As I'm away from my family...missing them deeply, I think about them nonstop. My wife Helen consumes my thoughts as I try and support my family with work that takes me here and far. I count every minute until I get home. I physically labor at my work and mentally work at strategizing how I will spend my time with Aiden my son. Planning, scheming, and praying is my internal work. My fire was fueled by the following post on the Ligonier Blog:
This is my simple agenda to ensure I am actively and intimately involved in the lives of my children: Read, Pray, Work, Play. I must read God's Word to and with my children regularly. We must bear each others' burdens in prayer and worship the Lord together at his throne of grace. My children need my positive, encouraging involvement in their work (and they need an invitation into some of mine). And we need to bind our hearts with laughter and joy in shared play, both one-on-one and as a complete family. This all requires time, for time is the currency with which I purchase the right to say, "My son, my daughter, give me your heart."
*****
p. 103 from The Masculine Mandate (Reformation Trust, 2010)
Douglas Wilson always has something interesting to say regarding ever changing/never changing political ethos. His recent post titled Political Kabuki is no different. Wilson writes of the inevitability of the military's don't ask don't tell policy on homosexuals. Though someday overturned don't ask don't tell will be applied to someone, he writes this:
The issue before the house is not whether or not to repeal "don't ask, don't tell." This whole thing is one of those pesky inescapable concepts, and this means that the debate before us is this -- to which group will we apply "don't ask, don't tell"? It is not whether, but which. The homosexuals or the evangelicals?...Somebody will be disciplined inevitably, and we are talking about which group it will be.
Wilson goes on to make the point that the question isn't about the soldier-to-soldier relationships, it goes deeper than that. He goes on to write this:
I am asking if the serviceman who is evangelical will be permitted to witness to his fellow serviceman, who is now out of the closet. Will he be allowed to believe that homosexuality is a sin that God will judge at the last day? Sure. Don't ask. Will he be allowed to call his fellow serviceman to repentance? Surely not. Don't tell.
These questions should be the first and foremost questions on minds of Americans as well as the troops rooted in the Christian faith, not to mention Chaplains. Can they preach out of the whole bible...what about Romans? He sums up his point here:
Don't tell me that this is about whether homosexuals should be able to come out of the closet. It is whether evangelicals will be permitted to extend the love of Christ to them when they do. Everybody is acting as though the question concerns whether open homosexuals can serve in the military. The real question is whether open evangelicals will be allowed to do so.
from Blog and Mablogby dougwils@christkirk.com (Douglas Wilson)
THE MOHLER REVERB
Al Mohler's recent post regarding pornography and it's current availability...very good post. I've been trudging my way through the most recent Family Research Council's Research Synthesis on the effects of pornography on marriages, individuals, families, and communities. Mohler's post goes well with it. I'll link to both.
EN-VIRAL-MENTAL-ISTS
The recent post by The Foundary works through a new paper published by the journal Environmental Science & Technology regarding the consumer choices being effected by environmental policies. The specific choice covered in the article is regarding schools.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Obama is in serious trouble; stuck between the Pro-Life people foaming mad that his agenda pushed for healthcare reform that would force them to pay for abortions via tax money and the Reproductive Rights people foaming mad he didn't get it done. I could give you examples of seathing articles from both sides but I like this one the best. It's from the Pro-choice side of the isle.
""He can't make eye contact with abortion," an observation those of us in the reproductive justice movement can't help but agree with. His failure to stand up for the human rights of women -- and to trust us -- began to make me wonder about his commitment to those of us who were his core constituents and helped elect him. He's like the prom date I had last night who can't remember my name this morning." from RHRealityCheck.orgby Loretta Ross
POLITICS
This is a good article from The Foundary regarding the fight for Obama's health care reform. It maps out the procedural strategies and tactics of the Republicans and Democrats very well. It's a back and forth battle from super-majority (democrats) to filibuster (republicans) to nuclear option (democrats) to unlimited amendments (republicans). This outlines the progression!
BEST ARTICLE TITLE OF THE DAY
I thought this was the best title I've seen in a while...you can also read the article too. It's by the Family Research Council.
