These are my thoughts for the past week as well as for this Sunday, May 9, 2010, the 6th Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day. The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 16: 9 – 15, Revelation 21: 1 – 10, 22 – 22: 5, and John 14: 23 -29.
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The title of this piece comes […]

This is a copy of a letter that we have sent Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).
Dear Senator Schumer,
Let us start off by saying that you have lost two votes when you seek reelection to the United States Senate.
We have made this decision because of your recent statements to an Israeli political commentator. It is one thing […]

I know I am not the only one who has noticed that all the Christians comparing the USA to the Roman Empire during the reign of George W. Bush are strangely silent now that we are under the emperorship of Barack Obama. And yet, how much of President Obama’s foreign policy looks virtually the same […]

I am working on a number of projects right now, all of which deal with science, education and science education in some manner, shape or form. First is the “book” project. Entitled “Science and Education in the 21st Century: A Contrarian View”, it is a look at science, science education and topics that we all […]

I begin this piece by asking what you plan to do at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Will you stop to pause and remember the significance of that time some ninety years ago? Will you stop to pause and perhaps hear the bells of the church tolling in remembrance […]

That is the question raised in light of Lord Christopher Monckton’s speech last week in Minnesota.
That is a position that some on the left who want a larger global agenda trump US sovereignty would claim.  At the center of the debate is the 2nd clause of Article VI of the US Constitution which reads:
This Constitution, […]

A great editorial from Bernd Debusmann.
HT: Dave Black
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Cross-Posted at Allan R. Bevere

This was supposed to be a piece questioning the motives of those who marched in Washington last weekend. At best, they have a selective memory; at worst, they are representative of days past when the police set the dogs on the children in Birmingham, state troopers beat the marchers on the Edmund Pettis bridge outside […]

On January 20, 1961, John Kennedy stood before the people of America and the world and announced that the torch had been passed to a new generation. I cannot help but think that on August 26, 2009, with the death of Ted Kennedy, the light of that torch may have gone out. We must now […]

Harry Patch died two weeks ago; he was buried on August 6th. Now, unless you are like me and you listen to the BBC, you probably don’t know who Harry Patch was. He certainly wasn’t important but then again, his death does have some significance. He was the last surviving British veteran of World War […]

If you are of my generation, then 1) you remember “The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam” and 2) you knew who Robert McNamara was.
The Moratorium was held on October 15, 1969 and by some accounts was the largest nationwide anti-war demonstration in the country. Whether or not it had any affect on the […]

President Obama has taken criticism from Republicans and from some others for what they say has been his weak and timid statements and his tone on the protests taking place in Iran after the recent election, which has returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the role of puppet under the control of the puppet masters formally know […]

Well, the North Koreans are at it again.  This time it is reported that they may be planning to fire a missile over Japan toward Hawaii.  Granted, it will fall far short, but it is symbolic nonetheless.
According to the AP:
North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese […]

North Korea tested their 2nd nuclear weapon this weekend and has fired three surface to air missiles off of their coast yesterday.  How does the Obama administration confront North Korea regarding this blatant disregard of a U.N. resolution?  With weak words says Jeffrey Emanuel.
The inexperienced president and his administration appear reluctant to go any […]

Memorial Day began as a remembrance of the Union dead of the War Between the States. It was not until after World War I that the meaning of the day was expanded to honor all those who died in American Wars. And it was not until 1971 that Congress made the day a national holiday.
Major […]

Cato will be liveblogging the State of the Union Address. As an organization who is strongly committed to constitutional government they are quick to point out much of the nonsense from the Bush Obama Era. It will be a greatly educational event.

