BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

What do Paulites and R2Kites have in common...

My dear wife says this post is only for readers who know what R2K is, have watched Ron Paul in a couple of the debates, and are familiar both with Woody Allen and Peggy Noonan's essay exposing him. Others would do well to skip it. PS: If you like Baylyblog and love Ron Paul, save yourself some grief and don't click through...

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...

Roe v. Wade's 39th anniversary: The Lord's throne is in Heaven...

(TB: On the occasion of the thirty-ninth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I post this message. It would please me if you would take the time to read it. Thank you.)

I remain amazed that abortion could even become a political issue in a country with pretensions to being civilized. It is as if we were to debate the merits of legalizing cannibalism, with the liberal side chanting the slogan "Keep government out of the kitchen!"

There is no danger that the other side will ever be persuaded that it is wrong; there is, however, the very real danger that we will become discouraged, worn down, and inured to an evil that should always horrify and sicken us. The erosion of our consciences is surely part of the destructiveness of this abominable "procedure."   - Joe Sobran

The Lord'€™s Throne Is in Heaven

(For the choir director; a psalm of David.) In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain; for, behold, the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'€™S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face. (Psalm 11:1-7)

Thirty one (now thirty-nine) years ago today, on January 22nd, 1973, the Supreme Court of these United States issued its infamous ruling, Roe v. Wade, in which the Court declared that a mother's intentional killing of her unborn child was a fundamental right guaranteed under our Constitution. Since that ruling, it has been a commonplace to observe that Roe v. Wade, the Court's repeal of the laws prohibiting abortion on the books of all fifty states, was simply the exercise of raw judicial power with a legal justification based upon a mist and a vapor--€”or as the Court itself might put it, emanations from penumbras.

Our Supreme Court: intentionally conniving at murder...

Since 1973, no one has made a name for himself defending Roe. v. Wade’s history, biology, ethics, logic, or justice; and only a few have been foolish enough to claim this ruling will stand the test of time...

The U.S. Constitution requires civil magistrates to protect the unborn...

Here's the simple truth stated by the man I most respect in matters Constitutional: "The federal government and its magistrates and officials have a duty to stop abortion under the Constitution, not just the discretionary authority to decide to do so."

Both the duty and the discretionary authority are denied by the curmudgeon libertarians muttering this and that out on the perimeters of our national political debates. This is why I do not trust them...

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...

Limited government, yes. Limitless bloodshed, no.

INTRODUCING A GUEST POST: A number of otherwise Reformed men are making the case that Federal laws against abortion are unconstitutional. They claim conservatives who call our nation's civil magistrates to stop the baby slaughter are the legal equivalent of liberals who claimed the Constitution as their authority for legalizing that slaughter. They announce there is moral equivalence between the two sides with each abusing the Constitution in the name of their own pet social issues.

So, as promised earlier today, here's an exposure of their argument written by a Presbyterian elder with significant appellate experience who currently serves in a high post of civil authority. Read it carefully and have the faith and courage to rise above these theological masters so once again we will expect of our civil magistrates, both federal and state, faithful protection of the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of each citizen whether he is black or white, rich or poor, old or young, born or unborn. (TB, w/thanks to...)

* * *

Limited government, yes. Limitless bloodshed, no.

Men advocating on behalf of the Tenth Amendment and stumping for federal indifference to abortion nullify the very principle they purport to champion. The Tenth Amendment says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Reserved to those people, that is, who aren’t selected for State-tolerated dismemberment in the womb...

A parable...

To those Reformed men ever vigilant to protect our form of government from being harmed by the passage of code banning abortion across our nation, a parable... (TB)

Here we have the Hutu father sitting on his porch holding forth on the boundaries of his property and the limits of his legal powers and obligations as a group of neighbors use machetes to hack to shreds his own Hutu son and Tutsi daughter-in-law and their eight children (his grandchildren).

But of course, the bloodshed is out in the street just beyond his property line...

Neglecting the weightier provisions of the law...

