Rick Warren: Opinion changes, but truth doesn’t.
Piers Morgan: We’ll have to disagree about that.
Mr. Morgan views both the U. S. Constitution and the Bible as flawed and in need of amending.
Neither the Framers nor the participants of the Synod of Hippo Regius were available for comment.
,כִּי-יֶלֶד יֻלַּד-לָנוּ, בֵּן נִתַּן-לָנוּ, וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְׂרָה
,עַל-שִׁכְמוֹ; וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ פֶּלֶא יוֹעֵץ, אֵל גִּבּוֹר, אֲבִי-עַד
.שַׂר-שָׁלוֹםFor unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
—Isaiah 9:6
The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgment and profession of the truth by each one of us.
—Leo Tolstoy
Lo maggior don che Dio per sua larghezza
fesse creando, e a la sua bontate
più conformato, e quel ch’e’ più apprezza,
fu de la volontà la libertate;
di che le creature intelligenti,
e tutte e sole, fuore e son dotate.
The greatest gift that God in His bounty
made in creation, and the most conformable to His goodness,
and that which He prizes the most,
was the freedom of will,
with which the creatures with intelligence,
they all and they alone, were and are endowed.
—Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto V, lines 19 … 24
Mark Singer quotes The Dread Pirate Kimberlin describing his religious beliefs on pages 35 and 36 of Citizen K.
Until the children hit adolescence, Carolyn often took them to Sunday services at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Brett was confirmed there, along with his brothers and sister, but he had no faith.
Brett: “I was the only one who wouldn’t pray. Mom used to tell me to wear a suit and tie to church. I said, ‘Mom, if there’s a God, he doesn’t care what I’m wearing.’ I went to Sunday School and learned the Lord’s Prayer and stuff, but I felt totally alienated from this fraud. From the age of six, I didn’t buy into it at all. No brainwashing this boy. I have a very open mind. For instance, I wouldn’t say that I believe in psychic phenomena. But I believe in the possibility of psychic phenomena. Just as I don’t close my mind to the possibility of some universal force. There are obviously things that we still don’t know about, but all this organized religion I just don’t buy at all. I don’t like any kind of groups. A lot of people got into meditation for religious reasons. The reason I liked transcendental meditation was because there was no religion involved. There were no other rules.”
Yeah, no rules to be subject to.
The Gentle Reader who is familiar with Genesis 3 will remember the lie that Satan told Eve, “… and you will be like God …”
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
—Colossians 3:15
All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
—Daniel Defoe
You will certainly not doubt the necessity of studying astronomy and physics, if you are desirous of comprehending the relation between the world and Providence as it is in reality, and not according to imagination.
—Maimonides
There’s good, there’s evil, and then there’s wickedness. Much of the time that we wind up doing evil, it’s because we are acting thoughtlessly. But there are times when someone exercises a freewill choice to do what he knows is wrong. That is wickedness.
One of the differences between Brett Kimberlin and me is our religious beliefs. He has said that he is an atheist. I’m a Christian. From my point of view, he has fallen for the lie that Genesis 3 records Satan telling: You can be like God. And if you’re like God, you can make your own rules. Self gratification is OK.
I, on the other hand, believe that it is better to exercise my freewill under God’s constraints and guidance. That leads to a freewill choice to love, love in the sense of the Greek word agape, a love that puts another’s welfare ahead of my own. Do I do a good job of that? No, not on my own. God’s help is necessary.
We all come equipped with a conscience, but with enough wicked choices it is possible to sear one’s conscience. Perhaps that is what has happened to Brett Kimberlin. Perhaps he can no longer tell good from evil.
The eminent theologian Bob Dylan put it this way: You Gotta Serve Somebody. I believe that Mr. Kimberlin and I are ultimately on opposite teams. He has the right to his choices in so far as they don’t injure others, but when they do, the good guys have the obligation to protect themselves and others. Whether using Tovex or lawfare, Brett Kimberlin has caused suffering for those who did not deserve it.
It’s time for that wickedness to be brought to justice.
