The Bulwarks of Liberty
In order for civil freedom to flourish there has to be a widespread social consensus amongst the governed that the authority of governors is necessarily limited. Democracy provides no such limitation. In its brute form, democracy introduced the tyranny of the 51 percent. The earliest democracies in Ancient Greece--in Athens--practised just such a democratic tyranny. If more than 50 percent so voted, the victim could be exiled or executed at whim. Justice had nothing to do with it.
The doctrine of political and government power being necessarily limited can only arise in human society when it is known and believed that God is the Judge of all men and human societies. But this in itself, whilst necessary, is not sufficient. It must also be known and believed that God has appointed a wide range of authorities within the kingdoms of this world to serve Him and represent Him. State power is always, thereby limited, because it "shares" power with a plurality of powers; the State is one such power, but only one. There are many other divinely appointed powers.
In developing this truth, it was the Calvinistic Dutch theologians of the early twentieth century who introduced the concept of "sphere sovereignty". God had established spheres of sovereignty in human society, each answerable to Him. The Church, the civil state, the family, the individual soul, the market place, the school, the charitable/voluntary sector--each represented a God-ordained and protected sovereign sphere of social authority. The state and the church may not intrude upon family life and family sovereignty--and so on.
Where God commands the family to live and act in a certain way, the State cannot prevent or outlaw the family thus acting. To the extent that it does, the State is rebelling against God Himself.
In an organic society, the spheres of social action are always brushing up against each other, and interacting. There is always tension between the respective rights of each sovereign sphere. Each free society will work out its own particular dynamic tension between the spheres. One free nation will differ from another at the margins. But a free society cannot remain free without constitutionally enshrining the sovereignty of each respective sphere. There is a separation of church and state; of state and family; of church and family--and so forth, while together they all make up the organic whole of society.
Without such truths and doctrines, power tends to aggregate towards the State. Absolutism is the eventual consequence.
Monday, 25 April 2016
Saturday, 23 April 2016
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
Savior of the World
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
Introduction:
As we come to the conclusion of our study of kingdom optimism, the best summary would be to turn in order to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. When we think through these issues carefully, we must recognize that the basic issue is really the view we have of our Lord Jesus.
At the same time, we want to guard our hearts so that we don’t fall into the trap of covenantal presumption.
The Text:
“Give the king Your judgments, O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s Son. He will judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with justice . . . In his days shall the righteous flourish; And abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the river unto the ends of the earth . . . And blessed be his glorious name for ever: And let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen” (Ps. 72:1-20).
Jesus Christ is Lord of All:
Consider what Paul tells us in Philippians 2:9-11. At the name of Jesus, every knee is to bow, and not just those in heaven. In heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, let Jesus Christ be praised. We are seeking nothing less than to exalt Him in every place.
That at the Name of Jesus . . .
Jesus Christ is Savior of the world—“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Jesus did not come in order to try to save the world, if the uncooperative world would only let Him. He came to save the world;
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
Introduction:
As we come to the conclusion of our study of kingdom optimism, the best summary would be to turn in order to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. When we think through these issues carefully, we must recognize that the basic issue is really the view we have of our Lord Jesus.
At the same time, we want to guard our hearts so that we don’t fall into the trap of covenantal presumption.
The Text:
“Give the king Your judgments, O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s Son. He will judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with justice . . . In his days shall the righteous flourish; And abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the river unto the ends of the earth . . . And blessed be his glorious name for ever: And let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen” (Ps. 72:1-20).
Jesus Christ is Lord of All:
Consider what Paul tells us in Philippians 2:9-11. At the name of Jesus, every knee is to bow, and not just those in heaven. In heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, let Jesus Christ be praised. We are seeking nothing less than to exalt Him in every place.
That at the Name of Jesus . . .
Jesus Christ is Savior of the world—“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Jesus did not come in order to try to save the world, if the uncooperative world would only let Him. He came to save the world;
Daily Devotional
On God
C. S. Lewis
It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. “Look out!” we cry, “it’s alive.” And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back—I would have done so myself if I could—and proceed no further with Christianity. An “impersonal God”—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life- force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God”!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us!
Miracles: A Preliminary Study. Copyright 1947 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1947 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Revised 1960, restored 1996 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Self-Destruction on a Grand Scale
Holding On to the Grenade Too Long
David Hume was (and is) the enfant terrible of modern philosophy. His scepticism was (and is) like an acid which corroded much of what went before and came after. By putting up a barrier between the mind (rational thought) and the senses, such that there is no necessary connection between the two, he scared Western philosophers so profoundly they all got a bad case of the heebie jeebies. Empiricism devolved into scepticism.
The way a good many of his successors dealt with his scepticism was to ignore it. Actually, Hume ended up ignoring it for a large part of his output. He could not help himself. He retreated to the more positive, safer realm of championing empiricism--the championing of knowledge through the application of our senses to the world around us. But he had to assume there was a connection between rational thought and empirical observation. He also had to assert there was a connection between cause and effect that held whether empirically observed or not.
He dismissed non-empirical philosophy in a grand manner:
. . . if we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance, let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity and number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. [An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.]Beware the universal acid--that acid so corrosive it cannot be contained and which in the end destroys all. As Berlinski pointed out, with respect to Hume:
Analytical philosophers have been eager to commit books to the flames ever since [Hume], rather an odd vocational choice, all things considered.
Friday, 22 April 2016
Trump the Anomic Dope
Embarrassing Advocate
One wonders how Sarah Palin and Dr Ben Carson are feeling about now. They have both endorsed Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee. Trump came out yesterday and supported the notion that public restrooms be open to whomever. If men want to go to a women's toilet they can. No probs.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill into law that prohibits “cities from allowing transgender individuals to use public bathrooms for the sex they identify as.”
