"Promises highly secure privacy protection that would make the NSA wince," states BetaBeat.

"Could be the first NSA-proof phone," headlines Mashable.

ZDNet says: "Powered by a security-oriented Android build named PrivatOS, Blackphone is touted as a carrier and vendor-independent smartphone which allows consumers and businesses to make and receive secure phone calls, exchange secure texts, transfer and store files, and video chat without compromising privacy on the device."

This video introduces "Blackphone."

Here's the press release.

And more: "Nobody else can watch you without your knowledge."

Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be interviewed today by Leigh Bortins of Classical Conversations at 1 p.m. eastern time. 

Here's the link to listen live at BlogTalkRadio.

Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be speaking this Friday at Dallas Baptist University on her book Saving Leonardo. 

The event is part of a lecture series organized by David Naugle, author of Worldview: The History of a Concept.  If you are in the Dallas area, come by.  The lectures are held at Rogers Theater, Pilgrim chapel, at 12 noon.   

For more information, click here.

Note also that editor and publisher J. Richard Pearcey and Nancy Pearcey are developing a series of team-taught worldview seminars for universities, churches, and other venues. Further announcements on this new development will appear on The Pearcey Report.

If such events are of interest to you, please contact us at pearcey@thpearceyreport.com.

539,676 pageviews helped make September a super month at The Pearcey Report, according to statistics compiled by Awstats.

A big "thank you" to everyone for your ongoing readership.

Readers of The Pearcey Report may be interested know that I will be speaking at the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature on the campus of Houston Baptist University on Friday at 2:15. My talk draws on themes from Saving Leonardo and is titled, "Recovering Our Virtue: Does Dickens Succeed in Overcoming the Fact/Value Split in Hard Times?"

In the novel Hard Times Dickens is doing battle with philosophies like empiricism and utilitarianism, which had come to dominate the public sphere of politics and economics. Writing at the height of the industrial revolution, Dickens realized that the impact of these philosophies was reductionistic and dehumanizing, and he raises the question: In an age where Truth has been identified solely with empirical fact, what is the truth status of Goodness and Beauty?

Dickens knew that the outstanding philosopher of utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill, had undergone a personal crisis (related in Saving Leonardo). He recasts Mill's story as the plot line in the novel.

Here is a brief preview of my remarks:

When John Stuart Mill was born, his father was close friends with Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism. They decided to turn the boy into a kind of experiment: They would educate him from a young age to become a prophet for their utilitarian creed.

And it worked. As a young man, Mill was brilliant. He was writing for professional journals, he had founded several intellectual societies, and he was heralded as the crown prince of an influential utilitarian movement in politics.

But at the age of twenty, Mill suffered a mental crisis. As he wrote in his Autobiography, it came crashing down on him that he had been turned into little more than a "reasoning machine." He felt he had been robbed of entire dimensions of life.

So intense was Mill's depression that he compared himself with someone on the threshold of a religious conversion. Yet he did not find a resolution to his crisis in religion. Instead, he found it in poetry. His depression lifted when he discovered the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the other Romantics.

Now, however, he was faced with a dilemma. The discovery of poetry and beauty had saved his life. But his philosophy did not allow for any form of truth except the empirical and the quanitfiable.

How would Mill resolve the conflict?

And how would Dickens resolve the conflict in his fictional treatment of the same issues? Most importantly, how can we stand against the inhumane reductionism and scientism of our own age and assert once again that Goodness and Beauty are rooted in Truth?

According to the conference website, online registration "is $85 per professional ($95 at the door) or $55 per graduate student ($65 at the door) and includes the Friday dinner meal. In addition, all registrants must be current members of Conference on Christianity and Literature. The membership rates are $35 per year or $60 for two years."

On the topic of conferences, Rick and I are excited to announce that we are developing plans for conferences where together we address the critical challenges of our day, in light of the liberating and reality-oriented principles set forth in the Judeo-Christian worldview. Stayed tuned for updates on this initiative.

We are happy to report more than 468,000 pageviews at The Pearcey Report for the month of August. Thank you all, dear readers!

HBU announces in a press release:

Houston Baptist University has recruited atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and New York Times best-selling author of more than 20 books, to join the faculty of the Department of Apologetics in the University’s School of Christian Thought.

Described in the Washington Post as "one of the evangelical community’s most popular apologists," Strobel became a Christian in 1981 after a nearly two-year investigation of the evidence for Jesus. Beginning in 1987, he served on the staffs of Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, Ill., and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., before shifting his focus to writing.

In 2005, Strobel shared the Christian Book of the Year award for a curriculum he co-authored with Garry Poole about the movie The Passion of the Christ. He also won Gold Medallions for his books The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith and The Case for a Creator, all of which have been made into documentaries distributed by Lionsgate.

Strobel, who holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School, also is co-author of the Becoming a Contagious Christian course, which has trained more than a million Christians to naturally and effectively talk with others about Jesus. His articles have been published in a variety of magazines, and he has been interviewed on numerous national radio and TV programs.

