The Coming Persecution

From Chuck Colson and Breakpoint.

How Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Will Harm Christians

 

“It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else.

That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church.

As my friend Jennifer Roback Morse notes in the National Catholic Register, “Legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ is not a stand-alone policy . . . Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce a whole host of other social changes.”

The bad news is these changes affect other liberties we take for granted, such as religious freedom and private property rights. Several recent cases give us a sobering picture of what we can expect if we do not actively embrace—and even promote—same-sex “marriage.”

For instance, a Methodist retreat center recently refused to allow two lesbian couples to use a campground pavilion for a civil union ceremony. The state of New Jersey punished the Methodists by revoking the center’s tax-exempt status—a vindictive attack on the Methodists’ religious liberty.

In Massachusetts, where judges imposed gay marriage a few years ago, Catholic Charities was ordered to accept homosexual couples as candidates for adoption. Rather than comply with an order that would be harmful to children, Catholic Charities closed down its adoption program.

California public schools have been told they must be “gay friendly,” as Roback Morse notes. But it will not stop with public schools. Just north of the border in Quebec, the government told a Mennonite school that it must conform to provincial law regarding curriculum—a curriculum that teaches children that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle. How long will it be before the U.S. government goes after private schools?

Even speaking out against homosexuality can get you fired. Crystal Dixon, an associate vice president at the University of Toledo, was fired after writing an opinion piece in the Toledo Free Press in support of traditional marriage . . . Fired—for exercising her First Amendment rights!

Promoters of same-sex “marriage” seem to go out of their way to target Christian businesses and churches. Their goal, it seems, is not the right to “marry,” but to punish anyone who disagrees with them.

Clearly, there is a spiritual battle going on here: Christians are under attack because they are a public witness to the fact that a holy God created us male and female, and we will always put obedience to Him and His laws above obedience to any earthly demand for loyalty.

The coming persecution of Christians is one more reason why we need to get involved with efforts to pass laws at the state and federal level defining marriage as a legal relationship between one man and one woman. We must protect, not only genuine marriage, but also many of the freedoms we now take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom to use private property the way we see fit—all are under threat.

And we must tell our friends and neighbors why gay “marriage” is not just about equality: It is about forcing religious believers to accept the validity of the homosexual lifestyle—or else.”

What He Could Have Said

From Chuck Colson and Breakpoint.

What He Could Have Said
Defending Traditional Marriage

June 30, 2008

“It was one of the more awkward moments in the presidential campaign. Senator John McCain was appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and she was asking why McCain did not support same-sex “marriage.” A well-prepared DeGeneres made the usual arguments about inclusiveness, and compared those who reject same-sex “marriage” to those who once refused to allow women or blacks to vote. It was all about fairness, she said.

McCain’s response? “I just believe in the status of a marriage between a man and a woman . . . We just have a disagreement.”

Maybe, given the sensitivity of the situation, that was the best answer Senator McCain could come up with. But suppose the senator and Ms. DeGeneres could talk backstage, away from the glare of TV lights. What could he say to seize the moral high ground? To start, he could discuss the true meaning and purpose of marriage.

In his book, The Clash of Orthodoxies, Princeton professor Robert George writes that matrimonial law reflects a moral judgment. That judgment is that marriage is inherently heterosexual, monogamous, and permanent—a union of one man and one woman. This judgment is based on both the biblical and natural law understandings—that marriage is a two-in-one flesh communion of persons. This communion is consummated and actualized sexually.

That is, marriage is made real by acts that are reproductive, whether or not these acts result in children. They unite the spouses as a single procreative unit. This organic unity is achieved even by infertile couples. Only a mated pair can be a complete organism capable of human procreation.

By contrast, homosexual acts cannot be procreative and cannot unite people organically. As a result, these acts cannot be marital, which means relationships integrated around them cannot be marriages. In other words, same-sex partners are physically incapable of marriage; it takes a man and a woman to become “one flesh.”

I can already hear the arguments your secular neighbors will make: “Okay,” they will say, “that’s your definition of marriage. But why should your views be imposed on everybody else?”

That is when we have to be ready with additional, non-religious arguments for traditional marriage. For instance, if we expand the meaning of marriage to include same-sex partnerships, on what grounds could we legitimately oppose marriages between three or more people? Or weddings between siblings?

