tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28468106954622859822024-03-19T19:12:15.150-04:00Don't Just Drink The KoolaidUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-62679234044653318262014-10-16T16:23:00.002-04:002014-10-16T16:24:24.262-04:00Indoctrination in the "Publick Sckool" systemAfter having homeschooled our children for many years, my wife and I decided to try "ECOT", the Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow. It's public school without the school building so you still get the obligatory (but still mostly useless and pointless) high school diploma.<br />
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Whilst being moderately irritated by the aggravatingly inconvenient ECOT supplied computer, the greatest bane has been the "English" curriculum.<br />
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This weeks assignment involved a story called "Most Dangerous Game".<br />
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A well known hunter by the name of Rainsford falls off a ship and swims to a nearby island where he encounters General Zaroff.<br />
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General Zaroff initially treats Rainsford like royalty as we learn that Zaroff is also an avid hunter. Over the course of dinner Zaroff indicates that he has grown bored of hunting animals, and has for some time has been hunting humans. Zaroff informs Rainsford that starting the next day, Rainsford will be his next quarry, offering to let Rainsford view Zaroff's collection of human heads.<br />
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During the hunt, Rainsford uses his skill as a expert hunter to elude Zaroff another expert hunter.<br />
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This might make for an interesting (non family friendly) thriller except for the following politically loaded quiz question which thrusts the stories usage into a different (and much darker) realm.
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<span style="font-family: 'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;">17. “Rainsford knew now how an animal at bay feels.” Because Rainsford is now the hunted and not the hunter, what realization might he come to about hunting animals?</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;">A. It is an intense sport.</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;">B. Humans should only hunt other humans; animals only other animals.</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;">C. It is unfair and cruel to put animals through such an experience.</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;">D. Animals can’t feel fear.</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 600;"> </span></div>
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Of course animals feel fear (every hunter knows that). Of course murder thy fellow man is illegal and immoral (which any sane person knows). Are we feeling funneled toward a certain politically correct conclusion yet?<br />
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As a test, I instructed my son to select answer "A" (an intense sport) just to see if they made room for differences in viewpoints. When the test was electronically graded, question 17 was marked as "wrong". The only remaining, answer is "C" (It is unfair and cruel to put animals through such an experience).<br />
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I've asked the English teacher to confirm if the curriculum was created by Bill Ayers the terrorist-turned-academic (a rabid gun control advocate if ever there was one).<br />
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I sent the teacher an email, followed with a phone message hoping to speak with her and suggesting that hunting can be a really good thing and indoctrination can be a really bad thing.<br />
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I wrote in part... <br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Question 17 is obviously meant to attack and undermine 2nd amendment gun rights. The US Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms (hated by rabid, anti-gun hack-tivists like Bill Ayers). The clear and obvious intent of this indoctrination is to demonize hunting (hunters) and therefore gun rights.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Rather than back room, subversive indoctrination of impressionable children, if you wanted to broach the subject of hunting in an open, honest forum, you would need balance (more than one side being represented)... such as....</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">The BILLIONS of dollars in damage to US farm crops and the environment caused each and every year by wildlife over population and by invasive species.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt;">U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service "</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">The Cost of Invasive Species</span><span style="font-family: 'sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'serif'; font-size: 13pt;">"The most widely referenced paper (Pimental et al. 2005) on this issue reports that invasive species cost the United States more than $120 billion in damages every year."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">http://www.fws.gov/verobeach/PythonPDF/CostofInvasivesFactSheet.pdf</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Which could be remedied by "</span><span style="font-family: 'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt;">unfair and cruel</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">" hunting.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Tell me, since there are not sufficient predators available to keep their numbers in check, is it better to have a small herd of well fed, healthy deer or a large herd of deer who are slowly starving to death over the long, cold, cruel, winter (because the land can not support a large herd)? We need to discuss the suffering that would be avoided if their numbers had been reduced to numbers that matched the available food supply by predators (like wolves) or by hunting.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mod-article-header"></a><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">tarving Deer Found At Overpopulated Park </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mod-ctr-rt-top"></a><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">B</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">LUFF POINT STATE PARK in Groton has been an ideal deer preserve for years, with dense hardwood forests and no hunting permitted. Now, conservation officials say, it seems the deer have thrived there too well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Over the winter they stripped most of the undergrowth and many of the lower buds on the trees, evidence that </span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;">the deer have grown too numerous for the park</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">. But because it is surrounded by residential, commercial and industrial development, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Who allowed this bigoted question into your curriculum?</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">the deer have no place else to go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">''You see a lot of indications that </span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;">the habitat is under dramatic pressure</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">.'' Mark Ellingwood, wildlife biologist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Dr. Stephen E. Morrone, a veterinarian in nearby North Stonington who has been caring for a deer found starving two weeks ago on a beach in the park, said the yearling was about half the size it should be. '</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;">'It's obvious this animal hasn't had enough to eat for most of its life,'</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">' Dr. Morrone said. ''It couldn't have weighed more than 35 pounds when they brought it in, and it should be nearer 90 pounds.''</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">State officials say the situation at the park is difficult to resolve. If they feed the starving deer, it will encourage more breeding and worsen the overpopulation problem. Trapping the animals and relocating them is expensive and would be effective only until the next breeding season, when the numbers would rise again. And changing the regulations to allow hunting in the park, they said, would be met by public resistance.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/03/nyregion/starving-deer-found-at-overpopulated-park.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Apparently, it's more "humane" to let a large herd slowly starve to death than reducing their numbers to match the ecosystem (leaving a smaller, healthier, and more well nourished herd).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">No mention has been made of death and damage caused to drivers (and animals) by collisions with deer: My own family has had 3 costly collisions involving deer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">"Back in 1995, </span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;">conservative estimates place deer-car collisions in the us at over 500,000 annually</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">. Vehicle damage is in the hundreds of millions of dollars."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.deerdamage.org/page/deer-facts#</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">No mention has been made that wildlife over population is a leading cause of disease in humans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">"In 1995, Lyme disease was considered to be the fastest growing infectious disease next to AIDS. Some scientists see a strong link between high deer densities and Lyme disease."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.deerdamage.org/page/deer-facts#</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">No mention has been made of harvesting animals to feed needy people:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">Highland deer management program yielded 33K meals for homeless: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">http://www.ksl.com/?sid=30988098</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mf133"></a><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">ity officials began researching ways to manage a growing urban mule deer population about four years ago in order to mitigate damage to residential property and from vehicle-wildlife collisions. </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mf136"></a><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">A</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">n archery harvesting program was approved by the </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mfa50"></a><a href="http://wildlife.utah.gov/rules-regulations/46-rules/rules-regulations/1229-r657-65--urban-deer-control.html"><span style="color: #0057ae; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;">U</span></a><span style="color: #0057ae; font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">tah Division of Wildlife Resources</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;"> and the Highland City Council last summer, and a select group of specialists began harvesting deer from four designated areas during the fall months. </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mf137"></a><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">n its first year, the program harvested 74 deer, which yielded more than 5,500 pounds of ground venison. Most of the meat was donated to local homeless shelters, providing enough for more than 33,000 meals, according to program coordinator Brian Cook. </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="mf138"></a><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">"</span><span style="font-family: 'Ubuntu'; font-size: 13pt;">It was a resounding success — absolutely unbelievable," Cook said. </span></div>
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That's what I wrote (at least in part). Now that you know, will you join me in prying our children minds (and futures) out of the clutches of the Marxists who authored this curriculum? It's may not be the English teacher but someone approved of this propaganda.<br />
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When was the last time you called you representatives?<br />
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<a href="http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/" target="_blank">http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ </a></blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm" target="_blank">http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm </a></blockquote>
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When was the last time you called your school board?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-46842983084323841122013-01-10T11:10:00.002-05:002013-01-10T11:10:29.770-05:00Mom uses handgun to save her two children from violent home intruder<div style="-qt-block-indent: 0; -qt-user-state: 0; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">
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</style> Law abiding citizens use guns to PREVENT CRIME 2.5 MILLION times every year. Most citizens don't even have to fire a shot to deter the criminal, because once a criminal sees that you won't be easy prey, they'll move on to an easier (unarmed) target.</div>
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To their undying shame, the liberal media will never tell you this. Neither will Barack Obama and Diane Feinstein admit to it because it does not fit their agenda. You pay for them to have private machine gun toting bodyguards and it's no skin off their nose if you (or your school children) become a statistic.</div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow">Rahm Emanuel famously said "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste"</a></span>. The proposed gun ban was written a long time before Sandy Hook, but Obama and Feinstein couldn't ram it through congress because they didn't have a convenient crisis.</div>
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For Obama and Feinstein, Sandy Hook wasn't a tragedy, it was a Christmas gift. Sandy Hook was a convenient crisis to throw up in front of cameras to ram really bad laws through congress before anyone had time to think about it.</div>
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It's a myth that liberals hate guns. Homeland Security just bought 1.6 BILLION rounds of hollow point ammo, which is far more than the 70 million rounds of ammo the military uses in Afghanistan each year. It would be illegal for the US Military to use hollow point ammo because by international convention, hollow point ammo is illegal to use on enemy combatants.</div>
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Hollow point ammo is meant to shred tissue for maximum lethality and it too expensive to be used for practice. As Homeland Securities only jurisdiction is on US soil, it begs the question as to why Homeland Security would be allowed to purchase it as their only legally, allowable targets are US citizens?</div>
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Liberals only hate guns when you have them.</div>
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Mom uses handgun to save her two children from violent home intruder</h1>
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<br />Learn more: <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/038607_handgun_children_home_intruder.html#ixzz2HabFg7si" style="color: #003399;">http://www.naturalnews.com/038607_handgun_children_home_intruder.html#ixzz2HabFg7si</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-17144883724510271732011-11-12T06:47:00.001-05:002011-11-12T06:52:53.417-05:00An Open Letter to the Vinvard Church of Columbus<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }</style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To the staff and members of the Vineyard Church of Columbus (VCC),</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> I formerly attended Vineyard Columbus for more than 12 years, serving as a kinship worship leader, KidsQuest teacher, and event volunteer before leaving the VCC in 2008. Recently, The Lord has pulled me back to Vineyard Columbus for a season. Since my return, I have been attending the Saturday night service. The Lord has been repeatedly speaking through dreams, about something and pressing me to speak up regarding it. I ask that you carefully and prayerfully inquire of The Lord and let Him confirm or deny what I say.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The essence of the issue is this: over the years, there has been a progressive ebbing of the presence of the Holy Spirit at VCC. Time was, that Vineyard Columbus was much more in tune with the Spirit, but over the years, the VCC service has become a superficial, homogenized, service that is aesthetically pleasing but lacks the breadth, richness, and individuality brought by the spectrum of spiritual gifts mandated in scripture.</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>1 Corinthians 14:26 (NIV)</i></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, <u>each of you</u> has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. <u>Everything must be done so that the church may be built up</u>.</i></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> In September, I asked The Lord to let me to see what He sees and was shown a contrast between the bricks of the Tower of Babel and stones of The Lord's alter. Scripture emphasizes that the Tower of Babel; a human attempt to unite mankind; was made from bricks; not stones:</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Genesis 11:3 (NIV)</i></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” <u>They used brick instead of stone</u>, and tar for mortar.</i></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Bricks are identical with no uniqueness. In contrast, The Lord's alter is made from uncut stone. Using an iron tool to shape the stone was forbidden (an iron tool would alter a stone's divinely inspired uniqueness).</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>Deuteronomy 27:5-6</i></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. Build the altar of the LORD your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God. </i> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We, like stones, are unique and we each have gifts that are necessary for the proper functioning of the church. VCC is in need of the complete spectrum of spiritual gifts but I see scant spiritual giftings or their development. Even individuality as expressed in acts of worship have been limited and homogenized. One VCC kinship leader, a fine man and well known, used to sway while he worshiped till he was told by church leadership to stop swaying on the grounds that it attracted attention to himself. I know a few who loved to dance during worship but they too were told to stop. At one time there were calls for prophetic words at the end of service, but a common report was that the church leadership, listened politely but then ignored it. The VCC is producing spiritual bricks.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> I attend VCC on Saturday night but a different church on Sunday morning. The other church, worships longer and each worships differently with individuality of worship. Some sit, some stand, some dance, some kneel, some bow down, some wave banners, some shout praises to God, some paint biblical and spiritual scenes on canvas. At the end of worship, the band plays a gentle contemplative music while the congregation waits for The Lord. Prophecy is sometimes spoken, and sometimes sung, we speak in tongues, we see miracles and healings and see a wide range of spiritual gifts. It comes from the many and not just a few. Even the children receive prophetic words. Occasionally the Spirit will move the church to spend the service in worship, meditation, or prayer. It is not a perfect place, but the church is built of living spiritual stones.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The VCC is turning spiritual stones into spiritual bricks. The service has become homogenized with little individuality, freedom of worship or spiritual giftings. There has been an artificial emphasis on being multinational and multicultural. What few spiritual giftings I see are not being exercised by the many but by a select few. The spiritual giftings of the body and the spiritual growth that flows from those gifts have been arrested.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> I believe that The Lord is trying to speak to Vineyard Columbus and has given the VCC staff a sign that there is a deep spiritual problem. In little more than a year, three VCC pastors have fallen into sexual sin. I ask you, were there no prophetic voices within the church to warn the church in advance? This is not a coincidence, it is a sign from The Lord indicating that something is terribly wrong.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> If I had to choose an epic event that started VCC down the road toward this condition I would say it was when the Association of Vineyard Churches removed the Toronto Airport Vineyard Christian fellowship from it's membership. At that time, some were criticizing the Vineyard because of the unusual spiritual manifestations, such as laughter (The Toronto Blessing). Rather than suffer the scorn for what was a wondrous move of God, the Vineyard made the tragic decision to cast aside a messy gift to maintain respectability. Let me elaborate on what The Vineyard has missed.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> In those days, few, had ever heard of Roland or Heidi Baker or the orphanage they operated in Mozambique, Africa (Iris Ministries). The Bakers had, with great difficulty, planted 4 churches in 18 years of ministry. They were constantly harassed by the Marxist government and the persecution, poverty and daily burdens were so taxing on them that they were ready to quit. Against doctors orders, a very sick Heidi Baker traveled to Toronto and under the power of The Lord she spent 7 days on the floor receiving visions, healing, and an apostolic anointing from The Lord. Since that time, under the Holy Spirit's leading, The Bakers have planted over 10,000 churches in the African bush. Heidi received truly apostolic gifts of miraculous healings that dwarf those of John Wimber. They credit the miraculous change to what happened at the Toronto church.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The Lord is not a respecter of man. The “Toronto blessing” was messy but as Jesus gladly associated with the prostitutes and tax collectors, we know that The Lord cares more about building tomorrows champion than about today's dirty diapers. The Vineyard could have shared in a true apostolic birth but they shut the door on a move of God and time has shown that the Vineyard suffered a substantial loss.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Vineyard Columbus and the Association of Vineyard Churches needs Spirit guided introspection, and repentance. Again, I ask that you prayerfully inquire of The Lord and let him speak to you.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-5899822717810224792010-02-05T14:37:00.006-05:002014-09-03T22:50:48.941-04:00An apology for Sodom"If God doesn't soon bring judgment upon America, He'll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!"<br />
