Heavensmydestination

The shadows of the passing time!

2012-03-01T22:38:00.001Z

A Romney victory? I don't think so. The serpent the dove and the economy stupid!

2012-03-01T08:42:00.002Z

Apart from the obvious it is hard to understand why most commentators talk of a Romney victory in Michigan. This was his home state where his father had been the governor and yet by the narrowest of margins he won it and in terms of sharing the outcome they will very likely get approximately 15 delegates each.

And he had the republican hierarchy rooting for him including the Drudge Report and he spent millions; fortunate he is to have that kind of clout!

The problem for Santorum is that he needs to reign in some of the rhetoric and ease the way to deal with other issues such as the economy. I think he appreciates this which is presumably partly why just before the vote his planned economic reforms were issued. Ohio will be his "coming of age" moment and if he wins that the outcome is going to be very messy as to who is ultimately chosen.

I would commend him to this refrain, be wise as a serpent and tender as a dove, and remember the economy stupid!

The End of Marriage in Scandinavia | The Weekly Standard

2012-02-29T17:48:00.001Z

The End of Marriage in Scandinavia The Weekly Standard

"MARRIAGE IS SLOWLY DYING IN SCANDINAVIA. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents. Not coincidentally, these countries have had something close to full gay marriage for a decade or more. Same-sex marriage has locked in and reinforced an existing Scandinavian trend toward the separation of marriage and parenthood. The Nordic family pattern--including gay marriage--is spreading across Europe. And by looking closely at it we can answer the key empirical question underlying the gay marriage debate. Will same-sex marriage undermine the institution of marriage? It already has...."

Religion or true faith? Joel Chapter 2, verses 12 to 17. ESV

2012-02-26T21:31:00.002Z

Return to the Lord

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
     “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
     for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
     and he relents over disaster.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
     consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16     gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar
     let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”


There is much within this passage to say into our modern world. 


The clear delineation between religion and true faith, faith of the heart, genuine faith. An unequivocal description and invocation of who God is. The nature of His call to those who espouse His name. The call to those who are being raised up by Him as leaders amongst His people to lead out of heartfelt recognition of the need, to seek for His intervention and to look forward to the revelation of His hope and mercy in those whom He calls; for all of such of them an apprehension of real gladness and joy.


So much to do, so much to look forward to, so much to apprehend. Our truly great and majestic God!

Health and Safety Rules; the cheapness of a life and the Santorum effect!

2012-02-26T16:08:00.001Z

It has been quite a week and the week to come looks to be as interesting and challenging.

It is sickening to see the pictures of that scene after the man who had had a fit near a shallow public duck pond, had fallen into the water and the emergency services refused to wade in and pick him out. He drowned. It was against health and safety rules! It beggars belief that we have come to this, some mechanistic soul less view of reality. It does not matter any more that he was a fellow human being in need of help who could have been saved with a bit of common sense and compassion? But no, what's more important? Soul less mechanistic living! In my view a state of being that is contemptible!

The republican primaries enter a dynamic and probably decisive phase this week. Is it Santorum or Romney? I happen to believe it will be Santorum for in his candidacy there is something compelling; the conviction of a man that believes that life any life is worthy of deep respect and dignity. Santorum would have jumped into that pond and sought to save that man in that shallow duck pond, you can be sure of that!

And there we have the essence of this contest in the US and we have the essence of the challenge that we face here in the West. Do we really believe that people are sufficiently important that they are worthy of our self-sacrifice. That there is something genuinely noble, courageous even heroic about putting another's interests first! We are wobbling on this one as societies and Santorum will not wobble. That is both his power and his challenge.

Lynne Featherstone and the Tory leadership: an intellectual vacuum at the heart of government!

2012-02-25T09:43:00.001Z

"He (David Cameron) is not driven by belief, but simply by an opportunistic attempt to spin himself as a modern, liberal kind of guy, and to try to pacify a tiny number of militant gay campaign groups.

Lord Carey’s comments were particularly brave in view of the fact that so many
people who have publicly supported traditional marriage between a man and
woman have become the target of a disgraceful campaign of vilification.

After the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, recently spoke out against legalising gay marriage, he was sent abusive, threatening and racist mail. (Amanda Platell at the address below)"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2106107/Vilified-daring-fight-marriage.html#ixzz1nNrXpMbx

"Lynne Featherstone tells Church 'don't polarise gay marriage debate'
The Church does not have the exclusive right to define who should be allowed to get married, the equalities minister warns, as she suggests that religious groups have polarised the debate on gay marriage. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9104785/Lynne-Featherstone-tells-Church-dont-polarise-gay-marriage-debate.html"

This current Tory leadership tells us that the issue of whether redefining marriage is not something they wish to discuss with us the people, they merely request us to make a contribution to the "when"! There is nothing in their manifesto to forewarn us of this. It is at the very least a power grab from an opportunistic prime minister spinning his liberal credentials in the interest of select groups hell bent on winning! There comes a time when a particular society becomes no longer a place worthy of the name democracy, worthy of the respect of it's citizens; this patronising power grab from this government, now using this stereotyping trick to malign it's opponents is accelerating that process and revealing along the way the racism and violence out there towards those with differing views.

No, this is not an exclusively religious issue although it is obvious why this government wishes it to be seen that way.

It is about liberty, the liberty to use reason, the liberty to present the arguments and seek for the common ground, the liberty to disagree; it is about what is best for a society as a whole and it's children and not just giving way to whatever certain militant groups want for us. It is about the humility to recognise that there is nothing new under the sun and that the work and views of generations over thousands of years may well have a lot to teach us in the present.

Not once does Lynne Featherstone appear to mention anything about the needs of children; not once does she appear to define the meaning of love; not once does she appear to admit any inconsistencies in defining everything in terms of "love". There are just so many potential "love" relationships, does she mean all such are therefore now free to define what they want anything to be and gain the sanction of society irrespective of the consequences. Just take a look at what I think is Stonewall's attempt at a petition and defining why it wants the change; it is all about love, is that love without limits?

There in the form of this current government we have the intellectual heart of darkness at the centre of power in this country!

Ideology rules, we do what we want because we have the power. Reason be gone!

We look forward to this leadership of this government doing the same, being long gone!

The Iranian regime's cold blooded murder of a Christian pastor beckons!

2012-02-23T20:42:00.003Z

We remember Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani and his family at this time.
For he has been convicted in Iran of apostasy, that is that he is a Christian, despite never having been a Muslim and we are told that the order for his execution has been issued and his hanging is imminent.
We hope and pray that this may not be.

Santorum, a defining quote!

2012-02-23T20:30:00.000Z

"We can have limited government, lower tax—we hear this all the time, cut spending, limit the government, everything will be fine. No, everything's not going to be fine. There are bigger problems at stake in America. And someone has got to go out there—I will—and talk about the things."

Peter Tatchell and Sharon James and the constitution of marriage and the family!

2012-02-22T21:01:00.000Z

There was a Sky News debate yesterday involving these two on opposite sides.

The argument in favour of marriage to be redefined centres around the use of terms such as discrimination and inequality, a denial of equal rights under the law, and all combined with some very well worked pincer movements towards those who dare to put their heads above the Wall and the use of the media, of course!

There are key and important differences between men and women; the genetic heritage of male and female in one person creates an indivisible link to that child. Children need to and want to know who their parents are. The results of not knowing and the results of being separated from either of those genetic links is plain and obvious.

Marriage between a man and a woman has been and still is Society's recognition that the optimum ultimate and best must be to encourage the kinds of relationships that will encourage support and establish those linkages; linkages that include the mental physical and emotional kinship and comfort of attachment to male and female differences. You can always point to exceptions; the usual ones trotted out are the childless couples through choice and the fact that there have been and are gay couple success stories, etc. Of course, but none of that changes these basic facts on the ground that a child needs a father and a mother and the constitution of marriage as an institution that first and foremost promotes and encourages that is so precious that it should not be changed.

If you change marriage as planned on the basis of inequality and discrimination as your sole frontispiece then that will be no solution, since marriage as then conceived will still carry with it the claimed affront of being discriminatory and as perpetuating inequality. For it still represents a definition of marriage and defines itself by excluding other types of relationships as marriage and so it is still discriminatory in those terms. The problem is that there will always be a line drawn somewhere and that is because society has to decide what is the best for the goal that is trying to be achieved. The goal to support the procreation and not annihilation of the human race, the goal of seeking the stability of relationships that best represent the diversity of man and woman and the linkage to one's true parents and beyond to the stability of inter generational unity. The only real solution to this discrimination line of argument is that everyone should be free to choose whatever they mean by marriage however it suits. That should just about solve it and maybe then the charge of hypocritical intellectual inconsistency might shift on to someone else's shoulders.But then that would be another story altogether.

The debates tonight in the US, what a long way from the Nixon Kennedy showdown!

2012-02-22T20:29:00.003Z

The route to the Republican nomination is a long and arduous one with many twists and turns and for some a long way down! There is no doubt that since the showdown between Kennedy and Nixon all those years ago television has had and still does have a powerful impact on people's views! You may recall that those who listened on the radio thought that Nixon won because of his reason and logic and yet those who saw the television programme (and this is what dominated the outcome) thought that Kennedy had won the debate!

The "war" of attrition that is going on in the process of nomination requires, a special kind of life to want to go through with it, significant financial support and an ability to catch the national mood. Obama managed to do it with such heart warming and noble platitudes that proved empty of any substance; for when he arrived in power he merely reverted to type and showed once again that his kind of politics is as divisive as it ever has been. Soak the rich, smash the big corporations, rev up the environmental conjuring tricks, and forget our allies.

So in contrast, so many Americans, so many of whom still have the spirit of "liberty" in their bones, in part desperation are looking for a different leader, someone who encapsulates their heartfelt hopes, someone lean mean but "genuene" with a view of life that believes enough in absolute truth, of right and wrong. This is why Santorum seems to fit the bill and yet he comes first and foremost to a Republican party that for too long has been immune to their conservative calling and certainly any social moral dialectic. So Santorum's rise from the ashes is as much opposed by many in the Republican party as those on the Left and so his is an uphill but not impossible task and one that has much potential for liberty and the preservation of the dignity and worth of the individual!

So, we shall see! But one thing is true, that if the media starts to bite you, you know you are on to something, and what we also know is that the Republican party need too to get on to something and that is to stop the tearing apart and start building for the inevitable shown down at the OK Obama Coral as there is not long to go now!

The Effrontery of Rick Santorum - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

2012-02-21T11:02:00.001Z

The Effrontery of Rick Santorum - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

".....Although his critics will never credit him for it, Santorum’s social conservatism brings with it an unstinting devotion to human dignity, a touchstone for the former senator. The latest position for which he’s taking incoming is his opposition to a government mandate for insurance coverage of prenatal testing often used to identify handicapped babies who are subsequently aborted. For his detractors, his respect for the disabled is trumped by his unforgivable opposition to abortion...."

Theological and cultural vandalism; to redefine marriage!

2012-02-20T17:43:00.000Z

The Book of Remembrance: to speak of the Lord.

2012-02-19T19:56:00.001Z

The Book of Remembrance

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared theLord and esteemed his name.“They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. Malachi Chapter 3 and verses 16 to 18. ESV"

When you have once seen the glory of the Living God, however limited a view that may have been and may be, if it is a saving knowledge, there really is no going back! The light of the Gospel has shone in your hearts and there can be no going back! For we will have seen something of the Saviour, of our Lord Jesus Christ. The nearest I can get to an explanation of this is what the disciples witnessed at the scene on the mountain when with three of them present Jesus was transfigured before them. This is how this is described in Mark Chapter 9 verses 2b and 3.

"And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them...And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." ESV

If this is something you can share (different but of the same Lord) you will know that it is not possible to keep it within and hidden. For how can you lock up a deep and glorious peace, the peace of reconciliation through Jesus to the Father by His Holy Spirit. For there comes from within this burning desire to share it with others particularly with those who share in it. This must surely be what Malachi is here referring to. Those who truly know His name, those who truly trust in the Living God will signify ther authenticity through their desire to share with those who also share such faith their love for God and His Word. For in so doing they reflect that which is deep within and they cannot keep it in. They will want to benefit those to whom they share. For the heritage of those who thus share His Name is written in God's Book of Remembrance. In which He remembers them as His treasured possession. A calling, indeed, which drives you to your knees and brings worship to your heart!

Trevor Philips stokes the furnace of persecution under the guise of the Equality and Human Rights Commission

2012-02-18T13:46:00.003Z

There is little to find in the recent comments of Trevor Philips as reported in the Telegraph yesterday at this address that is helpful;-
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100138081/trevor-phillips-is-wrong-%E2%80%93-it-is-equality-activists-not-christians-who-are-imposing-their-beliefs-on-others/

His use of generalised statements sweeping between unsophisticated extremes calls the death knell on constructive debate on these subjects for they are from a leader of an institution that has little to commend it other than the rather jarring use of the description, an "inquisition". We can all set up "straw men and women" to prove our case, which on close examination are merely the outpourings of propaganda in favour of one position and one position only, that of secularism's arch princess, socialist-marxist theology.

For anyone open to real debate will have to deal with the injustices of equality legislation. For in it's attempt to impose such uniformity the consuming outcome will be division and bitterness and entrenched positions. For this unjust legislation cannot fit all and any society that tries to do so is in for a rough ride in the years ahead.

No Christian regards themselves as above the law and in fact just inferring that any and all do regard themselves as such is to paint/tar, call it what you will, in a few broad brush strokes all Christians with the same brush and that is why the comments are so dangerous. We are not above the law but neither does that mean that we agree that a particular law is intrinsically just and or that it's implementation is justly applied. We are entitled as fellow citizens to use what legal and legitimate means we have at our disposal to explain why we might think that either of those two objectives are not being fulfilled and that we are doing. Are you denying us even that right Mr. Philips? Presumably not and so I suggest in the interests of community cohesion you make yourself a lot clearer? And if we should fail, and civil disobedience be justified we are of course subject to the law.

