BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

Cindy McCain rocks (I): And contra Barack Obama, she thinks babies born alive should live...

(Tim) Last night, Michele Peatie left a kind comment here in which she mentioned her blog, Unborn Word of the Day. My curiosity piqued, I went and read some of her posts including this on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of orthodox Roman Catholic French composer, Olivier Messiaen. If you're not familiar with Messiaen's music, try this.

Further down the page was this gem of a post, "Living Pro-Life - 3 Politicians." Here Mrs. Peatie tells the stories of two female politicians' response to their Down Syndrome children, as well as the adoption by Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, of a special needs child from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh.

A teenager now, the McCain's daughter, Bridget, would not have survived without surgery and years of rehabilitation. Cindy brought her home and, with her husband, provided her surgery, care, and love. Actually, Mrs. McCain brought back two babies: The other is also a teenager, now, and was adopted by one of McCain's aids, Wes Gullett, and his wife. Her name is Nicki. She too needed much medical care and Mr. Gullett says he "never saw a hospital bill" for her care, implying the McCain's paid for it all.

Turning to another politician who shows love for the poorest among us, this woman is a member of Feminists for Life and the Governor of Alaska...

Barack Obama rocks (IX): More bloodthirsty than Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, and Barbara Boxer...

(Tim) Those Christian hipsters still mesmerized by Senator Obama, thinking him to be a gentleman, need to watch this video. And anyone wondering how believers could vote for such a man need only listen to a podcast of the sermons these hispters sit under, week after weak. Vacuous and sentimental, but so very chic.

Your tax dollars at work...

(Tim: A week or so ago, thirty plus members of Church of the Good Shepherd went to Bloomington's City Council meeting to oppose our tax dollars being appropriated by the Council members to fund an organization that makes Hitler's Third Reich and it's Holocaust factories look like child's play. I'm speaking of course of Planned Parenthood which makes its living off of the slaughter of unborn children tenderly nestled in their mother's womb. By itself, Planned Parenthood is responsible for a quarter of a million of those murders each year, and they're moving their abattoirs into more affluent areas in order to grow their bloody profit.

Each year here in Bloomington, Planned Parenthood goes through the charade of requesting tax dollars to help provide its clients with some service close to, but not exactly coterminous with it's slaughter machine. And each year, our city fathers cuddle up to this progressive nonprofit and ante up our dough over our vociferous protest. One of those speaking against this Holocaust funding this year was Mary Lee's and my dear friend and fellow CGS member, Joshua Congrove. Although we were out of town at the time, we heard Josh's testimony was good, so I asked him if he could send me a copy. Here are a few prefaratory comments he wrote to set the scene, followed by what he said that night.)

This year, as usual, Planned Parenthood received a donation from the Bloomington City Council (and from public funds) to support a particular medical procedure. While the procedure itself is unobjectionable, the giving of public money to an organization that performs hundreds of abortions per year is an egregious act that demands objection...

Dobson exposes Senator Obama's blood-guilt...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jeff) Today, Dr. James Dobson aired a fifteen minute exposure of Senator Barack Obama's attempt to cloak his radical politics as if it were on version of a faithful Christian conscience. In the program, Dr. Dobson said Senator Obama is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality." Dr. Dobson labelled Senator Obama's support for the killing of the unborn as "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution," going on to ask, "Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies? What (Senator Obama is) trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

"Bloody notion of of what is right" indeed.

A Christian defends a Guantanamo detainee...

(David) Are we willing to have our potential preconceptions about the Guantanamo legal process challenged?

Yesterday's New York Times profiles a 36-year-old Guantanamo defense attorney. The Times describes Navy Lt. Commander William Kuebler as, "...married to the first girl he ever dated in high school... a self-described born-again Christian and conservative who has 'never voted for a Democrat.'" Yet Kuebler describes the Guantanamo process as, "'designed to get criminal convictions' with 'no real evidence,'”  and to “launder evidence derived from torture.”

Read the full article here.

Barack Obama rocks (VIII): Hobnobbing with religionists...

(Tim, w/thanks to a friend) Once again, we have the man who claims to speak for evangelicals as an "insider" making statements to the national press on our behalf. Along with about twenty-nine other religionists, Rich Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, met yesterday with Senator Barack Obama to, according to Senator Obama's invitation, share "anything that's on your mind that is of concern to you."

"Anything...of concern to" them? Things like dead babies? Babies ripped apart, piece by piece, under Senator Obama's late-term abortion advocacy? Babies whose skulls are crushed in order to make it easier for them to be pulled from the body without the mother hearing their born child's death scream?

As Terence Jeffrey puts it:

Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever. He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an Illinois state senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions because he did not want to concede--as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor--that these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact "persons."

Barack Obama (VII): The destruction of bodies AND souls...

(From Joshua Congrove) Barack Obama is a figure of carefully crafted modesty. Whether in his nuanced, nebulous "positions," or in his studied, opaque demeanor, Obama's power has been his ability to promise radical change in a cloak of moderation and modesty. And despite the fact that his positions on abortion are actually worse (God forbid) than Clinton's, he has managed to convince Christians (I know many) of his moderation, or at least his overall acceptability. I mean, even if one disagrees with him on abortion, it's not the only issue, right? What about poverty, illiteracy, spiritual insensitivity, education, disenfranchisement, immigration?

Ah, yes, yes. How often I remember Scripture's warnings about the dangers of illegal immigration! How keenly I recall the prophets thundering against illiteracy! How vociferously do the apostles denounce habitat destruction!

Barack Obama rocks (VII): "If abortion is not wrong, then what can be right?"...

(Tim) This from Joe Sobran 25 years ago. Due to failing health, Sobran's pen has been stilled in recent months, but this article is even more helpful today than it was a quarter century ago. Reading these old words, it's clear we've come a long way.

Note the absence of any mention of sodomy under his warning that "the state could redefine family relations...at its whim." Also, after his description of the murder victims' pain and tears, note his apology for "the unpleasantness" of the words. In our shameless, merciless day, it appears so quaint.

Really, it's obvious the hip reformed dudes who voted for Barack Obama and condemn single-issue voters haven't a clue about the smallest part of what Sobran says. Claiming to be wise, they have become fools and are in need of the most basic remedial education by--well, I hate to say it again--but by Roman Catholics who believe in the Fall, depravity, sin, and true wisdom which begins with the fear of God.

