MSM Delights in Reporting "Progressive" Christianity

Most of the evangelicals who are wringing their hands over global warming are simply playing America's favorite game; namely, follow the leader -- with the leader, of course, being that conglomeration of media, politicians, and pseudo-academics that make up the liberal establishment. Don't bother about the ethical priorities established by the Bible (the gospel, authority of Scripture, sanctity of life, sexual morality, etc.) and don't bother to investigate the hard evidence, just jump aboard whatever bandwagon is being pulled by the television networks.

Here is an example of how the MSM crows whenever they see Christians de-emphasize the ethical priorities mentioned above in favor of causes that are more politically-correct. And take note how the spin of both the print and the video here underscores the "progressive" nature of these evangelicals; i.e. away from creationism, away from right-to-life issues, away from the policies of President Bush.

Thanks, Cyndy, for the heads-up about the story.

What the "Christian Left" Has Left Behind

Author, blogger and broadcaster Kevin McCullough takes a hard look at the so-called "Christian left" in this sobering Town Hall column. He has some tough words for folks like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo (shown at...well, the left) but they are backed up with strong reasoning and biblically-based convictions -- two things the apostate leaders have, most tragically, left behind.

Note too the link within McCullough's column to an hour-long podcast of his radio interview with Campolo. Tellin' it like it is; good job, Kevin.

Freedom of Speech Under Major Democrat Assault

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council writes:

The nominations of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, the Partial Birth Abortion ban, raising broadcast decency fines, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. These are just a few of the issues we asked you to contact your legislators about -- and you responded in such strong numbers that our combined efforts were successful.

Now the liberal leadership in the U.S. Senate seeks to silence groups like the Family Research Council from informing you on the issues. Included in S. 1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007, is a provision that seeks to establish, for the first time, federal regulation of grassroots activity that is intended to encourage members of the public to communicate with Members of Congress about pending legislative matters - so-called "grassroots lobbying." This is a move to stop us from informing you about the issues you find important.

We don't oppose legitimate proposals to address unethical actions by Members of Congress, congressional staff and lobbyists. But nothing in those misdeeds provides any justification whatever for the idea that Congress should regulate the constitutionally protected efforts of groups such as ours to alert citizens regarding legislative developments in Congress. The First Amendment protects our right to "petition the government." This is the heart of our democracy.

Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) has introduced an amendment to S. 1 that would strip this abusive language from the bill. The Senator realizes that just as it would be unconstitutional to monitor the press because of their contact with their readers, Congress has no business monitoring the motives of citizens who contact Washington to express their views. I ask you to contact your U.S. senators now and let them know that you oppose the grassroots provisions in S. 1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007, and that you support Senator Bennett's amendment.

Here too is a brief piece from Focus on the Family about this outrageous move by the Democrats to strip away this key Constitutional right. Plus, the page offers an a quick way for you to send a prewritten fax to your Senators. Use that page; write letters and make phone calls; alert your friends; and keep on speaking...while you yet can.

Troop Surge Isn't the Best Answer

...Not one of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen or Marines I interviewed told me that they wanted more U.S. boots on the ground. In fact, nearly all expressed just the opposite: "We don't need more American troops, we need more Iraqi troops," was a common refrain. They are right...

The above comment comes in a column written by someone who has proven his courageous patriotism, his wise conservative principles, and his far-seeing vision for America. So please read the rest of this piece by Oliver North right here.

Marching (And More!) for Life

Okay, guys; it's that time of year again!

1) The Nebraska Walk for Life is tomorrow morning (Saturday, January 13th) at the State Capitol.
The Walk starts at 10 (after a few introductory remarks) and continues to the Student Center on the NU campus. There will be information booths (including one hosted by Vital Signs Ministries -- please stop by and say "hey") and then there will be some great speakers dealing especially with the issues of embryonic stem cell research and cloning. Those speakers are Dr. Sheryl Pitner, Chip Maxwell and Greg Schleppenbach. Here's more information.

2) The National March for Life is January 22nd in Washington, D.C.
Vital Signs is sending a small contingent of 5 (all seasoned sidewalk counselors who know how to dress for Januarys outside) and we are really looking forward to again being with thousands and thousands of pro-life advocates from around the country. It's not too late to get a plane ticket and join us. Here's the March for Life website.

3) And finally, here's the scoop on the Blogs4Life conference scheduled before and after the March there in Washington. If you're wondering about making the trip, this conference should be enough to make you call the airlines! Scheidler, Brownback, Stanek and more! Check it out.

Another Act of Suppresion of Free Speech on Campus -- One Student/Journalist Responds

Early last month the Students' Association at Carleton University (Ottawa, the college attended by Dan Aykroyd) voted 25 to 6 to ban from using the Association's resources and space any group that seeks to "limit or remove a woman's right to choose." Hmm. Doesn't seem too tolerant, does it? It certainly is not the kind of open-minded willingness to think about, study and discuss ideas that academia constantly pontificates about.

Well, at least one university in Canada does hold to the concept of the open forum and as proof I suggest a reading of this editorial in the Gauntlet, the student paper from the University of Calgary.

The editorial was written, by the way, by the newspaper's sports editor, John Roe. As I said in a quick e-mail message, "Thanks, Mr. Roe, for standing up for common sense, the rights of free speech and the ideal of the genuine university. Your argument was well founded and well expressed." Because the comments are publicly posted at the end of the article, you would do a good thing by sending a similar note along.

