QotD: "Icon" misused

Today on National Review's blog corner, Jonah Goldberg, author of Liberal Facism, considers the media fawning over Michael Jackson. The gist earns QotD honors:

"If anything, Michael Jackson's life, not his death, was tragic."

It's a sober assessment of Michael Jackson's life (read it here). Consider:

• From a family who, if they'd hit their stride in 2009, would be the subject of some macabre reality series.
• Became a sensation with his brothers as part of the Jackson 5 in the 70's.
• Oozed talent. Oozed good looks.
• Tried to put himself off as a friend to children while having one of the most sexually suggestive stage shows ever seen. Today it would be fare for the Disney Channel.
• Altered those incredible good looks and realtered them until he became something out of a 50's horror movie gone awry.
• Married Elvis Presley's daughter. Divorced less than two years later.
• Drugs (pain medication) became a natural part of his life.
• Another marriage, this to his dermatologist, produced two children, a son and a daughter, and it, too, lasted less than two years.
• Mega-debt replaced his mega-millions.
• He sired a third child by a surrogate.

Phenomenal talent. To what end? "And the rich, young man went away exceedingly sorrowful..." An "icon?" Ought not be.

Mark Sanford. Governor. Adulterer. So what's to learn?

Husbands...

...love your wives...

...as Christ loved the church...

...and (yes "and"!) ...

...gave himself up...

...for her...

Ephesians 5:25

Dwell upon the weight of each phrase. Let Paul's implications roll through your mind. After verse 25, it gets even better. Really, it does. But, oh, how well we would do to get this far.

A biblical command to "love your wife." It's not a feeling. It's not something I can fall into our out of. That's not "love."

Love demands volition, a choice, or as Don Francisco sang, "an act of the will." I choose to invest my life into my bride for her good, not for her likes, but for her good (biblical good)...regardless of what I get in return. At least that's what God calls us to.

If I'm doing it as a 50-50 proposition, then it's not much different than a proposition. I invest a little, I get a little. When I stop getting, I go somewhere else. They sell that in Vegas and in Times Square.

If I'm seeking the affections of another or If I succumb to the lurings of another, then I have stopped seeking the good of the one to whom I have made a vow and sworn an oath. I have begun seeking my own satisfaction.

Love is a choice, and marriage is a promise to exercise that choice until God removes the breath from one set of lungs. Rich or poor, sickly or healthy, thick or thin, Vikings or Packers. It's a daily choice, a moment by moment choice.

Any lapse can unseat a governor or far worse, ruin a husband and father by bringing mountains of agony to his family. All for a morsel of Turkish Delight.

Husbands, love your wives!

QotD: Maggie

Found this quote from Margaret Thatcher on Jay Nordlinger's "Impromptus" today (here...always a good read). Substitute "Obama's economy" for "socialism" at your leisure.

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Flag etiquette

As others feel free to burn our flag on foreign soil, for those of us who revere what our flag represents, I offer a bit of flag decorum. Thought it might be helpful as we approach our day of independence.

The flag should not be emblazoned on items such as lawn chairs, paper products,
yard goods and furniture. (U.S. Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8) “The flag
should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be
festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.
Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white
in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk,
draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general...” The flag
should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or
delivering anything. The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in
any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins
or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising
signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.
However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel,
firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents
a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel
flag pin, being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

FYI here.

Hair dye

What's with Hollywood and hair color? Is a person not permitted to have dull, brown hair? Nobody has natural hair the color of Liam Neeson in Taken or Nicholas Cage in any of his last half-dozen movies, National Treasure 2 for a heinous example.

Frankly, I don't much care for the artificial colors on females, either, because in 99.97% of the cases, it looks as plastic as the bottle from which the dye was dispensed. That said, I understand the societally-imposed, individually-swallowed insatiable search for youth. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. Vanity.

When dudes start dying the dirty-blonde that has started sprouting the silver or hair-plugging, toupeeing or spray-painting the follicles that have long since vacated the premises, something's amiss. If you got the genes where the hairline is racing after faster than a French battlefield, que sera, sera. Get used to it. And DON'T comb-over! Going gray? Steve Martin. Peter Graves.

You want a credible character in film or on TV? Try a credible look. Unless of course your going for a Bozo the Clown feel to your action film. Just me.