On to Sobran...

* * *

I have always marveled at the charge that the anti-abortion movement is engaged in "single-issue politics." To meet the charge head-on, why not? What single issue lies nearer the heart of civilization? What could be more barbarous than the killing of an unborn child, by the choice of its mother, through the agency of a doctor, and with the blessing of the state? What could be more hypocritical than to speak of "terminating a pregnancy," when the child is squirming in agony and perhaps, on being removed from the womb before death, crying?

This (and I apologize for the unpleasantness) is at the core of the anti- abortion movement...

Barack Obama rocks (VI)...

(Tim: From David Wegener) Let's put it a little differently. Let's say Senator Obama believed parents should have the right to kill their fifth grade children. Fifth graders can be really annoying. They are so self-absorbed, so immature, so bothersome. Let's enact a law that allows parents to terminate the life of their fifth grader, if they so choose. No parent would be forced to kill their fifth grader, so that if you believe such killing to be wrong, then don't do it. But some moms and dads are at their wits end with regard to their fifth grader and they should be given this option.

For some people, unborn children are just like these fifth graders; they're just shorter and more helpless.

When choosing a political candidate to support for president, many issues have to be considered: the economy, the war, race relations, unemployment, etc. But candidates who hold certain positions, by the very fact that they hold those positions, disqualify themselves from being considered by the Christian. What is such a position that would disqualify a candidate? Willingness to allow parents to kill their fifth grader or their shorter sibling. The Christian does not have an option to support such. He or she is morally repugnant to him.

Barack Obama rocks (V)...

(Tim: from Brian Bailey) Thank you for not letting these members of our evangelical vanguard elite get away with feeling all noble, righteous, race-sensitive, and iconoclastic for supporting Obama. They’re anything but. Any embarrassment and self-doubt you cause them is worth your time, trouble, and lovingkindness.

Ask them how they came to believe that the Fed’s highwire act of cutting interest rates just enough to spur economic growth but not too much for fear of stoking inflation is morally equivalent to stopping the bloody dismemberment and death of unborn children. What informs their belief? Does Scripture inform their belief?

Lovingly lead them out of the NPR-ivory tower and into Scripture and to bone fragments and bloody tissue. In terms of moral importance, how does God rank universal health care and “Pay as You Go” government funding with respect to ending infanticide? Are gas-guzzling SUV drivers, millionaire CEOs, deficit spenders, Iraq War Hawks, and abortionists really on the same moral plane?

The Centers for Disease Control stated in 2000 that...

Barack Obama rocks (IV)...

(Tim: This from Andy Halsey)

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!" (Psalm 58:10,11)

What is the promised vengeance of this Psalm? "O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth...Let them be as ... the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun."

It is surely a fearful thing to consider that one day 48 million dismembered babies will rise up out of their trash-can graves and wash their feet in the blood of the doctors, mothers, boyfriends, judges, legislators and voters who did not consider their lives worth saving.

And the righteous will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So I will not vote for B.O.

Grace to you and peace from God who judges on earth.

Barack Obama rocks (II)...

(Tim: This from Wayne Huck) The best example I can think of is slavery (and the comparison has been made frequently).  Both issues have to do with defining who is fully human (blacks/unborn).  It's very easy for us today to see how mistaken pro-slavers were, but we're living in a time in which the exact twisted logic is being applied to the unborn rather than African Americans.

If a candidate stepped forward advocating a return to slavery (or even the inferiority of the African race), every Obama supporter (pretty much every voter, really) in the country would immediately become a one issue voter regarding that candidate.  It wouldn't matter if everyone agreed he had all the perfect answers to health care, the environment, the economy, terrorism, etc.

Abortion is that important an issue.  At its root, it shows how our culture treats all of its weakest members, the ones whom God says he cares the most about.

Barack Obama rocks! (Gentlemen, start your engines)...

(Tim) Yesterday, I received the latest in a barrage of evidence showing that the deception God has given our nation over to is deeply entrenched in the church, also. We've intentionally chosen churches and pastors whose specialty is feeding their sheep a milk-only diet and we're reaping the fruit of that choice in our inability to "discern good and evil." So, when it comes to hard choices between good and evil, we're little babies with our mouths open, ready to be deceived (Hebrews 5:13,14).

Nothing demonstrates our sinful immaturity more than the broad support Senator Barack Obama's presidential candidacy has within the church. Yesterday, I posted my criticism of this statement made by a senior InterVarsity staff member in an E-mail he sent across the country: "Evangelicals are now seeing that both parties do offer helpful perspectives and that those things that a Christian should have convictions about are more than just one or two issues. Amen and amen."

Then, last night, I received another E-mail from a friend who attends a cool dude urban PCA church, asking:

When speaking with many friends about the election, I have found out that many of them voted for Obama. They are Christians as well. I ask how they can vote for someone who believes in the murder of infants, and they come back with something approximate to this:

"Yes, abortion is awful, but that's not the only issue. The economy, the war, race relations, unemployment, health care (I'm giving many examples given to me) are just as important, and that's many issues vs one. I hate that people have become one issue voters. I hate the republican party, so I can't vote for them." Etc.

How am I to respond to that? I can only think to say that abortion is murder, and are we not to care about millions of innocents who get murdered each year?

So now a test. As a follower of Jesus Christ, why will you not vote for Senator Obama?

Note, the question isn't whether or not you'd vote for Senator McCain, nor is it which candidate you prefer. We're strictly limiting the question to Senator Obama: Why won't you vote for him?

And by all means, give us irony and sarcasm and satire, too. The fact that we're having to answer this question is such an indictment of the church that we must be careful not to legitimate it with too much serious, thoughtful response. Please send your contributions to tbbayly at gmail dot com. And may the best man (used generically, of course) win.

Senator Obama's "idealism": Anti-dog fighting and pro-baby slaughter...

(Tim) It's been a great sadness to me this past year or so to see Joe Sobran's pen largely silent due to health problems. Then today, after many months' silence, I received this new article by E-mail. As usual, Sobran does an excellent job of speaking for me--this time, concerning our president political charade.

