BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

President Obama's totalitarianism...

Under the administration of President Barack Obama, the U.S. Department of Health has now declared that, by law, all health insurance companies will be required to provide birth control and sterilization, as well as drugs whose purpose is to kill unborn babies. Even self-funded health insurance provided by religious organizations who are opposed to this murder of unborn children will be required to provide these deadly pills.

Responding to the outcry, the Obama administration has decided to be magnanimous and provide religious groups an additional year to comply. In an effort to oppose this governmental oppression of babies' right to life and citizens' freedom of religion, U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is sponsoring a bill--HR 1179--that would force President Obama to (at least) provide religious health care providers their right of conscience. Read more about it here.

Keep in mind...

Midwives, denominations, abortions, and my present political philosophy...

I don't write much about Indiana politics and government but it's caused me no small sadness to contemplate the term-limit-departure of our fiscally excellent governor a little over a year from now. Gov. Mitch Daniels will have completed his second term and will have to leave office.

If I am comforted in our loss of Mitch's magnificent fiscal leadership, my comfort comes from this: that his likely successor is a man, Representaive Mike Pence, who promises to govern with the same fiscal commitments while adding a theological framework to those commitments that promises to extend far beyond fiscal discipline, on to principles concerning many other areas of governance including the battlefields on which the destroyers of our nation and its states are focussing their revolution: sexuality, the Image of God in man, the origin and nature of sexuality and marriage decreed by our Creator in His Order of Creation, and so forth.

As you read through Daniels' penultimate State of the State Address delivered yesterday evening, you will gain a hint of why I respect him. He has been unflinching in disciplining the educationists of our state by a host of private initiatives that have finally brought competition into public education. True, he brags about over half of our state budget going to edcuation, and he seems to see higher education as an unqualified good. I disagree with both things as I disagreed with President Bush on similar matters. Mitch Daniels is not a wild-eyed enthusiast. He's a realist who really changed our state. Definitively. And reading, you'll see what difference it makes to each citizen of the state.

But there's something else I want to say, here.

Some thirty years ago, I was at the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly to oppose their denominational abortion policy. My dear Mary Lee was pregnant and, since we were in the habit of having home births, I'd called the midwest representative of the PC(USA)'s self-funded independent medical insurance plan to ask if they'd cover the cost of our midwife? It was awkward. He hemmed and hawed and said he didn't know and would have to get back to me on it...

Please help...

Will you please help me?

When the publisher of Dad's novel, Winterflight, decided to take it out of print, I bought the 3,000 copies they had left in their inventory. With shipping I paid about $3,500 for them and I need to recoup that money. I've given away many of these books--some to some of you. But I can't afford to keep giving them away and I'd like to ask you to buy some for Christmas gifts, your church library, your public library, or as presents for your pastors and elders and senators and congressmen and doctors.

Winterflight is the perfect antidote to President Obama's grand scheme to move all medical authority inside the Beltway.

The book is about a hemophiliac who is dying because of nationalized health care...

Would I support our daughters enlisting in the military...

Several days ago under the post of the Majority Report of the PCA's Ad Interim Study Committee on Women in the Military (AISCOWIM), I'd been asked whether I would support our daughters enlisting in a non-combatant position in our U.S. Armed Forces, today? Here are the questions, along with my response. (TB)

Question from Sue: Tim, Could you answer a question about women in the military that I don't think is addressed in your/your committee's report? What is your position about women serving in military in non-combat roles...

"Blessed is the nation whose god is the Lord..."

It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate (in which) they ought especially to maintain piety, justice, and peace, according to the wholesome laws of each commonwealth...

Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith. Yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord…

- Westminster Confession of Faith 23.2,3

But it often happens that the magistrate is negligent, nay, sometimes himself requires to be chastised; as was the case with the Emperor Theodosius. Moreover, the same thing may be said regarding the whole ministry of the word. Now, therefore, according to that view, let pastors cease to censure manifest iniquities, let them cease to chide, accuse, and rebuke. For there are Christian magistrates who ought to correct these things by the laws and the sword. But as the magistrate ought to purge the Church of offences by corporal punishment and coercion, so the minister ought, in his turn, to assist the magistrate in diminishing the number of offenders. Thus they ought to combine their efforts, the one being not an impediment but a help to the other.

