Now I'm a Little Freaked Out
Here is a story (or you can just go the video
here) about all these celebrities making promises to be better people now that Barack Obama is President. They list the changes they want to make, ranging from working with UNICEF to smiling more to driving a more fuel-economic car to being more green to freeing 1 million people from slavery in the next 5 years, and so on.
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher pledge to be servants to our president. Another says he pledges to be of service to Barack Obama.
The celebrities together say "Because together we can, together we are, and together we will be the change that we seek". They also challenge the viewer, "What's Your Pledge?"
This stuff seems benign on the surface, but underneath there are some really disturbing things that (should) make you go "hmmm". One is that, as a YouTube viewer pointed out, no political figure should be given this much devotion. He's a sinful, fallen man like the rest of us. Yes, he has the potential to do a great job as President, but he's still just a man. We don't owe this kind of allegiance, this pledge of service to anyone except God. Had we been born in a monarchy, even our service to the king would have been secondary to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another is that the celebrities seem to expect that just because they have made these pledges, we all should too. Why? Because they're the celebrities and we're just peons? Because we should all be this trusting and optimistic about Barack Obama's leadership, one day into office? Because anyone who was anyone should have voted for Obama, and now that he's in office we just need to jump on the politically correct bandwagon?
The third disturbing thing is, as the WND article points out, why did all these people wait until now to make these pledges to be better? Why not last week, or last month?
The final point I'm going to make is that it's great to try and be a better person, as long as we realize that we are not the ones who define good and evil. A truly better person would recognize that God has authority over all. He is the Creator, we are the creatures. Sometimes our promises to be better turn out to be self-righteous assertions of our goodness, when we need to humbly realize that, as Jesus said, "No one is good - except God alone" (Mark 10:18).
The President's Secret
Here is a story about something that President Bush has done over the course of his tenure in the White House: he's written personal letters to the families of every soldier that has died in the War on Terror. Not for publicity, not for a photo-op, not for the pollsters, but just because he believed it was his duty.
This President has probably been the target of the most vicious, most calumnious, most vitriolic, hateful speech in American history. It is disgraceful. And it says a lot about our society's lack of respect for those in authority, even when we vehemently disagree on some things. Say what you want about his policies, but hating the man himself is just wrong.
Persecution in India
Here is a whole page of links describing different persecution topics in just the state of Orissa, India. Many Hindus there have launched numerous attacks on Christians. This shows us one thing loud and clear:
Christianity must be making some inroads into that area. The Hindus, especially the Brahmins, have a vested social and economic interest in keeping the caste system alive and well, but Christianity tells the truth about the caste system - that it's a big fat lie and we're all equal before God. And, the devil always responds with violence when his kingdom is being threatened. See the book of Acts.
Pray for our brothers and sisters in India.
Our New Game Relationality
Well, for those of you who know us, you probably know that we created a board game. It has finally come out. If you are interested, you can order it
here or to the right in the links section. Please pray that the Lord will use it for His purposes, to help people make better relationships decisions. Pray that He will enable us to get it into public schools (it is research-based and not a Christian game, although research is in accord with God's principles) and that it will really change some relationships in the US. Thanks!
Persecution in the Western World
We cannot expect the West (Europe & N. America) to always be free from persecution of Christians, and I mean serious persecution not name calling. Why do I say something as "pessimistic" as that? Because that's what Jesus taught:
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.Matthew 24:9
In my Bible I don't have a little asterisk next to the phrase "all nations," indicating that America is an exception.
Here are two stories about persecution of a
church in Lansing, Mich., and
a missionary in Vancouver B.C.Note that the church responded with prayer and a reminder that its mission is to love people and proclaim the Bible. The missionary is in the hospital and presumably hasn't had a chance to make a statement. That is how we must respond - with love. That's why we need to be walking with the Lord every day, because naturally speaking, that love isn't going to come from us.
Voting Correctly
Here's how to vote on Tuesday, or technically, here's what to do before you vote:
Do research.
Take a look at what the voting records of the candidates involved of every office you vote for, if possible.
Do not project your wishes and hopes onto a candidate. In other words, vote for who the candidate is, not who you want him or her to be. Look at the hard truth about the candidates. It's kind of like dating when you realize, I need to look at who the person really is and ask myself, can I live with that?
Repeat that last step again.
Pray.
Vote. If you get to vote at our church's polling place, you are a lucky person. They have free food!
"Expelled" and the right to be outraged
Have you seen the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" yet? It's a fantastic presentation of how the evolutionist scientific "establishment" has treated the Intelligent Design arguments. Five stars, highly recommended.
Here is an article about how some of the atheists, including Richard Dawkins, a very vocal presenter of atheism ("The God Delusion" is one of his recent works), were upset at the movie. They felt the filmmakers had deceived them because the original title of the film was different; they believed that the premise or focus of the movie was misrepresented and thus, they, the evolutionists, were asked to be interviewed under false pretenses.
I don't know if Ben Stein's film company misrepresented anything to the evolutionists; I hope not. However, my question to the evolutionists is this: if we are all evolved from a single celled organism in the distant past, and there is no Creator or God outside of the system, from Whom we get our sense of morality, then this universe (closed system) is all we have, and science is the only true realm of knowledge. How, then, can you justify being outraged? To be outraged, you must examine what has been done to you (the observable action) and compare it with an invisible standard of
what should have been done to you.
The question is, where did you get this invisible standard? How can you define what should have been done to you? Where, scientifically, does this come from? How can you hypothesize about it, test it, measure it, and repeat it? If you only have non-directed evolution to explain your existence, your brainwaves, your thoughts, then do you really have a right to claim that a
moral injustice has been perpetrated by Ben Stein's filmmakers? Where'd you get your moral standard on which to base your claim?
If atheistic evolution is true, then all's fair in love, war and the evolutionary process -meaning the totality of life on this planet. Thus, if Ben Stein & his crew deceived the atheists, they had every right (according to atheistic evolution) to do so. Perhaps that's just part of the next stage in human evolution - deceiving others for profit or other motive. Who are the complaining atheists to stand in the way of evolutionary progress - even if that progress involves lying to the atheists?
The fact is, the atheists don't have a leg to stand on. To affirm atheistic evolution, they must deny the existence of an overall, intangible (or "spiritual") standard of morality, apart from the evolutionary process. (And if morality is just a part of the evolutionary process, then we should actually celebrate deviations from that morality, because deviations, in the form of mutations, are the way that evolution moves forward). Yet to justify feeling outraged, they must accept an overarching moral standard which should apply equally to them and to Ben Stein, and claim that Stein violated that standard by deceiving them.
In short, they're in a philosophical mess. And that's the point of the movie.
