Tuesday
CRIME, SCANDAL, TURMOIL
CRIME, SCANDAL, TURMOIL - WE SEEM
TO BE MORE SERIOUSLY AFFLICTED
AS WE APPROACH CHRISTMAS
While most Ameren's were involved in shopping
for Christmas gifts for friends and family, elsewhere
politicians and others were busy handing out their
versions of gifts for the American people. "Crime,
scandal, turmoil" -- those appear to be appropriate
words to describe these "gifts."
We could add one other equally descriptive word:
"Deception."
Deception, deceit, compounded by ignorance,
are applicable terms to use in discussing the recent
Newsweek cover story, "The Religious Case for
Gay Marriage" its authorship even admitted to by
the Senior Religion Editor for the magazine, a Lisa
Miller. One might logically expect a Religion Editor
to at least read and study portions of the Bible, the
basic text book for the Christian faith. However,
that does not appear to be something to which Ms.
Miller has devoted much time or attention.
The tease copy for the article read: "Opponents
of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what
the Bible teaches about love argues for the other
side."
And this bias was expressed by the magazine's editor,
Jon Meacham who wrote: "No matter what one
thinks about gay rights ... this conservative resort
to biblical authority is the worst kind of
fundamentalism ... to argue that something is so
because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually
bankrupt -- it is unserious and not worthy of the
great Judeo-Christian tradition."
Without wasting our readers' time by many
quotes from the article, just note this one direct
quotation from Ms. Miller: "Scripture gives us no
good reason why gays and lesbians should not
be civilly and religiously married, and a number
of excellent reason why they should." Such
ridiculous statements have produced nothing but
humorous ridicule and intellectual dismissal from
Christian believers and scholars. Richard Land said:
"Newsweek has been so far in the tank on the
homosexual issue for so long they need scuba
gear and breathing apparatus." Tony Perkins
said, "I thought it was just full of holes." And
the Weekly Standard referred to the article as a
"dire mess."
And as for Ms. Miller's outlandish claim that "Jesus
never explicitly defined marriage as between one
man and one woman," one wonders how she
would interpret the words of Jesus in Mark 10: 6-8:
"God made them male and female. For this cause
shall a man leave his mother and father, and
cleave to his wife. And they twain shall be one
flesh." She probably never read those words. But
why waste time wondering about a "dire mess?"
It has been said of this newsletter (ANC) that it
may possibly be the best researched newsletter on
the Internet. Among the media we have long since
discontinued for research purposes are the New
York Times, and Newsweek magazine. This article
reinforced the wisdom of that decision.
We mentioned "Crime" as one of the "gifts."
Well, the arrogance and greed demonstrated by
Illinois Governor Blagojevich may not have yet
broken the line into "crime," he has at least been
arrested on the basis of recorded conversations in
which he expressed the desire essentially to sell Mr.
Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Efforts to impeach him, to have him removed from
office as unfit to serve and other legislative proposals
are in the works -- or, of course, it may just blow
over as the way politics are carried on. But coming
during this Advent season of the year, this is a sorry
example of what this nation has become, as distinct
from what the founding fathers intended it to be.
US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said: "The conduct
would make Lincoln turn over in his grave." But
given the usual conduct of politics in Illinois, Lincoln
has probably been continually turning for many years.
Meantime we continue to wait for the president-elect
transition team to produce their version of what did
or did not happen, or how they were or were not
involved. Creative writing of this scope is not a task
for a few hours or days -- it takes time.
What other term than "Scandal" adequately
describes the "bail outs" for one industry after another,
as the government (whatever that may mean) uses
long hours of Congress' time to listen to confessions
of failure in management by executives of the financial
service industry and the automobile industry, followed
by their pleas for taxpayers -- (that's us, folks) to give
them more money to keep them afloat until their next
trip to Washington to feed at the government trough.
And short term or long term, who face no cuts in their
personal income? Right -- the union executives. But
at least the auto executives no longer come to come
on their corporate jets to beg in Washington -- they
are actually driving their own production line cars.
Such displays of humility and budgetary restraint
should be worth a few extra billions of dollars.
And that leaves "Turmoil," and there seems to
plenty of that sort of "gifts" at the moment. For one,
Jimmy Carter continues to try to stir up trouble in
the Middle East, and had announced plans for a
trip sponsored by his Carter Center to meet with
the terrorist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas.
