Best-selling author Josh McDowell has released insightful tidbits on abortion and morality for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as she prepares for her highly anticipated interview with Oprah on November 16.
Last month McDowell and co-author Dave Sterrett of Probe Ministries released the new book O God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality that chronicles two women who grapple with belief systems endorsed by Oprah and her spiritual teachers.
“Does Oprah believe in shrinking the role of religion in America, given the Obama administration’s views on separation of church and state?” is among a variety of questions and advice McDowell and Sterrett propose that Palin take up with Oprah. The open letter was released Sunday on WorldNetDaily.
via Josh McDowell challenges Palin and Oprah to discuss abortion, morality.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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New blog posting, Josh McDowell challenges Palin and Oprah to discuss abortion, morality – http://tinyurl.com/ycd9pm2
I was raised on Dr. Dobson, and have just sent him a letter requesting his assistance to help me stop loosing faith in the Christian Church. My Mom respects Dr. Dobson as much or more than any other Christian leader, and she is interested to see his response. I only started learning the truth about the 9/11 attacks last fall. It took me an entire year to convince my own parents to listen to me, and begin reviewing the evidence for themselves. Now that they have thoroughly and objectively taken a fresh look into all the available evidence, they too are now aware of how badly we have been deceived. They now fully support my mission to find out what really happened to 2,993 of our fellow countrymen that fateful September morning. My mom is very interested to see if/how Dr. Dobson will respond. Please read my open letter to Dr. Dobson and share your thoughts at………
http://blandyland.com/?p=459
Does Christ’s Church really stand for TRUTH & JUSTICE? That is the question!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
David, if you are sincerely counting on one man to help you regain your faith in God, then you really don’t have faith in God to start. Where then is your faith at if you turn to Dobson to regain it?
Further, you misquote 1st Tim 6.10, which instead of reading ‘love of money… all evil‘ instead, you should understand that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. There was no money in Eden.
You confuse ‘Truth’ in 2nd Thessalonians with the vulgar truth. We should remember that the Truth which we are supposed to love is Christ, who is the Truth, the Way, the Life. I have my doubts that God cares whether or not Snickers tells you what they have in their candy bar of if the ‘truth’ is told about 9/11. We should be focused on the Truth found in the Gospels. That is the Truth people will have abandoned. Once you start to abandon this real and clear aspect of Truth, you will then assume that the Christian Church must be the police of the world. No, we are not.
God’s Justice is measure to use in Christ. We are commanded to do justice to others, but what you assume is that some how a hegemonic Church Leadership is supposed to seek your justice. No. If there were crimes committed by the American government, which while their may have been in ignoring warnings, the Government had nothing to do with the attacks. The Justice we are to seek is to protect and to care for the families of those left behind. In that, we show Grace.
Daniel, I am unsure as to why you felt the need to place this comment, except to showcase your letter. I feel that your letter is little more than grandstanding, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt.
I was raised on Dr. Dobson, and have just sent him a letter requesting his assistance to help me stop loosing faith in the Christian Church. My Mom respects Dr. Dobson as much or more than any other Christian leader, and she is interested to see his response. I only started learning the truth about the 9/11 attacks last fall. It took me an entire year to convince my own parents to listen to me, and begin reviewing the evidence for themselves. Now that they have thoroughly and objectively taken a fresh look into all the available evidence, they too are now aware of how badly we have been deceived. They now fully support my mission to find out what really happened to 2,993 of our fellow countrymen that fateful September morning. My mom is very interested to see if/how Dr. Dobson will respond. Please read my open letter to Dr. Dobson and share your thoughts at………
http://blandyland.com/?p=459
Does Christ’s Church really stand for TRUTH & JUSTICE? That is the question!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
David, if you are sincerely counting on one man to help you regain your faith in God, then you really don’t have faith in God to start. Where then is your faith at if you turn to Dobson to regain it?
Further, you misquote 1st Tim 6.10, which instead of reading ‘love of money… all evil‘ instead, you should understand that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. There was no money in Eden.
You confuse ‘Truth’ in 2nd Thessalonians with the vulgar truth. We should remember that the Truth which we are supposed to love is Christ, who is the Truth, the Way, the Life. I have my doubts that God cares whether or not Snickers tells you what they have in their candy bar of if the ‘truth’ is told about 9/11. We should be focused on the Truth found in the Gospels. That is the Truth people will have abandoned. Once you start to abandon this real and clear aspect of Truth, you will then assume that the Christian Church must be the police of the world. No, we are not.
