Roundup

Some good news from my former denomination: Talk Grows of Liberal Exodus from UMC.  Alternate title: “Non-Christians threaten to leave church.”  And people think this is a bad thing . . . why?  It would be the best thing to happen to the Methodists in 100 years.

Since last spring’s General Conference, there has been an unprecedented mushrooming of talk of liberal exodus from the United Methodist Church.  For all of the surrounding frustration, that landmark event in Tampa, Florida was an apparent turning point in the struggle for the soul of our global denomination.

Delegates affirmed the denomination’s official teaching that sex is “only” for marriage and that homosexual practice is “incompatible with Christian teaching” (¶161F of the Book of Discipline) by a significantly larger margin than the previous General Conference. For the first time, activists opposed to biblical teaching ultimately gave up on even contesting UMC policies aligning required behavior of clergy and denominational officials with this stand.

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More good news: There’s hope for civilization:

You have to look outside the Beltway, of course, but occasionally there’s a glimmer.

Pat Wesner is a mother of four, with one grown, disabled son in her care and another serving in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, she stumbled on the perfect crime when $11,000 fell off a Brinks truck with no one around to see it.

But she returned the money, because it didn’t belong to her.  What a concept!

Now, meet 18-year-old Indiana man Jhaqueil Reagan, who walked 10 miles in the snow for a job interview at Dairy Queen to support his brothers and sisters, and was well rewarded for his efforts . . .

Liberal thinking hasn’t poisoned everyone!

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The Magical Word “Women” – A great lesson in politics and how Republicans are stupid when dealing with the Democrats’ games.  The Dems just throw in a word like “women” then add all sorts of awful things to a bill then shame Republicans into voting for it.  How hard would it be to distribute talking points to all Republicans along these lines?

• You don’t need Federal laws against spousal abuse (or any kind of abuse).  State and local government have those covered.
• “It expands the definition of domestic violence to include causing “emotional distress” or using “unpleasant speech.”” – this makes it overly broad and open to all sorts of (ironically enough) abuse.
• “It ostensibly nullifies the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty.”
• The bill also expands the law’s reach to give tribal Indian authorities jurisdiction over non-Indians accused of abusing Indian women.
• “It would grant more visas to illegal immigrants who are victims of domestic abuse.”  So we are going to take on everyone in the planet who lodges an accusation of abuse?   And we’ll do this when we don’t even take people suffering from religious persecution?

Don’t let Leftists and fake Christians play out their equivalent of the shrill Helen Lovejoy “won’t someone please think of the children/women” falsehood.

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Once again, see how non-Christians/non-Catholics/fake Christians think they have a say in the selection of the next Pope.

There is much that good people of faith can disagree with Pope Benedict on: his attacks on the rights of women and gays and lesbians, and the failures of the RCC under his leadership to deal with the child abuse scandal.

Translations:

• “Attacks on the rights of women” = opposing the crushing and dismembering of innocent but unwanted human beings.  Oh, and nearly all gender-selection abortions kill females for the sole reason that they are female.  Still not sure how that qualifies as pro-women.  Shame on the “churches” who insist that it is a human right  to be able to kill babies.
• “attacks on the rights of gays and lesbians” = believes what God says in the Bible and opposes oxymoronic “same-sex marriage.”
• “child abuse scandal” – you mean the one perpetrated and covered up by the huge homosexual underground in the Church?  Yes, we oppose that, too.

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Why Are We Not Talking About America’s $123 Trillion In Unfunded Liabilities? – another example of Republicans being stupid at politics.  It isn’t just the National Debt, it is the off-balance sheet liabilities that must be dealt before we destroy this great country.

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Another sad story of how deadly political correctness can be.  Note that when they are discussing criminal acts, “Asian” = Muslim

For all the phony hype about bullying, here’s a real bullying story that doesn’t seem to be getting much traction in the media. I wonder why:

The devastated family of a nine-year-old boy who hanged himself say he took his life after racist taunts by Asian bullies.

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Former top IVF doc: I was ‘absolutely horrified’ when I realized what I was doing – be very cautious when considering in vitro fertilization.

Caruso noted that such “objectification of children” is of a piece with the IVF mentality, where aborting inconvenient children is both routine and encouraged.

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Breaking: Obama campaign caught in major NC vote fraud scheme – anyone surprised?

North Carolina’s Civitas Institute has revealed that the North Carolina State Board of Elections and the Obama campaign conspired to register at least 11,000 people via the internet in violation of state law. This has been confirmed through records requests filed with all of North Carolina’s 100 counties. The counting is not yet complete.

North Carolina does not allow online voting, but according to Civitas, SBE staff authorized an Obama campaign website, Gottaregister.com, to use a web-based registration program. The SBE’s chief lawyer responded to the charge with a plainly disingenuous 1984-newspeak answer:

Wright repeatedly denied that the SBE allowed online voter registration, insisting that it was “web-based voter registration” instead, as if there could be a “web-based” process that wasn’t online.

My biggest concern is that their successful voter fraud will, as with other criminals, embolden them to do larger and larger frauds.

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Even more good news: How privatization turned the worst-performing NHS hospital around – Capitalism works.  Socialism and Communism do not.  History has spoken, but people are too ignorant of it and of basic human nature.

 

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

Biblical faith isn’t blind faith, it is trusting in what reason has assessed (paraphrase of a Stand to Reason Podcast).

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There Are Twenty Enjoyable Things I Could Be Doing Right Now. Why Not Do The Cheapest One?

It’s not so much that I regret spending the money on something that I enjoy. It’s that I know I could have enjoyed myself almost as much without spending that money, and now the opportunities afforded by that money are wasted.

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Your tax dollars at work: Planned Parenthood brings sexualizing message to 11-year-olds

At a very tender age, this child has already been taught that babies are her enemy and that sex is fine as long as condoms and contraceptives are employed.

And if your daughters get pregnant by a 20-something male then Planned Parenthood will be glad to hide the crime and kill your grandchild.

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More of your tax dollars at work.  The Democrats have increased “food stamp” (i.e., cash) recipients by over 50% in a successful vote-buying scheme.  Please remember that all of this money is being borrowed so that your grandchildren can pay it back.  Or, more likely, so they can live in a third-world country.

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False Teachings About Hearing Audible Words From God Taking Even Deeper Root in Today’s Church – this “sloppy God talk” is wrong, counterproductive and dangerous.  If you want to hear from God, read the Bible.  If you want to hear from God audibly, then read the Bible out loud.  Those claiming special revelation have the burden of proof to convince you that whatever they are about to say is on a par with scripture.

At the Passion 2012 conference, Beth Moore, John Piper, Louie Giglio and company taught/led an entire sports arena (45,000 college aged students) in (attempting to ‘hear’ God’s voice). My son’s friends in attendance of this conference told of a young girl standing outside the arena crying her eyes out because she had not heard the audible voice of God as they had instructed. Others tried to comfort her but were also distraught at not hearing a thing.

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Woman raped at gunpoint in “gun free zone” on university campus – the logical consequence of “gun free zones.”

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Muslim Beheads Christians In NJ, Mainstream Media Silent – It is hard to believe that this isn’t national news.  The real Islamaphobes are those too fearful to criticize their atrocities. 

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Dad behind viral ‘I am the 10%’ Down syndrome image speaks out – The pro-life reaction to Down syndrome people: “Love them.”  The pro-abortion reaction: “Kill them.  I mean, just kill them in the womb.  For now . . .”

 

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

Dem Pol Explains Why Women Should Not Be Allowed to Defend Themselves From Rapists – Now that’s a war on women.  If a Republican would have said those things he would have been appropriately skewered.  Yet this guy is getting a pass.  Do they think women are capable of defending themselves and making choices or not?

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How China Plans to Wipe Out House Churches – persecution appears to be getting even worse there.

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From the I am not making this up category: Massachusetts Education Policy Mandates Allowing Boys in Girls’ Restrooms.  Yep, this is what “same-sex marriage” and political correctness will get you.  You wish the quotes in the article were part of some overdone parody, but they are real.

The Massachusetts Commissioner of Education has released an outline of its new school policy regarding gender equality, mandating that boys be allowed to use girls restrooms and locker rooms — and vice versa — if they contend that they prefer to identify with the opposite gender.

The 11-page document, written by Mitchell Chester, is stated to be in response to a gender identity law that was passed last July in the state.

“This guidance is intended to help school and district administrators take steps to create a culture in which transgender and gender nonconforming students feel safe, supported, and fully included, and to meet each school’s obligation to provide equal educational opportunities for all students, in compliance with G.L. c. 76, §5 and the state regulations,” it states.

