2nd amendment saves lives..don't expect front page

Did I read correctly? A crazed angry man who self professed to hearing voices, somehow got access to a gun and went on a killing spree? Did I read that he went into a full church context after having unresisted free shooting of peoples at another location, and would likely have mass murdered many many innocent people...?

But something happened. No, it wasn't Rambo. Not 'Dirty Harry'. No it wasn't even GI Joe. Rather an off duty female security officer who was licensed with a permit to carry (something you can't apparently have on college or in schools or at the post office or near a sports field, or in the city of Chicago, or anywhere the new hermeneutic of constitutional interpretations have full sway) enters the scene.

What does she do? She saves a lot of lives by the direct and merciful action of shooting the shooter before he had an opportunity to create more obituaries with innocents. Did she relish it, enjoy it, dance in the streets like some religious zealots do when they torture a noncombatant? No. I think not. But is she a hero. Is she an unsung one? Is she a story not likely to be reported as it flows against the grain of what is and what is suppose to be? My guess is yes.

I'm sure other stories behind the scenes will emerge and that they will all be interesting and heroic and sad and grateful etc. But the obvious one from my read at the current time is how glad I am that a woman was packing heat, trained in using it, had the courage to do so, and saved a lot of innocent lives. May God bless her.

Heisman Winner...the untold, pro-Life story...

I got most of this from David Andrusko: "..quarterback Tim Tebow put on a display of prowess beyond anything I have ever seen. Over the weekend Tebow won the coveted Heisman Trophy, the first sophomore ever. No doubt Tebow won because he was also the first quarterback from a major college program ever to throw for at least 20 touchdowns and run for at least 20 touchdowns in the same season."

"As you watched him perform on the football field--or if you were lucky enough to catch him profusely thanking God, his family, and his teammates for his award--you could not help thinking that this dazzlingly handsome young man was special in every possible way.

What does that have to do with us? Glad you asked. Tebow is the youngest of five children of Bob and Pam Tebow, missionaries to the Philippines through Bob Tebow Evangelistic Ministries. In 1985, "hoping to expand their family, they prayed for 'Timmy' by name," according to the Gainesville Sun.

However, while pregnant with Tim, Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, a bacteria transmitted through contaminated drinking water. Doctors told her that the strong medications she'd need to take would could irreversible damage to Tim--and counseled an abortion. Pam said no, telling the Sun it was because of her faith. She spent the last two months of her pregnancy on bed rest, ultimately giving birth in August 1987 to a healthy baby boy, "skinny, but rather long."

Last year, as a freshman, Tebow only came in for a handful of plays. Everyone thought he was a one-dimensional player. We might have guessed he'd run for 22 touchdowns this season(!) but never have imagined that he'd throw 29 touchdown passes as well! We would have been wrong, and not just about his football talent. By all appearances, Tim is a multi-dimensional human being, a man of achievement, a man of modesty, and a man of faith--a blessing to all who know him.

And this amazing young man is able to share his many gifts because, and only because, Pam Tebow said no to abortion and yes to life.

You can watch Tim accept the Heisman" by clicking here. Pretty inspiring.

About Voice of the Martyrs & Islamic Commonground

It is true that a number of people I respect and consider friends, signed for various reasons this yale.edu document apologizing to Islamic leaders and looking for common ground for world peace and such.

However, I did find the document disappointing and even at some points rather disturbing. Voice of the Martyrs' has a blog and my response to the common ground document is significantly in agreement with the Voice of the Martyrs' spokesperson's critique. If you read his response (which includes a link to the common ground document) and then scroll down and look in the 'comments' section at the end, you will find my 2 cents. Check it out here. Or if you prefer to cut and paste links, here http://persecutedchurch.blogspot.com/2007/11/you-dont-speak-for-me.html

And yes I would value your comments.

How do YOU manage Halloween?

Some go out to eat. Others turn off the lights and don't answer the door. Some participate fully just like everyone else. Others do harvest parties as an alternative. Some tell historical accounts of Druids and traditions linked to the occult to try to frighten young people out of misbehaving and adults into not buying into the day mindlessly. Others do counter cult/occult information expose's.

