Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

DOUG GROOTHUIS SUMMARIZES PASCAL'S ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Doug Groothus, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, and author of the valuable, Truth Decay (among other books), reviews various books at Amazon.Com.  If you value his opinion, as I do, you'll want to subscribe to the RSS.  

Here is Groothuis offering a 10-minute introduction to Pascal's Anthropological Argument.

PAMELA GELLER KEEPS US UP TO DATE ON RIFQA BARY

Geller writes:

Here's an excerpt from my latest at Newsmax:

Ohio Christian Girl Still Trying to Escape Muslim Parents Pamela Geller, Newsmax

Last Tuesday, Oct. 27, she was returned to Ohio and placed in foster care in Franklin County. Eric Fenner, the executive director of Franklin County Children Services, said that he has “no reason to believe Rifqa wouldn’t be safe with her parents” — with the father who according to Rifqa said, “If you have this Jesus in your heart, you’re dead to me. You’re not my daughter . . . I will kill you.”

And even now in Ohio, Rifqa Bary’s civil rights are being violated. She is being held prisoner: She is not allowed use of the phone or the Internet, unlike thousands of other children in foster care. Why? What is her crime?   [more . . .]

See also here.

SELECT POSTS FROM WINTERY KNIGHT BLOG

I have some catching up to do with what Wintery Knight has been up to.   Following is a selection.  All are worth "clicking through" to read:

-  How good are the arguments in the new book by Richard Dawkins?

-  Skincare company uses aborted fetal tissue in anti-aging cream

-  American Library Association silent as librairies ban books about ex-gays

- UK Woman gets police visit after writing letter protesting gay pride parade (Must read)

- Hindu/Christian debate on anti-conversion law in India

- New books of interest to Christian apologists

         Update:  One of the books listed is Dr. Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell about which Charles Colson has important things to say.  Dr. Douglas Groothuis, for his part, rhapsodizes:

The book is no less than magisterial, an adjective that curmudgeons such as myself seldom use. At every level--philosophical, scientific, historical and literary--it is a superb treatise.    Reading every word of its 508 pages of text (not counting end notes)--as I did--repays the reader greatly.

WASHINGTON POST WON'T COUNTENANCE DESCRIPTION OF HOMOSEXUAL CONDUCT AS "UNHEALTHY"

In case you hadn't notice, folks, it's about 11:55 PM as far as Free Speech in the United States is concerned.  And one of the big boys -- e.g. The Washington Post -- isn't on the side of free speech.  That probably isn't news to anyone who has been awake the last few years.  The Family Research Council reports:

In a last-ditch effort to sway voters away from Virginia 's GOP ticket, the Washington Post unleashed a stinging op-ed against Ken Cuccinelli, the pro-family candidate for state Attorney General. Desperate to get its dig in before next Tuesday, the Post lashed out in "Mr. Cuccinelli's bigotry," an article that tried to paint Ken's conservative social views as "an embarrassment to Virginia." According to the Post, Cuccinelli's biggest crime is describing homosexuality as "intrinsically wrong." In an interview with a local paper, Ken also said, "I happen to think that [homosexuals] represent... behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society."

The Post's hostility is mind-boggling when you consider that Cuccinelli's statement happens to be true, given the data on the health risks of homosexual conduct. As for his personal faith, if the

PELOSI CARE - ICHABOD!

  Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council comments:

In a tightly controlled press conference yesterday afternoon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) released her 1,990 page version of health care overhaul. What does it cost, you ask? That depends on who you talk to. Speaker Pelosi would like us to believe that the bill is cheap--but in truth, the plan clocks in at over $1.5 trillion dollars when you include the companion "Doc Fix" bill also introduced yesterday. Instead of truly reforming the health care system, the Speaker's bill is more about social engineering than helping those in need. The new legislation, H.R. 3962, guarantees that the government would use tax dollars to fund abortions by using the marketing gimmicks that were prevalent in the Capps amendment.

And the rewards for abortionists don't end there. The Speaker also added a separate bill, the Indian Health legislation, into her overall reform. The move is crafty, because Speaker Pelosi has

REMINDER: THE BOAT GOES FIRST!

