Gilbert T. Sewall writes at American Spectator:

On December 27, 2014, at 2:30 in the afternoon in suburban Baltimore, the inebriated Episcopal Bishop Heather E. Cook's Suburu struck and killed a much loved 41-year-old married father of two, cyclist Thomas Palermo, shattering her front windshield. She drove away, a hit and run, returning about 30 minutes later.

Arrested and charged with driving under the influence, causing an accident due to texting while driving, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, she was later released on $2.5 million bail. Now a grand jury has issued an indictment including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and homicide by motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Cook, 58, registered a shocking .22 breathalyzer reading shortly after the fatal collision, close to the .27 reading she registered in a 2010 arrest that Episcopalian leaders failed to reveal to the delegates who elected her last September to the high-ranking position.

Bishop Heather -- in today’s Episcopal Church many bishops prefer the first-name address -- and her enablers create a fascinating tableau of the sketchy contempo Episcopagans."

This is a paganism where so-called "Love is not working," Sewall observes.

"Since the 2003 ordination of celebrity narcissist Bishop V. Gene Robinson (of New Hampshire), the Church has been drying up, going from 2.3 to 1.9 million active members in the last decade, with 40 percent fewer baptisms than in 2003," Sewall writes.

Diana West takes a look at the "National Cathedral's decision to host Friday Islamic prayers" today:

The service is the brainchild of the Rev. Canon Gina Campbell, the Episcopal cathedral's director of liturgy, and South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, a Muslim, who is delivering the sermon.

Invitation-only guests include Masjid Muhammad of The Nation's Mosque, representatives of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

"That's some roster if playing 'Spot the Muslim Brotherhood Front' is a hobby," West observes.

"The Episcopal Church blindly, blithely thinks the cathedral's Islamic service 'demonstrates an appreciation of one another's prayer tradition.'

"In fact, it is against Islamic law for Muslims to hold Christianity or Judaism in the same regard the Episcopal Church is now showing Islam," West writes."Indeed, Islamic law 'abrogates' (cancels) Christianity and Judaism as 'previously revealed religions (that) were valid in their own eras,' but are no longer -- not after the advent of Islam in the 7th century."

Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

U2 frontman, investor, and philanthropist Bono, who isn’t shy about discussing his Christian faith, wrote a poem in honor of evangelist preacher Billy Graham that describes Bono’s relationship with Jesus as a "journey from Father to friend," and how he learned of this through "the voice of a preacher," Graham, "that gave my life a Rhyme."

Also, in a separate tribute to Billy Graham, Bono said, "At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God’s work, I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham, for the clear and empathetic voice."

"As reported at the website for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on Sept. 1, and picked up by the Huffington Post, Bono has been a long-time fan of Rev. Billy Graham, and went to visit him and his family at their home in Montreat, North Carolina in 2002," according to CNSNews.com.

David Paulin writes at Frongpagemag:

What has happened to America’s Presbyterians? Leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have joined ranks with the radical left in recent years. They vilify Israel, apologize for Islamic terrorists, and cheer on the Palestinian cause.

Now, these leftist elites are savoring an important victory, having pushed through a resolution to divest from U.S. companies operating in Israel: Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett Packard. The contentious vote in the church’s general assembly passed by a narrow 310-to-303, and was a long-time goal of leftist Presbyterians, who since 2006 had submitted four divestiture resolutions that failed to muster sufficient votes.

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Garth Kant writes at WND:

Most Americans probably would be stunned to learn that, in fact, the Capitol was actually turned into a church, once a week, for decades.

A flagrant violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause and the concept of the separation of church and state?

Not according to the man who coined the phrase.

Or the man who wrote most of the Constitution.

"Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both attended non-denominational Christian worship services inside the very chamber where Congress met from 1807 to 1857, now called Statuary Hall," Kant explains.

"Not only were church services held within the House on Sundays, but, for generations, the Capitol was transformed weekly into the largest church on the East Coast. . . . Under the original understanding of the First Amendment, the government of the United States was not allowed to dictate what a church could or could not do," Kant writes.

"The state would not dictate to the church. But the church would certainly play a role in the state,” WND quotes Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex) as saying. "That's a little different idea" from what "a lot of people have about separation of church and state, including some our esteemed Supreme Court [justices] who are not quite as familiar with our history as they probably should be."

In this regard, members of the Supreme Court, and others, may find it of interest that "President George Washington believed the fate of the new country rested in its citizens’ fidelity to God. That is why he dedicated America to God" in April 1789, Kant writes.

An upcoming occasion scheduled on May 7 and titled "'Washington: A Man of Prayer, 2014' commemorates the events of April 30, 1789, when, after being sworn in at Federal Hall, President Washington, accompanied by Congress, proceeded to St. Paul’s Chapel where, as one of his first official acts, the president offered a prayer of dedication to God on America’s behalf," Kant writes.

"Washington: A Man of Prayer, 2014" is "now in its third year" and "is the brainchild of Dan Cummins, pastor of Bridlewood Church in Bullard, Texas," according to Kant. 

Rep. Gohmert "noted that [St. Paul's Chapel] is still standing and was the only site at ground zero that was not destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001," Kant writes.

"The Rev. Michael Maginot has signed a deal with Evergreen Media Holdings to bring "The exorcisms of Latoya Ammons" to the big screen," IndyStar.com reports.

Maginot "declined to disclose the terms of his contract with Evergreen Executive Chairman Tony DeRosa-Grund, calling it a 'standard deal,'" according to IndyStar. "DeRosa-Grund produced The Conjuring, grossing $318 million worldwide."

In an article previous published by the Star, Latoya Ammons "claims that she and her three children had been possessed by demons." The report "received international attention. More than a dozen movie producers and countless TV shows have clamored for interviews."

Maginot reportedly "performed a series of exorcisms on Ammons" and says "he signed a contract with DeRosa-Grund because he felt the producer wouldn’t sensationalize what happened, acccording to the Star.

"The story is good as it is,” Maginot told the Star. "You don’t need to go crazy with it." The priest also says he "signed a contract with Zak Bagans, host and executive producer of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, to make a documentary," the Star reports.

From Todd Starnes:

Chick-fil-A had a captive crowd of hungry customers. So why did they give away their food?

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Hollie McKay reports at FoxNews:

Despite his devotion to dinner time prayers and Christian values, "Duck Dynasty" star Willie Robertson has been axed from speaking at a benefit in Bristol, Tenn. for the faith and Bible-driven organization, Family Ministries.

Why? 

Wine.

The famous family announced its latest business venture last week: Duck Commander Wines. In conjunction with the winemakers of Trinchero Family Estates in Napa, the Robertsons' own line of Red, Moscato and Chardonnay is slated to hit stores next month.

According to the Ministries, Duck Commander Wines goes against the organization's core values.

"A rep for the organization told FOX411 that while they had no hard feelings toward the Robertson family and respect their business decision, they were expecting a predominantly teen turnout for the event and no longer felt that the Duck Commander CEO's presence would be the right fit," Fox News reports.

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Penny Starr reports at CNSNews.com:

The Very Rev. Gary Hall, chief ecclesiastical leader and executive officer of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., said in a sermon on Sunday that "homophobia" and "heterosexism" are sins.

"In its wisdom, the church came to its senses and labeled both racism and sexism as sinful," Hall said. "And now we find ourselves at the last barrier -- call that barrier homophobia, call it heterosexism."

"We must now have the courage to take the final step and call homophobia and heterosexism what they are," Hall said.

"They are sin."

"Homophobia is a sin," Hall said. "Heterosexism is a sin."

"Shaming people for whom they love is a sin," Hall said. "Shaming people because their gender identity doesn’t fit neatly into your sense of what it should be is a sin."

"On the National Cathedral’s website, under the Equality of Marriage banner’s FAQ section, it states the church will perform same-sex weddings following the law passed in the District of Columbia allowing same-sex marriage," according to CNSNews.

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Ryan Mauro writes at Frontpagemag.com:

When you can’t beat them, join them. That’s what the Soviet Union did to curtail Christianity’s anti-communist influence.

In a new book titled Disinformation, a covert campaign to discredit Pope Piux XII is revealed. In addition, the Soviets tried to influence the church with a Marxist-friendly version of Christianity.

The communists’ strategy against the church had three pillars: A propaganda offensive; the implanting of agents of influence, and the promotion of Liberation Theology, an anti-Western spin on scripture.

Disinformation is written by Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Soviet bloc defector, and Ronald Rychlak, Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi. A related documentary has also been released, titled Disinformation: The Secret Strategy to Destroy the West. They disclose how a primary target of Soviet "active measures" was Pope Pius XII.

The third leg promoted an "anti-capitalist, anti-Western brand of Christianity," Mauro writes. "If the KGB could not eliminate Christianity, it reasoned it might as well manipulate it. Liberation Theology was born."

According to Mauro, "Pacepa recalls hearing Khrushchev say in 1959, 'Religion is the opiate of the people, so let’s give them opium.' He flatly says that Liberation Theology is 'KGB-invented.' He has first-hand knowledge of secret Romanian agents being dispatched to Latin America to spread it among the religious masses."

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It depends on which church. 

Research shows that "mainline" (read: liberal) churches are losing their youth (2.2% decline from 1991-2012). But evangelical churches actually gained over the same period (0.6% increase). 

These numbers are from a Pew Forum study, reported by Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family in First Things.  

Another factor that skews the numbers is that many who are counted as "leaving" church are simply switching to another church. Stanton writes: 

Young adults who are merely moving from one faith tradition to another, such as from Lutheran to Presbyterian, or Anglican to Catholic, are simply counted among the "leaving." Professor Byron Johnson from Baylor’s Institute for Studies on Religion confirms this, "Switching is not an indication that Americans have abandoned or lost their faith, as many in the media and, unfortunately, a number of Christians would have us believe." Changing lanes from one Christian tradition to another cannot honestly be categorized as "leaving" their faith.

Finally, among those who do lose their faith, most never had much to begin with. Stanton explains: 

When considering those who do leave the faith in young adulthood as a category, only 11 percent said they had a strong, meaningful faith as a child. A whopping 89 percent said they did not. 

What the numbers really show, then, is that liberal churches are shrinking, while evangelical churches are growing. Of course, we've known that since 1972 when Dean Kelley wrote Why Conservative Churches Are Growing. Kelley, an executive with the liberal National Council of Churches, realized you could not just lump all churches together. But the news media, Christian and secular, have been doing just that.

The lesson is that parents and churches who teach and exemplify Biblical convictions in credible ways are very likely to succeed in passing along those convictions to their children. As Stanton writes, what these numbers suggest is "that young people respond positively to a call to substantive discipleship and scriptural study. They are looking for something that calls them to be radically different."

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Church of England Trying to Recruit Pagans

The U.K. Telegraph reports:

The Church of England is trying to recruit pagans and spiritual believers as part of a drive to retain congregation numbers.

The church is training ministers to create "a pagan church where Christianity [is] very much in the centre" to attract spiritual believers.

Ministers are being trained to create new forms of Anglicanism suitable for people of alternative beliefs as part of a Church of England drive to retain congregation numbers.

Reverend Steve Hollinghurst, a researcher and adviser in new religious movements told the BBC: "I would be looking to formulate an exploration of the Christian faith that would be at home in their culture."

He said it would be "almost to create a pagan church where Christianity was very much in the centre."

"The Church Mission Society, which is training ministers to 'break new ground,' hopes to see a number of spiritual people align themselves with Christianity," according to the Telegraph.

Also, "the new move could see famous druids such as druid leader Arthur Pendragon move to Anglicanism," the Telegraph reports.

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Susan Jones reports at CNSNews.com:

By law, it is now okay to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" in Texas public schools.

Gov. Rick Perry signed House Bill 308 on Thursday, allowing public school students and staff to use traditional holiday greetings and display religious scenes and symbols on school property.

"I'm proud we are standing up for religious freedom in our state," CNS quotes Gov. Perry as saying.

"Freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from religion, and people of faith often feel like they can't express that faith publicly," the governor continued.

"HB 308 works to address that by ensuring that people of all faiths are free to use traditional holiday greetings, and display religious scenes and symbols, even on school property. It ensures freedom of expression where, for many students, teachers and administrators, it's most important."

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The UK Guardian takes on the New Atheists in an article with a provocative title, "It's a Big Fat Myth That All Scientists Are Religion-Hating Atheists."

Sylvia McLain writes:

Reinforcing the scientist = atheist stereotype, whether you are for it or against it, necessarily excludes people.  No one should be excluded from science if they want to do it, be excited about it or read about it. . . . 

The cartoon stereotype that all scientists are religion-hating atheists isn't just annoying; it is harmful. It is divisive and does nothing to encourage people into scientific discovery.

In fact, it reinforces the idea that only a certain type of person can do science. This is not true. Professional science has enough diversity problems as it is, with women and minorities still grossly under-represented, without throwing religious-typing in there too.

Public scientists and critics alike need to take a bit more care in lumping all scientists into the same stereotypical category. The world is much more complex than that.

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Daniel Pipes writes:

Philadelphia, the city where I live, has quietly and unassumedly become the capital of the Western world as regards female Islamic garb as an accessory to crime.

This is why some countries -- France, Belgium -- have banned the burqa. Not out of religious discrimination but because criminals are using the garment to hide their identity.

Hat Tip: Lela Gilbert

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Cal Thomas says yes: "Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies. . . . 
Carson should publicly apologize and stop going on TV doing 'victory laps' and proclaiming that reaction to his speech was overwhelmingly positive."

Star Parker says no: "What seems to offend Cal Thomas is that Dr. Carson has not fallen victim to the Washington disease that Thomas himself seems to have contracted as [a] result of too many years in our nation’s capital. . . . Religious ritual devoid of content is pointless and destructive. This was Isaiah’s message 2,800 years ago. This is Dr. Ben Carson’s critical message for America today. It’s certainly nothing to apologize about."

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What follows is from a Weekly Standard profile of Ken Meyers, a friend who produces the Mars Hill Review. Andrew Ferguson writes:

One of Myers’s recurring themes is the ways in which the dumbing down of the general culture has infected American Christianity and conservatism. These are two spheres where we might expect the work of “preserving cultural treasures” to be taken up.

Yet wander into a Mass or worship service in any suburban Catholic or Protestant church and you’ll hear “praise songs” that might have been lifted from Sesame Street or, if the service is High Church, the soundtrack of Phantom of the Opera.

It’s hard to believe this is the same religion that inspired Bach and Palestrina, whose choral works are no more familiar to the average pastor or parishioner than the chants at a Kikuyu circumcision ceremony. . . .

“I’ve always thought that beautiful art was a great apologetic resource,” Myers says. Beauty is the chief attribute of God, said Jonathan (not Bob) Edwards. “Beauty points to a Creator.” Yet the church, Myers says, “capitulates more and more to the culture of entertainment.”

“It’s a way of keeping market share. But they’re digging their own grave. There’s a short-term benefit, but in the long term, the kinds of cultural resources they need to be faithful to the Gospel won’t be there.”

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At Frontpagemag.com: The "Chief Islamic Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Who Said 'Where Hitler Failed, We Must Succeed,' Wants to Run for President."

The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson writes:

Most blacks today are looking for Barack Obama and the federal government to take care of them.

Before the civil-rights movement, nobody -- not even the president -- could have come in as the “lord and savior” of the black community.

And yet, Peterson states, "95 percent of black Americans worship" Barack Obama "as if he’s the messiah. Why?"

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That would be "Bo Obama," a Portuguese water dog. Thus the savior of Obamaworld.

In contrast, real Christmas is about a verifiable and rationally knowable Jesus of Nazareth entering occupied territory in space and time to lead a movement of resistance against alienation, sin, death, and decay.

Of course the dog and the card arrive with soothing words: "This season, may your home be filled with family, friends, and the joy of the holidays."

But it is: Rank Hypocrisy. That soothes to conquer.

"Family" for Obama is merely a social construct, a counterfeit at war with the Creator and His liberating norms for family life and human community.

The dumbed-down Obama "family" is an arbitary power arrangement gift-wrapped under an authoritarian state that, among other violences, delegates to females the terror to decide who lives and dies. "Hi, Mommy. Good-bye, Boy."

Friends? Obama's "friends" work in secret day in and day out to ensure that the objective meaning of Christmas is censored from the public eye, lest the truth sets them free.

Tyrants from Herod's day until ours cannot stand the arrival of any challenger to their pretensions to power and authority over all. Beware comrades and cronies bearing gifts.

And "joy"? Tell that to a people living in darkness and oppression under an extremist regime of bread and circuses, carrots and sticks, and of hatred for and discrimination against the Creator and the rules of freedom, of which He alone is the source.

That kind of "joy" does not end well. Go ask the Gulag.

Obama for Christmas would have America focus on a dog. Dogs have leashes. What Obama wants for Christmas is America on a leash. 

Grapevine says the White House is thus far refusing to reach out to this hotline to avail itself of exorcismatic services, despite the dramatic rise of demonic activity therein in the past 3-4 years.

Concerned observers may offer words of encouragement by contacting the White House witchboard at 202-456-1414.

Meanwhile, here's the story at the UK Independent.

Michael Carl reports at WND:

The Ugandan newssite New Vision reports President Yoweri Museveni celebrated Uganda’s 50th anniversary of independence from Britain at the National Jubilee Prayers event by publicly repenting of his personal sin and the sins of the nation.

"I stand here today to close the evil past, and especially in the last 50 years of our national leadership history and at the threshold of a new dispensation in the life of this nation. I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to repent. We ask for your forgiveness," Museveni prayed.

"We confess these sins, which have greatly hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic transformation. We confess sins of idolatry and witchcraft which are rampant in our land. We confess sins of shedding innocent blood, sins of political hypocrisy, dishonesty, intrigue and betrayal," Museveni said.

"Forgive us of sins of pride, tribalism and sectarianism; sins of laziness, indifference and irresponsibility; sins of corruption and bribery that have eroded our national resources; sins of sexual immorality, drunkenness and debauchery; sins of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and revenge; sins of injustice, oppression and exploitation; sins of rebellion, insubordination, strife and conflict," Museveni prayed.

President Museveni also lifted up his nation to God, praying, "We want to dedicate this nation to you so that you will be our God and guide. We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfill what the Bible says in Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. A people you have chosen as your own."

John F. MacArthur wonders: "To whom does an atheist like" Richard Dawkins express gratitude at Thanksgiving?

Matthew Hoffman reports at LifeSiteNews:

Pro-abortion protesters gathered to menace the Cathedral of Buenos Aires on November 1 assaulted a protective contingent of riot police, but were eventually repulsed to cheers of “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long Live Christ the King) by Catholics who had come to aid in the Cathedral’s defense.

Protesters, many of them feminists who had come to commemorate the anniversary of a legislative initiative that failed in 2011 to legalize the killing of the unborn, threw eggs, spat, brandished flagpoles, and ultimately launched a violent attack on police, sending at least one to the hospital. They chanted slogans calling the Catholic Church “trash,” denouncing its pro-life views, and accusing priests of being sex abusers.

A civlized and humane society protects life instead of submitting to reproductive fascism.

Neil Munro reports at The Daily Caller:

All white people are going to hell, longtime African-American civil rights advocate Rev. Joseph Lowery told an audience at a get-out-the-vote event held Oct. 27 in Georgia.

Lowery, who gave the benediction at the January 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, told the audience of up to 300 African-Americans "that when he was a young militant, he used to say all white folks were going to hell. Then he mellowed and just said most of them were. Now, he said, he is back to where he was," according to an Oct. 31 report in the Monroe County Reporter newspaper.

Lowery also reportedly said, "I don’t know what kind of a n----- wouldn’t vote with a black man running."

Lowery was speaking at the St. James Baptist Church in Forsyth, Ga., according to the Reporter.

Rev. Antonio Proctor is pastor of St. James. 

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Newsmax reports: 

A vote for a candidate who supports gay marriage or abortion rights is a vote that could “put your soul in jeopardy," a Roman Catholic bishop in swing state Wisconsin has told his flock.

Bishop David Ricken, the Bishop of Green Bay, called both abortion and same sex unions “intrinsically evil” positions in a letter to parishioners.

"A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program that contradicts fundamental contents of faith and morals,” Ricken said in the letter, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

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Drew Zhan reports at WND:

One of the world’s most influential Muslims is now calling on the United Nations -- in light of the YouTube movie blamed for violent protests across the Mideast -- to impose international restrictions on free speech, criminalizing any statement that impugns Islam.

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, a professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, is a member of several international organizations, including the Centre for Studying the Aims of Sharia in the U.K., as well as serving as the vice chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

In a "Declaration Regarding the Offensive Video to Muslims," Bin Bayyah writes: 

We ask everyone to ponder the ramifications of provoking the feelings of over one billion people by a small party of people who desires not to seek peace nor fraternity between members of humanity. This poses a threat to world peace with no tangible benefit realized.

Is it not necessary in today’s world for the United Nations to issue a resolution criminalizing the impingement of religious symbols? We request all religious and political authorities, as well as people of reason to join us in putting a stop to this futility that benefits no one.

Hal G.P. Colebatch writes at American Spectator:

Mark Tooley has done us a service by calling attention to Stanley Hauerwas's challenge to C.S. Lewis's demolition of Christian Pacifism. However, I believe there are several further points to make on this subject.

Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, had the wily old devil Screwtape point out to his pupil that, from the point of view of Hell war, though it caused agreeable terror, wickedness and suffering among humans, also, unfortunately, led to deplorable instances of bravery, nobility and self-sacrifice.

In wartime people were aware of what was in fact always with them -- death, and one of Hell's most useful tools, contented worldliness, was lost.

From Hell's point of view, war was a two-edged sword, and devils should not be too quick to unthinkingly rejoice over it. . . .

CBN News reports:

In the wake of the teacher's strike in Chicago, churches across the metropolis are stepping up to help the city's children.

Many are opening their doors to help feed kids who would normally eat their meals at school.

Nina Shea writes at The Corner:

Last Saturday brought rare good news on the international religious-freedom front. Two high-profile Christian prisoners who had been severely persecuted under their countries’ Muslim apostasy and blasphemy laws were freed.

In Pakistan, Rimsha Masih, 14 years old and mentally disabled, was released on bail after being arrested on August 16 on charges that she had burned pages from a Koran -- an allegation that was bravely refuted by others. . . .

In Iran, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, imprisoned since 2009 and facing possible execution on charges of apostasy for his conversion to Christianity, was also freed.

Shea says the international outcry was key to positive outcomes in these two cases:

When the injustices became internationally exposed, these countries’ leaders, even leaders within their respective religious establishments, were reluctant to take responsibility for the law or Masih’s or Nadarkhani’s fate.

Nina Shea is director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. Forthcoming from Thomas Nelson Publishers in 2013 is the new book Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, co-authored with Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert.

"This new movement has an energy that makes it hard to ignore," booms the New Statesman.

But before you drink that last drop of atheistic Kool-Aid, note that "a number of incidents have served to crystallise the sense that all is not right in the world of unbelief."

That would be incidents involving females. For example:

Most notoriously, there was "Elevatorgate", an late-night incident in a lift during an atheist conference in Dublin during which the blogger Rebecca Watson was propositioned. Her subsequent public complaint about the man's behaviour and sexual harassment within the Skeptic movement drew criticism from Richard Dawkins himself and fuelled an ugly flame war. She received, and continues to receive, rape and death threats. 

