#1395 (10/31) "To Boo or Not to Boo ..."

"TO BOO OR NOT TO BOO - WHAT CHRISTIANS SHOULD DO WITH HALLOWEEN" - John Stonestreeet, Breakpoint.org, Oct. 30, 2015; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28383?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=3f95df310eBP_Daily_10_29_201510_28_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-3f95df310e-6541173 [AS I SEE IT: Even after being a Christian for 42 years, I'm still not sure how to regard Halloween. I see Christians I know having Halloween parties and sending their children out to Trick or Treat. Though you might not agree, I still lean towards not participating in it in any way. I just think it's one of those things that I Corinthinians 9 speaks of, in which we have to go with what our consciences say, not labeling one response or the other as wrong. What about you? - Stan]

... Every year around this time, the ritual begins anew. The weather cools off, leaves change color and Christians start arguing about Halloween.

And many people love this night. It gives folks an excuse to host parties, kick off the holiday spending season, and it provides economic stimulus for the dental industry. Others use it as an excuse to flirt with things much darker than plastic skeletons and creative jack-o’lanterns. But what is Halloween really about? Is there something spiritual behind all the ghoulishness?

“Halloween is a satanic holiday,” say some. “It’s a celebration of death,” insist others. Back when I was a kid, a series of comic-book style tracts went around claiming that Halloween was really a pagan holiday when medieval Druids used to carry out human sacrifice under a full moon.

I was surprised to learn that even modern pagans who love Halloween admit that this story is mostly made-up. As one self-professed pagan blogger at Patheos writes, “Halloween…feels like a pagan holiday, and it’s been categorized as one for several decades now…I sympathize,” he says, “but claiming that Halloween is ‘100% pagan’ is not a tenable argument.”

The very name “Halloween” means “holy evening”—a throwback to when Catholic Christians prepared for the Feast of All Saints on November 1st.

The history of the spooky costumes is unclear. Some sources say they date back to when Christians would dress up like demons—not for fun, but to disguise themselves from the marauding forces of darkness hoping to crash their celebration of their church’s heroes. Other sources say the costumes were originally about mocking Satan and his minions.

Kirk Cameron, who just finished a film about the history of Christmas, takes that view and is urging us to make the most of Halloween’s origins. How? Well, if you’re a Christian, he says you should be throwing “the biggest Halloween party on your block.” Cameron argues it’s a great way to make fun of the Devil and proclaim Jesus’ victory over sin and death to your neighbors.

Steven Wedgeworth, a pastor writing at the Calvinist International, gives a third perspective. In one of the best overviews out there on Halloween’s history, he concludes that neither story gets it all right. There are definitely echoes of paganism in Halloween, and All Hallows Eve had a major influence, too. But the holiday of today—especially the costumes and trick-or-treating—is a recent invention. Like the commercialized secular Christmas, he writes, Halloween as we know it has more to do with department stores than druids.

Well here’s my take: What Paul wrote in Philippians 4 should guide all our celebrations, no matter the day. Christians should think on “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable.” It’s hard to imagine that axe-murderer get-ups and sexually provocative costumes pass that test. And we should also consider his teaching on meat sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians 9. Idol worship is always wrong, but eating meat sacrificed to idols is a matter of conscience. If you can’t in good conscience participate in Halloween, there are plenty of other things to celebrate this time of year: Reformation Day, All Saints Day on November 1, the beauty of fall’s changing colors, and as always, the sovereignty of God over everything.

Now if your family is anything like mine, you’re more likely to find characters from Disney’s “Frozen” than a band of nightmare monsters in your living room. But if you and your kids do enjoy a little spooky stuff, don’t worry. As Paul Pastor writes over at Christianity Today, “monsters point us to God.” “No story worth listening to,” he says, “lacks a villain. And no villain worth fighting lacks monstrosity.”

And there’s no story with more monstrous villains or darker darkness than the story of Scripture. It’s an evil that’s not just “out there,” but it’s in our own hearts. And yet this evil in the world and in our hearts is a defeated evil because of Jesus Christ.

And so, wherever you land on Halloween, don’t fear. Any real evil out there is a defeated foe.

(This commentary first aired on Oct. 31, 2014.)

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

NEXT STEPS - As John said, this verse in Philippians is a great guide for any celebration. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" Philippians 4:8.
RESOURCES
"Kirk Cameron on Halloween: 'Christians Should Have the Biggest Party on the Block'" -
Emma Koonse | The Christian Post | October 20, 2014;http://www.christianpost.com/news/kirk-cameron-on-halloween-christians-should-have-the-biggest-party-on-the-block-128345/
"How Monsters Point Us to God" - Paul Pastor | Christianity Today | October 30, 2013;http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/october-web-only/how-monsters-point-us-to-god.html?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=3f95df310e-BP_Daily_10_29_201510_28_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-3f95df310e-6541173
"Halloween: Its Creation and Recreation" - Steven Wedgeworth | The Calvinist International | October 30, 2013;https://calvinistinternational.com/2013/10/30/halloween-creation-recreation/?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=3f95df310e-BP_Daily_10_29_201510_28_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-3f95df310e-6541173
"Honoring the Witnesses" - Chuck Colson | BreakPoint.org | October 31, 2007;http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/10604?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=3f95df310e-BP_Daily_10_29_201510_28_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-3f95df310e-6541173
"We Don’t Own Halloween" - Jason Mankey | Patheos.com | October 22, 2013;http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2013/10/we-dont-own-halloween/?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=3f95df310e-BP_Daily_10_29_201510_28_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-3f95df310e-6541173
------------------------------------------------------------------
"What Christians miss when they ignore Halloween" - by Philip Long, October 28, 2015;http://www.cru.org/train-and-grow/life-and-relationships/holidays/other/what-christians-miss-when-they-ignore-halloween.html

# 1394 (10/30) "Football Coach ‘Devastated’ After Being Suspended for Post-Game Prayer"

"FOOTBALL COACH 'DEVASTATED' AFTER BEING SUSPENDED FOR POST-GAME PRAYER" - Leah Jessen/ October 29, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/29/football-coach-devastated-after-being-suspended-for-post-game-prayer/

High school football coach Joe Kennedy was suspended Wednesday for praying after games at the 50-yard line. (Photo: Liberty Institute)

It’s like straight out of a movie.

High school football coach Joe Kennedy, inspired by the Christian faith-based film “Facing the Giants,” walks to the 50-yard line after games to thank God for the players he has the opportunity to coach. As of Wednesday, Kennedy has been suspended and is no longer able to participate in football program activities because of his post-game prayers. A letter sent to Kennedy by the school district informed the coach that he has been placed on paid administrative leave.

“We tried to meet with the school officials in-person but they refused to meet,” Hiram Sasser, deputy chief counsel for Liberty Institute, said in a statement. “We were only able to have a brief hour and a half call with their lawyer, and the result was a letter banning private prayer just a few hours before last Friday’s game. It is unfortunate this school district is choosing litigation instead of a simple meeting.” Kennedy is “devastated” over the ordeal. “I love my players and I hope I can continue coaching them and being a part of their lives,” he said, according to Liberty Institute.

Kennedy’s tradition started seven years ago when he thanked God for the game and the players after coaching his first game at Bremerton High School.A few games into his private practice, students began to ask the coach what he was doing. “I was thanking God for you guys,” Kennedy remembered saying to his players, according to a Liberty Institute statement. “Then a couple said they were Christians and asked if they could join. I responded, ‘It’s a free country, you can do whatever you want to do.’”

On Sept. 17, the superintendent of the school district issued a letter to coach Kennedy to inform him that he was going against the policies of the school district. In the letter, Superintendent Aaron Leavell pointed to a policy that includes the following statement: "As a matter of individual liberty, a student may of his/her own volition engage in private, non-disruptive prayer at any time not in conflict with learning activities. School staff shall neither encourage nor discourage a student from engaging in non-disruptive oral or silent prayer or any form of devotional activity."

