BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

Injustice Ginsburg: "Reproductive rights need to be straightened out" and the morning-after pill will help...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla and James) SCOTUS Little Lady, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, held forth in a long interview that ran in yesterday's New York Times. Ranging far afield for most of the interview, as always with the Times, the inevitable homing device kicked in and the interview came to a roaring end with our national bloodlust for baby-slaughter front and center:

New York Times: When you say that reproductive rights need to be straightened out, what do you mean?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: The basic thing is that the government has no business making that choice for a woman...

Marriage, fertility, and economic decline...

(Tim) My good brother, Bob Patterson, recently did a piece for National Review Online (NRO) that I commend to our readers. In an e-mail to friends, Bob summed up the argument he makes this way:

The decline in marriage and fertility rates among the Baby Boom generation stands at the heart of what presently ails the American economy. After noting the demographic concerns of former Fortune columnist David Goldman, I suggest that national GOP leaders can no longer ignore the interplay between social and economic issues if they want the party to make a comeback in 2010 or 2012.

During the bloodshed, what did Rwanda's pastors do?

(Tim) Below is an excerpt from Philip Gourevitch's history of the Rwandan genocide, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families. This book should be read by every believer committed to opposing the slaughter of the feeble, elderly, newborn, and unborn upon which our civil compact has been built for decades, now.

A few years ago, a godly Rwandan was preaching to us here at Church of the Good Shepherd and he took the occasion to rebuke us, saying we Americans had no authority to condemn Rwanda's genocide when we were slaughtering 1.3 million children in our own nation, year after year, with no sign of the bloodshed ending.

Truth is, many, many denominations, churches, elders, and pastors have endorsed the slaughter of the unborn here in these United States. And even among those pastors who claim to be pro-life, precious few are anti-abortion. Like the Rwandan priests and pastors, many of us...

Tillers close down baby slaughterhouse...

(Tim, w/thanks to David L.) As the old saying goes, "It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good." Praise God no more babies will be slaughtered under the auspices of the Tiller family. May God lead them all to the mercy of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.

Please read David's sermon; also, several helpful things from the Archibolds...

(Tim) First, if you haven't read the sermon David preached yesterday posted just below (A Sermon for the President--and for the People of God), I commend it to you. We need sermons like this to be preached across our country until those called by God as civil magistrates lead us to return to the fear of God and mercy to the poor, helpless, sojourners in our midst, and unborn. Note particularly David's comment about our self-made bonds.

Second, we're still getting the occasional Christmas/Easter letter and I thought we'd all benefit from this statement from my dear Roman Catholic friends from Denver, John and Molly Archibold:

We have been extraordinarily blessed through joys and sorrows. (Molly)

Just right...

The impossibility of "overheated rhetoric" in opposing abortion...

(Tim) David Lehr linked to a post titled, "Tiller, Long, Bonhoeffer, and Assassination," by Elizabeth Scalia on First Things blog that doesn't portend well for FT's post-Neuhaus era. Although the moderator hasn't approved it to go up, yet, here's my comment:

This is a very weak piece, depending more on dance like a butterfly than sting like a bee. Even on the matter of the morality of Bonhoeffer's commitment to kill Hitler, it's mostly equivocation. But one phrase exposes the underlying commitments of the author.

Precisely how do we come to the point of referring to any words spoken or written about the inexorable slaughter, worldwide, of somewhere around forty to sixty million little babies each year as "overheated rhetoric?"

"No woman miscarrying or barren in your land."

(Tim) A couple nights ago we were reading the Bible together following dinner. We've finished Genesis and are halfway through Exodus in Robert Alter's translation of the Pentateuch. After the necessary corruption of 'adam' in the first couple chapters of Genesis (which was so bad we started laughing at Alter's PC circulocutions), we've very much enjoyed using a literal translation that, otherwise, is so careful to keep the Hebraisms intact. A couple years ago we'd used Alter's translation of 1 and 2 Samuel and appreciated it quite a bit, too.

Reading Exodus 23, we came across this promise God makes to His covenant people. Speaking of all the wicked people-groups in Canaan who have finally filled their cup of wickedness, He declares:

...I shall obliterate them. You shall not bow to their gods and you shall not worship them, and you shall not do as they do, but you shall utterly tear them down and you shall utterly smash their pillars. And you shall worship the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I shall take away sickness from your midst. There shall be no woman miscarrying or barren in your land. The count of your days I will fill.

At this point we stopped and I asked a question: "Would Christians today be angry at God if He blessed them this way--that none of our wives or daughters would miscarry or be barren? Say God poured out His favor on us and all our homes sprouted children just like olive trees sprout branches; would we be pleased, or would we be angry?"

But then, God hasn't blessed us in this way, has He? Barrenness and miscarriage are a central reality of pastoral ministry, today. And also birth control.

Birth control? That doesn't fit into this discussion...

