Ponderances

There's very little so fine as golf with your sons...or golf with your father.

Labels. Got a tip-off of something goofy on B. Obama's web-site. Went there and confirmed it. Across the top of the site, the Senator has a header titled "People" and that beast is subdivided a couple of dozen ways. The factions just keep on coming. What happened to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American?" But the leftists are playing Twister with the language again giving another shot in the arm to political correctness (by the way, we need a new, spiffier term for "political correctness." Any takers?). It seems that Native American (formerly known as "Indian" or "American Indian"), has been replaced by...are you ready?.."First Americans." Ain't that sweet?

Here's an observation by Jay Nordlinger (I'll paste it as he wrote it). An interesting observation about Truth in advertising:

"Was on the streets of New York the other day (as pretty much every day). And these people, spaced about 20 yards apart, were giving away tiny little granola bars. “Free granola bar?” they were saying. “Free granola bar?” And with the bar came a smallish, glossy card, advertising a church.

"Pretty pathetic, I thought: using a miniature granola bar to sell salvation. Almost deceptive. Shouldn’t salvation be the main event? And shouldn’t these folks have enough confidence in their product?"

Israel's president, Ehud Ohlmert, is stepping down. What's next?

Who's watching the watchers? More fun with California and education. The state (police state?) of California has found biblical education incompatible with state education. El-hi diplomas garnered through studies in curricula like Bob Jones and Abeka have been deemed deficient for state university core admissions requirements that you scored 1500 on the SAT notwithstanding. Not surprising, this is in the courts. Read the insanity here.

Drudge has a link stating five athletes have failed gender tests in Beijing and the Olympics haven't even started yet. They should have studied.

For those who know me, you'll know why I was touched by the CNN headline: "Will pond scum become the new oil?" *sniff, tear*

Did you ever think you'd get giddy seeing gas drop to $3.69? Yikes.

And to leave on a happy note, I count six blessings in the picture below. See how many you can find:

Miss-ed Manners

Am I Type-A? That is pretty much undeniable. My highs apex at altitudes tropospheric; the lows bottom out at depths abyssal. Garnish the mix with a bit of passion and you get quite the volatile mix.

Unfortunately, sometimes that passion gets laser-beam focused on matters minuscule. You may find that the case with the current pebble in my shoe.

Our manners stink! My manners stink.

Consider the lady that took the call after her cell phone rang loudly in the middle of the first-weekend showing of the most talked about movie of the year. No apparent embarrassment on her part despite the ocular daggers from all patrons within fifty feet. She must have missed the fifteen prods that flashed across the screen to turn the ear-tumors off so as not to disturb other folks. Bad manners epitomized.

Remember back to high school, the lovely brunette that sat right behind you in biology with the common sense of that which oozed in your petri dish? She sat there and clicked her pen. Non-stop. Throughout the teacher's lecture. And she was gifted with the rhythm of Navin R. Johnson. Arrggghhh!

Perhaps you have kids. You ever have one of them insert half a side of beef into their pie-hole and sit there trying to chew it like it was a normal sized-bite? You fervently pray that they not choke because you still can't figure out how it got in their mouth in the first place, you doubt seriously that it will come back out again. Then there's the milk slurper.

You might get to work with an individual who finds bodily noises funnier than Bill Cosby and does everything in their power to amplify them like a rock concert. Ha, ha, ha. You might ride the bus next to the person whose tongue defines (or maybe surpasses) foulness. They cannot complete a sentence without some reproductive or scatological adjective.

Why do some folks (me) get so bent about manners? Manners reflect Christ-likeness. When one exhibits manners, they defer to their fellow creatures. They consider your situation above their own. Romans 12:10 puts the cookies out there for all to grab,

"Be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another."

This is the crux of love. It is the crux of civilization. The only way we can live side-by-side is if I don't party like it's 1999 in my backyard until two in the morning. I recognize that you are waiting for that parking spot and even though I could nose in before you because of the way the other guy backed out, I let you have that spot, and I'll walk ten feet further. I suppress my belch. I swallow before I ask for the mashed potatoes. I let you merge rather than riding the bumper of the guy in front of me so you cannot enter the flow, scoffing at your pitiful situation as I drive on by.

Manners have become a lost art in America as we grow coarser and coarser toward one another. Tragic. To stem the tide, perhaps I'll silence my cell phone next movie. Perhaps I'll take my kids and myself to the bathroom before the start of the next sermon. Perhaps I'll choose my color metaphors more carefully within our conversation. Perhaps I'll listen to your story, really listen, instead of interrupting you with my own.

Perhaps.

Sadly, we (I) oft have no clue that we've (I've) become self-absorbed boors. We get lost in our own private Idaho. It's my comfort and my way. Oh, are you here, too? Sometimes you just need to take me aside and point out my bull elephant behavior. If I listen to Christ in my life at all, I should listen to you, too, and try to tighten the reins on my character. If I don't, you've at least shown your love for me by trying to stem the tide of entropy in my life.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you just might dampen the peaks and valleys of my Type-A personality, and that couldn't hurt.

