During WWII, the U.S. government paid B. F. Skinner to train an elite group of pigeons to guide their bombs.  The little birds would be tucked into a jacket made of a sock, positioned inside a bomb, and expected to peck at a screen on which an image of the target was projected by a lens in the bomb’s nose.  Every peck would send an electronic signal to the bomb’s flight controls so it could keep the mark in the crosshairs.  Sadly, the stress of real combat—the explosions and high rates of speed as they dropped—unnerved the little bombirdiers, […]

   The Fruits of Overdeveloped Self-Esteem A recent report on MSNBC suggested that parents’ pre-occupation with their kids’ self-esteem may have produced “rude” children who lack compassion for others.

   In trying to bring Christian teaching to bear on society, socialist-type ideals have long exerted a powerful attraction. In 1848 (the same year as the publication of Marx’s Communist Manifesto) two Church of England clergymen, F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley, launched the Christian Socialist Movement (CSM) which has continued in various forms to this present day, existing as a “critical friend”1 of the British Labour Party. Many Western Church denominations and ecumenical agencies like the World Council of Churches and the American National Council of Churches have spawned social action departments which consistently favor socialist-type solutions to economic […]

   In 1971, John Lennon wrote a hymn for the secularist faith. The song, “Imagine,” fantasized about the state of world affairs if everyone were stripped of all beliefs and prejudices—with the notable exception, of course, of the former Beatle’s favorites. “Imagine there’s no heaven,” sang Lennon,

   7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write . . . 8 ‘I know your works . . . I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you.”

Pastor John Scripture Reference:  Revelation 10:1-11

Pastor John Scripture Reference:  Revelation 7:1-17

  The annual Pig Roast will be held Sunday, September 20. The church family will attend Sunday School and morning worship as usual. Then we proceed to the fellowship hall for a meal shared together. Men of the church roast the pig through the night. Most of the rest bring various dishes to add to the meal.

   Clichés certainly can be annoying. They can also be right. The popular saying “the family that prays together, stays together” serves as a case in point that “well worn” adages need not be trite or trivial. In 2003, sociologists at the National Study of Youth and Religion examined the relationship between a family’s religious participation and the quality of the bond between teens and parents. Their surveys showed that children in devotionally minded homes had a better perception of their parents: “Early adolescents living in religiously involved families in the United States are more likely to report stronger, more […]

   Ever since the birth of the modern “Green Movement” in the 1960s,1 the view has gained ground that economic and technological progress poses an increasing threat to the natural environment. Rising population and economic growth, it is said, cause increased pollution, deforestation, and the destruction of biodiversity and natural habitats. But is this really true?