Communion is getting dangerous
February 12, 2006
This is really bizzare. We have the Alabama church burnings - 1 more today - and now this:
Bottles of fruit juice that appeared to be tampered with were found at same drug store where grape juice that sickened dozens of churchgoers had been purchased, police said....
The discovery comes after 40 churchgoers at Calvary Baptist Church were sickened last Sunday. Five people were sent to the hospital with nausea and vomiting after drinking the juice during a communion service, but nobody was seriously injured.
Read the whole story and be careful!
Holiday Tree offensive to Judaism
November 30, 2005
My church - Redeemer Presbyterian is participating in the lighting of Concord's "Holiday Tree". We have the opportunity to sing carols at the tree lighting and then carol downtown. I'm thankful we get to sing CHRISTMAS carols. I came across this post today from a Jewish Blog - I say AMEN!
The US has lately had some controversy over municipal trees being called "Holiday Trees" instead of "Christmas Trees." Christians have objected to the name of their holiday being obscured in such an ambiguous term. In particular, Boston has been the site of a controversy this year over the naming of the tree. The man who donated the tree even said that had he known it would not be called a "Christmas Tree," he would not have given it to the city.
A representative of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said, "To rename a Christmas tree as a holiday tree is as offensive as renaming a Jewish menorah a candlestick".
I'll go one step further. While Christians consider the renaming of the holiday symbol an affront to their religion, I find it offensive to my Judaism. The implication is that the tree is a symbol of the various holidays celebrated in America, most notably Hanukkah that generally falls out around the same time as the Christian holiday (particularly this year). The tree is not. It has nothing to do with Judaism, Hanukkah or any of our holidays. Regardless of its historical origin, the tree has come to be a symbol of one of the most important Christian holidays. Using an ambiguous term that implies it has significance to Judaism is, in my opinion, extremely offensive to Jews (and presumably members of other religions) and is simply inaccurate.
P.S. Dennis Hastert is a graduate of my Alma Mater - Wheaton College - he doesn't get a lot of Christian press because he lives a fully developed Christian Worldview that makes a respectful impact on our culture.
Scary - Bible Taken Literally
November 1, 2005
The left gone nutty....
This is their idea of Halloween. The scary picture of "Promise Keeper-type men" carrying books the the "title" Bible Taken Literally.
I've excerpted below a few other ideas they have for a scary future under George Bush. As Michelle Malkin says so well - Moonbats!
Presenting the Future of Horrors Under Bush
- Ominous-looking Promise Keeper-type men in suits carrying enlarged "books" with the "title" Bible Taken Literally.
- Women in white shrouds with large/visible/bloody hangers and blood stains - People dressed as doctors with nooses around their necks (or a large bullet wound) and black hoods over their heads, with a sign that says, "Executed For Providing Abortions"
BANNERS:
- "Bush's Future, If We Accept It: Halloween Decadence Banned; Torture Legalized" (This could be carried by submissive women (maybe wearing bonnets, long pastel-colored skirts, long-sleeved shirts, etc., and signs that say, "submissive wife" or something)
- "2008 is Too Late! Real Horrors Are Already Here!"
- "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way: Nov 2: NO SCHOOL. NO WORK. UNION SQUARE. NOON"
- Two Days Til The Beginning of the End of the Bush Regime!
Our missionaries are ordered out!
October 19, 2005
My church, Redeemer Presbyterian supports some wonderful missionaries in Venezuela through New Tribes Missions. The Muttis bring food, medicine, dentistry and the gospel to Amazon tribal people. They have suffered from malaria, civil unrest and scores of other challenges. Now Hugo Chavez wants them out - they are spies for the CIA. At least that's what the headlines read. I've been following it for a week now wondering what the people of Venezuela may be thinking. Well, hear is a sample of the conspiracy theories that seem to abound.
Carlos Pietri writes in Venezuela Electonic News: VHeadline.com - Missionary camps established in the vicinity of highly strategic mineral deposits:
For an unknown reason, they (missionaries) always chose places of great strategic importance as: Tama-Tama (the point where the Orinoco River branched with the Casiquiare River ... from where someone can exercise the absolute control over navigation on both the rivers. They also established their camps in the vicinity of highly strategic mineral deposits, specially of radioactive value (i.e. uranium).
All the world knows than the government of the United States of America has planned ... among other things ... to penetration of these lands under the guise of religious missions in almost the same way they did to take possession of the ancient kingdom of Hawaii.
Thru the people's faith they take possession of their cost-reducing activities ... by bribes and economic control, they take political power and, finally, incite separatism of the sovereign nation aiming to support them to append it to (North) American union.
And there are many things more behind those plots: to mention one, there are many clandestine airports thru which they take out precious stones and/or radioactive metals like uranium. • All this is very Anglo-Saxon, very North American and with the CIA's characteristic seal of approval and mysterious impunities.
We pray that the government listens to the people who New Tribes has ministered to for years.
"New Tribes Mission in Venezuela has been a very important source of support," said Jose Kayupare of the Puinave people. "For those of us who live in the jungle, [NTM's expulsion] really is a decision that the majority of indigenous people in Amazonas don't support." Kayupare, who was born in the dense jungles of the southern state of Amazonas, stated that NTM has helped impoverished Indian communities ravaged by malaria and other diseases, sometimes airlifting the sick to medical assistance.
