Interesting insights from the Weekly Standard by way of MereComments:
...When a gay man becomes a professor or a gay woman becomes a police officer, he or she performs the same job as a heterosexual. But there is a difference between a married couple and a same-sex couple in a long-term relationship. The difference is not in the nature of their relationship, not in the fact that lovemaking between men and women is, as the Catholics say, open to life. The difference is between the duties that marriage imposes on married people--not rights, but rather onerous obligations--which do not apply to same-sex love. ...
Well worth the read.
Over at Cathoholic, they have highlighted this article as well:
Schulman writes: "I think that the fundamental objection to gay marriage among most who oppose it has very little to do with one's feelings about the nature of homosexuality or what the Bible has to say about sodomy. The obstacle to wanting gay marriage is instead how we use and depend on marriage itself--and how little marriage, understood completely, affects or is relevant to gay people in love. Gay marriage is not so much wrong as unnecessary. But if it comes about, it will not be gay marriage that causes the harm I fear, as what will succeed its inevitable failure."
He believes that same-sex couples will determine on their own that the benefits accrued in marriage are simply not worth the obligations it imposes. Unfortunately, by the time same-sex couples and the larger culture arrive at this juncture, traditional marriage as an institution could be in even worse shape than it is now. Why? Because same-sex couples will assist in the unravelling of the social constrains and familial obligations that constitute the foundation of marriage as a once sturdy, if occasionally oppressive cultural institution.
and added some addtional thoughts
and they have added some additional thoughts:
One of the best meditations on the manifold obligations and joys intertwined in kinship practices must be an essay by Leon and Amy Kass: "What is your Name?" These two professors at the University of Chicago offer some very interesting insights regarding the deeper significance of 'naming a child' -- one of the primary kinship rituals that underscores parental authority, but also the mother and father's responsibility for the defense, nurture and education of their offspring:
You need to go read the whole thing. Perfect lunch time reading. Let's just hope enough people read it and heed it before its too late.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
DOING GOD'S WORK by Neil Anderson
Word for the Day
Isaiah 58:11
The LORD will continually guide you
An important concept of God's will is that God can only guide a moving ship. He is the rudder, but if the ship isn't under way, it can't be directed. Willingness to obey His will gets the ship moving.
In Acts 15:36, Paul had decided to revisit the churches he helped establish on his first missionary trip. The churches were being strengthened and increasing in number (Acts 16:5). Luke reports:
And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:6-9).
Sometimes God's leading does not make sense. If God wanted Paul to go to Macedonia in the first place, why didn't He make it easier and faster by having Paul travel by land to Caesarea and sail to Macedonia? Because God starts us out on a life course to fulfill a certain purpose and then, only when we are ready, He gives us course corrections. Like a good river pilot, He steers us away from troubled waters, and like a good coach, He never puts us in the game until we are ready.
I believe in divine guidance as described in Isaiah 58:11. But the context reveals that there are prerequisites that have to be satisfied. We are sometimes like a person who seeks to be an athlete by simply suiting up for the race. That's not how the skills are gained. It's in the course of dedication, training, and the contest itself that one gains the skill of an athlete.
It's in the doing of God's work that His will becomes known.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Falling Belief in Man-Made Global Warming
According to the American Spectator, there may be hope yet...
Bad news for environmental extremists. Despite control of the government and media, the alarmists are losing the battle for public support. Reports Rasmussen Reports:
Despite the rise in voters who say human activity is to blame, the overall results represent a complete reversal from a year ago, when 47% blamed human activity and only 34% blamed planetary trends. (more)
Bad news for environmental extremists. Despite control of the government and media, the alarmists are losing the battle for public support. Reports Rasmussen Reports:
Despite the rise in voters who say human activity is to blame, the overall results represent a complete reversal from a year ago, when 47% blamed human activity and only 34% blamed planetary trends. (more)
Tale of an Attempted Cereal Killing
Kind of pathetic that the suit has hung around for four years but it made me laugh. From USA Today:
A federal judge in California has dismissed a complaint filed by a San Diego woman who had bought "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" for four years believing the cereal contained real berries.