"I stopped trying to believe it too."

(Tim) Of course, it's hard for me to link to anything giving a soapbox to that half-Christian gone mad, Frankie Schaeffer. But if you can get past that part of it, here's a post from a former anti-abortionist providing a periscope into the minds of unbelievers as they watch and listen to Christians following the assassination of Dr. Tiller. A teaser:

Yet when (Paul) Hill repeated their own argument and their own rhetoric back to them, these groups all recoiled. They all claimed to share Hill's premise, but not to share his conclusion...

George Tiller is done slaughtering babies for profit.

(Tim, w/thanks to David T.) While attending worship at Reformation Lutheran Church this morning, child-slaughterer George Tiller seems to have been assassinated. Without a doubt the most bloodthirsty and cruel of our nation's baby-murderers, Tiller's name has been infamous among men committed to stopping the bloodshed. He's one of the few willing to take money to murder babies so late in the pregnancy that they would be viable outside the womb.

Operation Rescue publicity hound, Randall Terry, expresses regret at Tiller's assassination. We express regret for the years he was allowed to slaughter babies with the civil authority doing absolutely nothing to stop him. One wonders what Martin Luther, John Calvin, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer would say at the news that he was attending church this morning when he was killed?

May Almighty God keep another man from picking up his traffic in murder.

Recommendation of National (Roman) Catholic Bioethics Center...

(Tim, w/thanks to James) Comparing the witness on bioethical issues of any number of Roman Catholic organizations to that of any Protestant organization--any one at all--is depressing. Several times I've gotten hopeful only to see evangelicals prove once again that ethics to them consists of taking a position halfway between Scripture and the world's current practice. And of course, the world's current practice is a target that never stands still.

Nevertheless, here's another excellent Roman Catholic resource. It's the web site of the National (Roman) Catholic Bioethics Center and all of us committed to opposing the wholesale slaughter of men made in the image of God who are unborn, newborn, feeble, and aged would do well to familiarize ourselves with its resources.

Teach us to number our days: Rev. Dr. Larry Allen, 1953-2009.

(Tim) Late last night, David forwarded an e-mail that my longtime friend, Larry Allen, had died. It was a sudden death with no prior warning. Larry was on the phone with a co-worker and friend, laughing, and then God took him. The cause of death is unknown.

For seven or eight years, I served on the board of Presbyterians Pro-Life with Larry and that's when I knew him best. Being a witness for the unborn in the Presbyterian Church (USA), a pagan denomination where, as early as 1983, official denominational documents said that abortion "can be an act of faithfulness before God," meant the entire time we were at denominational meetings and general assemblies we suffered the most vile opposition. Everything short of physical attack.

Larry cared very much about the weak and oppressed, being pleased to humble himself in his association with the despised work of speaking up for the unborn. And in speaking up for them, he wasn't simply associated with God's "Yes" in supporting crisis pregnancy centers (which he did); he also said God's "No," preaching and teaching and calling us to repentance for our cruelty in slaughtering our little ones.

Court asserts itself over private lives of citizens...

(Tim, contributed by Ben Crum) Everyone knows it's wrong for the government to meddle in the health issues of individuals. So it surprised me to see this statement in an article about a 13-year-old boy being ordered by a court, against his parents' will, to undergo treatment for cancer:

Medical ethicists say parents generally have a legal right to make decisions for their children, but there is a limit.

Really? A limit? And how would this limit be defined? Does that mean a parent's desire, comfort, will, even rights can be trumped by those of another; namely, their child? The parents have a belief, but that belief can be considered to be in opposition to the child's well-being?

AUL's short list for justice, with two notes to readers...

(Tim, w/thanks to James) Americans United for Life has long served as the principal legal arm of the antiabortion witness. Here's their short list of likely candidates as President Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A couple comments...

Barack Obama rocks XXIII: At Notre Dame...

(Tim, w/thanks to Mick) A post over at the web site of the New York Times gives a blow by blow of President Obama's reception of an honorary doctorate and commencement address at Notre Dame this past weekened. Here's the text of the post, with comments interspersed:

Father Ted | 4:00 p.m. Near the end of his speech, President Obama spoke about the Civil Rights Commission, whose resolutions were the foundation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

President Obama lays a garland on the tombs of dead and dying prophets.

One of the six members (one black and five whites) was the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, then president of Notre Dame. Mr. Obama acknowledged how “Father Ted” brought the members of the commission to a retreat in Land O’Lakes, Wis., to break an impasse. Rev. Hesburgh found common ground when the men all spoke about being fishermen and took them on a twilight fishing trip.

"Father Ted" who on this day is giving no thought to the helpless little babies...

Smugness while swimming in blood...

