#1423 (11/30) "...Pro-Lifers Aren’t the Only Ones Who Call Abortion Killing"

"In Their Own Words: Pro-Lifers Aren’t the Only Ones Who Call Abortion Killing" - Scott Klusendorf | Nov 30, 2015;
http://townhall.com/columnists/scottklusendorf/2015/11/30/in-their-own-words-prolifers-arent-the-only-ones-who-call-abortion-killing-n2086417/page/full

Well, that didn’t take long. Within hours of the Colorado shootings, abortion-choice advocates were placing blame squarely on the shoulders of pro-lifers. Apparently, we’re guilty of “violent” rhetoric—that is, claiming that abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being—and that rhetoric is fueling acts of terror against abortion providers.“Do we really think that there are no consequences to claiming that abortion is murder,” writes Jessica Valentiin The Guardian. “Can we stop pretending that pro-life lies don’t have an effect…We know why this [attack] happened. Clinic workers who put their lives on the line every day know why this happened. Because of hate, because of lies, and because words matter. We must demand that the violent radical language and lies about abortion stop.”

Let’s review the basic pro-life argument:
P1: It is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being.
P2: Abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being.
P3: Therefore, abortion is morally wrong.

Pro-life advocates defend that syllogism with science and philosophy. The science of embryology establishes that from the earliest stages of development, you were a distinct, living, and whole human being. You didn’t evolve from an embryo. You once were an embryo. Philosophically, pro-lifers contend there is no essential difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today that justifies killing you at that earlier stage of development. Differences of size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency are not good reasons for saying you could be killed then but not now.

Where in that pro-life argument is there any suggestion pro-lifers should open fire on abortion doctors? Instead of refuting the moral logic of the pro-life argument, abortion-choicers resort to personal attacks that do nothing to refute the pro-life view or establish the abortion-choice one. That is, even if pro-life rhetoric leads to violence, that fact would do nothing to refute the pro-life argument that abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being.

Setting aside for the moment that no one outside the shooter knows the true motive for the Colorado killings, or even if he was targeting abortion providers, here are three undeniable facts:
1. Within moments of the shootings, pro-life organizations everywhere were all over social media condemning the killings and asking prayer for the families of the victims.
2. The police officer killed defending ... Planned Parenthood employees was a Christian pastor whose church opposed abortion. (I know; I spoke there several years ago.)
3. Pro-lifers aren’t the only ones who call abortion intentional killing. So do abortion-choice advocates. If pro-lifers are to blame for their alleged dangerous rhetoric, what about these leaders from the other side?

* Dr. Warren Hern, author of Abortion Practice, the medical text that teaches abortion procedures, tolda Planned Parenthood conference: “We have reached a point in this particular technology [D&E abortion] where there is no possibility of denying an act of destruction. It is before one’s eyes. The sensations of dismemberment flow through the forceps like an electric current.”

* As far back as 1970, a candid editorial in California Medicine, a journal sympathetic to abortion, highlighted the use of deceptive language: “Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra-or extra-uterine until death. The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth under socially impeccable auspices. It is suggested that this schizophrenic sort of subterfuge is necessary because while a new ethic is being accepted the old one has not yet been rejected.”

* Ronald Dworkin, in his book Life’s Dominion, says abortion deliberately kills a developing embryo and is a choice for death.

*  Faye Wattleton, former President of Planned Parenthood, told MS Magazine in 1997, “I think we have deluded ourselves into believing that people don't know that abortion is killing. So any pretense that abortion is not killing is a signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes, it kills a fetus” (“Speaking Frankly,” May/June 1997).

* · Naomi Wolf, a prominent feminist author and abortion supporter, writes in the left-wing New Republic that so-called pro-choicers deceive themselves with dehumanizing speech. “Clinging to a rhetoric about abortion in which there is no life and no death, we entangle our beliefs in a series of self-delusions, fibs and evasions. And we risk becoming precisely what our critics charge us with being: callous, selfish and casually destructive men and women who share a cheapened view of human life...we need to contextualize the fight to defend abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the death of a fetus is a real death.”

* Feminist Camille Paglia is even more blunt in a 2008 Salon article: “Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue.”

Maybe our problem isn’t rhetoric, but behavior. Abortion-choice activists know abortion is killing. They just won’t live with that truth.

[bold and itlics emphasis mine]  

Scott Klusendorf is President of Life Training Institute and the author of The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture.

#1422 (11/29) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "What Advent Is All About..."

"WHAT ADVENT IS ALL ABOUT - THE BOOKENDS OF OUR FAITH" - By: Eric Metaxas|Breakpoint.org: November 27, 2015; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28523

Did you know that Advent starts [TODAY]Sunday? This is good news in the midst of all the bad news.

It’s been a rough few weeks. It seems virtually all of the news is bad. Whether it’s ISIS, Boko Haram, the refugee crisis, or, here at home, the troubling trends in American culture, depression, if not outright despair, seems like a reasonable response.Thankfully, God has provided a remedy for this temptation, and it’s as close as your nearest Church calendar. I’m speaking of Advent, which begins this Sunday.

Relatively few Americans, including many Christians, understand what Advent is really about. Here’s a hint, it’s more than just a countdown to Christmas. For nearly two millennia, Advent has been the season in which Christians reflect on the bookends of God’s redemptive acts in Christ: His Incarnation and His coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

These bookends are arguably best described in the hymns associated with Advent. They express the human longing for God to set everything aright, to wipe every tear from our eyes.Take the hymn “Creator of the Stars of Night.” It was written, probably in England, sometime between 600 and 800 A.D., in the midst of what is commonly known as the “Dark Ages.” Life was unimaginably hard for those living back then: war was endemic, as was destitution, disease, and hunger.

This reality is reflected in the hymn’s opening stanza: “Creator of the stars of night, Thy people's everlasting light, Jesu, Redeemer, save us all, and hear Thy servants when they call.” But it doesn’t stop there. The hymn then recalls the first bookend of God’s great redemptive act: “Thou, grieving that the ancient curse should doom to death a universe, hast found the medicine, full of grace, to save and heal a ruined race.”

It then looks forward to the second bookend: “O Thou whose coming is with dread, to judge and doom the quick and dead, preserve us, while we dwell below, from every insult of the foe.”

Now, talk of a dread coming and judging the quick and the dead no doubt sounds jarring to modern ears, but it’s a reminder that in Advent, we not only recall Jesus’ first coming, we look forward to Jesus’ second coming. And part of that looking forward is examining our lives.

That’s why Gospel passages like the parable of the wise and foolish virgins are associated with Advent. We’re called to be about our Lord’s business as we await His return.

But the word that best expresses the spirit of Advent is the refrain from the best-known Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”: Rejoice! We are to rejoice even when all the news is bad because all the news that really matters is the “Good News.” God, in Christ, has decisively dealt with sin and evil. At his first coming, as Paul told the Philippians, he took on “human form, [and] humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even on a cross.” This resulted in his being given the “dread name” to whom “all knees must bend,” and “hearts must bow.”

To paraphrase Linus van Pelt, this is what Advent is all about, Charlie Brown.

To help you and your family fully appreciate the Advent season, my colleagues John Stonestreet and T. M. Moore have produced a fabulous teaching series called “He Has Come.” It features videos by John, BreakPoint commentaries by Chuck Colson, a participant’s guide, and even some advent hymns for you to enjoy. We have it for you at our online bookstore at BreakPoint.org.

May God bless you this Advent season!

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES
"He Has Come: The Worldview of Advent", DVD/CD/Participant Guide
John Stonestreet, T. M. Moore | Colson Center - http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/product.asp?sku=2191_HHCAdvent
"Creator of the Stars of Night" - Lyrics - http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/r/crestars.htm
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" - Lyrics - http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/c/ocomocom.htm

#1421 (11/28) PRO-LIFE SAT: "Is Thanksgiving a Pro-Life Holiday?"

