Reviewing Hleb's Omaha Visit

Earlier in the week, I posted a brief account ("Hleb Goes Back to School") of Hleb Yermakou's first day in Omaha. As his time here draws to a close, I'll go ahead and review his hectic but quite productive schedule since then. Indeed, I'm pleased to say that days two through four of Hleb Yermakou’s visit to Omaha proved to be as solid and delightful as the first day he was here. 

Wednesday started off with a breakfast conversation between Hleb, Claire and I at La Peep's restaurant.  Then Hleb checked in via Skype with his wife and kids back in Minsk.  He also talked with one of his colleagues from Encouragement International as they planned next week’s schedule in Los Angeles.

After these things, Hleb and I took off for South High School. Teachers there had been in discussion with Student Venture director Gary Warrick about bringing Hleb in to address a Human Geography class.  That went very well.  Hleb was in fine form – informative, personable and entertaining – and the students really got into the presentation. Hleb's talk was also a neat connection to Gary's ongoing SV chapter there at South.

Next up was a cup of coffee at the Westroads Panera with some profitable conversation about church life, sanctification, the problem that VDPs (Very Draining Persons) pose to ministers, and more.  Hleb also fit in a quick shopping trip to get a dress for his daughter -- on sale!  We then moved on to KCRO where Hleb taped a quick program with Jackie Mahr and then did a live ½ hour show with Greg Vogt and Make Shane. Both were very good.

Wednesday closed with another dessert meeting, this time at our house.  The previous night Quint and Carol Coppi had served as hosts for 9 other people in an exciting meeting that lasted 2½ hours. The meeting Wednesday night had a similar feel -- 9 guests, an interesting, compelling presentation by Hleb which covered a host of topics, and a lot of questions. We went three hours that night!

After such a pace for those first two days, I figured Hleb needed a little extra rest so I let him sleep in Thursday morning while I joined John and Pat at Panera’s for our regular fellowship at 6:30.  But Hleb was ready and raring to go when I picked him up later for the next event, a talk to young adults enrolled in a special GED program. We met Gary at the Boys and Girls Club at 27th and Hamilton for this event.  This was a really active group of about 20 people and they responded well to Hleb’s testimony of conversion to Christianity. 

Hleb's next job was to give an address to the Student Venture group meeting at Central High School Thursday night.  Claire and I had a “When Swing Was King” presentation at Brookstone Meadows at 6:30 but Gary picked him up at our house, grabbed the pizza, and headed down to the club. It was, as we learned later that night, another terrific opportunity for the Lord to excite, inform and stimulate to action young people through Hleb’s ministry.

Day four started with breakfast at the Westroads Panera with Hleb and a brother in Christ who plans to join the team of Encouragement International. I dropped Hleb off for this meeting, briefly spoke with the other guy (a recent transplant from California to Nebraska), and took off to get some other work done.  It turned out that Hleb had a productive time and, at the end of the 90-minute conversation, he was encouraged and excited at the prospect of being ministry partners with this young fellow, a recent graduate of Master's Seminary.

The next speaking engagement took us back to Omaha Christian Academy for a high school world history class.  The teacher had let slip that the students had been studying the Byzantine Empire and he was delighted when Hleb began his talk with insightful comments about that very subject!  The rest of the talk went well too and there were, like the previous classes, plenty of engaging questions. At the end of the talk, Hleb was presented a folder full of thank-you letters from the students. There’s no doubt that Hleb has left a wonderful impression on Omaha Christian Academy with his four visits.

Friday night proved to be something really special. It was another home visit but this one took us towards Blair. And it wasn't a dessert we were looking forward to but a meal. And what a meal! Perly and Sandy Schoville had prepared a very festive, very elaborate, and very American gift for their new Belarusian friend.  Indeed, they served up for Hleb (and 8 others) a full, traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, oyster dressing, rolls, mushroom dressing, asparagus, cranberry sauce, and two kinds of pie!  It was a splendid meal – fun and delicious – but the fellowship with the Schovilles and the friends they had invited along was even more enjoyable.  Thanks so much, guys!