New SAT trains bloggers and politicians
May 5, 2005
SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors: Dr. Les Perelman a director of undergraduate writing at MIT did his doctoral work on testing and develops writing assessments for entering M.I.T. freshman. He's quoted in the NYT's as saying,
It appeared to me that regardless of what a student wrote, the longer the essay, the higher the score.
Sounds like a old-time filibuster to me. He went on to say,
I have never found a quantifiable predictor in 25 years of grading that was anywhere near as strong as this one," he said. If you just graded them based on length without ever reading them, you'd be right over 90 percent of the time....r. Perelman contacted the College Board and was surprised to learn that on the new SAT essay, students are not penalized for incorrect facts. The official guide for scorers explains: "Writers may make errors in facts or information that do not affect the quality of their essays. For example, a writer may state 'The American Revolution began in 1842' or ' "Anna Karenina," a play by the French author Joseph Conrad, was a very upbeat literary work.' " (Actually, that's 1775; a novel by the Russian Leo Tolstoy; and poor Anna hurls herself under a train.) No matter. "You are scoring the writing, and not the correctness of facts."
How to prepare for such an essay? "I would advise writing as long as possible," said Dr. Perelman, "and include lots of facts, even if they're made up." This, of course, is not what he teaches his M.I.T. students. "It's exactly what we don't want to teach our kids," he said.
Could the new SAT be a training ground for today's politicians and bloggers???
Leather Bible and Jihad
May 4, 2005
As if there were any doubt, read John McCandlish Phillips piece When Columnists Cry 'Jihad': in the Washington Post.
I have been looking at myself, and millions of my brethren, fellow evangelicals along with traditional Catholics, in a ghastly arcade mirror lately -- courtesy of this newspaper and the New York Times. Readers have been assured, among other dreadful things, that we are living in "a theocracy" and that this theocratic federal state has reached the dire level of -- hold your breath -- a "jihad."
Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
Tolerance as a Virtue???
February 28, 2005
The Democrats say they want to court the religious in America. This is Howard Dean's attempt: Dean roars into town
"The issue is not abortion," Dean told the closed-door fund-raiser. "The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do." And Dean told the Hiebert fund-raiser that gay marriage was a Republican diversion from discussions of ballooning deficits and lost American jobs. That presents an opportunity to attract moderate Republicans, he said. "Moderate Republicans can't stand these people (conservatives), because they're intolerant. They don't think tolerance is a virtue," Dean said, adding: "I'm not going to have these right-wingers throw away our right to be tolerant."Tolerance as defined in The American Heritage Dictionary:
The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
In other words, we are putting up with something that we do not agree with or we find abhorent. When the Bible teaches us to love and pray for our enemies, to invite sinners into our home, to love the sinner - hate the sin; that is tolerance as a virtue. It does not include casting out right-wing pastors, politicians and anyone who is passionately pro-life and pro-family.
Boston anacharists target Fidelity
February 28, 2005
In a break from my traditional blogging fodder - I bring this news bulletin from the Boston Herald.
A group of Boston based anacharits called Anarchist Black Cross Boston is willing to use armed resistance to target government and businesss offices in Boston to create a classless society.
Fidelity Investments (my husband's company) is on the target list.
They say they are not associated with al-queda, that offers me little comfort.
Terri cries
February 19, 2005
Wittenburg Gate asks for a bloggers best for Terr Schiavo. Our best at this late date (two days before Terri's feeding tube is to be pulled) is our prayers. Terri and her family has our prayers - Now hear is my post.
I am not a theologian, a philosopher, a politician or an activist. I am a mother, wife, daughter and a Christian. A theologian can write persuasively about Imago Dei and how only God can know our time. A philosopher may write about natural law and our innate revulsion at the taking of a human life. A politician may debate the use of torture for terrorists that leads to death, than draw parallels to the torture of, starvation and dehydration, of those more innocent. An activist draws our minds to stark images of partial-birth abortion and the acknowledgement by even the most partision for anesthesia for the unborn baby ripped from her mother's womb. Than asks cynically, will Terri receive anesthesia as she suffers such a callous death?
All of these questions are important if not shocking. But a Christian mother, wife, daughter asks, no, pleads to our great God for a miracle. God champions the oppressed, Oh Lord,
Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!
For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread;... But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.... He appears in his glory; he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer. Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD: that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD.
Psalm 102:1-21a
Terri cries, we cry, the Lord hears our cries.
A Historic Day in the Control Room
January 30, 2005
What a historic day! After seeing 60% of jubilant Iraqis turn out to vote in their newfound democracy I decided to finally watch Control Room. The film gives an inside look at the running of Al Jazerra, and through that medium a look at what the Arab world is thinking.
What a nice contrast - between then and now. Al Jazerra must be perplexed. There "hold a gun to their head until they agree to democracy" understanding of the the United States was turned on its head. Control Room was shot just before and after the fall of Baghdad. Granted a lot has happened since Saddam's statue was torn down. But I think Al Jazerra would find it hard to say we are there just for OIL!.
September 11th - Through the Eyes of Children
January 28, 2005
Michelle Malkin points us to this site September 11, 2001, Documentary Project - (American Memory from the Library of Congress). I clicked on the photo gallery and tears came to my eyes. Why is it that when we see the world through the eyes of children that we often see the clearest?