If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
—Augustine of Hippo
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
—C. S. Lewis
In an earlier episode of our series, we saw that TDPK seems to have a special sensitivity for the feelings of Muslims who have been hurt by depictions of their Prophet. Indeed, in his most recent court filing TDPK asserts that the whole brouhaha between him and Aaron Walker relates to disrespectful treatment of Mohammed in pictures posted on one of Mr. Walker’s websites.
<mockery>One of the claims that TDPK has made all along is that he has been concerned that Mr. Walker would be the victim of violence at the hands of Islamic extremists. As a result of that fear, he needed to out the Aaron Worthing nom de cyber. Clearly, TDPK has been taking lesson from the same strategist who had to burn villages in order to save them.
If it were honest, TDPK’s concern for Mr. Walker’s safety would be touching.
What would make more sense would be for TDPK to be concerned for his own safety should he fall into the hands of those same Islamic extremists. TDPK is an avowed atheist, and avowing atheism is consider telling a lie about Allah by the Koran. Furthermore, sura 4:89 says:
They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah’s way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.
TDPK may be even less wise in his selection of friends than in his selection of enemies.</mockery>
In any case, TDPK is no friend of the First Amendment, and it will not be long before he will be held accountable for his behavior in court. Discovery is due in the Virginia Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. case this Friday.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
—C. S. Lewis
Elizabeth Warren has demonstrated her faulty scholarship once again in her speech at the Democratics’ national convention. Apparently, her scholarship as a Sunday School teacher was no better than her legal scholarship. She cited Matthew 25 as teaching about God within us. No, Ms. Warren, that’s not what that text is about.
Matthew 25 is a part of Jesus’ teaching in Jerusalem in the days immediately before the Crucifixion. It deals with what most would call the Second Coming. It begins with the Parables of the 10 Virgins and and the Parable of the Talents. It concludes with the Separation of the Sheep from the Goats. It’s that last section that contains the passage Ms Warren quoted.
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Jesus teaches us in this passage to be involved with helping the folks who are in distress. There are those who believe that the government is the best avenue to deliver such help. I don’t in most cases, but it’s a plausible argument.
Still, the text doesn’t say what Ms. Warren tried to read into it.
Roger Kimball posts to remind us of something Barack Obama said in a 2004 interview in the Chicago Sun-Times:
Falsani: Do you believe in sin?
Obama: Yes.
Falsani: What is sin?
Obama: Being out of alignment with my values.
Gasp.
It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
—Mark Twain
There’s nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, “If you believe in Me, you ain’t going to have no troubles.”
—Ray Charles
And then there is the Tenth Commandment. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” The Ten Commandments are God’s basic rules about how we should live — a brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts.
The first nine Commandments concern theological principles and social law. But then, right at the end, is “Don’t envy your buddy’s cow.” How did that make the top ten? What’s it doing there? Why would God, with just ten things to tell Moses, choose as one of those things jealousy about the starter mansion with in-ground pool next door?
Yet think how important the Tenth Commandment is to a community, to a nation, indeed to a presidential election. If you want a mule, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don’t be a jerk and whine about what the people across the street have — go get your own.
The Tenth Commandment sends a message to all the jerks who want redistribution of wealth, higher taxes, more government programs, more government regulation, more government, less free enterprise, and less freedom. And the message is clear and concise: Go to hell.
—P. J. O’Rourke
The following is from Article VI of the U. S. Constitution:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
You know that the left is beginning to panic when they start in on Mitt Romney’s religion in August. (H/T, @DaTechGuyblog) The panic should intensify when the public ignores the “issue.”
Stacy McCain has a post on L. Ron Hubbard’s “religion.”
Harlan Ellison had this to say about Scientology:
Scientology is bullshit! Man, I was there the night L. Ron Hubbard invented it, for Christ’s sakes! … We were sitting around one night… who else was there? Alfred Bester, and Cyril Kornbluth, and Lester del Rey, and Ron Hubbard, who was making a penny a word, and had been for years. And he said “This bullshit’s got to stop!” He says, “I gotta get money.” He says, “I want to get rich”. And somebody said, “why don’t you invent a new religion? They’re always big.” We were clowning! You know, “Become Elmer Gantry! You’ll make a fortune!” He says, “I’m going to do it.”
… I do not think it means what you think it means.