"As one of the most well-known apologists of the last two decades, Lee Strobel has spoken to audiences both young and old, including tens of thousands of university students," said Dr. Robert B. Sloan Jr., HBU president. "He is an engaging advocate for the historical and truthful character of the Christian faith, and his personal testimony is compelling. We believe having him join our already outstanding group of nationally and internationally known apologists will be a blessing both to the University and to all who are courageous enough to hear the case for Christ and are willing to be challenged and encouraged by the truthfulness of the Christian faith."

The recruitment of Strobel is just the latest in a string of recent hires designed to strengthen the School of Christian Thought at HBU, which also includes Nancy Pearcey, who The Economist has called "America’s pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual," and Jerry Walls, author of more than a dozen books, including Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality, which won the 2012 Christianity Today Book Award in the Apologetics/Evangelism category. HBU is also home to three of the best known scholars in C.S. Lewis studies, including Dr. Michael Ward, who was hired recently to direct the University’s new C.S. Lewis Centre in Oxford, England.

For adding these and other acclaimed Christian scholars to its faculty and launching new graduate programs in philosophy and apologetics, the University was ranked fourth on a list of the "Top 15 Colleges for Studying the Bible" compiled earlier this year by the editors of thebestschools.org.

Related
Edith Schaeffer and the Apologetics of Beauty 
Christmas Spirit in Space and Time

Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey will be among the keynote speakers at the "One True God?" conference April 11-13 in the metro area of Denver, Colorado.

Also keynoting are Doug Groothuis from Denver Seminary, Craig Hazen of Biola University, and James Bjornstad, professor of philosophy at Cedarville College.

"Evening sessions are free to the public. The three day conference is $25," states the conference website.

Nancy will be speaking April 12, Friday morning and Friday evening (no charge!). You can register online by clicking here.

The Pearcey Report enjoyed 306,634 page views in last month. Nancy and I greatly appreciate your readership! Thanks to all!

Nancy will appear on KRKS 97.4 FM radio today at 4:00 pm mountain time (5 pm, central; 6 pm eastern).

You can call the show, "Crosswalk with Gino Geraci," at 1-800-277-8946.

To listen online, go here.

Here's the announcement from the Office of Student Life at Houston Baptist University:

This fall the only apologetics course for undergraduates is a course offered through HBU's Francis Schaeffer Center titled "Worldview Apologetics: 'Testing Everything' with C.S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer."

The course is limited to juniors and seniors (others with instructor permission). It will be listed as APOL 3381 Special Topics. In Huskynet, Nancy Pearcey is listed as the instructor and the title as SP TOP: Wrldview:Lewis/Schaeffer. For a longer description, click here.

Related
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach 
Politics, Science, and the Virgin Birth

We enjoyed -- and appreciate -- 2,768,908 views from our readers.

Nancy and I can now gladly, with thanks, announce today the formation of the Francis Schaeffer Center for Worldview and Culture, located on the campus of Houston Baptist University. 

This is a developing story. More information will follow.

This just in from the Heritage Foundation:

Edwin J. Feulner, the man who first envisioned, then built The Heritage Foundation, will step down as president next April, the think tank announced today.

The top spot will be filled by Jim DeMint, the senator from South Carolina who, over the last decade, has organized an influx of principled conservatives to serve in the U.S. House and Senate.

"Jim DeMint has shown that principled conservatism remains a winning political philosophy," Heritage Chairman of the Board Thomas A. Saunders says. "His passion for rigorous research, his dedication to the principles of our nation's founding, and his ability to translate policy ideas into action make him an ideal choice to lead Heritage to even greater success."

Related
Jim DeMint: "It Must Be Repealed"
Allen West, Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio: 3 Highlights From CPAC 2010

Pearcey Report editor at large and HBU professor Nancy Pearcey will be speaking twice and autographing books this Friday, November 30, at the Center for Faith and Culture, which is housed on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Nancy will discuss politics and worldview on "Connecting Faith." Listen online here. 12 noon, central time.

PRNewswire announces: 

Liberty Institute and the Family Research Council, two organizations committed to protecting and advancing religious liberty rights in the U.S., have joined to release The Survey of Religious Hostility in America -- a compilation of more than 600 documented incidents of hostility to religion that have occurred in the United States, most of them over the last 10 years. 

The organizations' presidents, Kelly Shackleford and Tony Perkins (Perkins will serve on the Republican platform committee) will present the survey and its findings on Monday, August 20, at 1:00 PM EST during platform week of the Republican National Convention at the Marriott Waterside Hotel, Tampa, FL.

Shackelford said: "America today would be unrecognizable to our Founders. Our First Liberty is facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups and individuals who are using the courts, Congress, and the vast federal bureaucracy to suppress and limit religious freedom. This radicalized minority is driven by an anti-religious ideology that is turning the First Amendment upside down."

Perkins said: "As dark as this survey is, there is much light. The secularists' agenda only advances when those who love liberty are apathetic. Let this be a call to stand for religious liberty in the U.S. The Obama administration no longer even speaks of freedom of religion; now it is only 'freedom of worship.' This radical departure is one that threatens to make true religious liberty vulnerable, conditional, and limited. This is no accident, and it has huge ramifications."  

