Tommy Mann

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he...

American churches have become obsessed with church growth and church growth techniques, which certainly sounds like a good thing. Obviously we should want our churches to grow, because, in theory, this means we are reaching more people for Christ. In many cases these techniques are filling buildings, but are they really reaching people for Christ? A church in our area runs TV commercials that say things like, “What if church was a literacy program for homeless children…would you come?” Wow. To me this sounds like an insecure kid at school saying, “If I give you my pudding, will you be my friend?” Now Al Gore, esteemed founder of the fraudulent man-made Global Warming hysteria, is on a campaign to have pastors “go green” and give special attention to saving the planet. As one pastor who is gung-ho about the idea put it, this is a great way for us to offer something that people are interested in (by the way, why does no one cry “Separation of Church and State” when a career politician...

The peace symbol has re-emerged into our culture, but this time around it is not being used in the same way that the anti-war crowd last used it. Today we see the peace symbol primarily on clothes and jewelry marketed towards junior high girls. It has become a fashion symbol instead of a peace symbol. But was it always a symbol of peace? If a person were to do a basic study on the origin of the peace symbol, most people would conclude that the symbol was birthed for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 by the British artist Gerald Holtom. However, Holtom was an anti-Christian artist who was fully aware that the symbol was not original to him. Most people believe the peace symbol to be a harmless relic from decades ago, or at worst, simply a symbol of world peace. Unfortunately, the symbol means much more that. The “peace symbol” can be found etched into the gravestones of Hitler’s SS officers and it was engraved into the shields of the Saracens in A.D. 711, used to symbo...