Saturday, May 31, 2008

outing the same-sex agENDA, part three

Taking Back the Rainbow

For whom the church bells toll

We continue our series about how the same-sex agenda is already being carried out by activists and by government agencies and the activist judges. This is occurring even though in most parts of the country. sexual orientation is not officially a class of discrimination as are race, age, gender or disability, nor should it be!

In part one of this series we discussed an individual, a black woman, who was fired from her job for freely expressing her faith conviction in regard to same-sex unions or same-sex ‘marriage’ in writing her response to an editorial opinion in her local newspaper. In part two we discussed a case in New Mexico where a business was sued by a same-sex couple for not agreeing to photograph their so-called “commitment” ceremony. The small business was a photography shop. The owner refused, because of her beliefs and convictions, to take the job. The same-sex couple sued the business and won in a ruling by the state human rights commission. Today, in part three, we will discuss a not-for-profit, CHURCH-related organization legal battle with the same matter of alleged so-called sexual orientation discrimination.

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NO SANCTUARY EVEN IN A CHURCH

It seems like every time the church or the Christian people in the church venture outside our stained glass fortresses on Monday morning and dare to bring our faith to the public arena, the marketplace or the school campus the PC patrol trolls take note. The same-sex activists are one key component of the PC police. Such is the case in Ocean Grove, New Jersey where a same-sex couple wanted to rent from the local Methodist Church its facilities to conduct an ungodly same-sex ceremony. The church rightfully said, “No.” The lesbian couple cried foul and discrimination. The human rights commission again listened to and sided with the powerful, politically correct, and influential same-sex activists.



In the Ocean Grove case, the same-sex couple wanted to rent a Pavilion on the boardwalk which was owned and operated by the Methodist Church for many, many years. The “couple” apparently wanted to hold their civil union ceremony in the church-owned facility. If the church would have gone against its principles and beliefs and allowed the ceremony to take place, they would have desecrated their mission and their property, because same-sex unions or “marriage” is an abomination to the God of the Judeo-Christian Bible and to all true Christian believers.

THE RESULT

How is the Ocean Grove case similar to the New Mexico case? Both “offending” parties and defendants in their respective cases are represented by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys. Both of the defendants in both cases are sued for discrimination. Both defendants initially lost their cases. In addition, the Ocean Grove church also lost its TAX-EXEMPT status for one of their parcels of land. Both cases are in the process of being appealed.


According to an ADF Fact Sheet for the New Jersey case (Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OCCMA) versus Vespa-Papaleoon), ADF attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on August 11, 2007 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in response to the state of New Jersey’s investigation of a complaint form a same-sex couple that demanded to use OCCMA's private worship facility for a “civil union” ceremony.

THE RAMIFICATIONS

On the May 7th WallBuilders Live Radio Show, where I most recently heard about this case, ADF attorney Jordan Lorence said, “I think that churches (being) drawn into this is a likely scenario. I think the TAX-EXEMPT status is probably going to be the weapon of choice (against) the churches.”

Laws like the intolerable Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) along with so-called needless “hate crimes’ legislation on both the state and federal levels will have the effect of silencing Christians and churches and will take away freedom of speech and freedom to express one’s faith.

If a pastor is asked to perform a same-sex ceremony and refuses, will he be fined, jailed or risk losing his church’s tax-exempt status? Absolutely, if both ENDA and hate crimes are enacted individuals, businesses, pastors, Christians and churches will be facing the same accusations of discrimination as Crystal Dixon, the Huguenins and the Methodist church organization in New Jersey are facing. America, beware, this is already happening to a great extent in Western Europe and in our neighbors to the north, Canada.

TAKE ACTION

This election find out who supports same-sex civil unions or “marriage” and who favors legislation that codifies sexual orientation discrimination and who supports “hate crime” laws and vote AGAINST them on all levels – national, state and local.

Obama Sees & Speaks to the Dead on Memorial Day

(Las Cruces, NM) I think it was an item on the NewBusterswebsite where I first saw the following Obamaism. Obama appears to be much like former New York Yankee player and manager, Yogi Berra, who in days gone by had his famous Yogisms. We now have the great orator and messianic messenger from liberaland putting his foot in his golden mouth regularly. Watch the first 30 seconds of the following video from a speech the great one gave at a Memorial Day event in New Mexico.



In case you don’t have access to the YouTube video, here are the words from his opening speech.

“On this Memorial Day (Monday, May 26, 2008), as our nation honors its unbroken line of FALLEN HEROS (like in dead soldiers, Barack?) – and I see many of them in the audience here today (say what?)– our 'sense of patriotism’ is particularly strong . . .”

My sense, Barack, is that you absolutely don't have a clue.

Does this neophyte even know what he is reading? Does he proof read his speech writers' speeches? Worse, does he write his own speeches? Or is he “masterfully” ad libbing or ad flubbing his lines? In any case, this man is not ready for the big time. He needs some serious seasoning . . .

Friday, May 30, 2008

outing the same-sex agENDA, part two

Taking Back the Rainbow

Getting the wrong picture

This is the third in a series of articles addressing the absolute absurdity of establishing anti-discrimination laws on behalf of a peculiar, privileged group of individuals whose preferred sexual behavior flies in the face of established values and mores of civilized society. This article discusses one small business whose owners dared to say “no” to two lesbians who requested that they photograph their so-called same-sex commitment ceremony. What? You mean these small business owners acted on their faith-convictions and said they would not be part of any “ceremony” celebrating what by Biblical standards consider immoral behavior? Who are they to do such a thing?


SHUTTER THE THOUGHT

Much of the rest of this article is based on a discussion I heard between Tony Perkins and Attorney Jordan Lorence on a segment of the 4/25/08 broadcast of the Washington Watch Weekly Radio Show. Additional background information can be obtained from
volokh.com.

Elaine and Jon Huguenin are a young Christian married couple in their twenties living in New Mexico.
Elane Photography, Inc. is their business. Elaine is the photographer, her husband, Jon, works on the business end. A lesbian couple contacted them through their website requesting that they take pictures of their same-sex ‘commitment ceremony’. Elaine refused citing her Biblical convictions and beliefs. They were sued for DISCRIMINATION by the offended lesbians through the New Mexico Human Rights Commission (NMHRC). A trial was held in January 2008 with Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Jordan Lorence representing Elane Photography. In April they were notified that they lost the case and owed $6,600 in attorney fees.

The conclusion was reached despite the fact that there is no law on New Mexico’s books that recognize either same-sex “civil-unions” or same-sex “marriage”. On his Washington Watch radio show host Tony Perkins was puzzled by the verdict saying that there was no loss to the lesbian couple. The couple could have easily sought another photographer. It appeared to Mr. Perkins that this case was pure harassment and intimidation. Perkins indicated the state was using this case through the Commission and the non-discrimination laws to bring about public policy in society. Therefore, if any individual, a church or a business holds the conviction or belief that marriage is something sacred between only one man and one woman they could be subject to prosecution.