TURKEY: AN ALLY NO MORE

Some people may wonder why I blog about Turkey.  Simple.  It's Islamist drift spells major effects on Europe and Israel and the Middle East.  Daniel Pipes, an astute observer of issues Islamic and of the Middle East writes:

“There is no doubt he is our friend,” Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, says of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey’s government, for six decades the West’s closest Muslim ally, since Erdoğan’s AK party came to power in 2002.

Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military – a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate of cooperation

ORAL INTERPRETATION OF LITERATURE (INCLUDING THE BIBLE)

 The following links showcase a couple practitioners of the "oral interpretation of literature" that I think might be of interest to some.  Years ago I knew a fellow doing an M.A. in that subject at Northwestern University.  He now teaches homiletics (preaching) at a major seminary.  Anyway, for what it's worth, these bear checking out:  [HT: Between Two Worlds]

          - Ryan Ferguson reciting Hebrews 9-10, reciting Psalm 25, reciting Psalm 22. 

           - Until November 1 you can download (for free) Max McLean’s reading of Martin Luther’s speech, “Here I Stand” (24 minutes).

          - Speaking of Max McLean, more on him can be found here and his new book, Unleashing the Word: Rediscovering the Public Reading of Scripture.  Incidentally, back in May I blogged about McLean's Chicago theatre performance of Mark's Gospel and included a link to Justin Taylor's interview with him.

HUGE PRO-LIFE RALLY IN MADRID, SPAIN

Mark Early reports:

This past Saturday, a demonstration in Madrid drew an estimated one and a half million protesters. That’s between 3 and 4 percent of Spain’s entire population, the equivalent of 9 to 12 million Americans gathering in Washington.

What government policy were they demonstrating against?  Sending troops to Afghanistan? Was it Spain’s nearly 20 percent unemployment rate?

None of those—they were protesting a proposal to liberalize Spain’s abortion laws. They were there to tell the government, their fellow Spaniards, and the rest of the world that “every life matters.”    [more...]   Photos here.

KRAUTHAMMER - OBAMA ATTACKS ON BUSH "DISGUSTING, BEYOND DISGRACEFUL"

I was watching Fox News when Krauthammer made his comments captured below.  I said, "Right On."   Disgusting indeed.

Krauthammer transcript:  [my bolding]

I want to point out one thing about what Obama had said when he talked about “the long years of drift.” There is something truly disgusting about the way he cannot refrain from attacking Bush when he’s being defensive about himself. I mean, it’s beyond disgraceful here. He won election a year ago. He became the Commander [in] Chief two months later. He announced his own strategy — not the Bush strategy, his strategy — six months ago, and it wasn’t off-handed, it was in a major address, with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense standing with him. And now he’s still talking about “the drift” in the Bush years. What’s happening today is not a result of the drift, so-called, of the Bush years, it’s because of the drift in his years. It’s because of the flaws in his own strategy, which is what he’s actively examining.

Me: Alas, this transcript from HotAir, fails to include Krauthammer's last few sentences, the last of which reads:  "He ought to be honest, forthright, and courageous enough as a President to simply say 'I'm rethinking the strategy I adopted six months ago, and not, once again, childlike, attack his predecessor." 

Yes.  Exactly.  "Childlike!"  The right word.  Let the man grow up, and be a man.  "Childlike," indeed.

DER SPIEGEL INTERVIEWS CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER ON OBAMA

Krauthammer is always worth reading, and his views on Obama are scintillatingly clear.  The following excerpts offer a sampling, but I urge you to read the entire interview which is quite comprehensive. [HT: Peter Wehner at the Corner]

SPIEGEL: Do you really believe that Obama deliberately wants to weaken the US?

Krauthammer: The liberal vision of America is that it should be less arrogant, less unilateral, more internationalist. In Obama's view, America would subsume itself under a fuzzy internationalism in which the international community, which I think is a fiction, governs itself through the UN.

SPIEGEL: A nightmare?

