Friday, December 26, 2014

Belligerent passenger ejected from La Guardia flight, bah humbug!

From here:
A belligerent American Airlines passenger was ejected from a plane at La Guardia Airport on Tuesday after becoming  belligerent because an American employee wished him a Merry Christmas.

The male passenger was waiting to boar flight AA1140 from LGA to Dallas (DFW) when a merry gate agent began welcoming everyone with the Yuletide greeting while checking boarding passes.

When the gate agent wished the gentleman a merry Christmas he responded with, “You shouldn’t say that because not everyone celebrates Christmas.”  Valid point, but what’s the harm in that?

The gate agent followed by saying, “Well, what should I say then?”

“Don’t say, ‘Merry Christmas!’” the man shouted in frustration before brushing past the agent and to the jet bridge.

As the passenger was boarding the plane, he was warmly greeted by a cheerful flight attendant who yet again wished him a “merry Christmas.”  That was the last straw.

“Don’t say, ‘Merry Christmas!’ ” the man replied in anger before lecturing the attendants and the pilot about their holiday madness.

The passenger did not cool down and had to be escorted off the plane by airport authorities as other fliers cheered because Christmas was saved.
 --------------------
Bottom line:  December 25 is officially Christmas, whether one chooses to celebrate it or not.  If I choose to wish you a merry one, and you don't celebrate it, appreciate the thought anyway and respond graciously--like a civilized human being!  This is the danger we are approaching in this country, where someone's tendency to be offended is supposed to trump someone else's right to free speech.
  

Saturday, December 20, 2014

US Says North Korea Responsible for Sony Hack

The federal government has determined that North Korea is responsible for the hacking of computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment, according to a report on ABC News.

Is this the same federal government that "determined" that the Benghazi embassy attack was the result of a YouTube video?   Yeah, I thought so.

------------------------
In further developments:
North Korea seeks joint probe with US on Sony hack (14:51 ET)
North Korea has offered to hold a joint inquiry with the United States into a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, strongly denying US claims that it is behind it.

The United States stands by its assertion that the North Korean government was behind the massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said on Saturday.

North Korea Warns U.S. Not to Take Sony Action (17:12 ET)
Warning of “serious consequences” if the United States retaliates against it over the damaging cyberattack on Sony Pictures, North Korea insisted on Saturday that it was not behind it, and it offered to prove its innocence by taking part in a joint investigation with Washington to identify the hackers.
It is going to be interesting to see how this thing plays out.  But whatever eventually proves to be the truth, right now it's a sad day when you have to wonder whether to trust what the North Korean government says over your what your own government says.
 

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Black Friday Revealed How Poor Americans Really Are


From here:
Black Friday sales plummeted this year, leaving retailers completely stumped.

After weeks of declining gas prices, many analysts predicted the biggest holiday season ever. Industry groups like the National Retail Federation reasoned that Americans would use their fuel savings on gifts.

Despite encouraging forecasts, Black Friday weekend sales were down 11%. Cyber Monday sales rose 8%, falling short of many predictions.

So where are the customers? They're probably broke, according to some analysts and executives.
Then, after reporting that the only stores that did well on Black Friday were deep discounters, like Kohl's and Family Dollar stores, comes the "take-away" line from this story:

"Health insurance premiums have increased between 39% and 56% since early 2013, meaning additional costs of $230 per month for the average family."  

Yeah, that's certainly been my experience.  When you're paying 39% to 56% more for health insurance than you were in 2013 (before Obamacare kicked in) it makes it hard for Christmas to be like it once was.

So what was that about the "Affordable Care Act"??? 
 

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanksgiving

Of all the things one could give thanks for on this special day, it seems that this one is the first and greatest:




Sunday, November 16, 2014

Oregon immigration vote is a warning for Obama

From here:
The fate of a little-noticed ballot measure in strongly Democratic Oregon serves as a warning to President Barack Obama and his party about the political perils of immigration policy.

Even as Oregon voters were legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding Democratic majorities in state government, they decided by a margin of 66-34 to cancel a new state law that would have provided driver's licenses to people who are in the United States illegally.

Obama is considering acting on his own, as early as this week, to possibly shield from deportation up to 5 million immigrants now living illegally in the country. Some Republicans in Congress are threatening a government shutdown if the president follows through.

"The Oregon measure tells you these measures are not easy or simple," said Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute. "The political cost may be significant, even in blue states."
Read it all.
 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says

From here:
Experimental mice have been telling us this for years, but pot-smoking humans didn't want to believe it could happen to them: Compared with a person who never smoked marijuana, someone who uses marijuana regularly has, on average, less gray matter in his orbital frontal cortex, a region that is a key node in the brain's reward, motivation, decision-making and addictive behaviors network.

[...]

Researchers noted that the IQ of the marijuana-using group was significantly lower than that of the non-using group — not a finding of the study, but an incidental factor that might be indirectly linked to marijuana use.
Read it all.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

KENYA: Realignment of Anglican Communion is Done Deal Says Archbishop Wabukala

From here:
Recent news that Lambeth 2018 has been postponed, perhaps indefinitely, is the latest sign that the old institutions of the Communion no longer command confidence, according to Kenyan Archbishop Eliud Wabukala.  "We must remember that the fundamental reason for this is doctrinal.  We are divided because the Faith is threatened by unbiblical teaching," he added.

"In contrast, GAFCON 2 demonstrated that we were emerging as a new and effective 'instrument of unity' for the Anglican Communion."

The Kenya Primate noted that reality was underlined at the investiture of Archbishop Foley Beach as the second Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America by the Primates gathered in Atlanta, representing GAFCON and the Anglican Global South, receiving him as a Primate of the Anglican Communion.

