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Amoral Abstinence
My daughter, Claire, was selected to help teach sexual abstinence to sixth graders in South Saint Paul. She’s a good choice because she has strong views about it herself. She believes that God intended sex for married couples. Sex outside of marriage is just wrong. This view is so at odds with the prevailing view…
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Resurrection Day
Today is Resurrection Sunday, the day when Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It commemorates the most inexplicable day in history. For many readers, talk of the resurrection of the dead seems nonsensical, a matter for mockery, perhaps, or to be dismissed as foolishness. But Christians are…
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Unexpected Iowa
I drove halfway across Iowa today, from Ames to Sioux City. The weather was warm and the day was lovely. I took US 20 through Fort Dodge. A few miles west, I came across a town called Rockwell City, “The golden buckle on the corn belt.” It got me to wondering about how small towns…
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How Do You Know?
Most people have had enough experience with their senses to know that they can be fooled. We tend to accept shared experiences as real and private experiences as unreal. If I see two trees on either side of my sidewalk when I leave my house every day, and I also know that others see them,…
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Young Earth?
It was a surprise to me to learn recently that there are still many learned Christians who hold to the view that the earth is only about 6,000 years old. I’ve never considered the idea of an ancient earth as theologically relevant, but there are apparently many for whom the Genesis creation account is to…