As part of the outline, entitled Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity, Chester explains that students need to be permitted to use whichever bathroom or locker room they wish. He states that as long as the child asserts that they would rather identify with the  opposite gender, they should have the access that they desire.

“The responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student,” Chester states. “A school should accept a student’s assertion of his or her gender identity when there is … ‘evidence that the gender-related identity is sincerely held as part of a person’s core identity.’”

Hat tip: The Bumbling Genius

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Christian Arrested for Speaking Against Homosexuality – coming soon to a country near you.  What is even more ridiculous is that the debate hinges on whether he said something loudly or not, or in his sermon or not.  Sadly, that means they already lost the major battle.  It shouldn’t matter legally if he yelled it or not.  Speech is free or not.

 

A Christian man preaching in the street in Cumbria, England, was arrested by a homosexual police officer after he listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in the Bible. He was locked up for seven hours and charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress,” according to The Examiner.

Dale McAlpine, 42, said he has been preaching in his hometown of Cumbria for years. On April 20, he was handing out leaflets when a woman engaged him in a private debate. During the conversation, McAlpine said he believed homosexuality went against the Word of God. After the conversation, a police support community officer, who identified himself as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer for Cumbria police, told McAlpine he could be arrested for using homophobic language.

After the conversation, McAlpine got on a stepladder and preached a 20-minute sermon, in which he says he did not mention homosexuality. However, after the sermon, a number of police gathered and arrested him for using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act, which was originally created to deal with soccer hooligans.

Officers claimed McAlpine was speaking in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others during his conversation with the woman. McAlpine said he used a quiet voice.

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Teen lost parts of both legs after failed abortion: pursues wrestling dream anyway – great story!

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Poll Worker Melowese Richardson Apparently Cast Six Votes for Obama

“Yes, I voted twice,” Richardson told WCPO-TV. “I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.”

Authorities also are investigating if she voted in the names of four other people, too, for a total of six votes in the 2012 presidential election.

For every Obamunist who publicly admits to voter fraud, there are tens of thousands either not quite dumb enough or too busy watching the massive, extravagantly expensive televisions favored by welfare recipients.

As Obama voters were casting multiple ballots, Romney voters had theirs thrown out. In the opposite corner of the state, 21 Cleveland districts recorded not a single vote for Romney.

That’s how elections work in a country that has been “fundamentally transformed” into a second-rate banana republic. Happy now, libs?

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How Do We Break the Cycle of Higher Tuition and More Debt? — Subsidies for college funding make it more expensive, not less.  Too many people drop out who should have never been there to begin with.  We’d be much better off without the “everyone should go to college” mantra.  There is nothing wrong – and many things right – about more focus on trade schools.

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When “same-sex marriage” becomes the law

• Religious liberty and freedom of conscience (i.e., the freedom to oppose homosexuality) will be repressed by the state in the name of “gay rights”; Illinois has already experienced this under our “Civil Unions” law [see the case of the Walders' bed-and-breakfast in Paxton, IL].  Despite the current bill being amended to protect churches and religious institutions, business owners — even devout Christians — who cater to weddings (such as banquet hall owners and photographers) could be forced to use their facilities or expertise to celebrate homosexual “marriages”;
• Liberal teachers, especially in public schools, will be emboldened to promote homosexual relationships to students in the classroom; homosexual teachers will be given a platform to discuss their “marriages” and to model homosexuality as normal, natural and good to students. Parents will have a harder time stopping the promotion of homosexuality in schools;
• Homosexual “sex ed” will gain ground in Illinois schools. Under the radical egalitarian idea that all relationships are morally “equal” and worthy of marriage, “safer gay sex” will be taught non-judgmentally alongside (normal) heterosexual sex. “Abstinence until marriage” (which regrettably is not the norm but only the ideal for most Illinois health classrooms) would apply to homosexual- and bisexual- as well as “straight” students — despite the reality that all homosexual sex is inherently immoral.  High-risk and unnatural practices like anal sex will be mainstreamed in our schools. (Could teaching the truth that sex between men is linked disproportionately to HIV and various sexually-transmitted diseases lead to charges of “anti-gay discrimination”?) And deviant lesbian sex will be taught for girls who in the future might “marry” a woman.
• Businessmen will be forced to recognize and subsidize their employees’ immoral same-sex “marriages”; a form of this is already happening under Illinois’ “Civil Unions” law;
• Society will be corrupted as unequal things are treated as equal; children will be further confused as the law (which is a teacher, as the saying goes) creates a Brave New Morality that officially “weds” sinful, unnatural and changeable behavior to the noble and life-sustaining institution of marriage;
• Homosexual activists will be energized to use the homosexual “marriage” law to pressure citizens to approve of their lifestyle and step up their crusade to stigmatize, demonize and discredit pro-family Christians and moral opponents of homosexuality.  Groups like AFTAH that embrace wholesome, godly morality will be vilified as “hateful and bigoted.” And, as we have witnessed in Massachusetts, the push for ever more extreme “LGBT rights” would be propelled by enactment of “same-sex marriage” — including “transgender” activism in schools.
• Legalized homosexual “marriage” will help “normalize” homosexual adoption, thus consigning greater numbers of innocent children to be raised in households that are motherless or fatherless by design.

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The President of the United States, in some of his rare votes in the Illinois Senate, voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act three times. He knew what it was about, and he spoke out against it.  This is who was elected as our President. 

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Newtown Shooter Picked School As It Was The “Easiest Target” – all the laws being proposed will take away guns from law-abiding citizens, leave them in the hands of criminals, and do nothing to prevent deaths like those in Newtown.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

“But they might be poor!”

There are lots of bad pro-abortion arguments, but one of the worst is that the unborn might end up poor.  Here are a few things wrong with that.

1. Even if that would be justification to kill an innocent but unwanted human being, that uses the wrong definition of poor.  There are very, very few truly poor people in this country.  Most of the poor (who, as Roxanne notes, are only poor because someone has to be on the left side of the Bell curve) live better than even royalty did 200 years ago.  Some people are so “poor” that they can’t afford to work because they’d be taking a pay cut from their benefits.

That definition of poor would mean that 90% of the world should have been aborted.  Ask anyone using that argument how many Third World countries they have visited.

2. Even if they really would be poor their entire lives and even if that would be justification to kill an innocent but unwanted human being, note the word “might.”  It is the sadly pessimistic but false view of Liberals that once your family is poor that you always stay that way.  But people often move between economic classes.  Hey, just graduate high school and don’t have sex out of wedlock and you are very unlikely to be poor, even by the U.S. definition.

Killing them because something “might” happen sounds like Dr. Nick Riviera from The Simpsons (“Just to be on the safe side, we better pull the plug.”)

3. As with nearly all pro-abortion arguments, it ignores the right to life of the unborn.

4. Using that logic we could do poor people a favor by killing them outside the womb, too.  After all, the size, location, level of development and degree of dependency have no bearing on the value of a human being.  The world just rationalizes it so they can kill unwanted human beings.

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Sadly, many of those using this argument claim the name of Christ.  A woman in a Bible study once used that as her justification to be “pro-choice,” even though she had been in church her entire life.  The notion that the author of life (Acts 3:15) would be pro-abortion is ridiculous.

If you want to help poor people, that’s great.  But killing them is a dubious way of going about it.

Roundup

How to shut down gossip and its nasty kin – good analysis and tips

First, understand what gossip is. Gossip is spreading harmful information in an ungodly manner — without love, and thus to no positive end. Its bastard stepchildren are the triplets: Strife, Dissension, Division.
Second, do any or all of the following steps, as needed. Some of them help identify whether you’re actually hearing gossip or not. All of them will stop it dead. But none will work… unless used.

1. Ask, “Why are you telling me this?” Often, that in itself is such a focusing question that it can bring an end to the whole unpleasant chapter. It has the added benefit that it can help a person whose intentions are as good as his/her judgment is bad.

There are more suggestions, but the first is all you need.

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Sad but true examples of Communism and the risks of gun control and gun registrations.      You have to be remarkably ignorant of history to trust that malicious people won’t take advantage of you being disarmed.

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If anyone tries to call you a bigot, just ask them for the definition and then ask if they are tolerant of different opinions.

big·ot – noun – a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.

Oddly enough, those using the word fit the description much better than those they attempt to malign with it.

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Surprised? Diet Soda May Increase Chance of Diabetes

We are not fans of diet drinks. There are many reasons to abstain from them, and a recent study just added another: type 2 diabetes.

In a European study of 66,000 women middle age and up, over 14 years, a definitive correlation was found between consumption of diet soft drinks and type 2 diabetes. Even more amazing: the correlation was STRONGER than the one found with consumption of regular soft drinks!

