Author: Christ Ranger

God is great!

Categories
Ministry World etc.

The Uncomfortable Church

It’s easy to take for granted our religious freedoms here in the USA.  While sometimes we complain about cultural hostility to Biblical truths, we must be careful not to conflate a secular humanist culture with religious persecution.  This country is still the most open, freest place in the history of humanity to practice one’s religion and pursue the face of God.  In fact, I believe comfort and not our culture is a far greater threat to the Western church.  This is an easy place to be a comfortable, sleeping Christian … to be lukewarm.  We’re a very comfortable people.  We often make a fuss because we’re “losing” the culture and our public institutions. We are not, however, losing our lives for the Gospel of Christ. 

What would it be like to be a Christian for even a week and attend church in a hell hole like Iran or North Korea? Brothers and sisters in Christ suffer and die throughout much of the world because of their faith in Christ. 

Paul Marshall reports on NRO: Iran Escalates Attacks on Christians 

North Korea tortures Christian evangelist to death after years of imprisonment: here.

Compass News reports, Lao Officials Destroy Rice Paddies, Expel More Christians 

In Somalia, a 17-year-old girl was recently killed for converting to Christianity, a so-called “honor killing.”  Nurta Mohamed Farah, who had fled her village to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam, died on Nov. 25, 2010.  See here. 

Compass Direct News reports: Muslims in Pakistan Burn, Beat Evangelist Unconscious

Voice of the Martyrs reports:

OneNewsNow.com is reporting on the State Department being deeply concerned about the rise in Christian persecution worldwide.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters at a recent press conference on Tuesday about the rise in attacks against Christians in Africa and areas of the Middle East. He explained that the State Department is aware of a “recent string of attacks against Christians” that has created heightened concern.

Jonathan Racho, regional manager for International Christian Concern (ICC), says his organization welcomes the response of the State Department. “The statement that they made is really powerful, and we believe that it will at least raise their concern with officials of countries where Christians are persecuted,” Racho suggests.

He goes on to note a recent attack on an Egyptian church that left 21 people dead, as well as the 86 believers who were brutally killed in Nigeria. In October, a local al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the deaths of 53 people after militants entered a church in Baghdad. …

Full article here.

I suspect that when we meet Christ on the other side of the veil, we will learn that here in the USA, we were nearly completely unaware of the giants of the faith in our time.  The American church is comfortable.  We are not broken, bleeding, or persecuted for our faith in Christ.  Indeed, I’m afraid to ask Christ for the strength and opportunity to be worthy of His calling …


Categories
politics, economy, etc.

Left Wing Rhetoric as Reality

A Communist assassinates President Kennedy.  Decades later, Marxist pothead Oliver Stone produces a movie showing American business and the US military (the original “Right Wing”) responsible for Kennedy’s death.  Of course, Stone sells his lie as truth. 

Now, a left-wing pothead with apparent severe psychiatric disorders shoots a Democratic Congresswoman and a Republican federal judge.  This time, the lefties are much quicker to the trigger, claiming Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party (the “new Right Wing”) are linked and/or somehow responsible.  See, e.g. here, here, here.  As one of the fathers of the modern left once said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

Updates: NYT’s joins the fracas in a sadly predictable fashion. See here.  In contrast, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey in the WSJ explains the lessons we should be drawing from the Tucson tragedy.  See A Predictable Tragedy in Arizona.

Categories
culture

USA Christianity “megathemes”

To the extent our US culture as expressed through our entertainment, public education institutions, and laws does not sufficiently convey that Americans are walking away from our Judeo-Christian moral heritage in general and Christianity in particular, polling data from 2010 now confirms it: Christianity in the USA is rapidly loosing force as a social influence.  Barna recently published a summary of its surveys on Christianity in the USA in 2010.  Specifically, Barna announced that its research reveals six “megathemes” demonstrating how the religious environment in the USA is “morphing into something new.”  In summary, a majority of Americans are Biblically illiterate and ignorant of the most basic Christian truths. Not surprisingly then, faith does not rank high on the list of our priorities. For teenagers, faith ranks on average as a lower priority than travel.  Knowing God and eternal security are not at the top of our “to do” lists.  Perhaps as a result of this relative ignorance and lack of concern, Christians are increasingly silent regarding Christ and reluctant to share their faith, invite unbelievers to church, or otherwise proselytize.  The church in the USA increasingly does not take a stand on matters pertaining to Biblical truth and righteousness. For example, few churches today dare to defend the institution of marriage, either in addressing divorce from within its pews or by defending the institution of marriage in our larger culture and laws.  Again, as if we need polls to see this, the influence of Christianity on individuals and on our culture is largely invisible in today’s USA.  Barna provides more information and analysis in this excellent article – see here. 