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Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham<br />
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Gays in the military is currently being discussed in congress and Barack Obama is trying to make good on one of his many now highly unpopular campaign promises. Having served 4 years in the military, I can say with confidence that this is a horrendous sin. The media mavens are crying crocodile tears for Harvey Milk and as usual, it's done from a very safe distance. The media mavens will not drink from the foaming the cup of wrath upon a bloody battlefield.<br />
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We already have pregnant "soldiers" and some years back there was a "recommendation" to put maternity wards on warships. One "soldier' stepped off a warship that had been at sea for 6 months and deposited $10,000 (her "earnings" from shipboard prostitution).<br />
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Field commanders ordered married men to share a "2 man tent" with a woman. They eventually recanted co-ed tents after military wives made a great stink. Mixing men and women in the military is a bad idea and it's so painfully obvious that one wonders if we can survive as a nation.<br />
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The military is a harsh place even in time of peace. The excesses of the young find little resistance to hinder them in the barracks. Barracks and battlefields, like college fraternities are insulated from civilized society and are unfettered by the moral restraints society exerts upon the greater excesses and lusts of the young and foolish.<br />
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That said, the excesses of the barracks pale in comparison to the hardened sins on display during the routinely pornographic "Gay Pride" parades. Discretion forbids discussion of such sins and obsessions as were likely seen in Sodom on it's last day.<br />
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During my time in the military, I found that some commanders crossed ethical boundaries when it came to rightly exercising the god like power entrusted to them. King David secretly ordered the commander of his Army to place Uriah the Hittite in the thickest part of the battle. Uriah was killed and David took Uriah's wife. The power to command is the power to destroy.<br />
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Tailhook is still a blotch on military honor, and warships are now floating maternity wards, such is the result of a mixed, co-ed military. I loath even the thought of god like power exerted over our troops by those held in bondage to such darkness. What pound of flesh might a homosexual commander extract from a man he can send into battle... to his death?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-79320874666027756592009-10-03T15:40:00.004-04:002014-09-03T23:02:21.747-04:00When 5 loaves and 2 fish aren't enough<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />
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I recently went on a 2 week missions trip to The Republic of Benin in Africa. Even before I went, “I knew” that poverty and sickness were widespread in Africa. The life expectancy is 20 years shorter in Benin than in the US and the infant mortality rate is 10 times higher.</div>
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In 2007, our missions leader, had asked me to consider going to Benin. I attended the informational meetings, and asked The Lord if he wanted me to go. The cost of the trip was more than $3,000 and as a sign, I asked for The Lord to provide the money.</div>
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The power of God hurls mountains into the sea and can feed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. If you do not have the power of God guiding your steps, a missions trip to anywhere is as pointless as throwing rocks at the moon. When The Lord told Moses to lead the Israelites across the desert, Moses responded with a simple request.</div>
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<i>Exodus 33:15-16</i></div>
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<i>Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"</i></div>
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Missions groups to Africa have reported generous outpourings of grace for healing and deliverance. I didn't want to be just another tourist; I wanted the power of God to go with us to heal the sick, raise the dead and set the captives free. </div>
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Some will say that I am expecting too much, but my wife suffered from infertility and was healed. She had miscarried several times, but during an intercessory prayer meeting, electricity began to go through her womb and she was healed. Two months later she was pregnant and she did not have any of the problems that had plagued earlier pregnancies.My wife had also suffered from carpal tunnel but The Lord healed that too. During a time of prayer, her wrist grew hot and she was healed. Margie, a lady who used to cut my hair, told me how she had been healed of Leukemia more than 40 years ago. She lay in a hospital, near death when The Lord impressed upon her to summon a Christian man she knew to pray. He prayed for several hours and she walked out of that hospital completely healed. I know many others who have been healed. I have been praying for years that The Lord will heal my wife of arthritis, primarily in her knees and I will continue to pray for it.</div>
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Even the homeless in America have better health care than the huddled masses of Africa. If The Lord would perform miracles, in America, a country that is turning it's back on God, then wouldn't he do more for the least and the lost in Africa, who are abandoning the animistic religions and idols of their ancestors, and turning to Jesus? Surely, God would do more in Africa.</div>
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The money I prayed for as a sign, did not come. Sometimes, The Lord wants us to step into a difficult place based on faith. Because of a dream, at the 11<sup>th</sup> hour, I took a step of faith, put the $3,000 on a credit card, and went. We landed in Ghana, one of Benin's neighbors, and everywhere we saw the fruit of a revival that had swept across that nation in recent years. Gas stations, hair dressers and even semi trucks lovingly incorporated praise for God on their store fronts and in the names of their shops. We happened to overhear 2 men arguing and even the argument acknowledged God. One man shouted at the other that Jesus would certainly punish him because he was not speaking and dealing honestly. Having grown callous to hearing the name of Jesus being used as a curse, it was a welcome contrast. We were glad for the people of Ghana and we wanted The Lord to do the same thing in Benin.</div>
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When we finally reached Benin, we were taken by how far reaching the poverty was. The cities were filled with tin shacks and the rural villages were filled with thatched huts. Women balanced huge bowls on their heads, selling their wares, while carrying a baby strapped on their backs. The streets of Contonu, the capital city, were choked with traffic and thousands of people in booths lined the streets each day trying to etch out a life. Everywhere, there were signs that Benin's resources were spread thin and stretched to the point of breaking.</div>
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Thousands of mopeds clogged the streets serving as taxis, carrying huge sacks of grain or serving as a family mini van. Dad would drive with a large basket corralled between the handle bars, mom would be in back with bags in each hand and a toddler or two would be sandwiched between them. The air was oppressive and thick with the exhaust of poorly tuned engines making it difficult to breath. The driving was so aggressive that it's best described as a contact sport.</div>
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Our accommodations were a stark contrast to the huddled masses of Benin. Our hosts, graciously allowed our team to stay in their very lovely home. They had bedrooms to spare, but lacked furniture. When we arrived, we were humbled to learn that our hosts had purchased beds and furniture for each room. Every day, our missions leader served gourmet meals which we ate on a beautiful 3<sup>rd</sup> floor balcony well above the tin shacks of Contonu. Our leader and our hosts were the picture of kindness and grace, so that we never lacked for anything.</div>
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At Christmas, Samaritan's Purse hosts “Operation Christmas Child” which collects shoe boxes packed with small gifts and ships them to needy children around the world. Each box has about $20 worth of very basic items: pencils, paper, soap, a tooth brush, a toy, and some hard candy. We were invited by a local pastor to help pass out mosquito nets (which help fight Malaria) and about 100 Samaritans Purse boxes. Word spread through the community and the host church was packed with hundreds of people. The church lacked any windows but had many open archways so that any breeze would bring relief from the heat and humidity. We sat on plain wooden benches, and the choir, dressed in robes, had few instruments, but they sang as beautifully as any songbird that America could boast of. And of course, the choir sang, danced and worshiped with a heaping measure of Africa in each song.</div>
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When we finally began distributing the boxes, the people, who had been waiting for hours, pressed in frantically on every side. We managed to hand out 2 boxes before the crowd surged forward, pushing, shouting and fighting with each other. I struggled to remain standing, not wanting to fall on top of some children fighting for a box at my feet. Our team squirmed through the shouting mob and made our way out of the building, feeling overwhelmed. Our illegitimate expectations of giving gifts to smiling, respectful, grateful, children in a neat and orderly way had been violently swept away. The local pastor helped us put it in perspective with grace and humor. He walked up to me, shook my hand, and said with great enthusiasm, “Welcome To Africa”. He is right, that's Africa. He was not demeaning his people as an unruly mob but was reminding us that they are poor and western etiquette is a luxury few can afford. Our mission leader's wife just laughed and said “They are my people”.</div>
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We visited a church in the village of Attiema that met in a thatched hut. The villagers got their water from wells but they often got sick because the wells were infected with a fungus. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the leading cause of death in the world is from water born diseases (1.8 million every year) and 90% of those deaths are children under the age of 5.</div>
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I like to study “backyard chemistry” and knew that a bio sand filter would kill the fungus and stop the sickness. This simple technology has no moving parts, requires no electricity and is used all over the world to purify water with excellent results. The materials cost about $30 per filter, but the time, tools and materials were not available, so I left Attiema with a knot in my stomach. I saw many needs that could be fixed with a little knowledge, a few tools, and a little money, but it had not been part of our mission. It became a splinter in my mind and at night I lay awake asking The Lord why he had brought me to Benin.</div>
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<i>Ecclesiastes 1:18</i></div>
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<i>For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.</i></div>
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Our team had the opportunity to pray for the church in Attiema, where the local language is Fon. I usually “interview” people before praying for them but I had no interpreter, so I could not talk to the people. Too often, rather than listen for the still small voice of God I have merely prayed my best wishes and good intentions because it's easier than listening quietly. In a way, not having an interpreter was a blessing. Sounding artificially spiritual when praying was impossible in a foreign language. I was surprised how I unconsciously altered my prayer when I knew that God was not the only one listening. But now, I had to strain to hear that still small voice, more than I ever had before.</div>
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Over the years, I have been given prophetic words by different people indicating that the spirit of a father rests on me. That night I prayed for only 2 adults but about 40 children. I was not wanting to pray for that many children but for whatever reason, the finger of God brought them to me. I prayed for them as I would for my own children; blessing their health, their families, their work, their future marriages and faith. With the Holy Spirit pressing upon me, I wept and wept, crying out to God as I laid hands on and prayed for those children.</div>
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I wanted The Lord to heal the sick, raise the dead, and set the captives free, but no word has been received from the church in Attiema indicating that any healings took place. Only God knows the future to see what effect our prayers have had. Trying to rest on faith that something worthwhile happened, sucks. I confess to being a faith midget and for purely selfish motives I asked The Lord to let me see the fruit of the trip. But, He has been agonizingly silent.</div>
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I saw many needs in Benin, and knew of simple solutions to many of those needs. But we had not prepared for it. When I finally left Benin, I was distraught, and was reminded of Naomi:</div>
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<i>Ruth 1:19-21</i></div>
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<i>When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?" "Don't call me Naomi, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">[which means pleasant]</span><i> " she told them. "Call me Mara </i><span style="font-style: normal;">[which means bitter]</span><i>, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."</i></div>
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I had great hopes of what The Lord would do in Benin but I felt as though I brought my 5 loaves and 2 fish to Jesus only to leave empty handed. I am haunted by Benin and since then, like <span style="font-style: normal;">Habakkuk,</span> I have been crying out to God, pouring out my complaint.</div>
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<i>Habakkuk 1:2</i></div>
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<i>How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?</i></div>
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In my life, I have seen The Lord turn tragedy into triumph, and in Naomi's time He eventually turned Naomi's bitterness to joy. My hope and prayer is that out of the sorrow I feel, The Lord will birth something better. Till then my spirit stands waiting for an answer:</div>
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<i>Habakkuk 2:1</i></div>
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<i>I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;<br />I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-81076961573135878712009-04-30T19:20:00.007-04:002010-04-16T12:28:38.876-04:00Creation vs Evolution; Part 1<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>An Unbalanced Debate<br /></b></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="center"><a name="en-NIV-14082"></a> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Part 1 of a 3 part series discussing the evil fruit of evolution and the dangers of it's infiltration into the Christian church.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> In our present evil age, there is a war over the minds, hearts, and souls of a very fallen humanity. The Lord desires to lure us out of a self imposed darkness into his light, but the world, guided by the evil one, seeks to extinguish that light. As believers in Christ we accept that the Bible is authoritative, that it is timeless, and that it is without error, because it is given by inspiration of God. One of the ways the evil one seeks to dim that light is by undermining the authority of the Bible with a toxic lie called evolution. This lie has brought death with it, on a scale that is difficult to grasp due to it's breadth.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Evolution (the belief that all life arose by chance without God) obviously contradicts the Genesis account of creation (also called Intelligent Design). No unbiased person reading Genesis would come to the conclusion that it was secretly hinting at evolution, yet some within the church in order to accommodate popular culture, have cast aside the obvious literal interpretation of Genesis in favor of an artificial “symbolic” interpretation. The Genesis account, they argue, is figurative, like a parable, and not literal, but this “interpretation” introduces several more toxic lies. Not only did Jesus speak of the creation account as factual history but if there was no “literal” Adam and Eve, then there was no literal original sin to be atoned for. This would mean that Jesus was crucified for a mere parable and not to atone for our sins.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Self determination:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> “Sovereignty” is the right to rule, judge, reward and punish. The Bible teaches that God has sovereignty over the whole earth and that he will one day judge the living and the dead, punishing some and rewarding others. We like to imagine that we sustain ourselves but this is not true, as it is God, who causes the sun to shine, the to rain fall, and the food to grow. Referring to God, one of Job's friends said:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust. Job 34:14 – 15:</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Just as parents gives birth to children, provide for them, and so have authority over them, so God's authority over humanity is based upon the fact that he both created and even now sustains us. Evolution denies God's supernatural creation, and therefore denies his claim to sovereignty over humanity. If God did not create us, then we owe him nothing, and we are free to do as we please, rather than as he wills.</span></p> <p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Right and wrong:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> If evolution is true, then there is no meaningful argument for “right and wrong” so your ethics can change according to your circumstances, or what is called “situational ethics”. Thomas Huxley, known as “Darwin's Bull Dog”, was an enthusiastic early champion of evolution. His grandchildren, Aldous and Julian, stated that one of the reasons they accepted evolution was because it liberated them from the commonly held beliefs of right and wrong:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom." </i></span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;">(Aldous Huxley, noted author)</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"I suppose the reason we leaped at the origin of species was because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores."</i></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>(Sir Julian Huxley, President of the United Nation's Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO).)</i></span></p> <p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Hopelessness and Meaninglessness:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> The flip side of this liberating coin is perhaps even more dangerous. We are made in God's image and God calls us his children. Evolution denies that divine spark in humanity and reduces us to only a more evolved “animal” with no special meaning or purpose.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">God made Adam and Eve ruler of the earth and gave them very simple instructions.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:28</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The earth and everything in it was created for our benefit and God intended for us to rule the earth as his children with the command “</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">fill the earth and subdue it”.</span></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> The Lord </span></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">never gave any indication that we needed to stop at a certain number of people, nor did he suggest that we should play god and regulate the world population ourselves. The Lord plainly stated Israel's borders when they entered the promised land, in the same way, If the earth's population was something we were supposed to regulate then God would have said so. On the contrary, we know that The Lord is fully capable of controlling the world population himself and will regulate it as he sees fit.