The Dog Ate My Homework Saga Continues

The Dog Ate My Homework Saga Continues

 

Before we get to the latest twist in the IRS email scandal, let’s recap:

 

The IRS was accused of targeting tax-exempt organizations that had “Tea Party” or “Patriots” in their names during the 2012 election. When the investigation into this scandal began, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman denied the organization was targeting conservative groups. “There’s absolutely no targeting,” he said.

 

When it was revealed that the IRS was indeed targeting conservative groups, the IRS then blamed it on a few low level “rogue employees” in the Cincinnati office. When these “rogue employees” in Cincinnati realized that their bosses in Washington were throwing them under the bus, it was then revealed that the targeting of conservative groups actually came from much higher up and the finger of blame was pointed at Lois Lerner who was then the director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS.

 

The House Ways and Means Committee began an investigation of the IRS to see who was responsible for targeting conservative groups. During the House investigation, the IRS agreed to hand over all of Lois Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011 to the House Ways and Means Committee.

 

Several months later the IRS claimed that it could not produce Lois Lerner’s emails to and from the White House and other administration departments due to a supposed computer crash. So any emails between Lerner and the White House, Treasury, the Justice Department, the Federal Election Commission or Democratic offices on Capitol Hill ordering, seeking or directing the IRS to target conservative organizations apparently have disappeared into digital oblivion. The IRS claimed that Lerner’s hard drive had been damaged and then destroyed according to government protocol.

 

Later the IRS admitted that the hard drive was only “scratched,” not irreparably damaged, as Americans have been led to believe.

 

All this time the IRS claimed that Lerner’s emails had not been backed up on government servers therefore they were lost forever.

 

Fast forward to Friday August 22, 2014. Attorneys for the IRS now admit that Lerner’s emails had been backed up, but it would be too much work to restore those backed up emails.

 

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit after the IRS refused to respond to four previous FOIA requests dating back to May 2013.

 

Judicial Watch’s president Tom Fitton told Fox News Channel’s Shannon Bream that a Justice Department attorney informed them the missing Lerner e-mails do exist.

 

Fitton said: “A Department of Justice attorney told a Judicial Watch attorney on Friday that it turns out the federal government backs up all computer records in case something terrible happens in Washington and there is a catastrophe....So everything we’ve been hearing about scratched hard drives, about missing e-mails of Lois Lerner, other IRS officials, other officials in the Obama administration, it’s all been a pack of malarkey.”

 

Fitton continued: “They could get these records but they don’t want to and they haven’t told anyone about it, frankly, until we were able to get it out of them on Friday. And there’s no such thing as Lois Lerner’s missing e-mails. It’s all been a big lie. They’ve been lying to the courts, to the American people and to congress.”

 

See:

 

·         http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2014/08/25/irs-scandal-bombshell-doj-attorney-admits-lois-lerner-emails-exist

·         http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/25/doj-attorneys-intimate-lost-lerner-emails-likely-exist-in-back-up-computers/

 

It seems to me that the IRS could learn a valuable lesson from Mark Twain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shutting Down the Ocean

Just when you thought the government shut down could not get any more bizarre, now the Obama administration is shutting down the ocean! You can't make this stuff up!!!

The Miami Herald reports:

Charter guides received a message from the National Park Service this week informing them that they are not permitted to take clients fishing in Florida Bay until the feds get back to work. That means that more than 1,100 square miles of prime fishing is off limits between the southern tip of the mainland to the Keys until further notice.

The closing affects not only fishing guides, but anyone with a license to conduct business in the park, including tour operators and paddling guides — anyone with a Commercial Use Authorization permit, said Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades and Dry Tortugas national parks.

Biscayne National Park is also off limits. Enforcement rangers will be on duty, Kimball said.

Capt. Mike Makowski, owner of Blackfoot Charters in Key Largo, estimates this eliminates 60 percent to 70 percent of his hunting grounds.

"This is going to put a lot of guys together in a small area close to the park," Makowski said. "It's going to be even worse on the weekend when we're going to have to compete with the recreational anglers."

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/03/3668028_p2/shutdown-day-3-food-distributor.html#storylink=cpy

Also see: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/Government-Shutdown-Also-Shuts-Down-Florida-Keys-Waters-226585501.html

Mike Flynn writes:

Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown. The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban... of access to an ocean. The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business.

This is governing by temper-tantrum. It is on par with the government's ham-fisted attempts to close the DC WWII Memorial, an open-air public monument that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. By accessible I mean, you walk up to it. When you have finished reflecting, you then walk away from it.

