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Showing posts from September, 2010

Rightly-Placed Devotion

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“The Communists convened a congress of all Christian bodies in our Parliament building. There were four thousand priests, pastors, and ministers of all denominations—and these men of God chose Joseph Stalin as honorary president of this congress. At the same time he was president of the World Movement of the Godless and a mass murderer of Christians. One after another bishops and pastors arose and declared that communism and Christianity are fundamentally the same and could coexist. One minister after another said words of praise toward communism and assured the new government of the loyalty of the Church. “My wife and I were present at this congress. Sabina told me, ‘Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.’ I said to her, ‘If I do so, you lose your husband.’ She replied, ‘ I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband. ’” - Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ Occasionally, one reads something that deeply impacts one’s pe

The Not So Great Divorce

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Reading a familiar rundown of the debate to define personhood today, I was struck by an odd thought: how do I know I'm a person? Tom Scheve, author of the article posted on How Stuff Works , leaves the reader utterly confused by the end of his effort to wrestle with the great divorce man has created within himself---separating his humanity from his personhood. Writes Scheve, "The question of personhood has two interrelated components: exactly when human life begins -- or ends -- and whether being alive is the same a [sic] being human. Even if everyone agreed on when life begins, there would still be wide disagreement on whether being alive gives a human automatic personhood." That personhood does not come automatically with being a member of the family Homo sapiens is considered by many to be simple fact. Nevertheless, as Scheve explains, attempting to decide what is and is not a person is a rather tricky matter. Some prerequisites for personhood are laid down---persona