Don Veinot's Blog, page 12

Different Spokes for Different Folks

(Editor’s note: The first Parliament of the World’s Religions was held in 1893. The next one was 100 years later in Chicago. We attended to see firsthand what they were proposing. We have attended and reported on others, but as we prepare for this one thirty years later, it seemed appropriate to republish our original […]

You Do Err …

In Matthew 22:23 – 33, we read of a group of Jewish religious leaders, the Sadducees, whose theology informed their understanding of Scripture rather than allowing Scripture to shed real light on their faulty theology. “This Jewish group apparently based its doctrine on the Pentateuch alone”1John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: […]

Moralphobia and the Art of Name Calling

In recent weeks we have undertaken the project of reviewing, updating, and adding to our 2003 book, A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian Life. It had gone out of print a few years ago, but with the HBO docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets,” about the Duggars and their spiritual […]

Purgatory: The First of Many Reasons Why I Could Never Be Catholic

This article is the first in a series I will be writing regarding my concerns with the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Someone very close to me recently converted to Catholicism and has become an avid Catholic apologist and teaches catechism at their local parish. While we have very amicable conversations about […]

The Dilemma of Morals

Where do morals come from? Are they objective or subjective? Are their origins from God or are they somehow a result of evolution, a byproduct of Social Darwinism? Our answers to these questions largely determine how we live with and treat other humans and often even define which humans have human rights that should be […]

Independence Day

(This originally appeared in the July/August 1997 MCOI Journal) The aliens are coming! The earth and its inhabitants are about to be destroyed, “spaded under.” Is this the script of a Hollywood science–fiction movie? No, these are the real–life beliefs that cost Marshall Applewhite and his followers their lives. In the aftermath of the Heaven’s […]

Freedom and Obligation

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia to address some very important issues which they had forgotten – Christian freedom chief among them. Along with that, he also laid out some obligations of the Christian life. As Joy and I consider the celebration of the birth of our nation and our freedom in […]

Explaining Chat GPT – and the Trinity

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a very hot topic today. One of the newest iterations, ChatGPT, learns and teaches itself. Is it a good thing, or will we rue the day man brought this particular Frankenstein “to life?” All of a sudden, everyone seems to want to understand the pros and cons of its existence. A […]

Tennessee Nut Picking

“Tennessee Nut Picking” describes a linguistic tactic used to paint an opposing group in the worst possible light. The accuser names the most outrageous person from the other side as representative of the whole group. For example, would it be true or honest to point to Ted Kennedy or Bill, “It depends on what the […]

Bill Gothard and the Unpaid Bills of the Church

There is a cost, very often a high cost, exacted by false teachers in the lives of their followers. Lives can be crushed. Often people are badly damaged spiritually and almost always emotionally devastated by authoritarian leaders in whom they have put their faith. Pastors and elders are charged with guarding and protecting the flock […]