November 2009

National religious leaders release historic declaration of conscience

The Manhattan Declaration was released on Nov. 20, 2009, and was signed by 152 prominent religious leaders of our time. The document gives a very clear message to Christians on three fundamental truths that have been challenged in today’s society.

These truths are the sanctity of life, the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Those of you who visit the Pilgrim’s Progress site know all three of these truths are valued by the editors, and we do our best to preserve them by reporting and offering commentary on relevant issues to life, marriage and religious liberty.

After reading through the Manhattan Declaration, I have decided to feature some of the passages I found insightful. I plan to do this in segments with this blog entry focusing on passages from the Preamble and sections of the Declaration that uphold Life:

Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Thanksgiving to, in our opinion, the brightest group of blog readers on the World Wide Web! May the Lord bless you and yours.

Just finished listening to The Screwtape Letters on audio CD. If you are a Christian and you’ve not read C.S. Lewis’ masterpiece, do yourself a major favor and pick it up from the library.

“The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetics novel written in epistolary style by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as ‘the Patient’.”

One of my favorite lines from Screwtape, “Prosperity has a way of knitting a man to the world. He has thoughts of him finding his place in the world when actually; the world is finding its place in him.”

OK, I’ll admit it. I have not read any of the books in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, nor have I seen the popular film. As a general rule, I do not comment on works I have not read or seen.

Yet I am aware of countless teens (and even grown, Christian women) who are swooning over the works, therefore I felt compelled to research whether its runaway popularity is a positive development.

A paraphrase summary I found of the film goes something like this: Seventeen-year-old Bella falls for Edward, who is charming, mysterious, powerful, and dangerous but wise beyond his years and, ultimately, a gentleman. The paragon of self-control Edward will not allow them to have premarital sex. The catch is Edward is a vampire.

The abstinence seems to be why many Christian reviewers have heaped praise on the books and movie. I have found two reviews, however, from sources I trust, The Christian Research Journal and WORLD magazine, who think differently.

In CRJ’s review [not available online] entitled, “The Twilight Saga: A Classic Romance Too Mature for Teens,” Stephen Ross takes a fair and balanced look at the series. His review crescendos with this stinging statement: “The Twilight love saga, then, may be the ultimate female coming-of-age fantasy that our biblically illiterate culture can offer, and, as such, this captivating story evokes dangerlously false expectations in young women that no man could ever satisfy. In fact, given that female sexuality is quite naturally rational, far more so than young male sexuality, the comparison that comes to mind is that Twilight is to female sexuality what pornography is to male sexuality.”

WORLD’s review, written from a woman’s perspective, is no kinder. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re not exactly sure who first wrote this, but we thought some of you might enjoy this list circulating on the Web.

Of course, some of these are quite a bit over the top, but here we give you the top ten reasons liberals hate the holidays:

10 – Thanksgiving is mass murder for turkeys.

9 – Too many SUVs traveling to grandma’s house.

8 – College bowl games encourage competition.

7 – Millions of Christmas trees are cut down.

6 – The pilgrims thought up Thanksgiving.

5 – Christmas lights waste electricity.

4 – People are giving thanks to WHOM?

3 – Winter lull in global-warming hype.

2 – Daycare centers are closed.

1 – Christmas celebrates a birth, not an abortion.

Over at The Corner, there are a couple of really great posts regarding the twin boondoggles, TARP and The Stimulus. First up is Iain Murray’s post, “Best Summary of TARP I’ve Yet Seen.” Quoting the quote:

After all, the whole premise of the TARP programs was to give extremely large amounts of public money to companies with demonstrated track records of mismanaging money, then assume there was no chance whatsoever the companies’ executives would be more concerned with their own paychecks than with the taxpayer.

The second (and I’m sure there are more), is Stephen Spruiell’s, “Dude, Where’s My Jobs Created or Saved?”

When asked to explain the phenomenon of stimulus-related job creation in non-existent congressional districts, Pound told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “who knows, man, who really knows.”

With news that the President is considering another stimulus “jobs legislation” pacakge, I’m reminded of a phrase pledges of a certain (now defunct) “social club” in college were required to say after getting paddled with the giant wooden boards they were required to carry, “Thank you, sir! May I have another?”

However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.

-T.S. Eliott

You may have read about the push to encourage OU fans not to sing “… and the home of the SOONERS!” instead of the proper ending of the National Anthem. Here is the actual story about the controversy in The Oklahoman.

I normally don’t like to stop to kick every barking dog, but this issue requires a stand. You can count me with David Boren and the fans who want this phenomenon to stop because:

1) It’s silly copy-cat-ism at its worst. The Atlanta Braves started this years ago (which makes more sense as they are the Braves, by the way, and only add an ‘S’ on the end) so it’s not even original to us;

2) There’s something unpatriotic about messing with our national anthem, and we Okies are the first ones to get upset when someone tinkers with the words of the pledge of allegiance. Why does this not upset us?;

3) The so-called tradition is brand-new. It did not begin until a decade ago; and

4) Finally, the fans who do it subconsciously realize it’s inappropriate. How do I know? Because during the ballgame directly following 9/11, the entire stadium, I vividly recall, sang as one “… and the home of the brave.”

Let’s keep celebrating America the home of the brave, fellow Sooners!

“I am third.”

-Gale Sayers, former professional football player (the idea being: God is first, others are second, and “I am third.”)

“If religion be false, it is the basest imposition under heaven; but if the religion of Christ be true, it is the most solemn truth that ever was known! It is not a thing that a man dares to trifle with if it be true, for it is at his soul’s peril to make a jest of it. If it be not true it is detestable, but if it be true it deserves all a man’s faculties to consider it, and all his powers to obey it.”

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

-Anne Bradstreet, 17th Century Puritan and considered the first notable American poet

You likely heard about  the election results in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. Here is a story from the New York Times about a ballot issue in Maine:

In a stinging setback for the national gay-rights movement, Maine voters narrowly decided to repeal the state’s new law allowing same-sex marriage. …

With the repeal of the same-sex marriage law, Maine became the 31st state to reject same-sex marriage at the ballot box. Five other states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont — have legalized same-sex marriage, but only through court rulings and legislative action.

Read the rest here.

Me: I agree with Pastor Rick Warren that rampant divorce threatens the future of marriage more than the movement for so-called same-sex marriage. Be that as it may, it appears the general electorate in various times and places may still consider so-called same sex marriage a counterfeit version of marriage that could weaken the value of traditional marriage, also known as, well, marriage.

Abby Johnson said watching an abortion procedure for the first time made her change her view and led to her quitting her position as director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas. An article on FoxNews.com reports her decision.

“When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice, ” Johnson said. “But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart … a spiritual conversion.”

Johnson also revealed the clinic was stressing to perform more abortions because the need for more money. Johnson confessed that abortion clinics are a “very lucrative business.”

I wonder how many other abortion clinic directors would respond when viewing an abortion procedure?

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.

-G.K. Chesterton