O'Reilly and Religion Don't Mix

I cringe every time Bill O'Reilly says he's going to have a guest on his show to discuss anything of a religious nature. Bill just gets lost when it comes to religion.

O'Reilly is Catholic. I have no problem with that. His guest last night didn't say what her beliefs were, but she was obviously not evangelical, nor did she approach religion with a conservative viewpoint. She is a "Religion Editor" for the Washington Post and recently wrote a column "attacking" Sarah Palin's faith.

Attacking may not be the right word. Mocking or ridiculing might be more accurate.

They discussed Sarah Palin's own expression of her faith and her trying to find and follow God's plan for her. This guest implied that if Palin were intellectually honest, she'd either have to say that running for office in '08 was not God's plan or that losing was God's plan. O'Reilly was clueless in searching for a response.

I won't presume to know what Sarah Palin's specific beliefs are with regard to God's plan in our lives or how much "control" He exercises over events. I can only express what my beliefs are.

In a broader sense, God does, indeed, have a plan for all of us. It is the same plan for everyone. He calls us all to repent from our sins and to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. He calls us all to live a life directed by Him and the teachings in the Bible.

Does that mean that everyone follows this plan? Of course not. My belief is that each of us is free to choose and to do as we please. We can seek him and accept his gift of salvation for us. Or we can go our own way.

I also believe that God give a specific calling to some people with regard to their vocation or profession. I don't believe that He does this for everyone. Did God call Sarah Palin to be Vice President? I doubt it. I think he calls Sarah Palin to be faithful and to use the position that she has to do as much good in our nation as she can. But God doesn't push the buttons in the polling booths. So even if God wanted Sarah Palin to be V.P. (or the next President), that doesn't mean it's going to happen. We can still chose.

The guest last night also implied that if Sarah Palin were consistent in her beliefs, then she would say that it was in God's plan for her daughter to become pregnant out of wedlock, since that's what happened.

Again, that's complete B.S.

I don't think any Christian believes that everything that happens is a part of God's plan. We live in an imperfect and fallen world. Most of what happens in this world happens contrary to what God wants.

This is why I don't like the phrase some Christians use that "God is in Control." Strictly speaking, he isn't. We are. And the natural laws of the universe play a role. I do think that God intervenes in our lives at times. I also think he lets us live the consequences of our choices at times. We also sometimes have to deal with the consequences of the choices of others.

To say that God reigns is different than to say he's in control. I believe that God does, indeed, reign. He oversees all. And, in seeing all, his heart breaks at what's going on this world.

One day things will be different. Until that day comes, each of us must seek and try to follow God's plan.

And I think God's plan for Bill O'Reilly is to keep people off his show who want to talk about religion.

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Government Becomes Religion

"I know there's been a lot of misinformation in this debate, and there are some folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness," Obama told a group of pastors, rabbis and other religious leaders.

Bearing false witness? Breaking the 9th commandment? So his opponents are sinners.

I'm trying hard to imagine the separation-of-church-and-state freakout if George W. Bush had taken this approach to arguing for one of his policies.

"These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation. That is that we look out for one another; that I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call," Obama said earlier.

Obama called on religious leaders to help him share the "good word" about health care. "I need you to knock on doors, talk to neighbors. I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth."

Sharing the good news? This is the Gospel!

Obama says believe. Believe or be condemned as sinners. And go forth into the world. Preach the good news.

Talk about the blue pill. Just wait until the government lays its hands on you. In Barack's name, you will get well.

In the world of Obama, God wants ... no; God DEMANDS that you support a universal government-run socialized health care system.

I wonder what else God wants. As long as we are preaching the word, should we preach the WHOLE word, or just the good news of health care?

Maybe we should go back to the Bible to see what God would have us preach.

Homosexuality? Abortion? Sloth in the form of Welfare?

What would God have to say about these issues? Not to mention the teaching of secular humanism in our schools. The banning of public prayers and public displays of religion including Christmas displays.

How about one of the Big Ten? "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Should we insist on that being the law of the land? How do you suppose the left would react if Obama went down this path?

Oh, the hypocrisy. The left would simply go nuts if someone on the right would suggest that a piece of legislation should be passed because it was the "moral" thing to do and that God would want it. They would go ape if a Republican President called together pastors, rabbis and other religious leaders and asked them to preach from the pulpit their support of a particular piece of legislation.

Where is the outcry over this?

Anyone?

Anyone?

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Where is the ACLU When You Need Them?

The ACLU is all over anything that even comes close to a blurring of religion and state. Pray in a school setting? Forget about it.

So I wonder, where is the ACLU today. Obama, The One, The Messiah, has been elevated to religious cult status. And now he's addressing our public school children.

Shouldn't the ACLU be all over this one?

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Does Obama Think He's God?

