Evil and dismay in New Orleans

I remember marveling after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that the citizens came together and there wasn't rampant crime and looting in New York City.

It's a shame that I can't say the same about the disaster in New Orleans. In my one experience traveling to the city, I found it to be nauseous with decadence and evil in the streets. I still hoped for the better side of people to take hold during this awful time for the city and we wouldn't see what we're seeing--out of control looting and increasingly violent crime.

From Fox News:

Looting spiraled so out of control that Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and focus on the brazen packs of thieves who have turned increasingly hostile.

Nagin called for an all-out evacuation of the city's remaining residents. Asked how many people died, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

With most of the city under water, Army engineers struggled to plug New Orleans' breached levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers, and authorities drew up plans to clear out the tens of thousands of remaining people and practically abandon the below-sea-level city. Most of the evacuees — including thousands now suffering in the hot and muggy Superdome — will be moved to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away.

It's all just so awful. Find a way to help them. And pray for God's mercy and help.

More on Pat Robertson's Fatwa

It seems that Pat Robertson has again caused more damage to the Christian cause. His calling for the "assassination" of Hugo Chavez of Venezuala (he later recanted and said he was misquoted, though if he really meant "kidnap" instead of "assassinate" there are a gazillion ways to better make that distinction) has caused liberal reporters and Muslim clerics to equate Christians with radical Islam.

In his latest column Marvin Olasky says it right:

Hugo Chavez is an evil tyrant, but so were many Roman emperors -- and Paul told Romans to "bless those who persecute you. ... Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all." Last time I looked, "assassin" was not on the general list of honorable callings. Wartime is different, but last time I looked, we weren't at war with Venezuela.

And:

God is the God of history. He raises up leaders and strikes them down. The Christian goal is to follow biblical principles, including "just war" ones, and not to create new orders. Christians who are careless bring dishonor to God's name by making many believe there is no difference between the pre-eminent religion of peace and the many religions of violence.

Olasky pointed out that many in the media seem to treat Robertson as the Prostestant Pope. Well, he's not. He speaks for himself and I wish he would shut up. He's embarrassing. Whether he's calling for assassinations or slandering Tinky Winky as a homosexual, he gives the media what they want and presents a very unflattering stereotype for evangelical Christians.

Pat...move to the mountains and remain silent.

Pat Robertson calls for Assassination of Chavez

Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying the leftist leader wanted to turn his
country into "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

I think this is dangerous and counter-Christ. It is very tempting to pray for the utter destruction of our enemies, yet God was pleased when King Solomon prayed for wisdom instead of selfishly praying for God to destroy his enemies.

If we're in a war that is morally justified, then the destruction of our enemies will occur. If God wants to destroy HIS enemies, then he'll do it (as he did in the OT).

I think Chavez is dangerous and is part of the problem. He might very well need to be a military target because he's bringing communism and extremism too close to our shores. But I think it's misguided for a Christian leader to call for assassinations. WWJD? Jesus wouldn't do that...I'm pretty sure of it.

Kline sues Sebelius over Abortion Funding

Attorney general trying to stop state from paying for procedure

Kline is arguing that the state's financing of abortions for Medicaid recipients violates the Kansas Constitution. He filed the lawsuit Thursday in Shawnee County District Court, naming Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and other state officials as parties. It was a move applauded by opponents of abortion and vilified by abortion-rights advocates.

"The continued expenditure of state funds as reimbursement for elective pregnancy termination is unlawful" because it "involves the state in the destruction of the lives of 'men' without due process of law," the lawsuit states.
The Kansas Constitution declares "all men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Kline is asking the court to define "men" as "all male and female human beings at any stage of development."

Kline is going to be a darling of right-to-lifers across this country. I'm proud that my state gets to be the battleground where these moral issues gets fought: evolution in the classrooms and taxpayer funded abortions.

Queen Kate is pretty radical on abortion, and she likes those contributions from Doc Tiller the baby killer too much. This will be an interesting fight.

A "rational debate" on evolution vs. ID

Tony Snow authored a great column today on the debate surrounding evolution vs. Intelligent Design.

It's refreshing to read such a commonsense piece. Of course, what else would you expect from Tony Snow?

Intelligent Design claims the chances of random evolution are virtually nil. Hard science shows us a world of dazzling order, complexity and interdependence. To take one tiny example, a single gene seems to control vision in all animals. Could this be a matter of dumb luck? Physicist Steven Weinberg estimates life wouldn't even exist if, at the instant of creation, the energy unleashed in the Big Bang had varied by one part in 10 to the 120th power. Such odds lead ID advocates to suggest that the universe didn't get orderly by chance, but at the hand of a Designer.

Some factors to consider on how special the earth is in the universe, and how if any one of a number of factors were to change by a few percentage points, it would be as uninhabitable as the other planets:

1) a paper thin crust with more than 12 tectonic plates--4 to 30 miles deep. If the crust was any thicker, the recycling of plates could not take place.
2) enough heat in its interior that it still circulates liquid iron deep inside the earth, producing the protective magnetic field.
3) if the earth was smaller, the magnetic field would be too small to protect from solar radiation and solar winds would strip away our atmosphere--producing a barren surface like Mars.
4) Earth's atmosphere - 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Carbon Dioxide, are necessary for complex life.
5) liquid water absorbs heat from the sun to regulate temperature
6) a terrestial planet with all forms of water
7) Earth inhabits the goldilocks zone in the solar system, where it is not too hot and not too cold. 5% closer to sun we would be like Venus at 900 degrees F
8) a large moon 1/4 the size of earth with strong gravitational pull to stabilize the earth's axis and produce seasonal changes and temperate climate
9) Our sun is the right size star - not too cold or too hot
10) Earth is the correct distance from the sun for life
11) We are protected by giant planets to shield us from impacts of space debris
12) We have enough water and enough continents to all for the diversity of life
13) The probability of all factors needed for complex life to be available all at the same time is one thousandth of a trillion which is much smaller than 100 billion stars in the galaxy

We are indeed rare in the galaxy--a very special place created by One who knew what He was doing!

NARAL's opposition to Judge Roberts is about abortion profits

The same ladies (holding my nose as I use that term) of NARAL (the kill-your-children-please folks) who created a bunch of nonsense about Clarence Thomas is at it again. No lie is too big. Now they are running ads that say Judge Roberts supports fringe groups that bomb clinics...despite his published memo recommending against a presidential pardon for abortion-clinic bombers. "No matter how lofty or sincerely held the goal, those who resort to violence to achieve it are criminals."

In September 2002, when Democrats first blocked Justice Priscilla Owen from a circuit court nomination over a Texas Supreme Court ruling that upheld a parental notice law, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah put it this way:

I fear the opposition to Justice Owen from the abortion lobby is not at all about abortion rights, because abortion rights are not affected by a mere notice statute. The opposition to Justice Owen is not really about abortion rights, it is about abortion profits. Simply put, the abortion industry is opposed to parental notice laws because parental notice laws place a hurdle between them and the profits from the abortion clients--not the girls who come to them but the adult men who pay for these abortions. These adult men, whose average age rises the younger the girl is, are eager not to be disclosed to parents, sometimes living down the street. . . . At nearly one million abortions per year, the abortion industry is as big as any corporate interest that lobbies in Washington. They not only ignore the rights of parents, they also protect sexual offenders and statutory rapists.

Abortion is big business. It seems ironic that liberals are opposed to traditional big businesses that add jobs to the economy, but are 100% behind the baby killing industry. They call the oil business "Big Oil," so I guess that makes the abortion industry "Big Infanticide."

Spiritual spending on the rise

There is a Scripps Howard article on spiritual spending.

People of faith aren't part of a strange trend far from the mainstream, he said. They are the mainstream. What Waldman calls the "Faithful Consumer" is the normal consumer, part of a demographic that is larger than the sectors called "women," "baby boomers," "singles," "teens" or any of the usual ethnic groups.

Some marketing professionals seem afraid to talk about these numbers, in part because religion is often controversial and this demographic is so hard to pin down. Are "Faithful Consumers" people who believe in God or the gods? Are they united by their broader spiritual concerns or divided by their narrow, specific dogmas? Are they prickly true believers or blowing-with-the-wind seekers? These days, the safe answer is "all of the above." Americans love to shop.

Justice Sunday II

From today's Opinion Journal:

In 2003, Sen. Frist had reminded a thousand pastors at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast that the U.S. Constitution contained three religion clauses, not just the First Amendment's well-known two protecting the free exercise of religion and prohibiting a state-sponsored church. Mr. Frist used scriptural reference to an audience that understood. The religious test clause of Article VI, prohibiting inquiry into a nominee's religious views, he said, was the "rock" upon which the "house" of America's thriving religious liberty was founded.

Despite liberals' attempt to taint Justice Sunday, and perhaps because of it, the event was an enormous success, which is why this Sunday at 7 p.m. EDT, Americans can log on to JusticeSunday.com for a life Webcast of Justice Sunday II--an event that will introduce Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to millions of Christians.

My church will host the live videocast of Justice Sunday II. Be sure to tune in!

A message from CWA

Concerned Women for America will meet on Tuesday, August 16 at 7:00.

====================================================================

Your worldview matters. It enables you to make sense of reality by organizing information and allowing you to make choices that you believe to be true and right. It drives what you do.

At our meeting we will discuss competing worldviews . . . the major elements of a worldview, eight dominant worldviews, and the consequences of false worldviews.

CWA is open to anyone interested in learning about current cultural issues and praying for our country. Bring a friend.

See you there,

Sylvia Chapman

MSM Missing on Air America Story

I usually choose to ignore the liberal radio network Air America, because there probably isn't a more un-influential group out there. That said, there is a scandal about how they are involved in a scam in which monies for a children's charity were funneled into Air America. Liberals...stealing money from kids? Sounds scandalous, right? It would be scandalous if they were conservatives. But since they're liberals, nobody in the MSM is reporting it. OKIE on the LAM, Hugh Hewitt, and hundreds of other bloggers are picking up the slack of course. I read on Hugh's blog that, "the media obsessed over Rush Limbaugh's troubles, but that there is near-perfect silence within elite media on the subject. If there is fraud and illegal inurement in a forest, and nobody hears about it, did it really happen?"

Frist sinks in quicksand on stem cell issue

Tony Snow says it correctly in his latest column, this one about Sen. Frist's new position on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research:

Unfortunately, bad ideas rarely stop in their tracks and mere statutes seldom forestall unhappy endings. Bad ideas instead serve as portals for the unimaginable. This is why things once considered criminal — such as designer babies and partial-birth abortions — now enjoy legal protection.

Frist next argues, as do many geneticists, that embryonic stem cells are special. They are "pluripotent" — capable of duplicating any cell in the human body — and
therefore only they can regenerate organs and tissues wracked with infirmity and
disease.

Research doesn't yet support this view. Adult and cord-blood stem cells — which scientists can obtain without killing anything — have shown extraordinary healing capabilities. Researchers have used adult cells in ameliorating more than 70 diseases or conditions; cord-blood cells, more than 40. But embryonic stem cells have not produced a single therapeutic breakthrough. On the contrary, the cells have shown an unsettling tendency to grow wildly — creating cancers, instead of cures.

I wouldn't say that Frist is out of the race for the presidency yet. After all...look who is main competitors are: Giuliani and McCain, both with serious flaws when it comes to attracting the Christian right in the Republican party. Unless a Brownback or someone with more conservative values rises to the challenge, Frist may wind up being the lesser of three evils. If Hillary is the Democratic candidate, Republicans of all stripes will rise to back her opponent.

President Bush weighs in on evolution debate

The Washington Post ran an article on President Bush's statement that intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution as competing theories.

"Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about," he said, according to an official transcript of the session. Bush added: "Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. . . . You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."

The article goes on to say...

Much of the scientific establishment says that intelligent design is not a tested scientific theory but a cleverly marketed effort to introduce religious -- especially Christian -- thinking to students. Opponents say that church groups and other interest groups are pursuing political channels instead of first building support through traditional scientific review.

First of all, evolution itself (as a theory of origins) hasn't been proven as fact. It's only a theory. Second, most world religions don't think we evolved from amoebas in the ocean, so the concept that an intelligent designer is responsible for introducing life and ecosystems on this planet is not restricted to Christianity. Third, of course church groups are pursuing political routes to get the facts taught in the school when they don't get a hearing at all from scoffing scientists.

There's an amazing video on how the earth is so special and so perfect that a few tweaks here or there in its make-up or position in the universe would make it completely uninhabitable. The odds of all of those factors being just right for life are astronomical. I'll find the details on it and share it with you. You MUST watch that film.

A Call for Republican Moderates

Robert Kuttner wrote a strange piece for the Boston Globe...a search for the Republican moderate. Oh where art thou, ye sages of moderation in the Grande Ol' Party?

Where art thou, oh supporter of abortion rights and stem cell research?
Where art thou, opponents of Bush nominees, such as the "radical" John Roberts and the "wildly intemperate and mendacious" John Bolton?
Where art thou, ye protectors of terrorists' rights at Guantanamo?

Oh yeah...you're called liberals and you're in the Democratic Party.

Church Newsletter Bloopers

Ok, 'nuff serious stuff for a day. I received some more church newsletter bloopers and some of these are really good...


Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

The Fasting and Prayer Conference includes meals.

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off... let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday, there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping. She has requested tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.

The Rector will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church, and so ends a friendship that began in their school days.

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be, "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Please place your donation in the envelope, along with the deceased person you want remembered.

Attend and you will hear an excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment, and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM -- prayer and medication to follow.

The ladies of the Church have cast-off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.

The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

*Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."