Transcriptions of commentaries by Gregory Koukl from the radio broadcast Stand to Reason.

• A Country With a Chest -- When people say we can't police the world, my questions is why not? What's wrong with us taking some moral leadership in circumstances in the world that we can do something about and where we can have impact and influence for good.
• A Reason Is Not an Excuse -- Greg comments on some recent sensational trials and the trend towards victimization of criminals.
• Abuse Excuse -- Greg identifies the underlying view of human nature of those who would accept the "My mom abused me!" excuse from a criminal.
• America's Unchristian Beginnings? -- Greg responds to an L.A. Times Op-Ed article by this title (sans question mark), subtitled "Founding Fathers: Despite preachings of our pious Right, most were deists who rejected the divinity of Jesus."
• Bad Year for First Amendment Rights -- It used to be in our country you could think what you wanted and say what you wanted. If you wanted to be a bigot or a racist that was your own business.
• Bobbed or Snipped, It's Not Self-Defense -- Was Lorena Bobbit's action justifiable self-defense, or revenge of an angry woman?
• Boycotting -- Taking a stand against abortion, and taking a stand against anyone else who supports abortion, are two separate issues.
• Capital Punishment: Is Man a Machine or a Moral Agent? -- See how your view of capital punishment says a lot about your view of mankind.
• Censorship vs. Censure -- Senator Dole's censure of Hollywood highlights a confusion between having a right and doing what is right.
• Church and State: The Separation Illusion -- The goal of First Amendment was to protect religious expression, not restrict it. In the last 50 years, though, “non-establishment” has been redefined as “separation,” effectively amending the Constitution and isolating Christians from the political process.
• Class Envy and Coveting -- People who made a contribution, people who gave, people who built something--these are the people who had something to lose, and lose they did.
• Does Presidential Character Count? -- Is the President merely a hireling, a mere contractor, a mechanic who keeps the economy running smoothly? Or is he an ambassador, a figurehead and a role model?
• Establishing a Religion?  The Mt. Soledad Cross - Does the First Amendment protect us from public displays of religion, or does it protect such displays?
• Facts and Ideology -- Greg utilizes the Los Angeles riot to discuss getting accurate views of social problems.
• Fitting Christianity into Politics -- How should your Christianity inform your political decisions?
• For Baby or For Me? -- Euphemisms and verbal tricks aside, a woman's question, "Do I choose for a baby or for me?" boils down to choosing between the child she already has and the life she wants to have instead. Susan Smith had the same choice.
• Gag Orders -- Christian religion was never meant to be a private thing. And if your religion is private, it's not the religion of Jesus, Paul , Peter, and John.
• Government Is Unwilling to Defend -- Greg illustrates how our government has failed in its fundamental function of providing for the safety of its citizens.
• How to Force Your Morality -- Some thoughts on the question "who are you to force your morality on someone else?"
• Is AIDS a Noble Disease? -- Do people who die of AIDS deserve the honor and respect given to, say, children who were victims of the Holocaust? Greg says no way.
• Judging Boy Scouts -- The California Judges Association is guilty of the same thing they accuse the Boy Scouts of--discrimination.
• Judicial Tyranny -- It is not the court's job to do justice. It is the courts job to apply law. But you may ask what if the law is a immoral? My answer is that the courts have no right to strike it down. Once you allow them to do that you've given judges absolute power to decide what is right and wrong, and when that happens you and I become utterly without defense.
• Leaders Should Lead -- One could almost say that a requirement of leadership is to point out distinctions between where they're at and where the rest of the population might happen to be. That's an invitation for them to lead the population to a new place.
• Littleton, CO: Where Was God? -- If we are working hard at silencing those very voices that give us protection in society we ought not be surprised when they cease to protect.
• Matthew Shepard and Hate Crimes -- This kind of thinking would make Alcoholics Anonymous responsible every time a drunk gets beat up in an alley.
• Mediocrity gets an A -- Why is it a problem when school teachers are instructed to lower the standards? Greg looks at human nature, "unalienable rights," the rich and the poor, and what being "created equal" really means.
• Morality and the Public Good -- How do we publicly argue for biblical morality without moralizing? It isn't always necessary to quote chapter and verse to persuade.
• Not a Hint of Politics -- Does Christian involvement in politics do nothing for the Kingdom?