But no government is above the law either and of course at this point we are having to consider what law we are talking about? He knows as well as I that the de facto assumption that a law passed by a government does not give it the divine right to be obeyed for in so doing you will be succumbing to the undoubted decree that we are all once again serfs paying obeisance to the nobility. And remember what they did to the Tolpuddle martyrs? We have had enough of the class system here in historic Britain. For there are other matters to which all human beings need to attend to to be able to join in with the view that our humanity and what gives us dignity is being respected. Whether that comes from a view of nature, or a religious expression, I don't think anyone seriously suggests otherwise and of crucial value here is also freedom of conscience and association. For one day Mr. Philips you too may be on the receiving end of laws that fundamentally do not respect your conscience and we shall see then what that does to your sense of worth as a human being to have that inflicted upon you, too.

What this debate misses is the lack of gracious inclusivity of many of those who support such legislation, for them it is their core value being expressed and they can admit of no other, no incorporation of others with a different viewpoint, no reasonable provision for those who disagree. A kind of unyielding step in the dark kind of faith that has little to do with argument or reason just a faith of the blind watchmaker type.

And what the imposition of this legislation also shows is the lack of impartial interpretation of it's decrees for it is borne out of a world view at odds with the very word "religion". For the definition of religion that the court system currently appears to give is so narrow that any reasonable person, even the ones on the Clapham Omnibus, must conclude that it is merely a fiction and will be and has been trumped by almost any other rights!

The prejudice begins in the political classes, then proceeds through the judiciary and then, slowly but surely the division starts to reveal huge splits within society and as the persecution grows so does the opposition. Mr. Philips does none of us a good service to speak as he has without a healing tongue. When sentenced to seven years' transportation, the sentiments of the Tolpuddle martyr George Loveless speaks of what we should all be seeking; times have not changed.

God is our guide! from field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come, our country's rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction's doom:
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!

Baroness Warsi; the Cameron Humpty Dumpty Party and the reeking hypocrisy!

2012-02-17T13:18:00.004Z

Baroness Warsi's recent speech to the Vatican is to be welcomed, talking as she does about "secular intolerance".

But a reason why such secular intolerance has increasingly taken hold of late is as much to do with her own party and it's "waltz" with the Liberal Democrats as anything else. For she leads a Conservative party whose leader is hell bent on parading proudly his "liberal" credentials and the outward adorning of that faith, to show they have changed! It is his government who in response to invited submissions from the European Court of Justice about certain of the recent court decisions in the UK against respecting Christian conscience, indicated that they did not disagree? It is his government that has decided to invite comments not on whether but on when and how best to implement a re-definition of marriage and thereby further ingrain into our society and a number of institutions certain dogmatic prejudices of those who don't like those who seek to disagree. And of course, all supported and endorsed triumphantly by the liberal democrats and their leader whose persuasiveness on the arguments suits well the proponents of many of his views; I am still waiting to see any depth in some of them, but there again he has to speak for the cameras and there is a need for sound bites!

No, this current Conservative party reeks of hypocrisy and is too often offensive to many Christians and others who share their views on many issues and so whilst I find myself comforted by Baroness Warsi's views, it is difficult to take any comfort from them for underneath the front there is a different story!

Was Santorum a Senate Spendthrift?

2012-02-15T17:25:00.001Z

Was Santorum a Senate Spendthrift?

A very useful analysis of the record of Santorum in the Senate in respect of his voting/support for certain economic policy matters, as a measure of his fiscal conservatism, such that it seems clear that Romney's attacks have little if any substance. The compelling part is his record despite the economic inclinations of the people of Pennsylvania.

Adele, sings ""Someone Like You" ahead of the Grammy's.

2012-02-14T17:18:00.002Z

I really enjoy her voice.

There is a soulfulness and emotion that painfully reflects the sensitivities of so many who have experienced relationship breakdown, an increasingly common theme. I watched her performance at the Albert Hall recently and it was electric. You can buy the reproduction of it.

It shows you how much a chord she strikes for when recently I learnt of her operation on her vocal cords I really felt concern, obviously for her but also for her talent. I am sorry to say that equality just cannot reach the bounds of talent!

Santorum; a race he can win! Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

2012-02-13T20:14:00.000Z

Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

There is incredible logic in the Republican hierarchy changing direction now and supporting his candidacy. He has a track record at the highest levels of government and consistency. He possesses many of the values moral and social that are dear to a wide spectrum of conservatives. The fact that he is so hated by the limousine liberals is in fact an honour of a kind and yet he still maintains his pleasantness and likeability! Not for him the letting loose of the attack dogs to let rip on his fellow opponent, not for him the smarmy acculturation to conservative values and then next time you look there has been a change. Not for him....

And now Obama's ruthless tyranny of forced secularism on the consciences of so many of the American people. The die is cast, the scene is set, this tyranny must be opposed! What use is money without the freedom to enjoy it, what use is the protection of a State without the conscience to prove it, what life when there is so much of life demeaned.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

The Libertine Police State - George Weigel - National Review Online

2012-02-13T18:35:00.002Z

The Libertine Police State - George Weigel - National Review Online

"....One final point. At the beginning, the 2012 election was about jobs, jobs, and jobs. The culture wars have now reshaped the race, and the stakes, as Iran may eventually do in another sphere of policy. But what the Komen/Planned Parenthood and HHS-mandate battles ought to have made clear is that 2012 is, domestically, an election about the survival of civil society. Will Leviathan continue to trample the institutions of civil society at the behest of the champions of lifestyle libertinism? Will such institutions as marriage, the family, and the Church be permitted to exist only insofar as they become wards of the state, or simulacra of the state?

That, and nothing less than that, is the question the past several weeks have put before the American people."

The call to the intellectual tradition, the mainstream!

2012-02-12T22:13:00.005Z

It is a mistake for Christians to think that an escape from engaging with the marketplace of ideas, intellectual or otherwise is an option. I would rather die fighting than running, defending and taking on the vested ideologues! The focus of course must be the love of one's neighbour and out of our love for the living God! It is another question how one can try best do so within the bounds of civility, graciousness and gentleness. The intellectual underpinnings of the Christian faith are phenomenal and if they are not made known then ignorance breeds contempt.

Just stop and reflect on these statistics for a moment from I understand the December 2011 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (Washington). The proportion of Christians in the world is 33%, or 2.8 billion. It is the largest religion in the world today. The distribution is even more amazing. In 1910 two-thirds of Christians lived in Europe. In 2010 26% lived in Europe, 37% in the Americas, 24% in Africa, and 13% in Asia and the Pacific region. 61% live in the Global South.

In 1910, in Africa 9% of the population were Christians, in 2010, 63%.

The intellectual battle, already successful, needs to continue then to be taken to where it counts, to the universities, the political institutions, and other power centres so that we have our say, too, seeking for the common good. Many of my readers would find what I am aware of, at the highest intellectual levels of the Chinese establishment unbelievable and as to the extent of the reach of the Christian redemptive message to the uttermost parts of that great land and people, China!

This message to go is at the heart of Paul's teaching, as we see in the Second letter to the Corinthians in the Bible. This is what he said in Chapter 10 and verses 4 and 5.

" For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ." ESV."

This is an honour and our calling for the loss of reason abounds and knows no bounds!

Don't let David Cameron redefine Marriage!

2012-02-10T12:57:00.004Z

Global Persecution of Christians - Conrad Black - National Review Online

2012-02-09T08:38:00.001Z

Global Persecution of Christians - Conrad Black - National Review Online

"....It is not generally appreciated that over 100,000 Christians a year are murdered because of their faith. Because Christianity is, by a wide margin, the world’s largest religion, the leading religion in the traditionally most advanced areas of the world, and, despite its many fissures, the best organized, largely because of the relatively tight and authoritarian structure of the Roman Catholic Church, the West is not accustomed to thinking of Christians as a minority, much less a persecuted one...."

Santorum on morning joe after his sweeping wins

2012-02-09T08:35:00.000Z

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rick Santorum's win in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado; the real alternative to Obama!

2012-02-08T10:03:00.004Z

You know that Rick Santorum's position is improving when you see a series of fairly positive pieces over at National Review about him. See my earlier post on "Why not Santorum?" and then The Weekly Standard's William Kristol turns even more supportive and for good measure Romney and his supporters start to focus on him.

He should be the only real alternative in the race to Romney for he is a consistent supporter of so many policies dear to conservatives, without the flip flop approach that Romney has attached to him. The argument that Obama needs someone clearly differentiated from him is currently very persuasive and the opinion polls show this to be a credible position.

The problem for Rick is regrettably as much about finance and the support that Romney has from many in the republican establishment and unless that changes the possibility of his success becomes difficult to envisage. I hope things change and these wins should bring in more finance and more credibility. As to earmarks, yes a challenging one but there are answers that are satisfactory for this phase of the game.

The real undermining of Gingrich is his affiliation with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that is not going to go away and I think he is finished. We shall see.

The problem for Romney is that he was able to beat Gingrich with money and with attacks and that is not a positive message for conservatives. It speaks of money talking and the very same approach taken by much of the media Left is being worked by a conservative candidate? Attack, attack, attack. It reminds me unfortunately of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese pilots as they came in to bomb. A seeming initial victory but ultimately destructive for themselves. I think that is Romney's current problem.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse speaking at the Washington State legislature hearings on defining marriage, January 30th 2012.

2012-02-06T18:57:00.018Z

Prepared remarks for the Washington state legislature hearings on the definition of marriage

On 01.23.12, In Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D, Politics, Same Sex Marriage, By Betsy.Delivered January 23, 2012 in Olympia, Washington
by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

"I am here today to address those of you who have already made up your minds to redefine marriage. History will not be kind to you. Previous generations of social experimenters have caused unimaginable misery for millions of people. Particular people advocated the policies that led to today’s 50% divorce rate and 40% out of wedlock childbearing rate. None of these people has ever been held accountable.

I am here today to hold you to account, for the predictable harms you have already caused and will continue to cause by redefining marriage.

Let me remind you of the essential public purpose of marriage. Marriage attaches mothers and fathers to their children, and to one another. Once you replace that essential public purpose with inessential, even frivolous private purposes, marriage will not be able to do its job. But children will still need secure attachments to their mothers and fathers, a need which will go unfulfilled.

You are redefining parenthood, as a side effect of redefining marriage, without even considering what you are about to do. Until now, marriage makes legal parenthood track biological parenthood. The legal presumption of paternity means that children born to a married woman are presumed to be the children of her husband. With this legal rule, and the social practice of sexual exclusivity, marriage attaches children to their biological parents.

Same sex couples of course, do not procreate together. “Marriage equality” requires a slippery move from “presumption of paternity” to the gender neutral “presumption of parentage.” This sleight of hand transforms parenthood. The same sex partner of a biological parent is never the other biological parent. Rather than attaching children to their biological parents, same sex marriage is the vehicle that separates children from a parent.

No longer will the law hold that children need a mother and a father. Under the inspiration and guidance of people like you in other states, courts are saying silly things like, “the traditional notion that children need a mother and a father to be raised into healthy, well-adjusted adults is based more on stereotype than anything else.”[1]

This statement made by the Iowa Supreme Court in Varnum v Brien, is false as a general statement. Mountains of data show that children do need their mothers and their fathers,[2] and that children care deeply about biological connections.[3] The gay community is not responsible for today’s generation of fatherless children. But they will be responsible for the next such generation.

And don’t tell me that we already have lots of children unattached to their parents. We should be taking steps to place responsible limits on things like divorce, rather than careening headlong into further and more institutionalized injustices to children.

Are you really prepared to accept responsibility for the consequences of detaching legal parenthood from the natural moorings of biology? Do you really want a world in which children may have three or four legal parents?[4] Are you ready for contract parenting, in which adults parcel out parental responsibilities amongst themselves? Should the state insist that children never care about their origins? [5] Ready or not, these are the consequences of redefining marriage and parenthood as genderless institutions.

The next generation of children of divorce may be shuttling between 3 or 4 households, with their backpacks and their sleeping bags. Whether you’re ready or not, I hold you accountable.

And don’t try to tell me “nothing so terrible has happened in Massachusetts.” Redefining marriage redefines the way in which generations relate to one another. It is ludicrous to believe that we would feel the full impact of such a change in a few years. It will take at least a generation, a full thirty years or more, before the full effects of redefining marriage work themselves out throughout the social system.[6]

The only argument you have is so-called “equality.” You have taken a venerable American concept and twisted it out of recognition. Equality used to mean limiting the power of the state to make irrelevant distinctions among citizens. In your hands, equality has become a battering ram for smashing every aspect of social life that has any hint of sexual differentiation. No more mothers and fathers, only Parent 1 and Parent 2.

And what about those people who decline to participate in your war against nature? What is in store for them?

Far from limiting the power of the state, your version of equality has become a tool for the hostile takeover of civil society by the state. Churches are already under attack for daring to dissent from the new state-imposed Orthodoxy that marriage is whatever the government says it is.[7]

Parents are losing the right to direct the education of their own children.[8] Foster parents in the UK must submit to the state’s views about marriage.[9] Reputable adoption agencies have been put out of business.

And the pettiness of some of the complaints brought by same sex couples is simply staggering. Christian bed and breakfast owners have been sued for not allowing unmarried couples to stay in double rooms. They would have gladly rented them separate rooms, but that was not good enough for the thought police.[10] Same sex couples have brought legal complaints against wedding photographers, as if there were a constitutional right to have your picture taken by the person of your choice.[11] All in the name of “civil rights.”