What’s left?  Well, we had planned today (Saturday) to drive Hleb down to Kansas City to meet friends there. But the weather not being the greatest (there and here), we decided to make this a day of rest.  We're listening to music, conversing, reading, dining on chili and orange scones -- all in the warm glow of logs burning on the grate. Very nice.

Tomorrow will be Hleb's last day here in Omaha.  He will be delivering the morning sermon at Faith Bible Church at 10:30, followed by a lunch with friends afterward, and then another home fellowship meeting at 2 o’clock hosted by Allen and Cindy Nelson.  All in all, a very full week and we're so grateful to the Lord for allowing us this time together. We hope and pray that he has made many new and lasting friends while here. 

Planned Parenthood Boss: When Life Begins "Isn't Relevant"

Andrew Johnson over at NRO’s The Corner reports:

The president of the country’s largest abortion provider said she didn’t think the matter of when life begins is pertinent to the issue.

“It is not something that I feel is really part of this conversation,” Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood told Fusion’s Jorge Ramos on Thursday. “I don’t know if it’s really relevant to the conversation.”

When pressed, Richards said that in her view life began for her three children when she delivered them.

She explained that the purpose of her organization is not to answer a question that “will be debated through the centuries,” but to provide options for pregnant women.

A Place for Mom...Isn't the Place for Mom, After All.

Medical ethicist Wesley J. Smith writes:

We’ve all seen the soothing Joan Lunden ads for the elder services referral business A Place for Mom. Amidst the warm colors and gauzy colors, it turns out the group supports assisted suicide…

In an age of terrible elder abuse, it is appalling that a business that seeks to earn the trust of seniors and their families would boost the ultimate abandonment of assisted suicide.

If I ever need help caring for my 96-year-old mother, A Place for Mom is the last organization to which I would turn.

Here’s more.

Chick Webb: "The Lord Gave Me Some Years To Play"

Chick Webb, one of America’s most talented and influential leaders of a big band, held court at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York throughout the 1930s. Chick was the man who discovered and mentored Ella Fitzgerald and his inventive, popular band posed a friendly rivalry to those of Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and others. However, behind the engaging and generous personality, the ever-present smile, and the happy sounds of one of the greatest dance bands in America, Chick Webb lived with pain and a knowledge that his life would not be long.

Chick Webb suffered from tuberculosis of the spine. It had stunted his growth and badly deformed his spine, giving him the impression of being hunchbacked. Nevertheless, Chick wanted to play music and he worked long hours as a newsboy in order to purchase a set of drums, the instrument suggested by a doctor who thought it might “loosen up" his bones. It did that…and more.

Chick first played professionally at age 11. And he never looked back.

In late 1938, Chick’s health went into a steeper decline. The pain grew worse as did the exhaustion and lack of mobility. But he kept playing, knowing that the musicians in his band needed the jobs that were otherwise so hard to find in the Depression. But in 1939, at only the age of 34, Chick Webb collapsed and was taken into Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, dying shortly afterward.  His last words were, "I'm sorry, I've got to go."

It was sometime earlier, however, that Chick Webb explained to a reporter the reason he was able to go on, to delight music lovers all over America despite his severe limitations. Said Chick, “I can't understand the pain God gave me, I can't understand my sickness, but that's secondary. The main thing is, the Lord gave me the talent to play drums. He gave me some years to play. That's what I wanted to do.”

The music of the Chick Webb Orchestra is regularly featured in the “When Swing Was King” presentations that Claire and I give in nursing homes and senior facilities. We love it and so do our audiences. But knowing more about the man makes that music not only enjoyable, but inspirational too.

Want an example?

"The Morality of the Last Days"

Over at NRO, Jack Fowler remembers William F. Buckley on the 6th anniversary of his death by quoting WFB from a letter he once wrote to some high school students.

“In the passage you quote from Up From Liberalism I intended, indeed, to refer to the religious truth that is our central heritage and to the moral philosophy and human insight that derive from it.

Sometimes this position is referred to (in a phrase going back, I believe, to the days of the Roman Empire) as ‘the morality of the last days’ — by which is meant the world-view of men who know that death is close. But, in the long view, we all stand sentenced to death, and whether it comes in 1995 or tomorrow makes no difference. That is why the morality of the last days always applies to what is ‘finally important in human experience.’