Janine Sugawara cried fraud when she learned the "berries" were only colored cereal balls flavored with strawberry concentrate. She sued the manufacturer on behalf of all crunchberry-eating Americans.
Judge Morrison England Jr. drowned the claim with the milk of common sense:
"This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a "crunchberry." ... A reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist. . . . So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world."
"Plaintiff did not explain why she could not reasonably have figured this out at any point during the four years she alleged she bought Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries in reliance on defendant's fraud."
The judge's rebuke also noted that another federal court had previously rejected a similar suit filed by Sugawara's attorneys claiming Froot Loops did not contain real, um, froot. (read the entire thing here)
A federal judge in California has dismissed a complaint filed by a San Diego woman who had bought "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" for four years believing the cereal contained real berries.
Janine Sugawara cried fraud when she learned the "berries" were only colored cereal balls flavored with strawberry concentrate. She sued the manufacturer on behalf of all crunchberry-eating Americans.
Judge Morrison England Jr. drowned the claim with the milk of common sense:
"This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a "crunchberry." ... A reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist. . . . So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world."
"Plaintiff did not explain why she could not reasonably have figured this out at any point during the four years she alleged she bought Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries in reliance on defendant's fraud."
The judge's rebuke also noted that another federal court had previously rejected a similar suit filed by Sugawara's attorneys claiming Froot Loops did not contain real, um, froot. (read the entire thing here)
The Anchoress
A really good blog going over at The Anchoress, one to which I would aspire to emulate if I had time.....and writing skills.....and knowlege..... and... oh well, its good reading. Here is a sample:
Barack Obama continues to slowly reveal himself to the people he has been elected to serve.
He told us something about himself when he put the murder of an abortionist over the murder of one of his soldiers. The death of the abortionist was immediately condemned with a security deployment ordered. It took days upon days for the death of his soldier, at the hands of a convert-to-Islam intent on mayhem, to be acknowledged with the release of a woefully inadequate and rather cold expression of “sadness” at the murder of a soldier who had volunteered to serve under him. Barack Obama revealed himself in those stories.
And now, he is in Cairo, saying Ich Bin Ein Muslimer!
In Obama’s giving a 6,000 word speech we see his lighter side as he lectures the whole world, and everything that has ever come before him, with the lolcats messages, “yer doin’ it wrong! I fix!”, and “I wuvs you, now be nice” and “Interwebz is danger!”
Speaking of self-revelation, in the past President Obama has written and talked about how he has been exposed to Islam all his life and has stated that the Muslim Call to Prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth”. He then recited the call in “a first-class accent” (that line no longer exists in the New York Times). Just recently Obama - who made a fuss if anyone mentioned his middle name, Hussein, during the 2008 campaign - has made much of his familial connections to Islam.
Good, thoughtful writing too as evidenced by this article (and others):
Bonhoeffer was a brilliant theologian; his book The Cost of Discipleship is one of those books a Christian reader goes back to again and again in the course of growth. In weighing the moral question of obedience to institutions who were exceeding their own rights, he once argued, "if a teacher says to a child, 'did your father come home drunk again last night,' is the child bound to tell the truth?" Bonhoeffer decided no, the teacher [institution] had intruded beyond her scope, and therefore the child, to honor his father, is not obligated to subject him to judgment or mockery, or for that matter governmental intrusion. Bonhoeffer was, in the course of a terrible war, able to extrapolate that small, defensive lie into a plot to assassinate Hitler.Rick and Charlie’s questions are sound, but one fears where theirthinking may lead. Bonhoeffer was a unique individual with a very healthy mind and tremendous depth of faith, and he was coming at his issue without carrying forty years of political baggage that could further influence his thinking to a place of imbalance. As extraordinary as he was, Bonhoeffer understood that his uniqueness in no way excepted him from the fact that what he was attempting was an evil—his evil, wholly distinct from Hitler's own evil—and one for which he would be held to account. (more)
Barack Obama continues to slowly reveal himself to the people he has been elected to serve.