Krauthammer: Worse than that: an absurdity. I can't even imagine serious people would believe it, but I think Obama does. There is a way America will decline -- if we choose first to wreck our

THOMAS SOWELL - "DISMANTLING AMERICA"

Thomas Sowell, in the following column, states my own views perfectly.  (HT: HotAir)

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free

TEENAGE RUNAWAYS TRY TO SURVIVE ON THE STREETS

From the Family Research Council:  "Running Away From the Real Problem":

In yesterday's edition, the New York Times launched a powerful, two-part story about hurting teenagers who have run away from home and are trying to survive on the streets. Sleeping in the woods or in public bathrooms, these children--1.6 million of them, according to federal studies--are desperately defending themselves against hunger, predators, and the cold. Ian Urbina, who wrote the piece for the Times, blames the rising trend of runaways on the economy, claiming that the recession is forcing kids to leave home.

"Foreclosures, layoffs, rising food and fuel prices, and inadequate supplies of low-cost housing have stretched families to the extreme, and those pressures have trickled down to teenagers and preteens." The stories he tells are harrowing. Little girls camping

IN EUROPE, THE NOOSE AROUND FREE SPEECH TIGHTENS

Pamela Geller, over at Atlas Shrugs, titles one of her posts today,  "DO NOT OBJECT TO ISLAAAAAAAAM":

European Union set to outlaw objections to Islamic practices

This would, of course, render us mute and hence defenseless in the face of the advancing jihad -- and that is just what it is designed to do. Free Speech Death Watch Alert: "Objections to Muslim and Homosexual Practices to be Unlawful in Europe - Media MIA," by Paul Belien for Hudson NY, October 26 (thanks to Magnus):

If all goes as planned, the 27 member states of the European Union will soon have a common hate crime legislation, which will turn disapproval for Islamic practices or homosexual lifestyles into crimes. Europe's Christian churches are trying to stop the plan of the European political establishment,

GRAPHIC DISPLAY OF NEWSPAPER DECLINE

With the exception of the Wall Street Journal.  Get a load of the collapse of the Los Angeles Times!  Amazing!   For more commentary and a larger graph, click here.  (HT: HotAir)

 
 

AARP HAS A MAJOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST

 Does it work for retirees or for itself?  Ed Morrissey over at HotAir has the story:

We first mentioned this a couple of months ago, when the AARP lost 60,000 members in a month for backing ObamaCare and its cuts to Medicare and Medicare Advantage.  Dan Eggen at the Washington Post reports in more detail on the political connections AARP gets for its acquiescence on Medicare cuts and the potential financial advantages it sees in political support of the administration’s efforts to overhaul the health-care industry:

The group’s dual role as an insurance reformer and a broker has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks from congressional Republicans, who accuse it of having a conflict of

THE STORY OF TAPS (Click through to "continue reading...")

From an e-mail:

  "This is interesting...I did not know this. 

 

E-MAIL FROM A FRIEND ON BASIC ECONOMICS

1* "You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity."

2* "What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving."

3* The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else."

4* When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for is the beginning of the end of any nation.

5* You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it..."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Atheist Christopher Hitchens offers this discovery as a result of his numerous debates with theists:

I have discovered that the so-called Christian right is much less monolithic, and very much more polite and hospitable, than I would once have thought, or than most liberals believe.

Me:  That comes as no surprise to me.  I am glad that the Christians he has debated, and those in the audience,  have displayed manners.  Hitchens, of course, has much more to say.

Update 10/27/09 - Something of the flavor of the Hitchens - Doug Wilson debates can be found in this Huffingtron Post exchange.

BEN WITHERINGTON - "WHY ARGUMENTS AGAINST WOMEN IN MINISTRY AREN'T BIBLICAL"

Well, I must say, Witherington marshals good arguments indeed.  Before reading his post, I had adopted John Stott's position (as I understood it), namely: welcome women on church staff but reserve the role of senior pastor for a male.   Actually, the whole issue of church structure leaves me with many questions.  But as to the role of women, I think Witherington's position requres serious consideration.

HANK HOUGH - FREEDOM THROUGH OBEDIENCE

Hank Hough trains dogs whose lives flourish under his leadership.  He draws parallels between their obedience to him and our obedience to God.  In both cases, we don't need leashes!  Hough and his dog "Prophet" appeared on the Hour of Power today (video and text can be found at the link).  Two years ago the following was posted on YouTube.

