Month: January 2006

President Bush gave Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito a broadcast boost Saturday, calling for a simple up-or-down Senate confirmation vote despite a blocking effort by some Democrats.

A final vote on whether to make the conservative federal appellate judge the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice is scheduled for Tuesday unless opponents win an uphill battle to impose a filibuster.

“The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to hold an up-or-down vote on Judge Alito’s nomination,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Throughout its 216-year history, the Senate has held an up-or-down vote on every Supreme Court nominee with majority Senate support.”

The president spoke as liberals led by Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, D-Mass., worked to deprive supporters of the 60 votes needed to limit debate. They faced resistance from some fellow Democrats as well as solid Republican opposition to the stalling tactic.

Alito, a former federal prosecutor and Reagan administration lawyer, would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She is the court’s first female justice and the swing vote on several 5-4 rulings that maintained abortion rights, preserved affirmative action and limited the application of the death penalty.

Washington AP
USAToday.com

Analysis:

Those who have been following the confirmation hearings for the President’s nomination to the Supreme Court are aware that opponents to Judge Alito’s confirmation are most concerned with his views on abortion.

Pro-abortion advocates are afraid that the Supreme Court’s Roe V Wade decision of 1973, granting women the right to abortion, may be revisited by a more conservative court in the future. They wanted Alito on record saying that the decision is “settled law”, to pressure him to uphold the spirit of the decision as other cases are presented to the court. To his credit, Alito refused to do so, and it looks like his confirmation is imminent.

The departure of the senate from the traditional decorum and bipartisanship of previous confirmations shows just how important this is to pro-abortion advocates. Abortion rights remains a litmus test for many in America, even today.

The Bible clearly reveals that abortion is sinful, as it affirms that a fetus is human life. Here the words of the Psalmist, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – “Brokeback Mountain” is moseying along the Academy Awards trail, its four Golden Globe wins – best drama among them – positioning the cowboy love story for Oscar glory.

Homosexual and transsexual themes dominated Monday’s Golden Globes with the key wins by “Brokeback Mountain,” plus acting honors for the film biography “Capote” and the gender-bending “Transamerica.”…

…The four Globes for “Brokeback Mountain,” the story of old ranch-hand buddies who conceal an ongoing homosexual affair from their families, included the directing award for Ang Lee.

The fact that “Brokeback Mountain” has found eager audiences across the country, including the conservative heartland, shows that Americans are willing to embrace stories of love in all forms, Lee said.

Continue reading “‘Brokeback Mountain’ Receives” →

“Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise”
~ Proverbs 20:1

We live in a time where social drinking is considered acceptable by the worldly, and is even championed by some in the Lord’s church. There has been much said and written about the words used for wine in both the Hebrew and Greek language, but I have read little about the phrase “strong drink” found several times in the Old Testament, and once (with regard to John the Baptist) in the New Testament, in Luke (1:15).

The Hebrew word shekar, is found 24 times in the Old Testament (according to Strong’s Concordance), and is translated “strong drink” (22 times), “strong wine” (1 time), and “drunkards” (1 time). The word is defined by Genesius in his Hebrew Dictionary as “strong drink, intoxicating liquor, whether wine or intoxicating liquor like wine made from barley, or distilled from honey or dates.” Strong defines the term as “an intoxicant; i.e. intensely alcoholic liquor.

The root from which the term shekar derives, (shakar), means “to become tipsy; to be filled with drink abundantly; to become drunk” (Strong’s); and it shares it’s root with Hebrew terms shikkerown, the name of a town in Palestine which literally means drunkenness, and shikkarown, translated drunkenness.

Continue reading “Strong Drink” →

OSAMA BIN LADEN’S quotation that “Islam is the only source of the rulings and laws” (editorial, Jan. 4) is frightening in its total rejection of the principle of separation of church and state. But we should not forget that his ideology is founded on the belief, which is central to most all deistic religions, that “God” is the only true source of morality and moral behavior.

That erroneous idea is a potentially dangerous source of rigidity and absolutism in moral thinking and behavior, and readily leads to efforts to impose one’s own group’s “true” morality on others, or to regard the “infidel other” as not worthy of the beneficence of that morality.

As is all too obvious these days, wars are fought under the self-righteous and self-justifying conviction that “God is on our side.”

The rational, secular view of morality is that it is generated only in human minds and is shaped over time in the real world by negotiating competing needs and shared benefits. There is no “Big Daddy” or “Big Mommy” up there, or out there, to tell us how to behave, or to punish us with natural disasters if we go astray. There is, however, good reason to believe that, along with murderous aggressivity, some fundamental altruistic urges have been built into the human genome by Darwinian evolution.

Given a framework of secular civil laws and enforcement, human compassion, conscience, and “the Golden Rule” of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” will take us a good long way.

RICHARD H. WOLFF
The Boston Globe

Analysis:

The Preceding opinion piece which appeared in the Boston Globe on January 10, proclaims the typical secularist attitude toward morality.

