Archive for the 'Religion' Category

PJM.

… in Knox County, Tenn., where the health department just announced that while churches may reopen on May 1, the Lord’s Supper is forbidden.

The order was announced by Knox County Health Department Regional Hospital Coordinator Charity Menefee, who announced that Communion is not part of “core worship.”

“The Community Strategy for Phased Reopening is complementary to Governor Lee’s ‘Tennessee Pledge: Reopening Tennessee Responsibly’ framework and the White House’s ‘Opening Up America Again’ guidance,” the edict explains. “Local government has been empowered to create strategies relevant to the unique needs of the community.”

“If there are differences between the plans, the community should follow this local plan,” the document explains. The order lists the rules for reopening a wide variety of businesses including restaurants, spas, tattoo parlors, and museums. It also allows churches to hold services, provided they follow the county’s stringent guidelines that include social distancing, sanitizing surfaces between services, treating every partitioner “as if they are potentially dangerous,” and a requirement that everyone in attendance at Knox County churches wear a mask—unlike stores and restaurants, where employes and patrons are only required to wear a mask when social distancing cannot be maintained.

Meanwhile, the Lord of the universe is still saying this even today: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

These words will live long after these usurpers, posers, impostors, fakes and tyrants are in hell.

News from Minnesota.

The Muslim call to prayer, known as the adhan, will echo from loudspeakers through parts of Minneapolis five times per day for the entirety of Ramadan in what is believed the be the first time the Islamic call has been publicly broadcast in a major U.S. city.

[ … ]

The city granted a noise permit for the broadcasts.

Of course they did.  In New York they’ve sided with the Muslims.

“NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to permanently close churches, but he’s giving Muslims half a million meals for Ramadan,” by Phil Shiver, The Blaze, April 24, 2020:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that the city will take steps to provide for its Muslim community amid the coronavirus by distributing “over half a million meals” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The 500,000 Halal meals will be distributed at 32 Department of Education buildings and other community organizations during Ramadan, Bloomberg News reported. Ramadan began Thursday evening and will end the evening of May 23.

“One of Ramadan’s most noble callings is to feed the hungry,” de Blasio said Thursday during a press briefing. “To remember to be there for those in need. And that is now harder than ever now that people can’t go to their mosques.”

“We all wish that the celebrations of Easter and Passover could have been so different,” de Blasio said during the briefing.

No you don’t.  This is all going as planned.

Raymond Ibrahim writing at PJM.

Not only is Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari behind what several international observers are calling a “genocide” of Christians in his nation—but Barack Hussein Obama played a major role in the Muslim president’s rise to power: these two interconnected accusations are increasingly being made—not by “xenophobic” Americans but Nigerians themselves, including several leaders and officials.

Most recently, Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria’s former minister of culture and tourism, wrote in a Facebook post:

“What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands.”

Kerry’s and Clinton’s appeasement of Boko Haram—an Islamic terror organization notorious for massacring, enslaving, and raping Christians, and bombing and burning their churches—is apparently what connects them to this “sheer wickedness.”

For example, after a Nigerian military offensive killed 30 Boko Haram terrorists in 2013, then secretary of state Kerry “issued a strongly worded statement” to Buhari’s predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015), a Christian.  In it, Kerry warned Jonathan that “We are … deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations” against the terrorists.

Similarly, during her entire tenure as secretary of state, Clinton repeatedly refused to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, despite nonstop pressure from lawmakers, human rights activists, and lobbyists—not to mention Boko Haram’s countless atrocities against Nigerian Christians.

“Those of you that still love the evil called Barack Obama,” Fani-Kayode added in his post, “should listen to this short clip and tell me if you still do.”  He was referring to a recent Al Jazeera video interview of Eeben Barlow, a former lieutenant-colonel of the South African Defence Force and chairman of a private military company hired in 2015 by Jonathan, when still president, to help defeat Boko Haram.

“In one month,” Barlow said in the interview, “we took back terrain larger than Belgium from Boko Haram. We were not allowed to finish because it came at a time when governments were in the process of changing,” he said in reference to Nigeria’s 2015 presidential elections.  “The incoming president, President Buhari, was heavily supported by a foreign government, and one of the first missions [of Buhari] was to terminate our contract.”

On being asked if he could name the “foreign government,” the former lieutenant-colonel said, “Yes, we were told it was the United States, and they had actually funded President Buhari’s campaign, and the campaign manager for President Buhari came from the US.