And then there's the unfortunate aftermath of "boobquake," which made Atheism+ creator Jean McCreight wake up, from her elevatorist slumbers, as it were.  

"The first item on the Atheism+ agenda, then, is a cleansing one," forewarns New Statesman. 

"McCreight herself says: 'We need to recognize that there’s still room for self-improvement and to address the root of why we’ve been having these problems in atheism and skepticism.'"

Another female, Greta Christina, "has gone so far as to devise a checklist of goals to which atheist organisations should aspire, including anti-harassment policies and ensuring diversity among both members and invited speakers. 'To remember that not all atheists look like Richard Dawkins.'"

The NYTimes profiles "unbeliever Jerry DeWitt," who converted to atheism "after his 25 years in the ministry."

DeWitt is now executive director of a group called "Recovering From Religion," which "includes at least 100 local chapters scattered across the country, each one typically with 10 to 12 participants," reports the NYTimes. 

I would recommend this profile for any class, church, group, or searching individual who respects the human mind -- so that, among other things, they might a) honestly think through this man's struggles and b) come to appreciate both the appeal but also the intellectual vacuity of atheism.

One would also point out that this former Pentecostal minister did not move from being a "believer" into being an "unbeliever," as the NYTimes puts it. 

That terminology, in such vogue today, in no way bespeaks the realities of such a choice nor the Biblical data respecting the commitment of the whole person to that which is verifiably true regarding God, man, and the cosmos (more at "Christmas Spirit in Space and Time").

This profile strikes me as just the type of article we would have discussed at L'Abri while under the creative leadership of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. 

And if you read the information given in the Gospel data, you will see in there also a rich appreciation of questions, thinking things through, and the rejection of merely mouthing that which is true.

"Human beings were created to think," explains John R.W. Stott in Your Mind Matters, if I may quote from memory. 

Reason is a God-thing. One wonders if Mr. DeWitt's church ever got that memo.

WND reports:

An Arabic-language video news report from Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia confirms a WND story about the latest method of attack on Christians in Egypt: crucifixions.

Mackenzie Weinger at Politico reports on a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Red states give more money than blue states. . . .

The eight states whose residents gave the highest share of their income . . . all backed McCain in 2008. Utah leads charitable giving, with 10.6 percent of income given.

And the least generous states . . . were Obama supporters in the last presidential race. New Hampshire residents gave the least share of their income, the Chronicle stated, with 2.5 percent.

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?

CBS Chicago reports: 

A Logan Square neighborhood pastor used the controversy over a proposal to build a new Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Chicago as part of his sermon Sunday, asking those opposed to the new franchise to reverse course.

As WBBM Newsradio’s John Waelti reports, the Rev. Charles Lyons of the Armitage Baptist Church, 2451 N. Kedzie Blvd. was animated as he read a letter to his diverse congregation that he intends to send to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

"Their money, their business, their taxes are not wanted? Not needed?" he said.

As to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's comments that "Chick-Fil-A’s values are not Chicago values," Lyons said,  "This could easily be seen as anti-religious, agenda-driven bullying."

According to the CBS affiliate, "Lyons calls Chick-Fil-A a poster child for practicing respect for its employees and customers, and spoke of the day when what he calls the 'thought police' would come to his own church."

Says Lyons: "We will meet them at the door, respectfully, unflinchingly holding a copy of the sacred Scriptures in one hand and a copy of the U.S. Constitution in the other."

Related
Hate and Marriage: Bakery Hit With 1,000 Angry Messages 
Regarding Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day

Jamie Glazov writes at Frontpagemag.com:

In [this video], we see a small number of Christians who gathered holding Christian signs at the 2012 Dearbor, Michigan Arab festival being assaulted by Muslims with bottles, stones, and other objects.

The police do not protect the Christians or take action against the perpetrators; in the end, they reprimand the Christians and instruct them to leave.

Ever since, there has been no coverage of this outrageous event in our media. Nor has CAIR or any other Muslim organization denounced the Muslims who abused the Christians.

Billy Hallowell writes at The Blaze:

Macedonia Baptist Church in Columbia, North Carolina, is turning heads with a new pro-life sign posted outside the house of worship. Rather than merely standing in opposition to abortion, the message alleges that abortion providers purposefully target African Americans -- a charge that is regularly waged against Planned Parenthood, among other groups.

"Ultimate Racism -- Abortion Targets Black Babies," reads the sign, which was posted last Thursday.

Joseph Farah writes at WND:

I’ve had a number of issues with Rick Warren over the years.

But, with his latest effort to find common theological ground with Muslims and suggesting Christians and Muslims worship the same God, the man dubbed “America’s Pastor” by the secular media is getting very close to heresy -- if not crossing the line.

Here is the key to illustrating his error: Do Muslims even claim to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as Christians and Jews do?

No, they do not. They believe God did not create a covenant with Isaac and Jacob, but rather with Abraham's firstborn son Ishmael. They believe the Jewish and Christian Bibles are misrepresentations of truth. They believe the Quran accurately and faithfully represents the true personality and will of God.

This is not a minor theological difference. It is as basic and fundamental as it gets.

And what did he learn at that church? That's a highly relevant question because a) one's worldview (religious or otherwise) shapes one's character and the direction of one's choices, and b) this is especially important politically for the man who occupies the highest and most-powerful elective office in the world, where freedom is at stake and constantly under attack. More here.

In his most recent column, CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey writes:

It is plain as day: Obama is more deferential to the religious sensibilities of Muslims in Afghanistan than he is to the constitutionally protected religious liberty of Catholics in the United States of America.

Dr. John Fea, chairman of the history department at Messiah College, writes that "Obama may be the most explicitly Chrisitan president in American history."

Among other things, the Father of Our Country wrote in 1796: "Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports."

Michael Youssef writes:

Many of us who are biblical scholars have watched Mr. Obama's use, or should I say abuse, of the Bible with dismay.

Who can forget when he gave a speech mocking the ceremonial law of the Old Testament then saying something to the effect of, "How can you govern by the Sermon on the Mount?"

Well, he did it again at the National Prayer Breakfast. . . . 

The president quoted the Bible to justify punishing those who have worked hard, and most of whom are very generous givers, in order to take their money and give it to many of his constituencies who are always standing outside the doors of the White House with out-stretched hands.

Mr. Obama, in justifying his misguided policy, quoted Jesus in Luke 12:48: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

No, you do not have to have a seminary degree to know that Jesus is talking about individual stewardship in an individual's relationship with God.

For it is God who gives each person different portions of gifts, talents, and treasure to manage according to His sovereign will. It is God who entrusts people with what they have, not the government.

Barack Obama is a serial abuser. Not only does he abuse the Bible, but he also routinely abuses the Declaration and U.S. Constitution.

But such abuse must be the order of the day and precisely what must be done -- if your agenda is to replace the rules of freedom with the rules of unfreedom.

Obama quotes Christ but breathes Alinsky and channels Marx.

Michael Youssef is an Egyptian-born American and founding rector of The Church of The Apostles. He holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Emory University. 

Hat tip: OneNewsNow

Catherine Herridge reports at Foxnews.com:

In a textbook for 10th-graders, printed for the 2010-2011 academic year, al-Ahmed said teenagers are taught barbaric practices.

“They show students how to cut (the) hand and the feet of a thief,” he said.

In another textbook, for ninth-graders, the students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative.

One text reads in part: “The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. . . .  There is a Jew behind me come and kill him."

A few thoughts on the meaning of Christmas as a fact of life:

The joyous Christmas season has become increasingly secular, religious, and fragmented, helping make the most wonderful time of the year perhaps also the most manipulative.

We celebrate, and that is good, even healing. And given the hectic pace of life in America, there is much to admire in our ability to rise to the occasion of Christmas festivity every December.

But on a deeper level, the awe and cheer that attend a Holy Night and a Christmas Day seem more than ever to rest upon cultural understandings weak and eroding.

Consider how fact today is alienated from meaning, “faith” from life, spirit from matter, and wonder from the real things of life in a searching, troubled world.

The optimism of a new beginning in a New Year fades when we lose touch with secure points of reference by which to measure hope and find comfort in progress.

Power elites employ malleable symbols of religion and politics to manipulate money and masses towards results that overturn the original content of words and action rooted in history.

There is a remedy for this, and it is found in the humane and concrete realities of the events that started it all some 2,000 years ago.

What follows is a kind of Christmas and New Year’s debriefing related to information given in Luke 2, where familiar but revolutionary words await: “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:20).  

What Luke gives us is part of a narrative that has comforted many millions of people around the world and throughout history.

And yet, in this passage is no mere comfort. For in it is a cosmos of light and humanity that challenges settled expectations about what many regard as normal life in enlightened society.

The above is excerpted from my "Christmas Spirit in Space and Time." I plan to provide additional excerpts during this Christmas Season, but if you want to read and think ahead, go here.

Billy Hallowell writes at The Blaze:

The battle over a nativity scene in Athens, Texas, reached new heights this weekend when up to 5,000 supporters flooded the town square. Their purpose? To stand firmly opposed to the attacks a prominent atheist group has waged on the religious display. . . .

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group that frequently targets the presence of faith and religion in the public square, is demanding that a nativity scene be removed from public property.

On Saturday, thousands of supporters assembled in Athens Town Square to rally around and support the religious display. According to WTKR, some likened the ever-intensifying scenario a “holy war.”

At American Spectator, Charles C. Johnson writes:

In 2008 America elected a president whose pastor for 20 years preached anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, advocated bizarre pseudo-scientific racial ideas, opposed interracial marriage, praised communist dictatorships, denounced black "assimilation," and taught Afrocentric feel-good nonsense to schoolchildren.

When Americans discovered the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's views during the 2008 campaign, they rightly wondered if Barack Obama, like his pastor, really believed that HIV/AIDS was created by the American government to kill black people. Even to this day, no one knows for sure whether Obama shares the views of Wright, whom theChicago Sun-Times once described as Obama's "close confidant."

AP reports:

Pakistan’s telecommunications authority sent a letter ordering cell phone companies to block text messages containing what it perceives to be obscenities, Anjum Nida Rahman, a spokeswoman for Telenor Pakistan, said Friday.

Many of the words to be blocked were sexually explicit terms or swear words, according to a copy of the list obtained by The Associated Press. . . .

The reasons for blocking some words, including Jesus Christ, headlights and tampon, were less clear, raising questions about religious freedom and practicality.

Apparently, the idea here is that free speech can be restricted "in the interest of the glory of Islam."

This move should be of little surprise. After all, everyone knows Islam is a religion of peace -- as the silent graveyards of the dead murdered in the name of Islam so eloquently testify.

So, perhaps this move to ban "obscene" text messages should be read as an effort to make cell phone traffic more peaceful and "charitable."

Is the religion of peace striking again?

But what's to worry? Didn't that 60s rocker say, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"?

Perhaps I should point out that Islam is anti-freedom. But I won't.

That might be uncharitable and hurt a feeling somewhere. It might even get a text of mine banned.

I wouldn't want to do that. O how I love the smell of freedom in the morning!

Todd Stames reports at FoxNews.com:

An Alabama school district has been accused of allowing prayers that invoke the name of Jesus during high school football games, according to a complaint filed by a national atheist organization.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation said the Lauderdale County school district has violated the First Amendment by allowing the prayers at Brooks High School.

These atheists clearly have an open and shut case. For as everybody knows, the 1st Amendment states that prayers should not be allowed before high school football games and that Congress shall pass all manner of laws that prohibit the free expression of Christianity anywhere outside one's craninum, unless one is safely enclosed in a prayer closet or perhaps church building.

Yes, indeed, the Founders, who hated God and Christianity, had enough sense to limit cults to backwaters and secret places and were sufficienly wise in tolerance to know where to draw the line, lest a new Inquisition break out and the god of almighty government equality be overthrown, resulting in chaos, regression, and less freedom for Joe to marry Johnnie, and for Michelle to kill baby Alonso, if progress or the pursuit of happiness so require.

Thus the joy of life, personal peace, and affluence in Obamaville and Rinoland.

In "Coptic Christians Rally for Human Rights," Faith McDonnell writes:

Copts, who traveled by the busloads from such places as Chicago, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, came to Washington to protest the brutal treatment of Egypt’s Christians and demand that the Obama administration pressure Cairo to protect the rights of non-Muslims.

They also wished to call attention to congressional legislation that supports Copts and other vulnerable people groups.

The demonstration was a response to an Egyptian army-led massacre of Christians on Sunday, October 9, in Cairo.

Terry Jeffrey writes at CNSNews.com:

Bantering with the audience at a fundraiser in St. Louis yesterday, President Barack Obama bragged about a new regulation, proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has denounced as an “unprecedented attack on religious liberty” . . . .

Combined with Obamacare’s mandate that all individuals must buy health insurance, the “preventive services” regulation would require all American Catholics to buy health care plans that pay for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortions -- all of which violate Catholic moral teaching.

Bob Unruh reports at WND:

Just the name Internal Revenue Service can strike fear in the hearts of consumers, business owners, and business operations volunteers for churches alike.

But this weekend, pastors have the opportunity to thumb their noses at the federal agency -- and have the weight of one of the largest Christian and human rights defense teams at their backs.

It's the weekend for the Alliance Defense Fund's annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, on Oct. 2.

That's the Sunday each year when pastors are encouraged to "present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates" to "exercise their constitutionally protected right to free religious expression."

Pamela Geller writes at Human Events:

A years-long battle is over, and Islamic supremacism has suffered a stunning and well-deserved defeat in its ongoing war against free speech and those who dare to tell the truth about Islam.

Omar Tarazi, a lawyer linked to the Hamas front group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has dismissed his frivolous, harassing $10 million libel lawsuit against me with prejudice, which means that it cannot be refiled.

The following guest column is from Richard Weikart, professor of history at California State University, Stanislau. He is the author of four books.

Accusing Schaeffer and Pearcey of peddling dominionism -- and associating Bachmann with it -- is a serious charge, since Lizza defines it as those who believe: “Christians, and Christians alone, are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns.”  Sounds like theocracy to me.

Aside from the fact that Lizza never produces any quotations from Bachmann showing that she endorses dominionism, does his guilt-by-association argument hold any water?  Were Schaeffer and Pearcey tainted by dominionism?

As an undergraduate in the late 1970s I read just about everything that Schaeffer wrote.  I read Schaeffer’s Christian Manifesto (1981), his most political book, as soon as it was published. 

Even though I do not agree with Schaeffer’s position on political activism therein, it is hard to see how he could have stated his opposition to theocracy more plainly.  He stated, “First, we must make definite that we are in no way talking about any kind of theocracy.  Let me say that with great emphasis.”

In the next paragraph he argued, “There is no New Testament basis for a linking of church and state until Christ, the King returns.”  He then criticized the Roman emperors Constantine and Theodosius for merging church and state, calling it a mistake causing “great confusion.”  Schaeffer was a strong opponent of theocracy (and thus dominionism), Lizza’s revisionist history notwithstanding.

Casting Nancy Pearcey as an evil dominionist influence on Bachmann, as Lizza does, is even more bizarre.  By way of full disclosure, I have met and corresponded with Pearcey, and she even sent me her manuscript Total Truth -- the one that Bachmann mentioned as important -- before it was published. 

Though I don’t agree with all of Pearcey’s political views, nowhere have I seen even a hint that she thinks Christians should shoulder everyone else aside to take sole control of the government, economy, or culture.

Indeed Pearcey believes that Christians should apply their worldview to every facet of their lives, including politics, but one of these Christian insights she insists on is that Christians should be servants to others.  As with Schaeffer, love, not domination, is the driving force in her worldview.

That such a savvy political correspondent as Lizza could get things so wrong is disheartening.  This is especially so, because one of his main gripes about Bachmann is that she doesn’t always get her facts straight. 

I suppose Lizza is just illustrating the truth of that Biblical adage that those who judge others condemn themselves, because they do the same things.

Disclaimer: This article should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of Bachmann’s candidacy.

"An expert on terrorism says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was right on the mark in his concerns about the construction of a mega-mosque in Tennessee," reports OneNewsNow.

Billy Hallowell writes at The Blaze:

On Wednesday, Huffington Post blogger and book author Frank Schaeffer appeared on MSNBC to discuss his take on Christianity in America. He wasted no time in lambasting Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s personal beliefs, essentially branding them as dangerous and not in tune with the “real America.” Schaeffer, who is the son of a conservative theologian, slammed evangelicals, claiming that they “hate the United States,” among other charges.

Christianity vs. Liberalism: "The United Church of Christ, the denomination whose Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright blasted the United States and white people for years from the pulpit while Barack Obama sat in his pews, has decided to banish God 'the Father' from its organizational documents," reports Bob Unruh at WND.

File Under "Test Everything": 

A Christian ministry's decision to expose as "false teachers" several celebrity ministers it believes are corrupting biblical teachings has prompted a rift, with Jack Van Impe Ministries dropping plans to work in the future with Trinity Broadcasting Network, where it has broadcast for more than two decades. . . .

The dispute arose over the issue of advocating for "Chrislam" and other efforts that are designed to find "common ground" between Christians and Muslims. TBN declined to air one of Van Impe's programs that contained sharp criticisms of leaders such as Rick Warren of The Purpose Driven Life fame and Robert Schuller.

See the full report by Bob Unruh at WND.

"A new study has demonstrated that 80% of mosques right in this country are teaching jihad warfare and Islamic supremacism," writes Robert Spencer.

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry has invited the nation's governors to join him in a prayer day to seek God's guidance to deal with the problems facing America," reports AP.

"The day for prayer and fasting is planned for Aug. 6 in Houston. Perry urged governors in other states to also proclaim Aug. 6 a day to pray for 'unity and righteousness'."

Here is the Governor's proclamation of a "Day of Prayer and Fasting for Our Nation" (website).

The Texas Tribune is reporting that the event is "fueling lots of political speculation about [Perry's] possible run for the White House."

"In recent years, a horrifying number of kidnappings, rapes and mutilations of Iraqi Christian girls has been perpetrated by Muslim gangs," Frank Kitman writes at Frontpage.com.

Here, with video, is the story of "Sister Hatune of the Syrian-Orthodox monastery in Warburg, Germany. She makes an amazing effort to help and  protect the ruthlessly persecuted Christians in Iraq."

Burn a Book, Behead a Body? Ann Barnhardt in American Thinker argues that there is in Islam a practice, a catalyst, authorized by the Koran, "that has poisoned the cultural soil, thus yielding the fruit of bad harvest for nearly 1,400 years. That catalyst is inbreeding. As a direct result, the Muslim population is mentally developmentally disabled on a mass scale."

Related
Ann Barnhardt Fights Totalitarian Islam and Its Useful Idiots -- Video
Koran, Free Speech, Up in Flames 
What Would Jesus Do With the Koran? 
Herman Cain: Won't Appoint Muslims to Cabinet
Nancy Pearcey at Human Events Says Secular "Values" Crippling U.S. Response to Radical Islam 
Banning Minarets to Save the West 
Warren Panders to Muslim Group 
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War

In an exclusive interview with David Brody of CBN, Donald Trump discusses his faith, the Bible, church-going, and God.

Related
Trump Slams CNN on Obama Certificate -- Video  
Naked Obama: The Emperor Has No Birth Certificate
Trump: Obama Spending Millions to Hide His Past 
Trump: Obamacare Unconstitutional

This weekend, every American old enough to defend freedom should read this article in American Thinker (and those linked within) and watch this admittedly salty video presentation (part 1) (part 2) by Ann Barnhardt. Here's her website.

Related
Koran, Free Speech, Up in Flames 
What Would Jesus Do With the Koran? 
Herman Cain: Won't Appoint Muslims to Cabinet
Nancy Pearcey at Human Events Says Secular "Values" Crippling U.S. Response to Radical Islam 
Banning Minarets to Save the West 
Warren Panders to Muslim Group 
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War

Chris Moody reports at The Daily Caller:

Republican presidential contender Herman Cain said in an interview Monday that he “resent[s]” Muslims who try to convert Americans to Islam, and that the religion has “an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

"The Muslim Brotherhood, with the complicity of the Obama administration, has infiltrated the U.S. government at the highest levels and is influencing American policy that leaves the world’s Christians in grave danger, warns internationally known evangelist Franklin Graham" in a report at Newsmax.

Religious and political liberal Jim Wallis asks a good question, but he gives an unbiblical, socialist, and therefore, false answer, writes Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily.

If you consult the Scriptures, says Farah, you find not the government-centric collectivism of Wallis, but rather the economic and political self-reliance, self-governance, and even self-defense of Jesus.

"Self-defense?" you ask. Affirmative, says Farah, who then references Luke 22:36, where "Jesus admonishes his disciples to buy swords for protection even if they have to sell their garments to purchase them."

In addition, says Farah, the Bible is a "book that extols private property. It's a book that warns about the nature of government to steal from the people. It's a book that tells people to put their faith in God, not government. It's a book that teaches self-reliance and individual stewardship, not collectivism."

Rick Moran writes at Frontpagemag.com:

Representative Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, finds himself at the center of a media-created firestorm -- all because he wants to investigate the extent to which some American Muslims have been radicalized and examine how cooperative the Muslim community has been in rooting out extremists in their midst.

"Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has told conservative activists in Iowa that he and his wife are proud to be identified as evangelical Christians," reports AP.

According to AP, "Pawlenty told them, 'This is a country founded under God,' adding 'that leads you to other values, starting with a respect for life.' Pawlenty also expressed his opposition to same-sex 'marriage'."

Good for Pawlenty. However, the position he advocates is stronger than his current expression of it, as reported by AP.

For a) that this country was "founded under God" is a fact, not a mere "value." The language of "value" is the language of private preference, in contrast to facts, which concerns that which is objectively true regardless of what a person might privately "value."

And b) God operates in the realm of fact and is not reducible to the realm of "value" (or feeling, belief, etc., etc.). That is the entire emphasis of the verifiable information we have in the Old and New Testaments. For more on this, please see "Christmas Spirit in Space and Time." 

Finally, c) the liberating ethical positions against social breakdown as expressed in the secular embrace of abortion, homosexuality, and same-sex "marriage" also concern matters of fact -- that is, ethical fact.

There are of course differences between that which is scientific and that which is ethical. The difference, however, is not at the point of facticity but at the point of the difference between "is" and "ought." In a unified and liberating field of knowledge both "is" and "ought" have to do with the real world and are subject to the normal canons of reason, evidence, coherence, and the need to explain the phenomenon under question.

It is crucial to recognize that the worldview of the Founding and the worldview of the Judeo-Christian position rest on the unity of truth (as opposed to the fragmentation of truth) and that this means statements of science and statements of ethical principle are both to be regarded as asserting that which is objectively the case in the external world, as opposed to casting science into the realm of "fact" and casting "religion," "faith," "meaning," and "ethics" into the realm of "value."

The escape into mere values signals breakdown and decline, not wholeness and progress. It is therefore a step forward when public figures such as Pawlenty assert publicly that this country was "founded under God." It is an even greater step forward into truth and liberation to realize that this God, this Creator, is himself a public figure. The space-time Creator who is the source of unalienable rights is the ultimate critique of statism.

For more on the case to liberate Christianity and evangelicalism from the fact/value dichotomy, please see Total Truth, by Nancy Pearcey. Her new book Saving Leonardo is a plea to liberate culture itself from secularism and its unavoidable fragmentation in thought and practice.

