#1666 (7/31) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "No Christianity, No Hospitals - DON’T TAKE CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR GRANTED"

"No Christianity, No Hospitals - DON’T TAKE CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR GRANTED" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org: July 28, 2016; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/29628

Pro-abortion forces should be careful what they wish for, especially when it comes to Christian hospitals.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of Americans who “think” that religion plays a role in solving important social problems “has fallen significantly” in the past fifteen years. In 2001, 75 percent of those polled said that religious institutions played such a role in our society. By 2016, the percentage had dropped to 58 percent.

Now what’s changed? There’s no evidence that religious institutions have reduced their efforts in addressing the problems around them. Pew suspects that the drop has something to do with the rise of the so-called “nones,” the religiously unaffiliated.

I think part of the problem is that the religious contribution to the common good is so woven into the fabric of American life that most people these days just take it for granted and never stop to think about how prevalent it really is.

So today I want to talk about one such contribution: religious hospitals. As Wikipedia tells us “Greek and Roman religion did not preach of a duty to tend to the sick.” The idea of the hospital grew out of the “Christian emphasis on practical charity,” especially towards the sick.

Thus, as historian Roy Porter wrote in his book “The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity,” “Christianity planted the hospital.” Or stated differently, without Christianity, there would be no hospitals, at least not as we understand the idea.

That’s why, again quoting Wikipedia, the Catholic Church is “the largest [non-governmental] provider of health care services in the world.” How large? “It has around 18,000 clinics . . .  and 5,500 hospitals, with 65 percent of them located in developing countries.” By one estimate, the Catholic Church “manages 26 percent of the world's health care facilities.”

So unless folks don’t consider providing health care in the developing world as “an important social problem,” the 42 percent who answered Pew’s question in the negative could not be more wrong.

But in the off chance that respondents interpreted the question to mean “important social problems” just in the U. S., well one in six hospital beds in our country is located in a Catholic hospital. In at least thirty communities, the Catholic hospital is the only hospital in a 35-mile radius. This doesn’t even take into account hospitals run by other Christian bodies such as Baptists, Methodists, and especially Seventh-Day Adventists.

Now for many progressives, this is a bad thing since these hospitals do not, because of their “commitment to the sacredness and dignity of human life from conception until death” define “women’s health” in the same way they do. To them, the spread of Catholic hospitals just means fewer abortions, and of course, that’s bad.

For someone actually sick and in need of medical care, this is completely irrelevant, if not perverse.

And speaking of perverse: many also have the strange notion that if Christian institutions got out—or as some would prefer, were forced out—of the health care business, government would just somehow pick up the slack.

This highlights the foolishness of the pro-abortion ideological crusade against Christian professionals and organizations in health care. As we’ve talked about before on BreakPoint, Washington State is already forcing Christian pharmacists (who by the way got no help from the Supreme Court) to choose between their faith and their careers. If states or the federal government attempt to force Christian hospitals to perform abortions, and those hospitals close their doors, the results would be catastrophic.

As I said earlier, the Christian commitment to caring for the sick, and other acts of compassion, are such a part of American life they’re taken for granted. So over the next few months, we’ll be talking a lot about these contributions that Christians make to American life every single day. You’ll want to stay tuned and share these stories with your friends.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION

"Are churches key to solving social problems? Fewer Americans now think so" - Michael Lipka | Pew Research Center | July 18, 2016; http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/18/are-churches-key-to-solving-social-problems-fewer-americans-now-think-so/

"The Christian Contribution to Medicine" - Christian Medical Fellowship | 2016; https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=827

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity - Roy Porter | W. W. Norton & Company | 1999

"Critics blast report on Catholic hospitals as ‘distorted, inaccurate’" - Mark Zimmermann | Cruxnow.com | May 14, 2016; https://cruxnow.com/church/2016/05/14/critics-blast-report-on-catholic-hospitals-as-distorted-inaccurate/

"Catholic Church and health care" - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_health_care

The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force - Rodney Stark | HarperOne | May 1997

#1665 (7/30) PRO-LIFE SAT: "After They Applauded Woman Bragging About Her Abortion How Can Any Christian Vote Democrat?"

"AFTER THEY APPLAUD A WOMAN BRAGGING ABOUT HER ABORTION, CAN ANY CHRISTIAN VOTE DEMOCRAT?" - Micaiah Bilger, July 28, 2016| http://www.lifenews.com/2016/07/28/after-they-applauded-woman-bragging-about-her-abortion-how-can-any-christian-vote-democrat/

This week, popular conservative blogger Matt Walsh tackled the question of whether Christians can vote Democrat because of the party’s increasing devotion to the abortion industry.Writing for The Blaze, Walsh penned an open letter to a reader who said she is a Christian and a Democrat. He responded to her by pointing out how the Democratic Party has changed in recent years. The party is now adopting and openly flaunting anti-Christian positions, especially on abortion.

Walsh pointed to the Democratic National Convention as evidence: "On Tuesday night, the DNC trotted the CEO of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, up to the podium to deliver a 15-minute sales pitch for abortion. The next night, after the sales pitch, the president of the National Abortion Rights Action League strode confidently onto the stage to give a sort of client testimonial. Not only does she run the abortion industry’s propaganda machine, but she is, as she happily professed, a satisfied abortion customer. She bragged about her abortion, explaining that she had to kill her child because he would have been too inconvenient at the time. The crowd roared with applause.
Literally cheering for abortions. That is the modern Democrat Party."

"… Would Jesus be in that crowd applauding as a mother boasts of killing her child? Would Jesus nod approvingly at politicians who take money from families and use it to fund an industry that slaughters a million kids a year? Is Jesus pro-abortion? Can you be pro-abortion while at the same time believing in and trusting Him?" Later, he continued: "You tell me — no, tell Him– how you can remain a Christian after insisting that He was, in His earliest moments on Earth, an unhuman puddle of disposable material. Just be careful and consider that you’re much better off committing heresy against Planned Parenthood than against the Almighty God."

"If the point needs to be driven home any harder, remember that Jesus told us on multiple occasions that whatever we do to the least of these, we do to Him (Matthew 25:40). If we feed or clothe the vulnerable and the helpless, we feed and clothe Him. But what if we rip them apart, limb from limb, and toss them in the dumpster? I suppose then we’ve ripped Christ apart and tossed Him in a dumpster. And what if we vote for politicians who will passionately protect the right to rip babies apart, and who promise to fund the practice and make it more accessible across the country? Well, according to Christ, we’ve voted for politicians who passionately protect the right to rip Him apart, and who promise to fund this brutal sacrilege and make it more accessible across the country. And what if we support a political party that makes this one of the foundational tenets of its platform? You get the idea."

Though a minor point in his letter, Walsh also brought up how older Democrats often are not aware of how extreme the party has become. It’s an important point, but it is arguable that it’s not just older Democrats who are unaware.

Until recently, the Democratic Party has done its best to hide just how extreme and out of touch its position on abortion is. For many years, pro-abortion politicians like Hillary Clinton hid behind the rhetoric that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare.” They knew that most Americans oppose most abortions and are morally troubled by them. And they won votes by painting themselves as moderates on the issue. But the Democratic Party is not hiding its allegiances to the abortion industry any more, and Christian voters need know the truth.

The Democratic Party is now not only celebrating the legal killing of unborn babies at its conventions, it’s also pushing to force taxpayers to pay for them. Its platform also supports legalized abortion on demand for any reason up until birth.

Outreach must be done to educate the uninformed Christian voters, those who still wrongly believe that the Democratic Party is moderate or even pro-life on abortion. Some Democrats, like the group Democrats for Life, are fighting to change the party and take it back to the days when it welcomed those who defended the unborn. But more needs to be done.

There are 1.1 million unborn babies every year who are being legally aborted in the U.S., and many of their mothers are being physically and emotionally injured by the profit-driven abortion industry. The Democratic Party wants to expand abortions even more and force taxpayers to pay for them. 