QotD: Freedom

"Freedom is not a natural state---otherwise, everybody would be free."

Cal Thomas

I am convinced that freedom was the natural state at the creation but the entropic nature of sin has left it a rarity on our planet. Giving God great thanks for the miracle that is America!

Photo of the week

Have you ever had one of those days?

Racism rears its ugly head

"There aren't enough purple managers in baseball."

"There aren't enough purple players in the NBA."

"There are too many purple men in prison."

"The military has an inordinate number of purple people in its ranks."

Anybody out there besides me ready to retch?

Comments like all of the above indicate that race-based conduct is alive and well today. We have bit so deeply upon the barbed hook of the post-modern mindset that we have ensnared ourselves into the point of apologizing to anybody and everybody for any cruelty that happened to any of their ancestors, any of like national origin, or any of like "racial" makeup. Our nation has gone so ludicrously overboard that reverse discrimination is now the norm and is accepted.

Do we have racists out there? You bet; red and yellow, black and white (by the way, nobody is really any of those colors. We're all variations on brown). Which people group in America has the largest per capita cluster of racists, those folks who think things should happen to themselves or other folks because of skin-color or ethnicity? I don't know. I have a hunch, but that might construe me as racist.

How about we try this: merit. Who's the best player? Pick him. Doesn't matter if the other guy is purple and you have the lowest percentage of purple players on your team. Pick the best guy. If the best guy is purple, grab him and sign him lickety split. If the next eight best guys are purple, sign them, too. If they're green, sign 'em up.

Will there be racist coaches? Yep. Managers? Yep. Company presidents? Yep. What's great, though, is usually these knuckleheads will open their trap in front of an open microphone at just the right moment and 'BAM', they'll be out of work faster than you can say "David Duke."

It's not Barack Obama's skin that drives me batty; it's his inane socialist policies, his meager political experience, and his appalling history of associations with folk that would get any other politician forever dismissed from public service. He is far and away the best orator I've seen run for president in my lifetime.

Would anyone except the cockroaches of our culture have any problem if we had (ethnicity/race of your choice)-Americans as President, Vice-President, SECDEF and Secretary of State? Who cares??? It's what's inside the head and heart that make the man (ooh, now I'm sexist).

Paul had to hammer this point to the Galatians when he said:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

And the folks at Corinth:

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13).

And the Colossians:

...There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11).

The nails He took were steely gray and what He shed was blood red. For God so loved the world. Not the purples, not the greens. Not even the blues. Christ alone can raze such barriers. One day it will not matter. To the glory of God.

Until then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, could we please drop the "shade of melanin" from discussions about folks and get down to what's ticking in the head and heart?

Photos from coopervision.com and thepassionofthechrist.com

E'08: Obscenity

Have you ever witnessed a friend who became so infatuated with a member of the opposite sex that they folded up their dignity and hid it in a drawer? It's especially distasteful when the target of the affections has no particular interest in your friend, but your friend goes to ridiculous lengths to convey their impassioned feelings.

Self-respect is trashed. Character is oft compromised. Frankly, the level of saccharine fosters an equal level of nausea. Treacly. Revolting. But because you care about this friend, you ache for them. You hope that something will smack them back to earth that they might regain their footing.

I have these sentiments more and more as I watch the mainstream media (MSM) hound Senator Obama. Where are the hard questions? Where is the detached interest? If there's one group of folks who completely tank their entire purpose in life by becoming swayed, it's our news folks.

Two suitors: John McCain and Barack Obama. The prize would normally be the American people though the MSM. What has happened is that the MSM have become so smitten with the Illinois senator, that they have become the suitor and Obama is the prize. The losers? You and I.

The last week provided a sardonic example. John McCain vaulted off to New England to campaign. Who met his plane? A single reporter. One. Compare that with the coverage Obama has received traveling to Europe and Israel. The Beijing Olympics are closer in comparison to what Obama has enjoyed.

Is that a bad thing? Is it not a historic trip? It would be were he president, but he's not yet been crowned! The MSM acts as though November is merely a formality. Why wait until January for the swearing in. Let's get down to business right now.

And the MSM continues to ignore the limitations of Barack Hussein Obama, and most of America wallows in its ignorance.

Douglas MacKinnon had an interesting piece on Townhall today (here) highlighting this oceanic bias. Within it, he set up two notional candidates and began polling folks on who they would vote for based upon experience alone. Here are the two candidates (quoting):

Candidate A: Middle-aged. Studied overseas. Attended two different colleges in the U.S. before getting a degree. Went on to get a law degree. Worked community affairs in his adopted home city. Was elected to local office. Served in local politics for just over six years. Got elected to a federal state-wide office. Has one real year of experience in that job.

Candidate B: Middle-aged. Went to college and got a degree. Served in the National Guard for six years. Became a sergeant. While in the National Guard, earned a law degree. Became an investigator for a consumer-protection division. Was elected to a federal office. Was re-elected to a federal office. Was elected to a federal statewide office. Was re-elected to a federal state-wide office. Served in the executive branch for four years.