Here is Tim Pawlenty's "Freedom First" website.

Question Authority: At the National Prayer Breakfast, liberal president Barack Obama used Biblical theological symbols such as "faith," "Jesus," and "God" to advocate a theory and practice of government at odds with the Constitution, the Declaration, and the verifiable information, rooted in history, we have from the Creator.

"A day after discussions of religious diversity led officials to remove the word 'Christmas' from signs at the Christmas Village merchant fair outside City Hall, the event's organizers decided Tuesday to take down the signs -- only to have the mayor reverse that decision," AP reports.

"Mayor Michael Nutter jumped into the fray by announcing yesterday that the 'Christmas Village' signs would be back up today," states AP.

The mayor reportedly "told the Philadelphia Daily News, 'The Christmas Village is not a religious service. It's an outdoor fair. It's a very commercial enterprise.'"

Someone should inform the mayor that the Christmas signs would be fine, would pass Constitutional muster, and be entirely consistent with the Declaration of Independence even if the "Christmas Village" was a religious service with Santa and the elves rolling in the aisles.

The nation is founded upon a verifiable Creator, not upon that secularist nothingness currently termed "diversity" -- which all too often is code language for getting rid of the enduring and defining mainstream of the American experiment under the Creator and replacing that mainstream with the state, group, skin color, gender, nature, or some other inadequate extremist passion that lacks a sufficient basis for unalienable rights, human dignity, and individual liberty.

Mayor Nutter made the right move but for the wrong reason, for there is more at stake here than mere commerce. "Man shall not live by bread alone," as Someone once famously said.

It is good that the Christmas signs have been restored. Far better, however, to restore respect for the Founding worldview that makes freedom possible in the first place -- not just freedom of speech or even political freedom, but also the right and responsiblity to live in liberating community with God and man across the whole of life.

"Diversity," religious or otherwise, is no match for the emancipatory power and glory and humanity of the historic Christmas. This is true not just for a "Christmas Village" in Philadelphia today but also for a Christmas birth in Bethlehem yesterday, a mere 2,000 years or so ago. Some events are like that. They never quit.

Related
Christmas Spirit in the Dirt: Good News for New Year

"Newspaper and TV pundits bashing Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell with respect to the religion clauses of the First Amendment need to do some homework on the topic, as they obviously don’t know anything about it," writes author M. Stanton Evans at Human Events.

This column is a must read. Evans is author of many books -- particularly relevant on this topic is his work titled The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition.

"For the second time in little over a month, President Barack Obama stripped the word "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence when giving a speech," reports Penny Starr at CNSNews.com.

Here is the text of the speech Barack Hussein Obama gave at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee dinner October 19 in Rockville, Maryland.

Words matter. The midterm election of November 2 is days away. I would suggest that a political party or president that cannot utter, affirm, defend, explain, and apply to government and policy that is at the very center of the American experiment should not hold power in the United States.

For such a person and such a party are not the friends of liberty.

Freedom should always have a friend, not an enemy, in the White House. And freedom should always have in the White House someone who understands from Whom and upon Whom that freedom rests -- and apart from Whom it goes away. Every office on Capitol Hill should understand this.

The defining center of the American experiment rests upon exactly that point where the Declaration places it: The Creator. To the degree that a president or a political party rejects that defining mainstream of the enduring American center, to that degree a president or a political party occupies the extreme. 

If you are a politician of any party who would strip the Creator from your political or governmental practice or philosophy, a free people under God has an eminently healthy course of action to pursue: If you strip the Creator from the Declaration, you shall be stripped from office. You are a danger to the republic and have no business anywhere near the levers of power.

You shall be repealed and replaced by lovers of freedom who understand the true source of the "blessings of liberty."

Michelle Malkin writes:

Shhhhhhh, we're told. Don't protest the Ground Zero mosque. Don't burn a Koran. It'll imperil the troops. It'll inflame tensions. The "Muslim world" will "explode" if it does not get its way, warns sharia-peddling imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Pardon my national security-threatening impudence, but when is the "Muslim world" not ready to "explode"?

Comment: Violence, even if couched in appeals to tolerance, is the logical endgame of any "faith" (religious, political, scientific, or philosophical) that has carved out for itself an enclave that is untouchable by reason, evidence, and the need to correspond to life in the real world.

Such "faith" is the application of coercion, up to and including physical violence, by other means. Such "faith," as a mere "value statement," is anti-mind, anti-freedom, anti-Man, and anti-God.

It is either the self-inflicted violence of irrational commitment or the other-inflicted violence of hand-grenades and jets into skyscrapers. And politicians, including U.S. presidents, who buy into such a faith will find themselves setting up a machinery of oppression to protect their power from facts, questions, checks and balances, and other legitimate protections against abuse.

In contrast is the openness to verification, and therefore the humanity, of the Founding vision as expressed in the Declaration and safeguarded in the Constitution.  It is a vision of human beings as individuals called to think and act on the basis of that which is true to reality, not as a blind leap, but as a commitment of the whole person on the basis sufficient, verifiable information.

This provides an adequate philosophic basis for both intellectual and political freedom. Apart from it is the kind of personal, intellectual, and cultural fragmentation, and therefore, weakness, Nancy Pearcey has written about in the just-published Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning.

Consistent with the Declaration worldview, this humane vision is rooted ultimately not in "religious" "values," blind matter, impersonal nature, nor in an absolute eternal nothingness that burps alien human beings into existence by chance, but in a knowable Creator who thinks, acts, and feels, and who acts into verifiable history so that free-thinking individuals can evaluate competing truth-claims (in religion, politics, science, or philosophy) for their fidelity to reason and fact and for their ability to explain the phenomena under question.

Tolerance apart from truth is slavery.

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Christmas Spirit in the Dirt

Contra Prof. Whitney S. Bodman in the Austin American-Statesman: "The idea that Christianity and the Inquisition ended the brilliance of Cordoba is a deliberate lie," writes Jonathan David Carson at American Thinker.

"The chairman of a national leadership network of black conservatives Friday took the Rev. Al Sharpton to task over his criticism of Glenn Beck’s 'Restoring Honor' rally, held Saturday, on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s 'I Have a Dream' speech," reports CNSNews.com.

"Mychal Massie, chairman of Project 21, challenged Sharpton to a debate over whether race is more important than 'the equality of all men under the Constitution and under God.'"

Massie also challenged the authenticity of Sharpton's calling as a minister of the gospel. 

"If Al Sharpton claims to be a minister, then he needs to get back to his Christian roots, if indeed he ever had them, and start preaching Jesus Christ and stop preaching discord and racial animus," Massie told CNSNews.

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Is Martin Luther King the Slave of Black People? 
Racism! Racism! Racism! And Oh by the Way: Racism! 
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When Money Talks, Truth Walks? "The leader of the 'progressive Christian' Sojourners movement has accepted funding from leftist atheist billionaire George Soros," reports OneNewsNow.

The Rev. Jim Wallis "has openly stated in the past that Sojourners did not receive funding from atheists, but he later issued a statement confirming there had been at least three Soros grants totaling about $325,000," OneNewsNow continues.

Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy "feels it is disingenuous for a Christian group to accept money from non-believers, and he thinks Wallis and Soros are in sync on several different levels."

Related
American Thinker: Soros Has Lying Pastor Close to Obama on Payroll 
Jim Wallis: Obama's "Red" Spiritual Advisor 
Obama's "Red" Spiritual Advisor Rev. Jim Wallis vs. the Bible

As the Trojans defeated by the Greeks of Achilles day might tell you, their fault lay not in tolerance or the lack thereof.

No. They failed to see the enemy in their midst. They tolerated the enemy in their camp. They brought the enemy within.

The Greeks sent a gift and won the war. The Trojans accepted the gift, and lost their city.

The Islamists want to build a mosque. An interfaith monument, so we are told.

And yet, the world will see, and every terrorist will know, that this mosque is erected above Ground Zero, where Twin Towers once stood.

The world will see, and every terrorist will know, that mosque Cordoba is a shrine to victory over the great, and greatly stupid, U.S.A. Where Freedom once stood.

And in her place, victory for Islamic terror. A celebration not of tolerance but of defeat for America in decline. Of 9/11 and lessons unlearned.

Go tell the liberals and the politicians: Tolerance is war by other means. It is surrender for those with high self-esteem. Then comes the night. The end. Of the dream.

In war, the issue is not tolerance -- but victory or defeat. Only the living can tolerate the dead.

Great Patriots of America: Go tell all who thirst after blood of liberty: Keep your horses, keep your chains. We choose freedom. We keep our City on a Hill.

Ed Lasky, news editor at American Thinker, writes:

The tangled web woven by George Soros served as a safety net for Barack Obama when he needed rescue from the exposure of Jeremiah Wright as an America-hating radical. Pastor Jim Wallis lied about receiving money from George Soros's Open Society Institute. His organization, Sojourners, is a leftist "social justice" type of ministry. He and Sojourners have a history with Barack Obama that I have been tracking for a few years. When the Jeremiah Wright scandal erupted, candidate Barack Obama had to find religion -- fast. Fortunately for him, he had a backup pastor in place and ready to go: Jim Wallis. Apparently, Obama felt right at home with Wallis.

Lasky concludes, "Wallis, like Wright, is less a pastor and more of an extreme partisan. He doesn't like America, but he but does likes Hamas, Marxism, and Obama -- and he is a liar, to boot. A perfect 'Pastor' for payola from the likes of George Soros."

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Jim Wallis: Obama's "Red" Spiritual Advisor 
Obama's "Red" Spiritual Advisor Rev. Jim Wallis vs. the Bible

"The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has joined the growing condemnation of plans by a Florida church to burn copies of the Quran on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks," reports CNSNews.com in a news story titled, "Burn the Quran Day Prompts Warnings of Anger, Unrest."

Two observations:

1. Any worldview -- be that "scientific," philosophical, religious, political, Biblical, or Koranic -- that would be considered a viable option as the object of a person's trust should be chosen carefully on the basis of whether it is true to reality, that is, to the facts of history, humanity, the evidence of reason, empirical data, internal consistency, and so on. If something is "sacred" but false, it should not be "believed."

This approach, by the way, is the real-world orientation of the Biblical epistemology, quite in contrast to so much that you see coming out of politics, Hollywood, the academy, and so-called "people of faith" these days (understanding "faith" in the dumbed-down secular way, in contrast to the Biblical data). The attempt to hide meaning in a protected "values" realm, immune from the considerations of evidence, is a seedbed of violence, because now force, and not reason, becomes the decider of what is publicly acceptable or not.

2. Literal book-burning is a problem because it suggests a fear of critique. Far more serious is the mental "book-burning" we see today in American politics, where certain passions would rather "burn" the Constitution and Declaration of Independence rather than respect their contents the way honest people of intellect ought to. Specifically, any attempt to recast these Founding, defining documents of the enduring American mainstream as so-called "living" documents (where the text can be ignored, to be replaced by the personal opinion of those with power) represents book-burning on the highest (read: lowest) level.

That kind of "living" document is, in effect, a nondocument, a document committed to the flames. It is thereby transformed into a tool of oppression. "Progressives," liberals, RINOs, and secularists who would rule by it are captured by the spirit of dictatorship and manipulation, whether on purpose or not, whether they consent or not.

There is a better, more humane and holistic way. A healthy people will resist empty "values" and charred documents. A free people of intelligence, dignity, and choice, who understand that human rights have their only sure basis in the self-same knowable Creator who has created us equal and endowed us with "certain unalienable rights," and who does not require intellectual suicide as a prerequisite to personal commitment, will resist.

This is the American identity. More importantly, this is our human identity. Properly understood American exceptionalism and human exceptionalism are waters of life which have their origin in the same wellspring of goodness and truth. I speak of the Creator, not of Washington, D.C., and not of its current prophet, who is seen every now and then in a chair far too big for him in the White House. All around him are flames.

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Church: "We Will Burn the Koran" 
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Eileen Toplansky over at American Thinker raises 7 questions about plans to build a multimillion-dollar mega mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Here is news video on the mosque.

Among the questions Toplansky raises:

• "How is this mega mosque being funded?"
  
  
• "Why is a mega mosque being built when about only 250 Muslim families live in this southern town?"
  
  
• "Will the Muslim Brotherhood who espouses the waging of jihad against non-Muslim infidels be an active force behind this and other planned mosques?"

Let me suggest two additional questions:

• Do Americans realize that while all people are created equal, not all religions are created equal? Unless you would be led around like a fool, it is crucial that free-thinking people created in the image of God carefully choose their worldview on the basis of knowable truth as opposed to mere feelings, tradition, peer pressure, and so on.
  
  
• Has secular liberalism so infected the American ethos that this country, which is founded upon real-world content and verifiable information from a knowable and rational Creator (as opposed to a mere "belief system" or "value system"), that our freedoms rooted in unalienable rights and blessings from the true Creator now hang in the balance?

For further reading, the following resources may be helpful:

O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War 
Christmas Spirit in the Dirt 
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War 

"A grassroots coalition of groups opposing the Cordoba House Islamic center and mosque’s placement at Ground Zero will protest its construction Sunday at 11:00 a.m. in front of the Park 51 site, on the northeast corner of West Broadway," reports The Daily Caller.

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No 9/11 Mosque!

What can churches do to stem the tide of young people walking out their doors? Sadly, many have responded by simply mirroring the pop culture that youngsters are already immersed in.

We once visited a church where the teen Sunday school class welcomed our son with a row of video arcade games. In younger years he attended Vacation Bible School where he was bombarded with loud pop music, silly skits, and slapstick games. Lots of paintball and whipped cream. 

That's a misguided approach, says Brett McCracken in a recent Wall Street Journal article. McCracken, who has just published a book titled Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide, offers his own examples of churches trying desperately to prove to kids that they can be cool. And he concludes:

As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. . . . It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched -- and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same. 

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with offering young people simple fun and social time. But the force of sheer experience will not equip them to address the secular worldviews they will encounter when they leave home and face the world on their own.

Young people whose commitment is mostly emotional are likely to retain it only as long as it is making them feel good. As soon as a difficult crisis comes along, it will evaporate.

Churches that have lasting impact in the lives of young people are those that teach them to develop reasonable biblical answers to the secular worldviews permeating American society today. That’s the case I make in Saving Leonardo. And the empirical evidence backs it up: A recent Fuller study found that among students who retain their Christian convictions in college, one factor plays the largest role -- and it’s not what most church leaders would expect: The most significant factor is whether young people have a safe place to wrestle with their doubts and questions before leaving home.

The study concluded, "The more college students felt that they had the opportunity to express their doubt while they were in high school, the higher [their] levels of faith maturity and spiritual maturity."

In other words, the best way for teens to become "prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks" (1 Pet. 3:15) is by wrestling with the questions themselves. Churches should teach teens what the major secular worldviews claim, and how to evaluate them.

Saving Leonardo is a good place to get started.

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The UK Daily Mail reports:

More than 2.5million users will leave Facebook unless certain Islamic pages are reinstated, it has been claimed.

A template letter that has been pasted into numerous Facebook pages accuses founder Mark Zuckerberg and other senior members of Facebook of "ignoring the feelings of more than 2.5million Muslims."

The Muslim community is angry that four extremely popular Islamic pages were removed from the site and the letter warns that unless its demands are met Facebook's Muslim users will move to an Islamic alternative.

The letter demands not only that the pages are reinstated but that new rules are introduced which make it a violation of Facebook’s terms to post anti-Islamic comments.

"It seems almost unthinkable, but Islamist groups are, as we speak, hard at work creating Muslim states-within-states in the U.S.," Ryan Mauro writes at Frontpagemag.com.

"This process has been unfolding for a long time across the Western world, through the creation of isolated Muslim enclaves in both rural and urban areas, as well as through the designation of 'no-go zones' where governments admit to having little authority over Muslims living there, essentially leaving them to function as autonomous regions."

"Predictably, Jim Wallis's Religious Left Sojourners blog dishonored Independence Day by featuring an op-ed headlined 'Why Christianity and July 4th are Incompatible'," writes Mark Tooley at American Spectator.

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And then surround himself with wise and Godly advisers instead of unwise and "God-hating" appointees who don't seem to appreciate the cruelty and disaster that history knows as socialism, says Curtis Lovelace.

It's hard to enjoy the "blessings of liberty" if you are relationally and politically alienated from the One who gives the blessings.

"The American Civil Liberties Union may be worse than useless when it comes to defunding international terrorism or enforcing immigration laws, but at least we can count on them to step in whenever somebody does something really bad . . . like mentioning Jesus," Calvin Freiburger writes at NewsRealBlog.

"Studies indicate that up to 70 percent of women in the Gulf states are obese," so what's going on, or rather: What's not going on? Caroline May at The Daily Caller lifts the veil.

"Unless freedom-loving people wake up now, their children will wake up to discover that they are living under Sharia law," writes Michael Youssef, founder of Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Ga.

"The Italian government is appealing to the European court of human rights to overturn a ban on classroom crucifixes," reports the BBC.

"This case against crucifixes was brought by a woman who argued that her children had a right to a secular education under Italy's constitution."

Apparently, the sovereign nation of Italy no longer exists. This need not be so.

Someone please go tell the European court and the Italians: If unalienable rights endowed upon humanity by the Creator are not universal, they are not unalienable.

If Italians want to live in an exceptional nation that need not go begging to other human beings for "rights," they may want to consider listening to, and applying instead, the information we have from the Creator. The Creator-based concepts that made, and can again make, the United States exceptional (see the Declaration of Independence) are equally available and applicable to any being created equal in the image of God. That includes the Italians.

"I'm not going to pretend to a faith I don't feel," says Julia Gillard. But she has "great respect for religion," according to the UK Telegraph.

Three quick points:

1) Faith, at least "trust" placed in our Creator, is a matter of facts, not of feeling. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, for example, is not a feeling. It is either a fact of history or it is not. If it is a fact of history, a reasonable person acts in accordance with that fact; an unreasonable person does not.

2) If the prime minister does not "believe in God," why does she "respect religion"? If a particular "religious" truth claim is false (for example, an assertion that the Easter Bunny is God), why respect it? If a relgious assertion is false, one might hold respect for the misinformed "believer," but "religious" truth claims are the same as any other truth claim. Those which are true ought to be affirmed, and those which are not true ought not to be affirmed. 

3) Finally, the epistemology of the Creator as set forth in the information given in the Biblical data rejects the concept that "faith" is merely a private experience in which people can pretty much "believe" whatever they want and feel good about it. That's not faith, it's nonsense. Biblical "faith" is not about a privatized a way of knowing but rather a fact-based way of trusting -- it's a decision of the whole person based on good and sufficient evidence (as Francis Schaeffer often said) that certain propositions about God, man, and the universe are true.

Gillard gets high marks for her lack of pretense. But based on what we have in this report in the Telegraph, what she rejects has little to do with real Christianity, for what she thinks she rejects is already equally rejected, and even more profoundly rejected, by Christianity itself. 

The real thing -- holistic commitment based on knowable truth -- so that people might live lives of community with their Creator and fellow man -- has always been much more rigorous and reality oriented that what sometimes passes for "faith" these days.

As for me and my house of free-thinkers, we too have great respect -- for truth.

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From Der Spiegel:

Germany has been offering programs for people who want to leave the neo-Nazi scene for years. Now, in a bid to combat the threat of Islamist terrorism, authorities are setting up a telephone hotline for those keen to give up jihad.

Alex Pappas at The Daily Caller:

Is Nikki Haley’s primary run-off opponent in the South Carolina gubernatorial race subtly using her religious background to try to alienate the Indian-American candidate born with the name “Nimrata Randhawa” from conservative voters?

Her opponent, Rep. Gresham Barrett, has been vocal about his deep Christian faith. Haley -- although a baptized Methodist -- was raised by Sikh parents, but converted to Christianity when she was 24.

One well-known Republican in the state thinks so, noting that Barrett’s last campaign commercial was about his faith. “You’re running for governor, not pastor,” the Republican said dismissively of Barrett.

Phillip Bowers, co-chairman of Barrett’s campaign, circulated an e-mail Friday afternoon suggesting Haley has lied about her religion. “There are lots of contradictions to her story. It’s not my place to question her faith, but I do question her honesty. If anyone finds the truth, please let me know,” said Bowers, in an email obtained by The Daily Caller.

A few quick points:

1. There is nothing untoward in evaluating a person's religion. If religion is important to a candidate for office, and if religion influences a candidate, then it seems proper to ask questions about the religion of a candidate. Of course, the questions ought to be relevant and not just a matter of: "Oh, my, she has a different religion."

2. Saying someone is "running for governor, not pastor" is no excuse for not having to answer questions about one's religion. Presumably, one's religious views are held in good faith because one thinks them true and applicable to the real world. Otherwise, why bother? But if this is so, go ahead and answer questions that are relevant to the job for which your are applying, whether it be governor or dog catcher.

3. Not your place to "question her faith"? Nonsense. All "faiths" should be open to question and possible falsification, if you wish their application to the real world. These faiths include faith in science, government, education, various ideologies, political passions, wooly activism, and so on. And, of course, religion.

If you are a human being, you therefore question, for questioning is part of the equipment the Creator has endowed upon each of us to protect us from nonsense masquerading as true science, healthy politics, sound religion, and "I'm from Washington and I'm here to help."
 

On Oct. 31, 2008, on Arab TV Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam warned Israeli women to "leave the land so you won't get raped." 

And then came another shock. On Aug. 3, 2009, Nonie Darwish wrote in Frontpage Magazine that Al-Imam "recently announced her conversion to Christianity." Title of Darwish's article: "If You Convert You Die."

Here is the Nagla Al-Imam page on Facebook.

"An Afghan parliamentary secretary has called for the public execution of Christian converts from the parliament floor, according to International Christian Concern," reports ANS.

Nicolas Ballasy reports for CNSNews.com:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she believes she must pursue public policies "in keeping with the values" of Jesus Christ, "The Word made Flesh."

Pelosi, who is a Catholic and who favors legalized abortion, voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion that was enacted into law in 2003.

In this video from May 6, Pelosi explains that her favorite word is "The Word" and "That is everything. It says it all for us. . . . Fill it in with anything you want, but of course we know it means, 'The Word was made flesh'."

What's more important, asks Lloyd Marcus, the color of your skin, the color of Obama's skin, or your commitment to Christ?

"A woman appeared in court today charged with the murder of a faith healer who promised his clients he could solve their problems by sacrificing a camel," reports the U.K. Independent.

Apparently, the faith healer, a Mr. Jabbi, "had come to the UK from Gambia and had taken up spiritual healing to earn money.

"He promised people he could rid them of evil spirits, often claiming he would order a camel to be sacrificed in his native country in return for large sums of money."

There are many reasons to follow the Creator's admonition that free thinkers created in His image "test everything."

This is one of them.

Many more abound in religion, science, education, and, oh yes, politics.

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"Police officers have been given the right to take days off to dance naked on the solstices, celebrate fertility rituals and burn Yule logs if they profess pagan beliefs," reports the U.K. Times.

"The Pagan Police Association claimed yesterday that it had been recognised by the Home Office as a 'diversity staff support association' -- a status also enjoyed by groups representing female, black, gay, Muslim and disabled officers."