DANIEL TAYLOR: "STORY-SHAPED FAITH'"

I enjoyed and profited from reading "Story-Shaped Faith" by Daniel Taylor.  It appears as chapter 5 in the book "The Power of Words and the Wonder of God" (ed. by John Piper and Justin Taylor).  It's available on the internet for free here.)  Taylor discusses how "story" plays such a central place in the Bible and in our lives.  He writes: (my emphases)

ISLAMIC "HONOR KILLINGS" IN THE UNITED STATES

Robert Spencer writes on the Arizona Muslim who "ran down daughter for rejecting Iraqi values."  Spencer is interviewed below on Fox and Friends:

BREAKING:  Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs tells us that THE FLORIDA JUDGE HAS ORDERED RIFQA BARY BACK TO OHIO DESPITE ISLAMIC THREAT.

Geller writes:

UNBELIEVABLE: Judge Dawson has ordered Rifqa Bary back to her home state. This despite the horror described in her testimony in the FDLE report (here). The welfare of this child had nothing to do with the submission to sharia in this case. It was apostasy, and yet Islam was never put on trial. But it should have been.

This girl is not safe in Ohio. Period.  

Me:  This is terrible news.  Officials in the United States are unbelievably ignorant about Islam and honor killings.  For the history of the case and continual updates, see Pamela Geller.  Her post today includes photos of victims of honor killings from around the globe.

Update 10/24/09: Audio of Rifqa Bary's interview to FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) is available here.

GEERT WILDERS SPEAKS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Pamela Geller offers photos and major coverage of Gert Wilders appearance at Columbia University, including a five-part video of his speech.  She titles her post "Geert Wilders Rocks Columbia Univeristy."  She offers a link to an mp3 of the speech (here), as well as the full text of his speech.  Wilders is the producer of the film, Fitna which warns of the threat of radical Islam utilizing quotes from jihadis, imams and Quranic texts.  If you haven't seen it yet, you need to do so.    The text of his speech follows:

DALE KUEHNE - "SEX AND THE iWORLD" (CAN WE BE HAPPY WITHOUT SEX?)

Big subject.   Discussion needed.  Enter Dale Kuehne's  Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationships beyond an Age of Individualism.   Reviewers  of this book (including Chuck Colson and Mark Earley), give the book rave reviews.  From what I can tell, the book looks like "must reading" to counter the propaganda that is ruining lives.  A few introductory pages (worth reading) are available here.

TIM KELLER'S SERMONS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE

At least many of them.  Click here.  (HT: Justin Taylor).  Keller is the author of The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism and has spoken at numerous universities throughout America and at Google headquarters.  I blogged about him previous ly here.

BOB KAUFLIN - "WORDS OF WONDER: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE SING?"

A few days ago, I posted various links  I had found at Justin Taylor's blog, "Between Two Worlds."  One link offered free online reading of the just-published, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.   Today I began  reading Bob Kauflin's contribution, "Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing?" (Chapter 6) What a great meditation on our experience of music in church.  A few quotes:

If the teaching in our church was limited to the songs that we sing, how well taught would we be? How well would we know God? . . .

We Need a Broader Emotional Range in the Songs We Sing
If music is meant to help us engage emotionally with words, then most churches need a broader emotional range in the songs they sing. We need songs of reverence, awe, repentance, and grief as well as songs of joy, celebration, freedom, and confidence. The holiness of God cannot be adequately expressed in a two-minute up-tempo pop song. The jubilant triumph of Christ’s victory over sin can’t be fully communicatedin a slow a cappella hymn. . .

Anticipating the Songs to Come
So, what are we doing in our local churches to promote, encourage, and participate in the kind of corporate singing we see in Revelation? What are we doing to discourage it? Leaders should be faithful to model and instruct the church in the purpose of singing, because we live in a musically addicted culture. We need to teach how music functions in corporate worship so that our singing more and more resembles what we see in the book of Revelation. There, in the context of the new heavens and the new earth, we’ll forever lift up undistracted, passionate, unified, Word-centered songs to the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb who was slain.

There is so much value to this chapter that I am including it below:

Robert Crumb's Genesis (via Ben Witherington's blog):

And now for something completely different.   The Bible as graphic novel, or at least graphic comic book.  Robert Crumb is well known to underground comic book aficionados.  To the rest of the reading public-- not so much. Robert Crumb was born in Philly and began his drawing career coming up with playful and witty greeting cards. He became a sort of cult figure in the 60s for creating characters like Fritz the Cat and there was even a documentary about him in 1994, but FYI, his comics were too R or even X rated in some cases for most.  For the last eighteen or so years of his life he has lived in France (and laments he still  hasn't mastered the language) with his fellow cartoonist wife Aline Kominsky.