How would you vote? If you're like most folks and don't see through the ruse, you'd take Candidate B going away, based upon experience alone. Candidate A? You guessed it, Barack Obama. Candidate B? I'll let you go to the article. Cruel, yes, I know, but it will bring a smile to your face.

But you will also see how distorted and tilted the coverage has become during Election 2008. Sad.

Around the horn

Trolling the news web-sites today provided a heaping helping of discouragement. I'll not go into detail, but a great deal of stuff on prominent news web-sites exposed the gruesome debauchery that has become commonplace in our land and in the world.

And yet, despite the 104-degree temperatures, the beauty of the day could not be masked.

Here are a couple intriguing tidbits, stuff to get you considering the God who's not yielded His sovereignty:

• Who'd have thought that Chuck Norris could script some of the best what's-good-about-America commentary going? Here's a quote from today's column:

  When will we learn that just because we can say something doesn't mean that we should? Once again, we're confusing liberty for licentiousness. It is a classic example of what happens when a society leaves its moral absolutes: Everything becomes culturally relative, with each deciding what's right in his own eyes. Language is one more infected arena in America's societal degradation.

• Jay Nordlinger of National Review jots about random items in his semi-weekly "Impromptus" column. Today he included a bumper sticker seen by a subscriber. Yikes:

  "Faith...hope...Obama."
  

• These two articles were no kidding posted one after the other on Pravda's news site (and I quote):

"Moscow to turn into Europe's gay capital for Eurovision 2009"

"Islam to become Russia's predominant religion by 2050?" (If that's the case, I think Eurovision 2050 might a wee bit less tolerant.)

• The last item deflated my sails most of all. The US military is reviewing the "Don't ask/Don't tell" policy regarding homosexual conduct and military service. Considering what's been happening on the coasts, I don't suspect it's being reviewed to further tighten the current guidance.

Let's step out of this with a bit of hope:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God...Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?...For the foolishness of God is wiser than men...

1 Corinthians 1: 18, 20d, 25a

Photo from Botany.com

QotD: America's spiritual temperature

Religion. To our Founders, religion meant what denomination means to us today. Religion was some form of orthodox Christianity. Today, when we hear the term religion, our minds race over every bizarre thought form used to explain the supernatural, biblical or not, deity or not.

USA Today has not ignored the spiritual aspect of man. In their News/Opinion section, they dip into the pool of religion twenty-first century style hitting the nail on the head from time to time but usually denting the wood or blistering their thumb.

I came across a letter to the editor from a gent in Venice, Florida asserting that "as people become less religious, they sow peace." Here's the letter. Here's the quote that spilled my coffee:

It won't be until the Vatican contacts the Shas Party in Israel as well as the Shiite and Sunni leadership, and they form a joint council for peace that we can claim that religion is now a progenitor of peace.

A joint council for peace? I have no doubt such a council will one day form. Who the players will be is unknown, but it will have nothing to do with peace. More and more folks have been duped into thinking all religions are reconcilable, that they are nothing more than an extension of the same religion.

God seems to think otherwise:

For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12b

Go figure.

A funny thing happened on the way to the airport

Do you remember when you first learned to drive a stick? For many, it was a planned, thought out, and trained for event. If you're like me, you borrowed a car only to later learn that it was a stick, and knowing the principles, you ground'em 'til you found'em.

My bride's off to Dallas with our girls. They left this morning. Son #2 caught a flight this afternoon to visit son #1 for a week. My plan was to drop son #2 at the airport and take son #4 shopping for some things. Son #3 hemmed a little and hawed a little and finally decided not to join us.

I am praising God even now for that little bit of providence.

En route the airport in my mighty, mighty Taurus station wagon, I happened to notice (about half-way to the airport) that the car was rapidly on its way to an overheat. I pulled into the nearest parking lot, all the while wondering about the interesting timing of this event, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed son #3 still at home. The only vehicle left at the house, other than my motorcycle, was son #2's manual transmission auto-mobile. Son #3 has never driven one of those.

"Tyler (son #3), get Drew's keys (son #2) off the counter top and come get us. You got any questions?"

No panic. No trepidation. The lad had never touched a stick in his life. He's seen it done. Never been the driver. Ten minutes later, like he'd been doing it for years, son #3 rounds the corner and saves the day. Had he come with us, we'd be stranded in the 100 degree heat having to start calling friends, none of which would have been a sure bet to be able to get us in time to get son #2 to the airport.

I have found that the oddest things strike pride in my heart regarding my sons' maturity. This moment, as I have told son #3, still has me smiling.

Braking the global warming bandwagon

You cannot obtain objective clarity about the outside world staring through a snow-frosted windshield. As much as the passenger next to you might think he can explain what's going on outside your Neon, he sees only as well as you do. Guessing helps not at all.