(Tim) Each of us should be on such intimate terms with the slaughter of children at the core of our cities and nation that we find the hypocrisy our national smugness is built upon to be unbearable. Not the smugness of President Obama whose leadership consists of assuring the world that, now that we've all joined together in the righteous act of dispatching that old white guy from the White House, peace and enlightenment and humility can happen. In our postmodern feminized world, though, it's the warrior who's truly humble--not the supercilious intellectual who tours Europe touting his own administration of humility.

No, not that smugness, but the smugness of Christians and cultural conservatives who reassure ourselves that we've a wonderful heritage of truth and justice in this nation, and other nations would do well to do the hard work necessary to share in the pristine virtue we now enjoy.

Yesterday, son Taylor told us at the dinner table of a movie his teacher had shown in his Film/Lit class. He couldn't remember its title, but he described how this movie--one of the most significant movies ever made, his teacher had said--restored the KKK to a position of respectability across the country. Of course that was awful. The teacher went on to assure her class that, in time, the movie received the just opprobrium (but grudging respect, technically) that it deserved. The class was an exercise in smugness--that we've come a long way, baby, and we must never go back to the days when black men were mocked and persecuted and lynched.

Agreed...

We need a neurologist, quickly: a man's life hangs in the balance...

(Tim) In Indiana, a man is poised to withdraw a feeding tube from a family member who is minimally conscious, breathes on his own, and is not terminally ill. A medical professional, likely a neurologist, is needed to rebut specious quality-of-life pronouncements and cold utilitarianism masquerading as compassion. If you can help or know of someone who could help, please e-mail me privately and quickly.  My e-mail address is tbbayly at gmail dot com. Spread the word.

Abortion, postpartum depression, and murder...

(Tim) A Presbyterian pastor who also works as an attorney sent me this e-mail last week:

A bill in the Texas legislature (would) essentially would make killing your baby (up to 1 year-old) the equivalent of a Class D felony in Indiana--sort of like a fairly serious drunk driving--provided you prove by a preponderance of the evidence (lowest standard--the standard in civil, rather than criminal lawsuits) that you were suffering from post-birthing stress. Up to one year, remember.
 
Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who opposed Hitler, famously recalled...

What happens when pastors preach for a price...

Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, “Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us.” (Micah 3:9-11)

(Tim) A military officer who was a member of our flock here in Bloomington some time ago and is currently stationed in Afghanistan (so please pray for him, his wife, and children) writes: "I came across this article and thought you might be interested in it. The double standard immediately becomes obvious to me as I try to comprehend that it is illegal (and punishable with a life sentence) for killing a child in a mother's womb by a mere civilian, but a doctor who does the same thing gets paid money and there is no consequence (setting aside eternal consequences).

Airman Sentenced to 10 Years for Forced Miscarriage
Sunday, May 03, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An airman in Alaska has been sentenced to almost 10 years behind bars after being found guilty of trying to force his wife to miscarry by lacing her food with ulcer medication...

President Barack Obama rocks XXII: But count Mary Ann Glendon out of the festivities...

(Tim, w/thanks to several) Lots of readers have sent links to pieces commenting on President Barack Obama's invitation to give the Commencement Address at Notre Dame University this spring despite Notre Dame's purported affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church and President Obama's consistent ghoulish advocacy of baby-slaughter.

Honestly, I've not had the heart to say anything about it. Not out of respect for Notre Dame or the lowest-common denominator Roman Catholicism she's represented for decades, now. To me, Notre Dame is football, a good home for the world's top sorta-reformed, kinda-Protestant, sorta-evangelical scholars like Marsden, Hatch, and Plantinga; but mostly the school that resides in the same town a few hours north that's called home by E. Michael Jones.

Then, today, several of you sent me the letter just released by Mary Ann Glendon announcing her change of mind concerning being present at Notre Dame's Commencement to accept Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal. God bless Mary Ann Glendon!

Here's her letter...

Let social justice begin in the House of the Lord...

(Tim) A month or two ago during a Lord's Day sermon, I mentioned the prevalence rate of abortion in our churches and how many of us are likely to be stained by this bloodshed of innocents. My purpose was to call us to self-examination and repentance, then faith in the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ Who came, not for the righteous, but sinners. Afterward, one soul confessed to me privately that he thought he'd likely been complicit in the murder of a child of his, and he expressed deep love for the tender mercy of the Lord to him, a sinner.

This past Lord's Day, Easter 2009, Redeemer in Manhattan had a similar testimony during their worship service. Praise God that the Holy Spirit is awakening our hearts to the cries of the widows and orphans in their distress among us, and that we are responding with both repentance and faith.

Not "the," but "these" United States...

(Tim) From my incomparable tutor in all things political for over thirty years, Joe Sobran, I learned of the existence of the Tenth Amendment, but also of its impotence in the hands of the crooks who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court in recent decades. Also from Sobran, I picked up the habit of never, ever, ever referring to "the United States," but always and only "these United States."

