Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
The punishment costed the little girl's life
Authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin died after being forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. Severely dehydrated, the girl had a seizure and died days later. Now, her grandmother and stepmother who police say meted out the punishment were taken to jail Wednesday and face murder charges.
Read the rest of the entry. Really depressing. Let's pray for those who are truly affected by this tragedy.
Christians are persecuted in Muslim lands
A U.S. human rights group says it has received troubling reports that Iran may have issued an execution order for an Iranian pastor, who was sentenced to death because he refused to recant his Christian faith and return to Islam.This is troubling, and calls us to pray for pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, and that his family can get out of Iran, so they won't be persecuted as well.“At this point, we can confirm that he is still alive,” Jordan Sekulow, executive director for theAmerican Center for Law and Justice, told msnbc.com Wednesday evening.
But of course, we can't expect the amount of grief from Christians as when Whitney Houston died. Christians have forgotten how their faith was forged, and that real heroes like pastor Nadarkhani, die without a wall post commemoration in their walls. Shame on you.
The Reverend Timothy Lovejoy
A few years ago, The Times stated that Groundskeeper Willie of The Simpsons was “the most instantly recognizable Scot in the world.” Perhaps the same could be said about Reverend Lovejoy as the world’s best known minister. As such, I feel his exegetical and theological wisdom deserves a closer look here as an attempt to assign him his place in the history of theology. So let us take a look at three classic statements by this pastor of the “Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism.”
1. “Marge, just about everything is a sin. [holds up a Bible] You ever sat down and read this thing? Technically we’re not allowed to go to the bathroom.”
Biblical Reference: There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:22-23)
Theological Impact: Martin Luther
Context: When Marge and Homer are having marital problems, Reverend Lovejoy visits Marge to counsel her. To her big surprise, however, he plainly suggests she get a divorce, which causes Marge to ask him whether divorce was not considered a sin. In Lovejoy’s above stated theological comment on sin, certain traits of Lutheran theology shine through. Not only does the Reverend consider the Bible the sole basis for the evaluation of sin (sola scriptura), he also strongly emphasises man’s sinful nature and his subsequent incapacity of living without sin. Unfortunately, he then draws a false conclusion from this insight, i.e., the idea that since man is a compulsive sinner anyway, there is no need for moral decisions anymore – which is exactly the reproach that Luther’s opponents always brought forward against him.
2. “Ned, have you thought about one of the other major religions? They’re all pretty much the same.”
Biblical reference: none
Theological Impact: Ernst Troeltsch
Context: Being annoyed with the constant questions and problems of Ned Flanders (classic: “I think I may be coveting my own wife”), Reverend Lovejoy encourages him to join another religion. The justification for this advice, although primarily caused by the mere wish to get rid of Flanders, is in fact perfectly in line with the position of Ernst Troeltsch, one of Germany’s most prominent theologians at the turn of the 20thcentury. He stated that Christianity is the way we perceive God’s revelation in our lives and that we thus – because of the lack of an alternative – consider it the absolute religion. Meanwhile, other people in completely different religious circumstances perceive the divine in different ways and form different religions, which they also can rightfully consider absolute.
3. “All things are about Jesus, Homer, except this.”
Biblical Reference: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:3)
Theological Impact: Karl Barth
Context: When Bart is secretly working at a burlesque house, Reverend Lovejoy comes over to his parents’ house to talk it over. Before he knows why Lovejoy came, Homer, being afraid of a boring sermon, asks him if his visit was about Jesus, which results in the above stated answer by the Reverend. While the particular exception mentioned may be debatable, the idea that everything is about Christ sounds a lot like the motto of another German thinker, the (in-) famous Karl Barth, whom Pope Pius XII described as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas. To Barth, Christ is God’s claim upon our whole life, and there can be no areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ – even if it has something to do with your son working at a burlesque house!
All in all we might say that the designation “Reform Presbylutheranism” is not too farfetched when we consider Reverend Lovejoy’s wide-ranged theological basis. However, might he in fact be more influenced by the German tradition than has been acknowledged? At least that would account for his strong anti-Catholic sentiments. When asked to perform the last rites on a dying man, he just scoffs: “That’s Catholic; you might as well ask me to do a voodoo dance.”
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Online Apologetics Conference 2012
On the 19th of April, a number of apologists will present guest lectures free of charge on a variety of apologetics topics. Use this link to find out more about the conference and the sessions. Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society will present the keynote on: “Finding the Right Word: Chesterton on the Writer’s Art.”
Find the Online Apologetics Conference on Facebook and Twitter.