Two things might assist. You could get a call from someone outside who has a clear view of what's going on. Or you could turn on the defrost and melt the frost (I guess you could get out and scrape the windshield, too, but that would ruin my analogy).

With regard to global warming, the only one external to this big blue marble upon which we're riding is God Almighty. He has told us plainly to steward the earth. He destroyed it once before by flood but promised never to do that again (by flood, anyway). Nothing within prophecy seems to indicate the demise of the earth either by man's hand or God's. From my chair, it seems man's stewardship of the earth, for the most part, is pretty good.

For those of us within the car (living within the car), it's tough to say. Ice cores from the poles have so many presuppositions that if any one of them is not right, the resulting conclusions could be 180-out. What was the temperature in Minsk like from 2000 BC to 1500 BC? Ummm...

The consensus regarding global warming is that there is no consensus. Many would have us believe that no educated person could possibly deny that we are destroying the planet, but that is simply not the case. So what's a sane person to do? Turn on the defrost.

The best that we can do, since we're not likely to determine whether global warming or global cooling is in our future, is to ask smart questions about the premises, presuppositions and conclusions about those who are certain about what's happening outside the car.

Regis Nicoll analyzed the PP&C of those pushing us to adopt the Kyoto Accords, extreme environmental government impositions to somehow reduce the heating affect upon the planet. In his article (linked here), he asked six great questions that stewards like you and me can ask about the soothsayers who see environmental catastrophe over our horizon. Here they are:

1. Is the earth warming?
2. Is warming an overall bad thing?
3. Is human activity the primary cause?
4. Would forced standards sufficiently reduce global temperatures?
5. Would they be cost-effective?
6. Would forced standards not create more—or more severe—problems than they solve?

He handles his questions in greater depth in the article. What such questions expose is that the fellow sitting next to you can't see out the window any better than you can. Perhaps the questions might defrost the issue a bit and help us all see things a bit more clearly.

Photos:
Frost from www.wunderground.com
Sun from NASA.gov

The STATE of things

When you cross the border from Kansas into Oklahoma, do you notice anything? Other than a corny welcome sign, probably not. Because of what our nation has morphed into, State A is very little different than State B. Never was it intended to be so.

The beast that is the federal government has broken free of the chains with which our Founders bound it. Little by little, crisis by crisis, the Fed wriggled out of its bonds, taking responsibilities away from the states, never to return itself or the states to their previous status.

The federal government was to be small; the states, robust and varied.

You've not heard this before? Treat yourself to a little history and read through Walter Williams' column today (linked here). Notice his treatment of the "Civil War" (a perspective I'd not heard put quite that way before), and note James Madison's and Thomas Jefferson's quotes. You might find yourself writing your state's representative. Who knows, we might just start something.

Almost makes me sorry I've mocked the pan-handled state.

Josh Hamilton

Last night in baseball, something very special happened precisely because it was not about baseball. If you follow America's pastime at all, you know full well what happened during his superhuman first round of the All-Star Game Home Run Derby. Iron Man, Hulk and even Batman all take a back seat because this is a true story. It's a story of a man's demise, and God's overwhelming grace.

For those who do know it, for those who don't know it, I encourage you to visit this link here and read ESPN's Jayson Stark's first hand account of his astonishment and wonder. Josh Hamilton hit nearly three miles worth of baseballs!!

Though it might not make you a baseball fan, it will surely pique your interest in the Texas Rangers, and it will definitely make you a fan of Josh Hamilton, Texas Ranger, potential MLB MVP, Home Run Derby record exploder, and son of the King.

Photo from MLB.com

Just another day: The week that was

• The heavens: Seems a comet crossed the skies of Israel this past week tracking from east to west. Some reported that they heard "a shrieking sound."
• Earth fight's back? It's not a new concept. It was the plot of "The Day After Tomorrow." Now Russia's newswire, Pravda, takes a look at the recent rash of natural disasters that have hit our usually hospitable planet. Like most, they're quick to cruise on the global-warming-bandwagon and to ignore the Christ-is-coming prophecies of Scripture.

  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
  
  And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
  
  “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come...

• News??? On Saturday, the front page of our local paper lauded an 80 year old stripper. On the front page!!! Yuk. Can a news-day be THAT slow?
  
• Bluster: Iran asserts that if anyone (i.e. Israel and the United States) attempts any military action, their name would be Mudd.

  "If Israel and the US fire a bullet or a missile at Iran, its forces will attack the heart of Israel and 32 American bases in the region before the dust from such an attack has settled," and ulimately "destroy" them, barked an Iranian spokesman for their Revolutionary Guards.

  They're cute when their playing with nukes, aren't they?
• The Islamic Republic of Australia: I came across an article at Pravda's web-site that spoke of a major demographic shift in the land down under. It seems that the fact that Australians have reduced their offspring to such levels that their numbers are dwindling while at the same time, the Muslims are ramping up their child production. One expert surmises that within fifty years there won't be any shrimp on the barbie because Australia will have become a Muslim nation. As I have noted often, Mark Steyn has made all of this quite plain in his book America Alone.
  