"It is a sign of great hope for the Gospel in the world.  It is not a small thing that has happened.  There was no need for us to be reminded of the reasons why GAFCON had called the Anglican Church in North America into being five years ago because the investiture demonstrated that the realignment of the Anglican Communion is now established and unstoppable.
Read it all

 

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Iron Man vs. ISIS?

No, not really, of course.  But it was a good excuse to post one of my all-time favorite action movie rescue scenes:


Thursday, October 23, 2014

In the West, a Growing List of Attacks Linked to Islamic Extremism

When I first read this article from the New York Times, my first reaction was, "Well, Duh?"  It seems that one cannot go very long these days without hearing of yet another attack by someone who has embraced militant Islam—like the attack at the Canadian Parliament building yesterday.  However, what is significant is that the New York Times is commenting on it and providing a catalog of the events that have happened in the past couple of years, in an apparent break from our "Community Organizer-in-Chief" who continues to deny that these attacks have any connection to Islam, to maintain that they are not acts of terrorism, and to describe the attacks as "workplace violence."

Saturday, October 11, 2014

ACNA Archbishop Recognized as Primate in the Anglican Communion

http://www.virtueonline.org/sites/default/files/styles/news-large/public/IMG_2701_0.jpg?itok=Vimv9y1K

Archbishop Foley Beach was proclaimed a "Primate in the Anglican Communion" at his Investiture as Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America before a congregation of more than 2,000 on Thursday night at the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Seven archbishops and primates of the Anglican Communion, representing more than 50 million Anglicans, laid hands on him and announced, "Foley Beach, we welcome you as Archbishop and Primate in the Anglican Communion."

Archbishop Beach was anointed for his office by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya, the Chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).  The Oaths he undertook were administered by Abp. Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, the Vice-Chairman of GAFCON.  Abp. Stanley Ntgali of Uganda, Abp. Onesiphore Rwaje of Rwanda, Abp. Stephen Than Myint Oo of Myanmar, Abp. Ezekiel Kondo of Sudan, Abp. Mouneer Hanna Anis Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East and Chairman of the Global South Primates, and Abp. Hector Zavala of the Southern Cone participated in laying hands on the new Archbishop.  Abp. Ben Kwashi and retired Abp. Greg Venables also took part.  The Primates of the Congo and Southeast Asia sent representatives.

The action comes amidst a controversy over who is and isn't a member of the Anglican Communion, —a controversy begun when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recently said in an interview with The Irish Gazette that there is little hope of the Anglican Church in North America becoming part of the Anglican Communion.  "It is not part of the Anglican Communion," he said.  He described the ACNA as a "separate church" and an "ecumenical partner." 

In an apparent response to Welby's statement, the Primates from the Global South who participated in Thursday evening's Investiture have made it abundantly clear where they stand.
 

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Lambeth 2018: Cancelled or Not Called?

Several news sources are keeping us abreast of the developing story of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's cancellation of the Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops in 2018.  The news of the cancellation became public after Katharine Jefferts Schori announced it in response to a bishop's question at the recent TEC House of Bishops meeting in Taiwan.

For his part, Archbishop Welby is backtracking from the perception that the conference has been cancelled.  An Anglican Communion News Service article contained this quote:
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has responded to inaccurate media reports that the Lambeth Conference had been cancelled by saying, "As it hasn’t been called, it can’t have been cancelled."
These kinds of statements defy belief.  C'mon Justin, everyone knows that the Lambeth Conference of Bishops has met in the eighth year of each decade for more than 70 years.  Not to have it in 2018 is, for all intents and purposes, to cancel it.

Cancelling it, postponing it, not calling it—whatever—given the current climate in the Communion, is probably a wise thing to do.  More than 200 bishops declined to attend in 2008, following actions by the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church in Canada to depart from historic Christian faith and morals. 

Admittedly, all the positive rhetoric around the health of the Anglican Communion is what some leaders often believe is a necessity.  While being more candid (not to say honest) might be seen as too negative and terribly un-British, the spin regarding the situation of the Communion is so unbelievable as to be preposterous.  Consider this statement by Abp. Welby regarding his contact with the Primates:
"All the indications are that they want the Communion to flourish,” he said, “that they want to have meetings to discuss the issues that face us: How do we live as a Communion in a way that demonstrates very important differences over issues of sexuality?
Writing on Stand Firm, Sarah Hey rightly observes:
Well, no.  That is not the purpose of “meetings”—to decide how to live “as a Communion” while having “very important differences over issues of sexuality.”

The repeated statement by at least the Gafcon Primates, and many of the remaining Global South Primates is that the actions of The Episcopal Church are intrinsically communion-dividing.  It’s not a question of “how will the Communion divide”—that division, albeit internal, has already occurred.  The further question is not “how can we all live together in the midst of our profound disagreements” but is rather “what is to be done with the Provinces which have engaged in intrinsically communion-dividing actions?”

That is the question, to which an appropriate answer has already been provided by Scripture, tradition, reason, and 22 of the Anglican Communion Provinces. 
[Amen.  Amen.  Amen.]

Concurrently with this spin over the cancellation of the 2018 Lambeth conference comes a statement in an interview by Archbishop Welby that the Anglican Church in North America is not a part of the Anglican Communion.  Well, technically, if membership in the Communion is dependent on an invitation to a Lambeth Conference by the Archbishop of Canterbury, then no the ACNA is not a member.  Of course, Welby could change all that by simply inviting the ACNA bishops to the next Lambeth conference. 

In any event, there are two facts on the ground that Archbishop Welby needs to recognize: 

1.  The Anglican Communion is already divided, as A.S. Haley very ably documented.
2.  Twenty-two provinces (a majority of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion) already recognize the Anglican Church in North America (just as the Diocese of Northwest Australia did this past week).  These provinces also represent the overwhelming majority of the world's active, church-going Anglicans.

