Eating in an Idol's Temple Restaurant is OK, but Wal-Mart??

[Jefferson]

Eating in an Idol's Temple Restaurant is OK, but Wal-Mart??

Wednesday March 22nd, 2006. This is show # 58.

PERTINENT QUOTE OF THE SHOW:

When the government does something evil, you can pay your taxes and you're not guilty by some chain link effect. And similarly, the apostle Paul wrote a whole chapter to the Corinthians (I Cor. 8) about eating meat sacrificed to idols. And Paul said if there's an idol's temple - that's where they sacrifice animals to their false gods - and there's a restaurant on the 1st floor, which was common...and Paul said, look, it's not wrong to eat in an idol's temple. But if there's a weak brethren somewhere around you and he's going to stumble because you're doing that, then for his sake, out of love for him, don't do it. But we have the freedom and the liberty to interact in that way. Now should we sacrifice idols to animals? No. That's idolatry.

But we can do business with a company that is a godless company. But if we're able to boycott them, especially if we think that boycott can, in some way, be effective then praise God and go ahead and do it. And we do it occasionally also. [But] there's no moral requirement.

Summary:
* Police arrested a Kansas man after he went into a strip joint leaving his 3-year-old son in a car on a cold, rainy day, and after 30 minutes the boy wandered in. Sexuality is one of the strongest forces known to man, and pre- or extra-marital sex is a major factor in crime and self-destruction.
* Dan from Denver recommended we look at an internet animation for what Bob calls a bizarre cosmology, which also ignores the fact that in fitting together the western continents, Africa gets shrunk "by 35%"!
* Neo-Nazis threaten to massacre Muslims at the World Cup in Germany, and such criminals should be apprehended and tried for conspiracy to murder.
* A woman tried to blow out a candle, but ended up setting her hair on fire, and in trying to put out her hair, she set her house of fire. Our great and orderly God is not the author of accidents, absurdity, stupidity, nor confusion.
* Jo Scott reports on the 13th baby saved this year at Denver's Planned Parenthood, after a 40-minute discussion on the street, the young mom went into the abortion mill anyway, but came out afterward, unable to do "that" to her baby!
* Liberal UC Berkeley professor reports study conclusion that whiny, insecure pre-schoolers become conservatives, and Jeff Greenberg of the University of Arizona criticizes the absurd "study" as "biased, shoddy work." Although Bob expects that a healthy child being raised by conservatives might be downright miserable in a liberal Berkeley daycare.
* Brian from Indianapolis points out that Christians rightly have the option whether or not to boycott wicked corporations, and he agrees that Wal-Mart's selling of the Plan B abortifacient is despicable.
* Afghanistan criminally charged a Christian convert with "rejecting Islam" punishable by up to death.
Today's Resource: Listen to Bob's First Corinthians Vol. 1 Bible Study Album! Considering that the Jerusalem Council explicitly reinforced the Mosaic Law's prohibition on the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, why would Paul give permission to Christians to eat a meal in a restaurant located inside an idol's temple?