Alternatives to the Culture of Death - "Choose Life"

Mr. Lawrence concisely reminds us that there are better options than government funding of embryonic stem-cell research:

Even when better possibilities exist our culture of death marches on true to form fueling its abominable industries.
How can our churches remain silent on this issue? A tree is known by its fruit and I have to say the deafening silence on things like this tells us exactly who church most of the modern church really serves… and it is not Christ.

President Bush has an opportunity to cut burdensome spending and promote the right to life at the same time by vetoing federally-funded stem cell research. Pray that he will do so.

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This link reciprocates the Beltway Traffic Jam, sponsored by Outside the Beltway.

David Ward in Concert May 29

Songwriter David Ward will present a concert during the evening worship gathering of Beechwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday, May 29, at 6:00 PM.

The concert is free, and will feature hymn lyrics set in David's original music.

As part of the Beechwood's "Fifth Sunday Singspiration," other members of Beechwood will precede David with special music. One of David's goals is "provide songs that are rich in biblical content and are set to appropriate and quality music."

I have been blessed to hear David do this in the past, and I look forward to seeing him and hearing again. If you are anywhere in the Kentucky area, please join us for this evening of worship in song.


One way to get to Beechwood is to take I-264 to Shelbyville Road. Go west on Shelbyville Road, and turn right on Stonehenge Drive after passing Outback Steakhouse. Beechwood's building is at the next corner.

Preliminary Presidential Poll

Speculation, and no doubt, preparation, is in progress for the 2008 presidential elections.

While nobody has formally declared candidacy, this poll lists people who in some form or fashion have shown an interest in idea or others have shown a desire for these people to run.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE:
http://mychan.searchirc.com/efnet/conservative
Pray for America that we would respond to God's grace in choosing our public servants.

Who else should we consider?

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This link reciprocates the Beltway Traffic Jam, sponsored by Outside the Beltway.

Of the Right to Life and Reserve Powers

In "FUNDING EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH", Mr. Olasky makes the case "not to have federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research."

We can and should distinguish among different governmental objectives. The federal government is constitutionally obliged to provide for the national defense, so Washington can't opt out on that issue. On discretionary questions, though, it's much better to let private individuals and organizations make decisions on funding, rather than have the government steamroll those with ethical objections.

The U.S. Constitution does not authorize medical research, so federal embryonic stem-cell research spending should be eliminated as soon as possible. I believe that a human life begins at conception, but even those that do not share this view should respect the reserved powers of the states and the people and stop the federal expense in this medical matter.

Preserve Our Borders: Say NO to AMNESTY and the FTAA!

Jonathan Grubbs' Blog carries the clarion call for preserving our America's national sovereignty and restoring defensive integrity:

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Your influence is urgently needed to give Congress the backbone to resist dangerous proposals that would further undermine our national borders. As a first step, please read and send the following petition to your congressman and two U.S. senators. Then send this message to others in your circle of influence so that they can do likewise.

...
Click here to Read and Send the Petition

Bloggers Backlash

... and they should.

Several Senate Republicans have ceded their rightful Constitutional power to vote. They gave away the opportunity for the Senate to approve of 7 of 10 of President Bush's judicial appointees.
Led astray by Senator John McCain's off-the-floor deal-making, they have deferred to the Democrats as if the Democrats were the majority.


There is a bright side to this fiasco: renewed accountability of public servants by the people.

The most harmful actions taken by elected officials often take place during odd years, when elections are not the newsmaking issues that they are in even years, when pending elections raise public scrutiny of politics. Voters need to archive significant odd-year behavior and pull these out of the file when official campaigns commence.

In "`Moderate”' Reps settle for three out of ten, the editors of The Unalienable Right advise, "remember their names, McCain, DeWine, Snowe, Warner, Graham, Collins, and Chafee - have made a deal that achieves an up-or-down vote for three out of President Bush’s ten filibustered nominees." Other blogs have echoed this important reminder to take these memories to the voting both.

Several have indicated that they would no longer fund the Republican Party or the RSC, including Hugh Hewitt.
Slublog takes this a step further to withhold donations from any Republican.

Remembering past usurpations, such as the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (yet to be undone), Patterico resolves opposition to McCain's prospective candicacy.