"IS THANKSGIVING A PRO-LIFE HOLIDAY?" - Brian Fisher, Nov 25, 2015; http://onlineforlife.org/blog/is-thanksgiving-a-pro-life-holiday/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=commentary&utm_content=oflhousefile_11-25&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9UNXiE2-e8JkUs-9m7fNkdj4-fZkgUi9whVJRFh5tbOnEYB_HpeVk2ni-7jOgBRm0eKx7-J5bVTgBIPGmYZwFxIVhzmQ&_hsmi=24086709

Pilgrims Landing at Plymouth

It’s easy to find the celebration of life in Christmas…a young, unwed pregnant girl…a newborn, divine baby…the wise men honoring this new life with lavish gifts. Easter spreads a pro-life message as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, as He conquered death once and for all.

However, my guess is that when it comes to Thanksgiving, new life and pre-born babies are the not the first things on most Americans’ minds. Instead, the holiday conjures images of the NFL, family gatherings, and food…lots of food. In modern America, Thanksgiving has become little more than a bridge from the ghoulish nonsense of Halloween to the childlike wonder of Christmas…unless you dig deeper into its rich history.

Consider its origin. The Pilgrims—an English religious sect that refused to recognize the British monarch as an agent speaking on behalf of God—had lived under persecution since the Protestant Reformation swept across England. They were denied basic freedoms granted to most subjects of the Crown due to their doctrinal beliefs. Many had to worship in secret to avoid imprisonment by King James. And none were allowed to participate in any form of local government.

This small religious sect had few choices. They could stay in England and subject themselves and their families to the persecution of the Crown. Or they could take a chance and start over in a new, uncharted world thousands of miles away. They weighed their options. The Pilgrims’ future in the New World could be filled with bountiful blessings and unlimited religious freedom. But first they had to sacrifice their possessions, their livelihoods, and their way of life by embarking on a treacherous journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

Working day in and day out with women and men who face unplanned pregnancies, I can’t help but draw comparisons between the uncertain futures of our Pilgrim founders, and those of the thousands of abortion-determined women who contact our life affirming pregnancy centers.

At Online for Life, we talk weekly with hundreds of women who feel pressured to abort their children. This oppression usually comes from family members, husbands, and boyfriends. Feeling alone and isolated, women facing crisis pregnancies often see no way out of their circumstances and believe the falsely promised “security” of abortion is their only real solution.

Then a compassionate person—from either Online for Life’s in-house call center, or one of our participating life-affirming pregnancy centers—points them down a different pathway. A road on which women in crisis discover true freedom from their fears and ultimately embrace the life growing inside them. Just like the Pilgrims of England, this new pathway requires great courage and sacrifice. It means “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13).

It’s not always easier to start over in a “new world.” Whether that world is an unknown wilderness on the other side of the globe, or it involves caring for a new baby who was not a part of your future plans. Both require hard work, dependence on others, and sacrifice. And yet, both reap beautiful freedom and life as well.

Nearly 400 years ago, a hundred Pilgrims piled onto a small ship with their few belongings, and they ventured to a New World sprinkled with a few small colonies that were barely surviving. Upon their now-famous landing at Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God and began cultivating a new society. The first year in the New World was replete with difficulty, disease, and death. In fact, half of the colonists died during that first winter. Yet with faith in God and commitment to their calling, the Pilgrims pushed through the hardships, eventually erecting a successful working town that became the model for future colonies.

Similarly, the women who come through Online for Life’s Women’s Care Clinics and participating life-affirming pregnancy centers and choose Life for their children don’t always go on to live easy lives free from hardships. On the contrary, many face the rejection of their families, the delayed pursuit of their goals, and the difficulties that come with raising a child. But in all my years of helping to save babies from abortion, I’ve never met a mom who wished she’d aborted her child. In fact, the most frequent response I hear from these women is how much joy their baby has brought to their life. Like the Pilgrims, they pushed through the challenges and reaped the reward of making the harder decision: choosing Life for their children.

This Thanksgiving, families all across America will gather to remember the sacrifices our nation’s forefathers made to build a country founded on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, at millions of these gatherings, someone will be missing…an adult…teen…or baby whose life was cut short because of abortion. I invite you to join me in remembering them.

I also invite you to join Online for Life in our mission to rescue babies from abortion. It’s not just the moral thing to do; it’s the American thing to do.

Let’s honor those who sacrificed so much to establish a country where freedom and life are valued, by protecting the freedoms and lives of our fellow citizens—both preborn and born.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Brian Fisher is the Co-Founder and President of Online for Life, a successful business man, and the author of four books, including the January 2015 release of “Deliver Us From Abortion: Awakening the Church to End the Killing of America’s Children.”

#1420 (11/27) "Why Americans Should Be Truly Thankful"

"Why Americans Should Be Truly Thankful" - Ed Feulner/ November 25, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/25/why-americans-should-be-truly-thankful/ [AS I SEE IT: This article makes me ask myself: Am I an optimist when it comes to America's future? Honestly, I struggle to be hopeful that America will overcome the evils that beset her. The only thing I'm "optimistic" about is that God is sovereign and always in control. He will continue to allow America to prosper and stand strong until the time He determines it has so turned her back on Him that He decides to do so to America. I'm "optimistic" that that time has not yet come BUT America dare not continue to test His patience much longer. America needs believers to PRAY FOR HER as never before.- Stan]

Being an optimist is never easy, and it’s rarely fashionable. But I remember what Ronald Reagan said so many times: “Trust the people.” (Photo: Fotoamator/iStock)

Many Americans still believe in this nation’s enduring principles. It’s easy, alas, for our gratitude to become perfunctory—more something we say than something we feel. But take it from someone who has traveled to many countries: A look at what some people around the globe endure can make your appreciation genuine.

Examples abound, but consider this item from The Economist:

Earlier this year the Chinese government arrested five women who were campaigning against sexual harassment on buses. This was not because China’s leaders believe that groping is a good thing, or that it is acceptable if perpetrated on public transport. It was because the Communist Party is wary of any organization it does not control. The five feminists were entirely peaceful, and they were not advocating anything subversive like democracy. But they were organized and demonstrating in public, and that made them seem dangerous. After a month in detention they were released on bail, but they remain under police surveillance and could still be hauled back to face elastic charges such as ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble.’

Most of us wouldn’t think twice about supporting or even organizing a peaceful demonstration. Indeed, the U.S. Constitution recognizes our right to do so. But not in China (and some other countries as well). There, your government looks at you with suspicion and expects you to fall in line. Don’t make waves, even if that means putting up with humiliation and harassment. Without question, we can be thankful we’re free to speak up.

But wait, some may say. Haven’t there been dark periods in our history when even peaceful demonstrators have been mistreated by those under color of authority? Sadly, yes. But these abuses have been rightly denounced and corrected. True, not always as quickly as we’d like. But the fact remains that they have.

You can’t flout the Constitution indefinitely. We live in a nation of laws, laws designed to promote and protect liberty, and those laws are enforced. Imperfectly at times, of course—we’re still governed by human beings as fallible as ourselves. But the mere fact that we can make changes, that we can fix things, is a great blessing—one that is denied to many people worldwide. We should certainly thank God for that.

The fight for freedom, however, is never really settled once and for all. The question is, are we winning or losing? You can find many prophets of doom and gloom, and to be fair, some of them raise valid concerns. But I can’t count myself among their number.

Yes, we can look at the bureaucratic power-grabs in Washington, and the paralysis of political correctness that inflicts many campuses, and feel a sense of despair. But the fact is, most Americans still endorse the ideas our country was founded on, from limited constitutional government and free enterprise to individual opportunity and a culture of responsibility.

Being an optimist is never easy, and it’s rarely fashionable. But I remember what Ronald Reagan said so many times: “Trust the people.” That’s my policy, too.

