August 27, 2003
Psalms 18-21 are now up
in Reflections
In reflecting on the psalms I am often impressed with how many of them
are written out of deep pain and anguish of heart. I can’t help but make a
comparison with some of the great old country songs that deal with the hurt
and disappointment of life. They dealt with broken love affairs, drinking
too much, prison, and a raft of other real life problems. David’s psalms are
in a whole different category, but the comparison lies in writing out of
pain, fear and hurt. Both in country music and in the psalms, something has
to be going on in the soul. Even in the Psalm 21, which is generally
upbeat and thankful, enemies are a very real danger. Our lives seem to be
shaped more by failures and disappointments than by success and happiness.
It is fascinating how many great man and women have overcome their misery
and been made better by the process.
August 25, 2003
Reparations
for Egypt
The first time I heard this, I thought someone was just kidding. But now
it turns up in the New
Republic’s Daily Journal of politics.
Dr. Nabil Hilmi, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Al-Zaqaziq,
and other Egyptian nationals are preparing a massive lawsuit against, as
they put it, "all the Jews of the world" to recover with interest the
value of the jewelry, ornaments, precious fabrics, even cooking utensils
they snuck out of the land of their captivity "at midnight" some 4,000
years ago.
TNR editors wondered the same thing I did, that establishing the
historicity of the text is a dangerous thing for Arabs to do. The texts are
clear evidence of the existence of two Jewish temples, temples the
Palestinians claim never existed. And the editors raised the question that
came to mind the first time I heard it:
But this matter of the timelessness of recompense raises another issue
for the tort lawyers. There were perhaps 600,000 Hebrew slaves in Egypt,
and they were in bondage for 400 years, up to that very night of their
escape across the dry Red Sea. Now, 600,000 slaves, toiling for 400 years,
each of them due a living wage, plus interest calculated from the
beginning, of course ... well, it may not come to however many trillions
of tons of gold the learned law dean estimates. But it's not small
potatoes, either. But, then, the Hebrew slaves stole these also.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton could file amicus briefs with the
court.
August 22, 2003
Festival
Seminar Schedule is now available. See the link to the left.
August 21, 2003
The Middle
East, Again
The Associated Press headline today read, "Hamas
Abandons Truce After Israeli Strike." That sort of headline is enough to
send a man gibbering off into the night. Didn’t Hamas abandon the "truce"
when they blew up that bus full of kids? How on earth can the Palestinians
expect civilized people to take them seriously when they kill twenty people
on a bus (including kids and a baby), claim credit for the bombing, and then
scream that the truce is off when the Israelis retaliate? Think about that.
They felt that blowing up a bus was acceptable conduct under a truce! I
don’t know whether I am angry at Hamas for thinking we are that stupid or
the Associated Press for treating the story with any kind of dignity. If it
weren’t so horrible, I would think it was a Monte Python sketch.
As far as I can tell, the entire Palestinian side of this dispute is
populated with a set of highly dangerous clowns. I do not see any
justification for the United States government to put any pressure on Israel
for restraint. As for Israel, they have no alternative but to build their
wall. The Palestinian leadership is dangerous at best, evil at the worst.
I’m convinced, and it wasn’t the Israeli’s who convinced me. The only
condition under which any Palestinian leader will accept peace is the
complete destruction of the state of Israel.
August 20, 2003
College Course: How to be Gay.
I thought someone was kidding. I heard that a college level course was
being offered on how to be gay. I had no idea. Syndicated columnist Ben
Shapiro:
"How to be Gay" is a real course at the University of Michigan. The
course description states: "This course will examine the general topic of
the role that initiation plays in the formation of gay male identity ...
In particular, we will examine a number of cultural artifacts and
activities that seem to play a prominent role in learning how to be gay:
(including) camp, diva-worship, drag, muscle culture, taste, style and
political activism."
Do you think this is just an isolated incident? According to Shapiro,
"English departments around the country have become brainwashing centers for
the militant gay movement." Examples include the University of Pennsylvania
with an English course titled "Theories of Sexuality." At the
University of Maryland, English 265 is an introduction to gay and lesbian
literature. There’s more, and it is even creeping down into high school
English departments. Gay militancy is winning the hearts and minds of
young people everywhere.
