by Bret Capranica | Aug 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
The religion of the objectivity of science is taking a more offensive posture these days as creationists have become more public. As evidence, consider yesterday’s Op-Ed from the New York Times, entitled “Design for Confusion.” [linked above]. The author, Paul Krugman, does not wish to give any dignity to any brainless boob who holds to any form of an Intelligent Design proposition. Instead he “Clintonizes” the debate by suggesting his own “right-wing conspiracy” attack. Rather than engage in the debate and discuss the scientific, philosophical, theological and exegetical issues, he suggests that creationists are actually in a struggle not to posit probable evidence, but pursue mere political effectiveness through maligning evolution and her purely objective proponents. He suggests: “Creationists failed when they pretended to be engaged in science, not religious indoctrination: “creation science” was too crude to fool anyone. But intelligent design, which spreads doubt about evolution without being too overtly religious, may succeed where creation science failed. “The important thing to remember is that like supply-side economics or global-warming skepticism, intelligent design doesn’t have to attract significant support from actual researchers to be effective. All it has to do is create confusion, to make it seem as if there really is a controversy about the validity of evolutionary theory. That, together with the political muscle of the religious right, may be enough to start a process that ends with banishing Darwin from the classroom.” So, Mr. Krugman suggests that creationists simply demean “the hard sciences” and politically posit and position themselves with deflated and baseless arguments in an attempt to create public disdain for evolutionary proponents. Hmm. A...
by Bret Capranica | Aug 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
Not only is “Capranica” an ancient medieval village, it is about to become a beautiful Tuscan-style villa in Hemet, CA!! As reported earlier, the Capranica home will soon be moving. In a burst of Friday frivolity, I will begin posting a few before and after shots. I must admit up front – we are in fact “trailer people.” Alas, we currently live in Southern California and reside in a trailer (I prefer ‘Mobile Home’ or better yet, ‘Manufactured Home.’). So that you can see my present plight, here is a picture of the humble office I am writing from at this very moment (please, don’t feel too sorry for us). We happened upon a piece of property in our area (we rent a space currently) that had an old “trailer” on it. Without going into the details, the piece is perfect for the new “manufactured home” we wanted to purchase. However, as you can see, the property needed a bit of tender loving care. No one had resided in the place for several years. The price was right, we would not have to have new utilities installed and our new home would fit snuggly, so we have bought the land, ordered the home and begun the work. “Work” is an understatement. Some of the weeds were around six feet tall. None were shorter than two feet, throughout the 7,000 square foot lot. Inside sets of large cabinets outside the trailer were about a thousand (not an exaggeration) jars of canned fruit. The latest date on the labels was somewhere in the early 90’s. So, here are the beginning stages...
by Bret Capranica | Aug 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
Baptist Press reports today that Thom S. Rainer is the nominee to replace Jimmy Draper as President of LifeWay. Personally, I am very encouraged by the choice. A number of Dr. Rainer’s books have been very influential and encouraging in my ministry, particularly, High Expectations, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and BreakOut Churches. My wife Kelly and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Dr. and Mrs. Rainer during our Association’s Equipped for Excellence conference two years ago. We were his transportation for the weekend and enjoyed the encouragement of he and his wife. He is a man passionate for the salvation for the lost, a faithful husband and father and solid in his theological convictions. We look forward to the benefits his theological bearings and ministry convictions bring to our denomination’s chief publishing and resource distribution...
by Bret Capranica | Aug 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
Within only a few years of my conversion, I had an urgent drive to preach and teach the Bible. My thirst for the Bible grew every week and my longing to helpfully expound the Scriptures lengthened as well. Having been given a number of encouraging and growth inspiring opportunities to teach in limited settings at our church, and with the confirmation of a growing number of our church’s leadership, I publicly stated my desire to pursue the pastoral ministry, discerning my desires and others’ confirmation as the call of God on my life and ministry. Within the safe confines of my local church, I began to love the ministry of the word more and more. The deacons of the church recommended that I be licensed to preach and the congregation unanimously (odd for an SBC church) affirmed their recommendation. If only life and ministry remained within the realm of such limited bliss. It was only months after my licensing did the cauldron of my consternation begin to boil. I attended my first SBC annual meeting in 1988 in San Antonio, Texas, where I was deeply encouraged by the courageous stands of solid men standing for the inerrancy of Scripture. However, I was quickly put off by the helmet-haired, pot-bellied, slick-suited political mongering pastors positioning themselves through back-slapping politics for positions of public prominence. I witnessed this both locally and nationally and expressed my disdain to my pastor, who oddly enough, seemed to be enjoying a similar political engagement of his own. My consternation was fueled. The pastoral ministry began for me quite early. At age 18 I was called...
by Bret Capranica | Aug 3, 2005 | Personal
Posting is poor this week due to my involvement in the Inland Empire Southern Baptist Association‘s Kids’ Camp and due to finalizing paperwork for The Capranica Villa. What is the Villa? Watch for some picturesque posts in the upcoming days. The Capranica’s are moving shop to a new location, an Italian Tuscan Villa – in Hemet! For posts from Kids’ Camp – see Fide-O this week – posting live from Wolf Lodge. Though there is little to post, I did think that an Op-Ed in the New York Times was interesting this morning – how Ghana and Japan have better broadband service than the U.S. Though the U.S. no doubt dominates in posting useless blogs, we do so with a slower and less available wireless network than fifteen other nations in the world. Not much theological here, just...