There is a movement attempting to convince Western governments to forgive the debts of poor countries, particularly in Africa. Religious supporters of this idea often invoke the biblical Jubilee as an example and also as justification for large-scale debt relief.
I’ll let other people argue the merits of African debt relief. I’m more concerned about the […]

WorldNetDaily reports on an imminent United Nations’ assault on parental rights with Michael Farris, president of ParentalRights.org, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association and chancellor of Patrick Henry College weighed in.
The item of concern is the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child:
He told WND that under the U.N. Convention on […]

I was very pleased to see that President Obama has unequivocally rejected torture as means of interrogation. During the tenure of the Bush Administration, the line between aggressive interrogation and torture was unacceptably blurred and the definition of torture became quite dicey.
Attorney General-designate, Eric Holder (I think there could have been better choices for Attorney […]

What is the solution to America’s economic problem? How will we resolve the foreign policies debacles of the last eight years? How will insure that graduates of our schools, both pre-college and college, can meet the challenges of the coming years?
The answers to these questions, whether you want to hear them or not, will require […]

Just some thoughts to begin the year
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What will it take for change to occur in this country in the next year? What will it take for this country to understand that the methods and the thoughts of the past have no place in the future and that those who cling to the past will find […]

Alexander Tyler in 1787 spoke about the election occurring in a little more than a week from today. Don’t ask me how he knew the specifics of McCain and Obama’s plans to offer up every possible goody one can imagine from moratoriums on consequences to refinancing on the taxpayers dime, but he told us […]

Great article from Bradley Harrington. Here are some excerpts.
There was once a time, many decades ago, when the Republicans advocated liberty and individualism; when the GOP supported capitalism, free enterprise, and private-property rights; when the party opposed poverty-inducing schemes such as Social Security and food stamps; when they would have viewed institutions such as […]

The other day, in response to a question about displays of patriotism during Sunday services during national holidays, I added the comment that peace and freedom are not won on the battlefield but in the hearts and minds of the people.
A blogging colleague responded by saying that this assertion was wrong. He said that war […]

My thoughts for this 4th of July, 2008, are posted on my own page - "Just What Exactly Is Freedom?".  I am preaching this coming Sunday and this post is my message for today.

National Review Online editor and political commentator Jonah Goldberg recently explored the apparent contrast between Senator Barack Obama, the now-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Senator John McCain, the still-presumptive Republican presidential nominee that will pit not only philosophical but experiential differences between these two parties as well as between these two men. His conclusion: […]

The recent disasters in China and Myanmar prompt me to make the following observations. 
It is interesting that China willingly and openly welcomed aid from other countries following the earthquake that devastated their countryside, knowing full well that bringing in people from outside also brings in new ideas.  And new ideas are, ultimately, what will […]

For those who follow Star Trek, the words “Kobayashi Maru” have a special significance. For those that don’t know, this is the name of a ship in a Star Fleet Academy exercise. It is an exercise to determine how potential Star Fleet officers will respond to situations; in this case, a situation that is a […]

I watched Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain question General David Petraeus yesterday, who testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill.
Now I realize that I could be reading too much into it, but the tone and demeanor of Hillary Clinton in contrast to Barack Obama was, I thought, quite revealing.
Video of […]

This is a correction from my previous post: MIKHAIL GORBACHEV ADMITS HE IS A CHRISTIAN
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in […]

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi…..
…..Mr Gorbachev’s surprise visit confirmed decades of rumors that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact […]

After almost fifty years in power, Fidel Castro has resigned as dictator of Cuba. (I know he is officially called “president,” but it is more correct to refer to him as a dictator.) For many this is good news. Castro has ruined that wonderful country; and even though the Cuban government blames the U.S. embargo […]

It has been pointed out by more than a few thinkers, that those on the left and the right share many of the same philosophical presuppositions. I know this is a comment that partisans on both sides find insulting, but it is nevertheless the case. In particular we see the same presumptions on human nature, […]

My first impression of tonight’s debate from the Reagan Library was what a contrast to last week’s Democratic debate. The two parties, in many ways, occupy different thought worlds. That may best be seen in the marginal candidates in the two different parties, Kucinich and Gravel representing the kookie fringe of their party and Paul […]