Apologetics 315 is happy to sponsor this event. (For those who are interested, Brian Auten will be speaking on the 19th on the topic, "Avoiding Apologetics Pitfalls.")
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Democracy from the Chinese view. Interesting alternative view.
Why China’s Political Model Is Superior
By ERIC X. LI
Published: February 16, 2012
Shanghai
THIS week the Obama administration is playing host to Xi Jinping, China’s vice president and heir apparent. The world’s most powerful electoral democracy and its largest one-party state are meeting at a time of political transition for both.
Many have characterized the competition between these two giants as a clash between democracy and authoritarianism. But this is false. America and China view their political systems in fundamentally different ways: whereas America sees democratic government as an end in itself, China sees its current form of government, or any political system for that matter, merely as a means to achieving larger national ends.
In the history of human governance, spanning thousands of years, there have been two major experiments in democracy. The first was Athens, which lasted a century and a half; the second is the modern West. If one defines democracy as one citizen one vote, American democracy is only 92 years old. In practice it is only 47 years old, if one begins counting after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — far more ephemeral than all but a handful of China’s dynasties.
Why, then, do so many boldly claim they have discovered the ideal political system for all mankind and that its success is forever assured?
The answer lies in the source of the current democratic experiment. It began with the European Enlightenment. Two fundamental ideas were at its core: the individual is rational, and the individual is endowed with inalienable rights. These two beliefs formed the basis of a secular faith in modernity, of which the ultimate political manifestation is democracy.
In its early days, democratic ideas in political governance facilitated the industrial revolution and ushered in a period of unprecedented economic prosperity and military power in the Western world. Yet at the very beginning, some of those who led this drive were aware of the fatal flaw embedded in this experiment and sought to contain it.
The American Federalists made it clear they were establishing a republic, not a democracy, and designed myriad means to constrain the popular will. But as in any religion, faith would prove stronger than rules.
The political franchise expanded, resulting in a greater number of people participating in more and more decisions. As they say in America, “California is the future.” And the future means endless referendums, paralysis and insolvency.
In Athens, ever-increasing popular participation in politics led to rule by demagogy. And in today’s America, money is now the great enabler of demagogy. As the Nobel-winning economist A. Michael Spence has put it, America has gone from “one propertied man, one vote; to one man, one vote; to one person, one vote; trending to one dollar, one vote.” By any measure, the United States is a constitutional republic in name only. Elected representatives have no minds of their own and respond only to the whims of public opinion as they seek re-election; special interests manipulate the people into voting for ever-lower taxes and higher government spending, sometimes even supporting self-destructive wars.
The West’s current competition with China is therefore not a face-off between democracy and authoritarianism, but rather the clash of two fundamentally different political outlooks. The modern West sees democracy and human rights as the pinnacle of human development. It is a belief premised on an absolute faith.
China is on a different path. Its leaders are prepared to allow greater popular participation in political decisions if and when it is conducive to economic development and favorable to the country’s national interests, as they have done in the past 10 years.
However, China’s leaders would not hesitate to curtail those freedoms if the conditions and the needs of the nation changed. The 1980s were a time of expanding popular participation in the country’s politics that helped loosen the ideological shackles of the destructive Cultural Revolution. But it went too far and led to a vast rebellion at Tiananmen Square.
That uprising was decisively put down on June 4, 1989. The Chinese nation paid a heavy price for that violent event, but the alternatives would have been far worse.
The resulting stability ushered in a generation of growth and prosperity that propelled China’s economy to its position as the second largest in the world.
The fundamental difference between Washington’s view and Beijing’s is whether political rights are considered God-given and therefore absolute or whether they should be seen as privileges to be negotiated based on the needs and conditions of the nation.
The West seems incapable of becoming less democratic even when its survival may depend on such a shift. In this sense, America today is similar to the old Soviet Union, which also viewed its political system as the ultimate end.
History does not bode well for the American way. Indeed, faith-based ideological hubris may soon drive democracy over the cliff.
For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage
Talk about women taking their lives into their own hands!! This is what happens when there's no moral guidance.
LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.This is not good for the future of those kids who are growing with one parent. Their chances in life has been minimised greatly.
But the demographics of such a "phenomenon" has shifted, as we can see:
Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.Well, how could they finish a four year college, if they got pregnant!!! And here it's the brake down of the figures:
Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.
One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.So this is a generational change? You can see that this will be a generation of kids who will be short of the opportunities they would have otherwise in a complete family.
The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.There are some mothers who intentionally bring children to the world, without a father, and they are now paying the price. Wait, not them, their children!!
