Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

MARK DRISCOLL & GERRY BRESHEARS - "DOCTRINE: WHAT CHRISTIANS SHOULD BELIEVE"

I love it when  publishers offer free chapters to read online.  Such is the case with just-published Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears’s book, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe.  (I am in debt to Justin Taylor for his blog post from which I have derived the links included in my own post.) 

Here is a free 34-page chapter on worship from the book.  And here is a free 24-page chapter on resurrection.  (I scanned it and found it quite excellent and helpful).

You can read the table of contents online.  You can also check out the official website.   The book comes highly praised.  Professor John M. Frame writes:  "...There is much here to aid readers who have thought in the past that theology was too complicated, uninteresting, or irrelevant. This book is none of those things. It takes off on wings of eagles. . ."

QUICK TAKES

Jonah Goldberg - "Liberals and Eugenics"

Mary O'Grady - The U.S. vs. Honduran Democracy

John Bolton - "A  Deepening Crisis between U.S., Israel"

George F. Will - "There's A Simple Fix for Immigration"

LA SHAWN BARBER - UPDATING TERMS USED IN NEWS STORIES

La Shawn Barber comments astutely on NPR's new guideline on how to talk about the abortion debate.  NPR instructs its staff to no longer refer to pro-life people as "pro-life," but instead as "abortion rights opponents."  NPR bills that a "neutral position."  Uh huh.   In addition to the original "Bill of Rights," Barber observes:

Our rights have expanded to include the right to health care and housing we can’t afford, the right of privacy to kill unborn babies, and the right to not be offended. In 2010, these rights are on the same level as the right to free speech, free exercise of religion, and free association.

She goes on to suggest how lame stream news organizations should henceforth frame their stories:

• Refer to abortion supporters as “right to life opponents”
• Refer to gun control supporters as “gun rights opponents”
• Refer to “hate speech” backers as “speech rights opponents”
• Refer to racial preferences advocates as “constitutional rights opponents”

DAVID MURRIN - AMERICA'S DECLINE AND CHINA'S RISE WILL BE FASTER THAN PEOPLE EXPECT

A few days ago I posted Mark Steyn's reflections, "The U.S. is in the Express Lane to Declinistan."  Posting such an article gives me no pleasure.  Quite the opposite.  I want to see the U.S. flourish and function as a shining beacon of hope for the rest of the world.  Anyone with eyes open, however, sees the rot and  corruption and irresponsibility taking over the nation and its governance.

Which brings me to David Murrin's new book, Breaking the Code of History: A Map for the Future.  I had never heard of Murrin before reading a John Derbyshire post over at the Corner.  Murrin granted CNBC a 7 minute video interview which is MUST VIEWING.  Murrin believes in cycles of history and projects the West's rapid decline.  Especially noteworthy is how rapid he foresees the change taking place.  Contra Mark Steyn, he sees China as the rising colossus.  I agree with Murrin.

BLOOMBERG POLL: AMERICANS DECIDEDLY GLOOMY ABOUT ECONOMY, IMAGE OF THE U.S., AND STRENGTH OF OUR NATION

Larry Doyle reports on a Bloomberg National Poll of 1002 people the following results: (The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%)

The Value of Your Investments
A lot better 6%
A little better 25%
Same 22%
A little worse 29%
A lot worse 17%
Not Sure 1%

The Overall U.S. Economy
A lot better 4%
A little better 25%
Same 13%
A little worse 23%
A lot worse 34%
Not Sure 1%

The Businesses in Your Community
A lot better 2%
A little better 14%
Same 28%
A little worse 33%
A lot worse 21%
Not Sure 2%

The Value of Homes in Your Community
A lot better 2
A little better 12
Same 28
A little worse 31
A lot worse 25
Same 2

The Image of U.S. in Other Countries
A lot better 11%
A little better 16%
Same 19%
A little worse 21%
A lot worse 30%
Not Sure 3%

The Strength of Our Nation
A lot better 7%
A little better 18%
Same 24%
A little worse 25%
A lot worse 24%
Not Sure 2%

PETER KIRSANOW - NANCY PELOSI WAS RIGHT

Kirsanow writes:

Nancy Pelosi was correct when she said that we have to pass the health-care-reform bill in order to find out what's in it.

Now that the bill has been safely passed and signed into law, the mainstream press is gradually revealing the scores of delightful provisions tucked away in the 2,700 page abomination: ob-killing taxes on businesses, innovation-killing taxes on medical products, suffocating regulations on individual freedoms, wealth-sapping taxes on the middle-class, unprecedented intrusions on personal privacy, unconstitutional mandates on individuals, racially discriminatory preferences for favored groups, a Ponzi-scheme-on-steroids financing mechanism, and spending on a galactic, incomprehensible scale.

And that's just the first 600 pages. But somewhere in this heaping pile of manure there just has to be a pony.

Update: AP: Say, guess what we just found in ObamaCare!

Ed Morrissey laments: "Over the past year, I’ve repeatedly warned about the dangers of static tax analysis.  That process considers changes in tax policy without considering its impact on behavior."

Me:  What kind of brains do we have in Congress?????  Are they so ignorant of human behavior?  Sheeshh....

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER - "THE VAT COMETH"

Krauthammer writes:

Obama set out to be a consequential president, one on the order of Ronald Reagan. With the VAT, Obama’s triumph will be complete. He will have succeeded in reversing Reaganism. Liberals have long complained that Reagan’s strategy was to starve the (governmental) beast in order to shrink it: First, cut taxes; then, ultimately, you have to reduce government spending.

Obama’s strategy is exactly the opposite: Expand the beast, and then feed it. Spend first — which then forces taxation. Now that, with the institution of universal health care, we are becoming the full entitlement state, the beast will have to be fed.

Veronique de Rugy says the following short speech by Republican congressman Thaddeus McCotter (Michigan, 11th district) is well worth listening to.  I think so too. 

He is very calm and speaks slowly, but his tone is still quite dramatic. He cites interesting poll data about Americans' perceptions of Congress and government — I checked most of them, and the data is solid.

A DOCTOR WRITES A LETTER TO HER PATIENTS

Since she cannot serve two masters, the government and her patients, she chooses the latter.  Daniel Foster reports:

An M.D. in family practice passed along this letter she sent to her patients after Obamacare became law. She relates that, so far, "100% of those who have contacted me about it have supported me and accepted the new conditions."

March 23, 2010

My Dear Patient,

As you must know, Congress has just passed extensive legislation governing health care delivery and insurance systems. Whether you agree with what it does or not, we are all now subject to this law and its sweeping changes.

I have always conducted my medical practice with my patient’s best interests as my first priority. Although not legally obliged to do so, I have routinely provided you with a receipt that has all the codes necessary to bill your own health insurance company for any reimbursement to which you are entitled. Until now, that insurance company was a free enterprise despite the fact that it was heavily regulated by state and federal laws. Now the situation is quite different. Through the new law’s mandates,

ANN COULTER INTERVIEWED BY CANADIAN BROADCASTER, MICHAEL COREN

In case you hadn't heard, a brouhaha has erupted in Canada over Ann Coulter's visit to three universities.  (See links below)

The interview is fun viewing.  Coulter sets the record straight in many areas...  (HT: Atlas Shrugs)

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 2

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 3

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 4

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 5

Fears of violence; speech cancelled... (HT: Drudge)

'This has never, ever, ever happened before -- even at the stupidest American university'

UPDATE: Coulter launches Human Rights complaint...

MARK STEYN - THE U.S. IS IN THE EXPRESS LANE TO DECLINISTAN

I consider Steyn's sustained meditation on America's future extraordinarily important and persuasive.  Steyn writes:

What happens when the policies that brought ruin to Detroit and sclerosis to California become the basis for the nation at large? Strictly on the numbers, the United States is in the express lane to Declinistan: unsustainable entitlements, the remorseless governmentalization of the economy and individual liberty, and a centralization of power that will cripple a nation of this size. Decline is the way to bet. . .

Steyn says Europeans were not always the Euro-weenies they have become:

Hayek’s greatest insight in The Road to Serfdom is psychological: “There is one aspect of the change in moral values brought about by the advance of collectivism which at the present time provides special food for thought,” he wrote with an immigrant’s eye on the Britain of 1944. “It is that the virtues which are held less and less in esteem and which consequently become rarer are precisely those on which the British people justly prided themselves and in which they were generally agreed to excel. The virtues possessed by Anglo-Saxons in a higher degree than most other people, 

QUICK TAKES

Ted Slater - Did the Tebow Super Bowl Ad Accomplish Anything?  (HT: Justin Taylor)

Time Magazine - Morocco deports Christian aid workers  (HT: Justin Taylor)

George Will - 'Promoting Dependency is the Democratic Party's Vocation."

Ed Morrissey - Guess Who's Exempt from ObamaCare Mandates?

MUST VIEWING: JOHN BOEHNER'S SPEECH AGAINST THE HISTORIC HEALTH CARE VOTE

Just before the historic vote on the Obama/Pelosi health care bill Republican leader John Boehner delivered an historic MUST VIEW speech that will be referred to for weeks, months and years to come.  Ed Morrissey quotes Boehner and comments:

“In this economy, with this unemployment, with our desperate need for jobs and economic growth, is this really the time to raise taxes, to create bureaucracies, and burden every job creator in our land?” So began the final effort by House Minority Leader John Boehner to turn the tide on ObamaCare, mainly by answering a series of difficult questions. Boehner really caught fire in the middle of the speech when he asked Democrats if they had even bothered to read the bill or any of its sidebars or amendments, ending with a “Hell no, you haven’t!” Not surprisingly, this was one of the most popular moments for Hot Air commenters on the live thread. Most of it, however, was somber and sad, as Boehner said, “Shame on us, shame on this body, shame on each and every one of you who substitutes your will and your desires above those of your fellow countrymen.” Full speech is below:

PHYLLIS SCHAFLEY RESPONDS TO BART STUPAK'S CAVE-IN ON ABORTION

From the Newswires: (HT: Drudge)

WASHINGTON, March 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Phyllis Schlafly, president and founder of the conservative grassroots public policy organization Eagle Forum, made the following remarks after the public announcement that formerly pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak (D-MI) will cast a "yes" vote for the Senate health care bill today in the House:

"It is naive for any elected official, especially one who describes himself as 'pro-life,' to expect that a promise to issue an Executive Order that reasserts the intentions of the Hyde Amendment will be fulfilled by the most pro-abortion president to ever sit in the White House. Perhaps Mr. Stupak and his fellow pro-life Democrats forget that President Obama's first Executive Order was the repeal of the Mexico City Policy to allow for international funding of abortion."

"Not only would an Executive Order be rendered meaningless in the face of Congress passing legislation which actively provides

QUICK TAKES

The following articles make struck me as worth posting:

Steve Lohr - How Privacy Vanishes Online

George Leef - "Do We Need -- Or Want -- More Students in College?"

Mark Earley - Virtual Worlds and Neglect of the Real

Dennis Prager - The Bigger the Government, the Less You Are Needed

THOMAS CAHILL - THE IRISH SAVED WESTERN CIVILIZATION'S BOOKS

Today is St. Patrick's Day!  I had forgotten until I ran into this little gem of an article that reminds us how much we owe the Irish, and especially St. Patrick!

GOLD MINE: C-SPAN OPENS ITS ARCHIVES TO THE INTERNET

This means, as Joe Carter points out, free online access to the more than 160,000 hours(!) of television footage.  Carter helpfully suggests:

Check out some of the videos of First Things‘ editors Richard John Neuhaus, Joseph Bottum, James Nuechterlein; FT contributors Mary Eberstadt, Alan Jacobs, and Yuval Levin; and FT board members Hadley Arkes, James Burtchaell, Eric Cohen, David Dalin, Midge Decter, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Suzanne Garment, Robert George, Mary Ann Glendon, Russell Hittinger, Glenn Loury, George Marsden, Wilfred M. McClay, Gilbert Meilaender, David Novak, Michael Novak, George Weigel, William Burleigh, and Peter Thiel.

Happy days are here again!

Since I am currently reading Alan Jacobs' The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis (as I  mentioned before), I enjoyed watching and listening to Jacobs discuss his book at the Cambridge Forum.  In his brief talk (followed by a Q&A), he mentioned the impact Lewis had on one of his students, Kenneth Tynan, who would go on to excel as a dramatist, a screenwriter, a critic, an essayist, a director, and a theatrical impresario, a man given to "pushing boundaries" (he was the director of the first all-nude musical, "Oh Calcutta!").  His "peacockish" (Jacobs' term) flamboyance might lead us to suppose his relationship with Lewis would be rocky, but it wasn't.  Tynan struggled

THOMAS SOWELL - HEALTH CARE SENSE AND NONSENSE

Thomas Sowell - Alice in Health Care

One of the biggest reasons for higher medical costs is that somebody else is paying those costs, whether an insurance company or the government. What is the politicians' answer?  To have more costs paid by insurance companies and the government.

Me: What a terrific article.  Read the whole thing.

SENDING A YOUNG MAN OR WOMAN OFF TO A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE?

Joel Belz, founder of World magazine, has some advice for young people going off to college:

  . . . So before making any commitments, sit in on at least a handful of classes. And don't just walk away then from the classroom. Go up, pointedly and politely, and tell the professor you're thinking of enrolling there. And ask very directly: "Can you tell me how your teaching is different because you're a Christian? Can you tell me how your trust in the Bible affects your teaching?" Pay close attention to the answers you get.

QUICK TAKES

Here are some recent posts from Wintery Knight Blog, an excellent resource I have linked to often in the past:

-- The Worldwide war on baby girls

-- How euthanasia eroded medical ethics in the Netherlands

-- Homeschooling and vertical socialization

-- Wintery Knight's greatest fears about the future

CHURCH LANGUAGE ISSUES

From a friend's e-mail:

 

And then there's this:

"ISLAM" VS. "ISLAMISM" - IS THERE REALLY A DIFFERENCE? ANDY McCARTHY RESPONDS

Andy McCarthy concludes a substantial post on the ideological position of lawyers in the Department of Justice and related matters and says, [my emphases]

Jonah [Goldberg] says he thinks Charles Krauthammer's distinction between Islam and Islamism is not only a practical necessity but "valid on the merits." Respectfully, I don't think either Dr. K or Jonah has made a case for how Islam and Islamism differ on the merits. I think they are making a deductive case that (a) because Islamists include terrorists and (b) because most Muslims are not terrorists, (c) Islam must therefore be different from Islamism. But that doesn't tell us how the tenets of Islamism supposedly differ from those of Islam. And although one need not be a Muslim to study and understand Islam, it's worth pointing out that while Charles and Jonah are not Muslims, many of the world's leading Islamists are Muslims graduated with doctorates in Islamic jurisprudence from al-Azhar University, the seat of Sunni learning. I think non-Muslims who propose that the true Islam is different on the merits from the belief system espoused by scholars who have been steeped in Islam for their entire adult lives have a very steep mountain to climb. That we want Islam and Islamism to be different — and I do — does not make it so.

Earlier in his post, McCarthy makes another important point:

SUGAR AND CANCER

The following advertisement and informative letter came as an e-mail.  Some might find it strategic to read.  What struck me is that the average American consumes two to three pounds of sugar every week!  "The U.S. average is now an astounding 158 pounds per person per year."

WHY IS C. S. LEWIS'S SCHOLARSHIP SO EXCEPTIONALLY READABLE?

Maybe it's because Lewis has no problem juxtaposing the likes of John Milton with Beatrix Potter.  I find enchanting the following paragraphs from Alan Jacobs' The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis:

You can see Lewis's love of children's stories in the oddest places and in the most charming ways.  In one of his most learned and scholarly books, A Preface to "Paradise Lost" -- and "Paradise Lost" is as sober and serious and adult a poem as one could imagine -- Lewis quotes his eighteenth-century predecessor at Magdalen College, Joseph Addison:  'The great moral which reigns in Milton is the most universal and most useful that can be imagined, that Obedience to the will of God makes men happy and that Disobedience makes them miserable." 

A few sentences later Lewis responds to a fellow literary critic, E. M. W. Tillyard, saying:

"It is, after all, the commonest of themes; even Peter Rabbit came to grief because he would go into Mr. McGregor's garden."

To which Alan Jacobs comments:

This is as delightful as it is wise: any literary critic who can, in the course of a few sentences, take us from the great Milton's account of the Fall of Humanity, in twelve books of stately and heroic blank verse, to Beatrix Potter's rather humbler account of Peter Rabbit's rather humbler troubles, is a critic of (to put it mildly) considerable range.  And the naturalness with which he achieves this! -- clearly it never occurs

LEFT WING CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST JIM WALLIS, "SOCIAL JUSTICE," AND GLENN BECK

The Family Research Council sets out the issue clearly:

The Bible speaks consistently and forcefully about the need for justice throughout society. But the term "social justice" has become a code-term used by the Religious Left to mean everything from socialized medicine to redistribution of income. Their argument goes like this:  Since God wants   Christians to show compassion to the poor, government should work to meet the needs of everyone. But this argument is, oddly, a form of merging the roles of the church and state--something the Left says it opposes--and thoughtful conservatives should oppose. Faith and policy are closely linked but the institutional roles of church and state are, as our Founders recognized, distinct.

Last week, talk show host Glenn Beck said on his program, "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can." To which Jim Wallis, a leader of the Religious Left, responded that

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 90 SECONDS FLAT

Click here.  It's well worth your time.  (HT: Ben Witherington)  

Update:  Link fixed!

DOUG GROOTHUIS DECONSTRUCTS MICHAEL SHERMER'S CASE AGAINST "INTELLIGENT DESIGN"

Groothuis remains one of the most clear-headed thinkers around.  I learned great deal years ago from his earlier books on the New Age movement [Unmasking the New Age, Confronting the New Age, and Revealing the New Age Jesus, later revised and updated as  revised as Jesus in an Age of Controversy and more recently from his book Truth Decay.]  His blog post on Michael Shermer is worth reading.  (HT: Wintery Knight).

I previously blogged about Michael Shermer and his debate with Greg Koukl on Hugh Hewitt's radio program here.

GLENN BECK - INDOCTRINATION IN OUR SCHOOLS

Yesterday I was working at my desk.  Glenn Beck was on. (I have a TV in the corner of the room.) It's rare I have an opportunity to watch him.  As I listened with one ear, I thought to myself: "This man is performing a valuable service with what he is saying about indoctrination in education."  I didn't hear everything, but in the hopes that the whole is as good as the part I heard, I am posting his program.  It comes in four parts.

WHAT'S IT LIKE LIVING IN CHILE AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE?

From a friend living in Chile, dated 3/6/10:

Thank you beyond words for the prayers.  We’re all exhausted, partly from the work but also from the continuing tremors and uncertainty of life here.  Much like the 9/11 tragedy, the quake has directly affected some, but has rocked the whole country…literally and figuratively.  You can feel the tension in the air, just waiting for another “big one.”  We keep getting large enough tremors – a 6.0 and a 6.6 within 3 hours of each other yesterday and another similar one today – that people are staying on edge.  Hurricanes, tornadoes and other similar stuff are much better in that they’re OVER.  This isn’t…by FAR.  And it’s wearing on all of us. . .

QUICK TAKES

-- Admiral Merrill A. McPeak (Air Force Chief of Staff from 1990-1994 - Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Change [Outstanding op-ed in the New York Times.  A MUST READ.  Big question: How did it get in the NY Times?]

-- Caroline Glick - Why Biden Will Fail   [Biden arrives in Israel on Monday for high level talks.  Glick is a terrific journalist.  She brings readers up to speed on the current political situation in Israel].

-- Washington Times - Senators ask FDA to lift gay blood donor ban.  [Is this nuts or what?!]

-- Indonesians hurl their footwear at images of President Obama.  [Obama???  Wasn't that supposed to be Bush's problem only?]

- Wintery Knight Blog:

        - Nebraska legislature introduces bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks [What a great idea!!]          

        - Mandatory curriculum in Ontario schools promotes homosexuality   

Students begin to explore “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in grade 3, as part of an expectation to appreciate “invisible differences” in others.  A desired response has the eight-year-old student recognizing that “some [families] have two mothers or two fathers.”

In grade 5, a student is expected to recognize that “things I cannot control include … personal characteristics such as … my gender identity [and] sexual orientation.”

Grade 7s are expected to be taught about “using condoms consistently if and when a person becomes sexually active.”   

QUICK TAKES

George Will - Too much esteem and too little sleep can ruin your child.

Meghan Cox Gurdon - Emily Post Would be Rightly Appalled

Daily Mail - Extra Small Condoms for 12 year old boys 

Time magazine - German home school family find asylum in the United States

RIFQA BARRY UPDATE

Pamela Geller provides an extensive update.  She titles her post, "Legal Incompetence and a Ticking Clock."

Me:  If only Rifqa had better legal representation!!

UNLIKE MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY, A REFORMATION IS NOT WHAT ISLAM NEEDS

One of the great needs today is to know a lot more history and a lot more about religion than we do.  This article by Mark Durie makes essential clarifications.  [my emphases]

On Dec. 1, 2009, Wafa Sultan and Daniel Pipes debated whether and to what extent a "moderate" Islam is possible. Although both are opponents of Islamic radicalism, on this question they did not agree.

Wafa Sultan argued that Islam is Islam, pure and simple, and there can never be such a thing as "moderate Islam." Daniel Pipes argued that the answer to radical Islam must be moderate Islam: Islam can be moderated, and the effort to support Muslim moderates is both necessary and worthwhile.

The ex-Muslim Sultan is undoubtedly a powerful voice in her native Arabic, and even in English she is impassioned and 

RAVI ZACHARIAS NAMED UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AT LARGE FOR TRINITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Trinity International University's announcement:

Ravi Zacharias, who earned his MDiv at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1976, is coming home to Trinity to teach. Recently named a university professor at large for Trinity International University, Ravi will again visit Trinity's Deerfield campus to address the community and to inaugurate his new role with the university on April 12, 2010.

Ravi’s professorship is one facet of a recent partnership announced between Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and Trinity. Trinity and RZIM are in the midst of developing an educational initiative that takes advantage of the strengths of the institution for the preparation of leaders in ministry for the worldwide church. Ravi and his team from RZIM will have a regularized presence on campus, focusing

DR. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: ONE OF THE 20TH CENTURY'S GREATEST PREACHERS

One Sunday evening years ago I happened to be in London and had the great privilege of hearing Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preach a sermon I still remember.  He took as his text Revelation chapter 3, the church in Laodicea.  The great Welshman commanded rapt attention as he unfolded the text in a way that only one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century could do.  I am indebted to Justin Taylor's blog post for the following 10-minute documentary introduction to his life, and for the other links provided below:

Justin Taylor says "A few years ago Mark Dever interviewed Lady Elizabeth [Lloyd-Jones' daughter] and her husband, Sir Fred Catherwood, about the famed preacher: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Reflections on His Ministry with His Family."  Me: I greatly enjoyed listening to this interview.  I learned that Lloyd-Jones encouraged C.S. Lewis to keep writing after his first book, The Pilgrim's Regress met with a generally poor reception and Lewis was discouraged.  There's lots more in that interview!

Taylor says you can hear The Doctor preach online for free at Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust.

Some free sermons are available here.

G0BECKLI TEPE: EARLIEST TEMPLE IN THE WORLD (11,500 BC) UNEARTHED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

Professor Ben Witherington reports:

Klaus Schmidt and his team of Kurdish diggers have uncovered an enormous temple complex that pre-dates the Great Pyramids by some 7,000 years and Stonehenge by at least 6,000 years!  Yes, you heard me right.  The evidence suggests this would have been one of the first substantial buildings built after the last major Ice Age on earth. Klaus in fact calls this whole complex of structures the Rome of the Ice Age.  [more . . .]

WILLLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. ON "FINAL TRUTHS"

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since William F. Buckley, Jr. passed away.  Jack Fowler, over at the Corner, points to something WFB wrote back in 1962 to the newsletter of Young Conservative Club of Walt Whitman High School in the Bronx.  Fowler explains WFB was "responding to their inquiry about something he had written in Up from Liberalism concerning "final truths."  Fowler quotes WFB: [my emphases]

In the passage you quote from Up From Liberalism I intended, indeed, to refer to the religious truth that is our central heritage and to the moral philosophy and human insight that derive from it. Sometimes this position is referred to (in a phrase going back, I believe, to the days of the Roman Empire) as “the morality of the last days”—by which is meant the world-view of men who know that death is close. But, in the long view, we all stand sentenced to death, and whether it comes in 1995 or tomorrow makes no difference. That is why the morality of the last days always applies to what is “finally important in human experience.” All our techniques of social welfare, all our science, all our comfort, all our liberty, all our democracy and foreign aid and grandiloquent orations—all that means nothing to me and nothing to you in the moment when we go. At that moment we must put our souls in order, and the way to do that was lighted for us by Jesus, and since then we have had need of no other light. That is what is finally important; it has not changed; and it will not change. It is truth, which shall ever abide in the future. And if it is “reactionary” to hold a truth that will be valid for all future time, then words have lost their meaning, and men their reason.

Me:  I might mention that I also enjoyed Rich Trzupek's post, "Two Years After His Death Buckley's Message Lives On."

VIRULENT ANTI-SEMITISM AT OXFORD AND UC - IRVINE

Chuck Colson reports:

Are the free exchange of ideas, respect for others, and common decency alive on college campuses these days? Sadly, that depends on who’s doing the talking.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, was invited to speak at the University of California at Irvine. Oren’s talk was interrupted at least 12 times by students who shouted insults. “How many Palestinians did you kill?” one of them yelled. “Propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!” shouted another.

The disruptive students—including officers of the Muslim Student Association—were arrested. The university’s outraged chancellor, Michael Drake, told the students they were an embarrassment to the school. “Shame on you!” he said.

But the same thing happened that very day at Oxford. Another Israeli leader, Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, was