Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

TIM KELLER - HOW TO PREACH

Tim Keller is one of the most successful pastors preaching in the world today.  He preaches to 5,000 people every week at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  Here in the 4th of a series of talks to seminary students, he talks about the need to "preach to the heart."  He expounds five points: one must preach affectionately, imaginatively, practically, wondrously and Christocentrically.  I'm not a preacher but I found his talk informative and arresting.

 

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Lecture 3

BARRONELLE STUTZMAN - WASHINGTON FLORIST FIGHTS FOR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE IN DECLINING A GAY WEDDING JOB

-- The Kelly file offers important and insightful coverage, including a personal interview with Barronelle Stutzman.  Video coverage (five minutes) here.

The Blaze offers the following:

 

Barronelle hires gay employees and serves gay customers but cannot in good conscience participate as a florist in a gay wedding.  So she is suffering the hate of the bigots and the might of the Washington State Attorney General who is going after her in a personal way.  Story here ..  

- - Andrew Walker published an article in First Things ("Stand with Barronelle Stutzman") and  writes:

   "In the ongoing cultural disputes that pit a person’s sexual “identity” against a person’s religious liberty, it’s not often that you see eye-popping courage and conviction. This is just what was on display last week when florist Barronelle Stutzman wrote a letter to Washington State’s Attorney General, stating her intent to not settle a discrimination lawsuit filed against her for refusing to lend her creative talents and services to a same-sex ceremony. Her brief letter is worthquoting in full:

Dear Mr. Ferguson,

Thank you for reaching out and making an offer to settle your case against me.

As you may imagine, it has been mentally and emotionally exhausting to be at the center of this controversy for nearly two years. I never imagined that using my God-given talents and abilities, and doing what I love to do for over three decades, would become illegal. Our state would be a better place if we respected each other’s differences, and our leaders protected the freedom to have those differences. Since 2012, same-sex couples all over the state have been free to act on their beliefs about marriage, but because I follow the Bible’s teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, I am no longer free to act on my beliefs.

Your offer reveals that you don’t really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It’s about freedom, not money. I certainly don’t relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important. Washington’s constitution guarantees us “freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment.” I cannot sell that precious freedom. You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do.

I pray that you reconsider your position. I kindly served Rob for nearly a decade and would gladly continue to do so. I truly want the best for my friend. I’ve also employed and served many members of the LGBT community, and I will continue to do so regardless of what happens with this case. You chose to attack my faith and pursue this not simply as a matter of law, but to threaten my very means of working, eating, and having a home. If you are serious about clarifying the law, then I urge you to drop your claims against my home, business, and other assets and pursue the legal claims through the appeal process. Thanks again for writing and I hope you will consider my offer.

Sincerely,

Barronelle Stutzman

Ms. Stutzman isn’t complying. She’s refusing to settle. Not only is she not complying, she has responded in defiance, and rightfully so. She’s called their bluff. She’s said to the state: “Bring it on.” She has counted the cost and determined that the sacredness of her conscience cannot be exchanged for handouts from the state.

For her stand, she’s been vilified on social media and called a discriminatory bigot by institutions such as Think Progress, one of whose activists insisted that her failure to comply means she “didn’t learn her lesson.”

She is also threatened with the loss of her personal assets, not just her business. Here’s a seventy-year-old grandmother with less money, less cultural capital, than many who would be unwilling to take such a stand.

The gay rights lobby in America has had much success, but it is overreaching by insisting upon ideological conformity, by overturning the centrality of the natural family, by paving-over conscience, by instilling fear of reprisal, by elevating sexual orientation above competing considerations, by subjugating the Christian religion whose anthropology helped shape our constitutional order. They overreach by castigating fellow Americans whose belief—that marriage turns on the male–female difference—has been held since the beginning of recorded history.

Those who want to live in a free society—whether they oppose or support gay marriage—should condemn the push to turn innocent grandmothers like Barronelle Stutzman into lawbreakers. I stand with Barronelle Stutzman. Do you?

- Andrew Walker is Director of Policy Studies at The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and a PhD student in Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Image adapted from Alliance Defending Freedom. 

KRAUTHAMMER'S TAKE: IRANIAN NEGOTIATIONS ARE "SIMPLY CATASTROPHIC"

  

From National Review Online

On Tuesday’s Special Report, Charles Krauthammer said the United States’ ongoing negotiations with Iran are misguided and make President Obama’s other foreign policy blunders look favorable by comparison.

“This [deal] will mean a lifting of the sanctions, so Iran will be with a very strong economy, undeterred, nothing in any way holding it back; it’s simply catastrophic,” Krauthammer said. “It is an unbelievably bad deal. It makes the Cuba deal look like a really good bargain.”

Krauthammer explained that he thinks the United States is negotiating from a place of weakness, which has shifted the Obama administration’s original objective of stopping the Iranian nuclear program. He added that if this deal goes as poorly as he expects, it could allow Iran to become a “legitimate nuclear power.”

** MUST WATCH - video made by Sen. Ben Sasse (R- Neb):

 

Fred Fleitz, of National Review Online posted the video above and wrote:

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON - THE WEST IS MIRRORING THE 1930s (IMPORTANT!)

Historian Victor Davis Hanson in two recent articles draws parallels between the 1930s and today.   In the first, "Our Dangerous Historical Moment,"  VDH writes:

World War II was the most destructive war in history. What caused it?

The panic from the ongoing and worldwide Depression in the 1930s had empowered extremist movements the world over. Like-minded, violent dictators of otherwise quite different Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the Communist Soviet Union all wanted to attack their neighbors.

Yet World War II could have been prevented had Western Europe united to deter Germany. Instead, France, Britain, and the smaller European democracies appeased Hitler.

 The United States turned isolationist. The Soviet Union collaborated with the Third Reich. And Italy and Japan eventually joined it.

The 1930s saw rampant anti-Semitism. Jews were blamed in fascist countries for the economic downturn. They were scapegoated in democracies for stirring up the fascists. The only safe havens for Jews from Europe were Jewish-settled Palestine and the United States.

Does all this sound depressingly familiar?

The aftershocks of the global financial meltdown of 2008 still paralyze the European Union while prompting all sorts of popular extremist movements and opportunistic terrorists.

After the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, America has turned inward. The Depression and the lingering unhappiness over World War I did the same to Americans in the 1930s.

Premodern monsters are on the move. The Islamic State is carving up Syria and Iraq to fashion a fascist caliphate.

Vladimir Putin gobbles up his neighbors in Ossetia, Crimea, and eastern Ukraine, in crude imitation of the way Germany once swallowed Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Theocratic Iran is turning Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon into a new Iranian version of Japan’s old Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The Western response to all this? Likewise, similar to the 1930s.  

ISLAMIC ITEMS

Update 2/19/15:

** Obama refuses to acknowledge "Muslim terrorists" at summit    (Imbecilic denial of reality!) 

** David Greenfield - "There Is No Modern Islam"  (Important reading!)

** Newt Gingrich - "We Are At War with Radical Islam"  (National Security Speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit  1/26/15 ) - C-Span Video

Original post:

**  A tale of Muslim violence that newspapers refused to call by its name.  

A Detroit man, a self-described Muslim, walked up to a group of individuals at a bus stop and asked them if they, too, observe the Islamic faith. When they replied that they did not, he stabbed them multiple times.  You've got t0 read how newspaper editors engage in verbal pretzel antics to avoid reporting those facts.  [Story . . .]

** Mona Charen - Islam as a Victim Civilization

He [Obama] seems to say to himself, “I don’t want my people to feel superior to the ‘other.’ After all, which civilization is the guiltiest on planet Earth? Ours! If the Muslims are committing some atrocities these days, it’s only because we drove them to it by the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition and colonialism and supporting dictatorships and creating the State of Israel.”

That is exactly the kind of reductive, ahistorical, shallow, tendentious drivel a student could easily imbibe at Columbia and Harvard unless he tried hard to avoid it. Obama sought it out, as he confirms in his (first) autobiography.   [Read the whole article]

** Atlantic Monthly - "The Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic"

Here we have a mainstream publication that finally publishes a lengthy account ["What Isis Really Wants"] that recognizes ISIS and Islam for what they are without doing verbal gymnastics to avoid the true and obvious.  As Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch says,

This is an extraordinary piece, as it represents one of the first, if not the first, mainstream media acknowledgment that what I have been saying all these years, and illustrated in detail in thirteen books, hundreds of articles, and tens of thousands of posts here, has been absolutely correct: that jihadis use the texts and teachings to justify their actions and make recruits, and make a case that obviously convinces many young Muslims, that they represent the truest and most authentic expression of Islam.  [my bolding]

Spencer continues [his bolding]:

THREE TALKS BY TIM KELLER GUARANTEED TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Tim Keller is the pastor of 5,000 member Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  He is, in my judgment, the most insightful, articulate and persuasive preacher in the world today.  Not only can he communicate to church people, he can also communicate to secularists and non-believers in down-to earth, compelling, reasonable, persuasive language.  I have posted three videos below, all delivered in secular settings.

The talk below on The Reason for God was delivered at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.  It draws on his book of the same title.  (Picture begins at the 9 second mark)

 

 

This video records Keller speaking at Google in New York City, this time invited to speak on the title of his book  - The Meaning of Marriage  (Picture begins at the 7 second mark)

 

-- "You Never Marry the Right Person" - an excerpt from Keller's book discussing one of the points in the talk

 

And finally, here is Tim Keller speaking in Cambridge, England on the subject of his book Counterfeit Gods. 

 

 Previous Tim Keller posts on this blog:

IRANIAN CHURCH GROWING DESPITE RISK OF DEATH

 

Gary Lane, CBN News, reports from an undisclosed location:

THE MIDDLE EAST -- Iran's new president has promised to protect the country's Christians, but attacks are intensifying.

As they work to survive, CBN News was given an exclusive, rare view that few outsiders witness: a secret meeting of new Iranian believers in a neighboring country, not far from the border.

The brand new followers of Christ received Bible teaching and participated in their very first communion.

After a few songs and prayers, several were baptized. Then they returned to more late-night Bible study and training before returning to Iran.

Rev. Franklin Graham: ‘Imagine the Outcry if 21 Muslims Had Been Beheaded by Christians? … The Storm is Coming’

Michael W. Chapman, CNSNews.com reports:

The Islamic State beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians over the weekend, propping the severed heads on the victims’ backs, a barbaric slaughter that led Reverend Franklin Graham to ask, “Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians?”

“Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world?” he asked.

The brutal killing of the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, who had been abducted in Libya by members of the Islamic State, was videotaped and the entire death film was posted online on Sunday, Feb. 15. It is entitled, “A Message Signed With Blood, To The Nation of the Cross.”

In a Facebook post on Feb. 16, Rev. Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said, “The militant Islamic terrorist group ISIS has released a video called A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD TO THE NATION OF THE CROSS  showing the beheadings of the 21 Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped in Libya.”

“Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians?” said Rev. Graham. “Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world?”

“As we mourn with the families of those 21 martyrs, we’d better take this warning seriously as these acts of terror will only spread throughout Europe and the United States,” warned Rev. Graham.

“If this concerns you like it does me, share this,” he said. “The storm is coming.”

BEN SHAPIRO - "WHY DO JEWS VOTE LEFTIST?"

The fact that American Jews voted 78 percent for Obama in 2008 and 69 percent for Obama in 2012 prompted Ben Shapiro to ask the question, "Why Do Jews Vote Leftist?"   His response:

The answer is simple: the vast majority of Jews don’t care about Judaism or Israel. They care about secular leftism, which is their religion.   [my bolding]

The polls show this. American Jews are the least religious religious group in America. Only 41 percent say that their religion is important to them in their daily life, according to a December 2012 Gallup poll; only 34 percent said they attend religious services at least monthly, compared with 65 percent who said they attended religious services seldom or never. 22 percent of Jews say they have no religion. According to an October 2013 Pew poll, just 38 percent of Jews say their Jewish identity has anything to do with Jewish religion at all. Just 10 percent of Jews identify as Orthodox – people who consider themselves fulfilling the commandments of the Torah.

As for Israel, just 30 percent of Jews say they are very attached to Israel. Only 43 percent of Jews have ever been to Israel. And here’s an amazing statistic: just 40 percent of Jews believe God gave Israel to the Jewish people. 27 percent say God didn’t, another 5 percent said they don’t know, and 28 percent said they didn’t believe in God at all.

Shapiro goes on:

THE TRUE HISTORY OF ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

Raymond Ibrahim - Historic Islamic Persecution of Christians 

This short article constitutes must reading.  The West's ignorance of the true history of Islam's persecution of Christians down through the centuries is not taught and consequently not known.  That failure is scandalous and could prove a deciding factor in the future of the West.

Ibrahim writes:

. . . A mere decade after the birth of Islam in the 7^th century, the jihad burst out of Arabia.  Leaving aside all the thousands of miles of ancient lands and civilizations that were permanently conquered—today casually called the “Islamic world,” including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and parts of India and China—much of Europe was also, at one time or another, conquered by the sword of Islam.

Among other nations and territories that were attacked and/or came under Muslim domination are (to give them their modern names in no particular order): Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Sicily, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Romania, Albania, Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Crete, Cyprus, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Belarus, Malta, Sardinia, Moldova, Slovakia, and Montenegro.

In 846 Rome was sacked and the Vatican defiled by Muslim Arab raiders; some 600 years later, in 1453, Christendom’s other great basilica, Holy Wisdom (or Hagia Sophia) was conquered by Muslim Turks, permanently.  (Till this day, Turkish Muslims celebrate this day of great rapine and slaughter.) 

CANCER TREATMENT: A VIDEO ON THE HISTORY OF CORRUPTION IN OUR MEDICAL SYSTEM

Bill Henderson, author of Cancer-Free: Your Guide to Gentle, Non-toxic Healing (Fourth edition) recently sent an email recommending a video available on YouTube.  Henderson writes:  

Prepare to see the best video on the history of corruption in our medical system regarding cancer that I have ever seen.  Warning:  It is an hour and a half long.  But, if you take the time to watch this, you'll have the best documentation I've seen in 17 years of looking.  It is a wonderful description with actual live videos of the history of corruption in our medical system regarding the treatment of cancer.  [my bold print]

If you want your loved ones to avoid a cancer in their future and overcome the fear they have of it, PLEASE get them to watch this video.  It's not selling anything.  It is simply a wonderfully put together history of cancer treatment and it's corruption during the last 100 years.  It is called "Cancer -- The Forbidden Cures."   

I watched it in three half hour segments and found it definitely worth seeing.  It covers a variety of alleged cures together with the hostile buzz-saw resistance of the FDA and the AMA.    Here's the video:

 

See also this earlier blog post:  STARVING CANCER: KETOGENIC DIET A KEY TO RECOVERY

HOW YEMEN FITS IRAN PLANS FOR MIDEAST RULE, BEYOND

 

Erick Stakelbeck,  CBN News correspondent, reports:

WASHINGTON – The remaining Americans have been evacuated from the country of Yemen. The United States closed its embassy because of the violence after a radical Islamic rebellion in the country.

The news comes as Iran is expanding its influence in the Middle East while building a nuclear program that shows no signs of stopping.

Yemen is an important part of Iran's strategy.

When a radical Shiite Muslim group, called the Houthis, seized Yemen's capital city last year, it marked a dangerous phase for a country plagued by violent chaos.

Located on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is already home to an al Qaeda branch that has attempted several attacks against the United States and Europe.

DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, spoke last summer at The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference (Orlando) on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, chapters 3 & 4.     I watched the video and found perceptive his short treatment of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He refers briefly to four sections of Scripture:  Nehemiah  4:9 ("We prayed to our God and posted a guard");  Isaiah 38; Acts 27; and Acts 2.  

Keller:  "No matter how bad things get, on the one hand God is completely in charge and on the other, what you do matters..."   

You can hear Keller's exposition on divine sovereignty and human responsibility below at the 43:35 to 50:55 mark: 

 Tim Keller mentions the following books:

D.A. Carson - Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspective in Tension (284 pages)

J.I. Packer - Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God   (122 pages)

 

CHRISTIAN MILITARY CHAPLAINS SOMETIMES CENSORED

From Chuck Holton of CBN News:

 

FORT BENNING, Ga. -- "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was once a term used to refer to homosexuals in the military. Now, however, the term is more often being applied to Christians in uniform.

Military chaplains are feeling the pressure to conform to the new reality, as some label biblical values "hate speech."

Chaplains have been an integral part of the military throughout our nation's history, bringing hope to the living and comfort to the dying.

Now some chaplains are coming under fire from official government policy and must choose between their consciences and their commander's orders.leave the military."

OBAMA: NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ISIS AND CHRISTIANITY

 

In his address yesterday to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. President Obama essentially said Christians have a violent history so they had better not get on their "high horses" and criticize Islam.   He drew moral equivalence between the Crusades/Inquisition and  ISIS atrocities.  Such a comparison is asinine and irresponsible, but sad to say, they were made by the current occupant of the White House.  In Obama's own words:

“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history,” Obama told the group. “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

In an important history lesson and commentary, Ralph Peters says "The president knows as little about history as he does about warfare, and even less about religion."   

Mark Levin-  "Obama’s speech today sent two messages, one to our enemies that this is not a serious man, they are gut laughing, and one to all those people who are suffering, whose families are being slaughtered that they cannot count on the President of the United States for help.”

David Gelernter,  "His remarks were meant to establish his own moral superiority. . .   no littler man has ever been president."

Bobby Jindal - "The Medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President. Please deal with the Radical Islamic threat today.”  

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, cites two problems with Obama’s comparison:  “When Christians act violently they are acting in opposition to the teachings of their founder, Jesus Christ. . . On the other hand, radical Islamists can point to a number of verses in the Koran calling for Muslims to ‘crucify the infidels.’”

Jonah Goldberg cites Bernard Lewis, the greatest living English-language historian of Islam:  “The Crusades could more accurately be described as a limited, belated and, in the last analysis, ineffectual response to the jihad — a failed attempt to recover by a Christian holy war what had been lost to a Muslim holy war.”   (Note:  more facts on the Crusades can be found here).

Especially detailed responses citing Muslim scripture authorizing terror and brutality and murder can be found in reading Raymond Ibrahim and Robert Spencer.  History lessons can be found in Victor Davis Hanson and Ralph Peters.

I'll end with Ben Shapiro 's fine article: 

KRAUTHAMMER'S TAKE: ‘SUSAN RICE IS RIGHT, IT'S NOT WORLD WAR II. IT’S THE 1930s.’

 

I find it amazing and disheartening that the highest echelons of the USA can see (presumably) clear trajectories of war and catastrophe and choose to do nothing about it.  Does this not qualify as a grave dereliction of duty?  Are we to sit passively by and accept a fate that could be averted?  Where is the leadership that will counter Obama's passivity and negligence?  

Krauthammer's take (from NRO):

In her foreign policy speech today at the Brooking Institution, National Security Adviser Susan Rice announced that the United States is not facing a threat “of the existential nature we confronted during World War II.” Yes, it’s not World War II,” Charles Krauthammer agreed on this evening’s Special Report. “It’s the 30s.”

“What we have,” said Krauthammer, “is a threat spreading and growing around the world, of which this administration either doesn’t recognize the threat or doesn’t want to admit it. It is pretending it doesn’t exist and will not actually even name it.”

“At the same time it’s negotiating a deal with Iran,” which is constructing an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. “There is only one reason for an ICBM: to hit another continent, to hit the United States. And,” Krauthammer added, “you don’t place dynamite on the tip of an ICBM. It’s not exactly cost-effective. There is only one purpose [for an ICBM]: nuclear weapons.”

“We are preparing the ground, as in the ‘30s, for a metastasizing enemy, an existential enemy, that is not yet ready to take on the West, but will be if we continue these policies.”

