Jordan J. Ballor

Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is executive director at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy at First Liberty Institute.

Posts by Jordan J. Ballor

February 10, 2006

Oil—the forbidden fruit?

There’s something like a question of theodicy implicitly wrapped up in the debate about global warming among Christians. It goes something like this: Why did God create oil? One answer is that the burning of fossil fuels is simply a divine trap for unwitting and greedy human beings, who would stop at nothing to rape the earth. Continue Reading...
February 09, 2006

Aid does not equal growth

The traditional formula for understanding the relationship between the developed and the developing world is the following: Aid = Economic Growth. That is, foreign aid spurs economic development in poorer nations. Continue Reading...
February 09, 2006

Schelling on species extinction

Following the recent discovery of new species and a reports of a “lost world,” a primitive pristine paradise on the Indonesian island of Papua, I thought I’d pass along some thoughts of F. Continue Reading...
February 08, 2006

A love/hate relationship with science

One aspect of the evangelical involvement in debates over global warming and climate change that has intriqued me has been what I deem to be a rather large blind spot about the relation of religious conservatives to science. Continue Reading...
February 07, 2006

A case for conversation

Here’s a convincing op-ed piece by William Romanowski, who teaches film studies at Calvin College, “Missing the big picture.” He writes in USAToday about the ambivalent impact of the upswing of religiously-oriented movies coming from Hollywood. Continue Reading...
February 07, 2006

Windy city Wal-Mart

What might a big city Wal-Mart look like? Until now, such a question was only answerable through some imaginative speculation. Wal-Mart has announced plans to open the first store within Chicago’s city limits in the Austin neighborhood this summer. Continue Reading...
February 06, 2006

When we’ve been wronged

When I see things like this going on, I ask myself, “What makes Christianity different? What makes me different?” Here are some guidelines for a Christian response to slander, hatred, and persecution: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Continue Reading...
February 03, 2006

Evangelicals cool toward global warming

After a year of lobbying by vice-president for governmental affairs Rev. Richard Cizik, the National Association of Evangelicals has backed off of attempts to formulate specific policy recommendations to the federal government on global warming. Continue Reading...
February 03, 2006

The rest of the story

More from the State of the Union: “…the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.” That’s a good thing. But there’s still a marriage crisis, and part of it is related to birth rates among unmarried women: Births to unmarried mothers reached a record high of almost 1.5 million and made up 35.7% of all births in 2004. Continue Reading...
February 02, 2006

A ‘Salt’ Assault

The Feb. 6 edition of NEWSWEEK features a story on the debate program at Liberty University, in a bit by Susanna Meadows, “Cut, Thrust and Christ: Why evangelicals are mastering the art of college debate.” Continue Reading...