Barack Hussein Obama’s latest step to divide and conquer the American people is a scheme to force religious organizations to provide for contraceptive insurance and services that are against their convictions. As with his other machinations, there is far more to to this move than first meets the eye.
It is a brilliantly conceived plan that puts the Catholic Church in the awkward position of defending a position that most Americans, including some its own members, do not support. Yet, it is their conviction, and if we really believe in religious liberty, it must be respected and supported. To many, this is a silly position to take in today’s world. Holding this position makes the Catholic Church appear to be out of step with current realities. It is designed to marginalize and the church and cause it to fall into disrepute with the less religious.
Aside from the obvious benefit of crucifying an opponent of his policies… there is something even more sinister afoot. If the church can be moved into the irrational curmudgeon category on the contraceptive issue, it damages its stand on the critical issues of abortion and homosexual marriage. It is the Alinsky tactic subjecting a opponent to ridicule and isolation to diminish its influence and serve as an example to others who would oppose the “anointed one’s” dictates.
This past week we saw a little of what happens when people are expecting checks from the government, and they don’t come as expected. The IRS announced that due to security upgrades to the efiling systems there would be a delay in deposits of tax refunds into bank accounts. As with any announcement from our government, this may or may not have been the case. However, the reality is that many people expected to have federal dollars in their accounts, and their accounts were empty.
This did not set well with those waiting expectantly. Police were called to the Instant Tax Service in Charlotte, NC as approximately 75 angry customers descended on their office demanding the refund deposits as promised on the date promised. They wanted their money! However, was it? There is common thinking that half the people pay taxes and half do not.
This is only partially true. The part that half pay taxes is true, however, through the magic of Earned Income Credit and other creations of an overly generous congress, many who do not pay taxes actually are refunded more than they have paid into the system… thousands more! Liberals and progressives have a term for these, they are called a transfer payments. That means, money is transferred from those who have earned it to those who have not.
As I was growing up, hearing about the speeches and marches of Martin Luther King, much of what I heard was that he was stirring up trouble where he had no business. In the rural northeast there was little knowledge or understanding of the situations he was fighting against. There was only one black student in my high school graduating class and she was kind of cute and fit in with everyone, so I could not comprehend what the fuss was all about.
It was only later, after Dr. King was gone, and I saw grown men with dark skin addressed as “Boy” and saw pictures of segregated facilities that I began to grasp the struggles of freedom fighters like Martin Luther King Jr and others like Medgar Evers.
Our Declaration of Independence enshrined the words “all men are created equal”. Correctly it does not specify all men of a certain color, a particular economic class or those connected to the “ruling class”. It says all men are created equal. It does not say that some are only three fifths equal as some in congress specified so as to obtain congressional representation, yet not recognize the humanity of some citizens.
Don’t FAIL to ask a candidate why he or she believes what he or she believes
Church leaders often are under pressure from the government (Attorneys General or IRS, to name a few departments) to not involve themselves in providing parishioners access to information to make up their own minds about candidates or ballot issues.
They claim that pastors, by doing so, are in violation of what has become known as “separation of church and state.” Typically this is done whenever someone does not want a person who professes Christ as their Lord and Savior to use the doctrine of the faith as foundation for their choosing between competing points of view or candidates.
There are two problems with this so called doctrine:
1. Pastors have a God-given right and responsibility to preach and teach “thus sayeth the Lord” from the pulpit and parishioners have a corresponding right to “choose ye this day who you will serve” relative to moral issues.
2. The term, “separation of church and state,” is a misnomer. It implies that a Christian’s faith is somehow outside of or otherwise “attached” to the follower of Christ rather than it being from within as the Holy Bible tells us, because our “body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [Spirit]” – the place where God resides within us — and “… ye are not our own.”. (1 Cor. 6:19)
We live in an increasingly secularized world of massive and pervasive nation states in which traditional religion, especially Christianity, is ruled unwelcome and even a real danger on the basis of a purported history of intolerance and “religious violence.” This is found in most all “public” domains, including the institutions of education, business, government, welfare, transportation, parks and recreation, science, art, foreign affairs, economics, entertainment, and the media. A secularized public square policed by government is viewed as providing a neutral, rational, free, and safe domain that keeps the “irrational” forces of religion from creating conflict and darkness. And we are told that real progress requires expanding this domain by pushing religion ever backward into remote corners of society where it has little or no influence. In short, modern America has become a secular theocracy with a civic religion of national politics (nationalism) occupying the public realm in which government has replaced God.
