Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

        II Chron. 7:14 - "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land."

Some weeks ago at a spiritual renewal weekend we heard the following prayer of confession, a prayer which continues to guide my thinking and quicken my conscience.   It is a prayer offered in response to God's call to us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 to "seek my face and turn from your wicked ways.."

                                                               *  *  *

             Lord, we thank you for inviting us -- for urging us -- to "seek your face."    We earnestly desire to respond to this call with whole-hearted obedience.

             We recognize, Lord, that you are HOLY, and we are sinful.  We cannot seek your face and at the same time cling to our sins.     We come renouncing our sins, our disobedience, our rebellion.

             We confess we have failed to keep the Two Great Commandments:

                       We have not loved you with our whole heart.   We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.  

                       "We are truly sorry and we humbly repent"

              Because we have chosen ourselves as the center of our lives instead of you, our lives have fallen into decay and bondage, distractions and addictions.

              Many times we have heard your Voice whisper to us,  "No...  Don't...   Stop...  Turn away -- and we have gone ahead anyway.  We earnestly repent.  We thank you for your Voice speaking to us.  We know your Way is the way to our good and your glory.  We repent of our willfulness. 

              Far too often and far too much, we have been living scandalously self-indulgent lives.  Duties have been neglected.   Marriage vows have been broken.  Children have been neglected.  We have given in to the desires and impulses of the flesh.  We know little of self-control, of self-discipline.   We hear the Apostle Paul speak of those "whose god is their belly."  We repent of our self-indulgence. 

             Our feet have taken us where they ought not to have gone.  Our eyes have looked upon that which they ought not to have looked upon.  We have soiled our mind and our imaginations.  We have entertained ourselves by means of the flesh and deprived ourselves of the good, the true and the beautiful -- those objects of meditation and thought that could have nourished our moral imagination and built us up in the Spirit. 

             Our tongues have spoken that which they ought not to have spoken.  We have not consistently adhered to strict truthfulness.  We have uttered half-truths and lies, slandered others, insulted others, gossiped, even borne false witness.  Our word has not been our bond.  We have broken trust.   Oh Lord, we repent and we renounce these various abominations of the tongue.

             The sins of the spirit have been rampant within us.  We have envied, we have nurtured jealousy, we have raged with anger.   We have thought ourselves superior.  We have inflated ideas of our own importance.  We have taken others for granted.  We have withheld sympathy.  We have failed to show compassion.   Oh Lord, we repent and renounce all these attitudes and behaviors. We seek your cleansing.

             We live in a rebellious world that speaks ill of You.  Too often we have been silent, we have not stood for truth.   We have taken on the color and hew of the world, seeking to blend in and not stand out.  We have failed to be salt and light in an ever-darkening world.  We want all that to change.  We repent of our failure to bear witness to what we know is true. 

             Father, we come humbly, penitently, and with a heart desiring to truly "seek your face."    We turn from our self-centeredness, our rebellion, and our sins that we might be made new, cleansed and forgiven. 

             We make this prayer of confession in the name of Jesus Christ our crucified and risen Savior and Lord, asking for your divine forgiveness. 

PLANNED PARENTHOOD SCURRYING LIKE BUGS UNDER A LIFTED ROCK

-- Mollie Hemingway at the Federalist - "The 4 Most Embarrassing Things Cecile Richards Said In Defense Of Planned Parenthood" (video and may links)

-- Ramesh Ponnuru - Planned Parenthood defenders are upset that the critics keep saying that the organization was haggling over “baby parts.” That’s not accurate terminology, they complain.  Fine: Let’s call them “parts of children” instead.

-- Ramesh Ponnuru again - On the ignorance of the populace concerning Planned Parenthood [my bolding]- Pollster Kellyanne Conway corroborated my second point below in a poll she conducted in 2013 for the National Right to Life Committee. A full 88 percent of respondents said they were familiar with Planned Parenthood, but only 45 percent said that they thought its affiliates perform abortions. When respondents were asked how many abortions they thought Planned Parenthood affiliates perform each year, 55 percent guessed that it was fewer than 100,000, and 71 percent guessed fewer than the actual number (more than 327,000).

- - Kathryn Jean Lopez interview with an Ex-Planned Parenthood worker

-- Ross Douthat in the NY Times - . . . And the problem these videos create for Planned Parenthood isn’t just a generalized queasiness at surgery and blood.

It’s a very specific disgust, informed by reason and experience — the reasoning that notes that it’s precisely a fetus’s humanity that makes its organs valuable, and the experience of recognizing one’s own children, on the ultrasound monitor and after, as something more than just “products of conception” or tissue for the knife.