WHAT NEXT?

Jordan Lorence is filing an appeal in the New Mexico court system. If necessary the case will be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court. The USSC has ruled favorably in these types of cases in the past. The Boy Scout case and the Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade are two examples when the high court rejected the application of these non-discrimination laws to First Amendment type actions such as the one in the Elane Photography case.

If such laws as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) are ever enacted, then we will routinely see cases like
Crystal Dixon and the Huguenin’s take place. The result will include tying up the courts, silencing Christians, severely restriction freedom of speech and the free expression of one’s faith.

CONCLUSION


Attorney Lorence thought that this Elane Photography case was a show trial. The state. through the NMHRC according to Lorence, “is trying to make an example of people like those at Elane Photography to INTIMIDATE many, many other people. Both to deter them from acting on their Christian beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman” and to eventually go after churches, which is their ultimate goal. We will discuss churches in the next article.

Democrat Al Franken’s tax troubles

NewsBusters is a conservative news and comedy website. Their newest NewBusted episode includes the excerpt below. See right panel of this blog and click on the video to watch this 2-3 minute comedy YouTube video.

Al Franken is still dealing with his tax problems. He is still trying to make up for his failure to pay income taxes in 17 different states.

“When contacted Franken said, ‘Hey, I am a Democrat. I don’t pay taxes, I raise them.'

“When asked to comment in Franken’s tax problem, Barack Obama said, ‘What’s the big deal, if Franken didn’t pay taxes in 17 states, it means he must have paid them in the other 40.’”


- - - NewsBusted, Episode 170


In case you don't know who Al Franken is, he is a liberal author and talk show host who is running for U.S. Senator in Minnesota. If Jesse Ventura could become governor, then I guess anything could happen in the land of (f)lakes.

Homosexual/Lesbians Demand Special Rights

Taking Back the Rainbow

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch regularly asks its online readers questions. Mostly the questions are parochial or arcane in nature. Today they had a serious and very poignant and critical question. Here is their question and my reply.

The Hot Issue: Should Ohio have a law giving equal rights to (homosexual/lesbian) people in employment and housing?

gregjaye: Absolutely NOT

A better way to phrase the question would be, “Should Ohio grant special rights and privileges to homosexuals, lesbians and ‘transgendered’ individuals in employment and housing?” Or, “Should Ohio create a new classification of discrimination based primarily on the preferred sexual behavior of a minority, who choose what is considered by many as abnormal, immoral, unnatural and unhealthy behavior?” Or, “Should Ohio have a law granting SPECIAL rights to homosexuals, lesbians, transgendered individuals in matters of employment and housing?”

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Creationist Apologetics, part 1

Last week I responded to Scientific American’s criticism of the movie Expelled…No Intelligence Allowed. Now I will talk more about creationist apologetics by responding to Scientific American’s 15 Answer’s to Creationist Nonsense.

Below are some of the creationist arguments which Scientific American says are false. I have not listed most of the arguments because most of them are indeed erroneous, made by some creationists who are not knowledgeable in science. Just because they have a misunderstanding about science, doesn’t necessarily mean they are wrong about the truth of how God created the world and all living things (each after its own kind) in six literal days. But you won’t find these erroneous arguments in any Creation Museum exhibit or any publications of Answers in Genesis, the Institute for Creation Research, or the Creation Evidence Museum. Some well-meaning, but less knowledgeable creationists tend to make “straw man” arguments when they don’t need to. But I have also seen creationists trip up evolution-believing college students and biology professors with very simple questions to which they could only make responses like, “Well…I’m not an expert.” The apostle Paul said, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” and “…Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” (1 Corinthians 2:2, 8:1) So you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know Jesus as your Savior, nor do need to be one to reach someone (even a tenured professor in biology) for Christ.

So I’ll leave it at that and only respond to these answers …

Mathematically, it is inconceivable that anything as complex as a protein, let alone a living cell or a human, could spring up by chance.

Chance plays a part in evolution (for example, in the random mutations that can give rise to new traits), but evolution does not depend on chance to create organisms, proteins or other entities. Quite the opposite: natural selection, the principal known mechanism of evolution, harnesses nonrandom change by preserving "desirable" (adaptive) features and eliminating "undesirable" (nonadaptive) ones. As long as the forces of selection stay constant, natural selection can push evolution in one direction and produce sophisticated structures in surprisingly short times. As an analogy, consider the 13-letter sequence "TOBEORNOTTOBE." Those hypothetical million monkeys, each pecking out one phrase a second, could take as long as 78,800 years to find it among the 2613 sequences of that length. But in the 1980s Richard Hardison of Glendale College wrote a computer program that generated phrases randomly while preserving the positions of individual letters that happened to be correctly placed (in effect, selecting for phrases more like Hamlet's). On average, the program re-created the phrase in just 336 iterations, less than 90 seconds. Even more amazing, it could reconstruct Shakespeare's entire play in just four and a half days.

Some creationists say that they can calculate the probability that a very simple protein or DNA molecule could have formed spontaneously. These figures are astronomically low probabilities. There are assumptions which go into these calculations and I don’t know exactly what they are. The problem with this approach is that these figures are for only one particular molecule. But what are the odds that any protein, DNA, RNA or other self-replicating molecule could arise from some primordial soup? I don’t know the answer to the question, but it sure seems like the evolutionist has much more faith than the creationist, and both believe in what they can’t see.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that systems must become more disordered over time. Living cells therefore could not have evolved from inanimate chemicals, and multicellular life could not have evolved from protozoa.

This argument derives from a misunderstanding of the Second Law. If it were valid, mineral crystals and snowflakes would also be impossible, because they, too, are complex structures that form spontaneously from disordered parts.

The Second Law actually states that the total entropy of a closed system (one that no energy or matter leaves or enters) cannot decrease. Entropy is a physical concept often casually described as disorder, but it differs significantly from the conversational use of the word.
More important, however, the Second Law permits parts of a system to decrease in entropy as long as other parts experience an offsetting increase. Thus, our planet as a whole can grow more complex because the sun pours heat and light onto it, and the greater entropy associated with the sun's nuclear fusion more than rebalances the scales. Simple organisms can fuel their rise toward complexity by consuming other forms of life and nonliving materials.


Entropy isn’t the issue here and the evolutionists know it. It is not even complexity, though it is inconceivable that anything much more complex than a snowflake could arise spontaneously and even snowflakes show intelligent design in round about way, but the evolutionists refuse to see it. The weighty evidence against evolution is the concept of information. Biologists talk about molecules that “send messages” or “tell” the cell or structure within the cell what to do. No one has ever observed such information arising out of molecules which had no information in them. Information requires statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics. You can read more about this topic in a book called In the Beginning Was Information by Werner Gitt.