* * *

PRESIDENT OTHER

by Joe Sobran

The Hopeless Hopefuls

When Bill Buckley ran for mayor of New York in 1965, he offered the voter "the internal composure that comes of knowing that there are rational limits to politics." It was the most sublime campaign promise of all time, and he wound up with 13 percent of the vote. He could take pleasure in knowing that Aristotle would have endorsed him.

The U.S. presidential race of 2008 is not a fight in which Aristotle has an obvious dog...

Says a Christian leader: "Both parties do offer helpful perspectives..."

(Tim) Recently, I've grown weary of man-pleasing Christian leaders positing moral equivalence between the Republicans and Democrats, saying and writing things like this just sent out to a bunch of leaders by a veteran InterVarsity staff worker who, in the course of commending this article and the St. Louis churches profiled in it, had this to say about the Democratic Party's "helpful perspectives":

Evangelicals are now seeing that both parties do offer helpful perspectives and that those things that a Christian should have convictions about are more than just one or two issues. Amen and amen.

Bunk, and double bunk. So I responded to my dear friend this way:

* * *

"both parties do offer helpful perspectives..."

What?

So of course we all agree that Bonhoeffer was a fool, plotting to kill the murderer of millions of innocents. Got what he deserved. He should have been able to see the Holocaust in the context of the larger and deeper political and military realities Hitler faced and not been so singleminded in his actions...

Women warriors aren't doing so well...

(Tim) In an op-ed piece today, the New York Times is concerned about the results of the recent Rand Corporation study, Invisible Wounds of War, which found that "women suffer from higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression than men" after military deployment. Really.

We are a nation of idiots--callous, degraded, wicked idiots. We send our wives and daughters off to war and, when they come home emotional wrecks, we act surprised and blame it on the fact that one third of them were sexually assaulted or raped while they were deployed. Really.

I have compassion for these daughters, wives, and mothers, but my compassion makes me remember and ask that you all remember, also...

"Hillary Clinton Is Insane"? I don't think so...

(Tim) Your eyes may pop out at this, but I'm speaking up in defense of...

Hillary Clinton. Specifically, I think Senator Clinton's getting a bum rap on her Bobby Kennedy comment. (Here's a video of what she actually said.) I think she was simply referencing his assassination in June as another historical precedent for presidential primaries going into the summer, and that being normal--nothing more.

So why are the big boys going apoplectic over her comment? My best guess is everyone of liberal bent wants her out--NOW!

Senator Kennedy's soul...

(Tim) Throughout my adult years, Senator Ted Kennedy has been our nation's most visible proponent of wickedness in high places. Chief among his high crimes has been his ruthless promotion of the altars of Molech upon which many millions of little ones have been sacrificed. And from Chappaquiddick on, his personal life has been notorious.

Yet, even a month ago at the Papal Mass held at Nationals Park, the Roman Catholic church could not bring herself to enforce her own rules of discipline against him or fellow Roman Catholic pro-abortion Senators John Kerry and Christopher Dodd. They all received Communion.

While confessing Christians such as President Bush are issuing statements commending Senator Kennedy as a great statesman, my hero Joe Scheidler has struck the right note in calling us to pray for the Senator's soul:

We're all praying for him. We hope his ailment will bring conversion. We can't wish anyone eternal punishment.

May God have mercy on Senator Kennedy's soul as he faces death and judgment.

The "S" word...

(Tim) Senator Clinton's been hoping and searching for a smoking gun that will force Senator Obama's withdrawal from the presidential race. After this debacle, she may have her heart's desire. Check out this video of Senator Obama's offense and apology. It's all over now.

Hi Peggy. This is Barack Obama. I'm calling to apologize on two fronts. One was you didn't get your question answered and I apologize. I thought that we had set up interviews with all the local stations. I guess we got it with your station but you weren't the reporter that got the interview. And so, I broke my word. I apologize for that and I will make up for it.

Second apology is for using the word 'sweetie.' That's a bad habit of mine. I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front. Feel free to call me back. I expect that my press team will be happy to try to make it up to you whenever we are in Detroit next.

"I want to crawl up in the fetal position..."

(Tim) The announcement by the National Abortion Rights Action League yesterday, that they support Senator Obama's presidential candidacy, has the women desperately clinging to Senator Clinton spitting mad. One woman sent an E-mail saying:

I want to crawl up in the fetal position but instead I have to go report as chair of the League of Women Voters Nominating Committee. I just tried calling NARAL and the office is closed." -Alisa

So, good citizens, if you're a single-issue voter as I am, you now know who is the most dependable advocate of the slaughter of little babies yet in their mother's womb.

Senator Clinton, pining for the fiords...

Pet Shop Owner: "Well, he's, he's, ah, probably pining for the fiords."

(Tim, thanks to Dave) Here's a funny takeoff on the Monty Python dead parrot sketch, dealing with Senator Clinton's "I'm not dead yetness."

What Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright got right...

(Tim) Speaking to the National Press Club this past Monday, April 28, 2008, Senator Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, forthrightly identified himself as a preacher of what he calls the Christian "gospel" of liberation. Or more specifically, the gospel of black liberation theology advocated by men such as Dr. James Cone which replaces salvation with liberation.

Here's a transcript of Dr. Wright's words. It's kind of rough slogging, since it hasn't been broken down into paragraphs, but it's fascinating, nevertheless. As a political ideology, it's not half bad. But as a statement of the Christian Gospel, Dr. Wright gets it right when he says,

...what we both mean when we say, I am a Christian, is not the same thing.

It would be possible to read Dr. Wright as saying only that the white man on the deck of the slaver and the black man below deck don't mean the same thing. Yet despite this being the immediate context of his statement above, the rest of his words indicate that his us vs. them extends far beyond slave owners and slaves, to the core of the Christian faith. Specifically...

Simple statements about politics and our civil authority...

(Tim) Readers know David and I rarely take political positions, but recently I received this E-mail from one of our readers, Keith Knowlden, and I thought I'd pass it on. It's simple and true...

Obama and the Dave Matthews Band: A man is known by the company he keeps...

Bus stop, wet day, she's there I say
Please share my umbrella...

(Tim w/thanks to Jeff) Yesterday, Ben and Michal Crum asked Joseph and Heidi to take care of their son (our grandson), Daniel, while they went to hear Senator Barack Obama at a benefit concert put on by the Dave Matthews Band. Michal in particular was quite disappointed that Senator Obama was a no-show. But the band played on.

