Why be surprised that a priest says it is OK to shoplift?

See Thou SHALT shoplift: Priest tells congregation it’s better than robbery or prostitution.  Excerpts:

The Rev Tim Jones said in his Sunday sermon that stealing from successful shops was preferable to burglary, robbery or prostitution.

He told parishioners it would not break the eighth commandment ‘thou shalt not steal’ because it ‘is permissible for those who are in desperate situations to take food that they might not starve’.

But his advice was roundly condemned by police and the local Tory MP. Father Jones, 42, was discussing Mary and the birth of Jesus when he went on to the subject of how poor and vulnerable people cope in the run-up to Christmas.

‘My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift,’ he told his stunned congregation at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York.

‘I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

‘I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

‘I would ask them not to take any more than they need. I offer the advice with a heavy heart. Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift.

But why should this surprise us?  We have fake Christian leaders and members who insist that it is our Christian duty to have Caesar take money by force from neighbor A to help neighbor B, including the “right” of neighbor B to pay to have her unborn child destroyed.

These same “Christians” insist that God is pro-oxymoronic same-sex marriage, that Jesus is not the only way to salvation (despite what that pesky Bible teaches 100 times), that Jesus isn’t God, and so on. 

If these Dalmatian Theologians can twist the Bible to support all those other false teachings, why not teach that it is OK to steal?  You just have to be like the fakes and Satan and ask, “Did God really say ______?”

Another reason it is hard to stay in the Methodist church

The pastors at my church are excellent and there are good things going on around the world, such as with our orthodox friends in the Kenyan church.  But the national leadership in the U.S. is awful and there are many Methodist churches I wouldn’t send my dogs to.   They are more charismatic in their style, anyway (No offense to my charismatic friends, just a throw-away gag.  I know we tend to be boring worshipers!).

Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society, who is staunchly pro-legalized abortion, is a perfect example of what is wrong with the denomination:

The provision of health care for all without regard to status or ability to pay is portrayed in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:24-35). In a conversation that began with the question of how one might obtain eternal life, Jesus asserted that one must love God and one’s neighbor. In response to the next question as to who one’s neighbor is, Jesus told of a Samaritan, an outsider, who coming upon a wounded traveler, provided him with health care. Jesus described the duty to provide health care as owed regardless of the merit or ethnicity of the person in need, and owed to the limit of one’s economic capacity. By the way, this is from #3201, “Health Care for All in the United States,” 2008 Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church.

Twisting the Parable of the Good Samaritan to support universal health care — including government funding of the crushing and dismemberment of innocent human beings who are clearly our neighbors —  is scrip-torture of the highest degree. 

Note how Winkler and the like ask Caesar to take money  — by threat of force, loss of property or imprisonment — from neighbor A to give to neighbor B and then audaciously consider themselves to be the Good Samaritan in the story.  How charitable of them.  Go release some endorphins, folks!

Of course, the real Good Samaritan gave his own time and money, and without coercion.  Winkler-types aren’t even in the story.  They would be a new character, petitioning Caesar to force the Samaritan to help and taking away his opportunity to be loving and generous.

Also note his closing comment:

Any congregation that doesn’t seek health care for all of the uninsured should be sued for malpractice!

I’d say that any congregation seeking glory for asking the government to take money from one group to “care” for another should be sued for malpractice.  And I put care in quotes because Winkler & Co. consider this to be health care.

P.S. Winkler’s implication that doing good deeds merits eternal life is bad theology as well.

Roundup

I don’t get too worked up about the Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays issue.  I do get irritated if Best Buy makes reference to a Muslim holiday but deliberately ignores Christmas.  If someone wants they can say “Happy HOLY Days.”  Or if someone greets you with Happy Holidays you can reply, “Yes, thanks, I do enjoy the holy day celebrating Christ’s birth.”  (I’m kidding — I don’t think being belligerent about it does much to advance the kingdom).

I have a Muslim employee.  I wish him happy holidays, and he wrote “Merry Christmas” on a present he gave me.  He knows who I worship.  I’d rather save up all my goodwill with him for our next talk about Jesus.

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Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Tied to Lewd Readings for 7th Graders – a thorough summary on a very perverse man who is the opposite of safe for kids.  Go ask your friends if they’ve heard of Kevin Jennings.  Then ask them to read this and more about him and to wonder why the MSNBC, CNN and their local paper are ignoring him and the perverse GLSEN organizations infiltrating our schools?