It would be easy to lose hope and resign ourselves to a future of decline and mediocrity. Well, our country’s problems are serious, but they are not insurmountable. They can be solved.

Some Americans may have lost faith in the future. But a greater number still believe in this nation, in its enduring principles, and in its unlimited promise.

That’s reason alone, as we enjoy our turkey and parades, to be truly thankful.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Originally published in The Washington Times.

Edwin J. Feulner’s 36 years of leadership as president of The Heritage Foundation transformed the think tank from a small policy shop into America’s powerhouse of conservative ideas. Read his research.

(1066) (11/26) HAPPY THANKSGIVING "...God's Providence In Plymouth"

"Tell Your Kids the Story of Squanto - GOD’S PROVIDENCE IN PLYMOUTH" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: November 19, 2014; 

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26433?spMailingID=9960171&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=421637882&spReportId=NDIxNjM3ODgyS0 [AS I SEE IT: Suggestion:You don't need to necessarily have the book itself to share with the children at your Thanksgiving gathering. Just ask if you could address them and ask them if they had heard the story. They may tell you what they remember hearing in school but even if it was a Christian school, they may not have heard the details shared below. You can then give the version shared below and be sure to stress how it speaks to how God can use even our most difficult times in life to help us be a blessing to others. I do hope you'll consider doing it. - Stan]

One of the first books I ever wrote was a children’s book called “Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving.” This was back in the late 90s, and I felt strongly that Americans were losing an accurate historical understanding of Thanksgiving and the role the Christian faith played in the Pilgrims’ feast with their Indian neighbors. When I told Chuck Colson about the story of Squanto and showed him the book, he loved it. And he insisted that we had to tell people about the book so they could read it to their children and grandchildren at Thanksgiving. So he recorded the following BreakPoint commentary, which I am thrilled to share with you now...

"Most of us know the story of the first Thanksgiving; at least we know the Pilgrim version. But how many of us know the Indian viewpoint? No, I'm not talking about some revisionist, politically correct version of history. I'm talking about the amazing story of the way God used an Indian named Squanto as a special instrument of His providence.

Historical accounts of Squanto's life vary, but historians believe that around 1608, more than a decade before the Pilgrims arrived, a group of English traders sailed to what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. When the trusting Wampanoag Indians came out to trade, the traders took them prisoner, transported them to Spain, and sold them into slavery. It was an unimaginable horror.

But God had an amazing plan for one of the captured Indians, a boy named Squanto.

Squanto was bought by a well-meaning Spanish monk, who treated him well and taught him the Christian faith. Squanto eventually made his way to England and worked in the stables of a man named John Slaney. Slaney sympathized with Squanto's desire to return home, and he promised to put the Indian on the first vessel bound for America.It wasn't until 1619, ten years after Squanto was first kidnapped, that a ship was found. Finally, after a decade of exile and heartbreak, Squanto was on his way home.

But when he arrived in Massachusetts, more heartbreak awaited him. An epidemic had wiped out Squanto's entire village. We can only imagine what must have gone through Squanto's mind.Why had God allowed him to return home, against all odds, only to find his loved ones dead?

A year later, the answer came. A shipload of English families arrived and settled on the very land once occupied by Squanto's people. Squanto went to meet them, greeting the startled Pilgrims in English.

According to the diary of Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, Squanto "became a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . He showed [us] how to plant [our] corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities . . . and was also [our] pilot to bring [us] to unknown places for [our] profit, and never left [us] till he died."

When Squanto lay dying of fever, Bradford wrote that their Indian friend "desir[ed] the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven." Squanto bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims "as remembrances of his love."

Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery, and whom God likewise used as a special instrument for good.

Squanto's life story is remarkable, and we ought to make sure our children learn about it. Sadly, most books about Squanto omit references to his Christian faith. But I’m delighted to say that my friend Eric Metaxas has written a wonderful children’s book called “Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving.” I highly recommend it because it will teach your kids about the "special instrument sent of God," who changed the course of American history. 

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

RESOURCE: Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving - Eric Metaxas | Thomas Nelson Publishers | August 2012

#1419 (11/25) "The Pilgrims and the U.S. Constitution"

"THE PILGRIMS AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION" - by Jerry Newcombe, D.Min.;
https://www.djameskennedy.org/article-detail/the-pilgrims-and-the-us-constitution

As we get ready to celebrate another Thanksgiving, there's one more thing to be grateful to God for---the U.S. Constitution and the political freedom it has brought. What many people don't realize is the link between the Pilgrims, authors of our Thanksgiving tradition, and our nation's founding document.

 When the founding fathers sat down in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, they had almost 150 years of constitution-making on American soil to draw from. And devout Christians of earlier generations, who used the biblical concept of covenant as a model, were those who provided the precedents.

One such document was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut of 1639, which was inspired by a sermon that examined principles of government from the Bible. This covenant, which mentions "the gospel of our Lord Jesus," was the first complete constitution written on American soil and is the reason that to this day Connecticut is called "the constitution state."
                                                                                                                     
A covenant is an agreement before God, binding a community together. The Pilgrims, Puritans, and other dedicated Christians engaged in writing about 100 various agreements for self-government, paving the way for the Constitution. The first of these American covenants was written by the Pilgrims before they even disembarked the Mayflower, a month before they even set foot in Plymouth.

The Pilgrims had a charter from King James, who hated Christian dissenters and was glad they were leaving England, to settle in "the northern parts of Virginia." But they were blown off course and providentially hindered from sailing south of Cape Cod---at least for the winter. Because the Mayflower had been blown off course and was under no government's jurisdiction, Pilgrim leaders heard that some of their hired hands had a mind to strike out on their own and leave the colony before it even started. That would be disastrous. So before disembarking, the Pilgrims decided to write up an agreement for self-government. It was a biblical type of covenant, calling on God as a witness and committing them all to a common purpose.

The Mayflower Compact says: "In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James . . . Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid." 
This document signed on November 11, 1620 was a milestone in history and a major step in the process of the creation of America.

 In A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill calls the Mayflower Compact “one of the remarkable documents in history.” Paul Johnson, author of A History of the American People, points out that the Mayflower Compact was “the single most important formative event in early American history, which would ultimately have an important bearing on…the American Republic.” The great 19th century historian, George Bancroft, writes: “In the cabin of the Mayflower humanity recovered its rights, and instituted government on the basis of ‘equal laws’ enacted by all the people for ‘the general good.’” 

Dr. Donald S. Lutz, a professor of political science at the University of Houston and the author of The Origins of American Constitutionalism, points out that the Bible provided the concept of the covenant. I once interviewed him for the television special, One Nation Under God, hosted by D. James Kennedy. In reference to the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and early Christian settlers of British North America, Lutz told me: "These poor people came to the New World, they had the wrong technologies, their plows would not work, their houses that they constructed were inappropriate for the weather. All their technology was wrong, except for one technology they brought with them, which was the ability to use covenants to create communities. It was the perfect technology. It was the technology that mattered that allowed them to survive all up and down the coast." Lutz speaks in his book of the importance of the “covenants that derive from the biblical tradition” in helping to frame, ultimately. the U.S. Constitution. And he adds, “When one reads the preamble, which begins ‘We the people...,’ it is difficult not to think of ‘We whose names are [underwritten]’ in the Mayflower Compact, the first political covenant in America.”

The Constitution and those, like the Pilgrims, who helped pave the way toward its creation, are blessings to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season. Thus endeth the history lesson. Happy Thanksgiving.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

# 1418 (11/24) "A Quick World War I History Lesson for ISIS"

"A QUICK WORLD WAR I HISTORY LESSON FOR ISIS" - Clifford May/ November 13, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/13/a-quick-world-war-i-history-lesson-for-isis/

Feb. 10, 2015 - Raqqa, Syria - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters with vehicles and armed in the desert as shown in propaganda video released by the militants. (Photo: Ho/ZUMA Press/Newscom)

After a long week of slitting throats, smashing antiquities, and raping infidel slave girls, how do the Islamic State’s barbarians unwind? Some, apparently, discuss the finer points of history. An Islamic State billboard I recently came across (on the Internet—not driving down the road to Raqqah, the Islamic State capital in what used to be Syria) shows a rifle affixed to a compass (the kind used for drawing arcs and measuring distances on maps), along with the inscription: “We are the ones who determine our borders, not Sykes-Picot.”