CURRENT CHINESE CRACKDOWN ON RELIGION THE MOST SEVERE SINCE THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

I have great respect for Dr. Bob Fu, the president and founder of  China Aid, a watchdog organization monitoring religious freedom in China.  On July 24,  Fu testified before Congress

Others that spoke at the hearing, led by Congressmen Chris Smith, (R-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), included Anastasia Lin, actress, human rights advocate and Miss World Canada 2015; Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress; and Losang Gyatso, service chief of Voice of America’s Tibetan service.

Fu’s full testimony, and the testimony of the other witnesses, along with a video of the hearing can be found here.   Bob Fu began his testimony this way:  [my emphases]

This is the third year of President Xi Jinping’s Administration in China, whose policies and actions have raised alarm, and in some cases astonished the international community. Domestically, Xi has purged his political rivals through a “selective anti-corruption campaign” and monopolized power within the leadership of the Communist party, the government and the military. In foreign policy, Xi has adopted a dangerous and aggressive agenda, challenging existing international law and creating his own when deemed necessary, including the national security law, which is being viewed by may as a pretext for human rights abuses. This antagonistic and arrogant approach to governance over the past two and half years has earned Xi the nickname “Chairman Mao Junior” and “Xi-tler.”

In the past two years, human rights and rule of law in China have rapidly deteriorated. The number of dissidents taken into police custody, arrested and convicted since Xi took power has exceeded the total number that occurred during the 10-year reign of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Chinese citizens who peacefully criticize the government or defend the rights of citizens; lawyers who dare to represent “sensitive cases” without cooperating with the government; and activists who assemble in a peaceful manner, attempt to request the government’s permission to establish a nongovernmental organization (NGO), or peacefully protest against government policies or judicial injustices are subsequently “invited to drink tea,” summoned for interrogation, detained or arrested, and eventually tried in a corrupt judicial system. To be sure, the Chinese government has intensified its harassment of NGOs, civil society organizations, law firms representing human rights cases, charitable organizations, and political organizations such as the “New Citizen Movement.”

During the Xi Administration, and particularly in the past 18 months, religious freedom abuses have reached a level not seen since the Cultural Revolution. Not only have house churches continued to experience intensifying persecution, but now “Three-Self” churches, that is, government-sanctioned churches are being subjected to government-sponsored persecution campaigns. The Chinese government’s persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners has also worsened. The Chinese government perceives religious practitioners as being guided by “foreign influence” and has subsequently pursued absolute control over religious communities.

TED CRUZ LAMBASTS MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL

Allahpundit at HotAir introduces the Cruz speech on the Senate floor saying:

I’m not going to excerpt it for you, despite the length. You need to watch it all; if you can’t spare 20 minutes, at least watch the middle third where he gets into corporate cooptation of the one-party state. This is one of the most brutal attacks — not incorrect, mind you, just brutal — you’ll ever see by a senator on his colleagues, starting with his own majority leader. Sample quote: “[This majority] does get things done, but it listens to one and only one voice: That is, the voice of the Washington cartel, of the lobbyists on K Street, of the big money and big corporations.” This guy is talking about his own caucus.

 

CARLY FIORINA SPEAKS OUT ON ABORTION WITH CLARITY AND PASSION

As others have noted, Carly Fiorina will not be cowed by the liberal press into a defensive corner.  She's a Tiger!

 

Transcript:

JAKE TAPPER: Let's turn to the question of abortions. I know you want to talk about it. One of your opponents, Scott Walker, signed a law in Wisconsin this week which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of a pregnancy. On Twitter, HIllary Clinton said:

"Governor Walker signed dangerous abortion restrictions into law in Wisconsin — without exceptions for rape and incest. Extreme and unacceptable."

Walker retweeted her, and called her "out of touch with most Americans."

What's your position on this legislation, which does not allow exceptions for rape and incest?

FIORINA: Well, let's talk about the legislation that's sitting on the Senate floor right now, which does allow for those exceptions —

TAPPER: So you —

FIORINA: Let's also talk about, let's also talk about Hillary Clinton's position. Let’s also talk about Hillary Clinton’s position. Let’s talk about what extreme is. It’s not a life until it leaves the hospital. That’s Hillary Clinton’s position. It’s Hillary Clinton’s position that a 13-year-old girl needs her mother’s permission to go to a tanning salon or a tattoo, but not to get an abortion.