And as in all issues, there are two sides of the issue:
The forces rearranging the family are as diverse as globalization and the pill. Liberal analysts argue that shrinking paychecks have thinned the ranks of marriageable men, while conservatives often say that the sexual revolution reduced the incentive to wed and that safety net programs discourage marriage.
Well, liberals are happy to have a group of men who are effeminate, while the conservatives, don't take into consideration that even men inside the church are not as strong as they used to.
There are towns that are suffering for lack of jobs for the men.
Over the past generation, Lorain lost most of two steel mills, a shipyard and a Ford factory, diminishing the supply of jobs that let blue-collar workers raise middle-class families. More women went to work, making marriage less of a financial necessity for them. Living together became routine, and single motherhood lost the stigma that once sent couples rushing to the altar. Women here often describe marriage as a sign of having arrived rather than a way to get there.
Meanwhile, children happen.
Like I said, conservatives don't take into consideration those issues, and I think they don't understand them, since they are mainly well to do.
The issue is so bad, and the lines of risk are divided along racial lines:
Large racial differences remain: 73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less, according to Child Trends.If these figures are correct, Blacks will never, ever, get out of poverty as a group. This is something that conservatives ignore, since when it comes to abortion, they don't take into consideration that due to poverty, people take the decision to abort their child. And it's the black community who aborts the most, and who gives birth the most outside marriage. This is bad for their community.
But for those who say they want to wait until they feel sure about getting married, I have some bad news for you:
Almost all of the rise in nonmarital births has occurred among couples living together. While in some countries such relationships endure at rates that resemble marriages, in the United States they are more than twice as likely to dissolve than marriages. In a summary of research, Pamela Smock and Fiona Rose Greenland, both of the University of Michigan, reported that two-thirds of couples living together split up by the time their child turned 10.Well, this may happen over here in Australia as well, where so many people just "shack up" together, and live, have kids, and then separate.
But the whole issue, I think, is summed up in the coming paragraph:
Even as many Americans withdraw from marriage, researchers say, they expect more from it: emotional fulfillment as opposed merely to practical support. “Family life is no longer about playing the social role of father or husband or wife, it’s more about individual satisfaction and self-development,” said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University.Yes!!! And there's a great movement to redefine the meaning of marriage as well. Once the roles are thrown out, only selfish fulfilment is expected. Marriage is only for self-development? Marriage is not something to cherish but only a tool to get ahead in life. No wonder so many people don't care if same sex marriage happens!!!
Read the whole of the article. This trend is truly alarming.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Can We Neo-Anabaptists and Neo-Reformed Just Get Along! An Interview by David Fitch
1. There seems to have been a resurgence of the Neo-Reformed and Anabaptists at the same time. It’s almost like they’re parallel movements. What’s behind that?If you ask me, this has to do with the cultural turning point facing the North American church. There’s a unhinging of sorts happening in N. American culture where the larger culture is becoming unhinged from the Christian moorings of its past. One can easily see this happening in Canada, Europe and the northern United States. And so now we, here in N. America, find ourselves in a “mission field.” We are forced to ask the question, how do we engage this newly secularized, even antagonistic-to-the-gospel culture? How can we be faithful to God’s Mission in Jesus Christ? In my opinion, the rise of Neo-Reformed and Neo-Anabaptists comes from responding to this cultural shift. They can be interpreted as two parallel movements responding to this shift.I find so many good things about this post. I am a baptist, with Anabaptist leanings. I have also mentioned in conversations that the new interest in Reformed theology is because of the cultural shift, as well as the economical shift in the USA. They need a doctrine, predestination, that gives them the sense that even when things are out of their hands, they know someone is in control, and ultimately, they can claim that they are still in control.
So I would say the “Neo-Reformed” group has responded to this shift by pushing for a purifying of the gospel. We’ve lost our way. We’ve given away the proclamation of the gospel in order to be relevant. And the church has declined. We need to restate it clearly and find ways to be present in that truth in our culture. This is a revival of past protestant orthodoxy (for some this is more towards Puritan thought than the Majesterial Reformation) for sure but it is more than that. It is an attempt to bridge that orthodoxy with a new sense of mission in the N American context.
In regards to the Neo-Anabaptists, I would say this group has responded by stressing a renewal of the embodiment of the gospel in local contexts. Here, we need to pay attention to the “witness” of the gospel in the rhythms of our everyday lives. There is a push to figure out traditional Anabaptist themes for today: themes such as a.) Community together for God’s Mission, b.) Discipleship, c.) the subversive yet non-coercive ways of service, reconciliation, and peacemaking in the neighborhood. The gospel is defined here more broadly than for many Neo-Reformed– think Scot McKnight or N. T. Wright. We Anabaptists, I suggest, are more happy to accept the post-Christendom state of things. This however requires new modes of cultural engagement, listening, postures of humility. This is not the sectarian Anabaptism of times past.