Here is Trump at his most lucid on the matter:
Daily Devotional
Our Great Dread
I feel it almost impossible to say anything (in my comfort and security—apparent security, for real security is in Heaven and thus earth affords only imitations) which would not sound horribly false and facile. Also, you know it all better than I do. I should in your place be (I have in similar places been) far more panic-stricken and even perhaps rebellious.
For it is a dreadful truth that the state of (as you say) ‘having to depend solely on God’ is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. That trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to Him as long as He leaves us anything else to turn to. I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come. In the hour of death and the day of judgement, what else shall we have? Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwillingly) to begin practising it here on earth. It is good of Him to force us: but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time....
All’s well—I’m half ashamed it should be—with me. God bless and keep you. You shall be constantly in my prayers by day and night.
TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On the hard task of learning to depend only on God and on nothing and no one else.
6 December 1955
C. S. Lewis
I was most distressed by the news in your letter of Dec. 2nd. . . . And I can’t help you, because under the modern laws I’m not allowed to send money to America. (What a barbarous system we live under. I knew a man who had to risk prison in order to smuggle a little money to his own sister, widowed in the U.S.A.) By the way, we mustn’t be too sure there was any irony about your just having refused that other job. There may have been a snag about it which God knew and you didn’t.I feel it almost impossible to say anything (in my comfort and security—apparent security, for real security is in Heaven and thus earth affords only imitations) which would not sound horribly false and facile. Also, you know it all better than I do. I should in your place be (I have in similar places been) far more panic-stricken and even perhaps rebellious.
For it is a dreadful truth that the state of (as you say) ‘having to depend solely on God’ is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. That trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to Him as long as He leaves us anything else to turn to. I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come. In the hour of death and the day of judgement, what else shall we have? Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwillingly) to begin practising it here on earth. It is good of Him to force us: but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time....
All’s well—I’m half ashamed it should be—with me. God bless and keep you. You shall be constantly in my prayers by day and night.
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Dreams of Children Become the Stuff of Nightmares
The Spirit of Canute Is Still With Us
As other people's money runs out, green energy companies are crashing faster than Wall Street in 1929. Canny folk who did not get caught up in the "flavour of the month" euphoria surrounding wind power and solar power have that "I told you so" look on their visages. It has taken a few years for the money to run out, but green companies are now crashing and burning.
The great and noble cause of facing what President Obama grandly and sonorously declared to be the greatest strategic threat before mankind--global warming and balmy temperatures--is turning out to be a stinky dog's breakfast. Almost every day now we are hearing about the collapse of another green company. The first high-profile company collapse was Solyndra--millions of millions of tax payer funds were flushed down the sewer. Never mind, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, said Pressie Obama at the time. Double the recipe and do it again.
Thursday, 21 April 2016
The War on Woman
The "Human Right" of Gendercide
Human Rights Group Decries ‘Gendercide’
200 Million Girls Killed by Sex-Selective Abortions
Thomas J. Williams
The real “war on women” takes place on the battlefield where abortion clinics target baby girls for elimination, according to congressional testimony from Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a human-rights group. “Sex-selective abortion is the ultimate violence against females,” Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, told Breitbart News. “Aborting a baby just because she is a girl is the ultimate act of gender discrimination.”
On Thursday, April 14, a congressional hearing is being held before the House Judiciary Committee to debate the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) of 2016, a bill aimed at reducing gender-based abortion in America. The bill is being opposed by abortion-giant Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other abortion-rights groups.
The United Nations estimates that some 200 million women are “demographically missing” in the world today due to sex-selective abortion.
Daily Devotional
Daily Cleansing
The blood of Jesus is the life of all vital godliness. If you have truly come to Jesus, we know how you came--the Holy Spirit sweetly brought you there. You came to the blood of sprinkling with no merits of your own. Guilty, lost, and helpless, you came to take that blood, and that blood alone, as your everlasting hope. You came to the cross of Christ, with a trembling and an aching heart; and oh! what a precious sound it was to you to hear the voice of the blood of Jesus! The dropping of his blood is as the music of heaven to the penitent sons of earth.
We are full of sin, but the Saviour bids us lift our eyes to him, and as we gaze upon his streaming wounds, each drop of blood, as it falls, cries, "It is finished; I have made an end of sin; I have brought in everlasting righteousness." Oh! sweet language of the precious blood of Jesus! If you have come to that blood once, you will come to it constantly. Your life will be "Looking unto Jesus." Your whole conduct will be epitomized in this--"To whom coming." Not to whom I have come, but to whom I am always coming. If thou hast ever come to the blood of sprinkling, thou wilt feel thy need of coming to it every day.
He who does not desire to wash in it every day, has never washed in it at all. The believer ever feels it to be his joy and privilege that there is still a fountain opened. Past experiences are doubtful food for Christians; a present coming to Christ alone can give us joy and comfort. This morning let us sprinkle our door-post fresh with blood, and then feast upon the Lamb, assured that the destroying angel must pass us by.
"Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Hebrews 12:24
Charles H. Spurgeon
Reader, have you come to the blood of sprinkling? The question is not whether you have come to a knowledge of doctrine, or an observance of ceremonies, or to a certain form of experience, but have you come to the blood of Jesus?The blood of Jesus is the life of all vital godliness. If you have truly come to Jesus, we know how you came--the Holy Spirit sweetly brought you there. You came to the blood of sprinkling with no merits of your own. Guilty, lost, and helpless, you came to take that blood, and that blood alone, as your everlasting hope. You came to the cross of Christ, with a trembling and an aching heart; and oh! what a precious sound it was to you to hear the voice of the blood of Jesus! The dropping of his blood is as the music of heaven to the penitent sons of earth.