Hearing how Ben and Michal were spending their afternoon and evening, one of our elders told us of a recent incident indicating the loyalty Senator Obama has for Chicago may not be shared by the Dave Matthews Band. Senator Obama may talk about environmental responsibility and carbon emissions, but when push comes to shove, thanks to his rock stars...

Awkward indeed...

The New York Times reports that "Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton released tax data Friday showing they earned $109 million over the last eight years." The Times adds this comment:

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign released the eight years of income tax information late Friday, following a rising clamor on the campaign trail for her to follow the lead of her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, who had previously disclosed his tax returns for the same period. In what proved to be an awkward juxtaposition, the disclosure of the records — which revealed the Clintons to be in the top one-hundredth of 1 percent, or roughly 14,500, of all taxpayers — came on the day that Mrs. Clinton called for the creation of a cabinet-level post to tackle poverty.

Tax policies and family life...

The impact tax policy has on marriage and family life in these United States is a very significant public policy issue that, too often, escapes the notice of Christians. The just state will avoid or repeal taxes that discourage marriage, a family wage, full-time motherhood, and childbearing. But who hopes for changes specifically designed to encourage these good things in the present day? What a dream, right?

Well, not to my friend Robert Patterson who today published a piece on NRO calling on presidential candidate John McCain to implement tax policies modeled after the historic tax cuts of 1948. Patterson describes the radical impact those cuts had on marriage and family in mid-century America...

Franky's Haming it up again...

(Tim, w/thanks to Mark) Speaking of Senator Obama, Franky Schaeffer's using the current ruckus to kill his father. For the second or third time.

Remember the account of Noah's sons, how the youngest, Ham, saw his father in a drunken stupor and left the tent to broadcast his father's nakedness? How did Noah's two eldest respond?

Ellul, Nuremberg, and abortion; with a note on the Obama/Wright ruckus...

(Tim) When I read Jacques Ellul's False Presence of the Kingdom a number of years ago, I found it very helpful in giving me a Christian understanding of Church-state relations, and particularly the danger of the Church being compromised in her work and message by the influence and power of the state.

Any Christian pastor watching the ruckus over the sermons of Senator Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, this past few weeks should have quickly concluded that this controversy is significant, principally, in yielding one more step in the inexorable movement of the removal of truth and courage and boldness from the proclamation of God's Word in churches around our country. It's been a terrible moment when someone watching closely could literally watch the feminization of discourse taking huge steps forward, particularly in the public discourse of the Church and Her Word known as preaching. (And no, I'm not defending the particulars of Pastor Wright's sermons.)

If you haven't read this work by Ellul, buy it now and read it carefully. Ellul has the sort of mind and pen that probe and expose our hearts such that we are invigorated and feel as if we might be partaking of the air and wind of another more truthful and honest age.

Remembering Ellul's wonderful bracingness, I just found and read a short essay by him, from 1947, titled, "On Nuremberg." I post it here as an historical meditation on the depravity of man, and thus the necessity of the substitutionary atonement--Good Friday's priceless treasure of the cross and blood and death of Jesus Christ. Oh how we need that precious blood!

Think beyond ourselves, to the terrible bloodsheds Western civilization has been (and presently is) built upon...

Men with, and without chests...

One thing I like about John McCain: He has commitments.

I don't think I've caught a glimpse of these in the White House now for decades. And while I don't like many of them, I'm gobsmacked at the realization we have a candidate who may well make it to Pennsylvania Avenue with his chest intact. Gotta love it!

Please don't take this as a pro-McCain message. I'm just pro-chests.

Bentley Rayburn for Congress...

When our work on the Ad Interim Committee on Women in the Military done for the Presbyterian Church in America's General Assembly was finished, I'd come to have an especially deep respect for two committee members, Steve Leonard and his brother-in-law, Bentley Rayburn. Both men were solid oaks of biblical commitment who refused to give in to the forces demanding the interchangeability of the sexes, and this was at some cost to their military careers.

At the time, Bentley had not yet retired from the Air Force. His rank was Maj. General and his last two assignments before retirement April 1, 2006 were Commandant of the Air War College and Vice Commander, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; then Commander, Air Force Doctrine Center, also at Maxwell Air Force Base.

Following retirement, Bentley made a good, but ultimately unsuccessful, run for a seat in Congress from the Fifth Congressional District in Colorado. He's repeating his run this year and his candidacy warms my heart.

Don't get sick in Canada...

(Tim) David and I oppose nationalized health care. Why?

Well, among many other reasons, because of David's childhood experience trying to get a transfusion when he went into Toronto's children's hospital with a hematoma back a number of years ago...

If you think nationalized health care would be good for the United States, watch this short film, A Short Course in Brain Surgery. It's excellent. My favorite line is the narrator referring to our present US health care system as our "partial free market system." He got that right.

Hoosiers: Stop this legislation in its tracks...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jim) According to the reputable and trustworthy American Family Association, our Representative Peggy Welch is at work behind the scenes greasing the path for a hate crimes bill. (Note added a day later: Rep. Welch's assistant reported to one reader that AFA is wrong in its report concerning the procedural motion. Please see the first comment by David Talcott.)

Friends, these hate crime laws are awful for all the reasons the American Family Association says below--and more. If you know our Democrat representative, Peggy Welch, call or E-mail her and tell her that no Christian should have any part in passing such legislation. If she's not your representative, find out who is and contact them. Tell them that they reprensent you and that you are opposed to the nannie state setting up safeguards for sodomites that place them in a privileged position within our state. (For a short summary of the lawlessness of such hate crime bills, read this two and a half page statement by the most excellent Alliance Defense Fund.)

Our legislators can't figure out a way to protect unborn children from being slaughtered for pay just a mile or two from the home they sleep peacefully in each night, but they can find a way to silence the Word of God? And make no mistake about it--this bill is all about gagging God by intimidating those who would dare to repeat His decree that sodomy is an "abomination" before Him. For now, the assault is cloaked by violent crimes, but the cloak will soon come off. Read on for the American Family Association alert...

Congressman Siljander's new way past Islamaphobia: Follow the money...