Kennedy was informed in the letter of standards that he is expected to adhere to, like not participating when students are engaged in religious activity as to not show “endorsement of the activity.” He is free to provide “motivational, inspirational talks” to the students, but this does not include “religious expression” such as prayer.

Facts about coach Kennedy’s post-game verbal prayers:
*He does not pray to a specific religion or deity.
*He does not say “amen” after the prayers.
* Students voluntarily congregate near Kennedy while he prays.

“Coaches, students, and teachers don’t lose their religious freedom the second they step onto school grounds,” said Melody Wood, who works in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. “School bureaucrats should stop discriminating against people of faith engaging in completely voluntary prayer.”

On Oct. 14, Liberty Institute sent the school district a demand letter to inform the district that coach Kennedy is not in violation of any law. It states that Kennedy would continue to pray post-game. “The school district violated federal law by denying Coach Kennedy’s request for religious accommodation,” Mike Berry, senior counsel for Liberty Institute, said in a statement. “Their violation of the law cannot go unanswered.” The school responded to Liberty Institute by stating that the request to allow Kennedy to pray could not be met due to a “potential liability.”

Despite the order to cease prayer, on homecoming night, Oct. 16., Kennedy walked to the 50-yard line as he always does post-game.“I’m going to do what I’ve always done and I will do my prayer,” KIRO-TV reported Kennedy stated. Locals news outlets provided coverage of the post-game prayer as Kennedy found himself surrounded by Centralia Tigers football players—the opposing team—kneeling down with their rival coach.

“If the school is concerned that the coach’s prayer may be interpreted as government speech, there is an easy solution: The school district can simply say that the coach’s prayer is his own speech,” said Sasser. “Then they should stand back and let him pray.” The school district does not agree. “Any further violations will be grounds for discipline,” an Oct. 23 letter from Superintendent Leavell reads.
Kennedy continued his tradition by kneeling on the field to pray following football games on Oct. 23 and Oct. 26.

Kennedy and his legal team at Liberty Institute began to initiate legal proceedings against the Bremerton School District on Oct. 26. In a letter sent to the school district this week, 47 members of Congress showed their support for the “admirable and respectable” actions of Kennedy, “as they represent his commitment to the welfare of the young  men on his team.”

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Leah Jessen is a news reporter for The Daily Signal and graduate of The Heritage Foundation's Young Leaders Program.

#1393 (10/29) "...Signs of the Military's Decline"

"The Army Is the Smallest It Has Been Since Before World War II, And Other SIGNS OF THE MILITARY'S DECLINE"- Brian Slattery / @BrianSlattery22 / October 28, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/28/the-army-is-the-smallest-it-has-been-since-before-world-war-ii-and-other-signs-of-the-militarys-decline/ [AS I SEE IT: For well over a year now, God has led me to pray daily for our military. Besides the need for us to have a proper defense system (which this article clearly points out), we need to have the ability to step in and help allies, the resources to effectively care for our enlisted and veterans, the wisdom not to waste funds on foolish projects, the integrity to stand up to non-military special interests whose actions adversely impact the effectiveness, safety and morale or our troops, the willingness to protect the religious rights of our chaplains and all personnel, and a greater urgency and efficiency in securing our POWs and identifying our MIAs. I invite you to join me in interceding to the Father. - Stan]

While threats against the U.S. are increasing, our military strength is not. (Photo: Department of Defense/Sipa USA/Newscom)

The state of our military isn’t good.

The Heritage Foundation released its 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength today, and its findings are cause for concern. While potential adversaries have either grown more threatening or maintained their levels of aggressiveness, U.S. military strength continues to atrophy due to budget cuts and lack of prioritization from the Obama administration.

To give a couple of key examples: the current size of the Marine Corps is 184,100, which is smaller than the Corps was during the Korean War, and the Navy’s battle force ships is the smallest since before World War I.

But the world needs the U.S. to maintain a strong military. Though some of America’s allies have begun to take their own security more seriously, the U.S. remains the primary underwriter of maintaining global stability.

Since the first Index was published last February, there have been new signs of instability, including:

* Russia has forayed more blatantly into its occupation of Ukraine while asserting its position in the Middle East through its support of the Assad regime.
* ISIS controls territory across Iraq and Syria and continues recruitment efforts around the globe.
* China furthered its aggressive activity in the South China Sea by placing military equipment on its man-made islands in disputed waters.
* Terrorism remains problematic to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
* North Korea’s provocations grew over the past year such that the Index elevated its threat to “Severe.” This was driven by the rogue nation’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and development of long range missiles as well as the cyberattack against Sony in retaliation of a farcical film of the Kim regime.
*The Index found that no threat factor had grown less alarming over the past year.

Meanwhile, as the Obama administration continues to prioritize its political agenda over the security needs of the nation, the state of the U.S. military has worsened. Of note, the 2016 Index assessed the U.S. Army as “weak,” a reduction from last year’s score of “marginal.” This drop was driven primarily by a large cut to the number of troops in the Army. The Army, in fact,  is the smallest it has been since before World War II.

The Air Force score also dropped over the past year, from “Strong” to “Marginal,” caused largely by the service’s growing readiness challenges and its aging fleet of aircraft, including bombers that were built in the 1950s.

Though the Navy and Marine Corps’ scores did not change, the Index’s analysis indicated that these services continue to face challenges, particularly in terms of capacity and deferred maintenance of major weapons systems that is steadily accruing future problems

The Global Operating Environment is the only area of the 2016 Index that showed improvement, albeit modestly. While South Korea and Japan strengthened individual security agreements with the U.S. and a number of Middle East nations displayed a greater commitment to securing their own region from ISIS’s expansion, NATO members continue to underinvest in defense spending.

Overall, the 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength finds that the military is marginally capable of meeting current security challenges and is trending downward.

Though we cannot predict what major conflict might next confront the U.S., we do know that one will arise. Despite current fiscal challenges, America’s policymakers have the power to reverse some of these disturbing trends by making a greater commitment to funding defense commensurate with America’s vital national security interests.

>>> Read the full 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength - http://index.heritage.org/military/2016/

[bold, italics,  and colored emphasis mine]

Brian Slattery is a research associate for Security Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In this capacity he advocates for a strong national defense and robust security enterprise. Brian focuses particularly on maritime security, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Arctic.

"The US Continues to Slash Its Military Budget. Here’s Why That Matters." - Natalie Johnson / @nataliejohnsonn / October 28, 2015;http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/28/the-us-continues-to-slash-its-military-budget-heres-why-that-matters/
"...The index, rolled out nearly a week after President Barack Obama vetoed the nation’s annual defense bill, found that the military is in an overall decline, leaving national security capabilities weakened during a time of increased threat.  ... this is eroding the U.S.’s deterrent capabilities along with the military’s ability to recover from sustained challenges. ...this leads to nations acting more exploitative and opportunistic in parts of the world that are harmful to the interests of the U.S. and its allies.... these budget cuts are beginning to take a toll on equipment, training, and personnel needs... as these threats endure while budget caps force the military to shrink, leaving it unable to modernize, it strains national security resources and leaves American interests in a weakened position...."

#1392 (10/28) "Diagnosing Dissenters..."

"DIAGNOSING DISSENTERS - IS HOMOPHOBIA A DISORDER?" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: October 28, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28370 [AS I SEE IT: Has anyone asked whether those who are quick to label someone as "homophobic" for seeing homosexuality as an unhealthy lifestyle are themselves "Biblophobic" for being biased toward Biblical values? - Just wondering. - Stan]

...This summer, the Supreme Court narrowly redefined marriage and handed the gay-rights movement a major victory: full “equality” and recognition by the government. With that box checked, the gay-rights movement can now focus on its ultimate goal: silencing those who disagree.

One new and troubling strategy has emerged from the scientific community. Instead of vilifying those who believe in natural marriage, suggest some researchers, we should diagnose them.

It’s an ironic reversal. Years ago, homosexuality was listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s manual of disorders. But in 1986 it was removed, followed by a concerted push from Association members to normalize homosexual behavior.