Imagine a Communion that embraced the vitality and orthodoxy of GAFCON and the Global South and that disciplined the decadent and heterodox churches of the West.  This could be a moment in which the Church of the 21st century stood proudly and boldly with the communion of saints down through the ages.  Instead, Archbishop Welby's failure to recognize the situation as it truly exists (and his worthless and inconsequential attempts at reconciliation) will only prolong the Anglican Communion's malaise.
 

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Hillaire Belloc on Democrats?

Could Hillaire Belloc (1870-1953) have been writing about 21st century Democrats?  You be the judge:

The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too.  He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being.  Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marveling that civilization should have offended him with priests and soldiers ....  In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true.
 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

And you thought idol worship was dead?

More than 400,000 people turned out for the People's Climate March in New York City on Sunday, just days before many of the world's leaders are expected to debate environmental action at the United Nations climate summit.

The march began around 11:30 a.m., at New York City's Columbus Circle just off Central Park. At times, it stretched more than 4 miles as marchers carried banners, signs and entire contraptions depicting everything from Mother Earth herself to the dinosaurs that now make up fossil fuels.  Amidst all the lunacy that one person characterized on Twitter as the "biggest joke in history" came this float that people actually bowed, prostrated themselves and worshiped:


I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since things like climate change hysteria are what people turn to when they have lost their reason and are ensnared by the latest cultural fad.

Robert Kennedy Jr. was at the People's Climate March and even went so far as to suggest that those who oppose the notion of man-made global warming should be imprisoned.  (Did you ever notice how quickly and easily many liberals become fascists when you disagree with them?)  Thank God for the First Amendment!

So for Robert Kennedy Jr. and all the other false god worshipers out there, you might want to consider this:
I could go on, but you get the idea.  The disturbing thing is that people like Robert Kennedy Jr. want to put people in jail for refusing to bow to their false god of global warming.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Deportations down 20 percent, fewest since 2007

This morning I read an article that ended with the following sentence:
As of early September, only 319 of more than 59,000 immigrants who were caught traveling with their families have been returned to Central America.
Are we surprised?  No, because the government is doing what the government always does: Nothing, and then they wait until the storm blows over.



Wednesday, September 10, 2014

28,000 Pro-ISIS Twitter Accounts Created Since James Foley Murder

This could fall under the heading, "Why I Despair for the World, Reason #32":

From here:

At least 28,000 Twitter accounts supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) have been set up since the beheading of American journalist James Foley, according to a Web intelligence firm. Twitter vowed to suspend accounts posting graphic imagery or "calls to violent actions" after Foley's murder was filmed by the Sunni group and then spread online last month. But an analysis by Recorded Future carried out for Britain's Sky News showed 60,000 pro-jihadi profiles had been set up since May, including 28,000 since the video of Foley’s murder emerged on August 20. 

And in the 24 hours after video was released showing U.S. reporter Steven Sotloff’s murder by ISIS, 10 percent of all references to the footage were positive, the analysis showed. ISIS has employed Twitter, sophisticated videos and professional-sounding music recordings to spread its message around the world in a way not seen before in militant organizations.

Saturday, September 06, 2014

A Tale of Two Patients

I am posting this because it strongly resembles the ordeal I am having trying to get decent healthcare in Montrose, Colorado.  And I believe there are some members of my parish who have had similar experiences:

2 patients limp into two different doctors' offices with the same complaint: 

Both have trouble walking and may require hip surgery.


Patient #1 is examined within the hour, is x-ray'd the same day and has a time booked for surgery the following week.

Patient #2 sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, then waits 8 weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn't reviewed for another week, and finally has his surgery scheduled for 6 months from then, pending the review board's decision on his age and remaining value to society.

Why the different treatment for the 2 patients?

The FIRST is a Golden Retriever taken to a vet.

The SECOND is a Senior Citizen on Obamacare.

In we don't change the party in control of the Senate in November 2014 and the White House in November 2016, we will all have to find a good vet.

The one difference is that I am not a senior citizen on Obamacare.  I am a working individual with regular health insurance trying to get healthcare in a system that has been affected (for the worse) by Obamacare.  Doctors in this town aren't taking new patients (some of them for fear of getting saddled with Obamacare patients).  Obamacare has also caused a number of doctors to stop taking Medicare patients--in a town full of retirees, most of whom are on Medicare!  Some of the doctors--three this month alone--are leaving town or quitting private practice.  Those quitting private practice are doing so to avoid the bureaucracy and headaches caused by Obamacare.  Those who are moving elsewhere are going into larger practices where there are additional staff to deal with the bureaucracy and red tape.  The shortage of physicians in Montrose is creating a mentality of scarcity with regard to healthcare, which has the effect of causing healthcare providers to treat patients as a commodity rather than as valued customers.  

Now I know what healthcare in the Soviet Union must have been like--rationed, impersonal, uncaring.  Thank you Mr. Obama.  Thank you Mr. Reid, Mrs. Pelosi.  And thank you healthcare professionals who have allowed yourselves to be turned into healthcare bureaucrats.
 

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

The "Heart-Shield Bible" and the Destiny of a Nation

Seventy five years ago, today, on September 3, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation with one of his famous "Fireside Chats" stating his resolve to remain a neutral nation in the war in Europe, which culminated in an American Proclamation of Neutrality declared on September 5th.

However, all of that changed with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In his famous "date which will live in infamy" message to Congress requesting that the United States officially declare war on Japan, President Roosevelt stated, "With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God."


What changed on December 7 was the realization that this war was one that the United States could not avoid.  It was a war against a totalitarian ideology that was bent on world domination if left unstopped, and the outcome would affect the course of human history.  Like another war in which we find ourselves today, it was a war for the soul of the world.