Related
Florida School Prayer Order "Blatantly Unconstitutional" 
What Is "Mainstream" America?

We have added Houston Baptist University to The Pearcey Report list of resources.

Nancy has recently accepted an HBU appointment as a Scholar in Residence.

As we noted previously, she will join the faculty as a full professor, and "her duties will include teaching, research and writing, and helping to create a new MA program in Apologetics."

Today and tomorrow, in Rochester, Minnesota. Here's a website.

The conference is Feb. 10-11, 2012, in Rochester, MN. For information, please see this website. Hope to see you there!

Nancy is speaking Friday, May 27, at the 27th annual North Carolinians for Home Education conference at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem. More than 7,000 people are expected to attend this conference.

At 9:00 a.m. Nancy is scheduled to speak on "Equipping Homeschoolers to Recognize, Resist, and Overcome Secular Worldviews."

At 2:00 p.m. she will speak on "Teaching Christian Worldview Across the Curriculum."

And at 3:30 p.m. Nancy will discuss "Responding Creatively to the Challenge of Feminism."

Here is a schedule of the conference. For more information about North Carolinians for Home Education, please visit their website.

Nancy Pearcey is speaking tomorrow, Saturday, April 30, at an educational conference in Manassas, Va.

Here is a schedule of the event, which is organized by Classical Conversations and will be held at Manassas Baptist Church (Sudley Road).

Nancy is scheduled to speak at 10:15 am and at 1:45 pm. You can also join her for a book-signing at 5:00 pm -- so be sure to bring copies of Saving Leonardo and her other books, as well.

This review of Nancy's book Total Truth appears on the Classical Conversations website. And here is an interview with Nancy.

For more information, download a flyer here. To pre-register, please go here.

Rivendell Sanctuary faculty member and author Nancy Pearcey will be speaking this Wednesday in the Atlanta area.

Join her and William Lane Craig and Greg Koukl at a conference titled "Bad Arguments Against Christianity" April 27.

Nancy will be speaking on themes from her new book, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning.

Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Time: 7:30-9:30 pm
Location: Apostles Church of Sandy Springs
Address: 6025 Glenridge Drive NE, Atlanta, Ga. 30328

This conference is Free.

For more information, please contact Jim Surface at jimsurface1@gmail.com.

Nancy Pearcey will speaking in Atlanta, Ga., on Wed., April 27, 2011, at a "Reasonable Faith Atlanta Apologetics Event." 

A recent article in The Economist describes Nancy as "America's pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual." 

More details on this event to follow. For now, please see this announcement.  

Nancy will be speaking at the Educational Policy Conference next week in St. Louis, Jan. 27-29, 2011. Also speaking are Ann Coulter, Rick Santorum, David Kupelian, Judith Reisman, Frank Gaffney, Kelly Shackelford, and others.

I just got off the phone with conference organizer Donna Hearne and can let you know that Nancy will be speaking Saturday at 2:00.

Nancy will be happy to autograph books, so don't forget to bring copies of Saving Leonardo (and her other books as well!).

This conference is sponsored by the Constitutional Coalition. For more information or to register, please see this website or call 1-636-386-1789. Visit the Facebook page here.

Here is a preliminary schedule and partial list of speakers and working titles of their talks.

COURAGE AND CONVICTION
Lessons From Our History -- Extraordinary Plans for the Future!

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, 7:00 p.m. Open (Registration Begins at 5:00 pm)

Lessons From Our History

* Erick Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, speaking on The Education of a Martyr

* David Kupelian, author of How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces that are Transforming America

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, 9:00 a.m. Open

Understanding the Battle --
Our Toxic Culture: Dehumanizing Individuals

* Dr. Judith Reisman, author of Sexual Sabotage on Why our Schools and Culture Promote Toxic Sexuality

* Barbara Anderson, Minnesota Family Public Policy, The Fed’s push on Schools to Promote Toxic Sexuality: Money and Curriculum

* Janet Boynes, One Person’s Journey Back to Human Dignity

* Candi Cushman, Focus on the Family, Bullying and How to Effectively Confront It

Understanding the Battle --
Science’s Corruption

* Dr. John West, Discovery Institute, Science and Religion: Evolution or Purpose – Where does Theistic Evolution fit?

* John Calvert, attorney, Defining Terms: Materialistic Science vs. Theistic Science

FRIDAY LUNCH

* James Wanliss, physic professor, Post Normal Science in the Classroom

Understanding the Battle -- 
History: Facts or PC’s Fudging?

* Don McLeroy, Texas State School Board, History Standards and Freedom

* Betty Peters, Alabama State School Board, Federal Standards and Mind Control

* Peggy Littleton, former Colorado State School Board, Why Common Core Standards are Bad

* Kathy Wilmot, former Nebraska State School Board, How the Feds Intend to Enforce Toxic Secularism

Understanding the Battle  -- 
How to Teach Children Healthy Risk

* Abby Sunderland, 16-years old, Circling the Globe Solo in a Sailboat – Lessons Learned

FRIDAY DINNER

* Ann Coulter, author, lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, syndicated columnist, Why Liberals Never Learn the Lessons of History

Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011

Understanding the Battle -- 
What Kind of "Rule of Law" Produces a Civil Society?