In just thirty years, America went from a country where homosexuality was a diagnosable disorder to one where you can be fined for refusing to bake a gay “wedding” cake. Now things are going a step further. New research published in “The Journal of Sexual Medicine” suggests that homophobia, not homosexuality, is the psychological disorder.

“Live Science” reports that researchers at the University of Rome Tor Vergata asked 560 university students to report their feelings about homosexuality, then gave them a standard psychiatric evaluation. Participants who exhibited what the researchers called “healthy attachment styles” tended to show less animosity toward homosexuals. They also showed more “mature coping mechanisms” in “scary or unpleasant situations,” and were generally less angry. But those who showed the highest animosity toward homosexuals exhibited a host of warning signs like inability to trust others, passive-aggressive behavior, and denial. Lead researcher Emmanuele Jannini concluded, “After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first time we demonstrated that the real disease to be cured is homophobia.”

Well, this was red meat for progressive websites and news outlets, who gladly trumpeted the results.

I can’t help but think of C. S. Lewis’ chilling and prophetic essay, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment.” Lewis believed that persecution in the future would look less like jack-booted thuggery, and more like therapy: “…certain schools of psychology already regard religion as a neurosis,” he wrote. “When this particular neurosis becomes inconvenient to the government, what is to hinder the government from proceeding to ‘cure’ it,” with mandatory re-education or other forms of treatment?

Jannini’s willingness to label homophobia as “the real disease to be cured” shows just how quickly we’re moving down this path. But we can respond: First, there are a lot of problems with how this study is being analyzed, even by its authors. For example, should it surprise us that those who show animosity toward people in general also show animosity toward gay people? Bad psychological traits probably don’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

Secondly, and more importantly, a “phobia” is “an irrational and debilitating fear” of something, and Christians don’t feel this way about those who identify as gay, or they certainly shouldn’t. Ours is a rational stance based on human flourishing and God’s created order, not “irrational animus.” It’s entirely possible to object to sin, refuse to dignify it, and still love those caught up in it. In fact, that’s what Jesus commanded us to do.

So no, we don’t need a checkup from the neck up for believing what Christians have always believed. And no matter how crazy it sounds to some folks, we have got to point out the true disease, and the only cure.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - Even as Christians come under more pressure to conform to the whims of culture, we still have the responsibility to call sin what it is, yet love those caught up in it.
RESOURCES
"Humanitarian Theory of Punishment" - C. S. Lewis;
http://www.angelfire.com/pro/lewiscs/humanitarian.html
"Homophobic People Often Have Psychological Issues" - Stephanie Pappas | Live Science | September 11, 2015;http://www.livescience.com/52146-homophobia-personality-traits.html

# 1391 (10/27) "Marijuana Madness ..."

"MARIJUANA MADNESS"- THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF WEED" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org: October 26, 2015;
http://www.colsoncenter.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/18910?spMailingID=12779484&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=641777652&spReportId=NjQxNzc3NjUyS0

... In the 1930s a film called “Reefer Madness” warned viewers about the dangers of marijuana. The film enjoyed an ironic renaissance in the 70s as an unintentional satire of the drug fears of uptight adults—at least so said advocates of looser drug laws.

Well, it seems that those advocates are winning the cultural debate these days, and opponents have little more credibility than “Reefer Madness.” Recreational and medicinal marijuana are now legal in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia. And twenty-two states have laws decriminalizing or legalizing medical marijuana. And that’s just the beginning. A proposed federal law would let states legalize medical pot without interference from the federal government, which would take it off the list of drugs with a high abuse potential. We’ve come a long way, baby—or have we?

The only problem with this brave new narrative is that it neglects to mention the consequences of this growing embrace of marijuana—frankly what could be called Marijuana Madness.

According to a Dr. Jangi, writing in the Boston Globe, serious questions remain. First is the fact that the drug, contrary to popular perception, is addictive. Sharon Levy, the director of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, says that at least 1 in 11 young adults who begin smoking pot will become addicted.

And Jodi Gilman, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, says pot smoking is an epidemic among younger smokers. As she notes, “If you go into a high school and ask the classroom, ‘Are cigarettes harmful? Is alcohol harmful?’ every kid raises [his or her] hands. But if I ask," she says, "Is marijuana harmful?--not a hand goes up.” And while tobacco and alcohol use among 12-to-17-year-olds has fallen in the last year, habitual use of marijuana is on the rise.

But supporters of legalization might say, so what? Here’s what. First off, Gilman’s research demonstrates differences in the brain’s reward system between users and non-users among 18-to-25-year-olds. Gilman also found that college-age tokers experienced impaired working memory even when they weren’t acutely high.

Dr. Jangi says we need to slow down the push for legalization as we study weed’s effect on the brain, stating, “While marijuana has not been definitively shown to cause cancer or heart disease, its harmful cognitive and psychological effects will take time to capture in studies. The underlying biochemistry at work suggests deeply pathologic consequences.”

What kind of consequences? As Dr. Jangi says, “THC in marijuana attaches to receptors in the brain that subtly modulate systems ordinarily involved in healthy behaviors like eating, learning, and forming relationships. But THC...throws the finely tuned system off balance.” According to Jangi, THC "can cause these receptors to disappear altogether, blunting the natural response to positive behaviors and requiring higher doses to achieve the same effect. Marijuana exploits essential pathways … to retrieve a memory, to delicately regulate our metabolism, and to derive happiness from everyday life.”

So if you don’t care about eating, learning, remembering things, forming healthy relationships or having a happy life, by all means, light up!  And, I should add, in light of all of these concerns, it's reckless for policymakers and the voting public to jump on the weed bandwagon simply in the name of more "freedom" and tax dollars.

Friends, we were created for something higher than getting high. As C.S. Lewis noted, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Or we might call it madness.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - The backers of legalizing marijuana tout individual freedom and increased tax revenues. But what about the addictive nature of marijuana and its effects on young brains? To inform yourself on the issue, please read the Boston Globe article linked below.
RESOURCES
"Can We Please Stop Pretending Marijuana Is Harmless?" - Dr. Sushrut Jangi | The Boston Globe | October 8, 2015;https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/10/08/can-please-stop-pretending-marijuana-harmless/MneQebFPWg79ifTAXc1PkM/story.html

The Weight of Glory - C. S. Lewis

# 1390 (10/26) "How the Euthanasia Lobby Was Able to Legalize Assisted Suicide in California, Is Your State Next?"

"HOW THE EUTHANASIA LOBBY WAS ABLET O LEGALIZE ASSISTED SUICIDE IN CALIFORNIA, IS YOUR STATE NEXT?" - Alex Schandenberg, Oct.15, 2015 |  http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/15/how-the-euthanasia-lobby-was-able-to-legalize-assisted-suicide-in-california-is-your-state-next/
 
Michael Cook wrote a very insightful article today titled: How the assisted suicide lobby won in California that was published in the online bioethics site Careful. Another good analysis of the assisted suicide lobby was titled: Subversive strategies to sell assisted suicide, by Dr Jacqueline Harvey. Cook bases his analysis on information from the assisted suicide lobby group, Compassion & Choices, formerly the Hemlock society. Cook writes:

According to Barbara Coombs Lee, the head of America’s leading assisted suicide lobby group, Compassion & Choices (C&C), it was Brittany Maynard, the just-married woman who drank a lethal dose of barbiturates on November 1 last year, a few weeks short of her 30th birthday. She died in Oregon because assisted suicide was illegal in her home state of California. Brittany, who had an aggressive brain tumour, wanted to use her death to send a message pleading for the legalisation of assisted suicide. A C&C video about her did exactly that. On October 6 last year it was released on YouTube; on October 5 this year, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill legalising assisted suicide, a measure which had failed six times since 1988.

Defeat in America’s biggest state has been a bitter pill for opponents of assisted suicide. But if you’re handed a lemon, make lemonade. It’s also an opportunity to learn the lessons in propaganda which are exemplified so brilliantly in Brittany’s video.