The risk of diabetes grows by 60% with the consumption of just 1 cup of diet soda a day. Consumption of 100% fruit juice did not show any increase in diabetes risk.

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Equal time.

You Asked: Should I Get ‘Re-Baptized’? (Paedobaptist Answer)

You Asked: Should I Get ‘Re-Baptized’? (Credobaptist Answer)

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About the war on women . . . why the media blackout on this one?  Doctor Death: 29-Year-Old Patient Dies After Late-Term Abortion in Maryland UPDATE: Complete Media Blackout by Feminists, Major News Organizations

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This is so predictable but important to mention: The media’s deliberate non-reporting of Leftist-media fueled violence.

Alleged Los Angeles shooter Christopher Jordan Dorner, influenced by left-leaning media coverage of gun crime in the wake of the Newtown shootings, has virtually paralyzed the City of Angels. Floyd Lee Corkins, a gunman incensed by anti-gay marriage bias after reading articles by the liberal advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center, took a firearm into the Family Research Council’s headquarters with the intention of killing “as many as possible.” He hoped to smash Chick-fil-A sandwiches in the faces of as many corpses as he could. These shooters were clearly moved by left-wing media, and we should thank every benevolent force in the universe that they were. Had either shooter possessed even a tenuous link to a conservative group, a media-driven hysteria about the malevolent influence of right-wing broadcasters and commentators would be gripping the nation today. Fortunately, when a crazed shooter’s ideology is explicitly and demonstrably left-wing, the media displays admirable restraint about linking a gunman’s politics to their acts of violence.

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Some feminists behave like sluts and sometimes kill their children to:

1. prove that they don’t need or want men
2. to attract men

Yes, those are contradictory, which is probably what makes the women so unhappy.  But what makes them even more unhappy is that their behavior has the opposite effect of item #2.  See Stop Putting Out So Much, Ugly Sluts: Science Proves Undeniable Truth #24:

Interestingly, the more attractive the woman, the fewer sexual partners.

You didn’t really need a scientific study to know this, if you’ve been studying feminism as long as I have. Just ask yourself: Why are feminists so angry at men? It’s not merely because they are ugly — not all ugly women are feminists — but rather because they are bitter after discovering that their promiscuity doesn’t actually make them more attractive (which popular culture had convinced them would be the case).

What?!  You mean they sacrificed their purity, self-esteem, health and children and still didn’t get what they wanted deep-down after all?  That’s sad.  But remember, Satan is evil, not stupid, and he’ll keep lying if you keep believing.  The Liberal mindset is poison.

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According to overwhelming evidence, more guns = less crime.

Click for details.

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Oh, and your taxes fund the cover-ups of these crimes by Planned Parenthood.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Free speech is so 20th century.

The only good thing about the across-the-board attempts to limit the free speech of Conservatives is that it reveals the very low confidence of the opposition.  As a Christian, I would never want to limit the ability of other religions to express their views.  I am all for the free expression of views in the market place of ideas.  I have confidence that my worldview holds up quite nicely.

If you care about free speech you should be chilled at what is going on in the U.S.  and in other Western countries (which inevitably ends up here).  Here are just a few examples.

Conservative views in general: See the Obama administration’s War on Fox  and the “Fairness” doctrine.

Pro-lifer: Pro-legalized abortionists shouting down pro-life speakers on a college campus in Canada — you know, one of those bastions of free speech and “challenge authority” philosophies.  How dare you mention in public the scientific fact that life begins at conception?

Intelligent Design: Darwinists Launch Cyber Attack Against Intelligent Design Website – Ever hear of Christians attacking atheist web sites like that?  Wow, these people are so fearful of anyone challenging their worldview.  Of course, you should also consider the whole Expelled! movie.

Hate speech laws:  Coming soon to a country near you: Woman gets police visit after writing letter protesting gay pride parade

After witnessing a gay pride march, committed Christian Pauline Howe wrote to the council to complain that the event had been allowed to go ahead.

But instead of a simple acknowledgement, she received a letter warning her she might be guilty of a hate crime and that the matter had been passed to police.

But don’t worry, if you are a Liberal you can publicly label a woman as a whore and have no consequences.

Roundup

“My Train Wreck Conversion — As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.” — An amazing story and a testimony to the power of God’s word. It is a great example of what we should and shouldn’t do to reach the lost.

I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.

And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.

Here’s a video of an interview with her.

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Southern Poverty Law Center Inspires Floyd Lee Corkins’ Attempted Mass Shooting — All the Leftist (real) hate speech about (imagined) hate speech is really quite deadly.

Corkins said he intended to “kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.” The prosecutor said they reviewed the family computer and found that he identified his targets on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s web site.

Then there is the case of the guy who learned to hate whites while in college, so he went and shot a few.  Lovely.

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I shared this on Facebook a while back but was thinking of it this week for some reason.

Line of the night at kids Bible study at inner city church:

Me: Do you know who Peter was?
Kids: No.
Me: He was one of Jesus’ disciples and followed him around for 3 years.
4th grader: Whoa — stalker!

He also had some colorful reasons for wanting to stay single (we were doing a lesson on decision making): 1. Girls have cooties 2. He didn’t want to share his stuff 3. He didn’t want to do “what you have to do to make more kids.”

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I hope the Boy Scouts do the right thing.  Militant homosexuals in the woods with boys.  What could go wrong?

But follow the money in this case.  The LGBTQX lobby is very good at threatening corporations (I saw it clearly at HP), and those corporations like UPS are threatening not to support the Scouts.  And the leaders of the scouts make $400,000 – 800,000 per year.  Do you think they want to lose that?

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Stan has a handy list of the constitutions of all 50 states.  Oddly, every one of them mentions God.  Go figure.

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Abortionist sentenced to 15 years for drowning born-alive infant dies, aged 84 – one of those extra-creepy abortionist stories the mainstream media won’t tell you about. 

Workers at Showery’s abortion facility testified that they saw the baby girl – who was about a foot long when curled up, weighed an estimated 3 to 6 pounds, and had light brown hair – struggling to breathe as Showery tried to smother her face with the placenta.  When that failed, Showery dropped her into a bucket of water.  The workers testified that they saw bubbles rising to the surface.

According to the workers, Showery then put the infant in a plastic bag, tied the bag shut and put it aside.  At first, the bag moved as though someone were breathing inside, then the bag stopped moving. Later, Showery ordered the workers to place the baby’s body in the freezer where other fetal remains were stored.

. . .

In his obituary, his family remembered him as “loved, regarded, respected, charming and captivating.”

When your behavior is so murderous that even your fellow abortion employees testify against you, that is stunning.

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Why are the media and politicians ignoring the needs and desires of women to have guns?

I think this view is not something that the media is covering. I think it’s something that people haven’t really considered, and I really wanted to speak to women about this very important Constitutional right. And explain to them the cases. I had an Appendix which had twenty-one examples of women defending themselves against violent attack with firearms. . . .
I have an example of a woman who was attacked by five armed intruders. I had an example where a woman defended her child from being kidnapped. I had multiple examples of women with babies, with young children, trying to defend themselves. And so no one who criticized me bothered to read the written testimony that I submitted to the Senate.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

As if there weren’t enough reasons to dislike Michigan: University of Michigan Kicks Christian Club off Campus. So . . . I’m sure the Muslim groups will let a bunch of Jewish people join, elect themselves to leadership and then adopt all sorts of pro-Israel messaging. And the gay groups will let Christians come in, take over and issue proclamations noting their opposition to “same-sex marriage” and their support for God’s view of sexuality.

One of the nice things about the near-exclusive targeting of Christians by the PC-police and others is their tacit admission that we have the one true faith. They don’t get offended by false religions, because deep down they know they aren’t the enemy. But they oppose Jesus all day, every day.

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Some good news: Planned Parenthood Closes Tulsa, Oklahoma Clinic After De-Funding

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ABC Ignores Tim Scott’s [Republican] Senate Appointment in Dec., By Jan. Hails Mo Cowan’s [Democrat] as ‘History’ — a reminder that media bias and the racism industry work in many ways.

To recap, the first African American wasn’t news worthy enough to mention, but the second African American is history making.

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Feminist politicians and media go nuts over Sen. Bob Menendez’ use of underage prostitutes. Oh, wait, they are doing nothing. He’s a Democrat.

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Mother’s world falls apart after Planned Parenthood hides humanity of her child – These cases are so sad, and they happen constantly at the nation’s largest abortion provider – and with your tax dollars! Oddly, it turns out that people who kill babies for a living aren’t bothered by telling lies.

“I never saw my ultrasound,” she says. “I was told nothing was visible, and I was told that it wouldn’t matter—you couldn’t see a heartbeat, you couldn’t see anything. . . . I wouldn’t know what I was looking at.”

