Once upon a time, Jack Henry Abbott was serving time for forgery and manslaughter. However, Abbott managed to become pen pals with author Norman Mailer from his prison cell and then turned their correspondence into his bestselling book titled In the Belly of the Beast, which received a rave review from the New York Times. Despite the fact prison officials vehemently opposed his release and considered him unstable, Abbott was paroled after numerous liberal "Hollywood" elitists had championed his cause. Actress Susan Sarandon even went so far that she honored Abbott by naming her son with actor Tim Robbins "Jack Henry." Yet six weeks after his release from prison and with a nice five-figure advance on royalties in his pocket, Jack Henry Abbott senselessly murdered his waiter in a New York restaurant only the day before his book received that untimely rave New York Times review. It wasn't merely because he wrote well that Abbott was so readily forgiven his many horrible sins by people like Norman Mailer and Susan Sarandon. Jack Henry Abbott became successful in part because he wrote what liberal elitists wanted to read -- about how the criminal justice system was unfair to criminals, regardless of whether or not the criminal actually deserved punishment as decreed by our judicial system. What the elitists forgot, of course, was that forgiveness requires repentance. If you aren't sorry for your sins (all crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes) then you don't deserve forgiveness. Jack Henry Abbott should not have been released from prison. Even so, … [Read more...]
Heaven Is for Real
Some atheists seem to think that if they relentlessly attack theists and blame God for all the evil in the world, they will eventually succeed and completely eradicate all religious beliefs. Frankly, that will never happen. The goal is simply unattainable. As long as people inhabit the earth, at least some of them will believe in a supernatural God. Nevertheless, a rather persistent atheist acquaintance recently posted links to several news stories on Facebook about mothers who had allegedly murdered their own kids because they wanted the children to go to heaven. His argument apparently was that religious beliefs, not mental illness, motivated these women to commit such heinous crimes. Now were the situation reversed -- for example, if I insinuated that people who believe Darwinian theory explains their existence were all prone to become serial-killing atheist cannibals and used Jeffrey Dahmer as an example, I would be committing the same flawed, illogical "guilt by association" argument my acquaintance had attempted. And that would be just as juvenile, and wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. Nor do two left turns, but three do. This acquaintance went so far to direct a question specifically to me, asking, "how many more have to die before someone says 'Stop!' This heaven stuff isn't real?" My reply was to say that I believe heaven is for real. However, I also know that I can't prove it any more than an evolutionary biologist can prove that I share a common ancestor with an oak tree. I won't claim to know heaven exists beyond all doubt, because … [Read more...]