It's Hillary Clinton's position that women should not be permitted to look at an ultrasound before an abortion, and yet people who are trying to harvest body parts can use an ultrasound to make sure that those body parts are preserved so they can be sold. That, Jake, is extreme.

TAPPER: Just to clarify — you think there should be an exception for rape and incest?

FIORINA: I would really be delighted if for once the media would ask Hillary Clinton about the extremism of her position.

TAPPER: Well, let's —

FIORINA: It’s not a life, it's not a life until it leaves the hospital.

My position is very clear. It's been very clear and consistent ever since I ran for the Senate in 2010. Anyone can look it up. (Subtext: "You know the answer to the question, Jake, so why are you wasting everyone's time on the house fire while the city is ablaze?" — Ed.) Yes, I support exceptions.

But the majority of the American people now believe that abortion for any reason at all to be paid for by taxpayers after five months is an abomination. And this videotape, whether you're a pro-choice woman or a pro-life woman, this videotape is depraved. The casual nature with which these people are talking about fetuses, and tissue and apecimens. I tell you what, if a woman was looking at the ultrasound at the same stage of pregnancy, the doctor would not be talking about fetuses, or specimens or tissues. They would be saying, "Look at your baby's heartbeat. Look at your baby's eyes. Look at your baby's organs."

TAPPER: Carly Fiorina, thank you so much. Thank you for taking our questions.

Tom Blumer at Newsbusters correctly observes:

Fiorina answered Tapper's question, but she made the larger points, and forcefully.

If Fiorina doesn't get the 2016 presidential or vice-presidential nomination — and those who haven't been taking her seriously need to start doing so — she should be hired immediately by whoever does so she can train them to face the hostile media. It's been many years since I've seen a GOP candidate handle the press in such a consistently deft and poised manner. 

Rush Limbaugh likewise waxes enthusiastic over Carly Fiorina's skill at handling the press.

. . .  Start your focus of attack on Hillary Clinton.  She's the enemy.  The Democrat Party's the opponent.  You know she's gonna be the nominee.  Hit her.  Start now.  It's a great way to explain who you are, in fact, by contrasting yourself. 

This is my advice, okay?  And one person either took the advice or instinctively knew to do it on her own, and that's Carly Fiorina, who, by the way, she's just, I think, kicking butt all over the country, folks.  Every stop never gets off message. She handles the media with aplomb and skill and it's obvious she enjoys doing it, and she's schooling people.  She's showing how it's done.  Latest example, Tuesday night, CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper. 

Update:  See Warren Cole Smith's interview with Scott Klusendorf, "A Lesson in pro-life apologetics."  

Without Pax Americana in the Middle East, a Saudi–Iranian Arms Race Is All but Inevitable

David Pryce-Jones writes with particular clear-headedness:

Not so long ago the foreign policy of the United States in the Middle East rested on the two pillars of Iran and Saudi Arabia. As long as the United States behaved like the superpower it was, the course of events could be predicted and stability therefore maintained. Everyone in the region takes it for gra

Confusion began when Ayatollah Khomeini humiliated the United States and went unpunished for it. Now President Obama’s deal with Iran certifies that the United States has renounced power altogether. Fired up by supposition of their superior power, crowds in the street burn effigies of the hapless American president in the belief they have reduced him to a laughing stock.

It doesn’t stop there. Iran differs from the Arab world in ethnicity and in the type of practice of Islam, but nevertheless they share the same autocratic culture. Its rulers will do whatever they think is necessary to maximize and preserve power. In June this year, for instance, the Saudis executed in public their hundredth victim. The condemnation to flogging and death of Raif Badawi simply for proposing to discuss reform is particularly horrifying. Amnesty International, the human-rights body, says that so far this year Iran has executed in public 694 victims and may exceed 1,000 by December. An average of two or three people are hanged every day. Deals of any kind with regimes like that are admissions of weakness and willingness to be humiliated.

No longer pillars held together by Pax Americana, Iran and Saudi Arabia are left to test which of them now has power to come out on top. All manner of unsuspected alliances and enmities may emerge. The outcome is unpredictable except in one respect: The nuclear weapon is the ultimate guarantee of power, and both parties will do everything necessary to obtain it. When the stakes are so high, agreements on paper, signatures, assurances, legalisms of all sorts, are worthless. Worse still, the whole concept of coming to a deal qualifying power proves only that President Obama and his associates are dangerously out of touch with reality.

IS IRAN ABOUT TO REPEAT HISTORY?

