Archives
Here is some of the older stuff that may still be interesting or pertinent.
5/19/09
The Missing Link. So some scientists and filmmakers discover a fossil that has characteristics of both lemurs and monkeys, and that proves human evolution? They have squeezed a unique specimen into their preconceived assumptions regarding how fossils can be formed, how stones can be dated, how species are related, and how gullible the public is. Read the news story
here, or read the real story in Genesis.
9/15/08 Should 9/11 be made a national holiday? NO!
Those who know me know that my September 11 experence had a profound impact on me. (Brother Tom Stiles recently saw my daughter and shared with her his memory of how Darlene greeted me when I finally got home from Washington, D.C. the next day.) Let me summarize by saying that I profoundly sense the hand of God in allowing those folks at the Pentagon to die, while he allowed me and those with me at the White House to live; and I want to use these days, bought at such a price, to serve Him, and my family, and my country. September 11 should be a day of profound remembrance; not a shopping day. Until a great revival sweeps our land, and our citizens learn the lessons of the tribulations God allows in our lives, it makes no sense to give everyone a day off to squander in frivolous activity.
Immigration Issues
12/29/07 Pastor Dan sent me this quote from Theodore Roosevelt on
immigration. It's 100 years old, but the topic--and even the approach--is still current.
8/21/07 Some of you know that I worked among illegal aliens last summer. I didn't enjoy it. I was conflicted as to what my responsibility was as a Christian, a citizen, an employee. I had to do some thinking.
More and more news stories are coming out about "undocumented immigrants", etc., and everyone has a view on them. Here's mine: They are people for whom Christ died, and many of them are in terrible situations, away from home and family, living substandard lives, and constantly on the alert for being discovered. For those reasons, they deserve our Christian love and sympathy.
However, the very fact that they came here or stayed here in violation of the law means that they have a genuine disregard for the rule of law; and how can we say that such a person will make a good employee or neighbor? To say that we "need" their labor to keep our economy afloat is akin to saying we should open the prisons in order to put the convicts to work in order to have a stronger economy.
That gives me an idea: arrest the illegals, and make them work until they have earned enough to pay our court costs and the expense of sending them home. That benefits the economy, and cleanses the population of these scofflaws.
In the meantime, how should our churches deal with foreigners who come to our churches without benefit of green card? 1. Show them the love of Christ and encourage them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. 2. Then encourage them to seek closer fellowship with God by repenting of, confessing, and putting off sinful behavior, and putting on righteousness. Unlawful immigration is not an unpardonable sin, but it is a correctable one; and I believe that a person who truly gets right with God will become convicted about ongoing situations contrary to the Bible, and have the desire to make them right.
8/17/07 A storage company in NYC has put up a billboard showing a coat hanger and the words, "Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose." The news coverage had focused on 1) whether it is offensive to show a coat hanger (a symbol of illegal abortions) in an pro-abortion ad, or 2) whether it is appropriate to state a pro-abortion opinion in a commercial advertising setting.
The question no one seems to be asking is this: IS "her" right to choose abortion shrinking? Apart from the recent ruling on partial-birth murder, has ANY anti-abortion legislation been upheld? Is it harder today for any woman seeking an abortion to get one? Is the back alley coat hanger practitioner back in business? No, No, No, and No! I wish it were true that the moral agents in our nation were able to limit or eliminate access to abortion, but it hasn't happened. The liberal media has once again missed the point: it is offensive for commercial advertising to lie in order to attract other deceived people into buying their product.
8/16/07 According to a news article, Senator Barack Obama wants to put the "little d" back into "democracy". He seems to think that every citizen should weigh in on every bill before the president signs it, and on every executive department decision before it is made.
Is this what we really need? Will your neighbors really do a better job at governing? Can we trust "the people" to read, understand, and rightly decide on weighty legal matters? If pure democracy were the best form of government, why did our founding fathers decide on a representative form of government--a republic? Can fundamentalist Christians rely on the world to govern biblically--a necessity for receiving God's blessings on our nation? We don't need the mob to be in charge; we just need wise representatives with a little backbone and integrity.
8/14/07 A few days ago, one of my government students from this past year sent me an e-mail. It seems Dantes is taking a summer college-level class, and had been assigned to defend abortion rights, using the Constitution as his source. He had read through the document, and couldn't find anything remotely applicable.
I was honored that he wrote to me for help. I was also very pleased to know that this young man is apparently brighter than Justices Douglas, Blackmun, and the others who claimed to have found a woman's right to kill her unborn baby in "penumbras, formed by emanations..." from the Bill of Rights. [The quote is from Wm. O. Douglas in Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965. In other words, "Can you explain to us, Mr. Supreme Court Justice, where you find this in the Constitution?" "No, not really--it just kind of radiates out of the thing. That's the way the supreme law of the land works. Next case."] Too bad Dantes will have to try to defend this nonsense in order to pass his class.
P.S. He got an A on the presentation. Good job, Dantes!
8/13/07 In an article dated 8/12 by Les Payne in Newsday.com, Hillary Clinton is quoted with regard to the crisis facing 1.4 million fatherless, jobless, and potentially violent youths in today's society. She says the problem is not a "moral crisis but an economic crisis" and calls these young men "casualties of a broken system." She calls for more Head Start and educational programs [$$$] and "tackling the excesses of the criminal justice system that tracks many of these young men into prisons." [Is tracking violent young men who have guns--Hillary's words--excessive?] My mother used to say, "Soap is cheap." A person can't help being poor or comparatively disadvantaged, but he doesn't have to be dirty; and likewise no one--regardless of a "broken system"--has to be violent, hopeless, or lawless. Righteousness is cheap. Hillary is wrong: the crisis in America today IS a moral crisis, and not one that $$$ can solve. |