- John Calvin, Institutes; 4:11:3

Observing radical two kingdom men in their atomistic machinations of this and that, only precisely there but absolutely not then or now, leads me to say that one of their gravest problems is that man is, by nature, given to worship. He was made for this.

If he will not bow to his Creator, he won't stop bowing; instead, he'll bow to idols. Scripture says "Blessed is the nation whose god is the Lord," and the understood alternative is not the enlightened nation that has adopted an official no-god-at-all called "separation of church and state." If a nation does not have God as their god, they are in thrall to demons. And their subjection is not only as individuals, but corporately as families, cities, states, and nation.

There is the nation whose god is the Lord and there is the nation whose god is an idol of demons--those are the only two possibilities. Man was made to worship. He can't help himself.

Thus while R2K men are scurrying around trying to shore up the separation of church and state that they hope will provide us a few more years of peace, our presidents--both Democrats and Republicans--never stop constructing the temples and altars of Molech. And this is only to cite one example, albeit the bloodiest and most pathetic one...

The deafening silence...

This piece, "The Deafening Silence" by Nathan Ed Schumacher, demonstrates that the silence of Emergent and R2K men in the face of the wickedness and oppression in our public square is of the same fabric. Fear of man is a principle that knows no boundaries. (TB)

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. - Matthew 5:14

He that is not with me is against me. - Matthew 12:30

Qui non improbat, approbat [He who does not disapprove, approves]

Causae ecclesiae publicus causis aequiparantur [The cause of the church is a public cause]

-Maxims of Law

When Obama started his latest war in Libya, I wasn’t surprised – but I did start looking for some reaction from those in official senior positions of Christian leadership...

Lies in support of a lower cause...

How did we get rationized health care? Here are a couple things voters need to know. (TB)

Not to worry, Congresswoman Bachmann's resigned membership in her WELS church...

The Wisconisn Evangelical Lutheran Synod sees the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and raises them one. Or maybe ten.

In my former home of Pardeeville, Wisconsin, the WELS congregation was the dominant religious presence in town. When they called a new pastor, Mary Lee and I decided to invite him with his wife and children over for dinner. After a cordial introduction, we sat down at the table and I turned to him and said, "I've heard lots of things through the years, but let me ask you directly: do you pray, do I pray, or do we not pray at all?"

He answered, "You go ahead and pray and we'll sit by," and immediately his good wife turned to their children and said, "We're going to pray; fold your hands and close your eyes." God bless her.

We had a pleasant evening. During the conversation the WELS pastor told us his grandmothers was a godly Baptist and that he didn't pray with her, either...

Standing in the gap; assassination of bin Laden...

Two posts from my son, Joseph Bayly, worth reading--the first on standing in the gap and the second on the assasination of Osama bin Laden.

Joseph and David Abu-Sara are leading a church plant in Indianapolis called ClearNote Church of Indianapolis. Listen to some of the sermons, here; I commend their ministry to you and your Indy friends and relatives.

(TB)

Why U.S. Armed Forces burned Bibles and where it leads...

If you have children, watch this video with them and use it to explain the world we're leaving behind and the very different world that's coming at us full-tilt.

(TB)

Paul Johnson wearing his velvet slippers...

(Tim, w/thanks to Mark) So very many good points here from that excellent historian, Paul Johnson. The necessity of courage in politicians and a woman--Sarah Palin--held up as an example. He likes women in politics, but he is divorced and notes with approval the cut of Governor Palin's jib. Also a tip of the hat to President Bush for his courage--which I think exactly right. Summary judgments of leaders as "goodies" and "baddies" with Churchill and Napolean, respectively, heading the list. His dislike of intellectuals defining them as caring about ideas rather than people. That Reagan talked in sentences punctuated with one-liners while President Obama speaks in paragraphs (punctuated by nothing). That revolutions come in waves and the protests in the Mideast may be successful against the softies but certainly not the hardened, evil men. Much more wisdom here. Take the time.

Would I vote for Governor Daniels if he runs...