We are full of sin, but the Saviour bids us lift our eyes to him, and as we gaze upon his streaming wounds, each drop of blood, as it falls, cries, "It is finished; I have made an end of sin; I have brought in everlasting righteousness." Oh! sweet language of the precious blood of Jesus! If you have come to that blood once, you will come to it constantly. Your life will be "Looking unto Jesus." Your whole conduct will be epitomized in this--"To whom coming." Not to whom I have come, but to whom I am always coming. If thou hast ever come to the blood of sprinkling, thou wilt feel thy need of coming to it every day.
He who does not desire to wash in it every day, has never washed in it at all. The believer ever feels it to be his joy and privilege that there is still a fountain opened. Past experiences are doubtful food for Christians; a present coming to Christ alone can give us joy and comfort. This morning let us sprinkle our door-post fresh with blood, and then feast upon the Lamb, assured that the destroying angel must pass us by.
Immigrants or Cultural Suicide
The Infertility Trap
The sad reality is that Europe needs immigration to "survive" as a civilisation. Demographic realities progress very slowly. Like the frog in a heating pot, they do not present an immediate crisis to focus the mind. Nor do they admit quick fixes. Demographic catastrophes, when they arrive, are too late to stop. They cannot be corrected--at least not in the short term--if ever.
Europe is in the midst of a looming demographic crisis. In general terms, the civilisation that is Europe has decided that it is chic and culturally correct to have small families, few children. Consequently, Europe is not producing enough children to sustain its culture or civilisation.
The sad reality is that Europe needs immigration to "survive" as a civilisation. Demographic realities progress very slowly. Like the frog in a heating pot, they do not present an immediate crisis to focus the mind. Nor do they admit quick fixes. Demographic catastrophes, when they arrive, are too late to stop. They cannot be corrected--at least not in the short term--if ever.
Europe is in the midst of a looming demographic crisis. In general terms, the civilisation that is Europe has decided that it is chic and culturally correct to have small families, few children. Consequently, Europe is not producing enough children to sustain its culture or civilisation.
For a society to remain the same size, the average woman needs to have 2.1 children in a lifetime (the so-called "total fertility rate"). All European countries except Muslim Albania are well below it. There is a "safe zone" above 1.6 children per woman, where population declines are gradual and easily reversed. Below that, population tends to collapse rather than decline. A society that maintains a 1.8 total fertility rate will be 80% as large at the end of a century; a society with a total fertility of 1.3 (Italy, Spain, Eastern Germany and the Baltic nations are such societies) will fall to a quarter of its size.We can assume, therefore, that one reason why European authorities are sanguine about admitting huge numbers of immigrants is their understanding of these demographic realities.
At current rates of decline, Italy's native population will be half its current size by the middle of this century little more than a generation from now. [Christopher Caldwell, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West (New York: The Penguin Group, 2009), p.13.]
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
"I Told You So . . . "
World’s Biggest Green Energy Company Collapses
Breitbart London
James Delingpole
Did you short-sell your solar energy shares as I advised last week in my Breitbart piece “The Solar Industry is Dying: Good Riddance?
If you’d picked SunEdison – the world’s largest green energy company – you would have made a killing as its shares plunged further this week, amid rumours that it now faces imminent bankruptcy.
SunEdison, valued at $10 billion in July 2015 is now worth just $400 million today. This represents a catastrophic loss for the investors gulled into this sector in the mistaken belief that “clean” energy is the future and that it’s possible to make lots and lots of money and polish your environmental conscience at the same time.
Well maybe once you could but not any more. And it won’t be the last green venture to turn to ashes either for one very simple reason: renewable energy is almost entirely dependent on taxpayer subsidy. When the money runs out the business dies.
Breitbart London
James Delingpole
Did you short-sell your solar energy shares as I advised last week in my Breitbart piece “The Solar Industry is Dying: Good Riddance?
If you’d picked SunEdison – the world’s largest green energy company – you would have made a killing as its shares plunged further this week, amid rumours that it now faces imminent bankruptcy.
SunEdison, valued at $10 billion in July 2015 is now worth just $400 million today. This represents a catastrophic loss for the investors gulled into this sector in the mistaken belief that “clean” energy is the future and that it’s possible to make lots and lots of money and polish your environmental conscience at the same time.
Well maybe once you could but not any more. And it won’t be the last green venture to turn to ashes either for one very simple reason: renewable energy is almost entirely dependent on taxpayer subsidy. When the money runs out the business dies.
Daily Devotional
God, Touch Our Hearts
The One with infinite power in the universe. The One with infinite authority and infinite wisdom and infinite love and infinite goodness and infinite purity and infinite justice. That One touched their heart.
How does the circumference of Jupiter touch the edge of a molecule? Let alone penetrate to its nucleus? The touch of God is awesome because it is a touch. It is a real connection. That it involves the heart is awesome. That it involves God is awesome. And that it involves an actual touch is awesome.
The valiant men were not just spoken to. They were not just swayed by a divine influence. They were not just seen and known. God, with infinite condescension, touched their heart. God was that close. And they were not consumed.
I love that touch. I want it more and more. For myself and for all of you. I pray that God would touch me anew for his glory. I pray that he would touch us all. O for the touch of God! If it comes with fire, so be it. If it comes with water so be it. If it comes with wind, let it come, O God. If it comes with thunder and lightning, let us bow before it.
O Lord, come. Come that close. Burn and soak and blow and crash. Or still and small, come. Come all the way. Touch our hearts.
