A Right Start to the New Year

Here's a few enlightening and remarkably relevant articles from the last several days. For culture warriors desiring to start the New Year right,  these make for excellent reading, reflection, resolution...and prayer.

* “Planned Parenthood Says Hiding HIV From Sex Partners Is A ‘Right’” (Kimberly Ells, Federalist)

* “In Denial About Crime” (Heather MacDonald, City Journal)

* “Did Obama Spy On Israel And Congress?” (Editors, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “The Dreaded Seeker-Friendly Church” (Chelsen Vicari, Juicy Ecumenism)

* “EPA Now Says It’s Not to Blame for Gold King Mine Spill” (John-Michael Seibler & Paul J. Larkin Jr., Daily Signal)

* “What Happened to the Conservative Book Club?” (Stephen Hayward, Power Line)

* “C.S. Lewis Was a Secret Government Agent” (Harry Lee Poe, Christianity Today)

* “How Multiculturalism Took Over Comic Books” (Jonathan V. Last, Acculturated)

Ronald Reagan Reads Life of Christ to Children at White House at Christmas in 1982

"The Christmas of the Talking Animals" Is Online

If a quiet 1/2 hour ever comes along in your hectic holiday schedule, you might
enjoy this Christmas short story I wrote several years ago. This is an audio version that KGBI used to play on Christmas morning back in the mists of time.

"The Christmas of the Talking Animals" is a story about a 9-year old boy with a lively imagination who experiences a most remarkable Christmas when he visits his grandpa's Missouri farm in 1952.

I think you'll find "The Christmas of the Talking Animals" a winsome, wholesome story with a very old-fashioned ingredient; namely, a spiritual moral.

For Your Weekend To Do List

Among the things you might like to get to this weekend? 1) Play some Christmas music. 2) Go to church. 3) Saunter over to Divine Truth bookstore (84th & Harrison) from 12-2 on Saturday afternoon where I will be signing copies of my novel "The Christmas Room." And 4) Find time to read these very enlightening articles.

* “A Humble Pre-Christmas Effort to Share My Enthusiasm for the Bible” (David Limbaugh, Town Hall)

* “3 Ways to Guard Your Christmas Witness” (Josh Manley, The Gospel Coalition)

* “7 Reasons To Worry About Our Millennial-Run Future” (Andrew Stiles, Acculturated)

* “Trump Doesn't Represent The Conservative Base” (Jonah Goldberg, Town Hall)

* “America’s Most Dangerous Demagogue Lives in the White House” (David French, National Review)

* “How The Senate Just Changed The Obamacare Debate Forever” (Nicholas Horton, Town Hall)

* “‘We are at war with militant Islam!’ A rookie senator notes what many fear to say” (Andrew Malcom, IBD)

* “Hillary Clinton’s most repugnant lie” (New York Post Editorial Board)

* “Tim Tebow Wins Without Scoring” (Mark Tapson, Acculturated)

Underneath the Tinsel

During these hectic days of Christmas, it's easy to miss important culture war commentary. So to help out, I'll list below links to some of the very best.

* “The ISIS Trail of Death” (Robert Windrem, NBC News)

* “The method behind Obama’s madness…and Trump’s” (John Podhoretz, New York Post)

* “Is Trump Working for Hillary?” (Mona Charen, National Review)

* “5 Facts the Left Isn’t Trumpeting About Paris and Climate Change” (Katie Tubb, Daily Signal)

* “Jerry Brown Lets It All Hang Out” (Stephen Hayward, Power Line)

* “The 8 Most Shocking Things Said at a Planned Parenthood Abortion Rally” Katie Yoder, Lauretta Brown, LifeNews)

* “Squandered Resources on College Education” (Walter E. Williams, Town Hall)

* “Workforce Could Shrink by 2 Million People Because of Obamacare” (Melissa Quinn, Daily Signal)

* “If Not Overnight, When?” (Scott Johnson, Power Line)

Expanding and Enhancing Your Christmas

From years past, here are a few Christmas posts from Vital Signs Blog and The Book Den that you might find helpful in making your Christmas season all that it can be.

* A Whole Season of Christmas -- Why 12 Days Are Much Better than One!

* Christmas Reading Suggestions

* Kids Books for Christmas: A Few Suggestions

* Under Review: The Christmas Room

* Looking for a Good Christmas Movie?

* Christmas Quiz --- Number One

* Christmas Quiz --- Number Two

* Christmas Quiz Number Three

* GKC's "The House of Christmas"

* Will Yours Be a Car Wash Christmas?

* Christmas Conversation Starters

* Where the Christmas Action Is

* The Passing of Christmas

* Christmas Poetry from Tennyson

* "On Going Home for Christmas"

* "Shepherds' Carol" by Norman Nicholson

* Christmas Poems by Leslie Norris

* "The Oxen" by Thomas Hardy

* Another Side of Christmas

* Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas

Spot On! A Few Very Important Reads.

* “Obama Names Hamas Sympathizer as New ISIS Czar” (Debra Heine, PJ Media)

* “President Obama's Imaginary World” (Ben Shapiro, CNS News)

* “Video: Ten of the Dumbest Things Said About the San Bernardino Shootings” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

* “San Bernardino Shooters Unknown: Here Are Some Past Mass Shooters” (Ann Coulter, Human Events)

* “The Left Prays After San Bernardino Shooting, To Its God Of Government”
(Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist)

* “The U.S. Navy Is Slowly Realizing It May Have to Sink Ships Again in the Future” (Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics)

* “A Blow for Gender Ideology — and against the Safety of the American People” (The Editors of National Review)

* “Good Grief! Obama thinks Christmas is about loving tiny trees” (Todd Starnes, Fox News)

A Sexual Revolution Report: Alfred Kinsey's Flawed (and Foul) Research

In The Godfather of Gay Rights, an illuminating, detailed, and well-authenticated Mercator article, Alan Branch, former Army chaplain and now professor of Christian Ethics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, relates the bizarre career of sexologist Alfred Kinsey and the wide-ranging social effects of Kinsey’s dramatically flawed research.

Here are a few excerpts:

…Kinsey compiled the findings from these interviews into two books that were the opening salvos of the sexual revolution that soon swept the United States: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). Both works contain many sweeping assertions and often move quickly from tables full of data to moral speculation about the repressed sexual ethics of America.

Kinsey officially began sexual research in 1941 with the help of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and the assistance of the National Research Council. In 1947 Kinsey founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now simply known as The Kinsey Institute. What has become clearer in the years since the publication of the Kinsey reports is that Kinsey was not merely gathering information about other people’s sexual experiences, but he was also engaging in assorted sexual practices with various members of the research team.

Instead of the staid atmosphere most people associate with academia, the Institute for Sex Research became a kind of sexual utopia for the gratification of the appetites of Kinsey and his team. According to one biographer, “Kinsey decreed that within the inner circle men could have sex with each other; wives would be swapped freely, and wives too, would be free to embrace whichever sexual partners they liked.”Kinsey himself engaged in various forms of heterosexual and homosexual intercourse with members of the institute staff, including filming various sexual acts in the attic of his home...

Reflecting on the public morality of the day, Kinsey suggested American society’s moral revulsion to many of the sexual acts he described originated in “ignorance and superstition” and not in “scientific examinations of objectively gathered data.”…In this way, Kinsey argues much like other sexually libertine propagandists of the second half of the Twentieth Century: We should no longer look at sexual behavior in the categories of right versus wrong, but instead in the categories of more common versus less common…

Much of what Kinsey called “data” was actually vulgar, pornographic material with no morally redeeming value. He went so far as to include graffiti from bathroom walls in his research. Attempting to dignify the unwholesome filth often scrawled in public bathrooms, Kinsey noted, “From the days of ancient Greece and Rome, it has been realized that uninhibited expressions of sexual desires may be found in the anonymous inscriptions scratched in out-of-the-way places by authors who may freely express themselves because they never expect to be identified.” According to Kinsey, we should not think of such filth as inappropriate defacing of property; it is actually a venue for the sexually repressed…

Another glaring problem in Kinsey’s report is the phenomenon of volunteer bias: Survey participants who volunteered to be questioned about their sexual experience were also more likely to be sexually adventurous and out of the mainstream…

The most disturbing and hotly debated part of Kinsey’s research is chapter 5 of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male titled, “Early Sexual Growth and Activity.”  Kinsey gathered data from people who can only rightly be called child molesters. Describing the source of some of his data on small children he said, “Better data on pre-adolescent climax come from the histories of adult males who have had sexual contacts with younger boys and who, with their adult backgrounds, are able to recognize and interpret the boys’ experiences.”…

Although Kinsey’s data and conclusions are flawed, his work opened the door for public discussion of homosexuality and helped set the stage for the Sexual Revolution and the burgeoning gay rights movement.

Planned Parenthood, Democrats, & Media Exploiting Tragedy, Demand Censorship on Abortion

“Planned Parenthood officials have confirmed none of the people killed in the shooting or 9 victims who were injured were Planned Parenthood abortion clinic staff or patients and authorities have released no motive for the shooter as to whether or not he actually targeted Planned Parenthood. And, according to the Associated Press, all of the shooting took place outside of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, not in it.”

But that hasn’t stopped Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, President Obama, the liberal media, and many Democrat politicians from blaming pro-lifers and demanding that people stop talking about abortion.

Here’s Megyn Kelly’s take.

Wow...Did You Catch This One?

Catching up on your alternative media reading? Here's some of the best articles from recent days.

* “No, America Doesn’t Have a Christian Terrorism Problem” (David French, National Review)

* “WaPo: Let’s hold free speech guilty for the acts of a lunatic, shall we?” (Ed Morrissey, Hot Air)

* “How the Left Hijacked a Tragedy to Serve Their Pro-Abortion Agenda” (Rich Lowry, National Review)

* “How Uncle Sam chases away US jobs” (Paul Mueller and Brian Brenberg, New York Post)

* “Obama Apologizing to the World for US on Climate Is Ridiculous” (Nicolas Loris, The Daily Signal)

* “Eight Questions Republican Candidates Should Answer” (Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review)

* “17 of the 100 Ways This Senator Says the Government Wastes Your Money” (Leah Jessen, The Daily Signal)

* “Yesterday’s Giants, Today’s Dwarves” (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review)

* “Is the antibiotic apocalypse nigh?” (Michael Cook, BioEdge)

All This and Jesus Too! (The Latest Heaven Post)

Background — Almost 3 months ago I invited a few friends from across the country (and beyond) to join me in reading Randy Alcorn’s masterful study, HEAVEN and then to engage in some dialogue about what we read and think about it.

My responses and those of those from friends can be found in previous posts.

Here is the latest in that conversation from Jim Bingham.

I knew he gave us many things richly to enjoy. 1 Tim 6:17. So I inferred that it pleased Him to please us. As a father myself, I felt joy when I saw my sons' joy at gifts I gave them. And I knew God was a better and more loving father than I am. So at the least it was certain He would give more of the gifts that please us now: fellowship with Christ and with our brothers and sisters in Christ; precious pets; beauty; acts of grace; worship; meaningful and satisfying creative enterprise; anticipation; joy.

The thing that has most impacted my view of Heaven though is that Jesus included Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration! It proved to me that He regards fellowship with people. I was stunned! It's what I want more than streets of gold and gates of pearls. I want to enjoy completely unhurried fellowship with my creator.

I've always visualized it like this: Jesus is sitting with me on a bench on the 1700th floor of the great city. To our right is a magnificent view outdoors. Foliage is all around and the city stretches out below us and to our left. We're having a joyful time and there's no pressing appointment to interrupt our fellowship.

That is my greatest anticipation of Heaven. I never doubted there would be beauty and joy and peace and love and pets and fellowship there because we have them all now. And God never changes!! So instead of taking them away, God will make them better.

But the fellowship is what I most look forward to.

In the book, Alcorn details these same things. In overview, I agree completely with him that God created us to delight fully in Himself. And most certainly heaven will be full of the perfection of what He has shown us here and now as current citizens of His Great Kingdom.

Jim

Thanksgiving Leftovers

With the whirlwind of Thanksgiving, family visits, football, shopping, and so on, you may have missed these important articles.

* “Obama’s Moral Hypocrisy on the Syrian-Refugee Question Is Astounding” (Charles Krauthammer, National Review)

* “Disturbing: 57 Paris Airport Workers Are On Terror Watch List” (Leah Barkoukis, Town Hall)

* “Pakistan: Suspected Muslim Radicals Burn Christian TV Station to the Ground” (Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart)

* “The latest wart on the rancid Iran deal” (New York Post Editorial Board)

* “Video: Proof the Mainstream News Is Scripted” (Conservative Outfitters)

* “Former Atheist Astrophysicist Explains Her Journey to Christianity” (James Bishop, Historical Jesus Studies)

* “Give Thanks for Our Freedom to Laugh at Daft College Students” (George Will, National Review)

* “Priority hire firefighter who flunked physical injured 10 days into job” (Susan Edelman, New York Post)

A Few Thanksgiving Quotes (Part 4)

(Previous posts on this theme are here: 1, 2, and 3.)

“Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.”
(George Herbert)

"From David learn to give thanks for everything. Every furrow in the Book of Psalms is sown with the seeds of thanksgiving." (Jeremy Taylor)

"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel."  (Unknown)

“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all.” (Psalm 95:2-3)

"Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do; it is the moral will of God. Failure to give Him the thanks due Him is sin." (Jerry Bridges)

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." (H. U. Westermayer)

Speaking of Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul writes, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

"The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with Him will see many reasons for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long." (Warren Wiersbe)

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.” (Psalm 28:7)

A Few Thanksgiving Quotes (Part 3)

(Previous posts on this theme are here and here.)

"Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road." (John Henry Jowett)

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

"We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction."  (Harry A. Ironside)

"You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled." (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

"But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks." (Ephesians 5: 3-4)

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” (G.K. Chesterton)

“In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Reports from the Culture Wars

* “Hillary Clinton: U.S. Should Fund Abortions Around the World as a Method of Family Planning” (Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews.com)

* “Producer of ABC’s Scandal, Showing Abortion During “Silent Night,” Sits on Planned Parenthood Board” (Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com)

* “Obama is dangerously nonchalant about ISIS threats” (Michael Goodwin, New York Post)

* “Political Translations” (Thomas Sowell, Jewish World Review)

* “Ohio State law school under microsope for reaction to pro-life column”  (Valerie Richardson, Washington Times)

* “Antonin Scalia, Bogeyman of the Liberal Imagination: The justice stars in Hollywood revenge fantasies” (Christopher Scalia, Weekly Standard)

* “Annals of Inanity” (Scott Johnson, Power Line)

* “ObamaCare Endures the Death of a Thousand Facts” (David Catron, American Spectator)

Today's Must Reads

* “America the Vulnerable” (Judith Miller, City Journal)

* “After Paris: A Christian View on Protecting the Innocent” (Mark Tooley, National Review)

* “Sweden has it all - except freedom of conscience: A court has ruled that abortion rights leave no room for a midwife to be exempted.” (Carolyn Moynihan, Mercator)

* “Clueless Hillary: ‘Muslims Have Nothing Whatsoever To Do With Terrorism’” (Editorial, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “U.S. ran out of ammo in attack on ISIS trucks” (Byron York, Washington Examiner)

* “Emails show DOD analysts told to 'cut it out' on ISIS warnings; IG probe expands” (Catherine Herridge, Fox News)

* “Can Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Get You Fired at Marquette University?” (M.D. Kittle, Daily Signal)

* “Millennials being ‘priced out of parenthood’” (Tamara El-Rahi, Mercator)

* “150 on flight from Mexico allowed to skip customs, leave JFK airport” (Brian Niemetz, Victoria Bekiempis, New York Daily News)

* “Democrats Unveil New Strategy: Take Unpopular Positions” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

For Your Thanksgiving Meditations: The Mayflower Compact

Below is the Mayflower Compact, the providential covenant made by the Pilgrims at New Plymouth in 1620, signed while still aboard ship.

In the Name of God, Amen. 

We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; 

Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: 

And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. 

IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

A Few Thanksgiving Quotes (Part 2)

“I will give thanks to the LORD because of His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.” (Psalm 7:17)

"How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child’s personality. Thankful children want to give; they radiate happiness; they draw people." (Sir John Templeton)

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” (John Milton)

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Let Israel say: ‘His love endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron say: ‘His love endures forever.’ Let those who fear the Lord say: ‘His love endures forever.’…Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give You thanks, for You answered me; You have become my salvation.” (Psalm 118: 1-4, 19-21)

"Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count past mercies." (Charles E. Jefferson)

“How slow we are to thank and swift to grumble." (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

“In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted.” (Isaiah 12:4)

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues." (Cicero)

“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” (G.K. Chesterton)

Did You Miss This?

From last week's alternative media, here's a few exceptional articles you may have missed. They are all quite good. Don't have time to read them now? Fine. Why not save this post as a bookmark and then read them over the next couple of days.

* “Obama Rests Comfortably after Paris Attacks” (Deroy Murdock, National Review)

* “Millennials, Starbucks, and Identity” (Joseph Rossell, Juicy Ecumenism)

* “Reagan biographer Craig Shirley: O'Reilly's Killing Reagan is a 'pile of garbage’” (Myra Adams, Washington Examiner)

* “Did Bill O'Reilly Jump The Shark?” (Victor Davis Hanson, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “A Pattern of Executive Overreach” (David Berstein, National Review)

* “Planned Parenthood Charged Me $25 for a $2 Pregnancy Test and Knew of No Free Alternatives” (Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews.com)

* “Univ. of Vermont holds privilege retreat for students who ‘self-identify as white’” (Peter Hasson, Campus Reform)

* “Obama’s inaction plants doubt he can keep America safe” (Michael Goodwin, New York Post)

Just Why Is Thankfulness So Important?

“In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

The Bible is not subtle in its calls for thanksgiving. Repeatedly, urgently, and throughout its many books the reader is urged to “give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,” and “in all things give thanks.” In both Old and New Testaments, both Gospels and Epistles, we are urged to consider our blessings, and the character of the One from whom they flow, and to offer praise and thanks in response.

Centuries later, Martin Luther described gratitude as “the basic Christian attitude” and the Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards asserted that a spirit of thankfulness to God was an indicator of one's spiritual state.

Why, one might wonder, is thankfulness so important?

The act of thanksgiving requires both memory and humility -- both reflection on the causes and sources of gratitude, and the recognition of the blessing as a grace, rather than an entitlement. As such, a spirit of thanksgiving is incompatible with pride and distracted self-absorption, two of the greatest threats to spiritual life. It is virtually impossible to be thankful when one is distracted or indignant; thankfulness requires a laying aside of slights and irritations to focus on one's unearned blessings and their source…

(From “Thinking About Thanksgiving,” a 2013 column by Cherie Harder, President of Trinity Forum.)