As Walsh argued, Christians must step up against the horrific injustice of abortion and defend vulnerable, innocent unborn babies, as Jesus taught. And one of the best ways they can start is by educating their friends about the Democratic Party’s radical position on abortion.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

"Hillary Clinton Promotes Free Abortions: 'Let’s Go Out There and Make It Happen'"- Steven Ertelt, JUL 28, 2016; http://www.lifenews.com/2016/07/28/hillary-clinton-promotes-free-abortions-lets-go-out-there-and-make-it-happen/
"Tim Kaine Flip-Flops Again: He Won’t Stop Hillary Clinton From Pushing for Free Abortions" - Steven Ertelt, JUL 28, 2016;
http://www.lifenews.com/2016/07/28/tim-kaine-flip-flops-again-he-wont-stop-hillary-clinton-from-pushing-for-free-abortions/

#1664 (7/29) "The History of the United States, as Told by Young Democrats"

"THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, AS TOLD  BY YOUNG DEMOCRATS" -  Katrina Trinko / July 28, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/28/the-history-of-the-united-states-as-told-by-young-democrats/ [AS I SEE IT: If the views of these young people are at all representative of a significant part of the next generation who lead America, we have much to be concerned about the future of our country. And to think, they get their "brains washed" by academics whose fees end up leaving so many in great debt after they are "educated." Smart. - Stan]

A protester expresses herself outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (Photo: Christopher Occhicone/Zuma Press/Newscom)

PHILADELPHIA—Young Democrats appear to be part of the coalition championing that dictum from William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

I expected the youth caucus meeting at the Democratic National Convention, which I attended Wednesday, to focus almost entirely on current liberal concerns such as student loans, jobs, LGBT issues, and climate change. (Given the near absolute lack of mentions of terrorism on the convention’s main stage, I wasn’t so naïve that I expected any talk about the Islamic State terrorists or national security.)

But this was no MSNBC event, and far from leaning forward, two of the three participants on a panel went on extended diatribes about the United States’ history to a room with enough empty chairs to satisfy an army of Clint Eastwoods. Sitting about half a mile from Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed, I got a whirlwind course in Liberal History 101.

“We understand that we have never had a fully participatory democracy,” said Catalina Velasquez. “We understand that democracy, the way it’s defined in the United States, has been about contracting, disenfranchising. The more we disenfranchise, the better. And we are tired of it.” Velasquez is the director of Young People For, a group that declares on its website that it is “taking a stand for progressive values.” Earlier in the event, Velasquez got enthusiastic applause after boasts of being “undocumented and unafraid” and “transgender and unashamed.”

Nor was the earlier statement the sum of Velasquez’s criticisms about the United States.“We are really looking introspectively about how this country came about,” Velasquez said. “This country’s built off the backs of native, indigenous people, the genocide of such. This country’s built off the backs of black people … this country is built on the backs of immigrant labor.”Velasquez added: "And we are tired, and we are tired because history continues to repeat itself over and over again. We are not seeing the change and we are being told to wait. And we don’t want to wait. We’re ready and we’re coming." Velasquez then proceeded to tick off how long it had taken different groups to be able to vote in the United States. “And some of us who are undocumented, let’s not forget, are still fighting for suffrage rights.”

A protester flashes the peace sign to police officers across a barrier fence at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo: Christopher Occhicone/ZumaPress/Newscom)

Curiously—or perhaps not curiously, given that Eleanor Roosevelt is still enough in the good graces of the left to be given an enthusiastic shoutout by Meryl Streep on the convention’s main stage—there was no mention of the Japanese being thrown into internment camps by Franklin Roosevelt. At any rate, I’m under no illusion that the history of the United States is free from injustice, immorality, and bad decisions.

But what was striking about the account Velasquez gave was, by my memory, the complete absence of any mention of the strikingly great parts of our country’s history. (And of course, the view that somebody who came to the United States illegally should not only be entitled to live here, but also to vote.) It was unmentioned how the U.S. championed freedom, how our Founding Fathers created a government system that sought both to avoid mob rule and to push citizens to truly govern themselves, to have a government of, by, and for the people, and to have a founding document that recognized the equality of men. There was no discussion of how the United States had promoted freedom abroad, and had helped other nations with both financial resources and our soldiers’ lives.  There was no consideration of how many immigrants had fled lands where opportunity was limited and found the United States to be a place where they and their children and their children’s children could truly live the American dream.

While Velasquez focused on the more distant past, another panelist offered a narrative (equally depressing) about the past few decades. Nelini Stamp, who describes herself as an “organizer,” “agitator,” and “believer in community centered liberation” in her Twitter bio, detailed her views on past presidents: "Our parents saw [Ronald] Reagan, saw what happened, and then when … [Bill] Clinton gets elected, and everybody’s like ‘Oh, we’re here, this is amazing.’ And then we had  [George W.] Bush. Eight years of Bush. And we went to war. We started to prioritize Washington [over] … Main Street. In 2008, we bailed out the banks instead of breaking them apart and they stole 60 percent of the wealth of African-American communities."

But don’t think Stamp’s dislike of the banks bailout means she has any empathy for or interest in exploring the views of the tea party: "A lot of folks thought … Obama gets elected, we kind of packed up. We were like ‘Oh, black president, yes, like I’m so happy.’ And then the tea party came along. And a lot of people thought we were this post-racial society and the tea party came along, and … white supremacy starts to become on the rise. “If we don’t have a black liberation, black movement in this country … we won’t get anything accomplished,” Stamp added. ...

Stamp also grounded her call to young adults in her historical perspective. “We are the warriors and … the visionaries of the Great Society that people talked about in the past, of that New Deal that went unpromised for communities of color,” she said. “So I think that the reason we’re going through this is because it’s just history leading up to this moment where we need to take it.”

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Katrina Trinko is managing editor of The Daily Signal and a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors.

"At Party’s Convention, Democrats Reflect on the Liberal Revolution That Split Them" - Josh Siegel / July 28, 2016; http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/28/at-partys-convention-democrats-reflect-on-the-liberal-revolution-that-split-them/
"ISIS or Climate Change: Which Worries Democrats More?" - Kelsey Harkness / July 28, 2016; http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/28/isis-or-climate-change-which-worries-democrats-more/?

#1663 (7/28) "Undercover Filmmaker Who Exposed Planned Parenthood Calls His Case a ‘Huge Win’ for Journalists"

"UNDERCOVER FILMMAKER WHO EXPOSED PLANNED PARENTHOOD CALLS HIS CASE A "HUGE  WIN" FOR JOURNALISTS" - Leah Jessen / July 26, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/26/undercover-filmmaker-who-exposed-planned-parenthood-calls-his-case-a-huge-win-for-journalists/? [AS I SEE IT: Surprise! Surprise! I don't know about you, but I didn't hear a single mention of this news by the mainstream press. Of course, if the ruling by the judge had gone the other way, you can be sure we would have heard much about it as it would have cast a bad life on pro-life efforts. And of course this pro-life victory would contrast with the VERY pro-abortion platform of the Democratic Party now having their national convention. Just more evidence the media chooses to report news that favors their view on the issues. - Stan]

A Texas district attorney’s office dismissed charges against David Daleiden, project lead at the Center for Medical Progress. (Photo: Stringer/Reuters /Newscom)

Two undercover filmmakers whose videos exposed abortion provider Planned Parenthood won’t face criminal charges after all. Instead, they’re hailing the news as a First Amendment victory for citizen journalists.

On Tuesday, the Harris County district attorney’s office dismissed all charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. The duo worked undercover to produce a series of videos alleging Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the sale of unborn baby body parts. Federal law makes it illegal to sell human fetal tissue for a profit.

Daleiden, project lead at the Center for Medical Progress, and Merritt were indicted by the Houston-based grand jury in January for using false government identification during their undercover investigation. Daleiden was also indicted for “intentionally and knowingly” offering to buy human organs. The two faced up to 20 years in prison, LifeSiteNews reported.