Saul went to his house at Gibeah; and the valiant men whose hearts God had touched went with him. (1 Samuel 10:26)
John Piper
Just think of what is being said in this verse. God touched them. Not a wife. Not a child. Not a parent. Not a counselor. But God.The One with infinite power in the universe. The One with infinite authority and infinite wisdom and infinite love and infinite goodness and infinite purity and infinite justice. That One touched their heart.
How does the circumference of Jupiter touch the edge of a molecule? Let alone penetrate to its nucleus? The touch of God is awesome because it is a touch. It is a real connection. That it involves the heart is awesome. That it involves God is awesome. And that it involves an actual touch is awesome.
The valiant men were not just spoken to. They were not just swayed by a divine influence. They were not just seen and known. God, with infinite condescension, touched their heart. God was that close. And they were not consumed.
I love that touch. I want it more and more. For myself and for all of you. I pray that God would touch me anew for his glory. I pray that he would touch us all. O for the touch of God! If it comes with fire, so be it. If it comes with water so be it. If it comes with wind, let it come, O God. If it comes with thunder and lightning, let us bow before it.
O Lord, come. Come that close. Burn and soak and blow and crash. Or still and small, come. Come all the way. Touch our hearts.
A Volunteer Group Fighting ISIS
A Private War
A group of hackers has decided to wage its own private war against ISIS. They are mercenaries without pay. According to a report in Epoch Times they have worked out how to take control of ISIS twitter accounts, which they then exploit to their own ends. The group claims they also see a trove of material which would be very interesting to intelligence agencies.
We are not sure about the ethics of all this--being a private unofficial group and all, but presumably it is something which those nations presently engaged in undeclared war against ISIS should be doing in spades. Maybe they are. Who knows?
A group of hackers has decided to wage its own private war against ISIS. They are mercenaries without pay. According to a report in Epoch Times they have worked out how to take control of ISIS twitter accounts, which they then exploit to their own ends. The group claims they also see a trove of material which would be very interesting to intelligence agencies.
We are not sure about the ethics of all this--being a private unofficial group and all, but presumably it is something which those nations presently engaged in undeclared war against ISIS should be doing in spades. Maybe they are. Who knows?
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Letter From the UK (About Massive Policy Failures)
Rejection of UK Government's Perverse Ineptitude
96% Label Government’s Anti-Radicalisation Strategy Ineffective At Tackling Extremism
Sarkis Zeronian
A poll has revealed the public has no faith in the government’s anti-radicalisation scheme, with 96 per cent of respondents saying it is a failure.
The coalition government’s flagship Prevent strategy was unveiled in June 2011 as part of its attack on extremism in Britain, and further revamped last year. It followed a review of the previous Labour government’s failed anti-radicalisation attempt. The three main objectives were:
“to respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat from those who promote it; to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support; and to work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.”
Today the Daily Express reports that only four per cent of respondents to a poll believe the anti-radicalisation strategy can be described as effective.
Daily Devotional
The Greatest Grief
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head."
Psalm 22:7
Ridicule is always hard to bear, but when we are in intense pain it is so heartless, so cruel, that it cuts us to the quick. Imagine the Saviour crucified, racked with anguish far beyond all mortal guess, and then picture that motley multitude, all wagging their heads or thrusting out the lip in bitterest contempt of one poor suffering victim! Surely there must have been something more in the crucified One than they could see, or else such a great and mingled crowd would not unanimously have honoured him with such contempt. Was it not evil confessing, in the very moment of its greatest apparent triumph, that after all it could do no more than mock at that victorious goodness which was then reigning on the cross? O Jesus, "despised and rejected of men," how couldst thou die for men who treated thee so ill? Herein is love amazing, love divine, yea, love beyond degree.
We, too, have despised thee in the days of our unregeneracy, and even since our new birth we have set the world on high in our hearts, and yet thou bleedest to heal our wounds, and diest to give us life. O that we could set thee on a glorious high throne in all men's hearts! We would ring out thy praises over land and sea till men should as universally adore as once they did unanimously reject.
"Thy creatures wrong thee, O thou sovereign Good!
Thou art not loved, because not understood:
This grieves me most, that vain pursuits beguile
Ungrateful men, regardless of thy smile."
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head."
Psalm 22:7
Charles H. Spurgeon
Mockery was a great ingredient in our Lord's woe. Judas mocked him in the garden; the chief priests and scribes laughed him to scorn; Herod set him at nought; the servants and the soldiers jeered at him, and brutally insulted him; Pilate and his guards ridiculed his royalty; and on the tree all sorts of horrid jests and hideous taunts were hurled at him.Ridicule is always hard to bear, but when we are in intense pain it is so heartless, so cruel, that it cuts us to the quick. Imagine the Saviour crucified, racked with anguish far beyond all mortal guess, and then picture that motley multitude, all wagging their heads or thrusting out the lip in bitterest contempt of one poor suffering victim! Surely there must have been something more in the crucified One than they could see, or else such a great and mingled crowd would not unanimously have honoured him with such contempt. Was it not evil confessing, in the very moment of its greatest apparent triumph, that after all it could do no more than mock at that victorious goodness which was then reigning on the cross? O Jesus, "despised and rejected of men," how couldst thou die for men who treated thee so ill? Herein is love amazing, love divine, yea, love beyond degree.
We, too, have despised thee in the days of our unregeneracy, and even since our new birth we have set the world on high in our hearts, and yet thou bleedest to heal our wounds, and diest to give us life. O that we could set thee on a glorious high throne in all men's hearts! We would ring out thy praises over land and sea till men should as universally adore as once they did unanimously reject.
