Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

CHINA THREATENING TAIWAN AGAIN

John Derbyshire of National Review Online says he tries to keep tabs on China watchers and their moods.  "The current mood is darkening.  When Hu Jintao came to power three years ago he was a largely unknown quantity.   Now China watchers are looking back on the previous era as one of comparative liberalism."  Derbyshire cites a BBC report  on China's build-up against Taiwan.   He also refers to Australian sinologist Geremie R. Barme writing in the Jan '06 China Journal:

"With the accession of Hu Jintao ... many presumed that the relatively lax ideological rule of the Jiang Zemin years would continue. Ever-optimistic observers even thought that here, finally, China had a Soviet-style reformist of its own (recall putative Sino-Gorbachev's past, Qiao Shi for example).

"It was probably the 2003 commemoration of the 110th anniversary of Mao Zedong's birth, and the speech that Hu Jintao made at the Great Hall of the People in December that year, that put paid to such a notion..."

A commentary on that speech by Graham Hutchings can be found here.

KEEPING AN EYE ON MEDIA DISTORTIONS

Media Blog on National Review Online is worth checking on a consistent basis.  It takes a look at media foibles, follies, but especially the distortions.  Very useful. 

ISLAM AND THE LAW OF 'GENERAL BENEFICENCE'

Robert Spencer, an authority on Islam, has written many books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades),  The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims, and  Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith.    In a recent article, Spencer makes a most interesting observation. 

In his landmark book The Abolition of Man, the Christian apologist C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) assembled examples of what he called the Tao, or the Natural Law: principles held by people in a wide variety of cultures and civilizations.  These principles include “Duties to Parents, Elders, Ancestors”; “Duties to Children and Posterity”; The Law of Good Faith and Veracity;” “The Law of Magnanimity”; and more. He illustrates the universality of these principles by quotations from sources as diverse as the Old Testament, the New Testament, Virgil’s Aeneid, the Bhagavad Gita, Confucius’ Analects, the writings of Australian Aborigines, and many others. But completely missing are any quotations from the Qur’an or other Muslim sources. 

Spencer goes on to say,

Lewis may have found that traditional Islam simply does not uphold what he calls “The Law of General Beneficence”; one is not to be charitable except to fellow believers. To be sure, Lewis could have quoted a hadith in which the Muslim Prophet Muhammad says: “Whoever wishes to be delivered from the fire and enter the garden should die with faith in Allah and the Last Day and should treat the people as he wishes to be treated by them” (Sahih Muslim 4546). This certainly appears to affirm the Law of General Beneficence.   But it is contravened by so many other passages in the Qur’an and Hadith that make such a sharp distinction between believers and unbelievers (the “vilest of creatures” according to Qur’an 98:6) that it becomes an essentially empty statement, or one in which “the people” to which Muhammad refers are understood as Muslims only. After all, “Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another” (Qur’an 48:29).

There's more.  Read the whole article.

AN ARAB-AMERICAN SPEAKS OUT

Wow.  Here is the story of an incredibly courageous Arab-American woman.  Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily.com introduces her as a heroine.

Her name is Wafa Sultan. She came to the U.S. about 15 years ago to escape the oppression of the Muslim world. A psychologist, she has not been content to sit back and simply enjoy the new life she has made for herself in the West. Instead, she has literally put her life on the line to condemn, in no uncertain terms, the ugliness, the vileness, the murder and the violence of the world she fled.

On Feb. 21st on Al Jazeera she said:

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations," she said. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete."

Read the article and view the video.

VENEZUELA - A COUNTRY TO KEEP AN EYE ON

Venezuela is a country to keep an eye on.   According to the British Telegraph newspaper, the Venezuelan middle class flees Chavez rule of hate.

Venezuela's once-thriving middle class is packing its bags and fleeing the country, afraid for the future as the socialist president, Hugo Chávez, calls on the slum-dwelling masses to rise up and seize wealth from those better off than themselves.

England's Guardian newspaper reports that Venezuela aims for biggest military reserve in Americas.

Around 500,000 Venezuelans will start a four-month military training programme today to turn them into members of the country's territorial guard. They are the first group of a total of 2m Venezuelan civilians who have so far signed up to become armed reservists. By the summer of 2007, Venezuela is likely to have the largest military reserve in the Americas, which is expected to be almost double the size of that in the United States.