</span></span></p> <p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><a href="http://dont-just-drink-the-koolaid.blogspot.com/2009/04/creation-vs-evolution-unbalanced-debate_30.html"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Part 2: Environmentalism, Communism, Racism and Eugenics</span></span></a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-85476689646834230132009-04-30T19:19:00.041-04:002009-05-12T23:34:14.778-04:00Creation vs Evolution; Part 2<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { color: #0000ff } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;">Environmentalism, Communism, Racism and Eugenics</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Environmentalism: </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> W</span><span style="font-size:100%;">hile evolutio</span><span style="font-size:100%;">n diminishes the value of</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> humanity to being no more than an animal, a new heresy is rising as a fruit of evolution that views humanity not as rulers, nor as equals, but as a “planetary cancer”. This highly toxic and radical ideology, is the environmentalist movement whose “environmentally friendly” advocacy has set the stage for the deaths of millions of people worldwide. This video clip called "The Cure for Planetary Cancer" from the 02/27/2009 </span>broadcast of "<a href="http://www.hallindsey.com/">The Hal Lindsey Report</a>" does an excellent job of making this point very clear.<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='443' height='367' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwhsVyChLXFvzpRsMoMCQwcRfOt3oZ5CxWMzr8sOgvMBP7SGh19Ozt9TEfbDsjKGFpzKtK1S9zXx6W7io_Iuw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> The earth'</span><span style="font-size:100%;">s population is now about 6.5 Billion people, but environmental groups argue that the earth can only support 500 Million people and want to eliminate the “excess” 6 Billion (that's 12 out of every 13 people). Environment groups are advocating abortion, sterilization, and “environmental” regulations that lead to the deaths of thousands if not millions of people. Consider the following example.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Malaria is an infectious dis</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ease, transmitted to people by mosquitoes, and it is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 3 Million people each year who are mostly young children and pregnant women. Malaria costs the continent of Africa an estimated $12 Billion a year. In 1939 DDT was discovered to be a highly effective pesticide dram</span><span style="font-size:100%;">atically slashing the number of new cases of malaria. DDT is safe, effective and inexpensive and was so successful at controlling malaria that DDT is the only pesticide to have ever been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. But then in the 1970's, based upon bad science, the environmental movement successfully banned DDT.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> As a result, world wide cases of malaria skyrocketed because alternative pesticides were not as cheap, safe or effective. A watch dog group called </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://www.junkscience.com/"><span style="font-weight: normal;">junkscience.com</span></a></u></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> has a “malaria clock” showing the estimated number of new infections and deaths. Since it's ban, over 30 ye</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ars ago, 14 Billion people have become infected with malaria, and of those, nearly 100 million have died (especially in Africa). Environmental groups argue that there are alternative pesticides but as many African's only earn $1 a day, they can not afford the far more expensive alternatives.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> I saw a YouTube video showing how people in Africa had trained a species of very large African rats to sniff out landlines and </span><span style="font-size:100%;">mark the spot. The rats were not heavy enough to detonate the mines, but animal rights act</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ivists were cursing them for using trained rats:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>I'd rather see some kid or better, a bunch of kids get ripped and blown to shreds than see an animal get killed.</i></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>OK, i dont like to see anything die, but i find humans worthless compared to the life of an animal. HUMANS put HUMANS's lives in danger, animals didnt. WHats the big deal, they skin dogs for fur, why not skin a human for fun, huh?</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;">The animal rights activists showed the most chilling callousness to human suffering I can remember seeing.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Evolution has opened the door to unimaginable death, and destruction though it is no</span><span style="font-size:100%;">t usually recognized as a contributing factor. Atheists like to cite war based upon religion (such as the crusades) but they seem completely ignorant of the death and destruction brought because dictators and governments were following the principles of evolution to their logical conclusions.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Communism:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> The Chinese considered evolution so central to communism that religions and rival moralities were rut</span><span style="font-size:100%;">hlessly exterminated as being incompatible with communist ideologies and plans.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;font-family:arial;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>In 1947, Bishop O'Gara was imprisoned by the Chinese Communists and wrote from his prison cell. A number of them were "hopeless" to the new regime and were executed. Those considered "salvageable" had to attend a week-long class as the new "People's Republic" was born. His letter described the retraining classes. He does not refer to Marxist philosophy, redistribution of wealth, or even basic socialist principles, but rather Darwinian evolution. This was what was considered the first vital step towards a cooperative communist populace. Eliminate God the Creator, eliminate original sin, replace God with the State.... The Chinese relied upon Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to undermine the religious foundation of millions of faithful. Those too strong to crack were eliminated. (Terry Jackson, The Devolution of Evolution)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Evolution's evil fruit have cost the lives of millions. An estimated 50 million died under the Chinese Communism and an estimated 20 million more died in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Lest you think that what happen in China and the Soviet Union are are exceptions to the rule, consider this:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fascism and Eugenics (also called Social Darwinism):</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consistently sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution." </i></span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>(Sir Arthur Keith, a militant anti-Christian physical anthropologist)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such cases all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile" (Adolph Hitler, "Mein Kampf" 1924) </i></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSDWJ8BQ6IYELo0OEhsIlr5aOmXvazpuySRcCfJf3LE-MWhDsIh6676o_Nq3sgi29p1tKjcTOkH0sAk4pJrWoo2Z2Q_XPOiaRWowZBoUhsahI94wIZLLIiU7uv5_VwJDushiX09uC4M1o/s1600-h/evolution_04.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 157px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSDWJ8BQ6IYELo0OEhsIlr5aOmXvazpuySRcCfJf3LE-MWhDsIh6676o_Nq3sgi29p1tKjcTOkH0sAk4pJrWoo2Z2Q_XPOiaRWowZBoUhsahI94wIZLLIiU7uv5_VwJDushiX09uC4M1o/s200/evolution_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330644405107288450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"> Long before WW II, Hitler openly promoted evolution and the idea that the Aryan (Germ</span><span style="font-size:100%;">an) race was “the Master Race”. Hitler secretly created the T-4 “Eugenics” program which killed 275,000 “unfit” people and forcibly sterilized 400,000 more. Hitler even instituted the Lebensborn (Fount of Life) program which encouraged "racially pure" women to mate with "racially pure" men (often SS officers). The Nazi Eugenics poster featured here says:<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>"This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too."</blockquote></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Racism:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Some have argued that this is an unfair application of Evolution and is not actually an underlying theme within evolution. But is it? Please consider these quotes by Darwin himself and his “bulldog” Thomas Huxley:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world." (Charles Darwin, 1881, 3 July, "Life and Letters of Darwin, vol. 1, 316")</i></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average Negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man.....it is simply incredible to think that.....he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites." (Thomas Huxley, 1871, Lay Sermons, addresses and reviews)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Eugenics in America:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0YTI74aTxhJ-jLblD_xVdCg5neflpl-uZ8tylnbKvJtcYFWjfbcnyYAb4VOu2TyvKcPvVw1eHmIW172k1cxVNGRUbOL9OHi3tl8QPNCFKtGCaBZQoGV9_-3A7MeUQDxSjwJTnWn-WxwE/s1600-h/evolution_03.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 193px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0YTI74aTxhJ-jLblD_xVdCg5neflpl-uZ8tylnbKvJtcYFWjfbcnyYAb4VOu2TyvKcPvVw1eHmIW172k1cxVNGRUbOL9OHi3tl8QPNCFKtGCaBZQoGV9_-3A7MeUQDxSjwJTnWn-WxwE/s200/evolution_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330643620611016338" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Some will feel insulated believing that these things could not have happen on American soil but that is not true. Hitlers eugenics of the 1930's were an expanded version of what the United States was doing since 1907. 33 states has compulsory sterilization laws and between 1907 and 1981, over 65,000 people were forcibly sterilized as part of state level “eugenics” programs. </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> The 1936 Nazi poster at right says <span style="font-style: italic;">"We do not stand alone"</span>: and shows the flags of other </span><span style="font-size:100%;">countries with, compulsory sterilization laws (including the USA). The woman is holding a baby and the man is holding a shield inscribed with the title of Nazi Germany's 1933 compulsory sterilization law.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> The US Supreme Court in an 8 to 1 decision, declared t</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat states had a right to sterilize a citizen they deemed unfit in the infamous “Buck v. Bell” case of 1927. in his court opinion, Justice </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote:</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. (Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He concluded with his infamous comment “</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Three generations of imbeciles are enough</span></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">”. Evolution has only one commandment, survival of the fittest, anything less is blasphemy.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><a href="http://dont-just-drink-the-koolaid.blogspot.com/2009/04/creation-vs-evolution-unbalanced-debate_7096.html"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Part 3: </span><em><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Many Infallible Proofs</span></span></em></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:</span></span></a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-5810131566797815732009-04-30T19:18:00.002-04:002009-05-12T23:41:23.573-04:00Creation vs Evolution; Part 3<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { color: #0000ff } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><em><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Many Infallible Proofs</span></span></em></span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Creation and evolution can't both be true, at least one of them must be wrong. The Lord has left a trail of many infallible proofs that he created all life and there is a large body of scientific evidence that favors divine creation and that refutes evolution. </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree possible." (Charles Darwin, "The origin of species by means of natural selection")</i></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"A growing number of respectable scientists are defecting from the evolutionist camp.....moreover, for the most part these "experts" have abandoned Darwinism, not on the basis of religious faith or biblical persuasions, but on strictly scientific grounds, and in some instances, regretfully." </span></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span lang="en-US"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Dr. Wolfgang Smith, physicist and mathematician)</span></i></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">"All of us who study the origin of life find that the more we look into it, the more we feel it is too complex to have evolved anywhere. We all believe as an article of faith that life evolved from dead matter on this planet. It is just that life's complexity is so great, it is hard for us to imagine that it did." </span></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span lang="en-US"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Dr. Harold Urey, Nobel Prize winner)</span></i></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2;" align="left" lang="en-US"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><i>"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualist accounts of evolution." (Stephen Jay Gould, Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University.)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">The enemy within:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Churches should be leaders in defending the authority and historical accuracy of the Bible but unfortunately some churches are part of the problem. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> One pastor of a large mega church told hundreds of teenagers to accept without question whatever the “reigning paradigm” of science was and mocked those who questioned evolution from the pulpit. The reckless nature of these statements become apparent when we remember that “Eugenics” was the reigning paradigm of science in it's day.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Another pastor went so far as to start a campaign “ADD YOUR VOICE TO THIS EVANGELICAL APOLOGY TO DARWIN”. This pastor, eulogized Darwin as a “hero” for “</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>revealing the unity of all living things</i></span><span style="font-size:100%;">”, praising him as “a tender soul”, and suggesting the absurd portrayal of Darwin as a liberator of the oppressed.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>The religious authorities of his day held great power in England. Anglican clergymen practiced “natural theology” as a hobby–the only real biology of his time. The doctrine of a static and special creation of each species independent of the others under-girded the social order: everything forever in its proper place, gender, race and class, right up to her majesty, the Queen. This doctrine supported the notion that slaves belonged in the fields and women in the parlor, serving tea. Darwin’s nerdy findings were going up against the powers and the principalities of his time. (Ken Wilson, apologies to the memory of Charles Darwin)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">This knight-in-shining-armor portrayal of Darwin is disturbing and completely fictional. Darwin's comments about higher races eliminating lower races has already been stated but Darwin's writings also reveal his belief in the supremacy of one sex over the other as well.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than the woman. Whether deep thought, reason, or imagination or merely the use of the senses and hands.....We may also infer.....The average mental power in man must be above that of woman." (Charles Darwin, "The descent of Man, pg. 566")</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Yet, in what seemed to be a choreographed effort to milk the reader for sympathy, this pastor lamented the death of 3 of Darwin's 8 children, describing him as “a broken heart”, who suffered “a crushing blow” by the “cruel and drawn out” death of a child.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Childhood death was quite common in that day (and still is in Africa), even Abraham Lincoln lost 3 of his 4 children before they reached adulthood. While the loss of a child is understandably tragic, it has nothing to do with “if” Darwin should get an apology from Christendom or not. This pastor even refused to allow any critical discussion of Darwin:<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><blockquote></blockquote></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;">“</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>I won’t post any comments that say anything nasty about Darwin–not on his birthday</i></span><span style="font-size:100%;">”. </span></blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;"></span><span style="font-size:100%;">His Birthday?... Rather than a genuine apology, the entire article seemed to be just a cattle prod to shame evangelicals into abandoning creation.</span><p></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Going against the flow of popular culture is difficult and some shrink back from the battle, fearing the scorn or craving the acceptance of those considered wise in the eyes of the world.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;">Conclusion:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"> There is far too much evidence to discuss here and that is not the point of this article. Rather than point out specific evidence against evolution, I hope to bring to light the reasons WHY evolution is so toxic, not just to Christian faith but to humanity itself. It takes time to carefully weigh the evidence on the balance scales of our minds and it takes time to learn how to debate with others, speaking firmly but respectfully. If you are aware of the deadly fruit of evolution's evil seeds then the answers to the questions: should I research creationism, should I debate evolution, become self evident.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy." (Charles Darwin, Life and Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229)</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; page-break-before: always;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; page-break-before: always;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; page-break-before: always;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;">I have included a list of resources for those who would like to research more into the scientific evidences supporting special Divine creation and refuting Darwinian Evolution.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; page-break-before: always;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;">There are numerous educational videos and books available on the ICR and AIG websites.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; page-break-before: always;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;">Resources:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Institute for Creation Research (ICR): </span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://www.icr.org/"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.icr.org/</span></span></a></u></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Answers in Genesis (AIG): </span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.answersingenesis.org/</span></span></a></u></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ICR radio: </span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://www.icr.org/radio/stationfinder/"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.icr.org/radio/stationfinder/</span></span></a></u></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >Creation Ministries International</span><span style="font-size:100%;">: </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://creationontheweb.com/"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">http://creationontheweb.com/</span></a></u></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;">Periodicals:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Creation: quarterly magazine, 56 pages (glossy)</span></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://creationontheweb.com/"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">http://creationontheweb.com/</span></a></u></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >Answers Magazine: </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(AIG)</span></span></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" > published quarterly </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">http://www.answersingenesis.org/</span></a></u></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >Videos:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed</span><span style="font-size:100%;">: </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:100%;" ><u><a href="http://www.expelledthemovie.com/"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">http://www.expelledthemovie.com/</span></a></u></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-23820397248873780512009-01-29T09:16:00.205-05:002009-04-30T18:56:36.748-04:00Save the whales but damn the childrenThe 1st commandment is to love The Lord you God with all you heart, mind, soul and strength. The 2nd commandment is like the 1st: To love you neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that all the law and prophets hang on these 2 commandments. These commandments are pure, simple and perfect.<br /><br />When a car tire is out of balance, it literally destroys itself. When our priorities are out of balance, we can destroy not just ourselves but others as well. Fame, wealth and beauty are highly esteemed in our culture but the sparkle is merely fools gold. Like cotton candy, these things have has an appearance of substance but they do not satisfy. The list of celebrities with self destructive lifestyles continues to grow. Heath Ledger's recent death is but one example in a long list of lives claimed by the emptiness promises of this world.