Al Mohler Reverb
This is a new dedicated title in the Sieve for Al Mohler's Blog. I've never read his blog without profoundly walking away changed. Today is no different:
For those of you who enjoy firearms and all the cool stuff that goes along with it...you'll enjoy this article. Trijicon - Founded on Christian principles is under scrutiny!
Whether on news cast, blogs, legislation, or any other communicable platform the elevation of "rights" has become a force for pushing agendas along. Here is a good post from the Pure Church by Thabiti Anyabwile:
The new 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released recently by the Heritage Foundation is another huge nail in the coffin of the current government regime. Worth Reading!
As a Christian I find it my joy to look out for those who find themselves victimized by evil aggressors. To be frank I couldn't, more so, wouldn't even want to stand up for victims if it wasn't for the decisive work of Christ in my life. Upon that truth I do everything possible to sound my pro-life trumpet to warn against men and woman who prey upon life. Well this evil has gone to a new level. In the wake of the Haiti Earthquake the Pro-Choice camp has been cranking up the fundraising machine. The "Gender-Responsive Aid" is the banner under which Feminist and Reproductive Health Organizations solicit funds. The rational for supporting these groups falls into some of these categories: #1 Limitation in accessing pre-natal and post-natal care. No kidding! It doesn't take a half a brain to know the infrastructure is totally GONE! There aren't any hospitals, homes, or buildings in general. #2 Violence against woman could increase. So are the feminist and pro-abortion people going to send a security force? Is that what they want funds for. It's unlikely and illegal...feminist vigilantes in the streets of Haiti. That's scary! It's only a hunch but I think the money will probably support "Medical Aid" in the form of "reproductive rights"...i.e. abortions. Whether in Haiti or the U.S. the agenda is always the same!
To NOT have a post today regarding the Senate race in Massachusetts you would have to chain me to my bedpost and listen to my incessant screaming for 24 hours. It's probably impossible! I woke up this morning singing at the top of my lungs an off pitch, multiple key hybrid combination of the Hallalujah Chorus and the Doxology. It scared my son!
I can sum up my sentiments of obama-tics with a baseball metaphor. Obama's decision to make sweeping reform based on far leftist principles is the equivalent of a baseball player swinging for the fences. Knowing that a base hit will further steady progress, he decides to up-the-stakes. Swinging for the fences, in one foul swoop, could perpetuate the team into an instant win and depending on the circumstance...into the hall of fame. Conversely, a miss could be devastating. In the case of the Democrats it is the beginning of the end. From health care to majorities in the house and senate the ramifications will be huge. The decision to push through the desires of the American people has bitten Obama and teammates in the proverbial ass! Unlike the dog that sends a warning bite...the american people will see their backsides as a giant raw pot roast and we've been forced to hunger after founding principles of this great republic! Children...look away...it's not going to be pretty! Swing...and aaaaaaaaaaaaa Miss!
We don't deserve news and the deliverance from this legislation, but God has bestowed it upon us anyway. This is the very reason I celebrate!
MISSIONS Here is good info regarding missions from THE GOSPEL COALITION. Here is a taste of the article:
They should also cause us to consider the sacrifice that will be necessary to reach Muslim countries with the gospel. Muslim nations have the fewest Christians and the most persecution. For example, eight out of the top ten countries on Open Doors’ World Watch List are Muslim nations.
The kind of Christian who gets offended when a clerk at Target says “happy holidays” rather than “merry Christmas” when checking out, probably won’t consider moving to a city where Christians are gunned down on Christmas Eve or shot at a wedding. Yet that is exactly what needs to happen.
The general public will be marching with the Silent No More Awareness Campaign today. This march for awareness...It's estimated that 25,000 woman each year have an abortion in Washington State!
Thank GOD for the home school movement...it's literally the salvation to redeeming education for our children. Sorry for those of you who are public school teachers you are fighting against all odds to educate children. You won't get my child!
Also Obama's RACE TO THE TOP program! Major tax money in the form of grants for those states willing to make major change to their school systems. 30 states will sell their souls to this program. Texas, the largest opponent to the program, turns down millions of dollars to keep the feds from mucking around with their curriculum. I can hear the country song in my head right now...God bless Texas with his own hand!
