The Top 5 Plus (October 10)

1) “When It Comes to Christians and Policy, Pastor Willy Rice Gets It” (Paul Batura, Citizen)

From the article -- “The need of the hour is not for executives, celebrities, intellectuals, life-coaches, podcasters, authors or performers,” he said. “The greatest need in our movement is for faithful, Christ-honoring pastors that will take up the task of shepherding the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

According to Dr. Rice, part of that pastoral task includes encouraging Christians to engage in the political process. “Throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history, even in the revolutionary times—maybe especially in the founding of our country,” Rice said.

Pastor Rice isn’t shy about confronting the mistaken belief that Christian leaders should stay silent on hot-button cultural issues. “It’s quite interesting, over the last several years, among many conservatives—and by conservative, I’m not talking politically there as much as I’m talking theologically; I’m talking about historic Christian orthodoxy,” Rice stressed. “Many Bible-believing, conservative evangelicals were actually being encouraged to be more quiet, to withdraw from the political process.”

He continued: “Some of those voices came externally from pressure saying, ‘You shouldn’t mix religion and politics,’” Rice argued. “But some of those voices came internally from those who said, ‘In order to be faithful in our mission, we needed to decouple, divorce ourselves as it were, from some controversial political issues.’”

Related articles: “Rice: Southern Baptist pastors should be involved in the political process” (Scott Barkley, Baptist Press), “Southern Baptist Convention President: Midterm Election Issues Are ‘Deeply, Profoundly, Theological’” (Lee Weeks, Decision)

2) “The New Antisemitism: October 7 Was A Symptom As Well As A Tragedy” (Olivier Melnick, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- It took decades for the tree of “Palestinian Narrative” to take root, but today it is a tree of deceit firmly planted in Western tolerance and multiculturalism, and it continues to be watered by social justice and wokism from the Left AND from the Right. In 2026, the switch is complete. In the eyes of our global village, the Jewish victims have fully morphed into the new perpetrators in the Middle East (and by proxy, all Diaspora Jews), seeking occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

At the same time, Palestinian Arabs have been recast as the new victims, through the crafty media productions in books, movies, online, and on the streets. It is a method known as “Pallywood,” where scenes are staged and filmed with actors and fake victims to simulate victimization and heavy casualties of Palestinians and, as a result, demonize and delegitimize Israel in the eyes of the world. If there were ever an award ceremony for the “Palestinization” of the world, the events of October 7, 2023 would win in every category.

So, it is appropriate to remember the tragedy of October 7. In a gruesome Holocaust fashion, many lost their lives after psychological torture, violence, rape, and fire. Many more were taken hostage by Hamas and a plethora of willing Palestinian co-perpetrators (70%-75%). Even during Nazi Germany, some Germans rescued and sheltered Jews. Not one Palestinian did such a thing in Gaza. 

Related articles: “Oct. 7, remembered in Israel and beyond” (JNS Staff), “Hijacker Target Revealed: Ben Gurion Airport” (Also, Britain's antisemitism problem returns.) (Amit Segal and Ari Tatarka, It’s Noon in Israel), “We Stand with Israel” (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog), “On The October 7 Anniversary, The United Kingdom Advocates For Israel’s Eradication ‘From The River To The Sea’” (Chris Katulka, Harbinger's Daily), October 8th’s Irony: Islamic Supremacists Fall in the Middle East, Rise in the West: Will we find the moral clarity and summon the courage to defeat them? (Benjamin Weingarten).

3) “The West Confronted with Two Islams” (Bat Ye’or, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- The concept of dar al-harb (the “abode of war”) -- countries still to be conquered for Islam and regarded as the realm of absolute evil in which the injustice of infidel laws prevails -- remains current and effective in Islamic theology. It is this concept that today mobilizes some Muslim immigrants in the West to reject integration into societies that do not practice sharia. In other words, the clash of civilizations persists, but now within Western civilizations themselves, which have lost their homogeneity through the demographic changes and host large numbers of Muslim immigrants imposing their own laws

The present situation recalls the traditional waves of jihadist conquest of territories inhabited by Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims. Greek, Serbian, and Slavic historians bitterly chronicled, over the course of centuries, the internal traitors -- military figures, displaced aristocrats, princes of the Church -- who made pacts with Muslim conquerors and handed citadels and cities over to them.

