Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Friday, October 11, 2024
The Top 5 (October 12)
From the release: "“The immediate purpose of Nebraska Initiative 434 is to protect girls, women, and preborn children from the exploitation and lethal violence of abortion with the secondary effects helping to build a stronger culture of life, love, and justice in our state. On the other hand, Initiative 439 is a truly draconian measure which would eliminate every pro-life law ever passed by the Nebraska Legislature. That would include the compassionate and common-sense laws that prohibit late term abortions, require minors to inform parents of a pending abortion, require women to be fully informed about the realities and risks of abortion, and so on.
Indeed, if 439 were to become part of the Nebraska Constitution, there would be no restraint whatsoever (not even regulation) on abortion businesses, making it immeasurably unsafe for girls and women and babies. No, Initiative 439 is not designed to help women at all; it is merely a bold attempt by the abortion profiteers to increase still further their extremely lucrative businesses. Therefore, I strongly urge my fellow Nebraskans to vote FOR Initiative 434 and to vote AGAINST Initiative 439."
* "Harris And Biden Don’t Value American Lives, So Neither Should Be President" (Beth Brelje, Federalist)
From the article -- While campaign commercials for Kamala Harris scream that states are banning abortion and that access to the deadly procedure is at risk without Harris at the helm, the US saw, in 2023, the most abortions in a decade: an estimated 1,037,000 in the formal health care system. It’s an 11 percent increase since 2020, the last year estimates were available, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion data.
That is enough babies to fill the University of Michigan’s “Big House” football stadium 10 times.
Abortion is big business, and politicians who pledge to keep the abortion racket thriving get huge campaign donations. They can afford it. The nonprofit Planned Parenthood Federation of America showed more than a half billion dollars in gross receipts in 2023. President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson earned nearly $584,000 that year, outpacing the $400,000 annual salary of the U.S. president. With so much money on the line, the idea of making abortion safe and rare is not the goal anymore. Killing the unborn is profitable, and it shows in the tone Harris uses when defending the grisly practice.
* "To the 41 Million Christians ‘Unlikely’ to Vote This November: ‘You Need to Repent’" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)
From the article -- According to some truly shocking statistics from George Barna at Arizona Christian University (ACU), as many as 41 million Christians plan to sit this election out — more than enough to hand the country’s keys to the eager and radical Left. For Donald Trump’s opponent, the news that one of the Dems’ biggest obstacles to victory is voluntarily shirking their civic duty is cause for premature celebration.
Incredibly, the research, conducted between August and September, suggests that 41 million self-described born-again Christians are “unlikely” to vote in the November election. To Len Munsil, president of ACU, that spells disaster. “I see two huge takeaways from this blockbuster report,” he explained. “First, that Christians could be the deciding factor in a bunch of federal and state races — and are choosing not to be. And second,” he continued, “that they are longing for their local church to instruct them on how to think biblically about policy and politics. They don’t want to be told how to vote,” Munsil added, “but they do want to know why they should vote and how to view political issues from a biblical framework.”
* "David Horowitz: Political War" (Scott Johnson, Power Line)
From the article -- Democrats criminalize arguments and facts they can’t answer by calling them “disinformation.” In a campaign worthy of the KGB, the Democrat Secretary of State suborned 51 top intelligence officials including the former head of the CIA to sign a letter calling Hunter Biden’s treasonous lap top “Russian disinformation” right before the 2020 election. This behavior is not just about winning elections, which it was and would be bad enough. It’s about betraying your country and fellow countrymen.
Republicans are rightly alarmed that the Democrats have destroyed America’s borders, let in an estimated 20 million unvetted individuals including hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals, virtually all from countries and continents ruled by corrupt dictators and fanatic terrorists. They are shocked by the Democrats’ determination to give these illegal aliens the right to vote along with more goods and privileges than the indigenous population.
But they are tongue-tied when it comes to calling these policies what they are: criminal and treasonous attacks on our country and its Constitution. Joe Biden had no legal authority to change America’s immigration policies by executive order. Immigration policy is the purview of the legislative branch of government not the destructive schemes of one demented executive. Destroying the border is the greatest crime committed against America in its 237-year history. It is not a run of the mill policy difference.
* "The Long Road to Freedom for Jack Phillips" (Editors, National Review)
From the article -- Few living Americans have stood longer against government persecution for their freedoms than Colorado baker Jack Phillips. He has been repeatedly targeted under Colorado anti-discrimination law for adhering to his Christian faith. At long last, his third legal saga is over after the Colorado supreme court on Tuesday rejected the latest lawsuit against him on procedural grounds. After twelve years, Phillips is free of the courts. We can only hope he stays free — and that his fellow citizens will, too.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Vote FOR 434 & Vote AGAINST 439
Vital Signs Ministries has joined Nebraska Right to Life, the Nebraska Catholic Conference, Nebraska Family Alliance, Students for the Life of America, and other pro-life organizations of longstanding in publicly opposing the zealously pro-abortion Initiative 439 which will be on the Nebraska ballot this election. And, along with their colleagues, Vital Signs Ministries is asking Nebraska voters to protect the pro-life gains that have been made through legislation in our state over the years by voting FOR Initiative 434.
In the case of 434, the laws passed thus far in Nebraska to protect preborn boys and girls, to protect girls and women from the violence of abortion, and to try to uphold the ideals of Western civilization regarding a just defense for and compassionate care to the innocent and vulnerable, would stay a part of Nebraska law. And a vote for Initiative 434 would also allow the citizens of Nebraska to persuade the Nebraska legislature to enact more pro-life protections in the future.
Standing against the progress of these just and humane laws, however, is Initiative 439 which will also be on the ballot. And if 439 were to be voted into the state’s constitution, every single pro-life law passed over the decades would no longer apply. 439 denies any limitations on abortion at all, including even regulations regarding health, sanitary conditions, safety, qualifications of abortion practitioners, age, involvement of parents, and so on. It is extreme almost beyond imagination.
The following remarks are from Vital Signs Ministries Director Denny Hartford --
“The immediate purpose of Nebraska Initiative 434 is to protect girls, women, and preborn children from the exploitation and lethal violence of abortion with the secondary effects helping to build a stronger culture of life, love, and justice in our state. On the other hand, Initiative 439 is a truly draconian measure which would eliminate every pro-life law ever passed by the Nebraska Legislature. That would include the compassionate and common-sense laws that prohibit late term abortions, require minors to inform parents of a pending abortion, require women to be fully informed about the realities and risks of abortion, and so on.
Indeed, if 439 were to become part of the Nebraska Constitution, there would be no restraint whatsoever (not even regulation) on abortion businesses, making it immeasurably unsafe for girls and women and babies. No, Initiative 439 is not designed to help women at all; it is merely a bold attempt by the abortion profiteers to increase still further their extremely lucrative businesses. Therefore, I strongly urge my fellow Nebraskans to vote FOR Initiative 434 and to vote AGAINST Initiative 439.”
For further information, feel free to contact Denny Hartford at (402) 341-8886 or dennyhartford@gmail.com
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
The October LifeSharer is a WOW Read!
Oh, my! What a September it was for Vital Signs Ministries!
from Vital Signs Ministries is out...and up!
So check out the momentous ministries of September right here.
Saturday, October 05, 2024
The Top 5 (Plus) for October 5
From the article -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the remainder of hurricane season, yet $640 million has been allotted to DHS specifically for issues related to illegal immigrants. “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds — FEMA does not have the funds — to make it through the season,” Mayorkas revealed.
This is problematic, as hurricane season does not end until November 30. According to Fox News’s Chad Pergram, “Congress made sure FEMA had more than $20 billion in last week’s emergency spending bill ahead of the storm, but last year, Congress awarded DHS $640 million to help communities provide shelter and aid to people in the country illegally.”
* "How To Blow up the Middle East War in Five Easy Steps" (Victor Davis Hanson, Real Clear Politics)
From the article -- Second, Biden-Harris nihilistically killed off the Trump administration's "Abraham Accords." That diplomatic breakthrough had proven a successful blueprint for moderate Arab nations to seek detente with Israel, ending decades of hostilities to unite against the common Middle East threat of Iran.
Third, Biden begged Iran to reenter the appeasing, so-called Iran Deal that virtually had ensured that Iran would eventually get the bomb. Worse yet, it dropped oil sanctions against the theocracy, allowing a near-destitute Iran to recoup $100 billion in profits. And it greenlighted $6 billion in hostage ransoms to Tehran. An enriched Tehran immediately sent billions of dollars in support and weapons to the anti-Western terrorists of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis to attack Israel, Americans, and international shipping. Iran soon began partnering with China and Russia to form a new anti-American axis.
Biden-Harris also fled abruptly from Afghanistan, abandoning billions in weapons and American contractors. The humiliation thus virtually destroyed American deterrence in the Middle East, inciting enemies and endangering friends.
* "9 Ways Harris and Walz Built Their Campaign on Misinformation and Disinformation" (Ben Johnson, Washington Stand)
From the article -- More than any time in history, the Democratic Party has spent the last eight years warning that politics runs the risk of being contaminated by the foul specter of “misinformation and disinformation.” Anyone conversant with politics knows “misinformation and disinformation” have long been synonymous with political campaigns from candidates of all backgrounds, but the Harris-Walz campaign wants to criminalize political differences.
In 2019, then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris promised the NAACP that she will “hold social media platforms accountable” if they “act as a megaphone for misinformation.” But if she did that, Harris might turn her own campaign into a federal case. She has frequently been guilty of what the head of her proposed federal disinformation board, Nina Jankowicz, called “information laundering”: repeating lies in a prominent political or media outlet. As we have noted, ABC News moderators let at least 10 Kamala Harris lies slide at her (apparently only) debate with Donald Trump on September 10, many of which she had made in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and some of which the party had enshrined in the 2024 Democratic Party platform. Here are a few more...
* "Convicted criminal migrant deportations have decreased 74% under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, damning new figures reveal" (Charlie Spiering, Daily Mail)
From the article -- President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are deporting far fewer illegal aliens even as border crossings are at an all-time high as revealed by shocking new data exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com. The number of criminal illegal aliens removed from the United States has fallen 74 percent under the Biden-Harris administration, according to public numbers compiled by the National Immigration Center for Enforcement first provided to DailyMail.com.
Only 134,617 convicted criminal aliens were removed over the last three fiscal years under the Biden-Harris administration even as a flood of migrants continue making their way across the borders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection numbers show more than 10.3 million encounters with migrants on America's borders during the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, not including the estimated over 2 million migrants eluding border patrol agents.
The numbers pose a problem for Harris, once dubbed as the 'border czar' after President Biden appointed her as a lead figure to handle the root causes of migration and lead messaging on the border crisis.
And for something a little different...
* "A Colorado Conversion Story" (In this 6-minute video, Denny Hartford gives a brief testimony of his conversion to Christianity through the ministry of Young Life way, way back in the day.)
And for those who want even more, you might pursue these alarmingly informative articles:
* "Are We Too Dumb to Survive?" (John Hinderaker, Power Line)
* "Why the slow collapse of Harris-Walz won't stop before Election Day" (Victor Davis Hanson, Fox News)
* "Melania’s Abortion Support Further Discourages Pro-Life Votes For Trump" (Aubrey Gulick, Federalist)
* "America's Disorder Problem" (Charles Fain Lehman, Washington Free Beacon)
* "What Happened to Tucker Carlson?" (John McCormack, The Dispatch)
* "‘Fact check’ has become just another word for censorship" (Douglas Murray, New York Post)
Friday, October 04, 2024
A Colorado Conversion Story
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
Francis Schaeffer on Cool vs Hot Communication
It is therefore necessary for the true Christians in the church to oppose Mcluhanesque ‘cool’ communication employed by the liberal theologians with the ‘hot’ communication of theological and biblical content…
We believe in the hot communication of content and as our age cools off more and more in its communication, as content is played down and reason is plowed under, I believe the historic Christian faith must more and more emphasize content, content, content, and then more content.”
(Francis Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World)
“Keep Your Hands Off It” -- Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide
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Yes, it’s true. Though Sherlock Holmes’ reputation may be that of a proud, socially-detached, scientific-minded thinker who has little to do with formal religious practices, careful readers know of numerous indications that the great detective is not at all antagonistic to a belief in God. For instance, there are several allusions to God in the “canon” including Holmes’ reference to his survival at the Reichenbach Falls as “the blessing of God,” his knowledge of the Old Testament narrative of David’s murder of Uriah as being in either 1st or 2nd Samuel, his description of the Great War as “God’s own wind none the less,” his reference to Ecclesiastes 10:8 in “The Speckled Band,” and the mention in “The ‘Gloria Scott’” about a dog biting his ankle when he “went down to chapel.”
Of related interest is that there was only one client for whom Holmes served twice; namely, Pope Leo XIII in “the little affair of the Vatican cameos” and “the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca.”
There are also quite moving passages in which Sherlock Holmes shows his belief in God to be more aligned with biblical revelation than with the detached deism held by turn-of-the-century freethinkers. Examples? The God Who Holmes believes in is a God of wisdom and justice. In “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” Holmes tells a terminally-ill murderer, “It is not for me to judge you. You will soon answer for your deed at a higher court than the Assizes.” And in “The Adventure of the Red Circle,” the detective describes human life as “a series of lessons with the greatest as the last.”
There is also the very moving passage in “The Naval Treaty” where the scientific sleuth recognizes and appreciates the wisdom and grace of a personal God as revealed in His gifts of creative beauty. Suddenly affected by the fragile beauty of a little flower, Watson records Holmes stopping in the middle of a conversation to say, “‘What a lovely thing a rose is!’ [Holmes] walked past the couch to the open window, and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.
‘There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion’ said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. ‘It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.’”
To be fair, one must also mention Sherlock Holmes’ admiration of Winwood Reade’s “Martyrdom of Man,” a secularist tract which was condemned as a most “irreligious work” by none other than William Gladstone. Holmes’ religious views, one concludes, were neither consistent or thorough. Nor were they guided by strict exegesis of the Scriptures. Still, Sherlock Holmes' passionate desire for a deeper, more enlightened understanding of a transcendent God is movingly portrayed in both “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” and “The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger.” Those two passages read as follows:
“What is the meaning of it, Watson? What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
And, “The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest.”
These two passages are quite moving, expressing an enigma commonly faced even by convinced Christian believers. They are not the mocking complaints of a skeptic but rather honest evaluations of the anxious problem of suffering and evil…evaluations which are yet founded upon an optimistic trust in God’s enveloping goodness.
But finally, let me get to the matter of Holmes’ fervent belief in the sanctity of life, no doubt born of that same trust in God’s kind and just Providence as illustrated earlier. Here’s the situation — Holmes and Watson have met Eugenia Ronder, a young and once lovely circus performer who has been horribly disfigured by a lion. And again, the story has no mystery to be solved, no true adventure for the great detective to pursue. Indeed, Conan Doyle’s singular purpose for including it in the “canon” seems to be to dramatize (and thereby emphasize) a proscription against suicide by putting it in the voice of the overwhelmingly popular character of Sherlock Holmes.
In the concluding paragraphs of the story, Eugenia has opened up and told her tragic tale to Holmes and Watson. The detective then says:
“Well, well, it is of little consequence now. The case is closed.”
“Yes,” said the woman, “the case is closed.”
We had risen to go, but there was something in the woman's voice which arrested Holmes's attention. He turned swiftly upon her.
“Your life is not your own,” he said. “Keep your hands off it.”
“What use is it to anyone?”
“How can you tell? The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world.”
The woman's answer was a terrible one. She raised her veil and stepped forward into the light.
“I wonder if you would bear it,” she said.
It was horrible. No words can describe the framework of a face when the face itself is gone. Two living and beautiful brown eyes looking sadly out from that grisly ruin did but make the view more awful. Holmes held up his hand in a gesture of pity and protest, and together we left the room.
Two days later, when I called upon my friend, he pointed with some pride to a small blue bottle upon his mantelpiece. I picked it up. There was a red poison label. A pleasant almondy odour rose when I opened it.
“Prussic acid?” said 1.
“Exactly. It came by post. ‘I send you my temptation. I will follow your advice.’ That was the message. I think, Watson, we can guess the name of the brave woman who sent it.”
Arthur Conan Doyle was a lapsed Catholic who eventually became involved in Freemasonry and the most extreme elements of spiritualism. Nevertheless, he himself and his character of Sherlock Holmes held a general worldview that had been instructed (though but weakly) by the Holy Scriptures, including the divine virtues of justice, compassion, appreciation of beauty, and faith in the rewards of an afterlife. And, before retiring Sherlock Holmes once and for all to his bee-keeping, Conan Doyle appears to have written one of his last Holmes stories in order to underscore another divine truth; that is, that human life, whatever its state or condition, is created by God and of infinite value to His purposes. It is to be cherished, protected, and promoted both for its inspirational value to others...and for its own sake.
A Sherlock Holmes story with a pro-life message? No doubt about it. And though it is perhaps surprising to the casual reader, to the devout Sherlockian, it is quite elementary.