Of course, homosexual leanings are not in the genes because homosexual
behavior does not reproduce. Homosexuality depends on recruiting.
Apparently the venue for recruitment is now the English departments of
universities. Coming soon to a high school near you. Read Ben Shapiro’s
column by
clicking here.
Middle East
Peace?
The situation looks more bleak by the day for peace between the
Palestinians and the Israelis. Yossi Klein Halevi, writing in The New
Republic today opines:
With the latest bus bombing in Jerusalem, Abu Mazen's grace period has
ended. Israel has swallowed repeated terrorist attacks since the ceasefire
began at the end of June, but the relatively small number of casualties
allowed the Sharon government to continue offering Abu Mazen concessions.
. . .Now, though, Sharon will be unable to bolster Abu Mazen
without a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism. Abu Mazen likely will plead
for more time, but he just doesn't have any."
Halevi points out the tragic dilemma that Israel has, in Abu Mazen, found
a partner who understands that the Palestinians only hope is to put an end
to terror. What makes it tragic is that Mazen is too weak to do anything
about it. Halevi concludes:
One Israeli negotiator who knows Abu Mazen from the Oslo years told me
recently, "Whenever we got to a difficult moment in negotiations, Abu
Mazen would suddenly remember that he has to visit his son in Qatar. Or
he'd fly off to Morocco for vacation. He's not capable of making the hard
decisions."
Increasingly, it appears that Israel's only viable solution is the Wall.
August 15, 2003
About
California
I know Ann Coulter gives some people heartburn, but sometimes she is just
too funny to ignore. Only a week ago, she wanted to give California back to
Mexico. Now, she figures Mexico would decline the offer. For her very
amusing, if painful, assessment of the state of affairs in California,
click here.
August 13, 2003
Mark Steyn is a
Canadian columnist whose work can be found in a number of places. This
column turned up in the Jerusalem Post of all places. Mark figures it won't
be long until the Bible is banned--at least in Canada. He cites this item
which you may have heard about:
In Saskatchewan, The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix was fined by the Human
Rights Commission for publishing an advertisement quoting biblical
passages on homosexuality. Fining publishers of the Bible surely can't be
far off. The coerciveness of the most "liberal" cultures in the Western
world is not a pretty sight.
That's right. The ad did nothing except quote the scriptural passages on
homosexual conduct--no commentary, no railing. And the paper was fined for
it. I wonder what is going to happen when some of my radio programs are
played for delicate Canadian ears. I don't get exercised over the issue, but
in at least two recent programs, I read the passages from scripture that
deal with this question. They will be playing soon. Watch for
the programs here, and read Mark Steyn's column at
this link.
August 10, 2003
The Judging
Of Kobe Briant
Did Kobe Bryant really rape that girl or not? I don’t know, but it seems
certain that something happened in that hotel room that shouldn’t have. The
media are milking the story for all it is worth (and then some) but they
aren’t being that helpful. They don’t have any reliable facts and won’t have
until the trial. But it seems to me that there are some useful lessons that
young men and women could take away from this story.
For example: Shouldn’t young men learn that just because a woman is
willing is not a good enough reason to jump into bed with her? Suppose Kobe
Briant is telling the truth and it was consensual sex. Shouldn’t he have
realized what a risk he was taking, not only with his own family, but with
his career, with his influence on kids? More important, what about his
effect on this young woman. How was he to know her emotional
vulnerabilities. How could he know that she had attempted suicide and could
have been sent over the brink by this experience? When you have sex with
someone you don’t know very well, you risk doing that person
irreparable damage.
Then there is the damage to yourself. When I joined the Navy, they made
me sit through films about what could happen to me if I had sex with a woman
I didn’t know. They had graphic pictures of what could happen and more than
one young sailors passed out while watching the movie. Their objective was
to keep from having diseased sailors on their hands, and it may have worked
in some degree. Of course then, there were, what, 7 or 8 venereal diseases?
Now there are over 50, and one of them is AIDS. We used to call them
venereal diseases, but someone finally realized that stupid youths needed to
know what that meant, so they changed it to sexually transmitted diseases.
Then there is the girl’s family to consider. What if she has three
strapping big brothers who look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and who will want
to wring your neck when they find out you had sex with their little sister.
Or, what if she has a husband with a great big .357 magnum, and the attitude
to go with it? Or what if she is a crook with blackmail on her evil little
brain?