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23)

One commenter calls our attention to the blog of a writer of economic treatises popular within some Reformed circles who, in the linked blog post, makes the case that Federal laws against abortion are unconstitutional and that conservatives seeking federal action to protect the babies is the legal equivalent of liberals using the Constitution to declare baby-murder legal. Both sides abuse the Constitution for their own pet projects, this Theconomist argues.

(PLEASE NOTE: The paragraph above has been changed substantially in order to clarify that I meant for the words below to be more general than personal; but also that I did not intend them to be read as applying personally to the commenter, Scott, who provided the link to the other blog.)

Here's my own limited response. In the next day or so, though, we'll post another response written by a Presbyterian elder with significant appellate experience who currently serves as a civil magistrate in an high post of civil authority.

* * *

To argue that the federal government doing something to stop the wholesale slaughter of the nation's millions of defenseless infants is usurpation of powers is the sort of heartless rabbinical self-justification we should expect from those who tithe their mint and cummin. I've said over and over again that the Declaration of Independence was the basis for the mounting of our nation's revolution and the moral and legal context from which our Constitution was birthed and has any meaning or purpose yet today. The central purpose of our Constitution is the protection of the nation's citizens--not the protection of states' rights--and when that central purpose is defied or denied, the rest is straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I've quoted the Declaration in this discussion. Its words are clear. If our federal civil magistrates' hands are tied in stopping the slaughter of our nation's fifty million wee ones...

"To say Santorum is soft on sodomy and abortion is beyond laughable."

This comment from a Presbyterian pastor named Benjamin Glaser who got his M.Div. in Pittsburgh and knows Santorum well (TB):

"The 17.6% loss against Casey is massively overplayed by those that dislike Santorum. 2006 was a bloodbath year for the GOP and most of that 17.6% can be attributed to it and the fact Bob Casey, Jr. was supported by many that loved his father. They seem to forget Santorum won 4 times before that in a heavy Democratic House district and in a heavy Democratic state, twice beating well-liked incumbents. 

"To say Santorum is soft on Sodomy and Abortion is beyond laughable. Santorum is the only candidate that will not allow abortions in the case of rape or incest. He lives his Pro-Life convictions both in his own life and in his opposition to abortifacients and birth control. He is also the only candidate that has spoken openly against gay adoption."

Ron Paul's living Constitution...

On tonight's debate Ron Paul saluted the emanations from a penumbra on which Griswold vs. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade hang. Congressman Paul says the right to privacy is constitutional. Wow! Some constitutionalist. Why didn't I know this?

A man claims to be a constitutionalist, and yet he believes this right is Constitutional. Think about it, though: libertarianism has to trump constitutionalism.

But to come back to the real world of words and sentences and meaning...

Santorum and Paul on child slaughter...

Here's an e-mail I received from an esteemed friend. (TB)

* * *

Thought I'd pass on to you a couple videos of Santorum's and Paul's responses on the question of abortion. I recently posted these on Facebook, noting that a comparison of their answers pushes me towards Santorum, and away from Paul. 

Santorum's answer is excellent.

Paul's answer...

Rick Santorum...

Here's an old 2005 post on Rick Santorum. He's done a good job in the debates. If only we could wipe that white whine off his face... (TB)

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...

Oh my...

If anyone still had the slightest lingering doubts about the nature of the Republican party, doubt no longer. Revulsion seizes me.

Reeling in the years...

My Mary Lee is cleaning out old boxes and found this pic that ran in the Friday, October 13, 1972 issue of the Trib under the headline, "McGovern Tries for DuPage Converts." Presidential candidate George McGovern had just finished speaking in Edman Chapel to the Wheaton College student body, faculty, and aministration. Following his address, an admirer named Tim Bayly was in the small throng angling to shake his hand. Thought you all would get a kick out of it.

By the way, I think the horn-rimmed glasses wearing a man's face opposite me belong to my brother, David. (Joke.) And yes, I voted for McGovern and Carter. All the Baylys voted the Democratic ticket then. And yes, it's utterly disgusting. And yes, I shook his hand. I also wired Mother Teresa for sound. We had to find a place for the wireless mic in her sari and she was quite good-natured about it. These are my claims to fame.