Yes, there will dancing in the streets and sacred groves. But all may not be well, according to the Times. For "there is unease in policing circles that the widening definition of diversity is creating a morass of organisations based on religion, gender and sexual orientation that appear to emphasise division."

"The old Religious Left has long championed virtual open borders and slammed national sovereignty as idolatrous," writes Mark Tooley at Frontpage.

"Now the new Evangelical Left is chiming in with its own sentimentalization of illegal immigration, identifying Jesus Christ Himself as an illegal immigrant."

"The Rev. Franklin Graham, who last month was officially 'dis-invited' by the Army to speak at a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the Pentagon for statements he made about Islam, said he will not back down in preaching the Gospel as he sees it," reports CNSNews.com. 

"'We’re living in a time where we cannot compromise, we cannot back up, we cannot retreat,' Graham said Wednesday during a live Webcast from the Washington, D.C. offices of the Family Research Council," according to CNSNews.

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"The arrest of a street preacher has renewed concern over religious freedom for Christians in the UK," reports Jenna Lyle in Christian Today.

"Dale McAlpine, 42, was arrested in his home town of Workington, in Cumbria, last month after he mentioned homosexuality as one of a number of sins listed in the Bible, alongside idolatry, blasphemy, fornication, and drunkenness," Lyle writes.

Among the concerned is "commentator and author Peter Hitchens," who "warned that British society was moving closer to the point where a person could be prosecuted for saying in public that homosexual acts are wrong," Lyle continues. Peter Hitchens is the brother of noted atheist Christopher Hitchens.

"The Public Order Act of 1986," Peter Hitchens is quoted as saying, "was not meant to permit the arrest of Christian preachers in English towns for quoting from the Bible. But it has. The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 was not meant to force public servants to approve of homosexuality. But it has.

"The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 was not meant to lead to a state of affairs where it is increasingly dangerous to say anything critical about homosexuality. But it did."

Lyle concludes her report with this assessment from Hitchens: "We have travelled in almost no time from repression, through a brief moment of mutual tolerance, to a new repression."

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Christian Preacher Arrested for Saying Homosexuality a Sin

"Dale McAlpine was charged with causing 'harassment, alarm or distress' after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of 'sins' referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships," reports the U.K. Telegraph.

According to the Telegraph, "The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God."

The police allege that McAlpine "made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act."

As a corrective to the formerly mainstream media comes this report from LifeSiteNews:

In the last several weeks such a quantity of ink has been spilled in newspapers across the globe about the priestly sex abuse scandals, that a casual reader might be forgiven for thinking that Catholic priests are the worst and most common perpetrators of child sex abuse.

But according to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

After effectively disappearing from the radar, Shakeshaft’s study is now being revisited by commentators seeking to restore a sense of proportion to the mainstream coverage of the Church scandal.

"A Texas pastor is offering more than $2 million worth of giveaways to people who attend Easter worship services this Sunday," reports AP.

According to AP: 

Rev. Bil Cornelius is senior pastor of Bay Area Fellowship Church, which meets at seven locations in and around Corpus Christi. He says every individual or family will receive $300 in gift certificates from local businesses, and drawings will be held at every service to give away cars, flat-screen TVs, laptop computers, and furniture. . . .

"It's really not a bribe," [Cornelius] explains. "It's more of a giant illustration."

In Other Words, Gimme That Old Time Marketing: If you can just out-Oprah Oprah (known for her giveaways), then Christianity must be true, worthy of commitment, people will come to your show, and the gospel of giveaways shall be preached unto the ends of the earth. 

And, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, the inside word at "Spirit Buzz" has it that next week the Church of Ed Sullivan will present The Senior Men's Choir rapping their latest hit, "Jesus Is My Girlfriend." (By the way, 780,000 souls made "decisions for Christ" during the Senior Men's most recent 3-week tour around the world, as indicated by increased mailing lists and other fundraising dynamics.)

Plus: A famed radio and Christian worldview "thinker" with a stirring life story will personally share how you can have your very own quiet times with him. That's right. Join in as he reads via Jumbotron from "his" newest book (the 38th from this gifted modern prophet who has talked -- and prayed -- with the president), written by a well-paid, dedicated staff mining work done by contract writers over the years, other conference speakers who need him to help sell their books, and by others you've never heard of and never will (as the Lord blesses).

And, my friends, don't believe all those distractions about evangelicals all too comfortable with President George W. Bush to critique him biblically and thereby helping open the door to King Barack Obama of the Church of the Living Constitution. Yes, my nuanced friends, kill two birds with one stone: Resist Satanic distractions and get a free book in the presence of a humble Christan celebrity author (so to speak).

And remember: It's not a bribe, it's not fleshly marketing, and it's "not aping the world." We're too sincere for that, and maybe doubters ought to reexamine their prayer life and generally get onboard with the program. Lest we have a problem.

Please check Comcast or your local cable provider for service times and broadcasts directly into the loving convenience of your very own livingroom.

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Francis Schaeffer, the Religious Right, Cultural Decline, and Aping the World

Secularized liberal theologians such as Obama's "Red" Rev. Jim Wallis not only misread the Bible, they don't need it.

Except perhaps as a book of emotional "value symbols" to be mined, proof-texted, and manipulated to baptise the political agendas of Marx, Alinsky, and Obama.

Just like liberal ideological corruption does with the "living" U.S. Constitution.

In contrast to verifiable and wholistic information from the real Creator, theirs is a secularized, bifurcated religiousity of snake oil bottled as "social justice."

It finds a home in what Francis Schaeffer described as the "upper story," a construct of human consciousness where "faith" and meaning are affirmed but blindly so, because they are alienated from facts, reason, and history (the "lower story").

Secularists -- religious or otherwise -- locked up inside the "upper story" are therefore estranged from experiencing the unitary wholeness of what it means to be an integrated human being. Perhaps this is one reason they are so frustrated by life.

There are well-meaning people, some of them very bright, who end up situated in the "upper story" inadvertantly. But it is also a home to sneering fanatics and ideologues in media, government, politics, and Hollywood -- the opiate of pseudo-intellectuals at war with "nature and nature's God."

Both classes of people must be loved. But in addition to love, the second class of people must also be resisted. For they are dangerous.

Religious fantacism combined with political fanaticism sometimes does not end well.

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Christmas Spirit in the Dirt
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

"A professor at an evangelical Christian college in Pennsylvania says his guidelines for 'sexual identity therapy' are being misunderstood by some Christian proponents of traditional marriage,"  reports OneNewsNow.

"Dr. Warren Throckmorton of Grove City College says he has not lost faith in God's ability to change people who are struggling with homosexuality, but believes most of those people are not likely to experience a 'diminishment' in same-sex attraction."

OneNewsNow also reports that "Throckmorton says he personally holds a 'traditional view of homosexuality and sexual ethics.' However, when asked whether he believes homosexuality is 'normal, natural and healthy,' he said he could not answer that with a simple 'yes' or 'no' response. He said 'in a professional therapy situation' it is accurate to say that 'homosexuals can live normal, natural, and healthy lives that are free of mental illness'."

"The Religious and Evangelical Left, plus the Islamic Society of North America and a few others, are making a final Custer-like stand on behalf of much cherished Obamacare," writes Mark Tooley at Frontpage magazine.

"In an ad featured in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper aimed at congressional staffers, a religious coalition called 'Faithful Reform in Health Care' demanded that Congress 'complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who are left out and left behind in our current health care system.'

"Some of these groups, or at least their elites, have very little theology any more," Tooley explains. "But they are increasingly unified behind a single unifying spiritual principle: worshipping at the altar of the state."

"A judge in Montana has ruled against a high school valedictorian who wasn't allowed to speak at her graduation ceremony because she wanted to give God credit for her success," reports OneNewsNow.

"Last Wednesday," reports LifeSiteNews.com, "Judge Gregory Todd ruled in a summary judgment that [Renee Griffith,] a student at Butte High School was not unconstitutionally censored for refusing to remove references to Christ and God from her valedictory speech.  Her attorney has said that they will appeal to the Montana Supreme Court."

The attendance of an openly homosexual group at CPAC 2010 helped Ron Paul win the presidential straw poll, writes Lisa Fabrizio at American Spectator.

"But far from anointing Ron Paul as their presidential nominee of choice," she explains, "the most indicative effect of including gays was this result from the poll: while the great majority of respondents named reducing the size of government as the most important goal of conservatism, only nine per cent cited the promotion of 'traditional values.' Scary stuff when you realize that the former is impossible without the latter for our particular constitutional republic."

Fabrizio cautions: "A smaller government that is not based on the moral underpinnings of our founders would have been just as repulsive to them as a larger one that is. As John Adams said, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

Read the rest of "The Perils of Progress," by Lisa Fabrizio.

"A pro-family advocate in Michigan says he's honored to be on the front lines in fighting for First Amendment rights to speak out against homosexuality," reports OneNewsNow.

"Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, is concerned that the 'Hate Crimes Act' signed into law last year will be used to prosecute those who speak in favor of traditional biblical morality."

"House Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said [yesterday] that Harry Knox, who serves on President Barack Obama’s faith-based advisory council, appears to be an 'anti-Catholic bigot' and should resign as a White House adviser," reports CNSNews.com.

"Earlier this week," CNSNews continues, "Knox said he stood by a statement he made last year that Pope Benedict XVI is 'hurting people in the name of Jesus' because the pope does not support promoting the use of condoms as a means to stem the spread of HIV."

Speaker, author, and former atheist Udo Middelmann, president of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, writes:

The assumption that God is behind all things happening, behind the earthquake in Haiti, Katrina’s destruction in New Orleans, and catastrophes as large as the Tsunami or as little as a household accident, is built on the view of a closed system universe.

There is an effect: therefore there must be a cause. True, but who or what is the cause?

If there is a single cause, there is no distinction between good and evil. If there are many possible causes, we do well to discern and oppose the destructive ones.

To blame historic Christianity’s God is not justified in light of Scripture and the person and life of Jesus. The Bible speaks of a world which now gives God grief, where people and nature are not "at peace," and where God interferes precisely because, as the Lord’s Prayer tells us, His will is not yet being done "on earth as it is in heaven." God sent prophets because what people did was in opposition to the will of God, not in concurrence with it. 

Likewise, Jesus, who is God in the flesh and the exact image of the Father, does not walk about holding people’s hands in their misfortunes and accompany them through misery. Instead he aggressively opposes sickness, false teaching, vile government, and death itself.

Where other religions and secular philosophies start with the assumption of the normality of things and events, as sad as they are, God describes a sickening abnormality in his creation and acts, speaks, protests, and encourages us to do likewise.

There is no fatalism in Jewish and Christian teaching, though many times it seems to be in the language and explanations believers use to erroneously comfort themselves. There is the sound of false piety from what is in fact a total contradiction to what Jesus taught and did.

The faith and hope that God’s sovereignty is expressed in every event is something for the future.

For the time being, Haiti, Tsunami, Katrina, and your child falling out of a swing are things you should be upset about. We should not settle into acceptance, but rise for energetic and healing intervention to prevent each and recurrent tragedies.

For a more thorough development of these ideas you may want to consult my book The Innocence of God.

In addition to his work at the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, Middelmann is also visiting professor of philosophy at The King's College in New York City. For more information, please contact Middelmann at The Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, CH – 1882 Gryon, Switzerland.

In many ways what you are seeing in Keith Olbermann's performance (Olbermann Renews "Teabagging" Attack on Scott Brown) is what American government and society would look like if secularist "liberalism" -- a worldview that rejects the Founding concept of a Creator who is the source of unalienable rights (and human reason and empirical data, by the way) -- wins the day.

That kind of secularism, if logically extended and lived upon, results in the abolition of unalienable rights, rational discourse, and the appeal to evidence. You will hear talk of "living Constitutions" and "values," but really all that's left is the inhumane application of raw power -- in the womb, the workplace, and the White House.

It is a recipe for America as wasteland.

For a Pretend Creator (i.e., a federal state) is not strong enough to carry the weight of rights, reason, and evidence. That kind of "god" will be crushed, and all that depends upon that kind of pretension will be crushed with it, including those who try to build a free society upon it.

Yesterday's vote in Massachusetts is a vote against estrangement from our national and creaturely identities. Yesterday stems the tide against freedom, and for that we give thanks.

But strategic victory and a strategic initiative await a critical mass of Americans who insist on returning homeward (and thus forward) to the Founding Vision -- the Declaration, the Constitution, etc. -- where a real Creator and not the pretend god of the secular state is recognized as the center of gravity of human freedom.

I have said and written many good things about the views of Sarah Palin, but it should be pointed out that her heartfelt affirmation of a "commonsense, independent agenda" may not be enough to meet the strategic challenge of our moment in history. For "commonsense" could have made you a slave in Athens, eaten by lions in Rome, headless in France 1793-94, "verboten" in Deutschland, and frozen in the workers' paradise. 

And perhaps rather surprisingly (ask King George), you could say that what the Founders gave us was actually uncommonsense, given the history of humanity in this hard world.

Yes: Extremely uncommon is the vision of the Declaration and content of the Constitution. Sadly, these brilliant documents do not keep us from making mistakes; happily, they do give us a basis for correcting them.

In contrast to secularists past and present, the Founding Vision gives a fixed point that liberates -- with a real Creator as the basis for real unalienable rights. Having a secure foundation is a good thing, because without a fixed point, talk of progress has no meaning.

I hope no one concludes from this a calling to hate an anchor on MSNBC, however heated or misguided the debate might be. The point is not hate, but love. Love of freedom and all the Blessings of Liberty from the One who gives the blessings, for everyone. This too is uncommonsense.

From OneNewsNow:

An appeals court decision favoring a Ten Commandments display in Grayson County, Kentucky, will likely not be appealed.

The display -- entitled "Foundations of American Law and Government" and found on the second floor of the county courthouse -- also includes the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, The Star-Spangled Banner and the national motto, among other things. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that it passes constitutional muster. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University argued the case.

Selwyn Duke says he is "always amused when people object to others' effort to convert them, especially since it's a daily occurence."

Karen Shuberg reports at CNSNews.com:

Brit Hume said he was “not surprised” by the media backlash over his Christian remarks to Tiger Woods on “Fox News Sunday” this week and that there is a “double-standard” when it comes to speaking publicly about Christianity versus other religions.

Hume, a Fox News analyst, told CNSNews.com: “There is a double standard. If I had said, for example, that what Tiger Woods needed to do was become more deeply engaged in his Buddhist faith or to adopt the ideas of Hinduism, which I think would be of great spiritual value to him, I doubt anybody would have said anything.”

Said Mr. Hume on "Fox News Sunday" (transcript at Politics Daily):

Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation for him.

I think he's lost his family, it's not clear to me if he'll be able to have a relationship with his children, but the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal -- the extent to which he can recover -- seems to me to depend on his faith.

He's said to be a Buddhist; I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.

So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'

"In response to a Swiss vote banning the construction of new mosque minarets, a group of Muslims this month went into a church building in eastern Turkey and threatened to kill a priest unless he tore down its bell tower, according to an advocacy group," reports Will Morris for Compass Direct News at Christian Post.  

Hat tip: Joseph Lawler

"I received an interesting note from Mary Hutchinson from Inspired Direct, a direct mail and fundraising company for non-profits, churches, and ministries," writes Phil Cook at The Change Revolution. "Her note really shook me, because it indicts so many national media ministries."

Among other things, in her letter, Hutchinson writes, "But here is the truth: I think all of these preachers would be horrified to know this happened. But they are too busy to know about it. They have messages to write, funds to raise, personal and personnel issues and TV programs to produce."

In fact, it is quite possible that some of these "ministries" are set up exactly the way the frontmen preachers/celebrities want them.

As for being "too busy to know about it" because "they have messages to write," and so on, the world might be shocked to know who among various best-selling "authors" and thinkers actually write very little of what goes out under their names, even while they take credit -- and thereby help rake in big donations, sometimes in the millions -- for being great writers, great thinkers, and all the rest.

Some of these dysfunctional organizations and household "names" are very well defended, and if America as a country is really to deal with its spiritual crisis, corruption in the midst of "Big Christianity" (as opposed to true sprituality) may have to undergo the kind of challenge we're beginning to see in the Tea Party resistance to corrupt, un-Constitutional "Big Government."

Don't be surprised come judgment day if more than one or two of today's "heroes of the faith" -- described as such by carefully orchestrated marketing and publicity programs in operation for years and years -- may be revealed as anything but. Scripture is quite open and honest about self-aware phonies in our midst, and we might do well to adopt that realism regarding some of today's big-time, hard-charging "leaders" as well.

As with Big Government, there's big money and big power in "Big Christianity," and that's why you'll find scoundrels finding refuge not just in "love of country" but in "love of God" as well. "Test everything."

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In this clip from Copenhagen, see Academy Award winner "We're not doing interviews right now" Al Gore score a touchdown for ignorance, hubris, and blind faith.

Dave Welch writes at WorldNetDaily:

I would like to take a point of personal privilege (to use parliamentary terms) and address the pastors of Houston, of Texas and of the nation on what happened last Saturday in our runoff election for mayor and several city council positions. . . . I will let the victor speak for herself on the nature of the outcome:

"This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. . . . just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better."

So stated Annise Parker, lesbian mayor-elect of Houston, Texas, after 54 percent of the 16 percent of voters who cared enough to show up declared that her private moral life and radical agenda to redefine family was irrelevant. Eighty-four percent didn't care enough.

Here's part of the problem, as Welch sees it: "Liberals have mastered the art of building a farm team and winning by starting at the bottom and running to the top. Conservatives notoriously have the 'King Complex' that municipal districts, school boards and city councils are below us, and start at the top without either experience or political capital."

Do we see a "King Complex" among Christians? That this may be the case, to some degree, seems evident if we simply replace the word King with the word Celebrity.

If I were the Devil, I could think of few better strategies than to get Christians to put just about all of their eggs into a few celebrity baskets. A few big names, a few big organizations, with lots of well-meaning people sending in their checks because:

* Big Name so and so has access to the White House -- But maybe that explains why we heard little to nothing about the growth of un-Constitutional government, spending, etc., from the "spiritual" giant of the hour, during that President's administration. You see, that kind of Biblical critique on behalf of limited government might cut down on White House access and hurt a PR fundraising machine that really needs "I was talking with the President the other day . . ." Sometimes, it seems, "speaking truth to power" works best when directed toward targets of great fundraising opportunity.

* Big Name so and so is a great worldview thinker/writer -- But then, it turns out, he, she, or the machine is rather dependent upon ghostwriters, researchers, radio script writers, column writers -- "authoring" work that becomes "his" after the "name" inserts a few well-placed phrases into the text or simply asserts ownership of other people's ideas (You're On Staff!). In such a system it is often imperative to keep staff harried and busy -- and well-paid, if at all possible -- lest they begin to think about the deceptiveness of what they're doing and consider how the Lordship of Christ might apply even to methods of ministry.

* Big Name says, "It's not about me" -- This is the He's-So-Smart-and-Humble Factor, which as Karl Rove and Vince Flynn in one of his Mitch Rapp novels note means it precisely is about the person in question. The energy, the PR, the image, the fundraising, the website, the biography, the praise from others, etc., etc., in some organizations seem absolutely to be "all about" the Big Name. A name sometimes created through ghosted columns and books, etc., creating alliances aka fiefdoms to mutually support and guard eachothers' backs, and so on. But behind the scenes running over people who truly speak against a secularism that all too often has co-opted much of the good that many well-meaning regular people hope to accomplish.

These are just a few observations based on our experience before and during our time here in the Washington, D.C., area.

My hope: Help protect those who follow -- many of whom care deeply about worldview and political engagement -- from being fed into a religious machine. And maybe to save you 10 or 20 years of energy poured into an activism of questionable strategic and spiritual value, if verifiable Scripture is your guide and if you appreciate the centrality of applying the liberating Lordship of Christ across the whole of life, including political life and including one's methods of ministry in the midst of cultural engagement.

This seems key: Just as politics is downstream from culture, culture in general is downstream from Chrisitan culture in particular. And to the degree that Christian culture or ministry might be darkened by "aping the world" (as Francis Schaeffer so emphasized), to that degree we perhaps should not be surprised at the darkness around us. Perhaps we -- you and I and our methods of  ministry -- are part of the darkness.

But if that is true, there is hope. We know where to begin in the humanity of truly loving our neighbor. We begin by looking in the mirror. If we can deal honestly with that, then maybe the culture and the politics will begin to line up as well.

That may seem like a long way to fix Houston, but it's the shortest route I know of.

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"The New York Times recently revealed that, before abandoning the idea, Barack and Michelle Obama had considered eliminating the White House’s traditional nativity scene as part of an effort to celebrate a 'non-religious' Christmas," writes attorney and commentator Carol Platt Liebau.

"In light of that story," she continues, "it wasn’t entirely surprising to learn that this year, for the first time, the President’s Christmas card contains neither any mention of Christmas itself nor a quote from the New Testament. Obviously, the Obamas aren’t fans of overt displays of Christian religiosity."

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Let Freedom Ring -- "I did not become a Christian so I would have to fight for my constitutional freedoms all over again," writes Kenneth Hutcherson, former NFL linebacker and now pastor of Antioch Bible Church.

"Growing up in Alabama being black, knowing how that felt and the way I was treated in an all-white world of power and control, I had to fight for equal rights under the Constitution," says Hutcherson in a column at WorldNetDaily.

"How ironic now as a Christian to have those same thoughts and feelings again and to have to try and wrestle control of my constitutional rights from the secular community."

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Care about living free of Islamic oppression? Think it's time to "draw a line in the sand before the scimitars of the crescent moon?"

Then you may agree that the Swiss vote to ban the construction of minarets in their country is "perfectly understandable," writes Phil Elmore at WorldNetDaily.

Thought Renegade Mark Steyn Offers Peerless Advice for the Climate Cultist: "Look for the peer-reviewed label! And then just believe whatever it is they tell you."

The first National Tea Party Convention in Nashville next February, with Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann among the speakers, has the makings of being a huge event -- and that may be a gross understatement.

For if the American people dig down deep to the Declarational and Constitutional bedrock of this country -- down to unalienable rights and the living, knowable, and verifiable Creator who is the basis and energizer of those rights -- we may well be on the edge of a cultural-political earthquake of freedom and liberty not seen since the Founding Era and the days of 1776.

But here's one of my primary concerns: That a political machine (either "left" or "right," with its attendant "leadership") or a religious machine (either "left" or "right," with its attendant celebrity "leadership") may find a way to co-opt what up to now appears to be a genuine cultural movement animated by a return to Declaration foundations.

That would be a tragedy, with another generation lost and another 20-30 years of Big Activism and Big Namism but so little effectiveness against the secularist usurpation. An America tipping toward tyranny may not be able to afford much more of that.

Update, Feb. 8, 2010: Please note that Michele Bachmann did not speak at the event. Here is a January 20 statement announcing that Palin will join Bachmann on the campaign trail.

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"And a Little Child Shall Lead Them" (Isaiah 11:6) -- "The two children chosen to front Richard Dawkins’s latest assault on God could not look more free of the misery he associates with religious baggage," reports the UK Times.

"With the slogan 'Please don’t label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself', the youngsters with broad grins seem to be the perfect advertisement for the new atheism being promoted by Professor Dawkins and the British Humanist Association."

But then: "Except that they are about as far from atheism as it is possible to be. The Times can reveal that Charlotte, 8, and Ollie, 7, are from one of the country’s most devout Christian families."

