April 2008

Out of a deep sense of duty to our readers, we went to see the new documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film, starring Ben Stein, is definitely worth seeing, and has something to say. Unlike the Al Gore documentary, it has not won critical acclaim and will likely not have the staying power of the former Vice President’s green movie. It could, however, outdo Michael Moore’s so-called art.

‘Expelled’ tells the story of Stein’s exploration of why those in the scientific community have been banished when even suggesting the consideration of intelligent design as a reasonable alternative to teaching the evolution theory.

Throughout the film, Stein makes the analogy of the evolutionary theory being a contributor to the rise of the Nazi Holocaust, communism, atheism and Planned Parenthood.

References of the Holocaust are depicted with some graphic scenes. The horrific eugenic experiments that Nazi scientists performed on disabled people also are mentioned in the film.

The movie’s culmination centers on Stein’s interview with Richard Dawkins, one of today’s prominent scientists who promotes the scientific theory of evolution. There’s quite a dramatic build-up to the interview where Stein gets Dawkins to admit there could be a possibility of intelligent design. However, Dawkins refuses to believe in the popular intelligent designer.

Stein is his typical self. His dusty dry sense of humor is splattered throughout the film. If you appreciate his character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you will enjoy ‘Expelled.’ And you will experience Stein’s passion of seeking truth, which we hope you share.

Do you recall ever hearing about Richard Niebuhr’s classic, Christ and Culture? It
outlines the five prevalent ways Christians have interacted with culture:

• Christ against Culture
• Christ of Culture
• Christ above Culture
• Christ and Culture in Paradox
• Christ Transforming Culture.

I am pumped to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, “a 2008 fantasy film based on Prince Caspian, the second published novel in C. S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia.”

This promises to be a good example of how (Christian) works can attempt to transform culture, not merely oppose the bad already out there.

What would William Wilberforce do? That is a question that oft runs through my mind, and that was a fulcrum in this intriguing interview between Christianity Today and the evangelical Rev. Jim Wallis. It reads in part:

CT: You repeatedly cite William Wilberforce as someone who did Christian political engagement right. But aren’t your views on abortion—”protecting unborn life in every possible way, but without criminalizing abortion”—fundamentally at odds with Wilberforce’s efforts to totally abolish slavery? He felt that “protecting slaves” without criminalizing slavery was unjust.

Wallis: The abortion debate has really gotten very stale. It’s a symbolic legal battle that takes place mostly only in election years. And it’s a litmus test on the Left and the Right. No one seems to care about the abortion rate. The Republicans want a constitutional amendment banning abortion. That’s just symbolic. It’s never going to happen in America. And even if you do ban it, you’re still going to have a huge problem in the culture.

Read the rest here.

It appears that the “art” project mentioned yesterday was just a hoax:

The story about Aliza Shvarts’ project, published Thursday in the Yale Daily News, swept across blogs and media outlets — including the Drudge Report, Fox News and The Washington Post — before Yale issued a statement saying it investigated and found it all to be a hoax that was Shvarts’ idea of elaborate “performance art.”

All sides seem to agree, though, that it was in very poor taste.  I’ve never been happier to report that I was wrong. :)

Grace is the keystone of the Christian faith. For reasons we can’t fully understand, God condescended to send his Son to die in our place, paying a price for sin we never could. For many, it seems (myself included, often times), the role of grace is limited to the salvation experience: we get a gift we don’t deserve and that’s that. This misunderstanding is often seen in our response to sin. After committing a “big one,” we are often crippled by guilt, anguish, depression, despair, etc. “How can God use me now?!” the shamed and burdened offender might wail. What we seem to forget in times like these is that we didn’t do anything to earn our salvation, and we can’t do anything to lose it. It is the Lord who saves, and it is Lord who sustains.

Quit wallowing in your failure
And get yourself off your mind
God uses broken vessels
They’re His favorite kind

Just received the good news: the state house voted 81-15 to override the veto! According to The Oklahoman, this is “the first veto override of Henry since he took office in 2003.” The Legislators made it a good one.

News reports confirm: “The Oklahoma Senate on Thursday voted to override Gov. Brad Henry’s veto of a controversial abortion bill.” … “The vote to override was 37 to 11. It takes 32 votes in the Senate to override the veto. Efforts to override the bill, Senate Bill 1878, now go to the House.”

Sen. Todd Lamb, the bill’s author, promised the public quick action in overriding the veto. I guess he wasn’t kidding around.

In perhaps the most shocking display of the depths to which “art” will go, Yale senior art major Aliza Shvarts, with her new multiple-abortion exhibit, hopes to create a “conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body:”

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

You can read more about this disgusting display of depravity here.

UPDATE: Steve Wagner of Stand to Reason has a nice round up of the current state of this ghastly affair.

Oklahomans for Life, one of the pro-life lobby groups for the Sooner State, had this to say about the Governor’s veto. When the BGCO’s Ray Sanders returns back to earth from (rightly) being sent into orbit by Henry’s veto, I plan to try find and post his remarks, as well.