* Frank Gaffney, Center for Security, Shariah, the Threat to America

* Speaker to be announced – The Founder’s Biblical Constitutionalism

* Speaker to be announced – We, the People, or I, the Chief Executive?

* Hon. Sen. Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, How is Human Dignity treated by the Constitution and Shariah and Why is it Important?

* Larry Reed, president, Foundation for Economic Education, The Best Road to Prosperity and Why

SATURDAY LUNCH

NEW! Breakout Session for young people ages 9-14 (Runs simultaneously with sessions on “Winning the Battle …,” joining the concluding session “Leaders We Must Know and Emulate”)

* Debby Brezina – Why America is the BEST!

* Abby Sunderland – My Stories and Lessons of Sailing Alone

Winning the Battle –
Why We Must Go Back into the Public Square

* John Stonestreet, Summit Ministries, Opposing Views of Humanity

* David Brog, author of In Defense of Faith: The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity

* Nancy Pearcey, described in The Economist as "America’s preeminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual," author of Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals & Meaning, on the faculty of Rivendell Sanctuary, editor at large of The Pearcey Report

Winning the Battle –
How to Go Back into the Public Square

Apologetics: The Arguments of the Secularists
and How to Win the Discussion

* Kelly Shackelford, president, Liberty Legal Institute and Free Market Foundation and Dick Thompson, president, Thomas More Center, How to Conquer the Public Square

Leaders We Must Know and Emulate

* Dr. William Forstchen, author of To Try Men Souls, speaking on Why Character Matters: George Washington

* Dr. Peter Lillback, author of George Washington’s Sacred Fire, speaking on Documenting a Biblical George Washington

May 11, 2012, Update: Pearceys Resign From Rivendell Sanctuary

Going out across PressWire today is the following announcement: 

Worldview Thinkers
Nancy Pearcey & J. Richard Pearcey
to Join Faculty at Rivendell Sanctuary 

Bloomington, MN (Jan. 13, 2011) -– Rivendell Sanctuary, an innovative new college, announces that best-selling author and scholar Nancy Pearcey, and editor-publisher J. Richard Pearcey, will join the Rivendell faculty. The couple begins team-teaching classes in the Fall 2011.

Best known for award-winning books such as Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey is currently a columnist with the Capitol Hill newspaper Human Events and editor at large of The Pearcey Report. Nancy studied with Francis Schaeffer at L'Abri in Switzerland and served as the Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar at the World Journalism Institute. Her most recent position was Scholar of Worldview Studies at Philadelphia Biblical University. An article in The Economist describes Nancy as “America’s pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual.” Her latest book is Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning.  

“What appeals to me about Rivendell Sanctuary,” Nancy says, “is that it is a ‘great books’ program with an integrated curriculum, using a Socratic method of teaching. Students are taught to dig deeply into a text and learn how to think for themselves.”

J. Richard Pearcey, also a published writer, has worked in the Washington, D.C., area for several years as an editor at The World & I, managing editor of Human Events, and associate editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report. He has edited books by David Limbaugh, Hal Lindsey, and John Erickson and is currently writing a manuscript on worldview and resistance in a secular age. In 2005 he launched the influential Pearcey Report (www.pearceyreport.com).

Rick and Nancy met at Swiss L’Abri, and they see Rivendell as encouraging a similar kind of honest and intensive engagement with ideas that helped thousands of young people discover a vibrant Christian worldview through the Schaeffers’ work. As Rick puts it, “In a sense, Rivendell is L’Abri with a bit more structure.”

In the 18-month program, students learn to think independently and Christianly while earning an Associate of Arts degree that they can take to any four-year college. A Rivendell education emphasizes:

• Holistic Learning -- Discover how the unity of knowledge engages the whole person
• Critical Thinking -- Test everything in the rigorous pursuit of truth 
• Authentic Community -- Live and learn in fellowship with a single group of students and faculty for the entire 18-month program to build genuine relationships
• Global Adventure -- Travel abroad to broaden your perspective with a semester in Europe

“I consider myself a free-thinker who embraces the Christian worldview as a liberating way of life based on verifiable information about God, humanity, and the cosmos," Rick says. "That's what I hope to communicate to students. The founding of a unique educational venture like Rivendell at such a critical moment in our nation’s history surely has a relevance and meaning that is both immediate and enduring.”

Bobby Norment, co-founder and CEO of Rivendell, says, “We are delighted to welcome the Pearceys to our team at Rivendell Sanctuary. Their high standards of excellence and dedicated pursuit of truth align perfectly with our vision for developing students of honor.”

To learn more about Rivendell, go to www.rivendellsanctuary.com. To find out how you can enable a student to attend this life-changing new college, look into their “Take Back Education Scholarship Fund” at www.takebackeducation.org.  

To schedule media interviews with the Pearceys, or to talk with someone about Rivendell Sanctuary, please contact A.J. Hofstetter (email: aj@rivendellsanctuary.com; phone: 952-996-1451). 