I think it’s fairly well established by now that Obama hated Christians.  He and his henchmen bear a huge degree of responsibility for raped little girls and dead Christians in Nigeria.

However, I’m going to say something a wee bit more controversial now.  So do the Nigerian Christians.  Christians should not, and must not, look to the state for redemption or safety.

God gave men the responsibility and duty to defend the little ones.  No one else can do it, and no one else has been told to engage in such protection (Romans 13 is an exception to what I’m saying, but that is a normative statement, a statement of God’s expectations for the state, not of His boundaries for His followers, or in other words, He raises the bar for the state, not lowers it for citizens of a state).

Nigerian Christians should have armed and gone to war with the Muslim terrorists in Nigeria until every last one of them was dead.  Nothing else will do when your family is under threat.  Until Christians jettison this notion of Jesus as the Bohemian, peacenik, flower child pacifist, they will continue to be run over, abused, raped, tortured and slaughtered.

And the frustrating thing is that it’s all so unnecessary and based on false teaching.

David Codrea.

“People openly carried guns, even assault rifles, to the recent gun rally at the Capitol,” a Friday opinion piece titled “Gun Rally Smacked of Fascism” in The Salt Lake Tribune whines. “The reason for brandishing guns is hard to fathom.”

If they were actually brandishing them, it would be. Except Utah criminal code is quite clear that:

“‘Threatening manner’ does not include: the possession of a dangerous weapon, whether visible or concealed, without additional behavior which is threatening…”

Not only does Utah suffer from the progs who have relocated there to the large cities such as Salt Lake, but you need to remember that both the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the LDS church are viscerally and irrationally opposed to gun rights.  Utah isn’t as friendly a state for gun owners as you might think they would be because of the strength of the LDS.

Oh, both of those groups allow for LEOs to have weapons, but as for people who aren’t “the only ones,” they are deeply opposed to firearms ownership or use.  I recall asking an LDS friend once about guns in his church and what would happen if an armed intruder came in and started shooting families.

His response centered around off-duty LEOs who were members of the congregation.  No one else carries.  The church leadership is deeply opposed to it.  I’ve also had this conversation with a JW, insofar as it was possible.  He was much more emotional about it, but in line with his church’s beliefs, which means deeply opposed.

I pity the gun owners in Utah, but their pleas might fall on deaf ears, not just with the pols, but with most of the people too, at least as many who identify as LDS.

Buddy Gharring.

Notice the Scripture twisting?  Jesus didn’t drive out the oxen and sheep from the temple.  He drove out the money changers.  The “pastor” does everything in his power to claim that the Holy writ doesn’t really say what it says.

We’ve dealt with this before many times.  By telling His disciples to buy swords, he is not only telling them to ensure their self defense, but also to directly disobey the magistrate.  Owning and bear arms of any kind, including knives and swords, was strictly forbidden.  Jesus was telling His disciples to ignore unbiblical laws.

As for his notion that one who has weapons needs to ensure that they are never used to harm another man, he of course rolls in criminals intent on rape, kidnapping and murder of women and children.  This isn’t by accident.  He intends to do that under the rubric of “turning the other cheek.”

So it would be redundant to rehearse this ground again, but we’ll do it for the sake of completeness.

God has laid the expectations at the feet of heads of families that they protect, provide for and defend their families and protect and defend their countries.  Little ones cannot do so, and rely solely on those who bore them.  God no more loves the willing neglect of their safety than He loves child abuse.  He no more appreciates the willingness to ignore the sanctity of our own lives than He approves of the abuse of our own bodies and souls.  God hasn’t called us to save the society by sacrificing our children or ourselves to robbers, home invaders, rapists or murderers. Self defense – and defense of the little ones – goes well beyond a right.  It is a duty based on the idea that man is made in God’s image.  It is His expectation that we do the utmost to preserve and defend ourselves when in danger, for it is He who is sovereign and who gives life, and He doesn’t expect us to be dismissive or cavalier about its loss.

…

If you believe that it is your Christian duty to allow your children to be harmed by evil-doers (and you actually allow it to happen) because you think Christ was a pacifist, you are no better than a child abuser or pedophile.

…

God demands violence as a response to threats on our person because of the fact that man is created in God’s image and life is to be preserved.  It is our solemn duty.

…

I am afraid there have been too many centuries of bad teaching endured by the church, but it makes sense to keep trying.  As I’ve explained before, the simplest and most compelling case for self defense lies in the decalogue.  Thou shall not murder means thou shall protect life.