Today's a big news day include the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat. This could lead to the destruction of the filibuster proof majority the democrats enjoy at this moment. This definitely could throw a monkey wrench in the health care situation for the demon-crats.
Read this from the Associated Press via Yahoo News:
I often keep track of the environmental seen via blogs and websites. It is one the easiest exercises of discernment to see that the cause is more than a cause but a religion and its supporters those who are followers of that religion. Al Mohler once again says it better than most on the Gospel Coalition site.
Currently the Pro-Choice movement, under the doctrine of political correctness, has shifted it's banner to "Reproductive Rights" While pro-choice is broad, ambiguious, and selfishly individualistic "reproductive rights" has given the movement a banner in which to say in a more specific way that their is no choice on this topic...it's a "right" and we as a collection of individuals are entitled to it, End Of Story! While the movement has focused in on it's priniciples it has allowed individuals to become blended into a larger collective and individual responsibility and consequences dissappear into this collective. It's "we" not "me"! It's easier to live with the consequences and responsibility (or lack there of) in a collective type unit. I guess that is true with any movement that does not have accountability on an individual level. Part of this "Reproductive Rights" movement involves a group that you wouldn't normally see in the headlines because of it's marginalized nature. While this movement is not new it has gained legitimacy inside the "reporductive rights" movement. The movement is a collective of sex workers! While I am not apposed to helping sex workers in the name of Christ with the intent purpose of seeing a redemptive work in their life I just don't give any credence to the principles in this movement if that's not obvious by now. The alarming thing is many do! The following is a post by Audacia Ray's blog on RHRealityCheck.org. Audacia Ray is a professor of sexuality at Rutgers University, author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration, and a U.S. advocate for sex workers rights. Audacia's post is an account of her trip to see what the movement was like in India. Here is a quote and then a link to the post...it's a great read!
Today, one of the organization’s largest projects is a collective of 5,000 sex workers that manages a peer HIV prevention education and condom distribution program in Sangli. This collective also advocates to ensure equal access to health services and end violence and discrimination against sex workers. While many organizations train and bring in people from outside the community to help and support people in need (the social work model), SANGRAM operates under the principle that the only way to empower people is to provide them with the tools they need to claim their rights and facilitate change.
One of my favorite organizations I use to keep up on the current abortion propaganda is The National Abortion Federation, headed up by it's President and CEO Vicki Saporta. Her blog the "Saporta Report" is especially useful. There organization promotes newsletters, publications, and research regarding public policy and education under the guise of reproductive health. It's membership includes individuals, cooperative organizations that don't provide abortion services, providers that do, and international individuals. The banner in which they unite is this:
The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is the professional association of abortion providers in the United States and Canada. We believe that women should be trusted to make private medical decisions in consultation with their health care providers. NAF currently offers quality training and services to abortion providers and unbiased information and referral services to women.
The current campaign is the memorializing of their hero/martyr Dr. George Tiller. Dr. Tiller, the poster boy of NAF, was killed by Scott Roeder a professing Christian this last year. This ignited outrage across the federation and fueled the relentless barrage of protest against pro-lifer's, Christians, and Crisis Pregnancy Organizations. The most recent part of the blog campaign is what is called Wednesday's Words from Woman which are posts by woman who have had abortions. The NAF's Saporta Report explains the posts as follows:
Over one-third of women of reproductive age have an abortion by the age of 45. However, women who have chosen abortion are often absent from the public debate. In order to break the silence surrounding abortion, we will be featuring real stories from real women each Wednesday on our blog. If you would like to share your story with us or have it published on our blog, go to http://www.prochoice.org/pregnant/hotline/share.html.