Nancy will be speaking at a "Faith and Law" event in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on September 1, the date of the release of her new book Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning.

In addition to discussing central themes from Saving Leonardo, Nancy will provide a sampling of the book's more than 100 images, from art and popular culture, specificially chosen to give readers a window into the impact of secular worldviews, for good or ill, in our individual lives, upon questions of human freedom and dignity, and thus across the whole of society. 

For more information about Saving Leonardo, please see this press release.

Here are event details:

Date: Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Time: Noon
Location: U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, HVC 201
Phone: 703-425-2404

We are pleased to release the following press statement for Nancy's new book, Saving Leonardo: 

SAVING LEONARDO

NEW BOOK SOUNDS THE ALARM THAT SECULAR IDEOLOGIES ARE DESTROYING HUMAN DIGNITY AND FREEDOM

Bestselling author Nancy Pearcey issues a call to resist
the secular assault on mind, morals, and meaning

In Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, best-selling author Nancy Pearcey, herself a former agnostic, offers an unflinching analysis of the profound personal and social devastation wreaked by secularism all across American life -- from the classroom to the courtroom, from the pulpit to the playground, from the boardroom to the White House.

“Because the word secular is the opposite of religious, many assume that the rise of secularism is a problem for religious groups only,” Pearcey says. “Not so. When politics loses its moral dimension, we all lose. When public discourse is debased, the entire society suffers.”  

In this riveting account, Pearcey exposes the stealth secularism that permeates society through education, media, politics, art, literature, and movies. Saving Leonardo reveals

• How the ruling elites use secular strategies to override the will of the American people;
• How art, literature, movies, and media channel secular worldviews deeply into people’s minds and emotions through stories and images;
• How cutting-edge moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, and the hook-up culture are shaped by secular worldviews that denigrate and disrespect the human body;
• How two major forces within secularism have created a pincer movement crushing human dignity and liberty.

With more than 100 colorful images from the classical Greeks to Van Gogh, from Camus to Scarlett Johansson, you will “see” secular ideas unfold in fresh and surprising ways.

Finally, Saving Leonardo argues that the best hope lies in a worldview that is rationally defensible, life affirming, and rooted in creation itself. As the Declaration of Independence puts it, human rights are secure only when a society respects them as unalienable givens endowed by the Creator.

In a culture where the center is deconstructed and character is disintegrating, Saving Leonardo offers an inspiring program to recover freedom and dignity -- one that no free-thinking person can afford to ignore.

Praise for Saving Leonardo

“A feast for the mind and the eye” -- Makoto Fujimura, artist, author

“Balanced, fair, impactful” -- Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist, author

“Intellectual prophet” -- J.P. Moreland, philosopher, author of The Question of God

“Astounding” -- James W. Sire, author of The Universe Next Door

“Brilliant” -- Gene Edward Veith, author, Provost, Patrick Henry College

“Unsurpassed” -- Leland Ryken, professor of English, Wheaton College

“May be Nancy’s best book yet, and that’s saying something” -- David Limbaugh, syndicated columnist, author

Praise for Nancy Pearcey

“One of the most profound writers today” -- Ted Baehr, founder, Movieguide

“A mind like a jewel” -- Lael Arrington, author, Worldproofing Your Kids

“An author of unusual ability” -- Phillip E. Johnson, author, professor emeritus, Berkeley

About the Author

From a Facebook page titled the "International Burn a Koran Day":

On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm-9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!

In the Creator-given and humane spirit of "testing everything," Islam and the Koran, as with all religious systems (along with statements scientific, political, philosophical, activist, and so on), ought to be open to critique, consideration, and discussion for their ability to coherently explain the phenomena under question. 

The kind of "trust" demonstrated in the Biblical data parallels the kind of liberty set forth in the Declaration: It is a reality-oriented commitment rooted in verifiable, rational evidence about God, Man, the cosmos, and life in a beautiful but broken world.

It concerns knowable truth that sets real people free -- free from false religion, harmful ideology, poor philosophy, and enslaving politics. But it is also a freedom to -- a freedom to live as wholistic human beings in creative community with God and Man.

It is crucial to stand and resist evil: hence armies, police, guns, locked doors, self-defense, as well as protective information from the Creator.

There is little doubt that burning a Koran at a church will attract attention. Whether Koranic combustion forms effective critique, however, remains to be seen. 

We just got word that the Beacon Ad Network is now "live" and ready to accept advertising across its websites.

What is Beacon? It's the "first automated marketplace for placing ads on Christian websites," states the main page.

Those who enjoy The Pearcey Report may want to consider advertising via this new network.

Our Alexa ranking in the U.S. (today) stands at 74,690. Last month, we enjoyed (and appreciate) more than 95,000 page views.

Here's The Pearcey Report page at the Beacon Ad Network.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see two ad zones where individuals, businesses, organizations, publishers, churches, and so on, can place ads to announce products, events, or services.

Each zone can take multiple ads, rotating and refreshing to help keep the page fresh. Beacon allows flexibilty in how many ads can run in a particular zone.