We should pray for our country, for the church in the USA, and for our own courage to share the Good News, by our actions and equally importantly – by actually opening our mouths and telling what Christ has done and the difference he makes.  At the end, our “culture” consists of the beliefs and attitudes of our people — people for whom Christ died.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:14-15

Categories
culture

10 Observations on 2010

 A majority of Americans want a made for TV, iconic, left-wing President, at least until he actually tries to implement left-wing policies.

A callous on the arch of your foot doesn’t hurt or cause problems, until you try to remove it with a utility knife.

It’s okay to like Noah’s ark, so long as it’s a cutesy little story confined to preschool walls.  The Ark strikes a nerve however when it’s built to scale and treated as something that really happened.

Still wasn’t a good year to sell your house.

Homeschooling moms are still a unique blend of saint, drill sergeant, multi-tasking guru, motivational speaker, and teacher.

In the United States, pornography remains the most popular content, with increasing numbers of children’s watching it and being exploited in it.  Yet no one wants to talk about it let alone do anything about it.  Homosexuality is quickly being normalized.  It’s increasingly clear that traditional and Biblical Judeo-Christian norms on human sexuality are being marginalized and even ostracized. 

Theme music for breaking out of worldly ruts – “Smash it. Break it. Shake it. Annihilate it.”  – Andy Hunter.  May God’s Kingdom collide with the World.  Collide.  Best album in 2010 IMO. 

Hanson’s Pure Cane Sugar Ginger Ale redefines what “good” ginger ale tastes like.

A fast bike does not make it easier to pace yourself and save yourself for the run in a triathlon.

Children grow up really quickly.

And an 11th for 2011: The older I get, the better cheeseburgers taste.

Belated entry: Bella – movie of the year …

Categories
theology

The Scandal of the Christ Child

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23:12

The King of Creation, born a powerless babe to peasants in backwater Judea, itself a backwater of Rome, appearing to the world as nothing more than a poor bastard child. Welcomed by the company of livestock and the lowliest of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!

On December 19, Dr. Doug Bookman gave an impromptu sermon on the birth of Christ, specifically, on The Scandal of the Manger, and in the course of doing so explained relevant portions of contemporaneous Jewish culture and assailed several Christmas myths.  He spent a good amount of time explaining the prominence of the betrothal and marriage ceremony during the times of Mary and Joseph.  The marriage ceremony was a prolonged, multi-day celebration.  The event was known throughout the community and all were expected to express their support and enthusiasm.  The betrothal period was a time of anticipation as the families prepared for the celebration.

What utter shame and humiliation Mary and Joseph endured when Mary returned to Nazareth pregnant during her betrothal, and not with Joseph’s child.  It was a shame, Dr. Bookman contends, that caused them to permanently move to Joseph’s familial home of Bethlehem where Mary stayed until the time for her to give birth.  Luke 2:6.

Was Mary rejected from a public inn as conventionally told?  Dr. Bookman says “no.”  He contends that translators misinterpret Luke 2:7 when they say there was no room in the “inn” for them.  He says, it should say that there was no upper room or guest room for them.  According to Dr. Bookman, there was no such thing as an “inn” in the cities of first century Judea.  The same Greek word is used in other places throughout the NT where it is accurately translated as guest room or upper room.  See. e.g. Luke 22:11 (the guest room where Jesus held the last supper).  An upper room or guest room was an extra room families kept for honored guests.  Luke 2:6 suggests that Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem some amount of time before Mary gave birth.  Dr. Bookman believes Joseph’s family refused to host Joseph with his betrothed and pregnant wife in their room for honored guests.  Betrothed and pregnant, Joseph and Mary were anything but honorable to their kin and fellow Jews.  The best Joseph’s relatives would give them was a manger (livestock cave) on the outskirts of town. This fits the Christmas story perfectly: hardship and humility.

