the tindog coffeehouse

I’ve been angry and bitter all week. Disgusted, really. As the Supreme Court heard arguments in a couple of highly controversial cases involving same-sex marriage, people all over the country showed their support for gay marriage on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. But it wasn’t just non-Christians turning their profile pics red, it was many Christians as well. And that’s what pissed me off.

I know that we Christians aren’t always going to agree on everything, but the fact that so many Christians not only support same-sex marriage but endorse it just doesn’t make sense to me. How on earth can you read the Bible, claim that you believe what it says, and yet not find anything reprehensible about homosexuality, particularly when the Bible is extraordinarily clear in its opposition to it?

So I’ve spent the week fuming at my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, angry that they’ve chosen political correctness over biblical truth, and despondant over what that means for the future of the Church. If we choose to no longer identify sin as sin, then the gospel means nothing.

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So the world is supposed to end on Friday, which kinda sucks. But I suppose it works out well for the folks who still haven’t done their Christmas shopping yet. I’d hate to know that I spent my last days on Earth browsing the clearance aisle at Walmart trying to find just the right sausage and cheese gift set for that special loved one.

Of course, the Mayans really didn’t say the world would end on December 21, 2012. It’s just the end of a Mayan “b’ak’tun” or long count cycle that began 7,885 years ago. But the way people have been freaking out lately, you’d think the world really was coming to an end.

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I didn’t want to wade into this hullabaloo over Chick-fil-A’s stance on gay marriage, I really didn’t. But I can’t help it.

To those on both sides of the issue, let me just say this:

You’re all being silly.

First, a little background. About a month ago Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy was interviewed by a small North Carolina newspaper called the Biblical Recorder. In the interview, he talked extensively about his Christian faith and how Chick-fil-A has always chosen to run their business on biblical principles, including closing their restaurants on Sundays. Toward the end of the interview, the topic turned to the subject of marriage:

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Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, generated quite the firestorm last week when he declared Mormonism to be a cult. Speaking at the Value Voters Summit, he said, “I think Mitt Romney’s a good, moral man, but those of us who are born again followers of Christ should prefer a competent Christian. Rick Perry’s a Christian. He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.”

Naturally, the media jumped on his comments, happily characterizing him as some backwoods Bible-thumper. A lot of Christian churches backpedaled, not willing to condemn the LDS Church. And Rick Perry himself, whom Jeffress had endorsed, quickly distanced himself from the pastor. When asked if Mormonism was a cult, Perry said without hesitation, “No.”

But the fact of the matter is, Dr. Jeffress is exactly right.

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Could challenging the teaching of evolution in public schools be as simple as redefining the starting point? Possibly so, at least according to evolutionary biologist Stephen Sample, who recently submitted several science modules to the Texas State Board of Education for curriculum consideration.

According to Sample, it all depends on what the null hypothesis is. In science, a null hypothesis is “a hypothesis which the researcher tries to disprove, reject or nullify.” It’s the default position, or the commonly accepted hypothesis (H₀) that researchers must disprove (H₁). It’s similar to saying a person is presumed innocent (H₀) until proven guilty (H₁).

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If it seems like just a few years ago that the Texas economy was booming, you’d be right. In fact, in 2006 Texas had a budget surplus of over $8 billion. So how is it that just five years later, we’re facing down the barrel of a $27 billion deficit?

Fort Worth Weekly explains that there are a few reasons. First came major changes to the state’s franchise tax in 2006 along with other taxes that were supposed to save local school districts about $7 billion in maintenance and operations taxes. However, the franchise tax didn’t bring in the revenue legislators expected it to.

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