Cal and Brett

Iron Man. It was the first comic book hit of the summer but the name has become synonymous with those who endure. The triathlon which pushes man beyond what he can give demanding a 2.4 miles swim, an 100 mile bike ride, and the whipped cream to top it off --- a marathon --- that triathlon has earned the descriptor, Iron Man.

Two professional athletes earned the Iron Man nickname for their sturdiness in their respective sports, Cal Ripken in baseball and Brett Favre in football. Both of these men hold records unlikely to be beaten for consecutive games played, 2632 for the baseball's legend and 253 for quarterbacks for football's legend (275 if you include the playoff games).

Despite the commonality for consistency, these men achieved greatness with far different styles. Mr. Ripken went about his business with might be described as blandness, but his tenacious work ethic and focus on excellence garnered Gold Gloves, Rookie of the Year, All-Star MVP, League MVP, and Baseball All-Century Team, to name a few of the accolades.

Mr. Favre is the NFL's perennial child. From throwing snowballs to picking up teammates to the biggest dimpled smile behind a facemask, Favre's child-like joy could never be deemed child-ish or flippant. He loved the game and could not contain that joy. His passion and discipline earned the NFL MVP (three times), nine-time Pro-Bowl selection, seven time All-Pro, Super Bowl champ and just about every record for quarterback in the NFL.

And both men remained with the same team throughout their heroics (Favre began a Falcon, but did not earn a starting position until going to Green Bay)

Two men. Both Hall of Famers (Ripken is, Favre will be). Vastly different but effective styles.

Then came retirement...maybe. When Cal Ripken retired, he retired. Sure he kept his hand in baseball (front office, PR, etc.), but when he hung up his cleats, he hung them out of reach, never to be donned again as a player.

Brett Favre has begun to soil his pristine reputation with the recently in vogue game played by professional athletes called "I'm retired, I'm not retired." Favre has been toying with retirement for the past three or four years. His body has taken shots that would crumble my body like saltines. He has dealt with his wife's breast cancer battle. He's faced his skill's deterioration. And so after taking great pains to weigh all the factors, he announced his retirement last March.

By May and the start of the NFL mini-camps, Favre had begun expressing an interest in still playing but at the same time making plain to all that he was in fact retired. As the opening day of training camp grew closer and closer, Favre began to talk louder and louder about coming back to play another season.

And now the Packer's are faced with a dilemma: trade the greatest quarterback ever to some colors other than green and gold or let him comeback and serve as a $12 million backup QB.

Green Bay needs to begin a new era just as San Francisco did post-Joe Montana (rather than retire, Montana spent an inglorious year or two in Kansas City). To do so, the Pack drafted promising QB Aaron Rogers in 2005. He has sat under the tutelage of the finest mentor a man could ask for. Now it is his turn to carry the mantle, but the mentor keeps coming back and wanting to handle the project himself. To give Favre the ball for one more season, Rogers will surely bolt.

For a man who has earned a gigantic reputation for selflessness and being a team player, this epitomizes selfishness.

Despite the glory of the 2007 season, Favre's ability has plainly ebbed. Moments of brilliance were interspersed by more and more situations that left the fan scratching their head wondering, "What was that?!?"

Brett dishonors himself, his former team and the game of football by wanting to play another season. It's time to move on. It's time to enjoy his family and pursue the next phase of his life with the same zeal and giddiness with which he hit the gridiron every Sunday. It would be tragic to see him end like Montana (or Emmit Smith. Was anything more tragic than Emmit Smith in Arizona???).

Brett Favre should exit with the same dignity and poise with which Ripken departed. His already legendary stock will go through the roof.

Bigoted bakers?

An article on Fox News yesterday had me shaking my head in disbelief. Were there really such people on the earth?

During a meeting of the county commissioners in Dallas, Texas, one commissioner used the term "black hole." He said, "It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole," meaning that the county's collection office had become like that celestial object you can't see (hence the term "black"... because you can't see black against the inky blackness of the universe's backdrop) that sucks things in never to be seen again.

Another commissioner was offended by the term and demanded an apology (I'm not making this up).

You would expect the other commissioners present to stare in disbelief and politely suggest, "Get a grip!" Not so much. Another commissioner chimed in that such language was unacceptable. How you get from black holes to racism is beyond me. But it got even more bizarre.

"So if it's 'angel food cake,' it's white. If it's 'devil's food cake,' it's black. If you're the 'black sheep of the family,' then you gotta be bad, you know. 'White sheep,' you're okay. You know?"

Excuse me? Angel food, devil's food, white sheep and black sheep are racist? Is it racist that white has always been symbolic of purity and cleanliness? Do we gripe at God that the redeemed in heaven wear white robes? Do we gripe at God that the majority of sheep born are white and that the odd sheep is black? There are few better descriptors of the odd-man-out than the proverbial black sheep. None of these correlate to man's skin color. None of them.