So these are two different responses to the new cultural conditions in the West.
2. What can Anabaptists learn from the Neo-Reformed?In my opinion, the strength of the Reformed movement is the seriousness with which they take the Scriptures, doctrine and belief. They push us to think about uncomfortable subjects like hell, the seriousness of sin, eternity and even the nature of the Bible’s authority. In my opinion these issues are extremely important for the new journey of faithfulness we are on. They should not be sloughed off. I might also add that the renewed focus on preaching and God’s grace is important as well. Although I don’t agree with many of my Neo-Reformed friends, I have learned a lot from them on all these things. Think Tim Keller and some things I’ve learned about preaching. Think John Piper and the nature of desire being shaped before God in worship. That’s good stuff.
3. What can the Neo-Reformed learn from Anabaptists?Too many to mention (haha sorry). But seriously, Neo-Anabaptism brings with it a serious critique and understanding about the ways the church aligns itself with power structures in society to therefore dilute and even neuter the gospel. We the church thereby become too easily co’opted by society instead of a transforming agent. I think the Neo-Reformed folks don’t get how much of their theology depends upon social constructs that don’t exist anymore for large parts of North America (could I have said that in an any more tactful manner?). I think Neo-Anabaptism pushes for integrity in our forms of gathering and being a people in the world for the gospel. Too much of Reformed ecclesiology is stuck in Geneva (could I have said that any less tactfully?). We need to think through a missional ecclesiology that takes seriously that the church is a witness to the Kingdom of God in Christ. The church is a sign to the world of where God is taking the rest of the world: the consummation of His Kingdom in Christ. This takes a way of being both in the world but as sent ones in the world. I could go on, but I might just write a book.
4. If you were invited to speak at a conference put on by The Gospel Coalition, what would you say to that group?I would expand on questions 2.) and 3.) above and then have an altar call
5. You live in Chicago, yet you seem to be a Canadian at heart. What made you so interested in Canada?I grew up in Hamilton Ontario. I missed being born in Owen Sound, Ontario by 2 months! (when my parents moved to the states for 6 years) So that means I was conceived a Canadian! My grandfather founded the C&MA church in Ottawa and then ministered in Winnipeg. So I have a rich rich ancesteral Canadian heritage in my family. Despite the fact that I have now lived the majority of my life in the U.S., I am not always comfortable here. The Empire mentality, the power posture of evangelicalism makes me ache. So my Canadian heritage is a gift because it gives me a unique perspective. And it also enables me to go visit all my friends in Canada on vacation every summer, hang in a Tim Horton’s and think hockey in the off season.
I agree that the Neo-Reformed are doing well in their push to purify the Gospel. For decades, the liberals have thought that if they do what the culture does, the Gospel would be more palatable to them. This has totally backfired, since it is their churches that continue in decline, while those who have held to the Gospel, have grown.
Although the criticism, that the Neo-Reformed are working like the the old power paradigms are still present, is spot on. They are still working under the pretence that Christianity is the dominating culture. Sometimes feels like they are just promoting the same type of American imperialism, but in a Neo-Reformed way.
But to me, the term "Neo-Anabaptist" is new. But it's refreshing to see that this new type of Anabaptism is different from the sectarian one of the past.
Great article, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Watching Don Carson speaking on John 3 at Liberty University
You can also catch him on this address
Enjoy sound and edifying biblical teaching.
The greatness of technology, that you can hear at someone at the other side of world, live!!!!
Lowering the flag has lost all its meaning if we don't do it for real heroes
But when you elevate Whitney, or any other celebrity to the level of a soldier, who fights for the freedom of a country, and sacrifices his life for it, that's disgusting. I would do have great respect for fire fighters, cops, and even some doctors, but not Whitney Houston. She died, as Jim West has already said,
It cheapens the meaning of the respect duly shown to those who have died in service to others. Whitney Houston died, and it's a tragedy, but she didn't die on some field of battle or fighting some horrible blaze: she died from excessive self indulgence. That hardly merits the same respect soldiers and patriots are shown.
