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Archive by category Society (Page 3)
In our first part, Human Nature, we pondered the reason that it is so hard to really help people. It’s not hard to try to be helpful, people often strive to aid those around them. It is just difficult to really help people. Those who are paying attention...
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April 18, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
Ever notice how hard it is to help people? We are always losing the war on drugs, stagnating in the war on poverty, failing to end bullying, never quite able to defeat racism and prejudice, unable to achieve lasting peace or to end war… etc, etc, etc....
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April 17, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
If you’ve seen the video that was released this week where the man is being dragged off a United Airline’s flight because he refused to exit the plane when asked to do so by authorities, I’m sure you are as dismayed over the situation as I am (hilarious...
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April 14, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
No Comment
The article, “I Lost My Purity (And I Haven’t Had Sex)”[1] is well written, provocative, cleverly titled, and advances the true notion that sexual purity is bigger than virginity, fornication, and physical adultery. In “Let’s Think About This Practically: A Response to “I Lost My Purity (And I...
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March 27, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Ethics, Society
It is common to find certain posts on social media that have gone viral. They are usually something provocative that challenges (at least in my circles) the standard Evangelical Christian sense of things, and almost always have some ensnaring title that promises titillation. I’ve been sitting on this...
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March 24, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Ethics, Society
I’ve been reading of late, a lot of viral posts on social media in which a person accuses pastors and churches, teachers and schools, politicians, police, government agencies and the like of wrongdoing because they show “insensitivity” to “X” by defending some right, holding to some standard, enforcing some...
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March 22, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
Two realities confront us a Christians. The first is that, as loving members of our own communities, it is unthinkable that we do not do all that is in our power to secure the safety and prosperity general of that community. We are to pray for and participate...
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March 22, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Ethics, Society, Theology
I’ve had some interesting discussions this week about various churches’ perception of “Spirituality, Love & Humility,” My ministry is non-denominational and I travel around a bit so I encounter all kinds of interesting perceptions of these matters. In the movie Joyful Noise the choir director struggles with her...
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March 17, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society, Theology
What you are about to read is real. These are not actors, but are the actual opinions of the people who are expressing them. No, seriously, I couldn’t make these things up. Well, I’m pretty creative, so I could… but you’d accuse me a writing psychologically dishonest fiction....
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March 10, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
I had an over the top experience in a congregation yesterday after preaching a message on a Biblical Theology of Holiness, called “Whole Life Holiness.” I have grown accustomed to the fact that an exorbitant number of Millennials have a rather narcissistic view of their own qualifications to...
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March 6, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
No Comment
Myopic visions of reality are a basic human trait. The mind is incapable of tracking enough information for a person to see everything, to know everything, to anticipate the effects of everything on other things. Thus, people tend to fixate on a few things and track those, to...
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March 1, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
No Comment
When I was a child, I spent a lot of time irritating my teachers. I had the tendency to say, “What does that mean?” and “What am I supposed to do with that?” or “Why does this matter?” I was more practical back then than I am now...
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February 27, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, Society
It is a piteous thing to look upon the suffering of others no matter what the cause of that suffering. A child born with disabilities whose own struggle to survive drains every last bit of nerve and resource that his or her loving family possesses. An undereducated, unskilled...
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February 22, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
No Comment
There is something wrong with the world. Everyone, save a few Pollyanna hold outs, knows this. Thus, one of the most ideologically revealing questions that a person can answer is, “What is wrong with the world?” The second is like unto it, “Can it be fixed?”[1] These form...
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February 10, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
I wouldn’t normally write a blog in response to a Disney movie, but stranger things have happened to me… I can’t think of one right now, but I’m sure there was one. I recently watched the 2006 movie Cow Belles, where two spoiled rich girls learn the importance...
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February 8, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
There is no solution, this side of eternity, for the human condition. Anyone who promises solutions is either selling something, stealing something, or completely disconnected from reality. This is the liar, lunatic or liar paradigm. (Lewis, forgive me.) The best we have in this world is a series...
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February 3, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
In MacArthur’s commentary on Titus, we find a complex tirade of sorts against the political Christian who involves himself or herself in an attempt to effect culture in America by getting involved in the affairs of the community. I do not propose to represent all of MacArthur’s thinking...
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January 27, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
There is an old saying that goes, “If you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at 40 you have no brain.” Indeed, liberals are often accredited with having a heart to help the less fortunate… mostly because it is easier to...
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January 13, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Ethics, Society
During my recent convalescence after surgery I received a disturbing letter from an earnest young man who was understandably distraught over his shunning from a congregation for whom he felt deep familial attachments. I know I joke around a lot, but I intend no jest here. His church...
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January 7, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Contexualization, NT's Use of the OT, Society, Theology
There’s been a lot of chatter on social media of late about torture. Now, torture is a powerful weasel word… i.e. a term that comes pre-loaded with good or bad sentiment meant to manipulate the outcome of an exchange without having to resort to actual discussion, facts, or...
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December 26, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Contexualization, Ethics, Society