Barbara Boxer...

...is an ego-maniacal dowager (here).

Whew. I feel better. If it were name-calling, that would be petty. No, yesterday, she "earned" it.

Do you wonder what went through the general's mind? He's a far better man than I am. Held his composure like a granite statue. I couldn't have done it. A line from Wayne's World came to my mind. "A ********* says what?"

Do you wonder what possessed the California Democrat to emphasize her position over the general? Perhaps she recognized the humongous deficiency of character on one side of the room. Over-compensation.

California. I wish they'd secede.

Capital punishment from the Hollywood experts

I'm not Roman Catholic. That said, I remain amazed at the number of Roman Catholics who are cool with abortion depsite the unwavering teaching of the Catholic Church and the Bible itself. Why bother to call yourself a Catholic if you consider the fundamental teachings of your Church to be optional?

This silliness exists across the religious spectrum. The nominalists. The pick-and-choosers. The syncretists. Despite man's proclivity toward shopping the religious Wal-Mart to basket the aspects they find tasty while leaving the rest upon the shelf, not a religion on the books at its root tolerates such a "free-love" approach.

The God of the Bible is a jealous God. He establishes how man comes to him and not the other way around. He tells man how it is. When you have created the entirety of the universe, it's your word that governs, not the whim of the creature. We can either bow in love and worship or we can run in rebellion.

It's truly amazing the millions who proclaim to be Christian and at the same time, run contrary or believe contrary to what God has spelled out plainly in the Bible. Take for instance capital punishment. Actor (there's always a good source of expertise on any topic) Stephen Collins spoke with a reporter (here) at the annual "We Hate the Death Penalty" Awards dinner in--you guessed it--Hollywood, California. His response when asked, "What about all of the talk about whether Jesus would have supported capital punishment?"

"The death penalty solves nothing except a kind of understandable but misguided sense of justice and vengeance, and certainly Jesus never says anything about executing people. I go to church, I'm a Christian. I think it’s interesting that so many political Christians support the death penalty when Jesus Christ never says a single, slight word about putting people to death, never even slightly. I don't know where they're coming from as Christians. I don't understand."

Well, Mr. Collins, we're coming from that wacky place called the Bible. A few points.

• Jesus does speak of executing people. In John 8, as the Pharisees look to execute the woman caught in adultery (where's the guy, btw?) in accordance with the Mosaic Law. Jesus doesn't dismiss the fact that her sin warrants death, but recognizes the Pharisees' smug self-righteousness and the woman's deep repentance. So he turns the tables upon them. This event (and his seeking forgiveness for his executioners while on the cross, too) does not suggest Jesus' opposition to the death penalty


• An argument from silence is no argument. Simply because Christ does not speak of capital punishment within the Gospels, this does not somehow indicate his opposition to the practice either. Which carries us to the next point.


• God commands capital punishment. Life is sacred because God made it so. It has that value because he sets the value. Man, unlike anything else in the universe, is created in God's image, and so it has a value far surpassing any other living thing (Genesis 1). Because God gave man dominion over the planet, he gave man the responsibility to impute civic justice upon the created order. Therefore, if man has so wanton a disregard for human life, God commands that that individual's life is forfeit. Because he has taken life, so shall he lose his life (Genesis 9). This command came to Noah, apart from the Law, and therefore applies to all of humanity and not just Israel.

More biblical ignorance. If you call yourself a Christian, as Mr. Collins does, you understand that God the Son, Christ, has been around since eternity past with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. That said, when God instituted capital punishment to Noah (and all humanity) and to Moses (and all Israel), God the Son was present. In other words, God the Son has indeed spoken plainly about capital punishment. He instituted it!

Still More. Paul speaks of the government's responsibility to wield the sword as an instrument of justice in Romans 13 and the necessity of the believer to be in subjection to the government. Wielding the sword does not imply a swat across the posterior with the flat of the blade but a 'ka-chunk' across the nape with the really sharp segment.

Attending a hockey game does not make you a hockey fan. Nor does say that you are one. If you attend one game per year, have no team for which your heart bleeds, have no idea what the rules of the game are, make no attempt to determine the standings, then I would aregue, you are not a hockey fan. Despite your pleading. Despite your ticket stub.

