Culture, Current Events, History, Law and Faith, Politics, Science

Obama’s Legacy: Promoting a Culture of Death

Ryan T. Anderson:

President Obama today [March 9th, 2009] fulfilled his campaign promise to lift federal-funding restrictions on research involving the destruction of human embryos. He couldn’t have done so at a more inappropriate time, for just last week scientists made headlines again announcing yet another breakthrough in what is known as “induced pluripotent stem-cell” technology. Following up on the initial breakthrough in November 2007 that allowed scientists to produce the biological equivalent of embryonic stem cells without creating, using, or destroying any human embryos, scientists have continued to refine their methods. Last week’s announcement was the latest in a long string of developments. If Obama truly wants to find honorable compromises that the entire nation can accept in good conscience and even endorse, he should be promoting these alternative sources.

During the ceremony this morning, Obama announced that by signing this executive order “we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research.” Of course there never was a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. President Bush was, in fact, the first president in history to fund embryonic stem cell research. The compromise Bush reached, however, put restrictions in place that prevented the further destruction of human embryos. It is these restrictions protecting human life that Obama has lifted.

[HT: James Grant]

Culture, Culture News, Current Events, Denominations, History, Statistics

Culture News: Churches blame empty pews on fewer babies

Church Pews Not Full

From the Tennessean.com:

That’s what almost every major Christian denomination in the United States has in common — from Southern Baptists to Missouri Synod Lutherans.

In fact, 21 of the 25 largest groups in the United States reported a decline or flat line in membership last year, according to the 2009 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches. In most cases, the so-called birth dearth is the reason.

Carl Royster, a Church of Christ statistician, says that churches are seeing the aftereffects of the baby boom.

For example, in the mid-20th century, conservative groups like the Southern Baptists and Church of Christ saw their membership spike. “You had humongous growth in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s,” Royster said. “Now, the baby boomers are beginning to die off.”

Those boomers had fewer kids than their parents, leaving fewer descendants to replace them in the pews.

Royster said that he’s not panicking about the church decline. But he’s worried about the future.

“The sky is not falling yet,” he said. “But in a few years, it might be.”

Paul Prill, professor of communication at Lipscomb University and the part-time preacher at Acklen Avenue Church of Christ, says the congregation once averaged about 120 but fell to 50 when kids in the church grew up and moved away and older members became too frail to attend.

In recent years, young married couples settling in the area have begun returning, at a trickle’s pace, bringing the congregation back to about 80 members.

But it’s a slow process, Prill said.

“It’s hard to reach people who are in their 20s and are not going to church,” he said.

[HT: Ed Stetzer]

Culture, False Religion, History, Islam

Have Muslims Already Won Europe?

Paul Belien’s article answers “yes.” Here is a quote from the article that James Grant pointed me to:

The native Dutch are moving out. Since 2004, more indigenous Dutchmen have emigrated each year than immigrants have moved in. People who have lost faith in God do not fight. They run. Since they do not believe in life after death, this life is the only thing they have to lose. One emigrant Dutchman, a homosexual author who lives in Brussels, writes: “I am not a warrior. I do not fight for freedom. I am only good at enjoying it.” This mentality has affected the whole of Western Europe. A young German woman recently said that it is “better to let yourself be raped than risk injuries while resisting, better to avoid fighting than risk death.” Europe has chosen the path of submission. Islamization is not the cause but the consequence of the collapse of Europe. The very word Islam means “submission.” Many Europeans have submitted already. In that sense, they have already become Muslims.

Culture, Culture News, Current Events, History, Politics

How to Stimulate the Economy: Let the Elderly Die

Well, in typical Western Socialist footsteps, the new “economic” stimulus bill being passed through the Senate and back to the House has added a “wonderful” step toward universal health care (i.e. – selective population control). Here is an article by Betsy McCaughey on Bloomberg.com explaining what has been added to the stimulus bill over the weekend:

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

….

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

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Culture, Politics, Videos

Inconvenient Debt or Destroying Our Children’s Future?

I urge you to pass along this video to all your friends and family. Glen Beck is right about this… it is immoral for our government to do this and worst of all, it’s going to affect, not just us, but our children and our children’s children for many years to come. Remember this video from the 2008 election races? Watch it again and then watch the Glen Beck video below. This is a sad time for America.