And of course the GLSEN group does little for safety and lots for indoctrination.  Jennings wrote Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling, of which the title alone is enough to disqualify him from his current position.  Consider this from one of their events:

Using images from popular children’s media, we will transform these into a subversive coloring book, writing stories for the characters we always wanted to rebel against.  Because so much of children’s media does not include Transgender, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer, and Feminist characters and ideas, we will deliberately work to contradict this. Don’t miss the chance to make friends, cut-n-paste with a real live glue stick, and change the direction of children’s media. No artistic experience necessary.

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Pew survey shows that evangelical Christian Republicans are the most rational – well, duh.  Seriously, Liberals and/or non-believers are twice as likely to believe in fortune tellers.  And this polls show how those who attend church regularly are much less likely to believe in astrology and reincarnation than those who aren’t as committed. 

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Mentors and accountability partners are very important in the life of a Christian — Do you have someone helping and guiding you and holding you accountable?  If not, get someone.

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Teacher’s unions working to block accountability — Hey, maybe if they worked on being better teachers instead of fighting the obvious.

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Quick responses to a common attack on pro-lifers

If you read many articles on the abortion issue you are likely to come across the line that pro-lifers don’t care about the humans outside the womb.  That argument fails on many levels.  Feel free to copy and paste these without attribution.

1. You don’t have to take full responsibility for a situation to protest its immorality. 

For example, could you protest the hypothetical government slaughtering of street people to end homelessness without being obligated to feed, clothe and house the homeless yourself? 

2. Pro-lifers do plenty to help the children and families.  Go check out a Crisis Pregnancy Center that runs on donations and mostly volunteers.  They help women and children in many ways, all for free.  They outnumber abortion clinics.

3. Pro-lifers would also protest the destruction of people outside the womb for the reasons given for abortions.  We are merely defending the human beings whose lives are threatened.

4. Unless a pro-legalized abortion advocate insists that poor or un-wed mothers must have abortions or give up children for adoption, then he is just as responsible for his claims that we must help the children after they are born. 

After all, pro-choicers insist that either choice is acceptable.  Therefore, they have the same obligation to help as they place on pro-lifers.

More here.

A simple and accurate overview of Intelligent Design

Many critics of Intelligent Design (deliberately?) mischaracterize it no matter how many times they are corrected.  Here is a good presentation of it by Douglas Axe.

• Living things contain within their genomes large amounts of functional information. 
• The only cause known to be capable of generating large amounts of functional information is intelligence. 
• It is therefore reasonable to infer that the functional information in living things must have an intelligent source

Here we have not a pronouncement but an argument based on evidence and logic.  It is perfectly fair to argue against it, of course, but it is hardly fair to dismiss it as dogma.

Anyone claiming that ID is illogical is completely wrong and untrustworthy.  It is theoretically possible that ID isn’t true, but under no circumstances can someone fairly say that it is unreasonable to infer an intelligent source for large amounts of functional information.

Hat tips: The Way the Ball Bounces and Wintery Knight.

Quick responses to common objections to Christianity

A common objection to Christianity and God’s existence is “What about the Crusades?!” or some other wrong done in the name of Christ.

That argument fails on many levels.  Feel free to copy and paste these without attribution.

1. You don’t judge an ideology by those who violate its tenets.  Don’t blame Jesus when people do the opposite of what He taught.

2. I make it a habit not to apologize for things that happened 1,000 years ago and that I didn’t do.

3. If there is no God then there is no moral grounding to criticize any of those things.

4. None of those things disprove the central claims of Christianity, such as the physical resurrection of Jesus, his divinity, etc.

More here.

Nutcracker 2009

The shows went really well.  The artistic director said it was the best production in memory.  Everyone was great to work with and seemed to have a good time.  I got to watch my youngest dance from the audience as well after the party scene was complete, which is always fun.  Over the holidays we’ll see the oldest in her first Nutcracker with a professional company.

One more year and I’ll retire!  Now if I could just get this music out of my head . . .

Roundup

Germany Jails Eight Christian Fathers for Removing Children from Sex-Ed Class – the logical consequence of a nanny state.  Who are you to have any say about the perversions the government is pushing on your children? 

And if you don’t think that this is a swell reading list then you must be the one with the problem.