For the renowned Christian scholar and writer C.S. Lewis, such a view was fatally flawed morally, intellectually, and spiritually, producing the twentieth-century rise of the total state, total war, and mega-genocides. For Lewis, Christianity provided the one true and coherent worldview that applied to all human aspirations and endeavors: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)[1]
Join Mat Staver and Natalie Johnson on America’s News HQ: Fox News Channel on Sunday Dec. 11, between noon and 1:00 p.m. to discuss Macy’s policy that allows men to use women’s fitting rooms.
On learning that Macy’s allows men to use women’s fitting rooms, people are outraged. They are cutting up their Macy’s credit cards and refusing to shop there until the policy changes. This bizarre policy came to light during the Christmas shopping season, when Natalie Johnson saw a man entering a women’s fitting room, which was in her department area, at Macy’s in San Antonio, TX. After he came out, Natalie politely approached the young man and told him that he could not use the women’s fitting rooms because they were for women only. Although this young man was wearing lipstick, he still clearly looked like a man. He became upset and used expletives, and the attorney who accompanied him said that Macy’s was LGBT friendly. Natalie politely responded that men cannot use the women’s fitting rooms, to which they demanded to speak with her manager. She was later summoned by her manager, Mary Ellen, and told that “transgender” people can use any fitting room they desire. When Natalie questioned how men could use women’s fitting rooms and asked for a religious accommodation because she could not lie by allowing men to use women’s fitting rooms, she was terminated.
A while back a Facebook friend made the comment that she was just so frustrated with the war in Afghanistan and thought we should just nuke the whole mountainous area. Someone else commented that here solution was not “socially acceptable”. Now I’m not going to get into the virtue of using nuclear weapons to root out Taliban, or any jihadists in the area, but I do want to look at the reason for rejecting the idea. We all want to be accepted socially… which is another way of saying that we have developed an, often overwhelming acquiescence to peer pressure.
However, when we see that killing unborn babies is socially acceptable and prayer is not… when we see that it is acceptable to our country’s ivory tower elites for people to sneak into our country and take jobs from out of work Americans and inflate our welfare rolls, while those trying to protect our country and culture are condemned as narrow minded racists… one wonders why anyone with any principles would concern themselves with being “socially acceptable”, or “politically correct” as it is known in academic and media circles.
This striving for social acceptance has even infected many churches as they attempt to appeal to those in the outside world. Some have removed cross from their buildings, adopted secular appearing logos and… worst of all, toned down the gospel of truth and grace so as not to offend the outside world.
In 1947, America was charmed by little Natalie Wood in the Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street. The story revolved around proving the unprovable and the childhood joys of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. The film showed the company to be a family friendly organization that cared more about the welfare of their customers than squeezing the last dollar out of them.
Of course this was only a movie… and it was 1947! Over sixty years ago America was a far different place. It was a time when we looked out for each other. Today, instead of looking outward, for many, the focus has turned around 180 degrees. Stores such as Macy’s have apparently either found it more profitable to cater to the free spending homosexual community that doesn’t fritter it’s money away on families or children.
Recently this report went out concerning an incident where the company would rather discharge a conscientious employee than set limits on deviant customers:
That first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 saw about 50 Mayflower Pilgrims and 100 native Indians come together for a celebration feast consisting of a variety of homegrown vegetables–including corn, squash, beans, barley, and peas–along with wild turkey and venison. The precise date is not known, but it is believed to have taken place in late October or early November. Historians record that the Massachusetts weather was crisp, but not cold–and the fall foliage dazzled America’s newcomers with a cornucopia of color.
These Pilgrims were mostly “Separatists,” who had left Europe to seek a land of liberty, where men could be free to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience–not according to the demands of a State church or an oppressive government. They made their intentions and motivations clear when they signed America’s first covenant, a document called The Mayflower Compact:
“We whose names are under-written . . . Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith . . .”
This undertaking had prompted them to leave their homes, livelihoods, families, friends, and way of life, and make a dangerous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Many became ill and some did not survive to see the New World. But they all believed that they were doing God’s will and that He would honor their faith. And He certainly did.