Hire professionals. Until Brittany, videos attracted only a few hundred or a few thousand views. But hers has been seen about 12 million times. Dustin Hoffman’s daughter Allie, a well-known Hollywood figure who runs a New York public relations firm, put together a multi-platform media campaign called Twenty Nine Years (Brittany’s age). A professional story-telling consultant was employed to create the video.
Create a religious frame for the story. Paradoxical as it may seem, Brittany’s video was deeply spiritual in its rhetoric and language. Just as Christ’s suffering redeemed the world, Brittany’s “passing” (another Christian term) would relieve the suffering of many others. In other words, she was a martyr. Barbara Coombs Lee reinforced that in her commentary. She vowed to Brittany before she died that C&C would be “her good and faithful servants”, a phrase taken straight from the Bible.
Find a star who is young, attractive and articulate. And preferably and white. Being young is just a marketing ploy, as most of the people who take advantage of assisted suicide are elderly. Being white probably helped C&C, too, as the assisted suicide movement is largely WWW – worried, well and white. They could identify with Brittany. If you survey the C&C videos and the C&C Board, you will see only white faces and Anglo-Saxon names…
Smile. Never criticize. Celebrate love. Despite Brittany’s tears, a pensive smile kept breaking through. She radiated resigned happiness. She never criticised opponents of assisted suicide, at least not directly.
Make it a family affair. Key to the success of the video was the support of Brittany’s mother and husband. She spoke of dying at home, in her own bed, surrounded by family and friends. The video subtly created parallels between her wedding and her death – both were celebrations.
Make it a feast for the emotions. The insistent tinkle of a piano score in the background underlined the sincerity and serenity of Brittany’s decision as she dabbed at her eyes.
     In short, the video depicts assisted suicide as a joyful, faith-filled, family-friendly, fulfilling choice. Compassion & Choices stole the playbook of its opponents.
Michael Cook provides an analysis that is important for opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide everywhere.

When watching the Brittany Maynard youtube video it is clear that it was professionally produced. It is also true that there were several youtube video’s produced by people opposing assisted suicide, such as Maggie Karner, that were not professionally produced but very honest, straight forward and effective.

The reality is – the assisted suicide ran campaigns to legalize assisted suicide in more than 20 states. All of those campaigns failed. The only victory for the assisted suicide lobby was in California and that only happened after using subversive strategies to get the assisted suicide bill passed.

The most effective coalitions against assisted suicide have been organized by people who share a wide range of political and social beliefs, who have come together to defeat a common enemy, that being assisted suicide. The weaker coalitions have been overly managed in an attempt to reduce the messages of those who oppose assisted suicide rather than running an inclusive campaign.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will not stop. Legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia gives physicians the right to be intentionally involved with causing the death of people who are at the most vulnerable time of their life. This is simply wrong.

[bold,italics,and colored emphasis mine]

Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Don’t Call It Assisted Suicide Anymore, New California Law Says “Self-Administered Aid in Dying” - Wesley Smith, Oct. 15, 2015;http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/15/dont-call-it-assisted-suicide-anymore-new-california-law-says-self-administered-aid-in-dying/ 

# 1389 (10/25) SUNDAY SPECIAL :"The War on Loneliness - A DIFFERENT LOOK AT ADDICTION"

"THE WAR ON LONLINESS - A DIFFERENT LOOK AT ADDICTION" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: October 5, 2015; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/12/28247?spMailingID=12582399&;spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=640316757&spReportId=NjQwMzE2NzU3S0

As we’ve said before on BreakPoint, America has a growing heroin epidemic. And as tragic as this is, it is an opportunity for the Church to be the Church.

Do you remember the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaigns of the 80s? One ad showed a rat frantically licking a water bottle laced with opiates. And a voice declared, “Only one drug is so addictive, nine out of ten laboratory rats will use it. And use it. And use it. Until dead…And it can do the same thing to you.” This ad was referring to research published in 1978 that found when lab rats were given access to large quantities of opiates, they drugged themselves to death. These experiments supported the “chemical hook” understanding of drug addiction.

But in a recent TED talk, writer Johann Hari claimed that everything we know about addiction is wrong, including the ‘chemical hook’ model that most of us take as settled science. Hari came to this view after talking with medical researcher Bruce Alexander, who noticed that the rats in the original experiments were locked alone in cages with nothing else to do but use the drugs.

Alexander wondered if the rats would behave differently if they weren’t isolated and bored. To find out, he created an elaborate colony called “Rat Park,” which had plenty of food, fun, and company. In his experiment, the rats in isolation drank up to 25 milligrams of morphine-laced water daily, compared to less than 5 milligrams for the rats in Rat Park. Alexander concluded that isolated rats almost always become junkies, while rats living among other rats almost never will.

That experiment, along with other research, led Hari to conclude that the “War on Drugs” is missing a crucial point. It is focused more on stopping the supply of drugs than on figuring out why people feel the need to use them in the first place.

Hari argues that the problem “of addiction doesn't lie in what you swallow or inject—it's in the pain you feel in your head.” Or as one recovering crack and heroin addict told him, “Addiction is a disease of loneliness.”

If Hari is right, there are incredible possibilities for the real-world mission of the Church since we live in an increasingly isolated world. Greater numbers of people seek escape from pain, fear, and the loneliness that comes from family and social breakdown. Hari suggests that we don’t have an addiction problem so much as a bonding problem. He writes that “if we can't bond with other people, we will find a behavior to bond with, whether it's watching pornography, or smoking crack or gambling.”

This situation is tailor-made for Gospel-centered churches.  Christians have always been a community of the walking wounded. Rather than presenting churches as places of perfection, we can reach out to substance abusers with vulnerability and honesty about our own need for recovery from the ravages of sin.

Yet, that’s easier said than done. In his book, “Life Together,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer described a big challenge Christians have in creating healing communities. He said that although people “have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and the fellowship.” If this describes your church, you might have a problem.

Alexander believes that we’ll only find lasting healing when we move past treating individuals and embrace what he calls “social recovery.” He asks, “How can we rebuild a society where we don’t feel so alone and afraid, and where we can form healthier bonds?...where we look for happiness in one another rather than in consumption?”

The answer, of course, is the Church, the body of believers living in fellowship with Jesus and with each other. As Hari says, “The opposite of addiction isn't sobriety. It's connection.”

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - We are wired to connect with others, and that connection is often missing in an addict's life. The TED talk linked below provides an interesting perspective on this issue. But addiction is often a cry for help, and the Church can provide the community an addict needs, as we participate in Christ's work of restoring the connection to the One who alone is our help.
RESOURCES
"Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong"-Johann Hari | TED talk | June 2015;https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong?language=en
"Hard-Wired to Connect: The Field of Social Neuroscience" - Chuck Colson | BreakPoint.org | April 30, 2007;http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/10734
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community- Robert Putnam | Simon & Schuster | January 2001
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community- Dietrich Bonhoeffer | HarperOne | May 2003

# 1388 (10/24) PRO-LIFE SAT: "House Approves Bill That Dismantles Parts of Obamacare, Defunds Planned Parenthood"

"HOUSE APPROVES BILL THAT DISMANTLES PARTS OF OBAMACARE, DEFUNDS PLANNED PARENTHOOD" -
Kate Scanlon / @scanlon_kate / October 23, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/23/house-approves-bill-that-dismantles-parts-of-obamacare-defunds-planned-parenthood/

American Life League and Stop Planned Parenthood International participate in the National Day of Protest on Aug. 22, 2015, at a proposed Planned Parenthood facility in Washington, D.C. (Photo: American Life League/Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0)

The House approved a budget reconciliation bill Friday that would repeal portions of Obamacare and cut federal funds to Planned Parenthood for one year. The legislation, called the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, was passed in a 240-189 vote.

One Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted in favor of the bill, and seven Republicans voted against it.Some felt that dismantling Obamacare in pieces wasn’t sufficient given that Republicans promised to completely repeal Obamacare.