From NRO:

IS IRAN ABOUT TO REPEAT HISTORY?   That’s the central question posed by new ad out from the Foundation for American Security and Freedom, challenging the president’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran and demonstrating its eerie similarity to the deal struck in the mid-Nineties with North Korea (by the husband of the prospective Democratic nominee for president, of course).

Watch the ad here:

 

FASF, chaired by Ambassador (and National Review contributor) John Bolton and “committed to restoring and protecting our vital national security interests and preserving our way of life for our children,” has launched a petition against the Iran deal. You can sign up at its website.

IMPORTANT DISCUSSIONS ON HOMOSEXUALITY, THE BIBLE, AND THE CHURCH

I've come across a number of recent discussions on the current pressing topic of homosexality, the Bible and the church.  

-- On July 1, 2015 Kevin DeYoung published 40 Questions for Christians Now Waving Rainbow Flags

 DeYoung - If you consider yourself a Bible-believing Christian, a follower of Jesus whose chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, there are important questions I hope you will consider before picking up your flag and cheering on the sexual revolution. These questions aren’t meant to be snarky or merely rhetorical. They are sincere . . 

--  Two days later Matthew Vines, the author of God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships, and a current leading spokesman for "Gay Christians," posted a response titled, "40 questions for Christians who oppose marriage equality."

 Vines - ... But there are many pressing questions that non-affirming Christians frequently do not address. - 

--  Dr. Michael Brown published an impressive comprehensive response (July 10, 2015)  to Vines' "40 Questions" titled  "Dr. Michael Brown has 40 Answers and 2 Questions for "Gay" Christian Matthew Vines." 

--  Dr. Brown peers into the future in this July 3, 2015 podcast interview 

--  Brown debated Matthew Vines a year ago  (6/28/14) via webcam on a program moderated by Julie Roys titled, "Can You Be Gay and Christian?  Dr. Michael Brown Debates Matthew Vines."

   

-- After the debate Brown published  a follow-up article answering Vines' charge that the ancient world (and the Apostle Paul) knew nothing of loving, committed gay relationships as we know today.  As Brown noted, the Greco-Roman world was indeed fully aware of such relationships.   (See here and here).   Brown is the author of Can You Be Gay and Christian:  Responding with Love and Truth to Questions about Homosexuality (which ironically was published the same day as Vines' God and the Gay Christian).

 --  A British writer offered a personal response to Vine's 40 questions. 

 --  Of additional interest might be the NRB Forum Discussion on Homosexuality and the Church

July 1, 2015 -Janet Parshall hosted the discussion with Dr. Brown, ex-gay Anne Paulk, and pro-gay Christian leaders Justin Lee and Brandan Robertson. 

  

-- The popular and influential New York pastor-theologian and author, Tim Keller, recently offered a major review of Matthew Vines' book God and the Gay Christian and also Ken Wilson's A Letter to My Congregation.   Keller's review of these two books constitutes must reading.  

 

 - -  Rosaria Butterfield has published a new book, Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ.  This is a sequel to her extremely popular The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.  Her hour-long interview (Jan. 2013) with World Magazine's Marvin Olasky generated over 100,000 views.

 

  

 

World Magazine summarized Secret Thoughts, her first book, this way:  "Butterfield described how God took her from lesbianism and a tenured professorship in English and Women's Studies at Syracuse University to friendship with a Christian couple, then church, then marriage to a Reformed Presbyterian pastor, and life as a homeschooling mother, pastor's wife, author, and speaker."  

 

From the publisher's blurb on her new book, Openness Unhindered:

This book answers many of the questions people pose when she speaks at universities and churches, questions not only about her unlikely conversion to Christ but about personal struggles that the ques­tioners only dare to ask someone else who has traveled a long and painful journey. Dr. Butterfield not only goes to great lengths to clarify some of today's key controversies, she also traces their history and defines the terms that have become second nature today-even going back to God's original design for marriage and sexuality as found in the Bible. She cuts to the heart of the problems and points the way to the solution, which includes a challenge to the church to be all that God intended it to be, and for each person to find the true freedom that is found in Christ. Chapters include: Conversion: the Spark of a New Identity Identity: the Flame of Our Union in Christ Repentance: the Threshold to God and the Answer to Shame, Temptation, and Sin Sexual Orientation: Freud’s 19th Century Category Mistake Self-Representation: What Does It Mean to Be “gay”? Conflict: When Sisters Disagree Community: Representing Christ to the World   World Magazine offers a book excerpt, chapter 4, (behind a pay barrier) here.    - - A resource for church ministry to those struggling with same-sex attraction is W.P. Campbell's Turning Controversy into Church Ministry: A Christian Response to Homosexuality.     --  Some previous posts on homosexuality:

WHY A CONSERVATIVE SHOULDN'T GET EXCITED ABOUT DONALD TRUMP

He's been a conservative for about 10 minutes.  Read his past statements.