"Across my lifetime I've been voting for men who claimed to be anti-abortion but after taking office did nothing to oppose the slaughter. I'm tired of it. I don't want to be lied to any more. Daniels isn't lying to me."

(Tim) Readers will remember my basic rule about voting: I won't vote for a county dog-catcher who isn't pro-life.

That said, if I were to make an exception, it might be for our Governor Mitch Daniels. A few months ago I got a call from an Iowa man long involved in Iowa politics asking my thoughts on Daniels for president? A couple friends work in the Daniels administration and since that conversation I've been thinking about a potential Daniels candidacy quite a lot. Here's a piece from the Wall Street Journal that has it about right...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels believes he faces a taller challenge as he ponders a White House run: Could voters warm to his message that the country is doomed unless it slashes its debt and radically revamps the popular Social Security and Medicare programs?

In any other year, a campaign platform that gloomy would render a politician toxic. Today, with concerns over the nation's fiscal health on the rise, the Indiana Republican's wonkish bravado is making some think he is a good fit for the moment.

If the time is indeed right for Mr. Daniels's get-tough message, the angry budget standoffs in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey are also shining a new light on his credentials as a messenger. Mr. Daniels rescinded collective-bargaining rights for state employees six years ago—long before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker caused a firestorm by putting the same issue on the table.

Mr. Daniels also cut spending, trimmed the state work force to its smallest in decades, and turned a yawning deficit into a surplus, with only scattered outbursts of popular anger along the way.

He has emerged from all this with high marks from voters, and a profile that sets him apart from the other Republicans mulling a possible 2012 run. An array of conservatives, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would like to see him enter the 2012 race.

He's the only potential candidate "who sees the stark perils and will offer real detailed proposals," Mr. Bush said last week in praising Mr. Daniels before a Florida business group. Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on Thursday heaped almost identical praise on his Indiana counterpart.

So would I vote for Governor Daniels if he ran?

Daniels' commitments concerning what he calls "the social issues" are clear and firm...

President himself declares Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional...

(Tim) Our President and his Attorney General have finally decided openly to oppose the Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress. Congress says its constitutional but the President says it isn't. The New York Times reports the President has determined that...

Rahm Emanuel's residency and President Obama's birth...

(Tim, w/thanks) Reading about the mess over whether or not Rahm Emanuel meets the residency requirements to run for mayor of Chicago reminds me of the continuing mess over President Obama's birth certificate. As I've said before, just produce it for us, already. It's constitutionally important!

But they don't produce it.

And "former Hawaii elections clerk Tim Adams has now signed an affidavit swearing he was told by his supervisors in Hawaii that no long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate existed for Barack Obama Jr. in Hawaii and that neither Queens Medical Center nor Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu had any record of Obama having been born in their medical facilities."

Then too, Hawaii's new governor, Neil Abercrombie, who ran on a platform including militant promises that, when he took office, he'd put the question of President Obama's birth certificate to rest once and for all, has taken office, done the research, and is publicly  admitting he can't produce the evidence.

President Obama: "Gonna be hard, but we're gonna do it!"

(Tim, w/thanks to Jim Lingo) If you'd like a good laugh, here's a lesson in what our public servants in Washington D.C. consider a significant budget cut.

The modern and morbid habit of sacrificing the normal on the altar of the abnormal...

(Tim, w/thanks to DW) This just in from Fox News:

The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says. “The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’" Sprague said the decision to remove the traditional parenting names was not an act of political correctness.

A statement on the State Department website noted: “These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.” (Read more...)

Womyn in combat...

(Tim, w/thanks to Scott) Our national president of shrews, Eleanor Smeal, sent an e-mail out earlier today exhorting her constituents to protest the don't ask, don't tell policy. She's desperate to see it repealed before the Republicans take over. Smeal made the point that this policy is a particular hardship to her sex because women comprise a disproportionate number of the 13,000 soldiers discharged for sodomy in the past sixteen years. (And yes, historically, "sodomy" includes copulation against the order of nature.)

Smeal reports that, in 2009, although women were only one seventh of Army soldiers, they were half of those discharged for the same-sex perversion. Similarly in the Air Force, although only one out of every five airmen was a woman, one out of two discharged was a woman. In the Navy, one out of every eight sailors was a woman...