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Armed guard stops school shooting in Atlanta – This was posted on February 1. Did the MSM ever cover it in depth? Did they talk about it for weeks and rejoice over the many saved lives? Of course not, because it doesn’t fit in with their gun-grabbing agenda. The pro-abortion Left does not care about kids.

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Why GOP Doesn’t Contest Massive Democrat Voter Fraud – this is sad. Some poor-thinking Republicans set us up for this 30 years ago. This needs to change, because the Democrats are getting more and more bold with their voter fraud.

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Sandy Hook Not The Worst School Massacre – and there is no reason to think the killer wouldn’t have murdered people even if he couldn’t access guns.

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William Lane Craig debates James Crossley on the resurrection of Jesus – The resurrection is central to the Christian faith. Without it, we admit we’re wrong (1 Cor. 15). With it, Jesus is the only way to salvation and forgiveness of your countless sins against God. Everyone should be familiar with the arguments for the resurrection.

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Baker Investigated For Refusing To Make Cake For Same Sex Couple – There have been many cases like this. They don’t happen accidentally. The baker wasn’t refusing to service lesbians, he was refused to make a cake celebrating a lesbian “wedding.” Why are we letting 2% of the people run our country?

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

What Should Family Worship Look Like? – James has some good ideas.  I encourage parents to start young.  Our habits were up and down over the years.

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Why work?  Exactly.  The U.S. is basically the same.

Danny Creamer, 21, and Gina Allan, 18, spend each day watching their 47in flatscreen TV and smoking 40 cigarettes between them in their comfy two-bedroom flat. …

The couple, who have a four-month-old daughter Tullulah-Rose, say they can’t go out to work as they could not survive on less than their £1,473($2,324)-a-month benefits.

The pair left school with no qualifications, and say there is no point looking for jobs because they will never be able to earn as much as they get in handouts.

Gina admits: “We could easily get a job but why would we want to work — we would be worse off.”

That’s because welfare payments in Britain are so lavish that unless you have special skills, you can make more by sponging off the government than you can by working.

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Another benefit of capitalism: Trading partners blow each other up less often.  Seriously.  It is bad business to kill your customers.  So the more robust free trade is between countries, the less wars you will have.

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Quote of the day: At a recent prison ministry visit, one of the offenders noted what a former Buddhist said after converting to Christianity following a Kairos prison ministry weekend: “If Buddha were here, he would have converted, too!”

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I haven’t been to Japan for over 10 years, but apparently they still like to prove how fresh their prawns are by grilling them live in front of you.  Yes, they are super-tasty, but I would have taken your word for it.  Mercifully they don’t do the same thing when serving beef.

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It is a sad irony that those who denounce greed are almost always the same people encouraging others to kill their unborn children for economic gain.

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The Left is quick to paint people who oppose “same-sex marriage” as being closeted gays. But isn’t it much more likely that those pushing for LGBTQX rights are secretly making their own perverse desires more acceptable? Or that they operate from a model of guilt, where they aren’t comfortable pointing out homosexuality as a sin because they would feel hypocritical because of their out-of-wedlock sex?

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Liberal logic: Outsourcing jobs to non-citizens in other countries is bad, but outsourcing jobs to illegal non-citizens in this country is good.

But wait, it gets worse: The illegal non-citizens in this country not only take the jobs and drive down wages of remaining jobs but they consume education, medical and other resources.  And they tend to commit the crimes that others just don’t want to do.

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Theologically liberal Christians think they can judge the hearts of people doing the opposite of what God said (i.e., LGBTQX people) and determine how nice, loving and committed they are.  When Jesus said to judge people by their fruits He didn’t say you get to decide what a fruit is (heh). You compare the behavior to his standards rather than to your standards. And if your standards aren’t his standards then you are part of the problem.  And remember, whether you judge someone to be innocent or guilty you are still judging – and they are the ones who hypocritically say that we should never judge (even though that isn’t what Jesus taught).

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Obama’s war on Fox News is creepy.  No one expects the media and the gov’t officials to get along all the time, but this shows just how much the rest of the media is in the tank for the administration.  Then there’s the apparently state-run 60 Minutes: “60 Minutes” reporter on pattycake Obama/Hillary interview: They knew we weren’t going to “play gotcha” with them.

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I read about the Khan Academy in Forbes.  This is the wave of the future, folks.  It will dramatically reduce the costs of education.  The unions will fight it aggressively but will ultimately lose.  And that’s great news.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

 

A review of Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart (go there to see how to win a free copy)

 

This little book packs the punch and is one of the best pastoral and practical treatments I have seen on how to know whether or not you are a Christian.

In the church today, scores of pew-sitters are confident they have eternal life because of a few words they prayed when they were five years old. Others sincere believers battle tooth-and-nail wondering where they’ll end up after their last breath. In this helpful book, Greear biblically, wisely, personally, practically, and humorously helps us understand what conversion and salvation are all about.

Greear primarily writes to two main people: 1) those who think they are going to heaven simply because they prayed a prayer; and 2) those who wonder if their “sinner’s prayer” will really be enough for them to walk through heaven’s gates. The problem, says Greear, is that evangelical shorthand for the gospel is, simply, not gospel. Telling someone to “ask Jesus into your heart” or “accept Jesus as Lord and Savior” is simply not how the Bible points us to seek salvation (7). Hold your horses, however, if you think the book is a 128-page rant against the “sinner’s prayer.” Greear does not think the sinner’s prayer or saying, “ask Jesus into your heart” is heretical, and he even admits it might be one correct way to speak of salvation. Yet, his “concern is not on what words or actions we might use to express our faith in Christ but that we don’t substitute those words or actions for repentance and faith” in Jesus (9). In other words, the “sinner’s prayer” is not a ritual transaction between us and Jesus to get our names on heaven’s attendance list.

Contrary to popular opinion, God does want people to have assurance (ch. 2), and in order to obtain assurance, we must honestly examine our response to the gospel. Those who trust in the finished work of Christ as their only hope have eternal life. Cased closed. “If you base your assurance on what you do or how well you do it, you’ll never find assurance,” Greear writes. “If your assurance is based on what Christ has done, however, you can rest in His performance” (38).

The proper, saving response to Christ is summarized as “repentance” and “belief” in the gospel (see Acts 2:38).

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36 purposes of God in our suffering — here’s part of the list.

Joni Eareckson Tada knows hardship firsthand and shares her experiences and reflections on suffering in many of her books. The following is an appendix from her book When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty.

1. Suffering is used to increase our awareness of the sustaining power of God to whom we owe our sustenance (Ps 68:19).
2. God uses suffering to refine, perfect, strengthen, and keep us from falling (Ps 66:8-9; Heb 2:10).
3. Suffering allows the life of Christ to be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Cor 4:7-11).
4. Suffering bankrupts us, making us dependent upon God (2 Cor 12:9).
5. Suffering teaches us humility (2 Cor 12:7).
6. Suffering imparts the mind of Christ (Phil 2:1-11).
7. Suffering teaches us that God is more concerned about character than comfort (Rom 5:3-4; Heb 12:10-11).

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5 Tenets of Financial Independence – click the link for more details. This site has a lot of good money management tips.

1. You are free from debt and don’t expect to face in any in the future.
2. You spend significantly less than you earn.
3. You don’t rely on family members or friends for income, earning it only through your work.
4. If you were to lose your primary employment, your family would survive for an extended period of time without significant lifestyle change.
5. You have a skill set that you can immediately apply in a variety of fields.

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Bart Ehrman makes a nice living off his “ex-Christian” status, which for some reason gets lots more media play than all the ex-atheists on our side. Here is a great site addressing Ehrman’s errors.

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Apparently brainstorming doesn’t work that well . . .

But there is a problem with brainstorming. It doesn’t work.

The first empirical test of Osborn’s brainstorming technique was performed at Yale University, in 1958. Forty-eight male undergraduates were divided into twelve groups and given a series of creative puzzles. The groups were instructed to follow Osborn’s guidelines. As a control sample, the scientists gave the same puzzles to forty-eight students working by themselves. The results were a sobering refutation of Osborn. The solo students came up with roughly twice as many solutions as the brainstorming groups, and a panel of judges deemed their solutions more “feasible” and “effective.” Brainstorming didn’t unleash the potential of the group, but rather made each individual less creative. Although the findings did nothing to hurt brainstorming’s popularity, numerous follow-up studies have come to the same conclusion. Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, has summarized the science: “Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.

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New study confirms economy was destroyed by Democrat policies – Yes, it was the race-baiting housing changes, among other things, that caused the downfall. And even if it had been Bush’s fault, Obama is in year #5 and still making things worse.