He told us something about himself when he put the murder of an abortionist over the murder of one of his soldiers. The death of the abortionist was immediately condemned with a security deployment ordered. It took days upon days for the death of his soldier, at the hands of a convert-to-Islam intent on mayhem, to be acknowledged with the release of a woefully inadequate and rather cold expression of “sadness” at the murder of a soldier who had volunteered to serve under him. Barack Obama revealed himself in those stories.
And now, he is in Cairo, saying Ich Bin Ein Muslimer!
In Obama’s giving a 6,000 word speech we see his lighter side as he lectures the whole world, and everything that has ever come before him, with the lolcats messages, “yer doin’ it wrong! I fix!”, and “I wuvs you, now be nice” and “Interwebz is danger!”
Speaking of self-revelation, in the past President Obama has written and talked about how he has been exposed to Islam all his life and has stated that the Muslim Call to Prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth”. He then recited the call in “a first-class accent” (that line no longer exists in the New York Times). Just recently Obama - who made a fuss if anyone mentioned his middle name, Hussein, during the 2008 campaign - has made much of his familial connections to Islam.
Good, thoughtful writing too as evidenced by this article (and others):
Bonhoeffer was a brilliant theologian; his book The Cost of Discipleship is one of those books a Christian reader goes back to again and again in the course of growth. In weighing the moral question of obedience to institutions who were exceeding their own rights, he once argued, "if a teacher says to a child, 'did your father come home drunk again last night,' is the child bound to tell the truth?" Bonhoeffer decided no, the teacher [institution] had intruded beyond her scope, and therefore the child, to honor his father, is not obligated to subject him to judgment or mockery, or for that matter governmental intrusion. Bonhoeffer was, in the course of a terrible war, able to extrapolate that small, defensive lie into a plot to assassinate Hitler.Rick and Charlie’s questions are sound, but one fears where theirthinking may lead. Bonhoeffer was a unique individual with a very healthy mind and tremendous depth of faith, and he was coming at his issue without carrying forty years of political baggage that could further influence his thinking to a place of imbalance. As extraordinary as he was, Bonhoeffer understood that his uniqueness in no way excepted him from the fact that what he was attempting was an evil—his evil, wholly distinct from Hitler's own evil—and one for which he would be held to account. (more)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Obama's (In)Justice Department
The Justice Department is turning a blind eye toward voter intimidation and radical black muslims while increasing attention on Pro-Life groups.
First from the WSJ:
...Exhibit A: Justice's inexplicable dismissal of a civil lawsuit for voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers weren't content to endorse Barack Obama. They sent their members to the polls last November to "patrol election sites." Fox News aired a video of two Black Panthers in military-style uniforms in a Philadelphia precinct. One of them was carrying a nightstick....
...Exhibit B: Justice recently stopped Georgia from implementing a key provision of the Help America Vote Act. Passed in 2002, the act requires states to verify the accuracy of information voters provide on their registration forms by comparing it with state driver's license and Social Security records -- a sensible requirement. With input from Justice Department lawyers in 2008, Georgia implemented this verification process, including checking the citizenship status of applicants. It is a violation of federal and state law for a noncitizen to register and vote in federal and state elections....(more)
Now according to the American Spectator:
Marcel Reid wants answers.
Reid, of the ACORN 8 (a breakaway group of ACORN officials demanding an accounting from ACORN's leadership) posed 31 questions to an ACORN-CCI executive board meeting in July 2008 but failed to get answers. CCI, which stands for Citizens Consulting Inc., is the ultra-secretive financial heart of the ACORN network through which millions of dollars routinely pass. (more)
The article asks bloggers for assistance. You'd think it would be an excellent time for the Justice Department to step in, wouldn't you? Think that's gonna happen? Yeah, me neither.
First from the WSJ:
...Exhibit A: Justice's inexplicable dismissal of a civil lawsuit for voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers weren't content to endorse Barack Obama. They sent their members to the polls last November to "patrol election sites." Fox News aired a video of two Black Panthers in military-style uniforms in a Philadelphia precinct. One of them was carrying a nightstick....
