Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

SPECIAL FORCES SET TO SWARM SOUTHWEST AND OPERATE UNDETECTED AMONG CIVILIANS IN MASSIVE MILITARY EXERCISE

** Update 5/14/15 - This is from Infowars, often accused of being a conspiracy website.  I don't know the truth of the matter.  The link below is provided by the Drudge Report:

       Marines Practice Subduing Citizens Inside Internment Camp...

      The above included the following link:  July 6, 2012  

    ARMY MANUAL OUTLINES PLAN TO KILL RIOTERS, DEMONSTRATORS IN AMERICA

 

 

** Original post:

Is this cause for alarm?  Who knows?  I wonder if posting this will put me under government surveillance.  That would be weird since the article (and the title of this post) is from the U.K. Daily Mail!   (HT: Drudge)  Article's subpoint:

The so-called Realistic Military Training has some residents fearful the drill is a preparation for martial law

THOUSANDS PROTEST RELIGIOUS FREEDOM LAW IN INDIANA

Update 3/30/15  - Rush Limbaugh weighs in on Religious Freedom and the state of Indiana 

- The Family Research Council declares "Today We Are All Hoosiers" and asks people to sign a petition in support of Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

- David French at National Review Online offers an experienced perspective: 

After litigating religious liberty issues for more than 20 years, I’m used to utter hysteria erupting on the Left when Christians try to assert conventional and traditional religious liberty rights. . . 

So what’s really going on here? A toxic combination of anti-Christian bigotry and sexual revolution radicalism. It is simply uninformed and bigoted to believe that Christians are somehow lurking in the shadows, ready to deny food, shelter, and basic services to their gay fellow citizens — blocked from such vicious actions only by the strong arm of the state. In my entire life as an Evangelical, I’ve never met a fellow Christian who wouldn’t gladly serve a gay customer. If there are exceptions to that nearly-universal rule, they are so marginal (and marginalized) in the Christian community that they’re irrelevant not only to Christendom but also to the body politic.

But the Left, ever-vigilant against group-based slights on behalf of favored constituencies, is only too eager to label orthodox Christians as threats to the public. This bigotry has a purpose. It serves to demonize the last significant constituency standing in the way of sexual revolution radicalism. After all, unless you demonize your opposition, the general public will have little appetite for forcing Christians to pay for abortion pills, forcing Christian groups to open up to atheist leadership, or forcing Christian bakers or photographers to help celebrate events they find morally offensive. After all, there’s no clamor for requiring Kosher delis to stock pork or requiring gay lawyers to represent the Westboro Baptist Church. While RFRAs protect people of all faiths, from peyote-smoking Native Americans to Bible-toting florists, the Left’s outrage is narrowly targeted — against the Christian people whose livelihoods they seek to ruin, whose consciences they seek to appropriate, and whose organizations they seek to disrupt. #BoycottIndiana isn’t a cry for freedom. It’s nothing more than an online mob, seeking to bully those it hates.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/416176/want-evidence-hysterical-anti-christian-bigotry-look-no-further-boycottindiana-david

Update 3/29/15 - Indiana Governor Mike Pence appeared on ABC's "This Week" - 

DOES SCIENCE ARGUE FOR OR AGAINST GOD?

Hats off to Eric Metaxas and Prager University for producing this excellent, skilful distillation of points made elsewhere, such as in The Privileged Planet, the book or DVD.

 

 

QUICK TAKES

Peter Stamford reports:  Are Smartphones Making our Children Mentally Ill?

Steve Wozniak - The Future of AI is Scary and Very Bad for People

V.S. Naipaul - Nobel winner says Isis is Now the Fourth Reich

Mark Levin - "We Don't Need a Governor as President"  (True)

Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family, and Violates Human Dignity and Equality

Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D. writes:

Abstract

Allowing physician-assisted suicide would be a grave mistake for four reasons. First, it would endanger the weak and vulnerable. Second, it would corrupt the practice of medicine and the doctor–patient relationship. Third, it would compromise the family and intergenerational commitments. And fourth, it would betray human dignity and equality before the law. Instead of helping people to kill themselves, we should offer them appropriate medical care and human presence. We should respond to suffering with true compassion and solidarity. Doctors should help their patients to die a dignified death of natural causes, not assist in killing. Physicians are always to care, never to kill.