"A Tale of Two Bigots" -- Mike Adams Exposes the William & Mary Cross Removal

It seems modern secularists dread the mere sight of the cross as much as Dracula ever did.

This Mike Adams' Town Hall column about the anti-religious bigotry and unbridled power lust shown by two "academic leaders" at William & Mary University is a must-read. (Be sure also to follow the link provided at the end of the article in order to sign the petition against this tyranny.)

The Sad Sell-Out of the National Council of Churches

No wonder the liberal churches are empty. With an agenda that is more Democrat than Decalogue, true believers have gone elsewhere while the banal and backsliding figure they might as well stay home and watch TV.

A new report says the National Council of Churches (NCC) is being propped up financially by secular foundations and other non-church organizations. At least two members of the clergy who were present at a news conference touting that report suggest that may be one reason why the NCC appears to have abandoned its original mission.

The report -- titled "Strange Yokefellows: The National Council of Churches and its Growing Non-Church Constituency" -- released by the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy highlights the National Council of Churches' growing dependence on liberal groups for funding and support. At a news conference at the National Press Club on Wednesday, IRD spokesman John Lomperis noted the NCC receives large amounts of funding from non-church entities that promote liberal social and political causes, such as same-sex "marriage."

Lomperis, co-author of the report, shared his observations of NCC board meetings he has attended over the last three years. At those meetings, he says, he was "surprised" to hear talk of the Council receiving and pursuing grants from such entities as MoveOn.org, the National Education Association, the Ford Foundation, and the philanthropies of billionaires George Soros and Ted Turner -- both of whom, he pointed out, are avowed atheists.

"At the NCC's Spring 2004 board meeting," Lomperis added, "no one expressed any disagreement or even words of caution when one board member exhorted the Council to actually alter its programming in order to appeal to such non-church benefactors."

Lomperis says the NCC behaves far more like a partisan political group than a church group that purports to promote Christian unity. Report co-author and IRD vice president Alan Wisdom concurred, saying instead of seeking Christian unity, the NCC under general secretary Bob Edgar has chosen to focus on political advocacy. He accuses the NCC of alienating much of its constituency and other U.S. Christians by receiving and seeking funding from liberal groups that have been described as part of the "shadow Democratic Party..."

Too bad the Institute wants $35 for a copy of the report. But at least you can read the entirety of this Agape Press news story right here.

The New Order in the Senate Targets Freedom of Speech

From one of the Family Research Council's regular e-mail updates:

...a new bill in the Senate could make it difficult for groups like ours to act on anything. In an effort to insulate themselves from the people--and further accountability--the liberal majority has threatened to pass a lobbying reform proposal, S.1, which would effectively silence grassroots organizations on policy issues. As we reported earlier this week, S.1 would require us to notify Congress about alerts, ads, and editorials, sometimes weeks in advance. Obviously that would make our efforts to inform the grassroots somewhat irrelevant, since we can rarely predict which issues Congress will debate weeks ahead of time--let alone how those debates will fare and what their ramifications will be.

Yesterday, on Focus on the Family's daily radio broadcast, I joined my good friends Dr. James Dobson and Rev. Don Wildmon and Gary Bauer, to discuss the chilling limitations this bill would impose on the grassroots. Thanks to listeners like you, who tuned in and contacted their elected leaders, we learned that the phones in the Senate office buildings were flooded with calls. One of the Senators you contacted, Bob Bennett (R-UT), took the objections to heart and introduced an amendment on the Senate floor striking the provision on "stimulating grassroots lobbying." We look forward to working with Sen. Bennett and others to protect your right to be informed and involved.

Michael Moriarty Sounds Off on the Supreme Court, Eugenics, Abortion and a Whole Lot More

You may find parts of this essay kinda' far out (I did) and you will certainly think that running for President under the Realists Party is a pipe dream of the strangest sort (or perhaps an ingenious publicity platform) -- but there's no doubt you will find it most interesting. Certainly you'll see that the award-winning actor doesn't need a screenwriter for him to make a powerful speech. Indeed, he has a skill with the English language as well as a soul full of passion that are both admirable.

The Supreme Court's fairly recent "Eminent Domain" Decision ignored the constitutional right protecting private property from seizure by anyone, let alone the now imperious, imperial State and Federal, Progressive American Government. But on the other hand, our license to own something was twice used to ignore the Declaration of Independence and dispense with our inalienable right to life.

In the Dred Scott decision of 1857 and the Roe v. Wade decision, the right to private property have been used to defend the absolute denial of life and liberty, rights defined by the Declaration of Independence as "inalienable". Mere existence and self-evident freedom were withheld from the gestating infants of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century and the African-Americans of the 19th Century.

Women and slave masters own human beings as private property. These owners, the pregnant mothers and the Southern plantation owners, can do with African Americans and gestating infants anything these owners wish: force them to work without pay, lynch them and/or abort them.

You shall know the tree by its fruit; and the Intellectually Supreme, Progressive Supreme Court has used the American right of private property in three of the most perverse, grotesque and sadistic interpretations of American Jurisdiction that American History has ever seen...

Read the whole essay right here.

An Uneasy Truce: Russia, Belarus End Present Fuel Crisis

It's over...for now. But the recent fuel crisis between Russia and Belarus, which also endangered supplies to the European Union, clearly reveals that the momentous rift between the two countries (supposedly part of a political union) is growing.

Here are reports (variously slanted) from icWales (U.K.), Kommersant, and Pravda.

