Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Ryan T. Anderson on “True Marriage Equality: Man and Woman”

This evening I listened to Ryan Anderson's outstanding lecture on marriage.  Just as the pro-life movement had to counter the pro-abortion movement with cogent argumentation with the result that young people today are more pro-life than their parents, so the hard work of rebuilding the social and  moral foundations of our country must continue with regard to marriage.  Ryan Anderson's clear-headed analysis and arguments constitute the place to begin.

The following talk was given recently at Union University.  The lecture begins around the 7:15 mark.

Justin Taylor writes:

Here is his argument in a nutshell:

Marriage is based on:

• the truth that men and women are complementary,
• the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and
• the reality that children need a mother and a father.

Redefining marriage does not simply expand the existing understanding of marriage; it rejects these truths.

Marriage is society’s least restrictive means of ensuring the well-being of children.

By encouraging the norms of marriage—monogamy, sexual exclusivity, and permanence—the state strengthens civil society and reduces its own role.

The future of this country depends on the future of marriage.

The future of marriage depends on citizens understanding what it is and why it matters and demanding that government policies support, not undermine, true marriage.

To see these arguments in written form, see Anderson’s essays on Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It, and The Supreme Court and the Future of Marriage, and The Social Costs of Abandoning the Meaning of Marriage.

Syrian Jihadists Are Forcing Christians to Become Dhimmis Under Seventh-Century Rules

Nina Shea,  director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, reports:

The religious persecution in Syria deepened this week, as evidenced by a written ultimatum purportedly distributed by the rebel jihadist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) to Christians in the northern provincial capital of Raqqa. Rejecting conversion to Islam or death, some 20 Christian leaders of that city held firm in their faith and submitted to the Islamists’ demands to live by as dhimmis.

Under this arrangement, in exchange for their lives and the ability to worship as Christians, they must abide by purported seventh-century rules of the Caliph Umar. According to the Raqqa ultimatum, these include bans on renovating and rebuilding churches and monasteries, many of which need repair because they’ve been shelled and blown up over the past three years, and bans against the public display of crosses and Christian symbols and the ringing of bells. They are forbidden from reading scripture indoors loud enough for Muslims outside to hear, and the practice of their faith must be confined within the walls of their remaining churches, not exercised publicly (at, for example, funeral or wedding processions).

They are prohibited from saying anything offensive about Muslims or Islam. The women must be enshrouded, and alcohol is banned.

And the Raqqa Christians, who numbered about 3,000 before the conflict diminished them through migration and deaths, must henceforth pay the jizya, or Islamic protection money. The ultimatum sets the jizya at four golden dinars for the rich, two for those of average income, and one for the poor, twice annually, for each adult Christian.  [more . . .]

QUIN HILYER - "ENOUGH WITH GAY MANIA"

Quin Hilyer published a fantastic column for National Review today.  His piece carries the subtitle, "How about a little old-Fashioned privacy for all stripes?"  It's MUST READING! 

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/371799/enough-gay-mania-quin-hillyer

LIVE STREAMING: RAVI ZACHARIAS AND DENNIS PRAGER DISCUSS "DOES GOD STILL MATTER? FINDING YOUR MORAL FOOTING IN THE QUICKSAND OF SECULARISM"

Note:  The dialog begins 7:00 PM Pacific Standard Time which means 10:00 PM in the Eastern United States. 

Ravi Zacharias announces:

On Saturday, February 22nd at 7:00 pm PST, nationally-syndicated radio show host Dennis Prager (www.dennisprager.com) and world-renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org) will appear on stage together again — this time at Biola University in Los Angeles.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE STREAM

(You will be taken to Biola’s website for the stream)   The evening will be hosted by famed radio show host Frank Sontag of Los Angeles’ KKLA 99.5 FM.

From the event's description:

We live in trying times. Those of us who take belief in the God of the Bible seriously feel burdened by the problems that arise in our increasingly secular society. People are abandoning truth, Western culture is failing, and the lines between right and wrong are becoming irrevocably blurred.

The goal of this event is to allow two prominent voices in the public square – one Jewish (Prager), and one evangelical Christian (Ravi) – to engage in an open, honest and entertaining dialogue about these challenges we face as a nation and civilization. This is about asking and answering tough questions in a God-honoring and purposeful way.

REPUBLICAN JEWS DEEPLY DISTURBED BY OBAMA'S APPOINTMENT OF ROBERT MALLEY AS A SENIOR DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

From the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC):

Washington, D.C. (February 19, 2014) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) today responded to the announcement that President Obama has appointed Robert Malley to serve as a senior director of the National Security Council, a powerful post inside the White House. 
 
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks stated: 
 
"We are profoundly disappointed to see Robert Malley return to a senior role in Mideast policy making. His record on regional issues is deeply troubling. 
 
"In 2001, after participating in the Camp David talks as a member of the Clinton foreign policy team, Malley wrote an article in the New York Review of Books that blamed Israel, rather than Yasser Arafat, for the failure of those negotiations. In 2008, Barack Obama severed ties with Malley, then an informal advisor to his presidential campaign, after it was revealed that Malley had met with Hamas terrorists. 
 
"In his second term, Obama has brought back a number of former campaign advisors, who had been put aside for holding unpalatable views in an election year. Malley is the latest and perhaps most disturbing of these. His appointment demonstrates that Pres. Obama was never as in sync with mainstream pro-Israel and Jewish community positions as he pretended to be during his campaigns. 
 
"With the stakes so high, Jewish Americans have more reason than ever to be alarmed by Obama's personnel choices and the signals they send about the direction of foreign policy - especially with regard to the Middle East and our traditional allies there."

Note: The RJC is the national grassroots organization of Jewish Republicans.  Learn more at www.RJCHQ.org.

QUICK TAKES

Christian Athletes to Watch at the Olympics

A Leftist Lesbian Professor becomes a Follower of Christ

Through Dreams, Investigations, and Visions a Muslim Doctor becomes a follower of Jesus

Muslims becoming Jesus followers in unprecedented numbers

"BRAVE GERMAN WOMAN" DECLARES "JESUS CHRIST ALONE IS LORD OF GERMANY" IN AN INTERFAITH GERMAN CONCERT (VIDEO)

Dale Hurd of CBN News reports:

SPEYER, Germany -- Islam continues to grow in power and influence across Europe. But at a recent concert in Germany, one Christian woman decided to stand up to it.

"The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace" by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins was supposed to be an interfaith event to bring Christianity and Islam together.

But when the Muslim imam began his call to prayer during the concert, he was interrupted by a small woman in the balcony proclaiming that "Jesus Christ alone is Lord of Germany," and shouting, "I break this curse."

She also invoked the name of Martin Luther and warned the audience that what was happening was "a lie." 

The video went viral.

 

Hurd again:

Brave German Woman'

The mysterious Christian lady became known on the Internet simply as the "brave German woman."

It happened on Nov. 10, 2013 at the Memorial Church of the Reformation in the Rhineland city of Speyer, built to honor Martin Luther.

It isn't just any church. It's a monument to the Protestant Reformation and a memorial to the spiritual transformation of Germany.

It was at this spiritual landmark that a Muslim imam was invited to give the call to prayer. When the brave German woman, whose real name is Heidi Mund, heard about the event, she prayed.

"I was asking Jesus, 'Lord, shall I go there?' So, when I have to drive one and half hours, you know, I think, 'Is it worth it to go or can others go?' So, this is human laziness, yeah?" Mund recalled.

She grabbed her German flag emblazoned with the words "Jesus Christ is Lord" and headed for the concert, still not sure what she would do when she got there.

THE KEN HAM - BILL NYE DEBATE ON "IS CREATION A VIABLE MODEL OF ORIGINS IN TODAY'S MODERN SCIENTIFIC ERA?"

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and founder of the Creation Museum and Bill Nye "The Science Guy" debated each other Tuesday night, Feb. 4th.   The debate remains available for viewing here and here.

I confess I am one of those who cringe at the 6,000 year old-earth position Ken Ham defends.   The debate came off better than I had feared, but I still lament that many uninformed viewers will conclude that anyone who believes in the authority of the Bible must reject the scientific evidence that contends for an old earth.  Interestingly, Pat Robertson stated on the 700 club that he holds to an old-earth position as well.

Ham's post-debate reflections are available here.  Nye reflects here.

Dr. Albert Mohler, a young-earth adherent and President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary offers his reflections here.

Those associated with the BioLogos Forum which adheres to a theistic evolution perspective (renamed "evolutionary creation)," published their perspective here.

Casey Luskin of the Intelligent Design movement wasn't happy.  He titled his response, "The Ham-Nye Creation Debate: A Huge Missed Opportunity.   Michael J. Behe, a biology professor at Lehigh University and an advocate of Intelligent Design said, "I was upset that both the parties kept talking on about the age of the Earth than on the elegance and complexities of life."  David Klingfellow, another ID adherent and an orthodox Jew, offers a substitute debate more to his liking, that of Stephen Meyer vs. Charles Marshall.   That debate is on Intelligent Design and the explosion of life.  

Wintery Knight likewise preferred steering people to debates with which he is more comfortable, namely a debate between young earth scientist Jason Lisle and old earth astronomer Hugh Ross.  He also recommends the Stephen C. Meyer vs. Keith Fox debate on intelligent design and evolution as well as the Michael Behe-Keith Fox debate.  Speaking of Hugh Ross, his organization, Reasons to Believe, published RTB's  general perspective on debates without commenting specifically on the Nye-Ham debate.

I was struck by evolutionist Michael Shermer's tweet - "People of all faiths and no faiths accept Big Bang cosmology because of evidence, but no non-Christians accept young earth creationism."  I suspect that is true.   Shermer coached Nye before the debate.

Respondents to the U.K. Christian Magazine gave the debate to Nye.

In terms of who "won" the debate, the audience of Britain's Christian Today website says it was Nye, hands down. With 42,567 responses, the site's online poll finds Nye with 92 percent support, compared with 8 percent for Ham. An option for "neither" is not provided in the poll, which is still taking votes

On the general matter of "evidence" vs. "the Bible" the key issue revolves around interpretation of both science and the Bible. In my judgment, Dr. John C. Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, has provided excellent help in his book, Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science.  Dr. Lennox gave the following talk on January 31, 2013 at New York's gathering of Socrates in the City.   A  talk Lennox gave of a similar nature is summarized here and critiqued from a young-earth perspective here.  It should be noted that although Lennox believes in an "old earth,"  he rejects theistic evolution and believes man a special creation of God.  

  

I have blogged previously of John Lennox's visit to Yale.  Lennox has debated Princeton ethicist Dr. Peter Singer and Oxford's evolution propagandist Dr. Richard Dawkins among others.  Lennox is the author of the following books:

CALIFORNIA DROUGHT AS SEEN FROM OUTER SPACE

Brian Resnick reports:

What's missing in the photo on the right? Snow. And perhaps a bit of greenery.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released that photo to illustrate what a year of drought conditions (which have intensified recently) have wrought on the landscape. The amount of snow in California's Sierra region is between 4 percent and 22 percent of normal. And a change that drastic is easily seen from space.

ot's possibly the worst drought California has experienced in 500 years. Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency. Some rural areas may run out of water entirely in the next four months if conditions don't improve. California's State Water Project, an agency that redistributes water from the snowy mountains in the north to the drier south, has announced it cannot deliver water to many communities in the coming months.  [more . . .]

ISRAELI RABBIS THREATEN JOHN KERRY WITH "DIVINE WRATH"

Noteworthy:  Israeli rabbis draw on Jewish history to warn Kerry.

"If you continue on this destructive path, you will ensure your everlasting disgrace in Jewish history for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people – like Nebuchadnezer and Titus who destroyed, respectively, the first and second great Temples and the entire Holy City of Jerusalem, and who, by Heavenly punishment, brought eventual disaster upon themselves, too."

Truth Revolt reports:  

According to IsraelNationalNews.com (INN), a group called rabbis from the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel penned an open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry calling for an end to his "antagonism" against Israel.

INN reports that the criticisms in the letter stem from Kerry's efforts to "hand over" Israel to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as well as his threatened global boycott of the Jewish state if peace talks fail. The letter contends that Kerry's plans would result in tens of thousands of Jews being displaced from their homes, something the rabbis equate to "war on God."

Here are excerpts from the rabbis letter as reported by INN:

Your incessant efforts to expropriate integral parts of our Holy Land and hand them over to Abbas’s terrorist gang, amount to a declaration of war against the Creator and Ruler of the universe. For G-d awarded the entire Land of Israel to our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in order that they bequeath it, as an everlasting inheritance, to their descendants, the Jewish people, until the end of all time.

If you continue on this destructive path, you will ensure your everlasting disgrace in Jewish history for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people – like Nebuchadnezer and Titus who destroyed, respectively, the first and second great Temples and the entire Holy City of Jerusalem, and who, by Heavenly punishment, brought eventual disaster upon themselves, too.

By the power of our Holy Torah, we admonish you to cease immediately all efforts to achieve these disastrous agreements – in order to avoid severe Heavenly punishment for everyone involved.

LITERATE, STABLE "MAJORITY WORLD" DEMOCRACIES LINKED TO EARLY MISSIONARY INFLUENCE

John Stonestreet reports "The Truth About Missionaries."  He says:   Download

For the last several generations, missionaries have gotten a lot of bad press. They’re called cultural imperialists or tools of colonial oppression, and in the pages of books such as “The Poisonwood Bible,” or, for an earlier generation, James Michener’s “Hawaii,” they’re presented as paternalistic, ignorant enemies of glorious indigenous cultures.

Even many supporters of so-called “native missionaries” in Asia, Africa, and Latin America suggest that Western missionaries should just “stay home” and “let the nationals do it.” But a funny thing happened on the way to missionary irrelevance: Ground-breaking, peer-reviewed research reveals that the presence of Protestant missionaries is the greatest predictor of whether a nation develops into a stable representative democracy with robust levels of literacy, political freedom, and women’s rights.  [my emphases]

Yes, you heard that right, and you can read all about it in a fascinating and important cover story in the latest issue of Christianity Today. It describes the painstaking work of Robert Woodberry, whose work on the global spread of democracy has turned scholarship on its head.

Woodberry discovered that you can trace a direct link between the presence of 19^th-century Protestant missionaries and a country’s economic and social development.

Why, for instance, does a seminary in the West African nation of Togo have almost no books for its students, while in neighboring Ghana the schools are full of reading material, including much that is written locally? As summarized by CT author Andrea Palpant Dilley, “British missionaries in Ghana had established a whole system of schools and printing presses. But France, the colonial power in Togo, severely restricted missionaries.”

BILL O'REILLY INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA (VIDEO)

Both unedited segments can be found here.

THE END OF PRIVACY

Drudge links to this story: New App Allows Strangers to ID You Just by Looking at You.

A new app will allow total strangers to ID you and pull up all your information, just by looking at you and scanning your face with their Google Glass. The app is called NameTag and it sounds CREEPY.

The "real-time facial recognition" software "can detect a face using the Google Glass camera, send it wirelessly to a server, compare it to millions of records, and in seconds return a match complete with a name, additional photos and social media profiles."  [more. . .]

THE NEW YORK TIMES CALLS ABORTION "THE EVIL OF THE AGE" -- BACK IN 1871

Eric Metaxas reports:

Listen Now | Download

It’s time for another BreakPoint pop quiz: name the major American newspaper that ran an expose on what goes on in abortion mills entitled “The Evil of the Age.”

Give up? The answer is the New York Times.

No, you haven’t missed anything: the expose ran in the paper’s August 23, 1871 edition.

The story, which is recounted in Cait Murphy’s book about New York in the Gilded Age, “Scoundrels in Law,” is, to use the old sixties phrase, mind-blowing.

As Murphy tells us, while all abortions had been illegal in New York since 1869, not only were both abortifacients and surgical abortions readily available, abortionists openly advertised their services.

One notorious abortionist, an English immigrant who went by the name of “Madame Restell,” made so much money that she built a mansion on Fifth Avenue!  And not just any mansion, but one of the grandest of them all: even the servants’ quarters were “lined with mahogany” and furnished with Imported carpets.

Continue reading...

IN CALIFORNIA, ENVIRONMENTALISTS VALUE A TINY FISH OVER HUMAN BEINGS

The Family Research Council offers an account of an amazing story of liberals acting breathtakingly stupid. 

California's Central Valley is known as "the salad bowl of the world" -- but that salad's about to get tossed, if the Left doesn't stop angling for special fish protections. Under some of the worst drought conditions the region's ever seen, communities may be 60 days away from running out of water altogether. While people panic, especially farmers of the rich asparagus, broccoli, onion, tomato, lettuce, and garlic crops, liberals are fighting the push to divert millions of gallons of water away from an endangered fish habitat to parched locals.

"Without water, we can't work," said the head of Harris Farms. "It's not healthy. Without knowing how much water we're going to get, it's so difficult to plan!" If a pistachio tree takes five to seven years to grow, "how can we plant one now if we can't guarantee we can water it in a couple of years?" Yesterday, recognizing the desperate situation of farmers and families, the House debated a bill that would roll back the area's environmental protections long enough to save the harvest. But fishing for liberals' support was tough, especially in a party willing to leave families thirsty for the sake of a three-inch fish called the delta smelt.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON - "OBAMA'S GLOBAL FANTASIES ARE FALLING TO EARTH ALONG WITH HIM"

VDH, awake to what is happening in the world, writes powerfully and persuasively on how dangerous the world has become due to Obama's unbelievably inept foreign policy.   If it were just Obama, as Icarus, who fell to earth, it would be one thing.  But Obama is creating-- or at least allowing - looming catastrophy to hang over the entire world.  Read the article.

COULTER: MY FRIEND'S SISTER DIED BECAUSE OF OBAMACARE

 

Andrew Johnson summarizes Coulter's comments:

Over the weekend, Ann Coulter outlined what she considered a “real-world consequence” of Obamacare by sharing a personal anecdote. Recently, one of her friend’s sisters died after not seeking treatment for a fever because had lost her health insurance.

After her provider pulled out of her state due to the health-care law, she held off getting her ailment checked out until she went in to septic shock last Thursday. On Saturday, Coulter learned that she had died. “I got up to my hotel room after the speech and my friend sent me an e-mail saying, ‘My sister died from Obamacare,’” Coulter said on Fox & Friends.

“We knew this would happen,” she continued, adding that her friend encouraged her to tell the story of her sister. ”It’s a horrible story and people need to know about these stories.”

WHAT IS THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL?

Daniel Pipes has a post titled, "The Media Like Pretending Tel Aviv is the Capital of Israel."  Pipes writes:

Some, especially in the mainstream media, pretend that not Tel Aviv, rather than Jerusalem, serves as the capital of Israel. (Tel Aviv hosts the Ministry of Defense but not much else of the central government.) This parallels a tendency lately to pretend there’s a country called Palestine. Some of those delusions, which are appearing more often, in reverse chronological order:

Agence France Press: An article on January 23, “Israel PM urges European ‘fairness’ in Mideast,” states that four European Union states lodged “a formal protest against Tel Aviv’s drive to expand settlements on the West Bank.” (January 26, 2014)

The New York Times: A front-page headline today over a story by Mark Landler and Jodi Rudoren uses “Tel Aviv” as a synonym for Israel’s capital: “Mideast Chaos Grows as U.S. Focuses on Israel—Kerry’s Tel Aviv Push Raises Questions About Priorities.” (July 2, 2013)

CTV, a Canadian television station: The network reported on January 8 that “Tel Aviv is dealing with a heavy rain situation. The storms flooded roads and brought chaos to the Israeli capital.” (January 17, 2013)

BBC: A tweet from the news organization today announced that “#Gaza militants launch missiles at Tel Aviv in First rocket attack on Israeli capital since 1991 Gulf War bbc.in/QJkWK9” (November 15, 2012)

After the best original song nomination for "Alone Yet Not Alone" was rescinded, "Schindler's List" producer Gerald Molen rips the Academy for "faith-based bigotry" (VIDEO)

Here is a sequence of stories over Joni Eareckson Tada's singing "Alone Yet Not Alone" in a movie of the same name:

-- Joni Eareckson Tada  is surprised and delighted at the song's nomination

-- Academy strips "Along Yet Not Alone" of its Oscar nomination

-- Oscar winner pens letter accusing Academy of Christian "bigotry" in song flap

Joni Eareckson Tada, in the first link above, makes the following inspiring statement:

What message do you want to leave with the song’s listeners?

Years ago I wrote a mission statement for my life, and the mission statement is simply “I want to be God’s best audio-visual aid of how His power shows up best in weakness.” And, I see this opportunity as just another example of God answering that mission statement. God seems to delight in taking the ill-equipped, untrained, unskilled, and unprofessional and placing them to do a job so that the whole world would know that God is God. And, if people watch that video link [see above], that’s the message I hope they’ll get.

ERIC METAXAS TELLS THE STORY OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER (VIDEO)

Metaxas, author of the best-selling book, Bonhoeffer, addressed an Anglican gathering in Charleston, SC in January 2013 on the subject of Bonhoeffer.   Reviewing the book, Wall Street Journal  stated:

''In Hitler's Germany, a Lutheran pastor chooses resistance and pays with his life. . . Eric Metaxas tells Bonhoeffer's story with passion and theological sophistication, often challenging revisionist accounts that make Bonhoeffer out to be a 'humanist' or ethicist for whom religious doctrine was easily disposable. . .