I'll share some of the post by categories I've put together. THE ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP When I was 22 years old, I was in an abusive relationship and already had a two-year-old daughter. I was working two jobs just to make ends meet without help from my parents, when I found out I was pregnant again. I had taken precautions and was on the birth control pill at the time. When I went to my boyfriend and told him, his reaction was not a positive one. His family was very anti-choice and knew I could not go to them for help. My mother and grandparents gave me the money to terminate my pregnancy; I knew if I did not, I was never going to be able to get out of the current relationship that I was in. After that, I was able to return to college, where I finished my nursing degree. I became a nurse, went to work at the same clinic that had helped me, and was able to help many other women in my same situation.
MEDICAL HARDSHIP The reasons are many that each woman decides to end a pregnancy; for myself the list is quite long. I have lupus and am a single 43-year-old woman with three children at home and an adult child. My hands are full with the challenges of what I am responsible for right now and would be made increasingly worse with another child, no partner, and no support to raise a child. It's a hard and difficult choice to make, and for me the choice took a long time to make as it's not easy to do.
RAPE I am already a struggling single mother of three children: four, seven, and soon to be one year old. This pregnancy was the result of a rape. It was not my intention to ever put myself in a position like this. I thought long and hard about what I was going to do about this pregnancy. I decided to have an abortion because I couldn’t see myself keeping this baby, but I also could not see myself giving the baby away and constantly wondering if I did the right thing and if it was being treated well.
I was raped while serving in the Army in Iraq. My rapist is in jail. I am engaged and will be married in two months. Thanks to your organization, I won’t have to start my new life raising a criminal’s child.
FEAR OF BREAKING THE LAW AS ONLY ALTERNATIVE At 18, a student at the University of Chicago, I became pregnant. In that year, 1959, one had no option other than to bear the child or, alarmingly, have an illegal abortion. Having no means of support or family to sustain me, I was forced to choose the latter. I wish I could convey the chilling fear I felt. Having a back-alley abortion was a horrific experience, which I would not wish upon anybody. Luckily, I was not permanently injured physically and was able to have two children when the circumstances were right.I don't think today's young women have the foggiest idea of how vital it is that they have legal recourse to abortion if they wish. Perhaps my story will help enlighten them.
I've always felt the answer to the so-called Right to Lifers is very simple: if they make abortion illegal again, the very same number of women will continue having them, only many, many more deaths and permanent injury will result. It will change nothing to illegalize the procedure except to endanger thousands of lives.
RELIGIOUS My family and I were going through a very difficult situation. We recently found out my daughter’s pregnancy had several severe and painful birth defects. We were referred to a clinic in Nebraska because the procedure could not be done in South Dakota. We felt this was just another blow. We would have to travel to an unfamiliar place with a doctor and nurses we did not know. Not to mention the financial aspect of it. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When we met the clinic staff everything changed for us. I have never met more caring and compassionate people in my life. The doctor and his whole staff showed us so much compassion and empathy. He was able to make my daughter feel better and give her a sense of peace. They are truly angels that work among us. Thank you.
CRISIS PREGNANCY RESOURCE HORROR STORIES In my hometown there is a women's crisis center. They say they give you clear, honest, and upfront information about all your options. I took my 19-year-old niece there to help her make the best choice for herself. I was horrified by the woman in charge. She told my niece that if you have an abortion they put razor blades inside you then suction the fetus out and place it on a tray to determine how far along you were. I had heard enough. I told my niece we needed to get out of there. The woman asked why and said she wanted to tell my niece about adoption. I told her that she had just lied to us once and I wasn’t going to sit there and listen to any more. I told her that I had an abortion and have since had children, and that the procedure was nothing like she was telling my niece. The worker then told me that my children were at higher risk for mental and emotional disabilities. Have you ever heard such insane comments?
My niece made her decision when she got the real facts on all her options from the NAF Hotline. I thank NAF for providing her with this information. There are so many young women with nowhere to turn for REAL non judgmental help, and then you have these sick twisted people scaring them. And many are government funded. It’s sick how they scare young women. I can’t believe it’s legal to be so ignorant.