Says the father of the children Brad Mason: “It is quite funny, because obviously they were searching for images of children that looked happy and free. They happened to choose children who are Christian. It is ironic. The humanists obviously did not know the background of these children."

"Billy Graham said it was an honor having Palin in his home to join his family for dinner and that they took the opportunity to pray together," reports AP.
 
"I, like many people, have been impressed with her strong commitment to her faith, to family and love of country," AP quotes Graham as saying in a statement. "I appreciated hearing her speak of her own spiritual journey and her life in Alaska."

In "The China President Obama Didn't See," an intriguing comment on Obama's recent trip to communist China, Leslie Hook in the Wall Street Journal muses upon why the Chinese government is so fearful of "unregistered" churches.

She writes:

Chinese and foreign observers alike believe the number of Chinese belonging to underground churches may now exceed 100 million people. That figure has grown rapidly as more and more Chinese, particularly well-educated city dwellers, turn away from Communist Party atheism. [emphasis added]

Life has never been easy for the underground churches, and recently it has gotten a lot harder. This is the result, according to the Christian charity group China Aid, of a state directive handed down in August. Why do China's powerful leaders fear these churches, most of which steer clear of politics? It may be that they have grown increasingly paranoid about the political power of religion given the unrest they have faced in Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang. Or it could be because dissident intellectuals, such as jailed human-rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, have sometimes tended toward Christianity. [emphasis added]

As a questioning and free-thinking human being who affirms the philosophic and reality-oriented answers given in the Judeo-Christian worldview to the basic questions of existence raised by life in a challenging universe -- answers superior to those offered by secular humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and so on (and superior, by the way, to that fragmentation that passes for political liberalism these days) -- one can appreciate in some small measure why "well-educated city dwellers" and "dissident intellectuals" are attracted to Christianity. 

As a person religiously committed to god-talk secularism, Mr. Obama seems blessedly ignorant of the vibrancy and intellectual strength of the historic Judeo-Christian worldview here in the United States. So I suppose, in this respect, it is hardly unexpected that he misses it abroad in the land of Mao.

Upshot for Mr. Obama and the Chinese: The next few years may hold a few surprises for him, them, and like-minded people of secular faith.

David Limbaugh writes:

It seems the mainstream media's favorite pastime is to ridicule Sarah Palin. Of all the screeds I've read, I don't think any are snarkier than The Washington Post's Sally Quinn's "On Faith" blog post "Sarah Palin's 'rogue' Christianity."

Do we need further proof of the secular orientation of our dominant media culture than the fact that Quinn, an avowed atheist, pens the Post's "On Faith" blog? That would be like featuring a column by Fidel Castro on free enterprise and individual liberties. . . .

Quinn -- convinced she has exposed Palin as confused, conflicted and acutely hypocritical -- volleys a series of rhetorical questions designed to reveal Palin's apparent inconsistency in believing that God is in complete control ("I don't believe in coincidences") and yet he allows or causes terrible things to happen to people.

Regarding the question how a good God can co-exist with evil in the world, readers may want to take a look at The Innocence of God, by Udo Middelmann. A former atheist whose family stood against the Nazis, Middelmann is president of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation.

"Conservative members of America's largest Lutheran denomination announced that they are splitting from the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, making it the second mainline Protestant church to undergo a major schism over the issue of homosexuality and related matters of biblical authority," reports Julia Duin at the Washington Times.

"The Nazi Party tried their best to remove Christ from Christmas by paganising carols, producing glittering swastika, iron cross and toy grenade baubles for the fir tree, research for a new exhibition has found," reports the UK Telegraph.

"Many of the changes made under Hitler, put in place to remove the influence of the Jewish-born baby Jesus, are still in use today, much to the alarm of modern Germans."

Go here for a remedy to this kind of state-sponsored manipulation of Christmas.

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In a YouTube Moment, Movement for Italy Leader Daniela Santanche says: "He was a pedophile and we don't want to talk about it . . . He had a 9-year-old wife . . . Mohammed was a pedophile."

Here's the Movement for Italy website (in Italian).

Hat tip: Rachel Rose

Clueless in Harvardville: In the process of attacking "religious fundamentalism," Harvey Cox commits a "number of egregious errors," writes Dave Pierre at Newsbusters. The scene of the crime is the Boston Globe.

"Surprise!" Pierre concludes. "A Harvard professor who doesn't recognize his own muddled thinking."

But Trevor Keezer Is Not Backing Down: According to Fox News, Home Depot says wearing the pin violated company policy. In that case, Home Depot needs a policy adjustment. Big time.

Otherwise, milions of Americans who are unashamed of the Creator, unashamed of the facts of our Founding as a nation under God, unashamed of a Pledge of Allegiance that declares, "One Nation Under God," may decide as an act of stewardship to take what's left of their hard-earned paychecks and spend them elsewhere.

This is not about a private religion, subjective values, psychological "faith," or relativistic company policy.

This is about freedom under the fact of a knowable, verifiable, and rational Creator who has endowed human beings, created in His image, with "certain unalienable rights." 

That's the mainstream of American exceptionalism.

Home Depot may have just declared itself outside of that mainstream of liberty and freedom. And that, my friends, is an extreme position against who we are as a nation "conceived in liberty" by the Creator of liberty.  

Instead of being fired, Trevor Keezer ought to be promoted. He can take the job of the unfortunate person who decided "Under God" is bad for Home Depot. 

So what is it, Home Depot? When it comes to affirming who we are as Americans: Are you in, or are you out?

"A senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, [Dalia] Mogahed was appointed to President Obama's Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships," reports WorldNetDaily.

"The Egyptian-born, hijab-clad adviser drew attention earlier this month when she defended Shariah, or Islamic law, on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist Muslim group, insisting the majority of women around the world associate Shariah with 'gender justice'."

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"The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has adopted a new pro-liberalized immigration stance that is creating ripples among its conservative membership," writes Mark Tooley at American Spectator.

"Although NAE had touted its board's supposedly unanimous backing, at least one prominent NAE member, the Salvation Army, has apparently already disavowed it."

What's going on? The AmSpec kicker puts it like this: "The National Association of Evangelicals moves in the direction of the National Council of Churches."

Members of the Presbyterian Church in America may want to take note:

Another prominent NAE member, the 340,00 member Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), issued a statement, more defensively, but also asserting that NAE does not speak for member churches. "The NAE Immigration Resolution of 2009 has not become the PCA position on immigration," insisted PCA Stated Clerk Roy Taylor, who also chairs the NAE's board. But he still affirmed his own support for it: "The NAE Immigration Resolution of 2009, in my view, is a biblically-based, theologically reflective, carefully balanced, concise document."

In his conclusion, Tooley notes that the National Council of Churches (NCC) "became mostly irrelevant when its Mainline Protestant voices stopped speaking for its churches and started speaking 'prophetically' to them. Similarly, the NCC moved beyond issues of Christian consensus to adopt more morally ambiguous, and ostensibly more fashionable, political causes du jour. This sad history should be familiar to evangelicals. But the NAE seems determined to repeat what has already been tried and failed."

The secularist ACLU is "suing to take down a cross on a huge public swath of desert in Southern California," writes Ben Stein at American Spectator.  Stein offers a few reasons the cross should stay.

To his reasons, let us add this: Nothing in the Declaration, the U.S. Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights forbids it. What is forbidden in the 1st Amendment is that Congress should make a law in this regard.

The atttempt to impose atheism and secularism upon American society represents a profound, ongoing Constitutional crisis and constitutes a threat to every individual inside our borders.

A free, dignified, and creative people under God, endowed by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights," would do well to rise up and throw off the shackles of this imposition.

Helping the oppressed citizens of the United States break free of this statist addiction to the pretend "God" substitute of the federal government -- exemplified by the negative spirituality of the Obama administration but also so easily given into by squishy Republicans -- is a surefire way to demonstrate respect for our true Creator, not to mention love of neighbor.

The alternative is tyranny, and that's not an alternative.

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Dave Welch, founder of the U.S. Pastor Council, writes at WorldNetDaily:

One of the country's most articulate and credible voices on the threat of radical Islam within our borders stated last week that it is the greatest threat to our nation today beyond any other domestic issues we are addressing. In the strictly national security and geopolitical contexts, this person was right. As she stated, government takeover of health care and other industries are not a concern to those who are dead.

I'll have to admit, however, that my spirit rejected the notion that radical Islam is THE greatest threat to America any more than it was when Muhammad's hordes were sweeping on horseback through northern Africa, the Middle East and into western Europe a millennia ago. Imperialist Islam has been defeated and contained before and certainly can be again.

The question is whether there are as many Christians left in America willing to live and die for our faith, families and freedom as there are orthodox Muslims willing to kill and die for theirs.

The pathetic preaching that has created a generation of shallow, self-focused professing followers of Jesus Christ has done far more damage to our national security than any conspiracies of men of any religion or no religion, any race and any creed could do.

More . . .

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Breitbart TV has this video of community organizers apparently praying to Barack Obama: "Hear Our Cry, Obama . . . Deliver Us, Obama . . ." But is this what they are saying? See update below.

Update -- See the following "Editor's Note" from Breitbart:

We've updated this post with the longer version of the original event. As you'll see in the comments and related links there is a debate over what is actually being said. Does the crowd say, "Hear our cry, Obama" and "Deliver us Obama?" Or are they saying "Oh God?" In the longer version the first two repetitions seem to have a distinct "uh" sound at the end that resonates as "Obama." The later repetitions are a little fuzzier. Did some of the religious leaders present become uneasy? Or was there a mix of what was being said? Read some of the blogger analysis below. What do you think?

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Cult in the City: Obama

"A Christian advocacy group says about 80 pastors have preached partisan political sermons -- daring the Internal Revenue Service to revoke their churches' tax exempt status," reports AP.

Few actions seem more timely, more humane, more liberating, more biblical -- and more patriotic today -- than Americans questioning authority and defying government when it violates the Constitution, shreds the Declaration, and sets itself up as the Creator and source of human rights, including the right of free speech. 

And later on -- O Defiant Ones -- when your educated, free, creative, and responsible kids and grandkids full of life and humanity under God ask what you did in the war, you'll have something to say. The blessings of the fathers will be visited upon the children.   

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Politics From the Pulpit

"America is in need of a new 'Great Awakening' -- an awakening that some Christian leaders say can only come about if Christians get on their knees," reports CNSNews.com.

That's the view of Rev. William Wilson, who is executive director of the International Center for Spiritual Renewal (ICSR), quoted by CNSNews: 

America right now is facing great complexities. We have a financial struggle that we’re in, we’re facing health-care issues that have us scratching our heads. Our place in the world has shifted. We’re a nation that really needs help from beyond ourselves. We feel like God is the help.

ICSR is a member of the Awakening America Alliance, which CNSNews reports is sponsoring "Cry Out America," a September 11 event challenging thousands to "gather at noon [Friday] at county courthouses across the nation in repentance, to pray for the lost, to cry out for God to send another 'Great Awakening.'"

While free-thinking Americans watch, pray, and rebuild, here are three resources we think provide timely and essential content for national renewal:

* Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, by Mark Levin

* A Christian Manifesto (DVD), by Francis Schaeffer

* Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity, by Nancy Pearcey

From OneNewsNow:

The head of a Virginia conservative group is asking Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell to clarify his stances on traditional values issues in light of his attempt to distance himself from a master's thesis he wrote for an evangelical Christian school 20 years ago.

Did McDonnell just lose the election?

The U.S. government was once the "God-friendliest goverment in the whole world," writes Joseph Farah. "But as Washington's power and reach grew well beyond its constitutional restrictions, something happened."

Or "How to use meaningless but emotive religious symbols to manipulate Americans into supporting an un-Constitutional, anti-Declarational, inhumane, anti-Christian atrocity otherwise known as Obamacare."

In "The Obama Clergy Call," Jan LaRue of the American Civil Rights Union has much to say on this latest episode of "Wag the Clergy."

Speaking of "Wag the Clergy," the storyline goes something like this:

Here Clergy, Clergy, Clergy.

Fetch. Sit. Beg. Slobber. Rollover.

Good boy. Your stimulus check is in the mail.

For a humane alternative to this indignity, consider the reality-oriented Judeo-Christian worldview, rooted in information from a knowable and evidentially available Creator (the kind our Founding Fathers knew about but political manipulators despise).

It ain't about "religion" stuck inside Grandma's closet. But truth. For the whole person. Applied across the whole of life, including political life.

Free-thinkers, please see "Christmas Spirit in the Dirt." 

"On the 46th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March on Washington, Education Secretary Arne Duncan declined to say whether King’s view that just laws are based on God's law should be taught in public schools," reports CNSNews.com.
 
"In his famous 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' King expressed his classical belief, based on the teachings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas as well as the Founding Fathers, that a just law is a law that comports with the law of God and an unjust law is a law that does not comport with the law of God."

Comment: The real factor prohibiting the teaching about the Creator in the public schools is an imposed secularism, not the U.S. Constitution.

The real threat to liberty in America comes not from teaching about our true Creator, upon whom the American republic is founded.

No, the real threat derives from a secular state, which seeks to impose an alien, false, and inhumane ideology upon American life and thought.

In that un-American, unconstitutional and anti-Declarational world, Martin Luther King and his "Letter From Birmingham" will forever be at the back of the bus. 

Far better for free-thinking Americans to act upon our "unalienable rights" -- endowed not by some privatized, abstract religiousity, "faith," or "value," but by a living, factual, and rationally knowable Creator who is a public figure.

Far better to show secularist tryanny the door at the next bus stop.

Let freedom ride. Up front. 

"A young Christian runaway in foster care awaits her hearing [today] when Florida authorities will decide whether she will be forced to return to her Muslim parents -- whom she says will kill her for converting to Christianity," reports WorldNetDaily.

She is just 17, and her name is Fathima Rifqa Bary.

"I'm fighting for my life," she says.

Here is Rifqa Bary on YouTube.

Here's Daniel Allott's take, writing at American Specator:

Religious conservatives have become a consequential force over the last few years by engaging in politics to defend the values of sexual restraint, marital fidelity and respect for human life.

That's a good thing.

But to win the culture war, their passion to defend these values in public policy must be matched by an equal amount of passion to live them in their own lives.

A defiant Craig Smith writes:

Recent media coverage of Americans speaking up with their concerns about the proposed health care legislation finally removes any doubt that those on the hard Left side of the Democratic aisle hate anything that remotely resembles traditional America.

When Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin protested the Bush administration they were heralded as brave Americans who loved their country enough to speak truth to power. They were treated to a level of favorable coverage like we have never seen -- coverage normally reserved for Mother Teresa or Rosa Parks.

But let 200, 300 hard-working, play-by-the-rules, taxpaying, law-abiding citizens voice their opinions about a government that has a deaf ear to the people and we hear words like "Nazis," "paid plants," "GOP operatives," "right-wing wackos" and worse spewing from the mouths of Democratic leadership in Congress.

The ease in which they use such terms without any critical analysis by the press is very revealing.

Let's be clear: What is being attack by the current regime and its allies in the collaborationist press is not just a vague America of "yesteryear," "traditional America," the "America we grew up with," or the "America that you and I love."

What is hated and what is being attacked are the very foundations of human liberty: The Declaration of Independence, as written; the U.S. Constitution (including the Bill of Rights), as written; and the Judeo-Christian philosophy of life, rooted and verified in history, which alone gives a consistent and adequate basis for human dignity and liberty across the whole of life, including poltical life.

On this sure and sacred basis, the American people have a duty, an obligation, and a calling, under God, to resist, to rise up, and to cast out the intruder in our midst. And to move forward on the basis of those timeless emancipatory prescriptions of liberty famously celebrated every July 4. 

"Paramilitary troops patrolled the streets of a town in eastern Pakistan yesterday after Muslim radicals burned to death eight members of a Christian family, raising fears of violence spreading to other areas," reports the UK Times.

From AP:

The Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool of Maryland will be among six candidates on the ballot when lay people and clergy vote in December, despite a long-standing request from world Anglican leaders for a moratorium on consecrating openly gay bishops.

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Singing chants in the Vatican, reports the Telegraph.

Will he do the Letterman show?

From AP:

The congressman nominated to become Secretary of the Army says chaplains must be careful to give non-sectarian blessings and avoid proselytizing in non-worship assemblies.

From God:

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

From the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

Related
"Jesus" Banned, So Chaplain Resigns
Secularist Washington-Centrism Is Un-American

A policeman can be fired for calling a black man a "banana-eating jungle monkey."

But a scientist can be fired for not calling Man a "banana-eating jungle monkey."

The former penalizes people for their racism; the latter penalizes people for their lack of evolutionism. 

A bit odd, don't you think?

After all, if the evolutionary picture is the whole show, is not Mankind per se a "banana-eating jungle monkey"? Or at least a close cousin?

Racism is evil.

But we learn that from our true Creator. Not from nature.

Not from an impersonal, indifferent cosmos.

And not from the monkeys, from the bananas, from the jungle, or from those who believe in them. 

Surely, you understand the difference.

Our Founders did: "Endowed by our Creator . . ."

It takes a Creator to start a country. Well, at least a country worth living in.

Columnist Cal Thomas shares a few of his concerns regarding former Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter:

. . . who once attended and occasionally taught a Sunday school class in Washington, which I visited, then claimed to believe much of what Scripture teaches. In practice, though, he was pro-choice on abortion and recently announced his support for same-sex "civil unions." He says he sees nothing prohibitive in Scripture to such arrangements. Carter must have gotten hold of a Reader's Digest condensed version.

Carter has announced he is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention -- the nation's largest Protestant body -- because he claims it treats women as inferior to men. In a statement he said, "At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities."

Carter must have missed the passage about mutual submission between married couples and the requirement that a man love his wife "as Christ loved the church," a very high standard that implies such love be equal to the self-sacrifice demonstrated by Christ on the cross. Such sacrifice can hardly justify any of the sins against women that Carter unfairly ascribes to the Southern Baptist Convention.

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Betraying Christ: Obama Affirms Perverted Sex

Central to a free-thinking citizen's resistance to un-Godly oppression in an "Obama-driven nation" is a not-so-new "Go ahead, make my day" kind of prayer, according to uppity pastor/columnist prayer warrior Doug Giles:

You must add to your repertoire of petitions you offer up to God Almighty what I like to call Dirty Harry prayers: radical prayers against the radically unrighteous direction our nation is headed. You heard me right. I said pray against this fetid mess.

Read the entire column at Townhall.

Writing at WorldNetDaily, this from Joseph Farah:

Rick Warren told the Islamic Society of North America last week that he is not interested in interfaith dialogue; he's only interested in interfaith projects.

I agree with Rick Warren.

So let's get started. I have a project to suggest. It's very simple. It's very straightforward. I think it's a great starting point for Christian-Muslim action.

Let's get Muslims to stop killing and oppressing Christians and Jews around the world.

That would be the speech I would deliver to a group such as the Islamic Society of North America, a front group for the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, which has incubated and supported terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida and Hamas.

More from "I Agree With Rick Warren!" . . .  

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Wildmon: Carrie Prejean vs. Rick Warren
Rick Warren's Holy Week Crisis

"The leader of a Messianic Jewish ministry has written an open letter to mega-church pastor Rick Warren in response to his address to a Muslim group with terrorist connections during its annual convention over the Fourth of July weekend," reports OneNewsNow.

"Warren . . . agreed to appear at the recent convention of the Islamic Society of North America and be part of its main session discussing the convention's theme -- 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.' He told the gathering of 8,000 that 'Muslims and Christians can work together for the common good without compromising my convictions or your convictions.'

"Jan Markell, founder of Olive Tree Ministries, comments on Warren's remarks," according to OneNewsNow:

"I'm sorry, that kind of a 'let's all get along' [solution] is not possible -- and what he needed to do was tell them the truth," she contends. "But that is not what Rick Warren does. He does not tell the truth, at least not when he's outside of his Saddleback Church."

More from "Warren Panders to Muslim Group, Omits Gospel" . . .

"Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is again drawing fire from conservative groups, this time as the result of a 2003 ruling against a Christian group," reports CNSNews.com.
 
"In the case of Okwedy v. Molinari, decided in 2003, Sotomayor sat on a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court’s ruling (from 2001) against Keyword Ministries and its pastor, Kristopher Okwedy. The ministry had purchased billboard advertisements featuring Bible verses that condemned homosexuality."

Related:
Rush: Sotomayor the "Antithesis of a Judge"
To Obama and Sotomayor: Keep Your Tyranny Off Our Constitution

It's rather odd, but entirely in tune with modern-day secular religion, to see the present occupant of the White House claim he is a "Christian" and yet affirm so much that flatly, and sadly, contradicts the content, character, mood, and philosophic worldview of Jesus of Nazareth.

We turn to skeptical Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, evaluating -- as he should and as every human being in principle is called to do -- Barack Obama's recent affirmation of sexual perversion a la the imposition of private homosexist "values" upon American society. Farah writes:

He has already managed to scrap the Constitution as a consideration in his policymaking plans. I have no doubts he would like us all to forget about the immutable standards put forth by the God of the universe in his Holy Word.

Barack Hussein Obama and his acolytes don't like being accountable to a higher authority. Obama would like to be the highest standard. He's one of those people the Bible describes as "being wise in his own eyes."

As Paul explained in Romans, homosexuality is not a "lifestyle." It's a judgment. When a society changes the truth of God into a lie and worships the creature more than the Creator, that society is given over to vile affections. That's where we are in the United States of America today.

Go here to read the entirety of Farah's column titled, "Worn Arguments and Old Attitudes."

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The Evil Religious Presidents Do
Cult in the City: Obama
Breitbart, Rush, and the Cult of Secular Politics

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Jane Chastain at WorldNetDaily issues a trumpet call to those who, unlike Christian President John Adams, are sleep-walking and hot-dogging it through July 4, in careless violation of their dignity as free human beings called to live in community with our Creator and our neighbors across the whole of life, including political life.

Those kind of carefree days and simple-minded celebrations may be gone for the foreseeable future. Especially if you envision a future worth foreseeing.

Remember: Politics -- not to mention little things like freedom and the survival of a nation -- is too important to be left to the vote-grubbers. 

To see how real hope and real change might begin on July 5, read Chastain's article here.

From the Washington Times:

Social conservatives, the once-powerful force that focused the Republican agenda on moral virtue and family values, have suffered a diminished brand on the national political landscape as a steady stream of their icons have fallen prey to the vices they once preached against.

Extramarital affairs, gambling, alcohol abuse, prostitution and sexual pursuit of minors have taken a toll on the GOP.

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Plagiarism: Pretend People, Fake Work
Pastoral Plagiarism
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach

This chilling video from Iran demonstrates something about the price of freedom, something about the high personal cost of standing up to government tyranny.

Our Founders understood something about this. Do we here at home in the U.S.?

Or have secularized Americans and "Christian" presidents such as Barack Hussein Obama forgotten about unalienable rights endowed by the Creator? Those real human rights, of course, violate the "separation of church and state" written into the "living" U.S. Constitution by the likes of the ACLU.

If that rewrite of history and the Constitution stands, then it may be Tehran today, but America tomorrow, for ideas have consequences. And bad ideas can have evil consequences.

If we despise the Founding Vision -- as elites and secularists preach and teach in Washington, Hollywood, Media, and academia -- one wonders on what basis American individuals and families can really hope to maintain their freedom and dignity.