God’s Justice is measure to use in Christ. We are commanded to do justice to others, but what you assume is that some how a hegemonic Church Leadership is supposed to seek your justice. No. If there were crimes committed by the American government, which while their may have been in ignoring warnings, the Government had nothing to do with the attacks. The Justice we are to seek is to protect and to care for the families of those left behind. In that, we show Grace.
Daniel, I am unsure as to why you felt the need to place this comment, except to showcase your letter. I feel that your letter is little more than grandstanding, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt.
Polycarp-
My name is Daniel, not David. If you go back and read my letter, I never said anything about loosing my faith in God, only Jesus Christ. Let me set the record straight, I believe in GOD more than I have ever before. It is the Jesus piece that I am struggling with. I know this is hard for you to understand because you believe that God = Jesus. The bottom line is that the only reason I believe in Jesus, is because my mother raised me in a Christian Church, and that was what the Bible says. However I do know that the Bible was written by man, and every man I have ever met has made mistakes. I also know that the Bible has been changed and translated differently. I also know that certain Gospels were left out of the Bible for whatever reason.
As far as 1 Timothy 6:10, I’m afraid I got that one right. I did not claim that “money” was the root of all evil, as you suggested by inferring that there was no money in the Garden of Good and Evil. I said correctly that the “love” of money is the root of all evil.
You said:
“I have my doubts that God cares whether or not Snickers tells you what they have in their candy bar of if the ‘truth’ is told about 9/11.”
Maybe we know two different Gods because I know my God cares about TRUTH & JUSTICE. I believe that, GOD = TRUTH! For in the Old Testament, the first piece of the armor of God happens to be the belt of TRUTH. Something tells me it wasn’t listed first by mistake. That’s what my conscious tells me anyway.
You said:
“We are commanded to do justice to others, but what you assume is that some how a hegemonic Church Leadership is supposed to seek your justice.”
It’s not MY justice as you insinuated. It is God’s justice, and he will ensure it prevails. If he can use me to see his will is done, I am thrilled to be a part of it! The leadership of the Christian Church is supposed to be leaders and examples or Christ. Am I wrong here?
Real TRUTH is a constant and does not change. Gandhi said it best……
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.”
- Mohandas Gandhi
You said:
“the Government had nothing to do with the attacks.”
You obviously have only listened to the information that the media has told you, and not done any TRUTH seeking on your own. The TRUTH that the official story is nothing but lies is clearly evident to anyone who has thoroughly and objectively reviewed the evidence. I was fooled by the lies more than most people because I joined the US Army in a combat arms MOS just three months after the attacks. Although I knew something wasn’t right during my time in Iraq, I couldn’t quite identify exactly what was wrong. It was not until I began investigating the word “inflation” last fall during the bailout, that I began to really understand what happened on 9/11. Have you watched “9/11: Press for Truth”? Have we done justice to those families by ignoring their pleas for help?
I am used to people calling me names for speaking the truth. This alone should be a sign to you that something is very wrong. When Fox News and CNN handle 9/11 Truth in the same manner, never debating the real evidence and always resorting to name calling and character assassination. It’s time to wake up Polycarp. I was asleep for seven years. How long will it take you to wake up? I tried for a full year to get my parents looking at the evidence to no avail. It wasn’t until I told them of my plan to publicly accuse Dick Cheney of murder, and ask for the Attorney General to bring libel charges against me if he thought I was lying that they decided to look at the evidence for themselves. Now that they have finally researched the evidence on their own, they now fully support calls for a new and open investigation to determine who truly was responsible for murdering 2,993 of our fellow countrymen that morning! Please look into the evidence. The truth is not hard to find, if you’ll only seek it. “Seek and ye shall find.” Are people right when they call me “nuts” or a “conspiracy whack-job”? It doesn’t matter because they are not my judge.
The boy’s name Daniel d(a)-niel is pronounced DAN-yel. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is “God is my judge”.
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
Daniel
If the only reason you believe that Christ is God or in Christianity is because someone else told you so, then I have reason to doubt the sincerity of your believe. This, this you need to correct. What you ‘know’ seems to boarder on conspiracy theories. This too is a problem for you. You cannot accept ‘theories’ as facts, Daniel.