God mocks what we too often take for wisdom and despises man’s pride.  When God sent his son to save mankind from sin, to show mankind our Lord, he sent the Christ child to be born in the backwater province of a pagan empire.  In the backwater province, the King was conceived in one of the poorest and most remote locations.  The wife and her husband were the poorest of poor, essentially peasants and nothing resembling human royalty.  And the pregnancy was completely scandalous.  The pregnancy shamed Mary and Joseph before all of Nazareth, all of Mary’s family.  When they left Nazareth for Bethlehem, Joseph’s family rejected close fellowship with them and sent them to live with the livestock.  Sorry, we can’t put you in our guest bedroom (what would the neighbors say?), but y’all can stay in our barn on the back 40.  The Christ child was born under shameful circumstances and in squalor.  His first visitors were shepherds, the poorest and least esteemed among the Israelites. 

Welcome Lord Jesus, creator of the Universe.  Of course, this is exactly what God planned and intended and revealed through prophesies over hundreds of years.  But who would have thought THAT’s what the prophecies meant?  And few could fathom that this all-powerful King would conquer through being tortured and crucified.  He confounds the proud.  Indeed, the proud never noticed the birth of Christ. 

It is that way still.

The God of creation became flesh under the most humble of circumstances.  That God became flesh is THE miracle.  If you can have faith that the Christ child was the begotten son of God, all the rest of the New Testament, indeed, of the entire Bible, is easy to believe. 

Merry Christmas!

See also I Wonder if We Wonder by Doug Bookman.

Categories
Poem

Too busy

The First Christmas

In winter
The Word was made flesh
To dwell among us …
To gather in our scattered minds,
To unify all human hearts.

Celestial singing:
Shepherds heard, rejoiced, adored …
Spring possessed their lives.

A normal world:
“Busy” folks ignored the Babe …
Only quiet people knelt.

Deepest darkness slashed:
Leading kings to worship Him …
Light dissolves the dark.

Sam McKay

Categories
love marriage and family

The present of presence

Love Post

We have a tendency of busying ourselves with the business of being busy.

Smart phones, tablets, computers of every incarnation, et al. fill our every moment with distractions. Despite all these ways of connecting, we still have a lingering desire to connect with others that remains unsatisfied.

Lately, I have fallen prey to the same. Last night, we were finishing up decorating the Christmas tree, and I was busying myself with my latest obsession on the computer. Despite familial beckoning (my daughter physically grabbing my arm), I remained wired to the computer but disconnected from the family.

In hindsight, the older I get, the more I realize the moral for being is connecting with others. More often than not that means being physically and mentally present. Being on the computer or watching TV in the same room doesn’t qualify.

How do you truly connect then, in a meaningful way? I’ve often wondered.

You hear popular notions of connecting, but the one definition that holds me captive each time I read it is I Corinthians 13.

David Ballard

Categories
books culture

A Tough Season for Believers – NYT

 Ross Douthat had an interesting op-ed and book review in Sunday’s edition of the NYTs.  Quoted in part:

Thanks in part to this bunker mentality, American Christianity has become what [James Davison Hunter author of To Change the World] calls a “weak culture” — one that mobilizes but doesn’t convert, alienates rather than seduces, and looks backward toward a lost past instead of forward to a vibrant future. In spite of their numerical strength and reserves of social capital, he argues, the Christian churches are mainly influential only in the “peripheral areas” of our common life. In the commanding heights of culture, Christianity punches way below its weight.

… . But both books come around to a similar argument: this month’s ubiquitous carols and crèches notwithstanding, believing Christians are no longer what they once were — an overwhelming majority in a self-consciously Christian nation. The question is whether they can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture, where they’re competing not only with rival faiths but with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities, and where the idea of a single religious truth seems increasingly passé.

Full editorial here.  The authors of these books, which I haven’t read, attribute the waning influence of institutional Christianity to the 1960s cultural revolution and the politicization of Christianity in the “culture wars.”  While these certainly played roles in how Americans view church, I believe that over the past century the academic and cultural elite’s cozy relations with humanist and materialist worldviews (e.g. Communism and “amoeba to man” evolutionary dogma), assaults in academic Christology (e.g. the Jesus Seminar and “modern” liberal theology), and rampant consumerism played more prominently in marginalizing the church and pushing the West toward a post-Christian culture.

