I usually don't post about things overseas, but I think cases like this set precidents (in the minds of our Supreme Court justices). I think we need to be aware of these things. This story is from OneNewsNow.
Lord Chief Justice Nicholas Phillips' endorsement has already created a huge controversy across Britain. In a speech at an East London mosque, he said that Islamic legal principles could be employed to deal with family and marital arguments and to regulate finance. Phillip's recommendations came just five months after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams suggested that Islamic law could govern marital law, financial transactions, and arbitration in disputes.
Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, says the problem with Sharia law is that there is always more Sharia to accommodate. "Once they get into the idea that Sharia is legitimate in terms of family law, then it's going to be hard to draw a line because family law in Sharia and Islamic law infringes upon many other things," he continues.
According to Spencer, Sharia law allows women to be treated like commodities. "Apparently that is just fine by the Chief Justice of Great Britain," he comments. "He doesn't seem to realize just how much women are devalued in Islamic Sharia law -- even the ostensibly benign version of Sharia law that he thinks he would be instituting," Spencer notes. "[O]bviously this is a man who doesn't know what Sharia is really all about."
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Dr. Kevorkian Running for Congress
My brother just sent me an e-mail to this link. According to the article,
Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian plans to run for Congress, complicating a Michigan race that is expected to be among the most competitive in the nation.
The so-called "Dr. Death," who was released from prison last year and remains on parole, will run as a candidate with no party affiliation for a congressional seat representing Detroit's suburbs, an associate said.
Kevorkian, 79, claims to have helped at least 130 people die from 1990 until 1998 _ the year he was charged in the death of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian has promised not to help in any other assisted suicides and could go back to prison if he did.
He was released from prison in June 2007 after serving the minimum of his 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in Youk's death. He spent eight years and 2 1/2 months behind bars after earning time off for good behavior.
Good grief!
Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian plans to run for Congress, complicating a Michigan race that is expected to be among the most competitive in the nation.
The so-called "Dr. Death," who was released from prison last year and remains on parole, will run as a candidate with no party affiliation for a congressional seat representing Detroit's suburbs, an associate said.
Kevorkian, 79, claims to have helped at least 130 people die from 1990 until 1998 _ the year he was charged in the death of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian has promised not to help in any other assisted suicides and could go back to prison if he did.
He was released from prison in June 2007 after serving the minimum of his 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in Youk's death. He spent eight years and 2 1/2 months behind bars after earning time off for good behavior.
Good grief!
So I Finally Saw Bella
I finally saw Bella. I checked it out from the library and watched it while my kids took a nap. I really enjoyed it, but I need someone to explain one series of scenes to me.
In the middle of the movie, there is a series of scenes where Nina and Jose are in a waiting room. He whispers something in her ear. She goes in with the nurse. She is laying on a table. Jose is praying. She comes out crying and gives him a hug.
I am usually good at following flashbacks/flash forwards. This time I didn't get exactly what happened.
In the middle of the movie, there is a series of scenes where Nina and Jose are in a waiting room. He whispers something in her ear. She goes in with the nurse. She is laying on a table. Jose is praying. She comes out crying and gives him a hug.
I am usually good at following flashbacks/flash forwards. This time I didn't get exactly what happened.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Children Need Male and Female Parents
It is a sad time we live in when this needs to be pointed out. There is an excellent blog post by Dr. Tracye Hansen that highlights children's need for male and female parents. Here are a couple of quotes:
Men and women bring diversity to parenting; each makes unique contributions to the rearing of children that can’t be replicated by the other. Mothers and fathers simply are not interchangeable. Two women can both be good mothers, but neither can be a good father.
A father teaches a boy how to properly channel his aggressive and sexual drives. A mother can’t show a son how to control his impulses because she’s not a man and doesn’t have the same urges as one. A father also commands a form of respect from a boy that a mother doesn’t––a respect more likely to keep the boy in line. And those are the two primary reasons why boys without fathers are more likely to become delinquent and end up incarcerated.