The past few years, Church of the Good Shepherd has had an influx of Texans who move here for a few years to complete their doctorates at IU. Most of them plan to return to the motherland so, half-seriously, I've told them of my wish that Texas would secede so I could move there...

Gratitude for recent comments made here by our wives and daughters...

(Tim) Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The cruelest lies are often told in silence," and as I noted a week or so ago, it's been interesting to watch how the recent post about Emergency Contraception (sic) Pills, birth control, and abortion has been carefully avoided by men, but embraced by women. There are lessons here, one of which I think is that pastors today are about as concerned about the blood guilt of our sheep as the chief priests and elders were about the blood guilt of Judas when he came to them in anguish, confessing...

Dead babies who don't count: The Pill's bloody future...

(As you read, check out this new music for fathers and husbands who understand that, in the godly, fear and love embrace - don't miss Hiding Place and The Son of God Goes Forth to War)

* * *
...the proven ‘anti-implantation’ action of the morning-after pill is really nothing other than a chemically induced abortion. (Pontifical Academy for Life)

(Tim) Today, twenty-two percent of our nation's children are murdered in the womb, and a growing proportion of those murders are what our nation's merchant of death, Planned Parenthood, euphemistically refers to as "medical abortions"--abortions committed by chemical rather than steel weapons. Pro-life leaders have been dreading this change for decades knowing how much more difficult it will be to oppose abortion as it moves toward the earliest weeks and days of pregnancy, and into the privacy of the home.

The change has come quickly...

Already, chemical abortions comprise over twenty percent of current abortions, and the proportion is growing rapidly. In a private e-mail sent to Planned Parenthood Federation of America on July 9, 2007, Danco Laboratories LLC (the pharmaceutical firm distributing one of the chemical abortifacients, Mifeprex) reported: "In the five years following FDA approval (2000-2005), more than 750,000 U.S. women have used Mifeprex."

This means over 150,000 women per year are taking Mifeprex to kill their unborn child. But Mifeprex is only one of the growing list of chemical agents being deployed...

Snoring in the gap...

(Tim) Back when Dad (Joe Bayly) was serving as Executive Director of Christian Medical Society (now Christian Medical and Dental Society), he sent me a copy of the following editorial from the September, 1970 issue of California Medicine, the journal of the California Medical Association. I've referred to this editorial in prior posts, but never run the editorial itself.

It might help readers understand David's and my commitment to push Christian medical professionals hard in matters of life and death if they knew that, in my files, I have copies of a series of letters between C. Everett Koop and Dad immediately following Dad's assumption of the leadership of CMS.

In the first letter, Dad tells Koop that he intends to lead CMS to adopt an anti-abortion position as official policy. On that basis, then, Dad appeals to Koop to restore his membership in CMA.

Prior to then (1979-80), CMS had refused to take a stand against abortion and Koop had resigned in protest...

The vultures will gather...

Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. Matthew 24:28

(Tim, w/thanks to Brian) Here's a good introduction to the organ procurement industry. A mother tells how her son was declared brain dead, then kept alive while the vultures pulled his organs out one by one. Kindly, he was anesthetized while the organs were pulled.

Anesthetized, that is, twenty-four hours after he was declared dead...

Twelve year old girl defends the unborn...

(Tim, w/thanks to Brett) Here's a clip of twelve year old "Lia" speaking up for the unborn. What courage! How many of us pastors have said as much, and from the relative safety of our church pulpits? Here's a teaser. And make sure to go to the YouTube page to read the comment explaining why comments under the clip have been closed.

What if I told you that right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die? What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you'd done in the past, or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you, you could do nothing about it? Fellow students and teachers, thousands of children are right now in that very situation. Someone is choosing without even knowing them... 

Obama supporters claiming to be "pro-life" were never, really, opposed to abortion...

(Tim, from LifeSiteNews.com) Prior to the election, I found those who called themselves "pro-life" while shilling for Senator Barack Obama to be morally repugnant. Now, these hypocrites have had more than enough opportunities publicly to acknowledge their mistake; they've had weeks to cry "foul" or "I was misled by Senator Obama's lies concerning abortion;" yet they are silent.

Where are their protests? Where are they denouncing the aggressive promotion of abortion, internationally, that President Obama has given himself to since taking office at the White House? Where have the voices of Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo been raised in protest of President Obama's advocacy of child-slaughter? And turning to McLaren's and Campolo's useful simpletons, do any of them feel just the least bit betrayed and ashamed of their naivete?

It would be hard to prove, but I'm convinced that many of those who supported Senator Obama's presidential aspirations while claiming, themselves, to be Christian and pro-life were not pro-life at all, but rather, themselves often had had one or more abortions (or helped others to get one) and voted for Senator Obama as a coping mechanism employed to silence their conscience. And I do not say this from any anger at President Obama being elected to our nations highest elected office. Rather, it's my own personal observation.