…

If you’re willing to sacrifice the safety and health of your wife or children to the evils of abuse, kidnapping, sexual predation or death, God isn’t impressed with your fake morality.  Capable of stopping it and choosing not to, you’re no better than a child molester, and I wouldn’t allow you even to be around my grandchildren.

Indeed, all gun control is wicked.  The Bible does contain a few direct references to weapons control. There were many times throughout Israel’s history that it rebelled against God (in fact, it happened all the time). To mock His people back into submission to His Law, the Lord would often use wicked neighbors to punish Israel’s rebellion. Most notable were the Philistines and the Babylonians. 1 Samuel 13:19-22 relates the story: “Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!” So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles sharpened…So on the day of battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in this hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.” Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon also removed all of the craftsmen from Israel during the Babylonian captivity (2 Kings 24:14). Both of these administrations were considered exceedingly wicked including their acts of weapons control.

John Calvin’s comments on this subject.  We do not need to prove that when a good thing is commanded, the evil thing that conflicts with it is forbidden.  There is no one who doesn’t concede this.  That the opposite duties are enjoined when evil things are forbidden will also be willingly admitted in common judgment.  Indeed, it is commonplace that when virtues are commended, their opposing vices are condemned.  But we demand something more than what these phrases commonly signify.  For by the virtue of contrary to the vice, men usually mean abstinence from that vice.  We say that the virtue goes beyond this to contrary duties and deeds.  Therefore in this commandment, “You shall not kill,” men’s common sense will see only that we must abstain from wronging anyone or desiring to do so.  Besides this, it contains, I say, the requirement that we give our neighbor’s life all the help we can … the purpose of the commandment always discloses to us whatever it there enjoins or forbids us to do” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1, Book 2, Chapter viii, Part 9).

As for the pretend pastor, he’s probably unreachable with logic or the Scriptures.  But I do have a suggestion for his wife or any future wife for the sake of his marriage.  He needs to have a serious conversation with her and explain that he will in no wise ever defend her or protect her, or her children, from predators, kidnappers, murderers, rapists or other people intent on doing them harm.  She just needs to understand that’s how he interprets the Bible.  As for the her and the kids?  Eh, they just need to turn the other cheek so he can claim to be holier than thou.

Pastor, please let me know how that conversation goes.

If in fact he is persuaded by any of this commentary and wants to become a man, there are ways to do just that (courtesy of WiscoDave).

Via Insty.

“Why do good people support Trump? It’s because people have been trained from childhood to believe in fairy tales. This set their minds up to accept things that make them feel good. The more fairy tales and lies he tells the better they feel. Show me a person who believes in Noah’s ark, and I will show you a Trump voter.”

Hey Chuck, show me a naive goober who believes in the fairy tale of socialism, and I’ll show you an imbecile. Show me a fool who vests all power in the state, and I’ll show you a moron.  Show me a person who believes in the religion of collectivism and I’ll show you an ignoramus.

Via Insty, this ridiculous news from China.

China will rewrite the Bible and Quran to ‘reflect socialist values’ amid crackdown on the country’s religious groups, a report has revealed.

New editions must not contain any content that goes against the beliefs of the Communist Party, according to a top party official. Paragraphs deemed wrong by the censors will be amended or re-translated.

Though the Bible and Quran were not mentioned specifically, the party called for a ‘comprehensive evaluation of the existing religious classics aiming at contents which do not conform to the progress of the times’.

The order was given in November during a meeting held by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which oversees the ethnic and religious matters in China.

What the Mohammedans think is irrelevant since the Qu’ran is false.  But as for the Bible, this is serious business for China.  They are about to step into forbidden territory, more forbidden than just about any other.

The apostle says this.  “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

Welcome the plagues, Chinese.  You’re going to wish you hadn’t done this.

All the guns in the world, similar to the most seductive politics on earth, cannot fix a broken spiritual problem.

David Gee writing at Patheos.

A total of 26 people were killed in the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting, but the man who ultimately shot the killer – a conservative being hailed as the ultimate “good guy with a gun” – says God sent him to “stop” the attack.

When a man started firing an AR-15 into First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, he killed a total of 26 people and hurt 20 others who were worshiping there. When he left the building of his own choice, he ran into Stephen Willeford, a gun advocate who brought his own AR-15.

They exchanged fire, and the original shooter fled, but when police found him, he had died from the gunshot wounds.

That makes Willeford “the epitome of the definition of a ‘good guy with a gun,’” a phrase used to describe a gun carrier who is able to stop in progress crimes because they are armed, according to Ammoland, which interviewed the man.