Related:
If Sam Adams Had a Bulldozer
Jon Voight Calls for Resistance to "Obama Oppression"
Independence Day Tea Party Tally Explodes

Racists, socialists, Marxists, and fascists red and yellow, black and white may want to hold onto their seats and secure their pews.

Writing at Frontpage magazine, Ben Johnson makes the case that "longtime neo-Nazi" James Wenneker Von Brunn "was . . . not . . .     a . . . conservative."

Moreover, writes Johnson, the murder suspect "denounced the Christian faith as a dastardly Jewish conspiracy" and as a "'HOAX' invented by the Apostle Paul to 'DESTROY ROMAN CULTURE' from within by undermining its pagan virility." (Note: The CAPS above, as Johnson points out, "appear in the original.")

One does not mean to be redundant, but the stereotype-challenging information Johnson provides may also upset members of a) the Collaborationist Press and b) the Obama administration.

Why? Because, sadly and tyrannically, many of these folks are also "Christian-Haters." 

They constitute an elitist, secularist axis of those who despise -- in contradistinction to the genius of the Founding Fathers and the Founding Vision -- the humane, liberating, and dictatorship-challenging application of Creator-rooted information and thoughtforms to the public square.

Their way, including the Obama way, is the end of America the free.

The end of their way opens the door to humanity and dignity under God again. That's what the Declaration and Constitution are all about.

According to the evidence, Von Brunn hates this. As does the Washington-Centric establishment.

Related:
Jon Voight Calls for Resistance to "Obama Oppression"
Question the Collaborationist Media
Obama Nation's Low View of Christianity
The Evil Religious Presidents Do

John Sexton writes at Verum Serum:

No surprise to those who’ve followed his career. Franky Schaeffer has found a new way to drag his father’s name through the mud, this time by blaming him for the murder of Dr. Tiller.

More on "Franky Schaeffer Dishonestly" . . .

Related:
Franky Schaeffer Plays Schaeffer Card, Again
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach
What Can We Learn From Francis Schaeffer?
Francis Schaeffer: "The Central Problem of Our Age"
Telegraph: U.S. Religious Right Concedes Defeat
Michelangelo, Schaeffer, and the Kingdom of Washington

"Whenever I question the timidity of today's church in America," writes Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily, "I receive lectures accusing me of violating a biblical principle that supposedly provides a blanket condemnation of Christian resistance to tyranny. . . . 

"Perhaps there is no better time than now to revisit this issue -- as we approach America's Independence Day and our nation moves ever closer to tyranny, this time directed not from London but from our own nation's capital."

More from Farah on "Should Christians Resist Tyranny?" 

Related:
Tyranny Watch: When Government Attacks
What About Obama, Mussolini, and the Unmentionable Herr Hitler?
The Evil Religious Presidents Do

From the Washington Times:

Both sides of the debate over same-sex marriage said Tuesday's California Supreme Court decision upholding Proposition 8, the second defeat in a row for gay-marriage supporters, may have ended the legal battle on the ballot initiative but not the fight over the issue.

In a 6-1 decision, the court rejected arguments that the November ballot measure amending the state constitution to state that marriage is the union of one man and one woman violated the "inalienable" rights of same-sex couples to marry. The justices, however, did let stand the same-sex marriages performed before the initiative's passage.

Two comments:

1) The court is correct in rejecting the attempt to claim homosexual "marriage" as an inalienable right. Inalienable rights, as the Declaration of Independence affirms, are ontological derivatives rooted in the Creator, in whose image human beings are made. That same Creator makes clear, in historical and ethical information He communicates in the verifiable data of the Old and New Testaments, that marriage is a liberating circle of life-long fidelity and community for male and female.

2) The California court is incorrect to allow homosexist "marriages" performed before the passage of Prop 8 to stand, for those "marriages" are only social constructs that have no real moral or, ultimately, legal validity. Relying on high-sounding but hollow religious and public relations absolutes such as "equality" and "tolerance," monophysicalist unions violate the moral character of the ultimate Lawgiver, that self-same Creator whom the Founding Fathers recognized as the source of inalienable rights in the first place. 

See also:
Secularist Washington-Centrism Is Un-American

"Some see it as the universal symbol of sacrifice in World War I, others see it as the undisputed sign of Christianity, but it will be up to the Supreme Court to make a final determination as to whether a 7-foot cross remains standing in a California desert to memorialize war veterans," reports the Washington Times.

"The cross was first erected in 1934 in what is now the federally protected Mojave Desert Preserve by a group of veterans whose doctors advised them that the desert heat would help them recover from shell shock.

"Veterans today say this war memorial and others like it across the country that use religious symbols are under attack by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)."

More on "ACLU 'Dead Wrong' on Vet Cross" . . .

"America has become a morally bankrupt society that embraces intolerance against Christians, including a new push for 'hate crimes' legislation, according to one pastor who believes it's all because church leaders have failed to do their jobs," reports WorldNetDaily. 

"But this Memorial Day weekend he is calling ministers to fight for those freedoms -- from their pulpits." (emphasis added)

More on "Patriot Pastors" at WND . . . 

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In case you missed it, WND recently linked (scroll down) to "Beauty and the Beast: Now This Is Extremism," with the following kicker: "Rick Pearcey: Miss California Has Upheld Founders' 'Humane and Liberating Worldview.'"

Here's the article at Pro-Existence.

Go ahead. Make Nice. But Notre Dame party-spoiler Joseph Farah of WND chooses not to play by Obama's pathetic, inhumane, and bloody rules:

If I were presiding over a public policy that called for the murder of unborn babies for any reason or no reason at all, that provided mandatory public funding of those procedures both domestically and in foreign countries, that required doctors and nurses to perform abortions even if they were conscientiously opposed, that permitted experimentations on living human embryos, that promoted even partial-birth abortions outside the womb and that called for the extermination of infants who somehow defied all the odds and managed to survive efforts to kill them before birth, I guess I would want to frame the debate in such a way as to diminish the hideous monstrousness of my morally indefensible position.

He doesn't really want people who recognize what abortion is to approach the debate with "open hearts." He wants us to harden our hearts.  

More on "The Blowback of Notre Dame," by Joseph Farah at WND . . .

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Obama OKs Killing Unborn in Notre Dame Speech
Episcopalian High Priestess: "Abortion Is a Blessing!"
What About Obama, Mussolini, and the Unmentionable Herr Hitler?
The Evil Religious Presidents Do
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American Fascism: Obama and Mussolini

"After receiving an honorary doctorate in law at the University of Notre Dame’s graduation ceremony yesterday, President Barack Obama delivered a speech to the school's graduating seniors that sought to legitimize his position in favor of the legal killing of unborn children," reports Terry Jeffrey at CNSNews.com.

"Obama told the graduates of the nation’s most well-known Catholic university that abortion 'has both moral and spiritual dimensions' -- although he did not explain why he had made this conclusion -- and made it quite clear that, even so, he has no intention of moving from his position that it ought to be legal for a pregnant mother to have a doctor kill her unborn child for literally any reason at any stage of pregnancy."

More on Obama at Notre Dame from CNSNews.com.

Related
Episcopalian High Priestess: "Abortion Is a Blessing!"
What About Obama, Mussolini, and the Unmentionable Herr Hitler?
The Evil Religious Presidents Do
How to Argue Like a Fascist
American Fascism: Obama and Mussolini

Ann Coulter writes:

Not even Dick Cheney can incite the blood-curdling rage of liberals at the sight of a sexy Evangelical Christian. Paula Jones, Katherine Harris, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and, most recently, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, have all come under a frenzy of attacks from liberals.
   
Christians are supposed to be fat, balding sweaty little men with bad complexions. It's liberals who are supposed to be the sexy ones. (I know that from watching "The West Wing" and all movies starring Julia Roberts.)
   
But sadly for liberals, in real life, the fat, balding sweaty little guy with the bad complexion is Perez Hilton and the smoking-hot babe is Carrie Prejean.

More . . .

Related
Seriously Hot: The Carrie Prejean Story
Shuster Asks, "Can I Vomit?"
Miss California on Liberty Live Radio
Centrist Miss California Told to Shut Up "About Your Faith"
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Wildmon: Carrie Prejean vs. Rick Warren
Rosie's Coat

"While the left has been indulging and fostering the 'Bush Is Hitler' meme, they have just put a genuine ideological fascist heir in the White House," writes Kyle-Anne Shiver at American Thinker.

"There is an inherent danger in making scurrilous comparisons (as were perpretated unceasingly against George W. Bush), but there seem to be some very worrisome signs in the rise of Barack Obama that we Americans would be foolish to ignore."

More on Barack Obama: The Quintessential Liberal Fascist . . .

Related:
Can Obama Be an Economic Fascist?
Fascism Watch: Village Voice and Pro-Existence
American Fascism: Obama and Mussolini
National Obama Socialism
Regarding "Change" -- Liberals Drink Deeply From Fascist Well
Fascism Is Back
The Evil Religious Presidents Do

"The Rev. Katherine Ragsdale will soon become the first female president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts," writes Mark Tooley at American Spectator.  

In addition to a sermon in which the "openly lesbian" (what bravery!) Ms. Ragsdale exclaimed the "blessing" derived from one class of humanity being able to destroy another class of humanity, she has on occasion "boasted" before the congressional gods of the Federal Empire "of chauffeuring a 15-year-old girl to get an abortion and vowed to do so again, no matter the law, because the 'vows' of her ordination supposedly require it," says Tooley.

PR is key when advocating such inhumanity out of accord with real Christianity and the American founding. "However provocative Ragdale's pronouncements often are," Tooley writes, "she is in demeanor calm and polished and seemingly disciplined."

In short: No sudden moves, "seemingly." Unless, you're a "doctor" at work in an aborcentration center on a mission from god. That's where Ms. Ragsdale's "blessings" are "safe, rare, and legal" -- unless you happen to be on the wrong end of the safety. "No sudden moves" is absolutey vital here: Baring teeth too soon, or in public, may scare the horses.  

On Radio America, former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said:

You have to admit, he is a cult leader and the cult will go with him anywhere he wants to go.

You just don't know about the size of the cult, how big it is, if it's shrinking or growing, but he is a cult leader and you have to realize that he's not just a political figure, he is truly a cult leader.

Much of politics today is divorced from a careful consideration of fact, logic, constitutional limits on power, and liberty as defined by the American founding. That we are left much of the time with recourse to cults of personality, hyped agendas, ideological passions, and raw power is hardly surprising. Or welcome.

As the American founders understood, a free-thinking people living in community with our true Creator will throw off this undignified nose-pulling that struts the world as some kind of "cool."

It seems that accurately locating the affirmations of Miss California Carrie Prejean at the philosophic center of the American experiment in liberty was a bit much for Jim Galloway at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Over the top," said Galloway.

Galloway describes himself as a "writer and editor with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 30 years," and he writes a blog called "Political Insider." He was responding to a column in RedState titled Beauty and the Beast: The Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton, also published at Pro-Existence, here. 

Note also this strange comment from a fellow who thinks I'm a "foreigner" who "would do well to draw from the actual well of Our Founders’ writing." He suggests I leave the country. 

Well, I think I've done well by the commenter and perhaps even Mr. Galloway. As a Christian, Miss Prejean affirms the existence of a Creator, as does the Declaration of Independence, which expresses the basic worldview and mission statement of the Founders of the United States. Both positions relate the Creator to questions of public life, including government and politics.

Miss California, therefore, is operating within the same philosophic universe as that shared by our Founders. She occupies the middle ground, the "center," as it were.

Those such as Perez Hilton who reject the application of verifiable information from the Creator to public life, including politics, operate in a totally different philosophic universe. In both outbursts and outlook, they are the extremists. 

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

In short, "America's Pastor" needs to grow a backbone. A 21-year-old California blonde might be able to show him how. Here's Tim Wildmon's take. 

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

The following column is by Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action. Barber also co-hosts the nationally syndicated “Liberty Live” talk radio program on AFR Talk. Brackets and ellipsis below indicate an editorial effort to keep Pro-Existence a family-friendly source of comment and analysis, an increasingly challenging proposition, given the rise of anti-family forces of secuarism and intolerance in the land, exemplified of late by a judge with the Miss USA pageant. 

You may have heard. During Sunday’s Miss USA pageant openly “gay” activist and pageant judge Perez Hilton -- the self-styled “Queen of Media” -- ambushed Carrie Prejean -- the openly Christian Miss California -- with a politically loaded question on so-called “same-sex marriage.” Prejean’s candid answer -- as both Hilton and Miss USA organizer Donald Trump later admitted -- likely cost her the crown. 

From the moment she opened her mouth, Prejean has given liberals a clinic in class.  Hilton, on the other hand (a.k.a. Mario Armando Lavandeira), has provided the world a sneak peek into the soul of homosexual activism.  

This is one for the up-is-down-black-is-white hall of fame. The media’s fabricated flap over Prejean’s answer -- a public defense of legitimate marriage -- has a reasonable America scratching its collective noggin in stunned disbelief. Not because of the answer she gave Perez -- which was both well received by the pageant audience and overwhelmingly shared by about 70% of Americans -- but, rather, because of Hilton’s hate-filled, misogynistic response to her answer and the disgraceful, knee-jerk defense of that response by liberals in Hollywood, the media, and organized homosexuality. 

After Hilton asked the lovely and talented Miss California whether “every state” should legalize “same-sex marriage,” Prejean responded: “In my country, in my family . . . I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be  -- between a man and a woman.”

Oh the humanity!

Evidently this was not the rooty-tooty-fresh-n’-fruity answer Hilton -- the creepy valley girl wannabe with a five o’clock shadow -- had hoped for. He promptly marked Prejean’s score card with a zero, plopped down in front of the television cameras and began blubbering away like a fussy little snot with a dirty diaper. 

Having already publicly called Prejean a “dumb b----,” he then yammered to a sympathetic Norah O’Donnell on MSNBC that not only was he refusing to apologize he was actually “thinking the C-word.” This, of course, one of the vilest things anyone can call a woman. Yet, rather than taking Hilton to task for the boy lover’s girl-hating poison, O’Donnell joined in on the bash-fest, criticizing Prejean for her traditional view.    

But Hilton wasn’t done yet. Ramping up his vicious attack on the Christian California bombshell, our lispy-wispy lil’ cupcake dove headlong into the annals of dirt-baggery lore. He defaced a photo of Prejean on his weblog scribbling . . . a crude depiction of [male anatomy].

How did Prejean react?

While talking to Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show she said, “I knew at that moment after I answered the question, I knew, I was not going to win because of my answer, because I had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God. . . . I wouldn't have answered it differently. The way I answered may have been offensive. With that question specifically, it's not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct.”

On the Fox News Channel’s Hannity program, Prejean shared, “You know, I forgive him. I know that he's angry for whatever reason. I know there must be a bigger issue going on in his life.”

Like I said -- Class.  

Still, Perez Hilton -- Hollywood’s frothy-potty-mouthed little drama queen -- isn’t alone in his hatred for Prejean or the three-fourths of Americans who share her opposition to the novel and incongruous concept of “gay marriage.”   

For example, Wayne Besen, a prominent leader in the homosexual activist community, unbelievably went on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor to defend Hilton. He picked up Hilton’s anti-Christian torch, incredibly charging that it was Prejean, not Hilton, whose millennia-old recognition of biblical marriage “was divisive.” Besen then added insult to injury and revealed his true rainbow colors by tagging the 70% of Americans who oppose “gay marriage” as “bigots.” 

This whole hateful affair provides the perfect metaphor for the current divide between defenders of traditional sexual morality and the extremist “queer” activist movement. As Congress debates the constructive repeal of both the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of “equal protection under the law” and the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and freedom of religion through passage of discriminatory and wholly unnecessary “hate crimes” legislation, this little episode once again reminds us that the self-described champions of “tolerance” and “diversity” are the most intolerant and hateful among us. 

How soon we forget. Just hearken back a few months to the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which restored the definition of natural marriage to the Golden State. There we all played witness to “gay” activist calls for church burnings, Mormon Temple vandalism, death threats against Prop 8 supporters and quasi-riotous assaults against peaceful Christian marriage supporters. 

So, insofar as liberals continue to dig their own hole by defending Hilton and piling on Prejean, I submit they’re doing the other 70% of us a favor. In their biting anger, they’ve cast aside the sublime mask of “tolerance,” revealing an ugly, desperate and most intolerant countenance below.   

For that, I say thank you. For your treatment of Carrie Prejean, I say shame on you.

Related:
Beauty and the Beast: Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Miss California: "God Was Testing My Faith"
Open Lesbian, CNN Anchor, Defends Miss America Judge
Anderson Cooper and the Crisis of Journalism

From George Neumayr at American Spectator:

Obama's liberalism is not an opponent of human rights abuses but an embodiment of them. The CIA restricts itself to methods far less ruthless than those permitted by the platform of the Democratic Party. When will Obama bring his own platform into line with the Geneva Accords?  

Related:
The Evil Religious Presidents Do
Chris Matthews: Pro-Life "Verbal Terrorism"

Her affirmation of the Creator's objective, verifiable, public, and liberating norm for married life in reply to a homosexual "marriage" question from judge Perez Hilton helped make Carrie Prejean the "most famous runner-up in Miss USA history."

But what was that blonde girl thinking?

There she was . . . publicly proclaiming foundational moral truth about marriage. So tyrannical.

There she was . . . taking a social stand that places her at the philosophical center of the American experiment in liberty and unalienable rights under God. So extreme.

There she was . . . daring to resist mass-marketed peer pressure and the unbending demands of tolerance. So rebellious.  

In all fairness, let us ask: Who does the uppity individual Miss Prejean think she is, brazenly resisting the secularist status quo?

And for all we know she's pro-life. That would fit the profile. Speaking of profiles, that "Right-Wing Extremism" report from the Department of Homeland Security, headed up by Janet Napolitano, couldn't have been more timely. 

Who now can doubt that the American people need to be educated and prepared to allow the federal government to deal with blonde bombshells, free-thinking individuals, constitutionalists, and other potential terrorists at large in the forward-looking land of change?

It's no accident: Only last week we had those Tea Parties. And now this pageant. Who knows what might be coming down the pike?

Yes, there is much to consider in the defense of America. Meanwhile, here's an exclusive interview with Carrie Prejean at FoxNews.com. 

It's the kind of question both journalists and Christians might want to ask. With "lukewarm pretenders" on his mind, Joseph Farah writes: 

Sometimes I get confused watching these mega-church preachers.

Are they reading the same Bible I'm reading?

Do they really have an intimate relationship with the same Jesus I know?

Is the Holy Spirit actually working within them -- providing the kind of discernment He promises believers?

These questions came to mind while watching Joel Osteen and his lovely wife, Victoria, on CNN's "Larry King Live" last week. . . .

Americans today storm the beaches to liberate a once-free land now under the heel of statist tyranny emanating from a foreign city in a land far, far away.

There will be casualities, ebbs and flows, and setbacks in the struggle against an oppressive empire. But we've seen this before, and, under God -- the living and verifiable Creator who endows every mother's son and daughter with "certain unalienable rights" -- we will win. There is no alternative.

Slavery in exchange for the forbidden fruit of Washington-centric "security" and "fairness" dolled out by a regime of secularist "values," political greed, and unquenchable thirst for power is no option for any self-respecting human being or his neighbor. We are better than this. We are created for higher things. And we will overcome.

Here's an offshore pre-invasion report from WND, noting that a "patriotic rocker, thousands more planning to 'take America back.'"

There goes a rocket even now. See the red glare?

David Welch, founder of the U.S. Pastor Council, writes:

Whether it is Warren groveling before the militant sexual diversity power structure, Osteen floundering in whether eternal salvation through Jesus Christ is the only way or Wallis, Campolo and the other mouthpieces of the religious left serving as spiritual advisers to a Marxist president -- the American pulpit is indeed at a critical crossroads.   

See also:
Rick Warren's Holy Week Crisis

"President Barack Obama's recent appointment of Harry Knox to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships adds another redundant nail to the coffin of the irresponsible myth that he is a bipartisan unifier," David Limbaugh writes.

"In light of the daily outpouring of evidence, one wonders whether our 'moderate' Republican Obama apologists will ever admit their error in willingly suspending their disbelief in Obama's radical leftism all because of what Michael Gerson refers to as 'his moderate instincts and conciliatory temperament.'"

See also:
Spiritual Warfare: Obama "Faith" Appointee Declares Bible "Not True" on Homosexuality

"Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle," reports the Telegraph.

"James Dobson, 72, who resigned recently as head of Focus on the Family -- one of the largest Christian groups in the country -- and once denounced the Harry Potter books as witchcraft, acknowledged the dramatic reverse for the religious Right in a farewell speech to staff."

Quoting Dobson (here is YouTube audio):

We tried to defend the unborn child, the dignity of the family, but it was a holding action. . . . We are awash in evil and the battle is still to be waged. We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.

One would do well not to accept this kind of reporting without a grain of salt. Having said that, if Christians want success in the culture war, they must drop the methods and practices of Madison Ave. (celebrityism, bigism, pretend authors, fake writers, phony columnists, fundraising-driven ministry, staffs who enable phony "thinking" "leaders") and embrace the methods and principles of the Lord's the the Lord's way, as Francis Schaeffer puts it in his No Little People (Try: real work by real people, for example). 

There's much more to be said, and we plan to say it, but for now, consider the following resources:

* "Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach" -- My view is that much of modern evangelicalism has missed or -- worse -- rejected perhaps the most important aspects of Schaeffer's prophetic, Biblical, profound, and humane insights regarding cultural engagement. 

* "True Spirituality and Christian Worldview," chapter 13 in Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Secular Captivity -- In light of the success, or lack thereof, of Christian cultural engagement, caring people may want to examine how the Lordship of Christ applies to one's methods of ministry. The discontinuity is alarming, to say the least. Frankly, if all I had to go on regarding the truth-claims of the Judeo-Chrisitan worldview is what I've seen of some "big time" Christian ministry up close and personal, I'd join Camus and the girls on the beach immediately.

* "The Church," chapter 13 in Schaeffer's True Spirituality -- I enjoy the Hodder and Stoughton edition. Or perhaps Crossway's Complete Works.

Rev. J. Curtis Lovelace writes:

On April 15, citizens around the nation will gather in "Tea Parties" to protest profligate spending of taxpayer money, by the elected "representatives" of the people. I will be among them. Let me first state that I am not against taxes. When they are used to meet the constitutionally-intended purposes for taxation, I am willing to put up my share. I am not willing to pay for unconstitutional activities. Nor am I willing to pay your share.

Many in the "movement" of tax protesters have stated that their complaint is not against taxation without representation as was the first Tea Party in Boston Harbor. That may be the case with those individuals. It is not my situation. I am unrepresented in Congress. Millions of others who wish to protect the Constitution of this country are also feeling disenfranchised.

More from Rev. Curt . . .

In his handbook for living as a human being in a broken world with manipulative politicians, preachers, scientists, and used-car salesmen, the Creator liberates his fellow rebels against evil by exhorting them to "test everything" (1 Thess. 5:21).

Thus, Sandy Rios questions "America's Pastor" Rick Warren vis-a-vis his Larry Kingish running for the hills on the question of standing up for the Biblical, Gospel, and life-enhancing circle of life called marriage -- as between a man and a woman in community under God.