"So that the land will not spew you out..."

(Tim) Responding to this article from Family Research Council commenting on President Barack Obama's use of his office of Commander in Chief to promote sodomy, a friend of mine who is a longtime IVCF staff worker in a metro area of the Eastern Seaboard sent this e-mail:

Friends, I’d be interested in your take on the first article here. I’m as strongly against homosexual activity as anyone but I’m not sure I see the logic of banning them from the military. Prohibiting any and all sexual contact among servicemen, yes. But can we ban someone’s desires in a public way?

I’m not sure this is as clear-cut as many conservatives make it out to be. Your thoughts?

To which I responded...

Rally to restore Hannity...

(Tim) The online version of the Times article on the Democratic comedy show "Rally to Restore Hannity" led by Stewart and Colbert yesterday on the National Mall has this correction: "An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the geographical reach of the rally. It stretched several long blocks west of the Capitol, not almost to the Washington Monument."

Quite a change, huh? Gotta love 'em with that "referred imprecisely" bit.

Good Uns...

(Tim) Last night on our way out to Vienna, Virginia for Joe Sobran's wake, Brian and I (Charlie Dugdale is also with us) traded Sobran quotes for a while, writing down our favorites.

• A college education teaches one the correct views on racial minorities and provides the means to live as far away from them as possible.
• The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.
• Politician's lexicon: Greed is wanting to keep as much of your wealth as possible. Need is wanting someone else's wealth. Compassion is the means by which the transfer is arranged.
• Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a Republican.
• Quoting Chesterton: The modern and morbid habit of sacrificing the normal on the altar of the abnormal.
• The U.S. Constitution bears the same tenuous relationship to our government as the Book of Revelation does to the Unitarian Universalist Church.
• Quoting Charles Peguy: No one will ever know how many acts of cowardice have been committed out of the fear of seeming insufficiently progressive.

A liberal is a man who won't take his own side in a fight...

(Tim) Under "Try a little tenderness...," good reader Lew provided a link to a recent Joe Sobran article that ran last month in Chronicles. Here it is, along with this teaser:

The U.S. Constitution, as I often say, poses no serious threat to our form of government. It has roughly the same tenuous relation to our political institutions as the book of Revelation has to the Unitarian Church... (read more)

Try a little tenderness...

(Tim) I'm still in grief over the hiatus Joe Sobran's taken from the printed page, but Peggy Noonan's not a bad fill-in. Not bad at all.

Favorite lines:

Someone noted on cable the other day that only months ago many Democrats still hoped they might benefit to some degree from the Tea Party's populist spirit, and attempted a certain tentative sympathy. True, but they did it like anthropologists discovering a new tribe in Borneo: "Come. No hurt. Be friend." Now, seeing the Tea Party is not gettable or co-optable, the Democrats are attempting to demonize them...

Koop says Kagan's actions make her unfit for SCOTUS...

(Tim, w/thanks to Heather) There's more than ample evidence that, if confirmed to SCOTUS, Ms. Kagan will serve for many years as President Obama's hack, faithfully politicizing our highest court in order to protect the murder of many millions of children across our land.

No better proof of the depth to which Ms. Kagan has sunk in the past, and is likely to continue in for decades in the future, is this account by former Surgeon General and longtime member of Tenth Presbyterian Church, C. Everett Koop, detailing how Ms. Kagan supported the murder of unborn, but viable, babies by manipulating the words of...

Elaine Kagan's smoking gun...

(Tim) President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, is so very bad in so many ways that this post seems superfluous. Nevertheless, here's more.

Turns out that, while serving as a domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House, Ms. Kagan was quite exercised over the possibility that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists would be used to support a ban on partial birth abortion...

President Obama's a pretty legitimate, you know, person...

(Tim) Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak told a reporter the White House offered him a position up near the top in the Obama administration if he'd withdraw from the primary where he was trying to unseat Dem. Senator Arlen Specter. Republicans are saying the White House broke the law with the offer and the press asked Rep Sestak for a statement about the mess. Here's how the Washington Post reported...

The conscience criminalized...