"Thy creatures wrong thee, O thou sovereign Good!
Thou art not loved, because not understood:
This grieves me most, that vain pursuits beguile
Ungrateful men, regardless of thy smile."
Great Men Are Usually Bad Men
The Godly Do Not Trust Themselves
The patterns of power are fascinating--and all too often entirely predictable. As Lord Acton put it, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." The intrinsic and distinctive human tendency to exercise power unto the suffering and destruction of other human beings is writ large everywhere.
Enlightened political theory or philosophy turns around this pivot: since power corrupts, those to whom it is granted must be checked and balanced, limited and restrained at every point. Republican political theory requires a hydra of balancing and competing authorities, each with limitations, checks and balances. Naturally such arrangements are rejected by many as inefficient. Republican government is messy. It limps along--by deliberate design. The alternative--an efficient government--is to be feared, for if a government is efficient it can only be so by wielding vast, oppressive powers.
Christian political theory is marked by professing only One absolute power--God. He has delegated all authority in heaven and upon earth to His anointed King--the man, Jesus Christ. All other powers are derived, limited, and effective only within restricted spheres of competence. All other powers are answerable to King Jesus.
Earthly tyrants always follow a different trajectory. There is always a "One Ring" to "rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
The patterns of power are fascinating--and all too often entirely predictable. As Lord Acton put it, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." The intrinsic and distinctive human tendency to exercise power unto the suffering and destruction of other human beings is writ large everywhere.
Enlightened political theory or philosophy turns around this pivot: since power corrupts, those to whom it is granted must be checked and balanced, limited and restrained at every point. Republican political theory requires a hydra of balancing and competing authorities, each with limitations, checks and balances. Naturally such arrangements are rejected by many as inefficient. Republican government is messy. It limps along--by deliberate design. The alternative--an efficient government--is to be feared, for if a government is efficient it can only be so by wielding vast, oppressive powers.
Christian political theory is marked by professing only One absolute power--God. He has delegated all authority in heaven and upon earth to His anointed King--the man, Jesus Christ. All other powers are derived, limited, and effective only within restricted spheres of competence. All other powers are answerable to King Jesus.
Earthly tyrants always follow a different trajectory. There is always a "One Ring" to "rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
Monday, 18 April 2016
Pete Seeger Redux
When Will They Ever Learn . . .
The Hill
Judd Gregg
We have now been through more than half of the Democratic primaries to choose that party’s presidential nominee. In over forty percent of those contests, a socialist, Bernie Sanders, has been the winner. This is an exceptionally strong statement about where a significant percentage of the Democratic “base” is, and where the party is headed.
One has to wonder how the party of Kennedy, Truman and Roosevelt ended up here.
It is especially interesting that the primary drivers of this shift are college-age voters and their mentors on the left who teach them. In college town after college town, Sanders turns out huge crowds, chanting his name and exalting his causes: the redistribution of wealth and the destruction of those deemed to be undeserving of their economic success.
Remember, President Kennedy was the first supply-sider of the post-World War Two period, cutting tax rates dramatically. President Franklin D. Roosevelt bounced socialists, who were extremely active in Depression-era politics, from his administration. President Truman expressed outright dislike and disdain for the socialist movement with his usual bluntness. Now large segments of the Democratic Party are embracing with gusto the socialist creed as carried forth by Sanders — and at a less dramatic level by the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
The Hill
Judd Gregg
We have now been through more than half of the Democratic primaries to choose that party’s presidential nominee. In over forty percent of those contests, a socialist, Bernie Sanders, has been the winner. This is an exceptionally strong statement about where a significant percentage of the Democratic “base” is, and where the party is headed.
One has to wonder how the party of Kennedy, Truman and Roosevelt ended up here.
It is especially interesting that the primary drivers of this shift are college-age voters and their mentors on the left who teach them. In college town after college town, Sanders turns out huge crowds, chanting his name and exalting his causes: the redistribution of wealth and the destruction of those deemed to be undeserving of their economic success.
Remember, President Kennedy was the first supply-sider of the post-World War Two period, cutting tax rates dramatically. President Franklin D. Roosevelt bounced socialists, who were extremely active in Depression-era politics, from his administration. President Truman expressed outright dislike and disdain for the socialist movement with his usual bluntness. Now large segments of the Democratic Party are embracing with gusto the socialist creed as carried forth by Sanders — and at a less dramatic level by the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Daily Devotional
Pray for His Fame
The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be thy name.” This is a request to God that he would work to cause people to hallow his name.
God loves to have more and more people “hallow” his name, and so his Son teaches Christians to put their prayers in line with this great passion of the Father.
“Lord, cause more and more people to hallow your name,” that is, esteem, admire, respect, cherish, honor, and praise his name. It is basically a missionary prayer.
“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)
John Piper
Dozens of times Scripture says that God does things “for his name’s sake.” But if you ask what is really moving the heart of God in that statement (and many like it), the answer is that God delights in having his name known.The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be thy name.” This is a request to God that he would work to cause people to hallow his name.
God loves to have more and more people “hallow” his name, and so his Son teaches Christians to put their prayers in line with this great passion of the Father.
“Lord, cause more and more people to hallow your name,” that is, esteem, admire, respect, cherish, honor, and praise his name. It is basically a missionary prayer.
History Repeats, Along With Our Consternation
Fashionable Appeasement
Random outlier, or the centre? When it comes to Islam, the Western Commentariat fervently believe that centrist-Islam is roughly equivalent (in social behaviour and societal impact) to Christianity and Judaism. Christians and Jews have a weekly holy day; so do Muslims. Christians and Jews gather at their local house of worship to declare praise to their God; Muslims do likewise, except they adore a different deity. But, general equivalence between the religions applies.
