This is a call for like-minded people to get off their rears and start making their voices known on the liberal blog-sites.  As of this moment, it appears I have been MUZZLED by the ultra-liberal moderators at Huffington Post.com.  My crime?  I dared to aggressively question Darwinism (politely and within the rules).  But what was my real crime?  I didn't back down when outnumbered 15 to 1.  But what was the REAL reason they locked me out?  I'll have to guess, because they won't respond to my e-mails.  Such arrogance.

I'm guessing they figure I'm a pretty dangerous character because I have the moxy both to say that Darwinists propogate lies like Haeckel's embroyos (are they in YOUR child's biology textbook?).  Then when someone used "feathered dinosaur fossils" as proof of Evolution, I had the nerve to call up and paste in the USA Today story that described this whole sorry, embarrassing episode for National Geographic as ANOTHER FAKE.  (Were YOU aware that National Geographic published this fraud?)

When I called out the person who had casually trotted out this lie, thinking I was just another gullible "fundy" or "Bible Thumper", I was actually told I should be ashamed because I had obviously gotten this from "Answers in Genesis" and that I had gotten my "talking points from Ann Coulter".  Excuse me?!!!  Whatever happened to the TRUTH?  Instead of the truth, these people are only interesting in fallacious ad hominem attacks and guilt by association.

Arrogant doctrinaire Darwinists are everywhere on Huffington Post, and to be honest, sometimes I get lonely being the only one who dares to slog it out with them.  But you know what?  I'm sticking with it.  Because the truth always wins in the end.  Darwinism is 1/10 science, 9/10ths bad naturalism philosophy with more than a pinch of arrogance thrown in for measure.  Am I the only one who thinks that Darwinists are sloppy and arrogant about parading their philosophy as science?   Instead of spending all your time here in the friendly confines of Townhall.com, join me in engaging in the real culture wars where the liberals live (and where your child's friends may be getting misinformation).

The 34 minute execution of a Florida criminal has the death penalty harpies up in arms again.  Witness this opinion from the Huffington Post this morning:
 
"Only barbaric human beings would believe that a murder can be justified with another killing all because it's in the name of the law. Killing is killing whether it's done by a random person in the street or an executioner in prison. Murder in the name of the law, seems like hypocrisy to me."

Post-modern, secular America has forgotten that government is a God-given institution.  The primary role of government is to protect the citizenry.  A government that is executing its responsibilities correctly will keep order by administering justice.  Our government is elected by the people. These officials set the laws for us. They are our laws, collectively as a society. Nothing barbaric about that at all. 

Thus police, executioners, soldiers acting under that authority are in a completely different category than criminals such as this guy in Florida.  They are doing the job of protecting us from our enemies--like this guy in Florida. 

This man, however,  took the law into his own hands.  He made a judgement about his victim, determined that he was worthy of death, then executed him.  This was all done completely outside the justice system--one man determining by his own personal standards whether another person lives or dies. 

In response, the government (us) thoroughly examined the evidence of his actions in the court system (with multiple appeals I'm sure).  His sentence was rendered under the law.  The crime here is not that he seems to have suffered for 34 minutes, but that it took years and millions of dollars of resources to bring him to final justice.

The 34 minute execution of a Florida criminal has the death penalty harpies up in arms again.  Witness this opinion from the Huffington Post this morning:
 
"Only barbaric human beings would believe that a murder can be justified with another killing all because it's in the name of the law. Killing is killing whether it's done by a random person in the street or an executioner in prison. Murder in the name of the law, seems like hypocrisy to me."

Post-modern, secular America has forgotten that government is a God-given institution.  The primary role of government is to protect the citizenry.  A government that is executing its responsibilities correctly will keep order by administering justice.  Our government is elected by the people. These officials set the laws for us. They are our laws, collectively as a society. Nothing barbaric about that at all. 

Thus police, executioners, soldiers acting under that authority are in a completely different category than criminals such as this guy in Florida.  They are doing the job of protecting us from our enemies--like this guy in Florida. 

This man, however,  took the law into his own hands.  He made a judgement about his victim, determined that he was worthy of death, then executed him.  This was all done completely outside the justice system--one man determining by his own personal standards whether another person lives or dies. 

In response, the government (us) thoroughly examined the evidence of his actions in the court system (with multiple appeals I'm sure).  His sentence was rendered under the law.  The crime here is not that he seems to have suffered for 34 minutes, but that it took years and millions of dollars of resources to bring him to final justice.

 “Often, when people evaluate capitalism, they evaluate a system that exists on Earth. When they evaluate communism, they are talking about a nonexistent Utopia. What exists on Earth, with all of its problems and shortcomings, is always going to fail miserably when compared to a Utopia.”