Daleiden, 27, called the charges against himself and Merritt, 62, “bogus” and “politically motivated.” He said the dismissal of charges “is a resounding vindication of the First Amendment rights of all citizen journalists, and also a clear warning to any of Planned Parenthood’s political cronies who would attack whistleblowers to protect Planned Parenthood from scrutiny.”

“Planned Parenthood did wrong here, not David Daleiden,” said Peter Breen, Daleiden’s attorney. Breen said Daleiden used “standard undercover journalism techniques” and followed applicable laws. He also called it “a huge win for the First Amendment rights of undercover journalists.”

"Daleiden shone a spotlight on the darkness that is the abortion industry and faced unrelenting personal attacks as a result." —Roger Severino @Heritage For the investigation, Daleiden set up a fake biomedical research company, Biomax Procurement Services. Daleiden and Merritt falsified California driver’s licenses to match their undercover identity.

After a string of the undercover videos were released last summer by the Center for Medical Progress, federal and state investigations, as well as a nationwide effort to defund Planned Parenthood of taxpayer funding, ensued.

Planned Parenthood has claimed no wrongdoing. Earlier this year, the Houston grand jury declined to charge the nation’s largest abortion provider. Pro-life activists had revealed a potential conflict of interest between the district attorney’s office and Planned Parenthood. Operation Rescue found that a prosecutor in the office also serves on Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s board of directors.

In his statement, Daleiden said: "Planned Parenthood tried to collude with public officials to manipulate the legal process to their own benefit, and they failed. A year after the release of the undercover videos, the ongoing nationwide investigation of Planned Parenthood by the House Select Investigative Panel makes clear that Planned Parenthood is the guilty party in the harvesting and trafficking of baby body parts for profit."

“The dismissal of these charges is just more evidence that they should not have been brought in the first place,” said Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “The bias and misconduct of the prosecutor was evidenced by her turning over the undercover videos to Planned Parenthood, which was supposed to be the target of the investigation,” von Spakovsky added. “Instead, the prosecutor apparently violated grand jury secrecy rules and coordinated with Planned Parenthood to target the undercover journalists who had exposed Planned Parenthood’s wrongdoing.”

Planned Parenthood has said the Center for Medical Progress videos are part of an “elaborate, illegal conspiracy in order to block women’s access to safe and legal abortion.” “Relying on old tactics, anti-abortion activists have leveled a new series of false claims against Planned Parenthood since July 2015,” Planned Parenthood’s website says. “Using heavily edited videos, extremists made now widely discredited and debunked accusations about our practices to facilitate fetal tissue donation at a small number of Planned Parenthood health centers.”

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, calls Daleiden a “hero.” “Planned Parenthood needs to be held accountable for their horrendous business practices of betraying their clients and selling their babies piece-by-piece for profit,” Hawkins said in a prepared statement.

Planned Parenthood called the Center for Medical Progress’ work and congressional investigations into their organization a “smear campaign.”

“Daleiden shone a spotlight on the darkness that is the abortion industry and faced unrelenting personal attacks as a result,” said Roger Severino, director for the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. “Now that the misguided prosecution against him has failed, the focus should go back to where it always belonged, on defunding Planned Parenthood and ending the unconscionable practice of buying and selling of aborted baby parts.”

[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. Send an email to Leah.

#1662 (7/27) "Is There a Europe Without Christianity?- A CONTINENTAL DIVIDE"

"Is There a Europe without Christianity?- A CONTINENTAL DIVIDE" - By: John Stonestreet|Breakpoint.org: April 29, 2016;

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/29218

What we think of as Europe is pretty easy to define these days. But it wasn’t always so, and it may not be for long.

Is Europe a continent? This is not a trick question. Geographers and historians aren’t quite sure. Not for reasons having to do with “political correctness” or other ideological controversies, but because of geography. With the other six continents—Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North America, and South America—it’s fairly simple to tell where they begin and end. But the same can’t be said of Europe. As Wikipedia tells us, “the borders of Europe . . . are arbitrary.”

Yet as Wikipedia also tells us, the definition of a continent, especially Europe, also includes “cultural and political” elements. And as a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly told readers, in Europe’s case, “culture” until recently meant Christianity.

In the article, provocatively entitled “How Islam Created Europe,” Robert D. Kaplan tells readers that in Greek and Roman times, “Europe” referred to the “world surrounding the Mediterranean.” In fact, the mythological character Europa, from whom we get the word “Europe,” was a Phoenician woman from what is now Israel and Lebanon. In this understanding, “Europe” included places like North Africa, but not what’s now Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia.

What changed this definition was the spread of Islam across North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, what is known as the Levant. Islamic civilization, especially when its forces were turned back by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours in 732, gave people all across Christian Europe something to define themselves against.

As the expression “Christian Europe” suggests, over time Europeans came to see themselves as part of a larger entity that was, like the Islamic world, defined in religious terms. Kaplan quotes the 1957 book, “Europe: The Emergence of an Idea,” which tells readers that “European unity began with the concept . . . of a Christendom in ‘inevitable opposition’ to Islam.”

The most famous example of this “inevitable opposition” is, of course, the Crusades. While the Crusades are endlessly debated, one thing about them isn’t: The European forces saw themselves primarily as a force of Christians, which was their shared identity and basis for unity.
Christianity was the source of the “cultural and political” elements that make Europe a continent and not simply a glorified peninsula at the end of the Eurasian landmass.

And that prompts the obvious question: What do you call Europe without Christianity? Kaplan’s answer, in keeping with his 2012 book, “The Revenge of Geography,” is that “classical geography is organically reasserting itself . . . [reuniting] the Mediterranean Basin, including North Africa and the Levant, with Europe.” That reunification is being hastened, of course, by waves of hundreds of thousands of Syrian and African migrants, who by the way, “have no desire to be Christian.” This phenomenon threatens “to undermine the fragile social peace” as well as undermine the modern European project.

If so, it’s a self-inflicted wound. European elites have long worked overtime to downplay their Christian heritage, and have “used idealistic rhetoric to deny the forces of religion and ethnicity.” The most famous example of this was the preamble to the EU’s constitution, which omitted any mention of Christianity as a source of Europe’s “values.”

This is, historically-speaking, nonsense. It’s also self-destructive since, because, as Kaplan tells us, Christianity is one of the forces “that provided European states with their own internal cohesion.” Without Christianity, Europe is hobbled in its attempts to resist the “reassertion of classical geography.” In other words, if Europe is eventually “islamicized,” as many predict, it will only be because it was first “de-Christianized.”

[bold and itlaics emphasis mine]

"How Islam Created Europe" - Robert D. Kaplan | The Atlantic | May 2016; http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/how-islam-created-europe/476388/
The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success
- Rodney Stark | Random House Trade | October 2006
God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis- Philip Jenkins | Oxford University Press, USA | April 2009

#1661 (7/26) "The Late, Great Democratic Party"

"THE LATE, GREAT DEMOCRATIC PARTY" - Stephen Moore |Jul 26, 2016; http://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2016/07/26/the-late-great-democratic-party-n2197887

This week, the Democrats officially appoint the battered Hillary Clinton to be torchbearer of the party. She has slouched to the finish line. She is tired and the country is tired of her. Sorry, Democrats, no do-overs. You're stuck with her.

But it isn't just Clinton who is out of touch and in tragic decline. It's the whole Democratic Party. My friends at the American Enterprise Institute reported last week that the Democratic platform is silent on economic growth. Maybe that is because across the country during the past eight years of Obamanomics, economic growth has been silent.