A reflection of President Roosevelt's confidence in God and our military (along with his concern for individual American soldiers) was later evident in what is now known as The Heart-Shield Bible.  These Bibles (used during World War II) were designed to fit securely into the chest pocket of a soldier’s uniform.  The Bibles contained metal plates, securely attached to the front cover of the Bible and could stop a bullet from reaching the soldier's heart.  There were several reported incidents of the Bibles indeed saving a soldier's life.  In the back is a section of psalms and hymns, including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,”  “America the Beautiful,” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”  In the front, there is a note to the soldiers directly from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
 
"As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.  Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration.  It is a foundation of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul."

Well before America joined World War II, on the 400th anniversary of the English Bible in 1935, President Roosevelt reminded the nation of the Bible's importance in America's formation and continuance:  

"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. . . . Where we have been truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity; where it has been to us as the words of a book that is sealed, we have faltered in our way, lost our range finders, and found our progress checked. It is well that we observe this anniversary of the first publishing of our English Bible. The time is propitious to place a fresh emphasis upon its place and worth in the economy of our life as a people."
Can you imagine a president saying that today?   Remember the recent attempt by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to have Gideon Bibles removed from lodgings on US military facilities?  U.S. Navy staff members had already begun the removal of the Bibles when an outcry from the American public caused the military to reverse this ill-advised decision.  But the fight continues between those who would keep our nation true to its Judeo-Christian heritage and those who would destroy that heritage and turn our country into a godless, atheistic state.  It is another war for the soul of our country and the world, and the outcome will affect the course of human history.

Consider the following statements by Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous 19th century French statesman, historian and social philosopher.  He traveled to America in the 1830s to discover the reasons for the incredible success of this new nation.   He published his observations in his classic two-volume work, Democracy in America.  He was especially impressed by America's religious character.  Here are some amazingly insightful excerpts from Tocqueville's great work:
Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.

In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.

Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.  Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief.

I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion—for who can search the human heart?  But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.  This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.


In the United States, the sovereign authority is religious...there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.

In the United States, the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people...

Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal consent...

I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.

America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts—the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.
Did you notice Tocqueville's warning?  "... if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."   Goodness requires a morality—and morality begins with God.

Some people today view the "culture wars" as not being their fight.  They think they can "sit this one out" and that the United States will somehow be okay, and that things will go on more or less as they always have.  I am here to tell you that this is not true.  The "culture wars," as we have come to call them, are a world war—a war for the hearts, minds, and souls of humankind.

There are wars in history that have been pivotal in the course of human civilization:
  • The victory of the democratic Greeks over the tyrannical Persians in the Graeco-Persians Wars (499-449 BC) 
  • The defeat of Maximian by Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312.
  • The defeat of the Muslim invaders (the Umayyad Caliphate) by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.
  • The defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War, that marked the beginning of the United States as a "a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (and, though Lincoln stopped his quotation from the Declaration of Independence short, that "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights")—a unique and distinctly theistic beginning, unlike any nation ever brought into being. 
  • The defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allied Forces in World War II (1940-1945).
  • The defeat of Communism in the Cold War (generally agreed by historians as 1945-1991).
There have been other important victories that have determined the course of history—I have listed only a few of the most important ones.  We do ourselves a dangerous disservice if we underestimate the importance of any of them.

But, whether we are aware of it or not, we are currently engaged in a war is every bit as important as any war that has ever been fought.  Whether those on the side of good win this war will determine the future of human civilization.

We cannot simply "sit this one out."  We must throw off apathy and press on undeterred by the forces of political correctness and worldly compromise.  We must oppose those of any religious establishment, any political party, the "cultural elites," and their allies in the media who would conspire to rob us of our heritage, our faith, and our destiny as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  So help us God! 

Monday, September 01, 2014

Americans detained in North Korea call for US help

Our "do nothing" President strikes again.  

From here:
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea gave foreign media access on Monday to three detained Americans who said they have been able to contact their families and — watched by officials as they spoke — called for Washington to send a high-ranking representative to negotiate for their freedom.

Jeffrey Fowle and Mathew Miller said they expect to face trial within a month. But they said they do not know what punishment they could face or what the specific charges against them are. Kenneth Bae, who already is serving a 15-year term, said his health has deteriorated at the labor camp where he works eight hours a day.

The three were allowed to speak briefly with The Associated Press at a meeting center in Pyongyang. North Korean officials were present during the interviews, conducted separately and in different rooms, but did not censor the questions that were asked. The three said they did not know they were going to be interviewed until immediately beforehand.

All said they believe the only solution to their situation is for a U.S. representative to come to North Korea to make a direct appeal.

That has often been North Korea's bargaining chip in the past, when senior statesmen including former President Bill Clinton made trips to Pyongyang to secure the release of detainees.
North Korea says Fowle and Miller committed hostile acts which violated their status as tourists. It has announced that authorities are preparing for the trial, but has not announced the date.
{...}
Bae, a 46-year-old Korean-American missionary, has been held since November 2012. He was moved from a work camp to a hospital because of failing health and weight loss but last month was sent back to the work camp outside of Pyongyang, where he said he does farm-related labor. He said he has lost 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) and has severe back pain, along with a sleep disorder. His family has said his health problems include diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems and back pain.

"The only hope that I have is to have someone from the U.S. come," he said. "But so far, the latest I've heard is that there has been no response yet. So I believe that officials here are waiting for that."
Meanwhile, in Mexico, Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi is languishing in prison due to another failure of this administration to act to support American citizens detained overseas.  

Please pray for these individuals, and please pray that we once again get a government that knows how to act.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

THEOLOGY: FAIL - What happens when you don't understand the Atonement

EPISCOPAL PRIESTESS: 'GOD BECAME MICHAEL BROWN'

From here... and here... and here... and even YouTube:

It is not often that a sermon attracts national attention.  And it is especially rare these days for an unorthodox, not to say heretical, sermon to attract national attention--they happen so frequently!