The reference is to two dead white Christian males, Sir Marc Sykes and François Georges-Picot, British and French diplomats, respectively. They were the principal negotiators of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement that divided into nation-states Middle Eastern territories that for centuries had been possessions of the Ottoman Empire and Sunni caliphate. That treaty, leaders of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) believe, imposed upon the region an unjust political structure, one they are using force of arms to deconstruct and replace with a new and improved empire and caliphate.

I wonder: Where and when do Islamic State medievalists talk about such topics? Do they organize discussion groups in homes, schools, and mosques? Perhaps they have book clubs. If so, I would recommend to them “The Tail Wags the Dog: International Politics and the Middle East,” by Efraim Karsh, professor emeritus at King’s College London, currently teaching at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. In it, he makes the case that the conventional wisdom is wrong: Europeans did not shape the modern Middle East to suit their imperialist, colonialist, or satanic interests.

He contends that Middle Eastern leaders and rulers “have been active and enterprising free agents doggedly pursuing their national interests and swaying the region pretty much in their desired direction, often in disregard of great-power wishes.” He adds: “External influences, however potent, have played a secondary role, constituting neither the primary force behind the region’s political development nor the main cause of its notorious volatility.”

Professor Karsh recalls what many choose to forget: Imperialism and colonialism were by no means only European-Christian institutions. Many of antiquity’s greatest imperial and colonial projects were Middle Eastern-Muslim.

From the 13th century to the 20th, the Ottoman Empire sought to conquer and expand—not least in Europe. Its collapse came about when its sultan decided to enter what became known as World War I on what turned out to be the losing side. Even so,  Karsh writes, Britain “remained wedded to the Muslim empire’s continued existence, leaving it to a local Meccan potentate—Sharif Hussein ibn Ali of the Hashemite family—to push for the idea of its destruction.”

Karsh concludes that it was Sharif Hussein’s vision that transformed the region: “The emirate of Transjordan (later to be known as the Kingdom of Jordan) was established in 1921 to satisfy the ambitions of his second son Abdullah, while in the same year the modern state of Iraq was created at the instigation of Abdullah’s younger brother Faisal. Hussein himself became King of the Hijaz, Islam’s birthplace, only to be evicted a few years later by a fellow Arabian potentate, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, founding father of Saudi Arabia.”

Over the years that followed, outsiders had minimal impact on the region. Even after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union, despite their considerable military and economic muscle, found themselves “powerless to contain undesirable regional developments” from the fall of Iraq’s pro-Western Hashemite dynasty in 1958 to the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. Washington and Moscow “were forced to acquiesce in actions with which they were in total disagreement.” Whatever successes other foreign nations have had, Karsh argues, have been “largely due to the convergence of their own wishes with indigenous trends.”

At present, of course, those trends are stunningly savage. “The last great Muslim empire may have been destroyed and the caliphate left vacant,” Karsh notes, “but the longing for unfettered suzerainty, though tempered and qualified in different places and at different times, has never disappeared, and has resurfaced in our day with a vengeance.” The Islamic State, as well as such rivals as al-Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran, seek to overturn not just Sykes-Picot, but also the broader Westphalian system of nation-states vowing to respect each others’ sovereignty and territorial integrity.

And not just in the Middle East. Karsh quotes Yusuf Qaradawi, “a spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of today’s most influential Islamic thinkers, whose views are promulgated to millions of Muslims worldwide through the media and the Internet: ‘Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor.’”

The means to this end preferred by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda is jihad or, to use the phrase President Obama prefers, “violent extremism.” Iran is finding diplomacy useful: the deal recently agreed to by Obama and the leaders of five other powers will provide the clerical regime with funds, conventional arms, and a path to nuclear weapons. Other Islamists envision “a gradual takeover of Western societies through demographic growth and steady conversion.” These approaches are not mutually exclusive. More likely, they are more mutually reinforcing. One might even call them components of a grand strategy.

Denizens of the Islamic State inspired by the message on the billboard really should invite Karsh to join them for coffee and baklava. In the unlikely event that happens, I’d advise him to send his regrets. It’s not that they wouldn’t regard his historiography as cutting-edge. It’s just that they may define that term a bit too literally.

Originally published in The Washington Times.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Clifford May is the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

#1416 (11/22) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "...WHERE DO WE PLACE OUR TRUST?" -

"Paris Aftermath, No Quick Fix- WHERE DO WE PLACE OUR TRUST?" - By: John Stonestreet|Breakpoint.org: November 19, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28487

We westerners tend to think that the world should work the way we want it to. But when it doesn’t, then what? Here are some lessons from Paris.

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have captured the attention of the West like no event since arguably, 9/11. Everywhere you go, especially on the internet, you see the French tri-color and the word solidarité. Which is as it should be. What happened in Paris was horrific. And our sentiments are easy to understand. Like New York, Paris is an iconic western city. Many of us have been to Paris or at least desire to go there. Its landmarks are instantly recognizable like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and it’s the center of much culture, fashion, and food. As President Obama rightly said, the attacks were an attack on all of humanity. Yet Paris is hardly unique in being the victim of Islamist terror. For example, just a few days before the Paris attacks, a series of ISIS bombings in Beirut left 43 dead.

Yet, as Elie Fares, a Lebanese doctor, wrote on his blog “When my people died, no country bothered to light up its landmarks in the colors of their flag . . . When my people died, they did not send the world into mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world.”

Speaking of “those parts in the world,” The State Department estimated that, worldwide, 33,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks just in 2014. And it might surprise you to learn that the worst offender isn’t ISIS, but it’s Boko Haram, which like its Arabian counterpart, has declared war on its Christian neighbors.

After [last]Friday, the West is scrambling to find a response to Islamist terror. But part of the problem, as I told you Tuesday on BreakPoint, is that the increasingly secularized West simply does not and cannot understand the motivation and appeal of groups like ISIS. People for whom religion is, at best, something optional, cannot understand people for whom religion is the center of their existence. People who have rejected the Christian eschaton—the end of the current age and the restoration of all things—cannot understand people whose goals are to usher in their own version of the eschaton.

That’s at least partly because the West seems to believe it has already achieved a kind of eschaton in which the reign of human ingenuity and prosperity and technology has supplanted the reign of God. The mark of the secular West is that it actually believes humans are ultimately in control of all things. We believe the world is the way it is because we make it that way. We talk about “directing our own evolution.” It’s a conceit as old as the human race: “you will be like God.”

But of course we aren’t. So when events don’t turn out the way we think they should, our illusion is shattered and our response is panic and flailing.

Think about the apocalyptic language used to describe the impact of climate change. For as long as the earth has existed, the climate has been changing. Things like ice ages and the medieval warm period—when folks were even farming in Greenland—came and went without any help from us human beings. Yet in a few weeks, world leaders will meet in Paris to, only slightly metaphorically, command the seas not to rise by reducing carbon emissions.
---------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------
Earlier in the day of the attack our President wrongly said that ISIS was contained. And later that day, presidential candidates claimed to be able to fix the world if only they were elected. The assumption that the world is just as we make it is an especially political temptation. And if things go awry, we will simply use our best ingenuity, technology, and willpower to make things the way we want them.