How far do I need to take this? How stupid is it to do what Kobe Briant
did....at the very best?
Now, what do you think young women should take away from this case?
Number one: Men are dangerous. All of them. No exceptions. Number two: The
law cannot protect you from rape. Really. Colorado has some of the toughest
rape laws in the country. Did it protect this girl from rape, if indeed she
was raped? Colorado’s law says that if a woman says no at any point in the
process, the man has to stop. If they are both voluntarily stark naked and
in the shower together, and the woman says no, the man has to stop. If they
are all the way into bed (use your own imagination) and the woman says no,
the man has to put on his clothes and go home.
Right. And there is a tooth fairy. If I had a nineteen year old daughter,
I would want her to understand that the primary beneficiaries of Colorado’s
rape laws are the lawyers, not young women. How stupid do you have to be to
believe that the law is going to protect your virginity when you won’t? The
laws make a lot of money for lawyers. They may even help prosecutors get
convictions. But wouldn’t it be better not to be raped than to be
raped and have the attacker convicted? I really hope this Colorado law is
not giving a false sense of security to young ladies.
Men are dangerous. All of them. Don’t go into a man’s hotel room and
close the door. Men are dangerous. Don’t have too much to drink when you are
out with a man. Men are dangerous. Don’t get intimate with a man and expect
him to stop because the law says he has to. Men are dangerous. All of them.
You don’t necessarily have to be afraid of men. But your should treat them
with all the respect you would treat a loaded shot gun.
It would really be nice with all the hype on television about this case
if the talking heads would spend a little time talking sense to young people
about things like this. They might save some lives. I only have my
radio
program, but I’m talking about it. Watch for my program, "The Judging of
Kobe Briant," coming in a few weeks.
August 9, 2003
Gay Bishop
The world is still deciding what to think about the Episcopal church’s
decision to ordain the first openly gay priest as a bishop of the church.
This is a man who left a wife and two children to live with another man. Cal
Thomas wonders what the church would have thought if he had done the
same thing and moved in with another woman? That kind of conduct before
has cost not a few ministers their jobs, I suspect.
Good Manners/Good
Morals, By Allie Dart
August 7, 2003
Reflections
Reflections on several new Psalms are
now available. Also Galatians is now
finished and online. It is helpful to study Galatians while listening to the
radio programs discussing the book. Those programs are available from the
CEM home office. Send and
E-mail and request information on how to get the Galatians programs from
the Christian Origins series.
Gay Backlash?
Just this morning two friends were complaining about too much gay news,
here comes this from
Fox News
Web.
"All this in-your-face stuff — every time you pick up a newspaper or
turn on the T.V., it's gay, gay, gay all the time. I think the average Joe
is saying enough is enough," said Peter Labarbera, senior policy analyst
of the Culture and Family Institute.
The flip reply?
"That's why God made the remote — if you don't like what's on the
television, change the channel," responded David Smith of the Human Rights
Campaign.
Yeah, well, that’s the problem the first guy was complaining about. When
you change the channel to get away from it, you run smack into it somewhere
else. Polls indicate the gay lobby may be overplaying their hand. Backlash
may be setting in. One can only hope.
August 1, 2003A Gay High
School?
Soon, the nations first public school for gay, lesbian and transgender
teens will open in New York. To many, this seems like a strange development
and all the stranger because it is being supported by public funds. The
reasoning is that gay kids are harassed in public schools and cannot learn.
One commentator wondered why the schools couldn’t exercise discipline and
make their schools safe for these kids. Another obvious question is, how do
we know these kids are gay? I am certain I went to high school with gay
guys, but I had no idea who they were. Coming on the heels of the Supreme
Court decision legalizing sodomy, the school seems even more bizarre. It
suggests that citizens are acknowledging that gays are in a category like
handicapped students who may indeed need special schools so they can learn.
It isn’t clear where the opposition to the school will come from as
straight parents may be pleased to know that gay kids are no longer in class
with their sons and daughters. But, one
lawsuit may
already be on the way. Bronx minister and state Sen. Ruben
Diaz yesterday questioned the need for the school and threatened legal
action. "People with special needs — handicapped, blind or [those] with
other physical handicaps — need special schools," Diaz said. "Normal people
should compete in the same schools."
|