Random outlier, or the centre? When it comes to Islam, the Western Commentariat fervently believe that centrist-Islam is roughly equivalent (in social behaviour and societal impact) to Christianity and Judaism. Christians and Jews have a weekly holy day; so do Muslims. Christians and Jews gather at their local house of worship to declare praise to their God; Muslims do likewise, except they adore a different deity. But, general equivalence between the religions applies.
What, then, does the Commentariat hold when the world is awash with Islamic violence (Muslim on Muslim; Muslim upon Jew; Muslim upon Christian; and Muslim upon Western secularists)? The West's resounding response is to argue that such violence is not genuinely Islamic. It is not the centre. It is the random outlier. It is Islamic extremism. It is not genuinely Islamic.
We blogged recently on the brutal murder in Glasgow of an Islamic adherent by another Islamic adherent. Now, Muslim violence perpetrated upon other Muslims is de rigueur in many parts of the world, so its reasonable to expect it in the UK, as well as in NZ. In this case, the violence, the brutal murder was religiously motivated. Clearly so.
Saturday, 16 April 2016
Sanctifying the Church
Chinese Catholics Say No to Church ‘Controlled by Communist Party’
Thomas D. Williams
Breitbart News
As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to tighten the Communist Party’s grip on religious practice, more and more Christians are opting out of the official, state-recognized church and heading underground. Some six million Catholics have refused to join churches recognized by the Communist Party and have opted to worship in “house churches,” where they can remain loyal to the Vatican.
Father Dong Baolu, an underground Chinese priest, celebrates Mass in these so-called house churches in order to worship God in freedom and independence from state control. For Dong, a church controlled by the Communist Party is no church at all. According to Dong, the Party “says we have religious freedom, but they only allow us to be free within a circle they drew.”
“They want to lead us. But those who don’t believe in God cannot lead us,” he said.
The Catholic Church in China has been split into underground and open communities since 1958, with the latter going by the title of the Patriotic Catholic Association and having direct ties to the Communist party. A Vatican document of 1988 barred Roman Catholics from participating in the sacraments of the Patriotic Church, since the association “had broken all relationships with the pope” and would be “under the direct control of the government.”
Father Dong fears that a thaw in relations between Beijing and the Vatican could compromise that freedom.
Thomas D. Williams
Breitbart News
As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to tighten the Communist Party’s grip on religious practice, more and more Christians are opting out of the official, state-recognized church and heading underground. Some six million Catholics have refused to join churches recognized by the Communist Party and have opted to worship in “house churches,” where they can remain loyal to the Vatican.
Father Dong Baolu, an underground Chinese priest, celebrates Mass in these so-called house churches in order to worship God in freedom and independence from state control. For Dong, a church controlled by the Communist Party is no church at all. According to Dong, the Party “says we have religious freedom, but they only allow us to be free within a circle they drew.”
“They want to lead us. But those who don’t believe in God cannot lead us,” he said.
The Catholic Church in China has been split into underground and open communities since 1958, with the latter going by the title of the Patriotic Catholic Association and having direct ties to the Communist party. A Vatican document of 1988 barred Roman Catholics from participating in the sacraments of the Patriotic Church, since the association “had broken all relationships with the pope” and would be “under the direct control of the government.”
Father Dong fears that a thaw in relations between Beijing and the Vatican could compromise that freedom.
Daily Devotional
Underneath Are the Everlasting Arms
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in all conditions and under all circumstances, it shall be well with the righteous. It is so well with him that we could not imagine it to be better, for he is well fed, he feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus; he is well clothed, he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; he is well housed, he dwells in God; he is well married, his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; he is well provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd; he is well endowed, for heaven is his inheritance.
It is well with the righteous--well upon divine authority; the mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. O beloved, if God declares that all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the creatures contradict him. It is, says the Word, at all times well with thee, thou righteous one; then, beloved, if thou canst not see it, let God's word stand thee in stead of sight; yea, believe it on divine authority more confidently than if thine eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God blesses is blest indeed, and what his lip declares is truth most sure and steadfast.
"Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him."
Isaiah 3:10
Charles H. Spurgeon
It is well with the righteous always. If it had said, "Say ye to the righteous, that it is well with him in his prosperity," we must have been thankful for so great a boon, for prosperity is an hour of peril, and it is a gift from heaven to be secured from its snares: or if it had been written, "It is well with him when under persecution," we must have been thankful for so sustaining an assurance, for persecution is hard to bear; but when no time is mentioned, all time is included. God's "shalls" must be understood always in their largest sense.From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in all conditions and under all circumstances, it shall be well with the righteous. It is so well with him that we could not imagine it to be better, for he is well fed, he feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus; he is well clothed, he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; he is well housed, he dwells in God; he is well married, his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; he is well provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd; he is well endowed, for heaven is his inheritance.
It is well with the righteous--well upon divine authority; the mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. O beloved, if God declares that all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the creatures contradict him. It is, says the Word, at all times well with thee, thou righteous one; then, beloved, if thou canst not see it, let God's word stand thee in stead of sight; yea, believe it on divine authority more confidently than if thine eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God blesses is blest indeed, and what his lip declares is truth most sure and steadfast.
Let's Get Going
Getting Serious Over Refugees
NZ Initiative has come forward with a great idea. Open up NZ refugee quotas to privately funded support groups, is its argument. The reality is that the world is awash with genuine refugees (as contrasted with economic migrants). New Zealand's contribution towards the global need is paltry. Present government policy favours encouraging qualified migrants to come to New Zealand. It utilises the private sector to help facilitate this.