Ethics Reform? Why Don't the Democrats Start with Their Own House?

...The Democrats now repine over a Republican "culture of corruption." Well, it did not start with the Republicans. I can find no historic parallel for what [Sandy] Berger did at the National Archives, and he got off with a misdemeanor. From this week's congressional report it appears to me that he stole documents, possibly destroyed them, and apparently corrupted Archives officials and officials in the Justice Department. Cultures of corruption have a way of spreading. When I read of Sen. Hillary Clinton's run for the White House I wonder, do the Democrats want to go through this degraded debate all over again?...

In an important "Lest We Forget" kind of column, R. Emmett Tyrrell revisits the incredible, audacious (but to the MSM, non-scandal) of Sandy Berger's criminality.

Who Is Helping Planned Parenthood Kill Babies?

Life Decisions International has just formulated its latest list of companies giving money to Planned Parenthood. Below is an excerpt from the LifeNews.com story about the announcement:

...Companies appearing on the boycott list for the first time also include AlphaGraphics, television broadcasting firm Arizona Lotus, BolchalkFReY Marketing, Kara-Line (Wild Carrots apparel), hotel and resort operator Lowe Enterprises, and Scolari's Food & Drug.

Numerous corporations have appeared on the LDI boycott list for years and the group encourages pro-life people to continue to boycott their products and contact their corporate headquarters to let them know why.

Neiman Marcus, software maker Adobe, Wachovia, Golub (which operates Price Chopper supermarkets), Nike, Time Warner, Unilever, Bank of America, the Dallas Cowboys, CIGNA, Walt Disney, Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo, Whole Foods Market, and Nationwide insurance are some of the large companies that have supported the abortion business.

The new boycott list also includes the names of charitable groups that have developed relationships with Planned Parenthood and LDI asks pro-life people to disassociate themselves with them.

These groups include the American Cancer Society, Camp Fire girls, The Dr. Phil Foundation, Girls Inc., Girl Scouts, Human Rights Watch, Kiwanis Clubs, the March of Dimes, Rotary Clubs, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the YWCA.

"We ask all people who care about life to visit this page to learn which businesses in their area are supporting Planned Parenthood," Scott said. "We urge picketing, letter-writing, and personal visits to these establishments. It is important for pro-family people to let these entrepreneurs know how they feel..."

Catholic Bishops Urge Congress to Reject Bill Destroying Human Embryos

The U.S. bishops have urged the House of Representatives to reject a bill that would fund research requiring the destruction of human embryos. The bishops called instead for greater support for more promising and morally acceptable research, using stem cells from adult tissues and from the byproducts of live birth such as cord blood, amniotic fluid and placentas.

The appeal was made in a January 9 letter from Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities. And the Cardinal's letter, quite an excellent one, can be read right here.

I encourage you to take a couple of points from the Bishop's letter and use them in your own letters, calls and e-mails to your Congressmen and Senators.

The Duke Faculty's Faulty Fault-Finding

Ann Coulter's column on the Duke lacrosse team vs the lying stripteaser is one of the best to date, especially as she points to the wider relevance to the culture of this tragic farce.

Leaving Purgatory At Last: Nominees Withdraw After Years of Republican Indifference

From the Evans-Novak Political Report --

Judicial Nominees: With the Democratic takeover of the Senate, four of Bush's nominees to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- William Haynes, William Myers, Terrence Boyle and Michael Wallace -- are withdrawing their names from the nomination process. The White House had been willing to renominate all of them, but three had been languishing for years and had no desire to continue the charade. Wallace, the fourth, had gotten a poor rating from the American Bar Association.

This is a reflection of two things: First, Democrats are expected to obstruct judicial nominees as they have since Bush took office in 2001, which is no surprise. Second, after an entire session of Congress in which they all but ignored the issue of judges, Republican leaders in Congress have given nominees little or no confidence that there will be a fight on their behalf. The administration also did very little to push these nominees through a Senate that had a 55-seat Republican majority.

Further evidence of this nominee-confidence problem came with Kenneth Tomlinson's decision yesterday not to seek renomination as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Tomlinson was so brutally battered by Democrats throughout his tenure -- as Republicans stood by and watched -- that he did not feel it worth his while to put himself through more misery in the form of confirmation hearings...

Back of the Bus? No, English Speakers Are Kicked Off Altogether

Want to ride the bus to school? Well, then stop speaking English.

This is the kind of story that is so outrageous you just can't make it up -- but it is a story that is all too real, a story of loopy political-correctness gone amok.

The Fix Is In: America's Entertainment Powers Award Only Liberal Stars

As you know, I'm not a Bill O'Reilly fan but this piece, printed in the Boston Herald, most defintely deserves a careful reading.

For months, my research staff has attempted to find one television critic writing for a major American newspaper who is a conservative thinker. They could not find one. Scores of TV writers are registered Democrats - we can’t find a single registered Republican. The same is true for film reviewers. As far as we can tell, only syndicated movie critic Michael Medved is a conservative thinker. Nearly every other writer analyzing film has left-wing credentials. Same thing with book review editors, likewise for music critics.

The field of popular culture in America is not even close to being level. It drains to the left all day, every day.

The rest of this very good column is here.