Thus says Walter Williams in a recent article. I see capitalism at work on a daily basis, and would be first to say it is an ugly monster at times. But I have to agree with Mr. Williams. He goes further:

“The very attempt to achieve the utopian goals of communism requires the ruthless suppression of the individual and an attack on any institution that might compromise the loyalty of the individual to the state. That’s why one of the first orders of business for communism, and those who support its ideas, is the attack on religion and the family.” If you do not believe religion (and specifically, Christianity) and the traditional family are under constant attack by the Left, spend a night reading the blogs on Huffington Post.

“Rank nations according to whether they are closer to the capitalism end or the communism end of the economic spectrum. Then rank nations according to human rights protections. Finally, rank nations according to per capita income. Without question, citizens of those nations closer to capitalism enjoy a higher standard of living and a far greater measure of liberty than those in nations closer to communism.” concludes Williams.

One of the curses of communistic governments is that, if they go on for more than a generation or two, the people forget what it is like to be free. Their whole mindset is one of the government providing handouts to them, rather than one of taking individual responsibility for themselves. Sadly, close friends who have spent time in the former Soviet Republics (the ‘Stans) report that this is the case. The ignorance of what it means to truly live free will likely hobble them for untold decades, if not centuries.

Trying to build from a non-existent foundation that prized freedom is difficult, if not impossible Prize your freedom, and stay wary of all forms of communistic pipe-dreams. With Putin reviving autocratic, communist-style rule in Russia, these warnings are an appropriate reminder. Communism always has been a Piped Piper to the killing fields. Let our children learn their history well.

 

“I walked in the sunshine with a scholar who had effectively forfeited his prospects of academic advancement by clashing with church dignitaries over the gospel of grace. ‘But it doesn’t matter,’ he said at length, ‘for I’ve known God and they haven’t.’ The remark was a mere parenthesis, a passing comment on something I had said, but it has stuck with me, and set me thinking.

Not many of us, I think, would ever naturally say that we have known God. The words imply a definiteness and matter-of-factness of experience to which most of us, if we are honest, have to admit that we are still strangers… Would it occur to us say, without hesitation, and with reference to particular events in our personal history, that we have known God? I doubt it, for I suspect that with most of us experience of God has never become so vivid as that.

Nor, I think, would many of us ever naturally say that in the light of the knowledge of God which we have come to enjoy past disappointments and present heartbreaks, as the world counts heartbreaks, don’t matter. For the plain fact is that to most of us they do matter. We live with them as our ‘crosses’ (so we call them.). Constantly we find ourselves slipping into bitterness and apathy and gloom as we reflect on them, which we frequently do.

The attitude we show to the world is a sort of dried-up stoicism, miles removed from the ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’ which Peter took for granted that his readers were displaying (1 Peter 1:8). ‘Poor souls’, our friends say of us, ‘how they’ve suffered’ -- and that is just what we feel about ourselves!

But these private mock heroics have no place at all in the minds of those who really know God. They never brood on might-have-beens; they never think of the things they have misses, only of what they have gained. ‘What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ,’ wrote Paul. ‘Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him… that I may know him…’ (Philippians 3:7-10).

When Paul says he counts the things he lost ‘dung’ he means not merely that he does not think of them as having any value, but also that he does not live with them constantly in his mind: what normal person spends his time nostalgically dreaming of manure? Yet this, in effect, is what many of us do. It shows how little we have in the way of true knowledge of God.”

This section from J.I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God, serves as a great reminder for us. Nothing of this world’s technology, experiences, or material things come anywhere close to the surpassing value of peace with God. They are so much junk in the final analysis. Peace with God is priceless.

 

“Making abortion and homosexuality the most important issues facing our country has little support from the Bible. There are no verses about abortion in the Bible. And there are only about six verses about homosexuality, most of which are really about degrading sexual practices. There are no verses about lesbians.”

These are the recent claims by professing Christian Linda Seger on her Huffington Post blog. They illustrate the shift away from the plain reading of the Bible and the disrepect of centuries of dogma in favor of an individualistic version of Christianity. Such bad theology only weakens the Church in the eyes of the world. Where did Ms. Seger go wrong?

Leaving her comments on abortion aside for today, lets examine what the Bible says about homosexuality.

The Old Testament clearly condemns homosexuality, of which lesbianism is, of course, a subset. “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22). If the Bible was silent about the topic beyond this verse, there is enough truth here alone to live by. The Word is clear and direct.