Our hyper-sensitive political correctness has gotten WAY out of hand. Pretty soon America's vertically challenged red-heads will be griping about strawberry shortcake.

Lighten up, Francis!

Welcome home, Tony Snow

A good friend and I have been in discussion lately about how we conduct ourselves when in disagreement with other folks. Her point of emphasis has been that even in times of disagreement, no matter how wrong we perceive our opponent to be, we treat them with the dignity and respect due them as a person created in the image of God.

I have not seen anybody better exemplify such conduct in the political realm than Tony Snow, one time Fox Newsman, radio host and most recently White House press secretary. The thing that drove him to treat every person with such respect and honor was that he knew he was a sinner saved by grace. As God lavished His grace upon him, Tony could do no less toward others.

"God put us on earth to help each other," Snow told David Gregory in an interview. Speaking of his battle with cancer, he later said, " "When you die, you graduate." Read his testimony in Christianity Today here.

Today, Tony Snow graduated into the Lord's kingdom at age 53. Cancer consumed him in his last few years, but he never lost his poised and even demeanor.

Cancer is no longer an issue as he savors the face-to-face presence of his Savior and hears those longed-for words, well done!

QotD: A Man for All Seasons

I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.

Sir Thomas More
From the film A Man for All Seasons

Chew upon that one for a time.

If Christ be not raised

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

And we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.

If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

If in this life only we have hope in Christ (if there exists no resurrection), we are of all men the most pitiable.

All that's from Paul (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Do you think he felt the resurrection a substantial doctrine? Do you think that he put great weight on the historic occurrence of Jesus' resurrection?

Is it any surprise that the most recent attack upon historic Christianity would target this foundational doctrine? An ancient tablet from the region where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found has been interpreted to say that Jewish tradition already had a three-day resurrection account before Jesus came along. Scholars and theologians have taken that to mean that the Messiah's disciples had heard this tradition and simply applied it to the dead Rabbi.

The tablet and its translation remain controversial (remember the James Ossuary or the Gospel of Judas?). Early translations rendered the troublesome section indecipherable. Out of the mist pops a Jewish scholar who can read it plain as day.

It seems the professor held this theory back in 2002 when he wrote "The Messiah Before Jesus" which then makes his translation even more suspicious.

Where are the voices of refutation? They are out there, but to find them, you have to wade either deep into lengthy articles (see Time Magazine's treatment here), or figure out how to strain through the mass of information that Google regurgitates to find the masked nugget.

For many, the damage is done. As the Proverb states, "The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him" (Proverbs 18:17). Because of articles that give great support to the Jewish professor (here), those who've already rejected God and those in doubt will become further blinded by deception.

Even if the tablet proves to be authentic, such a legend (perhaps a prophecy?) in no way neuters the biblical and extra-biblical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rest easy. There is no other event from ancient history so well documented and so replete with corroborative evidence as the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ provides a concise look at that evidence). Pray that the lost would not be deceived.

But let's say the delusion catches fire and many become convinced the resurrection is a hoax. What would happen if, like global warming, homosexuality, and evolution, the resurrection of Christ became a topic that could not be discussed within our society because "the facts are in and the discussion closed?"

And then what would happen if, in front of our instant-anywhere media , a man were to receive a mortal wound but then in front of the camera's lens came back to life? With Jesus dismissed, this man would become a celebrity. He would become a hero. He would become a god.

Is the stage being set?

QotD: A Constitutional understanding

John Stossel, investigative reporter for ABC's 20/20, did an excellent piece on the Right to Bear Arms (here). A small excerpt from that article highlights a right understanding of our Constitution, and specifically, in this case, the Bill of Rights:

The Bill of Rights did not create rights. It acknowledged them...It shouldn't have been necessary to remind the four Supreme Court dissenters of what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

The Framers of the Second Amendment did not say, "The people shall have the right to keep and bear arms." They wrote, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

He caps off his article with:

The victims of gun crimes are easy to count. What cannot be counted are the lives saved because would-be victims were armed.

Touche'.

The Bear rears its ugly head

The Czech Republic has agreed to place a US missile defense system on its soil. Similar in nature to a Patriot missile battery, this system would target and knockdown incoming missiles both conventional and nuclear.

Who dislikes this measure? Russia (UPI story here). They seem none too happy that any of its former Socialist Republics would have any type of missile defense. The question is why? It's a defensive system. It has no ulterior offensive capability. It's not created to target cities.

As the Bear continues to tone up and beef up its atrophied muscles and as Vladimir Putin moves from the role of president to prime minister, one can only wonder what's going on with the Russian discomfort.

In fact, it's gone beyond discomfort. “We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a released statement. That would be like Washington DC incarcerating its citizens for having guns to protect their homes. Wait a minute. Bad example.

Some may compare this to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I hope the differences are obvious. The USSR attempted to place nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. Canned sunshine a stone's throw from Miami beach?? Nuclear missiles, when last I looked, turn cities into glass. Defensive? Not so much.

The US missile defense shield? Conventional weaponry (i.e. no nukes). No fallout. Intended to destroy only incoming threats.