Mutations are essential to evolution theory, but mutations can only eliminate traits. They cannot produce new features.

On the contrary, biology has catalogued many traits produced by point mutations (changes at precise positions in an organism's DNA)--bacterial resistance to antibiotics, for example.

Mutations that arise in the homeobox (Hox) family of development-regulating genes in animals can also have complex effects. Hox genes direct where legs, wings, antennae and body segments should grow. In fruit flies, for instance, the mutation called Antennapedia causes legs to sprout where antennae should grow. These abnormal limbs are not functional, but their existence demonstrates that genetic mistakes can produce complex structures, which natural selection can then test for possible uses.
Moreover, molecular biology has discovered mechanisms for genetic change that go beyond point mutations, and these expand the ways in which new traits can appear. Functional modules within genes can be spliced together in novel ways. Whole genes can be accidentally duplicated in an organism's DNA, and the duplicates are free to mutate into genes for new, complex features. Comparisons of the DNA from a wide variety of organisms indicate that this is how the globin family of blood proteins evolved over millions of years.


This is a nice try, but no. In some cases, a mutation can cause a gene to cease functioning, which in turn causes it to be resistant to antibiotics. These mutations only eliminate genetic information, and do not create it. In other cases, bacteria acquire resistance from other bacteria via plasmid DNA transfer. Some, but not all, bacteria have this plasmid DNA which is different than the chromosomal DNA, because it exists out in the cytoplasm and a single cell can contain many copies of it. Portions of the DNA within the plasmids can become incorporated into the cell’s chromosomal DNA. But this is not properly called a “mutation”. There is no proof that this process was not designed by God and that all such bacteria that can make this DNA exchange are not within one “Genesis kind”.

As for the fly mutations, they say, “These abnormal limbs are not functional”. Of course there are a lot of mutations which can produce features which are not useful. Enough said.

Of course, I recognize that there are mutations which can duplicate genes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that these mutations can lead to useful, new features. Similarities in the DNA of different organisms do not prove that they had a common ancestor. It could just as easily be that they had common Designer.

Natural selection might explain microevolution, but it cannot explain the origin of new species and higher orders of life.

Evolutionary biologists have written extensively about how natural selection could produce new species. For instance, in the model called allopatry, developed by Ernst Mayr of Harvard University, if a population of organisms were isolated from the rest of its species by geographical boundaries, it might be subjected to different selective pressures. Changes would accumulate in the isolated population. If those changes became so significant that the splinter group could not or routinely would not breed with the original stock, then the splinter group would be reproductively isolated and on its way toward becoming a new species.

Natural selection is the best studied of the evolutionary mechanisms, but biologists are open to other possibilities as well. Biologists are constantly assessing the potential of unusual genetic mechanisms for causing speciation or for producing complex features in organisms. Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and others have persuasively argued that some cellular organelles, such as the energy-generating mitochondria, evolved through the symbiotic merger of ancient organisms. Thus, science welcomes the possibility of evolution resulting from forces beyond natural selection. Yet those forces must be natural; they cannot be attributed to the actions of mysterious creative intelligences whose existence, in scientific terms, is unproved.


Of course, speciation does occur, but this is genetic variation within “Genesis kinds”. I challenge any evolutionist to offer real proof that there aren’t some genetic boundaries that just can’t be crossed. The issue of “higher orders of life” is discussed in my previous answers. Scientists’ classification of organisms into species is a useful concept, but it is not necessarily the way God classifies living things in Genesis 1. Taxonomy is a somewhat subjective science, especially when it comes to things that are extinct. (I believe that Neanderthal man should be classified as Homo sapiens.)

Next week, Lord willing, I will respond to more of their comments.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Obama the Appeaser, ala Jimmy Carter

One of the Many Reason Not to Vote for Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States of America this November:
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"Day 444" a cartoon by Michael Ramirez found on Investors.com
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This cartoon is one of the reasons why I enjoy Michael Ramirez cartoons.
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If elected President, Senator Barack Hussein Obama would follow in the footsteps of failed President Jimmy Carter who also tried to appease dictators. If we fail to learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. People of America, don't elect the "reincarnation" of Jimmy Carter in one Barack Hussein Obama.

outing the same-sex agENDA - part one

Taking Back the Rainbow

A MARKED BLACK WOMAN

This is the second in a series of articles addressing the absolute absurdity of establishing anti-discrimination laws on behalf of a peculiar privileged group of individuals whose preferred sexual behavior flies in the face of established values and mores of civilized society. This article discusses one woman who dared challenge this “politically correct” but wrong headed notion of “sexual orientation discrimination.” Click here to read the introductory article of this series.

THE PROVOCATION

Michael Miller, editor of the Toledo (Ohio) Free Press wrote a provocative article on April 8, 2008 titled, “(Homosexual & Lesbian) rights and wrongs.” In the article he is extremely biased toward the “homosexual” cause, citing his dear same-sex friends as deserving of special treatment. How dare anyone deny these people their “rights?”

He makes the following goofy comment, “It's basic Golden Rule territory: don't judge people for the color of their skin or their physical challenges, and don't judge them for their sexuality.” The Golden Rule, as I understand it means to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Okay. He tries to equate racial discrimination and discrimination of the disabled with those persons who choose to live a certain lifestyle and choose to behave in a certain way.

He makes the leap “don’t judge them for their sexuality.” Even though that sexuality is immoral, unnatural, unhealthy and abnormal? Am I not to discern what is right or wrong? Does he want to codify wrong behavior? He refers several times to “(homosexual/lesbian) rights.” What does that mean? Are these people to have “special” rights ordained by the government to “bless” their immoral, unnatural, unhealthy and abnormal behavior? There are laws on the books already that cover any crime that might be committed against any homosexual, lesbian or transgendered individual. Why should homosexuals be granted a status above that of a helpless, innocent child or a frail elderly helpless woman? Why should a crime ruled a hate crime deserve more punishment than the same crime perpetrated on the child or the woman who need more protection than many other individuals in society.

A TRUTHFUL RESPONSE

Here is Crystal Dixon’s written opinion, “(Homosexual/Lesbian) rights and wrongs: another perspective" of April 18, 2008 as posted online at the Toledo Free Press. Ms. Dixon wrote it in response to Mr. Miller's op ed piece. It is so straightforward and so truthful that it apparently ticked off University of Toledo President enough that he fired her from her position shortly after its publication.

"I read with great interest Michael Miller's April 6 column, "Gay Rights and Wrongs."

"I respectfully submit a different perspective for Miller and Toledo Free Press readers to consider.

"First, human beings, regardless of their choices in life, are of ultimate value to God and should be viewed the same by others. At the same time, one's personal choices lead to outcomes either positive or negative.

