Bill Whittle for President

Americans United for Separation of Church and State Proposal

Americans United for Separation of Church and State should be given a city of "refuge" where they can make all their own laws and see how long they last.

One of the requirements we must insist upon is that no law that they impose on themselves can have any seminal reference or origin in religion. Thus, killing will be allowed freely in such an Americans United for Separation of Church and State city, because "Thou Shall Not Kill" has its origins in religion. Also, thievery, adultery, envy, immorality of all kinds, telling lies, etc. will all be legalized. Why? Because they must remove all artifacts of religious morality from their society.

My prediction is that they will kill themselves within a year or die of disease.

Oh, yes. Neither can these cities of "refuge" take advantage of any advancements in science, because the scientific method came out of the assumptions of religion that the universe is orderly and predictable via a benevolent mechanism to favor human life. That is the basis of the scientific method.  Science's foundation is in religious faith that the universe is orderly and kind.

Then, with AU (and other such groups) out of the way by their own choice, we can introduce God back into public life and begin once again to embrace what is Good, True, and Beautiful—all of which has it's source in our Creator.

Gun Control vs. Abortion Control

Search "gun control" and "abortion" on-line and you'll be "treated" with a host of posts and challenging questions about why liberals support gun control (because guns kills dozens in horrific massacres like Sandy Hook), but are all for abortion (which kills millions of boys and girls whose whole life is before them).  If you think logically and humbly about this, the offensive folks from Westboro Baptist may be on to something. But then the Catholic Church has been onto this for some time... like centuries. Here are some quotes from Pope Benedict XVI's World Day of Peace Message for 2013 delivered December 14, 2012.

Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness.

The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.

Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offense against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.

"Wisdom From Above" Gets a Proofing - Thanks, Mary!

Mary Lyle Proof "Wisdom From Above"

While EWTN reviews Wisdom From Above for its theology, we're busy back in S.E. Michigan going through technical reviews and proofing the 13 Episodes, and writing the Study Guide. Next step is to make the 100+ little fixes. We should be done with everything but the fixes before Christmas. My thanks to Mary (Freeman) Lyle who has volunteered her time to come and sit at my computer to proof all the on-screen text, and then take the Study Guide on her Christmas break and proof it as well. She's been showing up at 7 AM on Saturdays (!!!! Yes, I fix her omelets and ham). She's good. I've watched these episodes a dozen times already, and she finds multiple typos in every lesson. When Mary was in college she interned at my production company years ago. Then after a stint of teaching in CA she moved back to MI and lived with us for 3 years renting a room, while she substitute taught, and looked for a full time job. Then she met Randy Lyle, got married, and moved out. They adopted two great kids from Russia, and live near by so now and then between her teaching assignments she finds time to help me run conferences, and proof stuff. Many, many thanks, Mary. God bless you!

School Killings - Where is God?

Where is God?

No one should be surprised by events like today's horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The country's pubic school system has been telling God, faith, and the moral values promoted by religion (particularly Catholicism) that they have no place in public education. So, guess what?

Why are we surprised that children kill their parents and other children? It must be okay, since we have legalized the killing of children in the womb. In so doing we have told children they are not important.  They are raised without religious faith, moral values, nor an understanding of eternal consequences. We have told God to get lost. So he has, leaving us wandering. Now, we are lost.
Evil steps in.

Romans 1: 18-29

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. 

Expect more of this.

Superman Trailer - Christ Myth Revisited

There have been many mythical references to Superman (the comic book hero of my childhood) with Jesus Christ.  (I'm here using "myth" in the Tolkien sense that myths are stories that tell us something important and true about reality. Myths are designed not to be true in an explicit sense, but to be true in a moral and psychological sense.)

Watch the trailer for the new Superman movie MAN OF STEEL to come out this next summer. The lines that stick out which relates to Christ are toward the end. See if you catch the mythic sense of Superman as it applies to Christ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6atne6y2phI

The Virtue of Perseverance - John Milton

Milton Dictates Lost Paradise

Today, the birthday of John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674), Garrison Keillor posted what's indented below, on his blog, The Writer's Almanac. What captured my imagination was the underlined portion, which reminds me that I have not yet faced a true test of perseverance, although I think it my strongest virtue. If you've never held a copy of Paradise Lost in your hand, I'll tell you that it's over 10,000 lines of free verse and approximately 96,000 words white Paradise Regained is much, much shorter. That is sheer hard labor with a word processor, but of course Milton had but a quil in the hands of a friend or daughter.

Today is the birthday of John Milton... Though he wanted to be a poet, he spent most of his life working as a political pamphleteer, calling for freedom to divorce and freedom of the press. He wrote, among other things, "Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye." He also spoke out against the king during England's civil war, which was fine as long as the king was deposed and Oliver Cromwell was leading the Commonwealth. But eventually, the monarchy was restored and Milton, who by this time had severe glaucoma, became a public enemy. His pamphlets were burned, and people said God had smote him with blindness for his treason against the Crown.

Newly unemployed, Milton returned to poetry. He composed the verses in his head, reciting them over and over until he found someone — friends, family, or hired help — who could write them down. And in this way, he wrote an English epic poem in blank verse: Paradise Lost (1667), which was originally called Adam Unparadised. It's about the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, and their fall from the earthly paradise of the Garden of Eden. Milton published a sequel four years later; it's called Paradise Regained (1671), and it's about the temptation of Christ.

Why Atheists Hate Christmas

I've said this before, but Doug Giles has said it better. Below are excerpts to his post The Real Root of Atheists' Anti-Christmas Rage.  The link takes you to the full article.

Why do some atheists embarrass themselves year after year trying to eradicate Christmas from American culture? Why do they make themselves societal hemorrhoids during this hallowed season?

...they hate God and love their sin, and bringing up Jesus in December is not the way they wanted to finish off the year. Indeed, Christ really rains on their parade … and they love their parade.

Christmas, (is)... about mankind’s sin problem and what God did to remedy it by sending His Son.

The core cause that necessitated Jesus’ incarnation was our jacked up carnality. Yep, Hambone, it was our sin. There, I said it. Sin. Yours, mine and ours.

Transgression was the reason for the season.

This is not good news to some, though. Indeed, many atheists are up front about it and don’t want to leave their wantonness. As Jesus Himself said, they prefer darkness to light and don’t like to be reminded of their personal accountability for their sin—and thus their need for salvation—and therefore we should not expect them to be stoked about Jesus’ birthday party.

This brings to mind Romans 1:24-32 and the political situation in the U.S. right now where so many people (even Catholics and other Christians) voted for a party that endorses the murder of millions of babies every year, gay marriage, and a frontal attack on religious liberty, moral obedience to God, even to the point of not wanting even the mention of God in their platform. But most people thought all of that was okay, for a variety of other reasons. Romans 1 reminds us of the consequences:

Therefore God has handed them over to the impurity through the lust of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies....and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips and scandalmongers and they hate God. ....They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

And the consequences will be felt by all. Some will continue to blame Bush, and never see the wickedness that has brought condemnation to our nation.  We will be judged. Especially those Christians that know better but voted for such wickedness, pretending they were voting for the poor. Right! Food stamps are always better than a paycheck.