At present, ads are sold on a monthly basis. The idea is to make advertising online straightforward and uncomplicated. For more information on "A Better Way to Sell Ads," go here.

If you have a chance to look around, please let us know what you think. We hope you'll agree that this is a terrific way to be seen and heard and help support The Pearcey Report.

If you live in the Washington, D.C, area and are interested in participating in a Schaefferian study group -- for mutual encouragement, cultural engagement, and true spirituality -- please email Rick or Nancy Pearcey of The Pearcey Report at pearcey@thepearceyreport.com.

Dr. Nancy Pearcey will be speaking on "Competing Worldviews in the Environmental Debate" at a "Creation Care" conference this Saturday at Philadelphia Biblical University.

As the vote on Obamacare yesterday suggests, we are living in "exciting times." For further evidence of this, click here for "Free Offer From Your Government Finally Puts You in Control." 

Nancy and I are having a terrific time learning and speaking at Awakening 2010.

See you Monday!

Best Wishes from us to everyone for a Happy New Year!

May 2010 be banner year for individual and corporate resistance to tyranny at home and abroad, and in following The Empirically Verifiably Resurrected Leader of the Resistance in knowing truth and thereby being set free (John 8:32) to live as whole people across the totality of life in a hard and dangerous world.

Janet Porter issues a 5-step call to action, including "A Cry to God for a Nation in Distress" to be held May 1, 2010, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

There are tremendous reasons to celebrate Christmas.

May you, family, and friends enjoy a blessed day of days.

We look forward to "seeing" you again next Monday, December 28.

A Call to Resist -- Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham holds forth:

It's time we all stop pretending that what is happening with this Obamacare debate is about "helping the uninsured" or "fixing the healthcare system" or "giving the people what they want."

It's about none of those things.

It's about amassing as much power in a central government as humanly possible. It's about wealth redistribution. It's social engineering at its absolute worst.

The American people must take this political system back from those who have hijacked it in one of the most abhorrent power grabs that we the voters have ever seen.

It's the holiday season so the Democrats are counting on you to be otherwise occupied and too busy to stand against their massive expansion of government.

Let them underestimate us again just as they did last summer.

Let these unrepresentative politicians proceed with their legislative chicanery and self-righteous grandstanding.

We can expose them and confront them in the classic American spirit -- a public gathering on their doorstep.

On December 15th at 1 pm, we will remind Pelosi, Reid, Schumer et al. that they work for us and not the other way around. We will demand that they follow the will of the people, not dismiss and degrade it by putting future generations into a deficit dungeon.

We will put every politician who supports this travesty on notice: enjoy your remaining time in the U.S. Capitol because we're coming for your seat.

My view: Given that the historic Christmas in verifiable space and time is an act of resistance against evil and tyranny in all its forms -- stemming from the central problem of man's ethical alienation, by choice, from a life of community with our true Creator -- the Christmas season seems a fitting occasion to resist the political-cultural spirit of tyranny today, expressed with special force in the rise of a president and a political party that is even now undermining constitutional government in the name of all sorts of gifts from an overweening federal government, among them, socialized healthcare. 

So along with giving our kids their two front teeth for Christmas, maybe it's a good idea to give them their freedom back as well.

Now that would be a big Christmas. Let's talk about it December 15. All of this gift-giving could make for an intriguing New Year. 

Related
What Is "Mainstream America"?
The Evil Religious Presidents Do
Secular Washington-Centrism Is Un-American

Tea Party Nation (TPN) has scheduled both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann to speak at the First National Tea Party Convention, which is set for Feb. 4-6, 2010, at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN.

Here's a TPN statement about the event:

Tea Party Nation is pleased to announce the First National Tea Party Convention. The convention is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements' multiple organizations principle goals. This event will be co-sponsored by other national groups that believe in a responsible and limited federal government that is responsive to all the people. National Taxpayers Union, American Majority, Smart Girl Politics, and SurgeUSA are just a few of the organizations contributing their talents and time to this convention.

Special Keynote Speaker for the event will be Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska (2006-2009) and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential Nominee.

Rep. Michele Bachmann has just confirmed that she will be one of the Breakfast speakers at the convention.

Other topics and workshops to be covered: Conservative Activism; Using Social Media to advance our cause, How to Coordinate efforts with other groups in your state, How to get Youth involved in Conservative Activism. There will be two discussion panels taking place on Saturday. The first will be entitled, "How to Defeat Liberalism" and the second will be a panel of Tea Party Organizers discussing "Where the Tea Party Movement Goes From Here." More workshops, speakers and seminars will be announced as they are finalized.

Prejean makes the announcement on Facebook. Here's the new website.

For the Devil and Other Delusionals: "Renowned mathematician and philosopher David Berlinski (author, A Tour of the Calculus) will speak about his recent book, The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions," says this announcement on Facebook.

"Berlinski, an agnostic Jew, rigorously defends religious thought from the attack of the New Atheism. If you think that Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens have settled the debate, you'll want to hear what Berlinski has to say."

Here's The Devil's Delusion at Amazon. Here's the Berlinski website. Time and Place: 7 p.m., Oberlin College, Nov. 3, 2009.