Let me remind you that a vast majority of African Americans completely reject same sex marriage. They are deeply offended by the high-jacking of the moral authority of their civil rights movement.

When slavery was abolished, all slaves became free men and women. When women obtained the right to vote, the discrimination ended with the very next election. But for children of same sex marriage, the situation will be different. When we come to our senses 30 years from now and realize that we have perpetrated a grotesque injustice, not a single child born fatherless or motherless within a same sex marriage will get his missing parent back. Only prevention will protect children’s rights.

The thin disguise of marriage equality will not mislead anyone, nor will it atone for the wrong this day done.[12]

And to those of you who plan to vote for man/woman marriage, I say: stay strong! History is on your side.

Full text, with updated footnotes, of testimony delivered on January 23, 2012 in Olympia WA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Varnum v Brien Supreme Court of Iowa, No. 07–1499, Filed April 3, 2009, pg 54, footnote 26

[2] Among the many citations that could be given, “Why Marriage Matters: 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences,” (NY: Institute for American Values, 2005), summarizes some of the most important research.

[3] See Elizabeth Marquardt, Norvell Glenn and Karen Clark, “My Daddy’s Name is Donor: A Pathbreaking Study of Young Adults Conceived through Sperm Donation,” (NY: Institute for American Values, 2010).

[4] Three people vie for parental rights in this Canadian case: http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/10/19/groundbreaking-ruling-in-gay-custody-case Four people vie for parental rights in this British case: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047671/High-Court-judges-blast-gay-parents-fighting-little-sisters.html#ixzz1buTCawCX In Iowa, two women want to be put on the birth certificate, even though “it is a biological impossibility for a woman to establish legal paternity:” http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012120104026 In Florida, courts had to rule on a custody dispute in which one woman is the gestational mother, the other is the genetic mother. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lesbian-custody-battle-20120103,0,3890777.story “Pennsylvania Court finds three Adults Can Have Parental Rights,” http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2007/05/pennsylvania_co.html (quoting Superior Court case, Jacob v Shultz-Jacob, 2007 Westlaw 1240885 , 2007 PA Super 118), “Canadian court rules boy has a dad and two moms,” http://www.religioustolerance.org/hommarr3par.htm

[5] For examples of law professors who applaud this trend, see Melanie B. Jacobs, “Why Just Two? Disaggregating Traditional Parental Rights and Responsibilities to Recognize Multiple Parents,” 9 Journal of Law and Family Studies 309 (2007) and Katharine K. Baker, Bionormativity and the Construction of Parenthood, 42 Georgia Law Review 649 (2008 “Johnny has two mommies—and four dads,” Boston Globe, October 24, 2010, http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/10/24/johnny_has_two_mommies__and_four_dads/

[6] Quoting divorce statistics in Massachusetts is frankly ridiculous, since the divorce rate rose by 4.5% in MA between 2004 and 2007, while the divorce rate across the whole of the US fell by 2.7%. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/Divorce%20Rates%2090%2095%20and%2099-07.pdf (Divorce Rate by State, 1990- 2007, Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC. Page last updated, November 19, 2010), and http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm National Marriage and Divorce Trends, National Vital Statistics System. Provisional number of divorces and annulments and rates, United States, 2000-2007, page last updated, November 19, 2010.

[7] For a general discussion of the likely impact of same sex marriage on a variety of church-related activities, see Douglas Laycock, Anthony R. Picarello, Jr. and Robin Fretwell Wilson, Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty: Emerging Conflicts, (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008).

[8] See in Massachusetts for instance, Parker v. Hurley, 514 F.3d 87, 92-93 (1st Cir. 2008), cert. denied, 2008 WL 1926813 (Oct. 6, 2008), and in California, SB 777 requires “non-discrimination” in instruction, for private as well as public schools. Senate Floor Analysis of S.B. 777, Senate Rules Committee, Office of Senate Floor Analysis 2 (Sept. 19, 2007) (internal quotations omitted), available at http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0751-0800

/sb_777_cfa_20070919_103650_sen_floor.html. See S.B. 777, 2007-2008 Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2007), available at http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0751-0800/sb_777_bill_20071012_chaptered.pdf;

[9] In the UK, see the recent cases of Owen and Eunice Johns, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1325311/Gay-rights-laws-danger-freedoms-Bishops-speak-homosexuality.html and John and Charlotte Yallop, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/August/Christians-Denied-Foster-Kids-Over-Moral-Stance/

[10] A UK couple who runs a bed and breakfast out of their own home is being sued by a same sex couple because they were denied a double room. http://wn.com/Christian_B&B_owners_sued_by_homosexual_couple

[11] The New Mexico Human Rights Commission fined a Christian wedding photographer because she declined to take photos of a lesbian commitment ceremony. http://media.npr.org/documents/2008/jun/photography.pdf

[12] Slight paraphrase of Justice Harlan’s dissent in Plessey v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537,562

Archbishop Timothy Dolan Quote. January 26th 2012.

2012-02-06T18:55:00.000Z

“The Catholic Church defends religious liberty, including freedom of conscience, for everyone. The Amish do not carry health insurance. The government respects their principles. Christian Scientists want to heal by prayer alone, and the new health-care reform law respects that. Quakers and others object to killing even in wartime, and the government respects that principle for conscientious objectors. By its decision, the Obama administration has failed to show the same respect for the consciences of Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease.”

Again, Why Not Santorum? - Quin Hillyer - National Review Online

2012-02-06T17:37:00.000Z

Again, Why Not Santorum? - Quin Hillyer - National Review Online

Christ in the house of his parents 1850 Millais; work matters!

2012-02-05T17:35:00.003Z

For the larger version double left click the image.

I have grown very fond of this picture over a number of years. Early on after seeing it for the first time, I asked myself whether it is appropriate to portray Christ at all and I am not sure I have fully resolved that one in my mind? But the picture has many facets to it and there is much to commend it's provocation and reality.

It of course portrays something of Jesus's early childhood; his father was a carpenter! But it reminds me most of all that of the thirty three years he spent here on earth it was only in the last three that his public ministry really began. And before that, growing up and (reasonably assuming) working with his father. We know very little apart from that.

And so, putting all that together it brings out once again the place, dignity and status of work, however gritty and real in the creative expression of any soul for if he Jesus was involved in such work for so much of his limited life on earth, it speaks so much of all of that!

Work matters!

"Sudan's Oil Crisis is Only Bashir's First Problem", an article by Andrew S Natios

2012-02-04T08:31:00.002Z

There is such a bloodbath going on in Sudan!

At either of the addresses that follow is an article entitled,

"Sudan's Oil Crisis is Only Bashir's First Problem

Blood on the White Nile by
Andrew S. Natsios
February 1, 2012"

There is a sub-heading which rather which seeks to distill the issue:-

"Last week, Bashir told 700 army officers to prepare for war with the South"

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137065/andrew-s-natsios/sudans-oil-crisis-is-only-bashirs-first-problem

Hudson Institute > Sudan's Oil Crisis is Only Bashir's First Problem

It is very difficult to get any sophisticated reporting of the position there from traditional news sources. You often only hear a small part of what is going on. But this feature article by Andrew S Natios, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University is very interesting. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of "Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know". From October 2006 to 2007 he was US envoy to Sudan.

Marriage and the Limits of Contract | Hoover Institution April 1st 2005 by Jennifer Roback Morse. A Libertarian case in favour of marriage between a man and a woman.

2012-02-02T14:44:00.000Z

The case that marriage should be between a man and a woman is clearly set forth in the Bible and so you either have to be a very myopic or else you just don't think it is relevant. But the arguments generally in favour not just derived from the Bible are compelling if you are prepared to listen.

But not enough people either think deeply enough and many are not prepared to listen and if you are heavily influenced by post-modernism, as a lot are, then reason is not likely ultimately to be particularly interesting to you if it stops you from doing what you want. And another key reason why this de-construction is sought is not just because of the strategic and organisational cleverness and wit of what is a relatively small community, our fellow citizens, who are happy to be called gay but also because it is supportive for many others of their politicisation of every aspect of society and too often denigration of those who have any association with the term "faith". The process it supports in other words is extremely helpful to an atheistic marxist idyll yet to be realised but for some, "any way which way you can". It is at this deeper level that the opposition needs also to be trained.

So, here is an article that steps away from any "faith" element of the arguments to give another perspective and it is from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in 2005. It is very helpful and supportive of marriage between a man and a woman and why but from a libertarian perspective; strangely you may say although it is not surprising if you understand some of the history of libertarianism in it's many forms.

The challenge here in reading this is an intellectual one but the arguments are worthwhile considering.

Marriage and the Limits of Contract Hoover Institution

Here is the opening part to show you something of her approach.

A libertarian case

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marriage is a naturally occurring, pre-political institution that emerges spontaneously from society. Western society is drifting toward a redefinition of marriage as a bundle of legally defined benefits bestowed by the state. As a libertarian, I find this trend regrettable. The organic view of marriage is more consistent with the libertarian vision of a society of free and responsible individuals, governed by a constitutionally limited state. The drive toward a legalistic view of marriage is part of the relentless march toward politicizing every aspect of society.

Although gay marriage is the current hot-button topic, it is a parenthetical issue. The more basic question is the meaning of love, marriage, sexuality, and family in a free society. I define marriage as a society’s normative institution for both sexual activity and the rearing of children. The modern alternative idea is that society does not need such an institution: No particular arrangement should be legally or culturally privileged as the ideal context for sex or childbearing.

The current drive for creating gay unions that are the legal equivalent of marriage is part of this ongoing process of dethroning marriage from its pride of place. Only a few self-styled conservative advocates of gay marriage, such as Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Rauch, seem to understand and respect the social function of marriage. Marriage as an institution necessarily excludes some kinds of behavior and endorses other kinds of behavior. This is why the conservative case for gay marriage is so remarkable: It flies in the face of the cultural stampede toward social acceptance of any and all sexual and childbearing arrangements, the very stampede that has fueled so much of the movement for gay marriage.

This article is not primarily about gay marriage. It isn’t even about why some forms of straight marriage are superior to others. Rather, the purpose of this article is to explain why a society, especially a free society, needs the social institution of marriage in the first place. I want to argue that society can and must discriminate among various arrangements for childbearing and sexual activity..............."

China. "What Wukan Really Meant" by David Cohen | The Diplomat January 1st 2012

2012-01-31T17:40:00.004Z

"The seige of Wukan ended peacefully after Guangdong provincial Gov. Wang Yang flew to the rebellious fishing village and cut a deal that replaced corrupt local authorities and ended the land deals that provoked the conflict. The issues that prompted the uprising aren’t going away – but neither is the nation’s authoritarian government. Comparisons to the Arab Spring and the protests in Russia are a poor fit. Indeed, Wukan does a very good job of showing off the strengths of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the challenges it faces as it tries to hold on to stability and legitimacy."

The above is an extract from the full article at the Diplomat. I wrote an article on Wukan not that long ago. It is encouraging to hear of this outcome and this is a very well written article, too and can be found at

What Wukan Really Meant The Diplomat

The Diplomat is an international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region, now published exclusively online, which aims for an in depth treatment of regional issues.

The BBC's adaptation of Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks; Firebrace's masterful film portrayal, the last in the series!

2012-01-30T17:45:00.001Z

I concluded in my report on the first episode that it was a masterly portrayal and overall I retain that position.

The portrayal of Firebrace has consistently delivered and is the truly memorable part for me. His saving of Wraysford's life in the first series, his silent grief for his son in the second, the drunkenness, the heroism and solidarity with his friends, the call to love and be loved (I am not too sure exactly what he meant) and the graceful way in whch he died. His depiction is the poetry of the film.

We see clearly once again the pitiless degradation of war, and it's crass stupidity!

Yet I felt strangely proud of the "boys" there on that front for they stood their ground even unto to death; well done lads! And yet their love for family and nation was badly served.

It is all so well described by Wilfred Owen in his First World War poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth," which has often haunted me as will this film. For that poem echoes the terrifying vision that this film sought to and does faithfully reveal.

"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugler calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds."

In comparison the relationship between Isabell Azaire and Stephen Wraysford seemed hardly as important anymore and to an extent that was a good thing for it didn't diminish the scenes of war and the authentic courage of Firebrace. Their relationship in this episode did have too many shallow moments. It moved so quickly from passionate love affair to being inexplicably separated and when re-united for a few fleeting moments the exchange lacked substance; there just was not that consistency and coherence in what developed. Stephen's performance was still good if not undifferentiating at times for he portrayed in his face the gruelling disintegration of soul so very well. Isabell had such a small part to play; I have to confess she is very beautiful, and her sister eased the story to it's final end.

Sixteen Concerned Scientists: No Need to Panic About Global Warming - WSJ.com

2012-01-30T13:28:00.001Z

Sixteen Concerned Scientists: No Need to Panic About Global Warming - WSJ.com

So BBC, take that!

Aryeh Spero: What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism - WSJ.com

2012-01-30T13:22:00.002Z

Aryeh Spero: What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism - WSJ.com

A very, very helpful vision of the value of the individual and the safeguarding of his creativity and some useful observations about Europe.

A great read!

The quality of mercy!

2012-01-29T19:13:00.000Z

"Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Mark chapter 11 and verse 48 ESV

There is no doubt that at the heart of all things genuinely Christian- the way of true righteousness, there is this quality of mercy. So that in mercy God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to show His mercy to a world in an utter state of rejection of Him. He offered Himself up. So that the Christian faith is of what He has done for us and not the other way round. Our adoption by Him into His family with all the certainty and other benefits that brings depends then solely on His having come into the world as a child, His work on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead and not on what we can do for Him.