Now however this super-lapsed Catholic has decided to depict scenes from all 50 chapters of Genesis, with the emphasis on verbatim. Those of us who knew a bit about his snarky past were holding our collective breath, but Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, author of the well-titled book Up,Up, and Oi Vey (the history of how Jews had influence on the creation of fictional super-heroes) reassures us that Crumb has not given us a crumby treatment of Genesis. Of course the literal depiction of murder, incest, rape, and a host of the other things that go on in Genesis itself is enough to curdle one's milk and curl one's hair.  Hide the babies and pack up the old ladies. But then alas,  the Bible is hardly a  G or PG book--- it tells it like it is, even when it comes to all our human falleness.  It is thus not a surprise that in the 224 pages of this book (out today and published by W.W. Norton) some of these pen and ink drawings reflect the sensual and violent character of some of these stories.  This is a comic book my Mom would not have let me read in the 9th grade!  Indeed she would have said 'Exodus with this Genesis'.   [more . . .]

HUGH HEWITT INTERVIEWS RICHARD DAWKINS

Some might find this transcript of Hugh Hewitt's hour interview with Dawkins interesting. To me, who knows something about the impressive manuscript evidence for the New Testament versus other classical documents, this segment proved especially interesting:

HH: On the person of Jesus Christ, did He exist?

RD: I suspect He probably did. I suspect there are lots of itinerant preachers, and one of them was probably called Yehoshua, or various other versions of Jesus’ name, but I don’t think that a miracle worker existed.

HH: How do you rate the evidence for Christ’s existence, manuscript evidence, eyewitness evidence, things like that?

NEW ACORN VIDEO FROM PHILADELPHIA !!!!!!!!

Ed Morrissey has the story:

Surprise! ACORN and its defenders, including the media, have tried to argue that the organization was not totally corrupt because James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles got tossed out of its Philadelphia office.  Media Matters even went so far as to air an interview with ACORN office director Katherine Conway-Russell that asserted that she refused to help them, called the cops, and threw them out.  Big Government has now released some of the video of that visit — and it appears that a lot of media outlets will have some retractions to write this afternoon.  

Morrissey says:

Big Government will air the full, unedited video and audio streams later today or tomorrow, in order to demonstrate the poor performance of the media in this story.  Bertha Lewis and ACORN will be shown to have lied, and outlets like the Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer will have to scrape the egg off of their faces for accepting their word at face value.

CLAUDIA ROSETT - "FIRST THEY CAME FOR FOX NEWS"

- Update 10/21/09 - The Real Reason the White House is attacking Fox News: Containment  (Interesting article)

- (Original Post) Rosett writes: 

You don’t have to love Fox News to see how dangerous it is when the President of the United States gives his staff and advisers a green light to single out and denigrate by name a specific news organization. As we surely all know by now, this is what the White House has been doing to Fox. . .  Welcome to the road to China’s Xinhua News Agency and Russia’s Channel One TV.

Me: The White House's attempt to control news it doesn't like is another reason to be wary of its totalitarian impulses.

CHURCK COLSON - "LAWS GONE WILD: THE CASE OF GRANDMA GOING TO JAIL"

Colson is right:  "Too many regulations, and too little common sense."  Read on. . .

Lisa Snyder is the kind of neighbor everybody likes to have. Every school day, the Michigan mom welcomed neighborhood children into her home—kids whose mothers have to leave for work an hour before the school bus picks up the kids. Snyder didn’t charge anything—she just wanted to be a good neighbor.

But then someone reported Snyder to the authorities—and the state of Michigan told her to stop babysitting, or else. The Michigan Department of Human Services said if Snyder wanted to take care of unrelated kids in her home, she had to get a daycare license.

It’s an example of laws gone wild—too many regulations, and too little common sense.