HOPES AND DREAMS SPEECH When I was in my freshman year of college, I got pregnant even though I was on the "pill." I was so scared because I had plans for myself. I needed to finish school and get a good job and establish my life before I brought another one into this world. I wanted to have kids one day but I wanted to be able to give them everything they wanted. I didn't want to have my children, the people I would come to care for and love more than anything in the world, suffer for a mistake I made. I decided to get an abortion, and I had to travel 50 miles to the nearest clinic. Afterward I felt very relieved and went on to finish my freshman year with a 4.0. Now, 3 years later I have a beautiful one-year-old daughter who has everything she'll ever need because I was ready. I'm extremely grateful that I had the choice to wait so that my daughter may have a better life. Thank You.
I just want to say thank you and God Bless you to those who donate to this cause. This decision was hard to make; I am a single mom of three kids who just graduated. I really need to take care of the children I have and could not if I were to go through with this pregnancy. Thank you for allowing me to pursue my dreams of taking care of the children I have.
CAREER IN THE MEDICAL FIELD I’m currently enrolled in Nursing School. I’ve come a long way and when I found out that I was pregnant, I was very scared but knew what I had to do in order to provide for myself and my family in the future. I’m grateful that I have this option and I’d like to thank the clinic for their utmost respect and professionalism.
I became pregnant while on birth control and that is what brought me to this decision. I am a full-time nursing student and want to fulfill my career goals. I am grateful for the freedom to make my own choices.
SUICIDE WAS THE ALTERNATIVE If it weren’t for the clinic, I probably wouldn’t be here at all. My life was going down the tubes, and then I found out I was pregnant. If I hadn’t had the choice to terminate this pregnancy, I would have made the choice to end my life. In no way was I ready to give a baby a fulfilling, happy life, and having a baby would have ruined mine. Thank you to the clinic and NAF for all of your help getting my life turned around!
SOCIETAL BACKLASH I will say that without the clinic, I am not sure what I would have done. The medical society out there, where I live, isn't very helpful and wasn't giving me the answers I needed. I needed to take care of myself and to be my own advocate. I would encourage every woman to be their own advocate and to do what is best for themselves, whether that is having a baby or terminating the pregnancy, it's our life that we have to live and we are responsible, not the doctors, nurses, neighbors, friends, etc.
JUST PLAIN LAME I am a single college student who is trying to break the cycle of having children young in my family. I heard about your Hotline from my very helpful counselor. You helped me out a great deal. So thank you very much for helping me access the abortion care I needed.
I am 17 years old, married to an amazing guy, and I chose to have an abortion. I chose to have an abortion because, while children are wonderful, I hope to be able to give my children more than I could dream of now. I plan to go to college, get a degree and hopefully open my own business. I want to be able to go to a career day at my child’s school, be proud of what I’ve done with my life, and be able to go to sleep at night not worried about how I’m going to pay a hospital bill from when I was 17. Children deserve the best things in life. They truly are our future. My baby would deserve too many things that I can’t provide right now, including all the love in the world. Someday I will be a mom, and I believe I will be an amazing parent when the time is right.
Having an abortion at a NAF member clinic has granted me a second chance. It has also given me back my choice; I’ve been allowed to make my own decision. I am pro-choice, pro-family, and pro-faith, and I trust this clinic.
I grew up in an anti-choice household, but ever since I was able to truly think through the issue, have been pro-choice. But like many beliefs, for most of my life it went untested. Then, last spring, I became pregnant and came face-to-face with my belief that women have the right to their own body, including the right to an abortion. I was 29, had a master's degree, was employed full-time and had a supportive network of friends and family. By some standards I had everything necessary to adequately take care of a child. But I wasn't ready. I had just ended an unhealthy relationship; I didn't want to be pregnant. I didn't want to have a child. It was and always will be my body. I made a choice that was best for me. My body, my choice, and thankfully still my legal right.
THE GRAND SLAM HOMERUN, MOST CREATIVE, MOST INTELLIGENT, OFFICIAL WINNER
Of all the myths about abortion, the ones that anger me the most are about the women who have them. We are portrayed as promiscuous, unintelligent, selfish, weak or child-hating. Those who oppose abortion would like people to believe that women either can't make a good choice or don't even deserve one. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Sorry, I don't mean to make these post lighthearted and full of humor. They are meant to display the irony, ignorance, and emotion that plagues these ordinary women pulled into the pro-choice type movements. These are a few post of hundreds that have been chosen to be posted on the Saporta Report. I'm sure there are thousands not considered to be put on the Wednesday's Words For Woman. These are you neighbors, your children's teachers, coworkers, fellow business men and women, and maybe in some of your church's.