(Tim) This indictment is interesting news. Congressman Siljander is at the forefront of the movement to meld Islam and Christianity into one faith while claiming believers from both sides are being perfectly faithful to their own tradition if they affirm this syncretistic mutation.

In the old days, Congressman Siljander was known to be an evangelical Christian. But now he's living off the fat of Islamic land taking money from Islamic groups in Pakistan and Sudan to help him write a book purporting to show us the way to rapprochement between followers of Jesus and Muhammad. Says Cong. Siljander: "I could not find one verse in the entire New Testament that ever suggested we should convert anyone to any religion."

It all reminds me of the letter my Dad wrote to Rabbi Yechiel Exkstein declining Yechiel's request that he sit on the board of Eckstein's newly chartered Holyland Fellowship of Christians and Jews (since renamed the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews) back some twenty-five years ago. Despite their close personal friendship, Dad explained to Yechiel that it would be impossible for him to serve on Yechiel's board without feeling pressure to compromise his faith by no longer calling Yechiel to faith in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ. And yes, those are the very words Dad used...

Gov. Huckabee and complementarians' useful lie...

(Tim) Since they regularly show up on this blog making comments that demonstrate their impiety and rebellion, I assume no one's learning it here, first, if I say that the church is filled with women who hate God's command that wives submit to their husbands in everything. Such rebellion against God and His Word is nothing new. The scribes and Pharisees were masters of the technique two thousand years ago: "Oh yesssss, we must honor our fathers and mothers. Absolutely! But there's this little thing called Corban..."

Our Lord responded, giving us a pattern to follow in our exchanges with hypocritical rebels today: "You nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition." Those who speak of "mutual submission" as a cover for no submission anywhere or ever ought, at times, to be dismissed precisely as Jesus dismissed them.

But what of the many who speak of "mutual submission," not as an act of defiance, but as a way of making God's order of father-rule less offensive to our authority-hating culture? Are they friends of God?

One dear sister sent me a link to a discussion of Governor Mike Huckabee's comments on mutual submission carried on among feminist rebels who claim the Name of Christ. Skimming what they had to say, I found it interesting how much I agreed with them (all emphases in the original):

• "If I was still a complementarian, I would be thinking that politics has corrupted him..."
• "When I first heard the quote on television, his words seemed promising. Now that I’m seeing what he said in print… that was slick."
• "Notice he never says the husband submits to his wife. He’s definitely playing to both sides of the sex roles debate. ...Of course, he could also talk complementarian but live egalitarian for most practical purposes, like a lot of complementarians tend to do."

Mutual submission is bunk...

It is the final sign of imbecility in a people that it calls cats dogs and describes the sun as the moon--and is very particular about the preciseness of these pseudonyms.  To be wrong, and to be carefully wrong, that is the definition of decadence.  The disease called aphasia, in which people begin by saying tea when they mean coffee, commonly ends in their silence. -G. K. Chesterton

(Tim) I've been privy to a private E-mail discussion between a few men concerning the response Governor Huckabee gave during the recent Fox debate to a question about his having signed a Southern Baptist Convention statement affirming the Creation order of father-rule. Originally, it was our intent to start this post with an excellent summary statement David Talcott had written to initiate the private discussion. As things developed, though, it became clear other good responses to David's argument needed to be included here, and that collating the discussion was going to be a big job. So there things sat.

Still, I don't want to let the moment pass without comment. At this point you might want to watch the video of Gov. Huckabee's response, before reading my own comments.

Few things have been used to greater effect by men wanting to skirt the issue of father-rule and the opprobrium they would suffer if they were plainspoken in their affirmation of Biblical sexuality than mincing words about mutual submission. And make no mistake: every pastor, seminary professor, or presidential candidate who speaks in any way analagous to the way Gov. Huckabee spoke knows precisely what he's doing and why he's doing it.

By this late date many thousands of oil drums of ink have been spilled in argument about the connection between Ephesians 5:21, "Be subject to one another," and Ephesians 5:22 through 6:9 where the wives, children, and slaves of Ephesus are singled out and specifically commanded to submit to their husbands, fathers and mothers, and masters.

Those who hate authority, and specifically the authority of father-rule ordered by our Creator, make much of the "submit to one another" command, trying to use it to trump or confuse or hide or obfuscate the "wives submit to your husbands" command immediately following it. And all their tactics can be illustrated by an exchange something like this:

Foolish Christian: "The Bible tells me to submit to my husband."

Wise Christian: "Yes, but the Bible tells your husband to submit to you, also."

Foolish Christian: "Oh, you mean in 1Corinthians where it talks about me having authority over my husband's body, sexually?"

Wise Christian: "Well yes, there's that; but also in Ephesians 5 where it commands us all to submit to one another."

Huckabee quotes Chesterton...

(Tim) Having won in Iowa, Governor Mike Huckabee just quoted G. K. Chesterton in his victory speech:

Warriors fight, not because they hate those in front of them, but because they love those who are behind them.

On the eve of Iowa and New Hampshire, "there is such silence."

(Tim) From John Knox's The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, this excerpt explaining why reformed pastors have nothing at all to say about the election of a woman to the presidency of these United States...

Bloomington politics...

(Tim) For those of us who live in Bloomington, here's some helpful commentary on yesterday's elections by Christian libertarian and CGS member, Scott Tibbs.

Front page, New York Times...

(Tim) The article's on the front page of the Sunday, October 14, 2007, New York Times, and it's titled, "A Clinton-Obama Quandary for Black Women." Two things of note, one sad and the other happy. First the sad. Clara Vereen of Loris, South Carolina, has been hairdressing for forty years, and she's nervous about voting for Barack Obama:

I've got enough black in me to want somebody black to be our president. I would love that, but I want to be real, too. I fear that they would just kill him, that he wouldn't even have a chance.

Ms. Vereen went on to suggest one way to protect Senator Obama would be not to vote for him.

Anyone who thinks Ms. Vereen is paranoid needs to wake up to life in these United States. How many Hispanics or African-Americans did you worship with this past Lord's Day morning?

Then, the happy note, but you have to wait a moment to get to it. Ms. Vereen continues:

We always love Hillary because we love her husband. (She paused.) A man is supposed to be the head. I feel like the Lord has put man first, and I believe in the Bible.

Established religion in Bloomington...

(Tim) This time, Indiana University and Bloomington's mayor and city council are pulling out all the stops in their welcome of the Dalai Lama to our fair city. Signs and banners decorating city streets; grand pooh bahs flying in from around the country to attend his sermon, "Compassion: the Source of Peace," being hosted by Indiana University at Assembly Hall; a three day "educational program" in the IU Auditorium; a display of holy things in City Hall; and so on. Why Bloomington?

Because Indiana University Professor Emeritus Thubten Norbu, the Dalai Lama's eldest brother, lives here. But also because Buddhism is not Christian faith. It's quite amenable to American civic religion which, as the Ministers Conference David and I are attending has been at pains to point out, believes in a unitarian god who is formless and nameless, certainly not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who rules the nations. No claims of exclusivity here. The Dalai Lama has never called himself the way, the truth, and the life, although all our city fathers habitually refer to him as "His Holiness."

So what does our dear brother in Christ, Jim Billingsley, do?

With a few other fools, he goes down to City Hall carrying a display of his own in the form of the Ten Commandments etched into a two tablets of Indiana limestone two feet tall and one foot wide...

Sekulow and Hewitt puff Romney; BIOLA ushers Mormonism into the mainstream...

Years ago, my Dad was scandalized by the inclusion of Mormons in the annual evangelical marketing extravaganza known as "CBA," shorthand for the convention of the Christian Booksellers Association. (CBA has since been renamed The Association for Christian Retail and its annual convention is now called the "International Christian Retail Show.) Mormons are not Christians.

Back then we all knew Mormonism was just one more sex-drenched cult springing from the Burned-Over District of upstate New York. Taking a BA in history at UW Madison in the late seventies, I remember one historian's lecture on the origin of the Mormons and the Oneida Community, and particularly the similarity of both cults at the point of the sexual immorality promoted by their founders.

Now, though, Christians are weary of the fight and have graced Mormons with dialog, that quintessential sign of ceasefire or "Allee, allee, in free."

So I guess it shouldn't shock me that, in an unsolicited package I just received from the ACLJ's Jay Sekulow, the enclosed book hyping Mitt Romney for president by Hugh Hewitt is goose-down soft on Joseph Smith's heresy. Nor should I be surprised that Hewitt uses two BIOLA profs to do some of heavy lifting...

It's hard not to love them...

(by David)  In line with Tim's post below... The relationship between President Bush and his father is the most attractive father-son relationship in American public life. Our national loss when we descend into the familial relationships of the Clintons or the Thompsons or the Giulianis will be almost incalculable.

Everything I've ever read or seen about the relationship between the two Presidents Bush reflects fatherhood (or patriarchy) at its best, including this article in today's NYT.

President Bush and Congressman Ron Paul...

(by Tim) There are many things I wish President Bush had or hadn't done, and there's little doubt his understanding of the US Constitution is radically different than my own, particularly in the matter of the proper sphere and limits of federal government in these United States.

Having said that, I must also say that I'm proud to have him as our President. I believe he's an honorable and honest man. His major initiative as president--opposing militant (or Islamic) Islam--is clearly an act of conscience on his part. He believes his nation and its people are at risk and that he must do what's necessary to protect us, and he understands that much of the opposition and hatred he suffers is the simple cost of this commitment. In the Fox interview with him I watched today, he was winsomely philosophical about that hatred. Seeing his quiet resolve prompted this post.

Despite my disagreements with significant aspects of his domestic and foreign policy, I thank God for the character our President displays and pray that God will bless him. I wouldn't want to make the decisions he faces each day. And if I did make them, I'm confident I'd do a much worse job than he has.

As a sidenote to the above, let me say how sickened I am by almost every one of the top ten Democratic and Republican presidential candidates--particularly Senator Hillary Clinton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Was anyone really surprised when Slate revealed Giuliani's own daughter identified herself as an Obama supporter on her Facebook profile?

On the other hand, Congressman Ron Paul is running and there's much to like, even to love, about him. He has all the Neocons as his inveterate enemies and I say "Great!" Then too, he refused to allow his children to take any federal money to pay for their college educations and I say "Sweet!" and "Go Ron, Go!" and "Run Ron, Run!"

US abandons Iraq's Christians...

(By Tim) Any Christian who believes the proper policy for the US to follow in Iraq is, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" needs to read this article by Peter BetBasoo brought to my attention by my friend, Dan Reuter...

Censored in China...

The eldest son of my dear friend, John Doe, is working at a major international hotel in China for a few months this summer. His Dad has been passing on the E-mail travelogues he's been sending his family. Hilarious, at times, but always fascinating; here's a paragraph from his latest missive.

I also enjoy bringing my laptop to Hong Kong because I can catch up on sites that are blocked on the mainland. Actually China recently unblocked Wikipedia leaving only articles on Tienanmen Square and other national embarrassments unavailable. However, Tim (and David) Bayly may be surprised to hear that as of about a month ago I can no longer access his blog and I have tried multiple computers. It's so strange how they block these semi-obscure Christian blogs like St. Anne's Pub, Between 2 Worlds, and others.

In the past, John Doe's son was able to read the Baylyblog, but now the Chinese government has caught on to us and realizes that everything we write is subversive of a totalitarian materialistic regime that hates God and His Truth and forces the murder of unborn children. I mean, imagine a government of a billion souls bothering with this blog. It boggles the mind.

Well, Psalm 2 tells us the time will come when God will vindicate Steven Mosher and the Heavenly Man. And by the way, if you haven't read their books yet, you really ought to:

Steven Mosher: Mother's Ordeal: One Woman's Fight Against China's One-Child Policy
Brother Run and Paul Hattaway: The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

The day Stanford University bowed to pressure from the Chinese government and booted Mosher from his doctoral program because he told the truth about China's murderous one-child policy lives on in infamy in the memory of all of us who read of it in the Chronicle of Higher Education in the early 80s. 

A recommendation...

My friend, Bob Patterson, is a Contributing Editor to a monthly series of monographs published by Allan Carlson's The Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society titled The Family in America. Currently at Volume 21, Number 3 (they're a little bit behind), I've read this publication for many years after having it recommended by Herb and Terry Schlossberg.