The full article follows the Abstract.

THE LAND OF THE BIBLE

I think this video of Holy Land topography very helpful.  It keys off a book, Satellite Bible Atlas.  

 Here are other excellent map-based teaching videos:

 01 Introduction. Land of the Bible: Location and Land Bridge (5 min)

02 Land of the Bible: Basic Regions and Regional Variety (10 min)

03 Major Routes in the Land of the Bible (6 min)

04 Approaches to Jerusalem and the Benjamin Region, Maps 1-8 and 1-9 (12 min)

05 Southern Approaches to Jerusalem, Map 1-8 (10 min)

06 Jezreel Valley and Lower Galilee, Map 1-4 (14 min)

07 Shephelah of Judah, Maps 1-10, 1-11 (12 min)

08 Samaria, Map 1-7 (15 min)

09 Jerusalem Highway (Modern) in Judean Hill Country (6 min)

CHRISTIAN ASTRONOMER HUGH ROSS QUESTIONS JOHN HAGEE'S "FOUR BLOOD MOONS" THESIS

In a two-part article, astronomer Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe Ministry expresses disagreement with Rev. John Hagee's perspective on the significance of "Four Blood Moons." 

Ross writes:

Popular Bible preacher John Hagee has authored a book and produced a movie by the same name, Four Blood Moons (in theaters March 23, April 9th). On the film’s website the San Antonio megachurch pastor states, “The heavens are ‘God’s billboard.’ He’s been sending signals to earth, and we haven’t been picking them up.” In part 1 of this series, as an astronomer I analyzed those “signals,” a series of four (tetrad) total lunar eclipses that supposedly ushers in prophetic activity ahead of the return of Christ. Now, as a student of Scripture and as one who believes in premillennial eschatology, I convey my primary, biblical criticism.

Blood Moons: An End-Time Sign? (Part 1 of 1)

Blood Moons: An End-Time Sign?  (Part 2 of 2)

LOOK OUT ISRAEL: OBAMA IS GUNNING FOR YOU

Michael Godwin offers a useful summary of Obama's "accomplishments" and warns Israel is next:

First he comes for the banks and health care, uses the IRS to go after critics, politicizes the Justice Department, spies on journalists, tries to curb religious freedom, slashes the military, throws open the borders, doubles the debt and nationalizes the Internet.

He lies to the public, ignores the Constitution, inflames race relations and urges Latinos to punish Republican “enemies.” He abandons our ­allies, appeases tyrants, coddles ­adversaries and uses the Crusades as an excuse for inaction as Islamist terrorists slaughter their way across the Mideast.

Now he’s coming for Israel.

Barack Obama’s promise to transform America was too modest. He is transforming the whole world before our eyes. Do you see it yet?

MARCO RUBIO DELIVERS BLISTERING SPEECH ON OBAMA'S ASSAULT ON ISRAEL

Sen. Rubio's impassioned March 19, 2015 speech on the floor of the Senate provides a valuable historical survey of the way President Obama has treated Israel.  It should occupy a prominent place in the archives of our era.  (See transcript beneath the YouTube video).

 

Senator Marco Rubio:  

“. . .  As we all know, there was an election in Israel this week and many people are wondering, ‘What is this aftermath of the election we keep reading about where there’s this controversy and the back and forth?’ Certainly some of that happened a few weeks ago when the Prime Minister of Israel visited Washington and spoke before the Congress.

“People were wondering, ‘Well, what is it that’s going on here? And why is there so much controversy around all this?’ And I wanted to take a moment to delve deeper into this because this is important. First of all, answer the fundamental question, why should we care about what’s happening with Israel, in Israel and about Israel? And there’s two reasons I think we should care.

LIBYAN BISHOP: I AM READY FOR MARTYRDOM AND WILL NOT LEAVE

The 21st century is the era of Christian martyrs -- faithful men and women who remain steadfast in their testimony to Christ's salvation to the end.  It is the power of Christ's resurrection and the living presence of Christ in their lives and loyalty to Him that overcomes all thoughts of self-preservation and apostasy.  [cf. The New Testament - Mark 8:34-38]  It is shameful that the free world cares so little and does so little to protect innocent people.