Remember, we are not just defending the Christian view of marriage. Since the beginning of recorded history, virtually every society and every major religion has revered and protected traditional marriage. Why? It is the institution that produces, nurtures, protects, and civilizes children. And marriage is the cornerstone of society’s foundational institution: the family.

If the proponents of same-sex “marriage” succeed in foisting it on America, marriage itself would be reduced to nothing more than a legal contract between two (or more!) people. True marriage would be abolished, and the damage to our society would be incalculable.

These are the arguments we all need to learn to defend traditional, true marriage, particularly in those states where constitutional amendments are on the ballot this fall.

Tomorrow on “BreakPoint,” I will explain how same-sex “marriage” laws pose a threat to your religious freedom.

This is part one in a two-part series”

Oprah’s New Age Religion

From Eric Barger Ministries.

Let there be no doubt. Oprah Winfrey is finally out of the spiritual closet. She has completely thrown out any previous notion that she is a “Christian.” Now, television’s most influential woman has become the driving force in bringing Helen Schucman‘s 35 year old trance-channeled book A Course in Miracles and new age author Marianne Williamson into the mainstream.

Not since Shirley MacLaine has any single person done so much to promote and normalize New Age mysticism to the public, as has Oprah. Her latest venture is promoting Eckhart Tolle, a sixty year-old German mystic who resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.

According to Tolle himself, his influences include:

* Sufism, which is a mystical form of Islam

* Zen Buddhism

* The Australian turned Hindu mystic, Barry Long whose teaching includes 20 books most of which focus in detail about sexuality between man and woman and its use to purify them both and rid them of personal, human love.

* Tolle acknowledges that his teachings are a synthesis of the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, one of the most famous of Hindu Yogi’s and
J. Krishnamurti. (Krishnamurti was once declared the “Messiah” and was proclaimed as the new incarnation of the Maitreya Buddha by the Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society.)

* The aforementioned A Course in Miracles.

Perhaps most importantly, Tolle was born “Ulrich Tolle” and changed his name to “Eckhart” because of the profound influence which the 14th century occult mystic, Meister Eckhart had on him!

Oprah has spotlighted Tolle’s books in her popular “book club” and on March 3, 2008, she began co-hosting a series of weekly webcasts with Tolle based on his latest book, A New Earth. During one webcast, Tolle led Oprah to follow him into an altered state of consciousness. I wonder how many of the estimated two million people logged online to the meeting did likewise?

When asked during a webcast how she has reconciled Tolle’s spiritualist teachings with her previous Christian background Oprah responded as follows.

“I’ve reconciled it because I was able to open my mind about the, ah, absolute, indescribable hugeness of that which we call ‘God.’ Ah, I took God out of the box, cause, I grew up in the Baptist church and there were you know, rules and belief systems, doctrine. And, I happened to be, ah, sitting in church in my late twenties, and I was going to this church where you had to get there at eight o’clock in the morning or you couldn’t get a seat and a very charismatic minister, and everybody was, you know, into the sermon. And this great minister was preaching about how great God was and how omniscient and omnipresent and God is everything. And then he said ‘The Lord thy God is a jealous God.’ And I was, you know, caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said ‘jealous.’ And, something struck me, I was I think about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I was thinking, ‘God is all. God is omnipresent and God�s also jealous? God is jealous of me?’ Something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love, that God is in all things. And so, that’s when the search for something more than doctrine began to stir within me.”

Oprah then asks her guru, Eckhart Tolle, what happens to humans at death. Tolle responds “I don’t give it any thought.” Oprah further pontificates that “God, in the essence of all consciousness, isn’t something to believe. God is! God ‘is’ and God is a feeling experience not a believing experience. And if your religion is a believing experience, if God for you is still about a belief, then it’s not truly God.“

This last statement is exactly what drives the heretical Emerging Church Movement. It is a search for spiritual feelings - but not absolute truth. For experiences - but without foundation.

God is certainly NOT jealous of Oprah! However, in her defiance of the key passage forbidding idolatry (Exodus 20’s “Ten Commandments”), she has made herself a god in the process. This is what led to the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) and to the insurgence of every cultic teaching since. The mistake of all mistakes directly from the serpent’s mouth is discounting, ignoring or disagreeing with God’s infallible Word… “Hath God Said?“

To really get the full impact of Oprah’s statements I suggest that you actually hear and see Oprah and her guru. It is chilling to say the least. To do so, please visit this page on our website: http://www.ericbarger.com/emailers/2008/update5-8-2008.htm

From National Right to Life: Obama as Pro-Abortion as is Politically Possible

From Dr. Douglas Groothius and The Constructive Curmudgeon.