But read at what a parent of a fallen soldier did upon hearing what the Governor of New Jersey ordered to remember the death of Whitney Houston:
When John Burri heard that New Jersey ordered flags flown at half-staff to honor Whitney Houston, he drove to his local Flags Unlimited store, bought a New Jersey state flag, brought it to his Michigan home, and burned it on his outdoor grill. "It was $12.95 and it was the best money I ever spent," says the father of Army Spc. Eric Burri, who was killed in Iraq in 2005. Michigan's governor ordered that state's flags flown at half-staff for one day to honor Burri's son, and it's an honor that should be reserved for those who died in the line of service, Burri says.This type of events should be guarded, so they don't lose their cultural meaning. If we start to lower the flag for someone who dies of a drug overdose, or too much drinking, or indulging themselves, we are cheapening the act. What did Whitney fight for? I liked her music, but I don't think she deserves to be put on par with those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.
For New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to order the same honor for Houston is "a slap in the face," Burri tells the Detroit News. "It cheapens the meaning of lowering that flag. They're watering down the meaning of a hero." His action was a legal one, a law professor notes, since the Supreme Court has ruled that the burning of a US flag is constitutionally protected speech—and those decisions would also apply to state flags. Christie was criticized by others for his decision, but he defended it last week, calling Houston a "cultural icon" of whom New Jersey residents are proud.So "cultural icons" get the same honour as those who put their lives on the line? Despicable way of thinking, and Gov. Christie should apologize to those he has offended.
Whitney, I liked you, but you have no place among the real heroes of this world.
Sex change for kids on the rise. A bad sign of the culture we live in
Today, I offer to you some bad news, that you don't have to grown up in order adopt this type of madness. AP reports:
A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.
It's an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.From small, it's growing. This is a concern. And the fact that even professionals are concerned about it, should tell us something.
An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, "I a boy" and has stuck with that belief. The family was shocked but now refers to the child as a boy and is watching for the first signs of puberty to begin treatment, his mother told The Associated Press.I wonder if you listen to all your 18 months old toddler tells you. I remember that my first daughter, who is almost 17 yrs now, told me that her blanket had special powers. It took us some effort to finally get her blanket away from her. It was not right to take that piece of cloth everywhere. These parents don't sound like responsible parents, rather, allow their child to indulge. And to top it all, what sort of parents listen to their 18 months old and follow exactly what they say??
Switching gender roles and occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common in young children. But these kids are different. They feel certain they were born with the wrong bodies.
Some are labeled with "gender identity disorder," a psychiatric diagnosis. But Spack is among doctors who think that's a misnomer. Emerging research suggests they may have brain differences more similar to the opposite sex.
Spack said by some estimates, 1 in 10,000 children have the condition.Some kids are different, and yes, they may have a kind of condition that is not common, as we can see, 1 in 10,000. However, if we want to give drugs to people with a mental condition, so they can carry on with their lives like the rest of us, why then some parents do this with their kids when it comes to their sexual identity?
Read the entire entry. It tries to pose both sides of the issue.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Is Israel the only nation allowed to assassinate its enemies, and kill civilians too
The assassinations of the Iranian scientists were no less terrorist, let's admit it. Terror is terror, against diplomats exactly like against scientists, even if the latter are developing nuclear weapons. There is no great difference between an attempt to kill a representative of Israel's Defense Ministry and a strike on an Iranian nuclear physicist. There are nuclear physicists in Israel too and if, God forbid, someone tried to assassinate them, that would rightly be considered cruel terror.
And so anyone who uses these deplorable assassination methods cannot be critical when someone else tries to emulate them. And why should the world denounce Iran's terrorist acts - as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday - and not denounce others? Are there special countries that are allowed to assassinate at will, and others who are not?
Terrorism is terrorism, period. It doesn't matter where it comes from, or who commits it.
Here people are shocked by attempted assassinations by Arabs or Iranians, but divorce them completely from the context of Israeli assassinations. How did a columnist in Israel Hayom put it this week? "Attacking Israel is in their DNA." Theirs? And what about us? The writer forgot, and made us forget, our DNA. It, too, supports assassinations, including sometimes of the innocent.Assassinations of Palestinians have scaled down in recent years and have been carried out mainly in Gaza, and so the hit lists of the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces are now shorter. That's a good thing.But according to the data of the human rights group B'Tselem, Israel targeted and killed no less than 232 Palestinians in the territories between the beginning of the second intifada and Operation Cast Lead, a period of about eight years. During those attacks,approximately 150 innocent bystanders were killed, including women and children.So, how about those 150 bystanders? Is anybody going to say that they didn't deserve to die? Or only Israeli people count? Some will tell me, "in war people die". Yes, but they don't take into account that people from both sides die. They only mourn those they like.
