Approaching Holidays Prompt Atheist Campaign

“An unusual holiday message began appearing this week in the nation’s capital on the sides of buses and trains.

“No god? … No problem!” reads the advertisement featuring the smiling faces of people wearing Santa Claus hats. “Be good for goodness’ sake.”

Over the next two weeks, 270 of the ads will go up on city buses and trains in the Washington area as part of the holiday kickoff to campaigns sponsored by secular groups in cities around the country and abroad. If last year was any indication, the signs are likely to spark a theological war of words.

“We don’t intend to rain on anyone’s parade, but secular people celebrate the holidays, too, and we’re just trying to reach out to our people,” said Roy Speckhardt, the executive director of the American Humanist Association. “To the degree that we are reaching out to the godly, it’s just to say that you can be good without god. So their atheist neighbor down the street shouldn’t be vilified as though he is immoral.” Signs similar to those in Washington…” (more)

And then there was this interesting exchange. (click here to watch)

Barna Studies the Research – Year-in-Review Perspective

Here is the full article. But here is one observation worth noting here:

“Ultimately, in a culture where people are busy, distracted, confused and trying to keep it all together, there is less loyalty to a faith brand than to self. The purpose of faith, for most Americans, is not so much to discover truth or to relate to a loving, praiseworthy deity as it is to become happy, successful, comfortable and secure. For a growing percentage of citizens, their sense of spirituality, more than Christianity, facilitates those outcomes.”

We have a great opportunity to grow and focus in 2010 as Christians.

Thinking Christianly About the Adult / Embryonic Stem Cell Moral Debate

Stem Cell research can be a very confusing and contentious issue. Here are some helpful, distinctively Christian resources:

Lines That Divide Documentary

Stem Cell Research

Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity

Moral Choices (3rd Edition) by Scott Rae