Daniel, go back and reread what I said about 1st Tim 6.10. You missed it completely, even after I put the important points in bold.
What you demand is a fundamentalist picture of God, which is clearly wrong. We are called to be pilgrims in this world and to follow the Truth. The Truth is Christ. You have, too, missed this. What you seek is justification of your own faults and failures in regard to faith. But what faith? Faith cannot be inherited or taught, it must be placed their by God to quicken your spirit. I cannot say that I see that in your statements.
You want God to be concerned with human truths, and yet, we are called to be concerned with eternal truths. What you have is an agenda, which is completely false, and you want Christian support, or else you are threatening to withhold your faith. You can threaten God, if you want, I reckon.
You can continue to base your reality on conspiracy, Daniel, but that it your choice – don’t expect people to get involved.
Polycarp-
My name is Daniel, not David. If you go back and read my letter, I never said anything about loosing my faith in God, only Jesus Christ. Let me set the record straight, I believe in GOD more than I have ever before. It is the Jesus piece that I am struggling with. I know this is hard for you to understand because you believe that God = Jesus. The bottom line is that the only reason I believe in Jesus, is because my mother raised me in a Christian Church, and that was what the Bible says. However I do know that the Bible was written by man, and every man I have ever met has made mistakes. I also know that the Bible has been changed and translated differently. I also know that certain Gospels were left out of the Bible for whatever reason.
As far as 1 Timothy 6:10, I’m afraid I got that one right. I did not claim that “money” was the root of all evil, as you suggested by inferring that there was no money in the Garden of Good and Evil. I said correctly that the “love” of money is the root of all evil.
You said:
“I have my doubts that God cares whether or not Snickers tells you what they have in their candy bar of if the ‘truth’ is told about 9/11.”
Maybe we know two different Gods because I know my God cares about TRUTH & JUSTICE. I believe that, GOD = TRUTH! For in the Old Testament, the first piece of the armor of God happens to be the belt of TRUTH. Something tells me it wasn’t listed first by mistake. That’s what my conscious tells me anyway.
You said:
“We are commanded to do justice to others, but what you assume is that some how a hegemonic Church Leadership is supposed to seek your justice.”
It’s not MY justice as you insinuated. It is God’s justice, and he will ensure it prevails. If he can use me to see his will is done, I am thrilled to be a part of it! The leadership of the Christian Church is supposed to be leaders and examples or Christ. Am I wrong here?
Real TRUTH is a constant and does not change. Gandhi said it best……
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.”
- Mohandas Gandhi
You said:
“the Government had nothing to do with the attacks.”
You obviously have only listened to the information that the media has told you, and not done any TRUTH seeking on your own. The TRUTH that the official story is nothing but lies is clearly evident to anyone who has thoroughly and objectively reviewed the evidence. I was fooled by the lies more than most people because I joined the US Army in a combat arms MOS just three months after the attacks. Although I knew something wasn’t right during my time in Iraq, I couldn’t quite identify exactly what was wrong. It was not until I began investigating the word “inflation” last fall during the bailout, that I began to really understand what happened on 9/11. Have you watched “9/11: Press for Truth”? Have we done justice to those families by ignoring their pleas for help?
I am used to people calling me names for speaking the truth. This alone should be a sign to you that something is very wrong. When Fox News and CNN handle 9/11 Truth in the same manner, never debating the real evidence and always resorting to name calling and character assassination. It’s time to wake up Polycarp. I was asleep for seven years. How long will it take you to wake up? I tried for a full year to get my parents looking at the evidence to no avail. It wasn’t until I told them of my plan to publicly accuse Dick Cheney of murder, and ask for the Attorney General to bring libel charges against me if he thought I was lying that they decided to look at the evidence for themselves. Now that they have finally researched the evidence on their own, they now fully support calls for a new and open investigation to determine who truly was responsible for murdering 2,993 of our fellow countrymen that morning! Please look into the evidence. The truth is not hard to find, if you’ll only seek it. “Seek and ye shall find.” Are people right when they call me “nuts” or a “conspiracy whack-job”? It doesn’t matter because they are not my judge.
The boy’s name Daniel \d(a)-niel\ is pronounced DAN-yel. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is “God is my judge”.
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
Daniel
If the only reason you believe that Christ is God or in Christianity is because someone else told you so, then I have reason to doubt the sincerity of your believe. This, this you need to correct. What you ‘know’ seems to boarder on conspiracy theories. This too is a problem for you. You cannot accept ‘theories’ as facts, Daniel.