That's why I abhor Christian Zionism, and call it a heresy. They think that by supporting Israel, even in their terrorist acts, they are doing God's will. I guess that the second commandment is not in their Bibles, and the loving of enemies is not in their Bible either. But they would say, as they usually do, "you are confusion politics with religion". Well, tell that to the Zionists in Israel, and don't tell it to me. But then again, they are extremely selective at how they also apply that rule too.
Terrorism is terrorism, period.
The Colbert Report, dead for at least one week. I was hoping for its final demise...
Anyway, last week ABC News informed us that the report would not be recorded due to unforeseen circumstances. I was soooo happy.
Then, it was reported the reason why the "Report" was not to be seen for a while. The reason given was that Colbert's mom was sick. That he is very closed to his mom, and was very private about it.
Well, I hope she does get better, she is 91. But it serves him right. He has trashed many people in his show, and I bet some of them would be pleased to see him off the air for a while. But I guess, he may be also thinking that some people he has trashed, wouldn't mind seeing him suffer for a while, even if it is something tragic as his own mom.
“They are a very private family,” said a source. “It’s not surprising that he did not want anyone to know what was going on.”His is not the only "private family". He thrives on incurring on people's privacy, and making fun of them. Yet, he wants to take care of his at all costs. Another big time hypocrite.
I don't think that anybody in their right minds will make fun of Colbert and his mom, but I hope that he takes the occasion to think all the damage he has made to people in his diatribes against them, and how their moms feel when they listen to Colbert putting down their sons and daughters.
But I guess he doesn't care.
I, for one, would like the show NEVER to come back on air. But I guess that mindless people are the majority, and sometimes, the mob rules.
Survival at the End of Days: Aspects of Soteriology in the Dead Sea Scrolls Pesharim
This is a bit technical, but don't read the footnotes, and you will be alright.
Enjoy.
Luther's death anniversary
However, I am not going to let the opportunity go by, and will remember the death of Martin Luther, who died on the 18 of February, 1546.
None of my Lutheran friends wrote anything on their Facebook walls or blogs. I am not Lutheran, but have a great respect for the man.
Let us remember the Father of the Reformation. I am a child of the Reformation, although Luther hated my kind (Baptist/Anabaptists).
May he rest in peace.
Which States in the USA get the most from the Federal Government?
So my Republican friends who are always having a go at how Democrats are wasting tax payers' money, well, they are wasting their money then Republican held states. We have now proof!
It's no secret: The federal budget is expanding faster than tax revenues, a trend that's been fueled by the rapid growth of entitlement programs and exacerbated by the recession. As a recent New York Times article documents, even as fiscally conservative lawmakers complain about deficit spending, their constituents don't want to give up the Social Security checks, Medicare benefits, and earned income tax credits that provide a safety net for the struggling middle class.This gap between political perception and fiscal reality is also reflected in the distribution of tax dollars at the state level: Most politically "red" states are financially in the red when it comes to how much money they receive from Washington compared with what their residents pay in taxes.Go into the link provided, and you can see the brake down of who gets what.
So much for those, so called, fiscal conservatives.
Hypocrisy at its best!!
P.D. Don't go crying that this is supposed to be "religious" blog. This blog was created to see ALL things from a Christian view point.
The Wallace / Ehrman Debate Online
This is a good resource, but Wallace claims to have a 1st century copy of Mark. This has created a bit of confusion, but still good to look at.
Face it, man don't give birth to children, period
Take into account how this news reports that "a man" has given birth. You are amazed, until you read that the "man" used to be a woman.
The 27-year-old university graduate, who was born a woman but has had treatment to change his gender, gave birth to a girl in March last year, and admitted he had had to cope with concerns from his family.The woman who turned herself to a man, should have remembered that man don't giver birth to babies, but this is once more an example that people, if able, will do unthinkable things to please their fallen nature.
He was born a woman but had been living as a man for five years. He had legally changed his name and gender and had been receiving hormone treatment, but decided to attempt to conceive with his male partner, from whom he has now separated, using his own eggs.
He conceived after stopping hormone treatment that had deactivated his womb and gave birth to the baby he calls his “little angel” in March last year. His case is thought to be only the fourth in the world.So, he was with a man, now they are separated, and yet, they brought a child to the world. And this is totally crazy. In my mind, if this woman became a man to be with another woman, that would make case, but apparently, she became a man to be with another man!!!
I fear for the poor little baby. Having being borne into a dysfunctional family is worst than just being borne to a dysfunctional society.
And of course, that the mother comes to her senses, and stops trying to be a dad.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Another proof of American Exceptionalism. Their rotten election system.