That quality of mercy truly understood and adopted brings change and without which there has not been any change! As it is this quality of mercy that rings such a change, it unites all those who have accepted such terms of peace for they then each have a faith of equal status with everyone else's who likewise have accepted His terms of peace.

This incident in this story in the Gospel of Mark is part and parcel of telling us just this. It is about a blind man Bartimaeus whom Jesus heals. But in these words of his we see such a message revealed,

"Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Mark chapter 11 and verse 48 ESV

Jesus stopped and called him.

God's merciful call to a call for mercy!

Available and free.

The time machine, the loss of memory.

2012-01-27T22:48:00.004Z

It is not easy to know how to use your time wisely and many things can press in on you that need doing. One certain thing is that in no time at all it is just gone and you wonder where to?

It is good to have a variety of experiences in a normal week. I enjoyed very much seeing an elderly widowed client in the week just gone. Although I am well paid for my time I felt that I was of great help to her, and it was a privileged opportunity to hear of her life and of some of her life experiences. It was also sobering to hear of her being married for forty years and then fifteen years ago losing her husband and of the adjustments that she had to make. As she explained, she has had her family around her and some very good friends to help. It is a moving to think of time passing by so fast, like a time machine.

On Thursday evening we spent some time with a Korean family. It appears to be normal and expected that you should take your shoes off when visiting someone from Korea. I am usually offered slippers. It is no problem to comply when you know about it in advance. There were many good things about the evening and one was the tea and coffee cake that we were offered when we arrived. I have not had coffee cake since my mother died almost fifteen years ago.

But the comment of the week came from an exchange with a friend at a meeting. I was mentioning some painful experiences and how as you get older you look back and see their number growing. He reminded me that that may be true but that perhaps one good aspect about the ageing process is that sooner than you think your memory starts to fade and you can't remember many of them anyway. You cannot be disturbed by them anymore because you just cannot remember many of them. Very true!

To cap it all, whilst my wife and daughters were away on a short break, I watched some more of the BBC's series "Merlin". I enjoyed it.

Govt. Mitch Daniels formal Republican response to the president's State of the Union address.

2012-01-25T23:21:00.001Z

The problems are mathematical and the solutions are practical.

A private economy that begins to grow and grow jobs.

Opportunity for all!

We must unite to save the safety net...an affordable safety net...devoted to those who need them most...coming generations denied to stop sending the wealthy the benefits they do not need!

To bring Americans together...the language of unity...us as a free people...we might pick the wrong light bulb...no longer up to the job of self-government...America is still the world's premier land of opportunity..government to serve the people and not supervise them...

Iran, not another 1st World War slaughter, for the Fordaw mountain strains in strength!

2012-01-25T23:02:00.001Z

I have to confess I have a soft spot for the Iranians even though I know that if I sought to live out my Christian faith in their land I am likely to be killed. Likely to be killed, likely to be killed- just think about that for the moment, likely to be killed!

If an Iranian comes here to the UK to live and lives out his faith here, he will live, he will live, he will live and for that I am grateful for my country and so many things about it. The dignity to live, oh that the Iranians might turn and live!

For as things stand, unless they do, there is going to be an almighty conflagration there in the Middle East and soon, and let me tell you this, they may take a whole lot of people with them but they risk annihilation. Please, God no!

This is a regime that has been at war with the West since 1979 when Khomeini came to power. This is a regime that has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, that appears impervious to reason for to them the Mahdi is due soon to bring about the apocalyptic end of days and that is what many are intent on facilitating. The failure to recognise the mortal threat that is the current leadership of Iran will I am sure turn out to be the folly of follies. For in the nether world of phantom regressive cowardly diplomacy here too much in the West there is no enemy, there is only blindness and we shall all have to pay for that!

The Iranians we understand have built at Fordaw a secret nuclear plant inside a mountain!

Governor Mitch Daniels and the State of Indiana, a message to the Republican leadership?

2012-01-24T22:30:00.000Z

Government does not create jobs, at best it creates the right conditions!

Hour of Newt - The Editors - National Review Online

2012-01-24T22:14:00.000Z

Hour of Newt - The Editors - National Review Online

The BBC's adaptation of Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks; a masterful film portrayal!

2012-01-23T23:17:00.003Z

This film's mention of the town of Amiens reminded me of my recent discovery of a book signed by my wife's grandfather whilst he was convalescing in a hospital in Amiens in the First World War. He had been gassed in the trenches on the front line.

I read the book Bird Song many years ago. I remember most about the sheer grit and courage of the frontline British troops and their officers, but most of all the "underground rats" of the British army tunnelling under the German positions in order to blow them up.

The presence of Isabell Azaire and Stephen Wraysford in the family is a masterpiece of atmosphere, tension and detachment even if their relationship unnecessarily lays bare that ritualised vision of love as just pure lust, although in the end it tried to come over as more sophisticated. The souless detachment of each of them crying out for something even if they were not quite sure what it really was crosses over seemlessly to the de-humanised condition of the men on the battlefield trying to survive and who in the end find something of meaning in the company of one another.

I may not for some time watch such a string of scenes so poignant and yet haunting as the slow walk of the Sergeant to find Wraysford's body lain out on the battle-fields ready to be buried. The use of light and colour in the sky and the terrain, the rows of men, the sad detached desolation of the scenes and yet the understated but more powerful for it discovery that he was still alive, just in time, awoken from his sleep! The sense of hope it arose, the tears, the lifting up of his seemingly still lifeless body of clay and yet still warm. If Wilfred Owen had survived the War, maybe he would have rewritten part of his poem "Futility" after seeing this scene, for it was there in that field where it was not too hard to stir this clay of a cold star?

Futility

By Wilfred Owen

Move him into the sun
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

Newt Gingrich come back kid! Lazarus only rose from the dead once!

2012-01-22T20:30:00.002Z

A not surprising outcome given his fiery and thoroughly convincing sessions on the television. Romney is looking increasingly starchy, too hardened and isolated from the common man and his associated support by the Republican establishment will increasingly not go down well.

Gingrich has been written off a couple of times and he may well go down in history as the "comeback kid", slow off the blocks but there, real time.

Will he win?

Who knows?

I think Santorum is a bigger threat than many would understand and appreciate, if he can get his funding in place! Yes, Rick it is about family as the natural building blocks of society and not village then town then city as spoke Hilary Clinton! Just reflect for a moment how close he got to Romney, a shock indeed!

Go get it Rick!

Humility by Jonathan Edwards

2012-01-22T20:08:00.001Z

Humility

by Jonathan Edwards-

Humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart
corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness
before God; or a sense of our own comparative lowness in His
sight, with the disposition to a behavior answerable thereto.

A truly humble man is sensible of the small extent of his
knowledge, and the great extent of his ignorance, and of the
small extent of his understanding, as compared with the
understanding of God.

He is sensible of his weakness, how little his strength is,
and how little he is able to do.

He is sensible of his natural distance from God,
of his dependence on Him,
of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom;
and that it is by God's power that he is upheld and provided for;
and that he needs God's wisdom to lead and guide him,
and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.

Humility tends to prevent an aspiring and
ambitious behavior among men.

The man that is under the influence of a humble spirit is content
with such a situation among men, as God is pleased to allot to
him, and is not greedy of honor, and does not affect to appear
uppermost and exalted above his neighbors.

Humility tends also to prevent an arrogant and assuming behavior.

On the contrary, humility, disposes a person to a condescending
behavior to the meekest and lowest, and to treat inferiors with
courtesy and affability, as being sensible of his own weakness
and despicableness before God.

If we then consider ourselves as the followers of the meek
and lowly and crucified Jesus, we shall walk humbly before
God and man all the days of our life on earth.

Let all be exhorted earnestly to seek much of a humble spirit, and
to endeavor to be humble in all their behavior toward God and men.

Seek for a deep and abiding sense of your
comparative lowness before God and man.

Know God.

Confess your nothingness and ill-desert before Him.

Distrust yourself.

Rely Only On Christ.

Renounce all glory except for Him.

Yield yourself heartily to His will and service.

Avoid an aspiring, ambitious, ostentatious, assuming, arrogant,
scornful, stubborn, willful, leveling, self-justifying behavior;
and strive for more and more of the humble spirit that Christ
manifested while He was on earth.

Humility is a most essential and distinguishing trait
in all true piety.

Earnestly seek then; and diligently and prayerfully
cherish a humble spirit, and God shall walk with
you here below; and when a few more days shall have
passed, He will receive you to the honors
bestowed on His people at Christ's right hand.

The radicalisation of the middle class.

2012-01-21T09:56:00.001Z

It is not difficult to understand what is oft referred to in our media here in the UK as the "squeezed middle class"; it is a phrase that can equally apply to the position in the US.

There is an elite, often very rich but not necessarily so that appear to have disproportionate power over our institutions and I suppose if it was a benevolent elite with a degree of common sense ethics and rationale reasoning power, their outcomes might not be quite so noticeable. But instead, it's raison d'etre is a view of life, that has at it's forefront the survival of the fittest and the ethics of self-interest and in these are the seeds of their own destruction.

And yet there is a large group of what are oft described as the "underclass" who have been ill-served by that elite and positively demeaned in my view. The educational system that many are forced into has rid itself of "aspiration", has sought to politically brainwash us and re-write our history. So that when the inevitable results arise, that is, little social mobility and too often an ignorance that defies imagination they are told, it will be alright Jo, for all you need to do is live on welfare benefits. Hard work and self-effort is passe!

As a consequence the middle classes are paying for this buffonery and idiocy. We are not any longer in it together, we are each for his own and then things really start to unravel. Perhaps the worst aspects of all this are the attempt by such an overclass supported by the underclass to demean and attack the very values that have kept Britain over many centuries able to hold their heads up at least sufficiently not to sense that we are on our way out. The collapse of faith and family, continually egged on by a hypocritical political class many of whom claim some kind of faith that is often rotten to the core has as a result radicalised and increasingly so many of those in the middle classes. This is essentially what happened in Franco's Spain if you read the right history books on the subject. The socialist total solution combined with the power of the then Soviet Union brought Spain and many of the middle classes in Spain into the political war and the outcome was bloody and nasty and who in the end won?

We are entering dangerous times, for if the current momentum continues to trash the values of hard work, faith and the family, if the growing injustices of a free for all of immorality continue then the middle classes will continue in their radicalisation and those who otherwise are regarded as responsible members of society, paying their taxes and seeking peace and harmony will see that justice, judeo-christian justice is far more important than much of that! And so government be warned. You sit upon the precipice of an enormously fragile state and we suggest you think again?

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum: who just edges it in South Carolina?

2012-01-20T17:53:00.002Z

It is not difficult to be reasonably impressed with the way in which Newt Gingrich holds his own in the "bear bating" ring of national politics, in fact I will go so far as to say that he is almost endearing in his ability to spring back and keep going. If you want someone to steady the ship and keep ploughing forward under fire then he could well be your man.

Of course, it is upsetting to hear that he is on his third marriage and of the claims of his second wife and for some that will be a decider. But for me whilst not that good, it primarily complicates the choice rather than throwing him out of the race. There is a side to me that likes to see a politician who is at times inconsistent (for surely he could well be open to persuasive reason) and can still make his stand and frankly no one is perfect even though we are made to think that that should be the norm at times! His biggest strength is his long period as a career politician combined with his intellectual abilities and experience at the highest levels of government. His weakness is that he has so many ideas it becomes impossible for him to be consistent and predictable enough to enable his governance to be really strong, for what direction is he going in?

So, to Rick Santorum.

Quite frankly, I am impressed, with his intellectual ability, his commitment to conservative values and consistency and whilst not as experienced as Newt he has that Senatorial role behind him and that ability to come from behind and win! But the problem lies in the extent of any libertarian values. For there is a case for being a Christian and accepting certain libertarian values and I am sure that he would accord to many of them. But, it will not always be easy to see that for there is that compassionate rhetoric and heart that just cannot sweep up the poor into the rhetoric of ideological principle. But that is just my point and why he should be President. He will support enough libertarian values and yet have that flexibility of heart and mind to drive through a more virtue driven republican programme. So, at present he has my vote and I would commend him to you.

ZENIT - Secularism in Sweden; some Utopia that?

2012-01-20T13:59:00.001Z

The whole article speaks for itself.

http://www.zenit.org/article-34107?l=english

".....Per Bylund, a Swedish fellow at the Von Mises Institute, once described the all encompassing power of the state thus:

"A significant difference between my generation and the preceding one is that most of us were not raised by our parents at all. We were raised by the authorities in state daycare centers from the time of infancy; then pushed on to public schools, public high schools, and public universities; and later to employment in the public sector and more education via the powerful labor unions and their educational associations. The state is ever-present and is to many the only means of survival -- and its welfare benefits the only possible way to gain independence."

Yet this social engineering has had dire consequences. Few European countries have witnessed such a rapid decline in the institution of marriage, nor such an expeditious rise in abortion. During the 1950s and first half of the 1960s, the marriage rate in Sweden was historically at its peak. Suddenly, the rate started dropping so quickly that it saw a decrease of about 50% in less than 10 years. No other country experienced such a rapid change....."

Recep Erdogen's Government, yet another 20th Century.....?

2012-01-18T22:51:00.002Z

The former head of the Turkish Armed Forces, Gen. Ilker Basburg has since the 5th January 2012 been put in jail without a charge laid at his door and joins nearly 300 other military officers who have remained in jail for years, without a single conviction to date, on conspiracy to overthrow the AKP, the Justice and Development Party.

The Turkish Journalist Union reports that in the region of 100 journalists have now been arrested and are in prison, few of whom have been convicted of anything.

The Turkish Human Rights Association has revealed that of the 128,000 people currently imprisoned in Turkey only 48% have been convicted of any crime.