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Hey Atheists, Leave Those Kids Alone (and parents such as myself, while you are at it), part 2 – excellent analysis of the hypocrisy of atheist groups who insist that you shouldn’t teach your children your own religion yet indoctrinate their own kids 24×7.  I respect their rights to express their logical fallacy-fest to their kids, but they get hot and bothered that we’d share the truth with ours.

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“Not Evil Just Wrong” — turns out that this anti-AGW hysteria site was mistaken.  The AGW movement is wrong AND evil, as shown by the massive fraud perpetrated by the scientists and the complicity of politicians and media working to ignore it and/or cover it up.

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The Princess and the Frog is the most devastating assault on the Race Industry in our lifetime – interesting take on another movie I won’t see.  Glad to see these themes slipped past the race industry. 

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Al Gore lies again – the AGW emails were not all 10 years old and were in context.

Roundup

Polar bears are not vanishing – it is just another part of the ClimateGate lies. 

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One more time, people: President Obama did not inherit all this deficit.  Congress  — you know, the group that Obama was a member of – passed the 2008 budget.

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Good reminder about not using the Lord’s name in vain by saying, “The Lord moved me to tell you…”  People use God’s name vainly when they over-spiritualize things. Saying, “God told me . . .” puts the burden of proof on the listener when it should be on the hearer.  If you use that line with me it better be followed by a Bible verse.
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Cowardly Richard Dawkins explains why he won’t debate William Lane Craig – Sadly, the uninformed audience clapped at his response. 

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Evolutionary theory wrong  — again – Science Daily reports that there is no such thing as Junk RNA « Wintery Knight.

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Christmas gift idea

No, no, not for me.  Although . . .

If you are looking for gift ideas for folks who perform services like newspaper delivery, lawn maintenance, cleaning, etc. consider a gift card to Wal-Mart (or whatever) along with a Gospel of John booklet (or a Gospel of Juan for Spanish speaking folks).  You can get free copies at the Pocket Testament League. 

Seriously, if you are going to give a present to celebrate the birth of Christ, what could be more relevant than an account of his life?

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More about the organization:

The Pocket Testament League has, for more than 110 years, motivated Christians to read, carry and share the Word of God. Begun in 1893 as the vision of a teenage girl named Helen Cadbury, the League provides free resources empowering people to develop a lifestyle of personal evangelism.

You can get free copies of the Gospel of John with various covers and translations.  You can order all you like (they do accept donations, but it is not required).  If you are able to strike up a conversation with someone on spiritual matters you can offer to give them a booklet.  It may be less intimidating to the other person than if you gave them a whole Bible to read (though that is good, too!). 

As noted in these 8 Witnessing Tips, it is helpful to leave them with something. The Gospel of John is considered one of the most beautiful works of literature ever written, and of course it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  As John himself wrote,

John 20:30-31 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Dear Planned Parenthood, How much do you stand to make from the health care bill?

Go read Jill Stanek – Full page ad challenges Planned Parenthood to fess up on healthcare kick-back plans.

Pro-aborts give money to politicians who give business and $$ to Planned Parenthood and other pro-aborts, who give some of the profits back to the politicians, and so on.

Now they want to take tax $ from pro-lifers to fund abortions as well.  This is hope and change?  Well, I suppose it is obviously change, but destroying more innocent human beings is only the “hope” of some pretty twisted people.

Roundup

Let’s see: Harry Reid says opposing the health care bill it is akin to promoting slavery, yet his party favors public funding of abortions for the poor?  Hey Harry, black human beings are already destroyed at a rate three times that of whites.  Isn’t that high enough for you, and isn’t that the real racism?

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Why does the RNC just oppose government funded abortions in their purity test?  I realize that the issue in the health care bill is front and center, but let’s not forget that all abortions kill an innocent human being. 

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Christian man fired after gay rights group contacts his employer to complain – Your freedoms are eroding at a rapid rate, people. 

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More on Kevin Jennings, the most ironically titled Czar of them all.  What a sick freak. 

He is Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar.

He is a supporter of men who openly and vocally support pedophilia.

. . .

Kevin Jennings, however, is not just a gay man, but a man who believes in the full gay rights agenda, where men and boys can have sexual relationships free of prudish moral people frowning.