Let me remind you of the two quotes that sum up my deepest political convictions in these United States, today:

Why sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. (Samuel Johnson)

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times--I'm a Republican! (Joe Sobran)

Herman Cain: "Put this in your pipe and smoke it..."

Priceless. Comparisons are odious, but I'm beginning to think Ross Perot was boring. Then there's this campaign video for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee done by his PG-13 motley crue.

Let your yea be nay and your nay yea...

Now this is weird. I like Mr. Cain a lot, but what in the WORLD? (TB, w/thanks to Aaron)

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...

What about women in combat...

Here is the Majority Report of the Presbyterian Church in America General Assembly's Ad Interim Study Committee on Women in the Military whose recommendations were adopted by General Assembly in 2002. Being this report's principal author, naturally I commend this document to our readers. If biblical Christians today studied this report and by faith embraced its doctrine of Creation Order sexuality, it would be a significant step toward the restoration of the unity of the Church. Too, these United States would again have salty salt and lighty light in the public debate raging over the meaning and purpose of sexuality. (TB)

* * *

MAN’S DUTY TO PROTECT WOMAN

We, the undersigned, endorse the Consensus Report, while realizing that Report lacks unity on the crucial matter of whether the recommendations it contains constitute the church’s wise counsel or a Christian’s scriptural duty. Believing that this is a matter of scriptural duty, we have joined together in writing this report to the end that we might set forth with confidence and clarity the full counsel—both New and Old Testaments—of the Word of God concerning this matter. Our report attempts to summarize three areas of evidence, as follows:

First, God the Father wages war in defense of Israel, His Bride; Christ our Savior fights to the Death defending His Bride, the Church; the Holy Spirit calls men as officers to guard and protect His Bride; the duty to protect the Garden of Eden and the warning not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was given by God to Adam; husbands protect their wives, not wives their husbands. Thus we are taught the binding nature of man’s duty to guard and protect his home and wife.

Second, woman is the weaker sex and part of her weakness is the vulnerability attendant to her greatest privilege—that God has made her the “Mother of all the living.” Men are to guard and protect her as she carries in her womb, gives birth to, and nurses her children.

Third, we are to renounce every thought and action which tends towards a diminishment of sexual differentiation since God made it and called it “good.” [E.g. Scripture’s injunctions concerning women exercising authority over men (1 Timothy 2), women or men wearing clothing of the opposite sex (Deuteronomy 22:5), sodomy (Leviticus 20:15-16), etc.] Rather than a stingy attitude which minimizes sexuality’s implications, we ought to rejoice in this, His blessing.

It is our conviction that these areas, taken together, provide a clear and compelling scriptural rationale for declaring our church’s principled opposition to women serving in military combat positions.

When a man loves a woman, he will lay down his life to defend her, just as Christ loved His Bride and gave Himself up for Her. Men have proudly fulfilled this duty from time immemorial, demonstrating what A. A. Hodge in his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith referred to as the law of nature, common to all nations, that is “unchanged” to this present day. Dying for their wives, regenerate and unregenerate men have done “by nature (the) things required by the law.”[1]

Hodge divides the Old Testament law into four categories...

Social security is D.C.'s cash cow...

The American Spectator's "Another Perspective" just ran an excellent piece titled, "What Would Reagan Cut?" The author is Bob Patterson, a close friend who served as the stated clerk of Northern Illinois Presbytery (PCA) back in 1991 when I transferred with my congregation from the mainline PC(USA) into the PCA. Since then, Bob has moved into writing on public policy matters and currently serves as editor of the Rockford Center's very helpful quarterly, The Family in America.

Two reasons to read this piece: first, everyone thinks cutting Social Security benefits is the only realistic way to address the deficit, but did you know that the payments you and I make into Social Security have long served as one of Washington D.C.'s principal cash cows? Bob reports that Social Security has long been producing a surplus...