CHILD EVANGELISM FELLOWSHIP MOCKED BY WRITER IN HARPER'S MAGAZINE

"Breakpoint's" Ralph Early has the story.  Key quote:

Sadly, instead of an objective look at the work of CEF, Aviv’s article is what I would call a prime example of “othering”—of defining some individual or group as being different in some fundamental way and therefore not belonging. In history this “otherness,” often based on race, religion, behavior, or appearance, has often led people to view these “others” as less intelligent, subhuman, or having strange and threatening worldviews. For Aviv, it appears that Christians are that strange “other”—they’re exotic creatures to be put under the microscope and feared.

. . . worrisome is the history of what this kind of “othering” produces: it’s dehumanization.  And that’s only one small step removed from oppression, disenfranchisement, and frequently even violence. That’s one slippery slope I hope we never see our culture go down.

Read the whole article.

AL SHARPTON'S RACIAL DEMAGOGUERY

Who will expose this charlatan for who he is?  It falls to Michelle Malkin.  If you want to know this man's sordid past behavior (which the oldline, liberal press refuses to talk about), read her column. 

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: FREE SPEECH OUT THE WINDOW?

David Horowitz writes about the hate campaign at Temple University:

Everywhere you look these days Americans’ most basic freedom is under attack by the jihadists of the international left. The infamous UN Human Rights Commission which includes the worst human rights violators on the planet (now joined by the Obama Administration) has recently passed a resolution against religious defamation — defined as linking Islamists to terrorism. At home Democrats have attached a “hate crimes” amendment which would make thinking a crime to the new defense appropriations bill.

TURKEY TURNS ON ISRAEL

Joel Rosenberg has the story.

Over the past 10 days or so:

• Turkey has canceled a NATO military exercise because Israel was invited to participate
• Turkey has aired a drama on state-run TV portraying an Israeli soldier walking up to a Palestinian child and barbarically shooting her point-blank
• Turkey has made moves to draw closer to Iran and Syria, including choosing to engage in military exercises with Syria instead of Israel
• Turkey has made moves to draw closer to Russia  [more...]
  

GETTING CAUGHT UP ON SOME POSTS AT "BETWEEN TWO WORLDS"

- Essentially no one in the Middle Ages believed the earth was flat.  Thomas Woods has a nice overview about the myth here.  A more in-depth look can be found in the book, Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians.

- Tozer Audio Sermons.

- Separation of Church and Sport?  - Erik Raymond and Kevin DeYoung (among others) respond to a USA Today editorial critiquing Florida quarterback Tim Tebow for believing Jesus is the only way to God.  

- John Piper was called to the ministry 30 years ago after six years of college teaching.  Click here for a fascinating and inspiring post.  Among other things, read what his father, an evangelist, told him to expect in the pastorate.

- The book Justin Taylor co-edited with John Piper, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, is now available. (You can read it online for free at DG.)  Click here to read the rave endorsements.

- Ravis Zacharias videos from the Henry Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School:

• Toward an Evangelical Understanding of Postmodernism and Mission
• Audience Q&A
• Interview
• Lessons from History: The Tale of the Story of Two Men

- How Faith glorifies God,  a 1999 John Piper sermon:

Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let’s say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, “Jump, I’ll catch you. I promise.” Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that

RUSH LIMBAUGH - IS HE A RACIST?

Rush defends himself in this Wall Street Journal article - "The Race Card, Football, and Me."

Doctor Zero takes it upon himself to defend Rush as well.  Up to his usual standards, he turns in quite a stunning piece of writing.

RAVI ZACHARIAS ON CREATION, DESIGN, MORALITY AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

I arrived at this fine post at the Western Experience via Wintery Knight blog.  You'll want to listen and watch Zacharias' response to Jim Kennedy's questions.

In a comment on the above, Wintery Knight links to a William Craig-Arif Ahmed debate at Cambridge University on the subject "Does God Exist" and asks readers to compare opening speeches.

RIFQA BARY UPDATE

Jamie Glazov interviews Pamela Geller for an up-to-date report on the Muslim apostate (now Christian) 17-year old, Rifqa Bary.  The interview explains why this case is hugely important.  Read it here.  My earlier posts on Rifqa can be found here.

IS ANYBODY THE LEAST BIT CONCERNED THAT OBAMA INCLUDES A MAOIST IN HIS INNER CIRCLE?

