Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

"The Golden Compass" Revisited

Update 12/11/07 - I have produced a new post featuring Denver Archbishop Chaput's evaluation.

Update 12/7/07 - Albert Mohler  has a complete review of the movie.  I'll print one paragraph before printing the review in full.  Here's the paragraph (my underlining):

Philip Pullman [the author of the book on which the movie is based] has an agenda -- an agenda about as subtle as an army tank. His agenda is nothing less than to expose what he believes is the tyranny of the Christian faith and the Christian church.  His hatred of the biblical storyline is clear.  He is an atheist whose most important literary project is intended to offer a moral narrative that will reverse the biblical account of the fall and provide a liberating mythology for a new secular age.

And here is the review:

"The Golden Compass - A Briefing For Concerned Christians"

The release of The Golden Compass as a major motion picture represents a new challenge for Christians -- especially parents. The release of a popular film with major actors that presents a message directly subversive of Christianity is something new. It is not likely to be the last.

Having seen the movie at an advance viewing and having read all three books of His Dark Materials, I can assure Christians that we face a real challenge -- one that will

Michael Novak on the Debate Between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza on Atheism

Novak writes:

Recently, I visited the website of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, to listen to a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza on atheism. This is the first debate that I have ever heard Christopher lose.

Actually, a faster way to get to the debate would be to click here.  The topic was "Is Christianity the Problem?"  It was held at King's College, New York City, on October 22, 2007.  Audio and video are available.

Dinesh D'Souza has written What's So Great About Christianity?  Christopher Hitchens has written God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Who Needs Photoshop? Flikr Debuts Online Image Editor

Click here.

Theology Divides Mormons and Evangelicals

I found this AP article accurate and informative, a useful sketch of Mormon doctrines that evangelicals find unorthodox and unbiblical.

25 Skills Every Man Should Know

A useful article by the editors of Popular Mechanics.

Daniel Pipes asks: "Turkey, Still a Western Ally?

After a substantial discussion (which notes among other things, the rapid growth of anti-Americanism within the population) Pipes concludes: 

The recent transformation has happened so quickly that – formal NATO relations notwithstanding – Turkey can no longer be considered a Western ally.  Nor, certainly, is it an enemy.  Rather it falls into a middle status – like Russia,  China, and Saudi Arabia -- of rival.  One day it cooperates, the next it competes.  Before long, it may well threaten.

External influences will have limited impact on a Turkey determined to turn Islamist, but existing tools must be fully deployed. Most importantly, an ideologically assertive Turkey must be denied membership in the European Union.

Prescription Abuse Seen in U.S. Nursing Homes

The Wall Street Journal carries the front page article.

The Myth of An Anti-Muslim Hate Crime Epidemic

Investor's Business Daily posted an editorial today pointing out that

Not only are anti-Islamic hate crimes way down, but they're a fraction of overall religious hate crimes. The overwhelming majority of such crimes target Jews, something CAIR and other Muslim groups don't seem all that concerned about.

 In 2006, a whopping 66% of religiously motivated attacks were on Jews, while just 11% targeted Muslims, even though the Jewish and Muslim populations are similar in size. Catholics and Protestants, who together account for 9% of victims, are subject to almost as much abuse as Muslims in this country.

Read the whole article.  See also Michelle Malkin who writes:

Remember the FBI hate crimes report released a few weeks ago that exposed the continuing myth of the Muslim hate crime epidemic?

See also Malkin's earlier post Muslim "Hate Crimes" and a list of her other posts.

Ryan T. Anderson Offers a Useful Discussion on Teens and Abstinence Education

Click here.

Andy McCarthy and Ayan Hirsi Ali On Different Types of Muslims

Andy McCarthy offers some useful observations:

. . . The problem for Esposito, Voll and other self-styled moderates is that they know they can't say, "At a time when Islam is under siege from Muslim heretics."  The Muslims in question are adherents of an extreme form of Islam.  They are not heterodox.  They simply don't buy the moderate mush that the Qur'an and the Hadith do not mean what they say, or that Muslims are at liberty to ignore them.

We keep looking past this at our peril.  Does anyone ever notice that the Muslims we consider our allies are either former Muslims (see, e.g., Ibn Warraq), secular Muslims (people who maintain a cultural affinity to Islam but don't care much about doctrine), or well-meaning reformer Muslims who either forthrightly acknowledge that Islam must be changed fundamentally (see, e.g., Irshad Manji) or rationalize that

President Bush Vindicated on Embryonic Stem Cell Position

Charles Krauthammer declares:

The verdict is clear: Rarely has a president -- so vilified for a moral stance -- been so thoroughly vindicated.

And he explains:

Why? Precisely because he took a moral stance... Precisely because he therefore decided that some moral line had to be drawn.

In doing so, he invited unrelenting demagoguery by an unholy trinity of Democratic politicians, research scientists and patient advocates who insisted that anyone who would put any  restriction on the destruction of human embryos could be acting only for reasons of cynical politics rooted in dogmatic religiosity -- a  "Moral Ayatollah," as Sen. Tom Harkin so scornfully put it.

