Category: Big Questions

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Big Questions Theology

The Big Questions — The OT God

I’m often confronted with big questions about the Christian faith. I can’t say that I have all the answers, but I’ve tried to study many of these things, and have often found approaches to them that have helped me grow in my faith. This “Big Questions” series will raise some of the questions I’ve encountered and the ways in which I’ve tried to respond.

Today’s question is this: isn’t the God portrayed in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, “arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully?” (from Richard Dawkins, “The God Delusion”). How does the God portrayed in the Old Testament mesh with the seemingly kinder, gentler God of the New Testament?

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Schiavo and Judicial Activism

I was listening to the Sean Hannity show on my way into the office this afternoon. He was discussing the Florida District Court’s ruling denying the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order under the federal statute passed by Congress (the “Schiavo Act”). Hannity stated that he believed the court’s opinion did not even reference the Schiavo Act. He was hammering the federal court’s decision as symptomatic of the arrogance of the judiciary. Senator Rick Santorum came on the Hannity show and claimed the Schiavo Act required the federal court to order the reinsertion of nutrition and hydration tubes pending a full hearing on the merits. Santorum also decried the ruling as an abuse of judicial power. This seems to be the Christian Right’s theme: a National Right to Life Committee spokesman referred to the federal court’s decision as a “gross abuse of judicial power”; Christian Defense Coalition Director Pat Mahoney, quoted in a Focus on the Family article, attributed the federal court’s decision to “an arrogant and activist federal judiciary.”

Unfortunately, all of these comments about judicial activism are wrong.

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