Schooling or Education?

It is important to distinguish between "schooling" and "education." Not all schooling is education nor all education, schooling. The proper subject of concern is education. The activities of government are mostly limited to schooling.

--Milton Friedman. Capitalism and Freedom

The Greatest Evil

"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint.  It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps.  In those we see its final result.  But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."

C.S. Lewis, Preface to THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS

Wise Advice

“One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.”

― Elisabeth Elliot,
"Secure in the Everlasting Arms"

- Posted using my iPhone

Total Security or Freedom?

- Posted using my iPhone

President Reagan on Memorial Day

"Over one hundred years ago, Memorial Day was established to commemorate those who died in the defense of our national ideals. Our ideals of freedom, justice, and equal rights for all have been challenged many times since then, and thousands of Americans have given their lives in many parts of the world to secure those same ideals and insure for their children a lasting peace. Their sacrifice demands that we, the living, continue to promote the cause of peace and the ideals for which they so valiantly gave of themselves.
Today, the United States stands as a beacon of liberty and democratic strength before the community of nations. We are resolved to stand firm against those who would destroy the freedoms we cherish. We are determined to achieve an enduring peace -- a peace with liberty and with honor. This determination, this resolve, is the highest tribute we can pay to the many who have fallen in the service of our Nation."

from President Ronald Reagan's Memorial Day Tribute, 1981

The most fitting tribute we can give to those brave soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, is to never let another communist war hawk like Barack Hussein Obama into the White House to serve as Commander in Chief of the armed forces ever again.  Our brave military deserves better!

God bless our soldiers!

The Worst Kind of Tyranny

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.


C.S. Lewis

What's green on the outside, but red on the inside?

Well, yes, a watermelon, but the answer is:

Earth Day!  or Vladmir Lenin's birthday honorarium day.

To read more about the agenda behind the environmental movement, I encourage you to visit Cal  Beisner's website, The Cornwall Alliance.  Dr. Beisner is a Christian who strongly believes in caring for God's creation, but he has spent years exposing the ultimate goal of leftist environmentalists.  This agenda, at its root, has nothing to do with caring for the earth; instead, it is about the transfer of wealth through taxes, restrictions, carbon credits, etc.  The ultimate goal of communism is the complete elimination of private property, and the environmentalists/communists are after your property!  Instead of seizing it at the end of a gun, which was Lenin's messy way, they will tax it, regulate it, and control what you can do on it.

I thought this was a great article on American Thinker about 5 ways to celebrate Earth Day:

Five Ways to Save the Earth (and Expose Leftist Hypocrisy)

The ways are:
1. Homeschool
2. Preserve families
3. Support small businesses
4. Encourage sportmen (hunting)
5. Shrink government

(You must read this article!)  If the leftists really cared about preserving the earth, they would be supportive of all the above ideas!  Hypocrites!

I am NOT a tree hugger, but I do marvel at this wonderful earth our Lord has given us.  Creation is one of two ways God gives general revelation of Himself to every man, no matter where he may be born (the other being conscience).

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 

Psalm 19:1

Having a Burden

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."

-Charles Spurgeon

Portraying Christ in film?

Here's a wonderful, principled, Scripture-based response by Dave Hunt as to whether or not Christians should see films, such as The Passion of the Christ, that portray our Lord.

Question: I heard you recently express concern that an actor played the part of Jesus in the Mel Gibson movie....What about the Jesus film that has been the means of millions coming to Christ around the world? Why are you just now becoming concerned? | thebereancall.org

Answer:  I have consistently opposed attempts to portray Christ in film and other visual media. My reasons are rather simple. If you carried in your wallet a picture that you took out several times a day to look at in order to remember and honor your wife or husband—but it wasn’t a picture of that person at all, but of someone else—wouldn’t your spouse be justifiably be upset?

Literally hundreds of pictures of “Jesus” exist by different artists, famous and otherwise: “Christ Crowned with Thorns,” by Dutch painter Jan Mostaert, c. 1510, in the London National Gallery; “Crown of Thorns,” done about the same time by Italian painter Correggio; “Christ Carrying His Cross,” by Italian and Spanish painter El Greco, 1580, in New York’s Metropoli-tan Museum of Art; “Head of Christ,” by Rembrandt, 1655, held in the Picture Gallery, Berlin; “White Crucifixion,” by Russian painter Marc Chagall, 1938, Art Institute of Chicago; “Head of Christ,” by Warner Sallman, 1940, copyrighted by Warner Press, Inc.; the pitiful, any-person androgynous “Jesus of the People” that won the National Catholic Reporter contest against about 1,700 other entrants in 1999, etc., etc.