This is an exaggeration, of course, but not much of one. We have had 2 percent growth under Obama, but that's an economy treading water. It's sister-kissing growth that, yes, has thankfully kept us out of recession, but doesn't lead to much, if any, rise in living standards. Just as Obama refuses to utter the words "Islamic terrorism," now the whole party can't seem to bring itself to endorse "economic growth." For the left, growth isn't really the goal. They want redistribution of wealth.
The language of a party platform doesn't matter much, if at all. But if you're not for growth, you probably aren't going to produce it, just as if you're not even trying to get in shape, it's a good bet you're not going to shed those extra 16 pounds.

Amazingly, the last great growth hawk of the Democratic Party of modern times, John F. Kennedy, ran against Republican Richard Nixon in 1960 on the issue of the "growth deficit." The economy in the 1950s was fairly prosperous, much more so than over the last eight years. But JFK said we can "do bettah" and convinced Americans we could see much faster wage gains with greater opportunities. Through tax cuts and free trade, the JFK era sparked growth rates of 4, 5 and even 6 percent in the go-go '60s until LBJ crashed the economy with New Deal welfare statism.

Now we have this weird austerity-worship that has taken over the party. The rich and businesses are portrayed as scalpers and scoundrels. And employers are exploiters in the "you didn't build that" mindset. Radical environmentalists, a bedrock of the party, are anti-growth and believe that when people get richer, it's worse for the planet. (They should go live in India or Mexico City and see how well the environment is doing there.) They ridicule what they call "growth-mania" on the right. Human economic activity, they warn, is causing catastrophic global warming.

Perhaps this explains the litany of economic failures during the Obama years. We have had $8 trillion of new debt; minimum-wage increases; Obamacare; an $800 billion stimulus plan (with "shovel-ready" projects); tax increases on the rich; more than $100 billion in green energy subsidies; auto company and union pension bailouts; re-regulation of the financial industry and banks; and a Federal Reserve that has manufactured near zero short-term interest rates for seven years with up to $4 trillion of bond acquisitions. ? All of these were designed primarily to redistribute income, so is it a shock that they haven't produced growth?

Poor Hillary Clinton has the unenviable task of persuading Americans to open up wide and swallow four more years of this swill.

Here's a question that Donald Trump and Mike Pence should be asking every day: What would Clinton offer that is any different? She is promising minimum-wage increases, tax hikes on the rich and more infrastructure spending. This is new? This is change?

The left's defense of growth anemia is that 2 percent growth is the new normal, so get used to it. Obama's first economic guru, Larry Summers, calls this secular stagnation that is here to stay. This past week at a Politico economic forum I made the claim that we could have 4 percent growth easily, and the jaws of the media dropped in collective disbelief, as if I suggested that we could suspend the laws of gravity.

Actually, 4 percent growth isn't that hard to achieve. A pro-America energy production policy, including putting coal back in business, could produce $150 billion more output each year. Another percentage ?point of growth could come from tax reform with reductions in business taxes to spur investment and hiring, according to the folks at the Tax Foundation.

But Democrats will never get us there, because they aren't even trying. They will celebrate 2 percent growth -- the weakest recovery in half a century -- as a glittering achievement. The party that once stood with the working class now says Americans have to work more and settle for less? That's not just wrong; it's sad.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

#1660 (7/25) "No Coup for Christians in Turkey"

"NO COUP FOR CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, July 19, 2016;

https://www.frcaction.org/get.cfm?"i=WA16G21&f=WU16G06 [AS I SEE IT: Please pray that the efforts of friends of mine who've been ministering there for  many years and that of others may hot be hampered as a result of the newest government crackdown. Pray that the  gospel will continue to be freely presented and many will turn to Christ. - Stan]

The [recent] failed coup attempt against the government of Turkish President Recip Erdogan will have several negative effects and consequences for the people of Turkey. Erdogan appears likely to increase his suppression of civil liberties which began as Prime Minister in 2003 and continued in 2014 when he was elected the 12th President of Turkey. Jailing judges and other officials in the judicial system has been routine for Erdogan. Journalists and media personalities have also been imprisoned in record numbers, and since the failed attempt last week to topple his regime he has arrested and incarcerated over six-thousand military and police who are believed to be complicit in the attempted coup. Today we learned through a media report that the Ministry of Education fired 15,200 people and the Board of Higher Education has requested the resignation of 1,577 university deans, akin to dismissing them.

What should be of concern to all are the implications for the future of the Christians (and other minorities) in Turkey. Given Turkey’s history of genocide against the Armenian Christians between 1915-1923 (an atrocity which Pope Francis recently recognized), with an estimated death toll of 1.5 million, the 120,000 Christians now living in Turkey are most certainly concerned.

Fast forward to the modern era, and we observe that the persecution and even killing of Christians in Turkey continues. Just under a decade ago, several Christians were lured into a house and horrifically tortured and slaughtered. The accused have more recently walked free due to a change in laws governing the detention of suspects. Elsewhere, churches have been shut down. According to one recent report, “the Christian minority in Turkey suffer discrimination, slander, personal attacks and attacks against churches on a daily basis.”

In May of this year, a suicide bomber killed five people in a Christian village near what may be the oldest church in the world, St. Mary Church, in southeastern Turkey. An Islamic group protested the celebration of Christmas and the New Year last year while threatening the Christian minority with death. Beatings and verbal assaults were common during this holiday period. Several deaths of known and respected Christians, including a priest and a Christian journalist have been reported during the time that Erdogan has been in power.

Most disturbing, however, is the fact that the Turkish National Security Council determined and announced that Christian missionary activities are one of the nation’s major security problems. With that level of animus toward Christians, there can be little doubt that the Christian community in Turkey is experiencing a great deal of angst and uncertainty as they see President Erdogan consolidating his power in the country.

Erdogan is an Islamist first, and as such, his theology is not favorable to or very tolerant of Christians. He has been accused of harassing Christian communities. If Turkey moves now to a more radical Islamic influence in their society (whether or not under the guise of addressing the attempted coup), Christians will likely be in the cross hairs. Persecution can occur in many forms. Even if the government does not take overt steps against Christians, a toxic cultural climate nurtured by unchecked radical, Islamist ideology can have devastating consequences for Christians. We need only look at Pakistan to see the effects of such a situation.

Thus, in Turkey, President Erdogan bears the responsibility of ensuring that his government does not further (nor stand by and watch) the persecution of Christians or any other minorities who need protection. We must pray fervently that this does not happen and that the few Christians left in Turkey will be allowed to worship openly in a country where Christianity has an incredible history.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

#1659 (7/24) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "I Envy Kevin"

"I ENVY KEVIN" -  From MikeysFunnies.com - July 8, 2016 [AS I SEE IT: This is one of those tug-at-your-heart kind of essays that made me stop and wonder about the things that steal the joy from my life and keeps me tied down with the non-essentials. May we each remember to rest in the peace and joy that is surely meant to infuse the life our gracious God has blessed us with. It's not based on having "stuff" or things always working out as we'd like. It's simply trusting that He is truly in control and that knowing Him is enough blessing to fill any day. - Stan]

I envy Kevin. My brother Kevin thinks God lives under his bed. At least that's what I heard him say one night. He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped outside his closed door to listen. "Are you there, God?" he said. "Where are you? Oh, I see. Under the bed." I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room. 

Kevin's unique perspectives are often a source of amusement. But that night something else lingered long after the humor. I realized for the first time the very different world Kevin lives in. He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (6-foot-2), there are few ways in which he is an adult. He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed, that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.

I remember wondering if Kevin realizes he is different. Is he ever dissatisfied with his monotonous life? Up before dawn each day, off to work at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cocker spaniel, return to eat his favorite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed. The only variation in the entire scheme are laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the washing machine like a mother with her newborn child. He does not seem dissatisfied. He lopes out to the bus every morning at 7:05, eager for a day of simple work. He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for his next day's laundry chores. And Saturdays-oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That's the day my Dad takes Kevin to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and speculate loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. "That one's goin' to Chi-car-go!" Kevin shouts as he claps his hands. His anticipation is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights! 