I hope you aren't one who demonizes black cats just because of their color or disses flying bats just because they work 3rd shift! If you give out candy, do you include an age appropriate tract of some sort with a web link for kids to hear the gospel or a tell-a-story gospel phone number? Or do you do the 'hell house' alternative to the 'haunted houses'? No kidding I've seen these advertised!

Did you know it is the eve of all saints day, a reformation holiday? At Purdue tomorrow shortly after noon, a history Ph.D. student will be dressed in authentic Martin Luther garb and doing some exciting reformation affirming readings on the Memorial Mall in the open air while other grad students hand out good theological materials.

So how do you manage the day and resist tooth and cultural decay?

So sad. He could do so much better...

But alas NT Wright has come up short in his societal critiques and his understanding of evils in our world today. Disappointing.

He seems to have the Jimmy Carter approach of blaming self and the West and Christianity and the UK and the USA first and foremost. This is such a popular exercise for academe-flavored evangelicals these days.

So predictable. So sad. Read it here.

Presidential Candidate believes in the Devil !

Amazing news. Senator and former Vice Presidential candidate, now Presidential candidate John Edwards does actually believe in a personal Devil. But who is this Devil?

Is it Lucifer the fallen angel? No.

Is it Barbara Boxer the abortion advocate? No.

Is it Hillary Clinton of FBI files and Larry Flynt personal information infammy? No.

Is it anyone in political office who can utilize political power to intimidate people themselves? No.

Here is a hint; He refers to this person as a She-Devil?

Is it Michelle Malkin? Or Peggy Noonan? Is it Laura Ingraham? Deborah Rowe, Teri O'Brien, Star Parker? No, no, no.

The personal She-Devil is Ann Coulter. I guess he thought he was just 'Answering in Kind'. Wow, he's a tough one!

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/8/19/193525.shtml?s=icp

UK Islamic, jihadist, radicalized, terrorists as 'doctors'

The word is out, the UK attempted mass murdering, multiple car bombers are apparently now known. They were 'doctors'. I suppose one could say they were also 'men'. The one thing we likely know but will never hear is that they are Islamic, jihadist, radicalized, soft-spoken, would-be-mass-murdering, terrorists. So the MSM tells us their spin so they have something to talk about. They were 'doctors'.

The terrorists on 911 I suppose we can say, they were 'students'. Or 'flight students', maybe even 'grad students' but not Islamic, jihadist, radicalized, mass murdering terrorists. Just 'students', or just 'doctors', 'the doctors'. And in a post Dr. Death, abortion on demand, partial birth abortion advocating legislators, human embryo death farming for unproductive non adult stem cells, we are suppose to be surprised that they were highly educated? Surprised that they were 'doctors committed to saving lives'?

In case the MSM and the front runner Presidential candidates of both Parties haven't noticed, the 'culture of death' is alive and killing. And 'the doctors' haven't taken or valued the Hippocratic Oath for decades! Oh, we were just so shocked. Duh.

Yahoo gets a story pretty close on stem cell unethics

http://au.news.yahoo.com/070529/2/13lkj.html
Australia joins the UK as State sanctioning tiny, unique human creations with animals and using human fetuses to be mothers and then killing the moms and such. They rightly say no cures forthcoming anytime soon for such 'bold' new State sanctioned 'science'.

I find myself in agreement with the Anglicans there and the Catholics. The sad part is the assessement that without such specific application of science, there is no hope for cures. That is highly questionable. Should we toss all our research for cures for cancer cause it isn't currently research requiring the creation of unique human lives for destruction/experimentation, cause it is hopeless witout this one approach?

I believe what they've passed in Australia should not only NOT be State sanctioned and supported, but should be discouraged and punishable by law. That said, I'd be genuinely curious of your thoughts both on this topic and on how yahoo reports on it in the link above.

Funny new flash movie on absurd beliefs... Enjoy.

Click here to enjoy for funny new flash movie on absurd beliefs, principled pluralism, and an intriguing / humorous conclusion. Right click to 'open in a new window' or just close the window to return here.

Tiller the Killer in Kansas, late term abortion activism

http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/2162/

How Pro-Life, the culture of death, the rule of law, activist judges, politics, and the "good ole (boy) person" networks work in real time in a pretty clear case needing and deserving prosecution. Read, sign, and give your 2 cents.