The huge recruitment drive is part of President Hugo Chávez's plan to create a people's army that would answer directly to him in the event of civil unrest or an armed conflict.

HOLLAND TO ALLOW "BABY EUTHANASIA"

Britain's Sunday Times reports that Holland to allow ‘baby euthanasia’

Hat tip:  worldnetdaily.com

AMERICAN MUSLIMS SEE SHIITE-SUNNI TENSIONS GROWING HERE

Here's an interesting article from Beliefnet.com - American Muslims See Shiite-Sunni Tensions Growing Here

HT: worldnetdaily.com

TrueU.org | A Place to Discover the Truth

I'm impressed with a cursory visit to TrueU.    The TrueU purpose statement reads:

TrueU.org is a community for college students who want to know and confidently discuss the Christian worldview.  Our hope is that you'll graduate with your faith not only intact, but stronger than it was before.

Great articles by great writers, including J. P. Moreland, Doug Groothuis, Lauren Winner, Jay Budziszewski and more.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S VISIT TO INDIA A SUCCESS IN INDIAN EYES

Power Line reports  (checking Indian newspapers and Indian blogs) that Indians regard President Bush's visit to India as a great success.   As one Indian newspaper put it, "Mr George W. Bush today wooed India like no other US President had ever done before..."    Positive, positive, positive. 

THE EVER UNSETTLING C.S. LEWIS

C.S. Lewis has a way of unsettling habitual ways of thinking.   Here's food for thought - and grounds for making us feel uneasy:

He [Jesus] was not at all like the psychologist's picture of the integrated, balanced, adjusted, happily married, employed, popular citizen.   You can't really be very well "adjusted" to your world if it says you "have a devil" and ends by nailing you up naked to a stake of wood.
                                           -  The Four Loves (chapter on "Affection")

PROF. BEN WITHERINGTON LOOKS AT MATTHEW THROUGH THE LENS OF JEWISH WISDOM LITERATURE

Dr. Ben Witherington, prolific Asbury Theological Seminary professor, posts fascinating stuff on his blog.   His new commentary on Matthew, to be published in April, looks at the gospel of  Matthew through the lens of Jewish Wisdom literature.  Here's what he says: 

It is a hardback multi-media commentary with a CD Rom included and many paintings, charts, and drawings. It is about 600 pages or so and I am trying something different. I have read the whole Gospel through the lens of Jewish Wisdom literature because I am convinced this is what the Evangelist wanted us to do. It leads to some interesting insights. For example, have you noticed how the title Son of David shows up much more in Matthew and in connection with healings? Why-- especially since David was not a healer and there was no strong tradition in early Judaism about a healer messiah? The answer is that early Jews believed that healing took place through having wisdom from God as great as Solomon. There were even traditions about Solomon being taught how to cure demon possession. Thus when Jesus is called Son of David, it at least in part refers to his having the wisdom of cures, like Solomon.

WILDLY POPULAR TEEN BLOG SITES

Our local newspaper carries a major article today on the two most popular teen blog sites, www.myspace.com (41 million members) and www.xanga.com (31 million users).    Yesterday's Breakpoint offers some perspective plus valuable  links to other articles discussing this phenomenon.    Safety is a major concern.   Addicted kids call themselves "MyCrack addicts".  A glance at the MySpace site reveals a huge amount of of sexual titillation.  I don't think parents will want to be unaware of these sites.

THE POLITICS OF TONY CAMPOLO, JIM WALLIS, AND BRIAN McCLAREN

Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, Brian McClaren and others object to the right-ward tilt of evangelical Christians to the Republican party and are creating a new Christian political movement they call a "Red-Letter Christian".  From what this article says, and though these men try to deny it, it's clearly a left-leaning party.   I'm not enthused.

VATICAN'S CHIEF EXORCIST REPEATS CONDEMNATION OF HARRY POTTER'S NOVELS

According to this report,

"Rev. Gabriele Amorth, is reported to have repeated his condemnations of the Harry Potter novels yesterday.  According to press reports, Fr. Amorth, said of the books, "You start off with Harry Potter, who comes across as a likeable wizard, but you end up with the Devil. There is no doubt that the signature of the Prince of Darkness is clearly within these books."

MODERATE MUSLIMS OFFER A MANIFESTO

Two moderate Muslims, Mustafa Akyol and Zeyno Baran, have offered a "Muslim Manifesto" in response to the Danish cartoons and the overheated, violent Muslim response.  Embedded in the manifesto is this sentence - "Supported by the Koran's affirmation that 'there is no compulsion in religion' (2:256), we cherish religious liberty." 