God's word remains pretty clear. The problem within Hollywood and within Christendom today is that we are utterly ignorant about what God has said. We call ourselves "Christian" but have no idea what that even means.

The God-shaped hole

There is perhaps no greater evidence for the existence of God than the deep longing of the human heart for that supernatural relationship. How is then, when man recognizes that space as "God-shaped" or "God-sized," they try to fill it with anything but?

Parade Magazine, the circular stuck in most Sunday newspapers, carried a cover story about the very talented and very troubled actor, Shia LeBeouf. During the interview (here), he lamented,

"Most actors on most days don't think they're worthy. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it's a God-sized hole. If I knew, I'd fill it, and I'd be on my way."

Mr. LeBeouf arrived at the interview by bicycle having had his license suspended after an alcohol-related crash that left his hand mangled. Later on he puzzled,

"Why did the love of my life and I break up?...I have no answers to anything. None. Why am I an alcoholic? I haven't a **** clue! What is life about? I don't know."

And so, in despair and frustration the actor buries himself in his work, into booze, and into women. Fame's highways are littered with such talents. Monroe. Joplin. Phoenix. Morrison. Cobain. Ledger. Belushi. Presley. Will LeBeouf follow this reckless roadmap?

Or will he hearken to the One that calls to His creatures that He might bring them restoration? Mr. LeBeouf might try filling the hole in his soul with the Piece that fits.

The Church. Again.

I still can't get over that George Tiller was serving as an usher in his church. Is that some kind of poor-taste joke?

Imagine Ted Bundy greeting you at the door of Bates Baptist Church. "Um, isn't that the mass-murderer?" you whisper to the little old lady near the door.

"Oh, yeah, but hey, we don't judge folks here for what they do on their own time," she demures.

In case it's been a couple of weeks since you've read Revelation 2 & 3, Jesus Christ blasts a number of churches for not dealing with sin in their midst. Likewise, Paul rails upon the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 5) for its tolerance of that for which God is most intolerant. Paul's other letters, Peter's letters, and John's letters all call for the church to police itself. Jesus, in Matthew 18, discusses how individuals should handle situations where someone sins against them. Shrug it off as just personal preference, boys will be boys? No. Confrontation must come. Sin must be named "sin."

So what's up in the American church? Indictment #1 rests upon the shepherds, the pastors who teach and proclaim that which the Bible (hence God) does not teach and proclaim. Taxes, international relations, use of the military, abortion, homosexual "marriage," infrastructure, medicare, social security, etc., etc., etc. are all moral issues. Pastors must provide their flocks with a biblical foundation for understanding these issues. When they don't or when they distort or deny what the Bible plainly states, they abdicate an enormous God-given responsibility.

But indictment #2 anchors to the laps of those sitting in the apathetic pews. We suck in the heresy faster than a six-pound bass slurps up a jigged-worm, and it hooks us to our demise. In the small town of Berea, Macedonia, Luke commended the folks for not taking Paul's word for gospel until they cross-checked it against what the Scriptures actually said! John's first letter repeats over and over, "Obey." He goes so far as to equate our love of God with obedience...but then so did Christ. How can one obey if one has no clue what to obey? How can we hold our pastors accountable if we have do not know what God's word says?

So what about your church? What's your pastor preaching? This isn't a call for a witch hunt, but when you have folks living in blatant contradiction to the Word of Truth, for their sake and the sake of their soul, call them on it...in love...with a more scrutinizing eye toward the same sin in your own life. The point behind biblical confrontation is restoration to Christ. The weak supporting the weak through the endless power of Christ.

We have a responsibility to one another. No man is an island. He's not.

We can't bury our head in the pillow and hope we'll wake up to a new morning. Our usher is cutting up babies.

Dorian Gray

UPDATED: Since writing the following post I've learned that Hollywood is taking Wilde's novel to the silver screen (again). Unfortunately, most of what's come from filmdom of late has left the screen mostly pewter.

Here's what I anticipate: Rather than the measured, use-your-imagination prose of Wilde, we'll be treated to something that borders on the pornographic. Rather than get a spectacular movie with three-dimensional characters and with a profound moral message, we'll get an engorgement of pointless hedonism that leaves us wondering "Why?"