Father-need is also built into the psyche of girls. There are times in a girl’s life when only a father will do. For instance, a father offers a daughter a safe, non-sexual place to experience her first male-female relationship and have her femininity affirmed. When a girl doesn’t have a father to fill that role she’s more likely to become promiscuous in a misguided attempt to satisfy her inborn hunger for male attention and validation.
Men and women bring diversity to parenting; each makes unique contributions to the rearing of children that can’t be replicated by the other. Mothers and fathers simply are not interchangeable. Two women can both be good mothers, but neither can be a good father.
A father teaches a boy how to properly channel his aggressive and sexual drives. A mother can’t show a son how to control his impulses because she’s not a man and doesn’t have the same urges as one. A father also commands a form of respect from a boy that a mother doesn’t––a respect more likely to keep the boy in line. And those are the two primary reasons why boys without fathers are more likely to become delinquent and end up incarcerated.
Father-need is also built into the psyche of girls. There are times in a girl’s life when only a father will do. For instance, a father offers a daughter a safe, non-sexual place to experience her first male-female relationship and have her femininity affirmed. When a girl doesn’t have a father to fill that role she’s more likely to become promiscuous in a misguided attempt to satisfy her inborn hunger for male attention and validation.
Monday, July 7, 2008
The Depth of Lies
“We must face the reality that every person will leave his or her education and enter adulthood with a worldview. This worldview will be either man-centered or God-centered.” - Glen Shultz, Kingdom Education, p. 49
“There is something dreadfully wrong when the church, without compulsion, pushes its children into the arms of a secular state to be nurtured, discipled, and trained.” - Bradley Heath, Millstones & Stumbling Blocks, p. 62
These are two quotes from EducationConversation. They got me thinking; I don't think that most parents are aware of the depth of lies that are taught in government schools. They think to themselves, "A little evolution and gay marriage should be easy to counter. We talk about that at home." Folks, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Here is list going slightly further down the iceberg. The lies are everywhere in every discipline.
1. Truth is illusive and ephemeral. Very few things (if anything) can be known with absolute certainty. The main exception to this is evolution.
2. Man is basically good and perfectable. You will be happier and healthier if you follow your natural desires.
3. God (if he/she exists at all) is something to be kept in a box and used only privately at home or in church. He/she should never be brought into the public sector.
4. As a young person, you have virtually no self-control. Trying to gain any is largely pointless until you are an adult.
5. Anything traditional should be looked at as suspect, especially when dealing with sex, gender, and marriage.
6. There are no Christian roots to America.
7. History says whatever we want it to say regardless of actual facts.
8. All religions are equally good and are part of cultural awareness (as opposed to spiritual awareness).
“There is something dreadfully wrong when the church, without compulsion, pushes its children into the arms of a secular state to be nurtured, discipled, and trained.” - Bradley Heath, Millstones & Stumbling Blocks, p. 62
These are two quotes from EducationConversation. They got me thinking; I don't think that most parents are aware of the depth of lies that are taught in government schools. They think to themselves, "A little evolution and gay marriage should be easy to counter. We talk about that at home." Folks, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Here is list going slightly further down the iceberg. The lies are everywhere in every discipline.
1. Truth is illusive and ephemeral. Very few things (if anything) can be known with absolute certainty. The main exception to this is evolution.
2. Man is basically good and perfectable. You will be happier and healthier if you follow your natural desires.
3. God (if he/she exists at all) is something to be kept in a box and used only privately at home or in church. He/she should never be brought into the public sector.
4. As a young person, you have virtually no self-control. Trying to gain any is largely pointless until you are an adult.
5. Anything traditional should be looked at as suspect, especially when dealing with sex, gender, and marriage.
6. There are no Christian roots to America.
7. History says whatever we want it to say regardless of actual facts.
8. All religions are equally good and are part of cultural awareness (as opposed to spiritual awareness).
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Random News from Around the Net
The modesty movement is growing among American teens. Read the story here.
The New York Times, says that Europe "lowest low" birth rate will likely be a problem economically, socially, and various other ways.
For information on the Obama sponsored global income redistribution bill, go to American Thinker. Are you ready for the UN to be in charge of where your taxes go?