Continue reading “‘God’ Isn’t Only Source of Morality” →

Faster than a speeding bullet — actually, more than 10 times faster than a speeding bullet, Stardust will conclude its 7-year, 4.63 billion kilometer (2.88 billion mile) round-trip journey to comet Wild 2 Sunday, January 15, Pacific Standard Time (PST), making an historic re-entry in the wee morning hours to drop its precious comet cargo in the Utah desert well before dawn…

…”We are star stuff.”

Carl Sagan liked to remind people of that. Now, just a little more than a decade after the passing of The Planetary Society co-founder, Stardust is coming home with a bona fide sample of star stuff and the concept is being revisited in a very real way.

Continue reading “Comet Mission Returns Home” →

One of the primary motivations to become a Christian is the reception of myriad spiritual blessings when one has that relationship with God and His Son. We speak of the hope of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, the peace which passes understanding, the fellowship of God’s people, and heaven, the place of eternal rest and happiness.

While such positive motivations lead us to obedience to the gospel, and zeal in the Christian walk, there are other equally valid reasons to be a child of God. Some of these could be grouped into the category of “What We Escape” because of our faith. Notice a few of these things, as found in the gospel of John.

Continue reading “The “Shall Nots” Of John” →

NEW YORK Jan 6, 2006 – Two more NBC affiliates chose not to air the network’s new drama “The Book of Daniel,” which features an Episcopal priest with a gay son, the network said Friday.

Four affiliates nationally have rejected the series (set for a two-hour premiere 9 p.m. EST Friday). Conservative Christian groups have campaigned against the series.

Continue reading “‘Book of Daniel’ Snubbed by Affiliates” →

Two-thirds of Americans, including half of conservative Christians, approve of stem cell research that destroys human embryos, according to a recent survey. The poll, sponsored by the Genetics and Public Policy Center, also revealed an American public that is concerned about protecting human embryos but even more supportive of research that results in their destruction.

Only those classified as “fundamentalist/evangelical” failed to achieve at least 55% approval for embryonic research-and 50% of fundamentalists/evangelicals supported ESCR, with 9% strongly approving and 41% approving.

The survey results, released Oct. 13, came as debate continues over the federal government’s role in stem cell research. There are efforts in Congress to liberalize funds for destructive embryonic stem cell research. The House of Representatives approved such a measure earlier this year. The Senate appears to have a majority in favor of that bill but has yet to vote on it…

…So far, embryonic stem cells have produced no treatments for human beings, while non-embryonic stem cells have provided therapies for at least 65 ailments, according to Do No Harm, a coalition promoting ethics in research. These include spinal cord injuries, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and sickle cell anemia. Taking stem cells from non-embryonic sources – such as bone marrow and umbilical cord blood – does not harm the donor.

Baptist Press, via Pulpit Helps

Analysis:

First, the fact that a majority of Americans favor embryonic stem cell research does not make it right. Men have through the ages differed in their ethics with the Almighty.

Second, the fact that so many Americans are in favor of embryonic stem cell research indicates just how ungodly is the nation in which we live. The interesting note that while Americans agree with the need of protecting embryos, they more strongly agree with ESCR, indicates a disturbing ability to rationalize away killing. In effect, they are saying that human life (in the form of an embryo) is worth sacrificing if the benefits to humanity is sufficient. Not to be too alarmist in our rhetoric, but that is exactly the rationale used by the Nazi’s for their human experimentation during World War II. Further, if we are willing to sacrifice some humans (embryos) for the “greater good”, what will keep us from later including the handicapped, the very young, the sick or the elderly?

Third, the fact that even 50% of “fundamentalist/evangelicals” are in favor of ESCR is an indication of just how pervasive societal influences can be. And, Christians are not immune to such ungodliness either. Remember the troubles in the Corinthian church due to the ungodliness in the community surrounding them? Remember God’s exhortation to, “Come out from among them and be separate… Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

I recently came across an article written by Spiros Zodhiates, editor of Pulpit Magazine, and a well known Greek scholar. The title of the article was Logos: Logic Incarnate. Following is the first paragraph of the article:

Ever since the Fall, man’s limited perspective has been at odds with God’s omniscient intelligence. At the beginning of his Gospel, John introduces us to the Word (ho Lógos) who was with God and was God (John 1:1). Lógos not only means “word” but also denotes logic and intelligence. In a nutshell, the goal of logic is to arrive at a definite conclusion based on a starting premise of idea. Because God is not only logical but logic itself, His thought patterns would undoubtedly make the most sense when applied to any situation.

December 2005, Pulpit Helps, page 5

Interestingly, there is another Greek word, dialogismós, which is used a number of times in the New Testament to refer to the thoughts or logic of men. Though the word literally means, “consideration, reasoning or thought” (Strong’s), it often refers to a human logic that is at odds with the Lógos. Notice the following scriptures:

Continue reading “Lógos” →