Apologetics?

Dear friends,

What is "apologetics"? Is that what you get when you're trying to say you're sorry over and over and over again? Not really! Apologetics is a reasoned explanation of religious belief. Or, as we find at Dictionary.com, it is "the branch of theology concerned with the defense or proof of Christianity."

Yesterday in my English class, we were talking about the intersection of religion and the news media, including the Internet. We were discussing principles and thinking skills needed for evaluating truth claims made by various groups. At the end of the class, George, a 15 year old who is not in my middle school class but happened to be sitting in (after his mom heard what we would be covering) walked up to me and handed me a little slip of paper with a web site on it. I checked it out last night, and I was both blessed and impressed. (Thanks, George!)

The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry site is a treasure trove of helpful insights, with information on religious sects, the emerging church, objections to Christianity, supposed contradictions in Scripture, the creation / evolution debate, Islam, and much more. Please check it out!

The Institute for Religious Research is another very useful site with "resources for investigating today's competing religious claims in the light of history, science and the Bible."

Oh, and while we're on the topic of correct doctrine, I just corrected a typo in Sunday's post, Here comes the bride! (And THE marriage made in heaven). I had included a sentence that made it seem like Jesus would be having children in heaven, which is not in the Bible. That was certainly unintended -- I had originally ended the sentence in a different (theologically correct) way and forgot to remove that phrase "have children" in the revised sentence. I apologize! I apologize! I apologize! Am I being "apologetic" enough? :-)

Y'all have a grand and glorious day!

For truth,

Virginia Knowles