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to“recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”
It’s almost impossible to give Barack Hussein Obama the benefit of the doubt these days, even if one were inclined to do so at the start of his reign. Our betters tell us we should cut him some slack and give him a chance. The good intentions of looking for the best in the President have only compounded our problems – not solved them! We’ve seen him change the federal policy to use our tax money to pay for overseas abortions when most people don’t even want them at home. We see more money just thrown at programs of little use, some with negative impact, to most of us and now… and now we are told that the faith based organizations are doing wonderful work, BUT now the new administration is looking at telling these organizations that they can continue to contribute their time and efforts, but they need to discontinue the very aspects of their work that makes them unique and effective.
On one hand, this idea of forcing any organization taking federal funds to hire anyone regardless of compatibility with the charities beliefs and values could be looked at as just another waste of government (read taxpayer) money or an attempt to diminish their ability to spread the Christian values. Beyond hiring even, several womens’ centers have had their funding withheld for the crime of including the wisdom of the Bible in their program The thing they don’t comprehend about these rules is that it is these distinctions and people that define many faith based ministries and that make them effective. Or, perhaps they do. It shows a lack of understanding or concern that it is the faith element that keeps prisoners from returning to prison and lets welfare mothers pull their families and their lives together.
Much has been written about the fabled wall of separation between church and state. Many know that this phrase came, not from the constitution or any piece of legislation, but from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association.
Having just thrown off the bondage of a despotic monarch and a state church, the good Baptists from Connecticut were concerned that the new state would impose its’ religious dictates on the citizens as had the old one. Instead of merely reading about the letter, let’s have a look at the context and see what Jefferson really said – not what the progressives would like us to believe he said.
Most Christians have really read little of their own Bible, so expecting them to be familiar with so-called holy books of other faiths is somewhat of a stretch. N.J. Dawood gave us an English translation of the Koran so that we might have a better understanding of the religion that drives some to violence. Admittedly the following quotes do not present a complete picture of Islam… nothing a few paragraphs in length could do that. It should, however show that there are areas of concern and prompt further study.
“Slay them wherever you find them…Idolatry is worse than carnage…Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God’s religion reigns supreme.” (Surah 2:190-)
“Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people…They desire nothing but your ruin….You believe in the entire Book…When they meet you they say: ‘We, too, are believers.’ But when alone, they bite their finger-tips with rage.” (Surah 3:118, 119)
The time may be ripe being that Chief Justice Roberts clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist, and this Rehnquist DISSENT in Bigelow v. Virginia case (heard 18 December a.d. 1974, decision 15 June a.d. 1975) involves the state protecting its Citizens from adverse health “services” available in another state. Rehnquist wrote:
The result is the fashioning of a doctrine which appears designed to obtain reversal of this judgment,
Remember that in the movie “Amazing Grace” after years of failure at the “direct approach” of outlawing Slavery in the British Empire, as suggested by a young man NOT involved in the years of unsuccessful legislative efforts, Wilberforce obtained an inroad against Slave Traders by a “flanking attack”, passing a law that Slave Ships had to meed certain health and safety requirements.
Sunday morning as I sat in church listening to the choir singing about our unchanging God, it occurred to me why even those who say they are open to any and every new idea are so closed minded when it comes to the Christian influence on society. We live in a world where attempts to rewrite our history run rampant on almost every college campus. We have judges deciding cases based on their “new and improved” ideas rather than on the Constitution that is to be the basis of our justice and government. Traditional values are not only disregarded, they are openly scorned by the elites in media and government.
Refugees from the sixties protests have taken shelter in the academic world where they have done their best to complete the job they began fifty some years ago. In that time our real heroes have been rendered irrelevant and leaders of the their attempted revolution have been revered. The morality of the day is, in reality, no morality at all as their actions are guided not so much by doing that which feels good, as they tell us, but to show that they are free from old fashioned restraints that have been honored for centuries.
In their efforts to demonstrate their rejection of Christianity, many modern day “free thinkers” have embraced most everything else. They have even gone so far as to praise the introduction of Islam and it’s sharia law as being a welcome addition to our society. If they really looked into what they were supporting, the homosexuals among them would be unhappy with their fate in Muslim societies. Being thrown from high building tends to shorten one’s life expectancy. Those addicted to alcohol, drugs or sex, would likewise find themselves in a sad situation with these newcomers in control.