Culture News, Current Events, Islam

Muslim Population in the UK Rising 10x Faster than the Rest

David Wood says,

If anyone was worried about the recent violent protests by Muslims in the UK, imagine what things will be like ten or twenty years from now. According to recent statistics, the Muslim population in the UK is growing ten times faster than the rest of society.

  • The Muslim population in Britain has grown by more than 500,000 to 2.4 million in just four years, according to official research collated for The Times.
  • The population multiplied 10 times faster than the rest of society, the research by the Office for National Statistics reveals. In the same period the number of Christians in the country fell by more than 2 million. READ MORE.
Culture News, Current Events, Humanism, Politics

Obama Nominee: Childbirth Worse Than Abortion

President Barack Obama has come under fire for pro-abortion nominations for various positions and now he is drawing heat for nominating a pro-abortion Deputy Attorney General. His nominee David Ogden, is drawing criticism for authoring a Supreme Court brief dismissing negative effects from an abortion.

During the campaign, Obama came under heavy criticism for a comment saying he did not want his daughters punished with a pregnancy — intimating that abortion would be the preferred course of action.

Now, Obama has appointed a top Justice Department official who appears to feel the same way.

Millions of women deal with a multitude of problems following an abortion, ranging from medical issues to mental health consequences.

But, in legal papers filed during the consideration of a 1992 Supreme Court case, Ogen claimed women don’t deal with negative experiences resulting from an abortion.

Ogden wrote and filed an amicus brief on behalf of the American Psychological Association for the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

In it, Ogden argued, “Abortion rarely causes or exacerbates psychological or emotional problems. When women do experience regret, depression, or guilt, such feelings are mild and diminish rapidly without adversely affecting general functioning.”

“The few women who do experience negative psychological responses after abortion appear to be those with preexisting emotional problems,” Ogden claimed.

“In sum, it is grossly misleading to tell a woman that abortion imposes possible detrimental psychological effects when the risks are negligible in most cases,” Ogden claimed.

[Continue…]

Apologetics, Eschatology, Law and Faith, Mp3s, New Testament Theology, Politics, Reforming, Systematic Theology, Theology

N.T. Wright and the Problem of Hell

The more one listens to N.T. Wright give lectures on the topic of his new book and his strong desire to see the world put to rights by God in Jesus, the more you notice that even though much of what he says is true… he’s leaving one important topic out on purpose! In Wright’s recent Harvard lectures, found here, Bishop Wright clearly avoids talking about the topic of hell for a more positive picture of God putting the world to rights and bringing about justice through the work of Christians (along and others) in the here and now. [NOTE: I encourage everyone to listen to these free lectures in mp3 and consider the good things Bishop Wright has to say, but I want to point out that everyone needs to listen with discernment and not embrace all of Wright’s narrative.]

To be honest, this is probably the most disturbing item of disagreement that I have with the British New Testament scholar. I’m very concerned that his lecturing is going to help many people become more universalistic in their thinking and less explicit about worshipping Jesus as the one and only Saviour and Lord. Now, Bishop Wright always tells people that he is the world’s one, true Lord and Saviour, but that still does not help it when people in a postmodern culture reinterpret things so easily!

But the point of this post was to point out some good comments from another Christian pastor and writer, Doug Wilson. I encourage you to read his post here and consider what he has to say about N.T. Wright and others who seemingly marginalize the doctrine of Hell away to nothing. Below is an excerpt:

N.T. Wright at Harvard

In his otherwise admirable book on evil, N.T. Wright makes the drastic mistake of leaving the subject of Hell entirely alone. But no matter how many helpful things you say, if you leave the really huge question out, then all you are really displaying is a real loss of proportion. “Well, other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”

The questions that swirl around the issues of violence, pacifism, and the redistribution of mammon are all questions that tend to be summed up by those advocating their causes under this rubric as questions of “justice.” “No justice, no peace” the bumpersticker puts it. This is particularly the bent of the Christian left — the Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, Greg Boyd contingent. This is the myopic view of the Obama evangelicals, all singing that blues standard, “Lie to me!”

And they persist in acting as though you can define justice by taking an evangelical Christian and making him watch CNN for long enough. And lest anybody misunderstand me, I am not saying this because I think we ought to be learning from Fox News instead. No. We are to define justice exegetically (what does justice mean throughout the pages of Scripture?) and theologically (what are the ultimate displays of God’s justice?). We have done quite a bit of the former, and it is time for us to consider the latter.

[Continue Reading…]

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."

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