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Diabetes by the numbers

The saddest part is that 90% of diabetes cases are “type 2″, which for the most part are preventable. America is eating so poorly that our obesity problem is becoming a diabesity epidemic. 79 million Americans are pre-diabetic, which means that in a few years they may find themselves reliant on expensive medication and insulin, and at higher risks for heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, and amputations.

The good news is that with proper diet and even modest weight loss, most people can keep diabetes away. And Fooducate is here to help you, with a newly released app in collaboration with Sanofi Diabetes.

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Athens woman slit infant’s throat after giving birth – Gruesome, to be sure, but as long as the umbilical cord hadn’t been cut then it would fit in perfectly with the “bodily autonomy” pro-abortion argument.

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Many people will recall the Duke Lacrosse case, which was a media sensation but blew up when the rape allegations were false. Yet how many know about this true story of the Gay Duke University Official Who Offered Adopted Child for Sex:

As you’ll recall, when a drunken prostitute made false rape accusations against Duke lacrosse players, the faculty loudly denounced them, with no need for evidence. But the moonbats aren’t so loud when the rape is real.

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Indulgences are back?! Or did they never really leave? I missed these articles from 2009 -

For Catholics, a Door to Absolution Is Reopened and Why Catholic Indulgences are Making a Comeback.

Remember, folks, if part of your theology doesn’t require Jesus then it is wrong. And if it requires Jesus plus anything else it is wrong.

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Yet Another Study Confirms Gay Life Expectancy 20 Years Shorter – Uh, wouldn’t this be relevant information to share in the mainstream media and in “comprehensive” sex education?

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The Little Black Book – Queer in the 21st Century – This is one of things that is so disgusting I hate to link to it – then I remember that the public schools passed this out to kids! You’ve been warned.

Caution: extremely gross and disgusting. We debated posting this in unedited form; we did so because it was given to schoolchildren in a public school, written with public money. Unfortunately, it’s necessary that the public see it.

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Victims of Rape and Incest Deserve Better than Abortion – read the link for more. And remember that abortion often hides the crimes of rape and incest.

• Two major studies of pregnant rape victims found that 3/4 of these women chose to give birth.

• None of the women who gave birth said they did not want their children or wished they had aborted instead.

• Of those who aborted, nearly half did so because of the demands of others.

• 94% of women who gave birth said abortion would not be a good solution to a pregnancy resulting from rape.

• 93% of those who had abortions said it “had not been a good solution to their problems” and they “would not recommend it to others in their situation”

• Nearly all incest victims who had an abortion reported no input in the decision; instead, their parents or the abuser made the decision for them.

• All “explicitly stated that abortion was not a good solution and they would not recommend it to others.”

• Of the incest victims who carried their children to term, all were happy they had given birth. They also “unanimously rejected abortion as a good option for incest related pregnancies.”

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One of the more perverse examples of the law of unintended consequences: Pregnant South African women binge drinking in order to get more welfare

It’s very important for Christians to understand that policies that sound compassionate can actually provide incentives to people to do more bad things in order to get more money from the government. A good rule of thumb is this: whatever you tax, you get less of. And whatever you subsidize, you get more of. We shouldn’t be paying people to do evil things. We should be encouraging people who do good things instead. It’s important that we not just feel good, but that we do good.

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Despite its promises, abortion increases out-of-wedlock births, increases crime and increases child abuse – oh, and it kills innocent but unwanted human beings.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

Good news, for now: Great grandmother fires at mugger with legally-owned, legally-carried handgun.  But the politicians protected by people with guns all day, every day want to take away the rights of people to defend themselves.  If you think they just want to take away “assault” weapons (which is so broadly defined that it could include anything), then you are hopelessly naïve.  Once again, the 2nd Amendment is not about hunting. 

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More good news: Union Bosses’ Bad Week: Percentage of Americans Union-Free Now Highest in 70 Years.  If only the public sector didn’t have unions, we’d be doing much better.  What could go wrong with unions and politicians giving each other your money?

Unfortunately for taxpayers, though, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ numbers do spell out the continuing dilemma that, in whole numbers, there are more government workers unionized (7.3 million) than those in the private sector (7 million). Yet, it is the private sector that pays the public sector’s salaries.

In any case, as it has been almost every year since 1983, this week in January was another bad week for union bosses.

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Pastor Timothy on the  potential for the Boy Scouts to permit gay leaders – If BSA goes gay, we go away.

The same people that will mock the Boy Scouts for not taking gays will also mock them when boys are abused. It is so unfathomable how far we’ve sunk that people can’t see the obvious parallel: Should the Girl Scouts allow men to camp with girls?  Shame on the BSA Board for even considering this.

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The Utter Absurdity of The Baby God-Man – I was reflecting on the same themes lately.  Our claims are indeed outrageous — but true!

The historical-biblical Christian faith is a bit ridiculous.

Many basic doctrines have a built-in absurdity to them that offends the natural mind.

Don’t believe me? Just have someone tell the elementary tenets of the Christmas story back to you:

“So the God of the universe gets a young virgin girl pregnant, she gives birth to His infant divine Son in a stable in the middle of nowhere, angels rejoice and hardly anyone else in the world notices?”

and then

“thirty years later this same God Man all of a sudden starts walking on water, multiplying food, and healing all diseases while claiming authority over everything in the world. Despite all this most people reject Him and He goes to a Roman cross to die a brutal death that shakes the earth. Then he raises Himself up from the dead through a tomb, walks and talks with people for a few days, and finally floats back up to heaven to be with the God that sent Him down here. Oh yeah, and this dude’s gonna come back with fire and stuff a second time?….

And I’m supposed to believe all that and follow Him right?”

To which we say: “Amen!”

. . . In the fourth century the Roman Emperor, Julian, equated Christianity with atheism and lamented over its influence:

“Atheism [I.e. the Christian faith!] has been specially advanced
through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.”

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I was just thinking the other day about how presumptuous it is to schedule a revival, then I saw this.

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On Thursday one of my daughters and I were lamenting the seeker-sensitive church movement. As an example I noted how churches seem to find excuses to do dances during “worship” services to songs like Thriller.

The next day I came across this video of a church doing an elaborate production of Thriller, only with the Grinch thrown in. These people are beyond parody.  Hat tip: Museum of Idolatry.

Please give me a “boring” service in a plain building where the Bible is preached accurately verse-by-verse and theologically sound songs are done.

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Admitted terrorist and Obama friend Bill Ayers to be keynote speaker at the Association of Teacher Educators.  Need any other reasons to get out of public schools?

He was involved in Chicago’s “Days of Rage” riot in 1969 and went underground as a fugitive from justice after an accidental Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970 killed three Weather Underground members who were preparing a bomb that prematurely detonated.

Ayers admitted in a 2001 book that he participated in bombings of the New York City Police Department headquarters, the U.S. Capitol Building and the Pentagon in the early 1970s.

A sample of the wit and wisdom of Bill Ayers: “Kill all the rich people. … Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents.”

The avowed communist revolutionary Ayers is best known for grooming Barack Hussein Obama for office, as part of the same strategy of destroying America from within its own institutions that led him to abandon bombs for a career in education.

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Republicans should ramp up efforts to combat voter fraud.  Obama might have won without the rampant fraud in many areas (sure, Obama got 100.00000% of the vote in countless precincts!), but their success in cheating will only embolden them now.  Do not be afraid of RINOs.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says the Republican Party should abandon its efforts to curb voter participation through voter ID laws…

“The Republican Party should be a party that says, ‘We want everybody to vote,’ and make it easier to vote and give them a reason to vote for the party, not to find ways to keep them from voting at all.”

Lest anyone take this phony rhetoric at face value, I’ll translate: “Republicans had better not challenge us on systemic voter fraud, or out comes the race card yet again.”

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Massive Rally in France against Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Draws at Least 340,000; Poll Support for ‘Gay Marriage’ Plummets – It isn’t inevitable.  If only people would get better informed on how to make the case for real marriage!

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Remember, media bias isn’t just what they tell you, it is what they don’t tell you.

Saw this on Glenn’s Facebook page:

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

Strange: Most gun violence occurs in liberal hotbeds – so the solution is to just take guns from Liberals.  Oh, wait, those areas tend to have the most restrictive gun laws.  Maybe the solution is to give guns to Liberals.

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Are you a Christian woman who has had an abortion? – a very important message for anyone involved in the abortion process (or any other sin, for that matter).  One of the most important things that Pregnancy Resource Centers do is to offer post-abortion counseling.  Contrary to the myths of the world, they are full of grace and good news.

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New York Fires Auditor Who Found Abuse of Federal Hurricane Sandy Funds – your leaders at work.

