Jim Denison, Denison Forum on Truth and Culture

Ireland is allowing atheist weddings for the first time. Until this year, those who did not want a religious ceremony could have only a legal function officiated by a magistrate, not a wedding celebration. But as secularism continues to escalate in a country once dominated by the Catholic Church, secular weddings are on the rise as well. The percentage of Irish weddings performed by the Catholic Church or the Church of Ireland has fallen from 90 percent in 1996 to 69 percent in 2010.

In response, humanist "solemnizers" are now able to perform weddings there. They have seen demand for their services skyrocket.  Many are booked into next year. Scotland legalized humanist weddings in 2005 and saw them jump from 100 that year to 2,846 in 2011. Secular weddings are allowed in Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and some U.S. states.

One person who performs such weddings says, "I prefer to view an ‘atheist ceremony’ as a ‘celebration of love.’ The experience of love transcends all the boundaries and differences, beliefs and conditions, and touches all who join the couple in their celebrations."

Does it really?

Aldous Huxley observed, "Of all the worn-out, dog-eared words in the English language, surely love is the worst." He’s right, of course. We "love" mustard on our hot dogs, some of us "love" the latest "Wolverine" movie enough to stand in line today for tickets (not me), and we "love" our spouses and family. Surely, not all in the same way.

C.S. Lewis notes that the word "gentleman" originally meant "one who had a coat of arms and some landed property." As a result, "when you called someone a ‘gentleman’ you were not paying him a compliment, but merely stating a fact." Then "gentleman" came to mean someone whose behavior you happen to like. Today it’s a name on a restroom door.

Has the same thing happened to the kind of "love" that God intends for marriage? The Bible uses three words for "love": eros, sexual love (we get "erotic" from this word); phileos, friendship love ("Philadelphia" means "city of brotherly love"); and agape, unconditional love. Marriages today are often based on the first two, but the third is the strongest, most enduring foundation for any home.

An atheist wedding can celebrate eros or phileos, but agape comes only from God as a "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22). You and I can’t do much about the rise of humanist weddings. But we can make sure that our marriages and homes don’t become more secular over time.

Is God the source of your love for your family today?

Jim Denison, Ph.D., is a subject matter expert on cultural and contemporary issues. He founded the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, a nonsectarian "think tank" designed to engage contemporary issues with biblical truth in 2009 and is the author of seven books, including Radical Islam: What You Need to Know. For more information on the Denison Forum, visit www.denisonforum.org.

Publication date: July 26, 2013

That’s right, there’s a new ‘disease’ on the street and it’s called ‘Anti-CalvinItis Disease”, or ‘ACID’, for short.

ACID first appeared on the AMA radar screen when several college students began twitching uncontrollably when, in a ‘Religious Studies’ class at their university (unnamed for security concerns), the course Professor inadvertently let the name “Calvin” slip out during a Christian History lecture. The professor has since lost his tenure at the university as well as his teaching credentials.

A policy had been put in place prohibiting the use of the name ‘Calvin” in front of ‘mixed’ audiences (Calvinists & Arminians), and other terms suggested as substitutes. Ignorance of the policy was no excuse. Good luck at Burger King, Professor.

‘Official’ disease status for ACID was granted after a severely distressed Arminian gunned down three men at a bus stop in Philadelphia who were discussing the Reformed Theology class they had just attended. Since we know that we are all born in a sinless pristine state, outside influences must have driven the poor Arminian to do what he did.

Now that ACID has made it to the AMA’s official disease list, the Defense Team for the jailed Arminian expects to be the first to use an ‘ACID Reflex’ defense in court.

The trial will be broadcast by CSPAN, FOX NEWS, TBN and GOD TV

AMA staff members and researchers are currently preparing comprehensive lists of ACID symptoms, effects, stages, and preventive measures, which will be incorporated into diagnosis, treatment and prevention information, both in printed form and to be disseminated via every media source available (your tax dollars at work).

The seriousness of the spread of this disease is unknown at this time, but the Mayo Clinic is on the case. While it is already certain that ACID can cause a degradation of rational thought processes it is hoped that recovery is possible. 12 Step Program Gurus are working on recovery programs as we speak.

We will keep you informed of developments as they occur.

by Burk Parsons

Dear Wormtongue,

Before we get to the primary reason for our letter, we want to begin by commending you for the most excellent job you’ve done in your well orchestrated effort to convince your patient to keep his faith an entirely private matter, all the while thinking he’s doing a nobly sufficient job of showing forth his faith by displaying that old, faded Christian bumper sticker on his car.

What’s more, you’ve gone beyond the call of duty as you’ve managed to persuade him to keep his faith segmented to one realm of his life rather than allowing it to naturally shape every area of life. This our arch-enemy commanded His brainwashed followers when He delivered that ghastly Sermon on the Mount, which sermon could still prove to be devastating to our cause if we’re not careful to continue to draw our patients’ attentions elsewhere, particularly to those less clear passages in their increasingly dusty Bibles over which they seem to love to quibble. Brilliant work, our devious son.

Now to the chief reason for our letter, which has everything to do with what we’ve just mentioned. For all these matters are intertwined as they relate to our post-fall campaign to subvert the gospel by striving to deceive Christians to keep the gospel relegated to one area of their lives, particularly to that past moment when they first trusted the homeless, murdered Nazarene. Our success in this area will mean victory in every other detail of their lives. For we, indeed, are in the details.

If we are to overcome them, we must convince them that they can overcome anything in their own strength, apart from the gospel that is lived out in daily repentance and faith. Their independence from the gospel is our independence. Thus, it’s our daily aim to get them to believe, or at least to act as if the gospel is exclusively for other people who still need to be saved and that the gospel’s only legitimate use is in evangelism. Our faithfulness in this effort will prove successful as we strive to get Christians to give up on living by faith and begin to strive to live by good works for the express purpose of obtaining the enemy’s earned blessings and merited grace, so they think, and so they will live as they keep running on an endless performance treadmill. Having had some initial success among the Galatians, and continued success in Rome, we know that when we’re victorious in relegating the gospel, we are victorious — or so it seems for now.

Your Master,
Legion

. . .if you think your 18 year old Christian daughter doesn’t dishonor God when she wears less on a public beach than she normally wears as underwear.

. . .if you think the picture of Biblical submission in Ephesians 5:22-33 doesn’t mean a Christian husband has no authority over his Christian wife.

. . .if you think that the statement “the gospel is offensive to the unbeliever” is problematic

. . .if you think Jesus never warned sinners about the perils of an eternity in Hell

. . .if you think the Apostle Paul taught that wives should be treated like slaves

. . .if you think the Old Testament has nothing to do with New Testament believers.

. . .if you think God will tell you something ‘personally’ that contradicted ‘what was written’.

. . .if you think Matthew 7:1-5 permits you to judge others’ motives and not just their ‘fruit’

I would provide more than sufficient scripture to refute those ill informed thoughts, but I already did where they were uttered by( professing Christians) and it didn’t work. They all come from the same place.