- Update 10/19/09 - Roger Kimball -The Maoist explains herself; egg, face at White House

- (Original post) I am concerned.  So is Roger Kimball:

Jeremiah Wright. William Ayers. Van Jones. Where does the rogues’ gallery of Barack Obama’s radical friends end? These people are not liberals. They are not “progressives.” They are radicals who hate America and in many cases have advocated or even perpetrated violence in an effort to destroy it.

Thanks to Glenn Beck, the American public has now been introduced to yet another radical member of Obama’s inner circle: Anita Dunn, Interim White House Communications Director, former top advisor to Obama’s political campaign, and wife of Obama’s personal lawyer, Robert Bauer.

One of Anita Dunn's favorite "political philosophers" is Mao Tse-Tung  I kid you not.  Read on . . .

OBAMA TO CEDE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY IN DECEMBER

- Update 10/27/09 - AP - UN Signals Delay in Climate Change Treaty

UNITED NATIONS — Just weeks before an international conference on climate change, the United Nations signaled it was scaling back expectations of reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warming.   [more. . .] 

- (Original post) So says Lord Christopher Monckton, a global warning skeptic, and former science adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  Pamela Geller, of Atlas Shrugs, has posted one of the most dire warnings I have read in a long time.  It represents MUST READING.  Be sure to view the four-minute video (embedded in her post) of Lord Monckten issuing his warning at Bethel University on October 14, 2009.

Geller writes:

SITTING AT MY MOTHER'S BEDSIDE . . . CONCLUSION

Tonight my mother journeyed onward into the light of Christ.  As one who believes in the resurrection of the dead, I do not sorrow or grieve like those who have no hope.  I was privileged to spend days, and 7 of the last 8 nights at the hospital, time I would not have wished to spend elsewhere no matter what the enducement. 

Someone who met my mother only one time, a business acquaintance, wrote me the following: 

"I was struck by your mother's light and grace when I met her a year ago.  She exuded joy and I loved her smile immediately.  She's the kind of person that the rest of us would love to just "be" in her presence.  

This person grasped the essence of my mother.  I consider myself enormously blessed, and my dominant emotion and attitude is one of gratitude; gratitude for my mother's life, gratitude for having been given so much time with my mother, and gratitude for caring, praying friends.  Thank you so much, all who brought friendship and help during this traumatic week. [My original post about my mother's tragic accident can be found here.]

ISRAEL - ENTERING INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS TIMES

Joel Rosenberg writes insightfully about Israel and her neighbors.  He is known for his novels and for applying the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 to contemporary events.  Whether you follow him in his prophetic applications or not (I haven't personally studied them sufficiently to arrive at my own conclusion), Rosenberg should still be read because of the news he assembles related to Israel and the Middle East.  Here are two recent blog posts:

Israel in Danger of Being Blindsided by Two New Grave  Threats  Excerpt: [Emphasis Rosenberg's]

The first threat is the real and growing possibility that the United Nations will shift the nuclear spotlight away from Iran and on to Israel in an effort to force Jerusalem to disclose and dismantle its alleged nuclear weapons and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty  NPT). Israel does not openly acknowledge having atomic weapons. . .

The second threat is the real and growing possibility that the world will unilaterally create and recognize a Palestinian State, not through negotiations with Israel but by fiat. World leaders have been trying to engineer a “comprehensive” final peace agreement for decades.   [more. . .]

And here is an example of his prophetic application of Ezekiel 38-39 to contemporary events:

Ezekiel 38-39: A Russian-Iranian-Libyan- Sudanese-Alliance Against Israel?

U.S. HONDURAN POLICY - GOOFY AND NON-TRANSPARENT

Below are two posts from NRO's the Corner that provide commentary on the U.S.'s disgraceful handling of the Honduran situation.  Both will prove more than insightful -- and quite worrisome, at least to me.

Andy McCarthy - More Stonewalling from the Most Transparent Administration in History

Ed Whelan - Stonewalling and Harold Koh   

OBAMA'S I.O.U. NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Andy McCarthy writes:

My pal Claudia Rosett, our supreme sentinel on these matters, has an important post on her terrific Pajamas blog ("The Rosett Report") about what the European lefties who bestowed the Nobel on President Obama will try to exact in return. It's even got some more background info on Thorbjorn Jagland — though perhaps not quite as intriguing as what Mark gave us last night:

Active for decades in the Socialist International, a collectivist who navigated a long series of embarrassing moments in Norwegian politics to become current Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Jagland now heads the Norwegian Nobel Committee. His fellow members who have just issued this Nobel IOU to a sitting American president are — are we ready for global policy guided by this crowd? – Kaci Kullman Five, Sissel Marie Ronbeck, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn and Agot Valle.