The Carter Center reportedly receives huge funding
from those groups which refuse to recognize Israel's
right to exist. Carter has written a new book on his
view of peace in the area, to be released following
the Obama inauguration in January. The former
president considers Israel to be an apartheid state,
and favors Israel giving most of Palestine to those
terrorist groups which he describes as "freedom
fighters." However, on the very eve of the talks,
Hezbollah announced they would not meet with
Carter as he had proposed. Something should be
done to keep such a turmoil proponent at home.
More "Turmoil" on the international level --
under this headline: "Global Liars Gather in
Poland." The UN's two-week conference on
climate change in Poznan, Poland, ended last week
with major disagreements on an equitable balance
of emissions cuts between richer and poorer nations.
Negotiators from 190 countries debated proposals,
and US Senator John Kerry, representing President-
elect Obama affirmed that the US under Obama is
determined to lead in the fight against climate change,
pledging emission curbs.
As the conference ended it faced a serious
challenge from over 650 dissenting scientists from
around the world who are criticizing the climate
claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice
President Al Gore. Due to be released this week
is a newly updated U.S. Senate Minority Report
from those scientists who no longer want to be
associated with the greatest hoax of the century.
Those 650 dissenting scientists are 12 times the
number of UN scientists (52) who authored the
media's much cited hyped IPCC 2007 Summary
for Policymakers.
In view of these "gifts" -- crime, scandal, turmoil
and deceit -- how should the Christian believer live,
what should we be doing? Contrary to the article
in Newsweek, discussed above, we should look to
the words of Jesus. In Matthew, chapter 24, He
spoke of troubles and unrest, and of false prophets,
and warned that many might be deceived, even the
very elect. But he concluded with these words in
verse 42: "Watch therefore, for ye know not
what hour your Lord cometh ..." and again in
Mark 13: 33,35: "...watch and pray, for ye know
not when the time is ...watch ye therefore ..."
Our instruction from the Lord is to take our eyes
off of current events, and "Watch." And as we
look for the return of our Lord, we are to be the
believers He directed us to be by preaching the
Gospel to every creature in all the world. It is called
the Great Commission of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:15)
At least one Founding Father foresaw that there
would be future attempts to violate the Constitution,
for one reason or another: "No compact among
men can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable,
and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of
words, that no mound of parchment can be so
formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent
of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by
the sapping current of corrupted morals on the
other." -- President George Washington, 1789
Remarkable foresight -- more than 200 years ago:
"boundless ambition" ..."corrupted morals" ...
he could have been reading our present day news.
Some Random Afterthoughts . . .
Several touches of humor appeared on the Internet
in recent days. Amid the tensions of the present
recession, it's good to share a chuckle now and then.
(1) In re the failure of the Homosexuals' "Day without
a gay" effort, Jay Leno said that in Hollywood when
gays phoned in to say they weren't coming to work,
there was no one in the office to answer the phone.
(2) Concerning Obama's cabinet appointments, this
gem surfaced: "As before we will get two for the
price of one. Hillary will be in charge of foreign
policy, while Bill's in charge of foreign affairs." (3)
In response to Obama's complaint that FOX News
doesn't show enough Black and Hispanic people on
their network, FOX has announced that they will
now air "America's Most Wanted" twice a week.
A great argument in support of "marriage" --
the settlements presented to your spouse. For
example, this news item from London: "Madonna
has paid her ex-husband British director Guy
Ritchie up to 60 million pounds ($92 million) to
settle their divorce after eight years of marriage,
her spokeswoman said on Monday." Try to tell
Guy Ritchie that marriage isn't a good idea.
Oh, back to Al Gore's global warming hoax:
it snowed last week in Houston, TX and in New
Orleans, LA. Those snow flurries in Houston tied
a 64-year record for the earliest snowfall, and the
snow in New Orleans was also among the earliest
recorded. One environmental physical chemist from
Japan said of global warming alarmism, “When
people come to know what the truth is, they will
feel deceived by science and scientists.” (And
ex-vice presidents, no doubt.)
A lesson from a Founding Father applicable for
today's politicians: "It is of great importance to set
a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an
untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so
contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a
lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and
a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he
tells lies without attending to it, and truths without
the world's believing him." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1785
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