Biased intent?

The following question was posed to my wife (and fellow students) for discussion in her online Sociology class. I'd very much appreciate your thoughtful comments... I'll be posting mine after I hear from some of you.

At a time when Muslim doctors and engineers stand accused of attempting atrocities in the expectation of supernatural reward, when the Catholic Church still preaches the sinfulness of condom use in villages devastated by AIDS, when religious leaders convinced many Californians to write in their constitution discrimination against gay and lesbians, when the former president of the United States repeatedly vetoed the most promising medical research for religious reasons, when some Christian fundamentalists leaders and many American politicians insist that they do not believe in evolution as an explanation of life's origin, is religion a denial of reason and science? Is religion inevitably connected to violence and intolerance? Is religion a social problem in the contemporary world?

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Primitive or Progressive Pt. 2

Again a word on 'progressives.'

In the last several years the moniker Liberal has been substituted with Progressive. Let's be honest, Progressive just sounds better. Progressive implies advanced, enlightened and broad-minded. Our current administration and congress is dominated by progressives (liberals). Their worldview is certainly different than mine. I'm not a Republican, but I certainly am conservative (in light of the most recent DHS report I'd probably be labeled a right-wing extremest).

Progressives desire change. That's the mantra of our day. The change they seek would be to them 'progress', but I'm not at all convinced that it is the kind of change that I can (1) believe in or (2) get behind.

I was watching the CBS News Show "60 Minutes" this evening, they had a segment on Bull Fighters in Spain. At one point the Anchor, speaking about Madrid, said,

Many parts of Madrid take you back many centuries. But don't be fooled - Spain is one of the most modern and progressive counties in Europe. Half the cabinet are women, including the defence minister. There is gay marriage, quickie divorces, legalised abortion, and there is the ancient blood sport of bullfighting. How do you put that all together? It’s not easy.

60 Minutes is absolutely a Progressive (liberal) news show... and their definition of Spain's Progressiveness hit me like a 2x4 in the head. What is it that sets Spain apart as Progressive among the EU nations? Gay marriage, quickie divorces and legalised abortion. If that is the criteria for progressive then would I be wrong to say that progressive = immoral.

Oh wait, that's not very progressive of me.

Of the people, by the people?

The election is over and I for one am thankful that it is. The signs are going away, the commercials are done, the door hangers will not be found for at least a little while... but now let there be anger and outrage!

The 2008 election season will most certainly go down in the books as a big win for Democrats and those leaning toward a liberal worldview; there is of course but one major exception. The push for traditional values in marriage were upheld in Florida, Arizona and (Praise God) California.

I, like many, expected that the race for Prop 8 in California was going to be tight and I anticipated a certain level of discouragement for the losing side, but I am honestly surprised by the 'furor' that is now coming from the No on 8 crowd.

I gladly voted YES on Prop 8! As a result I'm labeled as "little minded", "hate filled", "bigoted", "ignorant", "homophobic" and "intolerant". The No on 8 protestors are angry, loud and passionate about pushing forward their agenda. Be certain, we Christians are well on our way to experiencing a form of religious persecution in our nation that we never expected or prepared for.

>An interesting article...

Interesting audio clip

I stumbled upon this earlier this morning and found it rather interesting.

During his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower had Ezra Taft Benson as his agriculture secretary. Benson would later go on to be the president of the LDS church — kind of interesting. But the below audio was given by Benson in 1965 as he referenced an conversation he had had with one of Russia's leaders (Kruschev).

Click here for audio clip.
Transcription

“I have talked face to face with the godless communist leaders. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Kruschev for a half day when he visited the United States, not that I’m proud of it. I opposed his coming then, and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor (Could you imagine if a cabinet member said such a thing today?). But, according to President Eisenhower, Kruschev had expressed a desire to learn something of American Agriculture — and after seeing Russian agriculture I can understand why. As we talked face to face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I expected to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren will live under freedom he arrogantly declaired in substance:

“ ‘You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.’

“And they’re ahead of schedule in their devilish scheme.”

Exercise your right!

Must Read Article(s)...

If you have a few minutes I recommend that you read Jonathan Rosenblum's article at Jerusalem Post, "Think Again: The end of the special relationship?"

Many Bible students that hold a 'futurists' view of Prophecy have wondered what might move America away from its pro-Israel foreign policy stance in the last day's. Rosenblum identifies one possibility, which may begin to come to pass as soon as next Tuesday.

ALSO!!! perhaps you've seen in the news over the last few days, there have been two near 5.0 earthquakes in relatively the same area of Iran over the last 2 weeks. Some officials (Israeli and Iranian) are now saying that one (and perhaps both) were not earthquakes, but rather Nuclear Weapon tests. Interesting chain of events.

Still interested? Check another article here and here.

"A Cause Greater Than Yourself"

Like many Americans I have listened to a good number of political speeches over the last two weeks. Nearly 40 million of us listened to Senator Obama speak at the Democratic Convention last week... and almost the same amount listened to Governor Palin last night at the Republican Convention. All the speeches have been well crafted. Some have had a better delivery than others.

I listened to John McCain's acceptance speech tonight and I have to say that I thought it was pretty good. Perhaps he's just a very good panderer and I've been pandered, but the last 2:30 minutes were - for me - inspiring.

...nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

John McCain

Did you catch it? He even said, "Enter the ministry." Good advice ;)

Super Great...

Even if some don't like Sarah Palin, they had to like this moment.