"As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are "civil rights victims." Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few. Frequently, the individuals report that the impetus to their change of heart and lifestyle was a transformative experience with God; a realization that their choice of same-sex practices wreaked havoc in their psychological and physical lives. Charlene E. Cothran, publisher of Venus Magazine, was an aggressive, strategic supporter of gay rights and a practicing lesbian for 29 years, before she renounced her sexuality and gave Jesus Christ stewardship of her life. The gay community vilified her angrily and withdrew financial support from her magazine, upon her announcement that she was leaving the lesbian lifestyle. Rev. Carla Thomas Royster, a highly respected New Jersey educator and founder and pastor of Blessed Redeemer Church in Burlington, NJ, married to husband Mark with two sons, bravely exposed her previous life as a lesbian in a tell-all book. When asked why she wrote the book, she responded "to set people free... I finally obeyed God."

"Economic data is irrefutable: The normative statistics for a homosexual in the USA include a Bachelor's degree: For gay men, the median household income is $83,000/yr. (Gay singles $62,000; gay couples living together $130,000), almost 80% above the median U.S. household income of $46,326, per census data. For lesbians, the median household income is $80,000/yr. (Lesbian singles $52,000; Lesbian couples living together $96,000); 36% of lesbians reported household incomes in excess of $100,000/yr. Compare that to the median income of the non-college educated Black male of $30,539. The data speaks for itself . . .

"My final and most important point. There is a divine order. God created human kind male and female (Genesis 1:27). God created humans with an inalienable right to choose. There are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God's divine order. It is base human nature to revolt and become indignant when the world or even God Himself, disagrees with our choice that violates His divine order. Jesus Christ loves the sinner but hates the sin (John 8:1-11.) Daily, Jesus Christ is radically transforming the lives of both straight and gay folks and bringing them into a life of wholeness: spiritually, psychologically, physically and even economically. That is the ultimate right . . ."


Crystal Dixon, was the interim Assistant Vice President of Human Resources at the University of Toledo (Ohio) when she had the sheer audacity to step off the plantation and express her non-politically correct position on so-called same-sex “civil rights.” You see as the movie, Expelled: No Inelegance Allowed so aptly exposed the mindset found on most of our colleges is such that free speech and the free expression of one’s beliefs are unacceptable. You must tow academia politburo’s decrees.

Isn’t it ironic that a black woman, who is one of the true victims of racism or discrimination, loses her job over a false claim of discrimination by a class of persons whose behavioral choice is as repulsive and as abhorrent as it is considered acceptable and appropriate by the ruling political elite of academia? Any “same-sex discrimination” is a false and undeserving civil rights issue.

THE AFTERMATH

On May 16, 2008 Michael Miller, author of the original article that set in motion the chain of events which culminated with the firing of Ms. Dixon, wrote the following in an article, “The media and the damage done." Maybe it should have been titled, Michael Miller and the damage I wrought on an innocent black woman.”

Dixon's comments, which disparaged the struggle of (homosexual/lesbian) civil rights, compromise the stated mission of her former employer, the University of Toledo. It is impossible to reconcile her personal beliefs with UT's values and responsibility to be open and accessible to all students. Dixon compromised the institution's reputation and standing with her narrow and ill-informed remarks.

“And UT was wrong to fire her.

“I know there are many shades of gray to this conversation, but the simplest reduction is this: Crystal Dixon was fired for expressing her opinion. That's not supposed to happen in America. That the punishment was doled out by a university makes it that much more offensive.


"How many UT employees are going to rush to send letters or comments on controversial topics? The effect of the Dixon firing is a chilling of free speech rights. We can argue about common sense and employee loyalty and all the nuances of this case, but to reiterate, someone was fired for speaking her mind, and how can exceptions be made to free speech? Dixon did not yell “fire” in a crowded gay bath house, she expressed her mostly religious-based beliefs in a guest column.

Dixon voluntarily took a stand in a newspaper and has paid a terrible price. . .”

Crystal Dixon will be contesting her firing, as she should. She should win her lawsuit under the present laws. On her website Ms. Dixon says, “My case may become a landmark case on multiple fronts. The costs of this fight will be mammoth, but I will not be deterred from championing this cause. I will be working with a legal team of both a local attorney and the Thomas More Law Center on this cause.

However, if anti-discrimination laws against “sexual orientation discrimination” are passed in Ohio or in the United States, then people like Crystal Dixon will be fired, fined or even jailed for expressing their opinion or beliefs. That is one reason why these laws should never be enacted. And where they have been enacted should be overturned.

TAKE ACTION

Visit Crystal Dixon’s
website and support her financially if you think that she was wronged.

Pass this information on to others to make them aware of what laws such as ENDA will do to people of faith in this land.

Hillary’s Assassination Comment

NewsBusters is a conservative news and comedy website. Their newest NewBusted episode includes the excerpt below. See right panel of this blog and click on the video to watch this 2-3 minute comedy YouTube video.

“The Obama campaign is still upset over Hillary Clinton’s recent comment about the Robert Kennedy assassination.

“I wouldn’t worry. I mean, if anyone did try to shoot Obama, dozens of MSNBC reporters would jump in front of him to take the bullet.”


- - - NewsBusted, Episode 169

The main stream media is very biased, yet no one raises the issue of the “fairness doctrine” ever being applied to the far-left media rants of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, etc. Why? It is only conservative talk radio that that must be silenced. Apparently conservative talk radio is not sufficiently politically correct or socialist enough in their philosophy . . .

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Is Honorcide a Hate Crime?

I received the following comment from Muslims Against Sharia in response to my article, “Shining God’s Light on the Koran – Personally Accountable, which I wrote Sunday.” My response is extensive so I wanted to post it as an article and not merely as a comment.

Here is their original comment to my Sunday article:


Muslims Against Sharia said...

"The STOP HONORCIDE! Campaign was launched on Mother's Day 2008. The goal of the campaign is to prosecute honorcides to the fullest extent of the law. We want honorcide to be classified as a hate crime and we advocate for every existing hate crime legislation to be amended to include honorcide.

http://www.reformislam.org/honorcide/"

First of all, hate-crime legislation is, in reality, thought-crime legislation or speech-crime legislation. It is not Biblical. If someone hates someone else and subsequently kills them that is considered first degree murder. However, if he does not harm the person hated, then no crime has been committed. With hate crime legislation once a position is stated the person is guilty of a hate-crime. Read Deuteronomy 10:11-13.

Second, Sharia Law is NOT God’s Law. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob is the true God (Exodus 3:15). When I write the “god of Islam”, I deliberately use a lower case “g”, unless beginning a sentence. Have you ever noticed that the emblem referring to the god of Islam is the crescent moon and a star? The moon god is actually the god of Islam. I do no know what the star refers to, but if I were to guess I would say Satan. This would mean that he is over the moon god, the god of Islam. Thus, the god of Islam is an idol – a mental idol. Lucifer is Satan’s name. The word “Lucifer” means “day star”. (The Liberty Annotated Study Bible, pages 1-38) (Isaiah 14:12).