And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips. He doesn't know what it means to be discontent. His life is simple. He will never know the entanglements of wealth or power, and he does not care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be. His hands are diligent. Kevin is never so happy as when he is working. When he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in it. He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job until it is finished. But when his tasks are done, Kevin knows how to relax. He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others. His heart is pure. He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when you are wrong, you apologize instead of argue. Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances, Kevin is not afraid to cry when he is hurt, angry or sorry. 

He is always transparent, always sincere. And he trusts God. Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to Christ, he comes as a child. Kevin seems to know God - to really be friends with Him in a way that is difficult for an "educated"person to grasp. God seems like his closest companion. In my moments of doubt and frustrations with my Christianity, I envy the security Kevin has in his simple faith. It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge that rises above my mortal questions. It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap - I am. My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances - they all become disabilities when I do not trust them to God's care. Who knows if Kevin comprehends things I can never learn? After all, he has spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and soaking up the goodness and love of God. 

And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed at how close God really is to our hearts, I'll realize that God heard the simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed. Kevin won't be surprised at all! 

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

#1658 (7/23) PRO-LIFE SAT: "Margaret Sanger: Letting the Poor Keep “Breeding” Just Perpetuates “Bad Genes”"

"MARGARET SANGER: LETTING THE POOR KEEP Keep 'BREEDING' JUST PERPETUATES 'BAD GENES'" - Micaiah Bilger / July 11, 2016 | http://www.lifenews.com/2016/07/11/margaret-sanger-letting-the-poor-keep-breeding-just-perpetuates-bad-genes/

Planned Parenthood foundress Margaret Sanger died before Roe v. Wade opened the doors to abortion on demand in the U.S., but her eugenic ideology laid the groundwork for what the abortion industry has become today.

Angela Franks, PhD, has studied Sanger’s life and writings extensively. She presented a workshop about Sanger’s life about her during the National Right to Life Convention last week in Herndon, Virginia. Franks explained how Sanger’s eugenic goals to “weed out” the “unfit” continue in America today through the abortion industry.

Sanger died in 1966, seven years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on abortion in Roe v. Wade. Franks said Sanger was not heavily involved in the 1960s-era push to legalize abortion, but her work certainly influenced the pro-abortion movement.

Throughout her life, Sanger advocated for birth control and sterilization in ways that devalued certain groups of human beings, Franks explained. Like many eugenicists of her time, she basically reduced people to their genetic makeup, lumping people into “good genes” and “bad genes” groups, Franks continued. It’s something the abortion industry still does today, though in a less obvious way, when it fights laws that protect unborn babies with disabilities from abortion.

Sanger and other eugenicists used terms like “breeding” to demean certain groups of human beings, lowering them to the status of animals, Franks said. She referred to something Sanger wrote in 1921 as evidence of this: “Possibly drastic and spartan methods may be forced upon society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupidly cruel sentimentalism.”

The term “sentimentalism” that Sanger used referred to charity for the poor, something Sanger believed just perpetuated the “bad genes,” Franks said. Essentially, Sanger’s idea is to let them die out, she continued. In one of Sanger’s books, the Planned Parenthood foundress described charity as cruel because it encourages poor, “unfit” people to have more children, Franks explained.

Sanger was a negative eugenicist, meaning that she wanted fewer children from the “unfit” — the poor and the physically and cognitively disabled, Franks said. Positive eugenicists encouraged the “fit” – people graduating from ivy league colleges and those in high society – to have more children, but Sanger didn’t agree with this either, Franks added. “Sanger had no desire to encourage anybody to have children,” Franks said.

Control, not choice, was Sanger’s key word when it came to matters of reproduction, she said. Franks said Sanger believed that some of the “unfit” should be forced to not reproduce. Sanger wrote in “The Pivot of Civilization” that the government should “attempt to restrain, either by force or by persuasion, the moron and the imbecile from producing his large family of feeble-minded offspring.”

Sanger supported the U.S. government when it began coerced and forced sterilization programs – a black mark on our nation’s history, Franks said. Sanger even suggested that the government offer “bonus or yearly pension to all obviously unfit parents who allow themselves to be sterilized” – a form of coercion, Franks pointed out. “You’re offering them a year’s salary to be sterilized? That’s coercion,” Franks said.

Sanger’s goal, like many eugenicists, was to “weed out the unfit,” she said. She pointed to one particularly dehumanizing piece of Sanger’s writing from 1925: “… Their lives are hopeless repetitions. All that they have said has been said before; all that they have done has been done better before. Such human weeds clog up the path, drain up the energies and the resources of this little earth. We must clear the way for a better world; we must cultivate our garden.”

The eugenics movement largely died out after Americans began learning of its influence on the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1940s; but eugenic ideals, or lack thereof, live on today in Sanger’s Planned Parenthood, Franks said.

Today, Sanger’s “eugenic legacy shows itself in who Planned Parenthood ‘serves,’” Franks said.
She said poor and minority women are the abortion giant’s top clients, and pointed to data showing that African American women poll more pro-life than white women but are five times more likely to have abortions. More than 16 million black babies have been aborted since 1973, she said.

In total, Planned Parenthood aborts more than 320,000 unborn babies a year. Franks said Sanger succeeded where many other eugenicists of her time failed – in founding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

#1657 (7/22) Boko Haram Burn Alive Christians!; Muslims Coming To Faith in Saudi Arabia!

"THESE CHRISTIANS WERE BURNED ALIVE FOR THEIR FAITH" - CBN News,07-07-2016;

http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2016/july/these-christians-were-burned-alive-for-their-faith?cpid=EU_CBNNEWS [AS I SEE IT: The next time you are sitting in a worship service, imagine what it would be like to have terrorists break into the sanctuary and begin burning alive anyone who doesn't deny their faith. Knowing that millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ face this kind of horror should make us grateful for our religious freedom and cause us to regularly PRAY for our fellow believers. And while we will probably not face such horror ourselves, let us be wary of the eroding of our religious freedom here in America. - Stan]

A Christian father and his young daughter were burned alive after Boko Haram raided their church.

"On the fateful day, while we were in the church praying, they stormed and ordered us to renounce our Christian faith or be killed," said John Mbah, recounting the day his father and sister were murdered at the hands of the Islamic terror group.

When Mbah and the other Christians living in Dadawa, Nigeria went to church that day in April, they had no idea they would become the targets of radical Islamic terrorists. Mbah watched his father, Pastor Kenneth Mbah, sister, Adaugo Mbah, and countless other parishioners be burned alive when they refused to renounce their faith in Christ and convert to Islam. "As my father was about to beg them to allow him to be with his faith, they set him ablaze with the fuel they were carrying and when my sister, Adaugo Kenneth, rushed to him to stop the inferno, they poured fuel on her too," he told NTA News.

Mbah's only choice was to run for his life or he too would become a martyr. "Because their attention was on the fire, my elder brother, Nnamdi Kenneth and I sneaked into the inner apartment and as they were ordering us to come out, we knew it was our turn to be killed, so we escaped through the window," he recalls. "As we were running in different directions, I heard my father and sister crying in pain but I had no option than to save my life first." Mbah's fled to another province in Nigeria and is working to bring justice for his family and fellow Christians. "The sect vowed to kill us if they ever see us again," he says. "I am calling on the federal government to please come to my aid."

Mbah's story is not the first of its kind. Earlier this year the jihadists burned children alive as part of an assault that killed 86 people in northeastern Nigeria.

It is another example of the horrors that the Islamic terror group Boko Haram is committing in Africa. The group has been a growing threat since its birth in 2009, and has a death count even greater than that of ISIS.

Human rights groups like Open Doors are working tirelessly to bring security and relief to Nigeria's persecuted Christians. 