“Trying to Wiggle Out of the Obvious Contradictions

If you think you may have read this column before, stay with me anyway. There are certain stubborn realities in this presidential election year that are like stains that have resisted the first half-dozen applications of the strongest stain remover.

Too many people whose opinions I ordinarily respect are so caught up in the “promise” of pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama that they refuse to face facts. Or, more specifically, they soft soap the grim reality that Obama is the most anti-life presidential candidate to run since Roe v. Wade was laid on the shoulders of unborn babies.

Obama is like an instrument that vibrates in sympathetic harmony with the Abortion Establishment. While you know the litany, unfortunately only a tiny percentage of the American public is aware of his abysmal record.

They don’t know Obama’s support for taxpayer funding of abortion, which increases the number of dead babies. They don’t know that he approves of abortionists not notifying parents even when they are performing an abortion on a minor girl from another state.

Nor do they know that Obama supports cloning human embryos, is a co-sponsor of the “Freedom of Choice Act” (Roe on steroids), or that he bitterly denounced the Supreme Court for upholding a law that banned the hideous partial-birth abortion “procedure.” This is no small deal. Even some pro-abortion senators drew the line at partial-birth abortion. For example, according to the Congressional Record (Sept. 26, 1996, at S11373), the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “I think this is just too close to infanticide. A child has been born and it has exited the uterus, and what on Earth is this procedure?”

Prof. Paul Kengor recently wrote a thoughtful piece about this whole phenomenon. Although he was talking specifically about Roman Catholic apologists for Obama, his analysis applies across the board.

Kengor does a masterful (and emotionally gripping) job of painting a picture of what happened to those few babies who survived an abortion. The neglect of these victims was so revolting that, in spite of the best efforts of the usual congressional suspects, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act passed in 2002. All BAIPA does is require that these babies receive the same medical attention given a baby spontaneously born prematurely.

“Obama was not a member of the US Senate at the time that the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act passed unanimously through both chambers of Congress,” Kengor writes. “But he was a member of the Illinois state legislature, where similar legislation was introduced at the state level.” Obama voted against the legislation.

All this and more is outlined by Kengor by way of setting the stage. For all of his egregious pro-abortion positions, Obama is vigorously supported by people who ought to know better–or perhaps do, and pretend otherwise.

Part of the explanation is a variation of the argument that while abortion is (or may be) important, it does not match, let alone override, a panoply of other issues taken as a whole. If this is their position, so be it.

But the website of these same Catholics begins, Kengor explains, with a long quote “from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which states, ‘The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of the moral vision for society. … In our society, human life is under direct attack from abortion and euthanasia.’ “

So there must be some heavy-duty rationalizing at work to explain why “they are stumping hard for Obama, who, if elected, has promised to do whatever he can to appoint justices and support legislation guaranteeing decades of protection for Roe v. Wade.” (I’m not dealing with those who simply want a Democrat elected President.)

Kengor offers a very illuminating example of one man who at least addresses the abortion issue. This guy concedes that he “may disagree” with Obama “on aspects of these important fundamentals,” but nonetheless is “convinced, based upon his [Obama's] public pronouncements and his personal writing, that on each of these questions he is not closed to understanding opposing points of views and, as best as is humanly possible, he will respect and accommodate them.”

In other words, I like his smile, so what if he is a force behind FOCA, which would undo with the stroke of a pen decades of pro-life achievements? Obama doesn’t raise his voice, so what if he would allow abortion survivors to die unattended? He gives me goose pimples, so what if pro-abortion justices such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg–the kind that would allow partial-birth abortions–are Obama’s ideal?

Kengor is right that there are psychological mechanisms (and rationalizations) aplenty at work, allowing even some who would proudly call themselves “pro-life” to wiggle out of the obvious contradictions.

We need to keep the Truth Squad working 24/7, not for these people, alas, but for those who may be influenced by them. One important component is Today’s News & Views.
Be sure to pass this edition on to friends, family, and colleagues. And also, please encourage them to sign up to receive this daily feature.”