Perhaps the most disconcerting scenario sees the Czechs setting up the defense and the Russians blowing it to bits. Now what? My fear that the US would do nothing. The Bear would bloody the nose of the West, and the strongest western player (America) would do nothing, not because we do not have the military capability (oh, we do!), but because I do not believe that our nation has the belly to stand against a direct challenge from a formidable foe. I fear, like Neville Chamberlain, we would try and make nice, seeking (personal) peace (and affluence) in our time as the ultimate good.

So why the bluster? Why the baring of the incisors? Have the hammer and sickle returned?

What gives in the land of Gog?

Government's purpose

The God-ordained purpose for government is the protection of the citizenry from the lawless both from within and from without. When it creeps beyond that, government begins to make life miserable for the people it is meant to serve.

Chuck Colson's column today is a case in point. You'll find it here.

Who speaks for God, II

Meandering through one of my favorite web-sites the other day, I stumbled upon Michael Medved's blog where he touted a new book by former National Review literary editor and now Discovery Institute fellow, David Klinghoffer, titled "How Would God Vote?"

While the title will rankle no feathers, the subtitle will elicit piercing screams that would impress the melting Witch of the West, "Why the Bible Commands You to be a Conservative."

First, I have not read the book but look forward to doing so. The premise has been my contention all along. I assume Klinghoffer has taken the time to scour God's word in context to note how the Bible points to conservative vice liberal governance.

Second, Klinghoffer, like Medved, is a conservative orthodox Jew. While we will certainly disagree on the salvation issue, the orthodox Jew and regenerate Christian have much in common in their living out their conviction. It will be interesting to see if he delves into New Testament writings at all.

Finally, I have heard that there are sections that will either raise eyebrows or furrow the brow for the conservative, sections dealing with immigration and gun control.

I've been asked recently about Christian disagreements and denominations. How can two folks look at the same Word and come to such different conclusions? Most of it comes down to the science and art of biblical interpretation. A century and a half ago a movement began in Germany called Higher Criticism that began to chip away at the veracity, the truth, of Scripture. Much of what came out of that movement has led to the atrophy of such bastions of the Reformation Lutheranism, Methodism, and half of Presbyterianism.

Do Christians remain in these denominations? Without a doubt. But rather than a higher view of Scripture, Higher Criticism, by reducing the inspiration and inerrancy of God's word, is a lower view of Scripture and as such, has left many Christians without the proper tools to take God's word and assess our culture, our government, our churches, or our lives.

Sincerity and passion do not make a belief or conviction true. I can be sincere and passionate while at the same time be sincerely and passionately wrong because what I believe stands opposed to the whole counsel of God's word. When I am wrong, I pray that a brother or sister comes to me, with Bible in hand, and shows me the way of truth through the source of Truth.

I appreciate David Klinghoffer having the courage to write such a book. Now let's see if it's worth its ink.

(Klinghoffer has a blog where he has posted what is printed on the book's jacket. You can find it here).

Scottish Muslims

Photo from Scottish Tayside Police

When I first saw the headline on FoxNews.com, I couldn't help but giggle:

Ad Featuring Popular Police Pup Sparks Anger in Scottish Muslim Communities.

Muslims in Scotland. Hmmmm... I'd always considered England, Scotland, and Ireland hotbeds for confrontation between Protestants and Catholics. With the inundation within Europe from the Middle East, these nations find more and more they must deal with those who don't want to play by the rules of Western civilization.

The article details the offense taken by Muslim immigrants over postcards sent out to let folks know the new phone numbers for the local police. The problem: the pooch in the picture above. Dogs are to Muslims what pigs are to Jews (or Muslims, for that matter), pinstripes are to a Red Sox fan, or cheeseheads to a Viking fan. Horror!

Now wait a minute. Whatever happened to "when in Rome?" I'm not calling for Muslims to breed poodles or chihuahuas (considered torture in any culture), but when you move to a land that serves tripe and haggis, what do you expect?

Here is the problem with tolerance: you lose your cultural identity. Nature abhors a vacuum. You cannot be so tolerant of everything that you stand for nothing. The power that then asserts itself will rule the day as Islam is doing in Europe (ref. America Alone by Mark Steyn). It has gotten so bad that in England, a recently constructed cemetery has all the graves pointing toward Mecca in accordance with Islamic law (link here), and it is not even a Muslim cemetery! The Brits simply feared offending Islamic corpses.

In our history, did Jews boycott Piggly Wiggly? Did Asians push for chopsticks in all restaurants or pudgy Buddhas in all our parks? It's time to stem the tide of accommodation. If you don't like it here, don't come here (a used-t0-be Christian nation). If my puppy postcard offends you, pitch it or amscray! If you're coming to America, learn the language!

If I were to gripe about anything Scottish, it would be dudes wearing skirts and tams with long chops playing bagpipes (unless of course it's Amazing Grace which is phenomenal with the pipes).

232

Happy Birthday, America!