Andy McCarthy of National Review Online offers a response to the manifesto.

I have probably already said as much as I can say on this subject in yesterday’s marathon of a debate. But some observations about the "Muslim Manifesto" offered by Mustafa Akyol and Zeyno Baran on NRO today.

First, it is obviously a good thing that Muslims of good will are finally trying to come forward in numbers to condemn the cartoon rioting.  But we should understand that this business of citing the congenial passages of Muslim scripture for Western consumption (which I have debated with Mr. Akyol before, here) is probably not very persuasive to Muslims, especially the ones doing the rioting.

That is because most of the nice verses, from Mohammed’s Meccan period, are in the early part of the Koran.  They are arguably superseded by the later part, from the Medina period, which is much more belligerent, and instructs Muslims, for example, to “fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war.” (Sura 9:5).

Until self-professed moderates revise or reinterpret such passages in a way that sways the Islamic world decisively (a very tall order), all of this citation of scripture actually plays into the hands of the militants because they can credibly contend that the passages they can cite have more authority.

A good example of this is the Manifesto’s claim that “Supported by the Koran's affirmation that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ (2:256), we cherish religious liberty.” Later in the Koran, however, Allah instructs: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, from among the people of the Book [i.e., Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

As I tried to explain yesterday, the jizya, or poll-tax, was a levy imposed on those who did not accept Islam but were willing to live under its protection.  Robert Spencer, among other experts, has explained that it was often exacted in most humiliating ways in order to comply with the directive that those paying it “[felt] themselves subdued.”

MARK D. ROBERTS ON LENT

Mark D. Roberts, a wise pastor and avid blogger, is using his blog to begin a series on Lent.  I've no doubt it will prove both nourishing and instructive.   It has already begun so. 

Lent is not a requirement for Christians. But millions of us - Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Independent - have found that recognizing the season of Lent enriches our worship and deepens our faith.

Check his comments out here.  He also produces The Daily Psalm.

Hat tip:  Smart Christian

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON THE IRAQ WAR

Andrew Jackson over at Smart Christian writes:

I LISTENED to an interesting radio interview with Victor Davis Hanson this morning. He was talking about his recent visit to Iraq and his assessment of things. He said that most of the violence is in the Sunni triangle, and that although there is certainly violence everywhere, it is quite overplayed by the media.

He made the interesting statement that California is approximately the size of Iraq, and that if the media would concentrate in reporting every detailed act of violence and murder in California that it would probably parallel that of Iraq.

In fact, he said that while he was in Iraq, his farm home in California was broken into and his family threatened. He said he was much more concerned with the danger faced by his family in California then the danger he was facing in Iraq.

Now, that is an interesting perspective.

Victor Davis Hanson, who I regard as must reading on the Iraq situation, discussed Iraq in an important article published last Friday, February 24.   It can be found here.   He describes the situation on the ground, the opinions in the U.S. and around the world, and concludes: 

Can-do Americans courageously go about their duty in Iraq — mostly unafraid that a culture of 2,000 years, the reality of geography, the sheer forces of language and religion, the propaganda of the state-run Arab media, and the cynicism of the liberal West are all stacked against them.  Iraq may not have started out as the pivotal front in the war between democracy and fascism, but it has surely evolved into that.  After visiting the country, I think we can and will win, but just as importantly, unlike in 2003-4, there does not seem to be much of anything we should be doing there that in fact we are not.

UPDATE:   VDH wrote a March 1 Opinion Journal article maintaining much the same.   He notes the irony that "The more we are winning in the field, the more we are losing it at home."   

UPDATE#2:  VDH states his position on Egypt (US money doesn't need to keep flowing), Europe (it's waking up; Chirac and Schroeder disgraced themselves), and summarizes the Middle East situation saying, "Long-overdue rocks have been thrown into the stagnant lake of the Middle East, and now we must, with patience, carefully let the ripples of aeration do their work."  He remains positive. 

THE RETURN OF PATRIARCHY? FATHERHOOD AND THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION

Albert Mohler, President of Southern Seminary and an active social commentator, spotlights  an unusual article in  Foreign Policy journal that deals with the likely (and welcome, the writer argues) return to patriarchy.  That this is controversial goes without saying.  That such an article should appear in Foreign Policy raises one's eyebrows.  Is the writer on to something?