Time gives us a piece of how bad things are.
Why should we care? Because the electorate is so polarize, that any wrong result, may even lead to very much friction in the society.
You want an argument against American exceptionalism? Take a look at how the nation votes. According to a new report by the Pew Center for The States, the U.S. voting system remains “plagued with errors and inefficiencies that waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections.”I take it the other way around, it IS exceptional that such a country be in such a peril. And the problems are very serious, indeed:
Approximately 24 million—one of every eight—active voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate.–More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as active voters.–Approximately 2.75 million people have active registrations in more than one state.–Researchers estimate at least 51 million eligible U.S. citizens are unregistered, or more than 24 percent of the eligible population.If people in the USA still think they also have the "best" voting system, sorry, you are wrong, and you better fix it before you get into trouble. But then again, if you think your system is the best, it is not likely you will want to change it.
What a shame.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Todd Bently I hope you don't get into Australia
Well, now, he is trying to get inside Australia, but let us hope that he doesn't.
He is being brought to Australia by Fresh Fire Ministries, and are trying to get him a visa. But that same ministry reports on the issue:
The Australian Tour is currently on hold until further Notice. Australian Immigration has denied Todd entry into the country at this time. We are however doing everything we can to get an answer for the denied entry. We have sent all the required documents and are awaiting approval from Australian Immigration to be allowed to come to Australia and Minister. Please continue to stand with us as we are not giving up.To minister what? Lies? Deceit? These are the requirements by the Australian government in order to allow people come into this country:
A person will not pass the character test where:• they have a substantial criminal record…A person is deemed to have a substantial criminal record if they have been:• sentenced to a term of imprisonment for 12 months or more• sentenced to two or more terms of imprisonment (whether on one or more occasions), where the total of those terms is two years or moreBentley, apparently does not measure up. I know that it was before he came to Christ, but I would also mention the scandals that he has created after coming to know the Lord Jesus.
He is a false prophet, and I like what these other writer says about his supposedly prophetic ministry:
If Bentley is full of prophetic vision, why didn’t he know that his visa application would be rejected. Similarly, one of the churches Bentley was scheduled to appear at was Jubilee International Church in Sydney; Jubilee claims to have “a deep culture of prophetic worship”, so why didn’t they know that Bentley wouldn’t be coming? I know a woman who says she goes to Jubilee every Sunday morning, yet she didn’t mention in advance that Bentley wouldn’t be appearing.It's so hard to keep the sheep safe from these wolves. At last, the Australian Government may be doing something right for a change. I just hope he doesn't get in, period.
Bestiality brothels!! The lowest of the lowest kind.
I know of human brothels, but now, depravity knows no bound, welcome bestiality brothels!!!! Where can you find such a gross invention? Well, from the very land of the Reformation, Germany.
Animal sex abuse is on the rise in Germany, with bestiality brothels being set up across the country, according to a state animal protection officer demanding stronger laws to protect mankind's furry and feathered friends
Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government, said the law needed to be changed to make sex abuse of animals – known as zoophilia – a crime.
“It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not,” she told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily paper on Friday.Animal porn? that's another new one for me!!
There are even animal brothels in Germany,” she said. Sex with animals was being increasingly seen as a lifestyle choice, and thus more acceptable.Total madness!! So sex with animals is now a lifestyle??? And people always call us to be tolerant, but this is just too far!!! They reason that making it a lifestyle, it's ok.
“The abuse seems to be increasingly rapidly, and the internet offers an additional distribution platform,” she said.
She said the justice authorities had found it exceptionally difficult to convict a man from Hesse, who had offered pictures and instructions for animal sex abuse over the internet.
“Zoophilia must be completely banned in the reformed animal protection law,” said Martin, referring to the governments plan to rework that section of the law.
Sex with animals was banned until 1969, when the animal protection law was introduced, but failed to include a specific ban on zoophilia, the Frankfurter Rundschau said.This laws just took too long to be introduced. And the man who is showing others how to abuse animals sexually....he should put pictures and instructions how he can be abused by psychos and less than normal people. At least he would be doing a conscious choice, while the poor animals, are being forced to have sex with humans against their own will, and nature.
People, who don't want to have sex with other people, but with animals. And all this from the land that I admire greatly for their technological and national advancement.
Well, I guess abundance makes that in you.
The Cult of the apostle Paul
It's true, I couldn't believe it myself, but Larry Hurtado has pointed to the fact that Paul, has been worshipped, or at least, held in a place of devotion.