Stephen Willeford, an NRA instructor and firearms enthusiast, knew he must do something to stop the killer’s deadly rampage. He couldn’t sit around and let a maniac attack his community. He grabbed his AR-15 and set out to end the murderer’s violent spree.

When Ammoland asked Willeford how he knew about the shooting and why he engaged, he said it was a combination of God and his daughter.

“My oldest daughter heard the shots and made me aware of it,” he told Ammoland. “I truly believe God had called me to go there and stop it.”

Despite the fact that 26 people did die in the attack, Willeford continued to play the same divine intervention card.

“I wasn’t scared at all. I was terrified. But the Holy Spirit was with me, telling me not to concern myself with the bullets coming my way, but to do what he sent me to do,” he said.

Interestingly enough, he also said turning to God is the answer to stopping shootings from happening, despite the fact that this one occurred in a church.

“It is easy to blame the gun for the shooting because it takes away the responsibility of each individual for their actions. It is actually a matter of the heart, good vs. evil,” he said. “That is a lot harder to fix. This country needs to go back to what God values, life. From conception to death. Until we can instill that in our society, these incidents will continue. Life matters — all lives.”

“All lives” matter, said the man who recently took a life.

Willeford is put forth as the best example of a good guy with a gun, but the fact is that he wasn’t able to stop dozens of people from dying.

Aside from the snark about a man believing that all lives matter after taking a life (a sophomoric objection we could fisk later), his main objection seems to be just this: God brought him to the church that day to stop the shooting, but “he wasn’t able to stop dozens of people from dying.”

Poor David.  He’s in way, way over his head and is completely unqualified to address this topic.

David needs to take some coursework in theology and philosophy.  He is attempting to broach the subject of “theodicy.”  How could a good God allow bad things to happen, as the philosophers object?  Or as Alvin Plantinga puts it, theodicy is “answer to the question of why God permits evil.”

Since I am a Calvinist, I won’t proffer a free will response.  I believe, as the Westminster Confession of Faith states, that God ordains “whatsoever comes to pass.”  Rather, I turn the tables on the atheist and point out that without the Scriptures (which presuppose the existence of God, and yet evidence and affirm it as well), he has no definition of evil to begin with.

If you study the debate between Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston, while I might object that Copleston was too gracious and lenient with Russell throughout the debate, even the highly knowledgeable Russell wasn’t able to develop a coherent, consistent system of ethics based on atheism.  You can see the same struggle in the debate between Greg Bahnsen and Gordon Stein.  Stein was reduced to a blubbering idiot when pressed on this issue by Bahnsen.   Stein failed, as do all atheists.

In order for David Gee’s objection to be an effective defeater, it has to demonstrate inconsistency in my own system (David doesn’t believe in my system, but I do, so David must convince me that my views are incoherent).  David hasn’t even come close.

For a brief answer to the question of evil, one needs to go no further than reading Romans Chapter 9.  My views are entirely coherent when I say that there is a preceptive and decretive will of God, the first being His precepts or laws (what He wants us to do), the second being his decretive will (what He ordains will come to pass).  The two are not the same thing, and He uses secondary causes to bring about His decretive will (see 2 Kings 22:20-23).

God is sovereign.  See for example Isaiah 46:9-10, and Ephesians 1:11.  I have no logical problem with His having decreed the events of that day, from start to finish, including the fact that Mr. Willeford got there to stop the attack, and got there when he did, not a second sooner nor a second later.  And David Gee cannot demonstrate that there is a logical problem with any of this.

I’m glad that Mr. Willeford was armed.  It would have been better if others were armed as well and been prepared to defend their families as God has ordered.  Perhaps this event serves as a reminder to heads of households that they have a duty to God and their family, and perhaps that’s one of the good things that comes from this event.

Now to one final related point.  I ran across this commentary under a Google news search.  Note again – a Google news search.  I’m not joking.

TCJ, this very web site, provides useful and insightful commentary, with robust and educated reader responses on virtually a daily basis, and isn’t on Google news.  How does Google news decide to give juvenile, random mental meanderings like David Gee’s piece visits by categorizing them as news?

Nevermind.  I think I answered my own question.  Google news.

If you’ve read this far David, I do have one more question for you.  I think you really do believe in “good guys with guns,” don’t you?  You believe in cops, don’t you?  That means you want the state to have a monopoly on violence, which means you aren’t really an atheist.  Your god is the state.  You worship a totem pole.