Falwell and the MSM, Drive-by's, UK Reuters...

Briefly, HERE is how UK Reuters reports on Falwell after his death. Just a couple fairness questions; 1. Are evangelicals the only ones JF had who oppose gay marriage?, 2. Are evangelicals the only ones JF could find who opposed abortion?, 3. Was JF the only one who felt 911 could have been a factor of God's response to western cultural vices? On the third question, here are two links that blame cultural vice by non-evangelicals, DD and WV and DH. On the second, and first questions what about Catholics and Mormons, orthodox Jews, Islam, atheists like Bernard Nathenson, feminists for life? Lastly Reuters and other hateful, driveby, MSM, postmortum reporters, is it really fair to call the abortionists JF mentioned, "healthcare workers"? I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the mis-called moral majority. But I know fairness when I see it. Perhaps postmortum as with Nixon, some dignity might be afforded one the MSM loved to, and made it 'politically correct' to hate. I'm not holding my breath.

Al Qaeda is NOT in Iraq, Come on home? Crazy??

Maybe you didn't hear the Democrat Party national leadership, the liberals, and the left wingers. Al Qaeda is not IN Iraq. We need to leave Iraq. There is no war on terror or terrorists or terrorism in Iraq. We lost Iraq.

Then some group calling itself Al Qaeda says they kidnapped three of our troops in Iraq. What are we to think now? Here are some options:

1. Say it isn't Iraq where are troops were located?
2. Say it isn't Al Qaeda that said they were Al Qaeda?
3. Say Al Qaeda isn't a terrorist organization?
4. Bring our troops home today and ask Al Qaeda to fight them here?

Oops, strike #4 in part. Why? Well because radical jihadist Islamic extremists are already doing this here via their attempt on military Fort training place in the south.

Ah but then the trial lawyers can represent the extremists and Al Qaeda and make some money off the war demonizing how someone else "made them that way." The trouble is it is hard to get a hardened terrorist to 'cry on cue for the cameras' and talk about his mommy and daddy's neglect and shave and shower and look like a Menendez brother.

What? It appears the surge which hasn't even reached its full strength yet has all ready run out of time and failed in its mission. It all sounds so familiar now. Right is wrong, up is down, terrorists are good, we are terrorists.

So we approve the surge then only let it spurt about 2/3rds of the way and give it a week to complete the task, a week that is before it fully begins. That's fair.

Pray our countrymen and women, our troops, their commanders, the political grandstanders and their puppet masters on the radical Left are all seen for what and who they are. This is (of course) an "its gonna take a miracle" prayer because our major outlet media from the NY Times and all its want-to-be mimics (Gannett, LA Times, etc) as well as CNN and all its want-to-be mimics like MSNBC, Daytime TV etc are committed to ONLY showing the most embarrassing and imbicilic individualistic idiosyncratic aspects of our troops, their commanders, and their supporters. Keep praying though. God majors in the impossible.

Wallis, the NY Times, and the faith of Obama

First, a couple how shall I say, not highlights but low-lights from the article.

1. Jim Wallis the white guilt so-called progressive so-called evangelical has pronounced Barak Obama a Christian and is helping him campaign.

2. Barak's faith is more communal and in terms of inequality read redistribution.

3. Barak's spiritual mentor saw everything in terms of black and white oppression and Barak was apparently estranged from his pastor and spiritual mentor at his mentor's death.

4. Barak's pastor mentor once told him if he won the primary he'd have to distance himself from his pastor, but my guess is this will be no problem for Barak because as recently as the late 80s Barak was being urged to be a Christian and join a church but refused. And he is eager to cheer those who want the church separated from politics and the State, unless they are of the more liberational theology sort (like Wallis and his alleged former pastor Wright).

5. Barak is a Christian but he doubts the existence of God and isn't big on miracles and wonders if there really is any afterlife and wonders if anything ever existed before the Big Bang. Christians can have doubts and thinking ones do, but they don't tend to let ones of this magnitude go without some word of witness to believing in the Creator, Redeemer, and Source of eternal life.