And this is a Nato member country!

What does such a government stand for?

I leave you to hold your breath and utter the words that you wish to use in this context:

..................................................................................................................................

The information for this article was derived from an article at National Review by Alex Alexiev at this address.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288343/turkey-nato-s-open-prison-alex-alexiev

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Defends Christians

2012-01-17T17:41:00.001Z

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Defends Christians

This is a stunning piece since we see Britain's Chief Rabbi defending Christians persecuted around the world.

All I can say to him, is this.

Thank you.

And to ask him this question?

Would you like a stint as Archbishop of Canterbury for it is not difficult to conclude that you might do a better job at defending Christianity than the present incumbent since you may well believe more than he does of what historical Christianity stands for?

Christ the Word Incarnate.

2012-01-16T21:38:00.000Z

"Christ is the Word incarnate, the very centre and object of our faith, and our access to and understanding of Him and what He has done has been preserved first and foremost in words that God himself has disclosed, the Scriptures, that is the Bible. This is why the exposition and application of it's texts are so crucial. However, we live in an Age when even amongst certain evangelicals there is a decreased confidence in objective truth and an emphasise increasingly instead on such matters as incarnational living and community which can too often be really about biblical illiteracy and then over time the inevitable starts to happen and the so-called new enlightened form of christianity starts to become indistinguishable from the culture around however immoral it is from that Scriptural perspective."

Our length of days; David's soul and Psalm 139, verse 16.

2012-01-15T13:47:00.002Z

This Psalm is a truly intimate portrayal of the deep relationship David had with His Lord. Once lets it's truths soak in and be absorbed by your soul and you will not be the same again. For to know how much God is involved in the minutiae of our daily lives and why it is that He can be- because of who He is, is in itself restoration enough of what it means to be human and loved.

But today it is to two particular verses that I turn. Psalm 139 and verses 15 and 16.

"My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them."

To know this is to know that you are special.

To know that all the days that there will be for you have already been settled even before there were any, is mindbogglingly wonderful; it is reassuring and of great comfort. You will not pass from this earth one moment too late or one moment too early. Thank God for that! There is no one else who has control over my life, over your life contrary to what it may seem and anyway who would want such a responsibility? Only surely someone who knows all, is present everywhere, and is all powerful and yet is gracious, full of mercy, compassionate and just.

This is our God, and thank God our times are in his hands.

To grieve, really truly!

2012-01-13T22:51:00.001Z

One of the worst things about real grief is it's terrifying dislocation and disorientation. You can cry so much that eventually there just isin't anything left in your body to feel.

Life is a grieving process, whether it is about failures, the loss of people or things that have become so dear! And infused with a sense of injustice and unfairness, the darkness can be overwhelming.

Are we not mere mortals, waterfilled places?

No, fortunately, for we can know deep within the loss of love.

Ron Paul for President? His libertarianism, a quote from Charles Krauthammer

2012-01-13T17:51:00.002Z

"....Put aside your own view of libertarianism or of Paul himself. I see libertarianism as an important critique of the Leviathan state, not a governing philosophy. As for Paul himself, I find him a principled, somewhat wacky, highly engaging eccentric. But regardless of my feelings or yours, the plain fact is that Paul is nurturing his movement toward visibility and legitimacy.

AdvertisementPaul is 76. He knows he’ll never enter the promised land. But he’s clearing the path for son Rand, his better placed (Senate versus House), more moderate, more articulate successor.

And it matters not whether you find amusement in libertarians practicing dynastic succession. What Paul has already wrought is a signal achievement, the biggest story yet of this presidential campaign...."

From his article at National Review today entitled "Ron's Big Second". Here is the address:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/287986/ron-paul-s-big-second-charles-krauthammer

The incoming night sky, sight and time, a fast becoming loss!

2012-01-12T22:50:00.000Z

My wife affectionately, excitedly called me to look out at the incoming night sky- the sheer beauty of a multi-coloured mix, in the way! I could barely pull myself away from the intensity of my moment and latest legal theorem!

But I did, just that!

Even then I could barely afford a moment, for sight and time were in short supply! But the infusion of those brief breathless draughts of that view had their way, wresting me from the cloistered vaults of soundless thoughts! I had to stop, to breathe and to find my way to the surface of the sanity of that day!

My life came jolting back again!

Life's many tortures, our ultimate ends!

2012-01-11T23:03:00.001Z

You just do not know what is around the corner?

Someone dear to you receives bad news about her health; you hear of a family whose son is splitting up from his wife; someone else is diagnosed with breast cancer and is about to be operated on, your own body feels it's deterioration daily:- more than enough to remind you of our frailty as human beings and to draw out that inner sense that this all feels profoundly unnatural, this moving towards deterioration and the ultimate physical end of all of us, death!

But we can also in these situations experience all kinds of kindnesses from others as we receive their love in support. We can be thankful for the life that we have had and do still have, and for many revel in the hope that there is a life to come when we shall be changed into our new body. We can of course also pray and also sing; sing of all that we have and all that we have been given, of the mercy of a life undeserved, profoundly creative and profoundly destructive! I am reminded of the Second Letter of Paul's to the Corinthian Church, chapter 5 and verses 1 to 10.

Our Heavenly Dwelling

1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

David Galula; the North African Berbers, the loss of their land to Arab invaders centuries ago and more! An article by Anne Marlowe at Tablet Magazine.

2012-01-09T19:59:00.002Z

David Galula’s Counterinsurgency Ideas Used in Iraq and Afghanistan – Tablet Magazine, an article by Anne Marlow, revealing much about the Berbers of North Africa here at this address!

David Galula’s Counterinsurgency Ideas Used in Iraq and Afghanistan – Tablet Magazine

This is a unique insight amongst other things into the Berbers of North Africa particularly in Algeria with the potential to draw from it a number of lessons from the conflict there and an attempt to raise a parallel with American success or failures in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Anne Marlow the writer draws upon the writings of a Tunisia-born Jew and French officer who fought the Berbers in Algeria who apparently pioneered the counterinsurgency warfare still used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anne is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, is the author of a biography of David Galula. She blogs at World Affairs. Her Twitter feed is at @annmarlowe.

I found some of the statistics fascinating and they speak for themselves!

Here take a look at this part.

"...The “Berber Spring” of 1980, which culminated in a bloody government crackdown, was the point of no return for the Kabyle. In 1994 and ’95, 10 million Kabyles kept their children out of school to protest the Arab-only curriculum. Since 1981, autonomy or even independence for the Kabyle has been a popular, if not successful, cause.

There are at least three obvious points of tension between North African Berbers/Amazigh and Arabs. The first is over the historical fact of the Arab conquest. Every Berber I have met has told me that Amazigh were the original inhabitants of North Africa and that all of that land was once theirs. As one Libyan Amazigh told me, “I’m tired of hearing about the Palestinians and how the Jews took their land. What about how the Arabs took our land?”

There is also the fact that the official language of all the North African countries is Arabic—yet in Morocco 60 percent of the population are Tamazight or Berber-speaking, in Algeria 30 percent, and in Libya perhaps 10 percent. In most of North Africa, the Arabophone majority has suppressed or (in the case of Qaddafi’s Libya) outright prohibited the use of Tamazight, a language that is estimated to be anywhere from 2,200 to 3,000 years old; its tiffinagh script has more than 30 letters, differing somewhat from region to region, and some of them look like ancient Greek....

A prayer from Queen Elizabeth I's re-introduced 1552 Book of Common Prayer.

2012-01-08T10:57:00.002Z

" God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proeed; Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen."

Friends Indeed | The Weekly Standard. "How and why the Jews have thrived in England." by Daniel Johnson.

2012-01-07T10:49:00.001Z

Friends Indeed The Weekly Standard

This is an interesting article which I am not in a position to evaluate except sketchingly but it is worth knowing about and considering. By and large it is positive about England and for that reason I am thankful and relieved!

Diane Abbott’s real offence is to deny children the best start in life - Telegraph by Graeme Archer

2012-01-07T10:17:00.002Z

Diane Abbott’s real offence is to deny children the best start in life - Telegraph

The full version of this Telegraph article at the web address above is a thoughtful but critical view of the comments recently made by Diane Abbott MP for Hackney North and of something of her political career. The part whch I find particulary compelling is his remarks about "received opinions" and his despising of "thought control" and it is encouraging to see how such remarks are beginning to surface and find more free reign in a society that has been hammered for years by many who would wish to destroy much of what makes it a place you want to live or come to. Here is the part.

"...So no, I won’t be flying a flag of sympathy for Miss Abbott. But neither will I join in the Two Minute Hate at her silly remarks. This fixation with labelling some expressions of social observation as racist, or an offence against some other legally defined protected category of human, is one of the most debilitating aspects of modern life. Where once we had received pronunciation, we now have received opinions. More than “received”: if you don’t repeat them, you will be publicly pilloried and made to pay a price. (Ask Adrian Smith, the housing officer who wouldn’t publicly support gay marriage and whose employer demoted him as a result.)

I despise such thought control. It is always, and everywhere, wrong. It is not the same thing as expecting civility in public discourse - alas, a foolish expectation in nihilist Britain. And just because the Left has sought for decades to subvert our culture, to control and destroy our institutions, partly through the deployment of language control (partly too with their refusal to judge real evidence of social breakdown), this does not mean that when a Leftist sins, we should redeploy the same weapon against her...."

Santorum, worth a good look!

2012-01-06T22:43:00.008Z

You know that the Republicans are on to something when Charles Krauthammer talks of Rick Santorum being a worthy challenger.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/287303/worthy-challenger-charles-krauthammer

In fact, I would say that he has a position that could well be a unifying force for many of the electorate and certainly enough to beat Obama; that of social conservatism. Much as we would all like to see something of the Ron Paul effect on the government of the United States, it is just not going to happen, at least not overnight and so we need someone who can offer the potential for change without throwing out the baby with the bathwater. For as Charles has said in the above article and I agree:

"But he isn’t just the last man standing. He is the first challenger to be plausibly presidential: knowledgeable, articulate, experienced, of stable character and authentic ideology."

Romney is not to be trusted on key ethical issues and neither also on the socialistic model of more and more state control. He has flip flopped too many times! Whatever you may think of his politics Santorum shoots straight from the heart and just speaks of authenticity and humaneness. He does seem to have the perfect opportunity to show the way, and he has that intellectual capacity to think and argue his corner and so lets look forward to a process that seems to be proving the cast members and bringing through those who are able to lead and stand up for common sense values and compassion. As Quin Hillyer has said today in National Review.

"The reality is that Rick Santorum’s instincts and intellectual choices consistently tend toward freedom."

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/287441/rick-santorum-conservative-stalwart-quin-hillyer

Democracy is working after all!

Rick Santorum's Iowa Caucas-Night Party; tribute to his wife and to his God.

2012-01-05T17:50:00.000Z

What is sustaining grace?

2012-01-04T22:11:00.002Z

John Piper's answer is:

Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/sustained-by-sovereign-grace-forever
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Michele Bachmann stands down.

2012-01-04T17:46:00.002Z

video platform video management video solutions video player

No not "modern" science, just science?

2012-01-03T17:51:00.000Z

"Science, no not "modern" science has achieved a credibility and prestige of a kind. Certainly amongst certain select elites who aspire to be involved in an intellectually coherent discipline, but for many reasons and not just for its share of intellectual plausibility. One key reason is because of its control on the levers of academic power. Whilst there have been immense practical successes there have also been enormous failures; for the discipline has been and still is too often linked to and has become an instrument of violence and hatred. Armed with a more extensive humility the proponents of science and particularly scientific materialism will serve the army of science far better. They will also cease the incoherence of jumbling it up with philosophical positions masquerading as scientific facts.

Many Christians who have become convinced that the account of creation days in the Book of Genesis is true have as part of that process and continue to do so, addressed apparent evidence of science for an alternative paradigm, in fact some might say they were for a long perod of their lives brainwashed by it’s absolutist call. That process involves, particularly for those within science, addressing both the evidence of science against and the evidence of science in favour and suggesting alternative hypothesis based on that evidence. That form of scientific investigation, and the definition of it’s breadth and embrace is in itself a troubling challenge, that is, is it an Einsteinian type of science or what? Such a scientific investigatory approach is as much the goal for those in the field of science who are also Christians as it is any other member of society and the fact that the science laid bear promotes in that scientist’s view the cause of the christian viewpoint does not change the evidence based nature of their enquiry, and therefore the science of their approach. The record of the science examined, addressed and analysed by many Christians is science, it is just that the extrapolations from that record are not appreciated by many. Since when anyway was a contrarian position no longer a scientific one? Ask the leader of North Korea."

The love of writing, a quote by Yu Hua in his book China in Ten Words.

2012-01-01T20:48:00.001Z

"Many years have passed since then, but my love of writing remains undiminished. All of us have countless desires and emotions that we cannot express, inhibited as we are by mundane realities and rational instincts. But in the world of writing these suppressed desires and emotions can find an unrestricted outlet. Writng tends to promote physical and psychological health, I feel, for it can make one's life complete. To put it another way, writing enables me to claim ownership of two lives, one imaginary and one real, and the relationship between them is like between sickness and health: when one is strong, the other is bound to fall into decline. So as my real life becomes more routine, my imaginary life is all the more brimming with incident."

By Yu Hua from his book "China in Ten Words" on pages 87 and 88.

His love of writing is clear although the relation between the two lives requires thoughtful consideration.

I have just recently read the book and reviewed it on an earlier blog.

The year ending 2011:- Senna, the film; Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers; 2 Peter and more much more.

2012-01-01T12:52:00.004Z

I wonder what it is that will be first and foremost in your memory of this year now retired. Probably many things and maybe there are matters you cannot recall just now. It has been an interesting and challenging year.