• Policing the World -- Some things are worth risking a lot of life for, like defending the innocents.
• Prostituting the Vote -- God's prime concern for human government is not "the economy, stupid." Find out what it is, and how it can influence the Christian voter.
• Racism, Justice and Taking Sides -- Many of the people I hear deploring injustice and racism--politicians, civic leaders, even some of my callers--are not really against injustice and racism at all. They're only against injustice and racism used against them.
• Re: Alan Keyes -- Are all men created equal? If so, what is the significance of their equality?
• Reasons for Capital Punishment -- There's a reason both the Old and the New Testaments promote capital punishment. That reason was applicable then and still applies today.
• Reparations: Guilt by Skin Color -- Why should one group of persons (whites) pay another group (blacks) for crimes that whites committed against blacks in the past? Greg points out that this view of "justice" is racist.
• Ricki Lake: Moral Moron -- . . .if you are one of the voyeurs who watches that show on a regular basis, shame on you.
• School Prayer: The Wrong Hill to Die On -- We can fight this battle, and we may win, but at what cost?
• September 11, 2001 -- It is in times like these that we see people of ordinary stature rise to tremendous acts of heroism, and this isn't the end of it.
• Shame & Homosexuality -- Somehow, society's finger of shame is now pointing in the opposite direction.
• Sixties Activist; Nineties Racist -- What has happened to Martin Luther King's dream? Greg sees the new civil rights movement fragmenting the nation.
• Spoiled Brats in the NEA? -- I'd be happy to see the artists walk. In fact, I think it would be a rare act of integrity from a group that's shown precious little integrity during this controversy.
• The Boy Scout Oath: Morally Crooked? -- Can one be both a homosexual and "morally straight," according to the Boy Scout Code? A recent appellate court ruling suggests not only that sexual orientation is morally neutral, but that imparting humanitarian ideals should be the Scouts' only legitimate goal. Greg discusses the ramifications of this idea for people on both sides of the table.
• The Faith of Our Fathers -- Was the faith of the Founding Fathers deism or Christianity? What does the answer mean for us today? Both the secularists and the Christians have missed the mark.
• The Intolerance of Tolerance -- Probably no concept has more currency in our politically correct culture than the notion of tolerance. Unfortunately, one of America's noblest virtues has been so distorted it's become a vice.
• The Pope's Moral Courage -- The public reaction to John Paul's recent encyclical on critical moral issues reveals the new rules of political discourse.
• The Privatization of Faith -- Why are some people worried about religious people getting involved in politics? What does the First Amendment really say about the right to act politically on religious grounds? Greg calls for Christians not to be frightened but to stand firm in the areas of morality and values.
• The Rape of Information -- Information rape is an attempt to get you to believe something without giving you the chance to think very hard about it. The reason is that thinking is destructive to this kind of propaganda.
• The Real Constitutional Amendment -- Why settle for just a school prayer amendment? Greg suggests the amendment ought to clarify what the courts have muddled over the last sixty years.
• The Sin of Forgiveness? -- Is it possible to forgive a wrong done to someone else? Should only those who repent be forgiven? Is forgiveness a selfish act, a way to make ourselves feel better? Greg grapples with these issues and more after a local community forgives a high school student who slew three classmates.
• The Tolerance Bargain -- What happens when a Christian is faced with this unspoken but very real covenant in our culture?  If you’re a follower of Christ, you break that covenant.  But once you do, you’re going to get the heat from the culture.
• Tortured Facts -- Is fact truth? Can facts lie? Are survey "facts" always true? Based on an article in L.A.Times Magazine.
• Two Kingdoms -- The kingdoms of God and the world are separate, yet intersect--in Christians. What does this perspective tell you?
• Values and Voting -- What isn't fair or reasonable is when any group has to fight just to be heard or are condemned or ridiculed not for their point of view but for giving their point of view, regardless of how unpopular it may be, or how stridently it may be argued.
• Who is Responsible for Hate? -- What do crazy people with guns killing other people and the boy scouts have in common?
• Why This Verdict? -- Now it may be that these police officers were racist, but their personal convictions and attitudes were not on trial here. Their actions were.
• Why This Verdict? --2 -- How Greg knows the jury in the Orenthal Simpson double murder trial was wrong.