I'm guessing Jim Wallis and Barak Obama may need to coin a new kind of Christian for Barak, "the atheist-Christian". And perhaps they can coin a new one for Jim Wallis, 'the atheist Christian affirming evangelical'. That is real progressive! Or was that regressive?

The New York Times, Jim Wallis, and Rick Warren (apparently) on the faith of Obama.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html

After a 30+ year reign of deadly judicial fiats...a line.

In 1973 I was told Roe was just for the 1st trimester, then Bolton made it anytime for 'health' reasons defining health in the broadest (any reason) terms. Then Roe and Wade both became pro-life but no change in the law.

Then partial birth of sometimes viable children, then "treatment not to treat" newborns and a Presidential candidate flirting with infanticide. (Aside on viability: Weren't snowflake children, now viable children who were once frozen human embryos, adopted and brought to term, viable when they were frozen and living outside the mother's womb or does IVF only implant dead human embryos(?)...I'm confused a bit about viability. Not! They are viable and we are all confused as science brings for new understandings of viability.)

Finally a ban on partial birth abortion passes with a huge majority of both Houses supporting the ban and it gets a Presidential veto not just once from the champion of values, Bill Clinton. Ah but then George W. Bush gets it and signs it.

And activist, unaccountable justices challenge it for almost the full duration of W's administration. Finally the Supreme's hear it and apparently Scalia's low emotional EQ didn't frost the border-line Supremes and Kennedy flipped positions (frankly so should Souter!), and perhaps but not necessarily, compliments of Justice Robert's skill, reasoning, and higher emotional EQ than the otherwise brilliant Scalia.

And (drum roll please) the US Supreme Court rightly upholds the ban on partial birth abortion. One facebook group (and a pro-life one if you can believe it!) said if anyone was excited about this from either side that they were likely extremists! Well call me an extremist then. After over 30 years praying, working, lobbying, voting, informing, teaching, and praying some more, FINALLY a line has been drawn somewhere in the sand. Hopefully sand mixed with water and concrete.

Thank you George W. Bush, Congress, voters from both political parties who opposed partial birth abortion and United States Supreme Court. Thank you very much! I am excited. Yes. Thank you Jesus! Frankly I hope many will join me in being grateful. But keep on being discerning and engaged because the culture of death is not going to be happy until we are distributing abortion-causing, after-conception pills that were only politically nuanced through the FDA in the last couple years, performing tax-funded mass human embryo cloning, and allowing for hard-case, second-glance infanticide and such.

I expect to hear every hard case imaginable, real and mostly hypothetical soon. I'm sure we are going to hear from powerful personalities that promised to move to Canada if W was elected, that saving developed human children from being partially-birthed and the scissors inserted to the back of the head, brain sucking, skull breaking treatment is very bad and nearly the end of the world. But they are wrong.

The Supreme Court, majorities in both Houses, and President George W. Bush and the voters who elected him were right. I must confess that I do wonder what Hillary, Rudy, McCain, and Obama really think about this today.

I'm hoping if they are "personally opposed" (you know, like one might give favor to ones preference of a certain ice cream flavor) that they won't be wanting to push their privately held and frankly deadly views... But enough on the culture of death and their hereto unstoppable 30+ year reign of judicial fiats. This day is a really very wonderful day!

If you missed, you can still get some great stuff!

Did you miss the April 07 Graduate and Faculty Ministry retreat at the UW Madison? Too bad if you did ... But Wait...!

All the plenary sessions were digitally recorded and stream on the web or you can click & hold, or right-click them and download them to your mp3 player! Also all the handouts and powerpoints are up online as well! You may have missed the road trip, fellowship with colleagues, and the nice Spring weather and bomfire but the content is right here for you.

http://www.gfmuiuc.net/april07conference/Site/Audio.html

I would highly recommend the two sessions with Sharon Gartland and with Ric Ashley and the breakout with James Southard for men. The other breakout was good if you are interested in the new theology of Paul and Sanders and such but I recommend with some reservations as I had a significant amount of questions on this, but if you are into NT Wright and his thoughts on Sanders, you may well appreciate this session a lot, as well.

