Humanism, much like atheism and agnosticism, involves borrowing from the Judeo-Christian moral ethic and then acting as if you arrived at that ethic on your own. As Jacoby states, and as my own pastor has pointed out to me, atheists and humanists grow up in a society steeped in Judeo-Christianity, borrow from it (reflect it) without admitting it, then act as if they arrived at this point independently, through reason. I dare you to find me a good humanist or atheist in, say, the Sudan. "The American Humanists are exactly that -- humanists. Their moral values are based on respect for one another and the rights of others. Everyone has a right to life, so murder is evil. Everyone has a right to their property, so stealing is evil." On...

"Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah." In other words, as soon as Jephthah placed the situation in God's hands, thereby submitting to His will, God took action. The action? He sent His Spirit to Jephthah, and the Spirit led Jephthah in the way God wanted, which was to wage war against those who had set themselves against God and His people.

This is significant: It's only AFTER God renders judgment on the situation, and acts on that judgment, that Jephthah made his vow. But this was foolish on Jephthah's part; God had already made His decision, so nothing was going to change that, but more to the point, Jephthah -- after previously submitting unconditionally to God's will -- was now trying to inject himself into the...

Of course, one could still say that God could've/should've let Jephthah off the hook for his foolish promise, but that's just the point, I think: God using the situation to teach us that our decisions have consequences. I agree that God certainly had the ability to step in and stop this senseless death, and indeed desired to do just that, but if God "stepped in" to prevent every bad thing from happening, we'd never learn about negative consequences ... or else we'd be robots without free will. I know that the story of Jephthah and his daughter comes across as harsh ("What a terrible God!" the atheists cry), but we all need to understand that our decisions affect other people, our choices have consequences that extend beyond our selfish...

I don't know if the above phrase has yet been used in this post, but the idea has been brought up, and I've seen that phrase used in other placess, so I want to address it.

In the Old Testament, God, on numerous occasions, ordered the Israelites to go destroy such-and-such a people group, to which the atheists (and some others) react with disgust.

Some of what I said to "Careful with the axe, Eugene" applies here also: If we continually reject God, we're only inviting disaster into our lives. These people groups whom God ordered destroyed were, basically, of the worst sort -- they sacrificed their children (as in, burning them alive as offerings to their "gods"), and they also turned them into temple prostitutes (yes,...

At this point someone could mention adoption, or something like it -- that is, the Israelites rescuing the children and raising them as their own, treating them right, teaching them well. But human history is one big story of God's effort to redeem humankind from sin, and this effort was (and still is) a long, drawn-out process that was in its earlier stages at that point. In other words, baby steps ... and at that time, baby was still learning the basic concepts of what sin is, how to identify it and how to stamp it out -- deeper, more complex spiritual concepts such as relationship, evangelism and mission work were to come later.

"But what of basic human compassion?" you ask.

Many things that seem so clear and obvious to...

You have a lot of questions, which is fine; for now, at least, I'll attempt an answer at just one: the matter of Jephthah and his daughter.

I first went back and reread verses 1-29 of Judges 11, since it's important, when discussing any issue, Biblical or otherwise, to have the whole context. What I see there is, first, Jephthah giving diplomacy his best shot. When that fails, he does a wise thing: he puts the situation in God's hands, rightly figuring that God is able and willing to sort out the mess.

What I see next is the key portion of this entire passage: the Bible (NIV) says (in verse 29), "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there...

Respect for the Constitution? How is it respectful to hyper-enforce one part of the First Amendment's religion clause ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") while nearly always ignoring the second part of the same clause ("or prohibiting the free exercise thereof")? Liberals love to chant "separation of church and state" while conveniently forgetting that I have the right to practice my religion in the way I see fit -- which means that if I'm a business owner and object to homosexuality and cross-dressing because of my religious beliefs, I have the right to not hire homosexuals and cross-dressers. But perhaps this is about more than just sexual orientation, and instead goes to the fundamental idea of...

Bless God? Not sure how you do that, even if it's possible. At any rate, I guess hers is the usual, vapid Hollywood support given to every liberal cause ... let's see, what else? Same-sex marriage isn't an issue of civil rights, because civil rights are political rights, as in the right to vote, and homosexuals certainly aren't being discriminated against in that way. I appreciate the civil tone of most of the people at this rally, though I'll never agree with them on this issue, because their lifestyle violates the Law of Nature and of Nature's God.

To inject a bit of life into your day, visit my Townhall blogs: jasondrexler.blogtownhall.com, and latimes.blogtownhall.com

Many thanks!

To inject a bit of life into your day, visit my Townhall blogs: jasondrexler.blogtownhall.com, and latimes.blogtownhall.com

Many thanks!