...Exhibit B: Justice recently stopped Georgia from implementing a key provision of the Help America Vote Act. Passed in 2002, the act requires states to verify the accuracy of information voters provide on their registration forms by comparing it with state driver's license and Social Security records -- a sensible requirement. With input from Justice Department lawyers in 2008, Georgia implemented this verification process, including checking the citizenship status of applicants. It is a violation of federal and state law for a noncitizen to register and vote in federal and state elections....(more)
Now according to the American Spectator:
Marcel Reid wants answers.
Reid, of the ACORN 8 (a breakaway group of ACORN officials demanding an accounting from ACORN's leadership) posed 31 questions to an ACORN-CCI executive board meeting in July 2008 but failed to get answers. CCI, which stands for Citizens Consulting Inc., is the ultra-secretive financial heart of the ACORN network through which millions of dollars routinely pass. (more)
The article asks bloggers for assistance. You'd think it would be an excellent time for the Justice Department to step in, wouldn't you? Think that's gonna happen? Yeah, me neither.
Told Ya So
In the "Told Ya So" department, we have two articles.
First, NASA makes the startling discovery that "...Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming."
from Daily Tech:
A study from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland looking at climate data over the past century has concluded that solar variation has made a significant impact on the Earth's climate. The report concludes that evidence for climate changes based on solar radiation can be traced back as far as the Industrial Revolution.Past research has shown that the sun goes through eleven year cycles. At the cycle's peak, solar activity occurring near sunspots is particularly intense, basking the Earth in solar heat. According to Robert Cahalan, a climatologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, "Right now, we are in between major ice ages, in a period that has been called the Holocene."
And the American Thinker says this may be one more, in a long line of inconvenient backtracks by Gore's NASA lapdog, DR. James Hansen.
In the past Dr. Hansen was forced to admit that 1934, not 1998, was the warmest year on record due to a lack of standardization of weather reporting stations. Hansen also misstated that “October 2008 was the hottest on record,” largely because the data used repeated September’s.
Finally, in an ongoing attempt to forestall my retirement we have this bit of good news from our Persian friends:
Iran's main nuclear plant expanding rapidly, says IAEA
Iran's main nuclear plant is expanding so rapidly that United Nations inspectors have asked Tehran for improved safeguards against the production of weapons-grade uranium....
Let me know how that works out will ya?
First, NASA makes the startling discovery that "...Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming."
from Daily Tech:
A study from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland looking at climate data over the past century has concluded that solar variation has made a significant impact on the Earth's climate. The report concludes that evidence for climate changes based on solar radiation can be traced back as far as the Industrial Revolution.Past research has shown that the sun goes through eleven year cycles. At the cycle's peak, solar activity occurring near sunspots is particularly intense, basking the Earth in solar heat. According to Robert Cahalan, a climatologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, "Right now, we are in between major ice ages, in a period that has been called the Holocene."
And the American Thinker says this may be one more, in a long line of inconvenient backtracks by Gore's NASA lapdog, DR. James Hansen.
In the past Dr. Hansen was forced to admit that 1934, not 1998, was the warmest year on record due to a lack of standardization of weather reporting stations. Hansen also misstated that “October 2008 was the hottest on record,” largely because the data used repeated September’s.
Finally, in an ongoing attempt to forestall my retirement we have this bit of good news from our Persian friends:
Iran's main nuclear plant expanding rapidly, says IAEA
Iran's main nuclear plant is expanding so rapidly that United Nations inspectors have asked Tehran for improved safeguards against the production of weapons-grade uranium....
Let me know how that works out will ya?
Missiles in the Skies
Not sure what to make of this quite yet. This morning I came across this story form the Houston Chronicle about the sighting by an ExpressJet pilot of what he thought was a missile:
Liberty County Sheriff’s officials are expected to meet with the FAA on Tuesday to discuss what a Continental Express pilot reported as a “missile or rocket” flying near his airplane. (For an update on this story, click here.)
A pilot reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that at about 8:15 p.m. Friday, an object passed within 150 feet beneath the aircraft, sheriff’s officials said.
The aircraft was near the southern edge of the county, flying at about 13,000 feet, officials said.
“The pilot, from what we understand, was former military.
So I begin to look around for more information on the subject. I type in "FAA" and "missile." I figure there can't be but the one story. But I was wrong.