Day of Truth

From the Alliance Defense Fund.

Your gift enables Christian students to bring the Truth to their classmates

In the past, students who have attempted to speak against the promotion of the homosexual agenda have been censored or, in some cases, punished for their beliefs. You may remember Chase Harper, a high school student who was placed in a room and interrogated by an armed deputy after peacefully expressing his Christian beliefs regarding homosexual behavior.

Encouraging this censorship is none other than GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network). In 1996, the organization created the Day of Silence, encouraging students to express their support for homosexual behavior by making a display of saying nothing all day, to anyone. Teachers are encouraged to add their support by indulging the silence of their students. Far from the pursuit of truth, proponents of the Day of Silence discourage open and honest discussion.

And so, the Day of Truth was launched.

The Day of Truth is a national project established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and allow students to express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective. Last year, in the third year of the project, more than 7,000 students—representing 1,022 schools in 49 states—participated, engaging their peers in thoughtful, respectful discussions. Reports from students throughout the country show that the event was a resounding success.

On Monday, April 28, students across the nation will once again wear a specially designed Truth T-shirt and pass out cards outside of class time with the following message:

I’m speaking the Truth to break the silence.
True tolerance means that people with differing — even opposing — viewpoints can freely exchange ideas and respectfully listen to each other.
It’s time for an honest conversation about homosexuality.
There’s freedom to change if you want to.
Let’s talk.

As a legal alliance, ADF works closely with other organizations and ministries who share our goals. This year, Focus on the Family and Exodus International have joined the project as allies, providing information and support regarding the theological, social, research, and religious ministry issues central to this debate. Their involvement provides students with resources we could not provide alone, and as a result, we are expecting the best Day of Truth ever. But we still need your help to ensure the success of this critical project.

If officials can block the Truth in public schools, they can block it anywhere. That’s why it’s vital that we defend students’ freedom to hear and speak the Truth. These young people have shown they have the courage to stand for the Truth – and as a result, lives and hearts are being changed. Your gift today helps us continue providing students with the necessary resources to speak the Truth into the lives of classmates who desperately need to hear it.

Your support will change not only what tomorrow looks like in America . . . but also what today looks like for our children and grandchildren.

Procter & Gamble promotes explicit open-mouth homosexual kissing

From the American Family Association.

Procter & Gamble has resumed using explicit, open-mouth homosexual kissing in their soap opera, “As the World Turns.” P&G decided to include this type of content as a commitment to “diversity.” P&G stopped showing such scenes some months ago, but has now decided to again help promote the homosexual agenda which includes homosexual marriage.

Gay activists are hopeful that the P&G effort will desensitize viewers to the homosexual lifestyle and help make the unhealthy and immoral lifestyle more acceptable to society, especially to children and youth.

View a scene from the April 23, 2008 episode by P&G. WARNING – content is repulsive!

“As the World Turns” is owned and controlled completely by P&G. No network made this decision. P&G alone made the decision to support the homosexual agenda.

Take Action!

P&G needs to hear from you today. We have provided a sample letter for you to send to Chairman Lafley, but strongly encourage you to add a personal message. Help us spread the word about P&G by forwarding this to friends and family. Ask your pastor to put this information in the church bulletin and newsletter. P&G’s products include Tide, Crest and Pampers. Send an e-mail to P&G Chairman A.G. Lafley. Find P&G products in your home. Each product will have a toll-free number for that product line on the label. Call the number and let them know you oppose their promotion of homosexuality. P&G’s direct line which reaches a live person is 513-983-1100 .

THE MOST DANGEROUS TELEVANGELIST IN THE WORLD

I ran across this on the blog of Pastor Barry Cameron and Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie, TX.

Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, recently wrote an article called The Church of Oprah. In it he made the statement that “writing anything even remotely critical of Oprah will bring an avalanche of hate mail.” Well, back up the trucks from the Post Office.

Without question, Oprah Winfrey is one of the most, if not the most, popular and influential people in our world. She’s also among the wealthiest. Her Oprah Winfrey Show is the highest rated talk show in television history. Her book club makes instant bestsellers of what are oftentimes average books. Statistics show each of the book selections she’s made for her book club have sold over 1 million copies.

Her “O” Magazine (which features her picture on the cover of EVERY ISSUE) has become one of the most popular ladies’ magazines in America. HARPO PRODUCTIONS, her personal media company, develops television and radio programs, records music, and produces movies. They are responsible for The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil and The Rachael Ray Show. Her “Live Your Best Life” seminars draw thousands of women, who pay $185 each, and pack out auditoriums in cities all over America.

But Oprah Winfrey is more than just an entertainer, economic machine, entrepreneur, educator, etc. She’s also an evangelist for a “false gospel,” full of New Age philosophy and completely devoid of Scriptural truth.

On a recent program, which you can view on YouTube, Oprah said, “One of the mistakes human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live and we don’t accept that. There are diverse ways of being in the world . . . that there are millions of ways to be a human being and many ways, many paths to what you call God. Her path might be something else and when she gets there she might call it ‘the Light.’ But her loving and her kindness and her generosity — if it brings her to the same point it brings you, it doesn’t matter whether she calls it God along the way or not. There can’t possibly be just one way.”

Someone in the audience mentions Jesus and Oprah asks, “What about Jesus?” A lady in the audience says, “There is one way and only one way and that is through Jesus.” To which Oprah responds, “There couldn’t possibly be just one way.”

In one of her more recent ventures, The New Earth Web Class, (week #3), Oprah is visiting with Eckhart Tolle, author of the book, A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose (a selection of Oprah’s book club) and here is what she says, “I took God out of the box. Because I grew up in the Baptist Church and there were, you know, rules and, you know, belief systems and doctrines and um, I happened to be sitting in church in my late twenties and I was going to this church where you had to get there at 8:00 in the morning or you couldn’t get a seat . . . and a very charismatic minister and everybody was just, you know, into the sermon and this great minister was preaching about how great God was and how omniscient and omnipresent and God is everything. And then, he said, ‘and the Lord Thy God is a jealous God.’ And I was, you know, caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said ‘jealous.’ And something struck me and I was like, I think about 27 or 28, and I was thinking, ‘God is all. God is omnipresent and God is also jealous? God is jealous of me?’ And something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit. Because I believe that God is love and that God is in all things. And so, that’s when the search for something more than doctrine started to stir within me. And I love this quote that Eckhart has. Uh, this is one of my favorite quotes in chapter one, where he says, ‘man made God in his own image. The eternal, the infinite and unnamable was reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as my God or our God’.”

Oprah then turns to Eckhart and asks, “What happens to us when we die?” Eckhart says he doesn’t give it any thought at all. Then, Oprah says, “God is a feeling experience not a believing experience . . . and if God for you is still about a belief then it’s not truly God. That’s what you’re saying.” And Eckart agrees with her.

What?

Oprah has embraced Betty Eadie, the new age, Mormon author of the book Embraced By The Light and said she wants “people to see things on our show that makes them think differently about their lives . . . to be a light for people. To make a difference . . . to open their minds and see things differently . . . how to get in touch with the spiritual part of their life.” However, according to Watchman Fellowship, a Christian ministry, which exposes cults, deceptive teachers and their teachings, “the light Oprah offers is the ‘angel of light’ (2 Corinthians 11:14)” which is none other than Satan, himself.

Oprah wholeheartedly endorsed and promoted the feel good, phony-baloney book, The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, which teaches you can think anything into existence and bring success and unlimited wealth to yourself just by thinking the right thoughts. Only the latest in a long line of self-help books focused on positive thinking rather than God, the book promotes believing in the force of the universe rather than having faith in God and even states the individual reader is God.

Oprah has done a lot of good in our world. But that doesn’t discount the damage she is doing to millions of people who are buying into the dangerous gospel she espouses. A gospel diametrically opposed to Scripture.

The Bible emphatically and clearly states there is only ONE WAY to Heaven and His name is JESUS! Jesus said, “I am THE way, THE truth and THE life. No man comes to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6). The apostle Paul was equally clear when he wrote, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”

Oprah is a talented talk show host and likeable person — at least from a distance. But she’s also a dangerous televangelist duping tens of millions of people into believing and embracing a false gospel.

Don’t allow yourself to be deceived by the most dangerous television evangelist in the world and don’t excuse her actions by recounting all the good she accomplishes.

No amount of good works can ever make up for a false gospel that sends people to Hell!

Connecting Hitler and Darwin

From Dr. David Berlinski and Human Events.

One man – Charles Darwin – says: “In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals. …”

Another man – Adolf Hitler – says: Let us kill all the Jews of Europe.
 
Is there a connection?

Yes obviously is the answer of the historical record and common sense.
 
Published in 1859, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said nothing of substance about the origin of species. Or anything else, for that matter. It nonetheless persuaded scientists in England, Germany and the United States that human beings were accidents of creation. Where Darwin had seen species struggling for survival, German physicians, biologists, and professors of hygiene saw races.
 
They drew the obvious conclusion, the one that Darwin had already drawn. In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals. German scientists took the word expense to mean what it meant: The annihilation of less fit races. 
 
The point is made with abysmal clarity in the documentary, Expelled. Visiting the site at which those judged defective were killed – a hospital, of course – the narrator, Ben Stein, asks the curator what most influenced the doctors doing the killing.
 
“Darwinism,” she replies wanly. 
 
It is perfectly true that prominent Nazis were hardly systematic thinkers. They said whatever came into their heads and since their heads were empty, ideas tended to ricochet. Heinrich Himmler proclaimed himself offended by the idea that he might been descended from the apes.
  
If Himmler was offended, the apes were appalled. 
 
Nonetheless, even stupid men reach their conclusions because they have been influenced in certain ways. At Hitler’s death in May of 1945, the point was clear enough to the editorial writers of the New York Times. “Long before he had dreamed of achieving power,” they wrote, [Hitler] had developed the principles that nations were destined to hate, oppose and destroy one another; [and] that the law of history was the struggle for survival between peoples … ”.
 
Where, one might ask, had Hitler heard those ideas before? We may strike the Gospels from possible answers to this question. Nonetheless, the thesis that there is a connection between Darwin and Hitler is widely considered a profanation. A professor of theology at Iowa State University, Hector Avalos is persuaded that Martin Luther, of all people, must be considered Adolf Hitler’s spiritual advisor. Luther, after all, liked Jews as little as Hitler did, and both men suffered, apparently, from hemmmorhoids. Having matured his opinion by means of an indifference to the facts, Roger Friedman, writing on Fox news, considers the connection between Darwin and Hitler and in an access of analytical insight thinks only to remark, “Urgggh.”
 
The view that we may consider the sources of Nazi ideology in every context except those most relevant to its formation is rich, fruity, stupid and preposterous. It is for this reason repeated with solemn incomprehension at the website Expelled Exposed: “Anti-Semitic violence against Jews,” the authors write with a pleased sense of discovery, “can be traced as far back as the middle ages, at least 7 centuries before Darwin.” 
 
Let me impart a secret. It can be traced even further. “Oh that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” runs the lamentation in Jeremiah 9.1, “that I might weep day and night for the slain daughters of my people.”
 
And yet if anti-Semitism has been the white noise of European history, to assign it causal powers over the Holocaust is simply to ignore very specific ideas that emerged in the 19th century, and that at once seized the imagination of scientists throughout the world.
 
What is often called social Darwinism was a malignant force in Germany, England and the United States from the moment that social thinkers forged the obvious connection between what Darwin said and what his ideas implied. Justifying involuntary sterilization, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes argued that “three generations of imbeciles is enough.” He was not, it is understood, appealing to Lutheran ideas. Germany reached a moral abyss before any other state quite understood that the abyss was there to be reached because Germans have always had a congenital weakness for abysses and seem unwilling, when one is in sight, to avoid toppling into it.
 
These historical connections are so plain that from time to time, those most committed to Darwin’s theory of evolution are moved to acknowledge them. Having dismissed a connection between Darwin and Hitler with florid indignation, the authors of the site Expelled Exposed at once proceed to acknowledge it: “The Nazis appropriated language and concepts from evolution,” they write, “as well as from genetics, medicine (especially the germ theory of disease), and anthropology as propaganda tools to promote their perverted ideology of ‘racial purity.’”
 
Just so. 
 
Would he care to live in a society shaped by Darwinian principles? The question was asked of Richard Dawkins.
 
Not at all, he at once responded.
 
And why not?
 
Because the result would be fascism.
 
In this, Richard Dawkins was entirely correct; and it is entirely to his credit that he said so.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

I just saw this movie yesterday and it was absolutely incredible.  I believe it is one of the most important movies of my generation.  I highly encourage everyone to go and see it and let others know about it.