What, more specifically, might they be expecting of Obama? For starters, Norway, along with neighboring Sweden and Denmark, has been banging the drum for America to hand over to the United Nations enormous control over and constraints upon the U.S. economy, in the name of (warming/cooling/take-your-pick) climate change. Thus did Norway’s Nobel committee bestow its favors in 2007 on Al Gore and the UN’s Self-Interested Panel of Politically Corrupted Science — excuse me, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And this December the UN is convening a big climate conference in Copenhagen, with which the U.N. hopes to “seal” its growth-stunting UN-enriching climate “deal.”

Read it all, here.

SWINE FLU IS A MASSIVELY OVERRATED THREAT

So says Michael Fumento who writes:   (HT: The Corner )

News flash: Swine flu is a massively overrated threat -- overrated not only in the media but by the World Health Organization, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and others who have a duty to know better.

The presidential science council warned in late August that, "in a plausible scenario," swine flu might kill 90,000 Americans with the epidemic peaking in "mid-October." But it's now obvious that this won't happen.

Total deaths since Aug. 30 from "Influenza and Pneumonia-Associated" illness are 1,397, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site FluView (cdc.gov/flu/weekly/). But only 192 of those have been laboratory-confirmed as flu of any type. (And yes, people die of pneumonia from many causes other than flu.) In fact, FluView reports that deaths from influenza and pneumonia are well within the normal bounds for this time of year -- or, as the CDC puts it, "below the epidemic threshold."

Repeat, there is no flu epidemic. There will be, but only because we have one every year. [more . . .]

ENVIRONMENTAL LUNACY: TAKE LIGHT BULBS FOR EXAMPLE . . .

AAghhh!   Anybody like the idea of mandating what kind of light bulbs you must use?  And has anybody paid attention to their toxicity when they break?  Lunacy, indeed!  Click here.

KEVIN JENNINGS, OBAMA'S "SAFE SCHOOLS CZAR" HAS GOT TO GO!

What a crazy, irresponsible, "in-your-face" appointment.  Disagree?  Then read this Family Research Council report:

The Obama administration is spending precious capital protecting its Safe Schools "czar," but many believe that loyalty carries more political risk than reward. Last week, Kevin Jennings's "aw, shucks" response to covering up child sexual abuse should have sounded the alarm over at the Department of Education. Instead, Secretary Arne Duncan used the opportunity to praise Jennings as "uniquely qualified" to serve on the team. That may not be the consensus for much longer, since FRC has uncovered a series of op-eds that show Jennings's incredible hostility toward Christianity.

In at least two Huffington Post columns, Jennings attacks people of faith with complete and utter disdain. When the former director of GLSEN tried to implement a series of Gay Straight Alliances in classrooms back in 2007, Jennings described a Christian who fought the idea as having "not-yet-fully evolved views maybe because of his proximity to the Everglades (from whose ooze he may have recently climbed), [but] I can't dismiss them as the ravings of a single troglodyte. Instead, they represent a classic example of how

SITTING AT MY MOTHER'S BEDSIDE . . .

To those who read this blog with anything approaching regularity, you've noticed that several days have gone by without any blog posts.  That's because I am at my mother's bedside at our local hospital.  Late Friday afternoon my mother took a tragic fall and broke her neck.  She is paralyzed from the neck down.  Because of her advanced age and the nature of her condition, she is receiving "comfort care" presently and will probably pass away in a matter of hours, or within a few days.

The presence of God has been exquisite in so many ways.  One of the great blessings during this time has been the thoughtfulness of a friend who brought to the hospital a CD player and the 3 CD collection, "50 Classic Hymns."  We have the CD playing day and night and consequently we are bathed in majestic, inspiring, glorious music that brings with it a heightened sense of the marvelous peace and presence of God.

To personal friends who may be reading this post, thank you for your love, and prayers and concern!  We are all in God's hands, and one day must journey onward.   May the Lord keep us all so close to Him that the transition into His Glorious Presence will be but a small one.    Blessings upon you!