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Pro-choice or pro-abortion?

I used to say “pro-choice” to be charitable to them, even though they would call me “anti-abortion” instead of “pro-life.”  (Why yes, I am anti-abortion!  Thanks for noticing.  I think everyone should oppose killing innocent but unwanted human beings).

But now I just call them pro-abortion.  Why?  Because the Democrats’ platform is specifically pro-taxpayer-funded abortions.  If you force pro-lifers to pay for abortions then you aren’t pro-choice, you are pro-abortion.  If you think one of the problems in society is that there aren’t enough abortions and we must pay for more with taxes, then you are pro-abortion.

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

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Shameful United Methodism –  The UMC Board of Church and Society and the United Methodist Women’s Division issued a rah-rah celebration memo about Roe v Wade.  If John Wesley were here he would never stop throwing up. If I had known their history ahead of time I would never have joined the UMC, and I am so glad I finally left after 16 yrs. I applaud those who stay and fight for the truth. But if you are there and not fighting, you are part of the problem.

One positive bit of news: they got hammered on their own blog with 9 out of 10 comments strongly criticizing the post.  They had to shut down the comments!  If you are so inclined, go there and “vote up” the 9 pro-life comments to help send a message.

They bizarrely referred to “reproductive justice” when rationalizing the crushing and dismembering of innocent human beings.  If abortion isn’t unjust then nothing is.  Reproductive justice is when you don’t kill the unwanted unborn child who has already been reproduced.

They hypocritically pretended to care for the health issues of blacks when they are aborted at a rate 3x that of whites.

They have the nerve to say, “Conduct careful analysis of the church’s support for crisis pregnancy centers that may not offer all options of counseling,” which is code for “don’t support pregnancy centers because they won’t recommend abortions.”  But CPCs share the Gospel and help women in need – for free!  Only those on the side of Satan could oppose those.  And there was no mention of the horrors found at countless abortion clinics – and I’m not even talking about the dead babies.  If they are really about helping women and not just pro-abortion shills, why not demand “safer” abortions?

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They aren’t even trying to hide their bias any longer.  If you only consume the mainstream media then you are part of the problem and almost surely misinformed.

The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat. …

Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a series of clarifying fights over controversial issues, he can force Republicans to either side with their coalition’s most extreme elements or cause a rift in the party that will leave it, at least temporarily, in disarray.

The author of this bellicose, hyperpartisan diatribe is John Dickerson, political director for CBS News.

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Woman Behind Roe v. Wade: “I’m Dedicating My Life to Overturning It” — I saw her speak once at a Care Net pregnancy center banquet. Very enlightening and quite a character!  The abortionists just used her for their agenda then discarded her.

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You Can Change Our Culture’s Mind on Abortion – It takes work, but there are lots of great resources out there.

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Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

The Beautiful and Efficient Anatomy of Pregnancy – OK, I admit it, I didn’t expect to see this on the Huffington Post.  I noted some interesting things when examining the comments.  A few committed Democrats (the party of unrestricted, taxpayer-funded abortions) freely admitted that abortion is murder.  They simply couldn’t ignore the humanity of the unborn, and that’s progress.

We should keep emphasizing our simple and clear reasoning: It is a scientific fact (and basic common sense) that a new human being is created at fertilization.  It is simple moral reasoning that it is wrong to take the life of an innocent human being without proper justification, and that is what happens during 99% of abortions.  The situations surrounding abortions are psychologically complex (pressures on the mother to abort, economic concerns, etc.) but morally simple (you don’t kill unwanted humans outside the womb for those reasons, so you shouldn’t kill them inside the womb for those reasons).  Their size, level of development, location and degree of dependency are not reasons to ignore their right to life.

Oh, and the one true God says, “Don’t murder.”

Unfortunately, too many of the commenters were spouting pro-abort sound bites and couldn’t acknowledge indisputable facts.  Here’s an example from one of their super user / moderators:

Me: “Every embryology textbook will tell you that a new human being is created at fertilization. The science is clear.”

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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR jessicadevyn

No it doesn’t. Only in anti science made up fundy land.

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Me: This is classic. I am making references to mainstream science textbooks and you say I’m the one being anti-science? No, it isn’t fundy land we’re talking about, it is you visiting from stereotype land.

Here’s a sample of what I have to offer. Please provide your own scientific references that prove that the unborn are not human beings.
And even without the science texts, just what do you think the unborn are? What would two human beings combine to create?

“Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoo developmentn) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual. . . . A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).”
Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.

“[The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginning of a new human being.”
Keith L. Moore, Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008. p. 2.

Her comments got less cerebral from there.

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The rate of abortions in the black community is three times that of whites and Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provide, was founded by racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger.  And the Democrat’s platform of taxpayer-funded abortions will increase that rate.

But you are a racist if you point those out!

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I just finished the Great Gatsby (seems like everyone read it in high school except me) and chuckled at this line from this nearly 90 year old book:

“I read somewhere that the sun’s getting hotter every year,” said Tom genially. “It seems that pretty soon the earth’s going to fall into the sun— or wait a minute— it’s just the opposite— the sun’s getting colder every year.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott (2003-05-27). The Great Gatsby (p. 126). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Ah, so the “sciencey” hotcoldwetdry climate change sound bites have been around for a long time!  There really is nothing new under the sun (heh).

P.S. One word book review: Meh.  Slightly longer review: If Fitzgerald set out to let us know that high society in the 20’s was full of dislikable, self-indulgent, drunken, self-destructive people then he did a good job.

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Rape Exception: Why Do We Kill Babies Instead of Rapists? – I like to pose a variant of that question when people act surprised that I oppose a rape exception.  “So you are favoring capital punishment in this awful situation?  Well, I guess I could entertain that.  Rape is a spectacularly awful and cruel crime.  Oh, wait, you meant capital punishment for the baby?  How does that fix anything?”

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A good quote about attacks on Christianity by people like Richard Dawkins.

Don’t just take it from me. The atheist philosopher of science Michael Ruse says that Dawkins’s arguments are so bad that he’s embarrassed to call himself an atheist. Terry Eagleton, an English literature and cultural theory professor, severely criticizes “Ditchkins”—his composite name for Dawkins and Hitchens. He considers them to be both out of their depth and misrepresenters of the Christian faith: “they invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince. The more they detest religion, the more ill-informed their criticisms of it tend to be.”

Copan, Paul (2011-01-01). Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God (pp. 17-18). Baker Book Group. Kindle Edition.

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An open letter to a gun grabber by Cylar.  Nice.

Point two: The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has affirmed in two separate decisions (Heller vs DC 2008 and McDonald vs Chicago 2010) that the Second Amendment is “incorporated” via the Fourteenth Amendment. In layman’s terms, this means that our right to Keep and Bear Arms shall be construed as an “individual right,” not a “collective right” as in the sense of a militia called up for a time of war. . . .

Point three: I’ll limit myself to a musket when you limit yourself to a printing press and a town crier.

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Why We Know That the Story of Sodom Indicts Homosexual Practice Per Se – a thorough analysis refuting the “sin of Sodom was inhospitality” claim.

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Borrowed this (“stole” is such a strong word) from Just Say No To Abortion.  I especially like #15.

Given that today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, here are 15 things to consider about abortion:

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother’s womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is still legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasounds have given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, and responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast, the disadvantaged, and the exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15. Jesus Christ can forgive all sins and will give all who trust in him the help they need to do everything that life requires.

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This post is adapted from Pastor John’s article on Desiring God.

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From Sifting Reality:

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Massive Gun Roundup

No, not the Leftist kind, the news kind.

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It is tragic how the convergence of malice and naiveté lead to restrictions on people defending themselves against criminals and potentially against their government. The malice is from those who want to disarm you so you can be controlled more easily.  The naiveté is from those who think that utopia is possible in this life.  If you want a perfect place to live, then repent, trust in Jesus and then hurry up and die.  Otherwise, you are stuck here where you have to make trade-offs and adult decisions.  Thinking that disarming the innocent will somehow protect you from evil people is just a false sense of security they are selling you.  Do you not realize that the government is made up of the same kind of greedy, sinful people that populate the rest of society?

The ignorance of history — what has happened in other countries, plus the reasons the 2nd Amendment exists — is a big part of the problem.   And it is unlikely that is an accident, given the political views of most educators.

This can’t be right – I thought the 2nd Amendment was all about hunting . . .

The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
—Thomas Jefferson

Read more about the original purpose.  And keep in mind that these un-Constitutional proposals are a great way to take attention away from the fact they are rapidly destroying the country by borrow half of what we spend.  This can’t last, folks.