Third, if you want to be Muslim you have that right. However, never expect that you will ever get to heaven based on your belief system. Muslims – if they do not accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior - never go to heaven, only to hell. Specifically, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man goes to the Father, but by Me (The Bible, John 14:6).” Jesus is God the Son (The Bible, John 1:1-12). He was born of a virgin. Jesus existed as God before birth and was never created. Jesus was perfect; He had no sin in Himself and lived a sinless life. He tasted death for every human. Yes, even you, because He loves you (The Bible, John 3:16). When God the Father was satisfied, Jesus said, “It is finished,” and gave up His spirit, died and was buried. Then He arose from the dead. Today He sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.

There is physical evidence of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is called the Shroud of Turin. It is the burial shroud or clothe of Jesus. I know this because the blood on it has never decayed. This is proof of His deity.

Fourth, God offers you as a free gift, eternal life (The Bible, John 5:11-13) this life is in Jesus. Whoever has Jesus living in them has this life in them. You can invite Jesus into your heart and life today, right now. A simple prayer is, “Lord Jesus Christ, please forgive me of my sin and come into my heart and life.”

Do this then you are no longer a Muslim, but a Christian, who can be confidently heaven-bound.

outing the same-sex agENDA, Introduction

Taking Back the Rainbow

the same-sex agENDA

This is a new series of articles in which we will be exploring the depth and breath of the same-sex movement to reshape the American culture into the same-sex movement's own jaded image. We will be looking at several current examples of restrictions already imposed on the religious freedom of individuals, businesses and organizations.

These examples demonstrate religious intolerance on the part of courts, commissions, agencies and activist groups (such as the ACLU) in trying to take away the rights and freedoms of Americans. This is all being done on behalf of moneyed activist minorities, which are attempting to gain complete justification and complete assimilation into American society of their unnatural, unhealthy, abnormal and immoral choice of behavior. In other words, they are trying to legitimize their inexcusable behavior.


These lawsuits, rulings and judgments will multiply exponentially if and when the passage of the terrible and unnecessary Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) occurs. ENDA legislation is currently working its way through our federal Congress. State legislatures, such as Ohio, are also moving to enact similar special rights and privileges for homosexuals and lesbians and others following deviant lifestyle. This legislation is not only dangerous, but it is tyrannical.

Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the ability to exercise one’s faith and convictions will be denied en mass. Individuals, businesses and organizations will be denied freedom of conscience. In trying to end so-called “discrimination” for one privileged, special class of persons (same-sex and other so-called alternate lifestyle practitioners), large segments of other persons (heterosexuals, Bible-believing business-owners, Christians, and Christian churches and ministries) will actually be discriminated against.

The Boy Scouts of America have already faced the attack of the same-sex movement. Homosexuals desperately want to become involved in the Boy Scout program. Why? Do they care about scouting? I don’t think so. They want to destroy one of the strong pillars of traditional American values and mores.

Among the cases that we will explore include a black woman, a small business out west, and a church on the east coast.

GOP's Dirty Dozen

Hear Their Cry

Are They Just Dupes or Intentional Appeasers?

Last week, the Family Research Council noted in one of their informational emails that “12 Republicans, led by Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.), quietly sent a letter to President Bush asking him to keep the current Title X regulations. The current rules bar (cash-strapped) pro-life groups from receiving Title X funds and allow (pro-death) groups like (prosperous, cash cow) Planned Parenthood (PP) to use dollars to help keep their profitable abortion business viable. The existing Title X policy was put in place by President Clinton, who overturned President Reagan's regulations which protected taxpayer monies by separating the supposedly clean side of PP's business (PAP and breast cancer screening, HIV testing, etc.) from the abortion side.

"“A large majority of Americans believe that the federal government should not be funding abortionists, yet that is exactly what President Clinton's regulations, which have been maintained by President George W. Bush, do. If this Dirty Dozen were really serious about protecting the supposedly legitimate side of PP, they would welcome new regulations to protect those efforts.

"In light of recent revelations that PP clinics across the nation have been involved in racism, defrauding taxpayers and complicit in the statutory rape of young girls, someone should ask these appeasers of abortion and bad government why they seek to shield potential criminal activity. If President Bush fails to act, our future President should. These changes are necessary to protect women and to protect PP from itself.

TAKE ACTION

"Contact your congressmen if they appear in the following "Dirty Dozen" list and express your disappointment:

· Reps. Mark Kirk (Ill.),
· Christopher Shays (Conn.),
· Kay Granger (Texas),
· Jim Ramstad (Minn.),
· Charlie Dent (Pa.),
· Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.),
· Ralph Regula (R-Ohio),
· David Hobson (R-Ohio),
· Judy Biggert (Ill.),
· Mike Castle (Del.),
· Wayne Gilchrest (Md.) and
· Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio)."

I find it appalling that those three Republicans representatives from Ohio, 25% of those signing off on the letter the President Bush, urged him to continue funding of the heinous Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This is one of the reasons, I believe, why the Republicans lost many seats in Congress in 2006. They have lost their principles, such as the preeminent issue of our day - absolute sanctity of human life. I surely hope they will find them (those principles) before the election this fall, for their sakes, ours and the babies!

Monday, May 26, 2008

National Right-to-Life (NRTL) is Challenged

Hear Their Cry

Here is an interesting challenge issued by a new pro-life organization to the long-running National Right-to-Life (NRTL) organization.




$10,000 Cash Offered to National RTL from American RTL to name 'one' pro-life justice

"American Right to Life is offering attorney James Bopp $10,000 for National RTL," said the group's president Brian Rohrbough, "if he can name a single justice on the current U.S. Supreme Court who has ever written, or joined in an opinion, that the unborn child has a right to life, whether in a majority ruling or a dissent."


"In 1981, after President Ronald Reagan agreed he would sign federal personhood legislation for the unborn, National Right to Life and their longtime attorney James Bopp actually opposed that effort claiming they supported a states' rights approach," says the group's site AmericanRTL.org
. "A quarter century later notice that NRTL and Bopp have long opposed all state personhood efforts."

On May 13, Colorado pro-lifers turned in 131,000 signatures exceeding by 55,000 the number needed to force a statewide vote to acknowledge in law the personhood of the unborn child.

"National Right to Life has misled the pro-life community to think that this is the wrong time to advocate personhood because we need one more Justice on the Supreme Court to have a pro-life majority," said Rohrbough. "But if we added a Justice who would uphold the right to life of the unborn, then we would have only one such Justice. The failed long-term strategy of regulating the killing of a fetus has left America without a single Justice who knows that it's wrong to kill an unborn baby; National RTL's compromise will never produce a pro-life Supreme Court."