I loved watching the film "Senna" and that has to be my favourite film of the year! Do watch it! Reading has been a much needed solace and I have read some great books. Francine Rivers book, "Voice in the Wind" will remain with me for a long time; just the sheer force of it's exhibition of the Christian faith in the life of Hadassah- I cried at the end and a book has not done that to me for a long time. Of all of the books of the Bible, Peter's Second letter has truly nourished my faith. I learnt so much from it's exposition and subsequently from dwelling on it, so much so that I suddenly realised how unteachable I had become and how I needed more humility to learn. And of course to Tim Keller I return for his book "King's Cross" was truly exceptional, not just for it's adherence to scripture but the way he brought so much of the Gospel of Mark alive and thankfully the Holy Spirit opened my heart to receive and apply it to my life.

My daughter coming around the corner to my office and telling me that she had passed her final medical exams was a wonderful moment. So too, writing and passing all three of my law dissertations in a few months, very rewarding. And I cannot leave out our two trips to Rock in Cornwall together and my other daughter telling us of her impending baptism. So, so so much to be thankful to God for.

I am too reminded of the challenge of living this life for me and so many across the globe, of the hatred and the love and of my longing for Christ to return. I can think of no better confessional statement than that from the Heidleberg Confession below, at this time of the year. I commend it to you and to your soul for the year ahead.

"Question 26. What believest thou when thou sayest, "I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"?

Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them; who likewise upholds and governs the same by his eternal counsel and providence) is for the sake of Christ his Son, my God and my Father; on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt, but he will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body and further, that he will make whatever evils he sends upon me, in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage; for he is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful Father."

China in Ten Words by Yu Hua

2011-12-30T16:00:00.001Z

Yu Hua, born in 1960 in Zhejiang, China is one of China's most gifted of writers. He lives in Beijing. This ralatively short book reproduced in New Caledonia typeface is his first work of nonfiction to appear in English; translated by Allan H. Barr when he taught English at Pomona College California. It looks intimately at the Chinese experience in the last several decades and in the process reveals starkly and candidly under a series of key words chapter headings the paradox of the Chinese way of life.

The ten words are:-

People; Leader; Reading; Writing; Lu Xun; Revolution; Disparity; Grassroots; Copycat; Bamboozle.

I am currently on my second reading.

He opens at the "Tiananmen Incident of 1989" re-living the experience of the "People" and taking you through the undergrowth of dialectic misinformation as best he can and on to the grittiest of exposures, consonant with authenticity and integrity; an exposure that centres on the "People". I shall be haunted by the image he portrays, for the heaving heat of their unity cascades one from the wonder of humankind to it's self-immolation.

Under the word " Reading" and at page fifty eight.

" What have these thirty years of reading given you?" I am sometimes asked. It is no easier to answer than to articulate one's reaction to a boundless ocean.

I did once sum up my experience in the following way: " Every time I read one of the great books, I feel myself transported to another place, and like a timid child I hug them close and mimic their steps, slowly tracing the long river of time in a journey where warmth and emotion fuse. They carry me off with them, then let me make my own way back, and it's only on my return that I realise they will always be part of me."

This experience is there for the taking as you read.

For those who love China and the Chinese people, for those even who know little of either, I would commend this movingly grievingly great but short literature. After referring to a line in a poem by Heine: " Death is the cooling night." which restored to him a childhood memory, "returning freshly washed, in limpid clarity, never again to leave him" he soulfully expresses the mysterious power of literature.

" If literature truly possesses a mysterious power, I think perhaps it is precisely this: that one can read a book by a writer of a different time, a different country, a different race, a different language, and a different culture and there encounter a sensation that is one's very own. Heine put into words the feeling I had as a child when I lay napping in the morgue. And that, I tell myself, is literature."

The words of this literature retain an identity of mysterious power for they say nothing and yet they say it all.

The New Old Europe - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online.

2011-12-29T11:08:00.002Z

The New Old Europe - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

"...Like clockwork every few decades, some self-described European “visionaries” swear that the continent can either live in peace under utopian protocols or, more darkly, be united under one grand — and undemocratic — system, willingly or not. But for all the noble pretensions of the Congress of Vienna and the European Union — and the nightmarish spread of Napoleon’s Continental System and the Third Reich — and for all the promises of European-born fascism, Communism, and socialism, the result is always the same: disunion, acrimony, and infighting.

That schizophrenia is what we should expect from dozens of cultures and histories squeezed into too small a continentfull of lots of bright — and quite proud — people. Every new Europe always ends up as old Europe."

— Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The End of Sparta, a novel about ancient freedom. © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Christmas is over! Redeeming the time, movies, the Choir, Downton Abbey and the lost art of rest and recuperation!

2011-12-28T09:54:00.002Z

There is a visible sense of relief in me when Christmas is over!

This is not because I reject the celebration as a way for Christians to be reminded of the birth of Jesus Christ and the implications. I welcome that unequivocally. And I also recognise the cultural significance of a period when families, and generally large numbers of society can share an experience together for good. But I am relieved that the consumerist pressure cooker has spewed out of steam; the expectations of the time are put aside and the damacles sword of failure or success has passed- you may be thinking I feel persecuted by the time, not true!!!.

These more negative sides to Christmas have definitely weakened their hold over me over the years but the attempt to prise myself away from them is difficult for fear of being accused of being Scrooge or negative or an individualist and a party pooper!!! I suppose part of the solution is to offer imaginative alternative content, to make positive suggestions that address the values that you would prefer to see, to engage others in their ideas. This is much more difficult and like so often it is easy to address something's weaknesses but not always easy to institute change that satisfies.

This year at the start of December I decided to concentrate on the prayer of Mary the mother of Jesus (see my series on this) following her hearing from the Angel Gabriel and I have stuck with that and as the predominant Christian theme for me this Christmas it has been an encouraging one. I was encouraged some weeks ago by someone to watch films that had "redeeming qualities" about them and so took to watching some old "beauties". I have seen it in the past but I was able to get a coloured version of "It's a Wonderful Life", and although I did not find it as sad and moving as I did when I was a young boy, it was still a very pleasant and helpful film. I managed to introduce it to my daughters for the first time, just and they also enjoyed it. Another classic "redeeming" type film is "Penny Serenade" starring Cary Grant in black and white. It talks of the ups and downs of married life, the weaknesses of a husband's leadership, the concerns of his loving wife and although the acting is not always that good by Cary it is a film that flows with reality and life but in a thoughtful caring way. It is worth at least watching once in your lifetime. The "Choir" on BBC2 was an encouraging programme, much as I find it difficult to admit that there is anything good about the BBC, although if any family member is reading this I shall try hard to be helpful!!???? Taking the wives and girlfriends of servicemen who were on duty overseas and making them into a choir that was able to sing in the Royal Albert Hall in front of the Queen was a great achievement for Gareth and the women and was very uplifting and Melanie Phillips in a piece on the programme over the Christmas made some compelling points here. To enable these women to rise above their normal expectations and find their voices, their creative talents and engage it for the benefit of their families and many of us is a noble uplifting cause and worthy of this time of Christmas celebration. Britain is not yet dead!

But I shall end on the subject of Downton Abbey on ITV2. It has it's weaknesses but I have hung on in there, as apparently have many millions of others, and the two hour Christmas special really came good and particularly for romantics like me. The creation of the atmosphere of the times and the quality of the script were very good and I do think by and large they have chosen well with the actors. There were some memorable lines and the piece de resistance for me was the offer of marriage by Matthew to Lady Mary, yeh!!!! The perfect ending to the Christmas period, peace for us all!! I shall have to watch it again!

So with all this and more it has been a restful and recuperative time, and for some of us including me it is still going.

The art of rest and recuperation is never an easy one to master!

Keith Thomas at the London Review of Books and also Michael Wood; taking a look at the educational process- lean and mean years ahead!

2011-12-27T10:54:00.009Z

The London Review of Books has produced a bumper issue on the 15th December 2011. Several of the articles are very helpful starting points on subjects such as Haruki Murakami; the 1914-1918 World War; the book "Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe by Norman Davies" reviewed by Neal Ascherson and particularly the two on University education as they lay down useful arguments to analyse in favour of education for education sake. Access to them is currently free. Here they are.

Universities under attack by Keith Thomas at this address.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n24/keith-thomas/universities-under-attack

"We are all deeply anxious about the future of British universities. Our list of concerns is a long one. It includes the discontinuance of free university education; the withdrawal of direct public funding for the teaching of the humanities and the social sciences; the subjection of universities to an intrusive regime of government regulation and inquisitorial audit; the crude attempt to measure and increase scholarly ‘output’; the requirement that all academic research have an ‘impact’ on the economy; the transformation of self-governing communities of scholars into mega-businesses, staffed by a highly-paid executive class, who oversee the professors, or middle managers, who in turn rule over an ill-paid and often temporary or part-time proletariat of junior lecturers and research assistants, coping with an ever worsening staff-student ratio; the notion that universities, rather than collaborating in their common task, should compete with one another, and with private providers, to sell their services in a market, where students are seen, not as partners in a joint enterprise of learning and understanding, but as ‘consumers’, seeking the cheapest deals that will enable them to emerge with the highest earning prospects; the indiscriminate application of the label ‘university’ to institutions whose primary task is to provide vocational training and whose staff do not carry out research; and the rejection of the idea that higher education might have a non-monetary value, or that science, scholarship and intellectual inquiry are important for reasons unconnected with economic growth...."

Must we pay for Sanskrit by Michael Wood at this address.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n24/michael-wood/must-we-pay-for-sanskrit

"A couple of markers may help. We are all situated somewhere, even if we see ourselves as cosmopolitans emancipated from mere biography. I was a beneficiary of the old idealistic British system, a grammar-school boy who went to Cambridge in the 1950s when not too many people were so lucky. If we can’t afford such a system any longer because we wish to make a good education available to many more people – if that is our real reason and our real intention – then we have to think of proper new ways of funding it...."

Cry Aloud by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of the Barnabas Fund.

2011-12-26T10:29:00.004Z

This article by Dr Patrick Sookhdeo was first published in the January/February edition of Barnabas Aid. Copyright Barnabas Fund 2012. Reproduced by kind permission.

Cry Aloud

On 16 October 2011 an Egyptian Christian schoolboy was beaten to death by some of his Muslim classmates, apparently at the instigation of a Muslim teacher at his school in Mallawi, Minya province. Like most Egyptian Christians, Ayman Nabil Labib (17) had a cross tattooed on his wrist.

On that day, the teacher had asked him to cover it up, but Ayman instead revealed that he wore another cross around his neck under his shirt. The infuriated teacher is reported to have incited the other boys to attack their fellow student. By the time an ambulance arrived, Ayman was dead.

Egyptian police arrested and charged the two students, but not the teacher or any other
member of the school staff. Only three witnesses have come forward to make statements to the police. The parents of the other students are reported to be afraid of what the school might do to their sons if they made statements, as well as being afraid of the families of the two boys who have been arrested.

Barely three weeks earlier, a Pakistani Christian schoolgirl also faced a life-threatening
situation, simply because of a spelling mistake.

On 22 September Faryal Bhatti (13), a pupil at Sir Syed Girls High School in Havelian, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was reprimanded and beaten by her teacher because she had misplaced a single dot in a word while answering a question on a poem about Muhammad. Her accidental slip turned the word naat, which refers to praise of Muhammad, into lanaat, which means “curse”. As news of the incident spread, Muslim protestors called for Faryal to be punished for her “blasphemy”. According to Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the crime of defiling the name of Muhammad carries a mandatory death sentence. Faryal was expelled from her school, and she and her family have fled the area.

These shocking incidents cause us to rage against the violence and injustice meted out to innocent Christian youngsters. And they are but two examples of what our Christian brothers and sisters have to endure in so many parts of the world.

At the start of a new year, let us resolve to speak out for them. How can we be silent when such injustices are occurring? We must cry aloud for justice.

This new year brings with it both hope and foreboding. We believe in the Lord of history who holds this world in His hands, and thus we can face the new year with confidence. But also we see a rising tide of persecution, and we wonder what our fellow believers will be called to endure in the coming twelve months.

A year ago, in January 2011, the “Arab Spring” was initiated by the self-immolation of a desperate young man in Tunisia. As events unfolded in the Middle East, I wrote of my concerns that the Arab Spring might become a Christian Autumn in the region, or even a Christian Winter.

Sadly this has proved to be the case. Libya,freed from Gaddafi’s tyranny, is moving rapidly to become an Islamic state. On 22 October, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the leader of the Transitional National Council, emphasised the central role Islam will play in the new Libya: “We are an Islamic country. We take the Islamic religion as the core of our new government. The constitution will be based on our Islamic religion.” Jalili’s statement was greeted with approving cries of “Allahu Akbar” (“god is great”). He also said that laws contradicting sharia would be nullified, and specified that polygamy would be legalised.

Tunisia has already voted in an Islamist party, Ennahda, and it seems virtually certain that the Muslim Brotherhood will gain political power in Egypt when elections are held (due soon after the time of writing). The Iranian view of the upheavals in the Middle East, as not an Arab Spring but an “Islamic Awakening”, certainly seems to have been justified.

The rise of Islamism across the Middle East, and indeed the rest of the world, is accelerating. And Christians are caught in its wake. However, the West seems to have little concern for the plight of Christian minorities. The catastrophe of post-war Iraq and its horrendous effects on Iraqi Christians may well be replicated in Syria this year. The tragedy of a tiny and beleaguered Christian population in Afghanistan, with their even smaller refugee communities in Islamabad and New Delhi, has gained neither international attention nor any kind of protection by the West or NATO. Worse still, Western countries at this time are unwilling to give asylum to these small groups of Afghan Christians.