All our techniques of social welfare, all our science, all our comfort, all our liberty, all our democracy and foreign aid and grandiloquent orations—all that means nothing to me and nothing to you in the moment when we go. At that moment we must put our souls in order, and the way to do that was lighted for us by Jesus, and since then we have had need of no other light.

That is what is finally important; it has not changed; and it will not change. It is truth, which shall ever abide in the future. And if it is ‘reactionary’ to hold a truth that will be valid for all future time, then words have lost their meaning, and men their reason.”

Amen.

Truckin' with Jesus!

Writing the February LifeSharer letter got me to thinking about my early days in Omaha, days that included riding around in Tom Meradith's exuberantly decorated "Jesus truck." I'll be writing about this more next week but I wanted to promote it a bit by posting this delightful photo.

Plus it might make you interested in that LifeSharer letter too! You'll find it right here.

As We've Said, These Aren't Your Mom's Girl Scouts

As millions of moms consider digging into pocketbooks for Girl Scout cookies this year, they may be interested to know about the hiring of Krista Kokjohn-Poehler in the Girl Scouts executive office in New York City.

Kokjohn-Poehler is an out lesbian married to a woman named Ashley Kokjohn. And, given her sexual preference, it may strike some as odd that her job title is "Girl Experience Officer.”

Her hiring five months ago was largely missed by the coterie of Girl Scout critics around the country who make the claim that the Girl Scouts have drifted leftward in the past 20 years…

The main charge leveled by Girl Scout critics concerns the leftward drift of the Girl Scouts, which was founded along conservative religious principles. The leftward drift began in the early '90s when God was made optional in the Girl Scout promise. This precipitated the founding of American Heritage Girls and the first widespread exit from the Girl Scouts.

In the ensuing years, social liberals insinuated themselves into national leadership of the Girl Scouts so that now it is unremarkable when they feature and promote women who are offensive to the sensibilities of hundreds of thousands of traditional-minded moms, including: Betty Friedan; Gloria Steinem; Hillary Clinton; Kathleen Sibelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and chief promoter of the Obamacare contraceptive mandate; and Wendy Davis, advocate for late term abortions.

The leftward drift likely made them tone-deaf to the inevitable controversy in their hiring of homopunk-rocker Josh Ackley, whose band The Dead Betties and their music video depicting violence against a woman became national news after reporting by Breitbart News last fall.

Penny Nance, former Girl Scout and president of Concerned Women for America, told Breitbart News, “In the last ten years the Girl Scouts have lost about a few hundred thousand members, and part of the reason for that is their tone deafness toward the cultural values of American moms."

Read the entirety of Austin Ruse's article for Breitbart right here.

The L'Abri Connection

The conference we attended was sponsored by the Rochester chapter of L’Abri, one of the Christian study centers started decades ago by Dr. Francis and Edith Schaeffer.  It was the first conference Claire and I had attended in several years and we went with great anticipation, especially because we have a rather intense history with the Schaeffers and the ministry of L’Abri.  Would you like to hear about it?  I sure hope so because that’s the focus of this month’s LifeSharer!

To start at the very beginning, we’ve got to go back...and I mean way back...to the spring of 1971.

Want the rest of the story? Here it is at the Vital Signs Ministries website.

Today's Posts

Hleb Goes Back to School

From Abortion to Infanticide (No Big Step)

Joni Eareckson Tada On Belgium's New Child Euthanasia Law

Hleb Goes Back to School

Our Belarusian friend and ministry colleague, Hleb Yermakou, was a big hit with students and staff as he addressed 3 different classes this morning at Omaha Christian Academy. Hleb talked about his country and its history, his life and family, his insightful take on Western culture, the faith he has in Jesus Christ as Savior, and more.

And then Hleb followed those events with an informal, friendly session at Grace University's mission conference early this afternoon. In all of these meetings, he was engaging, fun, extremely informative, and yet challenging too. It was a very good day.

Tonight he's scheduled for a get-acquainted dessert party with board members of Vital Signs Ministries (and their spouses).

A busy day? No doubt about it. But then it's just getting started! Your prayers remain very much appreciated for the spiritual impact of Hleb's visit to Omaha.