These alleged “portraits” are all different. Which one is the true Christ? Not one! Then what is the point for an artist to paint or for you to honor an image of “Christ” that is not what He really looked like—and certainly is not as He appears now in glory?! To whatever extent any depiction (portrait or by actor on stage or film) isn’t accurate but influences your thinking, you have been led astray.

What must Jesus think of these misrepresentations! If your wife or husband would not be pleased with your carrying the picture of another to remind you of him or her, is Christ pleased by those who claim to love Him honoring so many phony representations?!

Moreover, is not Jesus God himself? Tell me why pictures pretending to represent Jesus are not a violation of the commandment not to make an image of God, even in our minds. Is this any better than the Israelites embracing idols as representations of Yahweh? You say you don’t bow before pictures of Jesus. But you do look upon them as representing Jesus, do you not? If not, why have them?

The error is even worse when someone dares to portray Christ on the screen. Of himself, Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Jn:14:9)! What actor playing “Jesus” would dare to say that? Yet they are attempting to portray in their flesh what Paul described as “without controversy, great is the mystery...God was manifest in the flesh...” (1 Tm 3:16). What audacity! And what of those who watch with approval and are influenced by such portrayals?

Jim Caviezel felt that in order to accurately portray Christ in The Passion he had to ingest the wafer turned into “Christ” in the Mass each day. Would that help?

After viewing movies, many sincere people see in their minds the actor who played “Christ” every time they think of Jesus. Does that please our Lord? I will leave that to your conscience.



And, may I add just one comment?  The Bible says, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" (I Cor. 11:14).  It's ironic that so many who attempt to paint or portray our Lord, or have a vision of Him, always reveal Him as having long hair.  Our Lord was perfect, and though He bore our shame on the cross, He never committed sin Himself.  "Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Rom. 3:4), OUR LORD WAS NOT A LONG HAIRED HIPPIE!

I Miss President Reagan

The following transcript is one of Ronald Reagan's famous radio addresses. In this address (which aired September 6, 1977), Ronald Reagan, the great orator, eloquently gives his thoughts on the "Good News Bible" (also called the Good News for Modern Man and Today's English Version) in comparison to the Authorized Version or the King James Bible.

"What would you say if someone decided Shakespeare's plays, Charles Dicken's novels, or the music of Beethoven could be rewritten & improved?

Writing in the journal "The Alternative", Richard Hanser, author of The Law & the Prophets and Jesus: What Manner of Man Is This?, has called attention to something that is more than a little mind boggling. It is my understanding that the Bible (both the Old & New Testaments) has been the best selling book in the entire history of printing. Now another attempt has been made to improve it. I say another because there have been several fairly recent efforts to quote "make the Bible more readable & understandable" unquote. But as Mr. Hanser so eloquently says, "For more than 3 1/2centuries, its language and its images, have penetrated more deeply into the general culture of the English speaking world, and been more dearly treasured, than anything else ever put on paper." He then quotes the irreverent H. L. Mencken, who spoke of it as purely a literary work and said it was, "probably the most beautiful piece of writing in any language." They were, of course, speaking of The Authorized Version, the one that came into being when the England of King James was scoured for translators & scholars. It was a time when the English language had reached it's peak of richness & beauty.

Now we are to have The Good News Bible which will be in, "the natural English of everyday adult conversation." I'm sure the scholars and clergymen supervised by the American Bible Society were sincerely imbued with the thought that they were taking religion to the people with their Good News Bible, but I can't help feeling we should instead be taking the people to religion and lifting them with the beauty of language that has outlived the centuries. Mr. Hanser has quoted from both the St. James Version & the Good News Bible some well known passages for us to compare.

A few thousand years ago Job said "How forcible are right words!" [Job 6:25] The new translators have him saying "Honest words are convincing." That's only for openers. There is the passage [Eccl. 1:18], "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow". Is it really an improvement to say instead, "The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know the more it hurts." In the New Testament, in Mathew, we read "The voice of the one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way." [Matthew 3:3] The Good News version translates that, "Someone is shouting in the desert. Get the road ready." It sounds like a straw boss announcing lunch hour is over.

The hauntingly beautiful 23rd Psalm is the same in both versions, for a few words, "The Lord is my shepherd" but instead of continuing "I shall not want" we are supposed to say "I have everything I need." The Christmas story has undergone some modernizing but one can hardly call it improved. The wondrous words "Fear not: for; behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy" has become, "Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you." The sponsors of the Good News version boast that their Bible is as readable as the daily paper -- and so it is. But do readers of the daily news find themselves moved to wonder, "at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth"? Mr. Hanser suggests that sadly the "tinkering & general horsing around with the sacred texts will no doubt continue" as pious drudges try to get it right. "It will not dawn on them that it has already been gotten right."