In place of the Morning Sieve Posts I've been putting together some info regarding the sacredness of life. This Sunday is Sanctity of Life Sunday and I've often wondered if the Church really knows what they are up against. This issue is obviously one of the hottest on Christian's radar. Have you ever dove into the blackness of progressive pro-choice movements. Have you looked under the top headlines to see what is going on in the day to day progression of there agenda. The following posts are not the worst of the worst (young eyes may be watching unattended) but are some of the moderate propaganda forces after our children's minds and hearts.
Hey all I will be posting the latest Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Current News, and articles regarding the Sanctity of Human Life in celebration of Sanctity of Human Life Month! Stay Tuned...
Most atheists when thinking about the existence of all things have to believe in an ordering of them (things/matter) apart from God. Some process must take place apart from intelligent design! In terms of governing themselves, Christopher Hitchens claims, in a recent debate hosted by Christianity Today, you practically have to be an atheist to be a communist, which I am in agreement. All heavily leaning social type governments whether it is Marxism, communism or socialism have at their foundation atheism. Social justice is the duty of the state apart from God! What about Capitolist? Can you be an atheist and a capitalist? In his book Money, Greed, and God Jay Richard says this
"…the key source of material wealth in a modern market economy is immaterial. It’s spiritual. Wealth is created when our creative freedom is allowed to prosper in a free-market environment undergirded by the rule of law and suffused with a rich moral culture."
Can any governing principle that has for itself an undergirding of the rule of law suffused with any kind of morals be attributed to or from anyone embracing atheism? In Is Christianity Good for the World Douglas Wilson writes in response to Hitchens
"…you now tell us that we have an innate predisposition to both good and wicked behavior…what warrant you have for calling some behaviors “good” and others “wicked”."
And..
"Your notion of morality, and the evolution it rode in on, can only be concern itself with what is. But morality as Christians understand it, and the kind you surreptitiously draw upon , is concerned with ought...You believe yourself to live in a universe where there is no such thing as any fixed ought or ought not."
Finally…
"If there is no God, then who cares?"
According to Wilson atheist have no rational basis for calling anything good or bad, furthermore given atheism ‘Who cares’! Thus, it would seem to me, the core principles capitalism cannot be achieved under atheistic principles and thereby capitalism cannot be achieved under those governing according to those principles. Can atheists live under such rule? Will the propensity to breakdown the very principles in such a capitalist society be too great (or should I say to innate)?
You may say that capitalism with its ingredients of competition, private property, self interest, and free market principles can stand on their own without God. This is obviously an idolatrous delusion; left to our own the affects of sin only lead to death. I leave this thought with this:
"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." - Alexis de Tocqueville
Quote for the Day - Politics
The president said that the health care package that cleared the Senate was the most important social legislation since Social Security. Which was, as my daughter Rachel put, like saying we haven't had weather this good since Katrina. - Posted by Douglas Wilson on BLOG and MABLOG
This 67 page debate hosted by Christianity Today turned book and documentary Collision is foreworded by Jonah Goldberg, a secular Jew. Published by Canon Press whose review quotes “Put two contrarians together and shake well.” writes this about Hitchens and Douglas.
Christopher Hitchens is a popular journalist and the author of several books, including God is Not Great. A regular contributor to Vanity Fair, The Atlantic Monthly, and Slate, Hitchens has also appeared on The Daily Show, Charlie Rose, and C-Span’s Washington Journal. He was named one of the world’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Britain’s Prospect. Currently, Hitchens resides in Washington, D.C.
Douglas Wilson is a pastor of Christ Church (Moscow, Idaho) and a Senior Fellow at New Saint Andrews College. A prolific writer, he is the author of Letter from a Christian Citizen, Reforming Marriage, and Heaven Misplaced: Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, among others. He and his wife Nancy have three children and a myriad of grandkids.