Others have blogged their criticism, including, but by no means limited to, Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, Christopher Adamo , and Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

The redstate.org staff give the most concise and correct analysis of the compromise of the Senate:

The Senators, ON BOTH SIDES, who fail to provide such a vote for pending nominees have sacrficed fairness (to Saad and Myers) for expedience and political advantage.

Pastor Chuck Baldwin adds further perspective with the point that many judicial nominees of Republican presidents, including those of George W. Bush, are not pro-life and/or are not really strict constructionists.

I pray that as we become more active in holding our legislators accountable, we will also through them hold the President and inferior courts accountable in the framework established by America's founders.

"The Fashion of the Christ"

Yesterday David Alan Black gave us a new look a God's offer of salvation through the work of Jesus Christ. It is all worth repeating in its entirety, so I will do so here.

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The Fashion of the Christ

David
Alan Black

People begged just to touch the hem of Jesus’
garment. When they touched it, they were made well.

In Jesus’ day, the hem of one’s garment was highly
significant. It was often interwoven with tassels. These tassels
were not for decoration. They reminded the wearer of God’s commandments.
Numbers 15:13-41 states:

Again the LORD spoke to
Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels
on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put
a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the
tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the
LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your
own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do
all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the LORD your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your
God.”

Likewise, in the book of Colossians we are told what
garments to put off, since in Christ we have died to the old man, and what
clothing to put on, in view of the fact that we are new creatures in
Christ and are being renewed in righteousness after the image of Himself.
Again, in Isaiah 64:6 we are told that all of our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, by which is meant that no matter how righteous we may think
we are, before God we are adorned in filth. It is only as we “put on the
Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14) that we can be clothed in garments clean
and white.

Just as a horseman puts on a riding habit, so the
Christian is to put on Christian habits. Our character is to be adorned
with the clothing of the new man in Christ. Christian song writers
throughout the centuries have recognized this wonderful truth. Edward Mote
noted: “When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be
found, Dressed in His Righteousness alone, faultless to stand
before the throne.” Charles Wesley wrote: “No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in him, my living head, And
clothed in righteousness divine.” And in the classic hymn Rock of
Ages, Augustus Toplady prayed: “Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to
Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to
Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Savior, or I die!”

A popular saying goes, “Clothing makes the man.” This
is a biblical truth. While obedience to the commandments of God cannot
bring salvation, those who are saved ought to live in a manner worthy of
their salvation. The way to holiness is the same as the way to salvation –
not through self-effort, but by the virtue and in the power of the blood
of Christ and His resurrection life.

Oh to touch the hem of His garment and be healed!

May 20, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of
http://www.daveblackonline.com/.
If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus,
please feel free to write Dave.

William Jefferson Clinton, a Centrist?

Yesterday, Dennis Prager said "Bill Clinton was a centrist". To his credit, he immediately added "except for his first two years" in the White House.

I have come to expect such revisionism from the decreasingly mainstream media which have tried to tone down the regressive elements of the Clinton legacy, but Dr. Prager's label needs to be more consistent with the ideology he conveys in his analysis of current issues, or at least more accurate.

Stuart Rothenberg, via CNN, describes the first two years as "more or less liberal". Since that time, President Bill Clinton did nothing to stop federal funding of abortion or even restore the limits on abortion spending that he removed his first day in office. Rather, he increased federal funding of abortion and other socialistic activities. He even vetoed legislation to stop one procedure that kills children at birth.

Even someone in the ideological "center" should at least remain bound to the Bill of Rights, which he swore to uphold. However, this was not the case throughout Bill Clinton's career. As late as his last term, his appointee Janet Reno used SWAT teams to perform a warrantless search and seizure. He did nothing to correct this offense. Ask Lazaro Gonzales.

CNN, the Washington Post, and their talking heads have repeated their claims of a move from radical left to center by President Clinton. They might be able to make a case that his rhetoric changed. In talk Bill Clinton may have glanced rightward, but in policy and performance he continued moving left.

The media's misrepresentative marketing of Bill Clinton's ideology obscures the harm his legacy inflicted upon the pocketbooks of Americans, the integrity of our Constitutional republic, and those "deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law" (see U.S. Constitution, Amendment V).