Well, again, when guilt and complicity have silenced Emerjellicals, Rome speaks.

Here's Roman Catholic leadership that I, a Protestant Presbyterian pastor, agree with entirely..

Trust me, bookmark MoralAccountability.com...

(Tim) No links to Rob Bell's schlock, the deep and sensitive thoughts of Brian McLaren, the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Talbot Seminary's groundbreaking ethics and public policy think tank, faculty members at Wheaton College, or CTi journalists on this site. Ron Sider and Jim Wallis haven't made an appearance just yet--nor their "me too" buddy, Al Gore. There's been no sighting of Niel Nielson or Bryan Chapell--nor any of their professors, for that matter. In fact, no sign of anyone in the Presbyterian Church in America...

In the past, a baby was nobody's enemy...

(Tim) Justice of the peace in tow, Suleman's father was chasing the hospital with a shotgun until "the hospital made it clear it had nothing to do with getting Suleman pregnant."

Honest. That's exactly what the newspaper reported.

And by the way, did you notice that the state is "investigating" to see if laws were broken by this mother carrying her children to term? Sitting in the fridge, they were, prior to nestling into their mother's womb.

The headline is "Octuplets' birth spawns outrage from public."

Listen, if people are angry at the cost of the octuplets and ready to tar and feather the mother...

Doug Wilson on the National Prayer Breakfast...

(Tim) Those who think I'm Doug Wilson's sycophant because of how frequently I commend him to you are deluded. Yes, yes; I know he links to us here at Baylyblog in this post, but READ the post and tell me whether he doesn't say much better than I what needs to be said about all the evanjellicals who proved themselves saltless and dark at yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast. Once again, Doug's absolutely right. And not simply in his arguments, but in the pitch he adopts while making them.

Be fruitful and multiply...

(Tim, w/thanks to Brett R.) Either children are a blessing from the Lord, the fruitful womb His reward; or Al Gore and Jonathan Porritt are right, and the days' likely to come soon when "persecuted is the man whose quiver is full." Check out this, from yesterday's Times. Here's a teaser...

And there arose up a new king over America, which knew not babies...

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply... (Exodus 1:8-10a)

(Tim, w/thanks to David G.) Here's a good reminder of who President Obama actually is, and what oppression and bloodshed have formed the cornerstone of his public service from its inception. And the Emergelicals? Well, this is precisely what they wanted, and still want. They're just not honest enough to admit it.

O happy day!

(Tim) If you and the brothers and sisters of your church were regularly standing outside of your local abortuary, offering help to the women going in to kill their little babies, you would have days of God showing His glory and mercy like this account of today's work sent out by the the souls of Church of the Good Shepherd who keep vigil at Bloomington's killing place.

Praise God that He showed mercy on two mothers and their little ones--particularly since today was the thirty-fifth anniversary of the legalization of abortion by the United States Supreme Court who, on January 22, 2009, issued their infamously cruel ruling, Roe v. Wade.

Now, for our correspondent's report on their work this morning here in Bloomington outside Planned Parenthood, saving two babies from being murdered...

Pastor Conrad Mbewe issues African caution about President Obama...

(Tim) Readers may remember our introduction of Pastor Conrad Mbewe, leader of Zambia's vital Reformed churches. Conrad has started blogging. For several months we've had a link to him here at Baylyblog.

Two recent posts merit our readers' attention. The earlier one is a meditation on the current state of South Africa and the reformed church's witness there. David Wegener commends this post to us. The more recent post is Conrad's caution to fellow Africans caught up in the Messianic (my word) hopes of their continent concerning our latest president, Barack Obama. Both are worth your time.

As always, Pastor Mbewe is a wise living demonstration of the power of the Word of God wielded by a man of faith.

President Obama: "Meet the new boss, same as..."

(Tim) Here’s the truth. Obama is the oppressor of children, born and unborn. But since his skin color is black, we can’t believe he’d oppress anyone. So we come out with all this blather about other social justice issues equally commanding our attention as Christians. Our goal, of course, is to obscure the fact that abortion absolutely dwarfs the death toll of all other forms of oppression around the world combined. That’s combined, brothers and sisters!

Why, just in these United States alone, since the bloody decision, Roe v. Wade, was issued, our nation has torn limb from limb, leg from torso, body from mother’s womb, over fifty million—50,000,0000—of our little children.

This number is so large that it makes Africans' Rwanda, Asians' Pol Pot, and Europeans' Hitler look tame by comparison. The only bloody oppressors who are even close to slaughtering the numbers we have slaughtered by our own national, systemic, bloody, oppressive, enslaving child-murders are Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.

But, get this: If instead of talking about the death toll in our nation alone, we consider the international death toll from child slaughter through the murders we call “abortions,” then we’re talking about one Joseph Stalin every year. That’s well over 50,000,000 children slaughtered EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

It’s disgusting for otherwise educated and thoughtful men to seek to legitimize their conniving at this great bloody oppression that defines our nation by sniveling about systemic poverty and education and secondhand smoke and carbon emissions and AIDS.