At least that Memorial is an actual structure, with some kind of perimeter that can be fenced off. Florida Bay is the ocean. How, pray tell, do you "close" 1,100 square miles of ocean? Why would one even need to do so?

Source: http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/10/05/nps-rangers-patrol-newest-'government-shutdown'-closure-ocean

Earlier this week an anonymous Park Service ranger said, "We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting."

The Obama administration is counting on the fact that low information voters will blame the GOP for the government shut down when in fact the blame actually lies at the feet of Harry Reid and the Dems.

Thomas Sowell nailed it in his article "Who Shut Down the Government?" He wrote:

Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.

There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money required to keep all government activities going -- except for ObamaCare.

This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record.

As for the House of Representatives' right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity.

Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of fact that members of the House of Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based on their opinion.

ObamaCare is indeed "the law of the land," as its supporters keep saying, and the Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutionality.

But the whole point of having a division of powers within the federal government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants to do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch by the Constitution.

The hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies -- unless they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare.

Since we cannot read minds, we cannot say who -- if anybody -- "wants to shut down the government." But we do know who had the option to keep the government running and chose not to. The money voted by the House of Representatives covered everything that the government does, except for ObamaCare.

The Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word "clean" like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid everything he wants?

If Senator Reid and President Obama refuse to accept the money required to run the government, because it leaves out the money they want to run ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their responsibility.

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/10/04/who-shut-down-the-government-n1716292

Centuries ago, King Canute commanded the ocean tide to stop. In doing so, he was actually demonstrating to his subjects the limits of royal power. In contrast, President Obama actually believes he has the power to control the oceans — or at least the power to control U.S. citizens' access to the oceans.

Enough is enough! 

The Founding Fathers Intent Regarding The Separation of Church and State

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion. 

Today we are told that this means “the separation of church and state” and therefore we can no longer read the Bible or pray in schools. 

Did our founding fathers really intend on limiting the expression of religion in government? 

On the day that the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they underwent an immediate transformation. On the day before every one of them was a British citizen, living in a British colony with 13 crown appointed British state governments. However, when they signed that document, they lost all of their state documents. Consequently, they returned home to create new state constitutions. 

A look at some of the original state constitutions reveals the truth as to whether or not the founding fathers intended to keep religion out of government.  

Below are some clauses in a few state constitutions. 

Some Religious Clauses in State Constitutions

---

Delaware; Article 22 (1776) "Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust...shall...also make and subscribe the following declaration, to whit:

'I,_____, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration'"

Georgia; Article VI (1777) "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county...and they shall be of the Protestant religion..."

Georgia; Article VI (1777) "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county,...and they shall be of the Protestant religion..."

Maryland; Article XXXV (1776) "That no other test or qualification ought to be required...than such oath of support and fidelity to this State...and a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion."

Massachusetts; First Part, Article II (1780) "It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe..."

Massachusetts; First Part, Article II (1780) "The governor shall be chosen annually; and no person shall be eligible to this office, unless...he shall declare himself to be of the Christian religion."

Massachusetts; Chapter VI, Article I (1780) "[All persons elected to State office or to the Legislature must] make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.

'I,_____, do declare, that I believe the Christian religion, and have firm persuasion of its truth...'" 

New Hampshire; Part 1, Article 1, Section 5 (1784) "...the legislature ...authorize ...the several towns ...to make adequate provision at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality..."

New Hampshire; Part 2, (1784) "[Provides that no person be elected governor, senator, representative or member of the Council] who is not of the protestant religion."

New Jersey; Article XIX (1776) "...no Protestant inhabitant of this Colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right...; all persons, professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect...shall be capable of being elected into any office of profit or trust, or being a member of either branch of the Legislature."

North Carolina; Article XXXII (1776) "That no person, who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments,...shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State.

Pennsylvania; Declaration of Rights II (1776) "...Nor can any man, who acknowledges the being of a God, be justly deprived or abridged to any civil right as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiments or peculiar mode of religious worship."

Pennsylvania; Frame of Government, Section 10 (1776) "And each member [of the legislature]...shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.:

'I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder to the good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.'" 

Pennsylvania; Article IX, Section 4 (1790) "that no person, who acknowledges the being of a God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, shall, on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this commonwealth."

South Carolina; Article III (1778) "[State officers and privy council to be] all of the Protestant religion."

South Carolina; Article XII (1778) "...no person shall be eligible to a seat in the said senate unless he be of the Protestant religion."

South Carolina; Article XXXVIII (1778) "That all persons and religious societies who acknowledge that there is one God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, and that God is publicly to be worshipped, shall be freely tolerated. The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed...to be the established religion of this State."

Tennessee; Article VIII, Section 2 (1796) "...no person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State."

Vermont; Frame of Government, Section 9 (1777) "And each member [of the legislature],...shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.:

'I do believe in one god, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the scriptures of the old and new testament to be given by divine inspiration, and own and profess the protestant religion.'"

 

Those who want to revise history have sold us a bill of goods!

THE BLESSED HOPE

Great article by Pastor Jerry:

THE BLESSED HOPE

1 Peter 1:13, “Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Titus 2:13, “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”

I didn’t sleep well last night, my mind preoccupied with yesterday’s events.  On the way to church I forgot to eat my breakfast—for the very same reason.  I was troubled by some of the results of last night’s election.  Especially inasmuch as three states voted for gay marriage (passed in two states and pending in a third; this is the first time voters themselves have approved of gay marriage by initiative).  Two states voted to legalize marijuana.  Things are changing rapidly in our country.  This is not my Mom and Dad’s America.

As a Pastor I feel the need to address some of my concerns from a Biblical perspective.  I’m so glad this morning to hear from brothers and sisters in Christ who are working to respond to these matters in a Christ-honoring fashion.  That’s what I yearn to do also.  We spoke last Sunday of the dual citizenship we as believers in Christ enjoy.  We are privileged to be American citizens.  We also are citizens of a better country, a heavenly one (Cf. Hebrews 11:16; Philippians 3:20).  Our American citizenship is temporal, our heavenly citizenship is eternal.  It’s good to keep these things in perspective.  As citizens of heaven, indwelt by the Spirit of God, we can see things from a broader and Biblical perspective.  From a Biblical perspective we can find good reason for hope amidst our trials and troubles.  Someone wrote, “Don’t this election steal your song.”  That’s good counsel.

As an American citizen I’m troubled by the direction of our country.  It was noted last night by a commentator that many of the election results of last night could be traced back to an increased secularization of our society.  Surveys bear this out.  I doubt that America has ever been more “secular” in its perspective than it now is.  As a country we have faced huge challenges before—great wars and economic challenges.  But we overcame those challenges as people of faith in God (for the most part).  It’s not the same today.  Unfettered from a Biblical morality we are heading off in a bold, new direction—all by ourselves.  God is not invited or welcome on this journey.  What He says is irrelevant.  We are a prodigal country determined to recklessly spend the labors of the sacrifice of our forebears with no thought to what the future might bring.  The prodigal son spent it all and then the famine came.  A day of financial “famine” is coming (Cf. Larry Burkett’s ‘The Coming Economic Earthquake’ or Joel Rosenberg’s ‘Implosion.’)”  It will be a hard time indeed.  A people of faith survived the great depression.  What will be the case for those who have none?  The national debt is a national disgrace.  But it is foolhardy to believe that it is something that will be passed on to future generations.  The day of financial reckoning will come sooner than that (in my own opinion).

These things are all very predictable.  We won’t be the first country or last country to fail—if that indeed comes to pass.  Romans chapter one speaks to the law of spiritual gravity as it relates to the sinfulness of man.  It is the nature of man to sin.  The downward spiral of sin and lawlessness is unavoidable (apart from salvation in Christ).  Romans chapter one bears much relevance to these matters:

Romans 1:18-32, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,  because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.   For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.   Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.  Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.   For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,   slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;  and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

These things should not surprise us.  We were warned ahead of time of the difficult times that would come in the last days.  2 Timothy 3:2-5, “For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.”  The fact that these attitudes and behaviors are increasingly prevalent gives evidence to the growing secularization of our society.

There’s not a lot of hope to be found in these passages.  They speak to spiritual realities of which we have no control.  We might hope that “the sun will come out tomorrow,” but the reality is that we have no control over such matters.  A better day for America is not guaranteed.  We might hope for such a day and work for such a day, but the God of the ages, who “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11) is in control.  “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”  He has a plan for the ages that will come to pass.

God’s Word helps me to see things from a heavenly perspective, and that’s where I can find hope.  The Apostle Peter wrote in 1^st Peter to believers who were enduring much persecution.  As with many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world, these early church believers were suffering much for the cause of Christ.   Some lost their homes, some lost their jobs, and some even lost their lives.  They had little guarantees when it came to their earthly existence (as it is with persecuted believers around the world today).  They had no freedom to vote.  There was nobody to appeal to, save God, if they were treated unfairly. 

It was to those people to whom Peter wrote, “Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).  The term “hope” in Scripture bears no thought of uncertainty.  We use the term in that way.  We might say “I hope it doesn’t rain today,” but we say that with a measure of uncertainty.  Many of the things that we hope for in this life are uncertain hopes.  They are hopes without guarantee.  We might hope for long life or good health or prosperity—but none of those things are guaranteed to us.  We may hope for our candidates or political measures to win on election day—but these things are not guaranteed to us.  We might hope for a strong and God-fearing American—but this is not guaranteed to us.  Most of the things that we enjoy and hope for in this life are in fact things that are uncertain.  And even the most certain of things—the strength and security of our country—are without guarantee.  But Biblical “hope” relates to something in the future that is certain.  It is the confident expectation of God’s provision of a thing.  And so it is in relationship to the coming of Christ—grace will be brought to us on that day, GUARANTEED!  We are reminded that His provision to us is grace, i.e. unmerited favor.  It is the same with every intervention by God on our behalf.  From beginning to end the salvation He works in us is by grace.  It will be so in His return.  It is good for us to submit our lesser hopes to the reality of this greater hope.  We want to be prepared for that day, and do all that we can to make sure others are also.  This hope is said to be “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).  It is a happy hope.  It ought to cheer our hearts.  Christ is coming again!  We will be caught up together with those who have previously departed to meet the Lord together in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).  The concluding admonition from this text is especially timely “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”  We are repeatedly exhorted to encourage one another in view of the confident expectation of Christ’s imminent return (Cf. Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.”).

As believers in Christ we are to be different.  We are to not set our minds on “earthly things” (Philippians 3:19).  We are not to preoccupy ourselves with the uncertain hopes that lost people are given to.  The hope that we have in Jesus is “steadfast and sure” and serves “as an anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:17).  It is a hope that first worked to “deliver us out of this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) and will ultimately work “to transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21).  God’s glorious work in our lives—this salvation to the uttermost—is a work that He will complete (Cf. Hebrews 7:25; Philippians 1:6)!  It is on this confident expectation that we are to completely fix our hope.

I was thinking this morning about the experience of Jeremiah the prophet.  He had repeatedly warned his people of God’s pending judgment.  Despite his warnings the people continued in idolatry and sin.  Then God sent the Babylonians.  They brought utter destruction to Jerusalem.  The burned the temple and the King’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem.  They broke down the city walls.  They raped, pillaged, and killed Jeremiah’s people.  Those not killed were taken off into captivity.  Jeremiah was a witness to those events.  He saw it all.  Women and children dead in the streets; the law, the temple, the priesthood—all torn away.  And he wept.  And he was discouraged.  He said, “My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord…my soul…is bowed down within me” (Lamentations 3:18-20).  His circumstances were grievous beyond measure.  It’s hard to imagine how difficult that must have been!  But Jeremiah found reason to hope.  And the hope that he grabbed a hold of was no false hope.  It was a confident expectation bound up in God’s promises and founded on God’s very nature.  “This I recall to mind” he said, “therefore I have hope.  The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23). 

A faithful promise has been made to you, believer in Christ.  He is coming again!  Fix your hope completely on this hope and you will never be disappointed, because it is guaranteed by our faithful God.  Confident in His soon return (1 Peter 3:15) we are to devote ourselves to prayer (Cf. 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Colossians 2).  We are to pray for all men and for kings and those in authority.  God desires all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).  His glorious and powerful gospel is able to save (1 Timothy 1:11; Romans 1:16).  We have good news to declare and people to pray for.  The great Ship of Humanity is headed on a collision course with the immovable reality of God’s judgment.  We, God’s people, want to see lost people saved.  That’s the work God has for us until our hope is brought to reality in the glory of His presence.

Pastor Jerry

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

"Great is Thy faithfulness," O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

"Great is Thy faithfulness!" "Great is Thy faithfulness!"
 Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
"Great is Thy faithfulness," Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Dangerous Absolutes by Craig L. Parshall

Although they knew God, they did not glorify [honor] Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools (Rom. 1:21-22).

Place: Aspen Institute conference, Colorado

Date: August 4, 2011

Former U.S. vice president and environmental-disaster activist, Al Gore, stepped onto the stage and began a veritable tirade against all who doubt what he sees as the absolute truth about global warming and the catastrophe he claims man-made carbon emissions are creating.

Gore’s “rant” (as it was described by the Los Angeles Times) was so filled with profanities that most newspapers couldn’t print extensive excerpts. He proclaimed that, because of global warming, “the very existence of our civilization is threatened.” His real complaint, though, seemed more fundamental: “There’s no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate.”

By “shared reality,” I take Mr. Gore to have meant that he is crestfallen over the American public’s refusal to close the debate on climate change. In other words, he vehemently believes his worldview on environmental issues should be the “shared reality” for everyone. And if you disagree, you are now a target of his four-letter epithets. A clearer picture of political correctness gone wild is harder to imagine.

The issue here is not the validity of the global-warming theory. It is the transformation of trendy ideas about “greenhouse gases” into a belief system that resembles a secular religion. Those who doubt are infidels.

Case in point: When Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry of Texas dared to question that man-made carbon emissions cause catastrophic global warming, he was skewered by the press. Columnist Scott Stroud of the San Antonio (TX) Express-News said Gov. Perry “breezily dismissed the science behind global warming,” something Stroud equated with opening a “can of crazy.”

This type of totalitarian approach makes politically incorrect dissent a crime against humanity. Even cultural heroes become enemies when they question the sacred cows. Before his death, Michael Crichton, a medical scientist and novelist who wrote blockbuster science-fiction novels like The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, had the courage to question radical global-warming theories in his novel State of Fear. In response, climate alarmists lashed back, calling him a “global warming denier”—a label that implies something morally and intellectually terrible, as “Holocaust denier” does, for example. Such are the slings and arrows from those who have turned a scientific speculation into a form of nature worship.

I recall a point once made by Dr. Donald MacKay, a late, brilliant brain physiologist in England—and a Christian—who wrote a book refuting the behavioral theories of the atheist B. F. Skinner. He noted that what often passes for rational dispute over truth is, in reality, merely a preference for what is ^“palatable,” dressed up in rational garb.

Because of our fallen natures, people are prone to gravitate to conclusions that are palatable. We like what is convenient or what appeals to our pride and our desire to “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). Which is why futile thoughts (to quote Paul in Romans), or ^“speculations,” as the New American Standard Bible puts it, can be so dangerous; human reason must be reined in by clear, irrefutable facts, not merely inferences.

Furthermore, our reasoning has to begin with the pre-supposition that, if we observe orderliness in nature, it is because such order was created by the Creator. The more we push aside the Creator and deify the creation, the more futile and dangerous our thoughts become.

None of these points are meant to diminish the role of true science. Rather, they are a reminder of what many good Bible teachers tell us: The only things we can afford to be totally absolutist about are those things that God has absolutely decided to reveal in His Word.

Craig L. Parshall is senior vice president and general counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters.

What has America become?

Editor,

Has America become the land of special interest and home of the double standard?

Let's see: if we lie to the Congress, it's a felony and if the Congress lies to us it's just politics; if we dislike a black person, we're racist and if a black person dislikes whites, it's their 1st Amendment right; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; in public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child, but it is wrong to execute a mass murderer; we don't burn books in America, we now rewrite them; we got rid of communist and socialist threats by renaming them progressive; we are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama's policies you're a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your 1st Amendment right.

You can have pornography on TV or the internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research, but it is wrong to use an animal.

We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don't want to work; we all support the Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology; we still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct; parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games; the land of opportunity is now the land of handouts; the similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.

And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who's at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.

What has happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?

- Ken Huber

Tawas City

Note: "What Has America Become" was the title of a letter to the editor written by Ken Huber of Tawas City, Michigan. It was originally printed in the Iosco County News Herald on June 9, 2010, published in the Opinion column.

Fortress of Faith, Castles of Sand

 

By Craig Parshall

When someone is said to be harboring a "fortress mentality," it is not intended as a compliment. In Washington, DC, it usually implies one has pulled up the mental drawbridge and is overly defensive.

But fortresses have a function. My wife, Janet, and I have seen a number of them in our travels. I particularly remember the castle fortress in Saint Andrews, Scotland, that housed a dark, foreboding jail known in the 16th century as the "bottle dungeon" because of its shape. It lay beneath the castle floor and was accessible only through a small hatch.

Christian evangelist and reformer George Wishart was imprisoned there before he was finally dragged out, lashed to a stake, and burned alive for his bold proclamation of salvation by grace through faith.

When the fires of the Protestant Reformation swept through Scotland, the fortress switched hands. John Knox and his Bible students found solace there until a fierce military bombardment by anti-Reformation forces occurred. When the smoke cleared, Knox was captured and chained as a rowing slave in the hold of a French galley ship.

Fortresses were built because war and conflict, tribulation and social tempest were inevitable; and high, thick walls and guarded gates made good military defenses. In America the church of Jesus Christ is under attack. Though the force is not military, it is formidable nevertheless.

The Masters of Media and Entertainment

One of the surest signs of rising anti-Christian bigotry in America is the mainstream press's boldness in slandering believers. In October 2009, when MSNBC's Chris Matthews said on national television that the "group in this country that most resembles the Taliban, ironically, is the religious right," it was hard to believe the news media's treatment of conservative Christians could get any worse. But it has.

Enter liberal TV commentator Lawrence O'Donnell. In March 2011, while scoffing at end-times discussions on Glenn Beck's television program on FOX News, O'Donnell used his own television show to proclaim, "The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world. Now, no half-smart religious person believes the book of Revelation anymore." O'Donnell finished his diatribe by describing God as "a malicious torturer and mass murderer beyond Hitler's wildest dreams."

In his column in the Chicago Tribune this year, Clarence Page complained that too much is being made of the link between Islam and terrorism. Then he posited that such a link is equal to the connection "between the evangelical Christian community and the bombers of abortion clinics." And when National Public Radio's (NPR's) fund-raising executive, Ron Schiller, was caught on videotape in a Washington, DC, restaurant castigating (among other things) evangelical Christians, it confirmed a bias many of us had suspected within NPR.

This bias is not limited to the liberal mainstream press. Large communications titans that own new media platforms are exercising a powerful and disturbing form of anti-Christian censorship. In November 2010, for example, Apple banished from its iTunes store an application (app) from the Manhattan Declaration, blocking it from its hugely successful iPhone. The reason? The Declaration contained a statement of Christian orthodoxy on sexuality and opposed gay marriage.

A few months later, in March, Apple banned a second Christian iPhone app. This one, from the ex-gay organization Exodus International, Apple considered "offensive" because the ministry sought to introduce homosexuals to Jesus Christ, a source of liberation from that lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Facebook officials have promised to block "hate-speech" critical of gay rights but will make no promise to protect Christians' rights to post Bible-based statements about homosexuality.

In the entertainment world, the 2011 Sundance Film Festival shows how easy a target conservative Christians have become. Red State, a horror film about a Christian fundamentalist family that tortures and kills some teenagers, was promoted at the festival to throngs of enthusiastic supporters.

Another film, Higher Ground, is about a woman who leaves the "Jesus movement" because, as the director told The Huffington Post, it was "an impoverished expression of the Christian religion." Another featured film was a documentary about a former Liberian soldier's conversion to Christ. According to reviewer Dick Staub, it shows "the messiness of his redemption."

In the world of television, former Saturday Night Live regular Victoria Jackson, outspoken about her Christian faith, has been excoriated by the entertainment industry because she dared to criticize a scene in the sitcom Glee where two gay characters kiss. When interviewed on Headline News's Showbiz Tonight, she was asked the now standard, politically correct, politburo-type question of whether she was "homophobic."

Judicial Blindside

While large segments of the popular culture seem to be aiming their arrows at Bible-believing Christians, we are still apt to ask, "Our basic religious freedoms under the Constitution are still intact, right?" Well, yes and no.

The full effect of the Supreme Court's devastating decision last year in Christian Legal Society
v. Martinez has yet to be felt. In a closely divided ruling, the court held that a Christian ministry may be banned from a public university if it sticks to its statement of faith and refuses to open its leadership to atheists, agnostics, and members of other religions. We do not yet know how this ruling might be used to bar biblically sound Christian organizations from receiving public services, benefits, and ministry opportunities.

On the positive side, the high court rightly decided Snyder v. Phelps this year. Despite the sympathetic losing party and the repugnant winning party, the ruling was sound. The court struck down, on free-speech grounds, a large monetary damages award against Fred Phelps.

Phelps, the leader of a small, angry group that misapplies Bible verses, had picketed the funeral of a young man killed during military duty in Iraq. The grieving father brought the suit. The court noted that Phelps's group had obeyed police and stayed peacefully on a public sidewalk, 1,000 feet away from the funeral. Had the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, responsible, legitimate, Bible-preaching Christians would become the next defendants in such lawsuits.

But there is a catch: In his concurring opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer, leader of the court's liberal faction, warned that the ruling did not extend First Amendment protection to religious speech over the airways (i.e. television) or Internet. The implication is that "hate speech" laws could well be used to stifle the gospel over those venues.

Most cases, of course, never reach the marble steps of the Supreme Court. Their ultimate fate rests with the army of lower court federal judges. So it is important to see what types of judges America has in its future. Will they respect the fundamental, constitutional liberties of Christians, or will they bow to prevailing opinion?

In 2010 influential U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) recommended Daniel Alter for the U.S. District Court in New York, saying he hoped to make him "the first openly gay male judge" in America. Since then Schumer has supported President Barack Obama's nominee to the New York federal bench, Paul Oetken, a homosexual-rights activist who argued an amicus curiae brief in favor of homosexual rights in the notorious Lawrence v. Texas case, the decision that reversed Supreme Court recognition of the Judeo-Christian roots of America's social disapproval of homosexuality.

These are the future judges who will weigh the rights of Christians against the radical "anti-discrimination" laws that demand that Christians ignore their consciences. One example looming is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that would make it illegal for employers to consider the homosexuality, bisexuality, or "gender identity" of a job applicant.

I testified before both the House of Representatives and Senate on behalf of the National Religious Broadcasters, indicating that the bill's so-called exemption for religious groups is more mirage than reality. ENDA would apply to every for-profit Christian ministry and many non-profit Christian organizations as well. The bill has been reintroduced in the House again this year.

Troubling Our Own House

Not all threats to the gospel occur from outside Christianity. Some come from within. These present a particular challenge. We continue to see debates in some denominations over the plenary inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible. That is a most troubling problem because God's propositional truth about Himself and about us is in His Word. When we ignore the principle of sola Scriptura, we set ourselves adrift.

Earlier this year the battle for the Bible took a new turn. When prepublication marketing began for Pastor Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, a firestorm erupted within the evangelical community. An editorial vice president of a Christian publishing house criticized the book's liberal treatment of hell and salvation on a blog and, within a few days, sparked some 1,000 comments and some 24,000 Facebook shares. The subject has since gone "viral" on the Internet and Twitter.

I have reviewed Rob Bell's book, and it is highly problematic. To characterize it generally, I quote emerging church leader Brian McLaren who said both Bell's views and his depart from the traditional biblical view of hell because they "can't in good conscience defend that view any longer."

The existence of hell is clearly taught in Scripture by our Lord (Mt.5:22; 10:28; Mk. 9:47), the apostle Peter (2 Pet. 2:4), and the apostle Paul (2 Th. 1:8-9). Furthermore, it was adopted by the church Fathers and every major Christian thinker from Augustine to Martin Luther to John Calvin to America's great colonial preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards, as well as by other preachers of the Great Awakening and all of the great Christian missionaries and evangelists throughout history.

Bell's book goes even further. It challenges God's revealed truth about salvation itself:

Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need to resolve them or answer then because we can't, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires.

If there was ever a time for evangelical Christians to know exactly what we believe and why and then to live it out lovingly, humbly, and courageously before a confused and hostile world, it is now. We dare not decide these matters by majority vote or popular opinion. We must not first see who agrees with us before we decide what the truth is. We must see what God says on the subject.

Our Fortress

All that we truly know about God's greatness, goodness, and grace toward sinners is contained in His Word, As Jonathan Edwards observed, "The reality of Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world and the great things that He has revealed concerning Himself and His Father are no longer matters of speculation."

Our fortress, our ultimate defense, will never lie in our own strategies or cleverness or even in learning the true doctrines of the faith. Rather, our ultimate defense will always reside with Him, the living God. As King David wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling" (Ps. 46:1-3).

God is telling us that, in our present troubles, He is a comforting presence. Our destiny is not merely a better life or a peaceful present; it is a bountiful and blessed future: "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High" (v. 4).

Those who have trusted in Christ are inheritors of eternal life—a continuum that covers our past sin, empowers our present walk, and guarantees our future blessing in His presence. Whatever rises up against God's truth will inevitably prove to be not an impregnable castle, but merely shifting sand. Jesus declared it plainly: "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (Jn. 16:33).