KIM DAVIS

Wow.  An article advocating burning the Christian, Kim Davis, because of her stand on homosexual marriage.  Michael Brendan Dougherty, This Week. "Burn Kim Davis."

Any normal punishment rewards her with the comfort of solidarity from right-wing Christians, or her own sense of moral self-approval. Therefore the only way to avoid granting her such "martyrdom" is to actually martyr her. That's the really perverse thing about Christians who make a spectacle like this. The only way the state can really punish them is to inform them that their suffering is meaningless and proving that God doesn't exist by sending them to the darkness of oblivion in torment. Justice Kennedy has issued his theological bull; let Kentucky officials in defiance of it be put on a pyre.

When the smoke settles there will be no GoFundMe campaign, save perhaps for a small carbon offset.

Brian Beutler.  The New Republic.  "Throw Kentucky Clerk Kim in Jail.  She must be severely punished for denying marriage licenses to gay couples."

There are surely other religious clerks in the South and elsewhere who’d love to get away with discriminating against gays and lesbians, in defiance of the country's highest court. The only way to assure this doesn’t happen is to jail Kim Davis until she agrees to issue the licenses, resigns, or is removed from office.

SHEMITAH

Some people have excitedly sent me emails about the Shemitah (Leviticus 25) and its application to America as a result of reading Jonathan Cahn's book, The Harbinger, and watching him on TV. They believe wholeheartedly in what Cahn is saying, but I am a bit of a "Berean" and want to make sure it is not just a false hermeneutic.

I have been trying to find if there is a biblical basis to Shemitah and other Old Testament prophecies for America today.  I am a bit late in reading Jonathan Cahn's the Harbinger. It is not a well-written book, but he tries to build the case for God working in events in America based on a verse in Isaiah and 7 & 50 year cycles related to the jubilee years.  America is in trouble  but are his interpretations accurate?  It is clear that God judges nations, but is America's judgment a result of prophecies in Isaiah written to the nation of Israel or more because we are a nation violating God's moral principles (Romans 1)?

I am also concerned because money and marketing are involved and in addition after doing some internet reading, some people are seeing signs in some strange things like the number "7" on a cow's face. It also strikes me a bit like the old "British Israelism" heresy that was using Old Testament verses to argue the British people descended from Israel and were finding Old Testament verses to support its case.

Here is an ad for a $20.00 DVD arguing Cahn's case:  http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/featured.html.  But on YouTube you can see a number of interviews.  He is a very good speaker.

Here are a couple of people who are questioning his biblical interpretation.  These critics may be wrong, but they do point up issues and failures of the 7 year cycle to have any apparent consistent impact looking back into recent history.

• http://www.examiner.com/article/shemitah-year-of-2015-may-bring-financial-upheaval
• http://standupforthetruth.com/2014/09/will-christians-snookered-shemitah/
• http://www.biblicalintegrity.org/2014/09/19/mystery-of-the-shemitah/

SEXUAL PURITANISM ON THE LEFT

Margaret Wente points out an interesting irony about the Secular Left's concerns about sexual violence on university campuses.  They are sounding a lot like the religious right, only they do not support their "rules" with religious or biblical truths.  There is something to be said about the biblical truths that speak to the way men and women should conduct themselves.

Sixty years ago, sexual behaviour among the young caused deep alarm among the puritanical religious right. Today, it causes deep alarm among the puritanical progressive left. Like their forebears, they are doing their best to restrict and regulate it.

This weekend, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that makes universities redefine consensual sex. From now on, students must effectively obtain the “affirmative consent” of their partners, which must be “ongoing” every step of the way. Those accused of violating the consent rule will be judged on the preponderance of the evidence. Perpetrators face suspension or expulsion, and universities face heavy penalties for failure to enforce.

Obviously the Left is not supporting marital fidelity, but there is a recognition that the counter-culture values promoted by secularism have not created a more loving, caring society.

CRITICISM OF AMERICAN DOCTOR WHO CAUGHT EBOLA

Ann Coulter, the darling of "non-compassionate" conservatives, blames the American doctor for catching Ebola.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter criticized the American doctor who contracted Ebola in Africa, arguing that his missionary efforts had caused more harm than good.

“Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan’s Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America’s premier hospitals,” wrote Coulter in a post for Human Events.
She calls him a "narcisstic Christian."

ISIS IN IRAQ

VICE video of ISIS on spreading the Caliphate.

VICE video on Kurds as they face ISIS.

National Journal:  "The World Will Blame President Obama if Iraq Falls."

Biden calling Iraq "one of the greatest achievements of this administration."  What Democrats were saying about Iraq since the late 1990s.

NBC News.  Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

Ann Althouse believes Obama is trapped by his rhetoric.  She "pictures the enemy laughing" at Obama's speech on August 7, 2014.

A.B. Stoddard in The Hill calls Obama an "impotent president."

Obama promises never to allow genocide to go unpunished.