Throughout human history, a persistent fall in birthrates has served as a harbinger of cultural decline and a warning of cultural collapse. The reasons for this are many, but center in the fact that the cause of falling birthrates is often a loss of social cohesion and confidence and the effect of falling reproduction rates is a decline in economic prosperity and erosion of the social structure.

Put simply, a significant fall in birthrates means that, in the next generation, there will be fewer workers, parents, consumers, and contributors to the common welfare. As societies age, a greater percentage of the population tends toward the older end of the age spectrum--representing greater dependency and less economic contribution.

As Longman explains, many countries have attempted to address falling birthrates with aggressive encouragement for couples to have multiple children. Singapore offers "speed dating" events to citizens, intended to encourage young people to marry and have children. In Europe, the government often seeks to incentivize children by offering tax incentives and state-financed daycare systems.

In the end, these efforts seldom work. "As governments going as far back as imperial Rome have discovered, when cultural and economic conditions discourage parenthood, not even a dictator can force people to go forth and multiply," Longman observes. "Throughout the broad sweep of human history, there are many examples of people, or classes of people, who chose to avoid the costs of parenthood. Indeed, falling fertility is a recurring tendency of human civilization. Why then did humans not become extinct long ago? The short answer is patriarchy."

Longman's short answer is sure to attract attention and spark controversy. His very use of the word "patriarchy" will set many teeth on edge. After all, the elimination of patriarchy has been one of the central goals of the feminist movement. According to feminist ideology--shared by vast segments of the population--is that patriarchy represents the institutionalized form of male domination. Therefore, the liberation of humanity from the last vestiges of patriarchy has been a central feminist goal.

Nevertheless, Longman argues that the return of patriarchy is almost assured, given the social crisis that will be produced by a catastrophic fall in birthrates.

Read the whole article.

DON'T PUT ANY STOCK IN ANY JOHN ZOGBY POLLS

A recent John Zogby poll of the troops in Iraq claims that 72% want the war ended in 2006.   As has been pointed out, “The poll was paid for by anti-war activists and the methodology is secret. Yet this lie is sailing around the world through the ravening wolves of the media who chew on anti-Bush agitprop like a dog chews a bone."    Hugh Hewitt, a man who has been around and knows the ropes, said this:

“The "poll" is quite obviously crap when one sees the questions, and Zogby's refusal to answer basic questions that do not go to security underscores his defensiveness.  The survey instrument is shot through with absurd choices while missing obvious questions…  I think he's a shameless self-promoting pretend pollster, that's all…  You can trust John Zogby as much as this poll. Which means, not at all… Criticism of Zogby is not new, nor confined to the center-right. See Chris Mooney's "The Creative Polls of John Zogby," from the February 1, 2003 American Prospect.

And don' t forget his performance on Election Day, 2004.

WHERE IS THE MUSLIM RECIPROCITY?

Muslims complain about the Danish cartoons.  Where is the reciprocal respect for Christian faith in Muslim lands?  It's hard to find.  Instead we find the opposite:  violence against Christians, the burning of churches, the refusal to even allow Christian worship to take place (Saudi Arabia).  Today's Breakpoint with Chuck Colson highlights the problem.    Nigeria is one of the hot spots of Muslim aggression against Christians in the world today.  Peter J. Akinola, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, issued a statement recently.  Compass Direct chronicles the on-going struggle of Christians in that land.    A useful map showing the Northern Nigerian states that have imposed Muslim sharia law may be found here. 

LEFTIST LIES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM NOW REVEALED

The internet is amazing.    For a long time we have been aware of the biased, one-sided leftist political mugging taking place inside college classrooms, but now we are learning that the same thing is going on inside public high schools across the nation.   A student at Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado taped his 10th grade geography teacher, Jay Bennish, carrying on a rant against President Bush and the United States.   Michelle Malkin provides a transcript and various radio and TV stations provide audio of the rant here (with more links here).  Walter Williams, the columnist, weighs in here.  Could it be that at long last the leftist bombast that characterizes so much secondary education will finally be revealed?   

David Horowitz describes his experience  last June at a high school assembly planned by high school leftists.

UPDATE: 3/3/06   Klaus at Dignan's blog   dissects Bennish's rant.   Sean Allen, the young high school student who made the tape, appeared on the TV program "Hannity & Colmes."  Expose the Left provides the videotape of the interview.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin