Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

TATOOS

Sue Shellenbarger writes in the Wall Street Journal about teens and tatoos.

[...] To many teens, they're merely a personal accessory, akin to a handbug or iPod.  To others, like Katie, tatoos denote a meaningful experience or belief.  Pop-singer Miley Cyrus, 17, has tattoos.  Even  pre-teens love tats.  One of Mattel Inc.'s best-selling dolls is Tattoo Barbie, which comes with tattoo stickers and a play tattoo gun. . ..

"Nearly two in five, or 38%, of millennials, those 18 through 29, have at least one tattoo, compared with 32% of gen-Xers and 15% of baby boomers, says a Pew Research Center survey this year of 2,020 adults.

Most states require teens to be 18 to get a tattoo.  While many states allow minors to get them with parental permission..   . [more..  including a video interview with the writer]

Shellenbarger's article talks about the dilemma parents face when a teen wants a tatoo.   She also quotes a doctor's warning to teens if later they change their mind:   "They [tattoos] never really go away.  What we do in most cases is lighten the tattoo.  We get it to be a lot less obvious, but we are rarely able to completely remove it."  And, needless to say, an attempted removal is expensive!  

Me: When a fad hits town, one shows one's genuine individuality and independence by resisting it.  See my earlier post, "Should Christians Tattoo Themselves?"

NOTEWORTHY NEWS FROM ASIA

From the Wall Street Journal:

India Launches Project to ID 1.2 Billion People

India's vaunted tech savvy is being put to the test this week as the country embarks on a daunting mission: assigning a unique 12-digit number to each of its 1.2 billion people.

The project, which seeks to collect fingerprint and iris scans from all residents and store them in a massive central database of unique IDs, is considered by many specialists the most technologically and logistically complex national identification effort ever attempted.   [more...]

Bangladesh, 'Basket Case' No More

[...] Bangladesh has much to be proud of. Its economy has grown at nearly 6% a year over the past three years. The country exported $12.3 billion worth of garments last year, making it fourth in the world behind China, the EU and Turkey. Against the odds, Bangladesh has curbed population growth. Today the average Bangladeshi woman bears fewer than three children in her lifetime, down from more than six in the 1970s.  [more...]

"THE BEST SERMON ON RELIGION AND POLITICS"

Well, that was the title Justin Taylor gave a recent blog post describing a sermon delivered by Pastor Mark Dever on September 19th at Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.  Dever's text was Mark 12:13-17 -  "Jesus Paid Taxes."   It's length was 70 minutes.  How many pastors today deliver 70 minute sermons, and in particular, one that could be described as "a biblical theology of Christians and the state, at once full of unction, intellectually challenging, and affecting the heart"?  Remarkable indeed. 

For those without 70 minutes to spare, Collin Hansen has provided an overvew.  David Crowe, a visitor that day, blogged "Capital Hill Baptist Church - Reflections From a Visit." I thought it noteworthy that 750 people jammed the church, and pre-teens were found - not doodling - but taking notes on the sermon!

What strikes me is the great value of the internet!  Not many clergy are capable of delivering such meaty messages, but because of the internet, a message such as this can be heard by anyone anywhere in the world.  What resources are at our disposal!  Are we making use of these resources?  I need to take much better advantage of them myself.  An iTunes podcast of Dever's sermon is available here.  

Some time ago I posted a video of Pastor Mark Dever offering a video tour of his library.  Click here.  You'll find it fascinating.

Speaking of Christianity and politics, the other day I happened to be at Barnes & Noble and there I thumbed through a copy of Wayne Grudem's just-published Politics - According to the Bible.  I found it quite intriguing.  I hope to browse more on a future visit.  Another recent publication that has caught my eye (which I haven't had a chance to browse yet), is  City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era by Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner with a foreward by Tim Keller.  Justin Taylor has posted blurbs and some principles from the book, plus Tim Keller's foreward.   In addition to the book's foreward, the preface in PDF format can be found here.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/09/24/want-to-raise-a-boy-who-reads/

LAMENTATION TIME

Technology... phooey.  Well, not really.  Or, maybe I should say "yes" and "no."  I seem to have lost a week's worth of links to websites and articles I had collected, many of which I had intended to mention or incorporate in this blog.  Somehow I goofed and absent-mindedly erased the whole list.  Woe is me.   I suspect more sleep would be a good thing.

VIEWING TECHNOLOGY

Alan Jacobs posts:

I tend to get frustrated by Kevin Kelly’s technophilia, but this account of his experiences teaching his son at home (a) resonates with my own homeschooling adventures and (b) makes a ton of sense. I especially like this set of principles about technology that he and his wife tried to impart to their eighth-grader:

Every new technology will bite back. The more powerful its gifts, the more powerfully it can be abused. Look for its costs.

Technologies improve so fast you should postpone getting anything you need until the last second. Get comfortable with the fact that anything you buy is already obsolete.

Before you can master a device, program or invention, it will be superseded; you will always be a beginner. Get good at it.

Be suspicious of any technology that requires walls. If you can fix it, modify it or hack it yourself, that is a good sign.

The proper response to a stupid technology is to make a better one, just as the proper response to a stupid idea is not to outlaw it but to replace it with a better idea.

Every technology is biased by its embedded defaults: what does it assume?

Nobody has any idea of what a new invention will really be good for. The crucial question is, what happens when everyone has one?

The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful.

Find the minimum amount of technology that will maximize your options.

Me:  I am comforted by the 2nd to the last! 

MORE GUNS MEAN LESS CRIME

It may seem counterintuitive, but facts are facts.  John R. Lott, Jr. reports:

President Obama undoubtedly didn’t intend it, but he deserves some credit for the recent report that all violent crime rates dropped in 2009, murder rates by 7.4 percent, robbery rates by 9 percent: His election caused gun sales to skyrocket, and crime rates to plummet.

Gun sales started notably rising in October 2008, and sale really took off immediately after Obama won the presidential race: 450,000 more people bought guns in November 2008 than bought them in November 2007. That’s over a 40 percent increase in sales. By comparison, the change from November 2006 to November 2007 was only about 35,000. Over the last decade, the average year-to-year increase in monthly sales was only 21,000. . . .

At the same time gun sales were soaring, there was an unusually large drop in murder rates. The 7.4 percent drop in the murder rate was the largest drop in murder rates since the 1999. For those who don’t remember, 1999 — when Bill Clinton was president and Columbine occurred — was another time when gun sales soared. With Clinton domestic-policy advisers such as Elena Kagan pushing hard for more gun control, Americans  were worried that more gun bans were coming; in response, gun sales soared.

Higher arrest and conviction rates, longer prison sentences, and the more frequent use of the death penalty all reduce crime, and so does letting victims defend themselves with guns. More certain or greater penalties make it more risky for criminals to commit crime. Victims who can defend themselves can also make committing crime more dangerous and deter criminals. . .

Note: John R. Lott Jr. is a FOXNews.com contributor, an economist, and author of the just-released revised edition of More Guns, Less Crime (University of Chicago Press, 2010).

MUSLIM CLERIC: "ALLAH HONORED WIVES BY INSTATING THE PUNISHMENT OF BEATINGS"

Andy McCarthy posts:

That’s from the avuncular Muslim cleric Sa’d Arafat, from an interview on Al-Nas TV in Egypt last February, featured by the invaluable MEMRI. You can watch the interview excerpt here. And, since we certainly wouldn’t want to take the sheikh out of context, here’s a transcript (presented without further comment because, well, what more can you say?):

Interviewer: Wife beating is a serious accusation [leveled against Islam]. Let us examine this matter bit by bit.

Sa’d Arafat: Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.

Interviewer: Honored them with beatings? How is this possible?

Sa’d Arafat: The prophet Muhammad said: “Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly.” See how she is honored. If the husband beats his wife, he must not beat her in the face. Even when he beats her, he must not curse her. This is incredible! He beats her in order to discipline her.

In addition, there must not be more than ten beatings, and he must not break her bones, injure her, break her teeth, or poke her in the eye. There is a beating etiquette. If he beats to discipline her, he must not raise his hand high. He must beat her from chest level. All these things honor the woman.

She is in need of discipline. How should the husband discipline her? Through admonishment. If she is not deterred, he should refuse to share the bed with her. If she is not repentant, he should beat her, but there are rules to the beating. It is forbidden to beat her in the face or make her ugly. When you beat her, you must not curse her. Islam forbids this.

Interviewer: With what should be beat her? With his bare hand? With a rod?

Sa’d Arafat: If he beats her, the beatings should not be hard, so that they do not leave a mark. He can beat her with a short rod. He must avoid beating her in the face or in places in the head where it hurts. The beatings should be on the body and should not come one right after the other. These are all choices made during the process, but beatings are allowed only as a last resort. [...]

The honoring of the wife in Islam is also evident in the fact that the punishment of beating is permissible in one case only: when she refuses to sleep with him.

Interviewer: When she refuses to sleep with him?

Sa’d Arafat: Yes, because where else could the husband go? He wants her, but she refuses….

Me:  IT's quite unbelievable that

THE SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW - SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Herewith the latest selection of articles from sources far and wide collated by the Family Research Council.  Themes include educational freedom, environmental issues, faith and policy, health care, homosexuality in the military, judiciary, family economics, marriage and family, religious liberty, and sanctity of human life.  Previous collections of articles can be found here.

CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURAL ADVANCE: THE CHINESE SEE THE CONNECTION

Chuck Colson notes that Chinese thinkers recognize more and more that the West's success has been due to its Christian roots.

[...] The Chinese government is studying the impact of Christian entrepreneurs and Christian-run businesses. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told Landau that it’s clear to him that the growth of Christianity and economic prosperity are taking place simultaneously in Wenzhou—a city deeply influenced by Christian missionaries in the past.

Colson again:

An American sociologist named Rodney Stark would not be surprised at this finding: He’s been saying the same thing for years. Stark is the author of a wonderful book titled the Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.

Stark writes that without Christianity’s commitment to “reason, progress, and moral equality . . . today the entire world would be about where non-European societies were in, say, 1800.” This would be a world “lacking universities, banks, factories, eyeglasses, chimneys, and pianos”—not to mention scientists.

Amazingly enough, at the end of his book, Stark quotes a published statement by Chinese scholars, who said they had no doubt that Christianity is the source of Western prosperity! “The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life,” they said, “was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and the successful transition to democratic politics.”

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL - AN EYE-OPENING ANALYSIS

John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine, explains Christine O'Donnell's rise to fame and notoriety in an eye-opening, insightful article, "Christine O'Donnell, Made and Broken by TV."   I found it illuminating, convincing and dispiriting.  I think you need to read what Podhoretz has to say.    (HT: The Corner)

Update: On the other hand, Karl Rove points out that O'Donnell is right on the issues, and has done well (so far) in putting personal issues behind her.

 

OBAMA'S DISGUSTING JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

Take a look at the Family Research Council's post, "The Stench from the Bench":  (excerpts)

Despite opposition from his own party, the President has stubbornly renominated a who's who of socialism, secularism, and anti-Americanism to the bench. Five judges, all with nightmarish track records that range from embracing sexual sadism to blocking a rendition of "America the Beautiful," will reappear for a vote in committee tomorrow. The group includes Robert Chatigny (known for sympathizing with serial rapists), Edward Chen (who fought the singing of a patriotic song at a funeral), Goodwin Liu (so radical that even the White House chief of staff tried to block him), John McConnell (who bribed his way to the nominee list), and Louis Butler (whose own state fired him from its Supreme Court). . .

FRC says: 

If you don't contact your leaders about these nominees now, it will be impossible to stop them later. . . Call your Senators today and urge them to vote no on these judicial castoffs!

Update 9/23/10: Ed Morrissey has more details.

THE HOLY SPIRIT'S FLOODLIGHT MINISTRY

I like this post from Justin Taylor.  Off hand, I can't think of a more vivid illustration of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Taylor posts J.I. Packer's words, and provides the photo.

J.I. Packer:

The Holy Spirit’s distinctive new covenant role, then, is to fulfill what we may call a floodlight ministry in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. So far as this role was concerned, the Spirit “was not yet” (John 7:39, literal Greek) while Jesus was on earth; only when the Father had glorified him (see John 17:1, 5) could the Spirit’s work of making men aware of Jesus’ glory begin.

I remember walking to a church one winter evening to preach on the words “he shall glorify me,” seeing the building floodlit as I turned a corner, and realizing that this was exactly the illustration my message needed.

When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are so placed that you do not see them; you are not in fact supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you see it properly. This perfectly illustrates the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.

Or think of it this way. It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us.

The Spirit’s message is never,

“Look at me;

listen to me;

come to me;

get to know me,”

but always

“Look at him, and see his glory;

listen to him, and hear his word;

go to him, and have life;

get to know him, and taste his gift of joy and peace.”

—Keeping in Step with the Spirit: Finding Fullness in Our Walk with God, 2nd ed. (GR: Baker, 2005), p. 57; emphasis original.

DID MARTIN LUTHER (THE PROTESTANT REFORMER) ENDORSE "BAR MUSIC" FOR THE CHURCH?

Of course he did.  It's a well-known fact.  Or, so I had presumed.  But it turns out that the "bar tunes" he endorsed aren't what we thought they were.  Here's an explanation from Philip Magness, a Lutheran in the "know" (via Gene Veith):

Myth: Luther used bar songs in his hymnody.  Ergo it’s permissible, even advantageous, to use popular forms of music in the church today. (Note: One of our esteemed editors recently visited the web site of a WELS congregation where the church’s CCM group justified its existence based on the “fact” that Luther used bar songs.)

 Truth: Luther did not use bar songs but rather his own creations and the musical heritage of the church catholic. The term bar refers to the type of staff notation used in medieval musical composing*. Luther did wed one sacred text to a popular tune**but later regretted this dalliance with love ballads. The relatively new academic discipline called Sentics has demonstrated that music can independently generate two very different reactions and emotions, termed Dionysian and Apollonian. The first is emotive and turns one inward. It is self-gratifying and clearly anthropocentric. The second, while not denying the emotional impact of music, maintains control and gives room for the intellectual processing of the truth of the text. In the first type, the music dominates the text. In the second, the music is in service to the text.  Christian Contemporary Music, a bad clone of popular music, is clearly Dionysian. Luther called Dionysian music “carnal” and he wrote his music to wean people away from the love ballads of his day.

And now let me add two comments:

RENTED AGITATORS CAN'T EXPLAIN THE SIGNS THEY ARE CARRYING

Kudos to Andrew Breitbart who waded into an anti-Glen Beck, anti Tea-party mob and challenged anyone to explain the meaning of the signs they were carrying.  No one could do it!   It turns out they were a union mob created by the DNC and Team Obama against Tea Partiers and top conservatives.  Read Jim Hoft's post and watch the video below. 

 

OOPS! PRESIDENT OBAMA FORGOT SOMETHING

Can you guess what?  Barack Obama dropped “that are endowed by our Creator” from the Declaration of Independence in a speech he gave this past week.

Was it just a slip?  A lot of commenters don't think so.

GOOD NEWS - MICHELLE BACHMANN UP 9 IN TARGETED HOUSE SEAT

Feisty, well-spoken, issues-oriented Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has emerged as a conservative hero in the House of Representatives.  It is great to hear that she is polling 9 points above her rival.  Ed Morrissey reports:

In each of the last three election cycles, Democrats have made the Minnesota 6th Congressional District a targeted race — especially so after Rep. Michele Bachmann became a nationally-known conservative activist. . . This year, though, a new Survey USA poll shows that Democrats have failed to mount a serious challenge. . .

Democrats want to take Bachmann out of the national mix and curtail her activism by nationalizing her elections.  Instead, she’s cruising to a convincing victory while helping other Republicans win in tough districts.

COMING SOON: GREAT AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE WOMEN CALENDAR

Doug Powers posts the notice on Michelle Malkin's blog: 

The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute will soon be releasing their “great American conservative women” calendar for 2011.  Recognize anyone?

Powers says, "It’ll make the perfect give for any conservative college student who’s rooming with a liberal and needs something with which to cover up his 'American Democrat Women' calendar."

SHOCKING! MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS BROUGHT ON MOSQUE FIELD TRIP – BOW TO ALLAH (Video)

"Shocking!" is truly the word for it.  "If you read or watch nothing else today," says Andrew C. McCarthy, "take the ten minutes needed to watch the video [below]."   McCarthy writes:

Here is the story. A sixth-grade class in Wellesley, Massachusetts, was dragged by their teachers to the notorious Roxbury mosque — the $15 million Saudi-funded, minareted Islamic center started by Abdurrahman Alamoudi (now serving a 23-year terrorism sentence) and run by the Muslim American Society (the quasi-official arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States). Capitalizing on the goo that passes for “social studied” curricula, parents were told the “field trip” was “to learn about the architecture of the mosque and observe a midday prayer service.” One parent was concerned enough to volunteer as a chaperone and bring along a camera.

The result is stunning: an unabashed exercise in Islamic dawa, the “call to Islam” and the manner by which the Brotherhood’s spiritual guide, Yusuf Qaradawi, promises that Islam will “conquer America” and “conquer Europe.” . .  As the video relates, “Dawa Net,” one Islamic organization that instructs on how to use the schools to inculcate the young, explains that public schools in America are “fertile grounds where the seeds of Islam can be sowed inside the hearts of non-Muslim students.

 

Americans for Peace and Tolerance, the outfit that released the video, elaborates:

[T]he video reveals that the students are being blatantly mis-educated about Islam. A mosque spokesperson is seen teaching the children that in Mohammed’s 7th century Arabia women were allowed to vote, while in America women only gained that right a hundred years ago. This seems to be an increasingly recurring theme in American schools – the denigration of western civilization and the glorification of Islamic history and values. In fact, just recently, the American Textbook Council revealed that the New York State high school regents exam whitewashes the atrocities that occurred during the imperialistic Islamic conquest of Christian Byzantium, Persia, the African continent, and the Indian subcontinent, even as it demonizes European colonialism in South America.

The mosque spokesperson also taught the students that the only meaning of Jihad in Islam is a personal spiritual struggle, and that Jihad has historically had no relationship with holy war. As far as we know, the school has not corrected these false lessons.

CHURCH COLSON - "AUTISM AND AGAPE"

- 9/20/10 - More from Colson on Emily, Max, and himself.  Read the original post below, then come back and click through to this additional word from Colson.  Both are well worth reading.

- Original post - I like Colson's reflections.  They ring true.  His daughter Emily has an autistic son, Max.  Colson claims to have learned much from her and his grandson.

. . . To be honest, I can be judgmental towards other people. A child crying on a plane for example, when I wanted to work, made me wonder what is wrong with the parents. The patience and generosity that enables us to understand the plight of others doesn’t come naturally to me—or to just about anyone else, for that matter.

To the extent that I have learned it, I have learned it from watching Emily and Max. Watching Emily, and other parents of children with special needs, has taught me what it means to love in the biblical sense of the word agape. 

OBAMA, "THE CONTROL FREAK," MUST BE RESISTED

I side with "Dr. Zero" who writes (excerpt):

Political control is what’s killing us.  It is expressed in hundreds of ways: high tax rates with carefully tailored exceptions, massive bailouts, laws rigged to favor government-controlled industries, restrictions on resource development, and a vast poppy field of subsidies and penalties.  The Democrats have added thousands of pages of fabulously expensive legislation since Obama took office.  Two messages echo through those pages: Obey and be rewarded.  Resist and be punished. . . .

Here’s the deal, Democrats: you don’t get any more billions to spend.  You don’t get to pick the next group of winners and losers in the free market.  You don’t get to decide who “deserves” a tax cut.  You don’t get to hand us the invoice for this bloated government and tell us we need to figure out a way to pay for it.  You don’t get to blame deficits on the people who haven’t surrendered enough of their livelihood to you.  You do not get to insist every piece of this government’s sprawling machinery is indispensible, while every slice of our lives is negotiable. . .  [more . . .]

WHY PORNO SHOPS DON'T HAVE WINDOWS

The following is from John Piper via Justin Taylor.  I am reposting Taylor's post.

From John Piper’s message Do You See the Glory of God in the Sun?  

Do you know why there are no windows on adult bookstores? Or do you know why there are no windows on certain kinds of nightclubs in the city?

I suppose your answer would be, “Well, because they don’t want people looking in and getting a free sight.”

That’s not the only reason.

You know why? Because they don’t want people looking out at the sky.

You know why? The sky is the enemy of lust.

And I just ask you—you think back on your struggles. The sky is a great power against lust.

Pure, lovely, wholesome, beautiful, powerful, large-hearted things cannot abide the soul of a sexual fantasy at the same time.

I remember as I struggled with these things in my teenaged years and in my college years —I knew how I could fight most effectively in those days. And I’ve developed other strategies over the years that have proved very effective. And one way of fighting was simply

 

HOW TEA PARTY ORGANIZES WITHOUT LEADERS

Jonathan Rauch has written a fascinating account.   Tea party activists utilize a truly radical decentralized approach to political organizing.  Rauch's article carries a short video explanation as well.  Excerpt:

From Washington's who's-in-charge-here perspective, the tea party model seems, to use Wildman's word, bizarre. Perplexed journalists keep looking for the movement's leaders, which is like asking to meet the boss of the Internet. Baffled politicians and lobbyists can't find anyone to negotiate with. "We can be hard to work with, because we're confusing," Meckler acknowledges. "We're constantly fighting against the traditional societal pressure to become a top-down organization." So why would anyone want to form this kind of group, or network, or hive, or starfish, or lava flow, or whatever it is?

AUDIO RECORDING OF C.S. LEWIS (HIS ACTUAL VOICE) INTRODUCING THE NOVELS OF CHARLES WILLIAMS

The recording lasts just shy of two minutes, but if you've never heard C. S. Lewis's voice, here's your opportunity.

 

UPDATE ON TURKEY CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT VOTE

Michael Rubin reports:  [See my earlier post, "Crunch Time in Turkey"]

"Cognitive Dissonance in Europe"

The European Union is welcoming the outcome of the referendum in Turkey in which voters endorsed Prime Minister Erdogan’s proposal to rework the judiciary, a proposal which, a senior court official has warned, threatens the independence of the courts. The breakdown of the vote, according to press reports, is interesting. More European-oriented cities (Izmir, European portions of Istanbul, etc.) voted against the referendum, while the referendum was overwhelmingly popular among Turkey’s more Middle Eastern constituencies. Before they cheerlead for the false dichotomy that Islamism equals democracy and secularism equals fascism, European Union officials should take some time to consider why those Turks who most embrace European values rejected the amendments.

WHY DOES FOX EMPLOY GERALDO RIVERA?

My guess is so FOX can claim a flaming liberal on its payroll.  And flaming liberal he is, complete with the trademark bias, put-downs, unfairness, false equivalences, and nastiness we've come to associate with  his ideological compatriots.  For  the above reasons, whenever his program comes on, my TV goes off.   Except last night. 

Pamela Geller had announced on her blog she would be on his program, and so I tuned in.  Geraldo's treatment of Geller was utterly disgusting.  I searched for an e-mail address to FOX to vent my disgust but couldn't find it.   Geller describes her experience below.  As a viewer, I can vouch for the truth of everything she says:

UPDATE: Geraldo Hit-Job Interview on YouTube

NEW YORK CITY FREEDOM RALLY DRAWS 40,000; MEDIA WON'T REPORT

From Pamela Geller:

Tens of thousands descended upon Ground Zero today to remember those we lost nine years ago, and to save the American principles of freedom that the sharia tramples.

Crickets are chirping in taqiya media newsrooms nationwide (although they were all there). There has been no coverage.

We organized a rally of remembrance that dwarfed the opposition. If the America haters had 4,000, we had ten times more. The media is playing the dueling rallies; it was no such thing.

Free people came from all over the country and all over the world to stand in solidarity with the 911 families and to declare our iron determination that no victory mosque will be built on their graves. The crowd was young and old, black and white ........ politics of all stripes. The crowd was beautiful. The crowd was proud and good and decent America. All the speakers were excellent. Rousing. . .   [more...]

Is the Dutch political figure, Geert Wilder's the Churchill of our time?  Excerpts from his speech at Gound Zero:

 

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW TRAINING: CHUCK COLSON'S "CENTURIONS" PROGRAM

Colson writes:

I have a burning passion—it’s the first item on my prayer list every day— and that’s to see a movement of Christians raised up from the churches to defend truth in the marketplace of ideas and to live out the gospel.  Nothing less than this kind of an awakening can possibly save our quickly deteriorating culture.

I DON'T REMEMBER WHEN I LAUGHED SO HARD

From an e-mail. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Wise words from Myron Augsburger, the former president of Eastern Mennonite Seminary:

"I believe in justice: but I am not a preacher of the gospel of justice, but the Gospel of Christ who  calls us to justice. I believe in love, but I am not a preacher of the gospel of love, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to love. I am committed to peace, but I am not a preacher of the gospel of peace, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to peace. I believe in the value of the simple life, but I am not the preacher of the simple life, but of the Gospel of Christ that calls us to the simple life. Let us beware of the ultimate plagiarism of borrowing some great concepts from Jesus then running off proclaiming these concepts and not sharing the Christ that empowers these concepts."

CRUNCH TIME IN TURKEY

I don't suppose many people who read this blog pay much attention to what is happening in Turkey, but ominous events continue to unfold in that country.  Not only is an important referendum on constitutional amendments to be held Sept. 12th (offering the increasingly Islamist government an opportunity to tighten its noose), but the U.S. is about to sell Turkey it's most advanced aircraft without anyone in Washington even raising questions.  It's extraordinarily dispiriting to witness a great nation (the U.S.), playing tiddly-winks and failing to mind the store.  Michael Rubin has the story.

In perhaps the biggest international story receiving no attention in Washington, there will be on September 12 a referendum in Turkey on new constitutional amendments that

JONAH GOLDBERG - THE MARVEL OF FREE ENTERPRISE (OR, PUT DIFFERENTLY, WHY CENTRAL PLANNING NEVER WORKS)

Jonah Goldberg's article, "I, Market Economy," provides a succinct and devastatingly brilliant reminder of why central planning always spells disaster (yes, always!), and why a market economy, which at first glance looks so inefficent, actually functions marvelously.  I love Goldberg's retelling the story of the lowly pencil, and also his emphasizing that a market economy is "the greatest communal enterprise ever undertaken in the history of humanity."  Goldberg writes:

. . . In 1958, Leonard Read wrote one of the most famous essays in the history of libertarianism, “I, Pencil.” It begins, “I am a lead pencil — the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write.” It is one of the most simple objects in human civilization. And yet, “not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me.”

The pencil tells the story of its own creation. The wood comes from Oregon, or perhaps California. The lead, which is really graphite, is mined in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The eraser, which is not rubber but something called “factice,” is “made by reacting rape-seed oil from the Dutch East Indies with sulfur chloride.”

To make a long story short, the simple act of collecting and combining the ingredients of a pencil involves the cooperation of thousands of experts in dozens of fields, from engineering and mining to chemistry and commodity trading. I suppose it’s possible for

ON THE EVE OF ROSH HASHANA CAROLINE GLICK EXPLAINS HER UNDERSTANDING OF THE "JEWISH CREED"

I wrote earlier of Caroline Glick's understanding of the "American Creed," a way of referring to American exceptionalism.  She piggy-backs on those comments to speak of Jewish exceptionalism and her understanding of the "Jewish creed."  New to me was her statement:

As for Judaism, it is flourishing in Israel today as it never has at any time in the past two thousand years. The Jewish people emerged from the brink of annihilation 65 years ago to build a Jewish state whose population is more learned in Jewish law than any Jewish community has ever been. More Jews study in institutions of Jewish learning in Israel than have studied at any time in our history. And even non-observant Jews live Jewish lives in Israel to a degree their families could never have enjoyed or imagine just four generations ago.  [my emphases]

I think of Israel as primarily a secular state, to a large degree distancing itself from its religious past.  Apparently I need to revise my thinking.

Earlier in the article she wrote:

The Jewish creed is predicated on the dual destiny of the Jews: to be both a nation that dwells alone and a light to the nations. 

God bestowed the Jews with three tools to achieve these twin, and seemingly contradictory missions. He gave us the Law of Israel. He gave us the Nation of Israel. And he gave us the Land of Israel. 

The law of Israel, the Torah, is the human path to righteousness and holiness. By obeying the laws and recognizing the frailty of mankind as a collective, the Jews comprise a distinct nation that is a blessing and an inspiration to the world. 

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND "THE AMERICAN CREED"

Caroline Click asserts that Glenn Beck's "Restore Honor" Washington gathering was really a rally to restore the "American Creed."   "The American Creed," she says,

has two main components. First, its core belief is that America is an exceptional country and that the American people are an exceptional nation. Second, it asserts that as Abraham Lincoln first said outright, America is the last, best hope for mankind.

She states further,

The reason Beck's rally was a watershed event is that in the Age of Obama, millions of Americans for the first time feel the need to reclaim what they believe is their birthright as Americans. Because what distinguishes Obama from his predecessors is that he is the first American President who clearly rejects the American creed.  [emphasis added]

Is Glick right?  Does Obama reject the "American Creed" as she defines it?  Yes.  As Glick points out:

This basic truth was first brought to the public's attention during Obama's visit to Turkey last year. A reporter there asked him, "[Do] you subscribe, as many of your predecessors have, to the school of 'American exceptionalism' that sees America as

EUROPE'S SELF-HATRED

Europe's self-hatred explains why it stands passive and stupefied in the face of militant Islam.  While that is not the focus of Mona Charen's article, it is an easy inference.  Charen refers to an article by Pascal Bruckner, "Europe's Guilty Conscience: Self-Hatred is Paralyzing the Continent."  She writes:

“Europe sees its history as a series of murders and depredations that culminated in two global conflicts,” he writes. Europe, according to Pascal, has since World War II been “tormented by a  need to repent. . . . Those born after World War II are endowed with the certainty of belonging to the dregs of humanity, an execrable civilization that has dominated and pillaged most of the world for centuries in the name of the superiority of the white man.”

Do Europeans have reason to be remorseful? While denying that guilt can be transmitted from generation to generation — “As there is no hereditary transmission of victim status, so there is no transmission of oppressor status” — Bruckner acknowledges that European history is pockmarked with crimes: slavery, feudal oppression, colonialism, fascism, and Communism.

But then, which continent’s civilization is not? Even colonialism, the marquee European crime, is hardly a European monopoly, far less a European innovation. The Romans, Persians, Mongols, Egyptians, Turks, Inca, Japanese, Arabs, Sosso, Chinese, and Sioux, among countless others, have conquered and dominated other peoples. Conquest and exploitation are the rule in human history rather than the exception.

Bruckner suggests that Europeans have lost sight of that perspective and wallow in their own self-disgust. “We now live on self-denunciation, as if permanently indebted to the poor, the destitute, to immigrants — as if our only duty were expiation, endless expiation, restoring without

WHAT IS LOVE?

Justin Taylor offers a Biblical perspective:

What Is Love?

God and Love

God is love.

Love is a gift of God.

What Love Is

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

What Love Is Not

Love is not arrogant.

Love is not rude.

Love is not irritable.

Love is not resentful.

What Love Does Not Do

Love does not envy.

Love does not boast.

Love does not insist on its own way.

Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing.

What Loves Does

Love rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things.

Love believes all things.

Love hopes all things.

Love endures all things.

Love lasts forever.

Love fulfills the law.

{1 John 4:7-8; 1 Cor. 13:4-8; Rom. 13:10}

RIFQA BARY GAINS PERMANENT RESIDENCY IN THE U.S.

News item here.   Good news!! 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A lawyer for a runaway Christian convert from Ohio who was also an  illegal immigrant says the 18-year-old woman has gained permanent residency in the United States.

Kort Gatterdam, a lawyer for Rifqa Bary, said Tuesday the news means Bary can now start applying for a driver's license, Medicaid coverage and college scholarships.

Gatterdam says Bary, a native of Sri Lanka, received her permanent residency card last week and can apply for citizenship in five years.

Bary had sought the green card as she argued in court she could not reunite with her Muslim parents, whom she alleged threatened her with harm for converting.

Bary also sought legal residency to achieve health coverage as she battles uterine cancer.

DAVID PLATT - MATERIAL WEALTH AND JESUS' KINGDOM REASSESSED

David Brooks reflects on David Platt's hot-selling book, “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream.”  (HT: Between Two Worlds)   Brooks writes:

. . .  Platt earned two master’s degrees and a doctorate from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. At age 26, he was hired to lead a 4,300-person suburban church in Birmingham, Ala., and became known as the youngest megachurch leader in America.

Platt grew uneasy with the role he had fallen into and wrote about it in a recent book called “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream.” It encapsulates many of the themes that have been floating around 20-something evangelical circles the past several years.

Platt’s first target is the megachurch itself. Americans have built themselves multimillion-dollar worship palaces, he argues. These have become like corporations, competing for market share by offering social centers, child-care programs, first-class entertainment and comfortable, consumer Christianity.

Jesus, Platt notes, made it hard on his followers. He created a minichurch, not a mega one. Today, however, building budgets dwarf charitable budgets, and Jesus is portrayed as a genial suburban dude. “When we gather in our church building to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshipping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead, we maybe worshipping ourselves.”

VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES

I confess I am, by and large, an "ignorant adult" concerning violent video games.  Phyllis Schafly remedied my ignorance.  Her extremely important article offers descriptions.  Ultra vile.  Only the sickest of sick societies would countenance the sale of these video games to children (or anyone else).  She urges us to get our State Attorneys General to weigh in with amicus brief cases in support of a Supreme Court case coming up soon.  Excerpt:

Extremely violent and addictive video games are polluting the minds of an entire generation of children, and most parents are clueless. Young players earn game points based on how many murders they commit, with increasingly realistic bloodshed splattered around for teenagers and pre-teens to learn to enjoy.

These highly disturbing video games encourage players to shoot innocent bystanders to win points and to commit acts like using shovels to decapitate people so dogs can then fetch their chopped-off heads. If you find that shocking to read, just imagine how much more shocking it is for a 7-year-old to see it acted out in gory graphics and to win points for committing such crimes.

Other scenes include having sex with prostitutes and then killing them or committing heinous acts of terrorism. These deadly role-playing games not only desensitize and reward players for acts of extreme violence, but are highly addictive.

LONDONDERRY AIR - "I CANNOT TELL . . ."

Biblical scholar Christopher J.H. Wright regards "The Londonderry Air" the "most hauntingly beautiful melody" in the world.  Being an Irishman, he admits to possible bias, but few would argue strenuously against him.   I have posted below the congregation of St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast singing "I Cannot Tell" (a hymn set to "Londonderry Air).  Click the "continue reading" button for moving renditions of "Danny Boy" by Judith Durham, one of my favorite vocalists.  Also included are words to several hymns set to the "Londonderry Air" melody.

MUSIC BEATS COUNSELING IN TREATING MILD DEPRESSION

At least a certain type of music.  As for example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  In Eric Felten's article, "Why Dictators Hate to See Us Moved by Music," there appears this extraordinary paragraph:

There's no doubt that music affects us—perhaps in surprising ways. A new study published in a journal called The Arts in Psychotherapy tested which was more effective in treating mild depression, reclining on a sofa talking to a psychiatrist or simply listening to Bach, Corelli and Mozart. Few of the patients involved (who were drawn from a clinic in Oaxaca, Mexico) were initially interested in spending any time with old Wolfgang Amadeus, but in the end they not only came to enjoy the experience, but benefited from it. The overwhelming majority of the patients listening to classical music reported feeling better two months into the therapy. Not even half of those getting traditional tell-me-about-that psychotherapy saw any improvement.

He says further:

SEN. JIM DeMINT (R-SC) - A CONSERVATIVE'S CONSERVATIVE

As I mentioned earlier, I accidentaly lost a number of previously published blog posts last night.  One of the posts featured Sen. Jim DeMint.  I found the article I had linked to originally.  It will be worth referring to in the days ahead.  New material:  Will Cain and Jim Geraghty discuss DeMint's amazing primary batting average in the Republican primaries:

C. S. LEWIS - RESPONSE TO AN INQUIRY ON MASTURBATION

This is another of the "lost posts" accidentally deleted yesterday.  It's not the same post, which vanished into cyberspace, but the Lewis quote is the same.  In a sex saturated society, it's useful to sample the thought of C.S. Lewis, one of the wisest of men, who is worth consulting on most any subject.  (See his book, The Four Loves, and the chapters "Sexual Morality" and "Christian Marriage" in Mere Christianity).  In answer to an in quiry on masturbation, Lewis writes:

"For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back; sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides.  And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman.  For the harem is always

THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY OF THE YMCA

The YMCA is now calling itself the "Y".  This triggered John Murray's reflections in Wall Street Journal: (excerpt)

And herein lies the challenge that began when the YMCA moved away from its evangelical mission in the 1930s and continues today—what to do with the C in the YMCA. Speaking to the national council of the YMCA in the 1970s, evangelist Billy Graham said that to change society was to "change men's hearts first." Take, for example, the conversion experience of Cornell student and future Nobel Peace Prize winner John Mott. . .

In his book "The Soul of the American University," Notre Dame professor George Marsden demonstrates the impact of the YMCA in an era when more than 3,000 of the American missionaries who went aboard from 1899-1915 were products of the YMCAs and YWCAs. "By 1921, the YMCAs reached their numerical peak with 731 chapters on the approximately 1,000 [college] campuses in the country; they had enrolled well over 90,000 members, or about one in seven, in a student population of about 600,000."

KIDS

From an e-mail:

More photos follow . . .

THE SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW - SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

Herewith the latest selection of articles from sources far and wide collated by the Family Research Council.  Themes include educational freedom, environmental issues, faith and policy, health care, homosexuality in the military, judiciary, family economics, marriage and family, religious liberty, and sanctity of human life.  Previous collections of articles can be found here.

CAUSE FOR LAMENTATION - BLOG POSTS VAPORIZED

Last night several days' worth (nearly a week) of  blog posts were accidentally deleted from my blog.  It will likely be impossible to recover or reconstitute them.  I  am stunned and saddened by this loss.   My blog posts represent a good deal of work, and because they generally offer comment on events or ideas deemed significant enough to elicit a notice, I truly do feel this loss greatly. 

Thank you for your interest in this blog. I am encouraged by what seems a growing readership.