It's high time the same principles were applied to its refugee policies. Here is New Zealand Initiative's proposal:
NZ Initiative has come forward with a great idea. Open up NZ refugee quotas to privately funded support groups, is its argument. The reality is that the world is awash with genuine refugees (as contrasted with economic migrants). New Zealand's contribution towards the global need is paltry. Present government policy favours encouraging qualified migrants to come to New Zealand. It utilises the private sector to help facilitate this.
It's high time the same principles were applied to its refugee policies. Here is New Zealand Initiative's proposal:
Friday, 15 April 2016
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
Twice as Much Water!
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
It used to be that discrimination was a good word. A man with discriminating taste was a man with aesthetic standards that he understood and applied in wisdom. Now discrimination is an all-purpose term of condemnation designed to shut you up, Christian.
Of course, discrimination is one of those words that carry the inescapable concept around with it. It is not whether you have a standard of discrimination, it is which standard of discrimination you will have. Not whether, but which.
For example, Mississippi recently passed a law prohibiting, get this, discrimination by the government against sincerely held religious beliefs. Residents of that state will still have the freedom to follow their own conscience when their conscience requires them to decline to do crazy stuff. This outbreak of common sense was too much for the governor of New York, and so Andrew Cuomo banned all “non-essential travel to Mississippi” for state employees. Take that, Hattiesburg.
But the point here is that absolutely everyone involved is discriminating. Mississippi formally allowed her citizens to discriminate against abnormal people, and New York is mandating discrimination against normal people.
Ah, there it is — the intolerable word.
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
It used to be that discrimination was a good word. A man with discriminating taste was a man with aesthetic standards that he understood and applied in wisdom. Now discrimination is an all-purpose term of condemnation designed to shut you up, Christian.
Of course, discrimination is one of those words that carry the inescapable concept around with it. It is not whether you have a standard of discrimination, it is which standard of discrimination you will have. Not whether, but which.
For example, Mississippi recently passed a law prohibiting, get this, discrimination by the government against sincerely held religious beliefs. Residents of that state will still have the freedom to follow their own conscience when their conscience requires them to decline to do crazy stuff. This outbreak of common sense was too much for the governor of New York, and so Andrew Cuomo banned all “non-essential travel to Mississippi” for state employees. Take that, Hattiesburg.
But the point here is that absolutely everyone involved is discriminating. Mississippi formally allowed her citizens to discriminate against abnormal people, and New York is mandating discrimination against normal people.
Ah, there it is — the intolerable word.
Daily Devotional
On Forgiveness
Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it.
C. S. Lewis
I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology, I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.” But excusing says “I see that you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it, you weren’t really to blame.”. . .Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it.
The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses. Copyright © 1949, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1976, revised 1980 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
An Off-Key Note
Avaricious Mendacity, Cloaked in Faux Grievances
(Some) Maori are all up in arms over the government's decision to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec islands. They allege that their quota fishing rights in the area have been obliterated. The sub-allegation is that once again government has illicitly appropriated what belonged to Maori by virtue of previous Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Maybe. For our money we always maintain a healthy scepticism towards government claims to land, wealth, and property. The State has form when it comes to acquisitive mendacity. In days now long past our parents were subjected to a government land grab by means of standover tactics, via threatening the compulsory acquisition if the family did not "consent" to sell. The forcibly-acquired land subsequently turned out to be land in excess of crown requirements. The State then sold most of the land acquired at an excessive profit back to the private sector--not those from whom it was extricated in the first place.
But we digress. Regardless of the merits and legality of the State's declaration of a marine sanctuary--which we would be glad to see tested in the Courts--the Maori action is risible. One commentator skewers the Maori position:
(Some) Maori are all up in arms over the government's decision to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec islands. They allege that their quota fishing rights in the area have been obliterated. The sub-allegation is that once again government has illicitly appropriated what belonged to Maori by virtue of previous Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Maybe. For our money we always maintain a healthy scepticism towards government claims to land, wealth, and property. The State has form when it comes to acquisitive mendacity. In days now long past our parents were subjected to a government land grab by means of standover tactics, via threatening the compulsory acquisition if the family did not "consent" to sell. The forcibly-acquired land subsequently turned out to be land in excess of crown requirements. The State then sold most of the land acquired at an excessive profit back to the private sector--not those from whom it was extricated in the first place.
But we digress. Regardless of the merits and legality of the State's declaration of a marine sanctuary--which we would be glad to see tested in the Courts--the Maori action is risible. One commentator skewers the Maori position:
Thursday, 14 April 2016
Only One Campaign Making It
An Interesting Inside View
National Review Online
Ian Tuttle
Campaigns are grueling, and higher-ups sometimes have to boost staffers’ spirits. But one gets the sense that Bennett isn’t writing as one professional to others, but as one member of a cult proselytizing to other true believers.
National Review Online
Ian Tuttle
Trump and Cruz: A Tale of Two Campaigns, One of Which Is Competent
Earlier this week, the Washington Post released an “Internal Campaign Memorandum” penned by Trump campaign senior adviser Barry Bennett. Entitled “Digging through the Bull S[***]” and addressed to “Corey and Team,” the memo reads less like an internal communiqué than a fundraising e-mail sent to the wrong people:So this week the Media and the Washington Establishment bashed the campaign with energy yet ever seen against a Republican candidate. You name the medium and it was dominated with Trump Attacks. The media themselves couldn’t wait to label the week, “THE WORST WEEK EVER.”Bennett then quotes Reuters’s tracking poll, scolds the “Washington Establishment” once more for its “idiotic attacks,” and concludes: “Donald Trump 1 Washington Establishment/Media 0.”