The radical activism today of the Muslim diaspora within Western societies and its refusal to integrate... stem from directives issued by the OIC [a sort of global caliphate representing 56 Muslim countries].

In the West, jihad operates on several levels: indiscriminate terrorism, censorship of “blasphemy,” changes in customs and laws, the ballot box, the adoption of Western concepts in order to turn them against Europeans, such as cancel culture (to shut out Western evil), and calls for “resistance” (against Christian laws, by holding to jihadist principles of conquest and domination) and "liberation" (meaning the replacement of infidel law by sharia).

4) “Rubio’s Magnificent Speech Meant for Europe... and US: The Sec’y of State was masterful at the Acropolis” (Roger Simon, Substack)

From the speech itself -- For 25 centuries since, the Parthenon has stood.  Empires have risen and fallen beneath its shadow.  And the progeny of the men who built it – the sons of Athens and Rome – have carried their civilization with them to the ends of the Earth.

Two and a half centuries after the founding of the American republic halfway across the world from where I stand now – I stand here today as the Secretary of State of that republic, and a great-grandson of settlers who arrived in the new world from Spain – I stand here to testify to a debt that no lapse of time, no distance of space can ever extinguish. 

The history of America, the history of my country, is covered with the fingerprints of antiquity.  Greece is literally carved into the architecture of our government: in the towering columns, in the domes and the monuments across our capital city.  The city where our Constitution was born – Philadelphia – is itself a Greek name.

The men who founded my country were fascinated by the heritage we inherited from yours.  They were exceptionally well-read in history – they were vividly aware of their unique place in it – but no other age of the past held their attention or their imagination quite like that of antiquity.  Many, many people are surprised to learn that the most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was not an Enlightenment philosopher or political theorist.  No, the most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was Plutarch, the Greek biographer of Greece and Rome’s great men.

Now, much has been written and said about the influence of ancient Greece on the ideas of the American Founders – and, for that matter, on all of the Western philosophers and statesmen that preceded them.  Most of us are familiar with the basic history.  Athens gave us democracy.  Plato and Aristotle gave us Western philosophy.  Our ideas of law, of virtue, of citizenship, and republican government were shaped in the Greek city-states.  Even much of our political vocabulary – words like democracy, tyranny, the word “politics” itself – found its origins here.

Now, all of that is true.  But the things we owe to this place – as Americans, and as Westerners – are actually far far deeper.  These institutions and ideas – these institutions and ideas were the outward expression of more fundamental qualities we see in the ancient Greeks – qualities that can’t be reduced to any particular political system or theory.

Related articles plus a link to the full text (and video!) of the Rubio speech:

“Marco Goes Hard About what really matters” (Glenn Harlan Reynolds), “Rubio Warns Europe to ‘Wake Up’ and Rediscover National Strength” (AG News Staff), “Marco Rubio Delivers First Speech of the 2028 Presidential Race -- The speech receives an A+ grade.” (Daniel J. Flynn, American Spectator), and “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks” (U.S. Department of State). 

5) “Trump and the Relentless Momentum of Events: Trump is the great magnetic north of our political metabolism.” (Roger Kimball, American Greatness)

From the article -- Back in 2022, I agreed with the conventional wisdom that the election would be a blowout for Republicans. I was wrong. This time, I suspect that the conventional wisdom has failed to price into its calculations the astonishing number of victories the Trump administration has racked up in its first 18 months.

It is a long list. The Dems recently learned the word “affordability” and have been practicing saying it aloud early and often. News from many quarters is undercutting their complaints. Yes, gas prices, which peaked in 2022 under Biden, are still elevated because of the war in Iran. But they are on their way down and will plummet in coming weeks as markets begin to register Iran’s defeat. Recently, the Atlanta Fed predicted that real growth in the third quarter will come in at a blistering 5.0–5.1 percent. At the same time, the Census Bureau released data showing that the poverty rate fell to 10.2 percent, the lowest in our history. Blue-collar income has jumped between 4 and 5 percent since January 2025, when Trump began his second term. Manufacturing—and manufacturing jobs—are flooding back into the United States.

On the foreign policy front, it is hard to keep up. At the beginning of the year, Trump nabbed Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their supposedly impregnable fortress in Caracas. He then made what the White House called “the biggest oil deal in world history, delivering U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela.” Last month, Trump signed a permanent security deal with Denmark and Greenland. The agreement recognized official “Danish sovereignty and Greenlandic self-determination.” It is an odd or “lite” version of sovereignty, however, since the agreement also grants to the United States the exclusive right to maintain and expand military bases in Greenland. The deal also grants the U.S. exclusive say about access to Greenland’s extensive mineral wealth and “sensitive sector investment.”

Other Important Articles

* “Are We Becoming Gondor?: J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of a declining Gondor offers a warning for the troubled West—but also a message of hope that renewal remains possible.” (Victor Davis Hanson, Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

3 of Denny’s Open Letters from This Week’s Vital Signs Blog:

* “Enough Already! Let's DEFUND the United Nations.”

* “Nebraska Leaders AWOL on the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act: An Open Letter”

* “Fulfilling Islamic Law by Burning His Daughters? An Open Letter to Nebraska Senators”

* “Margaret Thatcher Goes to Hell” (If you didn't loath the modern Disney corporation enough) (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

Enough Already! Let's DEFUND the United Nations.

This basic letter is being sent to President Trump, all of Nebraska's Federal lawmakers, and selected Cabinet members...

Dear Secretary Rubio,

I certainly stand with Senator Mike Lee -- and so do the majority of Americans who are aware that the United States gives 13-14 billion dollars every year to the United Nations – “No more blank checks for the United Nations. Americans’ hard-earned dollars have been funneled into initiatives that fly in the face of our values, enabling tyrants, betraying allies, and spreading bigotry.”

Enough is way more than enough. The United States playing patsy to this ever-increasingly greedy, bizarre, socialistic, anti-Semitic, terrorist applauding, and anti-American business must come to an end.

Please pursue the aims proposed by of S. 669, the DEFUND Act and, in whatever other ways possible, defend America’s reputation for freedom, fair play, justice, and fiscal sanity by extricating our country from this inept, and hyper-hypocritical organization.

"We Stand with Israel"

"In this house, we remember in mourning the some 1,200 Jews that Hamas barbarians terrorized, tortured, and murdered on this date 3 years ago. And we remember the thousands more who survived the attacks and yet were injured, many of them severely, with effects that will last their entire lives. And we remember the 251 Jewish people who the demonic thugs of Hamas then kidnapped, took back to Gaza, imprisoned in cages, and further humiliated, starved, and further tortured.

And, in this house, we stand with Israel."

Have You Ever Thought of the Constitution as Sin Management?

“Alone in the woods, it’s possible to go a whole day without sinning, nutty as that may sound. Walking alone in the fields and praying, watching the game running up and down the pig trails, it’s unlikely you’ll use the Lord’s name in vain or worship some other god. In the woods there’s no one to steal from, no women to lust after. There’s no one to lie to either, and you can’t murder someone who’s not around. See? Sin management in isolation is easy. [But] I suspect our Founding Fathers knew most people wouldn’t participate in sin management by making their way to the woods. 

They knew that our great America wouldn’t be forged in isolation, and that most people would congregate down the wider roads. They knew folks would rub shoulders as they built society. And as I wrote in the previous chapter, they hoped these folks -- together with all their children and grandchildren -- would build a strong and virtuous nation. They knew, though, that any community of people hoping to build a virtuous society would need a teacher. And so, they left us a grand instructor: a canon of biblically based law.” (Phil Robertson, The Theft of America’s Soul: Blowing the Lid Off the Lies that are Destroying Our Country, page 115)

Nebraska Leaders AWOL on the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act: An Open Letter

Dear Senator Ricketts,

I’m writing to ask what you are doing in opposing the mail order abortion drug mifepristone, a deadly and wickedly deceptive chemical poison that seriously endangers the health and well-being of the pregnant woman... and kills the precious and innocent baby she is bearing. Indeed, why have you not bothered to even co-sponsor S. 4066, the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act?

That this common-sense, humane, and eminently just effort has only received 7 co-sponsorships among those Republicans who so loudly tout their pro-life convictions when they appear at pro-life events back home is truly inexplicable. We have long trusted your statements regarding the sanctity of life and have deeply appreciated your past efforts, so, please don’t let this oversight continue.

Therefore, Senator Ricketts, I am writing to ask you to please co-sponsor S. 4066 ASAP and to work diligently to educate your colleagues (and your constituents) about the sinister workings of the abortion poisons being manufactured by Danco and other big-pharma companies. And then, please redouble your efforts to defend and promote the sanctity of life by going strong against fetal death by chemicals. 

After all, Senator, more preborn boys and girls are being wantonly destroyed now with these abortion pills than even the worst years of the Roe v Wade era. In fact, there has been more than a 20% increase since the Dobbs decision with 2/3 of the abortions being committed with the abortion pill. And the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act presents a critically important response to this burgeoning, deadly industry.

The common-sense purpose of S. 4066 is “To provide that the approved application under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for the drug mifepristone for the purpose of the termination of intrauterine pregnancy is deemed to have been withdrawn, to establish a Federal tort for harm to women caused by chemical abortion drugs, and for other purposes.”

Suction machines. Curettes. Saline solutions. Chemical poisons like mifepristone. It is time to fight wisely, comprehensively, and hard against all the means of killing boys and girls in the womb. Please let us know that you will be increasing your efforts in this most momentous of pro-life campaigns.

Denny Hartford (for Claire Hartford too)
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Omaha

Fulfilling Islamic Law by Burning His Daughters? An Open Letter to Nebraska Senators

Dear Senator Fischer, 

Among the most atrocious elements of the militant Islam that are malignantly spreading throughout the world are forced conversion, violent persecution of Christians and other “infidels,” the cruel subjugation and mistreatment of women, and an arrogant disdain for evenly applied justice. Well, this story has it all. It is a horrifying example of the insidious evils spewing forth from intolerant Islam.

Late this summer, Amina and Shamila (shown above), teenaged sisters in the Kasese district of Uganda, had been introduced to Christianity with its central themes of compassion and forgiveness of sins via the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. They decided to leave Islam and become Christians. Their father’s reaction? Just a few nights later, he doused their house with gasoline and set it ablaze while the girls were sleeping. He had previously threatened that he would “fulfill Islamic law” by punishing them and this was the lethal plan he chose.

By the grace of God, the girls awakened to the sounds and smells in the burning building, saw the flames entering their room, and began to frantically remove enough bricks from the wall to crawl out to safety. And, though they lost all their belongings in the fire, they were alive and received immediate help from Christian neighbors.

Despite the murder by arson attempt, the young women’s new faith in Christ was actually strengthened. “We are happy to say that the fire consumed our shelter, but did not consume our faith and hope in Jesus Christ.”

It remains unclear whether or not the father will face trial for the attempted murder of his daughters.

This sad account -- and its certainly not the first of its kind -- emphasizes the dire need of Americans to 1) carefully investigate immigration into the United States to keep hardcore Islamists out and 2) to diligently protect the U.S. Constitution (and the laws, procedures, and freedoms that flow from it) against the very real threats of its usurpation by “sharia law.” 

Thank you, Senator, for seriously considering the dire importance of these matters.

Denny Hartford
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Omaha

The Top 5 Plus (October 3)

1) “Those amazing and heroic Israelis: An averted catastrophe in the air shows how the Jewish state chooses life, while Britain and the West are embracing a culture of death.” (Melanie Phillips, JNS)

From the article -- Only the Israelis could behave like this—regular people displaying raw courage, heroism and the lion-hearted, can-do Israeli spirit. Alerted to an existential threat, these ordinary guys immediately took matters into their own hands, neutralized the danger and saved countless lives.

What an amazing, wonderful, heroic country. What a symbol of everything Israel has been doing for the past three years, ever since Hamas launched its genocidal onslaught against it on Oct. 7, 2023. What a statement of defiance against Britain and a Western world now consumed (whatever they think they’re supporting) by a deranged agenda to wipe this country out. How this lifts the spirits. And how those spirits are instantly lowered by contact with the life-destroying venom of the Western intelligentsia.

Western media outlets tried everything they could to downplay the near-catastrophe in the skies over Saudi Arabia. CNN called it “an internal personnel incident between pilots.” The New York Times called it “a clash in the cockpit.” Reuters headlined it: “A pilot brawl, then a rapid descent: Passengers recount chaos in flydubai flight.”

As ever, the BBC excelled itself as a disgrace to journalism. BBC News reported: “Israel’s far right national security minister Ben-Gvir says that an Israel bound flight that landed in Saudi Arabia was due to a terrorist who wanted to crash the plane and kill Israelis.”

Related articles: “The lesson of Flydubai? Don’t mess with Zionists: The heroism on that crazy flight was a beautiful reminder that the Jewish nation is here to stay.” (Brendan O'Neill, spiked!)

2) “Why Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Speech About America Still Demands Attention” (Daniel J. Mahoney, Daily Signal)

From the article -- Writing three years later in the pages of Foreign Affairs magazine, Solzhenitsyn remarked that he had been under the mistaken impression that Americans welcomed criticism, but now he understood that our elites only welcomed it from the Left. “Total,” unrelenting, even nihilistic, criticism of Western civilization by leftist ideologues was welcome, but “partial,” yet sympathetic, criticism of the kind proffered by Solzhenitsyn was verboten.

Later, however, Solzhenitsyn would observe in his memoir “Between Two Millstones” that after the initial round of uncomprehending indictments of the “Harvard Address,” he began to hear from those who belonged to another, more solid, traditional America. This less elite-driven America “was small-town and robust, the heartland, the America I envisioned as I was writing my speech, and to which my speech was addressed.” The receptive welcome of these patriotic and religious-minded Americans gave the great Russian writer and Nobel laureate “a glimmer of hope” that he could connect with the part of the country that had not yet succumbed to the progressivist Zeitgeist.

In the “Harvard Address,” Solzhenitsyn defends liberty under God and the law while taking aim at soulless legalism and facile moral relativism. Instead of recommending authoritarian coercion of any kind, Solzhenitsyn endorsed “freely accepted and serene self-limitation” as the wisest and most prudent course of action for both individuals and societies.

3) “‘UNAI’: It is time to rename the UN to United Nations Against Israel” (Duvi Honig, Jerusalem Post)

From the article -- From the opening day of the General Assembly, speech after speech turned toward Israel: Turkey. Jordan. Qatar. France. Britain. Brazil. The secretary-general himself. Different continents. Different religions. Different political systems. Different national interests. Yet somehow they keep finding the same common ground: Israel.

The world has wars raging, dictatorships crushing their own people, political prisoners sitting in cells, minorities being persecuted, women being denied basic rights, and terror groups operating openly. Iran itself poses a direct threat to America and the West. Yet when the nations gather, the recurring target becomes Israel.

Again and again.

And that is where the institution’s name begins to take on a different meaning. The UN seems unable to unite around almost anything. But put Israel in the middle of the room, and suddenly the nations discover what it means to be united.

Related articles: “United Nations Against Israel: The Backwards Antisemitic Thinking Of The World Is Stunning -- But Not Unanticipated.” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily): “America First Means Standing with Israel: Standing with Israel is in our strategic interest.” (Fred Fleitz, American Greatness)...“‘October 7 Will Return': Hamas, Like Iran, Will Not Voluntarily Give Up the Fight” (Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute)...“Is Anti-Jewish Legislation Making A Comeback Across Europe?” (Olivier Melnick, Harbinger’s Daily).

4) “The Quiet Islamic Colonization of America” (Pierre Rehov, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- While countries in the West are always nonchalantly accused of imperialism and colonization, how come no one ever mentions the Islamic imperialism and colonization of Christian Byzantium – now Turkey – let alone the entire Ottoman Empire? How come no one ever mentions the Islamic colonization of the Coptic Christian country of Egypt, or of northern Cyprus in 1974? Or the formerly Buddhist countries of southeast Asia, such as the Maldives, Malaysia or Indonesia?

The Islamic colonization now underway in Europe and the United States carries no racial or demographic content.... The territory being taken is ideological: it changes hands whenever a political movement discovers that open institutions can be used more profitably than if they were attacked, or whenever foreign money purchases standing inside institutions that form the next generation of American elites, or whenever two movements with incompatible values find they can trade access for votes.

Americans may not notice it right away, or now, but one day, unless actions are taken as soon as possible to prevent it, they may wake up one morning to find themselves under Islamic rule.

Related article: “‘Kowtowing To Sharia Law’: Gavin Newsom Signs Law Codifying Muslim Observances Over Christian, Jewish Holidays” (Decision Magazine, via Harbinger's Daily)

5) “Lost in the Wilderness: The True Roots of Male Demoralization: The crisis of young men isn’t simply a failure to grow up.” (R.B.A. Di Muccio, American Spectator)

From the article -- Nowadays, young men are treated as either victims of intense sociological anxiety or the objects of thinly veiled ideological derision. To their critics on the progressive left, young men are creatures of “fragile masculinity,” clinging to (and failing to live up to) arbitrary, patriarchal norms that must be therapeutically deconstructed if we are to achieve a more equitable future. To secular cultural commentators, they are caricatures of apathy; stalled adolescents lingering in their childhood bedrooms, checked out of the labor force, alienated from civic life and hopelessly anesthetized by the digital world.

The diagnosis from both camps is remarkably similar: the modern young man suffers from a fundamental failure of character. A refusal or inability to grow up is merely the predictable effect.

But this convenient consensus is not just lazy; it is willfully blind. A more honest assessment reveals that our sons are not suffering from a sudden, mysterious collapse of personal ambition. Rather, they are experiencing a profound, systemic misalignment between their hardwired aspirations and the woefully insufficient institutional pathways provided by our corrupt society. 

Related article: “Learning to Read and the Crisis of Male Demoralization: We have to nurture the right kind of masculinity.” (James H. McGee, American Spectator)

Other Important Articles:

* “I lost a state championship to a boy. I refuse to lose my voice.” (Kendall Kotzmacher, Fox News)

* “A Farewell to Land Acknowledgments: What was that all about anyway?” (Kyle Smith, WSJ Free Expression)

* “Rockefeller Brothers Fund Sent Nearly $32 Million to China-Based Nonprofits, Watchdog Finds -- ‘Dangerous partnership with Communist China’ is detailed in new report” (Ira Still, Washington Free Beacon)

* “Why Eric Cantor Going To Head Big Pharma Is The Swampiest Move Ever” (Christopher Jacobs, Federalist)

* “A Conservative Answer to the ‘National Freakout’ Over AI: AI needs a referee, not a ruler.” (Donald Devine, American Spectator)

Will Someone Please Turn Down the Noise?

When asked what he would like the orchestra to play while he was dining at a London restaurant, playwright George Bernard Shaw thoughtfully replied, “Dominoes.”

In this matter, I’m with Shaw.

It is a crazy, unhealthy feature of modern life -- this matter of unrelenting noise. For instance, having television or radio, canned music or internet advertisements blaring at us absolutely everywhere we go. Airports, restaurants, convenience stores, doctor’s offices, the car mechanic’s waiting room, shopping malls, the vehicle next to yours at a stoplight, coffee shops, nursing home and hospital rooms, even church. For crying out loud, the other day I was putting gas in the car and had to try and block out the TV playing inside the gas pump!

Will someone please down the incessant noise!

George Prochnik, in his book “In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise,” warns of the harmful physical impact of noise. “Noise wreaks havoc on all different parts of our bodies. The heart rate accelerates. We get vasoconstriction…The really scary thing is even if we do habituate mentally to noise, that doesn't change what's happening to our bodies.”

Is noise truly inescapable in our time? Is there no place where we can escape the intrusion of dissonant sound? Must our bodies and brains be forced to suffer the constant stress from clamoring, clattering commotion?

Perhaps not. But it will certainly take effort to turn down the noise in our lives, to listen more attentively to the natural sounds of life: God’s creation, calm conversation, serene music. More radical still, shouldn’t we be making time to relish some peace and…genuine quiet?

William Penn, in a book containing advice to his children, wrote, “True silence is the rest of the mind and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue; it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin.”

Amen, Brother Penn. A quiet but unqualified amen.

Phil Robertson on Believing Lies

“The enemy came and he convinced us that God is not the author of life, that all of it happened by chance. He’s convinced us that we aren’t made in God’s image, but that we’ve evolved from monkeys. He’s made us believe that our unborn babies aren’t really alive, that they’re nothing but clumps of tissue to be disposed of. The evil one has blinded us to God’s creating and sustaining ways, and what’s the result? We protect animals and kill babies. We’ve turned to murder and mayhem. We lack the peace and presence of God that comes from understanding God’s life-authoring ways.” (Phil Robertson, The Theft of America’s Soul: Blowing the Lid Off the Lies that are Destroying Our Country, page 66)