Woe to those who enact evil statutes And to those who constantly record unjust decisions, So as to deprive the needy of justice And rob the poor of My people of their rights, So that widows may be their spoil And that they may plunder the orphans. Now what will you do in the day of punishment, And in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives Or fall among the slain. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out. (Isaiah 10:1-4)

(Tim: This by Brian Bailey, an attorney and elder here at Church of the Good Shepherd) On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Congress tacked the hate crimes act onto the tail end of an already 646-page, $686 billion Department of Defense bill.[1]

A hate crimes racket?

What is a federal hate crime? “[W]hoever, whether or not acting under color of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph (B) or paragraph (3), willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person” commits a federal hate crime.

We can breathe a sigh of relief. We don’t plan to cause homosexuals or cross-dressers “bodily injury,” and thus the statute could not possibly apply to us. But . . . why this nagging doubt about the reach of the hate crime act?

A pastoral letter on the expansion of wicked oppression through nationalized health care...

 "For every Baby Doe, there will be ten-thousand Grandma and Grandpa Does." -C. Everett Koop

"Can a man take fire in his bosom And his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals And his feet not be scorched? (Proverbs 6:27, 28).

"The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice Is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice. ...The violence of the wicked will drag them away, Because they refuse to act with justice." (Proverbs 21:1-3,7)

(Tim) If the heart of the king is a river directed by the hand of God, much more so the hearts of the men leading our nation in Congress and the Senate. And despite the conniving claims of Emergelicals that Jesus would be for the nationalization of health care, I've been to Jerusalem and seen what turning one-sixth of the economy of these United States inevitably will produce.

My brother, David, and Pastor Curell and Doug Ummel and Joel Belz and Paul Fratiani and lots of others with your scribe were there five years ago in Pinellas Park, Florida, when our civil servants murdered Terry Schiavo. We saw it with our own eyes and we know the rule of law is gone in these United States. The civil magistrate has become the predator and he devours the lives of the weak and innocent and oppressed.

Make no mistake about it: there are many nice things about nationalized health care that will make it go down smoothly. I have a dear relative who finally will be able to get coverage without his serious pre-existing conditions ruling him out...

A wolf in sheep's clothing...

(Tim) So there are wolves in sheep's clothing in the Republican Party, but who believes there are any in the church, nowadays? Or that they matter? Today, the fiscal conservatives of the Republican Party are our good shepherds, leading us to green pastures and still waters, and restoring our souls. Yea, though we walk through valley of the shadow of Barack Obama, we will fear no evil, for Scott Brown will be moving into Teddy Kennedy's prime real estate on Capitol Hill.

Check out those eyes.

Former surgeon general warns of denial of health care to elderly...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) Former Surgeon General C. Everett "Chick" Koop is a longtime family friend who, as a pediatric surgeon, worked on several of us when we were growing up in Philly. Here Dr. Koop presents one more voice of wisdom warning of the evil consequences of turning our nation's health care over to our federal masters in the same way we've already turned over to them our automobile industry, our banks, and our unborn children.

Speaking of the president disrespecting the justices...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kevin) During his State of the Union Address with the justices sitting under his nose, President Obama shamed them for their recent decision overturning unconstitutional campaign reform laws. Note how little the Constitution matters to this former law professor at University of Chicago and editor of the law review at Harvard. His issue isn't that their decision was wrong, constitutionally, but that its consequences are bad for America. He might have said "with all due respect First Amendment to the Constitution," but he didn't.

Whatever in the world happened to the Constitution? Among these public masters, finding submission to their vow to uphold the Constitution is like a "Where's Waldo" game.

We do get some tiny satisfaction, though, by watching this video closely, noting Justice Alito shaking his head in direct contravention to President Obama's statements. And as he shakes, take a close look at what he says...

Boston Herald: "A revolution begins..."

(Tim) Just posted, this editorial from the Boston Herald:

It was - for the second time in Massachusetts history - the shot heard round the world, or at the very least from coast to coast and surely in the halls of Congress.

Scott Brown won this one fair and square with his down-to-earth charm, his hard work and his forthright position on issues - and with the help of that much-disparaged by the opposition pick-up truck.

But it is also true that Brown was the right candidate at the right time with the right message. And it’s that message that the White House and congressional Democrats can no longer ignore. After all, if the people of Massachusetts can send a Republican to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat Ted Kennedy had a lock on for 47 years, then the revolution has indeed begun.