But that’s not the way the world works, and events like what happened in Paris remind us that we are not ultimately in control. That illusion, in times like these, will create, and has created, an incredible sense of anxiety. Thankfully, the church has Someone they can point Westerners to who is not an illusion, but who will ultimately restore all things.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - As Christians continue to pray for the victims of terrorism across the world, may we also demonstrate to a watching world the love and comfort of the One who, as John said, is the restorer of all things.
RESOURCES
"What ISIS Really Wants" - Graeme Wood | The Atlantic | March 2015;http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
Restoring All Things: God's Audacious Plan to Change the World Through Everyday People
John Stonestreet, Warren Smith | Baker Books | May 2015

# 1415 (11/21) PRO-LIFE SAT: "Every Year, 363,000 Unarmed Black Babies Are Killed ..."

"EVERY YEAR, 363,000 UNARMED BLACK BABIES ARE KILLED in Abortions, Do Their #BlackLivesMatter?" -  Ryan Bomberger, Nov 10, 2015;
|http://www.lifenews.com/2015/11/10/every-year-363000-unarmed-black-babies-are-killed-in-abortions-do-their-blacklivesmatter/

"Racism is epidemic. It is imperative, at this intersection of race and justice, that collectively we use racism to call out the racist racists who rely on the oppressive power of a racialized patriarchal system where racial injustice dehumanizes that which has been institutionalized and used to exploit those whose rights have been erased by an infrastructure built upon the blood of people denied their humanity by a flawed Constitution that perpetuates undeserved privilege."

Yeah. Sounds like a bunch of crap or something that #BlackLivesMatter leaders like Shaun King, Deray McKesson, Alicia Garza would say or write. Safe in a world where they can freely spew their ignorance of history, their aversion to the truth, and their passion for division these propagandists pretend to carry the mantle of civil rights.

They don’t. Their every ironic word, saturated with disdain, douses that flame that was lit by the blood and sacrifices of white and black brothers and sisters fighting for human dignity, together, with dignity. The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a fraud, of Shaun King proportions.

The biggest fraud is their undying devotion to Big Abortion while decrying that “black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.” There is no more institutionalized racist system killing more black lives (which are equally as precious as any other lives) than the abortion industry, led by baby-parts-trafficking Planned Parenthood. Abortion is the number one killer in the black community.

Famed anti-poverty and voting rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer was unashamedly prolife and “spoke out strongly against abortion as a means of genocide of blacks”. Guess she was just a self-loathing, “anti-choice” puppet who couldn’t possibly think for herself. Hamer coined the term “Mississippi appendectomies” which were the forced sterilizations (of which she was a victim) that became a hallmark of the American Eugenics movement, led by Planned Parenthood. She fought for truth. Most of today’s “racial justice” activists have no idea what they’re actually fighting for.

#BlackLivesMatter? When? And where? Apparently they only matter in jail or on the streets but never in the womb, in an abortion mill, or in an intact married (husband/wife) family…never.

This hashtag movement, which can lie more in 140 characters than I ever thought possible, ignores the reality of the preventable violent injustices that happen every single day. I recently spoke at a youth leadership summit, invited by Congressman Marlin Stutzman, where I asked the teen leaders what percentage of the black male population was currently incarcerated. They responded: “87%? 93%?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Only 3% of the U.S. black male population (of any age) is currently incarcerated. And contrary to BlackLivesMatter.com’s outrageous pile of lies, black women are not incarcerated at 6 times the rate of white women. White women are incarcerated at 53 per 100,000 U.S. residents versus black women’s incarceration of 109 per 100,000 residents, a rate that is 2 times higher.

Is there racial injustice? Absolutely, and it’s a two-way street. The #BlackLivesMatter movement recklessly creates an imaginary world where society is far more racist today than during the Civil Rights Era. They’re silent when flash mobs of black violence terrorize white victims. The evangelists of victimhood have hijacked the movement, but as a black father and advocate for Life, I can’t let them hijack Justice.

I remember my initial shock when the NAACP denounced our TooManyAborted.com “Juneteenth” billboards which compared abortion to the only other example in American jurisprudence where a group of human beings could be bought, sold, or killed—slavery. Roe v. Wade equals Dred Scott; some humans just aren’t equal. Yet the NAACP’s Senior Vice President for Advocacy, Hilary Shelton, scoffed at our billboards saying: “Women are not forced to have abortions the way they were in servitude. Slavery was about not having the right to make any decisions. Women were actually bred to produce children for the purposes of profit. This is so far removed from that, that if it weren’t such a serious issue, it would almost be laughable.”

Over 16 million black unborn lives slaughtered (with some sold for their parts) isn’t almost laughable.We Are One Human Race This horrific reality is made possible by today’s liberal black activists who shill for a billion-dollar industry of abortion brutality. Mr. Shelton is apparently unaware that women do claim they’ve been forced into abortions by boyfriends, husbands and even parents. But who needs to force anyone when decades of gross misinformation have been disproportionately pumped into the black community through public education, school-based “healthcare clinics” and mainstream media? Today, women are not forced to give their children away through the institution of slavery; millions voluntarily have them ripped away by an industry of abortion that profits from their unborn children’s deaths. In 1815 we had no choice; in 2015 we do and, tragically, we choose death over 330,000 times per year.

The ultimate end of real racism is death. Human history is stained with the blood of irrational discrimination and violent dehumanization. And many times, it’s self-inflicted. When is killing our future generations ever a beneficial approach to any social issue? How is it ever considered “justice” when innocent blood is spilled by a self-policing industry that kills more black babies than are born alive? Yes. This happens in New York City. For every 1,000 black babies born alive, 1,180 unarmed black lives in the womb are killed.

I’m still waiting to see a #BlackLivesMatter mob stop traffic over that. I won’t hold my breath because they’re too busy railing against patriarchy (as if family deterioration and father absence aren’t the cause of many of the injustices in the black community), promoting homosexuality and the faux interchangeability of women and men, and forcing white people to admit guilt many of them shouldn’t have.

Racism is a political weapon. But the “privilege” is largely with those who feel immune to criticism, empowered by a racially divisive liberal media establishment, and affirmed by academics who rarely live in the real world…until they’re forced to resign by the mob they’ve created.

 [bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

# 1414 (11/20) "What a Responsible Syrian Refugee Policy Looks Like"

"WHAT A RESPONSIBLE SYRIAN REFUGEE POLICY LOOKS LIKE for US After Paris Attacks" - James Carafano / Steven Bucci/  David Inserra / November 17, 2015 /http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/17/what-a-responsible-syrian-refugee-policy-looks-like-for-u-s-after-paris-attacks/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Following the horrific attacks in Paris last week, Americans are right to have real concerns about who might be next in the terrorists’ cross hairs. One issue that has moved front and center is whether terrorists are able to enter the United States while posing as Syrian refugees. This has come after at least one of the Paris terrorists appears to have slipped into Europe while pretending to be a refugee applicant. That is a serious issue that deserves a serious response from Washington.

For starters, we know the White House has not dealt with the issue in a responsible manner. Even though upward of 30 governors have announced they don’t want new Syrian refugees in their states, the president has dismissed such concerns as “un-American.” They are anything but. Even Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that governors should “stand up and say I want to make certain I want to protect my people.”

The apprehension on the part of the governors reflects their lack of confidence that the Obama administration is delivering a credible plan to address public safety issues and the impact on the welfare of their citizens. Rather than dismiss the governors, Obama ought to make a more responsible effort to address serious issues. Weeks before the Paris attacks, The Heritage Foundation wrote on the refugee crisis and the ways that we can improve the security of the refugee process. This research is now more valuable than ever.

Serious problems exist with screening individuals, but rather than shut down the refugee system because of the potential risk, these requirements should be followed to keep Americans safe:

* Making intelligence-based risk assessments.
* Consulting with Congress on how to alleviate those risks.
* Dealing with the chaos in Syria that is causing this problem.
* Following the law without executive overreach.
* Focusing refugee efforts on individuals on whom we have intelligence and information or can acquire it relatively easily.