Mark Woods reports:

The Italian Bishop of Tripoli has refused to leave the Libyan city in spite of the deaths of the 21 Coptic Christians, and has said that he is ready for martyrdom.

Bishop Giovanni Martinelli has stayed in the city although almost all of his countrymen have left, repatriated by the Italian government in the face of the serious threat posed by Islamic State jihadists. They returned on a ferry escorted by an Italian warship covered by Predator drone flying overhead.

In an interview with the Corriere del Veneto newspaper, Martinelli said that his decision to stay was "the culmination of my testimony". He said that he had been threatened in the street by a Muslim man who told him, "You are against Islam."

"In church they came to tell me that I must die," he added.

 "But I want you to know that Father Martinelli is well," he said, adding that if it was God's will that he should be beheaded, "so it will be".

"Being able to give testimony is a precious thing," he said. "I thank the Lord that he allows me to do so, even with martyrdom.

"I'm not moving from here. And I'm not afraid." . . . 

The bishop has lived in Libya since 1971 and regards it as his home. When he arrived in the country there were 150,000 Christians there, a number that has dwindled to only 300.

Me:  Thank God for those organizations that stand for religious freedom and help materially the families of those who are killed, the thousands made refugees, and those otherwise persecuted for their faith

Open Doors USA, website

Voice of the Martyrs website

Freedom House website

International Christian Concern website

Christian Solidarity International website

RALPH PETERS - IVY LEAGUE THINKERS CAN'T COPE WITH STREET LEVEL INTERNATIONAL REALITY

The actual title of Ralph Peters' article is Putin vs. the preppies and the Ph.D.s:  Outsiders, not insiders, change the world.   My thoughts:  Ivy league elites, hidebound and limited in experience and street-level savvy, can't cope with street-level international reality.  Peters nails it.  I have long felt that Obama's "education" narrowly ideological, his knowledge of history abysmal, his grasp of (sinful) human nature non-existent, and his prejudices blinding.  Here are two pull-quotes from Peters' valuable article:

Once-great universities have turned into political indoctrination centers worthy of the high Stalinist Era or the age of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Their aims may be more benign, but their unwillingness to consider alternative worldviews is every bit as rigid. . . .

Putin, that “petty bureaucrat,” has won every significant confrontation with the West, conquering foreign territory and humiliating presidents. Iran’s negotiators have outmaneuvered their Western interlocutors so spectacularly that they really don’t need Obama’s deal, having gotten most of what they needed: time and partial sanctions relief. And the Islamic State has confounded not only our elite’s prejudices about how the world should work, but demolished their platitudinous nonsense that “All men want peace.” In fact, some men delight in inflicting grotesque forms of violence on others.

MYRIAM'S STORY AND SONG

Myriam is an Iraqi Christian whose family had to flee their home near Mosul when ISIS took control of their town in mid 20014. They fled to Irbil, in the relatively safe area of the autonomous region of Kurdistan where they live as refugges. She told her story to Essam Nagy, the presenter of one of SAT-7 KIDS' most popular programmes called 'Why is that?', when he visited Irbil at Christmas 2014. Read story:http://www.wazala.org/2014-02-letters..

 

JEREMY BEGBIE - THE TRINITY SEEN FROM A MUSICOLOGIST STANDPOINT

I am pondering this . . .  

 

NAVAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS DESTROYING CHAPLAIN CAREERS

From Family Research Council:  (After reading FRCs report below, go over and look at a short video of Lt. Commander Wes Modder for yourself)

 . . . In the Navy, the message is clear: get on board with political correctness or lose your job. Like most Christians, Lt. Commander Wes Modder knew the military was changing. But he didn't know how much until the battle landed on his doorstep. For years, Modder had served some of the most elite fighting forces in the military: Navy SEALs.  [bolding mine throughout]

I say "had," because the 19-year veteran has been stripped of his duties for sharing the good news he was hired to share. In a stunning turn of events, the chaplain was sabotaged by one of his own men, who secretly gathered enough information on Modder's beliefs and private counseling sessions to file a formal complaint. Believe it or not, he was targeted by his own assistant -- who Modder didn't realize was gay. Looking back, the chaplain says the young officer asked a lot of questions about homosexuality, which Modder answered as most would expect: in accordance with the Bible's teachings.  