Actually, we’re dealing with a phrase: Social Justice. Paul Lemmen has a first-rate post over at his blog explaining how that phrase has been twisted to con the public. Go read his post, and then come back to finish this one.
Go ahead. I’ll wait …
OK, here’s one of the money quotes from Mr. Lemmen’s piece:
“Social Justice” is designed and intended to remove your individual rights in return for collective slavery to an elite class of arbiters, or commissars, if you will.
Even though the con tries to get you to believe that it has some foundation in righteous behavior, it’s aim is enslavement. Contrast this with one of the bedrock concepts of Judaeo-Christian culture, the Ten Commandments. They begin:
I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
God is a God of freedom, not of slavery. He is also a God of justice, and He desires that his people use their freedom to chose to behave justly. Reading the words of the prophet Amos can give us some insight on what “social justice” should mean.
You who turn justice to wormwood,
and cast down righteousness to the earth …
They hate him who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
Therefore, because you trample on the poor,
and take taxes from him of wheat …
For I know how many your offenses,
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the just,
who take a bribe,
and who turn aside the needy in the courts.But let justice roll on like rivers,
and righteousness like a mighty stream.
—Amos 5
No human society has been perfect in meeting God’s desires for justice, but some have certainly done better than others. Of course, America can improve. But as we look around the world, we can see some systems that have chronically failed at social justice. No one, for example, has braved shark-infested waters on a raft to escape from Florida to Cuba.
Work for justice, but don’t be conned.
Harry Reid is a member of the LDS Church, and he’s not the only such Democrat in Congress. An attack on the religious beliefs key supports share with an opponent will be a sure sign of desperation.
UPDATE–For the record others are Sen. Tom Udall (NM), Rep. Jim Matheson (Idaho), and Del. Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa).
The rumor mill is starting to grind out a meme of a September attack on Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs. Given the way the Obama campaign has behaved to date, that makes sense. It’s also a massively dumb idea.
Don’t you think that Mitt Romney is expecting such an attack and is prepared for it? Mormon missionaries often run into folks like me who not only don’t believe their religion but also actively argue with them. Mr. Romney has not only served his two years as a missionary, he has served as a church leader supporting an mentoring missionaries. You can bet that he’s heard all the questions that will be asked and that he has what he feels is a reasonable defense of his beliefs.
Attacking Catholics and other religious believers over their beliefs on abortion hasn’t helped the Obama reelection campaign. It may have energized some of his base, but it hasn’t brought other voters into his fold. An attack on another religious group may serve to paint the President as an enemy of religious folks, and that could be very costly on Election Day.
OTOH, the President may feel the secular humanist vote is slipping away as well.
Is it November yet?
We deny our Lord whenever, like Demas, we through love of this present world forsake the course of duty which Christ has plainly pointed out to us.
—Reginald Heber
I am not a member of the LDS Church. In fact, I sincerely believe that Mormonism is at best heretical. However, I have had friends and coworkers who were Mormons, and I have found them, as a group, to be generally honest, trustworthy, down-to-earth people. While Mitt Romney and I have deeply different religious beliefs, I suspect that our divergent beliefs still lead us to the same point of view about how one should go about day-to-day living.
Mormons tithe. That means that rich Mormons give substantial sums of money to the LDS Church. As Stacy McCain notes, public release of the Romney tax returns would show how much he has given–at that could be used an excuse for the MSM to “take a closer look” at Mormonism. Of course, they would find practices and beliefs that are very different from orthodox Christianity allowing them to characterize Mitt Romney as, as, as, well as a Mormon.
Yeah, and the point would be? We know that already.
We also know that Mitt Romney is charitable, a lot more charitable than any recent Democrat candidate for President. It’s up to him whether he wants to keep things private. After all, Jesus said that we’re not supposed to brag about our good works. On the other hand, Jesus also said not to hide our light under a basket, but to let our good works be seen for God’s glory.
However he decides, I suspect that Mitt Romney will remember these words from Hymn #30:
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
UPDATE–Bob Belvedere chimes in here. He notes that tithing isn’t an especially odd religious practice. Indeed, it goes back to Abraham paying a tithe (Genesis 14:20).