These steps do not stem from irrational fears, but are legitimate concerns with vetting individuals from areas like Syria. FBI Director James Comey has said as much: "… if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing show up because we have no record of them."

Indeed, there are individuals whom the U.S. knows little or nothing about, and whom the U.S. should not be looking to accept without a reasonable vetting system. There are other refugee applicants, however, where the U.S. already has some information and/or can gather more information. In other words, some refugee applicants are more ideal candidates than others because we have better information with which to vet them. These individuals should be the focus of our refugee efforts. This effort also speaks to the importance of providing U.S. officials with adequate intelligence tools and resources.

Additionally and subject to intelligence assessments, the U.S. should be looking to accept individuals likely to be those in greatest need from refugee camps in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, rather than those already in Europe.

The goal should not be to shut down legitimate humanitarian operations, but to ensure they are done in a responsible manner. This does not mean that security concerns are abandoned—far from it.

We should seek to further all U.S. national interests by keeping the homeland secure and helping those who are persecuted. Conversely, what we should not do is believe that simply taking refugees is a solution to the problem.

Refugee programs are an emergency measure to protect those “persecuted or have a credible fear of persecution based on their religion, race, political beliefs, or membership in a social group.” They are not a substitute for a policy that deals with the source of instability. Part of the great dissatisfaction with the Obama administration is the general belief that it has no plan on how to deal with the root causes of the conflict.

What we need is for our national leaders to take a deep breath and start acting responsibly. It is important that the U.S. system remain different from the open door Europe is extending to the current surge of migrants and refugees. Europe is letting people enter without vetting and then maybe vetting them later once they reach their final destination. Under American law, U.S. officials must vet first. That can’t change.

Further, the current crisis should not mean there are any shortcuts. The U.S. has taken refugees from conflict, including Iraq and Afghanistan, while active U.S. combat operations were ongoing.
The U.S. for the past several years has accepted around 70,000 refugees a year from around the world.

Obama has announced that he will increase the refugee quota to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017, with 10,000 slots reserved for Syrians.

The refugee system takes about 12 to 18 months to complete as cases are passed from the U.N. and the State Department to Homeland Security to Health and Human Services and nonprofit resettlement agencies, and includes interviews and background checks. Nothing during that process should be overlooked or passed over.

The U.S. can and should improve the refugee vetting process by undertaking the appropriate risk assessments and consulting with Congress on the strategies for managing those risks. The administration ought be moving in partnership with Congress and governors about meeting both humanitarian and national security responsibilities.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

James Jay Carafano, a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges, is The Heritage Foundation’s vice president for foreign and defense policy studies, E. W. Richardson fellow, and director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies. Read his research.
Steven P. Bucci, who served America for three decades as an Army Special Forces officer and top Pentagon official, is director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Read his research.
David Inserra specializes in cyber and homeland security policy, including protection of critical infrastructure, as policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Read his research.

11/20 - LATEST: "In ‘First Step’ to Address Terrorism Fear, House Easily Passes Bill to Toughen Screenings of Syrian Refugees" - Josh Siegel / Nov. 19, 2015;http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/19/in-first-step-to-address-terrorism-fear-house-easily-passes-bill-to-toughen-screenings-of-syrian-refugees/
"Here’s How the US Refugee Program Works" - Melissa Quinn/ November 17, 2015;
http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/17/heres-how-the-u-s-refugee-program-works/
"GOP Lawmakers, National Security Experts Debate Risks, Syrian Refugee Programs’ Vetting Process" - Melissa Quinn / November 18, 2015;http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/18/gop-lawmakers-national-security-experts-debate-risks-syrian-refugee-programs-vetting-process/
"Haven Forbid? U.S. Debates Refugee Crisis" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, Nov. 19, 2015;http://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20151119/haven-forbid-us-debates-syrian-crisis

#1413 (11/19) "A Time for War?..."

"A TIME FOR WAR? - ISIS AND THE ATTACK ON PARIS" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: November 18, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28484?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=8a3a04cd50-BP_Daily_11_18_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-8a3a04cd50-6541173

It’s been a dark few days. In the wake of historic bloodshed, we need to pray ceaselessly. And then we need to ask ourselves whether being a peacemaker might mean taking up arms.

France is reeling after its most violent day since World War II. Islamist terrorists launched at least six attacks throughout Paris: 129 are dead, and over 350 injured. France has confirmed what most of us already suspected: ISIS is behind the attacks.

The president of France rightly called the shootings “an act of war,” and promised a “ruthless” military response. And while authorities across Europe have begun apprehending suspects, the attack shows one thing for certain: The world has underestimated ISIS and its capabilities, and the war in the Middle East is not staying in the Middle East.

But France is not the only nation grieving. A double suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon a few days prior claimed 43 lives and left 200 others wounded. ISIS was also responsible for that atrocity.

It’s easy to feel helpless against evil like this. What do I think most important? Prayer. The people of France and much of the Middle East need the healing help and the salvation that only our Lord Jesus can offer. A Muslim world increasingly dominated by radicals and a spiritually comatose Europe need nothing short of a miracle.

But as we pray, it’s also time to start thinking and talking about a hard subject: war. Chuck Colson often challenged BreakPoint listeners to ask when we, as a people commanded to make peace and return good for evil, should take up arms against wrongdoers. A Just War tradition dating back to St. Augustine offers answers and guidelines. For example, war must be a last resort; we have to have a reasonable chance of success, and civilian lives must be protected. In certain moments, war may be a moral imperative. But is now such a moment?

One man who’s devoted his life to making peace, and who stood his ground against ISIS from the beginning, thinks so. Canon Andrew White, whom I know, affectionately known as “Vicar of Baghdad,” gave his thoughts on ISIS just days before the Paris attacks. An Anglican priest in one of Iraq’s deadliest sectors, White has watched hundreds from his congregation killed or tortured. He has shrugged off capture, death threats, and a huge price on his head, all while battling his own multiple sclerosis. I remember matching wits with him at the 2013 Wilberforce Weekend, where the Colson Center recognized his singular courage, love for his people, and zeal for peace. You will not find a more devoted dove in all of the Middle East.

But in an interview with The Independent, the Vicar of Baghdad sounded like a hawk.“You can’t negotiate with [ISIS],” he says. “I have never said that about another group of people. These are really so different, so extreme, so radical, so evil. It really hurts. I have tried so hard…[but] I am forced by death and destruction to say there should be war.”

Let me be clear: I am not calling for war. I’m calling for a national discussion. After spending so many years watching flag-draped coffins come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, this conversation is a very tough one. But America isn’t without fault in this unfolding conflict. Our country’s actions in Iraq helped create the power vacuum that ISIS has filled.

As our leaders decide whether to step up efforts against ISIS, the United States cannot and must not move forward without its conscience—the Church—fully engaged. That means discussing war from a biblical worldview and hitting our knees—not just for the people in France, Lebanon, and elsewhere grieving today, but for those who may have to pick up weapons in defense of the unarmed, and go to war to make peace.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES
"A Fact Sheet on Just War Theory" -
BreakPoint.org | September 25, 2006;http://www.breakpoint.org/component/content/article/71-features/1583-a-fact-sheet-on-just-war-theory
"Top Vatican diplomat backs use of force in wake of Paris attacks" -
Inés San Martín | cruxnow.com | November 16, 2015;http://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/just-waras-it-was-and-is
"Just War, As It Was and Is" - James Turner Johnson | First Things | January 2005;http://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/just-waras-it-was-and-is
"Paris suicide bomber identified; ISIS claims responsibility for 129 dead" -
Mariano Castillo | CNN.com | November 16, 2015;https://ieonline.microsoft.com/#ieslice
"Canon Andrew White: 'Vicar of Baghdad' on leading a church in Iraq and being in the crosshairs of Isis" - Cole Moreton | Independent.co.uk | November 2, 2015; 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/canon-andrew-white-vicar-of-baghdad-on-leading-a-church-in-iraq-and-being-in-the-crosshairs-of-isis-a6716616.html
"Rediscovering Protestant Just War Tradition, video" - Mark Tooley | juicyecumenism.com | November 3, 2015; https://juicyecumenism.com/2015/11/03/video-rediscovering-protestant-just-war-tradition/
"Syria and Just War Theory" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | September 13, 2013;
http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/discourse/entry/15/23350
"What Chuck Would Say about the US and ISIS: A Just War?" - Eric Metaxas | BreakPoint.org | September 24, 2014;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26124
"ISIS Claims Responsibility for Blasts That Killed Dozens in Beirut" - Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad | Newyorktimes.com | November 12, 2015;
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/world/middleeast/lebanon-explosions-southern-beirut-hezbollah.html?_r=1

#1412 (11/18) "...The West's Failure To Comprehend Evil"

"ISIS Attacks in Paris - THE WEST’S FAILURE TO COMPREHEND EVIL" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org:November 17, 2015; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28475?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=f83e3afc99-BP_Daily_11_17_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-f83e3afc99-6541173

The world is asking “why?” again, because of these attacks in Paris. But the worldview of western secularists isn’t big enough to make sense of it.