See details on the movie below from Answers in Genesis.

Excited about Expelled! I urge you to go to one of the 1,000 movie theaters that will be showing the excellent and entertaining documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which starts tomorrow. I have already attended two previews of Expelled, and I look forward to seeing it again—that’s how great this film truly is. It exposes how radical evolutionists will persecute those who don’t accept evolution. It gives many examples of scientists and others whose careers have been ruined by the “evolution police”—yet at the same time manages to be humorous, thanks to its witty host (actor Ben Stein) and the insertion of funny movie clips. Although Stein is not a biblical creationist and comes from a Jewish background, we have found some common ground with him, as he does a masterful job of exposing the scientific problems with Darwinian evolution as well as the ruthlessness of its defenders in suppressing academic freedom. It’s not a Christian film, but it is very much worth your time because you will get a better understanding of the creation/evolution battle and how it is on the front lines of the culture war. Plus, you will see compelling evidence for design in the universe. To find a showing, go to the film’s website, and if you don’t see one of your local movie houses listed, call the theater’s manager and urge that it be shown. Your recommendation can go a long way to getting the film played and having your community see it. Or ask your pastor to call and ask how the church can book a showing of Expelled and then fill the theater with church members and guests. Previews of the film have been met with standing ovations. Go see it for yourself and be prepared to stand up and cheer. (By the way, look for the scene in the film where protestors are picketing our Creation Museum!) For the moment, watch a trailer, endorsements, and video clips of Expelled at: http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?page=expelled Remember: Expelled comes out tomorrow, April 18. Your support for the movie could help ensure that millions more people see the powerful evidence for design and learn about the loss of academic freedom at the hands of evolutionists. Thank you, Ken Ham President, Answers in Genesis–U.S.

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist

From Frank Turek and crossexamined.org.

Because of your support:   Since November, I’ve had the opportunity to present I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist to over 6,000 students between seven college seminars and three high school events.  We are currently scheduling multiple events for the fall.     Atheists at UNC Wilmington had difficulty answering questions about the source of objective morality.  Click here to read about it: Atheists Have No Basis for Morality.   I’ve challenged atheists to provide causes for ten known effects (such as the origin of the universe out of nothing, the origin of life, objective morality, etc.).  To see the challenge, their responses, and a fascinating discussion, click here: Darwinists Have a Lot of Explaining to Do. We are now broadcasting I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist into 15 million households every Sunday night at 6 pm ET (3 pm PT) on DirecTV channel 378 (rebroadcast 2 a.m. Monday morning, 11 pm PT).   Click here to see a clip from the TV show about how the New Testament is too embarrassing to be false. We have also been invited to air the TV program on a cable station into another 10 million households.  Please pray negotiations go well. CrossExamined.org is getting national attention.  After referencing us in a couple of columns, Mike Adams recently devoted an entire column to CrossExamined.org and how we are trying save this next generation from atheism and to Christ.  It’s called “Forward this Column or Get Stuck on Stupid.”   This article alone has brought us several invitations for next semester on campuses and churches all over the country! We are now gearing up for two major events this summer (click here for the complete calendar):  The first is the CrossExamined Instructor Academy (CIA) from August 13-15 where we will train other apologists to conduct the seminar.  That way we can blanket campuses across the country with I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (there will be an e-mail with details on CIA coming soon).  Please pray that those who will be most effective will apply to the program. The second major event is a parent-student I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist conference to equip entire households with a defense against atheism and a positive case for Christianity (times and places to follow soon).  Please pray that the details fall into place so that a maximum number of families are impacted.  In addition to conducting seminars next fall, I’ll be debating atheist Christopher Hitchens on September 9, 2008 at Virginia Commonweath University .  Mr. Hitchens, author of God is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything, will be a formidable opponent.  I treasure your prayers.   At our campus events we’ve gotten several small unsolicited donations from students.  It is a blessing to   them to be part of the body wanting to give a ready defense - and a joy to us to know that they thought the program was so effective that they wanted to make sure we continued on to the next campus, and the next, and the next.  Will you help us get to the next campus?  Since we charge the students nothing for campus events, we rely on your support.  Please click here to donate.   Thank you for forwarding this message to your friends or relatives who would enjoy supporting this critical mission!     Blessings,