Author Archives: Clark Bunch

The Failure of Science vs. Religion

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When I first heard of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” I was hoping it would open some doors. I was optimistic that the popularity of this movie would get people asking the right questions, and that Christians would have some answers ready. It could be expected that atheists, evolutionists and Darwinists would oppose the film and its ideas, but Expelled has also received negative criticism from other circles.

Intelligent Design is sort of a redheaded stepchild to begin with. It is not creationism, and conservative evangelicals think of ID as a compromise between religion and science. They accuse ID of trying to “water down” religious faith enough that science can accept it. So IDers are going to take it from both sides; Darwinists who think that it’s creationism as well as religious zealots who thinks it isn’t creationism enough. Continue reading →

Evan Almighty

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I have to admit, even I didn’t go to the theater to see this movie. I loved Bruce Almighty; you can learn a lot about God by watching it, I’m not kidding. But the Evan Almighty concept seemed like a stretch. It was a sequel to a Jim Carry movie without Jim Carry. Never do a sequel without the star (Speed 2, Cruise Control).

However – I finally got to see Evan Almighty on DVD, and it’s much better than I expected. I just couldn’t imagine how they would make the story turn out any good at all, but it works. Not as funny as the first, but there is still a thing or two to be said about God. The movie is rated PG, but I don’t see why. You could watch this with 4-year-olds. Unless I’m mistaken, there was not one bad word. Morgan Freeman relates theological truth in a way that George Burns couldn’t have done in a million years. Lauren Graham plays opposite Steve Correll, and I don’t even remember her name on the bill. It’s like a bonus. (Okay, eat my alive, but I’m a big fan of the Gilmore Girls. Go ahead, let me have it.)

Bottom line: I didn’t think it would be any good, but it was. It’s a shame this movie tanked in the box office. Definitely worth a look. And if Michael Spencer doesn’t hurry up and watch Bruce Almighty sometime soon, I’m going to time him up and force him to. I’m on a mission.

The Master’s Table, my new blog

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When I first signed up for a WordPress blog, I tried to create a cool title. I wanted it to represent some facet of the Christian faith, something memorable that people would want to come back to and easily recall. I tried getting gospeltruth.wordpress.com and witness.wordpress.com, and many others that were already taken. Religion.wordpress.com is an actual website that has never been used. It was set up a year or two ago, and the author never blogged the first post. Oh, that burns me.

So, having spent my creative budget for that day, I typed in clarkbunch.wordpress and gave my blog my name. clarkbunch’s weblog was the default title given to it, and I kept it. As time went by, I changed the theme, selected The Last Supper as my banner, and wrote (after some experimentation) the slogan “God honoring, Christ centered.” I was just sitting here on night looking at that banner as I read an entry thinking “What would it be like to sit at that table with Jesus?” Continue reading →

Looking for God?

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“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:15-20 (ESV)

The image of the invisible God; I’ve always loved that verse. To put it simply, God cannot be seen. At least not by man. His glory is more than we can handle. He said so. That’s the beauty of Jesus: he is God. Continue reading →

3 Stooges?

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Which Stooge will you vote for?

I couldn’t help it.  It’s not theology, but it’s pretty cool huh?  This was a big hit on my classrooom wall. 

Tough questions

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Some questions I know are going to come up, so I’m prepared to answer. “How do we the Bible is true?” “Does the Bible contradict itself?” “Was the world created in seven days?” I know these are coming, I’ve answered them before, someone will ask them again in the future. But last night some church youth caught me off guard. At first I was stumped because I couldn’t believe high school kids sat around and thought about stuff like this. The question was about the Apostle’s Creed, specifically about Jesus descending into hell. Church youth in a Baptist church ask me if that was true. When I came to, I gave a very political answer that allowed me to avoid saying yes or no. But let’s unpack this issue. Continue reading →

Very busy

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This is a very busy week!!!  I’ve driven a bus for our baseball team twice this week, did Wednesday night with church youth, and I’m taking a group of kids to Bible drill Friday night.  Yeah, they still have Bible drill where I live.  It’s like I died and went to the 50’s.  A group of our local kids qualified for like a regional thing.  We’re driving 2 hours for this.  ANYWAY, very busy, little time for blogging, let’s hit it.

Today was May 1st.  It was RSS Awardness Day, and I didn’t make up a new post for it last night.  Click here to read up on RSS, then tell a friend.  Most bloggers already know about it, but the vast majority of internet users do not. 

May 1st is also the National Day of Prayer each year.  I knew there would be events all over the country, but haven’t heard of any that made news so far. Often, the only news I get is what my students see in first period each day; and what I read in blogs, yeah, there’s that. 

The Words of Jesus

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I haven’t read The Words of Jesus, a Gospel of the Sayings of our Lord so this is not a book review; yet. I plan to as soon as possible. Why? I just found out that Phyllis Tickle graduated from Shorter College in 1955. What do you mean “So what?” I graduated from Shorter a few years later myself (1998). As a matter of fact, my 10 year class reunion will be this fall. I found out the hard way that many of the people I graduated from high school with, well, we no longer have a great deal in common. I’ve already been to a 5 year college reunion, and that was much better. Shorter College is a private liberal arts college, so my cohorts and I have a basis of Christian/Baptist background, and many education majors to boot. Phyllis Tickle is an alumnus of my own Alma Mater, so I plan to read the book and get back to you. I do know the book takes the words and teachings of Jesus and puts them together to form narrative. She’s very humble about not knowing if the idea will catch on or not. It sounds promising. (I said the same thing about “Expelled,” but this should be different.)

Pray Without Ceasing (part 4 of 4)

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Pray without ceasing means that we are continually in a spirit of communion with our Heavenly Father. It means to pray frequently, about everything, until it becomes our nature to be in prayer, not something we have to be reminded of.

Jesus not only taught his disciples to pray, but we see in the gospels how important pray was in Jesus’ own life. On one occasion, we read that Jesus gets up early in the morning, while it is still night, and goes off by himself to pray. Another time, we find that Jesus has stayed up the entire night in prayer. Even Jesus, who was God incarnate, spent time alone with God in prayer. There is no way we can be so close to God that prayer isn’t necessary. The night before his arrest, Jesus prayed in agony until his sweat became as great drops of blood. Jesus was passionate about a lot of things, but he never did anything else until it nearly killed him the way he spent this evening in prayer. Continue reading →

Teach Us to Pray (part 3 of 4)

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I found out that I couldn’t make just one post and say everything I wanted about prayer. I was afraid of that. On this occasion, let’s look at what we commonly call The Lord’s Prayer as Jesus’ example of how we are to pray. This is the prayer he taught his followers.

“Our Father which art in heaven,” addresses the Father to let him know we are speaking to him, and reminds us who it is we pray to. The relationship is constantly before us; he is our father, and we are his children. We are children of the adoption, having been bought with a price and redeemed. “Hallowed be thy name,” since his name is holy and above all names. If we daily pray this prayer, not using God’s name in vain is almost guaranteed. “Thy kingdom come,” is both a request that God come quickly into this world, and reminds us that the kingdom of God is presently being built. We are a part of that. Continue reading →