<br /><br />It is one thing when an unbalanced life destroys itself but it is entirely another matter when an unbalanced life destroys others. I have watched with growing grief and alarm as animal rights environmentalists, viciously malign, destitute and starving peoples around the world, to prevent them from hunting food to sustain their families or to use to barter for clothes, comfort or medicine. Environmentalists, far from the destitution of Africa, indoctrinate our young in an ideology that will forcibly deny food to needy children in the name of environmentalism.<br /><br />I viewed a YouTube video recently showing how people in Africa were using trained rats to seek out land mines in mine fields. Using their keen sense of smell, and tethered on a very short leash between 2 men, the rats could safely locate the mines without detonating them. I wished them well in their quest to reclaim their land from the horrors of war. but was grieved and angered to see environmentalists curse them, with profanity drenched tirades objecting to using the rats in a dangerous situation. Here is a few brief samples:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">I'd rather see some kid or better, a bunch of kids get ripped and blown to shreds than see an animal get killed. But yes, they are definatly to light to trigger the mines.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Whether or not they're 'saving people' I find it disgusting that they choose to use animals to do this.</span></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"></span> <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">i find humans worthless compared to the life of an animal. HUMANS put HUMANS's lives in danger, animals didnt. WHats the big deal, they skin dogs for fur, why not skin a human for fun, huh? Yeah, you can report me as spam as you are the higher class scum who thinks your better than everyone else. </span> </blockquote>Save the whales but damn the children. The godless nature of modern environmental places the value of mere animals on par with the value of the humans whom Jesus died to save. How have we come to tolerate such wickedness? The environmentalists are at a very safe distance from the horrors of war and I wonder how long they would cling to those ideologies if they had to locate the mines themselves. With an estimated 80 million land mines and scant medical care available, I suspect they would quickly be of another opinion.<br /></div><blockquote>Matthew 18: 1 - 6:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" </span><span style="font-style: italic;">He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.</span></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><p style="font-style: italic;"></p><p style="font-style: italic;"></p>Despite the clear biblical commandment to love thy neighbor, this diseased ideology has even infested the church under the name "Creation Care". Seasoned pastors who should know better, have turned their back on Biblical truth and upon people created in the image of God, to bow the knee to modern environmentalism. Lazarus has been laid at their doorstep, only to be turned away. Churches have been caught up in a heresy that has sought to save all manner of creatures at the expense of human beings created in the image of God. Jesus died to save humanity, not the whales.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-4966427396318152542009-01-19T22:32:00.008-05:002009-01-20T23:40:18.992-05:00A Word Regarding the United States when President Obama takes office<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is a word from The Lord I received on 1/19/2009 from a trusted and respected friend, who asked me to post this and pass it on.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> I believe it is worth reading, pondering and passing on.</span><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A Word Regarding the United States when President Obama takes office. Given on 1/19/2009</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Once when the oath of office has been taken, by the assuming one, then at that very second the hand of God will be removed from this nation. The people have chosen their king. They have turned to the arm of Man to be their savior and not the Lord Jesus. Turned to man, the assumed one who believes he is savior of this country. He who exalts himself as someone special.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Turned to man this man states that only the government will solve the problems of this nation. That the government brings in the Jubilee. The Lord speaks that this is idol worship. This nation has toppled from the heights of blessings because this man is looked on as a savior.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The remnant will not be able to stay the Lord’s judgment any longer. This country was a lamp set on a lamp stand, a city of light on a great hill. No longer. This light of the United States is now a darkness, and Jesus said if the light becomes dark how great is that darkness.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Therefore, the Lord speaks to us to repent and return to the light, the one true well of life and living water.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Colen Poeppelmeyer</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">1/19/2009</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-67867181550902201522008-12-30T10:33:00.006-05:002008-12-30T10:38:51.365-05:00An Evangelical Bridge Too Far; From townhall.com<span class="v10px red bold">David R. Stokes</span><br /><span class="v9px blue">Sunday, December 28, 2008</span><br /><p>The recent furor over President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of California mega-church pastor Rick Warren to pray at the January 20<sup>th</sup> inauguration yields a few clues about what evangelicals can expect during the next four years. </p> <p>On the surface, playing the Warren card appears to be a masterstroke by Obama – one that further demonstrates impressive political skills. A day or so after the election, I was asked by someone about what Mr. Obama would do to prepare for his administration. I replied that I thought he would demonstrate significant savvy by – at least for the time being – ignoring the clamorous pleas from core constituencies, the kind of people who will support and vote for him no matter what. And I suggested he would reach out to those who view him with fear – or at least mild suspicion. </p> <p>That’s pretty much what number 44 has done. He has confounded those who voted for “real change we can believe in” by putting together a crafty combination of a third Clinton term on most things, and a third Bush term on issues relating to the war in Iraq.</p> <p>This brings me back to Rick Warren’s upcoming supplication in Washington. Evangelicals – especially younger ones – played a key role in Barack Obama’s ability to counter clear problems with his own church and pastor. They also, in many cases, overtly campaigned for him, his decidedly non-evangelical views on abortion and other traditional values issues notwithstanding. </p> <p>Mr. Obama is viewed by many evangelicals as a new kind of politician - someone who can bridge the gap, or reach out, or maybe begin a dialogue. Just pick your mantra. But before any kind of modern-day Great Awakening is declared, some should take a serious look at how Rev. Warren’s selection to offer a simple prayer has become such a controversial matter.</p> <p>Evangelicals, those who take the Bible and their faith seriously, need to realize that when it comes to issues like gay marriage – even abortion – there is not really any middle ground with those on the left, even the so-called Christian left. </p> <p>Rick Warren has spent a great deal of time and money, investing his ministry in initiatives that are outside of the normal evangelical box. He has worked tirelessly in Africa and elsewhere on the issue of AIDS – and has cultivated a compassionate and understanding persona when it comes to dealing with issues and ministry challenges stemming from same-sex attraction.</p> <p>What Warren has not done, nor will he ever do, is to reach the point where he declares that homosexual behavior is not sinful. He will not do this because he is a Biblicist.</p><p>No matter how understanding evangelicals are and how sincere some are to open a dialogue with same-sex marriage advocates and activists, there can be no real rapprochement without the willingness to change the way the Bible is read and interpreted. </p> <p>And that would be an evangelical bridge too far.</p> <p>Conservative evangelicals possess a belief-system rooted in a movement popularized nearly 100 years ago and that reached its peak at the mid-point of the roaring twenties. Fundamentalism - part dogma, part culture, part reaction to culture - and in large measure driven by several key and dynamic personalities - was at its high water mark as a social phenomenon. Though certainly no fan, in fact a persistent critic, of the movement, H. L. Mencken, the caustic journalistic sage of Baltimore, observed its clear influence, writing at the time: “Heave an egg out of a Pullman window, and you will hit a fundamentalist almost anywhere in the United States today.</p> <p>From 1910-1915 a series of twelve books was published and widely distributed to conservative-minded Christians around the country under the title <i>The Fundamentals</i>. A year before the first edition appeared, a wealthy Californian had been inspired, listening to a sermon by Chicago preacher, A.C. Dixon, to “bring the Bible’s true message to its most faithful believers.” Very soon he developed the concept for the publishing of “a series of inexpensive paperback books, containing the best teachings of the best Bible teachers in the world.” After The Great War (1914-1918), a movement took root, one based on the ideas in <i>The Fundamentals</i>, and that would transcend “various conservative Christian traditions.”</p> <p>During the 1920s, most of the great protestant denominations experienced internal convulsions over issues raised – sometimes vociferously – by fundamentalists in the ranks. Of particular concern to some was the growing tendency on the part of religious “liberals” to question long-held dogmas of the faith. </p> <p>Opposite the fundamentalists were the “modernists” – and they openly challenged things seen as precious to true believers everywhere. Harry Emerson Fosdick – a leading modernist protestant pastor – suggested an alternative narrative for the virgin birth. Jesus was likely (in his thinking) fathered by a soldier. The scriptural story could not possibly be true. And the resurrection – well, come on now – really? Rising from the dead – I mean, that’s just too incredible for “modern-intelligent” minds to accept.</p> <p>And everything depended on what you believed about the Bible itself. </p> <p>To fundamentalists it was the inspired Word of God. By this they meant the “verbal-plenary inspiration” of scripture. In other words, the “words” were inspired – and the book itself was in its entirety. And when it came to interpretation, fundamentalists opted for what they called, “the historical-grammatical” method – what the words meant in context and back then (think: “strict construction” of the U.S. Constitution – what did the founders and framers mean? Etc.). </p> <p>Why is it important to know this? Well, because the evangelical movement grew out of fundamentalism. Led by people like Billy Graham and Harold John Ockenga – and schools like <i>Moody Bible Institute</i> and <i>Wheaton College</i> – the idea was to keep the solid “doctrinal” stuff – Biblicism and the centrality of Jesus Christ and his “finished work,” while moving away from the strident, often belligerent, methods of the earlier generation of fundamentalists.</p> <p>A new-breed of evangelical “whiz kids” took the religious Model-T of the fundamentalists and popularized it to a post-war/Cold War nation. They even had a saying in the <i>Youth for Christ</i> movement in those days (where Graham got his start): <i>“Geared to the Times, but Anchored to the Rock.”</i></p> <p>Rick Warren and millions of others today remain faithful to these ideas. Though attempts are made to build bridges – to reach out – it is only for the purpose of bringing people to a relationship with Jesus. </p> <p>Though I hesitate to put words in Rick Warren’s mouth, or speak definitively as to where he stands – I am quite confident that his view of scripture is very much in line with the 1950s evangelicals – even the 1920s fundamentalists. It is a high view of the Bible – inspired of God, interpreted careful, and applied personally.</p> <p>This is a view commonly shared by conservative evangelicals across the denominational landscape. And it is why some evangelicals need to face the music. No matter how much you try to love, reach out, dialogue, and build bridges, the other guys are not going to be happy short of the abandonment of the Bible as a serious document relevant to our times. </p> <p>Unless evangelicals are willing to say that the Bible does not call homosexual behavior sinful, no amount of posturing will change anything.</p> <p>It is sort of like the Israeli-PLO land-for-peace narrative. It will never work because the PLO does not think Israel should exist. Conceded acreage will not assuage that.</p> <p>Nor will “reaching out” assuage those who believe that anyone who takes the Bible seriously on the matter of homosexuality is, ipso facto, a bigot filled with hate.</p> <p>The Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about people and bridge building. He told the Corinthians that he was always willing to reinvent himself in order to connect with others. But the connection he desired with others was designed to bring them to a place of faith in Jesus. </p> <p>Many evangelicals are firmly, optimistically, and sincerely on the Barack-Bridge, but they may soon realize that in order to cross it completely en route to the new promised land of change, they will have to lighten their load and leave some stuff behind. </p> <p>And among the things discarded will be a lot of Bibles.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-48832030140496655862008-12-06T13:59:00.050-05:002010-01-18T00:59:15.122-05:00Thank you, President Bush<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Thank you, President Bush for the service you have performed for our country. Some have forgotten that 9/11 was forcibly thrust upon you, but you have managed to defend US soil despite the 12,000+ attacks carried out worldwide by the Religion Of Peace since 9/11. You squelched the murder and mayhem of the barbarians at our gate who would take away our most cherished freedoms and our sacred right to worship the one true God. The media has badly mistreated you but you stayed the course and did your duty when it was both difficult and unpopular.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I can not say if the invasion of Iraq was a mistake or not. Without a doubt, Saddam was a mass murderer, dispensing genocide and torture to the citizens of Iraq in wholesale numbers and filling neighboring countries with death and fear. You were fully justified in believing that Saddam would have reduced America to ashes if it was in his power to do so. Carefully orchestrated terrorists would claim responsibility when the mushroom cloud appeared over New York and Saddam would have a tidy speech ready to blame the former Soviet block countries for not watching their nuclear stockpiles after the fall of Communism.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Adding insult to injury we discovered that in removing Saddam we also removed the only reason the Saudis were selling us oil for $20 a barrel. After that, we discovered that the Saudis did not consider us an ally but a cow to be milked.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To their undying shame, the media undermined public resolve to stand toe to toe with terrorists by an endless parade of flag draped coffins and grieving mothers. The stories of courage and sacrifice of our fallen heroes was scraped off their shoes like mud by a news media who were more eager to sway elections than to win a war. Freedom will not be long held by a people who have forgotten that the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of both tyrants and patriots.<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The media did their best to lynch you with the “what did Bush know and when did he know it” smear campaign in the wake of 911 but then loudly protested coercive interrogation tactics when terrorist kingpins withheld information regarding imminent attacks. How weak and squeamish we must seem to Islamic mothers who breast feed their children on the glories of Jihad, a martyr's death as a human bomb.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Though 911 will likely define the history around your presidency, you have done more than just protect US soil. Thank you for restoring dignity to the office of the President of the United States which had been made a laughing stock by the dirty politics and cheap sex of one who came before you.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The evil seeds of the housing market crisis were planted more than 30 years ago. A bad idea planted during the Carter years and fertilized during the Clinton years was the The Community Reinvestment Act which forced banks to make good loans to people with bad credit. The liberals may not know how to run a country but they are highly skilled when it comes cover ups and shifting blame.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The media may have been your enemy but I want to believe that history will be your friend. The fairytale aura surrounding President-elect Obama will be short lived. Joe Biden was correct that people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, and Kim Jong-il will quite joyfully put President Obama and his paper thin resume through the shredder. They will not be impressed by his Harvard education, nor by a pretty speech nor will then President Obama have the luxury of voting “present”. Like Neville Chamberlain <em></em>before him, who's lives will President Obama barter away for an empty promise of “peace in our time”.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The economic crisis will deepen if President Obama enacts his misguided Socialist and Marxist ideologies and all the glitter about “Hope” and “Change” will be shown to be fool's gold. After that many will appreciate the wisdom you brought to the office of President and the fortitude you have shown in the face of dissent and adversity. Well done President Bush, well done.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-91296886973659919732008-09-11T17:39:00.102-04:002009-02-20T23:04:45.827-05:00Surviving the Liberal LeftToday as America remembers the 7th anniversary of 9/11 I came across an article posted on the Reuters new service "<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >No consensus on who was behind Sept 11 - global poll</span>". Considering Osama Bin Laden's boasting of having coordinated the dastardly deed, his failed<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"> </span><a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_bombing">1st attempt at mass murder in 1993</a> and the thousands of terrorist wannabes dancing in the streets of Jenin; I suspect we know whodunit.<br /><br />Tragically, since 9/11, the "American" liberal left have increasingly sown doubt and division for the purpose of political gain while putting the lives of thousands of people worldwide in peril. The terrorists are grateful for their allies in the the liberal left as they have lost substantial credibility (the terrorists) since the outing of <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallywood">Pallywood</a>. If you are not familiar with the term, Pallywood is the slang name applied to the staged propaganda "news footage" terrorist give to liberal western media outlets who then report it as fact. Perhaps my favorite is the <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRz5WnHemkw&feature=related">Palestinian funeral procession</a> of a man "killed" by the Israelis who jumps back on the bier when the pallbearers drop him.<br /><br />Muslims blame the Jews for 9/11 (as they do for everything from sun spots to bad breath) but it's hard to take Islamic news agencies seriously when they freely peddle fictions like Jews murdering Christians to use their<a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k0KojPTeN0"> blood to make matzo bread</a> for passover. I expect Muslims to hate America because they are spoon fed hatred for the west from birth but what can you say for "American" liberals? A number of them act like they are in competition with Muslims to put Americans in harms way? <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOwvzGy0ZDA">Rosie O'Donnell</a> on nationwide TV accused our troops of torturing a forced confession out of Osama Bin Laden's right hand man. And thanks to Michael Moore some now believe that <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKbmC1lMzP4">George Bush planned 9/11</a> as an excuse to invade Iraq. Even liberal church pastors are buying into the hate America mantra.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/TROP.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 153px; height: 116px;" src="http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/TROP.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Rich Nathan, pastor of the 7000 member, Vineyard Church of Columbus, has joined the liberal left and has repeatedly scolded the evangelical Christian right from the pulpit as being "the most pro-war constituency in America". Mr. Nathan's biased remarks are not only rude and offensive but they are slanderous and inaccurate. I can not say that I know of one evangelical who is "pro war" but I know of many who are aware of the <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/">11,900+ terrorist attacks </a><a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/">worldwide</a> in the 7 years since 9/11. We fight against a culture of death, where Muslim mothers praise the virtue of Jihad and send their children off to become human bombs in the name of "The Religion of Peace".