From Abortion to Infanticide (No Big Step)

...Yet what is perhaps most terrible about these apologias for child-murder is that they have a point. They are not correct about the justifiability of infanticide; but they are correct that if abortion is justified, so is infanticide. People who first hear of [Peter] Singer’s views are apt to respond that he is simply crazy. But if the philosophers of infanticide are insane, it is only in the Chestertonian sense: They are not people who lost their reason, but people who have lost everything but their reason…

Comes the inevitable rejoinder: You have to draw a line somewhere. No, actually, you don’t. You don’t need to draw a line separating human beings who have rights and personhood from those who do not. You can draw a circle around the whole class of human beings instead, and say that no one within it should be deliberately killed when acting peaceably.

(From Ramesh Ponnuru, NRO article, “After-Birth Abortion, a.k.a. Infanticide.”)

Joni Eareckson Tada On Belgium's New Child Euthanasia Law

…Children in all cultures tend to approach adults in authority with trust. They look to us for comfort, advice, and support. To have an adult in authority approach them and suggest euthanasia as an alternative to life is swinging the compassion pendulum to the outer edges of horror.

It should be in our nature as adults to protect our young. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child serves as our global monitor to safeguard children – especially boys and girls who suffer from illnesses or disabilities. Article 5 states, “[The child] has a right to special care if handicapped in any way.”

Is “special care” now three grams of Phenobarbital in the veins if that child despairs of his handicapping condition? I don’t understand how civilized society can defend the right to life of a child with a serious medical condition while abandoning that child at his greatest point of need...

Read more of Joni’s article published here in TIME magazine.

L'Abri Conference Revisited: The Best of All the Rest

Having already reviewed certain elements of the Rochester L’Abri conference in previous posts (1, 2, 3, 4) and being hard pressed to get on to other stuff (mailing the LifeSharer, finishing work on tomorrow’s sermon, getting ready for Hleb Yermakou’s visit next week), I’ve got one last “Revisted” column for you. It will be pretty quick but I hope you can still glean a bit of how interesting and helpful the conference was for Pat, Claire and myself.

The general sessions I haven’t yet reviewed were “Mindfulness, Meditation and the Mind of Christ” by Richard Winter, “Heaven in a Nightclub” by Bill Edgar and company, and “The Christian Life: An Other-Centered Walk” by Dick Keyes. (There was another, “Spirituality In Les Miserables,” but I confess to skipping out on that one.)

But before I talk about them, let me breeze through the elective lectures I attended: "What Narrates Your Stories?” by Clarke Scheibe; "Is Anybody Out There? Science and the Search for Meaning” by A.J. Poelarends; "Dependence on the Spirit and Delighting in the Law: Are These In Tension?” by Jerram Barrs; "Becoming a Deeper Christian: Learning from the Global South” by Hans Madueme.

My favorites were those given by Barrs and Poelarends but I found them all of value — some for explicit truths that were taught, some for the way they sparked new ideas and spiritual applications in my own head, some for the stimulation they provided through disagreement, and some for ideas they suggested about communication technique.

Okay, back to the general sessions to finish up.

Winter’s lecture covered the “mindfulness movement,” meditation techniques and their remarkably wide influence in medical practice, business, and the ever-popular self-help culture. It was an interesting and informative presentation, to be sure, but yet I wasn’t comfortable with it. Though Winter eventually gave warnings of how “mindful” meditation could be dangerous and suggested, at the end of his lecture, ways of meditation that were more carefully biblical, I found that the first 3/4 of the presentation was much too uncritical of “mindfulness.” For instance, David Siegel’s book, Mindsight, was presented as authoritative (it was one of two sources Winter suggested for further study); the speaker spoke with praise of the benefits he receives by practicing yoga; and the audience was even led in a brief meditation exercise.

Winter made the suggestion that the positives arising from “mindfulness” could be common grace in action. He’s probably right. However, with the force that is being exerted on modern culture by eastern religions and New Age ideas, I would have liked a greater distinction between biblical meditation and the mindfulness taught by Siegel and others. I would also have liked a clearer warning of the dangers of monistic meditation and, perhaps, more help in communicating these dangers to a culture that’s already inebriated with the idea.

“Heaven in a Nightclub” was actually a concert, given late Friday night by a very skilled musical ensemble. It was an attempt to trace elements of African-American history through slave spirituals and eventually jazz music. The musicians were very talented, the readings in between the songs were illuminating, and it was received warmly by the audience. The vocalist was a break-out session presenter, Ruth Naomi Floyd. A few weeks before going to the conference, I had found a couple of YouTube videos of Ruth performing and one of her giving a lecture similar to the one she was giving here in Rochester. I’d recommend that those interested in these important subjects do the same.

And finally, Dick Keyes’ talk (the conference closer) was one of my favorites of the whole show. The dominant theme was the virtue of humility. Keyes contrasted the self-centered life (a natural, inevitable result of man’s sinfulness) to the life of Jesus, a life that can be authentically lived through the Christian by faith. Looking at selfishness, humility, honesty, grace, and Jesus from different angles, Keyes helped the audience to better understand better appreciate the awesome liberty and love we can experience. It made for a great conclusion to the conference.

(Note: In a couple of the earlier columns I linked to Sound Word Associates where tapes and/or mp3 versions of the various sessions will be available, if they're not there already. You might find certain tapes of great interest yourself. And I hope these Vital Signs Blog posts give you some idea as to where to start.

L'Abri Conference Revisited: Claire’s Take on the Break-Out Sessions

In addition to the plenary sessions that everyone attended, there were elective lectures in between. And there was a lot to choose from — 10 each morning and afternoon. Claire, Pat and I all made sure to select different speakers and to take careful notes in order that through discussion later we could receive the most information.

Pat chose “The Hidden Power of Shame” by Richard Winter, “Recovering Our Humanity: Ambition Amid the Ordinary” by Zack Eswine, “Shallow Believers: How Technology Hurts Us” by Hans Madueme, and “The History and Celebration of the African-American Spiritual” by Ruth Naomi Floyd. He found them all of value.

Claire’s elective seminars were “Technology vs True Spirituality” by Larry Snyder, “Spirituality That Is True, Art That Is Hidden: The Apologetics Factor and an Apologetics of Beauty” by Mike Sugimoto, “Permanent Things: True Spirituality in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot” by John Hodges, and “Spirituality in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings” by Jerram Barrs.

Her take on those sessions? Here it is.

Claire writes —

It was a very stimulating two days up in Rochester at the L’Abri Conference.  Pat, Denny and I decided that, with all the offerings for the break-out sessions, we should all go to different ones and then compare notes.  Deciding which ones to attend was really difficult sometimes and we often were pulled to the same one, but we knew that a “dividing to conquer” strategy was best.

One of the best electives I attended was Larry Snyder’s presentation about the threat that technology represents to a Christian’s life.  I wanted to go to this one, in part, because I have already seen so many negative effects of modern technology on culture, family life, the mind and emotions of individuals, and so on.

There was a humorous (and ironic) start to the lecture when Mr. Snyder couldn’t get the Power Point to work properly! Technology as a threat, indeed. And, naturally, it took a young fellow to get things up and working.  But when it did, Mr. Snyder had a lot of evidence from both secular and Christian sources about how technology is shaping our ideas, our religious practices, our social life, even the ways our minds work.

He reviewed some of the new scientific discoveries of how technology is affecting the human brain and he also dipped into social scientists like Neil Postman (author of Amusing Ourselves to Death and others) about the manipulative powers of television. From Postman, he gave us a new word “Technopoly” which basically means that “culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfaction in technology and takes its orders from technology.”

Other perspectives on the problem were brought in from more creative writers — Huxley, Orwell, and T. S. Eliot. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the lecture was Mr. Snyder quoting from Eliot’s “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” a quotation that Mr. Snyder told us had presented a spiritual turning point for him as a young man.

“Where is the life we lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we lost in information?”

And, considering the impact of technology now, T.S. Eliot hadn’t seen anything yet!

Unfortunately, time got away from Mr. Snyder. (From what Denny, Pat and I experienced, that was a shortcoming for almost all of the break-out speakers.) But he was able to quickly pass along a few valuable applications as he ended.

* Give your full attention to whomever you are with.
* Do what is right and good.
* Delight in the power of the Gospel.
* Remember the longer narrative story you are a part of.
* See all things through the lens of common grace.
* Live in the presence of the One Who matters.

Now to the others...

Dr. Sugimoto’s presentation (very relaxed and fun) was infused with his experiences in working closely with  Edith Schaeffer at the Swedish L’Abri during those last years of Francis’ life and in helping with the move to Rochester.  He talked about how Edith and Francis saw truth and beauty in creation and in art of all kinds.  Edith was an artist herself and used her talents in very practical ways.  For instance, Edith wanted to make the meals (food and table) beautiful.  She used flowers, moss, whatever was on hand for her designs.  Even the food arranged on a tray for handouts to visiting hobos needed to be with done with hospitality and artistic flair! But, of course, Edith’s contribution to L’Abri was more than preparing meals.  She was the force behind the great prayer emphasis there.   And her focus on each person and their story was invaluable to what made L’Abri work.

John Hodges’ session was more academic.  He had a wealth of information on T. S. Eliot but not nearly enough time to present it all.  He was very knowledgeable, not just of Eliot, but the prevailing worldviews of the time.  Hodges asked questions, engaged the audience in the meaning behind excerpts from The Waste Land, and read (quite movingly) certain stanzas from Eliot’s works.  He had mentioned early in the lecture that we would explore The Waste Land, Eliot’s most famous pre-Christian work (1922) and Four Quartets, his most substantial post-Christian work (1937-1943). But we ran out of time. I'll have to go back and read them on my own.

Jerram Barrs’ presentation of “Spirituality in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings” drew a large crowd because of the immense popularity of these works...and because he is an engaging, learned Christian man. From the very beginning, Professor Barrs’ wealth of knowledge and love for Tolkien was very clear. He went through intriguing themes of the Tolkien works: Echoes of Creation, Echoes of the Fall, Echoes of Redemption and Echoes of Consumption.  He talked of good and evil, courage, fellowship, readiness for self-sacrifice in all the main characters, joy and sorrow.  Sometimes when Professor Barrs was reading passages or showing drawings from the works, he would get a little choked up.  And, for those of us who have similar experience when delighting in Tolkien, it was endearing.

In brief, I found all of the elective sessions of value -- though most were a bit disorganized. Still, I enjoyed them all. And I'm awfully glad I accompanied Denny & Pat on this trip to the Rochester L'Abri conference.

"I Am a Ukrainian"

Today's Posts

L'Abri Conference Revisited: Bill Edgar & Ellis Potter

Deroy Murdock: "The United States of Decline"

Dr. Mildred Jefferson Would Not "Stand Aside"

North Korea's Atrocities: "No Parallel in the Modern World"

L'Abri Conference Revisited: Bill Edgar & Ellis Potter

With yesterday's post (L'Abri Conference Revisited: Jerram Barrs On "True Spirituality"), I began to give an ever-so-brief review of our experience at the Rochester L'Abri conference last weekend. Claire will be dropping in a post or two as well before we're done. And, as I mentioned yesterday, you may well consider ordering a tape or two (or more) from Sound Word Associates who will soon have a full catalog of the conference sessions and workshops. But in today's post, I'll pass along a few notes from the 2nd and 3rd general sessions, "Spirituality According to Frances Schaeffer" given by Bill Edgar and "Three Theories of Everything" by Ellis Potter. Both were excellent.

Edgar's talk began with the provocative line, "The present generation risks not knowing Francis Schaeffer." And then, with a quick review of Schaeffer's life and a more substantial look at the primary themes in Schaeffer's theology, apologetics, and lifestyle, Edgar very effectively argued the point.

This lecture might perhaps be most effective as an introduction to Francis Schaeffer, something to pave the way before reading a Schaeffer book or listening to a sermon tape. There was so much of Schaeffer's personal history, his personality, the development of L'Abri, and the highlights of his philosophy. However, as full of familiarity as it was for those who have read Schaeffer (I've been doing so for more than 40 years), it was still a very interesting, inspirational presentation.

Potter's talk was for the Friday evening general session which meant that the audience had already taken in several hours of lectures. But nobody was going to nod off for this one. Indeed, even though the subject matter was a bit daunting (a comparison of monism, dualism and what Potter calls trinitarianism), his lecture was wise, witty and immensely practical.

For the Christian who wants to better understand Eastern religions and New Age ideas, this lecture is a great start. As important, Potter gave good counsel about how to effectively communicate with the serious adherents of these philosophic systems as well as those who have been unknowingly influenced by them. He also explained how Christianity offers the remarkable and comprehensive solutions for the failures of these closed (and ultimately unworkable) systems. Very good stuff.

Later on this week, I'll have a bit more on the L'Abri conference and, as I suggested earlier, I think Claire will drop in a few items too. But now we've got a couple of "When Swing Was King" presentations to do today so I've got to run. Until later...

Deroy Murdock: "The United States of Decline"

Oh, my. Over at National Review, Deroy Murdock has written the must-read article of the week, "The United States of Decline." 

America is unraveling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim…

America is a total mess.

The Land of the Free is governed by an out-of-control egomaniac, neither bolstered by managerial competence nor hindered by the legislature’s institutional prerogatives. In the Home of the Brave, half of Congress cheers Obama’s unconstitutional behavior, while the other half grumbles and then meekly carpet-bombs his path with white flags.

The American people have been betrayed — both by Obama and the Democrats, whose lust for control intensifies daily, and by Republican leaders in Washington, whose cowardice and defeatism have turned their guts and spines into tapioca.

America, as Paul Simon sings, is slip-slidin’ away. And the worst part hasn’t happened yet.

Murdock covers a lot of ground in his review -- Barack Obama's increasing chutzpah in being a law unto himself; his convoluted morality which sees him lenient and understanding with terrorists while harsh and vindictive with homeschool families; the Democrats applauding the meltdown of the U.S. economy; the alarming fall in America's national security; the despicable cave-in by the Republican establishment to this mess; and more.

Don't miss it. In fact, send it on to your Aunt Hortense. She needs to read it too.

Dr. Mildred Jefferson Would Not "Stand Aside"

From the late Dr. Mildred Jefferson, a highly acclaimed surgeon at Boston University, the first African-American woman to earn a degree from Harvard Medical School, and a co-founder of National Right to Life.

"Many people try to hide behind the confusion of not knowing what happens before a baby is born. But we do not have to be confused. We in medicine and science have a different name for every stage of the development of the baby, but it does not matter at all whether you know those names or not. When a young woman has not had much opportunity to go to school and she becomes pregnant, no one has to tell her that she is going to have a baby.

"I became a doctor in the tradition that is represented in the Bible of looking upon medicine as a high calling. I will not stand aside and have this great profession of mine, of the doctor, give up the designation of healer to become that of the social executioner. The Supreme Court Justices only had to hand down an order. Social workers only have to make arrangements, but it has been given to my profession to destroy the life of the innocent and the helpless.

"Today it is the unborn child; tomorrow it is likely to be the elderly or those who are incurably ill. Who knows but that a little later it may be anyone who has political or moral views that do not fit into the distorted new order? To that question, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' I answer 'Yes.' It is everyone's responsibility to safeguard and preserve life. A child is a member of the human family and deserves care and concern."

North Korea's Atrocities: "No Parallel in the Modern World"

North Korea forces women to undergo abortions and young mothers to drown their newborn babies, and has starved and executed hundreds of thousands of detainees at secret prison camps — atrocities that the chairman of a U.N. panel that documented the abuses compares to those of Nazi Germany.

“The gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world,” the U.N. Commission on Inquiry said in a 372-page report released Monday on North Korea’s atrocities. These crimes are ongoing because “the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place.”

In an unprecedented act, commission Chairman Michael Kirby wrote to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warning that he could be tried for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague...

The report documents crimes against humanity, including “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”

It is based on evidence provided at public hearings in Seoul, Tokyo, London and Washington by about 80 victims and witnesses. More than 240 confidential interviews were conducted with victims and other witnesses…

Read the rest of Ashish Kumar Sen's report here in the Washington Times.