Daniel, go back and reread what I said about 1st Tim 6.10. You missed it completely, even after I put the important points in bold.
What you demand is a fundamentalist picture of God, which is clearly wrong. We are called to be pilgrims in this world and to follow the Truth. The Truth is Christ. You have, too, missed this. What you seek is justification of your own faults and failures in regard to faith. But what faith? Faith cannot be inherited or taught, it must be placed their by God to quicken your spirit. I cannot say that I see that in your statements.
You want God to be concerned with human truths, and yet, we are called to be concerned with eternal truths. What you have is an agenda, which is completely false, and you want Christian support, or else you are threatening to withhold your faith. You can threaten God, if you want, I reckon.
You can continue to base your reality on conspiracy, Daniel, but that it your choice – don’t expect people to get involved.
Daniel, I will not allow your comment through, as it is unrelated to this blog. What you want to do is to grandstand and show case conspiracy theories. While this might be allowed on other forums, that is fine, but not here. The evidence that you have is false, as I have already examined enough of it to know better.
Now, I am sure that you will use this to state some off the wall comment about my faith, etc…, etc…, etc… but in reality, I have done this before and will continue to guard my comment section against, well, stupid conspiracy theories.
If you wish to continue to dialogue on truth and Christianity and faith, then fine, we will.
Daniel, I will not allow your comment through, as it is unrelated to this blog. What you want to do is to grandstand and show case conspiracy theories. While this might be allowed on other forums, that is fine, but not here. The evidence that you have is false, as I have already examined enough of it to know better.
Now, I am sure that you will use this to state some off the wall comment about my faith, etc…, etc…, etc… but in reality, I have done this before and will continue to guard my comment section against, well, stupid conspiracy theories.
If you wish to continue to dialogue on truth and Christianity and faith, then fine, we will.
I’ll be praying for God to convict you Polycarp. You can call it as you see it, and I will call it as I know it. That is what makes this the greatest country in the world. The truth will win in the end, just as it always does. It seems to be the most basic law of the universe. I hope you end up finding truth before God calls you in for judgment. When says, “Daniel, I blessed you with so many talents. How did you use them to honor my name?” I will be able to look him in the eye and answer proudly. Hope you can say the same. May the TRUTH set you free!
Take care!
Daniel Bland
Daniel,
What God? Your God? Or the God the bible? The God of the Bible is Christ, without conspiracy theories.
I’ll be praying for God to convict you Polycarp. You can call it as you see it, and I will call it as I know it. That is what makes this the greatest country in the world. The truth will win in the end, just as it always does. It seems to be the most basic law of the universe. I hope you end up finding truth before God calls you in for judgment. When says, “Daniel, I blessed you with so many talents. How did you use them to honor my name?” I will be able to look him in the eye and answer proudly. Hope you can say the same. May the TRUTH set you free!
Take care!
Daniel Bland
Daniel,
What God? Your God? Or the God the bible? The God of the Bible is Christ, without conspiracy theories.
Sorry Polycarp. The God of the old testament warned you about human conspiracies.
Let me guess, you’ll probably end up censuring the scripture when it doesn’t support the sheep in you?
http://bible.cc/micah/7-3.htm
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
P.S. You accused me of grandstanding, and you are absolutely right. I am grandstanding, for the GOD of TRUTH!
Daniel, the God of the OT is the God of the NT, Christ.
I only censure garbage, not honest dialogue.
Sorry Polycarp. The God of the old testament warned you about human conspiracies.
Let me guess, you’ll probably end up censuring the scripture when it doesn’t support the sheep in you?
http://bible.cc/micah/7-3.htm
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
P.S. You accused me of grandstanding, and you are absolutely right. I am grandstanding, for the GOD of TRUTH!
Daniel, the God of the OT is the God of the NT, Christ.
I only censure garbage, not honest dialogue.
