#666 (10/10) "WHY THE LEFT HATES THE OLD"

URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Oct. 4 - "Muslim Youth Torch Church, Riot in Kenya after Imam Killed," --  http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=2169 - "Young Muslims set fire to a church, burned tires and clashed with police in Kenya’s main port city of Mombasa on Friday, after the killing of an Islamic cleric his followers blamed on security forces..."
As the Lord leads, please pray: 1) About ongoing radicalization of youth across sub-Saharan Africa by factions of Al Qaeda. 2) For Christians of Kenya as they become targets of Islamist terrorism.

9/30 UPDATE: President Obama Calls for Pastor Saeed's Release," - CBNNews.com; September 30, 2013; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/September/President-Obama-Calls-for-Pastor-Saeeds-Release/ - "President Obama asked Iran's President Hassan Rouhani to have American Pastor Saeed Abedini released from prison, according to the American Center for Law and Justice. Mr. Obama talked by phone with the new Iranian president Friday afternoon, marking the first conversation between leaders of the two nations in more than three decades. ... This is the first time President Obama has addressed Abedini's plight despite publicity campaigns for him to do so." [For more info on Pastor Saeed, see below]

NEWS FLASH: "Syrian Rebels Execute Christian Villagers," - CBNNews.com, September 12, 2013; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/September/Syrian-Rebels-Execute-Christian-Villagers/ -  Syrian rebel fighters apparently executed three Christians fleeing the fighting in Maaloula this week, Britain's Sky News reported. Hundreds of Christians held a funeral in Damascus for the men, who were cousins. Sky News reports the men were trying to escape the Christian town of Maaloula, which has been under attack by rebel troops. The men reportedly were killed by forces with the al Qaeda linked Jabha al-Nour. Mourners say two of the victims had their throats cut and another was shot. Most of the mourners are also refugees from Maaloula, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. [PRAY for the Christians throughout Syria who face greater persecution should rebels, particularly Islamists along the line of the Muslim Brotherhood, end up in charge of the country.]

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: "Syrian Christians Brace for Strike, Ask for Prayer," - by Gary Lane, August 31, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/Syrian-Christians-Brace-for-Strike-Ask-for-Prayer/"As Syrians brace themselves for a possible U.S. military attack, many of the county's Christians are praying for divine intervention. They say military action against the Assad regime will only bring them greater hardship and suffering and they're asking Christians worldwide to pray that God intervenes to bring peace to their nation. They believe the collective prayers of Christians around the world could reverse an escalating conflict..."

[EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]      

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST- Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"-  CBNNews.com,  Aug 14, 2013  http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/  - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.] 

Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world

PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.

- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him

- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ

- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans

- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release.
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"WHY THE LEFT HATES THE OLD" - by Dennis Prager, 10/8/201; http://www.humanevents.com/2013/10/08/why-the-left-hates-the-old/


The latest left-wing tactic to discredit conservative views is to dismiss the age and race of conservatives. “Old white males” and “old white people” are the left’s latest favored negative epithets for those holding conservative views. 

Chris Matthews of MSNBC, Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman of the New York Times, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (“angry old white men”) are among the many on the left who have used this epithet. Last week, on her nightly MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow showed a picture of an ad for Washington, D.C. talk radio station WRC that featured the station’s talk show hosts. You will notice, she said, that they are all “old white Republican males.” It was brought to my attention because I am one of those talk show hosts (and, it should be noted, nearly all of my colleagues and I are younger than her colleague, Chris Matthews, an old white Democratic male.)

What is going on here?

The answer is: quite a bit. The left’s dismissal of old people is much more than another left-wing ad hominem attack. Therefore, to understand it is to understand much of what animates leftism.
As a rule, the left rejects the old.

The left’s attack on teaching the works of “Dead White European Males” was one such example. It infuriated the left that Shakespeare was studied so much more than, let us say, living Guatemalan playwrights. As a result, one can now obtain a college degree in English — let alone every other liberal arts department — without having taken a course in Shakespeare.

So, too, in art and music, the new is almost always favored over the old. New composers and artists — no matter how untalented — are studied as much as or more than the great masters of old. And the old standards of excellence are neglected in favor of the latest avant-garde experimentation.

Rejection of the old is a reason the left has contempt for the Bible. To progressives, the idea of having 2,000 and 3,000-year-old texts guide a person’s behavior today is ludicrous.

Low regard for the old is also a major factor in the left’s dismissal of the Founders and of the original intent of the Constitution. Talk about “old white males,” the Founders are white males who are now over 200-years-old. What could they possibly have known or understood that a progressive living today does not know more about or understand better?

What, then, is at the core of the left’s contempt for the old, and its celebration of the new and of change? There are two primary answers.

One is the yearning for utopia. Since Marx, the left has sought utopia in this world. And that means constantly transforming every aspect of society. As then-Senator Barack Obama said prior to the 2008 election: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
By definition, those who seek to transform consider the old essentially worthless.

The other answer is self-esteem. The left began the self-esteem movement in large measure because of its own high self-esteem. Those on the left are certain that they are smarter, kinder, more moral and more compassionate than — in every way superior to — their opponents. That is a major reason for the left’s problem with the old: If the old is great, then they and their new ideas are probably not that great.

Just about everyone who is not on the cultural left knows that all the great masters were incomparably superior to Jackson Pollock and other 20th-centuries artists who produced meaningless and talentless art. And because there are so few artists at any time who measure up to the old standards (standards that are synonymous with standards of excellence), the old standards have simply been abandoned.

This applies equally to morality. The left doesn’t want to be bound or answerable to a higher moral authority. Rather, one’s heart and reason are the best moral guides. Here, too, the old codes, especially as embodied in traditional religion, must be overthrown.

Prior to the ascendance of the left, it was assumed that the old had more wisdom than the young. Indeed, even every leftist I have asked, “Are you wiser today than 20 years ago?” has answered in the affirmative.

Nevertheless the left has transformed “old” — a title that commanded respect in every civilization prior to the pre-1960s West — into a pejorative.As a result we live in the age of new music, new art, new families, new morality, new education, and now new marriage. If you think all these are good, then “old white males,” like almost everything else old, do indeed constitute a threat. If you think the left’s belief in “new” and “change” hurts society, “old” sounds good.

[bold and italics emphasis mine] 

Dennis Prager’s latest book, “Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph,” was published April 24 by HarperCollins.