Most agree that some people shouldn’t have guns. Please restore the ability to get nuts off the street (see Guns don’t kill people, the mentally ill do). But silliness about rounds and calibers should be done away with. You need to have at least one more round than the bad guys have.

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I have a few follow up questions for the Obama-prop 8 yr. olds used in the President’s press conference: Do you know what the 2nd Amendment is and why the Founding Fathers included it in the Bill of Rights?

If bad people came to your house with guns and the only way to save the lives of your family was to defend yourself with guns, would you want to have you and your family die rather than to stop the nice President from taking your guns away?

Do you think your Mom should have had the right to have you killed before you were born?  Or if you survived the abortion, should it have been legal for the doctor to just let you die?  Because Mr. Nice Guy Constitutional Scholar Won’t-Someone-Please-Think-of-the-Children President Obama not only thinks that your moms had a right to abortion, but the right to a dead baby, and he thinks that if they couldn’t have afforded to kill you that people who oppose abortion should have had to pay for it.

Now back to the President: Please tell us more about how our first task as a society is to keep our children safe.

The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.

Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403

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Why are the anti-gun people so anti-women?  Don’t they want women to be able to protect themselves from rapists and abusers?  Do you think that gang-rape in India could have been prevented if someone had been armed?  That is one of millions of examples.  It isn’t that you have to carry a gun, but that the bad guys don’t know if you have a gun.  If Obama & Co. get their wishes, they’ll know we are unarmed.

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Violent crime rate more than doubled in the four years after the 1997 UK gun ban.

Take a lesson from Canada: gun registries are later used to confiscate guns

What happened when Australian citizens had to turn in their guns?

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An easy way to contact all your political leaders and tell them not to promote un-Constitutional laws.  Just a few clicks and they’ll know where you stand.

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Five Facts to Fire at the Gun-Grabbers

1. Gun violence has been declining.
2. Despite the politically driven hype, mass shootings are not becoming more frequent.
3. Schools are safer than they were.
4. There are more guns out there, despite (or more likely, causing) the decline in gun violence.
5. “Assault weapons” bans have no effect on crime or violence.

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A must-see video about how the Democrats and media “elites” mock and dismiss anyone who disagrees with them, even while ignoring that many people support these actions and that those hypocrites have armed guards at the schools of their children. 

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Too bad the Republicans don’t put out ads like this.

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Man shoots robbery suspect to protect his 2-year-old son - Why didn’t Obama bring this family to his press conference?  Why doesn’t the media trumpet all the self-defense stories that save lives every day?

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Why doesn’t the media tell you 24×7 about the mass shootings that never were, because an armed citizen saved the day?

Here are a “few” more:

Ann Coulter lists just a few examples of guns in the hands of bystanders saving lives by stopping massacres:

—Mayan Palace Theater, San Antonio, Texas, this week: Jesus Manuel Garcia shoots at a movie theater, a police car and bystanders from the nearby China Garden restaurant; as he enters the movie theater, guns blazing, an armed off-duty cop shoots Garcia four times, stopping the attack. Total dead: Zero.

—Winnemucca, Nev., 2008: Ernesto Villagomez opens fire in a crowded restaurant; concealed carry permit-holder shoots him dead. Total dead: Two. (I’m excluding the shooters’ deaths in these examples.)

—Appalachian School of Law, 2002: Crazed immigrant shoots the dean and a professor, then begins shooting students; as he goes for more ammunition, two armed students point their guns at him, allowing a third to tackle him. Total dead: Three.

—Santee, Calif., 2001: Student begins shooting his classmates — as well as the “trained campus supervisor”; an off-duty cop who happened to be bringing his daughter to school that day points his gun at the shooter, holding him until more police arrive. Total dead: Two.

—Pearl High School, Mississippi, 1997: After shooting several people at his high school, student heads for the junior high school; assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieves a .45 pistol from his car and points it at the gunman’s head, ending the murder spree. Total dead: Two.

—Edinboro, Pa., 1998: A student shoots up a junior high school dance being held at a restaurant; restaurant owner pulls out his shotgun and stops the gunman. Total dead: One.

Here are a couple more:

—Muskegon, Michigan: From the Aug. 23, 1995, issue of the Muskegon Chronicle: “Plans to slay everyone in the Muskegon, Michigan, store and steal enough cash and jewelry to feed their ‘gnawing hunger for crack cocaine’ fell apart for a band of would-be killers after one of their victims fought back. Store owner Clare Cooper was returning behind the counter after showing three of the four conspirators some jewelry, when one of the group pulled out a gun and shot him four times in the back. Stumbling for the safety of his bullet-proof glass-encased counter, Cooper managed to grab his shotgun and fire as the suspects fled.”

—Colorado Springs, Colo.: On Dec. 9, 2007, gunman Mathew Murray, 24, launched an armed attack against the parishioners of the New Life Church that ultimately left two innocent victims dead. But the toll could have been much higher, were it not for the heroic actions of former police officer Jeanne Assam from Minnesota. In an interview she said she very nearly decided not to go to church that morning but because she saw a headline on her computer indicating that two young people were murdered and a training center for Christian missionaries about 70 miles away in the Denver suburb of Arvada, she changed her mind. Murray shot a total of five people before an armed Assam shot and killed him. There were about 7,000 people at the church at the time of the attack.

This is why mass murders virtually always occur in gun-free zones. Only the most clueless liberals don’t know this. Despite the phony tears and sanctimonious rhetoric, they could not care less about preventing mass murders. Their only objective, other than to steal our money, is to snuff out liberty.

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Why do you need high-capacity magazines? – Again, you need one more round than all the bad guys after you.  And they generally don’t schedule their assaults against you and let you know how much firepower they are bringing, so you should be able to have all you like.

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You definitely don’t want to have a gun if someone like this comes after you – right?  Because people like that would never harm you physically.

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Great exposure of the hypocrites who “outed” lawful gun owners but don’t want to tell people that they don’t have guns (or worse yet, they actually own guns!).

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And finally, the Queen of Hypocrisy, Diane Feinstein, who carried a gun herself but admits that she will disarm us all as soon as she has the votes.

“If I could’ve gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them — Mr. and Mrs. America turn ‘em all in — I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren’t here.”

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

Roundup

 

Safeguards schmafeguards: “a little wave and they were gone” – the creepy, evil and inevitable expansion of euthanasia.  It isn’t a slippery slope in the fallacious sense.  It is a “cliff” in the sense that the reasoning used to justify the original euthanasia exceptions (reducing suffering, some lives not worth living, etc.) provide the foundation for the scope creep.

[Two 45 yr. old brothers born deaf] chose to be euthanized when they learned they were going blind. Dufour gave them each a lethal injection 11 days before Christmas.

In 2000, Holland became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. Two years later, Belgium followed suit, legalizing euthanasia for people over 18. The law requires that the person wishing to end his or her life is able to make that wish clear, and a doctor must judge that the person is suffering “unbearable pain.”

It’s worth paying attention to how euthanasia works in countries where it’s legal. Because with the legalization of assisted suicide in Oregon, Washington and Montana, we’re on that  road as well.

And how it works is that once a law is in place, the safeguards in it are quickly swept aside–or simply ignored.

Euthanasia: an “ever-widening interpretation” of the law

Notice that the Belgian law stipulates that the person must be suffering unbearable pain. The twins were neither terminally ill, nor apparently in any physical pain. They probably were depressed–understandably–at the thought of losing their sight.

But since when is depression a capital offense?

. . .

And now the Belgian government is considering a law that would extend legal euthanasia to children–”if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate”–and people with dementia.

An incurable illness. Like, say, blindness? Epilepsy is incurable, too, and dwarfism, and developmental disabilities, and a host of other conditions.

. . .

A civilized society offers comfort, help and care in such a situation. One descending into barbarism offers simply death instead.

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Coca-Cola has a new anti-obesity commercial.  Oddly, there are no fat people in it.  Friendly reminder: If you exert less effort than people have typically done throughout history and you consume lots of caffeinated sugar water instead of regular water, bad things might happen.  Sodas should only be used as treats, never a part of a regular diet. 

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Chicago United Methodist Bishop Misrepresents Denomination’s Position – she lobbies for “same-sex marriage” even though her denomination explicitly opposes those. 

She isn’t qualified to be a Bishop. Or a pastor. Or a lay leader. Or even a member. She is on the anti-biblical side of the most straight-forward and important issue in her denomination today (because it is splitting the church). She is shaking her fist at God 24×7 in rebellion and mocking her employer. It is as if a salesman for HP publicly said that people should buy Dell. Good for them to expose how deceptive she is being.

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NAIVE LEGISLTORS ON GUN CONTROL – Mike has a great summary of their mistaken positions.  Sample:

2) “At what point do you say, ‘No more innocent loss of life’?”

