Wednesday
AFTER THE PRIMARY ELECTION NEWS
AFTER THE PRIMARY ELECTION NEWS
IS QUICKLY DISPOSED OF, WE COME
TO THE DAY'S MAJOR STORY
Two more primary elections are completed but
the overall situation has not changed appreciably.
The Democrat presidential nomination, based on the
number of delegate votes, still appears to belong to
Barack Obama, but for now, Hillary Clinton remains
in the race despite increased pressure from her fellow
Democrats to concede.
Two more primary elections were completed yesterday;
Clinton won in Kentucky by more than a 2 to 1 margin,
and picked up 40 delegates to Obama's 16. The win
was not unexpected, and brought the total number of
delegates won to 1932 for Obama to 1755 for Clinton.
In Oregon, Obama's victory was also not unexpected,
beating Clinton by a 3 to 2 margin. Elected delegates
were apportioned, raising Obama's total to 1960, and
Clinton's to 1777. Three more primaries remain during
the first week in June ... a Democrat Party conference at
the end of this month might resolve the Florida/Michigan
dispute ... and the struggle goes on ... and on ... and on.
Of possible greater importance is the decision by
the California Supreme Court by a 4-3 margin that the
vote in March, 2000 when by a 61.4% majority the
people of California banned homosexual marriage in
the state, was -- in their opinion -- "unconstitutional."
Proposition 22 used just 14 words to establish the law
of the state: "Only marriage between a man and a
woman is valid or recognized in California."
In a report on the Court's decision, this phrase was
used: "The Court's decision prevails despite a
vote of 4,618,673 to 4 against it." Or expressed
another way,"this decision essentially revokes the
right of children to have a mother and a father."
California will thus join Massachusetts as the only
state where homosexual marriage is permitted, is valid
and is recognized. Of course, the 4-3 decision by the
Court is not being well received by everyone in
California. Mike Reagan, son of President Ronald
Reagan, made this comment: "Its no longer 'We the
People,' it is now 'They the Judges' who make the
decisions in the Golden State."
There is a concentrated effort under way, essentially
by the Christian population in California, to bring a
marriage amendment to the California constitution to
the election in November, believing that the 61% who
voted in favor of maintaining traditional marriage in the
state in 2000 will vote that way again.
Forgotten or overlooked in all of this "progressive"
Liberal agenda is the fact that this nation was founded
and established on Judeo-Christian principles. America
became great because she demonstrated her firm
adherence to those principles in developing and
observing the American way of life. Now after two
centuries of demonstrating to the world around us the
superiority of that culture, this is no time to give up and
surrender our way of life to the dictates of elitist, anti-
family activists in judicial robes who choose to nullify
the vote of the majority of the people of the state of
California.
Pope Benedict XVI spoke to the issue, calling
traditional marriage between a man and a woman, "the
natural cradle of human life ... that cannot be
substituted by, confused with, or compared to other
types of unions."
In addition to homosexuals, who else favored the Court's
decision? The ACLU sent this message to its supporters,
"We won the marriage case in California. No need for
hyperbole here. This is big. ...And as the New York
Times recently pointed out, the California Supreme
Court is the most influential state high court in
America.... This was a prize of inestimable value."
Apparently forgotten is the fact that it is the people who
make the laws, not judges; it is the people, not the courts
who decide how they shall be governed. We have a
very difficult but extremely important task ahead of us.
The "Evangelical Manifesto" that we commented on
last week: it is still around, but running into strong negative
reaction on the part of true Evangelical believers who put
solid theological principles first. It was a major publicity
project, but seems to be as described by Shakespeare in
Macbeth, as being "... full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing." However, another document, a statement of
principles sponsored by recognized Evangelical leaders,
titled the "We Get It" Declaration has been released. It is
part of a petition drive, designed to reveal the truth about
Al Gore's "Global Warming" theory. It stresses the belief
that Christians should be good stewards of God's creation.
US Senator James Inhofe (R, OK) said, "The 'We Get It'
Declaration speaks for me, and I believe it speaks for
the vast majority of Evangelicals, who are as tired as I
am of being misrepresented by people who don't bother
to get their theology, their science or economics right."
Read the Declaration at: www.wegetit.org
It is less than one page in length, not like the 20 pages of
the "Evangelical Manifesto." And for a further discussion,
click on: http://thinking2008.notlong.com/
An enduring principle: "We, the people are the rightful
masters of both Congress and the courts., not to over-
throw the Constitution, but to overthrow men who
pervert the Constitution." - Abraham Lincoln, at his
First Inauguration, 1861
Some Random Afterthoughts . . .
Too good to miss! At Tel Aviv University in Israel this
week Al Gore received a $1 million award for his work
in promoting his "Global Warming" theory. But right on
the heels of that ceremony came the announcement that
more than 31,000 (yes -- 31,000) scientists from across
the US -- including more than 9,000 PhDs in climatology,
earth science and environment -- have signed a petition
rejecting the theory that human production of greenhouse
gasses is damaging the earth's climate. The statement uses
these words to introduce its conclusion: "There is no
convincing scientific evidence . . ."
There are puzzling elements in some of the
political rhetoric of the present campaign for the
Democrat nomination. For example, Barack Obama
keeps insisting that as a Senator he voted against the
war in Iraq. But here's the puzzling part: the war in
Iraq began in March 2003, but he was not sworn
into office as a Senator until January, 2005.
It probably could have been expected, but in any
event it has happened. In Britain a new prayer book
for Reform Judaism has been released, with gender-
neutral language in referring to God. Instead of
referring to God as "Father," or "Lord," terms like
"Living God" and "Eternal One" are used. For what
it is worth, a recent survey disclosed that 75% of
British Christians think of God as male.
One of those multi-syllabic words is again in wide-
spread use: "Missional." What does it mean? It is
used to describe a strategy for a church to use in
increasing growth; others see it as focusing on God's
work throughout the world; still others use it as a
means of "meeting people where they are." The word
is being widely used in discussing church activity. It
would seem to make sense to agree on what it means.
"The American Family Outing" is under way. For
six weeks, winding up on Father's Day, June 15, a
group will visit six mega-churches to discuss LGBT
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) conceptions.
Their first visit was to Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church
in Houston on Mother's Day. Osteen declined the
opportunity to meet with the "Soulforce" group. For
Bible believing Christians, any acceptance of the LGBT
position poses a real problem.
Back to Barack Obama: who said it shows "wisdom
to talk not just to our friends but to our enemies, like
Roosevelt did...like Truman did..." Our enemies in
WWII were Hitler in Japan and Tojo in Japan. FDR
talked with neither of them before declaring war with
unconditional surrender as the goal. He died before the
victory was won, but Harry Truman did not abandon the
goal of unconditional surrender, and ended the war not
with negotiation, but with the atom bomb. Truman was
also president when North Korea invaded South Korea
in 1950. He did not consult with Kim Il Sung. He sent
American troops to do battle against North Korea. Mr.
Obama is just a bit light on facts in his "change" speech.
Wise words to remember: "In the beginning of a
change, the patriot is a scarce and brave man, hated
and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the
timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
-- Mark Twain, 1904
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