Wilde, the homosexual, Wilde, the adulterer, concludes that endless pleasure, the endless satisfying of the libido, will not bring us to betterment, will not elevate us to a higher state of consciousness. Likely through his own unsatisfying experiences, Oscar Wilde exposes the reality that our pursuit of self, that our endless quenching of any desire, will only rot the soul (and I might add, only drive us further from the God who created us and will provide that ultimate completion to our soul).

The original post:
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The last few days, God saw fit to move me away from computers (for the most part). No Letterman digging to new depths for a laugh. No government taking more of my money. No anarchists taking law and hatred into their own hands. No international hoodlums threatening nuclear annihilation. Just nine hours of highway.

In driving from Wichita Falls, Texas to Pueblo, Colorado, I got to transit one of my favorit pieces of highway in America, US 87 between Dalhart, Texas and Raton, New Mexico, where dormant volcanoes poke their slumbering peaks out of vast seas of sun-leeched grassland. Cattle meander across the plain annoyed from time to time by the roving pronghorns. Descending out of Des Moines (yeah, they have one in NM, too) toward the Capulin volcano, the Rockies darkening the horizon bring the sprawling sea to an abrupt halt.

Since I had no one with which to chat on my drive, I checked out "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (unabridged) from the local library. Playwright Oscar Wilde penned only one novel, that being Dorian Gray. He's known primarily for his wry wit, exhibited in spades in "The Importance of Being Earnest." He's also known, despite being married and siring a few children, for his blatant homosexuality, quite the scandal in Victorian England.

That said, you'd think Dorian Gray would be either a laugh-a-minute or a vehicle to laud nineteenth century debauchery. It's neither. I have never read (or heard, in this case) a more vivid description of the corruption of the human soul. Despite Wilde's distaste for the church surfacing from time to time, he paints a detailed portrait of the rot that comes to the spirit when he follows after pleasure. He provides as biblical a picture as an exegetical sermon.

He has captured the world as it is, and unlike most "Christian" novelists, he does so without the bludgeoning subtlety of a jackhammer. If the storyteller has to tell you what he's telling you, he's not telling his story very well. Wilde draws you in with deft depiction and a well set scene.

I'll not spoil it for you. I hate when folks tell me what's going to happen in a movie. But what would do if you could savor whatever your heart desired with no implication to you? Would it be the be-all, end-all?

And what is so rare today, Wilde illustrates utter corruption without even nearing a PG-rating. He crafts crass and course characters without a single foul word. Again, subtlety. Surprising. Refreshing.

To my shame, I'd only known of Dorian Gray through a terrible film, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." I don't know what I'd read that piqued me toward giving it a look, but I'm glad I did. After listening to it, I will have to go back and read it at some point to better savor the irony, the nuance, and decoration Wilde provides to each scene, and to gnaw upon the empty philosophies espoused by the foundationally bankrupt Lord Henry.

As you drive into your summer, if you're thinking of sinking your teeth into a book and don't know which way to turn, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" will give you plenty upon which to chew. A satifying read!

Yawn

I've said it before. If you're going to sink your money into a news periodical, invest it in WORLD MAGAZINE (on-line here). It's a good source for news both current and investigative. And the best part, they make no excuses for their bias. Their mission statement (in every issue) is:

"To report, interpret, and illustrate the news in a timely, accurate,
enjoyable, and arresting fashion from a perspective committed to the Bible as
the inerrant Word of God." (You can find more detail here.)

That's the problem with Time, Newsweek, and most the major papers. You keep pleading to the people that you are unbiased while sporting your Obama tattoos and NARAL bumper stickers. Unlike the box of chocolates, with WORLD, you can be pretty sure what you're going to get.

Anyway, to plug WORLD today is not why I write. In the current issue, Joel Belz, WORLD's founder and former publisher, writes about one of his semi-annual straw polls. He takes a pen and pad and toddles to the local Wal-Mart to ask the man on the street some current events questions about a particular issue of the day. His question that day asked whether the respondants would be in favor of or opposed to their state giving married status to homosexual partners. The follow-up asked on what they based their position.

While knowing that the answers he got were not scientific in the least, the answer to the third question he posed to those in favor of homosexual marriage, and really the reason for his asking the other two, left him to suggest "we might all prepare for the thunderous collapse of our society." What was the question?

"Why, based on your justification of homosexual marriage, should (your state)
not also endorse polygamy -- or even the marriage of a man and his very lovable
dog?"

