Atheist Atrocities
Atheists and secularists love to trot out the canard that religion has harmed more people than it has helped, and has been at the root of many or most world concflicts. However, in Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history, Dinesh D’Souza,Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, argues that actually, atheism is responsible for more murders in history. His points are summarized below. Read more
Persecution update
I’m working on a post about the possible political shift of Evangelicals and the latest Pew Research findings about the changing religious landscape of America. Those are two huge topics and two areas that interests me greatly. Because of the breadth and depth of those issues (and my crazy work schedule right now), it may take me awhile to get something up on those. Hopefully I can get to them before they are no longer newsworthy.
Another area that always grabs my attention is the persecuted church. Too often it goes unnoticed by American Christians more concerned about the inconvenience of rainy weather or expensive coffee, but around the world followers of Christ are routinely persecuted to the point of death. Their situation concerns me, while their faith inspires me. Perhaps you will be motived to pray for them and learn from them along with me.
Islam’s Worst Nightmare – Not America, but Christian China
D. James Kennedy died today at age 76, and what a significant and great evangelical leader he was. Among his latest and greatest contributions, beyond highlighting the Darwin/Nazism link, is raising our awareness of the Back to Jerusalem movement.
In one of his latest broadcasts, he discussed how Chinese Christians are training and planning to release over 100,000 missionaries to the Muslim world. Chinese seminaries are teaching their missionary students Arabic and Farsi. And while Muslim countries “lock the front door facing the West,” they are “leaving the back door wide open.” In fact, in the next 25 years, some estimate over 400M Christians in China, many of whom will push the gospel across the middle east.
The shifting of Christianity’s center
As America is following Europe down the gradual path of secularization, Christianity is not slowing down but merely shifting where it is centered. The next great "Christian nation" will be China.
What is “family balancing”?
What do you do if your children are all of the same gender (e.g. female) and you want one of the other gender (e.g. male)? What you are seeking to do is called "family balancing." You could use a "natural" method, which includes adjusting your diet, monitoring vaginal temperature, secretions, and the calendar for correct timing of intercourse, and special vaginal douches to adjust the pH. Or you could use more advanced technologies. But do these technologies, or even sex selection itself, pose ethical and moral dilemmas?
Churches shouldn’t change
In her book Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey writes that churches that change are churches that decline.
Forced abortion in China (NPR)
Feminists, and humans of good will, it is time to do something about the cruelty and human rights abuses in China. China’s repressive one-child policy has long been known to lead to female infanticide and sex-selection abortion. A very moving and horrific report on Forced Abortions in China on NPR this morning will leave you stupefied. Here’s the face of a woman who was forced to abort at 7 months pregnancy. I can not imagine her pain.
“The doctor said it was a boy. My friends who were beside me said the baby’s body was completely black. I felt desolate, so I didn’t look up to see the baby.”
The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression
James Mann has authored a book entitled The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression, in which he examines our foreign policy towards China, and what it could or should be. BTW, I don’t think he’s a conservative, noting his previous book Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet.
You can hear him talk about the subject at the University Channel Podcast. In the talk, he discusses three possible scenarios for China’s future, given our current approach, which is to FAIL to demand human rights reforms, hoping economic trade will change China. He mentions that this approach to Russia really didn’t work, and today they are just as oppressive as before.
- Soothing – Human rights improvements will come according to our current policy, buoyed by economic prosperity
- Upheaval – something’s gonna blow – banking system problems, labor strikes (See The Coming Collapse of China as an example of this argument)
- WYSIWYG – nothing will change in government, even if economics have changed (Mann thinks this is the most probable outcome)
How the UN Human Rights Council has Failed It’s Mission
First, the Executive Director of UN Watch castigates the council for being blatantly anti-Israel while being silent on the Islamic violence in over 100 countries.
Burma seeks to “destroy the Christian religion”
The military dictatorship in Burma wants "Christians to be wiped out" from the predominantly Buddhist nation.
GATTACA Comes to Life in PGD
Today, we can screen unborn fetuses for abnormalities. Currently, up to 90% of Down’s Syndrome fetuses are currently aborted before birth, and a recent report from Britain shows that parents are now even aborting for such treatable maladies as club foot and cleft palate.
But now, we can choose BEFORE implantation – designer babies are a reality. How is the "design" done? As in the recent case of a British woman, "fertility engineers" screened fertilized embryos for the right genetic combo needed to provide bone marrow for her existing son who has a blood disorder.
The Five Spheres of Government
The following essay on government is from an out of print Christian newspaper, but I believe it has been updated and documented in Liberating the Nations by Mark Beliles, et al. I want to post this short section of the essay, since it is a great primer on a biblical view of government. This essay was originally written as a response to a letter from a young Chinese Christian, so you will notice some references to China and Chairman Mao, etc.
God has broken down human existence into five basic areas or spheres of government, which make it much easier to comprehend. These five spheres of government are: (1) self government, (2) family government, (3) church government, (4) business government, and (5) civil government.
All human activity falls under the jurisdiction or guidelines of one of these five spheres. The Bible outlines very definite instructions and responsibilities for each sphere as well as definite limits of authority. When each sphere of government operates according to biblical principles in harmony with one another, justice results. When any sphere neglects its God-given responsibility or usurps responsibility from another sphere, injustice results. Gaining an understanding of each of these jurisdictions and their interrelatedness is absolutely essential for anyone desiring to see justice prevail in China or anywhere else.
We will be taking an in-depth look at each of these spheres in future letters, but a brief explanation of each at this time will help us to gain an overview of what constitutes a just society.