. . . What Bush got right was to insist, in the face of enormous popular and scientific opposition, on drawing a line at all, on requiring that scientific imperative be balanced by moral considerations.

History will look at Bush's 2001 speech and be surprised how balanced and measured it ws, how much respect it gave to the other side.  Read it.  Here was a presidential policy pronouncement that so finely and fairly drew out the case for both sides that until the final few minutes of his speech, you had no idea where the policy would end up.

NIE Report: Iranian Nukes Reportedly Put on Hold - Some Are Skeptical

Update 12/11/07 - Daniel Pipes contends NIE Report makes war against Iran more likely.  He provides many links. - Victor Davis Hanson says:

Christopher Hitchens has a good piece on the bad CIA ("worse than useless"). Surely our various intelligence organizations are practicing a sort of subversion, whether due to a condescending animus toward George Bush, or to a more generic arrogance that their genius is not appreciated and so they leak and back stab against their betters to ensure someone out there knows just how brilliant they really are.  (more . . )

Update 12/6/07  - Victor Davis Hanson poses a series of questions.

Update 12/5/07 - The Wall Street Journal: The CIA's Flip-Flop is Hardly Reassuring. National Review Online Editors express reasons to be skeptical.  Powerline explains things about the CIA and intelligence agencies that most of us are unaware of.  John Bolton (in one of the most incisive critiques), lists the flaws in the Iran report and concludes:

While the president and others argue that we need to maintain pressure on Iran, this "intelligence" torpedo has all but sunk those efforts, inadequate as they were. Ironically, the NIE opens the way for Iran to achieve its military nuclear ambitions in an essentially unmolested fashion, to the detriment of us all. 

Update 12/4/07 - Norman Podhoretz airs some dark suspicions.  Michael Ledeen says he's not a believer.  Hugh Hewitt characterizes the NIE report: "As though MI6 told Stanley Baldwin in 1933 that fears that Hitler would reoccupy the Ruhr in 1934 were groundless."

What Kind of Country is Sudan? And How Should Britain Have Reacted to Mrs. Gillian Gibbon's Imprisonment? Melanie Phillips Responds. UPDATE: NRO Commentators Also Respond

Melanie Phillips pulls no punches.  She says:

The case of Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed in Sudan after her pupils named their class teddy-bear Mohammed, has shown up once again the spinelessness of the Foreign Office which has turned Britain into an international laughing stock.

Her freedom has been left to depend on the ostensibly freelance efforts by two Muslim peers, Lord Ahmed and Lady Warsi, who have been in Khartoum lobbying for her release. .

Mr Miliband should have thrown the ambassador and every Sudanese diplomat out of the country, cancelled all visas and stopped British aid to Sudan.

And he should also have denounced the religious precepts which produced such a barbaric response to a preposterously imagined slight.

Moreover, the only reason Mrs Gibbons was placed in this predicament at all was: because, for more than two decades, the British Government has kow-towed to the Islamist rogue regime in Sudan.    (More  . . - Melanie Phillips proceeds to chronicle the history and nature of the Sudanese government and the situation in Britain)

Update - National Review asked a number of distinguished observers to offer their thoughts.  These included Bay Yeor, Jonathan Foreman,Tawfik Hamid, Victor Davis Hanson, Paul Marshall,

National Conference on Christian Apologetics - Audio Tapes Available

The November 9th, 2007 conference was sponsored by Southern Evangelical Seminary located in Charlotte, NC.   Featured speakers included Dinesh D'Souza, Chuck Colson, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Gary Hamaras, and many others.  Recordings of the sessions are available here.

Fjordman reviews Robert Spencer's "Religion of Peace: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't"

This is a long, and therefore substantive review of Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t.  Fjordman's concludes his review as follows:

All things considered, I believe this book to be an excellent read. Spencer’s primary task was no doubt to refute the absurd, yet frequently repeated claims that Christianity is just as violent as Islam and that Christianity has always been an obstacle to freedom. In this, he succeeds rather well. Robert Spencer has a scholarly understanding of the differences between Christian and Islamic theology, yet he does a better job than most in explaining to a mainstream audience in a clear and lucid manner exactly why Islam is a religion with a uniquely high potential for violence. This book is bound to be an eye-opener for the millions of people still parroting the line about Islam being a religion of peace, and the equally numerous crowd of people who have accepted the anti-Christian bigotry presented by Western academia. If you have friends who belong to either of these categories or who simply want to know the true nature of Islam, Religion of Peace? is the perfect Christmas present.

New York Times Op-Ed on "Gospel of Judas" by April D. DeConick: National Geographic Messed Up

Click here for a most interesting evaluation by Dr. April D. DeConick, a professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University and author of The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says. Her article appeared today, Dec. 1, 2007, in the New York Times. 

AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn’t betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas’s reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples.

It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.

Several of the translation choices made by the society’s scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. . .  (more . . )

Me: This is a fascinating article for anyone remotely interested in the subject.  April DeConick maintains a blog related to her academic work.  Previously, I had read N.T. Wright's Judas and the Gospel of Jesus, an excellent book that I failed to blog about for lack of time. Now, however, it would appear that DeConick's work requires primary attention by all interested in the "Gospel of Judas."