Long ago, another innocent and faithful believer made a passionate plea for justice. Job’s words come to us with devastating force,ringing down the centuries.

“I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment” (Job 19:7, KJV).

This is the experience of so many Christians today who live in conditions where their cries cannot be heard. But we who live in Western democracies will be heard if we cry out courageously and persistently. So we cannot be silent in the face of injustice against anyone. We must not be silent. For to be silent is to acquiesce in violence, injustice and unrighteousness.

In the 1990s I, together with the late Sheikh Zaki Badawi, the senior Muslim leader for the UK, stood against the oppression of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs and also addressed the discrimination and racism of British society directed towards Muslims and ethnic minorities.

Now we must cry aloud again, for the needs and rights of our Christian brothers and sisters. Barnabas Fund was much criticised last year for speaking out on behalf of vulnerable and marginalised Christian minorities who cannot speak for themselves. But we will not be silenced, whether by fellow Christians, by Islamists or by governments. John Wycliffe, the 14th century English preacher who suffered great persecution for his initiative to translate the Bible into English, anticipated that he might die a painful martyr’s death but said,
“What! Should I be silent? Never! Let the blow fall; I await its coming.” We at Barnabas Fund will continue to cry aloud, whatever the cost, remembering Job’s glorious affirmation of hope in the midst of his suffering:

“I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth”
(Job 19:25, KJV).
“I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment”
(Job 19:7, KJV).

This article by Dr Patrick Sookhdeo was first published in the January/February edition of Barnabas Aid. Copyright Barnabas Fund 2012. Reproduced by kind permission.

Mary's foretaste of heaven, strengthened by God for her noble work of bearing Jesus!

2011-12-24T21:36:00.006Z

In this my final piece this Christmas I return to the song Mary sang after she had come to know that she was with child of the Holy Spirit; the Magnificat.

The Angel of the Lord, Gabriel had transformed her for he had brought to her the call and through him the presence, of God. And her heart submitted helpless before God's declared purposes and her already deep knowledge of Him. She was now in a state of electrified wonder. She was experiencing worship, for who God is had come to her and enveloped her consciousness and spirit; for He had brought to her the embrace of His love, strengthening her for the road ahead.

This is what she said in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 1, verses 46 to 50.

46 And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

In this revelation of God to her and in her example in responding, we are reminded too of the effects of experiencing the presence of God through Jesus in time and space. The result is worship of Him and all that He is. This too is the heritage and home of those who obey His Word and seek His presence through prayer, the discovery of and desire for worship of Him. For the faith of so many down the thousands of years testifies of this truth that to know God through Jesus is to know and experience God's presence as through His Holy Spirit in us we worship Him.

May God bless you and keep you this Christmas and for evermore!

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

2011-12-23T22:37:00.002Z

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." The gospel of Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21.

We have seen the immense pain that Joseph must have felt when learning of Mary's pregnancy but he showed that rare fortitude and did not waiver from the guidance of his integrity. This was met by God with the remarkable intervention of the Angel. This was to be no ordinary birth, his name would be Jesus and He would save His people from their sin!

It is difficult to understand and sympathise with a position that maintains the goodness of human beings. There is much to be grateful for; we are all made in the image of God and the light that enlightens every man has come and remains in and though His people. But to disagree with the basic Christian view that all have fallen short of the standards that God has set for mankind is a negligent myopia and reckless. That position, for which each of us are responsible, means that we are destined for a life, an everlasting life separated from our God. Why else would He Jesus be sent and come, why else would the very essence of his coming be centred as here described on dealing with that problem, our rejection of our Maker. He came to bear the just punishment for our rejection of our God His father and he did that in His body on the Cross. He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin. He must be a righeous man because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others. He must be true God so that by the power of His divine nature He might bear in His human nature the burden of God's wrath. This is Jesus who came to save His people from their sin.

On 16 October 2011 an Egyptian Christian schoolboy was beaten to death by some of his Muslim classmates, apparently at the instigation of a Muslim teacher at his school in Mallawi, Minya province. Like most Egyptian Christians, Ayman Nabil Labib (17) had a cross tattooed on his wrist.

On that day, the teacher had asked him to cover it up, but Ayman instead revealed that he wore another cross around his neck under his shirt. The infuriated teacher is reported to have incited the other boys to attack their fellow student. By the time an ambulance arrived, Ayman was dead.

Egyptian police arrested and charged the two students, but not the teacher or any other
member of the school staff. Only three witnesses have come forward to make statements to the police. The parents of the other students are reported to be afraid of what the school might do to their sons if they made statements, as well as being afraid of the families of the two boys who have been arrested.

This is but one example of the desperate effects of sin, there are endless more and the nature that breathes such enmity towards others is within all of us. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. We should not be surprised!

(The above record of events comes directly and verbatim from an article entitled "Cry Aloud by Patrick Sookhdeo, first published in the January/February edition of Barnabas Aid. Copyright Barnabas Fund 2012 and with their kind permission. The full version of that article I will file shortly.)

"Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." Prostrated by this eternal verity!

2011-12-21T18:01:00.010Z

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 1 and verses 18 to 20;

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Joseph must have been stymied by what appeared as his fiance's immorality and wondered what was going on; why me? We know that he was guided by his integrity to find the way through this personal tragedy. The lot is cast into the lap as it says in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible but "the decision is wholly from the Lord". We should maintain the integrity of our confession of faith and seek what God wants as we consider and decide on what to do about the issues we might face, seeking to reflect the God who is there!

This remaining true to ourselves before God will help us to find the right way, the old paths, the good way. Oh the majesty of discovering His Will for our lives, just as Joseph did! Joseph could be spoken to by God through the Angel for He would listen and that is the real honour he was given.

The message he received "turned his world upside down", that what was conceived in Mary was of the Holy Spirit. For Mary was bearing Jesus, God incarnate, Immanuel, God with us. A message of utter incredibility; a total humbling of the human psyche and the bankrupting of much of human logic. The affirmation that is of both the humanity of Christ born of Mary and of the deity of Christ that Jesus is God.

How can this be, for it is?

And in Church history both the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) bore testimony that this was non-negotiable! One person Jesus possessing two natures, without confusion or division.

This Christmas I cast myself on the ground in humility submission and adoration at this knowledge, of which I am persuaded and privileged. Thank you Jesus for coming, thank you my Saviour!

How I pray that you, too may also share in this worship this Christmas!

Joseph's mercy; pointing the way and reflecting so much of the heart of what the Christian faith is!

2011-12-19T22:31:00.022Z

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 1 and verses 18b to 19; Joseph

18b Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Reflect for a moment on what appears an inauspicious start to the coming of the long prophesied Messiah! Engaged to Joseph, a commitment to marry, she is found to be expecting a child! And yet here was this man Joseph resolving only "to divorce her quietly". A "loving act of gracious dealing" in circumstances where at the very least he must have been sorely wounded and hurt. The whole incident echoes the time in Jesus later ministry when a crowd gathered to stone a woman caught in the act of adultery. Jesus turned around and said let him who is without sin cast the first stone. And of course no one could!

There can always be a loving controlled dealing with something that is wrong and there can also be instead an arrogant, myopic and destructive atomisation of the very same matter, whether that be at the physical, emotional or spiritual level. But Joseph points the way, for we see his restrained abhorrence of sin; in this decision his patience and mercy, his just reaction and his goodness. Hallmarks, too, of true Christian faith, reflecting much of the beauty of who God is.

He showed forth mercy justice and goodness, which enabled the way to be so clearly opened for someone who is and would be called " Mighty God", to emerge out of this seemingly dire situation. We see in his treatment of this woman, his attempts to preserve her honor and respect her, a foretaste of the love of Christ, the drawing open of the way for the coming of Jesus, the name that is above every name!

We should seek to be merciful just and good even amidst seeming dishonour and failure!

Not everything is as it may seem but we can be guided by our integrity.

Muslim Brotherhood has Western liberals, media fooled | The Examiner | Op Eds | Washington Examiner by Herbert London

2011-12-19T22:01:00.001Z

Muslim Brotherhood has Western liberals, media fooled The Examiner Op Eds Washington Examiner

This is yet another perspicacious piece by Herbert London of Hudson Institute fame. If there was ever a piece that graphically highlights the weaknesses of democracy, this is it. It is the same problem that the authorities found themselves in in Algeria years ago, locked into a system that delivers into the hands of the Muslim brotherhood it will not be long before theocratic totalitarianism follows and woe betide anyone who disagrees never mind any issues of truth.

Prime Minister’s King James Bible Speech - Number 10

2011-12-19T17:45:00.000Z

Prime Minister’s King James Bible Speech - Number 10

The Birth of Jesus Christ; oh for a thousand tongues to sing, my great redeemer's praise!

2011-12-18T19:37:00.001Z

The Birth of Jesus Christ; the gospel of Matthew chapter 1 and verses 18 to 25.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

A hymn by Charles Wesley

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise,
The glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
that bids our sorrows cease,
'Tis music in the sinner's ear,
'tis life and health and peace.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free.
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availeth for me.

He speaks, and listening to His voice,
new life the dead receive.
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice;
the humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
your loosened tongues employ.
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come;
and leap, ye lame, for joy.

My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the Earth abroad,
the honours of Thy name.

Reality and the loss of soul; Xue Jinbo's death in police custody and the fishing village of Wukan.

2011-12-17T21:43:00.005Z

We remember at this time and pray for the family of Xue Jinbo, killed in police custody and the villagers of the fishing village of Wukan in Southern China, Guandong Province resisting the encroachments of seeming unscrupulous land grabbers for farmland development. They but ask for redress through the proper channels.

We remember and pray for them for we are not islands but all are members of the one human family and as such they too are our brothers and sisters, flesh and blood, made in God's image.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/asia/chinese-village-locked-in-rebellion-against-authorities.html

Welcome to family life, an old rooster and a young chick!

2011-12-17T19:47:00.001Z

I saw this at a friend's house today and it made me smile!

The Hundred Years’ German War - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

2011-12-15T19:13:00.002Z

The German people are to be admired and not demeaned for their hard work and efforts. If through laziness we seek utopia unfortunately we deserve to reap the whirlwind or we should change. Kicking or screaming we shall have to. This is an excellent article from an excellent writer!

The Hundred Years’ German War - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

Victor Davis Hanson who wrote this piece is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The End of Sparta, a novel about ancient freedom. © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc. Here are the final few paragraphs of what he said at the above address.

"....Can poor European adolescents really obey their rich German parents? Berlin in essence has now scolded southern Europeans that if they still expect sophisticated medical care, high-tech appurtenances, and plentiful consumer goods — the adornments of a rich American and northern-European lifestyle — then they have to start behaving in the manner of Germans, who produce such things and subsidize them for others.

In other words, an Athenian may still have his ultra-modern airport and subway, a Spaniard may still get a hip replacement, and a Roman may still enjoy his new Mercedes. But not if they still insist on daily siestas, dinner at 9 p.m., retirement in their early 50s, cheating on taxes, and a de facto 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. workday.

Behind all the EU’s eleventh-hour gobbledygook, Germany’s new European order is clear: If you wish to live like a German, then you must work and save like a German. Take it or leave it."

Why marriage as we know it, in brief?

2011-12-15T13:22:00.001Z

"The unique complementarian nature of a covenant commitment between a man and a woman for life, equal and yet different, combined with the physical outworkings of that relationship as a product of natural law; in particular the potential to share together in the procreation of their children, gives that couple the maximal potential to be of help to each other, the opportunity to model unity between the opposite sex, and also to fulfill that unity with shared genetic outcomes. The promotion of such a shared union further supports; a key element of our ability as a world to sustain our existence-the ability to procreate, and a stable society for it operates under conditions that enable children to know and understand better from whom they have come by connection directly and genetically on a regular basis and across the generations thereby cementing better community social cohesion."

Hudson Institute Cultural Lexicon: China in Ten Words by Yu Hua: a review by Melanie Kirkpatrick.

2011-12-13T09:17:00.001Z

Hudson Institute Cultural Lexicon

Hudson Institute History, Ideology, and U.S. Climate Policy: Beyond the Orthodoxies of Left and Right

2011-12-13T09:03:00.000Z

Hudson Institute History, Ideology, and U.S. Climate Policy: Beyond the Orthodoxies of Left and Right

Nein! Non! No! Merkel, Sarkozy, Chaplin!

2011-12-12T22:50:00.000Z

Will this be Cameroon's Churchillian moment?

It may well be but in the end even the professional politician has to accept reality. Whatever you may think of the City of London and it's financial services industry, it is currently a core part of our national economic viability and to admit a process that would undermine it, would be a step too far even for him, and certainly for his party!

I am not so sure that in the end the forces of national annihilation in the levers of power are not too strong for this British Prime Minister who seems to have come good on this occasion.

We shall have to wait and see!

Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights | First Things

2011-12-11T10:31:00.002Z

Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights First Things

The re-definition of what it means to be human continues to find voice through the use of this Declaration, a far cry from what it ever was intended to be used for.

Kristina Olney who is a fellow of the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society, and Law and a native of Australia here at First Things sets out her case for what is really going on? Here is the end part of what she says.

"....The rationale behind the defamation of religions agenda was the same as the one behind the decision to censor the speech of Andrew Bolt and Dr. Van Gend in Australia and to arrest the “Ku Fu Fighting” singer in the U.K. The Orwellian effort to redefine human rights damages many real rights and betrays the legacy of the great United Nations declaration that was signed on this day."

The bankers windfall! The idiot's guide!