One might add, however, this to the Rios column: Let's refrain from calling Mr. Warren "America's Pastor." You can be his friend, his seminary classmate, etc., etc. I have never met Warren personally, and he may be a swell guy. But, please, "America's Pastor"? That's ridiculous.

"A Texas congressman who is a former judge warns that the 'hate crimes' legislation reintroduced in the U.S. House could potentially lead to the arrest of Christian pastors who speak out against sexual immorality," reports OneNewsNow.

"Representatives John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) are sponsoring the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913), also known as the 'Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act.' The bill would add sexual orientation to the list of categories covered under federal hate crime law. When Democrats passed the bill in 2007, they were divided over whether to add 'gender identity and expression' to the list."

WND asks:

Supporters of an Americorps expansion plan pending in Congress laud its efforts to "leverage" federal dollars to boost state, local and other resources to "address national and local challenges," while critics say its fine print secretly would create an "Obama-styled army of community organizers modeled after Saul Alinsky's 'Peoples Organizations.'" So which is it?

David Limbaugh corrects the record.

Two college students in California prayed for a sick professor, with her consent. No question about it, says the College of Alameda: They should be kicked out. 

Joel and Victoria Osteen, interviewed by Larry King.

Beginning with The Rev. Rick Warren. The editor of WorldNetDaily steps all over Warren's soft shoe parade: 

America achieved its independence and freedom in the 18th century in large part because colonial pastors stood up for biblical principles, preached them, lived them and refused to back down from them -- even in the face of death.

The American War of Independence has been accurately called a "pulpit revolution" for this reason. It was inspired by great men of God who recognized evil and called it by its right name.

What a difference two centuries, combined with affluence and the corporatization of the 501(c)3 church culture has made.

A good example of this was on display on CNN's "Larry King Live" this week, as "America's Pastor" Rick Warren did a soft shoe act on his role in the same-sex marriage battle over Proposition 8 in California. . . . 

For more, go here.

See also: Video: Rick Warren -- "I Am Not an Anti-Gay Marriage Activist"

CNSNews.com reports:

President Obama has named to his faith-based advisory council a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament's teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong -- which is found in St. Paul's letter to the Romans -- “is not true."

The professed "Christian" appointee is Harry Knox, "one of 25 members of the advisory board of the White House Office Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Obama announced the formation of the office in early February, a continuation of a similar office started by President George W. Bush to issue federal grants to faith-based, non-profit charitable organizations," reports CNSNews.

". . . Christianity at home."

Writing in American Spectator, here is George Neumayr on:

* The Obama Objective -- Liquidate Historic Christianity: "As far as Obama is concerned, the only religion to be 'reformed' -- which is to say destroyed -- is not the west's historic adversary but its progenitor. Islam is peaceful, he pronounces, while traditional Christianity is bigoted and dangerous. Islam is a friend to America, while traditional Christians are, as Obama supporter Tom Hanks described Proposition 8 supporters, 'un-American'."

* The Obama Ultimatum -- Follow Me, Not Christ: "Obama has in effect declared to Christians in America: either bring your understanding of Christianity into line with my liberalism or don't bother entering the public square. You want federal money? Well, then perform abortions, distribute condoms, hire homosexual activists, etc., etc. He would never dare talk to Muslims in those terms. He will give back ancestral swords to freed Muslims from Guantanamo Bay and hand forceps to Christian doctors."

* The Pathetic Response -- Dr. Obama: "If Muslims had to endure patronizing and lying secularist drivel from him like 'Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values,' they would riot. Cowed and secularized Christians just nod and offer him an honorary degree."

But here's a better way: Act Now -- In Praise of Tea Parties.

As noted by Julia Duin of the Washington Times.

Not that Nancy is looking for a White House appointment, but would it not be refreshing to have someone in the White House with a robust, humane, and rational Christian worldview who therefore can honestly affirm and protect the Founding Vision, the Declaration, and the U.S. Constitution?

The current regime, unfortunately but not surprisingly, may be a bit small and narrowed-minded for that kind of liberty. A free and brave people liberated by our True Creator can do better and that may well be something for which to work, pray, and build.

Here is video of Rick Warren's appearance on Larry King last night.

When Larry asks Warren about the Iowa court's repudiation of marriage, this: "I'm totally oblivious . . . not even my agenda . . ."

This strikes one as rather odd for a minister of the Gospel, for Christ clearly cared about family, marriage, and about male and female as both distinct partners in God-ordained community with eachother for life. He forgave sinners, but never tolerated sin. It's how you love people while acknowledging we live in a moral universe.

By way of contrast to some, despite being such a lovable, affable guy, a regular life-of-the-party guy, Jesus of Nazareth managed to get himself crucified. Quite purposefully, he took rather unpopular, offensive, intolerant, not-getting-on-Larry-King views on controversial matters. And the beautiful people of his day didn't like it one bit.  

So hardline was he that if you didn't maintain community with the Son of God, he promised your future would not be bright: 

Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of his father and of his holy angels. (Luke 9:26)

True enough, popular reverends get to be on Larry King, talk with presidents, oversee great big churches, pray before the kingdoms of this world, and sell lots of books. All for good causes, so really who can complain, who can question? Besides, half the money is given away to . . . well, you know the drill.

Silly Jesus. Talk about judgmental. He was one of "those" people that "hip" Christians know better than to be associated with when cameras are around. He knew about poverty -- but never let poor folk get away with demonizing those who were better off.

He knew about the hungry -- and he fed them miraculously with fish and loaves. But The Bread of Life never condemned people because they had full stomachs, big carbon footprints, and knew where their next meal was coming from. In fact, the reputed glutton and wine-drinker knew a thing about eating and drinking and celebrating. The politically correct people of his day hated him for it. Sometimes the guy hung with the scum of the earth.

He knew of course that the deeper problem wasn't that of preventing 1st century STDs, hunger, or poverty. But sin. Our great ability -- day in and day out -- to treat God as if he were some kind of pious symbol to be manipulated for political greed, religious gain, or private satisfaction. And there's that sin captured by our unending ability to treat others as so much fodder for the machine of our closed-down self-idolatry. 

Being one of "those people," intolerant Jesus managed to offend the powerful spiritual sensitives of his day. The esteemed people. The respected guides. Jesus was a guy without a press agent, and the klutz committed so many PR fumbles that the crowds turned against him and saw him nailed to a cross. Thank you, pagan faith-based office of Roman crucifixions.

If only he had been a sophisticated, nuanced evangelical squish with smiles in shirt sleeves.

But there he is. Scum of the scum of the earth. Not fit for the Green Room. Human leftovers stuck on a stick on a hill. Do you not realize how ugly, bloody, pathetic, and popular his crucifixion was? Maybe a TV preacher could have saved him. Get him a spot on cable TV, maybe a regular gig, an audience with a president. Save the world from hunger. Reimagine thine own divine self. Yeah, man, that's what I'm talkin' about. Abundant life. Oblivious.

Related:
Spineless, Silent Clergy
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach

That's Dave Welch's take over at WND. What's yours?

Robert Spencer at Frontpage observes and comments upon this from Mr. Obama:

"We will convey," said Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament Monday, "our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world -- including my own country." (emphasis added)

Would Mr. Obama kindly explain just how Islam shaped the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?

While we're at it, perhaps a reporter from the one or two remaining pro-statist hardcopy newspapers can ask Mr. Obama something like this: Sir, what is the evidence for your proposition?

Think of it, Mr. Reporter, as your good deed for the day. The Turks, among others, may be confused.

After all, says Kathleen Parker, James Dobson "was captured on tape recently saying that the big cultural battles have all been lost."

Dear great spiritual leader of the flock, if a note like this appears nailed to your church door, fear not. Let your light shine.

Herbert E. Meyer writes in American Thinker on The Swastika Against the Cross, by Bruce Walker:

In The Swastika Against the Cross, Bruce Walker skillfully pulls together a huge amount of evidence to illuminate the great lesson of the twentieth century: Crazy, vicious people sometimes get political power, and when they tell you what they're going to do with that power -- believe them.  Today, as North Korea fuels that missile on its launch pad and as the lunatics in Iran build nuclear bombs, it's a lesson we need to learn -- fast.

Yes, the Nazis hated Christians and Christianity, perhaps just as much as do liberal statists today throwing stones from entrenched positions in Hollywood, academia, media, and Washington, D.C.

Thus the secularist war against the Creator, the smooth lip service given to the Declaration, and the audacious manipulation of the Constitution. Thus abortofascism, homofascism, and Washington-centric fascism, etc., etc. -- all tentacles of tyranny wrapping themselves around "the mind of man" and around the lives of a people endowed by our true Creator with unalienable rights, a free people in a land of slavery who even now are stirring up to reclaim their birthright under God. 

We resist, even if tyranny is cool again. 

From CNSNews.com:

Rev. Hugh W. Cleary, C.S.C., the superior general of the Catholic religious order that founded and now sponsors the University of Notre Dame, declared in an “open letter” to President Barack Obama that many good Catholics are scandalized by his pro-abortion policies, which, Cleary said, are “regarded by us as an intrinsic evil."

Here's the letter.

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!

"The outrage over Notre Dame inviting President Obama as commencement speaker has not abated," reports OneNewsNow.

"Last week, pro-lifers strongly voiced their anger about a pro-abortion president being invited to speak at a prominent Catholic university, which supposedly upholds church doctrines such as the sanctity of life. But they also are objecting to the school's plan to give Obama an honorary Doctor of Law degree. Notre Dame has been flooded with complaints, but university President John Jenkins will not be deterred."

Says Notre Dame graduate Eric Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League: 

If Jenkins won't do the right thing and disinvite Barack Obama, then we are absolutely going to have no choice but to go out and rain on Barack Obama's parade on May 17 in South Bend, Indiana. . . . We are already working with pro-life leaders around the country, especially throughout the Midwest, to put on the mother of all protests.

In his language and policy moves, this man Barack Obama is a rogue official occupying the office of the President of the United States.

Why rogue? Because, for example, he is in violation of the Declaration of Independence, which is the Foundational Vision Statement of the United States of America and which acknowledges that every single human being is endowed by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights," including the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Well, dead preborn American citizens are deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And no American politican ought to serve who favors the liquidation of the preborn in aborcentration centers that mar and bleed the land.

One would think that governing according to the Vision Statement of the United States is not above the paygrade of the president of the United States.

One would think that respecting unalienable rights endowed by the Creator upon alive but preborn American citizens is not above the paygrade of the President of the United States.

One would think that elementary scientific and inclusive facts of biological life regarding the humanity of unborn human beings created in the image of God is not above the paygrade of the President of the United States.

What kind of man is this? Let us hope not, but is Barack Obama too much of a political ideologue to care about the facts, the Declaration, the Constitution, and that liberating vision of life that American heroes have bled and died for on battlefields across history and across the world, both within and without the borders of our homeland?

No only should Barack Obama be disinivited from Notre Dame, the American people should rise up and disinvite him from the presidency. His pro-abortion, anti-life policies are an embarrassment to civilized humanity under the Declaration, under the Constitution, and under God. Yes he was elected, but he now imposes tyranny. He now wars against the American experiment in liberty under God. 

Americans must take every opportunity to disinvite not just him, but his alien, anti-American, inhumane, and anti-Creator coup against the foundational Mission and Vision Statement of this land. We can yet still enjoy the "blessings of liberty," but this will require a return to the Creator to whom our Founders looked and from whom those blessings derive. It will require casting off the chains of the Federal Empire and its new Emperor on the Potomac.

No only should pro-life Americans "rain" on Obama's parade, they ought to thunder and lightning upon it, with a few cats and dogs thrown in for good measure. May the "mother of all protests" at Notre Dame have many children.

Matthew Vadum at AmSpec on the firing of the GM CEO:

This aggressive assault on American capitalism is unprecedented and should give all Americans who care about freedom pause.  

Related
National Obama Socialism
Regarding "Change" -- Liberals Drink Deeply From Fascist Well
Fascism Is Back
The Evil Religious Presidents Do

A hard-copy prepublication version of Nancy's new book arrived in the mail today. This edition is also being sent to expert readers who have requested such a copy. More about this later, but comments already coming in are quite positive, for which we are thankful.

Remembering that politics follows culture -- especially during these days of an oppressive secularism, governmental and otherwise -- I can honestly say that this next volume offers a mighty blow against the forces of manipulation, fragmentation, and inhumanity at large in so many areas of contemporary life, thought, and society.  

Nancy and I are thrilled with how this project has developed, and we appreciate the vision and support of Philadelphia Biblical University in producing this hard copy and in supporting Nancy's writing and thinking. Great job all!

The Obama "Alinskys" are thrashing the Notre Dame "Girly Girls," and here's a bit of color analysis by George Neumayr:

The Catholic Church in America has bred her own destroyers, graduating from doctrinally corrupt catechetical programs, schools and colleges two generations of pro-abortion politicians. Barack Obama, in his effortless Alinskyite style, has exploited this phenomenon to the hilt, seeking out Catholics such as Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius to serve as his agents of destruction.

The controversy this week at Notre Dame is one more snapshot of this self-implosion. Here we have the American bishops' most prominent university planning to confer an honorary degree upon Obama even as he accelerates the destruction of its moral teachings.

Coach Alinsky surely must be beaming in his grave. "Were Saul Alinsky alive today," notes Neumayr, "he would have to smile at the ease of it all. Obama can not only thwart the Church at every crucial turn and still retain the Catholic vote; he can even expect over the next few years prizes and pats on the back from Catholic colleges for doing so."

See also: "Notre Dame Should Disinvite Obama."

David Noebel of Summit Ministries writes:

Who is the president's latest adviser? The Rev. Jim Wallis. Frontpage Magazine (March 17, 2009) reports, "The most notable of [Obama's] spiritual advisers today is his friend of many years, Rev. Jim Wallis." Rev. Wallis admits that he and Obama have "been talking faith and politics for a long time." He was picked by Obama to draft the faith-based policies of his campaign at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last year. Why should this alarm us?

First, Jim Wallis has had relationships with the communist Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

Second, his "Witness for Peace" was an attempt to defend the Nicaraguan Sandinistas! Wallis, together with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Obama's former pastor of 20 years) "rallied support for the communist Nicaraguan regime and protested actions by the United States which supported the anti-communist Contra rebels" (Family World News, February 2009, p. 7).

Third, Wallis and his Sojourners Community of fellow-travelers believe Fidel Castro's Cuba, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua and the other revolutionary forces "restructuring socialist societies" are the communist paradises the United States needs to emulate in order to establish "social justice." Writing in the November 1983 issue of Sojourners, Jacob Laksin notes, "Jim Wallis and Jim Rice drafted what would become the charter of leftist activists committed to the proliferation of communist revolutions in Central America" (Laksin, "Sojourners: History, Activities and Agendas" in Discoverthenetworks.org., 2005).

The ugly truth is Wallis wishes to see the destruction of the United States as a nation and in its place "a radical nonconformist community" patterned after the progressive, socialist commune he established in Washington, D.C., in 1971 (Laksin, Ibid.).

More from Noebel at WorldNetDaily.

"Opposition is mounting to the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to be a commencement speaker in May," reports OneNewsNow.

This is a sign of spiritual health. Inviting him to speak and conferring a degree upon him is a sign of spiritual weakness. Worldview confusion. Sellout.

By his language and actions, Obama inhabits a post-Catholic, post-Protestant, post-Christian, post-Declaration, post-Constitution, post-American, post-humane universe. Other than that, no problem.

Notre Dame would do well to disinvite the President with extreme unction. Just as the great and free people of the United States of America should show him and his Statist, Washington-centric worldview the door at the first opportunity. Exit stage left. Now, April 15, and forevermore. 

If asked to serve humanity in such a fashion, I'll be happy to stand in for the President at Notre Dame to explain the matter in further detail. You don't even have to confer a degree.

Hardly. But, hey, "scientific" Darwin-thumpers need their comforting crutch. Truly free thinkers are willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

That's one reason I appreciate the information and approach given in the Biblical worldview. That liberating data calls for wholistic commitment based on objective truth, evidence, and sound reasoning vis-a-vis God, man, and the cosmos.

In other words, if something is not true to the evidence: Don't "believe" it. Not even if it's about "God." Especially if it's about God. Or kings, Presidents, preachers, used-car salemen, journalists, "hard-charging" leaders of ministries, and guys who wear white coats.

This approach is far more scientific -- and humane, by the way -- than what is allowed by the closed-down, reactionary attitude of ideological defenders of materialism disguised as science. Such silly peer pressure.

So don't be surprised when I say from time to time -- as I have said to the lovely, beautiful, and brilliant Nancy -- that I a) reserve the right to reject Christianity if the evidence requires such a decision, and b) that such an approach is utterly Biblical.

You might even call freedom of thought an unalienable right, endowed by the Creator, which, of course, religious and secular tyrants hate.

"Indiana has scrapped a problematic policy that deals with personalized license plates," reports OneNewsNow. "Following the filing of a lawsuit, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in the Hoosier State has decided to abandon a policy against references to religion or a deity on what are commonly referred to as 'vanity license plates'." 

It's good to hear that mention of God is now OK in the great state of Indiana. Because said mention is already OK in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Founders' vision, and in any locale that respects the nonliberal, nonsecular mission statement set forth by the aforementioned documents and otherwise known as the American Experiment. 

Our true Creator is of course a public figure and has nothing to do with "religion" or "faith" in the poor, privatized, blind sense of those words in vogue in some circles today. In politics, for example, where elected officials on Capitol Hill vote for bills they have not read. Sometimes the President even signs them. Sorry, but this kind of blind faith is subhuman and pathetic. Any reasonable person or citizenry would revolt.

And that truncated view of "faith" has nothing to do with rich, evidentially grounded and reasonable call for wholistic commitment that shines so brightly in the public record we have of God's dealing with humanity in the history and information given in the Old and New Testaments. One wishes the politicians would live up to the Creator's high and humane standards of rationality and debate. Or at least make the effort.

Meanwhile, it's nice to see that the Indiana Department of Motor Vehicles has decided to rejoin America. The content of the Declaration affirms a real Creator and rejects a false patriotism reduced to geography.

Shout it from the mountain tops, put it on a license plate, but most of all, live it out with a measure of integrity in every sphere of your daily life. That kind of "vanity" we can live with.

"Texas students will continue to have the right to pray at the beginning of each school day," reports OneNewsNow.

"We just got a three-to-zero ruling in favor of the Moment of Silence law preserving the rights of kids to be able to pray silently at the beginning of the school day and be able to do that without government interference," explains Hiram Sasser of the Liberty Legal Institute.

Sasser says the lawsuit was brought by atheists offended that school children might pray silently in school. 

Speaking of Texas and freedom, one wonders: Do you think defenders of the Alamo prayed, silently or otherwise? Do you think they would have waited for a judge to OK such prayer? Do you think the likes of a Davy Crockett or Jim Bowie would have cared one Tequila whether Santa Anna or Karl Marx might be offended?

Which do you think more likely -- that the Alamo heroes saw their rights as human beings rooted in a secular, atheistic state or, rather, in our true Creator, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence?

Do you think the Creator, who is a public and knowable figure by the way, is upset when people created in His image and endowed by Him with "certain unalienable rights" honestly exercise those rights in public spaces such as schools, even the local government school?

Finally, who is more in line with the American mission statement as set forth in the Declaration and protected by the Constitution, atheists who want to shut prayer down in public places -- or citizens, including kids, who want to live wholistically in community with their true Creator?

Sweetness and Light has noticed "Obama's (Highly Creepy) 'Pledge Project'," complete with training videos and a commitment to "I'm asking you to believe." 

Says S&L:

Anyone who is a student of totalitarian regimes, especially Nazi Germany, should recognize this tactic. Mr. Obama has organized his own cadre of Brown Shirts (or, if you prefer, Red Shirts) to agitate for his agenda.

Mr. Alinsky would be proud. And rightly so. For this is simply the continuation of Mr. Obama’s perpetual campaign. A campaign, as we noted at the time, that was modeled on Saul Alinsky’s organizing principles.

Of course, Alinsky, had modeled his methods on the great communist and/or fascist agitators of the past. Hence, the unsettling resemblance to Soviet-style and Nazi Germany agit-prop.

If you think audacious initiatives such as this violate the mission statement of the the United States of America, you're right. "Pledge Projects" or any move that smacks of loyalty oaths to individual leaders, or to a secularistic Washington-centrism for that matter, have nothing to do with the liberating unity and diversity under our true and knowable Creator currently banished by the "faith" agenda of the paternalistic power establishment. The secular state is not God, and Barack Obama is not his prophet.

"Another polarizing move from Barack Obama," writes Thomas Lifson. "His permanent campaign is organizing a political organization loyal to him, bound by a pledge, outside the government and existing party apparatus. The historical precedents are ominous."

Hat Tip: American Thinker.

From OneNewsNow:

A former chaplain [Rex Carter] with the Virginia State Police says he had no choice but to step down after a new policy took effect requiring generic prayers at department events.

Stepping down does not mean giving up.

“Why be silent on an issue that I have felt strongly about enough to resign from a program that I feel is so important,“ Carter said. He believes the prayer bill will eventually be re-introduced. In the meantime, he’s encouraging people everywhere to stand up for their religious rights. 

Consistent with the mission statement of the United States, the Founders stood up for their human right to publicly speak and publicly behave in ways consistent with their having been made in the image of God and endowed by our true, public, and nongeneric Creator with "certain unalienable rights," among them "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Officer Carter seems to understand and respect this humane and liberating vision that defines American progress. May his efforts to re-establish the "blessings of liberty" enjoy the support of the One from whom those blessings derive. That approach seemed to work well for George Washington and company.

We appreciate the way pastors and churches continue to find Total Truth a helpful book. Here's a recent recommendation.

My radio interview with "Changing Worldviews" host Sharon Hughes of KDIA 1640 AM in San Francisco aired yesterday.

We are also adding the Center for Changing Worldviews to our list of resources under "Groups" on the main page of The Pearcey Report.

To listen to "Revenue, Rush, and Revolt?," click here.

The great Renaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo was born March 6, 1475, 534 years ago yesterday. He began work on his famed statue the David in 1501 and completed it in 1504. Michelangelo was 29 years old. 

Let's consider this man and his art and its relevance for our day, interacting with comments from Francis Schaeffer in his work How Should We Then Live? (Crossway: Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, Vol. 5, pp. 114-115).

Schaeffer begins inside the Accademia in Florence, where the David is located:

Here we see on either side Michelangelo's statues of men "tearing themselves out of the rock." These were sculpted between 1519 and 1536. They make a real humanistic statement: Man will make himself great. Man as Man is tearing himself out of the rock. Man by himself will tear himself out of nature and free himself from it. Man will be victorious. . . ."

I saw and touched (winning the polite attention of security) one of these statues during my first and only (thus far!) visit to Florence. I had hitched a ride from L'Abri in Switzerland and carried with me a copy of Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy. Having that book in your mind was a tremendous way to see Florence.

"At the focal point of the room," Schaeffer continues, is the "magnificent statue of David (1504)."

As a work of art it has few equals in the world. Michelangelo took a piece of marble so flawed that no one thought it could be used, and out of it he carved this overwhelming statue. But let us notice that the David was not the Jewish David of the Bible. David was simply a title. Michelangelo knew his Judaism, and in the statue the figure is not circumcised. We are not to think of this as the biblical David but as the humanistic ideal. Man is great!