Perspectivalism and the sectarian political advocacy of R2K ecclesiastics...

It's glorious how God leads intellectuals to shout their blindness. Things the simplest plowboy sees clearly are obscured by the intellectual's highly nuanced mists and vapors, so the plowboy is left to his centuries-old occupation of making fun of them. He's not anti-intellectual--he's anti-intellectuals.

Plowboys aren't envious of the intellectual's degrees or salary or light teaching load or clean soft hands and time alone with books. And it's certainly not that the plowboy is careless with reason, logic, history, and right and wrong. He's as careful with his tax forms as any making-of-books man, and much more sophisticated.

No, it's not that the plowboy is stupid and thinks stupid is good. Rather, it's that he's got his feet planted squarely on the ground while the intellectual is up in the mists and vapors forgetting that he's made of dust and to dust he will return. The intellectual speaks from on high while the plowboy speaks from soil and manure. The Christian sizing both up may be able to grasp that the plowboy's perspective makes all the difference for his grasp of truth and his growth in righteousness.

Applications of these fundamental truths are everywhere.

R2K intellectuals are a special interest group hounding the nation's citizenry about their pet policy issue. They're a PAC whose primary work is not on K Street and in the halls of congress, but out across the land. They publish and yell and chivy and curdle and yap at and hector and dog their fellow citizens with their political dogma, and they do it in the Name of God citing His Word and Church as their authorities...

"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...

Government-gone-hog-wild: keep your eye on the bill...

The battle over money going on between President Obama and the House of Representatives is worth watching because, for years to come, it will be used as an example proving something. Just ask Newt Gingrich.

Exactly what it proves remains to be seen and is largely a function of the degree to which those of us who oppose government-gone-hog-wild make our voices heard in support of what the freshman class and Speaker Boehner are trying to do.

So, good citizens, speak up.

Last night in his plea for support of unlimited government, President Obama said:

Most Americans, regardless of political party, don't understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her Medicare before we ask corporate jet owners and oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don't get.

To understand such deceptions...

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...

Slate judges "soft patriarchalism" an "uneasy compromise"...

This Slate piece working to understand how Michele Bachmann's presidential candidacy can be harmonized with Christian sexuality is another proof of what Jesus said, that "the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light" (Luke 16:8). Slate turns to the "influential" Council on BIblical Manhood and Womanhood to do the parsing for them and here is their description of CBMW's position:

...the civic sphere is distinct from home and church and governed by different rules, (CBMW reasoned), and if the Bible didn't explicitly "prohibit [women] from exercising leadership in secular political fields," neither would they.

Slate points out that CBMW's "compromise was an uneasy one" quoting the New York Times which labelled the compromise "soft patriarchalism."

It's hard to tell what, exactly, the notion of wifely submission means in marriages where the wife in question has a high-powered career outside of the home. Last year's New York Times Magazine piece on female evangelical leaders described these unions as enacting a "soft patriarchalism."

Here's a principle I've learned in living for God. If you think you can negotiate with the Devil...

Ronald Reagan's fatherhood...

Much as he embraced domesticity, however, he relied on Nancy to relieve him of its petty nuisances, such as school and servant problems, and finding a home for his mentally ailing mother while he was out of town.  She made her own and Jane Wyman’s children understand that although Dad was available for certain carefully scheduled hours of face time, in the pool or on horseback, he was not to be burdened with emotional demands. He had more important things than mere fatherhood on his mind: the governorship of California, for a start.

- Morris, Edmund. "The Unknowable: Ronald Reagan’s amazing, mysterious life," The New Yorker, 28 June 2004, p. 48.

(TB)

One quarter of our Bibles now printed by Chinese Bible monopoly...

"And now we come to a topic not mentioned on our schedule," smiles He, "condoms." Some nervous shuffling and coughing ensues. It slowly emerges that there are some in the group who have heard of condoms, but never seen one. Although He and his colleague Shao En have gone to lengths to approach the topic in a careful and sensitive way (this being day two of the workshop), some of the women are palpably embarrassed. In general, however, women prove to be the more daring of participants over these two days, learning fast and volunteering answers.