Michael Crowley at Time:  "How Obama Evolved on the Issue of 'Genocide' in Iraq."

CHURCHES IN THE UKRAINE

A newsletter from the East-West Church and Ministry Report on how churches are responding to the situation in the Ukraine.

GAZA AND AMERICAN ATTITUDES

The Christian Science Monitor has analyzed the latest Pew Research polling data on American attitudes toward Hamas and Israel in the recent Gaza crisis.

But according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, this support is less monolithic than one might think.

How one views Israel in the recent Gaza conflict depends largely on race, age, and political affiliation, the poll indicates. While 40 percent of Americans overall see the Palestinian militant group as the prime instigator of the current violence versus 19 percent who blame the Israelis, this gap is smaller – and even nonexistent – within certain demographic groups.

For the first time pro-Hamas demonstrations are occurring on the streets of American cities. They are more widespread and serious in Europe, but nevertheless I never recall a public display like I have seen in a number of major American cities for any radical Islamist power. Now, I think the majority are Arab immigrants, but nevertheless they are in the streets, even in front of the White House. This is not just an issue for the future of Israel in the Middle East, but also what kind of country America will be in coming years. Support for Israel has been a hallmark of American foreign policy since President Truman.

Support for Israel in the U.S. varies based on age. Younger Americans are more likely to be pro-Hamas than older Americans. I have not read reasons for this trend: is it a result of ignorance or pro-Palestinian professors in American universities, or something else. This will become a more serious issue for Israel as older Americans die off. And I think this includes evangelical Christian young people.

It is clear that the age of dispensational theology in evangelical churches is disappearing. This theology has always strongly supported Israel based on its interpretations of prophecy. But now that theology is dying out as the older generation of pastors and theology professors pass on. I do not expect future evangelical pastors and theology professors to be as supportive of Israel.

From Legal Insurrection:  “Angry Black Woman” to anti-Israel activists: Stop pilfering civil rights legacy for your “repugnant agenda”

From Calgary, Canada:  "Pro-Palestinian Protesters in Calgary: 'All Hail Hitler.'"

IRS TO MONITOR CHURCHES

From Investor's Daily.  I wonder if they will target liberal churches or just conservative churches?

A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit.

The FFRF has temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay marriage and criticism of ObamaCare for its contraceptive mandate.

The irony of this agreement is that it's being enforced by the same Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division of the IRS that was once headed by Lois "Fifth Amendment" Lerner and that openly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups.

Among the questions that the IRS asked of those targeted groups was the content of their prayers.

RUSSIA, THE NEW LEADER OF CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION?

Conservative Pat Buchanan has written a very interesting article on Putin.  He reflects on Russian history and its Christian mission and how Putin is attempting to revive Russia's Christian mission.  Many Russians see the West as decadent and believe it will be Russia which will carry out the revival of moral values.  Putin rejects Marxism-Leninism as the way to revive Russia in favor of what he sees as Christian values.  In doing this he is in the tradition of Alexander Solzhenitsyn who saw the West as decadent decades ago.

Many Russians see the west as engaged in the "sewage of hedonistic secular culture".

Putin is entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly City of today and command post of the counter-reformation against the new paganism.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/is-god-now-on-russias-side/#315lQ2tzSQgJm569.99

Putin is entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly City of today and command post of the counter-reformation against the new paganism.Putin is entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly City of today and command post of the counter-reformation against the new paganism.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/is-god-now-on-russias-side/#315lQ2tzSQgJm569.99

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/is-god-now-on-russias-side/#315lQ2tzSQgJm569.99

Putin is entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly City of today and command post of the counter-reformation against the new paganism.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/is-god-now-on-russias-side/#315lQ2tzSQgJm569.99

HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS FANATICISM?

Andrew Sullivan, a homosexual himself, writes about the homosexual attacks on the founder of Mozilla Firefox because of his support of Prop 8 in California.  And as  Instapundit points out, Barack Obama held the same position in 2009.

The whole episode disgusts me – as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today – hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else – then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.

And a google exec is "forced" to resign from World Vision because of its view on homosexual unions.

MEDIA & CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION

The media is silent about Christian persecution.

The United Nations, Western governments, media, universities, and talking heads everywhere insist that Palestinians are suffering tremendous abuses from the state of Israel.  Conversely, the greatest human rights tragedy of our time—radical Muslim persecution of Christians, including in Palestinian controlled areas—is devotedly ignored.

 

The facts speak for themselves. Reliable estimates indicate that anywhere from 100-200 million Christians are persecuted every year; one Christian is martyred every five minutes. Approximately 85% of this persecution occurs in Muslim majority nations. In 1900, 20% of the Middle East was Christian. Today, less than 2% is.

ARIZONA: HOMOSEXUAL v. RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

Ilya Shapiro supports homosexual marriage and the Arizona religious liberty bill and gives 9 reasons why.