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OK, but what awaits me? Check out this two page pdf brochure with Stanton L. Jones on "Sexual Ethics, Faith, and the University", in Toledo, OH., June 8-10, here http://mwgfm.org/images/June07GLE.pdf

That's it? No, there's more. July 12-14 in Kansas City, Missouri "Truth Under Deconstruction" with Paul Vitz, Norman Geisler, and J.P. Moreland here http://www.iics.com/

Faculty Conference. Cedar Campus. "In Thy light we see light" http://www.intervarsity.org/gfm/event_item.php?id=816 Dr. Michael J. Murray (Philosophy), Dr. Daniel J. Trier (Theology), Dr. Steven Telian (Otolaryngology). June 16-22, 2007.

"Nexus: The Future of Healthcare, Science, and Humanity" Center for BioEthics and Human Dignity, July 12-14, 2007. http://www.cbhd.org/conferences/2007/index.htm Dr.Alvin Plantinga, Dr. David Prentice, Dr. Christina Bieber Lake, Joni Erickson Tada, Dr., Dr. Brent Waters, O.C. Snead J.D., Nigel Cameron.

OK, that's it. Have a great day and enjoy the fabulous resources from scholars with a living faith that influences their thinking, teaching, research, publishing, and public witness!

Zbigniew, Duke, Jimmy Carter, Yahoo's

Jimmy Carter's former head of national security Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke last week at Duke and a bigger scandal should have happened than the one Duke was exposed to most recently. The local paper reported on the speech here:
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-834412.cfm

Brzezinski said we need not assume that if we bailed out of Iraq today that there would have to be any blood-letting and stated that clearly such didn't happen when we pulled out of Vietnam. Ahem, It is good to remember why we don't want these elitists back in the White House.

No blood letting after we pulled out of Vietnam and no chaos in connecting countries? Such is the sort of 'left-nic cleansing' of the appeaser' s memory. Z-big-new, are you a brain dead ninny? Have you never heard of the Killing fields of Cambodia? Were you watching the 'Love Boat' when the news media briefly showed us the boat people fleeing murder, mayhem, and torture, favoring starvation or being eaten by sharks to their treatment under the surge of communist "liberators". Liberators of yours, Carter's, and Jane Fonda's ilk. Joined lately by Kerry, Murtha, Sheehan, and Pelossi.

Z-big-new, according to your and Jimmy Carter's worldview what exactly were these slaughtered lives then? Clearly if they were not humans experiencing bloodletting in your view, what were they! Were they just extra human embryos that were going to die anyway!? Were they sub-human and only "potential persons"!? Are you telling us not to worry, it all helped advance the glorious 'science' of population control and diminished the global warming at least from these human animals? Is this what you are telling us? Is this the Carter, Brzezinski, Murtha, Sheehan thinking and historical viewpoint? What loons! What a bunch of yahoos!

Zbigniew and Jimmy should have had an opportunity to sit where Daniel Pearl sat with the hooded men behind them and spin their near-absolute stupidity. The terrorists would have likely had a gut splitting laugh at their captive diplomat's near-lunatic loggings. Alas, only in the western media would such be quoted only with a sidebar question only. No snearing. No incredulous laughing out loud. No shaming the speaker or insider-mockery. No, when people of this ilk say such things we must seek first to understand. 'What could this mean?' or 'What must he have really meant?' or some polite benefit of the doubt, benefit of restrained incredulity. Why is this? He said it. He said it publicly. He has speech writers and screeners. He said it at a major university. He is a loon.

These two (Carter and Brzezinski, sounds like Lewinski...sort of) are silly and if we want to be gracious about it, let us just call it early senility. But please media and major universities, please don't embarrass them publicly by quoting them or interviewing them. Let them ride off into the Reagan sunset. They clearly will need help doing so as graciously as Reagan did. This is sad. Very sad if it weren't so pathetic. And very pathetic if it weren't feeding gun powder to the pitbull "peace at anyone elses' price" culture of death activists. OK, evil then.

Yahoo news today continues the nonsense with the headline that Iran sees hope in England's response to their (Iranian) illegal activities capturing and likely torturing the UK's Navy personnel and utilizing the captured in media propoganda footage. It is just so wonderful that Yahoo, like Duke, can report on such matters and make sure to give Iran the moral high ground along with Brzezinski and Carter, Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan, military superstars Murtha and Kerry, and Pelossi and Kennedy and... Oops, I hurled my cookies.