Even Dr. James Dobson, a supporter of the failed regulation strategy
admits that: "Ending partial-birth abortion... does not save a single human life." And in an article about NRTL's failed PBA ban, Notre Dame Law School's professor emeritus Charles Rice said, "Every justice now on the court accepts the Roe holding that the unborn child is a non-person... The situation remains as described by Justice John Paul Stevens in Planned Parenthood v. Casey." For Stevens had written that "the Court... rejected, the argument ‘that the fetus is a "person"'. ... there was no dissent..." And Clarence Thomas wrote in his Stenberg dissent that "a State may permit abortion," and Antonin Scalia wrote in Casey, "The states may, if they wish, permit abortion-on-demand..."

"American Right to Life will give a $10,000 cash prize to National if their general counsel James Bopp can name even a single U.S. Supreme Court Justice who has ever written or joined in any ruling or dissent advocating the personhood of the unborn," said Steve Curtis, ARTL's vice president and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. "To make their strategy appear successful, National Right to Life has misled the pro-life movement into believing that abortion accomplices like Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Thomas and Scalia are pro-life."

In 2002 Scalia said, "I will... strike down a law that is the opposite of Roe v. Wade. ... One wants no state to be able to prohibit abortion and the other one wants every state to have to prohibit abortion, and they're both wrong..." In 2004 Scalia claimed, "Take the abortion issue... there's something to be said for both sides." And on April 9, 2008 Scalia said, "You want the right to abortion? Create it the way most rights are created in a democracy. Persuade your fellow citizens it's a good idea - and pass a law."

"National RTL claims success in Antonin Scalia but he is not pro-life; like all the Republicans on the Court, he is a legal positivist, which is a courtroom moral relativist," Rohrbough said. "Like their Dred Scott counterpart that ruled a black man could be owned as property, the current Republican Supreme Court is wicked and will only learn about the right to life of the unborn from the advancing personhood wing of the pro-life movement."

The upstart American Right-to-Life (ARTL) was formed out of deep frustration with the NRTL. Among other things ARTL rightfully claims that the NRTL has been in bed with the GOP to the point that they have sold their souls for a bowl of porridge, for some filthy lucre. The NRTL has lost its way. The ARTL has the so-called right idea, it has been 35 years too long that we have allowed abortion to be the "law" of this land.

Day of Remembrance

Hear Their Cry

Today is Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. It is a day to honor the more than 1.2 million Americans who gave their lives for our freedoms across two centuries and a dozen wars.

As we honor those who died in service to their country, let us also remember an even more tragic and sobering thought. Let us never forget those who have died, having been denied their fundamental right to life itself, the aborted babies. 50 million unborn have been slaughtered in their mother’s wombs in the battlefields of the abortuaries of Planned Parenthood and other American holocaust enablers and exterminators.

Let us pause to remember those persons who were never able to enjoy life and to serve their country and others in the way soldiers, teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, farmers, mechanics, librarians, preachers, scientists, politicians, statesmen have had the privilege of doing.

Let us determine today to stop the killing and to start the healing. The video below commemorates or acknowledges extinction or slaughter of innocents in one particular corner of this nation. It is illustrative of our need to remember and to keep in the forefront of our thinking what abortion is doing to the unborn and to our nation as a whole. “Legal” or not, abortion is still and will always be criminal behavior. Murder violates the supreme law, the only law that counts in the long-run.

Procession of Healing

Cars lined up on Saturday May 10 in Knoxville, Tennessee to participate in the Procession of Healing - a symbolic funeral procession to mourn abortions performed in Knoxville last year. Here is a video of that event.

Lady Liberty Salutes . . .

You . . .

"A cartoon by Michael Ramirez at Investors.com

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Memorial Day is a time to remember those brave patriots who fought for America in various wars throughout the centuries. Their sacrifices are yet appreciated by many in this nation. We have freedom because of them. Though many misuse their freedom and exploit it for their own selfish desires, let us follow in the footsteps of those who considered the principles and values on which America was founded and for which America has stood, worthy of their ultimate sacrifice. Let us live as if their sacrifices where not in vain. Thank you guys and gals . . .

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Shining God’s Light on the Koran

Today, Sam returns to his on-going series which contrasts the Judeo-Christian Bible with the Koran on a variety of topics. He aims the beam of the Biblical laser on the Koran to expose, to reveal what it really says. See his previous articles here. - - - gregjaye

Personally Accountable


Both the Koran and the Holy Bible state that the person who committed a crime should be punished for the crime, and no one else. Personal responsibility is an important principle. It is often ignored in our present culture. Everyone seems to want to blame others or some thing, for their misdeeds, omissions or errors. Harry Truman had a saying on his desk, “the buck stops here.” It seems that America as a people and our politicians and representatives have lost this sense of responsibility or accountability.



I remember the night Katrina struck New Orleans. About 2:00 AM I was driving out of Oregon, Ohio in my truck listening to the Coast-to-Coast Radio Show. George Nory, the show’s host, said that a hurricane of Biblical proportions was bearing down on New Orleans. He asked those listeners who believed in God to pray for the city. Myself and others listening to that broadcast prayed for the city. Later I heard that the storm had dropped from a Category 5 to a Category 4 Hurricane and did not directly hit the city.

For five days the storm had been in the Gulf of Mexico and the federal government warned the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans to take emergency action. The Governor and the Mayor were slow in taking any actions on behalf of the citizens. Then the Democrat politicians blamed the President and the federal government for not doing anything. Some said the storm was President Bush’s fault for rejecting the Kyoto Agreement. The hurricane did stop a homosexual celebration set to be held in New Orleans, perhaps one of the few good things to come out of the terrible tragedy.

THE KORANIC ACCOUNT


“If they disbelieve you, say: My deeds are mine and your deeds are yours. You are not accountable for my actions, nor am I accountable for what you do (1).”


“Your Lord will surely reward all men according to their deeds. He has knowledge of all their actions. Follow the straight path as you are bidden, together with those who have repented with you, and do not transgress. He is watching all your actions (2)?”


COMMENTARY ON THE KORAN ACCOUNT

When the god of Islam judges people after they are resurrected from the dead, they will be judged on their own actions and not on someone else’s actions. In the same way at the present time on earth, people are to be judged for their own conduct, and not someone else’s conduct.

During the Persian Gulf War, Saudi Arabia received military support in the way of troops and equipment to stop the expansion of Iraq under Sadom Hussein. Having non-Islamic military on Islamic soil angered Osama Bin Laden. He subsequently helped get 19 men to fly jets into buildings in an attack on the United States. America did good to Saudi Arabia and was rewarded with evil from that action.

Under Sharia Law there is a provision called honor-killing. If a couple has a sexual relationship before marriage, then a relative of the woman often kills the woman. I have never heard of anything happening to the man.