In its pages, I've learned much about the interface of the Academy, the civil authority, historians, the law, demographers, sociologists, etc. and the family order God ordained in the Garden of Eden as recorded by the Word of God. But don't misunderstand me: Scripture is very rarely mentioned in TFIA. The monographs are not biblical scholarship...

Dr. James Dobson and Mayor Rudy Giuliani...

Dr. James Dobson says 'no,' and I agree. Maybe, finally, voters will get a real choice in 2008, with a third party fielding a viable candidate lacking the Ross Perot kook factor.

Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision.  - James Dobson

(Thanks, Chris.)

Obama: One more UCC syncretist...

-by Tim Bayly

Here's an article from the New York Times on Senator Barack Obama's church and pastor. The piece is fascinating, both for the glimpses it gives into the origin of Sen. Obama's theological commitments, and the way the Times treats matters of religious faith. Over the years it's always seemed the Times' Great White Fathers can't speak of the tiniest aspect of religious faith without displaying the howlingly ludicrous combination of supercilious ignorance.

Sen. Obama attends the largest church of the UCC--what my friend, Donald Bloesch (also a member of the UCC), tells me stands for  "Unitarians Considering Christ." More official sources, though, say it's the United Church of Christ.

Like clockwork, the piece has Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's colleague, Jim Wallis, pawntifuscating as a self-styled "progressive evangelical." While we're on the subject, I assume everyone knows Jim Wallis' alma mater is Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and that he continues to lecture at their invitation? Also, that Random House just bought out Multnomah Publishers?  But I digress. Back to the Times piece for my favorite quote:

Generally, Mr. Obama emphasizes the communal aspects of religion over the supernatural ones.

(Thanks, David.)

The real problem in Iraq...

Note from Tim: Here's a short piece by an elder of our church, David DeBoor Canfield, making the case that the problem we're confronting in Iraq is not one of military might, but of the heart. Although I'm not sure he's hit the nail on the head in terms of the proper application of the doctrine of sin and depravity in this context, the theme of the bondage of Islam can't be struck often enough as we look eastward. Start with the central thing that Islam does not worship God as a loving Heavenly Father and move on from there. Really, though, the thing I'm far more concerned about as I look at the Mideast is the significant movement among evangelical missionaries to take the scandal out of the Cross by evangelizing Muslims (if it can even be called "evangelism") without calling them to leave their mosque, to be baptized, and to unite themselves to the Bride of Christ, the Christian church. But leaving that to the side, for now, here's David's article:

We hear cries on all sides these days about how the US government has mishandled the war in Iraq: Some critics state that we failed in political ways, perhaps by summarily dismissing all of those connected with the Baathist party in the initial stages of the war. Others castigate us for poor military strategy, or unnecessarily alienating portions of the Iraqi populace. I would suggest rather that our primary failing in Iraq has been of a theological nature: Because of misplaced political correctness, we have set up a situation almost guaranteed to fail...

Missourians, beware!

Missouri voters will be asked today to vote on a ballot initiative called "Amendment 2" that seems to have been written in an intentionally deceptive way to mislead voters into supporting the very thing they thought they were opposing.

The long and short of it is this: If you believe man's intrinsic value comes from his uniqueness within all creation being the only creature made in God's Own Image; and that just the same as all other biological life, the life of an unborn baby does not begin at quickening or after being born, but at the moment of conception; then you should vote "no" on Amendment 2.

Here's why. This excellent analysis of Amendment 2 was done by Professor David C. Jones of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. Reading it will not only make clear to Missourians why Christians must vote against this amendment, but also it will warn us all of the increasingly difficult work we have in front of us as we work to oppose the new and crassly utilitarian ethic that permeates our culture in its approach to human life at its most vulnerable moments. So do the work and let Professor Jones teach you.

* * *

MISSOURI STEM CELL RESEARCH AND CURES INITIATIVE: AN ETHICAL ANALYSIS

by David Clyde Jones: Professor of Theology and Ethics at Covenant Theological Seminary

Presented at Kirkwood Baptist Church in Kirkwood, Missouri, on October 15, 2006

Usually when we go to the polls in November it is primarily to elect candidates that we believe will best represent public policy positions we think are for the common good. If the candidates we vote for become our elected representatives, then we can take on the role of backbenchers--egging them on to take stands on controversial issues (and letting them take the heat when they meet opposition), or shouting them down when we feel they stray too far in their inevitable need to compromise to get something actually done.

Not this year. On election day this November Missouri voters are being asked to resolve by ballot one of the most profound ethical dilemmas of our time: Whether it is right to make and take the life of human embryos for biomedical research...

Senator Kerry's gaffe: out of the heart...

Charles Peters is founder of the Washington Monthly and still writes the "Tilting at Windmills" column in each issue. On his blog, Peters comments on Kerry's gaffe about stupid people being the ones who end up in Iraq. For years, Peters has been arguing that our nation should implement a class-blind mandatory draft, and I agree. As Peters sees it, our armed forces should be composed of a representative cross-section of our nation's citizens; every American citizen should make some patriotic contribution to his motherland; and we would all benefit by having one two-year period when members of each of our social classes would be integrated as they work, eat, sleep, shower, and fight.

Anyhow, Peters thinks Kerry made an honest mistake, but I think it was a Freudian slip. (And if you're interested, here's a 1989 piece by Michael Kinsley opposing Peters' proposal for a national draft.)

Tim Walberg Wins Republican Primary in Michigan Congressional District

I've been interested in Tim Walberg's race for the Republican nomination to Michigan's seventh congressional district (just across the border from Toledo) for several months--ever since his twin brother, Paul Walberg, a Biblical counselor with whom we share office space told me Tim was running again in the Republican primary.

Walberg, a former pastor and Republican Michigan state congressman, ran against incumbent, Joe Schwarz, who initially won the seat in 2004 after five conservative candidates split the primary vote giving Schwarz, a liberal Republican, the nomination with 28% of the vote.

This year, it was just Schwarz vs. Tim Walberg in the primary. Tim had run in 2004 and came in a close third. Yesterday he beat Schwarz and is a probable lock in the general election because the seventh district is strongly Republican.

What's even more interesting is that Walberg is a sincere Christian. He went to Moody, then pastored for close to ten years before entering a political race as an anti-abortion candidate in the early 80s. He served in the MI house for many years before working at a foundation and serving, I believe, most recently as a VP at Moody Bible Institute.