Barack Hussein Obama made a campaign appearance today at Engine House Number Nine. It was a closed audience for the President to make some sort of point about how his jobs program would keep firefighters on the job and our homes and children safe. It must have been a small, exclusive group inside as the firehouse just is not that big.
Because the man has only concern for himself and his agenda, with none for the world around him, it was obviously not a problem to shut down streets all around the fire house for hours. These security plans were even more intrusive as trucks and vans were denied access to the area hours earlier. Normal Americans, considering the area, that had the common sense not to vote for this man, sat in lines of traffic on major highways all around the Chesterfield County site, while The One pandered to his larcenous base.
While this is a major inconvenience to the good people of central Virginia for a short time, it is minor compared to the inconvenience and disruption Obama and his henchmen have inflicted on the entire country. However this really is nothing unusual for a community organizer and ACORN attorney from Chicago.
Many are upset, and rightly so, about the current regime forcing acceptance of active homosexuals within the ranks of our military. The same regime would really like to find a way to force all states to recognize same sex marriages that are sanctioned by a handful of states that have rejected the traditional, biblical view of the institution. There is a feeling by many that this rejection is primarily because the traditional view IS the biblical view.
However, we need to consider what these actions really mean… and what they do not mean. These actions are simply a reflection of the predominant thinking of a small segment of our society seeking to impose their values on the rest of us. It is not any indication of the right or wrong of the such a position. It does, however, expose the citizens to the consequences of this corporate tolerance of behavior that our Creator rejects in no uncertain terms.
As early as the third book of the Bible, Leviticus, chapter 18, we see, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” Some say that is an Old Testament concept, that the New Testament preaches a concept of freedom. Yet Romans 1 says, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the supposed dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was widely assumed that communism was no longer a threat to our country. President Reagan had won the victory and we could relax and let our guard down. Unfortunately, we forgot Wendell Phillips warning that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
For ages, students of human psychology have debated the relative impacts of nature and nurture in determining individual development. In other words, what characteristics are we born with, and which ones develop as a result of outside influences and life experiences. For decades, the American Psychological Association regarded homosexuality as an aberrant condition that could be treated and corrected.
It was long understood that boys growing up without a strong male presence, particularly those with a dominating female presence, would be more inclined toward homosexual behavior Much of the behavior was attributed to environmental factors, which led to the belief that it could be corrected.
Then came the politically correctness revolution. Springing to life in academia, this political correctness sought to minimize social and institutional offense in gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts by declaring certain ideas, language, ideas and behavior to be inappropriate and off limits in the supposedly open and tolerant world then envisioned.
Often we read about some of the truly awful things that have happened in the past – sometimes even the not too distant past – and try to comfort ourselves with by thinking we are are living in a different time or different place. Until recently, many have thought we were immune from such atrocities we have heard about, read about or seen. In fact, many have kept their juvenile illusion that bad things will somehow skip over them and hit someone else.
Three thousand people thought the same thing as they prepared for their day on September 11, 2001. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Evil came to our shores that day. Or more properly, we saw evil’s presence on our shores that terrible morning.
It may make many uncomfortable to consider, but we live in a fallen world where the effects of this fall are all around us. Sometimes they are seen in smaller, individual ways like a ghetto child beaten to death by a drugged up parent. Sometimes we see it in more traumatic acts like the attacks on the twin towers and pentagon.
One question is, do we see greater evil in the deaths of 3000 men, women and children or in the death of a single innocent child? Are there degrees of evil? Was Nazi Germany the most evil because they killed six million Jews?
No one takes on a public policy stance without some firmly held belief, some foundational principle or worldview which they embrace, and from which they reason.
What has been happening in our society for decades is a titanic battle between two powerful, competing worldviews.
Unfortunately, one of those worldviews has had the advantage of pretending to be a ‘reasonable’ belief that is ‘free from religion,’ and which has gained access to your tax dollars. We have been financing a takeover by a Christianity-replacing faith. The new PC faith, the belief system of true-believing liberals, is actually a thoroughly developed, reasonable-sounding worldview. It is self-identified as a “Bold new faith” which must be “Established” in “All mankind’s institutions and associations,” in Humanist Manifesto I.
And in Manifesto II we find the ultimate goal: “World Community TWELFTH: We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history where the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate. Thus we look to the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government. This would appreciate cultural pluralism and diversity.”