The Daily Signal reported Thursday that Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a joint statement that the House reconciliation bill that repeals only parts of Obamacare “simply isn’t good enough.” Other Republicans argued that the legislation was a step in the right direction, and should move forward.

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the House Budget Committee, said in a statement the bill “repeals the most coercive components of Obamacare—eliminating onerous taxes, the individual and employer mandates, an Obamacare slush fund, and lifting unnecessary burdens on employers and employees.” Price noted the legislation would increase funding for community health centers while eliminating government support for Planned Parenthood, which is under investigation after a series of undercover videos related to its role with aborted baby body parts.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group, praised the House’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

“Today’s House vote cuts Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding—the most significant portion of the abortion business’s overall $528 million a year in taxpayer funding. Women have the most to gain from congressional action to reroute these tax dollars to community and rural health centers, which provide comprehensive health care services to women, but do not abort the lives of unborn children and harvest their body parts,” Dannenfelser said.

Some conservatives called the House’s action a “show vote” that won’t go anywhere in the Senate.

“The House reconciliation bill includes a number of vulnerable provisions that will be tough to get past the Byrd rule unless they are addressed,” said Paul Winfree, director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. The Byrd rule allows senators to remove provisions in reconciliation legislation that don’t relate to budgetary matters.

“Ultimately, I suspect the bill will look very different if it gets through the Senate as a reconciliation bill,” Winfree said.

Kate Scanlon is a news reporter for The Daily Signal and graduate of The Heritage Foundation's Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Kate.

"House De-Funds Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Caught Selling Aborted Baby Parts" - 
Steven Ertelt; Oct. 23, 2015;http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/23/house-de-funds-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz-caught-selling-aborted-baby-parts/
"... Dozens of leading pro-life groups have already indicated their support for the bill, including the National Right to Life Committee. In a letter to members of Congress that NRLC provided to LifeNews.com, the group indicated it strongly supports the bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood
 the bill that would block, for one year, most federal payments to affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). It would close the largest pipeline for federal funding of Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, and apply as well to the CHIP and the Title V and Title XX block grant programs, thus covering roughly 89% of all federal funds to Planned Parenthood. The amounts denied to Planned Parenthood in effect are reallocated to community health centers,” .."
     “Over one-third of all abortions in the U.S. are performed at PPFA-affiliated facilities. Longstanding objections to the massive federal funding of PPFA have been reinforced by recent widely publicized undercover videos, which illuminate the callous brutality that occurs daily in these abortion mills,.."

# 1387 (10/23) "Hillary Clinton Owns the War in Libya..."

"HILLARY CLINTON OWNS THE WAR IN LIBYA  (AND ITS HORRIBLE AFTERMATH)" - David Harsanyi | Oct 23, 2015;
http://townhall.com/columnists/davidharsanyi/2015/10/23/hillary-clinton-owns-the-war-in-libya-and-its-horrible-aftermath-n2069755/page/full [AS I SEE IT: Now here is an aspect of Clinton's past that I have not heard about from the mainstream media. (Gee, I wonder why?) Since being President involves one's record of  leadership and decision making , what has happened in Libya certainly is a subject that needs to be talked about. - Stan]

Libya is in chaos. It's a festering pit of radicalism, anarchy and death, epitomizing everything that can go wrong when Western intervention has no clear long-term purpose. And a woman who believes she should be president of the United States -- ostensibly on the strength of her decision-making abilities as secretary of state -- believes that what's going on in Libya is a success.[!]

This point seems pertinent. So beyond any facts surrounding the American deaths in Benghazi, the blatant lying about her computer server or whatever else Republicans may or may not uncover about Hillary Clinton, one of the most politically relevant topics examined by the House Benghazi Committee is her insistence that Libya was not a "disaster." Over and over, in fact, Clinton argued that Libyans had elected "moderates" and that democracy had thrived and that all things were peachy (though she does concede there were security risks). And she was still praising the Arab Spring long after its collapse into violent radicalism across the Arab world.

At first I wondered, how could she maintain something so obviously contestable? Then I realized, how could she not? Rep. Peter Roskam spent his entire time attempting to push Clinton to own the Libya intervention. Democrats joked on Twitter that Roskam had conclusively proved that yes, Clinton was secretary of state. But it was much more. She reiterated that she was the chief architect of the war in Libya. Clinton has to claim that the U.N.-authorized Libyan air campaign in 2011 was a model of successful foreign intervention, because Clinton was the one who urged Barack Obama, over the strong misgivings of others, to intervene in that civil war. She brought the Arabs on board. She articulated many of the administration's arguments.

Later, after the whole thing fell apart, she would falsely blame some obscure video for the whole thing.

Since then, Libya has fragmented into two rival factions, which have erased any pretense that democracy or freedom exists in the country. There are mass collective punishments as tens of thousands of political prisoners are thrown into camps. Violence is up. Proliferation of weapons has increased. Causalities have spiked since the war. Ansar al-Sharia, the group accused of murdering American diplomats, is more powerful now than it was before the U.S. got involved. One estimate says that militias have grown from an estimated 40,000 fighters in 2011 to 160,000 today. This is now the place where Coptic Christians are marched out onto beaches and beheaded. The war has created a refugee crisis.

Now, Clinton isn't responsible for all the awful things people do, but she certainly is responsible for America's role in the whole mess. If voters are supposed to judge Clinton's asserted foreign policy expertise based on what she did while in power, they should take this into account: Clinton, according to her own admission, voted for one foreign policy disaster and instigated another one. Her fans might concede that Iraq was merely a vote of political expediency or perhaps one made on bad information (a stretch), but there is no such comfort with Libya. Clinton can't blame this one on George W. Bush.

Republicans were generally quiet about the Obama administration's unauthorized war in Libya -- even though it circumvented congressional authority -- because intervention generally matches their own foreign policy objectives. Americans didn't die, at least at the beginning, so it was forgotten. But if John McCain, who supported the Libyan intervention, would have been in charge, we would never have heard the end of it.

Instead, people would be asking: Please explain how the Libya intervention was a success? And should Ambassador Christopher Stevens have been in Benghazi at all?

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist and the author of "The People Have Spoken (and They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy." Follow him on Twitter @davidharsanyi.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Benghazi and 'Untrustable' Hillary" - By Brent Bozell and Tim Graham | October 20, 2015 | http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2015/10/20/bozell-graham-column-benghazi-and-untrustable-hillary
"6 Key Exchanges From Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Testimony" - Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97 / October 22, 2015;http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/22/6-key-exchanges-from-hillary-clintons-benghazi-testimony/

# 1386 (10/22) "...KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!"

"Planned Parenthood Changes Its Plans, But We Do not; KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org: October 20, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28331



Responding to all the pressure, Planned Parenthood has agreed to stop taking money for fetal tissue!

Unless you’ve been completely unplugged for the last several months, you know about the undercover Planned Parenthood videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. These videos show Planned Parenthood officials haggling over the price of fetal body parts procured during abortions and admitting that they had altered the abortion procedures in order to procure those parts. On air and in front of Congress, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has denied that the organization ever profited via such transactions—but the videos tell a different story.

Now Richards, after withering publicity, congressional scrutiny, state investigations, and calls for the federal government to defund the organization, says that Planned Parenthood will no longer take any money for fetal tissue used for medical research.

In an October 13 letter to the National Institutes of Health, Planned Parenthood stated, “In order to completely debunk the disingenuous argument that our opponents have been using … our Federation has decided … that any Planned Parenthood health center that is involved in donating tissue after an abortion for medical research” will accept “no reimbursements for its reasonable expenses.”

Well, if the accusations were disingenuous, why the sudden change of plans? And if no profit was involved, why won’t they disclose how much they received for the so-called “donations"? Clearly, compared to the half a billion dollars of annual taxpayer dollars given to Planned Parenthood, this was a decision between income and more income.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Planned Parenthood didn’t disclose the amount it will forgo with its new policy.” But make no mistake, Planned Parenthood is still profiting handsomely off the grisly abortion industry. As Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League and founder of Stop Planned Parenthood International, says, “The steps taken by Planned Parenthood show how worried it is that the truth of its baby body parts business has become public and betrays its true colors. It is not just the profits that have the public upset. It is the callousness shown by PP employees toward babies in the womb.”

