Discussing the HHS Mandate

The past few years have renewed discussion on the privileges and boundaries of religious liberty in the USA.  One of the major causes of this attention is the HHS contraceptive mandate.  This mandate requires that all medical insurance plans offer contraception (including some which act as abortifacients) free of any charge to the recipient.

Stupid Complaint #8: No Licit Use?

Stupid Complaint #8: “Some people need those drugs for legitimate medical issues!  Or do you suggest we just cut them off from the medicine they need.”  

Stupid Complaint #7: No Pay?

Stupid Complaint #7: “By that same logic you would have to stop paying the person because he/she might go out and buy contraception!”

Stupid Complaint #6: A Packaged Deal?

Stupid Complaint #6: “The employers are not being forced to give contraception to their employees.  They are being forced to give them insurance coverage which includes contraception at no additional cost.  No one’s conscience is being violated here.”  

Stupid Complaint #5: For Me or For All?

Stupid Complaint #5:  “If an employer is against contraception, that’s fine for him.  But he isn’t the one who will be using it.  There is nothing immoral about giving it to other people.”

Stupid Complaint #4: All or Nothing?

Stupid Complaint #4: “I suppose you think the State shouldn’t intervene when Christian Science parents refuse to obtain life-saving medical treatment for their children, right?  So if we allow Holy Family Bookstores to not provide contraceptive coverage based on their religious beliefs, we’ll have to let those kids to die too.”  

Stupid Complaint #3: Not Buying as Preventing

Stupid Complaint #3: “Employers should not be able to prevent a person’s access to contraception.”  

Stupid Complaint #2: Companies Can't Have Religious Character?

Stupid Complaint #2:  “The owner of the business isn’t being forced to do something, the business is.  Corporations aren’t really people.  They don’t have religions, beliefs, or consciences.  Corporations cannot go to heaven or hell.”

Stupid Complaint #1: Mandatory Public Secularism?

Stupid Complaint #1:  “Your beliefs are fine for your personal life, but you have to set those aside when you operate in the marketplace.”   

A Meditation on the Testing of Jesus in the Desert

Today I wanted to write out a meditation on a famous event in the life of Jesus – the testing of Jesus by Satan in the desert.  I want us to look at each of the three temptations and exploring their meaning.

But before we do that, we need to do a bit of background on the person of Lucifer / Satan.  So… let’s go ahead and do that.

How Can We Understand Old Testament Commands For Violence?

One of the most common canards in the popular understanding of the Bible is that there is a massive change in character between the “Old Testament God” and “New Testament God”.  New Testament God is all about peace, brotherhood, forgiveness, and mercy.   This is contrasted with Old Testament God, who is all about murder and punishment.

While most Christians would insist that the Old Testament and New Testament speak of the same God, many of us are pseudo-Marcionites in practice.  We do not like to think about some of the more disturbing things God did and commanded other to do in the Old Testament.

So today I wanted to take a look at the prime example – the extermination of the Canaanites.

A Tale of Early Canons

One of the topics which divide Catholics and non-Catholics is the canon of Scripture.  That is to say, which books belong in the table of contents of the Bible.  Catholics have a list which contains 73 books and non-Catholics typically have 66 books.  In this essay I will refer to these as the “Catholic Canon” and the “Protestant Canon”.

The primary difference is seven books which are found in the Old Testament.  Those are:  1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Judith, Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch.  Catholics refer these at the “Deuterocanon” and non-Catholics call these the “Apocrypha”.

We could look at the various arguments presented by the two sides for the inclusion or exclusion of those books, but today I wanted to ask a purely historical question:

If you were a Christian in the early church, what books would you regard as Scripture?

The answer is not as straightforward as you may imagine.  So what do the earliest witnesses say?