Categories
Atheism, agnostic, evolution, etc. culture

Reactions and Reactionaries to the Ark Encounter

Judging by the hysteria in some quarters of the liberal press and blogosphere, you might think Sarah Palin was just elected president.  Aside from eliciting snide questions and backhanded compliments from Barbara Walters, Governor Palin is not presently the focal point of liberal angst.  While the media coverage has been extensive and overall positive, see e.g. here, the liberal literati express indignation at a theme park that shows the flood and Ark as history.  The editors of the two largest newspapers in Kentucky worked themselves into a lather in opposition to the park.  See here.  Genesis as history is unacceptable to many of our cultural elite.  Even Jay Leno, who is considered one of the more conservative entertainers, took shots at the Ark Encounter.  See here.

Jay Leno and the Kentucky editors simply reflect the perspective of our cultural elite who genuinely believe that the more a person reads the Bible as history and as the inspired word of God, the more ignorant and un-educated the person must be.  With the passing of each decade of the 20th Century, European and then U.S. cultural elites increasingly took aim at religion in general and the truth claims of Christianity in particular.  In the first half of the 20th Century, it was socially unacceptable to openly denounce basic Christian truths.  Since the close of the 20th Century, western cultural elites treat as unacceptable to publicly proclaim fundamental Christian truths, such as salvation through Christ alone, the inerrancy of scripture, the reality of Satan and an everlasting Hell.  To believe in the historical claims of the Bible is a cause for public ridicule, at least according to our self-proclaimed educated elite.  At the core of our cultural “elite” are those that make their living with words — the literati (a.k.a. chattering class) – journalists, professors, playwrights, screenwriters, and to a large extent attorneys.  Though they make up a tiny minority of our population, such elites disproportionately affect what we see and think of ourselves. 

The chattering class’ hostility to all things Christian is pervasive, for matters big (the Ark Encounter) and small (how we greet each other in December).  For example, major media outlets strip Christ out of Christmas.  Nearly 99% of network Christmas coverage is “Jesus-Free.”  See here.  Further, ever increasingly over the past decade, we are told that the word “Christmas” and the wish “Merry Christmas” are offensive. Perhaps to the chattering class, but not to the rest of us.  We are told to say “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry Christmas,” despite the fact a significant majority of people in our country prefer to hear “Merry Christmas.”  See here. Very few, if any, are offended.  See here.  When it comes to Christmas and all other things Christian, too many of our chattering class colleagues are bah humbug Scrooges. 

The chattering critics insist rebuilding the Ark to biblical scale is an outrage or at least an embarrassment.  Again, they do not report that Americans disagree with such sentiment.  76% of Americans believe Noah’s Ark was actually built.  63% of Americans would take their family to visit the Ark.  (American Research Group polling data.) The outrage isn’t the Ark or keeping Christ in Christmas.  The outrage is a cultural literati that relentlessly assails all things Christian while pretending to reflect American culture.

Merry Christmas!

Categories
culture

Porn Undressed

“I will set before my eyes no vile thing.” – Psalm 101:3

“All healthy men, ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, know there is a certain fury in sex that we cannot afford to inflame, and that a certain mystery and awe must ever surround it if we are to remain sane.” – G.K. Chesterton

Pornography is a huge industry in the United States, one of the largest.  As of 2004, porn was calculated to be a $57 billion year industry worldwide, with the US generating over $13 billion in revenue (but producing nearly 90% of the content).  The US ranked 4th in porn revenue, behind China, South Korea and Japan.  In the US, porn revenue is larger than the combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises. US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC (6.2 Billion). Child pornography generates 3 Billion annually. 

Since 2004, the supply of “free” hardcore porn video websites has exploded, which has likely impacted direct sales revenues of porn.  See here. While revenues in some porn quarters might be depressed, the amount of available pornographic content is exploding.  PR Newswire reports:

Predominant content on the Internet is pornography, which makes up 37% of the total number of Web pages online, according to a new study published by Optenet, … .  The report, which includes a representative sample of approximately 4 million extracted URLs, shows that adult content on the Internet as well as illegal content such as child pornography and illegal drug purchase has undergone a significant increase of 17% in the first quarter of 2010, as compared to the same period in 2009.