Indeed. Anika Smith, writing for The Stream.org, notes that “the profit motive, while disgusting, was not the most horrifying revelation.” What’s horrifying people is “that these abortion procedures may be changed in order to ‘procure specimens,’ that they are probably conducting illegal partial-birth abortions, that some children may be born alive and cut open for their body parts.”

So, friends, this is no time to ease up on the pressure. Planned Parenthood’s stated change of plans, even if it’s a misdirection play, shows that our efforts and prayers are having an effect. Planned Parenthood and its shameless defenders are feeling the heat, so let’s turn it up even higher. We must continue advocating for federal funding of Planned Parenthood to come to an end, and for the investigation and appropriate prosecution of lawbreakers.

This is another example where we cannot choose between sharing Christ’s love and doing all we can to stand up for the most defenseless in our society. Both evangelism and confronting evil will bring glory to God.

Like William Wilberforce did, we face a long struggle. No doubt he felt like giving up some days, because of the entrenched citadels supporting slavery that seemed impregnable. But knowing his cause was just and God was on his side, he worked patiently, year by year, decade by decade.

And so must we! Whether Planned Parenthood changes its plans or not, we can’t change our goal—protecting babies and their mothers.

This is the greatest evil of our day, hands down. It’s claiming men, women, brothers, sisters, and certainly innocent children as its victims. So, as Chuck would say, let’s stay at our posts and do our duty.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - Even more so now that Planned Parenthood's barbarity has been exposed for all to see, it is mind-boggling that taxpayer dollars are still being funneled to Planned Parenthood. Let your congressman and senators know that it's time to de-fund Planned Parenthood. We have contact information for you below.
Contact Your Elected Officials:
FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES - http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
FIND YOUR SENATOR - http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC

RESOURCES
"Planned Parenthood Announces They'll Stop Taking Money for Baby Body Parts" - Anika Smith | TheStream.org| October 13, 2015;https://stream.org/planned-parenthood-announces-theyll-stop-taking-money-baby-body-parts/
"Planned Parenthood: We're Going to Stop Doing That Thing We Said Was Totally Legal" - 
Bre Payton | The Federalist | October 13, 2015;http://thefederalist.com/2015/10/13/planned-parenthood-were-going-to-stop-doing-that-thing-we-said-was-totally-legal/
"Answering the Arguments for Planned Parenthood" - Stan Guthrie |BreakPoint.org | September 13, 2015;http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/breakpoint-columns/entry/2/28108?spMailingID=12727279&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=641368263&spReportId=NjQxMzY4MjYzS0

# 1385 (10/21) "Rewriting American History to Keep Guilt Alive"

"REWRITING AMERICAN HISTORY TO KEEP GUILT  ALIVE" - Robert Knight | Oct 20, 2015;
http://townhall.com/columnists/robertknight/2015/10/20/rewriting-american-history-to-keep-guilt-alive-n2068233/page/full

Not a day goes by when the social engineers of the Left are not remaking America in their own image.Their weapon of choice is cultivating shame; shame of America’s past, shame of America’s privileged status in the world, and personal shame if you are not in an identifiable “victim group.”

In his new book “The Snapping of the American Mind,” author David Kupelian observes that, “The Left never tires of manipulating Americans’ historical national guilt over slavery and segregation, persistently keeping the fires of guilt and shame alive in present-day Americans for sins committed generations ago by people long since dead.”

Accordingly, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that he is placing portraits of slaves and abolitionists around the picture of George Washington in the Gracie Mansion. An early report from an NBC affiliate said that he had removed Washington altogether, but the mayor insists that he is just adding imagery. If the first report was true, then I, for one, would be happy to take off his hands any $1 bills bearing our first president’s image that he can’t stand to keep in his pocket.

Another case in point was last week’s annual trashing of Christopher Columbus, with a growing list of jurisdictions that have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. While reading about various denunciations of Columbus combined with celebration of native cultures, I looked in vain for contributions of these earlier civilizations to our current wellbeing.

It turns out that the hated Western civilization that Columbus brought to the New World in 1492 is entirely responsible for painless dentistry, electricity, indoor plumbing, surgery, life-saving drugs, air conditioning, computers, air travel, non-stick frying pans, pogo sticks, automobiles, ever-increasing life spans, plus private property and the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, voting and all the other individual rights secured by a written Constitution.

America also weathered a Great Depression, won two world wars, put men on the moon, led the fight for freedom against communism, and helped spread Christianity around the world.

America’s dark side includes slavery, a civil war, a Jim Crow system, and the way the government brutally mistreated and displaced many Indian tribes in the name of the Manifest Destiny of a coast-to-coast nation. Because Native Americans had not encountered certain diseases that the Europeans brought with them, they had no immunity, and many died. This was awful, but it was not deliberate genocide, any more than the mass deaths of Europeans when Asian invaders brought new diseases with them.

Unfortunately, students across the country are being miseducated in American history by the Marxist propagandist Howard Zinn, whose “A People’s History of the United States” is intended to induce shame instead of pride in the hearts of young Americans. In his 2014 hit documentary, “America, Imagine a World Without Her,” Dinesh D’Souza took Zinn and other leftists to task, supplying needed correctives. Yes, America had slaves, but so did Native American tribes and peoples on every continent. Except for areas today dominated by militant Muslims, slavery has been eradicated largely through Western influence led by Christians such as England’s William Wilberforce and American abolitionists.

President Thomas Jefferson dispatched the U.S. Navy to stop Muslim pirates from capturing American ships off North Africa and turning Christian captives into slaves. Speaking of pirates, it was the Muslims’ shutting off of the Eastern overland trade route to China that helped spark Spain’s sponsorship of Columbus’s quest for a Western sea route that led him to America.

With all its faults, America is still the place where even its detractors choose to live, enjoying modern conditions and freedom that are the envy of the rest of the world. The very idea of hypocrisy doesn’t seem to cross the malcontents’ minds.

The leftist website Think Progress began its piece about Columbus Day by complaining that, “it glorifies a man who launched a large-scale genocide and European colonization.” One wonders where those Think Progress folks would rather live. If they pine for a distant, undeveloped paradise in Africa, South America or Asia, why they don’t pack up their bicycles and take off for the nearest cruise line or airport?

In Bridgeport, Conn., where a statue of Christopher Columbus was vandalized, the school board voted unanimously last Monday to change Columbus Day into Indigenous Peoples Day because, as one board member said, “Columbus didn’t find anything. There were already people here.”

At Harvard, the celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day was centered at Matthews Hall, which the Crimson reports, “roughly marks the location of Harvard's Indian College, which existed from 1655 to the 1690s. The founding Harvard Charter of 1650, which established the Harvard Corporation as Harvard’s governing board, dedicates the College to ‘the education of the English and Indian youth of this country, in knowledge and godliness.’”

Harvard’s founders regarded sharing the eternal-life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ as the greatest gift they could impart to Native Americans. Not so the many Zinn-taught, America-hating academics today at Harvard and other campuses. They see only an evil exercise in cultural hegemony, with Christianity displacing the more enlightened pantheism and worship of Mother Earth.

Upon arriving in what is now part of the Bahamas, Columbus recited the prayer that he and his crew said daily on their voyage: “Blessed be the light of day, and the holy cross we say; and the Lord of verity, and the Holy Trinity.” Then he planted a cross in the ground.

Multiculturalism’s proponents seem less animated by appreciation for native cultures than hatred of America as an extension of Christianity and Western civilization. 

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Robert Knight is an author, senior fellow for the American Civil Rights Union and a frequent contributor to Townhall.