SAUDI ARABIA: MUSLIMS CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY DESPITE PERSECUTION - Intercessors for America, On Watch in Washington, July 6, 2016;
http://www.getamericapraying.com/blog/on-watch-in-washington-july-6-2016/#CONVERTING
[NOTE: There are many stories of Muslims in Saudi Arabia - as well as throughout the Middle East - receiving dreams and visions that point them to Jesus and have resulted in many leaving Islam. PRAY that the Holy Spirit will move powerfully throughout the region in causing millions to turn to Jesus as well as strengthening believers in their faith.]

Although Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Muslim country that is hostile to Christians, many in the country are converting to Christianity and receiving support for their faith online.

According to ChristianToday.com, there are about 1.4 million Christians living in Saudi Arabia. Although this is only 4.4 percent of the country’s total population, it is up from only 0.1 percent just over 100 years ago.

Islam is the official state religion and those who reject it–whether Christians, atheists, or those of any other religion–are often severely persecuted. In fact, Saudi Arabia ranks fourteenth on persecution charity Open Doors’s World Watch List of countries where Christians face the worst persecution. In addition, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom states that Saudi Arabia “remains uniquely repressive in the extent to which it restricts the public expression of any religion other than Islam.”

Despite these barriers to faith, the numbers of those choosing to put their faith in Christ are increasing. Some Christian converts such as Mohammed (whose name has been changed for security reasons), learned about Christ from Open Doors’s online discipleship course. He professed faith in Christ, was baptized, and now is strengthened in his faith through online resources. Others have stories similar to Mohammed’s.

Human rights groups are pressuring the U.S. and the U.K. to confront Saudi Arabia about its restrictive religious freedom. (Contributor: Veronica Neffinger  for Christian Headlines)

Here is a praise report! It will encourage intercessors to know that prayers for a lost world are always in order and that God’s mercy is being extended in parts of the world where traditional missionary work is not possible. God will have a redeemed remnant from “every tribe and nation,” including the Muslim world, where Jesus Christ is revealing Himself and God’s love prevails. Give thanks!

“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” (Revelation 5:9 KJV)

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis in both stories above are mine]

#1656 (7/21) "The Republican and Democratic Platforms: No Comparisons"

"THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC  PLATFORMS: NO COMPARISONS" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, July 19, 2016; https://www.frcaction.org/get.cfm?i=WA16G22&f=WU16G06 [AS I SEE IT: The party platform is what all Republicans and Democrats in all races nationwide stand on/for. Whatever you think of the individual candidates, these are the moral principles each promotes. Let this guide you in who you vote for this November. - Stan]

Talk about night and day! It’s difficult to overstate just how fundamentally different the Republican and Democratic Party Platforms are from each other. For starters, there’s the fact that the GOP openly televises their platform drafting process on C-SPAN for all to see, while the Democrats do their drafting behind closed doors—fitting for a party led by a president whose “administration is one of the most secretive” in history.

On issue after issue, the Republican Platform is the one that possesses a moral ethic guided by an acknowledgment of a higher power and authority, which undergirds the framework of the document as a whole. This is clearly stated in the platform’s Preamble, which quotes the Declaration of Independence: “All are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Yesterday, at the Republican National Convention, the party ratified the 2016 Republican Platform that included numerous victories for social conservatives to stand strong on life, marriage, and religious liberty. The Democrat Platform, which is pending final approval, has swung even farther to the extreme left on numerous issues. Here are some of the differences.

On the Redefinition of Marriage
     Republicans condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell, and affirm marriage as the union of one man and one woman as the “cornerstone” of society which states have a right to recognize as such, and declares that “every child deserves a married mom and dad.” The Democrats celebrate “that recognized LGBT people…have the right to marry the person they love.”

On Abortion, Taxpayer Funding, and Religious Freedom
     For the first time in history, the Democrats and their presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton have called for overturning the Hyde and Helms Amendments and call for federal taxpayers to fund abortion on demand at home, and even abroad. The Republicans “call for codification of the Hyde Amendment and its application across the government, including Obamacare.”
     In addition, the Democrats' radical push for abortion coverage makes no exception even for religious organizations or conscience protections for doctors or nurses who object to abortion, and they insist on the repeal of the Mexico City policy to fund abortions in other nations. The Republicans insist on protecting “the rights of conscience of healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and organizations, especially the faith-based groups” and restoring the Mexico City policy.

On Planned Parenthood and the Selling of Baby Body Parts
     The Democrats support Planned Parenthood by name. The Republicans, for the first time, call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood for committing abortions, selling baby parts, and deceiving women with faulty consent forms. They call on Congress to enact a ban on any sale of fetal body parts.

On Religious Freedom on Marriage
     The Democrats call for federal civil rights protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, which would force religious businesses to acknowledge gay “weddings.” The Republicans twice call for the passage of the First Amendment Defense Act and sides with the rights of florists, bakers and especially adoption agencies who disagree with same-sex marriage.

On Sex Education
     The Republicans call for increasing “sexual risk avoidance education” to promote abstinence from sex until marriage, while the Democrats want to promote “comprehensive sex ed” which encourages contraception use and risky sexual behavior for young children.

On Transgender Bathrooms
     Democrats pledged to “improve school climates” to advance gay and transgender rights. Republicans called out the Obama administration’s Title IX bathroom edict, which “impose[s] a social and cultural revolution upon the American people by wrongly redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation or other categories” as “at once illegal, dangerous, and ignor[ing] privacy issues.”

On Terrorism
     In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, the Democrats singled out the LGBT community: “Democrats believe that LGBT rights are human rights and that American foreign policy should advance the ability of all persons to live with dignity, security, and respect regardless of who they are or who they love.” The Republicans named the enemy, “radical Islam” and condemned its attacks on all people: “Radical Islamic terrorism poses an existential threat to personal freedom and peace around the world. We oppose its brutal assault on all human beings, all of whom have inherent dignity. The Republican Party stands united with all victims of terrorism …”

On Social Engineering in the Military
      The Democrats cheer the “repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the inclusion of transgenders in the military, while the GOP insists “We reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation… Military readiness should not be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.”

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

#1655 (7/20) "Sometimes A Question is Better than an Answer - WINSOME CONVERSATIONS ABOUT TOUGH TOPICS"

"Sometimes A Question is Better than an Answer - WINSOME CONVERSATIONS ABOUT TOUGH TOPICS" - By: John Stonestreet |Breakpoint.org: May 17, 2016; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/29295
Ever left speechless on these tough conversations about social issues? Ever think afterwards, why didn’t I say that? Well, here are six questions for your conversational toolkit.

Last week, at a gathering of strategists on some tough cultural issues, a very good point was made: Sometimes the right question at the right time is the best way to have a conversation with someone with whom you fundamentally disagree.

I couldn’t agree more, especially when the topic is something like same-sex marriage, religious freedom, or bathrooms at Target—when you know that to have an opinion counter to the new cultural orthodoxy is to be thought of as hateful or intolerant.

Our temptation is to think, “Oh, they won’t listen.” Maybe they won’t, but I think more times than we think, we can have conversations that are actual conversations. Sometimes we’re afraid we won’t know enough. Maybe that’s true, but in addition to basic knowledge, there are also skills for having these conversations that we can all acquire.

And one of these skills is being a good question asker. The power of asking questions is seen clearly in the two greatest educators of all time: Socrates and Jesus. Both men were master teachers. Both men knew most (and in the case of Jesus, all) the answers. Both men had a unique ability to lead others to those answers. And both men were great questioners.

Here are six questions I’ve found extremely helpful to create the sort of dialogue we should desire about issues of faith and culture.

First, What do you mean by that? The battle of ideas is always the battle over the definition of words. Thus, it’s vital in any conversation to clarify the terms being used. For example, the most important thing to clarify about whether same-sex marriage should be legal is the definition of marriage. So when the topic comes up, ask, “Hold on, before we go too far into what kind of unions should be considered marriage, what do you mean by marriage?” Often, when it comes to these crucial issues, we’re using the same vocabulary as those with whom we disagree, but not the same dictionary.