Meanwhile, Gov. Henry issued the following statement: “This is to advise you that on this date, pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 11 and 12 of Article VI of the Oklahoma Constitution to approve or object to legislation presented to me, I have VETOED Senate Bill 1878. While I support reasonable restrictions on abortion, this legislation does not provide an essential exemption for victims of rape and incest. By forcing the victims of such horrific acts to undergo and view ultrasounds after they have made such a difficult and heartbreaking decision, the state victimizes the victim for a second time. It would be unconscionable to subject victims of rape and incest to such treatment. Because of this critical flaw, I cannot in good conscience sign this legislation.”

Me: I seem to recall reading in the Scriptures that we should not punish the child for the sins of the father, so to use the oldest play in the pro-choice playbook (i.e. playing the rape card) is probably lazy, not to mention simplistic, muddled-thinking. That aside, read the reaction from the bill’s author and other voices in the debate here.

In a recent resolution passed by the Student Government Association of Oklahoma Baptist University, the SGA inserted itself into a volatile conversation, that concerning recent comments made by State Representative Sally Kern concerning homosexuality and Islam. Setting aside the ramifications of said issues with regard to national security and stability — a debate, perhaps, for another entry — as well as the appropriateness of a “legislative” body addressing issues outside its charter, I would like to address some very disturbing assertions by the SGA. Read the rest of this entry »

For many Americans, divorce is the easy way out. If your marriage is hard, just end it and move on. Often missed in the shuffle of pushing the Easy Button is the long term tolls divorce takes on both partners, and especially on any kids that may be involved. While these issues are well known, if not often ignored, a recent study shows an interesting data point: an immense financial burden on the public. A recent report shows that divorce and out-of-wedlock child birth has cost the American taxpayers $112B. That’s with billion with a “B”. Perhaps this will drive lawmakers to take marriage (and Dan Quayle) more seriously. Family deterioration is something they like to give lip service to, but no real action, but massive amounts of money they can no longer spend on pointless bridges and monuments usually gets their attention.

“Gov. Brad Henry tonight vetoed a bill that would have required health care providers to give a woman an ultrasound of her unborn child before an abortion,” reported The Oklahoman. “The measure, Senate Bill 1878, also was intended to protect health care providers’ right to refuse to participate in abortions and to decide whether to dispense a pill to end early pregnancies.”

Read the rest here.

That is the title of the cover story in Newsweek. The piece follows the story of “Grant High School’s class of ‘82…” who “were raised on ‘The Brady Bunch’—while their own families were falling apart.” The piece contains this shocking fact, “… divorce rates had soared to their highest level ever, with 5.3 per 1,000 people getting divorced each year, more than double the rate in the 1950s.”

You know family breakdown is getting bad when such secular sources recognize the problem. A prescription for Oklahoma is found in this op-ed Mike Jestes and I co-authored that recently appeared in The Oklahoman.

‘New Abortion Bill Headed to Governor’s Desk,’ a NewsOk.com headline reads.

The story says, “State senators overwhelmingly passed an anti-abortion bill today that protects health-care providers’ rights to refuse to take part in abortions, regulates the so-called morning after pill and provides a woman with an ultrasound of her unborn child prior to her abortion.”

“Senators accepted the House’s amendments to Senate Bill 1878 by Sen. Todd Lamb and then gave final passage to the measure 38-10.”

You may recall me mentioning this bill before. Since that time, I have spoken to a few pro-life medical professionals, including a pharmacist and an OBGYN, who say this would be a huge step. The story added, “Lamb said the bill is sound, strong, good family policy.” I quite agree.

Note: The last time pro-life legislation went to the Governor’s desk, he did not sign in but allowed it to become law by letting the allotted time to veto it pass.

Last night in Norman, I attended a banquet featuring pro-life warrior Star Parker. You may be aware that Parker is “an African American woman, [who] spent her formative years as an unemployed mother receiving welfare; she was arrested in her teens for shoplifting and has disclosed that she had four abortions. Parker converted to Christianity and subsequently became a spokeswoman for conservative Christian political issues.”

This redeemed woman told her powerful story at a benefit for the Eden Clinic (formerly Care Net Pregnancy Center of Norman), a crisis pregnancy center doing the important work of saving lives and sharing Christ. Parker asked the attendees to financially contribute to the center, and invest in their good work.

If for no other reason, pro-lifers should invest because of how much funding the opposition gets. In an e-mail this week from the Family Research Council, new reports show “Planned Parenthood has surpassed the $1 billion mark in annual income, a milestone made possible by $336 million of your tax dollars.”

In 2007, the courageous Congressman Mike Pence, R-Indiana, offered an amendment to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to fund Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, it “failed on a 189-to-231 roll call vote.” Pro-Choice America said at the time, “Rep. Mike Pence (RIN) and other anti-choice representatives tried to defund Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest network of reproductive health providers – by banning the organization from participating in the Title X family-planning program.” The group then boasted, “Thankfully, the effort failed.”

At the banquet, Eden officials reported of the positive and professional services they offer women in a crisis pregnancy, such as STD testing, an ultra-sound, counseling, and materials goods. They do not charge for most of their services, and subsist on private donations from those who believe in their work. Clinics like Eden do not receive federal funds.

In this epic struggle for life, I would encourage each of us to ponder where our dollars are going. For where your treasure is ….

At risk of spoiling some April Fool’s jokes, I give you the verse for this week.

“Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death, Is the man who deceives his neighbor, And says, “I was only joking!”
Proverbs 26:18-19 (NKJV)