Gary Bauer at Politico asks, "Can gay marriage save the GOP again?"
Brian Lilley at Mercator asks, "Who needs a family when you've got a government?"
In Sweden, a boy didn't invite all of his classmates. For this reason, his invitations were confiscated and he was reported to the Swedish Parliment for violating the other children's rights. Read the story at BBC.
Major hat tip to LifeSiteNews.com for all of these tidbits.
The New York Times, says that Europe "lowest low" birth rate will likely be a problem economically, socially, and various other ways.
For information on the Obama sponsored global income redistribution bill, go to American Thinker. Are you ready for the UN to be in charge of where your taxes go?
Gary Bauer at Politico asks, "Can gay marriage save the GOP again?"
Brian Lilley at Mercator asks, "Who needs a family when you've got a government?"
In Sweden, a boy didn't invite all of his classmates. For this reason, his invitations were confiscated and he was reported to the Swedish Parliment for violating the other children's rights. Read the story at BBC.
Major hat tip to LifeSiteNews.com for all of these tidbits.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy Independence Day!
I didn't realize until going through the Truth Project the depth of our Christian roots in the country. So in honor of tomorrow being July 4th I am posting a list of quotes from some of the founding fathers. May they remind us of the great Christian legacy that has been handed to us and embolden us to speak the truth in love about the roots of this country. (I got these quotes from Wallbuilders. If you want the sources, etc., click here.)
[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. -John Adams
[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. -Samuel Adams
[T]he primary objects of government are the peace, order, and prosperity of society. . . . To the promotion of these objects, particularly in a republican government, good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals are therefore objects of legislative provision and support: and among these . . . religious institutions are eminently useful and important. . . . [T]he legislature, charged with the great interests of the community, may, and ought to countenance, aid and protect religious institutions—institutions wisely calculated to direct men to the performance of all the duties arising from their connection with each other, and to prevent or repress those evils which flow from unrestrained passion. -Cheif-Justice Oliver Elsworth
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. - Benjamin Franklin
[P]ublic utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience. -James McHenry
To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them. -Jedidiah Morse
No free government now exists in the world, unless where Christianity is acknowledged, and is the religion of the country. -Pennsylvania Supreme Court 1824
We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism. -Benjamin Rush
Indeed, the right of a society or government to [participate] in matters of religion will hardly be contested by any persons who believe that piety, religion, and morality are intimately connected with the well being of the state and indispensable to the administrations of civil justice. The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion—the being, and attributes, and providence of one Almighty God; the responsibility to Him for all our actions, founded upon moral accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues—these never can be a matter of indifference in any well-ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how any civilized society can well exist without them. -Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. -George Washington
[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. -Daniel Webster
Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet. -Robert Winthrop
[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. -John Adams
[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. -Samuel Adams
[T]he primary objects of government are the peace, order, and prosperity of society. . . . To the promotion of these objects, particularly in a republican government, good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals are therefore objects of legislative provision and support: and among these . . . religious institutions are eminently useful and important. . . . [T]he legislature, charged with the great interests of the community, may, and ought to countenance, aid and protect religious institutions—institutions wisely calculated to direct men to the performance of all the duties arising from their connection with each other, and to prevent or repress those evils which flow from unrestrained passion. -Cheif-Justice Oliver Elsworth
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. - Benjamin Franklin
[P]ublic utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience. -James McHenry
To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them. -Jedidiah Morse
No free government now exists in the world, unless where Christianity is acknowledged, and is the religion of the country. -Pennsylvania Supreme Court 1824
We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism. -Benjamin Rush
Indeed, the right of a society or government to [participate] in matters of religion will hardly be contested by any persons who believe that piety, religion, and morality are intimately connected with the well being of the state and indispensable to the administrations of civil justice. The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion—the being, and attributes, and providence of one Almighty God; the responsibility to Him for all our actions, founded upon moral accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues—these never can be a matter of indifference in any well-ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how any civilized society can well exist without them. -Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. -George Washington
[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. -Daniel Webster
Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet. -Robert Winthrop
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)