Here’s a second question: How do you know that is true? Too often, assertions are mistaken for arguments. There’s a vast difference between the two. An assertion is a definitive statement made about the nature of reality. An argument is presented to back up an assertion. By asking “how do you know that’s true?” you’ll move the conversation beyond two people merely asserting what they believe to why those assertions should be taken seriously.

For example, it’s still repeated that 10% of any population is gay or lesbian, and that there’s a gay teen suicide epidemic. The first stat is based on the flawed research of Alfred Kinsey, and the second has been deeply challenged by a pro-gay researcher.

Here’s a third question is Where did you get this information? Once arguments are offered, it’s important to ensure the arguments are valid. For example, news reports love to shout that same-sex parents are better parents than straight couples—a talking point that’s based on very limited studies, while other studies suggest the exact opposite.

The fourth question: How did you come to this conclusion? Behind the person you are talking with and his/her convictions, is a story, a personal story. If you know that story, it may make more sense why they don’t find your views plausible. Plus, it’ll help you remember the person you’re talking with is a real, image-of-God bearing person.

The final two questions: What if you’re wrong? and What if you’re right? Ideas have consequences that are always worth considering. For example, with so little evidence, what if it’s wrong that kids just need loving parents, not a mom and a dad? That’s a big risk to play with the next generation.

Of course, if we’re asking for reasons, so will our conversation partners. And at BreakPoint.org, we’ve got a list of resources on these topics to help.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES - Why not start a conversation--with your co-worker, neighbor, friend or family member--and use the six questions John suggests? The resources linked below offer direction and encouragement as you engage in dialog with others on real-life issues.

Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God's Design for Marriage - Sean McDowell, John Stonestreet | Baker Books | July 2014

What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense - Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, Robert P. George | Encounter Books | December 2012

"Responding to the LGBT Movement's Southern Strategy: Truth with Grace"- John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | December 17, 2014;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/26576

Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationship Beyond an Age of Individualism - Dale Kuehne, Jean-Bethke Elshtain | Baker Academic | July 2009

Loving My (LGBT) Neighbor: Being Friends in Grace and Truth- Glenn Stanton | Moody Publishers | October 2014

The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Fully Updated to Answer the Questions Challenging Christians Today - Josh McDowell | Thomas Nelson Publishers | October 1999

Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity - Gregory A. Boyd, Edward K. Boyd | David C. Cook Publishers | June 2008

Real Answers for Tough Questions with John Stonestreet, CD- John Stonestreet | The Colson Center

Tough Questions about God, Faith, and Life- Chuck Colson | Tyndale Publishers

Critical Conversations: A Christian Parents' Guide to Discussing Homosexuality with Teens - Tom Gilson | Kregel Publications | February 2016

#1654 (7/19) "Guns or Canes? - CHINA’S SELF-INFLICTED WOUND"

"Guns or Canes? - CHINA’S SELF-INFLICTED WOUND" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: July 5, 2016; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/28425 [NOTE: As noted at the end of this article, the demographic crisis of an aging population also faces the U.S., and many other Western democracies in the near future.]

Healthy economies need young workers. And thanks to its one-child policy, China is facing a less-than-rosy economic future. Here's a lesson in demographics and worldview.

It’s widely believed that China will supplant the United States as the leading power in the world by no later than the mid-21st century. Not only will China’s Gross Domestic Product exceed that of the United States, it may climb two or even three times as high.

But an increasing number of experts have begun to doubt that China’s GDP will ever even match ours. And the dream of restoring “the global centrality that Chinese consider their birthright” will remain just that, a dream. There’s a reason for the doubt: There are simply not enough Chinese.

The idea would strike most people as ridiculous. They’d say China has too many people, not too few. With a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, Chin is home to one-fifth of all the people on planet Earth. But that huge number obscures the country’s looming demographic crisis. That crisis is the subject of an article in the June Atlantic Monthly entitled “China’s Twilight Years.” In it, Howard W. French, the author of two books on China, tells readers that “In the years ahead . . . [China] will transition from having a relatively youthful population, and an abundant workforce, to a population with far fewer people in their productive prime.”

Today, China has slightly less than five workers for every retiree, a ratio French calls “highly desirable.” However, by 2040, the ratio is estimated to be 1.6-to-1. Folks, that is a staggering change.

The demographic downturn is already having an impact in some unexpected places. Last year, China announced it was reducing its armed forces by 300,000 men. While the official spin was that it was part of its “peaceful intentions,” the more “compelling explanation” was demographic: “With the number of working-age Chinese men already declining . . . labor is in short supply.”

As French puts it, “The consequences [of this demographic downturn] for China’s finances are profound.”  The downturn is already becoming a “drag on economic growth,” and what it portends for China’s future is really scary: by 2050, the number of Chinese over 65 is projected to rise to nearly 330 million from 100 million in 2005.

This will leave China with a choice, in the words of Mark L. Haas of Duquesne University, between “guns and canes.” In other words, it can only pursue global centrality at the cost of ignoring its rapidly aging population or vice-versa. It will have to choose between avoiding social unrest at home or pursuing global influence.

This unenviable choice is a self-inflected wound. I’m referring, of course, to China’s infamous “one-child policy.” Nicholas Kristof, writing in the New York Review of Books, said that “Perhaps no government policy anywhere in the world affected more people in a more intimate and brutal way than China’s one-child policy.”

Which is now, of course, a “two-child policy,” a policy that is scarcely better. Because, folks, it’s a worldview problem. As John Stonestreet has said before on BreakPoint, “Christianity sees children as gifts of God:  the natural, desirable result of the loving, lifelong commitment and physical union of husband and wife. The secular and certainly communist worldviews see children as commodities: subject either to parents’ desires and ‘lifestyle choices’ or to a government’s economic and political goals.”

We in the West are not immune. John went on to warn that Western “cultural values are leading to our own similar, though personally chosen, ‘one-child policies’ and demographic decline.”

In the end, China will get old before it enjoys the widespread prosperity and the global leadership it considers its birthright. And that is because it has spurned birth in the first place.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES - Check out the links below for further information on the unintended consequences of China's one-child policy, and how it has affected, and will affect, the nation and its future.
"China’s Twilight Years" - Howard W. French | The Atlantic | June 2016; http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/chinas-twilight-years/480768/
"‘China’s Worst Policy Mistake’?" - Nicolas Kristof | New York Review of Books | April 7, 2016; http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/04/07/chinas-worst-policy-mistake/
"China's Two-Child Policy: New Number, Same Disaster" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | November 9, 2015; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/28425

#1653 (7/18) "The Attempted Coup Reveals Turkey’s Instability. That’s Bad News for the US."

"THE ATTEMPTED COUP REVEALS TURKEY'S INSTABILTY. THAT'S BAD FOR THE U.S." - Luke Coffey / July 17, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/17/the-attempted-coup-reveals-turkeys-instability-thats-bad-news-for-the-us/ [NOTE: Some are speculating that this coup attempt was so poorly planned that President Erdogan may have staged it as a basis for further expanding his growing power and desires to turn the country into a totalitarian, possibly another Islamic state. Such a development, others are saying, may be part of fulfilling Biblical prophecy where Israel's enemies eventually rally together to attack Israel (Ezek. 38-39).]

Mourners carry the body of Mehmet Agabey, who was killed in a thwarted coup, during a memorial service at Kirazlitepe Omer Orhan Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters/Newscom)

An attempted military coup in NATO member Turkey was foiled over the weekend. At the time of writing, at least 265 people have been killed and another 1,400 wounded. Thousands of judges have been dismissed or arrested. Tanks shelled the parliament in Ankara and at one point President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to address the nation using FaceTime. After finally landing at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, a serious, if not slightly shaken, Erdogan declared on national TV: “This uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our army.” He isn’t wasting any time. Since those words were uttered thousands of military personnel have been arrested, including several senior generals.