We should not forget the immediate and long-term effects of Clinton's legacy of liberalism. It appears that CNN, the Washington Post, and other liberal "news" services have ignored these, and Dennis Prager apparently has forgotten.

Star Wars Online Resources

One of my hobbies has been keeping up with developments in the Star Wars world. Some sources and Expanded Universe stories are better than others, but my favorite Star Wars zine is theforce.net. The close runner ups are the official site, starwars.com and JediNet, another thorough fan site.

These sites referred me to source material for my previous posts.

Star Wars and Politics, Entry II

Since Saturday, the online and offline media have exploded with reports and reviews of George Lucas' statements at the Festival de Cannes where he reiterated the political points of Star Wars.

In anticipation of the widespread distribution of Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, in progress with the general cinematic release at midnight, bloggers across the spectrum are scrambling with their spin.

After reading or hearing several of these reports from various ideological perspectives (e.g. Chuck Baldwin, The Washington Post, and Vox Day), I suggest that anyone reading the reviews also consider the statements from George Lucas himself. The commentators (sometimes styling themselves as reporters) use Star Wars to make important political statements, and Lucas harnesses political issues to add depth to his dramas.

Here are some of my excerpts from Science Fiction Weekly. These highlight the main points, but to really get Lucas' perspective, please read it for yourself along with his comments from Cannes.

[Dykstra:] The Star Wars films seem prescient in their explorations of democracy and dictatorships. Was that always your plan?

Lucas: ...The whole point of the movies, the underlying element that makes the movies work, is that you ... start out in a democracy, and democracy turns into a dictatorship, and then the rebels make it back into a democracy.

[Dykstra:] You actually have the line, "This is how we lose a democracy." How personal a comment was that?

Lucas: That was pretty much there 30 years ago. It really came out of the Vietnam War. It came out of Nixon wanting to change the rules so that he could get a third term, and with that—I'm a big history buff—I was beginning to study Caesar... I'm not really saying why as much as how it gets done, because it always gets done in the same way.

In making Star Wars, Lucas draws upon a wide gamut of religious and mythological literature to connect the audience with his story, and he does the same with political history. We need to bring balance to our analyses of the writers' purposes as they interact with each others' product genre.

Star Wars and Politics

The Star Wars prequel trilogy adds political subthemes to George Lucas' sci-fi / fantasy "space opera" saga.

Author James Luceno, in collaboration with Lucas, highlights and expands these themes in his prequel novels, Cloak of Deception, Labyrinth of Evil, and upcoming Dark Lord. He weaves the plots of corruption, abusive power, and the decline of accountable government into a tyrannical empire.

Here is an excerpt of an interview with James Luceno that The Unofficial Clone Wars Site just published about his Star Wars stories:

The political subtext of the prequel films deals with the growth of dictatorships. Lucas has mentioned Caesar and Hitler. Some readers have accused me of including President Bush in the mix, but this is not the case. I borrowed the term “Homeworld Security” from one of the Dark Horse Republic comics, and my play on “Axis of Evil” was not an attempt to draw parallels between Bush and Palpatine, but to pay light-hearted homage to what I consider a very interesting phrase. Personally, I’m more concerned about censorship-obsessed individuals like Tom DeLay and Joe Lieberman -- who even resembles Palpatine!

Lucas and Luceno intersperse lessons from history in their tale of "a galaxy far, far, away." Their political undercurrents add depth to the Star Wars epic, giving value beyond what some minimize as escapist fantasy with innovative, eye-catching effects.

Thank you, Ms. Malkin

Kudos to Michelle Malkin for promoting civil dialogue, particularly among conservatives.

In "Why I'm Not A 'South Park Conservative'," Malkin politely refuses the label dubbed in a well-intended compliment about her success as a writer and speaker.

On May 4, Malkin writes, "`South Park' may be `politically incorrect.' But `politically incorrect' is not always a synonym for `conservative.'"

"My discomfort with `South Park's' increasingly mainstream vulgarity is not a matter of nitpicking. We're not just talking about a stray curse word here or there."

Malkin's commentary on CNSNews is a very worthwhile read in its entirety, warning where supposed conservatives miss the moral mark in public discourse.