2011-12-11T04:38:00.004Z

So much of the institution of banking in the West has become in it's structure and symbiotic relationship with government a bastion of privilege and an expression of socialist fundamentalism rather than a reflection of any reasonable definition of capitalism at work. This pyrrhic socialist victory march has come from it's propagandist ability to appropriate the word "capitalism" to it's engine thereby "guerilla-fying" it's real goals, that is it's pursuance of it's relativist liberal warfare. If the process had succeeded, so the argument goes, then such socialism would have adapted and tamed the wild beast of capitalism. If it fails (currently) then it was all the fault of capitalism!

Just reflect on this as an illustration for the moment?

The profits, be they excessive or otherwise, of the financial services industry derive from a system whereby they are preserved by central government (State) intervention or fiat. Such a system ultimately encourages profligacy or recklessness for it is underpinned by a closed shop based on privilege. The privilege being that the normal forces of buying and selling, which without such government intervention, is premised upon the quality of the product or the need of the consumer, are set aside. So that the process becomes emptied of any driving force to keep prices down and thereby sufficiently control excessive profits.

And believe me, you and I pay for that ultimately through inflation.

So the State, with it's paternalistic motives (because we are not grown up enough yet)provides privileges for the few, who for a time appear to be providing opportunities (credit) for more of us and then BANG! It was all a charade for the trojan horse of credit loosening underpinned and still does a political programme of social engineering through state control and diasarms, distracts and debilitates us as individuals from the co-operative creativity and enterprise that sustains us long term. This route has become a honeypot for the privileged few with no incentive and that fails to expand the employment pool across Society egged on by the State.

So, where does responsibility for all this lie?

It lies with the State, in reinforcing and monumentalizing privilege for the few, who create paper jobs, and then for those who are "one of us". What else is the State capable of doing once it sucks up all the marrow, the fibre from us lot to implement it's utopic visions!

So when you see your grandmother's fixed rate pension moving down relative to the value of money and she is wondering whether to put the heating on, remember this, the deep symbiosis between the State and the bankers and ask yourself.

Who or what should be giving the real accounting?

If this is what we call capitalism, then language has lost all meaning?

2011-12-09T18:43:00.004Z

I had always understood that capitalism was about markets, and people co-operating and making individual choices and realising the consequences? Instead what do we see portrayed as capitalism? Rapid increases in the money supply through central organs of the State; dishonest banking practices that are not true custodial deposit taking institutions but use our money as if at the casino; excessive profits for many bankers; obsessive level trading; the apparently 1% objectionable rich; offshore tax havens, and most times associated with the "greed".

And yet why then do we have more state coercion than ever, more deprivation through the taxation of our hard earned cash, more and more attempts at state enforced social engineering and more than enough pooling of decisions to the centre for the arrogant technocratic few? Not much voluntary co-operation in all of that, and I can't see much fostering of individual choices and as to the freedom to respect one's conscience and to believe, in ever diminishing free fall?

There is much to be learned about political expression from the supply of money. When Labour came to power the money supply was in the region of £700 billion. It is currently almost 2.1 trillion, a tripling in 14 years. So much of that supply is channelled through the state, through the central bank via bankers! But why are we so trusting of the State and those bankers, why are we so willing to set up such a bottle-neck in the system to distribute the largesse? How can you expect a seemless release across the board of such funds to society at large, an appropriate prioritisation and degree of honesty to seek to benefit us all from just such a concentration of power and from there through a select few? That is surely the point! When such a money supply is concentrated into the hands of the technocratic few, who but the privileged few are likely to benefit? Can you blame them? We can but when self-interest is so prevalent within all of us why give them the levers of such economic power in the first place?

And who really suffers from this comprehensive concentration in the hands of the few, via the State and then the banking system. It is the common old working man or woman; without such distributive power, with less and less access to his own choices and their consequences. So that when all goes down hill we working men and women are left on the rack heap. Whoever is in power, by the use of such centralist methods and theories make the workers suffer for they have to pick up the pieces.

If capitalism is a government that takes more and more power from us; rips our hard earned cash from our pockets; tells us more and more how to live; debilitates our capacity to think for ourselves and reduces the incentives to any noble cause, then I say forget capitalism. But of course that is not capitalism, that is state funded socialism and communism. So don't give me that rubbish about the end of capitalism, we do not see capitalism at work we see the autocratic State thinking it is- playing God.

For this is my point.

What body can ever have the omnipotence, the omnipresence and the omniscience to know how best to rule our lives. None, and without the humility of that recognition in government we shall continue to rue the day when we accepted this type of democratic experiment.

If this is capitalism, then it is dead and so is democracy, too!

Cameron adrift, dragged kicking and screaming!

2011-12-09T17:43:00.000Z

It is not and it cannot be in Britain's interests to accept another lot of fawning subservience to a technocratic elite led by Germany and to a lesser degree by France. It is not in their interests to have us on board in that way either. Strange how we so rarely hear about anything other than the German French Alliance! Let them go, let them have their roast beef, we will stick with out Yorkshire pudding any day.

They say you can never trust a Yorkshireman. Maybe true, maybe not but at least a lot of the time he says what he means, does what he says and he enjoys his cricket and yes, fair play! I had never identified Monsieur Cameroon with all of that but maybe I will reflect again after his use of this veto to reject this new robespierre of a Treaty.

I don't agree with a lot of what Monsieur Cameroon stands for and there would have been a clear connection between the decision he might have made and the imploding of the Conservative party but he has here at least made the right decision.

Rule Britannia, or rather what is left of our freedoms!

Am I practical? Never did gardening!

2011-12-08T13:15:00.001Z

My wife tells me that contrary to the impression that may have been left by my last blog, I never did any gardening. Not so sure about that?

I bow to her greater knowledge!!??

How thankful I am that she loves the garden or at least when she is helped from time to time by my supervisory efforts!

You know the phrase,

"An Englishman And His Garden."

Am I practical? Dun gardening!

2011-12-07T23:20:00.003Z

I don't do gardening!

I have to admit that some of my most pleasurable of hours are spent using my mind, usually studying something. I remember well at age 11 travelling with my parents to Singapore to live there for two years in the 60s. Although my father was not in the army I went to an army school, Bourne School and looking back I loved it. I even played rugby in the sweltering heat and came to enjoy my first Coke from the machine at breaktimes. But I had a lot of catching up to do and one such subject was Latin. My teacher gave me a pile of notes to read in my own time to practice. I would return from school in the evening and go through them painstakingly. By the end of the year I had caught up and was very successful in the exams. So you can see what I enjoy doing!

Double left click on each picture for an excellent larger version. Oh, I remember it well!

There have been some side effects to so much study over the years and one of them is that I don't do gardening! What I mean by that is I do not have a lot of practical skills. So when people say to me, do you do the garden, I say yes, I do. I manage it by paying someone else to do it for me. Isin't that the same thing?

Sometimes we just have to be honest with ourselves, accept the gifts God has given us and just appreciate others help, in this case paid help. As I said to one of my daughter's recently, we do earn money also to spend it on what we need!

That's my motto anyway. Dun gardening!

Egypt’s Descent - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

2011-12-06T17:24:00.001Z

Egypt’s Descent - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

An Afghanistani woman raped is forced to marry her rapist and we are fighting there in support of that regime!

Degrading treatment of women!

Egypt’s Sham Election - Daniel Pipes & Cynthia Farahat - National Review Online

2011-12-06T17:12:00.002Z

Egypt’s Sham Election - Daniel Pipes & Cynthia Farahat - National Review Online

All Egyptians deserve a democratic future, not just the winners, the achiles heel of the democratic experiment! We shall see whether the rights of minorities have any chance of preservation, nay improvement in Egypt as a consequence. I am afraid I doubt it but we shall see?!

This article attempts to cut through the nonsense written on this subject of these "democratic" elections in Egypt!

Military Wives Choir Sing

2011-12-06T11:39:00.001Z

What do you think? Not sure about the words but nonetheless the sentiment is worthy.

Kia Soul Hamster Commercial- Party Rock Anthem

2011-12-05T22:34:00.000Z

So, what is this all about, a sign of the times!

Robots without heart, only violence in their metal jackets. Asexual beings swaggering through their routine.

Am I supposed to buy the car?
My thanks to Kevin de Young

ECI Statement on Panetta and Gutman: The Blame Israel First Administration « Emergency Committee for Israel

2011-12-04T15:30:00.002Z

ECI Statement on Panetta and Gutman: The Blame Israel First Administration « Emergency Committee for Israel

In response to the recent criticism of Israel by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, today the chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, William Kristol, issued the following statement:

"Nobody believes President Obama when he claims, as he did last week, that he “has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration.” That’s because he hasn’t — and because President Obama and his administration keeps acting to weaken the security of the state of Israel.

For example: as reported in the Israeli press, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman — a top Obama fundraiser in 2008 — told a conference in Brussels this week that Muslim anti-Semitism “stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” Pardon us for retaining our belief that Muslim anti-Semitism in the Middle East predates 1967, and even 1948 — and in any case is the fault of the anti-Semites, not of the Jews.

At another conference, this one in Washington, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta surveyed the Middle East and discovered that at every turn, the Jewish state is to blame for problems in the Muslim world. Are there Arab uprisings that are bringing Islamists to power and endangering peace with Israel? Israel must placate the radicals. Are there constant provocations and taunts from Turkey’s Islamist government? Israel must beg for better treatment. Do Palestinians refuse to negotiate? “Get to the damn table,” Panetta thundered twice — as if Israel was refusing to talk, instead of the reverse.

Just about the only thing in the Middle East that President Obama hasn’t blamed Israel for is the Iranian nuclear program. But when it comes to this, too, instead of supporting crippling sanctions or preparing military strikes, the White House seems to spend more time deterring Israel from acting than deterring Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in the first place. And the administration’s energy seems more focused on undermining Israel and those members of Congress pushing for a tougher approach to Iran, than in undermining the Iranian regime.

The Obama message is loud and clear: the world would be a safer, simpler, and more peaceful place if not for the troublesome Jewish state.

Ambassador Gutman’s comments were not way out of line with Obama’s worldview. Nonetheless, we expect he will be recalled because the Obama administration won’t want to expend political capital defending him. He should be recalled, of course. But what the events of recent days emphasize is that the problem is not with one ambassador or with one cabinet secretary. The problem is President Obama.”

Tebow’s Religion, and Ours - Daniel Foster - National Review Online

2011-12-04T15:23:00.001Z

Tebow’s Religion, and Ours - Daniel Foster - National Review Online

An athlete who believes, with authenticity!

News Bulletin, 2nd December 2011. Christian Institute.

2011-12-03T08:37:00.000Z

Can I sleep or can't I? Those waking hours.

2011-12-02T23:02:00.003Z

I wonder how many of us sleep really well, waking up refreshed and raring to go? Not many I suspect!

I remember a talk at the Lawyers Christian Fellowship early on in my legal career by John Knox, the then President. It was excellent and refreshing! He reflected on the heavy mental load that you can carry in life to the point of it affecting your sleep patterns. He began by fighting against dealing with the thoughts, the burdens of the day. In the end he found it better to run with them until they were resolved in his mind. This was his advice to us "young guns"! To run with the thoughts to resolve them as far as one could. To try to recover the composure, the peace, the calm of mind, to comfort the troubled brow.

There can be many reasons for not sleeping; ill-health, stress, challenges to te conscience, fear, getting older.

How should we try to react to this?

To be thankful for the sleep I do get and in those waking hours to try to use them well. Some music, a talk; to pray for those you love, for those in need, for the presence of Christ to be sensed in your very being. At times, I will venture downstairs for a drink!

To be satisfied with less and seek to draw out the good even from those waking precious moments of our lives!

There can be a kind of loneliness in such twilight hours that can be made, strangely, inspiring, too!

To celebrate Christmas; the birth of Jesus and Mary His mother's Magnificat.

2011-12-01T17:23:00.007Z

"Today, the first day of December 2011 is the start of that month that will bring together for Christians and many others a period within which to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. No, not a consumerist love fest, not a materialistic high-noon but yes a rejoicing that all those years ago He came! He who lives now in and through those who trust in Him for their salvation. So as I thought about what would set me on the best road of thought in pursuance of this celebration I turned to the Gospel of Luke and Chapter 1 for the story of His birth and not to be forgotten that magnificent record of pure and exhilarating joy from the faithful mother of Jesus, Mary. What a Magnificat, testifying to the presence of God, to the joy of service and to the glories of His character, God Himself, full of power and mercy. Magnificent!" Here it is, absolutely marvelously good news!"

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed[b] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

34 And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"

35 And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[e] will be called holy— the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

Mary’s Song of Praise: The Magnificat

46 And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

Exit Barney Frank - The Editors - National Review Online

2011-12-01T14:11:00.004Z

Exit Barney Frank - The Editors - National Review Online

This is an interesting article on the subject of the career of career Congressman Barney Franks, soon to step down and the subject of the last video on this blog. They refer to him as the first openly gay member of Congress, then address his relations with the Freddie Mac and Fannie May debacle and finally the Frank-Dodd financial-reform legislation. Not a very flattering appraisal and some new insights for me. I draw attention to it particularly as I think his role in Congress over so many years is an important historical marker for good or bad. The editors of National Review are higly critical. It is not within my knowledge to know the extent to which they are right or not but his association with these two pieces of legislation are unavoidable and will continue to stand to judge him. Whether continuing like a damocles sword or not, we shall see!

These are some of the final words of the piece by the editors of National Review.

"From his relatively petty transgressions related to his personal life to his more consequential role in enabling Fannie and Freddie, Representative Frank personifies a great deal of what is wrong with American public life. Though a highly intelligent man, ....................... Republicans will not miss him. Neither should his Democratic colleagues, his constituents, or the American public that will be paying off the cost of his errors and those of his allies, with interest, for a great many years. ........................"