The extraordinary experiment that began 232 years ago continues to this day. No other constitutional form of government has lasted a fraction as long as what was birthed in 1776.

Why have we lasted so long, why have we been so blessed? I would contend that if we started from scratch today to create a form of government to rule our land, that new constitution would not get us to 2050 much less 2076. Our nation was founded upon bedrock by men who understood how critical a firm foundation was.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are not a democracy (I commend an early blog post to see quotes on the founders about Republic or Democracy). Note here a quote from our second president, John Adams, and contrast it with what is happening today (italics, etc., mine):

[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a very few.

The rebellion of the '60's has become the leadership of our statehouses in 2008. Will we continue to turn from the rule of law to the rule of whim or will we resist this tide of personal irresponsibility? As we cede our personal responsibility to an obese government, so, too, we cede our liberty and property.

We have succeeded because that bedrock is the only firm foundation that exists, the Bible. Understand, this was not pure pragmatism. The Founding Fathers had a breadth and depth of study that far surpasses that of those in leadership today and could have selected any other form if they felt it would bring about success. Not only did they understand that a government founded upon godly principles would be the very best, but they knew that it could only flourish if lived by a people who had first submitted themselves to God.

As we the people move further from God, the more we chafe under the Constitution that brought about our freedoms.

I offer this link on Independence Day to stir your soul.

Happy birthday to you! Praise God and savor the day.

(David Barton, the author of the article, is the founder of Wall Builders, an organization which searches the original documents and writings of our nation's first leaders to discern their intent in regarding the issues of our nation. He also has arguably the largest personal collection of writings of our Founders. On the left side of the Wall Builder's page, you'll find a link titled Issues/Articles. It is a GREAT resource for understanding the historic and biblical roots behind what's happening in our nation.)

Know your audience

Know your audience. It is rule number one in public speaking. The astrophysicist can lay completely different lingo on his brothers down at the astrolab than he can on the parents of his son's Little League team.

Knowing your audience is one thing. Altering your message to satisfy your audience is something completely different. Such would be something we would expect of a comedian, not a doctor. This is wholly unacceptable to pastors and Christians responsible for handling the word of God rightly.

A friend dropped this Time Magazine article in my lap. The gist: many Christians have come to believe that avenues exist to heaven apart from Christ. The Pew Foundation which does a great deal of polling to determine our nation's religious temperature came to that conclusion. 57% of Evangelical Christian respondents were willing to concede that their might be other paths to heaven.

Time's closing paragraph dumps the load right in the lap of pastors:

The (Pew Foundation) survey's biggest challenge is to the theologians and pastors who will have to reconcile their flocks' acceptance of a new, polyglot heaven with the strict admission criteria to the gated community that preceded it.

If pastors are reconciling the survey, they care too much about audience opinion. They become no better than clowns or motivational speakers when the Audience they need to impress will be neither motivated or amused.

(This, too, is why I believe it is imperative for Christians to reason through the issues with other Christians from the perspective of God's word. In a world that rejects any moral authority, it is the only authority to which we can appeal, especially with others who identify themselves as Christians. If they will not hear the appeal of God's word, that is a grievous thing, but we have done what God has asked of us.)

E'08: Dear John

I haven't jotted about the Republican nominee (I think "presumptive" is the adjective of the media's choice here lately). Frankly, there's been nothing about him that has stirred the soul or rankled the feathers.

John McCain, where for art thou?

Do I comment on retired general Wesley Clark, who vied for the Democratic nomination four years ago, calling to question McCain's military service? I'll see your four-stars and raise you seven years in the Hanoi Hilton.
What's McCain been doing for the last three weeks?

Where's he been going? With whom has he chatted? Hello?

This bodes ill for the Republican. He doesn't seem to be worth covering. Media bias notwithstanding, you'd think he would misspell potato or something to at least get a camera turned his direction. iPodders are going to vote for whom they see, and we're not seeing Senator McCain.

Maybe this is the lull before the media storm.

Has anybody seen John?

Photo by Janeene Touchton

Oops! Did he say that?!?

On Father's Day, Barack Obama gave a commendable (and articulate as always) speech on the gargantuan need for men to stand up in the black community and be husbands and dads.

Within the heart of the speech he said:

"We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception."

When I first heard the speech commented upon, this nugget escaped every commentator. Okay, almost every commentator. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council picked up on the contradiction (again) between what the man says and what the man does. Mr. Perkins queried:

"I would like to ask Senator Obama: if my responsibility as a father began at conception, isn't that when the lives of my children began?"

That would be like John McCain speaking about the blessed unions going on in San Francisco starting this last week. Perkins further pointed the spotlight at Senator Obama's very abortion-friendly voting record:

"He is the co-sponsor of the Federal Freedom of Choice Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that will legalize partial-birth abortion and overturn virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion," he says. "Senator Obama understands that a father's responsibility does not end at conception, but does he understand that it begins there as well?"

I guess he should sleep on his speeches before hitting "send" with his mouth.