If men who claim to know the Triune God want to vote Democratic; if men who claim to know the Triune God and have faith in Jesus Christ have black skin and want to vote for another man with black skin; we’d all be better off if they’d have the courage of their prejudices and admit them... You know, something like, “I’m afraid of not appearing progressive enough.” Or “I’m afraid my congregation would have my hide if I didn’t speak up for the brother.”

An open letter to African brothers in Christ on the occasion of Obama's Inauguration...

(Tim; this from and by Rev. David Wegener of Ndola, Zambia)

* * *
This is an open letter from an American Reformed Christian living in Africa to my African Christian friends on the occasion of the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the U.S.A.

20 January 2009

Dear African Christian Brother:

I would ask you to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ in the church in America, particularly for those who believe in the complete truthfulness of Scripture.

I’ve just begun a new term at the college and one of the courses I teach is a survey of church history. Last week we learned about Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, who was asked to curse Christ or die. The old man replied, “for 86 years I have served Him and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” Minutes after making this good confession he was burned alive... We also read about Blandina, a slave girl who endured indescribable tortures before being killed for her faith. In a few weeks we’ll study Athanasius, who was exiled from his pastorate five times because of his faith in our triune God and his willingness to stand alone against the world for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.

The deaf, dumb, and blind god of our many idolatries...

(Tim, w/thanks to Sarah Pulliam) Here's the prayer Bad Bishop Gene Robinson gave at the We Are One blowout at the Lincoln Memorial, yesterday.

O God of our many understandings...

Rick Warren, Gene Robinson, Barack Obama and the false presence of the Kingdom of God...

When I say to the wicked, "O wicked man, you will surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. (Ezekiel 33:8)

(Tim, w/thanks to Michael) According to the Washington Post, Pastor Rick Warren issued a statement praising President-elect Barack Obama for his selection of Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson to call down God's blessing on our nation and new president during the Inaugural weekend. Robinson, a man infamous internationally due to his promotion of sodomy in the Name of Jesus Christ, is, according to Warren, a good choice because it is one more indication that Senator Obama has a "genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground." Warren concludes concerning Senator Obama's selection of Robinson, "I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen."

It sounds good. I could almost hear myself saying the same. But then you stop to think about it and you realize this is one more step in the silencing of the witness of the Church of Jesus Christ. Such statements are precisely the thing warned against...

Tim Keller addresses abortion...

(Tim) Here's an excerpt from a sermon recently preached by Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. It was transcribed and forwarded by a friend who's attended Redeemer for years. He was encouraged that Pastor Keller touched on this issue in a sermon.

Preached on November 30, 2008, the sermon was titled, "In the Image of God," and the text was Genesis 1:26-2:3.

What happens in a society that got its idea of human rights from a belief in the image of God, that all people are created in the image of God? What happens to that society when as a society as a whole it loses the idea of God? You see, what happens when you have a secular society in which most of the cultural elite say "well, we don't believe in God anymore, and therefore we don't believe human beings were made in the image of God, we just evolved, they are very complex organisms?"

Now, how do you ground human rights in the worth of the individual human being? What does that worth consist of? What makes a human being worthy of rights now that you don't believe in the image of God anymore?

Nat Hentoff, a New Yorker with large biblical commitments...

(Tim) Last week, Nat Hentoff was laid off at the (Greenwich) Village Voice. This brings an abrupt end to Hentoff's fifty year run there, appropriately and affectionately titled "Fifty Years of Pissing People Off" by fellow Voice columnist Allen Barra in his recent tribute to Hentoff.

Hentoff started as a staff writer for the Voice back in 1958. His dismissal fifty years later coincides, almost to the day, with Louis Menand's short history of the Voice that ran in the current New Yorker. Beyond the Voice, Hentoff has also published in the New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, JazzTimes (his best-known work may be as a jazz critic and historian), and Atlantic Monthly.

I note the dismissal of Hentoff, as well as the profile of the Voice in the current New Yorker, because this past week I've been enjoying a Christmas gift received from a friend in New York City who knows me well. A former member of Church of the Good Shepherd while studying at IU's School of Music, Regina Scow sent me an autographed copy of The Nat Hentoff Reader which I've been relishing this past week.

So far, I've read a short piece on jazz clarinetist, George Lewis; a longish one on my longtime favorite, Merle Haggard; some superb essays on racism in America including a good profile of Ken Clark titled, "The Integrationist;" and a rare glimpse of the racial suffering of Louis Armstrong in "Louis Armstrong and Reconstruction." The book also reprints Hentoff's classic essay exposing the practice of infanticide in America today titled, "The Awful Privacy of Baby Doe." I'll never forget reading it when it first appeared back in 1985. When I finished the piece, I remember feeling deep gratitude for Hentoff's leadership and courage.