On Tuesday night, former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, stated in a speech at a Republican dinner in New Hampshire, that if the Democrats won the Presidency in ‘08, they would put the country back on defense in the “war on terror.” His sweeping comment was unfair to the differences within the ranks of […]

Can anyone say cold war 2?
Russia’s next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections.
Russia’s supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had violated electoral law by having too few members. The […]

Here’s a review of D’Souza’s book that begins as follows:
Osama bin Laden and the American left have forged a tacit agreement to secure the defeat of the United States in Iraq. That’s premise number one in Dinesh D’Souza’s book, The Enemy at Home. A second premise is that the global war against Islamic radicalism is […]

In poll after poll, the American people view the current President of Iran as one of the most worrisome figures currently on the world stage. This is understandable given his vitriolic rhetoric concerning the State of Israel, the denial of the Holocaust, and his comments on the United States. As long as he is in […]

I just received word that newly elected Congressman Hank Johnson of the 4th District in Georgia is about to introduce a new resolution on Iraq that aims to take a more reasoned approach to this very controversial issue.
This resolution is not aimed at condemning the Bush administration but recognizes the fact that most Americans want […]

As this article from The Wall Street Journal points out, many Republicans who look at the 2006 midterm election results explain it this way: Republicans lost because they weren’t conservative enough.
But there may be a good argument that, as this article implies, the real reason can be formulated in the opposite way: Conservatives lost because […]

From NewsBusters, ABC’s Robin Roberts asks Barack Obama, “You’re calling for a slight withdrawal of troops and I need to ask you this — are you concerned that your lack of experience, when it comes to foreign policy, may hurt your chances in the run for the White House?”
Obama answers with,
Well, actually, my experience in […]

What can we say about Rick’s most recent junket?
A good friend of mine insists he is part of a secret global conspiracy to rule the world … oil, banking, and Rome. In spite of these flights-of-fancy, he is still a good friend … but you have to admit this sounds more like worldly work than […]

When I predicted last night that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would be gone within a few weeks, I had no idea how soon he would be going.
But the writing was on the wall. When Senator John Warner, the GOP’s grey eminence on military matters in the Senate, came back from Iraq declaring that a […]

Regular readers of my blog know that I’ve not taken a public position on the war in Iraq.
As a pastor, I don’t want to take the risk of being seen as saying, “This is what God thinks about the war.” Because so many Christians I respect and admire have dramatically different positions on the war, […]

Get ready folks, this world is headed for another world war … call it WW III or WW IV or GWOT or WOT or whatever, but we are now beyond the cusp of entry!
There is a point of no return, we’ve not reached it yet but will soon. In order to avoid passing it by, […]

Recently it seems that Greg Boyd has been lifted up as a heroic megapastor who stood up against Red Christian politics even though hundreds of people left his church. 
However, as I have been reading his book The Myth of a Christian Nation I suspect that it was not his general stance against “fusing” the kingdom of […]

Who needs friends when you have allies?
There was a time when the CIA couldn’t keep up with the arsenal demands of our friends, the Afghanistan Taliban, in it’s underdog fight against the Russians. And then there was the whole arms dealing with Iran 20 years ago, because the Russians were rolling their tanks and guns […]

That seems to be the main point of the British Prime Minister’s speech before the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles today. In it, Blair asserted that while nations like Iran and Syria may have to be confronted if they refuse to play by international rules, he seemed to commend a policy of containment of […]

dcypl left a comment in my ALLY OF NEITHER post giving an Australian Christian’s point of view. I’ve been hoping that visitors to this site would come from points beyond the United States in that I’m interested in their take on the various issues discussed here.
Considering the various actions of the U.S. at home and […]

In recent decades the phrase “cycle of violence” has become popular among academics and politically active celebrities. These words are typically employed when speaking about groups that blow up wedding parties and behead civilian hostages. By contrast, in these same intellectual circles the term “evil” is reserved for corporate executives and Presidents of the wrong […]