Update 7/11/15 -  Jonah Goldberg piles on 

Update 7/14/15 - Daniel Greenfield - Why Trump is Winning    Greenfield's article not only explains Trump's current successes, but advances a "take it to the enemy" approach that can reconfigure public opinion and win elections.  I think Greenfield is absolutely right.

 . . The real way to show voters that you care about them is by being a fighter.  Cheering the boxer who is the “nicer” guy is a losing proposition . . . 

Donald Trump shot out ahead of the pack by being a fighter. His political positions right now may be the opposite of his old positions, but few people care because they see him throwing and taking punches in the ring. They see him burning through a $3 billion brand just to get into the race.

In a campaign where the other candidates have carefully nuanced positions on most of the issues, Trump shows no signs of nuance. He may be widely inconsistent, denouncing illegal aliens one day and endorsing amnesty the next, but frustrated voters are sending a message that they want a fighter. . . .

Taking the fight to the enemy is scary. That’s why most politicians don’t do it. It’s easier to dance around, duck and hope you won’t get hit too hard when the time comes. Republican voters have become used to politicians who throw a halfhearted punch, play to the crowd and then play it safe.

That’s not what Trump is doing. He keeps taking hits and throwing punches. He may lose. He may take the Republicans down with him, but the base is happy just to see someone get out there and fight.

The left has a huge media and political infrastructure built in a plan that its activists have been pursuing for generations. It’s time someone punched them and their plan in the face.  . . .

If the Republican Party wants to win something more than a seat at the pork table, its candidates will have to fight. They will get hurt. They will get beaten. But if they fight hard and well enough, the momentum will shift. Playing defense will never shift the momentum. At best it will extract the occasional meaningless victory that will end up disgusting even its own supporters.

The basic formula isn’t hard. Take an issue. Punch the left in the face over it. Don’t go on the defensive when the media whips up outrage. Don’t justify, apologize and explain. Instead punch harder. 

Punch the left in the face over illegal alien crime, over its pro-crime policies and its massive debt, its war on religion, its hatred for the family and its obsession with censorship and control. Hit it over its failed foreign policy, its lost wars, its sympathy for terrorists, its lawlessness and abuses of power.

Keep hitting the left until it forgets its plans, until it feels doubt, until splits begin to form among moderate and extreme Democrats that translate into political defeats and compromises.

That’s not just how you win fights. It’s how you win victories that make a difference.

 Read the whole thing...

VIDEO: HILLSDALE COLLEGE SINGS AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

 

Ed Morrissey offers pertinent comments:

This particular verse seems relevant at the moment:

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

Our body politic lacks plenty of self-control these days on all sides, but the last line is key. The only way to confirm liberty is to rely on the rule of law, not the rule of whim. When courts take it upon themselves to redefine the constitution based on the prevailing cultural whims rather than have legislatures address the law to conform to democratic self-government, we have begun marching down the latter road toward autocracy. When government officials levy ruinous fines over wedding cakes based on their own personal vindictiveness, we are walking back toward the “swarms of Officers [sent] to harass our people, and eat out their substance”noted in the Declaration of Independence. Our recourse is in the rule of law created by a self-governing free people, even though that does seem at times to be a nearly impossible goal.

That does not mean our best days are behind us. It just means that our hard work remains, as it always has, ahead of us. In the meantime, we’ll fly the banner of the free and remember why we sought independence from far-flung autocrats in the first place.

ISIS THREATENS TO KILL CHRISTIANS IN JERUSALEM AT END OF RAMADAN (JULY 18)

Elizabeth Kendal of Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin writes:

Arabic leaflets have appeared in Jerusalem, purportedly issued by an ISIS-aligned group, telling Christians they must flee Jerusalem by the end of Ramadan [18 July] -- otherwise they will be slaughtered. The threat comes as ISIS and Hamas engage in a struggle for the allegiance of Palestinian Muslims. Religious tensions are rising across Israel and Christians are being attacked by Jewish ultra-nationalists and radicalised Muslims, leaving some wondering if Christians have a future in Israel. The Israeli government has condemned the violence against Christians as 'an attack on us all' and affirmed Israel's commitment to religious liberty and rule of law. The ISIS threat against Christians could prove a serious challenge, especially if it extends to Gaza, with no Israeli security presence. Please pray for Israel and its Christians.

x

More details and photos . . .