Thanks for proving my point Polycarp. The Christian leadership is not concerned with truth even when God has served it up for you on a silver platter. I have been researching the evidence of 9/11, both the conspiracy side and the “official” and debunking side. I did not come out on the record like this under I had absolutely no doubt that members of own government were involved in murdering our own citizens. When our nations “national security” depends on sacrificing its own citizens we’ve got big problems. I apologize for getting off topic on your blog, but it didn’t look like anyone had anything to share. You have my e-mail address, and I will be happy to take this off line with you. Since you have already reviewed it, I will debate you on all the available evidence. I’ll have you speechless in no time. Maybe then you will ask God to guide to honor him, for he is the God of TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall set us free. Polycarp, I don’t think you grasp the significance of what we are discussing. It wasn’t only 2,993 innocent Americans who lost their lives at the hands of these evil criminals. Don’t forget about the thousands of American soldiers, or the millions around the world who have been killed as a result of these criminals original massacre. You need to read this post, and check the references. These criminals are also drug dealers Polycarp!
http://blandyland.com/?p=336
You are supporting these evil criminals by your silence Polycarp! God’s judgment is coming soon! I pray that you wake up and repent for following that almighty dollar, and not the internal spirit he placed within you!
Like I said, I will be happy to help deliver the truth off-line since you don’t want to get embarrassed in front of what readers you have here. So long as it’s God’s will, I will be around to help if you need me. Hope you’ll take me up on it because I have you acknowledging the TRUTH in no time.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
Again, I’m starting to think Gandhi was one of the most spiritually enlightened people to walk the face of the planet.
Seek the TRUTH before your time expires!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
Wow, Daniel, just wow.
Thanks for proving my point Polycarp. The Christian leadership is not concerned with truth even when God has served it up for you on a silver platter. I have been researching the evidence of 9/11, both the conspiracy side and the “official” and debunking side. I did not come out on the record like this under I had absolutely no doubt that members of own government were involved in murdering our own citizens. When our nations “national security” depends on sacrificing its own citizens we’ve got big problems. I apologize for getting off topic on your blog, but it didn’t look like anyone had anything to share. You have my e-mail address, and I will be happy to take this off line with you. Since you have already reviewed it, I will debate you on all the available evidence. I’ll have you speechless in no time. Maybe then you will ask God to guide to honor him, for he is the God of TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall set us free. Polycarp, I don’t think you grasp the significance of what we are discussing. It wasn’t only 2,993 innocent Americans who lost their lives at the hands of these evil criminals. Don’t forget about the thousands of American soldiers, or the millions around the world who have been killed as a result of these criminals original massacre. You need to read this post, and check the references. These criminals are also drug dealers Polycarp!
http://blandyland.com/?p=336
You are supporting these evil criminals by your silence Polycarp! God’s judgment is coming soon! I pray that you wake up and repent for following that almighty dollar, and not the internal spirit he placed within you!
Like I said, I will be happy to help deliver the truth off-line since you don’t want to get embarrassed in front of what readers you have here. So long as it’s God’s will, I will be around to help if you need me. Hope you’ll take me up on it because I have you acknowledging the TRUTH in no time.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
Again, I’m starting to think Gandhi was one of the most spiritually enlightened people to walk the face of the planet.
Seek the TRUTH before your time expires!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
Wow, Daniel, just wow.
It takes a brave man to stand fearless in a den of lions. What was that Biblical characters name? I got nothing but love for you Polycarp. That’s why I want to take this off line with you. I gotta feeling time is running really low. Please take me up on this. I have always been the type of guy that always wanted everyone invited to the party. Sometimes to the point where I wouldn’t even get invited because I’d bring along too many folks. Victory is in the air, and I want to be celebrating with you when we get there. Give the evidence a fresh look. Trust me!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
Check out this short little article and the comments.
http://www.sentinelsource.com/articles/2009/11/10/opinion/letters_editor/free/id_377699.txt
Daniel, if you deny Christ, you will not be celebrating.
Deep end, you are in it.
It takes a brave man to stand fearless in a den of lions. What was that Biblical characters name? I got nothing but love for you Polycarp. That’s why I want to take this off line with you. I gotta feeling time is running really low. Please take me up on this. I have always been the type of guy that always wanted everyone invited to the party. Sometimes to the point where I wouldn’t even get invited because I’d bring along too many folks. Victory is in the air, and I want to be celebrating with you when we get there. Give the evidence a fresh look. Trust me!
Daniel Edd Bland III
http://www.BlandyLand.com
Check out this short little article and the comments.
http://www.sentinelsource.com/articles/2009/11/10/opinion/letters_editor/free/id_377699.txt
Daniel, if you deny Christ, you will not be celebrating.
Deep end, you are in it.