Friday’s attack in Paris, when ISIS terrorists attacked a concert hall, a soccer stadium, and a neighborhood known for its cafes, killing at least 129 people and wounding another 350, was the second wave of terror launched against the City of Light just this year. Back in January, terrorists attacked the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, killing a dozen people.

According to French president Francois Hollande, ISIS has “declared war” on France and that France’s response will be “pitiless.”

And the most common reaction here in the States, besides pity for the victims, is fear… that what happened there could happen here, wherever “here” might be for you. So let’s start by making one thing clear: for the Christian, the fear of God casts out all other fear. Yes, it’s reasonable to be concerned about personal and public safety, but we’re commanded throughout scripture to not be afraid. That’s because in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has definitively dealt with evil.

Now it may not look that way after Friday. But as the author of Hebrews wrote, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him,” that is, Jesus Christ. Christianity acknowledges the fact of evil and suffering. A Christian worldview isn’t about sticking our heads in the sand and seeing the world in a Pollyannaish sort of way.

But other worldviews aren’t able to call evil, “evil.” In an article in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, residents of the neighborhood that was attacked on Friday described the perpetrators as “victims.” One person said that the terrorists were “victims of a system that excluded them from society . . . who live here in alienation, and we are all to blame for this alienation.” [see link below]

Another added that “These are people the government gave up on, and you have to ask why.” As Haaretz put it, “No one wanted to talk about Islamists or the Islamic State, even after it took responsibility for the attacks and French President Francois Hollande announced that the group was behind them.”

Secular liberalism simply can’t wrap its mind around the kind of unadulterated evil that ISIS represents, in large part because it can’t understand what motivates ISIS and its supporters.

That motivation, as the March 2015 issue of The Atlantic [see link below] told readers, is a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately bringing about the apocalypse. Actually, a better word than “apocalypse” would be “eschaton,” the end of the present age and the ushering in of what they consider to be the reign of Allah.

Since it no longer believes in the Christian eschaton, the West cannot even begin to understand an Islamic one. So it treats ISIS like it does the rest of our broken world: something that we can master, provided we bring the correct tools, politically correct language, public policy, and techniques to bear.

Never mind that this kind of utopian approach has a lousy track record even when dealing with much smaller evils than ISIS. Never mind that it’s absurd to “declare war” on an evil when many of your people can’t bring themselves to call it “evil.”

That’s sticking your head in the sand.

But there’s more to that verse from Hebrews. The author goes on to write, “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

Christ has triumphed! And while events might tempt us to fear and even doubt, like the original recipients of the letter to the Hebrews, we are called to look past events and see what is ultimately true and real.

So as Christians our work is to continue to participate in God’s work to restore all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And neither ISIS nor any event in Paris should change that.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - Evil is a reality, whether acknowledged or not. But as John says, the hope of Christians is Christ's triumph over evil. Join us as we pray for hope and healing in a hurting, fallen, and broken world.
RESOURCES
"Well, Here’s One Paris Neighborhood That Isn’t Angry At ISIS" - Matt Vespa | townhall.com | November 15, 2015;
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2015/11/15/well-heres-one-paris-neighborhood-that-isnt-angry-at-isis-n2081142
"What ISIS Really Wants" - Graeme Wood | The Atlantic | March 2015;
theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
Restoring All Things: God's Audacious Plan to Change the World Through Everyday People
John Stonestreet, Warren Smith | Baker Books | May 2015

#1411 (11/17) "After Paris, Obama’s Abandonment of Leadership"

"AFTER PARIS, OBAMA'S ABANDONMENT OF LEADERSHIP" - Jim DeMint / November 16, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/16/after-paris-obamas-abandonment-of-leadership/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Nov. 12, President Barack Obama said of ISIS: “What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.”
On Nov. 13, ISIS-connected terrorists left 129 people dead and 352 wounded in Paris.

ISIS naturally dominated Obama’s Monday press conference at the G20 summit in Turkey. Yet although the president used the words “leader” and “leadership” fourteen times, the concept was, ironically, absent from his remarks. Speaking with as much passion as an instructional video on waste reclamation, he doubled down on his legacy of inaction, infighting, and incompetence.

The first question came from a reporter for Agence France-Presse: “The equation has clearly changed. Isn’t it time for your strategy to change?” The president responded, “Well, keep in mind what we’ve been doing.” He then delivered a laundry list of international cooperation, targeted airstrikes, and economic pressure aimed at thwarting the Islamic State. The implication: He’s already on the right track. Nothing needs changing.

Not once did he address what was obvious to the reporter and the world: The Paris atrocity has demonstrated that his ill-defined strategy to “degrade” ISIS is a failure, one that has endangered the Western world and that clearly needs to change.

He grossly caricatured those who take issue with his strategy—or lack thereof—as “a few who have suggested that we should put large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground” and implied that his only option was the current course, “unless we’re prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries.” This rhetoric has become a pattern: When faced with credible criticism, create false choices.

That the president is entirely unwilling to accept the need for improvement or adaptation in the light of this obvious foreign policy failure leads to uncomfortable questions about how insulated from reality the man might be.There have been few lapses in leadership as maddening—and insulting to the American people—as Obama’s refusal to outline a clear path to victory against a force that certainly has a clear strategy against free nations: indiscriminate bloodshed.

A strategy connects ends and means—what is our goal (end), and how do we get there (means)? It is not clear what Obama’s goal is. Is it to destroy ISIS? Or just to keep their damage to a minimum so that it becomes the next president’s problem?

To be sure, Obama landed some pre-emptive strikes, but they were against Americans who happen to be Republicans:

You know, I had a lot of disagreements with George W. Bush on policy, but I was very proud after 9/11 when he was adamant and clear about the fact that this is not a war on Islam. And the notion that some of those who have taken on leadership in his party would ignore all of that, that’s not who we are.

The president proves more artful at destroying straw men dressed up as GOP presidential hopefuls than he is at targeting terrorists. I suppose he is most afraid of the group that endangers him professionally.

Further, he condemned as “shameful” American governors who have demanded closer vetting of Syrian refugees or refused to accept them from Washington. In light of the fact that at least one attacker in Paris had a Syrian passport, and that high numbers of those entering Europe are neither Syrian nor refugees, the governors’ concern seems prudent rather than pernicious. Slandering them for prioritizing the safety of their own citizens is as galling as it is cowardly.

The president’s clear intention was to use the aftermath of the Paris atrocity to make excuses and launch partisan political attacks. It will be difficult to unify against ISIS behind a man who is more interested in dividing his own countrymen.

Obama’s remarks on Monday morning could have been his “Tear Down This Wall” moment, his “Never Give In.” Instead, we got “I’m Too Busy for That.”

