Right Reason

Right Reason is moving!

On June 21, 2025

Soon this website and blog at www.rightreason.org will be closing down, but it’s not the end. It’s a transition to something else!

I’m going to start doing my online writing at Substack, which I think is a great platform for writers, it makes it easier to. use selected pieces of writing to make a small income, and for me it’s a welcome way to simplify my life by making the hosting of this blog someone else’s problem. Someone else has already taken the handle rightreason over at Substack, so I’m just going to use my own name. My Substack address is: https://glennpeoples.substack.com

There is an enormous backlog of writing at this blog, which started way back in 2006, and I don’t intend on losing it all. Unfortunately I haven’t had success in importing blog posts from Right Reason into Substack, so instead I’m taking the more laborious path of ranking blog posts by the amount of traffic they receive, and copying the top ranking blog posts over to my Substack. I haven’t decided how many to copy over yet. I will ensure that I copy over any series that are still in progress (e.g. the series on those New Testament passages about women in the church, the series on speaking in tongues, and the series on Scripture and the doctrine of human nature), and I will complete those at Substack.

This transition will take a while as I can’t devote hours on end to this copying progress. But there won’t be any new posts here at Right Reason. It’s really just a change of address.

Glenn Peoples

An LGBT activist tried to cancel me for preaching about inclusion

By Glenn

On May 18, 2025

In ecclesiology, sexuality, theology and biblical studies, video

A little while ago I preached a sermon about the story of the prodigal son. I said that like the father in Jesus’ story, God forgives and welcomes people into his family. I said that we, the church, must welcome people into the church regardless of their past, because we are all saved by God’s grace. We have no right to take an elitist attitude because we’ve been “good Christians” our whole lives and other people might have more colourful pasts.

Because I shared this message of love and welcome, an LGBT activist* tried to have me cancelled by making the blatantly false accusation that I was using “transphobic rhetoric.” You can hear the sermon for yourself to see that there isn’t a shred of truth to this claim. Although people are responsible for their own dishonest behaviour, I also think the Anglican Church bears some of the responsibility for incidents like this. People try to manipulate the church because they know they can, since the progressive church is a soft target, fearing the opinion of the world rather than God.

* I take it that a person who makes attacks like this and tries to have people cancelled is an activist.

Let’s be Honest about the Canon of Scripture (video)

By Glenn

On January 31, 2025

In Christianity, church history, ecclesiology

Here’s a 48-minute presentation on the Canon of Scripture. The short story is that the Protestants did not just decide to throw out seven books of the Bible. use of the protocanon (the shorter version of the canon) is as old as the Christian faith itself!

The Church Fathers on the Eucharist (Video)

By Glenn

On January 25, 2025

In ecclesiology, theology and biblical studies, video, videos

One thing I’ll be doing sometimes over at the YouTube channel is taking blog posts and turning them into video presentations. Some recent comments by Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity prompted me to do this with my article on the Church Fathers on the Eucharist. A lot of anti-apologist apologists quote the Church Fathers when they said that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are the body and blood of Christ, as though it proves that they believed in transubstantiation. It doesn’t!

Stay tuned – I’m not dead yet!

By Glenn

On January 15, 2025

In announcements, personal

I have ADHD, but I’m not one of those people who likes to bang on about being “neurodiverse” and use it as an explanation of (or excuse for!) things I don’t do well. I haven’t even mentioned that diagnosis here previously, and I’m unlikely to mention it much in future. I have really struggled over the last ten years (Yes, ten years!) to focus on any serious output in writing and recording material, both here and elsewhere, and it has been a source of frustration for me. I have wanted to produce content, but have not done so. I want to change that, and I have plans for a bunch of articles here (and videos over at the YouTube channel) in the near future (by which I mean the next year, but especially the next six months). This study trimester is nearly over, and there’s a blank trimester before my next course (for those who don’t know, I am re-training part-time in psychology). I’ll be working, so not completely free (not even mostly free!), but I’ll have some time. Subjects that are currently in the works:

Is divine command ethics relativism? (No of course not, what a ridiculous thing to say. None of the serious proponents or critics of the view have ever said that, nor has the literature on meta-ethics. But some people have said it, so here we are.)
Some comments on William Lane Craig’s use of a divine command theory of ethics to defend the Israelite conquest of Canaan in conversation with Alex O’Connor. This one is a video.
Athanasius on hell, revisited (Where I explain my change of mind about what St Athanasius thought about hell, I complain that “traditionalists” about hell did not the case for Athanasius view better, and I briefly note that this change of mind also involves some evidence that Athanasius was not, contrary to the claims of some, a Universalist.
Another video, this time on the Canon of the Bible. I respond to false, historically indefensible, and grossly uncharitable claims of anti-Protestant apologists that the Reformers intentionally “removed” books from the Bible because they disagreed with them. I’ve done so here at the blog before, but I thought the video format might be useful to a different audience.
A written response to philosopher Tim Hsiao, who argued, unsuccessfully I think, that the moral statuses of contraception and homosexuality stand or fall together.
Another post in that series on biblical passages that have created the controversy called “women in ministry” and related issues. This post is almost finished.

Stay tuned. I’d like to call it a comeback, but we’ll see how I’m able to manage!

Glenn

That Olympics opening ceremony, and how not to engage culture

By Glenn

On August 1, 2024

In social issues

After some of the dust has settled following the controversial item in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, I wanted to offer a few thoughts about it, and about the way Christians engage secular culture.

I don’t think it was intended as a parody or mockery of Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper. But there are issues here that go further than that.

Advice to Christian debaters and speakers

By Glenn

On October 26, 2023

In apologetics

I know, nobody has to take my advice. But I think there needs to be more of a discernment process that people (usually guys) go through before deciding that they are going to be a public face of Christian apologetics or theology. Here’s some free advice, which might be worth every cent you paid for it!

“Gay Conversion Therapy” and other things, with David Riddell

By Glenn

On September 26, 2023

In interview, psychology, sexuality, social issues

I recently sat down with David Riddell, a Christian counsellor caused a stir a little while ago amid accusations that he practices so-called “gay conversion therapy.”

Ricky Gervais on Religion vs Fact

By Glenn

On May 31, 2023

In apologetics, atheism, philosophy of religion

A while ago Ricky Gervais spoke with Stephen Colbert about religion. No surprises, Ricky is an atheist and thinks religions are all wrong, along with the natural human tendency to believe in God. But he made a specific line of argument, distinguishing fact from fiction by saying that if you destroyed all holy books (or any other fictional accounts), their content would be lost forever. Facts, however, would be back years later even if you destroyed all the books, because scientific tests would establish them once more.

Is this the right way to think about the distinction? I think not. Whatever proves too much ends up proving nothing at all. This criteria would consign so much fact to Ricky’s waste bin of fiction, including moral truths as well as most facts about history.

Pentecost and the “Promise of the Father”

By Glenn

On May 29, 2023

In theology and biblical studies

The day of Pentecost has just passed. Do you know what it is? Other than the “birthday of the church” or the time when the disciples of Jesus spoke in other languages, what is the significance of the day of Pentecost?

Do you have eight minutes to spare and find out?