I've been a fan of Hentoff for years now, largely (but not exclusively) because of his heroic defense of the First Amendment, the newborn, and the unborn. Interesting trio, aren't they? Imagine someone who tenaciously defends the First Amendment against the depredations of p.c. nannies also tenaciously defending the unborn and newborn against oppression and murder. He'd have to be a Christian, wouldn't he?

Well, in this case not...

A simple plan for Pastor Rick Warren...

But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life" (Ezekiel 33:9).

(Tim) Feeling some heat from the wicked because of his tepid opposition to homosexual marriage, Pastor Rick Warren wants to shrug his shoulders, making the blessing into an act of simple pastoral humility: "Prayers are not to be sermons, speeches, position statements nor political posturing. They are humble, personal appeals to God," he says.

We respond, "So what humble request will you make of God the Father with the whole world watching, Pastor Warren?" Or better yet, "What humble request will you not be making of God the Father because such a request might be too easily mistaken for an arrogant 'sermon,' 'speech,' 'position statement,' or 'political posturing?'"

Keep in mind that the man Pastor Warren has agreed to invoke God's Name and blessing for has promised that his first act as president will be to further solidify the support of the laws of our nation for the slaughter of little babies.

With this in mind, here's my pastorally modest proposal. Let Rick Warren take this occasion to pray for a quick end to the slaughter of the babies across our land...

An odious comparison: Evangelicalism's Baalam and Rome's Jeremiah...

(Tim) So everyone's talking about Rick Warren's payoff. He gets to pray in front of millions during Senator Obama's inauguration, calling down God's presence and blessing on a ceremony centered around the national politician most committed to the slaughter of his nation's children taking God's Name in vain as he falsely promises to uphold the Constitution of these United States.

When our nation was founded, our Declaration of Independence declared our commitments this way:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

Thus, in the "Preamble" to our Constitution, we state the Constitution's purpose to be to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

Precisely how does a man swear by God's Holy Name to secure the blessings of liberty to our posterity who himself is our nation's political leader most committed to the slaughter of that posterity? The wickedness of Governor Blagojevich pales by comparison.

Selling an appointment to the U.S. Senate is child's play compared to the child slaughter which was a central plank of Senator Obama's campaign. Talk about wickedness in high places!

But no one's watching. We're all transfixed by our nation's little morality play over there on Chicago's South Side.

Also, by the vision of Evangelicalism's own Balaam, the Warrenmeister, thinking gentle thoughts about how his invocation of the Triune God can help heal our nation as we all unify behind our new President. So Rick Warren, prophet of Israel, hoists himself on his donkey...

When the sin of abortion can't be mentioned, there's always...

(Tim) Over under an old post, a man named Albert has been explaining why Tim Keller doesn't preach on abortion. Although he's written thousands of words, I think this gets at the nub of the issue:

Because, as I've said already, to (address the issue of abortion publicly) would be to detract people from the real issue. Would you be comfortable with the fact that if you brought up the issue of abortion to a liberal, all they heard was nothing but a Republican/Conservative ploy? ...Liberals will not buy your argument no matter how many times you qualify that what you're talking about isn't political.

So, good readers, if one preaches in Manhattan and wants to avoid issues that could be misunderstood, precisely what would one preach against?

Brothers and sisters, this is not a joke--but it's howlingly funny...

His fifteen minutes are up...

(Tim) Church of the Good Shepherd's own Scott Tibbs was quoted in the WSJ today opposing taxpayer funding of our nation's largest baby-killing charity, Planned Parenthood. Good work, Scott!

"They can slaughter anyone they want..."

(Tim) Showing how far back my e-mail queue goes, here's a suggestion for a post from my daughter, Heather, that's dated August 24, 2006. She writes:

There's an article in the latest World about a botched abortion in Florida where a baby was born alive and then killed. The police were told and finally found the body. Mark Overton is the Deputy Police Chief, and he is taking the case very seriously. Here's his quote:

My investigators are adamant about this case. I'm adamant about it and I think it's a tragedy...that they have this veil of late term abortion...Once the baby was born alive, that changed the whole complexion. They can slaughter anyone they want according to the statutes before birth, but not after.

What a man!

Right here in Kinsey City...

(Tim, w/thanks to many) Looks like Indiana, and now Bloomington, are becoming watchwords for crimes against humanity. First, we had Christmas gift certificates offered by the bloodthirsty wretches of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, legal tender for anything Planned Parenthood offers--including baby slaughter. Now, Live Action Films has released this video showing the counselling minor children get here in Bloomington, at the abortuary our church members picket faithfully, year after year.

What? Can it really be true that child-murderers will help cover up the statutory rape of a 13-year-old by a 31-year-old man? Horrors!