I found another story about another airline, this time Southwest, and another missile at about the same time. This one has a video over at one of the conspiracy sites. Though not one to put much weight on the things to be found at such sites, the video speaks for itself.
And it makes me wonder....ya know?
Liberty County Sheriff’s officials are expected to meet with the FAA on Tuesday to discuss what a Continental Express pilot reported as a “missile or rocket” flying near his airplane. (For an update on this story, click here.)
A pilot reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that at about 8:15 p.m. Friday, an object passed within 150 feet beneath the aircraft, sheriff’s officials said.
The aircraft was near the southern edge of the county, flying at about 13,000 feet, officials said.
“The pilot, from what we understand, was former military.
So I begin to look around for more information on the subject. I type in "FAA" and "missile." I figure there can't be but the one story. But I was wrong.
I found another story about another airline, this time Southwest, and another missile at about the same time. This one has a video over at one of the conspiracy sites. Though not one to put much weight on the things to be found at such sites, the video speaks for itself.
And it makes me wonder....ya know?
Prayer Study- Part 5- Prayer of Relinquishment
Previous studies here. A continuation of our study of Richard Foster's book on prayer:
The Spirit teaches me to yield my will entirely to the will of the Father. He opens my ear to wait in great gentleness and teachableness of soul for what the Father has day by day to speak and to teach. He discovers to me how union with God’s will is union with God Himself; how entire surrender to God’s will is the Father’s claim, the Son’s example, and the true blessedness of the soul.
Andrew Murray
• At some point Christians move from a childish, demanding prayer to relinquishment
• Like falling into the arms of Jesus in total trust (e.g. tea commercial)
• End result of this prayer brings us into soul satisfying rest
The School of Gethsemane
• Jesus’ prayer in the garden reflects both his desire that the cup pass and relinquishment that God’s will be done Luke 22:39-46. “Can people be redeemed in any other way?” “No”
• In the way of relinquishment, “My will be done” is subsumed by “not my will”
• My will my way must yield to higher authority
The Process of Relinquishment
• Struggle is an intimate part of relinquishment
• Abraham relinquished Isaac and with him the Promise itself
• Paul relinquished his desire for greater health (more)
• Relinquishment is not resignation. Christin prayer not fatalism
• We are not locked into a preset, determinist future. Dialogue with God.
• Severing the precious roots. Release with hope and trust in the character of God
• Sometimes what we relinquish may be returned to us
• Sometimes what we relinquish needs to die so that God can accomplish his purposes through us. Settled peace (p53)
• Crucifixion of the will.
• I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:19b-20
• “God creates everything out of nothing—and everything which God is to use he first reduces to nothing.” Kierkegaard
• “Crucifixion always has resurrection tied to it. God is not destroying the will but transforming it so that over a process of time and experience we can freely will what God wills.”
• A.W. Tozar ..freedom from the self-sins: self sufficiency, self-pity, self-absorption, self-abuse, self-indulgence, self-deprecation (more)
Practicing the Prayer of Relinquishment
• Begin with the prayer of kenosis (self-emptying) in Philippians 2:5-11
• Practice the prayer of surrender asking Jesus to interpret “not my will” for your life
• Practice the prayer of abandonment –into God’s hands
• Practice the prayer of release, placing all that you hold dear into the Father’s care as well as your enemies, anger, fears and thoughts of retaliation
• Practice the prayer of resurrection, asking God to restore whatever would advance the kingdom of God
Sunday, June 7, 2009
As America has done unto Israel
I just finished a very interesting book "As America has done unto Israel", great book! It is interesting to see the ties between America and the Jewish people and their importance to where we are today as a country.
It also ties disasters here in the states to our mistreatment of Israel. And finally, a little prophecy on what God has in store for us. It is biblically based and a book I would recommend. I found it very interesting and just another step in my journey with Jesus Christ.
In God We Trust
9-12 Project
It also ties disasters here in the states to our mistreatment of Israel. And finally, a little prophecy on what God has in store for us. It is biblically based and a book I would recommend. I found it very interesting and just another step in my journey with Jesus Christ.
In God We Trust
9-12 Project
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