U.S. "Peace Activists" Arrive in Cuba...with Fidel's Blessing

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to the A.P. report but you'll have to read between the lines to note how selective Cindy Sheehan and her far-left cohorts are when it comes to targets of protest. Better to season the MSM's version of this trip with those from more relevant and more principled freedom advocates like the fellows over at 26th Parallel who had this comment:

What bothers me isn't their criticism of U.S. policy, as much as I don't agree with it, but their hypocritical stance regarding the lack of human rights in Cuba. CODEPINK is supposed to stand for social justice, yet where is their denouncement of the human rights violations in Cuba. Perhaps they care more about being against U.S. policy than for human rights...

English Hospital Starves Woman to Death

She pleaded over and over to be fed -- but doctors at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital (U.K.) paid no attention. And they proceded to starve Olive Nockels to death.

Below is an excerpt from the Times Online (U.K.) story:

...Olive Nockels, 91, a former school matron, died after surviving for nearly a month on a subcutaneous drip that delivered only a quarter of the calorie intake specified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a short-term starvation diet. Even that was stopped for four days when the hospital claimed that she was suffering from excess fluid.

Relatives told the inquest that doctors and the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital had no interest in treating Mrs Nockels after she was admitted in September 2003. Her grandson, Christopher West, told William Armstrong, the Coroner, at the inquest in Norwich: “The only thing that was said most of the time, as the weeks went on, was that she hadn’t died yet. “Immediately after her admission it became clear it was their intention not to treat her.”

Mr West, 34, obtained a High Court ex parte injunction on October 6, 2003, forcing doctors to reinstate artificial nutrition and hydration, but the next day Mr Justice Forbes varied the order on an application by David Maisey, a consultant...

The Democrats' Newest Snake Oil Scheme: Clinton, Carter Tempt Baptists Away from Biblical Values

This brief Associated Press story reveals yet another example of the left's new tactic in dealing with "values voters"; namely, the distortion of biblical theology (while using religious symbol, rhetoric and association) to tempt Christians into aligning with the Democrat Party.

In this same approach recently, we've witnessed the surge in the MSM's coverage of "progressive evangelicalism," the cave-in of several Protestant leaders to the unscientific ballyhoo of global warming, and the sidling up of ardent abortion promoters like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to preachers like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren.

And now...this:

ATLANTA - Plans are in the works for a major meeting for Baptists distancing themselves from conservatives in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton joined the leaders of about 40 Baptist groups to make the announcement yesterday at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The meeting, scheduled for next year, is aimed at improving the public image of Baptists and broadening their agenda on social issues such as poverty, racial conflict and health care. The S-B-C has become the leading voice against gay marriage and abortion since coming under conservative control nearly 30 years ago.

Carter left the convention in 2000, but stresses that Southern Baptists are invited to attend the meeting. He says the goal is to demonstrate a "common commitment" to the goals of Jesus Christ.

The Russia/Belarus/Europe Oil Crisis Worsens

Belarus started siphoning off Russian oil meant for Europe. (That's hardly a surprise to those who know the criminal character of the Belarus dictatorial powers.) And so Russia has turned off the tap, leaving Europe in the lurch -- and very, very upset.

Here's the latest on the crisis from the BBC.

The Tyranny of Tolerance Reviewed

...The liberals usually claim they want an "independent" judiciary, unbridled free speech, and tolerance for all points of view. Now they are trying to kill the messenger because they can't counter Dierker's copiously documented arguments.

[Robert] Dierker asserts that "illiberal liberals are at the root of the constitutional crisis we face today." In a nutshell, they act as though "(h)istory and tradition count for nothing; the language of the Constitution itself counts for little; the only criterion is whether a ruling will advance the liberal agenda." The false theory that the written text of the U.S. Constitution is "evolving" has been used by the illiberals to transform obscenity, abortion and sodomy from crimes into constitutional rights. Their accomplice in judicial attacks on religion, the ACLU, Judge Dierker says, should be called the "Anti-Christian Litigation Union."

The illiberal liberals are angry that this sitting judge has exposed their game plan to use the courts to override self-government. The radical feminists are more than angry; they are trying to get Dierker censured and/or fired, and have even suggested he be subjected to a "judges' book review" to prevent judges from "offending the bench." The feminists' tantrums remind us of MIT Professor Nancy Hopkins, who said she wanted to "throw up" after hearing Harvard President Larry Summers utter words heretical to feminist ideology. Summers tried to appease them by repeatedly apologizing and offering millions of dollars to finance feminist academic goals, but the merciless feminists forced him to leave Harvard anyway.

I'm betting that Dierker will not be intimidated by the radical feminists' histrionics because he has the great quality of "manliness," so well described in Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield's recent book of that name. Mansfield defines manliness as "confidence in the face of risk" and assertiveness in causes beyond themselves...

Read the rest of Phylis Schlafly's fine column right here.

And consider checking out for yourself Dierker's book, The Tyranny of Tolerance: A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault.

House Churches in the U.S.

George Barna turns his sights on the growing house church movement in America. Provocative reading.

America's Team It Is Not

I just caught these quick op/ed comments that Matt Abbott wrote for Catholic Online. It gives the sports fan a more serious reason to root against the Dallas Cowboys than just the presence of Terrell Owens.

...The Dallas Cowboys Football Club is, sad to say, a supporter of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider and promoter of abortion. This according to Life Decisions International (www.fightpp.org).

Now, I don’t put the blame on the entire team for supporting Planned Parenthood, but I do blame Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who, according to the Republican National Coalition for Life (www.rnclife.org), contributed several thousand dollars to the abortion giant in 1998.

Contrast Jones with Chicago Bears majority owner Virginia McCaskey, a devout Catholic known for her support of pro-life causes. God bless her!

Life Decisions International confirmed to me that “[t]he Dallas Cowboys Football Club is still a boycott target due to its support of Planned Parenthood. Sounds like a major fumble to us.”

Indeed.

Perhaps you would like to personally ask Mr. Jones to discontinue the Dallas Cowboys' promtion and support of the nation's largest abortion abortionist. If so, you can write to:
Jerry Jones
Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Center
One Cowboys Parkway
Irving, Texas 75063-4727
or use this contact page to send along an e-mail.

I suggest that your note be a simple, polite request like the one I sent:

Dear Mr. Jones,

Perhaps you are unaware of the devastating effects wrought by Planned Parenthood, especially in their aggressive (and extremely profitable) businesses of surgical and chemical abortion. Real kids who could grow up to be Cowboy fans are being killed by the thousands in Planned Parenthood abortion centers every day. Even more are callously destroyed by Planned Parenthood's sales of abortifacient chemicals.

It is something much more perverse than mere "unsportsmanlike conduct" -- it is tragic, senseless violence against the most defenseless of all human beings.

Please reconsider your assistance to this grievous evil.

Sincerely,
Denny Hartford
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Omaha, Nebraska

Amniotic Fluid Source of Helpful Stem Cells -- The Vatican's Response

The Vatican on Tuesday welcomed a new way of extracting stem cells that does not use human embryos, calling it a significant advance that could help medical research without going against Roman Catholic beliefs. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, said the discovery showed medicine can progress without destroying human embryos.

U.S. researchers reported on Sunday that stem cells found in the amniotic fluid protecting babies in the womb were nearly as powerful as embryonic stem cells in producing adaptable cells that scientists hope can someday transform medicine.

The Catholic Church and other religious groups have been staunch critics of the most common method of stem cell research, which involves extracting cells from human embryos, because they believe such organisms are humans from the moment of conception.

"I am very glad to see this progress in the field of science for the good of humankind," Barragan told Vatican Radio on Tuesday, noting it did not violate "the life of the donor."...

The rest of this Reuters article is here.

Condemnation by Cartoon

If you think the marginalization of Christianity in America will not eventually shift into more aggressive persecution, think again. The MSM press, business, the courts, the educational system and the "entertainment" media are certainly increasing their collective power against any Christian influence (even existence) at all.

One of the most insidious of recent examples? An off-the-edge cartoon program called Moral Orel. Here's the scoop from Brent Bozell.

The Death of Innocence

The sleaze of pop culture (and I use the word "culture" extremely loosely) is beginning to even get to the New York Times! Check it out.

Beware the Boiling Oil: Russia and Belarus Still At Odds

For those of you following the ongoing Russian/Belarusian feud, there's a lot more information (collected in several stories) over at the Radio Free Europe web site. However, let me give you a quick update here.

Belarus, still smarting from Russia's decision to require a new duty of $180 per ton of Russian crude oil exported to Belarus, has dared to stir the Red Bear by imposing a "transit fee" of $45 per ton on Russian crude oil shipped through Belarus's oil pipelines to Europe. And that's not all. Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenka (shown at left) has said he will demand still more payments from Russia. "The government of the Russian Federation, the Russian leadership, promised us a solution to the oil problem. We have done everything they wanted. The time has come for them to keep their promises. If it does not happen, we have the right to act in the same way, to be free in our decisions. I mean to raise the issue of the Russian Federation paying for Russian oil transit across Belarus, to pay for the land used for oil and gas pipelines, as well as for Russian Federation property here."

Now, tough talk is certainly nothing new to Lukashenka -- even crazy talk that is dangerous for his country's interests. But his illegitimate regime, already causing ever-increasing dissent from within Belarus and from the European Union, really gets into trouble if it goes too far in alienating its' big brother to the east.

Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry has already decried the imposition of the transit duty as a break of the terms agreed to. But Russia's next steps aren't yet determined.

The U.S. State Department weighed in on the matter also. Spokesman Sean McCormack told journalists in Washington that imposing a duty on Russian crude oil transit reveals the "rotten core" of the regime of Lukashenka.

Indeed so. But there have been plenty of evidences of other kinds (illegal and corrupt elections; severe persecution of political opposition; shutting off freedoms of speech, assembly and religion; and so on) to show the world this "rotten core" before.

Does Your Local Paper Feature David Limbaugh? It Should!

Three cheers for David Limbaugh, one of America's most perceptive and relevant "watchmen on the wall." Reading his Town Hall columns over the last few years has convinced me that Limbaugh's clear-headed and heart-felt commentaries are must reading and I urge my fellow conservatives to write their local newspapers regularly, asking them to include David Limbaugh's columns in their editorial section.

Here's an excerpt from today's column: "I agree that many Democrats are Christians, but that doesn't change the fact that the Democrats' guiding ideology (liberalism) fervently promotes secular values, even at the behest of government, whose endorsement of "religion" it unpersuasively purports to oppose. Nor does it negate the political left's commitment to reducing Christianity's influence, not just in government, as it claims, but in our culture and on our moral principles."

Read the rest of this fine, provocative piece right here.

Remembering Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

I note today the passing of the distinguished historian and woman of faith, Dr. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese. I had first read Dr. Fox-Genovese when I was in my graduate program in history (The Origins of Physiocracy : Economic Revolution and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century France, Cornell University Press) but, as the ponderous title of her book might suggest, I did not read anything else of hers after acquiring my degree and leaving academia behind. However, I re-discovered her years later when her disillusions with the feminist movement brought her to the public stage...in a much different role.

Dr. Fox-Genovese was the founding director of the Woman's Studies program at Emory University in 1986 and, through the program, established the first doctoral program in the field. However, as Western feminism became more radical (especially in its brutal insistence on abortion), Dr. Fox-Genovese's intellectual honesty burned through the hype, the peer pressure, and the shrill lack of logic to become an outspoken critic of the movement. It was this intellectual honesty (and courage) that eventually led to her conversion to Christianity.

Dr. Fox-Genovese persevered in her academic work at Emory and continued to write scholarly history. But she added to her career works of cultural criticism and religion, including Women and the Future of the Family (2000), "Feminism is Not the Story of My Life": How the Feminist Elite Has Lost Touch With the Real Concerns of Women (1996), and Feminism Without Illusions: A Critique of Individualism (1991). She also assumed several responsibilities in the defense of the sanctity of life, including affiliation with and service to Family Reserach Center's Center for Human Life and Bioethics and the editorial board of Women for Faith and Family.

As she herself related, it was a realization of the pride and self-centeredness of secularist thinkers that startled her into questioning her beliefs -- and which later caused her to find the humility and gratitude which comes from surrendering to the Lord Jesus Christ.

"An important part of what opened me to Catholicism — and to the peerless gift of faith in Christ Jesus — was my growing horror at the pride of too many in the secular academy. The sin is all the more pernicious because it is so rarely experienced as sin. Educated and enjoined to rely upon our reason and cultivate our autonomy, countless perfectly decent and honorable professors devote their best efforts to making sense of thorny intellectual problems, which everything in their environment encourages them to believe they can solve. Postmodernism has challenged the philosophical presuppositions of the modernists’ intellectual hubris, but, with the same stroke, it has pretended to discredit what it calls "logocentrism," namely, the centrality of the Word. In the postmodernist universe, all claims of universal certainty must be exposed as delusions, leaving the individual as authoritative arbiter of the meaning that pertains to his or her situation. Thus, what originated as a struggle to discredit pretensions to intellectual authority has ended, at least in the American academy, in a validation of personal prejudice and desire."

For more on Dr. Fox-Genovese, you can read the obituaries from the Atlanta Constitution and from Women for Faith and Family. And better still, please read Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's 'A Conversion Story" published on the web site of First Things.

CWA's Comments on the Times' "Hitt Piece"

Concerned Women for America weighs in on the James Hitt abortion story we've posted about a few times here on Vital Signs Blog. Of course, the "Hitt piece" is but the latest in a long, long line of the New York Times' manipulation of news, but it, nevertheless, is important to understand and talk about. This CWA article, written by Janice Shaw Crouse, is a superb one.

Remembering and Honoring Arlis Brown

Over the weekend I learned that our friend, Arlis Brown, had died. Claire and I had met Arlis and her husband Moby a few years ago when I was doing some "pulpit supply" (preaching at a church which is between pastors) at Tabernacle Baptist Church in rural northwest Iowa. Several members of the church family there quickly became like our own family, including the kind, encouraging and dedicated Moby and Arlis Brown.

The Browns spent many adventurous years as New Tribes missionaries in the Paraguayan bush country and we were deeply moved whenever they told their stories of those exciting years. In fact, in July, 2003, Arlis was my guest on "Vital Signs Weekend", telling just a few of those wonderful stories. As a small tribute to her memory, and as an opportunity for you to be blessed by the Browns' testimony, I am pleased to post this link to that compelling, 10-minute radio program.

The "Extreme Positions" of Pro-Life Actress, Patricia Heaton

Clay Waters has this post over on the Times Watch about the linguistic double standards employed by the media:

Pro-Life Actress Patricia Heaton's "Extreme Positions"
So Heaton is "extreme," but Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, etc., aren't?

Theatre reporter Jesse Green's "Not Everybody Loves Patricia" is about actress Patricia Heaton, the former co-star of the sitcom "Everyone Loves Raymond" who is currently appearing in "The Scene," an off-Broadway play. Heaton is also nearly unique in Hollywood for being an outspoken pro-lifer, which explains the slightly mean-spirited Times headline.

"It isn't so much her views that cause her trouble as her unwillingness to finesse them for public consumption. She is compulsively honest, though she feels that’s not so much a virtue as 'an illness, like Tourette’s.' Even her more extreme positions are stated without hedging: If it were up to her, she said, there would be no abortion for any reason. But she offers such thoughts with a sense of helplessness, as if she were trapped by the implications of her core principles."

Green's piece is a mixed but mostly positive view of Heaton and her lonely stance in liberal Hollywood, and details some of the vituperation she gets from leftists. But why is Heaton's opposition to abortion "extreme"?

Has the Times ever used "extreme" to describe the wackily leftist or paranoid anti-Bush views of entertainers like Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, or Harry Belafonte? Aren't their comments on Bush, Iraq, and Hugo Chavez far more extreme than Heaton's pro-life beliefs?

Democrats Enjoy Favorable (Even Fawning) Press

Throwing all pretense of fairness to the winds, the MSM is a giddy as a schoolgirl over the Democrat takeover. Here are just a couple of interesting examples: Journalists Agree It's Time for Democrats' 'First 100 Hours' from the Business & Media Institute website and, from News Busters, this post about the CNN "Countdown" (ala New Year's Eve) to the Power Shift.

Only "Perfect" Babies Wanted Here

From the Family Research Council:

A new guideline on prenatal screening has disability advocates and pro-lifers up in arms. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended that starting this week, every pregnant woman, regardless of age, be offered a choice of tests to detect Down syndrome in her baby. Until recently, only women 35 and older had been routinely offered the tests because research indicates that the risk for Down syndrome increases with the mother's age. However, this latest wave of testing would begin with a controversial--and often inaccurate--screening of unborn children in the first three months of pregnancy.

While studies say the method is 80 percent accurate, the statistic is openly questioned by U.S. insurance companies who often refuse to cover the expense because it wrongly diagnoses a number of women each year. The truth is, this latest push is nothing but a veiled attempt to advocate the abortion of handicapped children and push us further down the path of genetic selection, where some lives matter less then others.

As the Democrats Swing Into Action...

Here's a couple of items from the always-astute Evans-Novak Political Report:

...Ethics Reform: Democrats are promising to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation." Included in this is a promise to "end the K-Street Project," which is seen as absurd by anyone in Washington who knows that the K-Street Project is a lobbying jobs website run by a 20-something staffer. In fact, Democrats will not go anywhere near real lobbying reform, which would have to include bans on lobbying firms' hiring spouses of congressmen and senators -- a common practice that legally lets special interests put millions of dollars into members' bank accounts when their interests are pending before Congress. Both parties have too much to lose from meaningful reforms. The reforms enacted will be mostly symbolic. Some of the proposals being discussed would have unintended results on the behavior of lobbyists, fundraisers, Capitol Hill staffers and congressmen...

...Embryonic Research Funding: This is an issue where the vote will be very close on overturning President Bush's veto in both Houses. House passage over Bush's veto will be difficult, since 12 of the Republicans who lost voted for federal funding of embryo-destroying research. It is unclear how some of the new Democrats in the House will vote as well. With Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) currently on the sidelines, the Senate overriding vote could come down to Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.). Casey told at least one news outlet during the campaign that he supports Bush's policy and would not back the current bill, which would overturn Bush's policy...

Uh...Just Read the Book

There's a new post over on The Book Den that will be of interest to many of you. It concerns the new film version of P.D. James outstanding novel, The Children of Men. Just click on the title of this post to go there.

A Life Well Lived

You quite likely have never heard of him but Lowell Furman was quite a guy and the world definitely lost a key force for healing, wisdom and faith when he died last month. Lowell Furman was, at various times, the president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Surgeons; president of the North Carolina Surgical Association; president of Watauga Surgical Group (34 years); 3x chief of medical staff of Watauga Medical Center; chief of surgery of Watauga Medical Center for many years; team physician for the Appalachian State University football team; member of the Samaritan's Purse Board of Directors; and co-founder, along with his brother, Dr. Richard Furman, of World Medical Mission., a ministry of Samaritan's Purse.

For a challenging, inspirational and relevant for all readers memoriam of Dr. Furman, read this brief Samaritan's Purse article.

Love (and Liberalism) Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Several weeks ago (November 29th), I posted an entry here on Vital Signs Blog about a dastardly deceit perpetrated by the New York Times, a deceit promoting abortion that was extreme even by the Times standard. Well, this column by Michelle Malkin in Jewish World Review pursues the affair a bit farther and is, even to those jaded by years of watching the MSM hide, distort and malign the truth, pretty startling.

And, by the way, here's a letter published in The Examiner today that succinctly covers the same issue. (Yes, writing letters to editors pays off.)

Byron Calame, public editor [ombudsman] of The New York Times, has performed an extraordinary public service by exposing one of the most significant recent media scandals.

In his Dec. 31 article, “Truth, Justice, Abortion and The Times Magazine,” in the NYT’s Week in Review, Calame reports that a cover story that appeared in The New York Times Magazine on April 6 about abortions in El Salvador fell below acceptable standards of journalism.

In a key example, the magazine article suggested that a woman was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for having an abortion after the 18th week of pregnancy. Although Jack Hitt, the freelance author of the article, referred to a court finding that the woman had strangled her baby after a full-term birth, he had not read the court document embodying this finding.

Moreover, The Times compounded its failed journalism by telling readers who complained that it had “no reason to doubt the accuracy of the facts” in Hitt’s article. The Times’ standards editor, no less, told Calame that the newspaper had no plans to let complaining readers know about the court document — or to run a correction or editors’ note.

The next time our nation’s intellectual elite — and The New York Times — mocks Fox News, the public should bear in mind The Times’ lamentable performance here.

Nathan Dodell
Rockville

Belarus, Russia Sign Last Minute Gas Deal

Higher costs for natural gas mean higher stakes for the Communist Dictator of Belarus as he continues to drive the economy, culture and human rights of the nation into despair. Here's the latest report on the Russia/Belarus deal and the ironic, moronic comments made afterwards by Lukashenka.

Dedication Amid Duplicity: The Politics of Barack Obama

...One reason I think Obama may run for president sooner rather than later is because he knows his blinding brilliance will someday fade, like Moses' eventually did after he came off Mount Sinai.

Obama himself calls his inexplicable popularity "spooky." I agree the day will come when Obama's past comes back to haunt him. Take, for instance, his various explanations for having endorsed infanticide by opposing the Born Alive Infant Protection Act...

As a watchful pro-life champion there in Illinois, Jill Stanek has seen Barack Obama up close and personal. This column Jill wrote for World Net Daily is an important "wake up call" about the immense danger to preborn babies the new Democrat superstar represents.

A Gloomy Future for Apostate Anglicanism

An official with the Institute on Religion and Democracy [Faith McDonnell] expects to see the current conflicts within the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) continue throughout the coming year, including schism over the current liberal leadership and direction of the denomination.

This past year, the ECUSA's new presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, said Christ was not the only way to get to Heaven. She also remarked that homosexuals do not choose their behavior...These and other indications of Bishop Schori's biblically unorthodox beliefs have sparked criticism and unease among conservative members of the denomination and within the broader Anglican community.

Recently, a group of conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia broke away from the ECUSA. Most of the congregations that left the denomination will now join with the newly established Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an affiliate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Faith McDonnell, director of the Religious Liberty Program with the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says the Episcopal Church in the United States is in serious trouble. "It's very painful to have this separation," she admits, "but we do believe that God will work everything out for good. We don't know what that will be, but we still do hope and pray that there would be revival in the Episcopal Church..."

For more of this Agape Press report, go here.

Scientists Religiously Attacking Religion

Chuck Colson has an especially engaging column today over at his Breakpoint web site concerning the "religion" of some ardently anti-religion advocates. It is a perceptive commentary from one of Western Christianity's most experienced, prayerful warriors.

Coming Home to Christ: Chuck Norris' Christmas Column

Ever wonder what happened to the martial arts master, turned actor, turned Hollywood power producer, Chuck Norris?

Well, among other places, he's writing columns over at World Net Daily. And, he's pretty good too. In fact, his Christmas column, which honestly, movingly describes his Christian faith, is a great one to get started with.

Sam Brownback Explores Presidential Landscape in South Carolina

Sam Brownback said Thursday that conservative values like opposition to abortion and gay marriage will distinguish him from others vying for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

"I think there's room in the field for someone with full-scale conservative values," the Kansas senator told about 80 people at a conference room of a branch of the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. "I don't think that end of the field's crowded...I think I'm going to do very well..."

..."He is definitely a conservative's conservative. It's a wonderful thing," said LaDonna Ryggs, state president of the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women.

Ryggs said she liked Brownback's support of traditional family issues, like his opposition of abortion and gay marriage. "His best line was when he said, 'If we don't get this right, we can't continue,'" she said. "The whole culture is at stake."

Let's Get Away From It All -- In Syria?

Julia Gorin takes a humorous (and yet not so humorous) look at how travel writing is changing in the face of political-correctness, diversity training and Muslim encroachment.

Chavez Pulls the Plug on Opposition TV Station

Dictators, like cockroaches, hate the light.

A New Year's Resolution? Writing Letters!

One of the important activities of Vital Signs Ministries over our 25 years has been writing letters -- letters of advocacy, of protest, of information, of encouragement, of gratitude -- whatever the need has been. We have emphasized the power of the pen through our monthly LifeSharer and other resources. And we have provided stimulation and basic assistance to letter writers through our web site, this blog, and our "P.A.L. Night" parties where we get together over coffee to pray, share information and, you guessed it, write a whole bunch of letters!

At the Vital Signs web site you'll find a helpful "how-to" article about the ministry of writing advocacy letters. Also posted there are a few specific "action targets" for your consideration and even some sample letters to help you get started.

Newer resources for Christian activists who desire to light a candle instead of merely cursing the darkness is available right here at Vital Signs Blog. These are found at the sidebar on your left: "Recent Taking Action Posts" and the "Taking Action" section in our Topical Index.

My sincere hope is that you will utilize all of these things to effectively raise a standard for the Kingdom in the coming year. So, sharpen those pencils and get to it!

A Very Hopeful Victory for Free Speech

From yesterday's George Will column, "Political Speech Makes a Comeback" --

A three-judge federal court recently tugged a thread that may begin the unraveling of the fabric of murky laws and regulations that traduce the First Amendment by suppressing political speech. Divided 2-1, the court held -- unremarkably, you might think -- that issue advocacy ads can run during an election, when they matter most. This decision will strike zealous (there is no other kind) advocates of ever-tighter regulation of political speech (campaign finance ``reformers'') as ominous. Why? Because it partially emancipates millions of Americans who incorporate thousands of groups to advocate their causes, groups such as the ACLU and the NRA.

And Wisconsin Right to Life. It is another organization by which people assemble (see the First Amendment) to speak (see it again) in order to seek redress of grievances (the Amendment, one more time). In 2004, WRTL was distressed because Wisconsin's senators, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, were helping to block confirmation votes on some of President Bush's judicial nominees, wanted to run ads urging people to ``contact Senators Feingold and Kohl and tell them to oppose the filibuster.''

But Feingold was running for re-election, and the McCain-Feingold ``reform'' makes it a crime for entities such as WRTL to use their corporate funds to broadcast an ``electioneering communication'' within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. An ``electioneering communication'' is one that ``refers to'' a candidate for federal office.

Although in 2003 the Supreme Court upheld McCain-Feingold, the court later said it would consider appeals against the law ``as applied.'' The majority on the three-judge court, preserving the distinction between electioneering and grass-roots lobbying, held that WRTL's ads were exempt from the McCain-Feingold election-eve blackouts of speech because the ads were not ``coordinated'' with a candidate's campaign and did not engage in ``express advocacy'' -- did not use the words ``vote for'' or ``vote against'' a candidate...

Read the rest of Mr. Wills' column here.