# 1384 (10/20) "Income Inequality Is Irrelevant In A Country Like America"

"INCOME INEQUALITY IS IRRELEVANT IN A COUNTRY LIKE AMERICA" - John Hawkins | Oct 20, 2015;
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2015/10/20/income-inequality-is-irrelevant-in-a-country-like-america-n2068172/page/full

"It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered." – Aeschylus

The fundamental issue behind income inequality could be boiled down to a single question: Are poor Americans better or worse off because Bill Gates ($79 billion net worth), Oprah Winfrey ($3 billion net worth), Michael Jordan ($1 billion net worth) and Mark Zuckerberg ($40 billion net worth) are living in the United States?

Certainly, having them living in America creates more income inequality. It also hurts the poor by….oh wait, having them here doesn’t hurt the poor at all. None of these people made their money off the backs of the poor (How could they? The poor don’t have any money) and all of them pay exorbitant taxes because the United States already has the most progressive tax system in the Western world.

So, for example, whatever Bill Gates’ 1/319 millionth share of the cost for our street signs, police, roads, the military, food stamps, Social Security, Obama’s vacations and all the other various and sundry expenses our government racks up may be, he’s paying far more than that. In fact, Gates claims to have paid $6 billion in taxes. Then there are the taxes Microsoft pays (roughly $5 billion per year) and the taxes paid by all the people employed by Microsoft. Speaking of the people employed by Microsoft, the company has over 100,000 employees. That’s a lot of Americans Gates potentially raised up out of poverty. Then when you consider how much everyone from Bill Gates all the way down spends, there are obviously many businesses being kept afloat by Microsoft cash. On top of all that, Bill Gates has given away $28 billion since 2007.

Tell me how some poor family in Chicago or Detroit is being hurt by this in any way? What’s the downside supposed to be of entrepreneurs creating jobs and paying billions in taxes?

Oh, yes, it isn’t that any particular rich person is doing well that’s hurting the poor; it’s that the incomes of the rich are growing faster than the incomes of the poor. Those poor families are staying poor while the top 1% is getting richer. This is what the Left says.

Fortunately, it’s just not true because in America, there is no rigid class system that mires everyone in place economically.

For example, did you know that 12% of Americans end up in the top 1% of income earners at some point during their lives? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As Thomas Sowell said to me in an interview about his new book, Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective:

Thomas Sowell: But if you look instead at people and you say what happened to the people who were in the bottom 20% as of 1975 and on into 1991, you find that 95% of the people who were in that bottom quintile in 1975 are no longer there.
John Hawkins: Is that literally 95%?
Thomas Sowell: Yes, literally. That is only 5% remaining - by 1991 only 5% of the people in that bottom quintile were still there. Twenty-nine percent were now in the top quintile.

Incidentally, these numbers are not a surprise because the peak earning bracket for most Americans is between 45-54 years of age. Many of us start out searching through the couch cushions to find change to spend on lunch and end up investing in the stock market. Working your way up the ladder of success is as American as apple pie.

So, if all this is true, then why is the Left so obsessed with income inequality?

Because liberalism works obsessively to get different groups of people to hate each other and then offers to expand the power of government as a fix for the “problem” liberals created. It’s their standard operating procedure.

In this case, liberals are embracing envy, one of the seven deadly sins. Any time someone succeeds at ANYTHING, there will be people who resent it. They’ll feel like they deserved it more, like those who succeeded got lucky or they’ll just want what more successful people have.

Once someone becomes envious, all reason goes out the window. We live in a country where 45% of the people don’t even pay income tax and yet we’re being told that the people who are paying nearly 40% of their income still aren’t paying “their fair share.” We have the highest corporate tax rate in the free world, but we’re told corporations are getting a free ride. If your dream is to “soak the rich,” then congratulations because they’re already getting soaked.

On the other hand, if your goal is to lift the poor out of poverty, you should focus on the growth of the economy, not income inequality. As Henry Hazlitt said, "The poor are poor not because something is being withheld from them but because, for whatever reason, they are not producing enough."

The more economic growth there is, the more production there will be and the more people will be lifted out of poverty. That’s why conservatives focus so much on growth-oriented economic policies. On the other hand, focusing on economic inequality makes the government bigger, reduces economic growth and tends to make EVERYBODY poorer. To liberals, this is a feature, not a bug because they need poor people to STAY POOR because if they become more economically successful, they may stop voting for Democrats.

That’s why, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, obsessing over income inequality is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, the gospel of envy and its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
 
John Hawkins runs Right Wing News and Linkiest. You can see more of John Hawkins on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, G+,You Tube, and at PJ Media.

# 1383 (10/19) "Planned Parenthood Turns 99 ...: Has Killed 7 Million Babies in Abortions"

"PLANNED PARENTHOOD TURNS 99 Today: HAS KILLED 7 MILLION BABIES IN ABORTIONS" - Steven Ertelet; Oct. 16, 2015;
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/16/planned-parenthood-turns-99-today-has-killed-7-million-babies-in-abortions/

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion business, is celebrating its 99th birthday today and the abortion giant has done over 7 million abortions since Roe v. Wade, more than any other abortion company.

Jim Sedlak of American Life League says the abortion giant has built itself on Margaret Sanger’s racist philosophies. Sanger founded Planned Parenthood on October 16, 1916 along with her sister and a friend and opened the first Planned Parenthood in Brooklyn, New York.

“Planned Parenthood Federation of America dates its beginning to Oct. 16, 1916, when Margaret Sanger opened the nation’s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York,” he explained. “Sanger had three basic philosophies that are still active within Planned Parenthood today.

One of those was a passion to prevent the birth of “defectives,” which Sedlak says led to her stating in her 1932 Plan for Peace that persons from “dysgenic groups” should be given their choice of sterilization or confinement on a farm for the rest of their lives. Sanger was a member of the American Eugenics Society.

“Planned Parenthood does not make public the race of its abortion clients anymore. In the 1990s, it revealed that 43 percent of its abortions were on blacks and other minorities – who only made up 22 percent of the population,” he explained.

Planned Parenthood is not only the nation’s largest abortion business but it’s now known for selling aborted babies ad their body parts. The Planned Parenthood abortion business has announced it will stop accepting financial payments for the body parts from aborted babies, though it will continue to harvest body parts from aborted babies and donate them and there is no way of knowing for certain if the sales will truly cease.

Congress has had multiple hearings investigating numerous abuses and potential violation of multiple laws to sell aborted baby parts. And a recently-released analysis from Coalfire Systems that stated the videos shot by the CMP are completely authentic and not deceptively edited as Planned Parenthood has tried to claim.

When Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) released its 2013-2014 annual report the numbers showed abortion is still a very large portion of Planned Parenthood’s business and income. The report indicates Planned Parenthood did 327,653 abortions in 2013, an increase over the 327,166 abortions it did in 2012.

While it remains America’s biggest abortion corporation, the “nonprofit” continued to make money — bringing in $305.4 million last year and $305.3 million this year. Planned Parenthood continued to receive over a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money, as it took in $540 million in 2012 and $528 million in 2013. “Despite this lack of increase in its primary business, Planned Parenthood continued to receive over a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money,” Sedlak said. “It has such a tremendous publicity machine that it convinced corporate and private donors to increase donations by more than $75 million (from $315.4 million to $391.8 million).”

“The increased donations, plus an increase of $28 million in “other operating revenue” and the reduction in costs from closing clinics, led to a near-record $127.1 million in profits for the largest abortion chain in the nation. This was the second highest reported annual profit in Planned Parenthood’s history,” he explained to LifeNews.

Some other takeaways from Planned Parenthood’s own figures:
* In 2013, abortions made up 94% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services.
* For every adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 174 abortions.
* While abortions rose, Planned Parenthood adoption referrals dropped 14% in one year, and prenatal care services dropped 4%.
* Planned Parenthood’s cancer prevention services are down 17% over one year, and contraceptive services dropped by 4%.
* During fiscal year 2013-2014, Planned Parenthood received more than $528 million in taxpayer funding, or more than $1.4 million per day, in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements.
* Taxpayer funding accounts for 41% of Planned Parenthood’s overall revenue.
* Planned Parenthood reported more than $127 million in excess revenue, and more than $1.4 billion in net assets.
* While it did more abortions, Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive business declined from 3,724.558 customers in 2012 to 3,577,348 customers in 2013.

