Moral Science Club

Lessons from Tamar

2013-06-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

Genesis 38 is one of those difficult chapters of the Bible to teach to children. Tamar is a Canaanite woman who was shunned by her father-in-law, Judah, for being a sort of a black widow. Two of his sons who married Tamar are dead, and he is keeping the third and final son away from her. The description of the second husband pulling out during intercourse to "spill his semen on the ground" made for an uneasy Bible lesson time.

I dreaded it the first time I had to teach it, but as I dug into the story's deeper meanings, I was fascinated by the story. It's preceded by Genesis 37 when Judah sells his brother Joseph into slavery, defending him in a way because his brothers wanted to kill him. Ironically, in the next chapter, we see how much a slave to sin Judah is. He marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons, two of whom were wicked enough to be stricken dead by God. Tamar loses her first husband, oldest son Er, then is given to her brother-in-law Onan to have children in Er's name. Onan wanted to enjoy the sex with his new wife but didn't want to impregnate her, so he pulled out just prior to ejaculation. He was stricken dead by God for his wickedness.

Now, there are a few points here to consider. Onan could still have impregnated Tamar. Millions of sperm are normally released before ejaculation, so Onan's plan could have failed. But it was Onan's rejection of God's promise that caused his capital punishment by God. It's a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to have sex just for fun. Sooner or later, God expects you to get serious and have children.

Judah blames the deaths of his two sons on Tamar, avoiding giving his third and final son in marriage to the "black widow". Tamar, a Canaanite woman, is determined to be grafted in to the family that is going to produce the Messiah. So she crafts a plan to go ahead of Judah on a trip, dress up as a temple prostitute, and seduce Judah. Her plan works and she becomes pregnant with twins. Judah promises to send payment to the prostitute and leaves her his ID as collateral. He is totally unaware that he has slept with his daughter-in-law until she begins to show her pregnancy. Judah orders that she be burned to death for sleeping around when she pulls out his ID and proves that he is, in fact, the father. Judah is humiliated, and humbled. He has to admit that Tamar is "more righteous than I". She had fought for God's promise. Though her methods were controversial, her faith in God and her desire to be a part of His promise were real.

I learned a lot from Tamar. Mainly that God rewards us when we chase after His promises. He wants us to love the Messiah, His Son, enough to do courageous things for Him. He knows that we can't always see His promises fulfilled from where we are, but He loves that we trust in Him for the outcome. Because of Tamar's efforts, God grant her two sons, one of whom would be a direct fore bearer of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Judah was forever changed by the experience, and becomes the meek yet strong leader of the family when we see him next in Genesis. One person's obedience to and trust in God can be used by God to transform not only them but also those people around them.

I also learn from Tamar that God doesn't create junk peoples. The Canaanites were pagan but Tamar was loved by God equally as she was, and more because of her faith. We will be judged by faith not by our background. And our faith is a gift from God. Therefore, His grace abounds beyond our best efforts to understand.

Bird's Nest, Unfinished Bridge

2013-06-19T01:52:00.001-04:00

On the road in Maine, we zoomed past a small, unfinished bridge in which a bird had made a considerable nest on the last concrete cross beam. The bridge only jutted out a few feet then consisted only of a few concrete cross beams beyond that. The work had obviously been abandoned. Standing on the nest was a sea bird, guarding over her chicks jealously.

Here I make my stand

This season, this batch

Of young, of eggs warmly

Resting in the basin,

Twigs I wrestled from

Dangerous lagoons,

From under the trampled

Earth of giant men with

Yellow beaks on their heads,

Machinery larger than

A thousand loons

Surrounding them, and I,

They could not catch me.

Here, pride of my pride,

I rule over this stone

Mooring, away from the

Speeding cars, birds

Of prey, racing in

Predictable formation.

They cannot catch me,

Neither me nor mine,

My pride

Goes before me, and

Through my young, goes

Out into the world

Invincible.

The Snowden Line - How a rogue agent divides the GOP

2013-06-17T00:01:00.001-04:00

Edward Snowden is now very well known as the guy who exposed a secret government spying program called Prism. In his interview given while hiding in Hong Kong, he states that the extent of the spying - literally government peering into every corner - was far beyond the government's pay grade. "Government should not have the power I saw wielded." In other words, Mr. Snowden has uncovered a true "Big Brother" campaign. Orwell's long talked-about boogeyman has arrived during the administration of Barack Obama.