Me:  Rush Limbaugh correctly notes that this President doesn't like the United States.  I agree with Rush.  But my question is, does Obama's dislike -- even hatred? --- for the U.S. motivate him to play dice with its future?  I don't know.  By Obama's refusal to think and act strategically on behalf of the U.S.'s safety one wonders how devoted he is to America's preservation.   On Obama's dislike for America Rush notes:

GROWING UP WITH LESBIAN TENDENCIES IN 1985 vs. 2015

I found Jean Loyd's article,"The Girl in the Tuxedo,"  important -- indeed, essential -- reading for anyone wanting to think clearly about same-sex attractions.   As Lloyd points out, there's a huge difference between growing up in 1985 vs. 2015.    Previously, Jean Lloyd wrote "Seven Things I Wish My Pastor Knew About my Homosexuality."  I suggest reading "The Girl in the Tuxedo" first.

THE GLOBAL VISION ANIMATING BARACK OBAMA

Victor Davis Hanson, that most astute observer of the world scene, says that although Obama's foreign policy looks chaotic and befuddled, it's actually consistent and logical.  His foreign policy is based on four pillars of belief --  all of which, I hasten to add, (and which VDH expects readers to understand), will produce deadly and destructive consequences.   Hanson writes:

GLEANINGS

 - - J. Budziszewski:       The Religion of the Modern University

The undeclared religion of the modern university is practical atheism. You are allowed to believe in some kind of God, but not the kind of God who makes a difference to anything. You are allowed to have some kind of faith, but not the kind of faith that interacts with reason. What threatens practical atheists is the classical Christian view that God matters to everything, and that sound faith expands the possibilities of reason itself.  

 - - David J. Hebert in a review of How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life  by Russ Roberts:   What We All Desire

The second theme of this book is a sort of self-help book on how to be happy. In this respect, this book is quite simply amazing. Roberts reminds us that Smith says that we all “naturally desire, not only to be loved, but to be lovely.” Unpacking this simple sentence, Smith is saying that we all want to be appreciated, desired, and praised. We want people to take us seriously and pay attention to the things that we say, to want our presence, and to enjoy our company. Second, we want to be worthy of being loved honestly by “being respectable, honorable, blameless, generous, and kind.” In other words, we want to have a good reputation – a good rapport, if you will. 

- - Mike Huckabee:    Secular Oppression of Religion

 On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday he argued that forcing people of faith to accept gay marriage is like forcing Jews to serve "bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli." Both foods are violations of Jewish kosher rules.

"We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they have had for over 2,000 years," Huckabee said.  

"I would like to think that there's room in America for people who have different points of views without screaming, shouting, and wanting to shut their businesses down," he said. -  

 - - Humor

"Life is short, smile while you still have your teeth."

 Police were called to a day care center where a 3 year old was resisting a rest.

 Acupuncture is a jab well done.  That's the point of it.  Don't these silly puns needle you?

 I'd give up chocolate but I'm not a quitter.

LEFTIST INTOLERANCE OF CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

- Update 2/10/15:  Gordon College not in danger of losing accreditation  but there still seems be a question.  (See also the National Review Online editorial.)

- Original post:

David French draws attention to the persecution of Gordon College.    As leftists go after restaurants (Chick-Fil-A) or craft stores (Hobby Lobby), on the basis of the Left's sexual orthodoxy, the right takes action. But not many know about isolated colleges in the northeast being hounded and persecuted and under threat of losing their accreditation because it has a policy they believe sex should be in marriage only.  

French suggestrs a remedy:

The new conservative congressional majority must put the Department of Education on notice that it will not be permitted to “recognize” any accrediting agency that seeks to impose an ideological litmus test on private, religious colleges. If the New England Association has given Gordon College a year to toe the leftist line, Congress should give the Department of Education and the New England Association six months to reaffirm its regulatory requirement to respect Gordon’s religious mission.

OS GUINNESS - A FREE PEOPLE'S SUICIDE

Dr Os Guinness delivered this important talk at Socrates in the City, September 13, 2012.  It is based on his book, A Free People's Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future.

 

 Many of the salient points Guinness makes in his talk are repeated in this valuable interview that Os Guinness gave to Kathryn Jean Lopez -