THE BIBICAL ACCOUNT

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the fathers, so also the soul of the son is mine! The soul that sinneth it shall die (3).”

“The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him (4).”


“The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers, Every man shall be put to death for his own sin (5).”

“And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his (Anaziah, King of Judah) hand, that he slew his servants which had slain the king his father. But the children of the murders he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, the father shall not be put to death for the children nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin (6).”

COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT

God is saying, in the passages quoted above, that each individual will bear the punishment for their own actions and not someone else’s. This goes for the judgments at the end of time and for judgment at this time.

Those who oppose the right to bear arms in the United States will sue the manufacturer of the weapon used in a crime.

Laws have been enacted in some cities holding the parents responsible for the actions of their children and punishing the parents. Yet, laws are passed which prohibit parents from punishing their children to make them obey.

CONCLUSION

You will bear the punishment or reward for your own conduct. “Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reep. For he that soweth to his flesh shall reap CORRUPTION; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap LIFE EVERLASTING (7).”


REFERENCES

1. The Koran, Page 151 Paragraph 10:41
2. The Koran, Page 164, 165 Paragraph 11:12
3. The Holy Bible, Ezekiel 18:4
4. The Holy Bible, Deuteronomy 24:16
5. The Holy Bible, 2 Kings 14:5,6, 2 Chronicles 24:3,4
6. The Holy Bible, II Peter 3:10-13
7. The Holy Bible, Galatians 6:7,8

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Why Islam Needs its PR Campaign

The self-proclaimed “religion” of peace, Islam, is disingenuous and wholly false. Islam is anything but peaceful. In fact, the vast majority of countries where Islam is the majority “political power” or “religion” grossly violate religious freedom of people living in those countries. Marxist or communist-controlled countries and Buddhist-majority countries are runners-up for that dishonor.

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom


Here is a description from its own website as to what the commission is all about:

”The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom continues to provide new data and insights into the dimensions and impact of religious repression and intolerance in countries worldwide.

“The Commissioners on this bipartisan federal body assess and propose U.S. foreign policy action to advance freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and other freedoms needed to protect people at risk of abuses, such as killing, detention, or torture.

“In carrying out this work, Commissioners begin by examining conditions in countries, then review how the U.S. government is responding, and as warranted, formulate options for further action.

“Commission recommendations and reports have prodded a wide array of new bills in Congress and policy measures by the Executive Branch.

“Through this work, we seek to advance the visibility of and serious thinking about how the United States can best address the challenges of religious extremism, intolerance, and repression throughout the world.”

Islamic Nations Dominate “Countries of Particular Concern”

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “One of the most significant human rights acts of the U.S. government is the designation of "countries of particular concern," (or CPCs), for ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom. CPC designation is not an end point, but the beginning of focused diplomatic activity required by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) from which important obligations in the form of consequent actions flow. Pursuant to the IRFA statute, the (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom) issues recommended responses for the President, Secretary of State, and Congress to follow up on the CPC designations. ”In addition to its CPC recommendations, the Commission has established a Watch List of countries where religious freedom conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring CPC designation but which require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments.”The Commission has recommended that the following countries be designated as CPCs:


Worldwide Persecution of Christians & Others by Islam

Each year, Open Doors, a Christian organization that helps persecuted Christians throughout the world, issues its own list of countries that most severely persecute Christians. In the table above the number next to the country signifies what position in 2008 that country holds as far the most harsh in their treatment of Christians, true believers in Jesus Christ. Topping the list is a Marxist country, North Korea, but again the vast majority are Islamic-dominated countries are most prevalent.

Conclusion

Do not be deceived, Islam is not a religion. Like Marxism or communism, it is a political system, first and foremost. Like Marxism it seeks world domination. As I write these words, Islam seeks to establish a foothold in America. Our open society and our “tolerance” of all “religions” has given this Trojan horse an “in”. Fueled by endless oil profits Islam wants to take over this nation. They seek to spread their lies and to indoctrinate, desensitize or even convert our children in our witless government schools by revising history textbooks, and encouraging false teachings about Islam. They recruit adherents in prison among angry blacks. They foment violence in their house of terror, their mosques. They send their students to infiltrate our college campuses on the pretext of getting an education.
America needs to wake up to what Islam really is. Islam is the Twin Towers, not just another religious creed like Hinduism or Judaism. It is primarily a political system masquerading as a religion desiring world dominion.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Is McCain Causing Conservatives to Jump Ship?

"McCain Mutiny" Cartoon by Michael Ramirez found on Investors.com


McCain is not only a maverick, he seems to be a mad maverick. He is trying everything in his power to alienate a significant base of support of the Republican Party and conservatives everywhere. He rejects the endorsements of key Christian leaders, he is wishy-washy on his support for traditional marriage between one man and one woman, he comes out supporting the global warming hoax, he wants amnesty again. What is wrong with this maverick mad man?

Obama: Made of the Wright Stuff

A perfect picture?
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A Kodak moment?
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More like a Kodak twenty year union!
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Obama the great appeaser

NewsBusters is a conservative news and comedy website. Their newest NewBusted episode includes the excerpt below. See right panel of this blog and click on the video to watch this 2-3 minute comedy YouTube video.

Ahmadinejad . . . recently referred to Israeli as a “stinking corpse” that faces complete annihilation. “Upon hearing this Barack Obama promised to negotiate a compromise with Iran to wipe out only half of Israel.”

- - - NewsBusted, Episode 168

Though this comedy bit is a made up story, it does give us a glimpse of the appeasement mentality of the typical educated-beyond-his-intelligence leftist, Obama. He has been so saturated and indoctrinated by the twin evil philosophies of Jeremiah “racist" & "America hater” Wright and the secular humanist elite in academia that he has and will have trouble grasping, grappling and dealing with real world Islamic hatred toward all infidels and toward the “great Satan,” America.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Reponse to Scientific American

Last week I critiqued an interview of Ben Stein. I will now respond to the following article concerning the movie:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-things-ben-stein-doesnt-want-you-to-know

1. Expelled quotes Charles Darwin selectively to connect his ideas to eugenics and the Holocaust.

This may be true, but who can deny that Hitler and Eugenists like Margaret Sanger were able to use evolution in their propaganda to sway people into their way of thinking. On the other hand, someone could use the Bible to justify wiping out civilizations because of the conquest of Canaan. But nowhere in the Bible does it say that we should do this today. I say, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” The film repeatedly stated that belief in evolution does not necessarily lead one to become a Nazi or a eugenicist.

2. Ben Stein's speech to a crowded auditorium in the film was a setup. So what. When I watched it, I didn’t think that he was really speaking to a real audience.

I can’t see that he intended for people think that he really did. This was just an introduction to the subject matter of the movie, that’s all. Even if Stein could not get a real audience to give him the applause that the audience of mostly extras did, this has nothing to do with truthfulness of the movie. The truth is the truth no matter how few people believe it.