Democrats have roundly condemned Snowden for exposing their man. Of course, the party of the shifting winds would be expected to respond predictably. And, not surprisingly, the Republican establishment also roundly condemn Mr. Snowden. The John McCains, Lindsey Grahams, and John Boehners are calling Snowden a traitor for exposing the Big Brother campaign. Snowden may be helping clarify what has bothered liberty-minded Americans for years; that the liberals and Republican establishment agree upon a big government, and Big Brother, model.

We cannot fret about the over-reach of government and then go ballistic when a whistleblower reveals the secret extent of government over-reach. Our government has become similar to the Venezuelan politics prior to Chavez. There were two parties, one right of center, one left of center. Both would give lip service to their pet causes; nationalization for the Adecos, privatization for the Copeyanos. They'd go back and forth until finally the people realized both parties were part of the same power structure, a shared power structure. Chavez was able to manipulate popular frustration with the "two-party" system and rode his third party to power. While a far-left party here would do about as well as MSNBC does (not well), a Libertarian/conservative third party could very well surprise everyone. I would recommend they propose this new party as a new second party since the Democrats and GOP have apparently merged!

Sarah Palin and other leading anti-establishment Republicans have sensed this great divide. It is my hope that they explore it, even manipulate It because the differences between the establishment and the Tea Party are irreconcilable. The only solution is a divorce. Either the establishment folks must be booted from or greatly marginalized within the GOP or the Tea Party must become it's own party. There really is no way around it at this point. We can no longer believe that a McCain or a Graham or a Boehner can represent us.

The time has come to start a new second party, or send the anachronistic Republicans out to pasture.

The Gift - Father's Day 2013

2013-06-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

To My Daughter, Savannah

The Gift is moving

East moves to West,

South rushes North,

tearing me all

up inside, I look away.

I can't stay, I can't stay

I must drift away, Chevalier.

Standing for communion, I turn.

She is up ahead breaking bread,

Dipping it in grape juice, walking away.

A Gift sublime that can never

Be torn away, Gift forever

Long past the Last Day.

Chevalier broods, Why hast Thou

Forsaken Me?

It was for this;

The essence, the divine Gift

That neither moth nor rust could rot,

All sin impaled on a Cross,

That peace forever might come

to Father and daughter

Mother and son.

The Gift is moving away

Blending in with the young people.

I wipe a tear of joy,

Keep the others at bay.

The Gift is saved

Thank You, Chevalier

Kari Jobe - You're My Healer - Happy Sunday

2013-06-16T02:39:00.000-04:00

When I Die -Poetry

2013-06-16T00:28:00.001-04:00

When I die

Do not grieve.

If I am dead,

I am more than ever alive,

John 11 and 25.

If you are reading this

And you are grieving me,

Stop right now,

just stop!

You see, I've seen Heaven

In this life, I have tasted

And tested its wonders.

I have been to the mountaintop;

I am one of the lucky ones He chose.

I see the rolling hills of Heaven

Rich beyond words in greens and golds

No hi-res photo could imitate.

Time ebbs and flows eternal there

Where beauty glows a thousand-fold.

Mourn me by praising Him

Who holds the scepter of life,

For He holds me forever.

When I die, do not grieve,

But follow me to victory.

The Author of Mediocre Thoughts

2013-06-13T17:05:00.001-04:00

I know where my good thoughts come from. God is the Author of our intelligence, I like to say. Without Him, we'd be spewing gibberish worse than a drugged out rapper. The Lord even shares His intelligence with those who hate Him.

Then there are those mediocre thoughts. I know they rightfully belong to me, but they are so unconsciously produced that they surprise me. Since I was little, I have had the habit of thinking negative things about people I see on the street whom I don't know. A petite ordinary blond female in her 20s walks past, "Too short. Used to call them 'poodles' when I was single." A sixty-something man, over weight, walking across the street with extreme difficulty, "Was it smoking or bad diet that made him disabled before his time." Terrible thoughts they are, and, fortunately, I boot them out almost as soon as they leap into my mind.