Hey, innocent people have been dying since the dawn of time; and they always will.  It’s part and parcel to the fallen nature of humanity.  I wonder if cavemen put strict stick and rock possession laws on their books when there were mass stonings and clubbings?  No, they probably served swift justice on the violators.
By the way, do legislators recall the details of the 9/11 attacks?  What brought down those twin towers in New York…airplanes.  Not guns — not clubs or rocks — but airplanes.  And what brought down those big airplanes?  Not guns.  Not potato cannons.  But box cutters.  When used skillfully, darn near anything is a viable weapon.

Also keep in mind that those shouting for no more innocent loss of life are 99% likely to be pro-abortion.

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Let Freedom Ring – Great points about how the inability of any authentic (read: Bible-believing) Christian to say the inaugural prayer is not such a bad thing.  Now people can quit kidding themselves that the opposition has any desire for compromise or rationality.  Pick a side and go with it.  Here’s part of it, go read it all.

Let us be free from the false hope that heroic deeds and quiet agreeableness can atone for the sin of orthodox conviction.

Let us be free from the wishful thinking that good works and good manners can appease the Great God Tolerance.

Let us be free from the misplaced assumption that faithfulness to God can go hand in hand with worldly congratulation.

If it is “anti-gay” to believe that the normativity of male-female sexual union is taught by nature and nature’s God then let us wear a Scarlet Letter around our necks. Christ bore much worse.

If the culture of free love is going to hate those who believe marriage was made with God-given limits then let the opprobrium fall on us. We will despise the shame.

If henceforth we shall be considered the scum of the earth for believing what the Church has taught for 2000 years then let us be the scent of death to some. We shall be the aroma of life to others.

And lest anyone think this is a call to arms or a manifesto of malediction, it is not. If we are reviled, we shall not revile in return. If we are hated we shall pray to God for more love. If we are excluded from polite society, we will still include all Christ-exalting, Bible-believing, broken hearted sinners in the fellowship of the redeemed. And if we are esteemed by some as better off dead, we will not cease to offer the words of life.

We will not stop serving where we can. We will not stop repenting when we sin. We will not stop speaking the truth about our Lord and about his law.

There are likely far bigger disappointments to come than the one that dropped last Thursday. We did not choose this culture war and it is not about to leave us alone. The media, the academy, the government, the libertine elite–they may sully our reputation and shame our convictions, but they cannot steal our joy. We can pray more, sing more, and smile more than any of the party-goers making mud pies in the slums. We do not have to fit in down here so long as we fit in up there. We do not need a president’s approval if we have the affection of our King. Our hearts and our Bibles are wide open. Our salvation is firm. Let freedom ring.

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Some excellent time management tips – I’d summarize lots of them with the O-H-I-O theme: Only Handle It Once.  Have a system to do something with whatever email or paper you come across.  I do that well sometimes.  When I don’t, I waste lots of time.

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What should Christians think about global warming?  A good list of questions to ask.

1. Is the earth warming?
2. If the earth is warming, is human activity (like carbon dioxide emissions) causing it?
3. If the earth is warming, and we’re causing it, is that bad overall?
4. If the earth is warming, we’re causing it, and that’s bad, would any of the proposed “solutions” (e.g., the Kyoto Protocol, legislative restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions) make any difference?

I would add one: Are the people advancing the global warming / global climate change policies profiting from them?

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A great set of graphs showing the growth of government spending and who really pays taxes — All the Numbers You Always Wanted on Government Spending (But Were Afraid to Ask).  Here’s an example.  Anyone think this is sustainable?

Government Keeps Growing

In 1902 (the first year for which data are available), government spending in America (federal, state, and local—all of it, combined) took up only 6.9% of the economy (GDP); in 2010 (the last year for which data are available), it was 41.0%.

In other words, in just a few generations, the government has gone from well under a tenth to representing more than two fifths of all economic activity in the country.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Christianity,politics,pro-life

How pro-life apologetics–and a little common sense–could have swayed the elections

A few gaffes – most notably by candidates Akin and Mourdock – cost the Republicans two Senate seats and possibly the White House.  But with just a little common sense and some simple pro-life arguments they could have easily turned this to our advantage.  Romney and others could have done the same thing whether the specific rape/abortion questions came up or not.

The errors resulted when the candidates tried to articulate theological concepts that can’t be distilled into sound bites and that are virtually certain to be misinterpreted by the media and voters.  If you are running for office you should be skilled at knowing what hot topic questions you’ll get and how to steer the answers to your advantage.

So when the topic of abortions in the case of rape and incest came up, they didn’t need to get theological.  They could have noted any or all of the following.  Consider how simple yet accurate these arguments are and how they would resonate with the average voter – even pro-choice voters, the majority of whom side with pro-lifers on topics like parental notification, late-term abortions and taxpayer funding of abortions.

• Rape is an incredibly serious crime and I support punishing it to the full extent of the law.
• Incest, in this case, isn’t about 30-something siblings who are attracted to each other, it is about innocent young girls being abused by relatives.  That means it is rape.  Here’s a perfect example.
• Statutory rape is rape, and the most rampant kind in our society.  Planned Parenthood has been caught countless times on audio and video systematically hiding statutory rape.  If elected, I will not only fight to stop their Federal funding but I would work tirelessly to hold them accountable for their crimes of hiding these rapes. If a 28 yr. old guy is statutorily raping your 13 yr. old daughter or granddaughter then Planned Parenthood will be glad to destroy the evidence and hide the crime – funded by your tax dollars!  They have also been caught hiding sex traffickers, and the opposition to sex trafficking is one of the few issues where Democrats and Republicans have common ground.   Surely we can all agree that we don’t want our tax dollars to fund organizations that hide that crime!
• If you want to entertain capital punishment for the rapist then we could debate that, but why would the innocent child have to suffer for the father’s crimes?  It is a scientific fact that the unborn are unique human beings from fertilization.  Go check out any embryology textbook.  Let’s put the focus on punishing the guilty rapists and those who hide their crimes.
• If you want to understand the theology about God’s sovereignty I’d be glad to share it with you, but that is beyond the scope of this debate and would take some time to explain.  But you don’t have to be a theologian to know that rape is evil and hiding the crimes of rapists is evil.
• Roe v Wade won’t be overturned and even if it was it wouldn’t make abortion illegal — it would just turn it over to the states.
• Remember that the official platform of the Democrats is now pro-abortion, not pro-choice.  They want abortions without restriction — which would include partial-birth abortions (aka infanticide) — and they want pro-lifers to fund them with their taxes.  That means Democrats want more abortions, not less, and they want others to pay for them.  Obamacare is already forcing people to pay for some abortions, and it is deliberately violating religious freedoms and conscience clauses.

They could also respond by asking some of the questions the media never asks pro-abortion candidates:

1. You say you support a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices in regards to abortion and contraception. Are there any restrictions you wouldapprove of?

2. In 2010, The Economist featured a cover storyon “the war on girls” and the growth of “gendercide” in the world – abortion based solely on the sex of the baby. Does this phenomenon pose a problem for you or do you believe in the absolute right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy because the unborn fetus is female?

3. In many states, a teenager can have an abortion without her parents’ consent or knowledge but cannot get an aspirin from the school nurse without parental authorization. Do you support any restrictions or parental notification regarding abortion access for minors?

4. If you do not believe that human life begins at conception, when do you believe it begins? At what stage of development should an unborn child have human rights?

5. Currently, when genetic testing reveals an unborn child has Down Syndrome, most women choose to abort. How do you answer the charge that this phenomenon resembles the “eugenics” movement a century ago – the slow, but deliberate “weeding out” of those our society would deem “unfit” to live?

6. Do you believe an employer should be forced to violate his or her religious conscience by providing access to abortifacient drugs and contraception to employees?

7. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. has said that “abortion is the white supremacist’s best friend,” pointing to the fact that Black and Latinos represent 25% of our population but account for 59% of all abortions. How do you respond to the charge that the majority of abortion clinics are found in inner-city areas with large numbers of minorities?

8. You describe abortion as a “tragic choice.” If abortion is not morally objectionable, then why is it tragic? Does this mean there is something about abortion that is different than other standard surgical procedures?

9. Do you believe abortion should be legal once the unborn fetus is viable – able to survive outside the womb?

10. If a pregnant woman and her unborn child are murdered, do you believe the criminal should face two counts of murder and serve a harsher sentence?

How hard would that be?  Instead, Akin, Mourdock et al answered foolishly and cost us Senate seats and possibly the presidency, and they missed an easy opportunity to educate people on the most important moral issue of our time.

Please equip yourself with basic pro-life reasoning and be prepared to share it.