But the New Testament goes further, specifically calling out this sin (along with others). “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image … Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts.” (Romans 1:22,24-27). In this passage that describes what people who depart from God become like, homosexuality and lesbianism, are again clearly and specifically condemned.

If this were not plain enough, Paul goes on to be even more blunt. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, … shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (Romans 6:9-10).

So Ms. Seger’s casual dismissal of the sin of homosexuality shows that she has turned away from historic Christianity to have her ears tickled by her own individualistic interpretation. Why would she claim the mantle of Christ, and yet dismiss the Bible’s clear teaching? One is left with the impression that if the Bible condemned homosexuality only 50 or 60 times, the issue might still be in question in her mind. No, the Bible has spoken clearly and directly on this topic, and some professing Christians, like Ms. Seger, have turned away. Why?

A long view of church history shows that Christians toiled for centuries with the great questions of life and faith. They handed down to us well-thought-through doctrines, that are now being ignored in favor of the latest pop psychology trend. “Have it your way!” McDonalds used to proclaim. And following that spirit, the McChurch of the past hundred years has sought to have its own way and progressively become undogmatic. We now live in an age that is largely ignorant of sound doctrine, and hostile to it when it doesn’t fit our preconceived notions of life. That is to say, “If Oprah’s not on board, I’m not on board.”

The disdain for dogma traces back to the influence of philosopher Emanuel Kant. Kant denied the possibility of comprehending theoretical knowledge of those things that transcend the natural world. And so the slide into modern McChristian individualism began. But the Bible is vast, and the task of rightly interpreting scripture is difficult as Berkhof reminds us. “No one Christian can ever hope to succeed in assimilating and reproducing properly the whole content of the divine revelation. Neither is one generation ever able to accomplish the task. The formation of dogmas is the task of the Church of all ages, a task which requires great spiritual energy on the part of successive generations.”

The spirit of the present post-modern McChurch age, is one where individualism must be reigned in, so that the collective wisdom of the past may be heard once again. There is but one truth, and that truth awaits us, whether in one verse, or six, or six thousand. Let the 21^st Century Church repent of its practical pragmatism, and return to practicing the truth.

 

 

 The god of the malls has spoken, and once again I have run the other way in undeniable, full-orbed rebellion.  At 3:00 a.m. sharp on Friday morning, you and I are called to put all our thankfulness behind us and get on with the true business of life in our consumer-driven American life.  That is--stoking and feeding our collective materialistic discontent.  Get those early bird specials!  Stock up on the latest gadgets!  Most of all, feel the pleasure of pressing the mobbish flesh and exercising your god-given plastic rights.  Life takes Visa, you know.

Join in my rebellion by sleeping in late tomorrow.  Get the rest your body needs.  Let your neighbor deal with the traffic jams, the peevish lines, and the expense of it all.  And as you drink your morning coffee, ponder with me some ways to live a less hectic, more fulfillig life...  A life with less stuff.

Richard Foster has been helpful in defining some practical steps to simplify our lives in his Celebration of Discipline.  Here are several ideas drawn from his work:

1. Understand your motive in making a particular purchase.  Are you buying that gift or item for the prestige it brings you, or for its functional worth.  Madison Avenue majors in cultivating the envy within you.  Know thyself.

2. Know your addictions and avoid letting them own you.  For me it is an over-fascination with books.  For others, its the desire to have the latest technological gizmo.  When you find yourself driven by undisciplined compulsions, you have zeroed in on your addiction.  (Play Stations anyone?)

3. Give stuff away that you no longer need or want.  Find the Goodwill Store near you and practice some holiday charitable giving.  Letting go of things frees your soul, and may meet a need for someone else.

4. Question the logic of "time-saving" devices.  I just put away my electric knife that gets used once a year to carve the bird.  Then it goes back with the juice-maker, latte-maker, etc.  You know what I mean.

5. Enjoy life without having to buy a piece of it.  The sun shines on us all, rich and poor.  Use the library, borrow the tool from your neighbor, walk the beach without feeling the need to own a patch of it.  I want daily hugs from my kids for Christmas.  That's good enough.

6. Draw increased satisfaction from nature.  Buy a bird feeder and feast your eyes on your vari-colored patrons.  Closely observe the changing of the seasons as it occurs day by day.  Walk a nearby trail.  There is so much to enjoy in the world beyond the sight of the big screen TV or computer.

7. Pay with cash instead of plastic this holiday season.  There is humility in knowing we have limits, but freedom in staying within those limits.  Do yourself a favor and lighten your load this time.  The people you love will understand.

So there you have it.  Take a break from the normal enslavement to the consumer economy and enjoy your holidays in good conscience!