There has been quite an uproar over the elite’s plans for the 911 commemoration in New York City. While the program is disturbing on various levels, it is useful for reaffirming the mindset of those in our country’s highest offices. How we respond determines if we remember those who died and those who tried to save them, or if we honor the government who is interested in remembering neither.
It is unfortunate that the place will be so filled with politicians, insiders and “dignitaries” that there is no room for the real heroes of 911, or the families of those who did not survive. These are the ones who deserve recognition because of what they did for their city and for their country. They are not the elites who are there because of their position in life – the winners of life’s lottery by virtue of their family name or fortune or by virtue of their academic pedigree.
These are the blue collar families that make this country run. They are the ones who keep us safe, not the ivory tower academics who deal only in theory but who fall flat on their faces when it comes to implementation. Read more of this article »
There are many things going wrong in our wonderful country today, and there have been many solutions proposed. Most are well intentioned and most that show some common sense would work fine to fix the specific problem. However each is akin to putting a band aid on a broken leg. We are being hit with too many different attacks from too many different angles to be content with repairing our country piecemeal. It’s like the Cloward-Piven plan to overwhelm the system.
The father of our country, George Washington, understood “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His mercy, to implore His protection and favor… That great and beneficent author of all good that was, that is, or ever shall be, that we may then unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people.” He was not alone.
I can just hear the “fiscal conservatives” scream bloody murder almost as loudly as the atheist progressives now running the country and our lives. Many think all we have to do get our financial situation in order and things will be just fine. It is, unfortunately, not too surprising with the way the educational system has become a materialistic indoctrination operation and our courts have done their best to remove understanding of the Christian bent of most of our founders from the public knowledge. They believe this does no harm. They actually believe there is a real benefit to removing religion, especially Christianity from the public sphere. Then, they also think we can fix the problems ourselves… or really, themselves. Read more of this article »
The inescapable essence of liberal-progressivism is philosophical materialism: the belief that spiritual religion is ignorance and that, as Karl Marx proclaimed, people’s nature is determined (and can be re-shaped) by the physical conditions in which they live and work and by the impact of the political state’s laws and regulations.
A reader posted the following comment regarding The Irresponsible Nanny State.
I missed the part in Heather MacDonald’s critique of Mayor Boomberg’s effort to encourage young men where she said that the program was “Godless.”
While she was caustic, sarcastic and defeatist about making any effort to change the ethos of the inner city situation, I did not see her level the charge that religion was not part of the proposed program.
Help us out here, Tom, and tell us how making an effort to help out young men is anti-Christian.
A lot of readers may take offense at this question about their sincerity in wanting to stop the slaughter of innocent babies. How could this be? You vote for the candidates who promise to put an end to the grizzly practice. If you are like most, you even pray about it from time to time. If you are really unusual, you may have picketed a facility once or twice.
As Dr. Phil would ask, “How’s that working out for you?” The last I checked, young lives are still being destroyed, and members of the medical profession, those who have sworn to do no harm, are making a nice living doing it. Obviously this approach has not gotten the job done.
For those who have carried the battle to the enemy consistently over the years, congratulations, but as you are painfully aware, the job is not done. You’ve seen people get excited about the struggle and join in for a few days to a few weeks, but then they disappear like the morning mist… and the job is not done. Read more of this article »
In watching the debate of Republican presidential candidates I saw a stage full of essentially decent people. Any of these people would be better than the current White House occupant. There are some who would be somewhat better than the Chosen One, and some who would be a breath of fresh air and would bring the hope and change our country was promised, but never received. Then there are those who fall somewhere in between.
What was clear is that within this group are some pretty good ideas. Then there are some pretty bad ideas as well. Some appear presidential and some would be very good advisers. Observing each of these candidates, I thought back to the early days of GOPAC where one of the primary teachings for those looking to run for office was that you run because you want to DO something, not because you want to BE something. I get the sinking feeling in listening to some that they just want to BE president.
At the risk of being misinterpreted as having made up my mind who would be the best choice to give Barack Hussein Obama the boot, I would offer the some thoughts on what I’ve seen. Read more of this article »
Let’s not forget that yesterday’s re-call elections in Wisconsin were all about the liberal-progressive presumption that public-employee labor unions are entitled to substantially higher wages and benefits than private-sector workers, even at the cost of bankrupting states and cities.