Not trusting in horses and chariots (and certainly not the Republican Party), as a former resident of the Bay State who worked for a couple years for the only other man who came close to taking this seat from Ted Kennedy (Si Spaulding), I view tonight's defeat of the Kennedy legacy as God's kindness to us.

Reading a review of Chadwick's just-released bio of Augustine earlier this evening...

The invisible woman...

(Tim) My friend Bob Patterson forwarded a pre-release copy of the Winter 2010 issue of The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy which he edits, and it's the point of this essay to get you to subscribe. For many years I've been reading this and other publications of what is now called the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, and they've been foundational to my work as a preacher, pastor, and father.

This particular issue's cover article details how, over the past thirty years, homemakers have been forced to subsidize the lives of privilege lived by other women who have forsaken marriage, the home, and childbearing for degrees and professions.

Professional women with salaries high enough to allow them to pay for day care and still turn a profit have not simply been content to leave their homemaking sisters behind, but have built their lifestyle on the backs of those sisters and their hardworking husbands. To anyone who matters, these homemakers are invisible.

Equal Employment Opportunity laws have piled up a legacy of systemic injustice throughout the wage earning world, leaving half the fairer and weaker sex to raise the children the other half will depend upon for their Medicare and Social Security payments when their life of childless privilege is drawing to an end. Meanwhile, the husbands of these housewives and mothers are in free-fall, trying to support the mother of their children as she gives herself to work that, despite those bright boys and girls in Economics Departments, still hasn't shown up on their gross domestic profit tally sheets...

Comparing presidential Thanksgiving proclamations: from thanking God to thanking ourselves...

(Tim, w/thanks to Eric) Comparing today's Thanksgiving Proclamation by President Obama with last year's by President Bush presents us a study in contrasts. Specifically, one heart that turns in gratitude to God and one that doesn't...

Brian McLaren exposed by a Stupak question...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) Christians who voted for Barack Obama and now support centralized government health care normally are great supporters of that Emergent businessman, Brian McLaren. You can warn them away from him, but they persevere in their adulation because he speaks their language as no one else. As one woman put it to me, he answers the questions of my heart.

McLaren has been quite influential in getting such naifs to support Barack Obama while convincing themselves that he (Obama) is pro-life. In other words, that he opposes abortion. Well, maybe not actually "opposes"--that may be taking it a bit too far. It might be better to say that he wishes he opposed abortion. Or maybe better yet, that he wishes others thought of him as opposing abortion.

Maybe best to say that sometimes, very late at night, he admits to himself that he wishes "those people" would have fewer abortions. But then, what's a poor boy to do?

Anyhow, as I said, McLaren is the guy that seduced them all to board this ship and now, courtesy of Brian's grandpa, Jim Wallis, we know precisely how opposed to abortion McLaren isn't.

That hopey-changey thing...

(Tim) Thought you might get a kick out of Doug's bumper sticker...

Our baby-slaughter President gets the Nobel Peace Prize...

(Tim, w/thanks to David L.) For the sake of unborn generations, let the electrons permanently record here on Baylyblog that there were some citizens of these United States who, long before the the Peace Prize was awarded to President Obama, already knew the Nobel had become a joke. President Obama a peacemaker? This man of blood?

Back in 1979 when a Nobel still meant something, Mother Teresa won the Peace Prize and had this to say...

Nationalized healthcare and abortion: just say "No"...

(Tim, w/thanks to Mark) Lest there be any doubt in the matter, I'm absolutely opposed to any expansion of the authority and power of our national government in the lives of citizens of our united states. And this is particularly true with regard to what is being referred to as national healthcare. The national healthcare we need is CPR for the Tenth Amendment--not President Barack Obama forcing believers in Jesus Christ to send our taxes to him so he can pay for someone else's daughter to slaughter her unborn child or intimidate someone else's son into pulling the plug on his aging mother.

If you want to read the definitive work on national healthcare and where it will lead us...

Government healthcare means cruelty, oppression, and murder...

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous, So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong.  - Psalm 125:3

(Tim) Government funding always means more government control. Always. And today, that cannot possibly be good news.