But the blogosphere and even major media outlets are buzzing over the sermon delivered last Sunday by the Rev. Sarah Kinney Gaventa, Associate Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia.  The appointed text for that Sunday dealt with St. Peter's confession in response to Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?"  And Peter responded, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Somehow, Ms. Gaventa managed to jump from one of the richest texts in the four Gospels to the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, earlier this month.  After listing other cases in which unarmed black men have been shot by law enforcement officers, Ms. Gaventa denounced “systematic” racist white behavior in education, social media, and law enforcement—chalking it up to an “infection” of “white privilege.”

But she was just getting warmed up.

Gaventa’s final remarks reportedly outraged the congregation, when she equated Michael Brown to Jesus, implying that Brown, like Christ, was a sacrifice for our sin:
The God we love came to disrupt the power structures of the world that tell us what we are worth. He is a living God, who loved us so much and was so grieved by our inability to love him and one another, that he was willing to become human.
He became Michael Brown. He became the victim of our sin, so we wouldn’t have to sacrifice each other any more. His sacrifice should have been the last. His sacrifice was enough for us. And yet, here we are.
 You can listen to the complete sermon (8 minutes, 48 seconds) from last Sunday, August 24, 2014.

Personally I blame the state of theological education in Episcopal seminaries, and the Episcopal Church in general, which has been confused (at best) about the Atonement of Jesus Christ for decades!

Just for the record, contra Ms. Gaventa, Jesus was (and is) the unique incarnation of the eternal second Person of the Trinity, the Son.  He became incarnate not merely to be a teacher and the prophesied Messiah of the Jewish people, but to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

Jesus did not die as the victim of our sins; he died as the unique, once for all, sacrifice for our sins (I Peter 2:24a, 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:8).  His atoning death, agreed upon by in advance by God the Father and God the Son (Acts 4:27), paid  the penalty for our sins and removed the barrier that separated sinful humans from a holy God.

Will the Episcopal Church ever recover sound theology?  Apart from a miracle and a revival sent by God, no.  Ms. Gaventa is only living out the kind of confusion regarding the Incarnation and Atonement of Jesus Christ that is routinely taught in the seminaries of the old-line denominations today--seminaries which have a disdain (and even contempt) for biblical and traditional Christian understandings of these doctrines.
  

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Obama: No Iraq rescue; further airdrops unlikely




It really defies belief--the gutlessness, the indecision, the incompetence—in the face of a new global terror!

From the Associated Press:
President Barack Obama on Thursday promised to expand U.S. humanitarian relief to Iraqis threatened by the advancing army of the Islamic State militants.  He took credit for alleviating the genocide threat [Oh, really?  You mean the threat has been eliminated?] to thousands trapped on a mountaintop but said the situation "remains dire" throughout the country.

Translation:  "Things are really awful in Iraq right now, but we are committed to doing nothing until we are absolutely certain that whatever we do will be too little, too late." 

"Obama said no emergency evacuation on Mount Sinjar is now needed, and he said it is unlikely the U.S. military will continue to airdrop food and water there."   

Translation: "Yeah, one airdrop was enough to solve the whole problem.  Those several hundred thousand Iraqis and Kurds who have been displaced from their homes are just going to have to wait; I have a golf date to keep."

Obama gave no indication he intends to shift from the limited, defensive military campaign he announced last week to one designed to use American might to push back and eventually defeat an emboldened Islamic State army, which has made rapid and broad advances across western and northern Iraq since June.

Translation: "Because I am more afraid of what my liberal base will think of me for getting the US into a land war again than I am concerned about the plight of millions who are being threatened by this new terror."

"We're going to be working with our international partners to provide humanitarian assistance to those who are suffering in northern Iraq wherever we have capabilities and we can carry out effective missions like the one we carried out on Mount Sinjar without committing combat troops on the ground," Obama said in a statement. 

Translation, "Because we are not the leaders of the free world anymore.  We don't do nuthin' without the French and the Dutch goin' along with it."

His remarks highlighted the gap between the administration's increasingly dire assessment of the threat posed by the Islamic State group and the limited air campaign it has so far undertaken, which military officials acknowledge has had only a temporary, local effect and is not likely to blunt the group's momentum or ambitions.

Translation: "The gap between our dire assessment of the situation and how little we have done is because I really don't know what the heck I am doing.  I just wish these folks would hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" until January 2017 when I am out of office." 

On Wednesday, some of the most senior U.S. intelligence experts on terrorism briefed reporters in detail on the Islamic State group. They described a battle-hardened, well-funded terrorist organization that is bent on governing the territory it has seized in Syria and Iraq while also encouraging attacks in Europe and the United States.

"We assess that the group probably sees conflict with the United States as inevitable," one of the officials said, speaking, as the others did, under ground rules that he not be identified.

Translation:  "This is Nazi Germany in 1933.  We can see the threat.  We know what is coming, but we are going to wait until the enemy is so strong that it takes a World War to actually stop this hideous evil rather than confront it now.  Because, by then, this president will be on permanent vacation in Hawaii enjoying those wonderful presidential retirement benefits at taxpayers' expense."

Obama has said little about the potential external terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State militants, but he has been emphatic in his position that there is no American military solution to the insurgent threat facing Iraq.

["Mr. Obama, Neville Chamberlain is on the phone for you."]

The Islamic State group has its roots in another group known as al-Qaida in Iraq, which survived years of U.S. operations that diminished but didn't defeat it.  Nearly all of the Islamic State's leaders were at one point in American custody during the Iraq war, the officials said.

Translation:  "Yeah, we actually had these guys in custody.  But we let 'em go because, you know, Gitmo is just so uncool."