Facebook is cool

I'm now on facebook. Go to http://facebook.com and give them a login and a password and you can keep up with friends in the university world and beyond with pics and email and names AND faces quickly and easily. There are also some cool groups like a CS Lewis fan club and various graduate student and professional student organizational groups. Get connected! Joe Whitchurch

Constitution, Living flexible document, Original intent

The last couple weeks of '24' there has been a lot of discussion on the Constitution of the USA and how the assertive interrogation of terrorists violates such and how the listening in on citizens who call terrorist supporting organizations, violates the Constitution. This intrigues me since terrorists overseas being called are not citizens of the USA and our Constitution does not address their protections per se. The same with questioning enemy combatants who are not apparently acting on behalf of any country who are significantly implicated (shooting at civilians or Iraqi security forces or planting roadside bombs and such) in having some terror network information.

The thought I had as one who leans more in the direction of words having meaning and the authors' intent being important, is that it strikes me that the ones who are crying the loudest about the Constitution's literal application to non citizen terrorists groups being phoned or when a terrorist without a country is caught on a battlefield or in plotting the destruction of aircraft or citizen traveled domestic bridges for instance, and such a one is interrogated, these are the very ones who are more 'flexible' read wishy washy about the Constitutional intent generally. It means nothing for citizens, it means everything for terrorists and their USA citizen friends. This is a Marxist replacement of the alleged oppressed class which can do no wrong.

These 'flexible document types' on the Constitution have all kinds of definitional work-arounds in contexts related to the framers' worldview and understanding of what constitutes a marriage and common law, or framer understanding of the right to life of developing children, and the framers' understanding and intent related to the the establishment clause. Obviously this clause is not to prevent religions and churches and other faiths from lobbying and affecting public discourse and otherwise influencing government but rather to keep government from working to establishing a particular religion or sect as the official State sect or religion or faith.

Sadly these Constitutional 'living flexible document' types bemoaning the treatment of non citizen terrorists without a country are clearly lobbying for the Constitution's establishment clause being applied to teach that our government (that recognized rights coming from God and not the king or other heirarchies) should be establishing (choose your favorite expression) secularism, secular humanism, or atheism. I would say it is trying to establish agnosticism but to do so one must say they "do not know about God" and doing this mentions "God" and like the teaching of even intelligent design apparently even the mention of deity or some intelligence that is transcendent to human intelligence is anathama, disallowed, out of order... to the new living and flexible constitutionalists who care so strongly about the constitutional rights of terrorists.

OK, I think the last two episodes of '24' (other than the viability of suitcase nukes finally getting network mention) are very stupid in the continued banter of Jack and his brother and his father all taking turns deceiving and holding each other at gun point and torturing each other. Talk about dysfuctional families! But the conversation about the Constitution is important and sadly no characters in '24' are getting it anywhere near correctly.

Sleepy musings on recent media bias on Iraq force

Enjoy a little 3 minute musing by yours truly on some not so common sense about Iraq, principled and strategic use of force and cartoon image journalism and photo opps in Indiana and nationally by clicking here. I'll admit to being a tad peeved but rightly so. Join me by clicking here and giving a fun little listen. IF you can't take a teasing (and liberals and leftists commonly seem to be able to 'dish it out' but have very thin skin when it comes back to them) I'll forewarn you to NOT listen. I simply cannot pat your cyber-hand and say "There, there now Honey, it will be alright." (-:

The vote on use of baby humans for spare parts...

January 11, 2007. As predicted, the U.S. House approved a bill today that would encourage taxpayer funding of human embryo experimentation, but came nowhere near the two-thirds majority needed to override President Bush's promised veto. Click here to see where your Congressman is on the vote of 253-174 (the pro-life vote is "no"). Gore and Kerry would not be so affirming as President Bush's firm commitment to prevent the taxpayer funding of experiments that use human lives as spare parts. On this one we have to tip our hats to the President and hope he continues to wisely use his veto pen to protect innocent, young, human lives from being intentionally destoyed and such destruction funded by tax dollars. It is shameful that the 'yes' vote was as high as it was. Shameful.