Read more about Walberg's win.

An interesting interview with Walberg can be found here.

Is Islam a religion of peace?

Note: Although we're not admirers of the "Israel can do no wrong" view so prevalent among evangelical Christians, neither were we happy with our President's declaration immediately following 9/11, "Islam is a religion of peace." Down through history Islam has never been known as a religion of peace, but rather a religion of jihad. It gains converts through war--and not spiritual warfare with principalities and powers, with rulers of the heavenly realms, but rather the old-fashioned blood and guts sort of war. You know, convert or move or die.

To focus our thoughts on this matter, here's a talk given last week by a veteran of the Arabic and Islamic world, Brigitte Gabriel. Yes, there are parts of her speech we'd want to quibble over, but not her essential thrust--that the Western World's refusal to acknowledge the true nature of her enemy will, if continued, prove to be fatal.

Brigitte Gabriel's Speech at the Intelligence Summit
(February 17-20, 2006, Arlington, VA)

We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The west has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremists perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.

I was ten years old when my home exploded around me burying me under the rubble drinking my blood to survive as the perpetrators shouted Allahu Akbar. My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town...

Smackdown city...

For reasons I'll not go into, I doubt I'll ever vote for John McCain for any office. Still, he's gloriously awful, isn't he? Quick, name another congressman who would write this, let alone send it out as a press release.

Judges, representatives, and the Name of Jesus: an apology and correction...

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise. (Proverbs 10:19)

Note from Tim Bayly: As our good readers know well, I am a sinner and my sin is evident on this blog. This morning I woke up thinking about James' warning:

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. (James 3:1,2)

Applying this warning to what I wrote yesterday concerning prayer in the Indiana state House, I saw I sinned against my sister in Christ, Representative Peggy Welch, by not providing a full explanation of the error of her prayer and suggesting she resign her office. I ask her forgiveness. (And no, Representative Welch did not complain.) Consequently, my earlier post has been deleted.

Here, then, is what I ought to have said in the first place. Please be patient--I know it's lengthy but this is a matter of great importance and must be spoken of carefully. If you've read this post before, please don't bother reading the first third again; instead, skip down and begin with the three asterisks.

Our local state representative is a confessing Christian named Peggy Welch. When Mary Lee and I first moved to Bloomington, Peggy and her husband, David, lived about four blocks away and kindly had us over for dinner to welcome us to Bloomington. Before showing up for dinner, about all Mary Lee and I knew about the Welchs was that David was a local judge and he and Peggy had one child, a son somewhere around the age of our two eldest children.

That evening, most of the conversation had to do with politics and the part I remember most clearly was the discussion between David and Peggy concerning the tensions inherent in their being pro-life Democrats.

Since that evening thirteen years ago, we've had no significant contact with the Welchs. David is still a local judge and Peggy ran for office, serving the past couple of years as our Indiana state representative. She joined her husband in the Democratic Party.

This all comes to mind upon reading a news item concerning the brouhaha over prayer in our Indiana state House. Recently, a federal judge ruled that the daily prayer of invocation in the House chambers may not be given in the name of Jesus. He took this action under the guise that such prayers are forbidden by our Constitution. Thus he seeks to end a 188 year tradition in the state of Indiana. (Here's a good summary article from the Washington Post.)

Honestly, it's beyond me how people continue to take such judges seriously. We must respect their office, but we ought also to refuse to obey their unconstitutional rulings. And most importantly, we must work for their impeachment. Each time they issue such a ruling they are violating their oath to uphold our Constitution.

And yet impeachment is such hard work and we're all so lazy...

Politicians traffic in duplicity....

Check out this excellent ad exposing the duplicity of leading politicians who think no one keeps track of what they said in the past. There may be a good case for changing our Iraq policy--I'm simply grateful that there are civil servants like President Bush who are willing to take on the burden of making this decision--but there certainly is no excuse for politicians attacking one of the principal grounds for invading Iraq that, at the time of the invasion, no one questioned. To act and speak now as if one hadn't been in agreement then may be politically astute, but it turns the stomach nevertheless.

The Ninth Commandment says, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." And guilt over the violation of this commandment is compounded when your neighbor is your president, and you are using lies to attack him as he bears the weight of this war and our soldiers faithfully fighting it.

By the way, here's the final verse of the song by Traffic playing in the movie's background:

If I gave you everything that I owned,
And asked for nothing in return,
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride,
And strip me of everything, including my pride?
But spirit is something that no one destroys.
And the sound that you're hearing is only the sound
Of the low spark of high-heeled boys...

Christian Political Courage

Michael Bates of BatesLine, one of the most interesting and influential Christian blogs, has a column in the Urban Tulsa Weekly on the connection between Christian faith and political courage.

I encourage you to read the column. Michael's vision of Christian action in the political sphere is both bracing and realistic--bracing because it is realistic in its view of the centrality of faith to action. In a Christian world where what matters politically is usually numbers and pragmatism, Bates speaks Christian realism: faith, not numbers, not connections, not wealth, is power.

Stepping Back....

You may notice that Tim and I have pulled our posts about the nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court from this blog.

Our calling as pastors is to lead men and women to obedience to God. At times serving as a faithful watchman will entail clear political statements. But the Miers nomination is a cloudy and confusing issue, one on which obedient Christians may differ substantially.

Abortion remains an offense against God. Political leaders will give an account to God one day for their response on this issue--as will you and I. May God deliver us from this scourge of Satan upon our young.

TEDS graduate writes "liberal tract"...

In a piece in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. calls Trinity Evangelical Divinity School graduate Jim Wallis's recent book, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, "a liberal tract."

Am I finding myself in agreement with the Times? Coooool.

-"Forgetting Reinhold Niehuhr" by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in The New York Times Book Review, September 18, 2005, p. 12.

Kick him out...

Although some might see this post as politically partisan, please believe me when I say it's not. I identify with no political party and agree with Samuel Johnson that "schemes of political improvement are laughable things." But I care very, very much about the slaughter of the unborn which daily pours the blood of innocents out on our precious soil. And it's clear to me that, bottom line, this is the reason for the Democrats rejecting Roberts: he may be a part of Roe. v. Wade being overturned.

So please understand my real motives in calling for the removal from office of those who have announced that they will