-Katrin Fielder reporting on her work for Amity Foundation; (emphasis not in original)

(By Craig French) Would you believe the above workshop was an outreach program provided by a Christian organization? The setting is China. Few of the participants own a Bible of their own. The “Christian” organization holding the workshop is Amity Foundation.

Amity Foundation is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) that works cooperatively with the Chinese government providing sex education geared especially toward stopping the spread of AIDS. Besides condom instruction, they promote green initiatives, seek more equitable income distribution, do earthquake relief, and more.

But Amity does other work, also. It's likely they printed your Bible...

Bloomington's town fathers connive at PP's bloody hypocrisy...

Scott Tibbs is a faithful Christian man at the city gates crying out against the shedding of innocents' blood. I praise God for his presence here in Bloomington. Here's a letter he just sent to our city fathers:

(Bloomington) Councilors,

Back in March, I spoke at a city council meeting and said the social services funding process has become corrupted. Some of you were offended by this statement, but frankly I cannot see another way to describe it. The eight Democrats on the city council have taken what is supposed to be a program to help local social service agencies provide help to those in need and turned it into an avenue to provide a political endorsement to Planned Parenthood. For this, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

You gave a $5,000 grant to Planned Parenthood last June despite the fact that PP does not need the money and despite the fact that local charities without the backing of a billion-dollar corporation could use it much more. You gave PP this money despite the fact that you know that the national branch and all affiliates combined for a profit of $85 million. Even worse, you gave PP this grant despite the fact that you knew it would be used to cover up felony sexual abuse...

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)

Indiana takes the lead toward stopping the massacre...

Here's a press release issued earlier today by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announcing he'll sign Indiana HEA 1210 passed by the Indiana General Assembly earlier this week which will bring Indiana to the forefront of the national battle to end the horrific slaughter of unborn children called "abortion." Praise God for this very large step in the direction of justice and mercy restored...

Elton John, preachers, and sodomy...

(Tim) Talented, absolutely. His eponymous breakout album back in 1970 was hauntingly beautiful and you knew he was here to stay. But since then, even more than his music John has taken his public identity from sodomy.

Two months ago out in Hollywood, John serenaded a few hundred $1,000 a plate guests at a fundraiser for the repeal of California's law banning sodomite marriage. Partiers included David Geffen, George W. Bush's Solicitor General Ted Olson, and the immediate past chairman of the Republican Party, Ken Mehlman. In other words, anyone who's made a name for himself and lots of wealth was there. Together they announced their commitment to this sexual rebellion against God that permeates Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and New York City. Also those two peas in a pod--the Democratic and Republican parties.

The entire world is getting along fine with Elton John. AIDS softened us up--it was the justification for the blather about "compassion" that provided cover for executive orders and legislation that normalized in one more area the rebellion against God's Order of Creation that is one of the defining characteristics of our culture.

Pastors too have learned our lesson...

Rep. Peggy Welch refuses to vote in support of school reform and pro-life bills...

(Tim) Many of us at ClearNote Church have cast our votes for Representative Peggy Welch. Speaking personally, I have myself. These past few weeks, Rep. Welch has utterly failed the children of the state of Indiana.

Mrs. David Welch has been saying she's refusing to show up at the Statehouse in Indy because of her commitment to our children's education. In pol speech this means she's against Governor Daniels' reform of government schools. Governor Daniels wants the state to allow poor parents to use vouchers to escape bad school systems, but Rep. Welch and her fellow Democrats are always against school reform. Democrats get into office most consistenly through the votes of public school teachers and other government employees.

But what about our children? Rep. Welch tells us she cares for our children but she's utterly failed them, recently--and not only by opposing the reform of government schools.

While Representative Welch has been refusing to go to work at the Statehouse, House Bill 1205 seeking to take money away from our state's largest baby-slaughterer, Planned Parenthood, failed for lack of a quorom. This was Representative Welch's doing. The bill had made it out of committee and was ready for passage, but Representative Welch and her fellow Democrats cared more about opposing the Governor's reform of government schools than...