The Captions under each of their pictures on the cover of the sister documentary Collision read this:
“Christianity is a wicked cult, and it’s high time we left it behind” (Hitchens)
and
“There are two tenants of Aetheism. One there is no god. Two, I hate him.” (Wilson)
This book reads almost as quickly as the documentary but obviously is more dissectible in literary form…good thing too, both these guys are way out of my league. I watched the documentary and read the book as if I were hanging on the shirt tails of an Olympic sprinter. Both are extremely witty, intelligent and worth reading. As usual I will give only a few of my brief observations and the rest of the post will be some quotes from the book. In my humble but deadly accurate opinion Hitchens bit off a little more than could chew with Wilson. If you have seen Collision the book follows the same ol’ story that…the book is always better!
“I hope I may be forgiven for declining to believe that another human being can tell me what to do, in the most intimate details of my life and mind, and to further dictate these terms as if acting as proxy for a supernatural entity. This tyrannical idea is very much older than Christianity, of course, but I do sometimes think that Christians have less excuse for believing, let alone wishing, that such a horrible thing could be true.” (Hitchens pg. 25)
“Given your atheism, what account are you able to give that would require us to respect the individual? How does this individualism of yours flow from the premises of atheism? Why should anyone in the outside world respect the details of your though life any more than they respect the internal churnings of any other given chemical reaction?” (Wilson pg29)
“We are simply reluctant to say that , if religious faith falls—as we believe it must and to some extent already has—then the undergirding of decency falls also. And we do not fail to notice that a corollary is in play: The manner in which religion makes people behave worse than they might otherwise have done.” (Hitchens pg.45)
“What I want to know (still) is what warrant you have for calling some behaviors “good” and others “wicked.” If both are inated, what distinguishes them?...With regard to your retort that my “talent for needless complexity” has simply gotten me “God’s coexistence with evil,” I reply that I would rather have my God and the problem of evil than your no God and “Evil? No problem!”” (Wilson pg.55)
That's Christmas
This from Justin Taylor's Blog:
An evangelistic short film (10 minutes) from St. Helen’s Bishopgate in London on whether or not the Christmas story happened and what it means—featuring New Testament scholar Paul Barnett:
Also this from The Gospel Coalition regarding Christmas by Tullian Tchividjian "The Great Reversal"
Here is a snippet:
We who believe the gospel will enjoy sinless hearts and minds along with disease-free bodies. All that causes us pain and discomfort will be destroyed, and we will live forever. We’ll finally be able “to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever.”
Christmas is the celebration of this process begun and the promise that it will one day be completed.
Here is the link to a series on prayer from the resurgence site. The latest installment -- Intercessory Prayer: Standing Between Two Extremes by Winfield BevinsActs 29 Pastor - Outer Banks, North Carolina. Here is a snippet:
Jesus the Ultimate Intercessor
There are numerous examples of individuals in the Bible who accepted the challenge to intercede on behalf of others, but the greatest example of intercession can be seen in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us, "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
Jesus still sits at the right hand of God and continually makes intercession on our behalf. Jesus' intercession isn't just a prayer that he prayed, but the life that he lived. Everything he said and did was for us! The essential meaning of the cross is Christ's mediation for all who would be saved. The Bible tells us, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). True intercession begins by following Jesus' example of self-giving, and then flows into fervent prayer for the lives of others.
________________________________________________________________________ Politics
While it is true that most all democratic senators don't care what is in the health care bill. It is more clear they don't believe in it, proven by the fact the last of the holdouts leveraged to be exempt from many of it's provisions. It this is toted to be the best piece of legislation emerge in American History then why do they want to be exempt from it? It's worse than that! While some surface dwellers say that these Senators were just serving there constituents but an article by The Foundary reveals they are worse than their democrat counterparts. Read Michigan And Nebraska: The Senate Leadership Has Got A Deal For You! .
Child of God,
Husband to my wife Helen,
Father to my son Aiden Warren (A.W. as we affectionately call him),
Business Owner of Arbor Worx LLC, and
Deacon of Grace Covenant Church
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