QUICK TAKES

Dennis Prager - Why Obama so Dislikes Netanyahu  - Those who do not confront evil resent those who do.

Time Magazine - 30 Most Influential People on the Internet  - Matt Drudge is right up there; many I've never heard of.

Bruce Thornton - Bad Ideas Breed Bad Foreign Policy  The secular west does not understand nor can it comprehend religious motivation

The triumph of secularization has disarmed us in the fight against modern jihadism. No matter how often jihadists evoke the religious foundations of their actions, no matter how many Koranic verses and Hadith they quote, we cannot imagine a people for whom the spiritual realm is more real than the material world. We cannot imagine a life permeated with the divine and directed by submission––what “Islam” literally means––to Allah and the model of Mohammed. We ignore, as Bernard Lewis has written, the fact that “in most Islamic countries, religion remains a major political factor,” for “most Muslim countries are still profoundly Muslim, in a way and a sense that most Christian countries are no longer Christian.”

Ed Morrissey and Washington Post editorial: Obama has to answer Netanyahu's "strong case" on Iran Deal

New York Times op ed  - Why Our children Don't Think There are Moral Facts

 

SUGAR HIDING IN UNSUSPECTED FOODS

 

Lorrie Johnson from CBN News reports:

Do foods like skim milk and balsamic vinegar seem healthy? The amount of sugar in these foods may surprise you.

MAX MCLEAN OFFERS AN ORAL INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK

A friend wrote yesterday saying her church was going to start a sermon series on the Gospel of Mark.  Last night, while sitting in a MacDonald's sipping coffee, I decided to reread Mark's gospel and did so in one setting.  Great experience.  I would like to go over many passages and pin down the location of various incidents and phrases.  Meanwhile, today I looked up Max McLean's dramatic recitation and have been enjoying his rendition.  Mark's gospel, I'm told, was intended to be read orally. 

 

Update  3/7/15

Today I learned of another Gospel of Mark recitation, this one by the famed British actor, Alec McCowen.  McCowen chose as his text the 1611 Authorized (King James Version) of the Bible.  I have appreciated both these renditions.  

 

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ADDRESSES U.S. JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS

I listened live to Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the joint session of Congress this morning.  [Video and transcript here].    Masterful, clear, sober, convincing; it was a speech that should have been delivered by the President of the United States.  But then, as Jay Nordlinger notes in his reflections on the speech:

He [Netanyahu] and Barack Obama are completely different human beings. It would be hard to imagine two men more different — especially two men leading liberal democracies. Netanyahu reveres Churchill.  Churchill is not so much Obama’s bag.  Obama is more an Edward Said man.  [Edward Said was an influential Columbia University professor who " led the way toward a new, post-socialist life for leftism in which the proletariat was replaced by “people of color” as the redeemers of humankind."  More on Said here...]

This is a considerable gulf. (Paul Johnson, the great British historian, called Said a “malevolent liar and propagandist, who has been responsible for more harm than any other intellectual of his generation.”)

Nordlinger offers other pertinent observations:

NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR N.T. WRIGHT IN DIALOG AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY ON THE BIBLE

Last night before putting my hands in the dish pit to tackle a pile of dirty dishes (we have human dishwashers at our home!), I went to get my tablet to see if I might profitably feed my mind while doing the dishes.  I happened on an engaging dialog on the Bible featuring world famous New Testament scholar N.T. Wright and Harvard Professor of Philosophy Sean Kelly, a dialog moderated by Jay Harris, the Dean of Undergraduate Education and Professor of Jewish Studies  at Harvard.    N.T. Wright joins encyclopedic knowledge to gracious and entertaining verbal dexterity.  Professor Sean Kelly, for his part, displays disarming honesty and humility that I found quite winsome.  The opportunity to view dialogs like this on the internet would astonish previous generations and make them drool!

 

My previous blogs on N.T. Wright:

     N.T. Wright Interview on Life After Life After Death  (27 minutes)  (An interview occasioned by his book,  "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.")

     N.T. Wright: "After You Believe" (A Review)

     N.T. Wright --  Easter Ought to be an Eight-Day Celebration

See also:

     N.T. Wright Page - an uofficial web page dedicated to the works of N.T. Wright

     YouTube videos featuring N.T. Wright 

     Books by N. T. Wright