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...

Who Democrats are and what they do...

(Tim) Dear readers, don't miss the straightforward lessons these Democrats from Wisconsin and Indiana are teaching us right now.

When push comes to shove, have no doubt that being a Democrat is what matters to them--including Representative Peggy Welch of Bloomington. Have no doubt, either, that Democrats always fight for more money for public school teachers and other government employees. Public school teachers provide the votes that put the Democratic Party in office.

In fact, a good way to think of the Democratic Party is the party of death that lives off the votes of public school teachers who elect Democrat representatives with the understanding that their Democrat representatives will give them more money...

For the record, where is Peggy Welch?

(Tim) By the way, would someone please tell us if our anti-abortion Democrat representative, Peggy Welch, is over in Illinois sitting in a hot tub? I hope not. Her constituents should know what our public servant's allegiances are.

(After this post, I found the answer to my question. Peggy's "traveling" and won't say where she is. If you're a constituent, send her an e-mail asking her to come home and do her job. I sent her one and she hasn't responded. If she responds to you, would you please post a comment indicating so and telling us if she's going to go to Indy and do her work?)

Proud as punch of Governors Walker and Daniels...

(Tim) If anyone cares about my opinion on a political matter, I'm proud as punch of the governors of our former home state, Wisconsin, and our current state, Indiana, taking on our public servants' unions. I've been a dues-paying member of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and that was all I needed to know that unions have become corrupt. One day word came down from the men with the most seniority who worked the day shift that those of us working the swing shift--the new-timers--better slow down and cut our freight car repair production because we were making them look bad. -Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, Proviso Yards, car knocker and air brakeman, 1975

So bravo to Governor Daniels for this straight talk:

There may have been a time, a century ago, where public employees were mistreated and vulnerable and underpaid. If that was ever a problem, we have over-fixed it. Public employees in America--most decidedly federal employees, but everywhere--are better paid than the taxpayers that pay their salaries. -Gov. Mitch Daniels

Afghan regime tortures Christians...

(Tim, w/thanks to Aaron and Mick) The betrayal, imprisonment, and torture of brothers in Christ by regimes propped up by American forces is a stench that rises to Heaven. Read this letter and updates telling the story of our brother, Said Musa, imprisoned by the Afghan government propped up by our U.S. military forces. Then pray.

 

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.

Abortionists attack the compassion of pregnancy resource centers...

(Tim) In the State of Washington, a bill (HB 1366) is pending in the state legislatures that poses a severe threat to the godly ministry of love carried out by Washington's pregnancy resourse centers. Andrew Woodyard writes:

Apparently it's not enough for Washington State to be "pro-choice." It must become "abortion only."

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.

Gagging Scripture and Scripture's Author...

(Tim) I've long believed that Christians are foolish to leave Scripture out of debates in the public square--most often from a misguided sense that quoting God's Word is offensive and carries little or no weight. But what could carry more weight than the Word of God written? Who could carry more weight than our Creator? The Apostle Paul wasn't squeamish about resting his argument on Genesis 1 when he spoke to the Areopagus.

This doesn't mean I think it unwise to make arguments from nature, but when at least half of the citizens of this representative constitutional democracy believe God's Word is God's words, keeping the Bible out of the public square is foolish.

Which brings us to the subject of this post. Here's an e-mail exchange between Scott Tibbs and the editor of our local paper's letters to the editor. If two transvestites take off their wigs in public protest of three bass getting shredded when a speedboat's propeller exceeded DNR regulations for size and speed...

A primer on the R2K novelty, with a note on Servetus...

(Tim) If Baylyblog readers have not been warned off the R2K novelty yet, check out this detailed critique of R2K by Pastor Nelson D. Kloosterman of Community United Reformed Church here in Schererville, Indiana. Also this R2K critique by Pastor Steven Wedgeworth. Finally this post and comments by Pastor Wedgeworth following up on his critique and answering some objections.