This new ad space (in the news column) can help spread the word about your products, mission, or organization, and it helps support our work.

Inquiries about this and other advertising opportunites are welcome at pearcey@thepearceyreport.com.

This timely conference is being held September 25-26 in St. Louis, Mo. Latest news from the conference website is that Rep. Michele Bachmann is confirmed as a speaker.  

"The largest Van Gogh exhibition to be held in Britain in over 40 years will open at the Royal Academy of Arts next January, which organisers hope will give visitors a glimpse of the real man behind the myth," reports the Telegraph.

Here's the site for "The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters," at the Royal Academy of Arts.  

Related:
Controversy Over Michelangelo Sculpture
Michelangelo, Schaeffer, and the Kingdom of Washington
Pizza With Michelangelo
Art Without Meaning -- Francis Schaeffer on "The Red Virgin"

Miss California Carrie Prejean, who recently stood up for the moral fact of the superiority of the Creator's objective norms for human marriage over against the subjective inventions and impositions of the secular homosexual establishment, will appear on nationally syndicated radio today at 4-5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Prejean will join hosts Mat Staver and Matt Barber on Liberty Live, a video broadcast that can be accessed online at American Family Radio and OneNewsNow.

Listeners who want to ask Miss California questions on air may call 866-963-2037.

It is worth noting that Prejean's comments in defense of marriage at the Miss USA pageant place her at the vital center of the American experiment in liberty under our true and knowable Creator. This affirmation of male and female in lifelong and liberating community under God has earned Miss Prejean the scorn of intolerant extremists such as Perez Hilton, whose pro-homosexualist, anti-Judeo-Christian worldview could never have yielded the "the blessings of liberty" that alarm tryants past, present, and future. 

Related:
Centrist Miss California Told to Shut Up "About Your Faith"
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Wildmon: Carrie Prejean vs. Rick Warren
Limbaugh vs. Obama

With more than 2,000 "Tea Party" Rallies (see TEA and WND) scheduled across America April 15, some citizens are noticing a lack of media "support" in helping to announce this nationwide grassroots protest event to the public.

Here is a report from rally organizer Laurel West of Woodbridge, Va. Woodbridge is located in Prince William County, some 20 miles from Washington, D.C. She writes to Pro-Existence: 

I believe it should be noted that many of our United States Citizens have expressed a desire to invoke our constitutional rights. We are executing our right to public assembly. Unfortunately, we are not granted the support of “Mass Media.” According to Wikipedia, "Mass media" is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience. Accordingly, “Mass media” can be used for various purposes:

* Advocacy, both for business and social concerns. This can include advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations, and political communication. 

* Public service announcements.

The Discovery Institute, where Pearcey Report editor at large Nancy Pearcey is a fellow of the Center for Science and Culture, announces an advance in educational and scientific freedom:

Austin, TX -- Today [March 27], the Texas Board of Education chose science over dogma and adopted science standards improving on the old "strengths and weaknesses" language by requiring students to “critique” and examine “all sides of scientific evidence.” In addition, the Board -- for the first time -- specifically required high school students to “analyze and evaluate” the evidence for major evolutionary concepts such as common ancestry, natural selection, and mutations. 

The new science standards mark a significant victory for scientists and educators in favor of teaching the scientific evidence for and against evolution.

“Texas now has the most progressive science standards on evolution in the entire nation,” said Dr. John West, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute.  “Contrary to the claims of the evolution lobby, absolutely nothing the Board did promotes ‘creationism’ or religion in the classroom. Groups that assert otherwise are lying, plain and simple. Like the boy who cried ‘Wolf,’ the Darwin only lobby always screams ‘creationism!’ anytime educators or policymakers try to ensure a fair presentation of the scientific evidence both for and against evolution. Let’s be absolutely clear: Under the new standards, students will be expected to analyze and evaluate the scientific evidence for evolution, not religion. Period.” 

Regarding teaching creationism or religion in the public school classroom, a couple of points are worth noting.

First, this is a terrific win for academic freedom, but it should be remarked that nothing in the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution forbids teaching creationism or religion in the classroom. Entrenched secularist dogma on this matter is less than convincing.

In fact, progress in the American experiment in liberty advances from the fixed point of a knowable and objectively existing Creator who endows humanity with unalienable rights. The Constitution is a legal contract designed to protect those rights so that what Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny calls a "civil society" might come to actuality, which is what happened in the course of human events that we call the American Revolution.

The 1st Amendment forbids Congress from sticking its Federal Nose into our business, educational or otherwise -- something those who embrace a secularist tryanny over the minds of free human beings seem to disapprove. The 1st Amendment does not forbid Texicans or the rest of us from exercising our freedom and our sovereignity in education.

Here's the 1st Amendment in its entirety:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  [emphasis added]

The question therefore is not whether creationism or religion can be taught in the classroom. Of course they can. The real question is this: What's the evidence? If the evidence for or against a particular theory of origins is scientific, then present the case for and against, let the students think for themselves, and let them make up their own minds. Even in biology class.