This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening."

Source: AV1611.ORG

A Father's Prayer

The following prayer was written by General Douglas MacArthur -


Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee….Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”

Randy Alcorn

Here's a quote from one of my favorite authors, Randy Alcorn:

"I thank God that today I don't just love Jesus as much as I used to,

I love Him more. That is to His credit, and I'm deeply grateful.

He's what makes it so exciting and so worthwhile, and He's the One Who empowers me to walk a long obedience in the same direction."

A Statesman for a President

statesman: (noun) a person who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of a government or in dealing with important public issues






How we need a statesman now, as the Usurper in Chief turns his back on our long-time allies (Egypt and Israel) and embraces violent jihad for the world!

Happy 100th!

Prayer

"The angel fetched Peter out of prison,

but it was prayer that fetched the angel."

-Thomas Watson

I Miss President Reagan

In memory of the "Challenger 7", who tragically lost their lives 25 years ago today, I'm going to post this speech made by President Ronald Reagan. It's funny how well I remember this speech. I was barely 11 years old, but I was truly shaken up by this tragedy, and I remember what a comfort it was to have our leader speak so sincerely, and to truly believe that he was as upset as we all were.

You Tube - Reagan Challenger Speech

Now, compare this to the Usurper in Chief giving a "shout out" to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow in his first public address after the Fort Hood Massacre. We just had a huge military slaughter by a Muslim jihadist on our own soil, and he waits a full two minutes before he even gets around to mentioning it.

You Tube - Obama Gives Shout Out

There is a comparison here that begs to be made! Since some people apparently have the nerve to "liken" the two, I'd like to point out 1 (of hundreds) major difference that has a direct bearing on the events of this past week. Ronald Reagan was a man who respected life. Please take a moment to read his Personhood Proclamation made on Sanctity of Human Life Day in 1988:

Personhood Declaration by President Ronald Reagan

partial quote:

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare the unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception until natural death, and I do proclaim, ordain, and declare that I will take care that the Constitution and laws of the United States are faithfully executed for the protection of America's unborn children. Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. I also proclaim Sunday, January 17, 1988, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon the citizens of this blessed land to gather on that day in their homes and places of worship to give thanks for the gift of life they enjoy and to reaffirm their commitment to the dignity of every human being and the sanctity of every human life."

Now, for the sake of comparison, here is Obama's Declaration given, NOT in honor of Sanctity of Human Life day, but in honor of the murderous and un-Constitutional Roe vs. Wade decision:

Obama Releases Statement Backing Abortion

partial quote:

"And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams."

Too bad for his grandchildren, I guess.

Should a pro-life stand be a "litmus" for you personally as you consider for whom you should cast your vote? Absolutely!! Your respect, or lack of respect, for life affects every decision you make! If you read the full text of President Reagan's proclamation, he goes on to mention the sick, elderly, and infirmed. It's hard to believe that in just 20 years, our nation went from Sanctity of Life Proclamations to death panels. History has proven President Reagan's words to be true:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Have you told your next generation about the sacredness of human life?

Bringing Down the Sacred Cow

MLK Day: Why I Won't Be Celebrating by Frank of Queens from The Right Perspective Radio:

"King has taken on deity status. No one dares to look critically at his politics or life. Instead, many believe that he is the most perfect being that ever existed. Yes, it’s true! Why, you can smear the Founding Fathers, you can even put Our Lord Jesus Christ in a vat of urine upside down and call it “art”. But heaven forbid that you should say a bad word about MLK. "

To read the rest of this article, click here

And here is another link to an excellent article, "The Dark Side of MLK", which goes into great detail concerning King's plagiarism and his unapologetic ties to communists.

On a funnier note, here's one local woman (who happens to be black) who thinks it would have been perfectly okay for the public schools to make up some much needed snow days on this sacred federal holiday. (Fast forward to 2:50)

The Freedom To Be Offended

We Americans have taken our brilliantly unique gift from the Founding Fathers, that being our Freedom of Speech, for granted. It is such a part of America and Americans, that we just assumed that, like the blood flowing through our bodies, freedom of speech would always flow through the U.S.A. I can't help but believe that the reason it is being so easily stolen away, is that we are largely a nation of immigrants now; people who were not raised in America and have no sense of the liberty we cherish...and, amazingly, there is no greater example of that than our own Obama (whether you accept his citizenship or not, there is no debate that he was raised abroad).