More government control will lead to less compassion (for single mothers, for instance), responsibility (for single fathers, for instance), justice (for unborn children, for instance), mercy (for the homeless, for instance), truth (for children educated in government schools, for instance) and freedom for citizens forced to foot the bill for government's aborting those very virtues her subjects hold dear.

This is the reason compassionate, responsible, just, merciful, and truthful Americans are joining Libertarian ranks in droves. They've read Paul Johnson's Intellectuals and learned that the sort of leaders profiled by the New Yorker and the NYTimes Magazine will talk about love for the people and national compassion while demonstrating an astounding selfishness in their own personal lives.

Need I list examples?

Hillary Clinton of It Takes a Village fame? Her husband, Bill? The latest entrant into the race for that moral squalor called the Office of Governor of the State of New York, Rudy Giuliani? Our resident global-warming prophet safely ensconced in his carbon-spewing mansion (except when he's flying in his carbon-spewing coporate jets), Al Gore?

Democrats won this last election by hoodwinking young and middle-aged "Christians" who had been softened up to the deception by years of being inoculated against all discernment by ear-scratchers like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren. Their pastors had turned them into easy marks for Barack Obama's lies.

But among those who saw through President Obama's lies...

Just trust us...

(Tim) For several weeks, now, the news has been filled with articles reassuring Americans that government medicine is inevitable and poses no danger to us. They tell us government medicine will not fund abortions except in the most extraordinary cases where any reasonable man would agree the baby must die. It will not require the wholesale slaughter of the old and feeble--what we are taught to refer to as "euthanasia." After all, termination counseling isn't mandatory; it's simply an option offered those who may find it helpful.

A front page article in the Indy Star yesterday (picked up from the LA Times, by the way) blamed Rush Limbaugh for all the fear. "Nothing bad will happen," the civil authority tells us. "Just trust us."

Trust you?

You have got to be kidding! Trust you? You can't be serious!

Look at your track record. Your government education is so bad you'd sooner die than enroll your own children in the public schools serving your neighborhood there at the White House. And this is equally true of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama.

Trust you?

Submergent church leaders have a lot to answer for...

(Tim, w/thanks to Tim W.) Among the many wicked things Submergent church leaders have given us through their support of Barack Obama's presidency, we come to this:

...the Senate (defense) bill also expands the federal hate-crimes law to those attacked because of their sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.

I'm wondering if Rob Bell will negotiate an exception for pastors preaching that sodomy is an abomination before God?

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...

Liberals are liberal with taxpayers' money, not their own...

(Tim) President Obama's charitable contributions prior to being elected to public office a couple years ago were less than one percent. Less than one percent, folks!

And now, occupying the White House with a recent household income in the millions, his giving is lower than other presidents who have preceded him. (Probably with this public embarrassment, his giving will go up in future years.)

Turning to Vice President and Mrs. Joseph Biden...

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...

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...

Joel Osteen's prophetic witness against sodomy: "Not knocking anyone else" but "I like to shoot for God's best..."

(Tim) David and I are reticent to criticize Joel and Victoria Osteen lest, defending themselves against the charge that all men speak well of them, they point to us, exclaiming, "Not the Bayly Brothers; they don't!"

Nevertheless, we simply must comment on this forwarded to us by many of you. Here are Co-Pastors Osteen on Larry King Live. Asked to rate our new president's performance and to assign him a religion--pick one of three:

Larry King: Since you were last on, we have sworn in our first African-American president. What are your impressions [of Barack Obama]?

Joel Osteen: Well, I think he's doing a great job. I'm impressed with his skill, his calmness, his just strength...

King: And you, Victoria?

From one Christian monarch to another: amusing ourselves to Hell...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) If you want to begin to understand our day--the switch of the central currency of cultural engagement from the Bible to moving pictures, the use of film clips in Gospel preaching, the building of congregations around virtual images of themselves on the movie screen each Lord's Day employed by men like Mark Driscoll and John Piper, and the gift our head of state and his wife gave the Queen, recently--only two things are necessary: first, read the Second Commandment; and second, read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

And while we're talking about the gifts the monarchs exchanged...

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...

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.