Mediocre thoughts are channeled through us by Satan, their author. The Devil gave birth to the first mediocre thought, that of not being satisfied that you were not God. He is the author of all mediocre thoughts since then.

It's an old habit. You see, before Christ (BC), I used to despise people. They bothered me simply by being there at the red light, the check-out line, or where ever I was, they were in the way. It was only after coming face to face with my own 100% failure and God's 1,000% love for me did I start to see people not as the old Jim saw them, but as Abba Father saw them, a work in progress, wonderfully and fearfully made.

I am on a journey called sanctification. It would take forever if it were not destined to be interrupted by the blessed inevitability of my inevitable death. In that, God will finish the faith, the work, He began in me.

See Romans 7 for a better explanation.

Rich Galen's Preposterous Column against Snowden in Townhall

2013-06-10T14:18:00.001-04:00

Writing in Townhall.com, Rich Galen condemns Edward Snowden for leaking the government's Big Brother

campaign. He titles it, What ever happened to just quitting? Here's a snippet of his argument.

There is a serious flaw in Edward Snowden's and Bradley Manning's (the U.S. soldier who copied and sent miles of secret messages to Wikileaks) claims that they were looking out for you and me.
As a taxpayer, I'm not paying you to look out after my Fourth Amendment rights. I'm paying you to do whatever job you were hired to do, and if you find that job too ethically distasteful, then you should quit.
But keep your mouth shut.
If everyone is allowed to decide for themselves what is legal and ethical and what is not, then society - not just American society - will collapse.

I stand amazed at this line of reasoning, so much so that I felt compelled to look at Mr. Galen's background to see what school of thought he comes from. Here's the first part of his self-description:

Rich Galen has been described as "what you get when you cross a political hack with a philosopher." Rich Galen's career includes work in and out of politics, in and out of the United States. Rich Galen did a tour of duty in Iraq where he went at the request of the White House. The assignment - which was to have lasted about eight weeks, stretched into six months. While there, Rich Galen was responsible for bringing the message of the positive aspects of what the coalition was doing in Iraq back to Middle America.

(Underlining is mine). I would classify Galen as a neo-conservative as I don't believe being a true conservative includes going to countries we are at peace with, blowing them to smithereens, presiding over their Islamic radicalization, and then going back home to (paraphrasing Galen) "bring the message of the positive aspects of what the coalition is doing in Iraq to Middle America".

So here's my first conclusion about this article and it's writer: government has a right to lie to its people through propaganda. By his own words, he boasts of being a propagandist. For this "conservative", this is a good thing, perhaps even a "patriotic" thing. So when the Obama administration expands on the same kind of BS the Bush administration was known for, they should get a pass.

Yes, Edward Snowden should "just quit and keep his mouth shut". "As a taxpayer, I'm not paying you to look out after my Fourth Amendment rights". Wow! Yes, that's the Fourth Amendment Reich's - I mean Rights' - Defense Division of the Government's responsibility, or something like that. This blows my mind. Galen is actually saying that it's a disservice to the people to have the government exposed for infringing on our rights. Who's responsible for exposing government malice? I am. You are. Everyone is.

May God bless Edward Snowden and protect him in the name of Jesus. Snowden is a hero, and if a large number of Republicans think like Galen, then we either have to boot you from our party or create one of our own. Snowden is the dividing line between knuckleheads like Rich Galen who are actually right-wing liberals and those who are true conservatives.

My question back to Galen is What ever happened to principles? You know, when the people rise up and tell the government to shut up, to leave us alone, to honor our freedoms or cease to exist.

Jeremy Riddle - You're Beautiful / Worthy Is the Lamb - Happy Sunday

2013-06-09T03:07:00.000-04:00

A Timeline Showing President Obama's Instigation of the IRS Crackdown on Conservative Groups

2013-06-08T13:41:00.003-04:00

Read "As Close to a Smoking Gun as You're Going to Get" from Flopping Aces

The Danger of an Opaque Government in a Transparent Society

2013-06-08T06:30:00.000-04:00

For a long time, our world has been moving toward a state of greater transparency. We can see things now that we never could ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. DNA testing has convicted murderers and rapists decades after the crime, and exonerated many of the accused. We can witness murders caught on camera, capture criminals using the video, and now even when our Sunpass card fails to trigger the toll payment, a letter demanding the payment shows up at our house a few days later. One scholar wrote that the transparent society was inevitable.