It’s amazing, isn’t it, how the “principles” of the Dems just vanish once the real goal — pursuit of power — is achieved. Remember the huge anti-war movement that was going on throughout the Bush presidency. Now that His Holiness Obama is here, war is good. As one writer noted, once a useful idiot is no longer useful, that just leaves …

And now Obama thinks he’s going to make people of faith into useful idiots. The amusing thing is the absolute contempt the libs had whenever George Bush referred to his faith. It was a doctrine of the left that any President who viewed his actions in terms of acting on his faith was a buffoon. But not now, of course. Now "everybody’s" found Jesus, and the "best" place for Him is at the right hand of Obama.

The problem is that it’s not as easy to fake real faith as it is to fake passion against the war.

Sure, he pulled it off in Chicago, at least until it was convenient to claim that he attended a church for twenty years but had "no" idea what the minister was talking about. Now he goes and calls a zillion religious leaders and tells them that he is God’s partner and that God wants socialized medicine. Bah.

That’s the difference. Bush would never say something like that, since Bush actually believes in God. Bush actually has a real Christian faith. Obama clearly doesn’t have a lot of respect for those little folk who, as he said "cling to their religion," and he clearly doesn’t believe this Jesus stuff unless it’s politically useful. If he did, he'd understand that we are servants of God. We don’t sit on God’s Board of Directors, and Rahm Emmanuel isn’t telling God what to do. There’s that old saying that once you learn to fake sincerity, the rest is easy. It is — until the rubber meets the road.

Of course, if he knew anything about Jesus, he would know that He would have nothing to do with socialized medicine. The message of the New Testament (actually of the whole Bible) is a message of personal redemption, personal responsibility and personal charity. Jesus was not a “community organizer” asking for a new governmental program. Just the opposite — His message avoids government altogether.

But of course, now that the secular left has found the Almighty, He’s now officially part of the Cabinet. No doubt Obama will have a God czar. But there’s a good reason the left doesn’t care in the case of Obama while they were scared to death of any reference to God by Bush. They know with Obama it’s a convenient lie. They are right.

However, they are wrong in thinking they have people of faith fooled. It doesn't work to pretend to embrace Christianity in words, while at the same time attacking it in actions. Christians recognize the latter, and it speaks louder than words.

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Quote of the Day

"With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?

- Jay Leno

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Obama's Church Still Political

The Rev. Otis Moss III, the successor pastor to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ -- the church President Obama felt forced to flee as a result of Wright's inflammatory and racist remarks -- is apparently picking up where Wright left off.

At the Friday night opening of the UCC's 27^th General Synod, this year in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Moss used his Friday night sermon to attack both Rush Limbaugh and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Said Moss, standing at the podium that serves as the UCC pulpit for the duration of the Synod:

Don't get angry with the haters, the Rush Limbaughs. Next time you hear them, just say, "COMMA!" When you see Dick Cheney, just say, "COMMA!" Remember, there used to be a period on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The comma reference is to a church campaign entitled "God Is Still Speaking," the comma at the end of the phrase representative of God's plans for humanity as always ongoing, never having an end.

So more hate politics from the President's ex-church., heedless that the larger UCC denomination -- to which Moss was speaking -- is filled with Limbaugh listeners and Cheney voters who believe the only hatred here comes from Moss and his mentor, Jeremiah Wright. One has to wonder whether Moss understands the impression he leaves as just another UCC minister afraid to leave the UCC's intellectual plantation of 1960s liberalism. Were he a black UCC minister who had, say, the beliefs of Justice Clarence Thomas or Dr. Thomas Sowell, surely Moss understands he would never be given time at the podium/pulpit of the national gathering of the UCC.

One of the things that interests me about this story is that I hear no clamoring from the left about the political speech coming from the pulpit and the conflict between religion and politics. A big deal was made during the 2004 election cycle, and to a lesser degree in 2008, about "Right Wing Conservative Churches" and the political speech that may or may not have been coming from pulpits across America. Many on the left called for the revocation of the tax exempt status of any church that said something that could be remotely political in nature, and in fact an organized group of liberals, athiests and Democrats (often all in the same person), attended church services across the country prepared to press charges and testify if the line between politics and religion was crossed.

In Obama's Church, no such line exists. The political endorsements for the left have been going on for more than 20 years, shaping the theology and philosophy of our current leader without so much as a whimper from the ACLU. Oh, the hypocrisy. 

Religion is under fire in America. But not just any religion. Only conservative, right-wing, "dangerous" religion. That religion that endorses a secular humanistic world view is safe from scrutiny and criticism.

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Islam Day in Hawaii

Hawaii's state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill today to celebrate "Islam Day." The resolution to proclaim September 24, 2009 as Islam Day passed the Senate on a 22-3 vote.  

The bill seeks to recognize the "rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions" that Islam and the Islamic world have made.

There is no "Christianity Day" designation.  The state did designate Good Friday a government holiday, but that was done to "increase the freqency of legal holidays," not for any recognition of cultural contribution.

Next up: "Please don't cut off my head" Day.

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... And the Survey Says...

