or at least retaining, a conservative viewpoint on abortion.”

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.