<br /><br />Since it's miraculous rebirth in 1948 the tiny nation of Israel has born the brunt of relentless terrorist attacks on a daily basis. Regarding their many military conflicts with the Arabs, Golda Meir, their 4th Prime Minster said:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></blockquote>We too are faced with with a prolonged war against stateless terrorists but America liberals are encouraging terrorists to keep fighting the good fight while demoralizing our citizens and our troops. In his misguided ambition Mr. Nathan went so far as join 138 "Christian" leaders to "apologize" to Muslims in the name of "the All-Merciful One" for the Crusades and for being proactive in trying to prevent another 9/11:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">we want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in excesses of the “war on terror”) many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors. Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter,<span style="font-weight: bold;"> we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One</span> and of the Muslim community around the world.</blockquote>Referring to God as the "All-Merciful One" sounds like they're afraid to say "Jesus" to Muslims, and leaves the impression that they think Muslims are not smart enough to see through a childish word play. As Muslim clerics have not come forth with a similar "apology" for the 11,900+ terrorist attacks since 9/11 or the abuses of the Ottoman empire, some of us can't get over the feeling that Muslim clerics are having a good laugh at our expense while they sharpen their swords for war.<br /><br />If that were not enough, Rich Nathan hosted a 3 day "Justice Revival" back in April with Jim Wallis of Sojourners as the featured speaker. You may recall Barack Obama's radical pastor Jeremiah Wright. Jim Wallis defended Jeremiah Wright's radical "God d**n America" rantings referring to them as "<a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/03/healing-the-wounds-of-race-by.html">prophetic truth telling</a>". Jim Wallis has so distinguished himself in the hate America brigade that he has achieved the dubious honor of a pat on the head by the Aljazeera news website. Aljazeera, the favorite news agency of Islamic terrorists everywhere lavished high praise on Jim Wallis referring to him as an "<a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2005/12/200849155216571872.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">American wise clergyman</span></a>" for his denunciation of the "<span style="font-style: italic;">American extremist right</span>". Aljazerra also recently gave <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/02/2008525184758489268.html">Cindy Sheehan</a> face time to bash America, stump for her run for political office (in America) and <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:10;" ><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:10;" ></span></span></span>protest the trial of 40 Muslim Brotherhood terrorist suspects.<br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain">Neville Chamberlain's</a> appeasement of Hitler lead to a far longer and far more costly WWII and to his enduring shame he bartered away strategic defensive positions of someone else's country (Czechoslovakia) for an empty promise of "peace in our time". No one seems to know who asked Rich Nathan or Jim Wallis to be our spokesmen or to make American evangelicals look like fools. They have given credibility to the lie that Islamic terrorists have valid reasons for wanting to commit mass murder in the name of "the religion of peace". The Arabs do not have peace because they do not want peace. Golda Meir said it so very well:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.</span></blockquote>These liberal pastors make like to bask in the sunshine of the praise of terrorists but they are putting the lives of thousands of people in danger. Lets hope these liberals figure that out before we see a mushroom cloud over New York.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-31110975227791054242008-09-11T09:11:00.004-04:002008-12-18T17:45:39.196-05:00Sojourning Socialists: an INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY editorial<b>Election '08:</b> Barack Obama has joined forces with a white socialist he calls a "good friend" — the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of "Sojourners." He too believes in "liberation theology," sans the black nationalism. In fact, Wallis is the white version of Jeremiah Wright, sans the black rage.<br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/images/smlissues03091008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/images/smlissues03091008.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>In addition to publishing "Sojourners" magazine, Wallis runs Call to Renewal — a network of liberal churches and activist groups "committed to ending poverty and racism." </p> <p>Wright once joined Wallis at the U.S. Capitol in an anti-poverty "preach-in" sponsored by Call to Renewal.<br /></p> <div class="imgEdSmall"><a href="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=305851942725035#" onclick="JavaScript:popup=window.open('PhotoPopUp.aspx?id=305851942725035','largeimg',largeimgprops);popup.focus();"></a><p class="caption">Jim Wallis is more eloquent than Obama's former mentor, Jeremiah Wright, but preaches the same anti-American message.</p></div> <p>Wallis and his Washington-based operation have essentially replaced Wright and his militantly Afrocentric Chicago church, which Obama expediently dumped in the heat of the primary race after videos surfaced of his fire-breathing preacher damning America.</p> <p>The avuncular, noncombative Wallis offers Obama a voting bloc that Wright could never help deliver: white Christian evangelicals, if in Birkenstocks. </p> <p>At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Obama tapped Wallis to oversee the drafting of the faith-based plank of the party platform (which, by the way, champions outreach programs for "ex-offenders"). </p> <p>"This is a very faith-friendly convention," Wallis said. "I think Democrats have really gone through an important change." But their newfound faith is not one most mainline Christians would even recognize, let alone embrace.</p> <p>Like Wright and Obama, Wallis believes that biblical faith compels radical social action. Their political ministry is called the "social gospel," but it's really just socialism dressed up in a cheap tunic. They refuse to separate personal faith from political activism, whether at home or abroad.</p> <p>In the '80s, for example, Wallis and Wright rallied to the cause of the communist regime in Nicaragua, and protested the U.S. arming of the Contra rebels. Wallis, in fact, marshaled thousands of "Witnesses for Peace" and joined them in Nicaragua, making it known they were willing to take a bullet to stop the anti-communist insurgency.</p> <p>Wallis is more eloquent than Wright, but he preaches the same anti-American message. According to discoverthenetworks.org, he once called the U.S. "the great power, the great seducer, the great captor and destroyer of human life, the great master of humanity and history in its totalitarian claims and designs."</p> <p>Like Obama, Wallis got his start in Chicago, where he too was involved in community organizing. He forged ties with black gang leaders, including at least one known cop-killer.</p> <p>While agitating in Chicago, Wallis published a newspaper called the "Post-American," which was printed by the same radicals who put out the Black Panther paper. Now in D.C., he presides at funerals of gangbangers and runs a commune in the ghetto that romanticizes blight and mocks efforts at urban renewal. </p> <p>"I don't know which is the worst evil," he said in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Times magazine, "the crackhouse or the gentrified house."</p> <p>Wallis agrees with Obama that American racism and capitalism are to blame for inner-city poverty, and echoes his oft-repeated call for "economic justice." They share a spread-the-wealth vision, including subsidizing the working poor beyond expanded tax credits and minimum-wage hikes.</p> <p>"The Bible says prosperity has to be shared," Wallis said in a January 2000 interview with IBD. "It's very simple."</p> <p>"So far the rising tide is lifting all the yachts, but not the boats the poor inner-city kids are in," he said, adding that the stock market has created a "casino economy."</p> <p>Wallis likes to think of himself and his sojourners as "progressives." But "they're really just socialists," said David Kelley, director of the Objectivist Center in New York.</p> <p>Wallis may couch his Bolshevist views today. But in 1979, he was quoted in the journal "Mission Tracks" saying he hoped that "more Christians will come to view the world through Marxist eyes."</p> <p>Obama is one who's seen the light. While delivering the keynote address for Wallis at his Call to Renewal 2006 conference in Washington, he condemned the "idolatry of the free market" and professed: "I believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change."</p> <p>Wallis says Obama is the kind of leader he's been searching for, one who's "responsive to social movements." "Barack Obama talks about 'being our brother's keeper' and how he finds a faith that does justice to be compelling to him," he said in a recent interview.</p> <p>But it's not just "movements" that Wallis has in mind. He recently wrote the foreword to a leftist book titled, "The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Our World."</p> <p>Wallis is also an anti-military pacifist who fasted for 47 days to protest last decade's popular Gulf War.</p> <p>Like his fellow traveler Obama, he believes 21st Century America is guilty of "structural injustice and social oppression" aimed at blacks. His Sojourners magazine features radical professor Cornel West as a contributing editor. West, a black Marxist, is working as an adviser to Obama's campaign.</p> <p>Wallis put another radical professor, James Cone, on his Sojourners editorial board. Cone is Wright's mentor and the father of black liberation theology, a Marxist version of Christianity that worships a white-hating black Jesus.</p> <p>"Together," Cone said, "black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us a way to build a completely new society."</p> <p>Wallis, who once regularly attended black liberation churches in his hometown of Detroit, has no problem with that. He says his mission is to "sojourn with others in different faith and traditions" toward a common goal of "social justice."</p> <p>Now he's hoping to sojourn his way into the White House with Obama, whose favorite scripture happens to be a verse from Chronicles referencing sojourners: "For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers." (He quotes from it in his first memoir; in fact, it sits strangely alone on what should be his dedication page.)</p> <p>Such foes of capitalism and apologists for communism belong in communes, not national leadership. Better they sojourn their way completely out of American politics.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-24812755857621565902008-09-06T17:27:00.063-04:002008-12-18T17:45:47.711-05:00Vineyard Columbus, Sojourners and paganism<span style="font-size:130%;">Vineyard Columbus hosted a 3 day "Justice Revival" in April 2008 featuring Jim Wallis of Sojourners as the featured speaker. Some were highly concerned that Vineyard Columbus should allow Jim Wallis, a far left political figure to be the featured speaker at a "revival". Jim Wallis; founder of Sojourners also hosts the controversial and far left "God's Politics" blog site. The far left political nature of Jim Wallis is abundantly clear in his "God's Politics" blogs. Mr Wallis writes love letter blogs for even the most pro-abortion liberals and blistering attacks for conservatives. Mr Wallis continued to stump for liberal politics at the Justice Revival. The politics were slightly more veiled but it was still political stumping.<br /><br />Competing with the concerns over Jim Wallis's politics were the Sojourners magazines being passed out at the "revival". Many valid Christian organizations have periodicals but no "Christian" magazines I know of carry ads for retreats that teach </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Buddhism </span><span style="font-size:130%;">or workshops for pagan idol worship. Additionally, the Sojourners magazine itself is a laundry list of far left political politics including articles like "The Green Gospel" which argued that the essential moral assignment of our time was caring for the environment.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.opensourcepcs.com/pictures/Sojourners%20magazine%20cover_02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhLh-_isyEJI9diM-YAdCujzq4Dk2MEjbvOlcBxtLbATHT4eEcN93q1uYEFM9obod5BeixPgaqknX4pmGOm4eyjHl2c-9Pob-rxvVjNltHsIhyoE4Tw12TWqfm0Cs6nVVXzM2bDEPBvA/s200/Sojourners_mag_015.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243085184981680562" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">The September 2007 issue of Sojourners Magazine we obtained from the Sojourners table at the revival had a large 1/2 page ad for the "Mandela Center" (www.mandalacenter.org)<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mandala">Merriam Webster online dictionary</a></span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">defines "Mandela" as:<br /></span><span class="sense_break"><span class="sense_content"><strong></strong></span></span><blockquote><span class="sense_break"><span class="sense_content"> <span style="font-style: italic;">a Hindu or Buddhist graphic symbol of the universe</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;" class="sense_content">; <em>specifically</em></span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;" class="sense_content"><strong>:</strong> a circle enclosing a s</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;" class="sense_break"><span class="sense_content">quare with a deity on each side that is used chiefly as an aid to meditation</span></span><br /></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">An excerpt from the <a href="http://www.mandalacenter.org/default.cfm?page_name=Mission&page_id=80">The Mandala Center's mission statement</a>:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Mandala Center has an inclusive view on how each person may experience God. There are many pathways, many understandings of God. God is far more expansive than one person can understand, and we are not limited to one interpretation of the Divine.</span></blockquote></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.opensourcepcs.com/pictures/Mandella_center_and_Buddhism_closeup.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggEHoucLO5NEvF2e6Eu8Y0lQ0N0HfPsUqjUzs7StaiB_7nRjkPPkcIlnYJ-9N2xczZe1XBn0ptAnbRmz-1ohfV2tHYTOGNggaSp3vcfJg7DP96qeWtHqLlrEUhnspd-ZB-UD-bmBQLWu4/s200/Sojourners_mag_003.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243085989224593522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-size:130%;">The ads for a Buddhist retreat and a "Divine Feminine" workshop were among the r</span><span style="font-size:130%;">etreats on the large 1/2 page ad.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><b>What is </b></i></span><span style="color: rgb(160, 32, 240);font-size:100%;" ><i><b>Buddhism</b></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><b>? An exploration of Buddhist teachings and practice.</b></i> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>(Oct 5 - 7); Introduction to </i></span><span style="color: rgb(160, 32, 240);font-size:100%;" ><i><b>Buddhism</b></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>for those who want to understand this spiritual tradition. Teaching, discussion, instruction and experience in Tibetan Buddhist Meditation. Taught by Don Handrick, </i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><u>Buddhist practitioner and teacher</u></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>. </i></span> </p> </li><li><p><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><b>Ancient images/Modern Icons: art making and the Divine Feminine</b></i></span> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i>(Oct 10 - 14); Hands on workshop co</i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>mbines interactive pictorial lectures with studio art making as participants develop their understanding of the Sacred Feminine (taught by Mary Saracino).</i></span> </p> </li></ul> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">If you do not know what "the Divine Feminine" is, please review this additional information from the teacher's (Mary Saracino) </span><span style="font-size:130%;">website</span><span style="font-size:130%;">:(<a href="http://www.marysaracino.com/index.html%29">http://www.marysaracino.com/index.html)</a></span></p> <blockquote><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.marysaracino.com/images/mothergod.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.marysaracino.com/images/mothergod.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Divine Feminine Workshops</i><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Mary’s been an independent scholar of the Divine Feminine for over 30 years.</i><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>In addition to self-study and research, she has participated in two Dark Mother study tours (Sicily in 2001 & Sardegna in 2004) guided by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Ph.D., author of Black Madonnas and Dark Mother.</i><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Mary’s Divine Feminine workshops are an interactive, pictorial adventure. </i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><u>Full of 100s of images of the feminine face of God</u></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>, the information she presents arises from experiential research, on-site visits to archaeological ruins, museums, and churches as well as her insatiable appetite for reading scholarly works on all aspects of women’s spirituality.</i><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Reclaiming Our Mother:</i><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>A three-part workshop on the Feminine Divine </i><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Join Mary in a </i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><u>pictorial exploration of Paleolithic cave art and goddess figurines</u></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>, Neolithic icons and modern-day Black Madonna images. </i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><u>Trace the multi-millennial memory of the Sacred Feminine and uncover the roots of the primordial “Mother of Us All</u></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>.”</i><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><u>Humankind’s first deity was dark, female, and African. Who is this Feminine Face of the Divine? And what can contemporary society glean from her values of justice with compassion, mercy, equality and transformation?</u></i></span></blockquote> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">To Jim Wallis and Sojourners I must ask: Why is Sojourners, a supposedly Christian ministry, accepting advertising for </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">Buddhism</span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;">retreats and Divine Feminine workshops featuring "</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>100s of images of the feminine face of God"</i></span><span style="font-size:130%;">?</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">A number of people were very grieved when they discovered that materials including pagan ads had been passed out at the Justice Revival, by Sojourners. Consequently, some (including myself) brought it to the attention of senior Columbus Vineyard pastors. What was very disturbing was how quickly Vineyard pastors dismissed materials they had not even seen. </span><span style="font-size:130%;"> On June 5th I asked Rich Nathan and another senior Vineyard pastor </span><span style="font-size:130%;">if they had read any of Jim Wallis extremely partisan "God's Politics" blogs and they both said no. I asked them </span><span style="font-size:130%;">if they would be interested in being given a copy of the Sojourners magazine with the pagan ads but they declined</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Rich Nathan brushed aside the pagan ads saying that because it was an ad and not an article that it was not really a problem.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Rich Nathan continued </span><span style="font-size:130%;">to maintain that Jim Wallis was a model Christian and was fully open to bringing him back.</span><br /></p><span style="font-size:130%;">Several people (including 2 or 3 Vineyard pastors) tried to warn Rich Nathan about Jim Wallis before the Justice Revival but</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> he continues to defended the Justice Revival citing the 150 people that came forward as evidence of good fruit. In response, I must point out that an unspecified number of people including kinship leaders and long time members permanently left Vineyard Columbus because they were distressed by the politicization of the church. One kinship leader said that he noticed that attendance was down by several hundred people immediately following the revival. What value should we place on those people who consciences were so wounded as to compel them to leave?<br /><br />And how do we measure the influence (good or bad) that mixing paganism with Jesus will have? Will the Holy Spirit of God be pleased or offended and what will the consequences be? What value should we place on that? </span><span style="font-size:130%;">I must ask: Was there no one </span><span style="font-size:130%;">available to speak</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> who would not open a door to demonic realms with ads for pagan worship? Was there no one available who was not deeply embroiled in partisan politics?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Finally, when Jesus told told the disciples to let down their nets for a catch the results were nothing short of miraculous. When Billy Graham came to speak at Cooper stadium thousands of people came forward. Just last month, a small church just down the road from my house had 300 people come forward during their 3 day outdoor tent revival. While we rejoice with every salvation; 150 people coming forward at a 7000 member mega church does not seem like feasting, it seems more like famine.