U.S. intelligence has concluded that even a new government in Iraq would need "external help" to make gains against the group and that neutralizing the Islamic State group would be unlikely without addressing its safe haven in Syria, where it has a headquarters. The Islamic State has access to oil revenues and other income sources worth several hundred million dollars a year, the officials said.

The officials said they still were unfamiliar with the structure of the organization and its total numbers, though U.S. officials have estimated the group is about 15,000 strong.

Translation: "That 15,000 is just a guess.  Frankly our intel on this whole situation hasn't been worth $%^*!"  We don't know how big they are.  We don't know where they are getting their money or their fighters.  We just know they are riding around in new Toyota and Kia trucks with their Islamic State decals on them like they were the Chicago police or something."


[Question: "Where were our forces while this 'parade' was going on?  One strafing run by an A-10 'Warthog' could have set the new 'caliphate' back a long way."]

Critics say the administration is only putting off the day when the U.S. will have to directly confront the Islamic State group, whose forces surprised and impressed U.S. officials with the speed and proficiency with which they overran Iraqi government forces at such strategic points as Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq.

A U.S. intelligence official said a few hundred fighters from the group chased away a force of 50,000 to seize Mosul.   

Translation: "Sure we can pull out of Iraq and leave them to defend themselves.  They'll be okay, really.  Trust me."

Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey said last month he would present Obama with a long-term strategy to defeat the Islamic State, but officials have not described it. Even the nature and scope of further U.S. humanitarian relief missions in Iraq is unclear, but limited airstrikes continue.

Translation: "Ain't nobody gonna say nuthin' more about any 'long-term strategy to defeat the Islamic State,' cause if'n anybody knows I coulda stopped this thing and didn't, I am screwed."

The U.S. military said a mix of fighters and drone aircraft attacked two of the Islamic group's armed vehicles and a U.S.-made troop carrier, near the city of Irbil.  U.S. Central Command said the two armed vehicles were attacked after they fired on Kurdish forces, and moments later the troop carrier was hit near the site of the two previous strikes. The Islamic fighters have been operating U.S.-made equipment they captured from Iraqi army forces.

Translation: "I be likin' dem drones!  I am down with havin' our guys sit in a trailer outside Las Vegas and off those brothers halfway around the world.  Just so I don't have to do anything that causes my media buddies turnin' against me or nuthin'"


Saturday, August 02, 2014

Why I despair for America: "LA Residents Call 911 Over Facebook Outage"


Does missing your friend's latest baby picture constitute an emergency?  For some Los Angeles residents who reportedly called 911 to report that Facebook was down briefly on Friday, the answer is apparently yes.

Facebook was not accessible for a short time during "a widespread outage that affected users in multiple countries," according to Reuters.  Service was restored fully and the outage was being blamed on "a technical' failure rather than any suspicious activity," the news agency cited an unnamed source as saying.

But before all Facebook users were able to access the site again, some LA-area Facebookers seems to have thought the interruption of their social networking fix was worthy of a call to emergency dispatch, the Los Angeles Times reported:

At 9:37 a.m. Pacific, Sgt. Burton Brink, public information officer for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Crescenta Valley Station, tweeted a stern reprimand to Facebook junkies who were apparently tying up the 911 lines with cries for help.

Sgt. Brink later indicated that the calls to 911 about Facebook being down weren't just from one individual but appeared to have come from multiple social media junkies, though he didn't name the number of calls received.
....
....
....   (Still shaking head) ....

How does one even begin to comment on a news item like that or what it says about our society?


Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Dr. Mark Achtemeier: "The Hidden Error in 'Biblical' Arguments Against Gay Marriage"

In a Church History class I am teaching for the St. Benedict School for Ministry, we just finished studying about the second-century St. Irenaeus and his defense of the Gospel.   I always try to demonstrate why the figures we study in Church History matter; and a shining example came up today when Christopher Johnson, of the Midwest Conservative Journal, pointed his readers to an article in the Huffington Post by Presbyterian theologian, Dr. Mark Achtemeier, entitled "The Hidden Error in 'Biblical' Arguments Against Gay Marriage."  The article is Dr. Achtemeier's attempt to air his views and to score some points with a favorable audience (Huffington Post readers) as well as to promote his latest book, The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical's Change of Heart.

In his article, Dr. Achtemeier cites Irenaeus as one who helped him find a methodology for getting past the way traditional Christians have used the Bible to condemn homosexual behavior.  Here is what Dr. Achtemeier has to say:
In the early 2000s, I was working hard to keep lesbian and gay persons out of the ministry of my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA). I did this in part because I thought the biblical case against gay relationships was straightforward.  The standard arguments cited eight fragmentary quotes scattered throughout the Bible.  I thought that was enough to settle the matter.
I was wrong.  As I recount in my recent book, my settled convictions were shaken when I started to see how the results of those traditional condemnations produced blatant contradictions with the Bible's teaching about the fruits of righteousness and the nature of God.  These contradictions convinced me that something about the exclusionary teaching didn't add up.  What I couldn't understand was how this traditional teaching could be mistaken when it was grounded in quotes from the Bible.

I found help with this puzzle in the teaching of a second-century church leader, named Irenaeus of Lyons.  Irenaeus in his day was struggling to keep his flock from being led astray by false teachers who were proclaiming their own fabricated versions of "Christianity."  These counterfeit faiths bore little resemblance to anything that Jesus and his disciples had taught, but in spite of that the false teachers were still able to back up most of what they said with Scripture quotes.  This was very confusing to Irenaeus' flock, and I discovered that these second-century Christians were asking the same question I was: How could a teaching be mistaken or unfaithful when its proponents could back it up with quotes from the Bible?