Tens of millions of Americans regularly consume porn, to include ever-increasing numbers of children.  Children between the ages of 12 and 17 form the largest group of viewers of Internet porn (Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005).  Porn particularly harms children and young adults.  Beneath porn’s alluring mask lies a vicious and pernicious perversion of God’s gift of sex and of life.   “Mainline” pornography often endorses, condones, and encourages abusive sexual desires or behaviors.  See here (warning – analysis contains further links to graphic images).  Foremost, porn teaches and condones rampant sexual immorality. Further, the number of children physically and emotionally damaged by pornography only continues to increase.  Porn damages children directly when children are sexually exploited in porn.   According to a National Children’s Homes report, the number of Internet child pornography images has increased 1500% since 1988.  Approximately 20% of all Internet pornography involves children (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response of Law Enforcement. Virginia: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2003).  Porn also indirectly harms children when it incites adults to sexually abuse children under their control.   See here. 

In addition to being a moral blight, pornography spreads disease, such as HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and herpes.  See here.

See: The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research

See also: Just Harmless Fun: Understanding the Impact of Pornography

Categories
biz, legal, and professionalism culture

Naughty and Nice

Want to know which national retailers celebrate Christmas, and which really don’t?  For the second year in a row, Focus on the Family is sponsoring a “naughty and nice” list at their Stand for Christmas website.  You can vote and post comments at the website.  The top three Christmas family retailers: Bass Pro Shops, Cabellas, and Lands End.  The three most offensive: Gap, Banana Republic, and Best Buy.  Lane Bryant was the most negligent toward Christmas.  Being openly pro-Christmas during the Christmas season is good business.  It is also likely profitable since 72% of people prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holiday.”

Categories
entertainment Ministry

Rebuilding Noah’s Ark to Biblical Scale

Kentucky Governor Beshear, Ark Encounter Announce Plans to Build a Full-Scale Noah’s Ark : “Ark Encounter” to employ 900, expected to draw 1.6 million visitors in first year

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Dec. 1, 2010)—Governor Steve Beshear today joined the Ark Encounter LLC to announce the planned construction of a full-scale Noah’s Ark tourist attraction in northern Kentucky. Partnering with the Ark Encounter is Answers in Genesis, which is most widely known for its high-tech and popular Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky.

“We are excited to join with the Ark Encounter group as it seeks to provide this unique, family friendly tourist attraction to the Commonwealth,” said Gov. Beshear. “Bringing new jobs to Kentucky is my top priority, and with the estimated 900 jobs this project will create, I am happy about the economic impact this project will have on the Northern Kentucky region.”

 The Ark Encounter is scheduled to open in spring 2014 in northern Kentucky. Multiple sites are being considered, although property in Grant County off I-75 is at the top of the list. A feasibility study conducted by the renowned America’s Research Group has indicated that the Ark Encounter may attract 1.6 million visitors in the first year and is expected to employ up to 900 full- and part-time staff.

 The for-profit Ark Encounter project will be privately funded at an estimated cost of $150 million. The final site selection for the Ark Encounter is subject to the ability to acquire all of the land needed for the project, and the approval of certain state and local incentives and other assistance for the project.

 “We are very pleased to be a part of this new project,” said Ken Ham, president and founder of AiG and the Creation Museum. “AiG has been blessed to see the Creation Museum host over one million guests in three years. Based on our experience and success operating the large, state-of-the-art Creation Museum, our board believes the time is right to partner with the Ark Encounter in building a full-scale Noah’s Ark. We hope that this fun and educational complex called the Ark Encounter will become another popular tourist destination for the state.”

 In addition to the full-size Ark, the complex will include a Walled City much like was found in ancient times, live animal shows, a children’s interactive play area, a replica of the Tower of Babel with exhibits, a 500-seat 5-D special effects theater, an aviary, and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

 To showcase the “green” construction methods and materials that will be used, the complex will also include a Special Events Area for large gatherings, highlighting some of the Leader in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building techniques used to construct the Ark Encounter.