Our favorite Pasadena Closet Conservative posted this, but I thought it was worth re-posting here, in case anyone missed it....

OK, here's my take on the recent study about Americans and religion that the Lib media has been spinning right out of the ballpark.

To hear the Lib media tell it, a startling number of Americans say they have no religion at all.

Well, I've taken some time to actually look at the study, and here's what I found:

77% of Americans consider themselves Christians. 

Another 12% told surveyors that they believe in God. 

So call me crazy, but doesn't that add up to a whopping 89% of Americans who believe in God?

Doesn't that point to the fact that the U.S. remains a predominately Judeo-Christian nation?

Shouldn't the Lib media consider 89% an overwhelming majority? 

Aye, there's the rub. 

The thing is, the survey results don't fit the Lib agenda, so they've spun it to show that the percentage of American believers is dismal in an effort to get God off our money and out of our courtrooms and oaths of office.

God is already banned from our public schools, so this would be the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, it the Libs could have it their way.

Perhaps someday survey results will speak for themselves.

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How Common Is the Ground?

Just over a year ago, hundreds of Muslim protestors in Sudan were shouting for the execution of a British school teacher. Her offense? Insulting Islam because her class of 7-year-olds named a teddy bear Muhammed. According to the New York Times report:

The protesters, some carrying swords, screamed, “Shame, shame on the U.K.!” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.” They were calling for the death of Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced on Thursday to 15 days in jail. Under Sudanese law, she could have spent 6 months behind bars and received 40 lashes.

It’s events like this—and similar ones around the globe—that add to my skepticism about the value of a recent exchange pleading for peace between Muslim and Christian leaders.  In September of 2007, 138 of the world’s most prominent Muslim theologians, scholars and leaders sent an “open letter” addressed to Christians worldwide. The document titled, “A Common Word Between Us And You” is an extraordinary communication from the Muslim world. In it the Muslim leaders plead with Christians to recognize in two of the world’s great monotheistic religions their essential “common ground” namely, love to God and neighbor. Only by recognizing this common ground, the letter submits, will Muslims and Christians learn to live in peace. (Of course, by the very existence of this letter, these Muslim leaders are assuming Christians are not at peace with Islam.) 

Ecumenicists around the world have undoubtedly leapt for joy at the offering of this “olive branch” to Christianity from Islam. As expected, there were quick and positive responses from the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury and several mainline American denominations.

In response to the “Common Word” document, Yale Divinity School drafted its own “open letter” to Muslims on behalf of Christians everywhere. (While most of the signatories of the Yale letter are a “who ’s who” of today’s theological left, there are a number of evangelicals on board.) The letter titled, “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You,’” heaps praise on the representative Muslim scholars for their efforts to bring about peace among Muslims and Christians. In addition, the letter agrees that the essential “common ground” between Islam and Christianity is love to God and neighbor. A closer analysis of both documents, however, should give Christians pause.

The Yale-drafted response begins by begging for forgiveness from the Muslim community for the evils of the Crusades and the “excesses of the war on terror.” Can someone explain why American Christians are responsible for the Crusades? And as far as the “excesses of the war on terror”—when did the Christian world get together and vote to kill a bunch of Muslims in the name of the war on terror? (It is naïve at best to think that a group of Christians “admitting” that the war on terror has been at all motivated by hatred toward Muslims will somehow help pacify the hard-liners within Islam.)

This blatant political statement is followed by paragraph after paragraph of ecumenical jargon about “our common ground,” “your courageous letter” and “our common good.” Most concerning, however, is the following theologically unsound statement:

It is therefore no exaggeration to say, as you have in “A Common Word Between Us and You,” that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians” … The future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims to live together in peace. If we fail to make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony you correctly remind us that “our eternal souls” are at stake as well.

The future of the world and our eternal souls depends not on interfaith dialogue, but on the sovereign plan of God (cf. Psalm 115:3, Isaiah 46:8-11; Ephesians 1:11). Our confidence is not in our ecumenical efforts, but in the finished work of Christ.

In addition, while the Muslim document is filled with quotations from the Qur’an proudly proclaiming that their god is the one, true god and indirectly attacking the deity of Jesus Christ, the Yale document uses almost no Scripture and omits a clear proclamation of the deity of Christ.

Finally, in the light of recent global events, it seems reasonable to question whether or not the heart of Islam really is love to god and neighbor in the same sense that Christianity teaches love to God and neighbor. True, the Muslim document does say that “Muslims, Christians and Jews should be free to each follow what God commanded them” and that justice and freedom of religion are a “crucial part” of love to neighbor. However, whether or not this sentiment is pervasive in the global Muslim community is vigorously debated today.

No true Christian desires conflict between Christians and Muslims. A Christian who follows the directives of the Bible will love Muslims and respect them—and seek to tell them about the saving love of God in Christ. They will not, however, compromise the truth of Scripture to start a dialogue, for to do so would not demonstrate love to God or love to our Muslim neighbors.

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