It’s wrong to rape a girl—whether she knows what’s happening or not— because she has intrinsic dignity and rights. For the same reason, it’s wrong to mock and insult the mentally challenged even if they don’t seem to be hurt by these verbal assaults. Where then do dignity and rights come from in a world of electrons and selfish genes?

Scottish theologian Thomas Torrance was willing to go so far as to say that “God loves us more than he loves himself.”

“Any Israelite who heard this story would take it to mean that his race owed its existence to the mercy of God and its prosperity to the obedience of their ancestor.”

Because humans are made in God’s image, it’s not a contradiction for God to become human; after all, what makes us human is derived from God’s nature in the first place.

Yet anger is often the first indication that we care. The tragedy is that we’re not angered, not shocked enough.

atheists can know that rape is wrong, but that’s no surprise if they have been made in the image of God, whom they refuse to acknowledge.

The Theme of the Pentateuch: Abraham’s Faith and Moses’s Unbelief

The call to worship means inclusion in the life of God.

Islam traditionally has divided the world into two realms: “the abode of Islam/peace” (dar al-Islam/salam), where Islam dominates, and “the abode of war” (dar al-harb), where the rule of Islam should be extended—by war, if necessary.