A recently arrived book merits notice: David L. Eastman, Paul the Martyr: The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011). The object of the book is to analyze the evidence for the ways that the Apostle Paul came to be the object of reverence in the early centuries (Eastman’s chronological scope takes us down to ca. 600 CE). In Part 1, he discusses the emergence of devotion to Paul in Rome. This includes archaeological as well as textual evidence. One of the more interesting facts is that two rival sites for Paul’s martyrdom were touted, one on the Ostian Road, the other on the Appian Road. In the first of these (where the Emperors Constantine and, subsequently, Theodosius I erected basilicas in Paul’s honor) excavations turned up a sacrophagus claimed by the Vatican (in 2009) to contain the bones of Paul. Eastman’s discussion of the archaeological data on the two Roman sites is measured, careful, and seems thorough.Part 2 addresses the spread of “the Pauline cult” in Latin Europe and in North Africa. Here as well, Eastman continues to provide an impressively thorough discussion. There’s also a 34-page bibliography, reflecting the depth of Eastman’s engagement with scholarly resources on his subject.The time-frame takes us well past the period of “Christian origins” that I usually try to monitor myself, but I commend the book as a highly informative account of how, especially in the post-Constantinian period, Paul came to hold such a prominent place in Christian devotion.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Who are the Israelis really afraid of? Of themselves
For those Israel idola...I mean, lovers, I leave you a report said on the The Jerusalem Report, issue dated February 27, 2012. So much for the fear for Islamist nations.
The Queen of Sheba's Gold has been found. Archeology again, confirms what the Bible Says
A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.
Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-dayEthiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory.
Louise Schofield, an archaeologist and former British Museum curator, who headed the excavation on the high Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia, said: "One of the things I've always loved about archaeology is the way it can tie up with legends and myths. The fact that we might have the Queen of Sheba's mines is extraordinary."
An initial clue lay in a 20ft stone stele (or slab) carved with a sun and crescent moon, the "calling card of the land of Sheba", Schofield said. "I crawled beneath the stone – wary of a 9ft cobra I was warned lives here – and came face to face with an inscription in Sabaean, the language that the Queen of Sheba would have spoken."
On a mound nearby she found parts of columns and finely carved stone channels from a buried temple that appears to be dedicated to the moon god, the main deity of Sheba, an 8th century BC civilisation that lasted 1,000 years. It revealed a victory in a battle nearby, where Schofield excavated ancient bones.
Although local people still pan for gold in the river, they were unaware of the ancient mine. Its shaft is buried some 4ft down, in a hill above which vultures swoop. An ancient human skull is embedded in the entrance shaft, which bears Sabaean chiselling.
Sheba was a powerful incense-trading kingdom that prospered through trade with Jerusalem and the Roman empire. The queen is immortalised in Qur'an and the Bible, which describes her visit to Solomon "with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones ... Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices."
Although little is known about her, the queen's image inspired medieval Christian mystical works in which she embodied divine wisdom, as well as Turkish and Persian paintings, Handel's oratorio Solomon, and Hollywood films. Her story is still told across Africa and Arabia, and the Ethiopian tales are immortalised in the holy book the Kebra Nagast.
Hers is said to be one of the world's oldest love stories. The Bible says she visited Solomon to test his wisdom by asking him several riddles. Legend has it that he wooed her, and that descendants of their child, Menelik – son of the wise – became the kings of Abyssinia.
Schofield will begin a full excavation Schofield said that as she stood on the ancient site, in a rocky landscape of cacti and acacia trees, it was easy to imagine the queen arriving on a camel, overseeing slaves and elephants dragging rocks from the mine.
once she has the funds and hopes to establish the precise size of the mine, whose entrance is blocked by boulders.
Tests by a gold prospector who alerted her to the mine show that it is extensive, with a proper shaft and tunnel big enough to walk along.
Schofield was instrumental in setting up the multinational rescue excavations at the Roman city of Zeugma on the Euphrates before it was flooded for the Birecik dam. Her latest discovery was made during her environmental development work in Ethiopia, an irrigation, farming and eco-tourism project on behalf of the Tigray Trust, a charity she founded to develop a sustainable lifestyle for 10,000 inhabitants around Maikado, where people eke out a living from subsistence farming.
Sean Kingsley, archaeologist and author of God's Gold, said: "Where Sheba dug her golden riches is one of the great stories of the Old Testament. Timna in the Negev desert is falsely known as 'King Solomon's Mines', but anything shinier has eluded us.
"The idea that the ruins of Sheba's empire will once more bring life to the villages around Maikado is truly poetic and appropriate. Making the past relevant to the present is exactly what archaeologists should be doing. "
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