BILL GOTHARD

I never was fond of this fellow and his teaching, but he was "adored" by so many conservative Christians. When his brother was in some kind of sex scandal many years ago, I thought something was not right.  Now the truth of Bill Gothard's sexual misconduct is coming out.  Authoritarian Christian leaders do not model Jesus Christ in any way.

COPTS IN EGYPT

The future for Egyptian Copts is rather grim.  So much for Islamic compassion.  Dhimmni status is the goal.

Patterns of persecution continued after the revolution and were reinforced. The number and scope of the attacks swelled dramatically and they were no longer limited to obscure villages or shantytowns but spread to the streets of Cairo and in front of the official TV headquarters. Church buildings were attacked and burned, mob violence against Copts was on the rise, and the new horror of forced evacuations from villages was becoming more common. Copts in small villages were increasingly forced to adhere to the Islamists’ standards and vision enforced on the ground. Accusations of blasphemy and insulting religion rose with Copts as their primary targets. Seven Copts today linger in Egyptian prisons as a result of court verdicts due to such accusations. The most worrisome aspect for Copts remains the participation of their neighbors, coworkers, and people they had grown up with in attacking them. Even if the Egyptian state ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood miraculously decided to intervene, the local hatreds are now impossible to contain.

UTAH JUDGE'S POLYGAMY DECISION

A Utah judge has ruled that certain laws against polygamy or unconstitutional.

This is an interesting decision, especially in light of how polygamy affects the status of women both inside and outside of Utah—in, say, Saudi Arabia or Yemen. Or Canada. Or anywhere. It’s as though Judge Clark Waddoups, who in his Utah decision claimed there was no “rational basis” under law for distinguishing between a man shacking up with a few women and informal but established polygamy, had ruled in a total vacuum.

But worse than a single US judge’s decision has been the reaction from so-called respectable media outlets who believe, despite all worldwide evidence to the contrary, that the ruling struck a blow for unvarnished personal freedom.

RELIGIOUS PEOPLE MORE GENEROUS

From Time.  I don't quite understand the title, "It's Social Ties, Not Religion--That Makes the Faithful Give to Charity," because the article goes on to point out that religious people are more likely to donate to charity than non-religious people. But it does try to show that the more religious social connections you have in a religious organization, the more likely you are to give.

Not only do Americans give generously to charities with religious affiliations, but the most religious Americans are also the most charitable. In our book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, Robert Putnam and I show that there is a strong connection between being religious and being charitable. Not surprisingly, the most highly religious Americans contribute their time and treasure to religious causes. But they also give to secular causes—at a higher rate than do the most secular Americans.

The goal is to get secular organizations to somehow bond like religious organizations so that their giving for charitable causes goes up!  Crazy.

THE BIBLE & THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Reviews of Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution by James P. Byrd.

Christianity Today. 

He matter-of-factly contends that sermons were more influential than political pamphlets in building popular support for independence, and he insists unequivocally that "preachers were the staunchest defenders of the cause of America." And yet the question that really interests him is not whether religion played an important role in the American founding but how it did so. More specifically, he wants to understand how colonists used the Bible in responding to the American Revolution.

Religion in American History. 

But the Revolutionary War also altered how Americans read and understood the Bible, challenging and changing interpretations of both the Old and New Testaments. Byrd mines his dataset of wartime sermons during the long eighteenth-century to great effect, demonstrating the interpretive challenges colonists faced in rebelling against the British Empire. Whereas the Bible had previously been marshaled to justify war against Catholic imperial rivals France and Spain and non-Christian American Indians (as recently as the French and Indian War of the 1750s and 60s), the predominantly Protestant colonists of North America were now facing off against the British Crown they’d previously held up as the standard and protector of the English-speaking Protestant Empire.

The Christian Century. 

Byrd also seems not to have noticed that the most bellicose sermons he quotes came from Presbyterian ministers—not Congregationalists or Methodists or even Baptists. Did most such sermons indeed come from Presbyterians, and if so, why? (His database appears to have contained only biblical references, not the denominational provenance of the preachers or even their geographical location.) Is the apparent Presbyterian predominance because of their regional concentration in the middle colonies, or is it because of Scottish and Presbyterian antipathy toward the British dating back for generations?

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

According to Diarmaid MacCulloch writing in the Daily Beast, it is Jews and the Christians themselves who are responsible for the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. . .it is not Muslims.

SENATOR CRUZ TAKES ON OBAMACARE

I thought this picture was very interesting, especially if you are familiar with medieval paintings of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.  Or if you look at Orthodox icons of Bible figures or saints.  The gold ceiling behind Senator Cruz's head gives the sense of a halo over the head of Senator Cruz.  St. Cruz!



"Obama and Cruz Political Twins."  Interesting observations.

LIFE IN AN AFGHAN HAREM

The story of an American woman who married an Afghani and how she managed to get out of the harem when she traveled to Kabul.