Irenaeus explains how this can happen.  Imagine, he says, that a skilled artist has created a mosaic picture made out of colored stones.  All these multicolored fragments together form a beautiful portrait of a king.  But now suppose that another artist comes along and disassembles the original mosaic, sorting all the stones into little colored piles.  This second artist re-assembles the stones into a new mosaic, and he travels around showing off the picture, saying "Behold the King."  Only this time, in place of the original portrait, the new arrangement of stones forms a crudely-drawn picture of a dog.  Every single stone in that new mosaic comes from the original portrait. But that does not make it a true picture of the King!

This, says Irenaeus, is what the false teachers have done with Scripture.  Like the individual stones making up a mosaic, they have taken individual quotes from all over the Bible.  But the quotes have been pulled out of their original contexts and rearranged in such a way that they no longer form a true picture of the Bible's message.  Individual scripture quotes can lose their connection to the "true portrait" of God's love in Christ that is the Bible's overarching focus.

I myself had learned to support the categorical condemnation of same-sex relationships by appealing to scattered fragments of Scripture.  But Irenaeus helped me understand that being able to cite Bible passages in support of a particular teaching is no guarantee that the teaching is either true or faithful. Where does that leave us?  (Read the rest here.)
The problem with Dr. Achtemeier quoting Irenaeus to say that the Bible’s “big picture” is something other than the sum of its parts when it comes to homosexuality is that Ireneaeus, in his work, “Against the Heresies,” condemns the libertine practices of the Gnostics, including homosexual practice, by quoting the very same passages from the Apostle Paul that are still cited by orthodox Christians today.  Now read Irenaeus, in his own words, and notice the way in which he quotes Scripture:
[The apostle], foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers, has particularized the works which he terms carnal; and he explains himself, lest any room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly pervert his meaning, thus saying in the Epistle to the Galatians: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts, hatreds, contentions, jealousies, wraths, emulations, animosities, irritable speeches, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and such like; of which I warn you, as also I have warned you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more explicit manner what it is [he means when he declares], “Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”  For they who do these things, since they do indeed walk after the flesh, have not the power of living unto God.

[...]

As, again, the same apostle testifies, saying to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not err,” he says: “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,* nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor rapacious persons, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And these ye indeed have been; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”  He shows in the clearest manner through what things it is that man goes to destruction, if he has continued to live after the flesh; and then, on the other hand, [he points out] through what things he is saved.  Now he says that the things which save are the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.

* For those who are unfamiliar, "abusers of themselves with mankind" is one of the ways the ancient Greeks referred to those who committed homosexual acts.
So, actually, if we look at Irenaeus’ own application of these “time-tested principles of biblical interpretation” it shows: (1) that Irenaeus quoted Scripture to condemn immorality in precisely the same way that traditional Christians do today; (2) that he used the same Scriptures from Paul to say that homosexual behavior is among a whole list of acts that are wrong, and (3) that Dr. Achtemeier is twisting both the Scriptures and Church History with regard to Irenaeus in order to support same-sex marriage.

Irenaeus wrote his best-known surviving work, Againtst the Heresies, primarily to combat the challenge of the Gnostics to orthodox Christianity.  In that work (to which Achtemeier alludes in the quotation from his article) Irenaeus accuses the Gnostics of taking isolated passages of Scripture out of their original context in order to fabricate false doctrines that are not supported by Scripture as a whole.  There is a great deal of difference between this Gnostic misuse of Scripture and the simple practice of ordinary Christians in assembling a list of Bible verses that address a particular subject or question.  

But the central premise of Dr. Achtemeier's argument comes when, he says:  "Fortunately, the church across the centuries has developed guidelines for interpreting Scripture that help keep our use of particular passages in touch with the true portrait of God's love in Christ."  Where does one find "the true portrait of God's love in Christ" if not in Scripture?

When we look at Scripture—for instance, when Jesus deals with the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11)—we see that Jesus stands against the hypocritical Pharisees' attempt to stone the woman.  He demonstrates the love of God; but he does not overthrow the Mosaic law against adultery or condone the woman's sin.  In fact, he tells her, "go, and from now on sin no more.”  Calling sin what it really is and admonishing those who are engaged in it to sin no more is often the most loving thing we can do.

Whenever we start painting a portrait of Christ that is the product of our own sense of "fairness, love, kindness, compassion, etc." rather than the actual biblical portrait of Jesus, who is loving as well as completely holy and righteous, then we run into the danger of idolatry—forming an image of God according to our own needs, ideas, and purposes. 

Sadly, Dr. Achtemeier's "portrait of God's love in Christ" is merely the subjective creation of contemporary culture and liberal Christianity—an unbiblical image of Christ (derived from an extra-biblical gnosis) precisely like the one created by the ancient Gnostics to serve their libertine purposes so long ago.  In selling this portrait, Dr. Achtemeier is not being faithful to the biblical principles articulated by Irenaeus, but rather using the method of the very enemies of Christianity against whom Irenaeus wrote.
  

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Slouching toward Capernaum

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens?  No, you will go down to Hades.  For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.  But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you (Matthew 11:23-24).
Writing in the July/August issue of Liberty magazine, author Kevin Paulson says that the decline of Christianity in the increasingly secular West, even if true, is not likely to be permanent.
Predictions of the decline and fall of so-called “Christian America” have proliferated in the public media—both secular and otherwise—for the past several years.  In the spring of 2009 Newsweek’s cover article “The Decline and Fall of Christian America” was paralleled by a Christian commentator’s dour prediction of “the coming evangelical collapse.”  The latter article was both particularly insightful and dramatic in its forecast of diminishing biblical faith, the demise of thousands of ministries, millions leaving the evangelical fold, and denominations vanishing.
Paulson says that (though it may get worse before it gets better) the trend away from religion, like many societal trends, will see a pendulum-like reversal.
People with strong convictions of any kind often function best when believing themselves under siege.  So long as it is believed that contemporary trends and prevailing forces are inflicting notable harm on one’s cherished values, justification for one’s persistence in proffering and practicing an alternative is easily found.