3. Scientists in the film thought they were being interviewed for a different movie.

Even if Ben Stein “tricked” these God-haters into being interviewed for a film that was pro-ID, what does that matter? They said what they said. They didn’t have in their contracts a stipulation that it couldn’t be this way.

4. The ID-sympathetic researcher whom the film paints as having lost his job at the Smithsonian Institution was never an employee there.

Even if this is true, there were many other examples of pro-evolution bias against pro-ID researcher in academia. One of the university administrators clearly admitted that someone was “let go” because they didn’t want the university to be associated with ID theory.

5. Science does not reject religious or "design-based" explanations because of dogmatic atheism.

They say:

Actually, science avoids design explanations for natural phenomena out of logical necessity. The scientific method involves rigorously observing and experimenting on the material world. It accepts as evidence only what can be measured or otherwise empirically validated (a requirement called methodological naturalism). That requirement prevents scientific theories from becoming untestable and overcomplicated. I reject this explanation.

But scientists use qualitative evidence to validate theories all of the time. I reject the idea that intelligent design is not testable. The more we study science, the more find that it is more complex than we thought. But I can’t see how ID theory is any more complicated than evolution. The truth is the truth—you can always come up with a rationale for believing anything, but that does not make it true. There are creationists working on ways to quantify (objectively measure) complexity and information. Remember that entropy (or lack of order) was once only a qualitative concept, but scientists developed away to measure it. I will talk more about this next week when I respond to Scientific American’s 15 Answer’s to Creationist Nonsense.

They say:

By those standards, design-based explanations rapidly lose their rigor without independent scientific proof that validates and defines the nature of the designer. Without it, design-based explanations rapidly become unhelpful and tautological: "This looks like it was designed, so there must be a designer; we know there is a designer because this looks designed."

The above statement in quotation marks is not tautological. A tautological statement would be, “This looks like it was designed, so there must be a designer; we know there is a designer (of all things) therefore it is designed.” (This is also circular reasoning.) The point is (that is, what ID theory is claiming is) , nothing that “looks designed” has ever been observed to have spontaneously arose out of something that does not “look designed”.

They say:

A major scientific problem with proposed ID explanations for life is that their proponents cannot suggest any good way to disprove them. ID "theories" are so vague that even if specific explanations are disproved, believers can simply search for new signs of design. Consequently, investigators do not generally consider ID to be a productive or useful approach to science.

But if there is a designer, and evolutionary processes are not the explanation for the existence of all living things, then scientists could be lead to false conclusions and waste much effort trying to find something that isn’t there. (An example of this is looking for neutrinos from the sun. The few if any real neutrinos that have been found fall far short of what the accepted naturalistic view of the formation of the sun requires.) There are several other examples in which the creationist view makes a certain prediction (opposite of the evolutionary prediction) and the creationist turned out to be right. It seems like evolutionist say that whenever something is a phenomena or anomaly, there must always be an explanation for it that hasn’t been found yet. But then they use this same reasoning to (incorrectly) argue against creationism. I have never heard of any finding that wouldn’t have happened if the assumption that all life evolved from a single organism hadn’t been made.

6) Many evolutionary biologists are religious and many religious people accept evolution.

So what. There are many bloodthirsty killers, rapists, and thieves who are religious. That doesn’t make them real Christians and it doesn’t make them right. Pope John Paul II is the leader of an apostate religion that does not follow God’s Word.

They say:

Nevertheless, the film is wrong to imply that understanding of evolution inevitably or necessarily leads to a rejection of religious belief.

This isn’t what the film is implying. It’s more like this—evolution is a religious belief.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Freshwater Story on TownHall.com

Here is an excerpt from an article, "A Battle Over a Bible for a Teacher (and a Nation), on today's TownHall.com by Bob Burney. Thanks to K.C. for giving us a heads-up on this article.

". . . The ACLU rode into town with the fictional “separation of church and state” penciled in the margins of their Constitution. They threatened the School Board to force the teacher to remove the Bible from his desk or they would sue. At this point in similar stories, the School Board usually cowers before the mighty ACLU and cowardly compliance is the rule. The ACLU did not bargain for John Freshwater or Mt. Vernon, Ohio. This brave man has stood his ground. The Bible remains on his desk. Shortly after the initial confrontation over the Bible, approximately 75 percent of the students in the middle school brought Bibles to school (yes, a public school) and wore homemade T-shirts supporting their beloved teacher. Reports surfaced of 8th graders moving from class to class lugging huge family Bibles under their arms. On a recent Sunday afternoon the city square swelled with hundreds of supporters for a public rally in support of their “Teacher of the Year” and his Bible. . .

". . . You probably have never heard of John Freshwater. He is comfortable with that. This is a battle he did not choose, but one he has chosen to fight. If John Freshwater’s Bible is taken off of his desk, will yours be next? Pray for this man and his family. They will have enormous legal bills and unbelievable stress placed upon them. John Freshwater deserves the support of every American who loves liberty."
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You can find more information on this blog of the continuing saga of a man named Freshwater. If you are so motivated you can send contributions Freshwater Legal Defense Fund listed here.
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Bush Finally Finds Backbone

NewsBusters is a conservative news and comedy website. Their newest NewBusted episode includes the excerpt below. See right panel of this blog and click on the video to watch this 2-3 minute comedy YouTube video.

“In his recent speech to the Israeli Knesset President Bush criticized those who want to appease the enemies of Israel and America.

“He thanked his wife, Laura, for finally locating his backbone, which apparently he misplaced in 2004.”

- - - NewsBusted, Episode 167

Hear Their Cry

They say, "The good is the enemy of the best." . K.C. captures that concept in the poem he wrote below. It is an indictment of pastors and preachers everywhere. It is an indictment of pew-sitters as well. Thanks, K.C., for allowing us to share your poem with the world, Christian and non-Christian.

(DON’T) LET THE BABIES DIE

by Karl C. Priest


Oh, pastor or preacher, please hear the pre-born babies cry.
Once a year you spend one hour with a sign along the street.
But, the Chain of Life won’t make your obligation complete.
For other days you close your heart and let the babies die!

You’re very busy building your church and trying to multiply.
The pews are padded and there's a plush carpeted floor.
It makes no difference the name hanging over your church door.
Your heart is on attendance and offering--while the babies die!

You have conferences with power-points about the sweet by-and-by.
There are trips, concerts, plays, and lots of covered dish dinners.
You have a hi-tech sound system and sports teams of winners.
People are pleased at all of the church fun--while the babies die!

Oh, pastor or preacher, please loosen your nice bright neck-tie.
Get down on your knees and pray for God’s Mercy and Grace.
To warn mothers-to-be and close every evil killing place.
Please, open your heart and don’t let the babies die!