Thursday, October 18, 2012

Billy Graham Calls Christians to Act

Billy Graham is far from perfect.  But his long-time involvement in America’s political scene is seen once again, perhaps for the very last.  This soldier of Christ ran the following ad in today’s Wall Street Journal.

The legacy we leave behind for our children, grandchildren, and this great nation is crucial. As I approach my 94th birthday, I realize this election could be my last. I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman. Vote for biblical values this November 6, and pray with me that America will remain one nation under God.

Good words from a good man.  While he may no longer be able to eloquently articulate to Americans their great need of Jesus Christ, he can still point Christians in a direction of honoring the Lord with our citizenship.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Joe's Laughing...But America Isn't

I know virtually everyone in America has commented on the Vice President Joe Biden's debate performance last night. You can read one of my favorite stories here.
I really was starting to wonder if the Joker had pulled this trick on Biden in the green room.

But in all seriousness, nothing was funny about last night's debate.

It isn't funny that Iran is in the process of acquiring nuclear capability. Nor is the Vice President's ostrichian approach that "they [Iranian leaders] have to take this highly enriched uranium, get it from 20 percent up. Then they have to be able to have something to put it in. There is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point."


"AT THIS POINT", Mr. Vice President?  Just what do you think they are doing with the uranium they have acquired? And just how many Israeli parents put their children to bed each night with a great heaviness toward their future welfare?

And it is far from humorous that four American diplomats serving their country in Libya are dead; that four wives had to watch you snicker and that orphaned children and heart-sick parents and siblings of these men along with every other patriotic American had to listen to your semantic dance of refusing responsibility.  The present administration sought to cover up this assassination because of their horrendous foreign policy and cozy relationship with Muslim, American-hating governments of the Middle East.  It isn't funny that President Obama invited Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi to meet with him in New York but refused to meet with America's long time ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And there is no humor in America's jobless rate, President Obama adding $5 trillion in new debt, giving kickbacks to his friends in Solar Energy, and dozens of other things.

And certainly, Christian organizations are not laughing about Obamacare's requirement that they provide contraception, in spite of their religious convictions to the contrary.  In spite of your lie during the debate:
With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy -- any hospital -- none has to either refer contraception. None has to pay for contraception. None has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.
Christian organizations are not laughing, sir.  They are suing!  They are suing to preserve their constituional rights and their God given rights against an Obama administration bent on crushing those rights.

And I assure you that I am not laughing when in the name of Christ and His church you say:
I -- I do not believe that -- that we have a right to tell other people that women, they -- they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor, in my view.
You forgot, Mr. Biden, that third person which you liberals love to ignore.  That person which faith, AS WELL AS SCIENCE, tells us is a living, growing, developing baby.  A human being who proably has as big a grin on their face as you did throughout most of last night's debate.  At least until a death-dealing abortionist invades their life and starts hacking away at their limbs with a scapel or crushing their small, fragile bones with forceps. You are a part of all that is wrong with America, and not many Americans are laughing.
 



Thursday, October 11, 2012

Angela McCaskill and Religious Discrimination

Angela McCaskill, a Christian who regularly attends church, heard her pastor preach the biblical view of marriage (which excludes homosexual marriage). As she and her husband were leaving, he pointed to a petition on the table which would place Question 6 before Maryland Voters. Question 6 would repeal the State Legislature’s passage of Maryland’s Civil Marriage Protection Act. Angela McCaskill exercised her faith and constitutional rights and signed the petition.

Now, she has been suspended from her job.

Angela McCaskill, or Dr. Angela McCaskill as she is better known, has served in various capacities at Gallaudet University for the past 23 years. Dr. McCaskill became a Deputy to the President and the Associate Provost of Diversity and Inclusion in January 2011. She was also the first deaf African American female to earn a Ph.D. from Gallaudet University.

Evidently, some faculty member saw her name on the petition and asked her about it. Once she confirmed that she signed the petition, the other faculty member lodged an official complaint, the issue got picked up by pro-gay, sodomite groups who spread their hatred and intolerance and launched a campaign to have her fired on the basis of her faith and for having exercised her constitutional rights.

Yesterday, President T. Alan Hurwitz, succombing to illogical pressure and anti-American ideals, released the following statement to students, faculty and staff:

"I want to inform the community that I have placed Dr. Angela McCaskill on paid administrative leave effective immediately. It recently came to my attention that Dr. McCaskill has participated in a legislative initiative that some feel is inappropriate for an individual serving as Chief Diversity Officer; however, other individuals feel differently. I will use the extended time while she is on administrative leave to determine the appropriate next steps taking into consideration the duties of this position at the university. In the meantime an interim Chief Diversity Officer will be announced in the near future."

You can sign a petition by Family Research Council to President Hurwitz urging Dr. McCaskill’s reinstatement here.

This is just the latest among so many contemporary examples of religious discrimination a clear shift from the vision of our nation's founders. Consider, for instance, the words of President George Washington:

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

There is no evidence that Dr. McCaskill ever abused her official university position. Rather, she seems to be exemplary in her conduct. The university, its president and others are free to examine Dr. McCaskill's execution of her official duties. But to reprimand her and suspend her for activities in her private life is unconsciable. But in modern America, no divergent opinion on the issue of homosexuality is to be tolerated in the public sphere, save that of acceptance and advancement of a lifestyle moral choice that leads to death.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

McCaskill's Nepotism


Nepotism is typically defined as "favoritism given to a relative regardless of merit."

Claire McCaskill wouldn't be the first politician to exercise nepotism. For instance, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a son and a son-in-law who lobby Congress for various special interests. Reid and Reid have an especially troubling China connection. It's worth a blog post of its own merits.

But Harry Reid isn't up for re-election in Missouri. Claire McCaskill is, and she has taken nepotism to a new low. According to this story from the Associated Press, Claire McCaskill voted repeatedly for various bills that benefited her husband to the tune of $40 million.

While Missourians struggle with deficit spending and high unemployment, McCaskill makes sure the money keeps on rolling to her husband. I can expect a little fluff going to relatives. But $40 million?

There is a better choice.

Todd Akin for U.S. Senate.


Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Americans Grow Less Religious

Pew Research Institute just release a bittersweet report today on the rise of America's irreligious. One in five Americans now claim no religious identity. That's up 5% from just five years ago.

The bitter is that this number is swelling quickly. Basically, this group is averaging a 1% growth per year. This would be alarming enough, but usually such increases rise exponentially. At best, if this trend continues, 30 years from today our country will have an irreligious majority.

The sweet is that the atheists, agnostics and folks who don't share a religious affiliation can now own a greater share of the spiritual and moral chaos our country is experiencing. To put it another way, religious persons are less responsible for America's spiritual rebellion against God.

Obviously, simply naming a religious affiliation is a far cry from living a holy life. Still, the research is alarming.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Presidential Debate--2012

I’m far from a professional debater. In fact, my own last formal debate was just a tad over 20 years ago when I debated on the KU campus whether the Gulf War was a “just war”. But as a public speaker, I know what works when I hear it. And while others have given their editorials on last night’s presidential debate between Barak Obama and Mitt Romney, I have yet to hear anyone comment on what I believe to be the most poignant moment of the debate.

It was during the health care section and moderator Jim Lehrer asked Governor Romney to “tell the president directly why you think what he just said is wrong about Obamacare?”

Then Romney began thundering away:

First of all, I like the way we did it in Massachusetts. I like the fact that in my state, we had Republicans and Democrats come together and work together. What you did instead was to push through a plan without a single Republican vote. As a matter of fact, when Massachusetts did something quite extraordinary -- elected a Republican senator to stop Obamacare, you pushed it through anyway.

So entirely on a partisan basis, instead of bringing America together and having a discussion on this important topic, you pushed through something that you and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid thought was the best answer and drove it through.
What we did in a legislature 87 percent Democrat, we worked together; 200 legislators in my legislature, only two voted against the plan by the time we were finished. What were some differences? We didn’t raise taxes. You’ve raised them by $1 trillion under Obamacare. We didn’t cut Medicare. Of course, we don’t have Medicare, but we didn’t cut Medicare by $716 billion.

We didn’t put in place a board that can tell people ultimately what treatments they’re going to receive. We didn’t also do something that I think a number of people across this country recognize, which is put -- put people in a position where they’re going to lose the insurance they had and they wanted.


This, of course, is the great weakness of Obamacare. Whether you like it or not, whether you think it helps Americas or will bankrupt America, Romney was dead on with the truth. It was RAMMED through by Democrats with absolutely no...zero...nada...Republican support.

Now, a smart debater would have directed attention away from this point. The point in the debate has now narrowed to being about bi-partisan support of a national health-care proposal. I was sure the President would redirect attention away from this losing point and begin blabbering about how this system will help Americans, save us from the evil insurance companies, etc, etc. But that is not what the President did.

Amazingly, he tried to advance another piece of Obama fiction:

Governor Romney said this has to be done on a bipartisan basis. This was a bipartisan idea. In fact, it was a Republican idea. And Governor Romney at the beginning of this debate wrote and said what we did in Massachusetts could be a model for the nation.
And I agree that the Democratic legislators in Massachusetts might have given some advice to Republicans in Congress about how to cooperate, but the fact of the matter is, we used the same advisers, and they say it’s the same plan.


The president actually had a strong debate line…about Congressional Republicans taking advice from Democratic legislators in Massachusetts. It was actually a fairly strong comeback had it been delivered as a ‘zinger’. It should have been delivered by itself. Instead, it got lost in the ludicrously laughable line that Obamacare was “a bipartisan idea”. That's right. Obamacare was bipartisan. Not a single Republican vote. Not even a RINO warming up to it. But lo, and behold, it was bipartisan! Midnight meetings. Locked doors. No Republican consultations. But bipartisan...YES! President Obama is the only American I know of that thinks Obamacare was anything close to bipartisan.

The president was clearly on the defensive, trying his semantical hocus-pocus. This exchange showed it clearly. He cannot win on merits or ideas. He can only win on his charisma. And history scarily reminds us of charismatic leaders void of good ideas who get elected.