Way down in the comments, an exchange occurs between Doug Wilson and Darryl in which, several times, Doug raises the spectre of the wholesale slaughter of unborn children in these United States. Yet Darryl never seems able to look full in the face of the obscene bloodthirstiness of the modern secular state from which he takes such comfort and security.

Imagine the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition...

When in Rome...

(Tim, w/thanks...; this post has twice been revised: first, after a commenter provided a link to a video clip of a woman preaching in the Christ Reformed Church (physical) pulpit; and second, after receiving a complaint from Christ Reformed Church's pastor.)

A reader directed my attention to this post by an R2K pastor in D.C. who's busy marketing his congregation, Christ Reformed Church, to the incoming class of legislators. Christ Reformed is a United Reformed Church plant by a Westminster Seminary California grad who hangs with the ACE and White Horse Inn guys. He's brought Michael Horton to his church.  He's also brought Dr. Marva Dawn.

Here's a video clip of Dr. Dawn preaching on the subject "Preaching in the Capital." The clip is from Christ Reformed's "Sermon Podcast" page and here's an excerpt:

A lot of people who choose their pastor by whether or not she or he will preach the Gospel truly, or whether she or he will tickle ears. But we are called to be faithful to the Word, and not to allow people to turn away from the truth.

-Dr. Marva Dawn, Christ Reformed Church (URC), Washington D.C.

Help me, here: is it that as long as the one presiding over Lord's Day corporate worship is a man, nothing else matters? Realize that every Reformed Father from every prior generation would find this utterly repulsive.

But on to R2K: turns out R2K's revolutionary method of church-state relations is just the very old method practiced by other Evangelical intellectuals like Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis, but in Reformed drag...

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...

Teachers bully students at Bloomington High School North...

(Tim) Yesterday, in the name of teaching normal students how to avoid making students committed to sexual perversion feel bad about their perversion, the young men and women at Bloomington High School North were required to watch a movie that promoted bestiality. In that movie, young perverts complained about how hard it is to be committed to bestiality when normal boys and girls act squeamish about it. They can't change the way they feel about animals, they said, so why can't other boys and girls get over it and learn to accept their unique sexual identity?

Of course, the reason perverts feel bad about themselves is that, even with the help of teachers and school counselors, we have a tough time silencing our consciences. When we give ourselves to sexual immorality, inevitably it takes a toll on us, particularly when we're young and still feel our guilt acutely. When those tempted by bestiality give in to their perversion, depression sets in. Inevitably, depression sometimes leads to suicide.

To fault those normal souls who fight against that same perversion by avoiding the sin and those who advocate it is to blame the victim. The perversion should never be mentioned in public, nor should any boy or girl be able to parade that perversion among our children through wicked and destructive conversations, clothing, or other stylistic signatures associated with bestiality. It's time for the school systems paid for with our tax dollars to stop bullyng our children in the name of tolerance. We don't pay taxes to have bestiality shoved down our sons and daughter's throats...

Don't vote for the bloodthirsty vampires...

(Tim, w/thanks to Dave M.) Kudos to Wayne Grudem for his article commending the Alliance Defense Fund's efforts to challenge the IRS rule prohibiting political speech by 501(c)(3) organizations--particularly pastors in the pulpit. If the First Amendment has any application at all, it should be the freedom of the preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Dad said many years ago, churches must be willing and prepared to give up our tax exempt status. We must never allow fear of potential financial loss to gag us.

Whenever you hear of the IRS rattling its saber against pastors condemning, for instance, elected officials who promote the slaughter of our nation's babies or the deadly bondage of male sodomy, remember C. S. Lewis' warning that they'll tell us we can have our religion in private and then they'll make sure we're never alone.

Vote, and never ever cast your vote for a political vampire who lives off the blood of our nation's wholesale slaughter of unborn babies. As we enter the voting booth, every other consideration pales in significance to the defense of these little ones. When a nation refuses to protect those most vulnerable at the margins of life as they are slaughtered in the millions year after year, that nation's claim to living under the rule of law is utter hypocrisy.

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.