During election campaigning in Wisconsin we were treated to the spectacle of liberal-progressives proclaiming, with sanctimonious hypocrisy, that their re-call referenda were democracy in action. They hoped that the rest of us would forget the mob action of labor union thugs who criminally invaded the state capitol building to prevent the real democratic exercise of voting for proposed legislation. They also hoped that we would forget Democrat/Socialist legislators’ illegal refusal to present themselves for a legally convened session of the Wisconsin legislature. Read more of this article »
Thousands of Christians joined Texas Governor Rick Perry in Houston Saturday as he and many others recognized the failure of the solutions of man and looked to the creator of man. It is doubtful any of the formerly mainstream media had any comprehension of what was taking place.
History records that when an impasse was reached during the deliberations that produced our constitution, they turned to prayer for the wisdom and good will to complete their task. Yet today, this seems to be a rather quaint solution to the sophisticated elites. These are the same sophisticated elites that have had such a huge hand in creating our problems.
The assembled throng was encouraged toward personal repentance as the first step to restoring our nation. Most of those attending and those watching the video feed are well aware of their flaws and the need to make changes in their own lives. It’s not that we can achieve perfection, but without recognizing our own shortcomings and confessing them, we are in no position to intercede for our nation.
Watching the British Gran Prix this past Sunday, I observed a microcosm of the European approach to life compared to the way we do things, at least for now, in the US of A. First was the tendency of the governing body to penalize and offense to its’ sensibilities, even if it is obviously due to human error… kind of like our bureaucrats in Washington – the EPA in particular.
A McLaren driven by Jenson Button had the misfortune of being waved out of the pits before a defective impact wrench could be replaced and the right front tire secured. He headed off back to the track, but got no further than the end of pit lane. His day was done, his weekend wasted, but after the race, to add insult to injury, his team was handed a major fine in some kind of European currency for unsafe release from the pit box. The good old boys from NASCAR simply make the team come back and fix the problem. That, in the highly competitive world of stock car racing, is regarded as penalty enough – if he could make it back in. It is understood that none of these professionals consciously sends out a car in unsafe condition – there is no need for official sanctions.
[The picture may have been photoshopped, but it carries the message of some things that are taking place in both evangelical and mainline churches. This article only skims the surface and I would recommend that readers looking for more information Google and Bing the work Chrislam for more information.]
To many who have never taken the Bible too seriously, a Christian is a Christian is a Christian. They do not grasp the concept of false teachers that look good and smell good, but are wrong… dead wrong. There is a growing phenomenon in some churches go beyond interfaith community improvement activity to attempts to harmonize Christianity and Islam.
For want of a better term, this results of this effort is called Chrislam after the syncretism that began in Nigeria around 1980. There are those who see similarities between Christianity, Islam and even Judaism. There are similar moral teachings, all are monotheistic and have end time expectations.
Because of this some churches are have been sharing services with Korans in the pew racks next to the Bibles. Last September a Cordova Tennessee church opened its doors to the Memphis Islamic Center for Ramadan prayers. The Islamic Circle of North America is holding its regular Friday prayers at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria Va. A spokesperson says it’s part of being neighborly and developing relationships, even though they are taking heat for it. Read more of this article »
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A while back a Facebook friend made the comment that she was just so frustrated with the war in Afghanistan and thought we should just nuke the whole mountainous area. Someone else commented that here solution was not “socially acceptable”. Now I’m not going to get into the virtue of using nuclear weapons to root out Taliban, or any jihadists in the area, but I do want to look at the reason for rejecting the idea. We all want to be accepted socially… which is another way of saying that we have developed an, often overwhelming acquiescence to peer pressure.
In 1947, America was charmed by little Natalie Wood in the Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street. The story revolved around proving the unprovable and the childhood joys of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. The film showed the company to be a family friendly organization that cared more about the welfare of their customers than squeezing the last dollar out of them.
That first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 saw about 50 Mayflower Pilgrims and 100 native Indians come together for a celebration feast consisting of a variety of homegrown vegetables–including corn, squash, beans, barley, and peas–along with wild turkey and venison. The precise date is not known, but it is believed to have taken place in late October or early November. Historians record that the Massachusetts weather was crisp, but not cold–and the fall foliage dazzled America’s newcomers with a cornucopia of color.
