By Thomas E. Brewton
New Orleanians born and bred in the welfare-state seem honestly believe that they are not required to do anything to help themselves.
A large number of people, most of whom apparently are residents of New Orleans, have favored me with four-letter-word denunciations of The god That Failed New Orleans.
A common allegation was that I had written that New Orleans deserved its fate. No one, however, cited specifics, for good reason: I wrote nothing to that effect.
For example:
And do they want the levees to break? I guess it depends if you are (as a New Orleans blogger commented to a brain-dead Repug at the link) "a f_ckmook" who believes New Orleans deserved it (and there are, sadly, many more like this)…My thought is that they … don't care. We're the last major city port at the mouth of the largest river system in the United States, and they don't give a rat's ass. We have some of the best food, culture, history and characters to be found, and are unique unto ourselves in this world, but they pretty much summed it up with Dennis Hastert's comment: "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
In other words, New Orleanians don't need to exert themselves rebuilding the city. They're entitled to have the taxpayers of the nation do it for them, because New Orleans has all sorts of things that cater to sensual appetites.
No emailer advanced a single argument to counter the specific points I made, which were that New Orleans, a once great commercial city, had become after 1927 mired in hedonism and dependence upon the welfare state.
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Posted by Walt as News Events, Politics, Social Issues at 12:36 PM EST
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"The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People." - General Prologue to the Wycliffe Bible in 1384.
Our country and its laws were established on the fundamental belief that our morality emanates from God. While the Constitution begins with the line, "We the people," it does not contain any religious words. Some people cite this as evidence that America is a secular country. Not so. America has always combined secular government with a society based on religious values.
Many settlers in the 1600s came to what they considered this new promised land seeking religious freedom. They identified with the biblical Jewish Exodus from Egypt because they had left Europe and its values as well. Ours is the only country to identify with many Jewish beliefs, and is why our culture calls itself "Judeo-Christian." These values include the importance of laws, fighting for justice, and a belief in judgment by loving and forgiving God.
The Founders understood there is a divine order that rises above the human order. By the 1770s, they sought our freedom from the British Crown with reliance upon, what the Declaration of Independence calls, "Nature's God," the "Creator," and "the Supreme Judge of the World."
The First Amendment was never intended to exclude all references to God from government institutions and public debate. It simply says, "Congress shall not establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof." The word "establish" meant the creation of a state church, as in the Church of England. It is nonsense to say the founders intended the First Amendment to exclude all religious expression in public places.
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Posted by Walt as Politics, US History at 11:20 AM EST
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The Bible is a Book that has two main divisions in - the Old Testament and the New Testament. Even though there are these distinct parts of the Bible - it still has only one theme - redemption. This is necessary to understand because the whole Bible revolves around this theme, and some have said that there is a scarlet thread (of blood) that runs form cover to cover.
Other Similarities
Before the differences are looked at, let's consider some other similarities that exist between the two halves. The books were all written by men - even the two books that bear the names of women - Ruth and Esther. The theme of both Books is redemption, and in both Books redemption occurs through faith. The Redeemer is the same in the Old Testament and the New - though it was not as clear in the Old. God always had the plan of sending His Son to become the Redeemer by dying for the human race (see Isaiah 53, and Psalm 22). Also, in both the Old Testaments and the New, the blood of sacrifice is necessary for redemption (Leviticus 17:10 and Hebrews 9:22)
Another similarity is that the Bible begins with a tree, the Tree of Life - from which mankind is forbidden to partake after they sinned, and the Bible ends with the Tree of Life - offered freely to the redeemed to partake of its fruits. It also begins with man and God walking together in fellowship in the beginning, and once again, after God's working to redeem man, in the end, forever.
The Main Difference Between The Two
All of the differences can be summed up by saying that the Old Testament begins the teaching, or revelation, while the New Testament finishes (or completes) that same revelation. In other words, the story is incomplete without the New Testament. The completion that is accomplished here is not just referring to a completed Book, but something more. The complete revelation of God to man, and of God's finished work of man's redemption, is completed in Christ - Who is God in the flesh. The New Testament is God's infallible record of what Christ has done - and will yet do.
Other Differences Between the Two
1. The Old Testament deals largely in pictures and types.
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Posted by Walt as Bible Study, The Bible at 11:22 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
Jan Burr raises the important point that governments should give attention, not only to current effects of global warming, but also to the near certainty of a severe cooling period within the coming decade.
In his comment regarding Global Warming: A Moderate Voice, Mr. Burr notes that global cooling will cause as much, or more, suffering than warming, because crops will fail in many parts of the world.
The need for prudence and for looking far down the road, rather than concentrating upon short-term public opinion expectations, is an old story.
When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up. (Genesis 41:1-4)
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Posted by Walt as Politics at 10:18 PM EDT
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When most people think of bikers, they think of rough looking, scruffy, hell raising men and women dressed in leather clad. These bikers can be intimidating to look at and gangs like the Hell's Angels and Mongrels have had their stories made into countless TV shows and movies. While this grizzly type of a biker is a stereotype, there is a growing segment of the biker population who may still look scruffy and wear the leather, but these men and women are different, they are Christians.
Many of these bikers have always been Christian, others became Christian after years of partying had landed them in rehab where they found their higher power, and others became Christians in prison as a result of prison ministry.
Since bikers come from a culture that is territorial, loyal, and mainly patriotic and known for their all night parties, many bikers feel embarrassed at many mainstream churches because they feel they donâ??t fit in and may be the subject of ridicule. As a result of this, there are biker friendly Churches and Ministries popping up around the world.
Today, there are Christian biker organizations with chapters that cover the globe. One of the larger organizations is the Christian Motorcyclists Association or CMA. The CMA's main purpose is as an outreach ministry, but not exclusively to the motorcycling community. The CMA's noble mission is "To inspire their leaders and members to be the most organized, advanced, equipped, financially stable organization, full of integrity in the motorcycling industry and the Kingdom of God".
CMA has partnered with three other ministries which are the Jesus Film Project, Missionary Ventures, and Open Doors to spread God"s word across the world. In 2006 alone, CMA donated $681,044.00 to each of these three ministries from money raised at their Run for the Son fundraiser.
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Posted by Walt as Church, Ministries at 10:59 PM EDT
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That Holy Book, called the Bible, is the only Book like it. While many know that it is a holy Book, they do not know exactly what the Bible is, or why it was given. Once those two thoughts can be understood, then we will be able to answer the above question satisfactorily.
In an effort to be able to answer both at the same time, this outline should help to answer the question, Is the Bible something we can use to live by? To this question, the only reasonable answer is a definite Yes.
1. Yes, Because Its Author Is Divine
The Scriptures declare themselves to be of God. In II Timothy 3:16 the Bible tells us "All scripture is given by inspiration of God…" This word "inspiration" does not refer to the type of inspiration a poet, or a writer gets today. No, this was a special thing. It referred to the fact that "God-breathed" out the Scriptures from Himself. That is actually the Greek meaning of the word. In other words, the idea is that God so directed that "men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:21), with the result that the words of the written Bible were inerrant (incapable of any error).
In applying this truth a little further, it can be seen that God was able to produce an infallible Book because He is Himself infallible. He also knows all things (omniscient), and He knows what we will need to live for Him.
2. Yes, Because He Has Given Believers His Spirit
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Posted by Walt as Bible Study, The Bible at 11:48 PM EDT
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By Alan Caruba
“Trusting in the Rock of Israel we now place our signatures in witness to this proclamation, sitting as the Provisional State Council, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, this day, Friday afternoon, the 5th of Iyar, 5708, the 14th of May, 1948.”
This was the moment of the re-birth of Israel announced by Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel. I would call your attention to the year of the Jewish calendar he cited, 5708. It reaches back over the millennia, deep into the Torah, the Old Testament, with its long history of a people chosen to be “a nation of priests and a holy people.”
This fact alone eviscerates all arguments and lies put forth that the Jews do not have a right and a claim to their own homeland. Historians put the birth of Judaism at approximately two thousand years before the advent of Christianity. When the Roman Empire fell, it was restructured as the Holy Roman Empire with Christianity at its core. Jewish resistance to the Roman Empire shaped much of its early history.
At the heart of the Islamic protestations of modern Israel is their contempt for the two faiths that preceded their own that began in 622 A.D. By then Judaism was already a very ancient faith. To be anything other than a Muslim, then and now, was declared to belong to an inferior faith. Islam is distinguished by its inflexible fixation on Allah, a former moon god worshipped in Mecca, and the cult of Mohammed.
More than a billion of the world’s population is Muslim. More than a billion is Christian. Billions believe in Hinduism and Buddhism. Judaism, which was never an evangelizing faith, existed in small numbers, but for reasons of faith, both Christianity and Islam persecuted the Jews in their midst because their very existence raised questions of spiritual legitimacy.
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Posted by Walt as History, News Events at 7:48 PM EDT
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By Warner Todd Huston
We are certainly used to seeing the MSM causing trouble for conservatives and this one is no different at least on that level. But the interesting thing here is that the trouble a social conservative discovered was as a result of what she wrote in the MSM as opposed to what was written about her by the MSM. It seems that the opinion editorial written by Crystal Dixon for the Toledo Blade got her fired by the University of Toledo because… well, you know how universities are all about free expression and speech, right? Unfortunately for Dixon, though, hers wasn’t the proper, politically correct sort of speech that is officially approved of by the thugs at the University of Toledo.
You see, Crystal Dixon made the mistake of believing that this whole silly idea of “freedom of religion” also applied to our institutions of higher learning. She foolishly asserted in her Toledo Blade op ed that as far as her religious beliefs are concerned, homosexuality is a choice made by the individual instead of some genetic predisposition, that someone chooses to engage in homosexual activities instead of assuming that being gay is forced upon one by “nature.”
Of course, Dixon based her entire op ed on her Christian religious beliefs. It was no hate filled rant and was quite civil, even tempered, and to the point. But the gay mafia inside the University of Toledo must be awfully powerful. Or, at the very least, fear of them was enough to stifle — no, execute — Mrs. Dixon over what the president of UoT must imagine is her wretched religious extremism.
President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs dashed off a letter summarily firing Mrs. Dixon from her $134,383 a year job as associate vice president for employee resources.
A letter to Ms. Dixon informing her of her termination, stated “The public position you have taken in the Toledo Free Press is in direct contradiction to university policies and procedures as well as the core values of the strategic plan which is mission critical.”
It went on to say her position calls into question her ability to continue in her role as an administrator in charge of personnel actions and decisions and that “the result is a loss of confidence in you as an administrator.”
Don’t you DARE have any religious beliefs in an American university. Well… unless it is the church of Satan, or Islam, global warming, anti-Jewish or feminism you want to belong to. Those are perfectly fine religious opinions in the halls of our fetid universities it should be noted.
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Posted by Walt as Constitutional Issues, Family Values, Social Issues at 9:52 PM EDT
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By Rob VandeWeghe
Scripture was not written by scientists for scientists; it was written by men living in ancient times. The Genesis account, penned by Moses around 1450 BC, was written when people were living in the late Bronze Age. Primitive stone and bronze tools were used to work the land, to make weapons, and to build homes. Writing as we known it was recently introduced, but not a widespread skill. The great emphasis of day-to-day life was to find food for survival. Natural science was limited to personal observation. Many in those days were polytheistic; they worshiped natural phenomena such as the sun, the moon, stars, fire, and water.
Moses, author of the creation account in Genesis, had been educated in Egypt. Ancient Egypt flourished from 3000 BC until the first centuries AD. Its successes were largely based on the irrigation of the Nile valley, early development of basic writing, trade with surrounding regions, and military strength. Egyptians believed in a complex network of multiple gods and an afterlife that emphasized the preservation of the body; hence, mummies. Moses’ Egyptian background is also evident in his choice of words throughout the Hebrew text.
This is the background against which the Genesis account should be read and understood. People 3,500 years ago had no concept of “knowledge” like we have in our time. That which could not be seen or experienced personally would be beyond their ability to understand.
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Posted by Walt as Apologetics, Creation at 9:56 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
The light of God's truth has been snuffed out in Europe, now the least Christian and the most secularized and socialized part of the world.
This week, Black Rock Congregational Church is focusing on worldwide missionary programs and the 20-plus missionaries that the church supports. In that connection, rather than a traditional sermon, we at Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) heard a report by Dr. Ted Noble, one of those missionaries. His subject was the appalling decline of Christianity throughout Europe.
Fewer than one percent of Europeans are Christian believers. Elsewhere, especially in Africa and Asia, the percentage is much higher and growing. Europe has become a spiritual wasteland in which people look to the political state for their salvation.
In the 19th century, Africa, the Dark Continent, was looked upon as the great field of activity for Christian missionaries. Conditions are the reverse today. American Episcopalians, for example, who seek a return to the Bible and a turning away from the secularized social gospel that has overtaken their church, now look to African bishoprics for support.
Dr. Nobel talked mostly about the opportunities and the needs for missionary work in Europe. But it's important also to ask why Europe is in spiritual decline.
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Posted by Walt as Ministries, News Events, Politics at 10:17 PM EDT
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