This is even truer in the religious realm than in the secular.  During the great persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Decius in the third century A.D., the great Christian scholar Tertullian coined the memorable line that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church." Christendom has often flourished best in times of adversity, ostracism, and revilement.  Even the late U.S. senator Eugene McCarthy, running for his party’s presidential nomination in 1968, noted publicly—during the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of that year—that Christians frequently found a more vibrant faith when confronted with official hostility and perilous circumstances.  (Not perhaps the wisest statement for an aspiring U.S. president at that time, to be sure, but one difficult to gainsay from a historical perspective.)
One reason why this matters is that, increasingly, conservative Christians are being told that our pro-marriage ("anti-gay," anti-promiscuity), and pro-life ("anti-abortion") stands are unpopular, especially with the millennial generation, and that to survive in this climate we need to "moderate" our positions—that is, to compromise or abandon traditional, biblical moral teaching.

I believe a key consideration is that we are, right now, on the cusp of a societal change in which Western society is throwing off the sexual morality under which it has lived for 1700 years.  With surprising uniformity, when young people who have rejected Christianity are asked to give a reason, their answers all have to do with rejecting some aspect of traditional Christian sexual morality.

Liberal religionists, especially in the old-line Christian denominations, have cited this trend in their attempts to revise the moral teaching of their churches to be more accommodating to contemporary secular sensibilities.

The key, as I said, is that we are on the cusp of this trend.  Right now, throwing off traditional morality looks like the way to greater freedom.  I believe that this trend, as with so many others, is subject to pendulum-like swings—and a look at history reinforces my conclusion.

Remember that Christianity came into ascendancy in the Graeco-Roman world whose immorality resembles the post-Christian secular mores of our own day:  Promiscuity, homosexuality, and abortion were all very common in those days.

Parenthetically, let me point out Acts 15, where the Council of Jerusalem had to decide the manner of admitting Gentile converts to the Church.  The Council issued a letter to the new Gentile Christians which concluded with the following admonition:
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:  You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.  You will do well to avoid these things. (Acts 15:28-29)
Christians reading this passage today often find it odd that the Council had to admonish the new Gentile Christians to abstain from sexual immorality.  They were becoming Christians, of course they had to abstain from sexual immorality!  But we need to remember that the Church, heretofore consisting of Jewish followers of Jesus, had the background of the Law given to the Jewish people through Moses.  They and their forebears for two millennia had been taught that life was sacred.  Thus, for instance, abortion was unknown among the ancient Jews, while it was common among the Greeks and Romans of the same period.  Sexual relations outside of marriage and with members of the same sex were condemned unequivocally.

So the Jews who became the first followers of Jesus had already been instructed in the Torah and its moral teaching.  But for Greeks and Romans who became Christians, the cultural assumptions in which they had been brought up were entirely different.  Sexual immorality in Gentile society was almost as common as the air they breathed.  Hence the need for the Council of Jerusalem's admonition.

The new Christians would find themselves to be oddities in the Roman Empire.  They were hounded for their faith, persecuted and killed, often in the most gruesome of ways.  Yet, Christianity did not cease to exist because it was so out of step with the society of its day.  It did not die as a result of the persecution that was intended to exterminate it—it flourished!

For many in the Graeco-Roman world, the message of the Gospel was Good News indeed.  It was an escape from the mindless sensuality and depravity of the culture.  It was a worldview that brought order in the midst of chaos, dignity in place of degradation.  Far from seeing Christianity as bondage to a repressive morality, the Romans who accepted Christ saw his Way as the only true liberation.

So it will be again.  But this is a cycle that will take time to run its course.  We are only seeing the beginning of Western society's efforts to throw off Christianity.  It may take painful decades or even centuries for society to see that the radical autonomy, lawlessness, and sexual license they are experiencing is not the way of freedom but enslavement.  When that finally happens, they will, like the ancient Romans, turn to Christ.

The necessity of persevering while this cycle runs its course is a hard message to hear for comfortable, Western Christians who expect instant answers to prayer and victory in every conflict with evil—usually in the 60-minute space of a television drama.  We don't know what it is like to suffer the persecution that the early Christians faced, but we may find out.  Just as the Gnostics escaped persecution by accommodating themselves to Roman morality, some of our persecution may come from our nominal co-religionists who have, in fact, accepted the gospel of this age instead of the Gospel of Christ.

As the old country preacher said, "I've read the end of the Book, and I know who wins."  This much is true.  Jesus Christ himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  And, in the end, only those who enter through him will come to the Father (John 14:6).

In the meantime, for those Christians who may be called to face these tough times, I am reminded of the attitude of Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to death in the Coliseum, who wrote:
I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God's sake, if only you do not prevent it.  I beg you, do not do me an untimely kindness.  Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God.  I am God's wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ. — Ignatius, Letter to the Romans
If that is to be us, are we willing?  Are we ready?
 

Friday, July 11, 2014

Why Israel's Attack on Gaza is Necessary

From the Wall Street Journal:

Gaza's newly acquired rockets put about 2/3 of Israel's people into the range of fire. 

From Wikipedia:
Since 2001 Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.  As of November 2012, the attacks have killed 64 people, mostly civilians, and injured thousands, but their main effect is their creation of widespread psychological trauma and disruption of daily life among the Israeli populace.  Medical studies in Sderot, the Israeli city closest to the Gaza Strip, have documented a post-traumatic stress disorder incidence among young children of almost 50%, as well as high rates of depression and miscarriage.
We would not expect any other nation to live under the threat of daily terrorism for so long, and we shouldn't expect Israel to do so either.