Jennings has championed NAMBLA’s [the North American Man Boy Love Association] causes and lauded a pedophilia advocate.

He even wrote the forward to a book called “Queering Elementary Education.” That’s right, Jennings wrote the forward to a book that, in its own description advocates the aggressive homosexual agenda among elementary school students. From the book: “queering education happens when we look at schooling upside down and view childhood from the inside out.” No irony is intended apparently in that description.

Americans of moral decency should be stunned to know the President of the United States would put in charge of “safe schools,” a man who encourages predatory relationships between young boys and grown men.

Barack Obama has done exactly that. Has he no shame?

And here are some of the tips from GLSEN, which Jennings led for many years.  This group is one of the most vile and perverse I’ve come across, because they target children. 

Also read the Washington Posts’s Obama’s Buggery Czar — Jennings’ group made sex between children and adults look normal.

People who support organizations like Planned Parenthood  or GLSEN are spectacularly evil and/or ignorant. 

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More big lies from Planned Parenthood documented

Please read all of New undercover Planned Parenthood video from Lila Rose.  We already knew that in addition to their serial hiding of statutory rape and millions of dollar in profits from abortions that Planned Parenthood was evil.  Now more of their lies have been documented.

This isn’t about choice, it is about killing unborn human beings for profit.  It isn’t about choice, it is about manipulation.  They lie to women because they know that the more informed they are the less likely they are to pay PP to have their unborn children destroyed.  That doesn’t sound like real feminism to me.

“A fetus is what’s in the uterus right now. That is not a baby.” Dr. Polhaska, the abortion doctor, insists, “It’s not a baby at this stage or anything like that.” Polhaska also states that having an abortion will be “much safer than having a baby,” warning, “You know, women die having babies.”

A mix of lies and deadly equivocations.  Is it a baby?  Technically she is a fetus, but what kind?  Canine?  Bovine? Undetermined?  Of course not.  She is a human fetus — aka a human being.

I am not surprised that non-believers support organizations like Planned Parenthood, though thankfully many see their evil for what it is.  But I am disgusted at the ignorant and/or fake Christians who do so.

Lila Rose’s Rosa Acuna Project apparently has more videos to come. How much undercover investigation does Lila Rose have to do before people stop excusing the evil of Planned Parenthood?

Planned Parenthood stands to benefit mightily if the health care bill is passed.  It is pure pro-abortion all the way, forcing pro-lifers to pay for the abortions.  I hope you are working to stop them.

Why do so many believe in fake conspiracies yet ignore the real global warming fraud?

Lisa Simpson: According to Junior Skeptic magazine the chances are 175 million to one of another form of life actually coming into contact with ours.

Homer: So?

Lisa: It’s just that the people who claim they’ve seen aliens are always pathetic low-lifes with boring jobs . . . oh, and you, Dad . . . heh heh.

An Apologetics.com Podcast on logic mentioned how over 70% of people polled believe in some sort of JFK conspiracy, over 30% believe that 9/11 was an inside job and a large amount believe the government is covering up alien activity.

So why don’t people get excited over the very real conspiracy behind the man-made global warming fraud?  The media continues to ignore it.  The Houston Chronicle had an article buried that noted the controversy but focused on the “experts” who still claim that warming is real — you know, the folks whose livelihoods depend on perpetuating the myth.  The Chronicle didn’t bother to list the evidence. Another article didn’t even mention the controversy.

If you only get your news from the mainstream media you are being fooled daily.

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Great points by Ann Coulter:

These e-mails aren’t a tempest in a teapot. They are evidence of pervasive fraud by a massively influential institution that has dominated news coverage of global warming.

CRU was regularly cited as the leading authority on “global climate analysis” — including by the very news outlets that are burying the current scandal, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. The CRU alone received more than $23 million in taxpayer funds for its work on global warming.

. . .

Most disturbingly, the CRU-affiliated “scientists” were caught red-handed conspiring to kill the careers and reputations of scientists who dissented from the religion of global warming. Indignant that scientific journals were publishing papers skeptical of global warming, the cult members plotted to get editors ousted and the publications discredited.

This sabotage of global warming dissenters may be more galling than their manipulation of the data. Until now, the global warming cult’s sole argument has been to demand that everyone shut up in response to the “scientific consensus” that human activity was causing global warming.