<br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-52614898492600004662008-09-04T00:17:00.017-04:002008-12-24T22:35:50.771-05:00Jim Wallis, Sojourners and abortion<span style="font-size:130%;">One of the Sojourners buzz words is "A consistent ethic of life". This quirky sounding phrase is the latest catch phrase for opposing capital punishment. Knowing that the Bible lists about 30 capital crimes (for crimes such as rape and murder) one wonders why Sojourners (supposedly Christian) would advocate something clearly contrary to Biblical law which we know to be Pure, Holy, Righteous and given by inspiration of God.<br /><br />Knowing that Jim Wallis is a far left liberal, I was tempted (at first) to take consolation in the thought that he would at least protect the lives of unborn children (part of a "consistent ethic of life") but that hope was short lived.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">If you don't want to end abortion, then you don't really think it's murder in the 1st place. </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Jim Wallis claims to be pro-life but considering his writings and actions, it's hard to put any stock in that claim.<br /><br />Consider this book excerpt:<br /></span><span><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span><blockquote><span><span style="font-size:130%;">If the Democrats could take the opportunity of a political defeat to really reassess their language and style, the way they morally frame public policy issues, and their cultural disconnect with too many Americans including many people of faith, they could transform the political discourse. But it will require a serious re-assessment. And if they are further willing to re-examine their positions on some of the cultural/moral issues the Republicans beat them with in 2004, they could virtually change the political landscape. If the Democrats could be persuaded by both good political sense and sound moral values to moderate some of their positions <u>by becoming anti-abortion without criminalizing an agonizing and desperate choice</u>, and being pro-family without being anti-gay, they would change politics in America by giving permission to millions of voters who would naturally vote for them except for the cultural and moral divide they feel with Democratic language and policies.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"> "</span><span style=";font-family:Courier New,Courier,monospace;font-size:130%;" ><i>becoming anti-abortion without criminalizing an agonizing and desperate choice</i></span><span style="font-size:130%;">". Wallis pro-life "stance" is a gutless, hand wringing, retreat, </span><span style="font-size:130%;">compared to the rage filled, <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/11/the-bush-administrations-curve.html">blistering personal attacks</a> he has launched against various political enemies. Jim Wallis began frothing at the mouth in February when some local Cincinnati DJ kept referring to Barack Obama as <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/02/defending-the-facts-on-obamas.html">Barack "Hussein"</a></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/02/defending-the-facts-on-obamas.html"> Obama</a>. Why could not Jim Wallis save some of that rage in an effort to save millions babies from </span><span style=";font-family:Courier New,Courier,monospace;font-size:130%;" ><i>"an agonizing and desperate choice".</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Not to make too fine of a point but </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Obama is so staunchly pro-abortion that he even voted against the <a href="http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=3383"><span class="leader_text"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Illinois Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Bill</span></span></a></span><span style="font-size:130%;"> which would have protected babies who managed to survive botched abortions. </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Live babies were left to die after surviving botched abortions, yet Wallis has continually come out swinging hard and fast against Obama's political opponents. In contrast, </span><span style="font-size:130%;">even NARLA did not oppose</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> the bill.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Save the serial killers but unborn babies are little more than mud to be scrapped off on the unwelcome mat. I console myself with the thought that the Lord Jesus will carry those little ones to a place so wonderful that the horror of their premeditated murder will be but a memory too faded to remember. As for Jim Wallis, I guess whatever political candy Wallis thinks Obama will be handing out is more valuable than the lives of the 1,000,000 + babies who will die this year in the name of convenience.<br /><br />Holy Father </span><span style="font-size:130%;">how did we come to this?</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Our nation is not fit to live, please either remove this murder of infants from us or in mercy, end our lives that we not continue in this shame and wickedness.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-3755759079968052052008-09-01T12:47:00.014-04:002014-09-03T23:48:12.160-04:00As Ohio Goes, So Goes This Nation<big><span style="font-size: 130%;"><big> </big></span></big> <span style="font-size: 130%;">At a "Justice Revival" in April 2008, hosted at the 7000 member mega church Vineyard Columbus, Rich Nathan the senior pastor said not <a href="http://www.opensourcepcs.com/audio/Rich%20Nathan%20its_not_about_politics_01.mp3" style="color: #3333ff;">once</a> but <a href="http://www.opensourcepcs.com/audio/Rich%20Nathan%20its_not_about_politics_02.mp3" style="color: #3333ff;">twice</a> that the "revival" was not about politics. If that was not strange enough, Rich Nathan insisted that the "revival" would be "<i>pushed into the tired political boxes of right and left</i>". Unable to imagine Billy Graham making such a pronouncement at his revivals, the mere fact that Mr Nathan felt he had to quash criticism with a preemptive strike is a splinter in rational minds. How could a "revival" possibly be confused with politics? It soon became clear that Rich Nathan's comments were meant to quell murmurings about some of the highly controversial speakers, such as Jim Wallis who </span><span style="font-size: 130%;">fiercely advocates political solutions to national and global social problems.<br /><br />Mr. Wallis is very controversial and is a liberal left political figure as deeply involved in partisan politics as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Mr Wallis hosted "Pentecost 2007", a political rally for liberal democrat presidential candidates; Edwards, Hillary and Obama. Mr Wallis's blog "God's Politics" came out swinging to defend Barack Obama (who advocates abortion and gay marriage). Wallis even d</span><span style="font-size: 130%;">efended Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright's hate speech as "<a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/03/healing-the-wounds-of-race-by.html" style="color: #3333ff;">prophetic truth telling</a>".<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdopV6EYt47bOCr2Hd7CknmJrYEIH7JGBZrQJQQwIYIIPLBQTOHlJZ6x5Sqzje3ySWPI38Bom8k-RGOjmi9gZbUKc6310OZsTIbyCf8gPk8UvyiwfLKst8d1WqK9XhGjSaDMJFh-im0e0/s1600-h/as_ohio_goes.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdopV6EYt47bOCr2Hd7CknmJrYEIH7JGBZrQJQQwIYIIPLBQTOHlJZ6x5Sqzje3ySWPI38Bom8k-RGOjmi9gZbUKc6310OZsTIbyCf8gPk8UvyiwfLKst8d1WqK9XhGjSaDMJFh-im0e0/s200/as_ohio_goes.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241255923004227474" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 207px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 173px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 130%;">Minutes after assuring the audience that the revival was not about politics, </span><span style="font-size: 130%;">as though he had not heard himself, </span><span style="font-size: 130%;">Rich Nathan added: </span> <br />
<blockquote style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"<i>part of the reason we are doing this Justice revival in Columbus is because you know, as Columbus goes so goes Ohio, and </i><i><u>as Ohio goes so goes this nation</u></i><i>" </i> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </blockquote>
--> <span style="font-size: 130%;">This statement (repeated several times during the Justice Revival) makes little sense outside the purely political fact that Ohio is a vital election swing state. Historically which ever candidate wins Ohio wins the presidency. Wikipedia said this regarding "swing states" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state</a></span><br />
<blockquote>
<i>"Ohio has often been considered a swing state, particularly during the 2004 election, having voted with the winner in every election since 1948 except for 1960. It has often been said that "<u>as Ohio goes, so goes the nation.</u>"</i></blockquote>
<ol>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="cite_note-6"></a><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Vote2008/Story?id=3826822&page=1">As Ohio Goes, So Goes the Nation...Again</a>, Kate Snow, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_World_News">ABC World News</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_6">November 6</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007">2007</a> </div>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="cite_note-7"></a><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503510.html?nav=rss_politics">As Ohio Goes, So Goes The Nation. Sometimes.</a>, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post">The Washington Post</a>" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_6">March 6</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008">2008</a></li>
</ol>
<big> <span style="font-size: 130%;">There was much more about the Justice Revival that smacked of liberal partisan politics than can be mentioned here but the idea that the Justice Revival was not about politics is just plain wrong. Mr Wallis's "God's Politics" blog site gushes praise for even the far left liberal politicians like <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/05/the-lion-of-the-senate-by-jim-1.html" style="color: #3333ff;">Ted Kennedy</a> and <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/06/a-transformational-moment-by-j.html" style="color: #3333ff;">Barack Obama</a> while aiming un-christ like blistering criticism of conservative politicians (like <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/11/the-bush-administrations-curve.html" style="color: #3333ff;">President Bush</a>).</span></big><br />
<big><span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span></big>
<big><span style="font-size: 130%;">Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let's not wrap our politics in swaddling clothes and claim that it's a revival.</span></big>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-451602055663564752008-08-30T14:41:00.028-04:002014-09-03T23:51:27.379-04:00Social Justice, Vineyard Columbus and "gay rights"<span style="font-size: 130%;">The Vineyard Church of Columbus, a the 7000 member mega-church pastored by Rich Nathan hosted a 3 day “Justice Revival” back in April. On the 2nd night attendees were scolded by Shane Claiborne because he said the church was perceived as being "anti-gay". Mr Claiborne ended in a high spirited proclamation that the Vineyard was going to show that they weren't “anti-gay</span><span style="font-size: 130%;">, judgmental and hypocritical</span><span style="font-size: 130%;">”. Mr Claiborne is one of several "friends” who writes blogs for Jim Wallis “God's Politics” blog (as does Rich Nathan). It should be noted that Jim Wallis, the featured speaker at the “Justice Revival” openly promotes homosexual rights as a “Social Justice” issue. Considering that only homosexuals were mentioned in Mr Claiborne's generous proclamation (and not </span><span style="font-size: 130%;">generically</span><span style="font-size: 130%;"> extended to all the lost and fallen) serious Christians rightly question if Mr Claiborne was merely advancing a shared goal from the Vineyard Columbus pulpit.<br /><br />During the”Justice Revival” Mr Wallis, who founded Sojourners repeatedly referred to evangelist Charles Finney who signed people up at his revivals to end slavery.</span><span style="font-size: 130%;"> About 3 weeks after the Justice Revival, Sojourners sent a “survey” to revival attendees which included an invitation for volunteers to work on a bounty of liberal political issues including “GLBTQ rights” (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer "rights"). </span><span style="font-size: 130%;"> Will Vineyard members be helping homosexuals fight for same-sex-marriage and adoption "rights" during this election year cycle?<br /><br />Several comments by Rich Nathan have made it into several openly gay news and blog sites including an Associated Press story is also being quoted in gay news sites. 365gay.com had an article “Evangelical Group Seeks To Move Away From Anti-Gay Focus”:</span><br />
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;">An evangelical group that wants to reshape the movement's political reputation for being focused on opposing abortion and same-sex marriage is hoping that a series of meetings stressing its roots in women's suffrage and abolition will help it break out of the mold.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 130%;">"Lots of people feel that the evangelical label has been taken captive by a very narrow political program," said the Rev. Rich Nathan, senior pastor at The Vineyard Church of Columbus, which is hosting the revival. "Folks don't feel that that represents them. Many of the so-called evangelical leaders are saying, we didn't elect these people, they don't represent us. How did they become our spokespeople? How did this narrow agenda become our agenda?"</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 130%;">The Bible is very clear about what is sin and what is not. Rich Nathan may argue that he does not support gay rights or marriage but when he says such things and allows such things to happen in his church at a so called “Justice Revival” mature Christians may rightly raise questions.<br /><br />Rich Nathan's hand is on the tiller of the Columbus Vineyard and he is responsible not only for what his guest speakers say but also where his guest speakers lead the sheep under his charge.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-74123504417868037392008-08-18T23:03:00.008-04:002014-09-03T23:10:58.727-04:00The Desperate Need To Learn Wisdom<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"> In his May congregational email entitled “The Desperate Need To Learn Civility As A Church And As A Culture” Rich Nathan, a gifted public speaker, expressed dismay and scolded the uncivil language a number of people used when expressing how upset they were about the Justice Revival. But just last month Mr Nathan threw civility under the bus taking potshots at creationists and global warming skeptics from the pulpit. Nathan performed impersonations of creationists and global warming skeptics as 2 dimensional, Archie Bunker stereotypes at a service for teenagers and 20 somethings. Using creationists and global warming skeptics as object lessons of people who “were not the brightest or sharpest knife in the drawer” Nathan went so far as to imply that they were waging a “culture war against science”. The teenagers roared with laughter at Nathan's uncivil remarks but those of us with gray hair know that you have to watch what you say to the young-uns as they are not known for their discernment and will learn to mimic his contempt and unchrist like treatment of others (especially creationists).</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"> As Paul's letters to Timothy point out; church leaders need to be held accountable to a high standard of conduct but when that involves a popular speaker like Nathan, bringing accountability becomes not only more difficult but also more important. Hero worship of a charismatic leader can lead to a feeling of invincibility in a pastor and the feeling that the pastor can say or do no wrong in the congregation. When combined with a Jesus as pacifist mentality in the congregation, holding a pastor accountable becomes even harder.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"> I hope that the parents of all those teenagers are merely unaware of Mr Nathan's bad behavior and not condoning it by their silence.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-866385390209822772008-08-05T01:15:00.014-04:002008-09-11T10:55:00.787-04:00Peeling back the veil of Social Justice<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --></style><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" >Rich Nathan and Jim Wallis hosted a so called “Social Justice” revival back in April of 08 and Nathan continues to advocate "Social Justice" from the pulpit. Not being a biblical term, "Social Justice" is little more than a fuzzy</span><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" > buzz word to most people. I</span><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" >f you asked 10 people what </span><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" >“Social Justice” was you would likely get 11 different answers (yes, I meant to say 11). What exactly is Social Justice? </span><p face="arial" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: arial;"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Ever heard of Barack Obama's friend and political fund raiser (**) William (Bill) Ayers? Bill Ayers is a leading Social Justice advocate. He has written books on Social Justice including “Teaching for Social Justice” and as a tenured professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago is teaching “social justice” to your children's future teachers. Here us a link to one of his many “Social Justice” books:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in;"><a href="http://www.shopping.com/xPO-Book_Teaching_for_Social_Justice_A_Democracy_and_Education_Reader_William_Ayers_editor_Jean_Ann_Hunt_editor_William_Ayers_editor_Therese_Quinn"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">William [ Bill ] Ayers - Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader</span></span></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Did you hear the joke... what do Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden have in common??? They both have friends who bombed the nation's capitol.</span><a name="inner"></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> A few may recall that Bill Ayers is a 70's era domestic terrorist from a group called the "weathermen". The weathermen bombed about 2 dozen buildings across America (police stations, the Capitol and the Pentagon) to aid the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam war. Bill Ayers published his book "Fugitive Days" on 9/11, 2001 and on this dark day in American history, as America was reeling from it's deadliest terrorist attack on American soil was quoted as saying "<i>I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough</i>". Mr. Ayers, published a memoir celebrating his exploits, and once described himself as ''guilty as hell, free as a bird.''</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> You don't have to dig too deep to discover that Social Justice is just the modern buzz word for Marxism (which Ayers advocates). Here are a few quotes from Bill Ayers:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>We need to look beyond our isolated situations, to define our problems globally. We cannot be child advocates . . . in Chicago or New York and ignore the web that links us with the children of India or Palestine.”</i></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>In a truly just society there would be a greater sharing of the burden, a fairer distribution of material and human resources.”</i></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>For another course, titled “Improving Learning Environments,” Ayers proposes that teachers “be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and . . . be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, a teacher teaching for social justice and liberation.”</i></span></span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman,serif;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Here are 2 articles revealing some of the very disturbing things Ayers and friends are teaching our children's teachers about “Social Justice” such as "Math for Social Justice".</span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in;"><a href="http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Ed Schools’ Latest—and Worst—Humbug by Sol Stern</span></span></a></p> <blockquote><h2 style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303347424914951"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span id="ctl00_maincontent_FeedList_ctl00_TitleLabel">Obama's Little Red Schoolhouse</span></span></a></h2>One of Ayers' descriptions for a course called "Improving Learning Environments" says a prospective K-12 teacher needs to "be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and . . . be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation."</blockquote><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Rich Nathan may object saying that he is not advocating bombings (and he is not) but the very real and dangerous point, is the meaning of this very fuzzy, un-biblical term "Social Justice". As Bill Ayers is writing the leading educational text books on Social Justice. And he is teaching the teachers who will be in our classrooms and on our school boards, about Social Justice, I would say that Ayers has the last say on what "Social Justice" will or will not mean to the millions of school children who will be indoctrinated into what this unrepentant domestic terrorist has to say.<br /></span> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">** Ayers and Obama served on the woods board together and Ayers hosted fund raiser parties for Obama at his house. </span> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-48978899951817112172008-08-03T17:00:00.002-04:002014-09-03T23:30:03.884-04:00creationists and Global Warming skeptics mocked from the pulpit<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">On 7/27/08 Rich Nathan, senior pastor of the Vineyard church of Columbus, crossed a line of ethical behavior while speaking to the Joshua house congregation (a service for hundreds of teenagers and 20 somethings). Mr Nathan, as a negative object lesson was implying that creationists and skeptics of global warming were ignorant Archie Bunker stereo types who were waging a culture war against the “reigning paradigm of science”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="SPELLING_ERROR_0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="SPELLING_ERROR_1"></a> Mr. Nathan suggests (quite wrongly) that we should just accept whatever dogma the "scientific"community currently happens to be peddling at the time without close scrutiny or debate. If Rich Nathan examined history a little more carefully he would be reminded of the "reigning scientific paradigm" in the days of Charles Darwin, which was that blacks and women were inferior. Please consider these quotes by evolutionists Charles Darwin and his bulldog Thomas Huxley and consider the consequences of just "accepting" the "reigning scientific paradigm" without debate.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.3in;">