The criminilization of Christianity (through hate crimes legislation, outlawing Christmas and crosses, etc.) and social Marxism (which some call "political correctness") are two glaring examples of the loss of our Freedom of Speech. However, today, it's censorship that's on my mind. In an age where, in the name of free speech, libraries are forced to give free access to pornography, and our government funds pornographic art for public display, you would think censorship was a thing of the past.

Nope. After decades of ignorant, rambling protest, a new version of Mark Twain's classics Huck Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is being published, one which eliminates the "n-word". This news comes at a pertinent time for me because I bought Caleb The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for Christmas, and he is nearly through with reading it after only a few days. Having read the books and loved them in my childhood, I knew he would enjoy them as well. We had an intelligent discussion (yes, 13 year olds are capable of that) before he read it. I explained to him that the use of the n-word and the issue of slavery were prevalent in Tom Sawyer, but would actually be the themes in the next book on his list, Huckleberry Finn. For anyone who has actually read Huck Finn, it is obviously one of the most anti-slavery, anti-racist books that has ever been written. It isn't some boring, academic thesis about the evils of white men. Instead, it is a moving, personal story of one boy who recognizes the human dignity of his beloved friend, Jim, a slave. The climax of the novel is when Huck chooses to let Jim go free (instead of turning him in). He does so even though he has been convinced by society that this will damn his soul to hell.

Michelle Malkin wrote a great article about this in 2001 called "The Book Burners Against Mark Twain". Here is a quote from her article, click on the link to read it in its entirety:

Two gifted black writers, Booker T. Washington and Ralph Ellison, understood Twain's medium and message. Washington wrote that Twain "succeeded in making his readers feel a genuine respect for Jim." In creating Jim's character, the moral center of the book, Washington asserted that Twain had "exhibited his sympathy and interest in the masses of the negro people." Ellison noted similarly that "Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark Twain, that Jim was not only a slave but a human being (and) a symbol of humanity ... and in freeing Jim, Huck makes a bid to free himself of the conventionalized evil taken for civilization by the town."

Twain opposed racial inequality in many of his works of fiction and non-fiction, and came to reject slavery after moving East, marrying into an abolitionist family, and meeting Frederick Douglass. Twain used the vernacular of the antebellum South in "Huck Finn" not to denigrate black people, but to keep it real. Whitewashing the word "nigger" out of the book's dialogue would have played into the hands of those who prefer to sanitize history than confront it.


It's true that the freedom of speech carries with it the freedom to be offended. But even for those who don't like the "n-word" (MYSELF INCLUDED), reading Mark Twain's novel will only help your cause and concrete your beliefs, not offend you. I can't imagine any white supremacist who would appreciate a story about a Southern white boy who goes on a journey of self-discovery and finds that the runaway slave he encounters is not only a human being, but an honorable soul that teaches him some of the most important lessons of his life. What a pity that future generations will have to read the "whitewashed" version! Perhaps Huck said it best,

"H’aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?" Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 26.

The Birth Of Christ And The Birth Of America Are Linked

The Birth Of Christ And The Birth Of America Are Linked by Chuck Baldwin

As we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth, I am reminded of the words of John Quincy Adams. On July 4, 1837, he spoke these words:

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? … Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth. That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?”

This John Adams quote was taken from the Chuck Baldwin article linked above. When you read the founders' quotes, you get the overwhelming feeling that they all knew they were making and living out history. This was not just another rise of a nation, this was something BIG. Something blessed by the Hand of the Almighty and destined to further the Glorious Gospel to the nations of the world.

I don't pretend to put myself in the same class as the brilliant minds of the days of our founders, but I have that same gut feeling right now. Something big is in the process of happening. God is working. Nations are being dealt with. Only this time, it isn't God's hand of blessing and the birth of a nation, it is God's hand of judgment and the humbling of a nation.

Patriotic heads are already beginning to roll. There is a great possibility that I will be deleting my blog in the near future. While I believe this to be the absolute truth, this is not a blog post meant to depress anyone, unless you don't know the Saviour. If you are living with no Hope, without salvation and the promise of a home in Heaven, you should be depressed. But, thanks be to God, even in the midst of the undoing of my beloved country, I can still praise the Lord and have peace in my soul. If you don't know Jesus, this Christmas season would be a great time to look up and see from Whom your blessings flow!

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the

great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ"

Titus 2:13

December 7, Day of Infamy

"Today is the anniversary of the second worst attack on American soil in our nation's history. Unlike the 911 attacks and the Ground Zero mosque, the Japanese have not asked to build a Shinto shrine at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese have not announced their intent to break ground on December 7th for such a shrine; nor have they applied for taxpayer funds from a Pearl Harbor Fund for a Shinto Shrine at Pearl Harbor.

The very idea would have been unthinkable. Not anymore. "

To read the rest of this article by Pamela Geller, click HERE.