Roundup

The Law of Unintended Consequences and its corollary, The Government Messes Up Everything It Tries to Fix, plays out again with ethanol production. 

Two years ago, the newly-Democratic Congress struck a blow for a greener planet by demanding a level of ethanol production based on current estimates of gasoline use.  This delighted corn farmers and ethanol manufacturers, and most everyone else assumed that little harm could be done by growing more corn and turning it into something other than food.  No one thought about what a recession might do to gasoline demand, or how a parallel Democratic push to force automakers to produce more efficient cars would impact the need for all of the ethanol Congress demanded.

Great.  Now food prices are higher, impacting the poor that the Democrats insist they care about.  And the government may force higher ethanol ratios which could damage your car and increase pollution.

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My Continental.com itinerary page had a convenient option where I could have donated $12.37 to Sustainable Travel International, a non-profit organization  faux guilt relief scam, to offset the CO2 used for these flights.  Here’s a better idea if you like to give to groups like that: Send your money to me and I’ll send you an encouraging email to pump up your fragile ego.  Or better yet, donate it to a real charity and then release some endorphins.

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Robin of Berkeley explains why the left hates Sarah Palin – Yep.  If they just disagreed with her ideas and explained why it would be fine.  That’s what we do with Obama.  Yet we’re called racist for that?!  I have never said anything remotely insulting of Obama like what Liberals do with Palin.

The Left has declared war on Palin because she threatens their existence. Liberals need women dependent and scared so that women, like blacks, will vote Democrat.

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Theological Liberals’ ethnocentric views on display as they claim that African Christians are manipulated into claiming that homosexual behavior is a sin.  What frauds. 

A Massachusetts think tank has released a new report alleging that North American church renewal organizations are manipulating African churches and exporting hostile views of homosexuality.

“Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia” has been authored by Political Research Associates (PRA), which labels itself “a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society.”

The organization says that its mission is to “expose movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights.” The PRA website lists projects promoting abortion advocacy, gay causes and challenging Christian right “theocracy.”

They are the real homophobes, as they are so fearful of the Politically Correct Police that they’ll deny common sense and the God they allegedly worship. 

I know many African Christians and they were very disappointed when they heard that some U.S. churches were blessing same-sex behavior.  There wasn’t even a hint of them thinking, “Gee, you Americans are so darn smart, perhaps we should re-think our position.”  It was more a reaction of bewilderment.

Maybe if the theologicaly Liberal folks were authentic Christians and took the Bible seriously they’d notice these facts:

• 100% of the verses addressing homosexual behavior denounce it as sin in the clearest and strongest possible terms.
• 100% of the verses referencing God’s ideal for marriage involve one man and one woman.
• 100% of the verses referencing parenting involve moms and dads with unique roles (or at least a set of male and female parents guiding the children).
• 0% of 31,173 Bible verses refer to homosexual behavior in a positive or even benign way or even hint at the acceptability of homosexual unions.

Humanists raise funds for good cause!

And the good cause is to tell everyone how good they are! 

I have no objection to them spending their own money to advance their worldview via their sign campaigns:

No God? …No Problem!

Be good for goodness’ sake.

Humanism is the ideas that you can be good without a belief in God.

I just see some inconsistencies.  What is their standard for good?  No lawgiver = no laws. 

And their premise is made of straw.  As Christians we know why they can do “good” — God’s moral laws are written on their heart.  You can do good by their definition even if you suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness.  I know lots of “good” atheists (by their definition, not God’s). 

Telling others how good you are probably isn’t one of those acts that goes in the “good” column.

According to an April 14, 2008 AD Barna study entitled, “New Study Shows Trends in Tithing and Donating”; in 2007 AD evangelicals Christians (one of three subgroups of Christians under consideration) donated a mean of $4,260 to all non-profit entities while atheists and agnostics provided an average of $467.

According to an April 25, 2005 AD Barna study entitled, “Americans Donate Billions to Charity, But Giving to Churches Has Declined”;

“In 2004…Barna’s national study found that the people least likely to donate any money at all were…atheists and agnostics…A quarter or more…failed to give away any money in 2004.”

Keep donating money for billboards and bus ads. We will feed, clothe and house the poor.

I know that some of the money donated by Christians goes to their churches, so one could claim that they benefit.  But the gaps there are huge.  And they get bigger when you compare Bible-believing Christians to others who check the Christian box.