 One of the factors in getting the Ark Encounter to launch the Ark project at this time was a November 2009 CBS News survey, which revealed that the remains of Noah’s Ark would be the greatest archaeological discovery of our day. CBS News stated: “CBS’ 60 Minutes news program, in conjunction with Vanity Fair magazine, recently conducted a web survey asking which archaeological discovery people would most want to see made next. The response: Noah’s Ark (43 percent); Atlantis (18 percent); Amelia Earhart’s plane (16 percent); Nixon’s lost tapes (13 percent); and Cleopatra’s barge (5 percent).”

 The report continued: “Noah’s Ark continues to capture the imagination of the general public, and this interest spans all social, religious and economic segments. The Ark and the flood is one of the few historical events which are well known in the worldwide global circle.”

 Following the release of the article, the Ark Encounter group became even more convinced about the viability of the project. It will be assembling virtually the same team that designed and built the Creation Museum, and have these same talented staff design a full-scale Noah’s Ark.

 For information on the Ark Encounter, see www.ArkEncounter.com

Categories
culture entertainment

Porn Pandemic Panel Presentation

From the folks at PornHarms:

The War on Illegal Pornography has a “first” to announce – a live online conference on pornography in which YOU can participate.  On December 9th  at 11:00 AM Eastern, you will be able to watch this important event right on Facebook and can ask questions of our panelists.  RSVP to the event here so we can keep you updated.

The event, Pornography Harms: An Untreated Pandemic Features:

  • Dr. Donna M. Hughes, professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Professor Hughes is a leading international researcher on trafficking of women and children.  She will discuss how pornography leads to sex trafficking.
  • Dr. Patrick Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Fagan will discuss The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community.
  • J. Robert Flores, former Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and former deputy chief prosecutor in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.  Mr. Flores will discuss the need to prosecute obscene hardcore adult pornography. 

You will be able to submit questions online to the panelists during this one-hour presentation.  The event will be broadcast live on one of our Facebook pages, http://www.facebook.com/PornHarms.  RSVP to the event here and invite your friends. 

Categories
culture marriage and family

Because Sex Produces Children …

The editors at NR have put together an excellent article on The Defense of Marriage, here.  As the authors state, we’ve lost sight of the fundamental purpose behind marriage — protecting the formation of our next generation.  Well worth the read for anyone interested in the same-sex marriage debates.

Categories
praise

Thank God!

Shout for joy to the Lord all the Earth!  Worship the Lord with gladness.  It is He who made us and we are His people.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of your love, especially as it is shared and enjoyed through family and friends.  Thank you also for these United States, where we can worship and praise you and celebrate together without persecution.

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. Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.

—George Washington

Categories
Atheism, agnostic, evolution, etc. love

Lost Love

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed
     Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H. (Canto 56), 1850

We do not find comfort in nor do we long for struggle.  Our humane spirit finds no joy in imposing death on others or in the killing of life simply for the pleasure of asserting our superiority.  While nature is red in tooth and claw, death and violence affect us negatively.  If struggle is the fuel of the evolutionary engine, and evolution is our mother and creator, we should find some form of comfort in the struggle.  Indeed, according to evolutionary theory, we are the result and pinnacle of millions of years of struggle and death carving out and forming life.  Yet, as the alleged favored children of this process, we do not favor, appreciate, or find comfort in the supposed forces of evolutionary advancement.

The front-runner in a marathon, or in any race, finds a comfort and synchronicity when participating in the event.  In contrast, those at the other end of the event, the stragglers and “losers” in the event are rarely in a comfort zone; they rarely feel on top of the circumstances of the event. The stragglers and strugglers rarely appreciate and find comfort in their circumstance. In the evolutionary theory of origins, we are the front-runner in the struggle of life.  We are the most adept and sophisticated life form.  As the evolutionary front-runner, we should find some form of comfort in the “rules” of evolution.  We should feel a certain comfort in death and struggle, or at the very least, we should accept and appreciate blood and struggle as the necessary element of creation and strength.  Instead, we generally revolt against such attributes.  Death and struggle do not comfort us; they do not feel natural.  Scripture teaches us quite to the contrary, that death is an “enemy.” (1 Cor. 15:26) We build museums and monuments to motivate ourselves to resist such brutalities as Nazism and Communism. The brutal Spartan ethos is the rare exception, not the rule.