Instead, the battle shouldn't be against transparency itself but against selective use of the information. For example, the common man should also have access to the police videos, surveillance videos, and the like. The great danger of transparency is that powerful groups will use it to their advantage whilst hiding the data from their opponents or subjects. This point came to mind after I read the other day that the Obama administration has classified more data than any other, barring it from public view. They are currently trying to apprehend Julian Assange of Wikileaks for his part in disseminating information classified by the US Government. The Department of Justice even took action against Fox News correspondent James Rosen for disclosing some classified yet innocuous truth about North Korea being ornery. At this time when all our personal information is being collected, the government of Barack Obama is becoming more and more opaque. It is an ominous sign that our government is gobbling up all our information while hiding more and more of theirs. The ramifications of such an imbalance should be, well, transparently apparent. Knowledge is power, and the government is in an unique position to make sure power is one-sided.

If that doesn't make you nervous, then Obama's advice to young graduates recently might clarify your need for anxiety. Obama told the graduating class not to listen to those who warn that government can be tyrannical. Really? To a president who hides everything his people are doing, we owe neither transparency nor allegiance.

Yes, Chris Matthews, Obama is Evil (and that's not an ethnic slur)

2013-06-07T11:53:00.001-04:00

Chris Matthews just said that President Barack Obama has "never down anything wrong" and believes people think Obama's evil for "ethnic reasons"; codeword for racist. Well, Chris, here's a list of the president's evils.

Hatred of babies. "If my daughter gets pregnant at 16, I don't want her to be punished with a baby". I have despised this man ever since I heard that. He never deserved a single vote in my opinion. He can't be trusted. First, he's openly admitting that he would have his grandchild murdered if they were an inconvenience. Second, he's saying it as if it is his decision. "Prochoice" men always make the choices for their women. That no human should arbitrarily make the choice between life and death for another human is prohibited by the sixth commandment, of course, but Obama's "I" shows he wants to help make such a choice. That is sick. Third, his fervent defense of the right of an abortionist to murder a baby born alive, standing up and speaking it on record in the Illinois Senate, leaves no doubt that this man has a murderous apathy towards children. Yes, Matthews, Obama. Supports. Infanticide. And that is as evil as evil gets. It's already clear that Jesus Christ's unique place in history as the only sinless human ever born has need to consider Barack Obama. And yet, Chris, the is much more.

Barack Obama uses talking points, and after the Benghazi massacre, we found out what "talking points" really are. They are lies, Chris. Not only did the president know he was lying about the attack in Benghazi, he went on lying for weeks. Why? He didn't want the nation to think that his emasculated foreign policy was allowing Al Qaeda to rebound prior to an election. Now the election is over, and millions of idiots returned Obama to office, there should be less need to cover things up, except the things that need to be covered up are vast in number. Government over reach has just hit warp drive. For weeks, we have had a scandal a day come to light. This is the fruit of Obama's first four years. You voted for this, Chris and the Obama Zombies.

So how then is it racist that to say Obama has not lived a sinless life? He supports infanticide, lies to the world, and has presided over the most corrupt administration since Richard Nixon. Obama has no sense of ethics. And ethnicity has nothing to do with it, Mr. Matthews.

The Godlessness of Islam

2013-06-07T10:00:00.001-04:00

The Godlessness of Islam

Islam is a godless religion. Anjem Choudary, a British resident radical, drove home this point when he proclaimed that the Flag of Islam would one day be flying over the White House. That is Islam's ultimate goal, to take over the governments and control people by force. Historically, that is exactly - perhaps ALL - Islam has done.

Islam is best described as a totalitarian political regime. It's god's personality is no different than the "Fuehrers" or the "Divine Leaders" of other autocratic governments past. Some propagandists promoted Islam as a religion of peace but the Qur'an clearly precludes such an idea. Even the "peaceful verses" like Surah 2:62 that appear to call for Muslims to live in peace with Christians and Jews have some caveat that defeats that purpose. In Ayah 62 in one of the translations, it clarifies that the statement applies to the time prior to Mohammed's revelation. The Sahih International version clarifies the statement as, "live in peace with those that WERE Jews or Christians or Sabeans (before Mohammed)." As a matter of fact, there really are no carrots for non-believers in the Qur'an, only sticks.

The fruit of Islam. Aside from its claims to be divinely inspired, the Qur'an reads more like a Maoist rule book than our Holy Bible. It's solutions are the same as Mao's; murder and suppression. "Allah u Akbar" is the shout one hears just before all Hell breaks loose. In a brazen Freudian slip, a Muslim radical warned Israel that their actions would cause the "gates of Hell to be opened." An astute pundit mused that, "Yep, open the gates of Hell so more Islamic terrorists can come out!"

Terrorism is the fruit of Islam. Why? The "religion of peace" would not be so even if those putatively peaceful verses weren't deceptively written. That is because the Koranic calls to violence are unmitigated. You want a guarantee of salvation? Die on the battlefield in the cause of Allah. How does a "moderate" Muslim counter that? Even if most of the Islamic world wants peace, there will always be a portion of them perpetually at war. Guess what that means. Islam is perpetually at war with others and with itself. If you don't believe me, read the shocking verses in Surah 9. Ayahs 29-30 make it clear how non-believers are to be treated; murder and/or oppression. Then it spends 50 verses condemning Muslims who don't follow the guidelines. While I want to encourage peaceful Muslims, the truth is that they can't have it both ways.

Jesus' condemnation of Islam in John 18:36. Christ stated to Pilate that His followers don't fight because He is a not a king of this world. He is "from another place". The Qur'an is interested in fighting to take over this world. Who is the Prince of this world? Satan. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus also prophesied that false prophets would "rise up" after Him. He described them as wolves in sheep's clothing. Wolves eventually devour their prey. Just like Islam.

The real God does not need people to blow themselves up at Sbarro restaurants in Jerusalem or to gun down innocent churchgoers in Iraq and Egypt to make him seem real. God does not need to prohibit books He does not agree with. His Book stands on its own merits. The Bible is always relevant and always the bestseller. The real God is not Osama bin Laden's god, nor Anjem Choudary's god. God does not fight to see that His flag is flying above the White House. The leaders of all the nations have always been subservient to Him.

Qur'an is a man. The real God is not male or female, but male and female. He speaks to both sexes alike. The Qur'an is written from a male point of view. It addresses women as the other. Mohammed and the Koranic authors have no woman-at-the-well moments where Mohammed bonds with a wayward woman. Surah 2:223 is any man's favorite verse; "your women are a tilth for you, approach them when or how ye will" (Yusuf Ali translation). Muslim apologists contend that tilth is used in a tender way, the way a farmer tends to his crops. But the visual analogy of the plow tilling the land along with the one-sided sexual domination points to a human author thinking human thoughts, not divine revelation. Women are not addressed as equals in the Qur'an. They are the "other" because the authors are all male and think like men.

Last, there is hope. The true God is neither asleep nor unwilling. My God is the power behind and within life itself. His glory hangs before every man and woman's eyes. He brings life from death. That's His ultimate goal; which is the exact opposite of Allah's goal. Christ was crucified for the deadly sin that was in us, and was raised as the one and only payment for the reconciliation of all men to God the Father.

Muslims, God doesn't love you because you can murder other people; that is Satan's work. God our Father loves you more than you will ever know because you were made in His image. That is why so many Muslims resist the submission to violence because you know, in the deepest corridors of your soul, that submission to violence and submission to the God whose image you were made in are incompatible.

The Jesus of the Qur'an is distorted because the sources for that character were flawed. The real Jesus of history is exactly who He said He was in the authentic Gospels and in the Old Testament prophecies. We are called to submit to Him whose language is not war but peace; not conflict but joy. Our God calls us to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is not a corruption of the truth. It could never be. Come home to Jesus, my friends.

Jeremy Riddle - This Is Amazing Grace - Happy Sunday

2013-06-02T02:57:00.002-04:00

More than Revelation 20 Points to the Millennial Kingdom

2013-06-01T13:48:00.001-04:00

http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2012/01/is-revelation-20-only-supporting-text.html#

The link is to an interesting article on Bible Prophecy Blog that cites not just Revelation 20 as the only teaching on the millennial kingdom but other verses in the OT; Isaiah, Psalms, Zechariah. It's an interesting read. I don't get too bogged down with End Times prophecy. I know Jesus is coming back and followers of Christ win in the end.

How I Left My Family's Liberal Plantation

2013-05-31T13:02:00.001-04:00

I must confess that I was born a liberal. My father was a government employee, an educator, and all his friends were from the same field. The first President I ever remembered was Richard Nixon. For the first nine years of my life I thought that Nixon and Satan were the same person. Maybe I'm exaggerating but, to be certain, Nixon was not popular among my father's friends.

I grew up reading liberal newspapers and watching liberal news on TV and listening to liberal opinions on just about everything. All seemed fine and sounded fairly good to my ears. But one day a sibling wrote an essay supporting abortion rights. I didn't know what abortion was so I looked it up.

Even though the encyclopedia described the "procedure" in the usual euphemistic terms of the Left, I couldn't get my mind past the reality that abortion is the stopping of a human life. That was the first crack in the liberal thought process I had grown up around.

Then there was the death penalty. It seemed reasonable to me that, if life is of the utmost importance, then the takers should fear punishment. The Ted Bundy's should be put to death. Granted, I am wary of the death penalty. It is the ultimate form of government action and should not be prescribed cavalierly. Many death row inmates have been exonerated by DNA evidence. The jury system is a poor method of determining facts. It suits a court system but a sentence of death has to be approached very carefully. Sentencing a Jodi Arias to death is unwise, in my opinion, while Dzhokar Tsarnaev is a no-brainer; he should be executed. That said, I began to take the pro-death penalty side in family debates in my late teens and early twenties. I was the dissenter on those two issues, being afterwards cast as the "conservative" in the family.

The political parties have seen a growing clarification of their stances. The Democrats have become more Leftist in the last 25 years; government solutions for everything, abortion "rights", multi-culturalist, sensitive approach to Islam, etc. I found myself voting just as much Republican as Democrat until 1994, when, like millions of disenchanted voters, I voted straight Republican.

Changing my party affiliation on September 16, 2002 was a long overdue afterthought. None of the major tenets of the party I was born into stood up to scrutiny. Big Government was the biggest threat and Democrats were and are blissfully unaware of it.

Long story short, the liberal standard of being pro-abortion began in me the doubts about the "party of the people". Like the flaw in the Hal 9000 computer began the deterioration of that mission, the flaw in liberals' defense of abortion started me on the path to reason.

I felt compelled to write my little story after reading about Lincoln Chafee's complaint that the Republican Party had turned on him. I'm glad they did, and other senators like John McCain and Lindsay Graham should be booted as well. The fact is that spineless nanny-state liberalism is destroying our nation. We should not be comfortable with it.

Last, Mitt Romney didn't win not because he ran as a conservative, but that he was not authentic. Democrats rightly crowed about how far-left he was the first 99% of his career. Every Republican wants to run as a Ronald Reagan conservative, but it only works if you ARE a Ronald Reagan conservative. America needs a better choice than between left-wing Big Government and right-wing Big Government.

Pakistani Actress Veena Malik puts a reactionary sheik in his place

2013-05-28T17:53:00.001-04:00

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=UAO8oc93UVQ

Veena Malik was being publicly rebuked by a meddling imam when she turns on him and exposes his grotesque stupidity

America - Land of the Fearful

2013-05-28T01:32:00.000-04:00

Daily Caller has a must-see interview with historian Diana West, whose recent book American Betrayal documents a history from American fear of the Soviet Union to our present-day fear of Islam. Our country has betrayed our values of freedom countless times due to an irrational fear of communism and now Islam. I would add that it is God who ultimately conquers evil in the world. It's a fascinating interview.

Prochoice Talking Points

2013-05-25T12:41:00.001-04:00

I had another conversation with a Twitter liberal, @genyliberal, who's not a mean-spirited person, which makes it easier to have a conversation. But still there is his problem of replying with the same talking points. "Men have no say with what a woman does with her body!" "History shows abortions will always be performed, so it's better in a hospital than with a coat hanger in a back alley."

I'm amazed at how persistent these two points are as thy are easily debunked. First, the baby in the womb is a unique body apart from the mother. Obviously, we did not begin as a second uterus or some such then "became" a baby when 1. Mom decided she wanted us or 2. When we were born. Of course neither of those are acceptable. The idea that the unborn are a mother's body part is silly. An unborn baby is no more a mother's body part then I am a part of my bed because I'm sitting up in bed writing this. Silly as it is, people make the argument over and over. For those wanting to quote the corresponding logical fallacy that this idea represents, it is false premise in that "Because a baby is a woman's body part, she can do what she wants with it." Except, oops, a baby is not a body part but a body.

And that abortions have historically occurred therefore they should be made "safer" is another idiotic notion. Let's name some other historically occurring actions. How about....murder? It's occurred since the beginning of time. Let's make it safe. You want to kill somebody? Have them meet you on the 7th floor of Holy Cross Hospital so Dr. Lazarus can assist. Of course, that's ridiculous, as is the concept of accommodating something evil because it's happened throughout history.

And, the comparison is apposite. Abortion, too, is murder.

Memorial Day Weekend Tribute to Christ Our Lord Who Died For All - Kunitz on Hopkins

2013-05-25T03:06:00.000-04:00

Jeremy Riddle - Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain...For Me

2013-05-25T02:22:00.001-04:00

On the Tragic Tornado in Oklahoma

2013-05-22T02:30:00.003-04:00

Where the twister trundled and tore,
Stands a tall tree whittled of its bark,

Sheet metal wrapped around like a scarf.

Can you see the tragedy?

Follow the base, pan down, more

Pandemonium, a bedpost and steel rod

spiked into the earth, debris as far

as the eye can see, but where's the tragedy?

Voices travel over the inchoate wasteland;

An old woman is reunited with her dog;

a young couple searches for their child.

The sun begins its descent - a tragedy grows.

News comes that more school children have died.

Sadness like a heart's hollow ventricle explodes

as twilight deepens and the rubble sinks

into a chasm of mystical hopelessness.

The will of millions hugs the land

trampled by the tornado. Help arrives

from far and near, but tragedy only deepens

as the new day confirms the very worst fears.

It would be so much easier to swallow

if there was someone to blame, someone

to chase into a cave and kill to quell

a community's angst over such a cold calamity.

The May 20th tornado was a crime,

yet there was no criminal,

lest the guilty party be man himself,

or God, seated on His throne, forsaking us.

The vastness of the devastation

renders us silent, turns us inward

to grieving for the lost children,

the sons and daughters - the future.

The tornado suggests there is something

above right and wrong, something so sublime

there is no human equivalent - above the world

yet involved in it, overcoming it.

And overcome they will, the people of Moore,

burying the debris beneath the tree that always lives,

as they have done before, then they move on,

like Jacob's clan, to Bethel in the Promised Land.

Only Bethel for those baptised by tornadoes

is in their rebuilt homes, dedicated to their

lost children and kin. Their Bethel is the future

right here. Right here. Right. Here.

Why Liberalism is Driven By Agenda, Not Truth

2013-05-20T18:51:00.000-04:00

I once stomached fifteen minutes of Chris Matthews' god-awful show Hardball on MSNBC. The left-wing apologist was interviewing a Constitutionalist, one who believes the original intent of the Constitution's provisions must be carefully observed. Matthews kept asking the man why he thought slavery should be legal and the guest corrected him three times, pointing out that the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery. Matthews kept saying that, if you believe in original intent you must believe in original amendments. It was such an appallingly stupid and plainly false argument (Straw Man) that I was amazed they let it air. But that's MSNBC's message day after day. If you believe in the Constitution, you support slavery. If you question homosexuality, you support slavery. If you oppose abortion, you want to keep women enslaved.

It worries me that people embrace obvious logical fallacies and outright lies to promote liberal causes and silence their critics. While logical fallacies can snare both sides of the political aisle, liberals don't seem to care at all about the veracity of their arguments. In their group-think, they have decided they are right and that's the end of that. But liberals should understand that, if their positions are true, then they would be better served by true arguments than blatantly false ones. Unless they know their positions are false.

Liberal attack on the Constitution. The liberal consensus is that the Constitution is obsolete, written by 18th Century slaveholders. A relative of mine, a liberal former history teacher, states that the Constitution is a "flawed document", and that seems the best sentiment I've heard from a liberal on the Constitution. But this is wrong-headed because the Constitution is still being written. There are 27 Amendments and some amendments are very recent. We can change the Constitution if we feel that the law of the land needs to be changed. And we are not slaveholders or irrelevant ghosts from the 1700s. We write the Constitutional amendments of our time. So liberals are without excuse in their rejection of the Constitution. Why then do they reject having a law of the land? In my opinion, it is that they are setting up a lawlessness that will benefit the rapid and mandatory acceptance of their causes.

"Leveling the playing field" for women, gays, and blacks. Liberals point to an historic privileged white America and rage against it, convinced that white folks have taken advantage of and abused women and minorities. While white folks have done bad things in the past, levelling the playing field has gone beyond mere equality to raising women and minorities, African Americans, and gays to protected status through abortion "rights", welfare, Affirmative Action, and limiting criticism of homosexuality. While it's understandable that liberals would seek to defend historically underprivileged groups, their reforms have had the opposite effect on the groups they hoped to help. Abortion has hurt American women more than any other atrocity against women. Abortion is the murder of an innocent child and every post-abortive woman lives with that guilt daily. Welfare destroyed the family units of African Americans and poor whites. Affirmative Action and other racial reforms have encouraged a culture of under-achievement and entitlement in the black community. Same-sex marriage threatens free speech, calling for action against citizens and groups who don't believe that a union between two members of the same sex can be called marriage. One would think that achieving legal recognition of same-sex marriage would be enough, but liberals are over-reaching by categorizing dissent as "hate speech". Such bullying will eventually backfire - at least in the US - and gays will not be better off.

If liberalism was pure and true, it wouldn't need logical fallacies and bullying tactics to win arguments and elections. My concern is that manipulators like Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, and the mean Myka woman from MSNBC are satisfied with propaganda and bullying. The ends justify the means, in their view. And, no, I do not see that as a Straw Man. Dan Rather exemplified this type of thinking when he admitted the documents he used to damage George W. Bush's military record were false but the content was true. Rather gained national attention after the Kennedy assassination when he reported that students in a Texas classroom cheered when they heard the Democrat President has been assassinated. That story was also untrue; the school had announced the students could go home early - without saying why - so they cheered.

I know. I haven't finished answering "Why Liberalism is Driven By Agenda, Not Truth". You see, the power of liberalism is the power of the mass-minded people of the world; the ebb and flow of culture's spineless mob - the slow and disjointed march of relativism. Pope Benedict XVI cited it in describing Judas Iscariot's egregious stupidity in betraying Jesus.

“Judas is neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of darkness but rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion. But it is precisely this anonymous power that crucified Jesus, for it was anonymous voices that cried, ‘Away with him! Crucify him!’”

The only reason you would crucify Truth is to save an agenda, and that is precisely what we see with Political Correctness and the hapless history of liberal social engineering today. Save the agenda. To Hell with truth.

Thoughts on 10,000 Page Views for 33 Consecutive Months

2013-05-19T14:14:00.003-04:00

May, 2013 is the 33rd straight month that Moral Science Club blogs has seen 10,000 or more page views. BUT, as my wife likes to remind me, MSC has not made a single dollar.
My response? She's right (as always), but if this blog helped one person on their way to knowing Jesus Christ then it will all have been worth it.

Matt Redman - 10,000 Reasons - Happy Sunday

Mona Charen column "Fight The Power"

2013-05-17T11:58:00.001-04:00

Mona Charen records words from a speech by President Obama on the benevolence of government. It's a direct logical fallacy. Apparently, this president never met a logical fallacy he didn't like. Here he uses generalizations about his opponent's arguments and adds a Straw Man argument, that criticism of government is equal to an attack on self-rule itself.

For a great read, click on the link.