D.C. Pundits scurried to the networks to proclaim the end was at hand for Donald Trump. Yet another pathetic display by the so called experts who line their pockets at the expense of our candidates and causes. So what is the result of their efforts this week? Here it is . . .
Campaigns are grueling, and higher-ups sometimes have to boost staffers’ spirits. But one gets the sense that Bennett isn’t writing as one professional to others, but as one member of a cult proselytizing to other true believers.
Daily Devotional
The Great King's Wine
This is a sobering biblical truth. For example: “For Christ’s sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paraphrase: No pain, no gain. Or:
Now let it all be sacrificed, if it will get me more of Christ.
Here’s another example: “Although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The same book said he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).
So learning obedience does not mean switching from disobedience to obedience. It means growing deeper and deeper with God in the experience of obedience. It means experiencing depths of yieldedness to God that would not have been otherwise demanded. This is what came through suffering. No pain, no gain.
Samuel Rutherford said that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there. Charles Spurgeon said, “They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.”
Do you not love your beloved more when you feel some strange pain that makes you think you have cancer? We are strange creatures indeed. If we have health and peace and time to love, it is a thin and hasty thing. But if we are dying, love is a deep, slow river of inexpressible joy, and we can scarcely endure to give it up.
Therefore brothers and sisters, “Count it all joy when you meet various trials” (James 1:2).
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
John Piper
I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of my life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.”This is a sobering biblical truth. For example: “For Christ’s sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paraphrase: No pain, no gain. Or:
Now let it all be sacrificed, if it will get me more of Christ.
Here’s another example: “Although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The same book said he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).
So learning obedience does not mean switching from disobedience to obedience. It means growing deeper and deeper with God in the experience of obedience. It means experiencing depths of yieldedness to God that would not have been otherwise demanded. This is what came through suffering. No pain, no gain.
Samuel Rutherford said that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there. Charles Spurgeon said, “They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.”
Do you not love your beloved more when you feel some strange pain that makes you think you have cancer? We are strange creatures indeed. If we have health and peace and time to love, it is a thin and hasty thing. But if we are dying, love is a deep, slow river of inexpressible joy, and we can scarcely endure to give it up.
Therefore brothers and sisters, “Count it all joy when you meet various trials” (James 1:2).
Doomed to Disaster
The Government as Uber-Parent
The term "statism" refers to the doctrine or idea that the State is the ultimate reality upon earth. In matter of justice there is no higher appeal than the State. In society, the State is not just the ultimate court of appeal in civil and criminal matters, but the State is the ultimate and highest institution to which all other human activity is ultimately subject. Statism declares there is no higher law than that which the State is prepared to acknowledge.
The term "statism" refers to the doctrine or idea that the State is the ultimate reality upon earth. In matter of justice there is no higher appeal than the State. In society, the State is not just the ultimate court of appeal in civil and criminal matters, but the State is the ultimate and highest institution to which all other human activity is ultimately subject. Statism declares there is no higher law than that which the State is prepared to acknowledge.
Statism is the dominant political ideology of our secularist age. The State is the most dominant social, moral, and commercial entity in our society. It follows that all perceived social problems are ultimately the responsibility of the State to solve.
In New Zealand, because of the dominant influence of Statism, we are confronted with a weakening and attenuation of all other social structures. There are many dysfunctional families, blended families, dislocated families, and broken families. There are homosexual families, plural families, and solo-parent families. All the colours of the rainbow.
One consequence is child abuse. Another is successive generations of children growing up unable to function and cope in the adult world. What is to be done? The answer is naturally to hand. The State will use all its efficiencies, potentialities, and powers to put things right. Enter the State as Uber-parent.
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
Trump, the Amoral Village Idiot
Abortion Ghouls Clinton, Sanders Bailed Out
Ben Shapiro
The Daily Wire
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-Loonbaggia) completely embarrassed themselves on Sunday over the issue of abortion. Confronted for the first time in their adult lives by questions about the morality of their abortion perspectives, they froze like deer in the headlights. Chuck Todd from NBC asked Clinton, “When or if does an unborn child have constitutional rights?” Clinton answered, “The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.”
Well, that’s damned clear. The baby is an unborn human being; it doesn’t have rights because Hillary believes certain human beings do not deserve rights. This is the same perspective as that of slaveholders in the antebellum south: if the black person is on my plantation, he’s property. If you believe borders mark personhood – personal borders or state borders – you’re a monster.
But this is the Democratic Party official position. Unborn children have no rights. If you want to kill them, grab a scalpel, sister. No wonder Cecile Richards calls Hillary the "pinnacle of everything we've fought for."
Ben Shapiro
The Daily Wire
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-Loonbaggia) completely embarrassed themselves on Sunday over the issue of abortion. Confronted for the first time in their adult lives by questions about the morality of their abortion perspectives, they froze like deer in the headlights. Chuck Todd from NBC asked Clinton, “When or if does an unborn child have constitutional rights?” Clinton answered, “The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.”
Well, that’s damned clear. The baby is an unborn human being; it doesn’t have rights because Hillary believes certain human beings do not deserve rights. This is the same perspective as that of slaveholders in the antebellum south: if the black person is on my plantation, he’s property. If you believe borders mark personhood – personal borders or state borders – you’re a monster.
But this is the Democratic Party official position. Unborn children have no rights. If you want to kill them, grab a scalpel, sister. No wonder Cecile Richards calls Hillary the "pinnacle of everything we've fought for."
Daily Devotional
On Heaven
But God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it—made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.
C. S, Lewis
But God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it—made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.
The Problem of Pain. Copyright © 1940, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)