The God of the Bible is love.  God is love.  Did love create us, or are we the byproduct of struggle and death?  Of course, scripture speaks clearly on this.  So too does our nature. Our hearts and souls long and fight for love.  Unless we’ve been tragically broken, we find no solace in death or in pain or brutality.  Instead of being at peace with the alleged engines of evolution, our hearts and souls revolt and protest against death and struggle.   We find our strongest motivations and comfort in love, which is close to an antecedent of the supposed creative forces of evolution.  Perhaps the single greatest force in an individual’s life, outside forces of nature, is the power of love. 

Nothing has a greater impact on the formation of a person than love applied or misapplied during childhood.  Love motivates people to give up their lives, both figuratively and literally, for others.  Love of country, of an idea, and of another are the single greatest motivating factor of human existence.  Love and its derivatives of empathy and compassion are generally admired by all people over all times. There are occasions throughout history where civilizations have eschewed these virtues, but we remember these civilizations for their barbarity.

The human sensitivity and proclivity toward love, while perfectly consistent with the God revealed throughout the Bible, is wholly inconsistent with the evolutionary narrative.  It is love, not death, that drives and motivates us.  It was love, not the struggle for life, that made us.

Indeed, as scripture teaches, love is a stronger force than death.  In the body of Christ, love literally overcame the grave.  Even in our common existence, we see evidence of love being a more compelling force than death.  There is hardly a decent parent that would not immediately forfeit his or her life for their children.  Every day, our service members give up their lives for each other and for their country.  Firemen and police officers routinely put themselves in harm’s way so that others may be safe, many regularly forfeiting their lives for others.  This is mankind made in the image of God, an image of mankind that all decent humans hold dear to their hearts and celebrate.  Such a selfless, sacrificing person and ethos, this imago dei, is antithetical to the theoretical man of evolution. 

Years ago, I read of a study on divorce that revealed that the death of a spouse took less of a toll

Continue reading “Lost Love”
Categories
praise

God is GREAT!

He is the creator of everything — seen and unseen.  He holds time and the countless galaxies in the palm of his hand.

He is the author of salvation and the sustainer of our faith.

He has no beginning and no end. 

He made you and me. 

His ways are not our ways, yet He walked amongst us and suffered and died for our sins.

He is permanent.

He hears our prayers.

He invented grace.

He is love.

He is holy.

He is great.

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biz, legal, and professionalism humor video

Thinking about law school?

On a more serious note, see Justice Scalia’s thoughts re law school here. 

If still interested, look for schools and organizations with mentors who understand the intersection of Christianity and the law, both in practice and in jurisprudence.  See for example here, here and here.

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culture entertainment

Tempest in the taxpayer funded NPR teapot

On a subsequent O’Reilly show, liberal NPR analyst Juan Williams was explaining the importance of not stereotyping everyone within a religion because of the violent acts of some members of the religion.  In the course of his argument, he said that when he’s on a public flight, he worries when he sees people on the flight whose dress makes it clear that they are devote Muslims.

I’ve been on many flights since 9/11, and on numerous occasions since then have experienced the same concerns.  If I watched Mr. O’Reilly’s show and heard the statement, it would’ve registered as a yawner … a statement of the obvious.  As Mr. Krauthammer points out, this admission by Mr. Williams wasn’t too terribly different from Mr. Jackson’s admission years ago that when he hears footsteps approaching him from behind at night, he’s relieved when he sees it’s not a young black man.  In the case of Mr. Williams, there was one big difference with this admission — the consequence.  NPR promptly fired him.

Never a shrinking violet, Mr. Williams explains here why he’s none to happy with NPR’s punishment.  That liberals are intolerant of dissent is nothing new.  That federally funded NPR is a bastion of liberals and Washington DC group-think should only be a surprise to someone who doesn’t listen to NPR.  What is, however, somewhat surprising, is how, accordingly to Mr. Williams, the leadership at NPR militantly opposes anything that even gives the appearance of cooperating with conservatives.  I could care less about any of this if NPR was a private entity, supported by the fruits of its own labors.  However the fact that my tax dollars support these left-wing wind bags makes it chaffing.  In 1994, I hoped that one of the “Republican Revolution” results would be the defunding of NPR.  Mr. William’s timing is perfect.  Hopefully a 2011 Republican Congress will take note and act accordingly.  O’Reilly is making the same point here.

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homeschooling video World etc.