The second point is that the Creator acknowledged in the Declaration, and against whom Congress is prohibited from passing laws against, is not a matter of "religious" belief or "faith" in the poor sense of the word bandied about inside and outside of secularist circles today.

The more rigorous, concrete, humane, and Biblical concept of faith has to do with the commitment of the whole person to that which is rationally, empirically, and existentially knowable as true. It is a worldview commitment rooted in truth about God, man, and the cosmos -- that same worldview, by the way, which provided the critical intellectual mass needed to launch modern science in the first place.

This wholistic approach has nothing to do with subjectivist "values," privatized "faith," emotional crutches, blind believism, or other characteristics swimming about in congressional waters, "religious" meetings, secular baptisms, and marketing strategies of the ACLU. 

The wonder and dignity of humanity male and female created in the image of a knowable God who endows each of us with unalienable rights cannot be squeezed into such limiting, dehumanizing, and regressive nonsense. It's time we all broke free of those chains. Bravo, Texas!

Please stay tuned for program announcements as I am happy to join San Francisco KDIA 1640 AM radio talk how host Karen Hughes for occasional "Worldview Correspondent" (scroll down to "Special Correspondents") comment and analysis on news, trends, people, and events.

The name of the program is "Changing Worldviews." Here's a link to our interview on "Revenue, Rush, and Revolt?"

We received an inquiry today asking whether the June 2009 "worldview conference on wheels" tour of Rome-Florence-Paris is still open.

Answer: Yes!

A reminder: We sent the manuscript of Nancy's new book (which is related to theme of the tour) to our agent, and now a publisher is talking a look.

Those who attend the tour will get an exclusive preview of what Nancy has been working on.

Joseph Farah writes:

I'm not an organizer.

I'm not big on protest rallies.

I'm not even persuaded that real, meaningful, long-lasting national policy change can come from influencing our elected leaders in Washington.

However, I think it's time for a march on Washington to galvanize forces who don't want to see America destroyed by socialism.

That time is July 4, 2009.

Judging from the anger and frustration I am sensing in this country right now, I have no doubts such a march could bring 1 million people to the nation's capital.  

People are mad. They are fuming. There is widespread righteous indignation across this country, and someone or something needs to channel it constructively and positively in a major show of force.

The Pearcey Report supports the restoration of the true and original mission statement of the United States of America, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, as protected by the U.S. Constitution, and as advanced against all odds, under God, our true Creator, by men and women of history and reason and conviction, to do what is right and humane in these challenging times at our door.

Independence on Independence Day. What say you, America? 

Hollywood Hawaii-style hangs ten for Obama:

Perhaps a film made in Hawaii will put the idea to rest that Obama was not born in the United States. For some skeptics showing a birth certificate might not have been enough. Now some University students are about to produce a film about Obama's birth.

After this investigative effort, how about a documentary on how an unseen-by-public-eyes $10 birth certificate turned into a near-abouts $800,000 pumpkin for 3 law firms?

In any case, someone might well ask: What, really, is the big deal? The U.S. has been operating without a Constitution for some time now, so what's the problem with not producing a little ol' birth certificate?

Live From Detroit -- Tomorrow WLQV am 1500 talk show host Paul Edwards and I are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

He tags his show "The Center for Study of God and Culture," and I look forward to joining Paul and his on-air academy again.

To call in, phone: 866-423-WLQV. Listen online here. 

The International Arts Movement, founded by artist Makoto Fujimura, is now on Twitter.

You can "follow" IAM on Twitter by clicking here, as I did at 8:14 this morning.

Official brochures for our summer 2009 worldview tour of Rome, Florence, and Paris -- titled From Plato to Picasso to You -- are now yours for the viewing.

Included is information on the following: A tour overview, your tour directors, the itinerary, plus details about accommodations, meals, transport (including a night train to Paris), registration, whom to contact for follow-up, and so on.

"We expect this to be a tremendous time of fellowship, on-site examination of significant venues in Western cultural history, and discussion of the relationship of humane and Biblical living across the whole of thought and life."

The MacLaurin Institute is looking for a director. Here's a job description.

Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) are throwing a "National House Party" tonight.

Meeting in Chicago at the Gospel Coalition Conference.

Hat tip: Challies

Here's the latest:

It seems the worldview tour of Rome, Florence, and Paris -- "From Plato to Picasso to You" -- is looking for 22+ brilliant, creative, fun, and thoughtful folks to sign up to make it a "go" officially.

That means you!

And 21 of your friends, family members, and fellow free-thinkers.

La sooner, la better (as they say in France).

For more information, and to help get this "conference on wheels" rolling along, please call 215-702-4333.

Or email Claire Johnson at cjohnson@pbu.edu.

"Shadowlands" opens February 6 at Theatre Coppell.

An opportunity for free-thinkers:

"The Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute announces an extraordinary opportunity for college students in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to participate in an intensive nine-day seminar that will prepare them to make research contributions advancing the growing science of intelligent design (ID) . . . ."

In addition, here are links for articles on Discovery, Darwin, and the intellectual contribution of Biblical thought-forms to the rise of modern science.