Public Righteousness 
By Foy Valentine

• The Need for Public Righteousness 
• The Nature of Public Righteousness
• The Church and Public Righteousness

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Dancing with the Black Dog 
By Hal Haralson

[Hal Haralson practices law in Austin and is a frequent contributor to Christian Ethics Today.]

A recent best selling book was entitled, Dancing with the White Dog.

Winston Churchill, who spent a lifetime battling depression, referred to his depression as "The Black Dog."

I spent the weekend dancing with my Black Dog.

He came growling out of the bushes with his lips curled back revealing white fangs and a vicious mouth flecked with foam. I was more scared than I have been in many years.

Two things contributed to this frightening episode.
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Grits, Grace, and Goodness 
By Charles Wellborn

The alliterative "G's" in the title of this article are probably a carryover from the sermonic experience of my years as a pastor. Be that as it may, the three terms--grits, grace, and goodness---have become linked in my recent reflections.

I am a Southerner, born and bred. Across the years I have observed that first-time visitors to the "hallowed ground" of the American South experience a number of culture shocks. One such shock is the first encounter with that omnipresent ingredient on the Southern breakfast plate--grits. Southerners take grits for granted; not so our Yankee friends.

Years ago a friend of mine from Massachusetts came to Tallahassee, Florida, where I was living. On his first morning in town I picked up my friend at his motel where he had just eaten breakfast.

"What's that white stuff they put on your plate?" he asked. "That stuff that tastes like wallpaper paste and, if you leave it long enough, turns into concrete?"
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The Beauty of the Beast 
By Carlyle Marney

I.

The most dangerous beast? He is neither lion, nor tiger, nor buffalo, nor elephant. MAN is the most savage of the beasts. His bite is poisonous; his hand is a club; his foot is a weapon; knives, clubs, spears become projectiles to carry his hostility. Nothing in nature is so well equipped for hating or hurting. His brain, which trebles during his first few months, is a literal storehouse for keeping destruction and pain-making. His logical powers mean that he can organize for doing harm. His tool-making means that he can invent ways to increase his ability to be hostile. His social nature means he always releases his venom in groups. His powers of communication make him able to mis-communicate; and mis-representation is a means of revenge. He can even make a weapon out of gossip. His memory means that he can brood and stir up malice.
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Gerber Daisies 
By Roger Lovette

Funny how some of the most important moments in our lives cluster around the simple things. Often these are occasions which seem inconsequential at the time. The gospel says that abundant living usually flows out of simple things like mangers and loaves and fishes and bread and wine and chance encounters at a watering place. Biblical faith often clusters around events so ordinary that we miss their meaning because we expect the spectacular.
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War and the Population Explosion: Some Ethical Implications 
By John M. Swomley

The nature of war has been changing from wars between nations to wars within nations. According to the United Nations, only three of the eighty-two armed conflicts between 1989 and 1992 were between nations. Those within nations were primarily the result of religion or culture or race or ethnic differences, poverty, shortage of arable land, and inequalities caused by overpopulation.

There have been 148 wars in the world since World War II, according to Ruth Sivard, a military analyst. Among these were wars in the Sudan, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Most of these were population wars.
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Updated Tuesday, January 24, 2006

We're Not Computers  
By Glenn Dromgoole

A computer can do amazing things. 
It has incredible memory. 
It can store millions of facts, figures and names in its "brain."
But, you know, a computer can't appreciate the beauty of a sunset.
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Character: I Did It His Way 
By Bob Adams

Ignacio Loredo and Miguel Bollatti were the best friends the students had at the International Baptist Seminary in Argentina. Ignacio taught them about Christian conduct and Miguel helped them live according to Christians standards. Ignacio taught them to beware of the three greatest, most obvious, and most insidious temptations they would continually face and Miguel helped apply the code of Christian conduct that they agreed to. The three greatest temptations-misconduct with money, sex, and power. Ring a bell? In Bible times, throughout Christian history, in South America and in North America, and around the world, the problems are still with us. Christian character flourishes or fails on the basis of our handling of these drives.
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God's Long Summer 
By Charles Marsh 
A Review by Darold H. Morgan

This is a vital book on a very relevant subject. It takes us dramatically, forcefully, and unforgettably back to Mississippi and the summer of 1964. It is one of several volumes currently examining the civil rights struggle in the nation. Its unique approach and its careful research, combined with the excellent writing skills of the author makes this one of the best of the bunch. The author tells the story of five individuals who were at the heart of the civil rights movement in the deepest part of the Deep South. He comes up with a riveting, heart-breaking account of a movement in American life which is still evolving.
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Does God Really Heal? 
By Al Staggs

My wife died in April of this year following a twelve year battle with cancer, a particularly malignant melanoma.

A few weeks prior to her death some of our long-time friends paid us a visit at our home. After a brief trip for a quick lunch, the four of us sat in the living area of our home to catch up on what all was going on in each of our families and in the lives of our children. Toward the conclusion of this visit, one of our visitors asked my wife and me if we had ever heard of a certain woman who had been healed of her cancer by following a special nutritional regimen. She had brought a tape for my wife to listen to. My first mental reaction was, "I really don't believe what I'm hearing! This sweet Christian woman really does not comprehend the heavy ramifications of what she is doing by suggesting that my wife, who is just two weeks from her death and barely able to get around, could be miraculously healed if she would just start chewing apricot roots and avoiding caffeine."
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Watching the World Go By
Shall We Have Government-Mandated Prayer and Bible Study?
By Ralph Lynn

Contradictory as it may seem, passions run so high in matters of religion that religious people of all faiths, preaching love and brotherhood, have always needed some governmental power to protect them from each other.

For the early Christians that power was the Roman Emperor, Constantine, who called the representatives of Christendom to meet at Nicaea in 325 A.D. to settle the question of whether God is One or Three-in-One.

To Constantine the question was of "trifling" importance; he merely wished to maintain public order.

When the church people reached a decision (in favor of the Trinity), Constantine "dismissed the 318 bishops with the (vain) request that they not tear one another to pieces."

For us now, the question is not the nature of God (about which we all, as human beings, are irremediably ignorant) but whether we shall have government-mandated prayer and Bible study in our public schools.
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The Church's Political Ministry: Some Propositions to Provoke Debate 
By James A. Nash

The purpose of this essay is to pick a fight--well, really to start a religious and political argument, for such argument is a foundational feature of civil society and an essential means to that society's moral advancement.

I offer here a set of propositions--that is, theses to provoke debate on contemporary directions and deficiencies concerning Christian faith and politics. Clearly, propositions are much more than academic matters. They are, after all, what got Martin Luther into all those 16th century unpleasantries when he nailed 95 theses to that church door in Wittenberg.
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