Can you guess the responses? They hadn't really thought about it. When pressed a bit further, Belz came to the conclusion, "It's clear that not a single of the (respondants) had ever once pondered such a matter. But much worse, they didn't care, and nothing I could say even fascinated them with the argument."

Ouch. Much of what is on the table today requires not only rigorous thought but rigorous debate. To have the latter, you must have gone through the former. Consider these:

• How is it we consider a judicial nominee for the Supreme Court when she has suggested that empathy for certain people groups is necessary when administering the rule of law?



• George Tiller is murdered. His murder is barbaric. Why is the media silent about the blood on the man's hand? Would the response be the same if Ahmadinejahd were assassinated by radicals?



• North Korea and Iran, nations who loathe the United States, are on the threshold of deliverable nuclear weapons. What do we do?



• Israel and Palestine. Who do we support?



• Bailout, bailout, bailout. Is this right? What are the consequences of what has been enacted.

Belz asked questions about homosexual unions, but the same can be said about any topic. We have failed to think about issues and have not used moral lenses to examine them. We have failed to do this because we do not care. He concludes:

"The direction of our vapid thoughtlessness is clear; only the speed of its
takeover seems now in question."

Looking back over the last dozen years, I don't think there's any question about the speed. Alas.

D-Day

A President prays for his nation and his troops and petitions them all to continue in prayer...only 65 brief years ago.

Take six and a half minutes and listen to what our parents and grandparents listened to on the radio on that difficult day. (I bet the ACLU spoke not a word about it, either.)



Thy will be done!

In praise of...what???

America's genuflector-in-chief has fulfilled his campaign promise and given a speech in an Islamic capitol. It went south from the outset.

In laying the foundation for the current conflict, our President laid the blame chiefly at the feet of the west.

"More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam."

Seems to me that since the middle of the last century, most Arabic speaking nations were led by Islamic leaders. Where there was a form of western government, many of those nations shook off the cumbersome ideas of freedom and responsibility and wrapped themselves in sharia and beheadings. So were the 9-11 pilots thinking about Lord Balfour? Was it Jefferson's intolerance of the Barbary pirates that caused bombings in Berlin and Madrid? Or was it a passion to live out the Koran against those explicitly denoted as infidels therein?

Islam itself has fed the tensions between Islam and the west. President Obama states that its "a small but potent minority of Muslims" who has wreaked this havoc upon the west. Really? Let's look at two recent events to put that silliness to rest.

Less than a week ago, a pro-life man murdered the most brutal abortion doctor in the country, George Tiller. Immediately, pro-life groups both Christian and non- decried the anarchy and labeled it as evil an act as a single abortion, wholly outside the rule of law. Proabortion groups (and a pro-abortion President) spoke of the evil of murder as an acceptable tack to take when opposed to abortion. Both sides recognized and spoke out against the brutality.

One day later, an Islamic man murdered a military recruiter, William Long, and wounded another in South Carolina. The media coverage was minimal. While MSNBC covered Tiller for 48 hours running and became the face of the news on all the major networks, the consistent fruit of Islam is hardly mentioned across the board. Olbermann states that Fox News and all pro-lifers are culpable for Tiller's death. Where's such rhetoric against Islam? And the President was as quiet as a library. No comments for those under his command. The death of one of his troops at the hand of the member of a group that loathes our country warranted no comment from the Commander-in-Chief?

And where are the Arab or Islamic groups speaking out against the murder of US military recruiters? Shhh. Listen for it. It's the sound of silence.

Anarchy regarding abortion? Unacceptable, say all sides. Anarchy from Muslims toward the west? Unacceptable...says the west. Yes, ten-percent of all Muslims may be fanatical, but the majority of the Muslim world agrees with the fanatics or doesn't have the cajones to speak against them.

The President calls for "mutual respect" by unveiling to all the world the Islamic side of the American presidency. He highlights his Christian faith when in Rick Warren's church when it's politically expedient. When on Islamic soil, he checks the Bible at Andrews AFB and picks up the Koran and lauds his Islamic heritage. Rather than stand as a Christian President from a Christian nation, he folds like an origami camel.

As with most bullies, aquiescence is weakness and deserving of another punch in the nose. Keep your eyes peeled. I suspect another jab or left hook is not far off.