"The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world." (Charles Darwin, 1881, 3 July, "Life and Letters of Darwin, vol. 1, 316")</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.3in;">
<i>"At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world." </i>(Charles Darwin, The descent of Man, Chap. vi)</div>
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<i>"The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than the woman. Whether deep thought, reason, or imagination or merely the use of the senses and hands.....We may also infer.....The average mental power in man must be above that of woman."</i>
<br />(Charles Darwin, "The descent of Man, pg. 566")</div>
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<i>"No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average Negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man.....it is simply incredible to think that.....he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites." </i>(Thomas Huxley, <span style="color: #333333;">Darwin's</span> bulldog, 1871, Lay Sermons, addresses and reviews)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">I am sure that Mr Nathan would not advocate Darwin's racist views but that is not the point. Would Jesus want you to just accept a "reigning scientific paradigm" without close </span><span style="font-size: 130%;">scrutiny</span><span style="font-size: 130%;">? Some scientific paradigms should be debated and as is is common knowledge that evolution is taught exclusively in the public schools Mr Nathan should realize that hearing two sides of a formerly</span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span class="st"> one sided debate</span> is balance, not a culture war.</span> <title></title> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">Regarding global warming, it is public knowledge that</span><span style="color: #3333ff; font-size: 130%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=64734"><span style="color: #3333ff;">thousands of scientists reject 'global warming'</span></a>. Sex may sell cloths and movies but in the grant driven scientific community, those who generate the most fear get the most funding. Before the United States spends well in excess of a trillion dollars to stop the sky from falling, let us make sure we are not merely buying the emperor a new set of clothes by questioning </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: large;">reigning scientific paradigm</span>s considered too sacrosanct to be questioned.</span> </span><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style></div>
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Text excerpts from a sermon Rich preached on July 27, 2008, at Joshua House, the occasion being Eric Pickerel’s last Sunday. The title of the sermon was: C.A.L.L.E.D. to be a Leader. This excerpt was from the outline - #4 “A leader is a life long learner.”</div>
<div style="font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<blockquote>
I have met 25 year olds who have become really old in their thinking. They’ve, at 25, become inflexible and intolerant of other ideas, and the cement is poured around their feet, and some kind of weird sort of loyalty to those who came before them. To some theology from the 16<sup>th</sup> century or the 20<sup>th</sup> century or historic Vineyard, and this is what we are going to be and they become old in their thinking.</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
and</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<blockquote>
I have met 60 year old Christians and 70 year old Christians who are amazing young in their thinking. They are open and flexible, and available to God, because they see the Christian life as this incredible adventure of pursuing Jesus. This exciting adventure that never gets old, I’m pursuing the Lord and even if the Lord is going to shake up old paradigms or He’s going to change and revise my thinking, I’m going to keep on the learning curve, I want to keep on being alive and excited about new discovers and fresh things.” Eric, Julia, Jonathan just stay young in your thinking. Stay open and flexible and just willing to test things, challenge existing paradigms and status quo.</blockquote>
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</div>
<blockquote>
I told you about the Jesuit before, last week, I read a book on leadership, about written by a former Jesuit Priest, it was called, “Heroic Leadership”, it was written by a guy name Chris Lowery. He was a Jesuit Priest; he went on to go into the business world. He worked for JP Morgan as a managing director. He tells the story in “Heroic Leadership” about this Jesuit Priest name Clavius. And Clavius believed that it was important for the priest not only to be experts in theology, but to be experts in astronomy and mathematics. And for 50 years he just taught astronomy and mathematics to would be Jesuit Priest in Rome. He believes that the Jesuits’ would have their greatest impact if people around the world said these guys are just the very best in science. That if you want to know science, go to the Jesuits.</blockquote>
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</div>
<blockquote>
Now, contrast that to the contemporary evangelicals. When the world looks at the evangelicals and said, if you want people who are just the (pause) not the brightness or sharpest – you know knife in the drawer – if you want folks who are anti-science, who, if there is something that scientist are agreeing too, like global warming – we are agin it (then made sounds like disgust) – evolution, forget about that!. You know, let me just say something to you guys. I mean, I do not know where you are at, but here’s where I’m at.</blockquote>
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</div>
<blockquote>
I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in Jesus Christ. I don’t believe in science, I believe in Jesus Christ. But my view of science is that if there is a reigning paradigm in science, I just have to accept it. I don’t have a need to fight the reigning paradigms in science or declare culture war on science. I’ll just have to say “OK.” Now the paradigm may change in 40 years, it has in the past, it probably will in the future. But, if there is a reigning paradigm – you do not, as a young adult, have to fight it like your parents and grandparents. Don’t fight out war. You have enough wars of your own to fight. Don’t fight old battles, there losing battles. </blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-86827397295117069712008-06-29T14:41:00.002-04:002008-09-04T02:07:21.106-04:00Understanding Jim Wallis<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { color: #0000ff } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">In April of 2008 I attended what was called a “Justice Revival.” With my wife, we attended all three nights, plus the special workshop on justice on Friday. Before attending, I read Wallis’s book, “The Great Awakening” twice. I then began reading Wallis’s blog, as well as his other books. The following is my response to the “Revival” and Wallis’s theology.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>There are a lot of us evangelicals who have found ourselves increasingly uncomfortable with the media’s selection of a few people of decidedly conservative politics who are regularly called our spokespeople. Whenever I hear this handful of people talk, I think: This person doesn’t speak for me…Don’t you hate it when someone’s views are 180 degrees out of sync with yours and yet they are called your spokesperson? You say, “When did I vote for them?” </i> (The Great Awakening, Rich Nathan, Sr. Pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;">I could not agree with him more. Yet, in April of 2008, The Columbus Vineyard, sponsored a conference called a, “Justice Revival”. The main speaker was Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Community. During the “Revival”, Bishop Timothy Clark is quoted as saying on two separate nights that Jim Wallis was a prophet. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify"> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify">The first night: <i>“A theologian and I think the outspoken and I would even dare to say, the most powerful prophet for Justice in this nation.”</i></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify">The third night: Bishop was comparing Wallis with John the Baptist in regards to Jesus’ word concerning John. Clark then said, <i>“I don’t know what you came to this Justice Revival expecting, but there is no doubt in my mind we are in the presence of a prophet, a man of God, with a word from God.”</i></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;">Who is Jim Wallis? What are his ideologies, and theologies? This writing will explore these questions. Then, you decide for yourself if Jim Wallis speaks for you? Is he a true prophetic voice for the church or does he speak just for himself? </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">This is the first installment regarding Jim Wallis and his theology. I do this due to the length of the theological questions involved as to get a better understanding of Wallis’s theology, and ideologies. I resourced quotes from Wallis’ recent book, </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>“The Great Awakening”,</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"> his other books, his writings, and from </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>“The Red Letter Christians”,</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"> by Tony Campolo. Other research will be quoted from additional sources in order to get a better understanding of Jim Wallis.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><u><b>Who is Jim Wallis?</b></u></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Jim Wallis’s bio as it appears on the Sojourners web site sates:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, preacher, and international commentator on religion and public life, faith and politics. His latest book is </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>The Great Awakening:</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> (HarperOne, 2008)</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>.</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> His previous book, </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> (Harper Collins, 2005), was on the </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>New York Times</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> bestseller list for 4 months. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sojourners; where he is editor-in-chief of </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Sojourners</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> magazine, whose combined print and electronic media have a readership of more than 250,000 people. Wallis speaks at more than 200 events a year and his columns appear in major newspapers, including </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>The New York Times, Washington Post,</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Los Angeles Times</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>, and both </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Time</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> and </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Newsweek online</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>. He regularly appears on radio and television, including shows like </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Meet the Press</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>, the </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>, the </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>O'Reilly Factor</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>, and is a frequent guest on the news programs of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and National Public Radio. He has taught at Harvard's Divinity School and Kennedy School of Government on "Faith, Politics, and Society." He has written eight books, including</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>: Faith Works, The Soul of Politics, Who Speaks for God?</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> and </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>The Call to Conversion</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>.</i></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Jim Wallis was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements at Michigan State University. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice, which has now grown into a national faith-based organization. In 1979, </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Time</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> magazine named Wallis one of the "50 Faces for America's Future." </i></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C. with his wife, Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained in the Church of England and author of </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>Beneath the Cassock: The Real-life Vicar of Dibley</i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>; and their sons, Luke (9) and Jack (4). He is a Little League baseball coach.</i></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">There is additional information regarding Wallis’ life that his bio failed to mention. Wallis protested the Vietnam War (no big deal, a lot of us baby boomers did, even me), but he did a lot more than just protest. In my opinion, Wallis became the “Jane Fonda” of the Christian Left. </span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">After South Vietnam fell to the communist Wallis “criticized” those who were fleeing the country. He believed that those fleeing the new regime were “to support their consumer habits in other lands.” </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">(</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><u><a href="http://www.traditionalvalues.org/print.php?sid=2664">www.traditionalvalues.org/print.php?sid=2664</a></u></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">)</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">In addition, Traditional Values Coalition states:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><i>In 1983, Joan Harris with Accuracy in Media published a lengthy book on the far-left policies of Sojourners and Jim Wallis. </i></span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><i>In The Sojourners File, Harris took 53 political positions of Sojourners on such issues as the right of Israel to exist, human rights, terrorism, socialism, capitalism, etc., and compared those positions to the official positions of the Soviet Union. </i></span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><i>In all 53 position statements, Sojourners’ views were in line with the positions of the Soviet Union. </i></span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>This is an amazing discovery. Yet, it is not so surprising given Jim Wallis’ consistent support for socialism and against capitalism or the American way of life throughout his writings. In fact, in 1979, the journal </i></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Mission Tracks</span></span></em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i> published an interview with Wallis. He told the reporter it was his hope that “more Christians will come to view the world through Marxist eyes.” </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">(</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><u><a href="http://www.traditionalvalues.org/print.php?sid=2664">www.traditionalvalues.org/print.php?sid=2664</a></u></span>)</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> Jan Harris, who wrote “The Sojourners File,” writes on page 43:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> “Sojourners never criticizes a Marxist state. … The United States and the West are the only violators of human rights to Sojourners because they are the capitalists. Marxists, by Sojourners definition, cannot violate human rights.” </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Discover the Networks web site reports that Wallis backed the Sandinista regime in Central America:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"> <i>Wallis published bitter denunciations of the American government’s sponsorship of anti-Communist Contra rebels against Nicaragua’s Sandinista dictatorship. After visiting Nicaragua in 1983, in the company of the pro-Sandinista group Witness for Peace, Wallis and then-Sojourners associate editor Joyce Hollyday co-authored several articles in which they whitewashed the brutality of the Sandinista government while condemning the United States for waging an “undeclared war” against “the people of Nicaragua.” <a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9611&article=961110">One representative issue</a> of Sojourners from the time condemned the “suffering created by U.S. policy against Nicaragua,” and urged the “U.S. government to re-examine and change its policy toward Nicaragua, and establish a relationship of trust and friendship between the people of Nicaragua and the people of the United States.” </i></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"> <i>In keeping with his enthusiasm for Nicaragua’s Communist regime, Wallis also criticized conservative evangelical leaders such as Pat Robertson for siding with the rebel opposition. “To allow political ideology to overshadow human needs and fundamental issues of life and death is to go seriously astray,” Wallis self-righteously <a href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=927">remarked </a>in one such attack.</i> (<span style="font-size:78%;">http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/articles/jimwallisexpanded.html</span>)</p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Wallis was also influenced by the writings of Karl Marx, the author of the Communist Manifesto, Che Guevara, Castro right hand man who went into the Congo and Bolivia to spread communism into these countries, and Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader of North Vietnam. These men influenced Wallis’s philosophies and beliefs for his life’s work as a social activist. </span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Additional information that his bio did not address:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">He is the co-founder of the Red Letter Christians, along with Tony Campolo, a political action group who is dedicated to social activism to bring God’s Kingdom to the earth by influencing political action and social justice.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">He is a follower of the Social Gospel based in Liberation Theology ideology. On </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i><u>liberationtheology.org</u></i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"> web site, Sojourners has a direct link and is listed under </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><u>Organizations and Advocates</u></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">. </span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Wallis is also quoted as saying:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.04in; margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">“</span><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>As more Christians become influenced by liberation theology, finding themselves increasingly rejecting the values and institutions of capitalism, they will also be drawn to the Marxist analysis and praxis that is so central to the movement. That more Christians will come to view the world through Marist eyes is therefore predictable.” </i></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">(Mission Trends No. 4, 1979, “Liberation Theologies in North America,” pp.54-55)</span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i> </i></span></span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">What movement is Wallis speaking about? Social Justice.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">This list is far from being exhaustive. As you read this paper you will begin to understand that his values and beliefs are not only in conflict to Biblical concepts, but they are in direct conflict to the values and beliefs of the Vineyard Church.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">The next part of this paper is exploring Wallis’s theologies. I will look at four areas, but this may expand to additional ones if needed. The first is the Kingdom of God. Second: Jubilee Year, the third: Christ’s Mission, and the fourth: Justice.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><b>The Kingdom of God</b></u></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">The very first area I want to write about is the Kingdom of God. It is the very heart of the message of Christ. Plus, the Vineyard Church bases its foundation on the Kingdom of God theology as espoused by George Ladd. </span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">What is definition of the Kingdom of God? It basically means the rule or reign of God. Jesus inaugurated it at His first coming, and will bring the kingdom to its fullness when He returns.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">As Ladd and others have defined it is that Jesus is the king, and His kingdom is now here in Jesus. It is present with Him, but not fully realized, “The here but not yet,” kingdom. God’s kingdom is demonstrated in Jesus by His words and His power. In fact Jesus said, </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>“The kingdom of God does not come with careful observation, nor will people say ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within (or among, or in your midst) you.” </i></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">(Lk 17:20-21). </span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">We will see the fullness of God’s Kingdom when Jesus comes again. In Revelation 11:15, </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><i>“The kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ…”.