It’s almost impossible to give Barack Hussein Obama the benefit of the doubt these days, even if one were inclined to do so at the start of his reign. Our betters tell us we should cut him some slack and give him a chance. The good intentions of looking for the best in the President have only compounded our problems – not solved them! We’ve seen him change the federal policy to use our tax money to pay for overseas abortions when most people don’t even want them at home. We see more money just thrown at programs of little use, some with negative impact, to most of us and now… and now we are told that the faith based organizations are doing wonderful work, BUT now the new administration is looking at telling these organizations that they can continue to contribute their time and efforts, but they need to discontinue the very aspects of their work that makes them unique and effective.
Much has been written about the fabled wall of separation between church and state. Many know that this phrase came, not from the constitution or any piece of legislation, but from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association.
Most Christians have really read little of their own Bible, so expecting them to be familiar with so-called holy books of other faiths is somewhat of a stretch. N.J. Dawood gave us an English translation of the Koran so that we might have a better understanding of the religion that drives some to violence. Admittedly the following quotes do not present a complete picture of Islam… nothing a few paragraphs in length could do that. It should, however show that there are areas of concern and prompt further study.
by James Renwick Manship, Sr.
Sunday morning as I sat in church listening to the choir singing about our unchanging God, it occurred to me why even those who say they are open to any and every new idea are so closed minded when it comes to the Christian influence on society. We live in a world where attempts to rewrite our history run rampant on almost every college campus. We have judges deciding cases based on their “new and improved” ideas rather than on the Constitution that is to be the basis of our justice and government. Traditional values are not only disregarded, they are openly scorned by the elites in media and government.
Barack Hussein Obama made a campaign appearance today at Engine House Number Nine. It was a closed audience for the President to make some sort of point about how his jobs program would keep firefighters on the job and our homes and children safe. It must have been a small, exclusive group inside as the firehouse just is not that big.
Many are upset, and rightly so, about the current regime forcing acceptance of active homosexuals within the ranks of our military. The same regime would really like to find a way to force all states to recognize same sex marriages that are sanctioned by a handful of states that have rejected the traditional, biblical view of the institution. There is a feeling by many that this rejection is primarily because the traditional view IS the biblical view.
For ages, students of human psychology have debated the relative impacts of nature and nurture in determining individual development. In other words, what characteristics are we born with, and which ones develop as a result of outside influences and life experiences. For decades, the 
Often we read about some of the truly awful things that have happened in the past – sometimes even the not too distant past – and try to comfort ourselves with by thinking we are are living in a different time or different place. Until recently, many have thought we were immune from such atrocities we have heard about, read about or seen. In fact, many have kept their juvenile illusion that bad things will somehow skip over them and hit someone else.
By Bob Larimer
There has been quite an uproar over the elite’s plans for the 911 commemoration in New York City. While the program is disturbing on various levels, it is useful for reaffirming the mindset of those in our country’s highest offices. How we respond determines if we remember those who died and those who tried to save them, or if we honor the government who is interested in remembering neither.
There are many things going wrong in our wonderful country today, and there have been many solutions proposed. Most are well intentioned and most that show some common sense would work fine to fix the specific problem. However each is akin to putting a band aid on a broken leg. We are being hit with too many different attacks from too many different angles to be content with repairing our country piecemeal. It’s like the Cloward-Piven plan to overwhelm the system.
By Thomas Brewton
A lot of readers may take offense at this question about their sincerity in wanting to stop the slaughter of innocent babies. How could this be? You vote for the candidates who promise to put an end to the grizzly practice. If you are like most, you even pray about it from time to time. If you are really unusual, you may have picketed a facility once or twice.
In watching the debate of Republican presidential candidates I saw a stage full of essentially decent people. Any of these people would be better than the current White House occupant. There are some who would be somewhat better than the Chosen One, and some who would be a breath of fresh air and would bring the hope and change our country was promised, but never received. Then there are those who fall somewhere in between.
By Thomas Brewton
Watching the British Gran Prix this past Sunday, I observed a microcosm of the European approach to life compared to the way we do things, at least for now, in the US of A. First was the tendency of the governing body to penalize and offense to its’ sensibilities, even if it is obviously due to human error… kind of like our bureaucrats in Washington – the EPA in particular.