Obama’s remarks in Turkey will be studied in history and foreign policy curricula for years to come as a prideful dereliction of leadership.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint rose from modest South Carolina roots and a career in marketing to build and lead a resurgent conservative movement.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Paris Massacre: Should France Have Seen This Coming?" - By Dale Hurd

CBN News, November 16, 2015;http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/November/Paris-Massacre-Should-France-Have-Seen-This-Coming/

# 1410 (11/16) "Paris Terror Attacks: Time for Leadership and Resolve in the Face of Evil"

"Paris Terror Attacks: TIME FOR LEADERSHIP AND RESOLVE IN THE FACE OF EVIL" - Nile Gardiner / November 14, 2015 / http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/14/paris-terror-attacks-time-for-leadership-and-resolve-in-the-face-of-evil/ [AS I SEE IT: As much as I understand and support people around the world expressing solidarity with the French people, I can't help but wonder at the lack of  such widespread support (at least I'm not aware of any) in the past - even in America - for the people of Israel whenever they have been attacked (the latest just several weeks ago). Even if people will not recognize them as the "chosen people of God, " they are still the longest lasting and most solidly democratic state in the Middle East. It makes you wonder on what basis those in the free world today selects those they will  rally behind. - Stan (Is it just me or does this photo not seem like a scene from the movie "Les Miserables?") ]

Lucie Warga waves a French flag during a solidarity rally outside the White House in tribute to the victims of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. (Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Newscom)

Friday’s brutal and barbaric Islamist terror attacks on several locations in central Paris have been described by French President François Hollande as “an act of war that was waged by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, by Daesh (Islamic State), against France.”

So far, at least 129 people have died from the attacks, with the death toll likely to rise further, with over 350 injured. According to the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, the ISIS assault on Paris was carried out by “three teams of coordinated attackers.” ISIS has already claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks on social media.

According to media reports, one of the suicide bombers whose body was found outside the Stade de France soccer stadium had a Syrian passport. A Greek official has stated that the Syrian terrorist entered Europe via Greece in October, as a refugee. Another of the terrorists possessed a French passport and had known links to ISIS.

The Paris attacks are consistent with the kind of mass-casualty attacks that have been carried out in the past by Islamist terrorists in London, Madrid, Istanbul, and most recently in Paris itself, with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January this year. They also came in the wake of last week’s explosion on board a Russian airliner flying from Egypt to St. Petersburg, which U.S. and British authorities believe was a terrorist attack.

The barbarism and carnage on the streets of Paris are a stark reminder that the free world is at war with brutal terrorist groups who seek to sow death, fear, and destruction in the West. This is a moment for robust and bold leadership from leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, who must be prepared to emphatically defeat the enemy we face. It is important at this moment that the forces of freedom be united and determined in their efforts to destroy the Islamic State, which must begin with the eradication of ISIS from Iraq, where Kurdish forces are bravely fighting to retake territory from the Islamic State.

The United States and its allies in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the Middle East must be prepared to take the war to the enemy, as part of a global long war against Islamist terrorism and extremism.

It is also time for an end to the Obama White House’s approach of “leading from behind” on the international stage. The Obama administration needs to present a clear-cut, overarching strategy for defeating ISIS and aggressively confronting the Islamist threat.

As British Prime Minister David Cameron declared in a Downing Street press conference on Friday, following the successful killing of ISIS terrorist Mohammed Emwazi (Jihadi John) in Syria, “Britain and her allies will not rest until we have defeated this evil terrorist death cult, and the poisonous ideology on which it feeds.”

Strength and resolve are the only message that our enemies understand. And this must be backed by increased investment by the United States and its allies in military capability, strengthening the ability to project force across the world to protect and defend our vital national interests against those who seek our destruction.

Nile Gardiner, a leading authority on transatlantic relations, is director of The Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Read his research.  @NileGardiner 

"Paris Attacks Remind Us the Free World Is at War With Brutal Terrorist Groups" - 
Nile Gardiner / November 13, 2015;http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/13/paris-attacks-remind-us-the-free-is-world-at-war-with-brutal-terrorist-groups/
     "...There is speculation that the terror attacks are a direct response by the Islamic State to the U.S. drone strike Thursday that killed the terrorist known as Jihadi John in Raqqa, Syria. While it is unlikely that ISIS would have the capability to launch such a well-coordinated attack within such a short time frame, it is possible ISIS had been planning such an attack on Paris for some time and decided to launch it today for propaganda reasons, to give the impression that this is immediate retaliation for the Jihadi John strike..."

#1409 (11/15) SUNDAY SPECIAL:"The Story Behind the Navy Hymn"

"THE STORY BEHIND THE NAVY HYMN" - In Honor of Veterans Day 2015 "- Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint Daily| Nov. 11, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28443?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=061fa82917-BP_Daily_11_11_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-061fa82917-6541173
 
[In noting Veterans Day], I want to tell you the back story to one of the great hymns—one that resonates particularly for many of our veterans. It’s one of the most famous hymns in Christendom: “Eternal Father Strong to Save.” It’s often called “the Navy hymn” because it’s sung at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.  But how many of us know the story behind this moving hymn?

The hymn’s author was an Anglican churchman named William Whiting, who was born in England in 1825. As a child, Whiting dodged in and out of the waves as they crashed along England’s shoreline. But years later, on a journey by sea, Whiting learned the true and terrifying power of those waves. A powerful storm blew in, so violent that the crew lost control of the vessel. During these desperate hours, as the waves roared over the decks, Whiting’s faith in God helped him to stay calm. When the storm subsided, the ship, badly damaged, limped back to port.

The experience had a galvanizing effect on Whiting. As one hymn historian put it, “Whiting was changed by this experience. He respected the power of the ocean nearly as much as he respected the God who made it and controls it.” The memory of this voyage allowed Whiting to provide comfort to one of the boys he taught at a training school in Winchester.

One day, a young man confided that he was about to embark on a journey to America—a voyage fraught with danger at that time. The boy was filled with dread at the thought of the ordeal to come. A sympathetic Whiting described his own frightening experience, and he and the other boys prayed for the terrified student. And then Whiting told him, “Before you depart, I will give you something to anchor your faith.” Whiting, an experienced poet, put pen to paper, writing a poem reminding the boys of God’s power even over the mighty oceans. It begins:

“Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave.”
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep.
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

Scholars believe Whiting was inspired in part by Psalm 107, which describes God’s deliverance from a great storm on the sea: In verses 28 and 29, we read: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble [and] he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” This thought is of course echoed in the New Testament, when Jesus and his disciples are caught in a sudden storm on the Sea of Galilee; Jesus “rebuked the wind and calmed the sea.” (Mark 4:39)

In 1861, Whiting’s poem was set to music by the Rev. John Dykes. The hymn became enormously popular; British, French, and American sailors all adopted it. Winston Churchill loved it, and the hymn was performed at the funerals of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.

Over the years, those who love the hymn and the men and women it honors have written additional stanzas—verses that ask for God’s protection over Marines, Seabees, submariners, flyers, the Coast Guard and Navy SEALS. They ask God to remember the needs of wounded warriors, asking: “By power of thy breath restore, the ill and those with wounds of war.” Touchingly, one newer stanza asks God’s protection for the families of those who serve, asking, “Oh Father, hear us when we pray, for those we love so far away.”

Veterans Day is a reminder that we should be praying regularly for those who put themselves in harm’s way for our sake, for their families, and for those who suffer the after effects of combat.

And as we sing the Navy hymn, as many of us will on Sundays around Veterans’ Day, its words should also recall to our minds the fact that none of us will escape the storms and tempests of life. Its verses offer comfort and help us “anchor our faith,” as William Whiting put it, when the winds and waves of our own lives threaten to capsize us.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES
Description of the Navy hymn "Eternal Father Strong to Save" - website-http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/e/t/eternalf.htm
“Eternal Father Strong to Save” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic8zMkYwnq8