Planned Parenthood here in Bloomington just announced they've suspended the film's villain pending their own internal investigation. Child-murderer is suspended pending investigation of allegations she covered up statutory rape. What a precious piece of hypocrisy...

Abortion: Here am I, send me...

(Tim) Often when I write about the slaughter of the unborn, readers grow alarmed and wonder if I might be recommending armed revolution?

No, I've never recommended armed revolution, but any and everything short of it. Little ones made in the Image of our Mighty God are being heartlessly slaughtered in our cities and we eat turkey and stuffing, then gather Lord's Day to celebrate the beginning of Advent singing, "Away in a manger, no room for a bed; the little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head."

Few times in salvation history have the people of God cultivated such a highly sophisticated ability to worship the God of justice and truth while living in the midst of unjust, oppressive bloodshed. Typical of cities around our nation, here in Bloomington approximately one out of every five children conceived in their mother's womb is slaughtered. The horror of Nazi Germany doesn't begin to approach us in numbers or the relative innocence and helplessness of its victims. Molech in ancient Canaan didn't devour twenty percent of the children of the land, nor did the death toll reach one billion children...

The blind intolerance, moralism, and dogmatism of pagans...

(Tim) On Facebook, a friend and former CGSer has been discussing sodomy, marriage, divorce and the civil law with several friends who have said things like: "semantics is a cheap reason to deny a minority their civil rights. None of the many gay folk I know agree with the "semantics justification" for denial of marriage. Also, such a social mandate (YOU live by OUR rules) has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ--and everything to do with the teachings of the Pharisees."

Wanting to say a couple things, I pointed the conversationalists to this page and here's my own contribution to their dialog. Sorry I haven't linked things, but I wanted to get this up before all our guests arrive for Thanksgiving Dinner. If any of you want to add links, just post them in the comments.

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Sam, Scripture isn't just dogma; it's narrative. Descriptive isn't necessarily prescriptive. It can be, but with divorce, incest, polygamy, concubinage, etc. Scripture reveals both where it was that every culture got marriage and also the laws to which God bound all sexual intimacy.

So, for instance, when Jesus was asked a question similar to yours (but this one concerning divorce), He responded saying it wasn't that way from the beginning (Creation) and that God made male and female for each other for life with the two becoming one--not three, four, or a thousand (Matthew 19:3 ff.). So there's no inconsistency between the Old and New Testaments on this matter. The two, male and female, shall become one until, by God's decree, death parts us. (My dear wife and I are on our thirty-third year, now, and still chugging away in harmony and love, praise God!)

All Christians through all time have always spoken this truth...

Sho'ah gift certificates; a gift that keeps on giving in Hell...

(Tim, w/thanks to Fred) Planned Parenthood is the bloody slaughterhouse at the center of our city where our children suffer and die while, kittycorner, we shop at Krogers or sit at the drive-in window at Wendys. And in the spirit of Christmas, they're offering gift certificates for those looking for that special way of celebrating the birth of the Innocent that Herod tried his damnedest to kill.

Take a close look at the picture of Josef Mengele's Gypsy children. These little ones only hint at the carnage pouring body parts into your city's sewage treatment plant, and ours. The flesh and bones are Planned Parenthood's refuse and you and I provide them mass graves in our city dumps and sewage treatment plants.

Emerging from the bowels of hell covered in their victims' blood, we treat our Mengeles as respectable citizens, supporting their holocaust with our tax dollars--most recently, $336,000,000 federally, kindness of Republican President Bush, and thousands more here in Bloomington, kindness of our city fathers.

Did you know Planned Parenthood had a banner year in 2007 with proceeds over $1,000,000,000?

Planned Parenthood is our  Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, Bełżec, Chełmno,  Majdanek,  Sobibór,  Babi Yar, Jasenovac,  Maly Trostenets, Ninth Fort, Rumbula, Sajmište, Uckermark, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau--all wrapped up in one and multiplied by ten. Internationally, though, multiplied by one hundred.

Who cares. Who bloody well cares.

Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me oh Lord...

(Tim, w/thanks to David L.) This can't be said often enough. Human life begins at conception.

This should not be debated but simply asserted. No high school diploma is needed to rebuke the Ph.D. who denies it. It's simply true and to state it is no act of faith but a simple observation. This truth is so obvious, so universally recognized, so non-controversial, so pure in its science that only the highly-educated are able to convince themselves otherwise.

The instant the sperm pierces the egg and the two become one, a new man made in the Image of God exists. And concerning that little man or woman, God Himself has decreed whoever sheds his blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the Image of God He created him (Genesis 9:6).

Death is the punishment commanded by God for those who murder the life in the womb. From the instant of conception.

Now if you feel overwhelmed by the bloodshed that surrounds us and want to escape this truth, I don't blame you. Life is much easier when we have a morality play a few decades removed from us to point to, proving we are defenders of life and will not tolerate those who destroy it...