“The new Planned Parenthood Annual Report shows one thing – Planned Parenthood is all about money, not health care,” Sedlak said. “This report demonstrates that Planned Parenthood has hit a roadblock in its efforts to entice the American public to use its so-called health services.”

After reviewing the report, SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelsertold LifeNews:
     “The abortion rate may be declining across America, but not in Planned Parenthood clinics. Their latest annual report is fresh evidence that Planned Parenthood remains an abortion-centered, profit-driven business. In 2013, Planned Parenthood upped the number of abortions they performed to 327,653. Meanwhile, their already limited cancer screenings, prenatal services, adoption referrals – and even contraception services – continue to drop. Planned Parenthood claims to be an altruistic health care provider for women and girls but their bottom line is all about abortion.”

[bold ,emphasis, and colored emphasis mine]

#1382 (10/18) SUNDAY SPECIAL: " [Theologian] John Piper on Whether Kim Davis Is Right to Refuse Marriage Licenses"

"[THEOLOGIAN] JOHN PIPER ON WHETHER KIM DAVIS IS RIGHT TO REFUSE MARRIAGE LICENSES" - September 14, 2015|http://www.christianpost.com/news/john-piper-on-whether-kim-davis-is-right-to-refuse-marriage-licenses-145263/ [AS I SEE IT: This incident may have been awhile ago, but as the last of this article states, the choice Kim Davis has may be one that more and more Christians will have to face. - Stan]

Many Christians wrote to [theologian] John Piper to ask whether Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk, did the right thing by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, for which she spent six days in jail. The theologian responded to the question in the "Ask Pastor John" podcast.

"I think she is right in rejecting so-called same sex marriage as contrary to God's design for what marriage is," said Piper, who served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for 33 years. "And she is right in assessing this departure from God's will as massive, not marginal, and as personally and culturally deadly, not trivial. And therefore it's not something that you can just go along with as if that were a loving thing to do," Piper added.

A judge had ordered Davis to issue marriage licenses, but she cited "God's authority" as the reason to defy the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage across the nation in June. The judge ordered her arrest, and warned that any other clerk who refuses to issue licenses could also be found in contempt of court.

"God's moral law conflicts with my job duties," Davis told the judge before her arrest. "You can't be separated from something that's in your heart and your soul."

Referring to 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Piper added that calling same-sex marriage "legal" in no way removes the "capital punishment that will follow in eternity. Therefore, this judgment of the Supreme Court is massively evil and deadly for persons."

Piper went on to say that Davis is "morally right and probably legally right."

"She is morally right because God has given civil authorities to the world to reward the right and punish the evil," the theologian explained, quoting 1 Peter 2:13–14 and Romans 13:1, 3–4. "So when those authorities promote evil and punish good, those authorities may rightly be disobeyed for the sake of obeying God."

Gay marriage is not marriage, Piper underlined. "If she blesses with her authority and her signature a union which leads to destruction, she endorses and participates in that destruction. Encouraging homosexual behavior is the participation in someone's destruction. I think she is right not to do that."

There are two angles to look at whether Davis was legally bound to resign instead of obstructing the licensing process, Piper said.

"One is to observe that perhaps she is not the one breaking the law, but that that Supreme Court broke the law by their ludicrous claim that they found in the Constitution a right to the non-existent illusion called 'same sex marriage,' Piper explained. "The other angle that suggests Kim Davis was not only morally right, but, perhaps, legally right, is that she was drawing the line — the hill to die on — not at whether so-called 'gay marriage' could be authorized by anyone in Kentucky, but by whether it would have to be authorized by her. The specific issue was whether her name or her official authority as clerk was put on the licenses."

Piper also noted that both the federal Civil Rights Act and Kentucky's Religious Freedom Restoration Act have provisions that mandate an employer to adjust the employee's job requirements to avoid a conflict with conscience.

How to respond to such issues concerning religious freedom is something that Christians must ponder over, Piper suggested, adding that Davis' is "just one prominent case of what will be hundreds in the months and years to come as Christians and others draw a line of conscience beyond which they will not go."

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/john-piper-on-whether-kim-davis-is-right-to-refuse-marriage-licenses-145263/#CyWJZLIm0jbUl8AA.99

# 1381 (10/17) PRO-LIFE SAT:" How Can We Talk About the Rights of Women if Girls are Killed in Abortion and Infanticide?"

"HOW CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IF GIRLS ARE KILLED IN ABORTION AND INFANTICIDE?"- Cora Sherlock, OCT 12, 2015 | http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/12/how-can-we-talk-about-the-rights-of-women-if-girls-are-killed-in-abortion-and-infanticide/
  
Sunday, 11th October 2015 marked the International Day of the Girl Child.  Perhaps the saddest aspect of this day is the fact that it’s still needed.  When the United Nations General Assembly first designated the Day in December, 2011, the plan was to recognize the rights of girls around the world, and the unique challenges that they face.

Each year, the observance Day is given a theme.  In previous years, the need to end child marriage and secure proper education were prevalent.  The theme for 2015 is the Power of the Adolescent Girl.  But while the UN comments on this year’s Day are commendable – acknowledging that girls have the right to a safe, educated and healthy life both during adolescence and as they mature.

Unfortunately, the rights that girls acquire in adolescence and beyond are only relevant if another, far more fundamental right has been protected previously – namely, the right to life itself.  As the basic human right, there is no other right that is more important.  Indeed, no other right can be availed of the right to life is denied but this simple fact is lost on many people, even an organisation as powerful as the UN.

Back in March 2010, the Economist magazine ran a cover story that talked about “the war on baby girls”.  It spoke about a horrifying new reality – how, according to official estimates, over 100 million girls were missing from the world due to gendercide, abortion and infanticide.  Later surveys estimated that the figure had risen even further.  The trickle-down effect of such blunt gender imbalancing has resulted in the phenomenon of “bare branches”, where millions of young men are literally left with no chance whatsoever of marriage. This leads to sex trafficking, and a vicious cycle of human rights abuses.

It would seem then that the proper place to start when addressing something as important as the rights of girls throughout the world would be to look at those situations where girls are most targeted.  If we were to do that, abortion would have to be high on the list.  Human rights campaigners like Reggie Littlejohn of Womens’ Rights Without Frontiers have specifically targeted China’s One Child Policy not only because of the horrific abuse it inflicts on pregnant women in China, but also because baby girls are most at risk of abortion because of its restrictions.  In countries like China, where baby boys are considered far more valuable than girls, many families will opt to abort baby girls – particularly if they live in a restrictive regime that doesn’t allow or encourage them to have more than one child.

There are many who would like to think that this phenomenon is only prevalent in underdeveloped countries, or cultures subject to restrictive regimes like the One Child Policy. Unfortunately, this is not the case and when the truth comes to the fore, the proper action isn’t always taken.

When an undercover investigation revealed sex selective abortions were taking place in the UK, one would have hoped that a radical overhaul of the UK abortion laws (which don’t allow abortion on grounds of gender) would have taken place. Instead, when a vote was finally held in the British Houses of Parliament to determine that the practice was illegal under the Abortion Act 1967, it was defeated. Various reasons were offered – there was no need because the Act clearly outlaws sex-selective abortions; it would send a bad message to some members of British society, making them feel that their cultures were exclusionary; and perhaps the most telling of all – if the vote was successful, there was the danger that the status of “personhood” might be conferred on the unborn child.

Perhaps that’s the real reason why we still have so far to go as a global society before we can truly say that girls in every country around the world have all the rights and opportunities  that they deserve. Whether we like it or not, abortion plays a big part in discriminating against girls. What we need most of all now are policy makers who have the courage, vision and determination to put the right to life of the world’s girls above the so-called “right to abortion”. When that happens, we might start to make some real progress.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]