Man, human beings -- you and me, our neighbors, all of us red and yellow, black and white -- in fact are great. But not, as the unfinished statues of Michelangelo may suggest, because we have to tear ourselves out of nature. 

Rather, consistent with what the Declaration of Independence avows (which is the "Vision Statement" or "Mission Statement" of the United States), what makes humanity great is that we are the magnificent work of a Divine Sculptor, who happens to be the Creator by virtue of whom every single human being is endowed with "certain unalienable rights." And, by the way, Nature is also great and not a meaningless piece of particulate junk, because she too is a gift from the Creator and therefore ought to be cared for and respected, just like Genesis 1:28 liberates humanity to do.

As Schaeffer describes it, the political situation of Michelangelo's day bears some resemblance to our our own: 

The statue was originally planned to stand forty feet above the street on one of the buttresses of the cathedral, but was placed outside the city hall in Florence, where a copy now stands. The Medicis, the great banking family which had dominated Florence since 1434, had run the city by manipulating its republican constitution. A few years before David was made, the Medicis had been thrown down by the people and a more genuine republic restored (1494). Thus, as the statue was raised outside the city hall, though Michelangelo himself had been a friend of the Medicis, his David was seen as the slayer of tyrants. Florence was looking with confidence toward a great future. (Emphasis added.)

We see in our own day a manipulating of a "republican constitution" (think: "living" Constitution). Central to the truly living Mission Statement of United States (in the Declaration of Independence) is that a republic under the Creator would respect unalienable rights from that Creator, resulting in a balance of "form and freedom" (a phrase often used by Schaeffer). This amazing and unique balance maximized individual liberty among the people and states but without chaos, and it also established a unity of purpose nationally but without overweening control out of Washington.

To put this in contemporary parlance, it wasn't "unity is our strength" or "diversity is our strength," but rather "unity and diversity under God is our strength." All the difference in world.

To the degree that secular elites have imposed an alien agenda that casts away the founding Mission Statement of the United States (or keeps the form but denies the meaning), to that degree we have seen a corresponding loss of individual freedom, including direct attacks on the unalienable rights hardwired into humanity by the verifiable and knowable Creator. Not unrelated to this, the economic crisis we see today emerges in no small degree from a secularist, power-minded Washington-centrism and is the natural outworking of uprooting the American experiment in liberty from what the Founders knew is the soil of liberty as gifted to humanity by the Creator.

"Hope springs eternal," says the poet. And in the David is a "statement of what the humanistic man saw himself as being tomorrow!," says Schaeffer.

In this statue we have man waiting with confidence in his own strength for the future. Even the disproportionate size of the hands says that man is powerful. This statue is idealistic and romantic. There was and is no man like the David. If a girl fell in love with the statue and waited until she found such a man, she would never marry. Humanism was standing in its proud self and the David stood as a representation of that.

The challenge for humanism is not its ideals per se, but that it lacks an adequate intellectual basis to sustain those ideals, so that when crisis comes, we see breakdown instead of recovery. And we do see the breakdown, despite the concerted efforts of political, PR, and marketing types working overtime to simultaneously distract (e.g., attack Rush Limbaugh) and overlay a comfortable but Orwellian spin upon the breakdown (e.g., the president not concerned about market "gyrations").

However, in the world beyond the teleprompter, the press release, and the attack dog, what we are witnessing today is not just the loss of economic power and freedom, but also assaults on freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religious exercise, and so on. Man is great, but man is not God. You could put all the smartest people in the world in Washington and still the federal government is not God, as the original Vision Statement of the United States clearly understands. Secularist Washington-centrism must decrease if a humane American liberty is to increase. Read the directions.  

Our Founders understood this, but many of today's elites seem to reject it. It's not that the secularists are too smart for their own good, but that they are operating out of an inadequate philosophic framework. We'll recover as a nation if we return to the original Mission Statement and mark progress from that point forward. 

Perhaps the later Michelangelo can help lead the way forward:

[T]here are signs that by the end of his life Michelangelo saw the humanism was not enough. Michelangelo in his later years was in close touch with Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547), a woman who had been influenced by Reformation thought. Some people feel they see some of that influence in Michelangelo's life and work. However that may be, it is true that his later work did change. Many of his early works show his humanism, as does his David. In contrast stand his later Pietas (statues of Mary holding the dead Christ in her arms) in the cathedral in Florence and in the castle in Milan, which was probably his last. In the Pieta in the cathedral in Florence, Michelangelo put his own face on Nicodemus (or Joseph of Arimathea -- whichever the man is), and in both of the Pietas humanistic pride seems lessened, if not absent.

I began this post this morning simply as an effort to show an appreciation for one of my favorite artists, a person that I and a host of others would surely have liked to have known. He, like all of us, had his struggles. But even the Great Michelangelo of the Pietas was willing to place himself at the feet of a flesh and blood rebel condemned as a common criminal who happened to be the Savior and Son of God. That's right: A resurrected guy from the Middle East outback whose love and truth challenged and overturns the hopeful but inadequate humanism of then and now. 

The Founders understood the centrality and necessity of the Creator, and they rejected the idolatry of the federal state and the Kingdom of Washington. Many of us today get it. Hope and freedom never die. They are unalienable. They are hardwired into humane and human existence. Yes, we get it. Let's hope Washington hears before it's too late.  

Dave Miller writes at Facebook:

Rick, Have you noticed how all of these liberals and pseudo-conservatives are coming out of the woodwork and proclaiming shock that Obama is actually a radical leftist, possibly even a card-carrying socialist and outright Marxist? After all the stuff with Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground and Rev Wrong and Black Liberation Theology, you have to wonder exactly what they were thinking.

Of course we know what they were thinking. They were letting their liberal notion of "white guilt" lead them to vote for the first black president despite his views and positions, simply on account of his race. If anyone is a racial coward (sensu AG Holder) it's the cowardly left who blindly voted for Lord Obama.

And this is the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that they all knew exactly what they were getting and are now having second thoughts. Their leftist "bed-time story" is a heck of a lot scarier in person than in the text books and leftist think-tanks.

Comment: It is important to analyze the presuppositions and worldviews of those seeking office, because office-seekers always actualize them, or try to. This will help protect people from superficial, politically correct, and reactionary analysis of trends and current events.

Obama may employ the term Christian to describe himself and may throw in a Bible verse for good measure. But to the degree that he presupposes and works within Marxist categories (class struggle, class warfare, spread the wealth, blame and therefore tax "the rich"), those presuppositions will seek incarnation in Obama's policies. A Christian label -- often just political god-talk -- is no match for the actual thoughtforms that inhabit and move a person. (This analysis, by the way, holds for any politician or public figure, including Republicans.)

This worldview dynamic is how a "Christian" can advocate that which does not line up with real-world information we have from the verifiable and knowable Creator, creating a seedbed for hypocrisy, manipulation, distrust, inhumanity, and revolt.

This is one reason resistance is a civilized option to a "Christian" president who accepts the ugly fascist barbarism of abortion. To wave the bloody banner of "choice" contradicts reason, advances oppression, and constitutes a pathetic loss of dignity. Legalized theft to redistribute wealth and property is also inhumane and sinful, even if you throw a Bible verse on top of it and get a preacher to say a prayer. 

Journalists and observers of the political scene would do all a favor if their work addressed politicians at a more insightful level. Added benefit: Fewer unpleasant surprises and a more humane country.

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. 

Rick Moran writes:

Ah - state compulsion; the essence of tyranny. When the state demands that you do something that goes against your most deeply held beliefs, they are exercising the same level of control over you as any dictator or tyrant.

This report from the Chicago Tribune is what elicited Moran's remarks: 

Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows health-care workers to deny abortion counseling or other family-planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials.

The rollback of the "conscience rule" comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it last year in one of its final policy initiatives.

True enough, what Moran describes is of grave concern. But what Obama is doing may be even more troubling than Moran describes. For this move does not simply come up against mere "conscience" or against the "moral beliefs" of individuals.

The right to life is not merely a “moral belief,” it is a moral fact. On the basis of scientific data, we know that human beings are human beings from the moment of conception. This is a biological fact that has nothing to do with pay-grades. Even if you are unemployed, or just running for President of the United States, this fact remains true.

Also, on the basis of verifiable and knowable information from our true Creator -- the Creator upon whom the high freedoms of this nation are grounded, as is recognized in the Declaration of Independence and which the Constitution is designed to protect -- we know that human beings possess tremendous dignity and innate worth, even from the moment of biological conception.

It follows from these facts that human beings of course have the right and duty to protect their neighbors, even if their neighbors are the "least of these." Healthcare workers should be admired, not attacked or undermined, for their efforts in this area.

A humane government is one that recognizes and respects the God-given and therefore inalienable right of individual people, including healthcare workers, to counsel towards life and away from death.

To forbid this humane behavior is deep intolerance and tyranny, again, not just against privately held "belief systems" or "value sets" that secular elites can steamroll with impunity.

Rather, it is a Washington-centric system setting itself up as Deity -- a pretended absolute -- against the moral facts of life and against human obligations that attend living in community with our true Creator and with our neighbors, big or small, born or unborn.

What needs to be rolled back is not the freedom of the individual to express him or herself under God. What needs to be rolled back is a Washington-centric secular establishment at odds with the rights and dignity of humanity and at odds with the Creator whose character and existence form the basis of those liberating rights. The Obama move is inhumane and ill-advised.

Homosexuals complained, the Constitution reigned.

That's how Frontpage boosts an article on feminism, domestic violence, and the Buffalo beheading.

But in addition to "feminist courage" and "feminist cowardice," what about the feminist contradiction?

Out of concern for our neighbor, this must be faced: "Pro-choice" feminists support acts of horrific, slasher violence against humanity every single day of their lives. It's called abortion. 

The point is not that this is an intellectual contradiction, which it is   -- power and choice for me, but not for thee.

Or that this is an ethical contradiction, which it is -- domestic violence inside the womb is an acceptable necessity, but outside the womb is an unacceptable evil.

The point is that pro-abortion feminists have accepted into their bosom a violent contradiction that liberates a spirit of raw will-to-power out into the culture.

In such a setting, consistent with that contradiction, no female is ethically protected or respected: inside the womb or outside the womb; inside the home or at the TV station; in Pakistan or in the U.S.

It's open borders. Contradictions have consequences. Time to rethink.

What poses a greater threat to the American Dream of freedom and dignity under God -- predatory lending or predatory government?

An Islamic "moderate" backslides -- or does he?

Robert Spencer writes:

Now comes the clearest, most harrowing indication of all that Bridges TV’s founder was not the moderate he appeared to be, but was rather a man who had imbibed deeply the traditional Islamic understanding that women are possessions of men, to be punished severely when they get out of line.

Of course, this singular lesson of the beheading of Aasiya Hassan, who apparently had raised Muzzammil’s ire by filing for divorce, is the one that the mainstream media and the American Muslim community is doing its best to obscure.

That's how Jim Foss sees it.

Robertson objects to Limbaugh's having said, "I hope Obama fails."

Here's Pat's analysis, at U.S. News & World Report:

That was a terrible thing to say. I mean, he's the president of all the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds. And if he doesn't, it hurts us all. Anybody who would pull against our president is not exactly thinking rationally.

But here is Rush, pulling "against our president" -- "I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed."  

What's irrational about that?

Based on his rhetoric and action, President Obama is trying to impose a secular socialist regime upon this country, a Washington-centric vision of government that stands in total antithesis to the Founders and in total antithesis to that humanity and freedom rooted in the Creator so boldly acknowledged by our Declaration of Independence. 

On this analysis, to the degree that Obama succeeds, to that degree America courts failure. The rationality of success in liberty seems to require the lack of success in Obama.   

The Rochester, Minn., branch of L’Abri Fellowship, founded by Francis and Edith Schaeffer, held a conference in town last weekend (February 13-14).

Bob Osburn, Executive Director of the MacLaurin Institute, was there:

"The annual Rochester L’Abri conference, an annual respite from winter’s bitter chill, is a combination family reunion and Chautauqua festival for Christians who have and are cutting their intellectual eye-teeth on Francis Schaeffer.  This year’s conference lived up to its sterling reputation, albeit with a slightly small crowd of 550 as compared with the usual 700.

"First, there are the L’Abri workers themselves.  Schaeffer was an evangelist with a deep feel for the human being in front of him, and his successors carry on that tradition of Christian humanism. They serve and serve and serve, all with good cheer and unusually sensitive attention to the person in front of them.

"Second, of course, there are the registrants, who vary in age from middle school all the way up to their 80s, with a large slab of Baby Boomers and an increasing contingent of 20-somethings. They are a combination of home-schoolers, thoughtful middle-aged professionals, college-aged students, and assorted others -- all questing for answers to deep questions, and finding them. This is no cult, just a community questing honestly for answers.

"Speaking of the content, over 40 different workshop and plenary sessions on topics ranging from gardening to Pascal to music were led by seasoned L’Abri veterans who are universally alarmed by facile answers and eager to get below surface issues to presuppositions.  

"This year’s thematic focus on creation provided needed compensation for those eager to hear -- but not hearing -- in their churches about the profound implications of the first two and the last two chapters of the Bible. Suffice to say, God loves His creation enough to redeem it, and we should too."

Here’s the website for Rochester L’Abri. More on Edith Schaeffer here.

By the way, Osburn tells Pro-Existence that as of March 31, he’s embarking on a “new venture with the Wilberforce Academy, an educational initiative aimed at training students to be redemptive change agents in their home societies.” We look forward to hearing more about this new work.    

Related: Francis Schaeffer: “The Central Problem of Our Age.”

Toronto girl overcomes discouragement from teachers, disqualification by judges.

Here's her winning presentation.

Horror. The accused is a "prominent moderate." He founded a TV network to "help portray Muslims in a more positive light."

Slogan: "Connecting people through understanding."

Hat tip: Mitch Majeski

If politics is "downstream from culture" (as former Capitol Hill staffer Bill Wichterman has observed) and culture in general is downstream from Christian culture in particular ("You are the salt of the earth," Matt. 5:13), these guys -- Rick Ianniello, Ray Ortlund, Mike of On Coffee -- may be on to something regarding the "central problem of our age."

They quote from Francis Schaeffer:

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism [yes, Schaeffer was a Protestant!], nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them. [bold added] 

You can find this quote on page 66 of No Little People, a book of sermons that are absolute must-reading for any person who prefers not to have his life's work "eaten up" by the secularism of our age.

Not just the secularism in society at large, mind you, but also, very sadly, by the "real problem," by the secular "power of the flesh" we sometimes observe in the methods and mentality embraced in certain circles of big-time, hard-charging Christian ministry.

Nancy and I agree with Schaeffer and Scripture that this is not a secondary matter. Fortunately, we have been able to witness some of this first-hand, so that we might post a "warning label" to help protect others from going down splashy but spirit-eroding dead-ends. This is an issue we do well to focus on, simply as a matter of spiritual balance and humane vitality.

You may have seen and experienced something of this "in house" secularism yourself. In fact, it is very likely you have. If so, we know you are hurting. This is true no matter what the PR says, or what a politician might say while handing out an award or medal to the latest and greatest hero of the ga-ga crowd (ever-so-humbly accepted, of course). You can read all about it in next month's machine-cranked fundraising letter on a mission from God.

But running over people in an effort to "change the world for Christ" or "engage the culture" does not glorify God or evince love of neighbor. Quite the opposite. It's a practical expression of taking the Lord's name in vain.

In my view, what Schaeffer is helping to awaken us to (I know, it's hard to wake up at times) is central to the real crisis behind the crisis of our age. Moreover, it's an analysis that may help explain much that is retrograde, dehumanizing, undignified, and ineffective as a strategy of cultural engagement.

Look: We have had massive organizations at work for decades. Millions and millions of dollars. Years of blood and sweat and pounds of flesh. No one is saying we have nothing to show for this. And yet things seem to be getting worse on a weekly if not daily basis. Just turn on the TV. You begin to wonder if the current strategy is a cultural and spiritual loser.

Maybe Schaeffer was on to something. Maybe there's a reason the Lord had to get him out of this mess and over into Switzerland just so he could get his head together. Just maybe.

Secularism both cultural and religious is taking huge bites and chunks out of the freedom and dignity of humanity. As a way forward, as a way to begin crafting and living an authentic Biblical alternative, you might want to consider chapter 13 of Schaeffer's True Spirituality together with chapter 13 of Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth. These chapters make the central and humanizing case that the Lordship of Christ applies across the whole of life. Boards of big organizations might be shocked, but this Lordship applies even to the nuts and bolts and nitty gritty of ministries CEOed by really famous people whose big names sell lots of books authored or "co-authored" by other people.

Call me a romantic, but I think we can do better than ape the phonies of this world. It's a lot more fun and humane to be a real person doing real work. True enough -- Your hyped name may not be slapped on the covers of as many books, magazine articles, commentaries, radio broadcasts, Larry King's guest list, or White House appointment calendars. So what?!

As the Leader of this revolution pointedly says, those folks "have their reward" (Matt. 6). You can read about that too in No Little People.

La Shawn Barber wonders on Facebook "how one can follow Christ and support the slaughter of the unborn."

She was responding to "Christian Obama-Voters," the Ultimate Oxymoron at Breitbart's "Big Hollywood."

I replied: "There is no logical or worldview connection between following the Lord of Life and embracing the culture of death.

"Philosophical chop suey, cognitive incoherence -- a seedbed of hypocrisy and inhumanity -- is the unconscious mental menu of many people."

Any thoughts?

It's Casey up to bat in U.S. New & World Report. Hits home run.

A council in northern England says the woman "failed to respect and preserve" the faith of the teen.

This call for respect rings a bit hollow. After all, the girl "made her own decision," according to the Telegraph.

The mom should resist and take captive this aggressive secularism, rather than deny her calling to live as a whole person in humane community, even in her professional life, with our true Creator.

And according to this report, that is what she's doing. Viva resistance.

William Dembski of Intelligent Design fame questions the healing ministry of Todd Bentley down in Lakeland, Fla.

Such questioning is legitimate, Biblical, humane, and necessary. Humaness, worldview, and discipleship are cut from the single cloth of truth.

We await a reply to Dembski's question: "Faith and Healing -- Where's the Evidence?"

Meanwhile, one way to test the validity of an organization is to examine its methods. Not just the PR methods evidenced on websites with glossy pictures, wondrous bios, and a Herculean list of accomplishments and books, columns, etc., "by" the latest version of "renegade-turned-modern-day-St. Paul."

No, sadly, not the methods on display for public view, but the ones kept "in the basement," as it were. That's where, so often, in the dark, the real work is done.

In this regard, and in liberating contrast, the Lord's work is meant to be done the Lord's way, across the board, and with application to the nuts and bolts of organizations put forward as "Christian ministries."

This was a central concern of Francis Schaeffer, as seen in chapter 13 of the beloved True Spirituality. It is also the concern of chapter 13 of Nancy Pearcey's book Total Truth. The Lord's work is meant to be done in the light.

To follow truth is to embrace beauty. To fake it, "nuance" it, and spin it for "the sake of the Gospel" (i.e., fundraising, etc.) is to demean people and take the Lord's name in vain.

Dances with deception set forth in the service of Celebriantity and its hard-charging gods are a disaster, no matter how much noise is made about "worldview" or "reforming manners," no matter how much access to Big Media or the White House is gained, and so on.

You know the song and dance. It's underlined in hundreds of thousands of "Dear Friend" appeal letters strategically underlined in blue and signed by machines. One might be tempted to conclude that some evangelical marketers think Christians are idiots waiting to be led around by their noses.

"Test everything," says the real Apostle Paul (1 Thess. 5:21). "Testing everything" is key to embracing love and avoiding the cruelty and ugliness of a truncated Christianity and inhumane "ministry."

One more thing: If this isn't fixed, it matters little who wins the election. Politics follows culture. Methods matter. It's a warning and a promise.

* Update: See discussion at Dembski's site, here. "Dembski Questions Famed Healing Ministry" is referenced at response No. 44.

From Frontpage:

If whiteness stands for all that is evil, blackness symbolizes all that is good. “Black theology,” says [black liberation theologian James] Cone, “refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” Small wonder that some critics have condemned black liberation theology as "racist idolatry” and “Afro-Nazism."

Fascism is back," Gene Edward Veith tell us in Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview.

But the daily news makes this clear as well, with among other items, reports of a Holocaust-denying conference held under the auspices of an anti-Semitic government that says Israel should cease to exist.

Fascism "refuses to go away," says Veith. "Fifty years after World War II, it keeps intruding upon our attention in odd facts and disturbing news. . . .

"The lunatic fringe, of course, is always with us, but we are also being confronted by signs of fascism as a larger social movement. . . .

"The implosion of communism was a great victory for democracy, but the vacuum has been filled by an intense, violent ethnic nationalism and the revival of overt fascist movements that had been suppressed since World War II but are still very much alive. . . .

"Unsettling cultural trends are intensifying throughout the West: cynicism about democracy; a yearning for charismatic leadership; economic disaffection; moral skepticism; a cultural irrationalism that breaks out in acts of inexplicable violence."

Fascism Back in . . .
* Academic Circles: "Fascism is back in academia. A recent biography of the existentialist sage Martin Heidegger has uncovered his extensive involvement in the Nazi party. . .

"Far more disturbing . . . is the ideology that is coalescing . . . in today's intellectual establishment. Cultural determinism; the reduction of all social relationships to issues of sheer power; the idea the one's identity is centered in one's ethnicity or race; the rejection of the concept of the individual -- such ideas have become academic commonplaces.

"The project in contemporary thought of dismantling Western civilization and critiquing 'humanistic values' (such as liberty, reason, and objective moral principles) is not new. All of the ideas are direct echoes of the fascist theories of the 1930s."

* Pop Culture: "The popular culture is the most fertile breeding ground for fascism."

* Mass Politics: "Instead of rational analysis of issues and reasoned debate, our political discourse turns on image manipulation through or mass media. . . . This was Goebbels' dream."

* Morality: "Moral issues are today almost impossible to discuss in objective terms. . . . Morality is reduced to social utility or the assertion of the will. This was precisely the Nazi ethic."

What Is Fascism?
"Only five decades ago, the world was in the nightmare of war and Holocaust. We seem to have forgotten everything. Putting aside images of goose-stepping villains from the movies, does anyone remember exactly what the fascists believed?"

"We must know what fascism is so that we can recognize it when we see it. . . . Racism alone cannot explain the virulence of Nazi anti-Semitism. . . .

"The fascists aligned themselves not only against the Jews but against what the Jews contributed to Western civilization. A transcendent God, who reveals a transcendent moral law, was anathema to fascists. . . .

"Fascism was essentially a spiritual movement. It was a revolt against the Judeo-Christian tradition, that is to say, against the Bible.

"Some fascists believe that Christianity could be purged of its Jewish elements; other believed it should be completely replaced. Some advocated a syncretistic Christianity, revising the faith to make it accord with the new culture. . . .

"The fascist rebellion against transcendence restored the ancient pagan consciousness. With it came barbarism, a barbarism armed with modern technology and intellectual sophistication.

"The liquidation of the transcendent moral law and 'Jewish' conscience allowed the resurgence of the most primitive and destructive emotions."

Veith's book is as relevant today as when it was first published, in 1993.

-- Gene Edward Veith, Preface, Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview