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My Two Cents Worth–Mostly Questions

May25

On the Senate deal concerning filibusters and judicial nominations:

I read a summary of the deal, signed by seven Democrats and seven Republicans, at HughHewitt.com. As I read it, the Democrats agree to “let” the Senate vote on three judicial nominees that have been blocked, and the Republicans agree not to change the Senate rules to prohibit filibusters of judicial nominees in this Congress. So the Republicans can’t get all their nominees voted on, and they can’t stop the Democrats from filibustering a possible Supreme Court nominee should a vacancy come up. And the Democrats can’t stop Janice Roges Brown, Priscilla Owens, and William Pryor from becoming judges.

Question #1: Why don’t the Republicans let the Democrats actually filibuster? I mean filibuster like in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I don’t understand why the Dems are allowed to threaten filibuster and get whatever they want. Let them do it. I think they’d get tired, and the country would get tired of watching them block the business of Congress for no discernable reason. I think everyone would be ready to move on after about a week, and Congress would be unable to do anything to us in the meantime.

Question #2: Do most people know or care about this whole mess? I care because I care who becomes a U.S. judge. I think the courts have been leading this country in the wrong direction for quite a while, and I’m ready for judges who will interpret the actual Constitution instead of writing a virtual new Constitution of the (liberal) mind. However, I’m betting that most people just have too much of a life to worry about filibusters and compromises.

Question #3: Why are the Republicans so scared to stand up to the Democrats? Or do we have seven or eight RINOS who don’t really want conservative judges in the first place but can’t admit it for political reasons? I just don’t see what is so explosive about the “nuclear option.” What would they be blowing up? The tradition of the Senate is not to filibuster judicial nominees. So nobody would be changing tradition, only putting it into the rules. Where are the senators who qualify for JFK’s Profiles in Courage? Absent.

National Day of Prayer, 2005

May4

iprayed
Today is the National Day of Prayer, observed annually on the first Thursday in May. At the official website organizers suggest prayer for these centers of influence and power: government, the media, education, families, and churches. I just spent a few seconds in prayer, and I plan to remind myself to do so throughout the day. Won’t you join me?

The Children of Men by P.D. James

Mar29

Imagine a world in which there are no children.
Imagine a world in which the youngest people are twenty-five years old.
Imagine a world in which all the males are sterile, and therefore no babies can be conceived.
Imagine a world from which God has withdrawn the blessing of procreation.
The Children of Men by P.D. James pictures just such a dystopia in which the human race is only a short time away from extinction. It’s a sad world in which women lavish affection on dolls and kittens because they can no longer devote their love and attention to children. Men and women lose interest in sexual relations that have been stripped of meaning. The elderly commit suicide because they are no longer needed or useful to a younger generation.
There is a story, which starts out as a sort of 1984ish (Orwell) resistance against the dictatorship that has become the government of England in this dying world. Then, something unexpected turns the plot into fugitives running from the state police in an attempt to live long enough to save the world. Enough said. James is an excellent writer, and this novel, while different from her detective stories with Adam Dalgliesh the intellectual Scotland Yard detective, is thought-provoking and applicable to our time.
I wonder how it would affect the social behaviour of human beings to live in a society in which children are no longer valued or sought after? I wonder how Chinese people are changed by their “one child policy”? I wonder whether those parts of the world in which the birth rate has fallen below replacement are pushing themselves into the kind of world James describes?
We’ve already passed 1984 and we’ve seen some of the things Orwell describes come true: doublespeak, totalitarian dictatorships that use torture to control their people.
Similarly, James’s book contains some scary truths projected into a 2021 world from which all children have vanished. People in Western industrialized countries are having fewer children. The implications of this birth dearth are yet to be realized. P.D. James does not paint a pretty picture of a world without children.

What is Life Support?

Feb22

I just heard on the radio that Terri Schiavo has been granted a “stay of execution” until tomorrow at 5:00 P.M. Unfortunately, the newscaster also said, “Terri’s parents have fought a long legal battle to keep their daughter on life support.”

Life support is a term for a set of therapies to preserve a patient’s life when essential bodily systems are not working well enough to be relied upon. Life support therapies utilize some combination of several techniques: enteric feeding, intravenous drips, total parenteral nutrition, mechanical respiration, heart/lung bypass, defibrillation, urinary catheterization and dialysis. The same techniques are also used for intensive care, though life support is concerned with stabilizing a patient rather than healing them.

Technically, Terri’s feeding tube is life support, but the term conjures pictures of a patient in a coma with a breathing machine being fed and hydrated intravenously. Terri Schiavo is not on life support by my definition; she simply requires a feeding tube to be fed several times a day. Does the MSM call dialysis “life support”? How about catheterization? No, then why does a reporter call what is being done for Terri “life support”?
And why do some people, including her own husband, want to starve her to death?

Terri Schiavo Again

Feb20

I”ve read some posts on the blogosphere that have said, very tentatively, that we might all be getting a little tired of hearing about Terri Schiavo, the young woman in Florida whose husband is planning to disconnect her feeding tube in order to starve her to death starting Tuesday, February 22. Well, yes, compassion fatigue is a real malady, but Scripture exhorts us that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” We are not ever commanded to give up nor to give in to our own selfish desire for comfort and ignorance.

Email Received

Feb18

I received this email from a friend just now:

EARLY Monday morning, please call State Senator James King, Jr., president of the Florida Senate at 1-904-727-3600 and ask that a special session be called immediately to enact the “Florida Starvation & Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention Act”. This action could stop the imminent actions that may be taken as soon as Tuesday, Feb. 22nd – that is, to remove the feeding and hydration tube from Terry Schiavo.
From the excerpt below, you will see that her parents, the Schindlers, are continuing to try every means possible to save her life. Terry’s so-called “husband”, who is living with another woman, and has fathered two children with her, and has continually withheld any form of rehabilitation or treatment of Terry with money which was awarded by a court for the express purpose of treating Terry – has only one goal in mind – HER DEATH. He doesn’t want her to learn to feed herself – which specialist and doctors have said she could learn to do. He doesn’t want her to learn to talk, again which she does on a limited basis to her family, calling her mom and dad by those titles.

Do what you feel will help as we work together to uphold the value of human life.

You Shall Not Murder, Exodus 20:13

Feb16

I will never, ever forget the story of a young black girl I met at an abortion clinic in Los Angeles one Saturday morning. I was protesting near the clinic when I saw the young lady approach the front door. I talked to her, and tried to encourage her to put her baby up for adoption. She said it was too late to make that decision. The young lady then told me her story. She said she had gone into the clinic that Thursday. The doctor had injected something into her womb. For three days the baby KICKED AND GASPED FOR LIFE. On the third day, the baby died. She told me that when the baby expired, it was devastating to her. She also told me she would never ever be able to overcome the experience.
I asked the girl why she chose to go through the process. She said she was encouraged to do this by her mother and boyfriend. That employees in the clinic told her she wouldn’t feel anything. They said that she was carrying a fetus and NOT A BABY and that she could not afford to take care of a baby at her age. I asked how old she was. She replied that she was thirteen!

This story comes from an essay on abortion and black men by Jesse Lee Peterson. I am reminded that we don’t live in George W. Bush’s “culture of life,” but rather we live in a culture of death. We de-humanize those who are inconvenient and helpless, and then we try to live with what we have done.
Terri Schiavo will become a victim of this culture of death next week unless something happens to stop those who are determined to starve her to death. She, too, has been de-humanized, called a vegetable, by those to whom she is an inconvenience and a liability. According to the website, Terri’s Fight,

Terri is purposefully interactive, alert, curious, lovely young woman who lives with a very serious disability. She lives free of any life support machines and receives nutrition through a tube that is connected only at meal times.

What kind of culture allows unborn babies and disabled adults to be murdered, and not only murdered but put to death in a torturous, slow, and painful way? A culture that worships death, of course. We may talk about progress, and enlightenment, and compassion for the weak all we want to, but if this death happens to Terri Schiavo and as long as thirteen year old girls are encouraged by lies to kill their own children, we are no more progressive or enlightened or compassionate than the Islamic terrorists we fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. May God have mercy on us all.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Feb13

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe, and I don’t know where she got it. So if I’m violating anyone’s copyright, I apologize in advance. Anyway, this cake is the one I usually make for Valentine’s Day because it’s pink. It’s also very, very rich.

Strawberry Cake

Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 box strawberry jello
1/2 cup water
1 cup oil
3 Tablespoons flour
4 eggs
1/2 (10 oz) pkg. frozen strawberries
Topping;
1 box powdered sugar
1/2 pkg. frozen strawberries
1 stick melted margarine

Directions:
Mix together cake ingredients. Bake in layers or in 13 x 9 inch pan. Makes a large heavy-bodied cake. Bake at 350 degrees until done. While baking make topping. Mix together topping ingredients and pour over cake while still warm.

I’ve been reading a book about Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan poet. The book is Beyond Stateliest Marble: The Passionate Femininity of Anne Bradstreet by Douglas Wilson. I plan to send a copy of this poem to Engineer Husband tomorrow:

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Implications of Population Decline

Feb8

When I was in high school, the bogeyman in social trends was “the population explosion.” Everybody knew that it was irresponsible to have more than two children in these modern, enlightened times. Anyone who did have a large family was just selfish, adding to the surplus population, using up the dwindling resources of the planet. Now, according to the article, Demographics and the Culture War by Stanley Kurtz in Policy Review Online, we’re heading toward a worldwide population implosion, a decline in population that is “set to ramify geometrically.”

As population falls, the pool of potential mothers in each succeeding generation shrinks. So even if, well into the process, there comes a generation of women with a higher fertility rate than their mothers’, the momentum of population decline could still be locked in. Population decline may also be cemented into place by economics. To support the ever-growing numbers of elderly, governments may raise taxes on younger workers. That would make children even less affordable than they are today, decreasing the size of future generations still further.

Kurtz uses information from the following recently published books to spin several possible scenarios that might result from a decreasing population.
The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About It by Phillip Longman
Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future by Ben Wattenberg
The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know About America’s Economic Future by Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns
Running On Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It by Peter G. Peterson
Kurtz says the choices are:
1) a new conservatism: Population decline might be halted and even reversed by a change in cultural values, what GWB calls creating a culture of life. We could have a revival of traditional religions which oppose abortion, birth control, feminism, and the sexual revolution and which support traditional families with children.
2) a new eugenics: In this scenario, populations could be stabilized as traditional families were replaced by bioengineered breeding systems, as in Brave New World. He doesn’t think we’re so very far away from this “eugenic nightmare.”
3) “endless and compounding population decline:” This choice has some fairly scary implications as the population ages rapidly and fewer and fewer young people are forced to support more and more elderly people (who are living longer to boot).

None of the above is palatable to social liberals who value freedom, but it may be that we’ll all have to pay the price for the choices that we as a society have made and continue to make. (We should all pray for our children, even those of us who don’t have any.)

. . . population decline cannot be reversed in the absence of major cultural change, and the prospects of a significant religious revival must not be dismissed. In a future shadowed by vastly disproportionate numbers of poor elderly citizens, and younger workers struggling with impossible tax burdens, the fundamental tenets of postmodern life might be called into question. Some will surely argue from a religious perspective that mankind, having discarded God’s injunctions to be fruitful and multiply, is suffering the consequences.

I found this article via Arts and Letters Daily, a very useful website, by the way.

25 Most Influential Evangelicals

Feb2

I was standing in line at the grocery store today, and I noticed the Time magazine cover story: 25 Most Influential Evangelicals. Here’s the Time magazine list with my comments in parentheses:
Howard & Roberta Ahmanson: The Financiers (Maybe so, but I’ve never heard of them. Maybe they’re the stealth financiers, or maybe I’m just not well-versed in the world of finance.)
David Barton: The Lesson Planner
Doug Coe: The Stealth Persuader
Chuck Colson: Reborn and Rehabilitated
Luis Cortes: Bringing Latinos To the Table (I’ve never heard of him either, but it sounds as if he’s doing great work.)
James Dobson: The Culture Warrior
Stuart Epperson: A High-Fidelity Messenger (Name sounds vaguely familiar.)
Michael Gerson : The President’s Spiritual Scribe
Billy & Franklin Graham: Father and Son In the Spirit
Ted Haggard: Opening Up the Umbrella Group (Who? Oh, the NAE guy.)
Bill Hybels: Pioneering Mass Appeal
T.D. Jakes: The Pentecostal Media Mogul (I think he’s got some doctrinal problems, but he seems like a well-meaning guy.)
Diane Knippers: A Think Tank With Firepower (Again the name sounds vaguely familiar.)
Tim & Beverly LaHaye: The Christian Power Couple
Richard Land: God’s Lobbyist
Brian McLaren: Paradigm Shifter (I hear he’s some pomo guy. Is he any good?)
Joyce Meyer: A Feminine Side Of Evangelism ( Can anyone say “prosperity gospel”? I ‘m thankful Time left most of the prosperity gospel people off this list even though some of them are quite influential. Maybe their influence is declining. We can only hope.)
Richard John Neuhaus: Bushism Made Catholic ( A great thinker, but he’s Catholic, not evangelical.)
Mark Noll: The Intellectual Exemplar
J.I. Packer: Theological Traffic Cop
Rick Santorum: The Point Man On Capitol Hill (According to Hugh Hewitt, he’s also Catholic. Great senator. I wish he were mine.)
Jay Sekulow: The Almighty’s Attorney-at-Law
Stephen Strang: Keeper of “The Faith” (Yet another vaguely familiar name.)
Rick Warren: America’s New People’s Pastor
Ralph Winter: A Global Mission (Who?)

First of all, such a list depends on the question you’re asking in the first place. Which evangelicals are influencing politics and the culture at large? Or which evangelicals have great influence among evangelicals and are beginning to influence the culture at large? Here’s my list of “evangelical influencers.” the names I hear among evangelicals every Sunday (and during the week):
1. Rick Warren,. Yes, Saddleback and Willow Creek have been tremendously influential, for better or for worse, and now The Purpose Driven Life is literally everywhere. Unlike some reformed kibbitzers, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The book presents the gospel and preaches to our me-centered culture that “it’s not about you.” So what if it’s not a full course in reformed or even Baptist theology.
2. Jay Sekulow. Yes, he’s helped evangelicals to see that they too can use the court system to win some victories.
3. JI Packer. He’s the “old man” whose wisdom is still influencing evangelicals through his book Knowing God and through his other writing.
4. Mark Noll. Yes, his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind gave a lot of people food for thought and started a push toward evangelical scholarship that is being carried on at schools like Baylor University and Wheaton and Biola, to name a few. I hope.
5. Richard Land. Politically very influential, and he influences other evangelicals’ political opinions.
6. Tim and Beverly LaHaye. Unfortunately, I think LaHaye has been tremendously influential. I don’t agree with his eschatology, and I’m not sure about his theology. But he is influential, no doubt.
7. Bill Hybels. Ditto Rick Warren without the best-selling book.
8. Billy and Franklin Graham. Of course. Franklin is carrying “compassionate conservatism” around the world through Samaritan’s Purse.
9. Michael Gerson. The president’s speech writer. Of course.
10. James Dobson. If these were listed in order of influence, Dobson would probably be number one. I hope he will tone down the “you owe us” rhetoric with President Bush, but as far as his radio program and the information that FoF gives out, I have few problems. And most evangelicals have even fewer than I do.
11. Chuck Colson. Yes, I see him as a man who struggles with power and the pride that is power’s accompanying temptation, but nevertheless has used his influence to do a great deal of good in the prisons, in the world, Sudan in particular, and in calling evangelicals to think about worldview and apologetics.
12. Doug Coe. I don’t know much about him, but I’m willing to go along with Time and say that he probably does have a great deal of influence in Washington evangelical power circles.
13. David Barton. I can’t believe Time came up with this name, but I agree he’s tremendously popular among evangelicals, particularly my particular sub-sub-culture, evangelical homeschoolers.
So, my list overlaps Time magazine by about half of the names. Who would I add to replace the ones I dropped?
14. D. James Kennedy. He’s still around as far as I know, still active in politics and in Evangelism Explosion, argueably the most popular tool for evangelism among evangelical churches.
15. R.C. Sproul. He has been an influence on Chuck Colson and also on many, many evangelicalswho have heard his radio program or read his books.
16. Tony Evans. Dr. Dobson sort of sponsored him several years ago, but now he’s made a name for himself with, again, books and a radio program. He’s a good preacher.
17. Ted Baehr. Editor of Movieguide a guide to popular movies from a Christian point of view.
18. Mike Farris. Former president of Homeschol Legal Defense Association and tremendously influential in that sub-sub culture I mentioned above. He’s controversial even among homeschoolers, but definitely influential. He is now president of Patrick Henry College, a colege that was designed with Christian homeschoolers in mind
19. Tony Campolo. He’s a little on the liberal side, politically speaking, which means he speaks to all those “other” evangelicals who aren’t political conservatives. Actually, there are a lot of those guys, even if the MSM seems to classify all evangelicals into one political party.
20. Marvin Olasky. Editor of World magazine and architect of the idea of “compassionate conservatism.”
21. George Barna. “Barna . . . is to evangelicals what George Gallup is to the larger culture. Pastors frequently cite his statistical findings in sermons, and his many books about church ministry sell consistently.”
22. Rich Stearns. President of World Vision. i don’t know much about the man, but I surely do hear about the organization almost daily on Christian radio, in magazines, etc.
23. Phillip Johnson. Author of Darwin On Trial and spokesman for the Intelligent Design movement.
24. Ravi Zacharius. Christian apologist and leader. He has recently made an attempt to reach out to Mormons.
25. George W. Bush. He’s certainly an influential evangelical.

I’m not saying my list is better than Time’s list. I just know about the influence of the people on my list, whereas I’m just now hearing about some of the people on the Time list. There are also a lot of “second tier” leaders who may become the really influential people in the future, at least within evangelicalism: Beth Moore, Dave Ramsey, Henry Blackaby, Douglas Wilson, Gary Bauer, Nancy Pearcey. Whom do you see influencing the evangelicals and the culture around you?