This weekend’s coup was the fourth since 1960 (the fifth if you count the so-called “post-modern coup” in 1997). In each previous case the military had been successful and democracy was returned to the people.

The Turkish military considers itself to be the guardian of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s (the founder of the Republic of Turkey) legacy of a Turkey based on secularism and Western orientation. Consequently, military coups have been a peculiar feature of the Turkish Republic when the country strays from these founding principles.

It is still not clear what motivated the coup plotters, but some reasonable assumptions can be made.
     It’s only logical that many in the military are increasingly worried that Erdogan has embraced a more conservative brand of Islam at the expense of state secularism. Recent crackdowns on press freedom by the government have not gone unnoticed either.
     Erdogan has also been accused of flirting with Sunni Islamists for too long in Syria. The increase in Islamic State terror attacks across Turkey, and the seemingly reluctance of Erdogan to respond in a meaningful way, could have played a role in driving the coup.
     The recent rapprochement with Russia could have tipped the military over the edge. It has been reported that the Turkish fighter pilot who shot down the Russian jet after illegally entering Turkey’s airspace last year was a participant in the coup.

In many ways this coup was doomed to fail from the beginning. It was a nameless coup with no public leader or mandate. Instead of protecting the citizens and the country’s democratic institutions, the coup plotters attacked civilians and shelled the parliament building. No major military base came under the full control of the plotters and no senior leader of the government was captured. There was no reason for the average Turk to get behind such shambles, and unsurprisingly very few did.

Paradoxically, the coup demonstrated how resilient democracy is in Turkey, at least for now. Like him or not, Erdogan is a democratically elected leader. All the major political parties, including the opposition, signed a joint letter condemning the attempted coup. Many Turks who protested in Istanbul’s Gezi Park in 2013 against Erdogan’s rule were there this weekend protesting against the coup plotters trying to overthrow Erdogan.

Under Erdogan, Turkey has been a contentious partner for the U.S., but it remains an important ally and NATO member. It is in America’s interests for Turkey to remain stable and become a productive leader in the region and beyond.

The fact that an attempted coup took place shows that Turkey is anything but stable. Instead of being a leader in the region, Erdogan will focus a lot of resources and energy at home bringing the plotters to justice. This invites Russia and ISIS, for example, to take advantage of the situation. This would be bad for Turkey and the U.S.

The coup might not have lasted long, but the fallout will be felt for years. Erdogan will use the coup to consolidate even more power. The political landscape in Turkey will be fundamentally changed. But if Erdogan responds to the coup by completely abandoning Turkey’s democratic principles, he will be planting the seed for the next coup.

The choices Erdogan makes now will impact Turkey for a generation.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Luke Coffey oversees research on nations stretching from South America to the Middle East as director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Read his research.

#1652 (7/17) SUNDAY SPECIAL: ""Russell Moore to Justice Conference: Don’t be Silent on Unborn, Sexuality, and Hell"

"RUSSELL MOORE TO JUSTICE  CONFERENCE: DON'T BE SILENT ON UNBORN, SEXUALITY, AND HELL" - by Chelsen Vicari, June 5, 2016; https://juicyecumenism.com/2016/06/05/russell-moore-justice-conference-dont-silent-unborn-sexuality-hell/ [AS I SEE IT: As one who is passionate on the issue of  the sanctity of human life, I applaud Dr. Moore speaking out as he did to those who tend to shy away from the subject these days. But I am also pleased to read that he mentioned the subject of Hell. I've just been reading a book that points out that Hell is one of the least discussed subjects even in evangelical churches today. And yet, when most of the 150,000 people who die each day are destined to go there, it is a subject no Christian should avoid any more than Jesus did - and He spoke about it more often than He did Heaven. HE knew it was important to talk  about and so should we. (BTW, when was the last time you heard the word mentioned in a sermon? I don't recall when I last heard it in my almost 43 years as a Christian. Tragically, we hear it more in a secular context and yet Hell is a so very spiritual subject. - Stan] 

You might say a Baptist dropped a bomb on the Justice Conference in Chicago on June 4. The annual gathering of young evangelicals is described as “one of the largest international gatherings on social and biblical justice” and is a project of World Relief. The Justice Conference customarily invites members of the Christian Left to Champion issues related to social justice. For example, last year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Cornel West, liberal political activist and Union Theological Seminary professor. So it’s a bit surprising that this year, wedged on the schedule between Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, was Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

During his twenty-eight minute discussion, Moore boldly laid out what it looks like to be a Gospel-centered social justice warrior. He tackled issues ranging from racial injustice, human trafficking, and refugees. But it was his mention of the sanctity of unborn life, sexual ethics, and the reality of Hell that had some in the room squirming uncomfortably in their seats.

Too often, Moore said, Christians are tempted to solely focus on the social issues that their peers or “tribe” approve. “When I’m speaking to people in my tribe of conservative confessional evangelicalism,” explained Moore, “I often have to say you are pro-life, and rightly so, but because you recognize the image of God and the humanity of God in the unborn child and in his or her mother, you must also recognize the humanity and dignity of God in people who might not be politically popular with you right now: with prisoners, with refugees, with immigrants. And that works the other way too.”

The bulk of Moore’s discussion urged his audience to recognize the dehumanizing of the unborn as equally unjust as the dehumanizing of other vulnerable groups more popular among younger Christians. “There are other justice-oriented Evangelicals who sometimes are very willing to speak out, rightly so on these issues of trafficking and racial injustice, but who are afraid to speak up on the issue of abortion…”

“If we are unwilling to speak to what is happening not only in our country but around the world with the dehumanizing of children because they are hidden with the wounding that takes place with women and men and societies by an industry that promises people an easy fix,” said Moore. “Then we will empower injustice and we will also signal to the rest of the world if you can just get the oppressed small enough and hidden enough and politically powerless enough, we will have nothing to say.

Moore’s comments were indeed a change in tone for the Justice Conference. Last year, evil was discussed largely in terms of white supremacy. But Moore pointed out that evil also looks like America’s abortion giant, Planned Parenthood. He encouraged his young listeners “to be the people to stand up to Planned Parenthood and say there are no unloved women and there are no unwanted children” and to recognize women in crisis are being sold “a violent so-called solution to their problem and they’re being told that all of this will happen in anonymity and with no consequences as an industry works to create both a supply and demand for this violent act.”

Apart from the sanctity of life, Moore briefly touched on Christian sexual ethics. He noted some Evangelicals are “afraid to speak up on a biblical view of issues of human sexuality because they’re afraid that somehow that means they will be associated with people in polyester somewhere that they don’t want to be like. How cowardly.”

After this particular comment came an audible “wow” from somewhere on the other side of the sanctuary.  Among the chatty youth group I had been sitting among all morning, there was a moment of shocked silence. Then came snarky murmurs soon afterwards. 

Undeterred by my youth group friends’ murmurs, Moore continued, “If we are silent about what the Scriptures and 2,000 years of Church history has taught us about human sexuality and what it means to be right with God and what it means for children to grow up with both a mother and a father, if we are silent at any of those points then we’re really not the justice people, we’re really not Gospel people. We’re just people who are protecting our platforms and we’re just choosing on which one to stand.”

Next, Moore stressed that faithful Christians cannot neglect the reality of Hell. “There is a great valley that separates the just from the unjust and the basis for that separation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said. “We cannot be people who are concerned about Justice if we are embarrassed about the doctrine of Hell. If you are embarrassed about the doctrine of Hell because it reminds you of some uneducated backwoods preacher in your town, what you’re embarrassed of is not him. What you’re embarrassed about is Jesus Himself…”

In conclusion, Moore urged the young Christians to see the humanity “in those powerless faces are on the other side of prison bars, or on the other side of a refugee camp, or on the other side of the sonogram” and not be embarrassed by the totality of the Gospel, because after all, he said, “What we have to give is the Good News.”

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]