Mike Wittmer

Category: Ethics

  • the kids aren’t all right

    This weekend a new movie opens which would have been unimagineable (both scientifically and morally) just a few years ago.  In The Kids Are All Right, the children of two lesbians search for their biological, sperm-donor dad.  I obviously haven’t seen the movie, but I suspect that it will push the typical cultural message that non-traditional…

  • fathers

    I’ve spent the last three and a half days at the Acton Institute’s “Acton University” meetings here in GR.  The lectures were provocative and stimulating and convinced me that our economy and society are pretty much sunk.  I’ll say more about that later after I process it all, but since Father’s Day is coming up, I…

  • presuppositional follow-up

    My new friend got back to me a few days later.  He said that his presupposition was that he knew very little and was likely wrong about many things.  And he suggested that my view was immoral for not caring enough to offer proof for itself when heaven and hell were at stake.  I think…

  • presuppositional apologetics

    About a month ago I received a spirited email from a self-described skeptic whose friend had recommended that he read Don’t Stop Believing.  The reader said that he had been raised in a conservative Christian home, but now he thought that there was insufficient proof for the existence of God and Scripture.  He was singularly…

  • it’s only money

    I liked this story and decided to turn it into a devotional for Our Daily Journey.  It’s a good reminder for me. read > Luke 12:13-21 “Beware!  Guard against every kind of greed.  Life is not measured by how much you own” (v. 15). Grigory Perelman won the Millennium Prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute…

  • meaty Michigan

    This is small potatoes in the big scheme of things, but as a window into how messed up life is in Michigan, our governor proclaimed tomorrow “Michigan Meatout Day,” in which she “encourage[s] the residents of this state to choose not to eat meat.”  This is part of a larger campaign by the “Meatout” folks…

  • opting out

    I took a week or so off from my blog—I had a terrific weekend in Indianapolis with the good people at College Park Church and also had to catch up on my grading—and I wanted to give some time for the emergents to move on to other sites (their ad hominem comments were not exactly…

  • render unto Ceasar (as little as possible)

    I did my taxes this weekend, and once again I was reminded of the significant perks which our government gives ordained ministers.  If the government is serious about closing loopholes it should probably look at the breaks it gives us.  Housing allowance saves me a lot of money each year, and I could save bushels…

  • grace and truth

    Our recent discussion about McLaren’s book reminded me of First Timothy 1, where Paul shows us how to balance both grace and truth.  He begins by telling Timothy to fight for truth, saying that he left him in Ephesus to “command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer” which “promote controversies rather than…

  • homosexual practice and temple prostitution

    First Things published this satirical-with-a-point response from one Lutheran group to their cousins in the ELCA who recently voted to accept actively gay clergy and gay marriage.  My thanks to Matthew Westerholm for bringing this to my attention.