Blind Faith or Rational Faith?
Blind faith in Greek and today means:
• Greek word pistis: conviction of the truth of anything, belief;
• Faith today: Complete trust or confidence in someone or something
• Definition of blind: Done without being able to see or without being in possession of certain information, lacking perception or discernment; unwilling or unable to appreciate or notice something apparent to others.
J. Warner Wallace talks about Ratio Christi on the "Please Convince Me" podcast. Tuesday February 14, 2012. Start Listening at 1:08 (hour 1, minute 8). On original site here or listen below.
I have attached the required annual information return that Ratio Christi provides to the IRS. The purpose of sharing this with you is twofold: First, I want to make sure we are totally transparent about or finances; second, I am asking you to consider helping us toward financial stability by matching a challenge of $2,000 per month from a single donor.
LGBT groups at Ohio University are protesting Dr. Frank Turek's lecture on February 28th. Dr. Turek is speaking on "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist," but the groups are upset because the Student Appropriates Committee (SAC) is funding someone who has written against gay marriage even though it is not the topic of this lecture. The New Political, the Ohio University online student publication, wrote about the controversy in an article "SAC Funds Controversial Christian Speaker with Anti-Gay Marriage Views." The full response from the Ratio Christi student president to inquiries from The New Political said:
K-LOVE Christian Radio Featured Story February 25th & 26th
"Christian College Groups Rally to Defend Faith" by Jennifer James
"As college Christians see more faith challenges, a fast-growing new group is working to explain why so many put their trust in the Bible and Christ." Listed here
The author of Hebrews reminds us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith...” (Heb. 12:1-2) This sobering statement reminds of two truths that we encounter every day: it’s easy to get distracted by the things in this life, and we are to keep our focus on living for Jesus.
Steve Shadrach is a campus minister in Arkansas. He wrote a fantastic book on college ministry entitled, “The Fuel and the Flame.” In it, he uses several examples of ordinary people who lived boldly for God. I’ve selected a couple of excerpts that really helped shape my view of college ministry:
I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD' ~Acts 17:22,23
Faced with a decision of how to respond to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens he could have chosen to ignore them or berate them. After all, they had just been calling him an "idle babbler" and a proclaimer of strange deities (17:18). Furthermore, Paul had already learned that he might not be well received by those to whom he proclaimed his message (17:5), His choice, however, was neither ignoring nor berating. Rather, he chose to engage with them. How? He found a point of intersection--"an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." From that point of intersection he reasoned with those in the midst of the Areopagus, explaining the true nature of God, making clear how humanity relates to God, and establishing the proof for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
