New “Arghhhhs!”: God’s Word, Yes!, “Values,” No!; Bush At The Border; Homosexuality NOT “Victimless Crime;” Godless Graduations; Buchanan Wrong About Lincoln; Hawking’s Hysterical Humanistic Hubris
Dr. James Dobson, writing in the “Focus On The Family” magazine, says that on numerous occasions he has said that for children “values are caught, not taught.” He says that if you’re the parent of a young child, you probably won’t have “a lot of success” if you say: “Johnny, this is what I believe about God and this is how I feel about the nature of right and wrong, and therefore you must believe it, too.” He says “more often than not, our kids will internalize our values only when we model them and live them…” He adds that what our kids see us doing daily “are the most powerful means available to parents for transmitting our values” to them.
Well, I disagree. True, it’s important how we act. But the “most powerful” way of teaching children, even young children (and everybody), what to believe about God, and what is right and wrong, is to teach them God’s Word on these subjects. This is what must be “transmitted” to all — God’s Word, not our “values.” So-called “values” are, after all, just that — they are what we “value” and nothing is true or false or right or wrong simply because we “value” that something.
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President Bush, speaking in Omaha, Nebraska, pushing his amnesty-for- illegal-aliens plan, says: “It makes no sense at all to say we can find people and run them out of the country. For some, I guess that sounds appealing. It’s impractical.” Huh? “Run them out of the country?” The illegal aliens are here illegally! They have no right to be here. And they ought to be deported because this is what the law says. What’s “impractical” is Mr. Bush’s doing nothing to deport these 12 million-plus criminals.
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I remember well how, more than 25 years ago, when I debated homosexuality with various homosexuals, I was told by these sodomites that homosexual sodomy was a private, personal matter, a “victimless crime” that hurt nobody and that it was nobody’s business what “consenting adults” did in the privacy of their bedroom. Well, the “NY Times” reports that since the first case of AIDS was discovered 25 years ago, this disease has infected 60 million people in the world killing 25 million of them. Sounds like a lot of “victims” to me.
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Great point by “NY Times” columnist Maureen Dowd! — though she’s probably not thinking what I’m thinking. In a column about an alleged massacre of innocent men, women and children by some Marines in Iraq, in Haditha, Dowd ridicules reports that our troops in Iraq are now being given a reminder-course in battlefield ethics. She says: “If somebody doesn’t already know why they shouldn’t murder a baby, it’s not clear that a refresher course will help.” Well, maybe such a course will help, maybe not. But, of course, everyone who favors “legal” abortion — like Dowd and editorial writers for the “Times” — are for the murder of babies.
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Have you ever noticed how when people try to say something profound and uplifting — apart from the God of the Bible and His Word — what they say is meaningless mush? An example is what you hear at a typical government-run high school graduation ceremony. My middle grandson, Matthew Daniel Lofton, graduated recently from our local public high school. For 10 blessed years he was in a Christian school. But, alas, for two years it was Caesar’s school.
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In any event, here’s some of what we heard from various school officials and some local politicians. The young men and women were told they could be anything all they had to do was reinvent themselves. “Just look in the mirror,” one speaker said, “and say who you want to be.” One female speaker said the State of Maryland was proud of them.
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Another male speaker said: “Life is all about you.” He told them to live their lives, listen, and leave a legacy adding: “Reach for the stars and succeed. You deserve all the goodness that will come your way.” Another speaker said that when they were sad just remember this day, draw on it, and be happy. “Plant your dreams,” said another speaker, “and they will grow into a beautiful flower.”
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One young lady student said: “Believe in something bigger than yourself.” Another speaker — quoting Ann Landers — told the graduates to prepare, plan and do not procrastinate. Oh, and “finish the race.” A school “choir” sang and I think I heard the words “Ave Maria.” Another female student said she owes everything “to my Lord above” but she said this so fast and under her breath that it was almost not audible.
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Attention Google search engine users! If you use this search engine for visitors to search your Web page, be careful. Visiting Phyllis Schlafly’s “Eagle Forum” Web page recently, using Google to search her page, I put in the word “abortion.” It turned up numerous references on “abortion.” But it also displayed ads featuring the names, addresses and phone number of abortionists! When I told Phyllis, she was shocked and said she would immediately abort these ads and take steps to assure they do not appear again.
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Recent photos in the news media showing President Bush riding in and waving from a “United States Border Patrol” dune-buggy as he visited some place on the U.S.-Mexico border were ludicrous. It reminded me of a widely-ridiculed photo of a helmet-wearing Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis showing him riding in a tank which was supposed to tell us he was strong on national defense. Bush, of course, has been about as strong on border security as Dukakis was on national security, which is to say not strong at all.
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In a recent column about the decline of the Republican Party, Pat Buchanan, who endorsed Bush for President and urged conservatives to “come home” to the GOP, refers to Abraham Lincoln who Pat says “reunited in blood a Union that had sundered over his election.” What a crock! Lincoln did shed blood by launching a totally unnecessary war against the South. But by this bloodshed he “reunited” nothing. Speaking of Brother Pat, in another column writing about the resurgence of Islam, he asks: “If Islamic rule is an idea taking hold among the Islamic masses, how does even the best army on earth stop it? Do we not need a new policy?” Well, yes, we do need a new policy. And part of this new policy should include President Bush starting to tell the truth about Islam instead of continuing to say, absurdly and falsely, that Islam is a religion of “peace.”
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Two cheers for a letter-to-the-editor in the “Wall Street Journal” by George Mason University economics prof Donald J. Boudreaux who quotes H.L. Mencken as saying about FDR’s fascism: “The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flophouses and disturbing the peace.” He’s right about FDR but wrong about the Salvation Army.
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The Bush Cheerleader Web site “Newsmax” reports ominously that if the Democrats take control of Congress they will, among other things, “act quickly to increase the minimum wage” and “lower prescription drug prices,” according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). Scary, huh? Except Senate Republicans have already proposed an increase in the minimum wage to $6.25-an-hour as opposed to Senate Democrats who have pushed for $7.25-an-hour. And Mr. Bush has proposed a disastrous, huge, multi-billion Medicare “reform” entitlement program to give cheaper drugs to older people.
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In a pro-life fundraising letter, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) — a good man — attacks the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade saying the high court has “invented laws” that condemned to death 45 million unborn babies by abortion. But, no, no, no! For the umpteenth time: Courts do not make law!!! Constitutionally only Congress can make “laws.” Rep. King should know better.
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Campell Public Relations has distributed a press release reporting that British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has told a Hong Kong news conference “that the human race must spread out into space for the survival of the species” because sudden global warming, nuclear war or a genetically-engineered virus “could wipe out humanity at any time.” But, such talk is arrogant, humanistic nonsense. Man does not have the power to destroy this world. Only God has such power and in the Bible He tells us how this present world will be ended and transformed.
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