</i></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">This kingdom is a kingdom that is not of this world. </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">We can only experience God’s kingdom when He breaks into this world and reveals what His kingdom is, no sickness, pain, sorrow, </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">and oppression</span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"> of any kind. </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Until then we are to preach and demonstrate God’s kingdom with Jesus’ words and His power. This is not a political or social kingdom.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:Verdana,Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">According to the </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><u>New Dictionary of Theology,</u></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>The kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is not an ideal moral order” </i></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Wallis' view of the Kingdom of God is different. </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>Jesus’ kingdom is not like the other kingdoms of the world, and that’s the point. It’s a different kind of kingdom than the worldly kingdoms based on money, power, violence, and sex. The Kingdom of God, which </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i><b>Jesus came to inaugurate, is meant to create an alternative reality in this world and, ultimately, to transform the kingdoms of this world.”</b></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i> </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Page 56)</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Also,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Wallis believes that Jesus had various political options to follow, but decided to inaugurate a political one himself.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>Jesus clearly rejected all the main political options of his time and inaugurated one that was completely new-called the kingdom of God, which brings a different kind of revolution, one of both love and justice.” </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Great Awakening, page 58)</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><br /></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>In Mathew 5,6, and 7, Jesus offers the Sermon on the Mount, which serves as the manifesto of his new order, the Magna Carta of the new age, the constitution of the kingdom. It utterly reverses the logic of this world, all its earthly kingdoms, and its political options.”</i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (Page 62)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Wallis continues:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>In the end, Jesus clearly rejected all the main political options of his time and inaugurated one that was completely new – called the kingdom of God, which brings a different kind of revolution, one of both love and justice.” </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Page 58)</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Campolo’s agrees with Wallis. From the “Red Letter Christians”:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>First-century Jews, to whom Jesus initially addressed His message of the Kingdom, had a firm grasp on what He was talking about…(Then he went into a quote from Isaiah), The Jews knew that it was not about some ‘”pie in the sky by and by”’ escape from the bad old world. </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i><b>Instead, the Kingdom was to be a new kind of society, wherein the effects of poverty and physical suffering would be no more.”</b></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i> </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Pages 31-32) and</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>The Kingdom of God is </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>transformed people living in a transformed society, </b></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i>and when we preach this message to people in our day, we are preaching the gospel, the Good News. </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i><b>This hope for God’s Kingdom on earth has been, since Christ, in the process of being actualized.” </b></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Page 33, emphasis mine)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >God’s kingdom is not of this world. Jesus Himself proclaimed this at His trial: </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" > </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Jesus said, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><i>“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”</i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" > (John 18:36)</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >If Jesus were trying to establish an earthly kingdom, as Wallis and Campolo state, why would Jesus say His kingdom is not from or of this world? After all the Jews were expecting a political kingdom. This is seen even after Jesus’ resurrection:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“… <i>but we hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel…”</i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (Luke 24:21a)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>So when they met together, they asked him, ‘”Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”’</i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (Acts 1:6)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >The IVP Bible Background Commentary states, </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“<i>The idea that Jesus’ kingdom is not based on military or political force is repeated throughout the Gospel, but Jesus’ Jewish hearers never grasp the meaning in his words (after all, why call it a ‘”kingdom”’ if it was nonpolitical?).” </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Page 309)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Then in New Testament Theology, by Donald Guthrie states:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“…<i>it is advisable before considering the evidence to bear in mind that the term does not refer to the establishment of a messianic political kingdom on earth.” </i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(Page 410)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Whatever Wallis, Campolo and Sojourners are preaching is not the true Gospel of Christ’s Kingdom, but the social gospel, and the social gospel is not what Jesus presented. It is all through his book, as well as Campolo’s book. But what is the social gospel? </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> “</span><span style=";font-family:TimesNewRoman,Times New Roman,serif;font-size:100%;" ><i>This is one point at which the social gospel differs from the traditional gospel of the New Testament. The social gospel concentrates not so much on individual salvation of one’s own soul, but rather on the “evangelization” and “conversion” of social structures and institutions to a “Christian” form, culminating in the promised kingdom of God.” </i></span><span style=";font-family:TimesNewRoman,Times New Roman,serif;font-size:100%;" >(A Brief History of the Social Gospel, Dr. John Battle, Professor of NT and Theology, Western Reform Seminary)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;">“…<i>Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), whose major work was A Theology for the Social Gospel (1919). He claimed that all theology must stem from the central idea of the kingdom of God, believing that when Jesus spoke about the kingdom this meant, not the community of the redeemed, but the transformation of society on earth. It meant social and political action.”</i> (Page 594, Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity)</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Historically, the social gospel is a much-weakened movement. Those churches and/or denominations that embrace this theology have seen a marked decline in membership.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">“<i>Since the 1930s the Social Gospel has disappeared as a movement in its own right, but its influence remains, both in the more liberal, mainline denominations and in the renewed social concern displayed by American evangelicals since the 1960s.”</i> (New Dictionary of Theology, Page 647, 2<sup>nd</sup> column)</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Finally, pastor, preacher, and theologian D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, from his study, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, which is Jim Wallis motivation for social justice.</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><i>There was once the so-called ‘social gospel’ view of the Sermon on the Mount. What it comes to is this, that the Sermon is in reality the only thing that matters in the New Testament, that there, in it, is the basis of the so-called social gospel. The principles, it was said, were there laid down as to how life should be lived by men, and all we have to do is to apply the Sermon on the Mount. We can thereby produce the kingdom of God on earth, war will be banished and all our troubles will be ended. That is the typical social gospel view, but we do not need to waste time with it. It has already become outmoded; it is found only amongst certain</i> <i>people whom I can describe as remnants and relics of the mentality of thirty years ago (that would be around 1929 when this was written). The two world wars have shaken that view to its very foundation. Critical as we may be in many respects of the Barthian movement in theology, let us pay it this tribute: it has once and for ever made the social gospel look utterly ridiculous.</i> (Page 9)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;">In summary, the Kingdom of God according to Jim Wallis is a social/political kingdom. Wallis’s view of God kingdom, is a new order or “</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><i><b>an alternative reality in this world and, ultimately, to transform the kingdoms of this world.” </b></i></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >Wallis believes that Jesus rejected all other political options and set up a new political force of His own, God’s Kingdom. The scriptures fully demonstrate that God’s Kingdom is not a political kingdom, but a spiritual one. It is the here and not yet, to be fully entered into when Jesus comes again. According to the scriptures God’s kingdom is not of this world, but one-day God’s Kingdom will be manifested when God’s proclaims it so, not man.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="justify"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">Submitted by Colen</span><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2846810695462285982.post-85107217696872344762008-06-29T07:34:00.008-04:002009-01-20T00:41:54.443-05:00Jim Wallis and Sojourners<span style="font-size:130%;">We strongly encourage you to look into it as we did but as this can very time consuming we hope to shorten the time that you could spend wading through the sea of literature to help you get at the truth about Jim Wallis and Sojourners. But before you begin, please remember that you are responsible before The Lord for that which you know about. The servant who knows his masters will and does not do it will be beaten with many blows. We strongly encourage you to look into it because the Columbus Vineyard is being changed into another political organ for liberal politics rather than the beautiful bride of Christ. You just have to ask yourself the question "does it matter to you"? </span><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-size:130%;">A number of us began doing research and asking questions about Jim Wallis and Sojourners when our home church the Vineyard Church of Columbus (VCC) hosted a so called "Justice Revival" in April of 2008. During my own research, the more I looked into it the more sick to my stomach I became. Jim Wallis is far more interested in partisan politics than in advancing the kingdom of The Lord. His "God's Politics" blogs are best described as a pound of partisan liberal politics and an optional teaspoon of Christianity. It seems many have just been willing to drink the koolaid that Jim Wallis and Rich Nathan served up, sweeping aside deep concerns by many mature Christians that Jim Wallis is not another Billy Graham.<br /><br />Does it matter to you that Jim Wallis and Sojourners consider homosexual rights as a "Social Justice" issue they are fighting to advance?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Does it matter to you that the 150 "new converts" at the Justice Revival were given (as their discipleship materials) a Sojourners booklet called "<a href="http://store.sojo.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SG%5FHFJ&Click=133"><i>Hungry for Justice</i></a>" telling new converts to "<i>Join the movement; 10 ways you can put your faith into action at Sojo.net</i>". Prayer team members, at the revival, saw the discipleship materials that Sojourners distributed to new believers and obtained a copy. As I recall from the June 5th meeting, Rich Nathan insisted that Sojourners would not have given new believers this material. The discipleship materials consisted of 10 steps, 9 steps regarded becoming involved in Sojourner political issues; such as: </span></p> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Read the "God's Politics" blog</i> </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Apply to become a Sojourners intern</i></p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>make a donation and invest in the movement for justice</i> </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>find out how to start a local social justice group </i>(remember, this was given to a brand new baby Christian)</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>subscribe to Sojourners magazine</i> </p> </li><li><p><i>Sign up for Sojo Mail, a free weekly ezine</i> </p> </li></ul> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">Only one step mentioned anything potentially nurturing to a baby Christian; which was using Sojo.net to "search for a church near you". Curious as to what churches Sojourners was recommending, I went to sojo.net, specified a search radius of 40 miles (centered on my Columbus area zip code) and was given the names of only 3 churches. In</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;">a circle 80 miles across and covering all of Columbus, Sojourners only found 3 churches worth recommending. What is so special about those churches? What kind of kool-aid do they serve?</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7MdWMjbzvhfJ3OUyaW2GmTZ3gYcRu5xubZmtAor2QmikcS7DgHCaNPBEF6vI_RW9ThsF8_o6ARwb030_jN1UDsVlTsQNsW2ZqiGBsV9RhJ3l3oqXhN6cNq2wvUYc2kDdeORJxqUJDmJ8/s1600-h/as_ohio_goes.jpg"><br /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Does it matter to you that Jim Wallis was introduced at the Justice Revival as "<a href="http://www.vineyardcolumbus.org/resources/sermons/index.asp?id=363"><i>the most powerful prophet for justice in this nation</i></a>". I am deeply disturbed at the abusive application of the title "prophet" to a deeply partisan political operative.<br /><br />Does it matter to you that the literature on the Sojourners table at the Justice Revival contained advertisements for conferences like: </span></p> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Introduction to Buddhism, Teaching, discussion, instruction and experience in Tibetan Buddhist Meditation?</p> </li><li><p>Art making and the "Divine Feminine" (participants develop their understanding of the Sacred Feminine)? </p> </li></ul> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">One article in a Sojourner magazine (at the revival) had in extra large print, a title and tag line that read:</span></p> <blockquote>"<i><a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0709&article=070921">The Green Gospel</a>; we firmly believe that addressing the degradation of God's sacred earth is </i><i><u>the moral assignment of our time</u></i><i>, comparable to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.</i>" </blockquote> <p> <span style="font-size:130%;">I don't recall Jesus preaching or teaching anything even remotely like this in the sermon on the mount, nor in his 3 1/2 year ministry, nor do I recall the apostles ever placing any importance on this topic. I considered the title and tag line so absurd (the moral assignment of our time) that I read them to Rich at the June 5th meeting. Rather than find it offensive, I was taken back when Rich said that he could not disagree with it.<br /><br />Does it matter to you that Sojourners were given the names and email addresses of those who attended the Justice Revival; who were then solicited by Sojourners to work on political issues such as "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Issues"?<br /><br />Does it matter to you that Rich Nathan knows these things, but does not regret inviting Jim Wallis to speak and is fully open to having him back in the future?<br /><br />Does it matter to you that Rich Nathan spoke at a “Vote Your Values” Rally the Thursday night before the Ohio Nov. elections 2006, with Wallis and Sojourners and laid out his own political stances – giving the appearance that VCC supports these same causes? Rich definitely does not speak for me.<br /><br />Does it matter to you that Rich Nathan spoke at a Sojourners conference called "<a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.P07&item=pentecost07_main">Pentecost 2007</a>". The name sounds Christian but it was actually a partisan political rally promoting only the Democrat presidential candidates: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards (all who support unrestricted abortion and "gay rights")? I am very bothered by the fact that they showed no fear of God when they prostituded the name of a sacred biblical holiday to Christianize a partisan political rally.<br /><br />Sojourners even gets funding from staunchly anti-Christian <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/orgsfundeddirectly%20.html">billionaire Atheist George Soros</a>. Sojourners received funding and donations in the name of fighting poverty but they give no gifts to the poor (as do Samaritans Purse and World Vision). They believe their political activism is their service to the poor as stated in this letter from Sojourners.</span></p> <blockquote style="margin-left: 1.29in; margin-right: 0.79in; margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="en-US"> <span style="font-family:Maiandra GD,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Hi, ________. Thanks for your note. Sojourners is an advocacy organization, so our work to overcome poverty is largely through media, messaging, policy, and mobilizing. Through Jim Wallis’s ministry of preaching and teaching across the country (and the world), as well as our resources, we call people to a faith that does justice, especially as it relates to overcoming poverty. This year we are engaged in a Vote Out Poverty campaign, to get poverty on the agenda of the 2008 elections. We deal with many justice issues, and we find that almost all of them have some connection to poor people. </span></span> </blockquote> <blockquote style="margin-left: 1.29in; margin-right: 0.79in; margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="en-US"> <span style="font-family:Maiandra GD,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">As you may know, Sojourners has been rooted in the Southern Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., since we arrived here. Over the years, we have also run a tenants union, daycare center, and neighborhood center. Changes in the neighborhood have caused us to close those ministries, and we have since focused on our particular mission to advocate for change. We partner with groups who provide a variety of direct services, with the goal of expanding both our work and that of our partners.</span></span></blockquote> <blockquote style="margin-left: 1.29in; margin-right: 0.79in; margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="en-US"> <span style="font-family:Maiandra GD,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I hope this helps to explain our work. Please let me know if you have further questions. –Blessings, Karen </span></span> </blockquote> <blockquote style="margin-left: 1.29in; margin-right: 0.79in; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US"><b>Karen L. Lattea</b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US">Chief Administrative Officer<br />Sojourners<br />(202) 745-4605<br />3333 14</span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><sup><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US">th</span></span></span></sup></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US">St. NW, Suite 200</span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><span style="font-family:Maiandra GD,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US">Washington, DC 20010</span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><span style="font-family:Maiandra GD,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.sojo.net/"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-family:Gill Sans MT,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="en-US"><u><b>www.sojo.net</b></u></span></span></span></span></a></blockquote> <p><br /><br /></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">Jim Wallis claims to be non-partisan but after having read his deeply partisan "God's Politics" blogs for many hours, I was hard pressed to find one bad thing he had to say about Democrat politicians (like <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/03/healing-the-wounds-of-race-by.html">Barack Obama</a>, Hillary Clinton, <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/01/well-done-thou-good-and-faithf.html">John Edwards</a> and <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/05/the-lion-of-the-senate-by-jim-1.html">Ted Kennedy</a>). I was equally hard pressed to find one good thing he had to say about Republican politicians like George Bush.<br /></span><br /><br /><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0