The Ten Most Beautiful Sights in the World
By Foy Valentine

“Whatsoever things are...lovely...think on these things”  Philippians 4:8

Fixed indelibly in our mind’s eyes are certain splendid sights.  It pleasures us to lean back, shut our eyes, and remember them in living color.  Those sights accumulated across a lifetime can be better than money in the bank.  By far.

      So, would you pull up a chair and humor me a couple of minutes.
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We Are All Ministers
By Hal Haralson

      I suggest, that we are all called to be ministers.

      Most of us minister in ways that are less visible, less frequently noted, than those who minister by virtue of their vocation.

      The ministry of “being there” to others finds expression in acts of kindness, awareness of pain in others, and acknowledgment of the importance of another’s feelings of joy, sadness, and loneliness.

       There are three areas of this ministry I would like to consider with you.
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What Are You Looking For? 
Genesis 37:15
By Rabbi Marc Gellman 

     So the angel told me that all the great questions are short, and by listening to the shortest questions in the Torah we have all learned that the angel was right.  Adam learned it by listening to God’s great short question in the Garden of Eden, ayeka, “Where are you?”  Abraham learned it by listening to the great short question of his son Isaac on the way up Mt. Moriah, ayeh haseh, “Where is the lamb?” and now we will see how Joseph learned that all the great questions are short.
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Thomas Jefferson on Race, Revolution, and Morality - History Revisited and Revised
By Edwin S. Gaustad

• Jefferson and race, or more narrowly, Jefferson and slavery
• His attitude toward the revolution that erupted in France in 1789
• Jefferson and morality and his alleged affair

• On slavery and race
• On Jefferson’s fanatical defense of the French Revolution
• Was Jefferson a moral man, or a hypocritical lecher and consummate deceiver?

     .... But historians have been busy of late, re-examining many facets of Jefferson’s life and suggesting that major re-evaluations are in order.  Some have even gone so far as to argue that the Jefferson Memorial is a mistake and the profile on Mount Rushmore an embarrassment.  Other historians strongly disagree, and so the books, articles, talk shows, and PBS specials pour forth.  So, what is the fuss all about?  Contention has been largely concentrated in three areas, each of which will be examined in turn.
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Women And Other Creatures: The Gender Debate¹
By Joe E. Trull

• The Debate About History
• The Debate About The Bible 
• The Debate about Ministry
• Endnotes

In the early 1800s, Texas was a frontier territory. One historian noted that settlers believed “Indians were to be killed, African Americans were to be enslaved, and Hispanics were to be avoided.” In the 1830s these “Texicans” built a Baptist church at Independence which had two doors: one for white males and the other for “women and other creatures.”2

      The battle between the sexes did not begin with Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. The status of “women and other creatures” has been a topic of constant debate since Eve ate the forbidden fruit and Adam blamed her and God for the consequences (Genesis 3:12-16). Patriarchy, male domination, discrimination, and sexism have characterized every civilization.
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Updated Monday, November 26, 2001

The Vatican Connection: How the Roman Catholic Church Influences the Republican Party 
By John M. Swomley

• The Catholic Political Agenda 
• The Modus Operandi for Trying to Impose Papal Authority
• The Birth Control Issue Waiting in the Wings
• Catholic Lay Elites Pressed into Political Service for the Vatican’s Agenda
• The Old Parochiaid Gets a New Name: School Choice
• How Aristotle’s Scheme Would Play in Peoria

It was the Vatican’s program that dominated the Republican Party platform and presidential campaign in 1996, although Ralph Reed and the Christian coalition claimed the credit.

      After winning the Republican primaries, candidate Robert Dole made a major speech to the Catholic Press Association’s annual convention in Philadelphia on May 23, in which he endorsed “school choice,” which involves the funding of parochial schools through tuition tax vouchers.  He also attacked President Clinton’s late term or “partial birth” abortion veto and, in the context of abortion, said, “Though not a Catholic, I would listen to Pope John Paul II.”
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With God on Our Side: A Review
By Darold H. Morgan

     Go quickly to the sub-title of this large volume, “The Rise of the Religious Right in America”.  Written by William Martin, a highly respected professor of philosophy and religion at Rice University, it is a very readable book about one of the most volatile subjects in our land today.  Martin is best known in Christian circles for his recent, excellent biography of Billy Graham.

      He approaches the hot button subject of the Religious Right in America with a historian’s keen eye and with a philosopher’s fine balance.  The book, contrary to what some might expect, is not judgmental because of this interweaving of authentic historical perspective.  That leads to what some will consider to be a major weakness in this volume:  obviously needed conclusions are not made.  The author remains consistently objective, however, in pursuing the course of this intensely controversial movement in American life today.
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The Engagement Agenda 
By Foy Valentine

• Who We Are
• What We are Doing
• Are social issues any of our business? 
• Theological Presuppositions for the Engagement Agenda
• Effecting Social Change
• Conclusion

For Christians from the beginning, there have been many crosses, many struggles, many conflicts, many battles, many confrontations.  These are never won.  Not really.  For Christians committed to practicing and preaching the whole gospel of God in Christ, they are not even supposed to be.  The people of God just have to live with the conviction that God has put fire in our bones and that He has given us the stomach for the battle.  If we couldn’t stand the heat, we wouldn’t stay in the kitchen.  Our agenda is engagement.  And in this agenda, “It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).
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Watching the World Go By 
By Ralph Lynn

• Can We Regain the Pioneer Spirit?
• Is the Welfare Problem Solvable?
• Strengthen Education Strengthen Homes to

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