Ok, with regard to Obama and Rev. Wright. Would the media coverage be any different if it were a candidate who turned out to be a 20 year member of the Westboro Baptist Church? Especially troubling are the recent revelation that the Church gave space in it's bulletin for a piece of Hamas propoganda. I think Obama has to answer for why he has been part of congregation whose leadership seems very cozy with a bunch of throat-slitting, suicide bombing jihadists. How many times will we have to hear Obama over the next few months have to denounce specific comments/actions by his church? I have a feeling we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the radicalism and hatred that poured out of that pulpit. As far as I am concerned, to listen to it for 20 years is to endorse it. The Bible warns us to turn away from false teaching and hold to the true gospel of Christ. If Obama takes his faith seriously he should have left that church when it became evident that it's leader had deviated so far from the truth; for his church is at least as errant as Westboro and loyalty to it is just as repulsive.
Can we question their patriotism when it turns out that three liberal democrats had their trip to Iraq prior to the war funded by Saddam's intelligence service? Read more here. Jim McDermott has been referred to as "Baghdad Jim" for years and now we all know that while he has ranted about our nation committing acts of alleged torture, he was the guest of the very intelligence service that it is known beyond doubt ran human beings through industrial shredders, beat and mutilated women and children and raped women while their husbands watched. How dare he? American history has no equals for this level of treason by a sitting member of our Congress. These are not patriotic Americans. These three were willing agents of a tyrant, giving aid and comfort to the enemy while using their positions to do harm to our own foreign policy. Sadly, they are not the only members of what is a fifth column in this nation. We have CAIR, Hamas supporting pastors (see above), celebrities, and many more who desire to see our cause suffer while ignoring the threat that jihadism poses to our nation. It is disgusting.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Here We Go Again
Yet another gang-related act of violence in our community! The problems seem so overwhelming. We've had a massive fight at the high school during a fire evacuation a couple of years ago. Later, one of those involved shot and killed another gang member in town. There have been tons of smaller fights. We've had drive-bys, a mid-day stabbing next door to where my two youngest kids go to school.
A week ago I was so encouraged by the fact that things are starting to move on the effort to get something going in the local school that has the highest rate of low-income students and a high level of social and behavioral problems. I had recently met with several people involved in really great community development ministries and was inspired. But today I'm slipping into a what's the use attitude. Have to fight that.
This latest incident needs to be one more reason to press on, not a reason to throw in the towel. Have to remind myself of the Love In The Name Of Christ training last weekend and remember that God is putting the pieces in place for community development to take place. It's hard sometimes, and sometimes I feel like being Jonah, and climb the hill to watch Nineveh go up in flames. Difference is, I live in this Nineveh and so do my kids.
A week ago I was so encouraged by the fact that things are starting to move on the effort to get something going in the local school that has the highest rate of low-income students and a high level of social and behavioral problems. I had recently met with several people involved in really great community development ministries and was inspired. But today I'm slipping into a what's the use attitude. Have to fight that.
This latest incident needs to be one more reason to press on, not a reason to throw in the towel. Have to remind myself of the Love In The Name Of Christ training last weekend and remember that God is putting the pieces in place for community development to take place. It's hard sometimes, and sometimes I feel like being Jonah, and climb the hill to watch Nineveh go up in flames. Difference is, I live in this Nineveh and so do my kids.
Corrected and Reflecting
I have deleted a post, actually more of a rant, on the Avery Doninger case, which you can read more about
here. This is yet another case of litigation between parents and schools over disciplinary action taken by the schools. Anyway, I slammed the parents in this case pretty hard. A commenter pointed out that the news articles I had based my post on left out some important facts. And, in a number of areas, he was right. Worse, my tone was harsh and unfair.
I still do not feel this should be viewed as a censorship case. A dispute at school over a battle of the bands event spilled over into a blog post in which a child threw an online tantrum calling school officials "douchebags" and asking people to send mass emails to administration officials. The school responded to the disrspect shown and now it is in litigation - which seems to be the new American way.
My frustration with such issues stems from recent efforts to try to organize volunteers to help out in a local school where discipline is a major problem (think knives, gang assualts, arrests, threats against staff and epidemic rudeness and disrespect). I am hoping to start up after school programs and eventually mentoring type programs.
My emotions on this swing back and forth wildly. On the one hand my heart aches for these kids who are obviously not taught simple manners and civility and have so many problems at home. On the other, I can't resist the urge to think these kids need a good swift kick at times. What is worse is we are a fairly small midwest communtity and you wouldn't think we'd have to deal with so much of this. As for the teachers and school staff, how can they do their real jobs when they are constantly dealing with disrespect, abuse, and even violence? And this is an elementary school.
Sometime's I want to throw up my hands and scream "If the parents would just parent, the school's wouldn't have to." Of course, we are talking about parents who themselves were from less than ideal homes, who deal with economic hardship, addictions, and some are just plain too selfish to invest in their offspring. Government gets involved: courts, family services, social workers, etc, but they cannot hope to deal with the basic moral root of the problem.
For years I've heard people say "you can't legislate morality" and yet that is exactly what we are being forced to do. It seems that without morality, you have no choice but to legislate it, or litigate it. But the moral compass that guides free people to live responsibly and in a civil manner cannot be imposed. So "freedom" becomes divorced from self control and we see the government forced to deal with things that people should have worked out on their own.
In my liberal days I felt that government programs could solve things, and elevate people to a better life. Wealth needed to be redistributed and then we'd see all sorts of social ills disappear. Well, that hasn't happened. Decades of such programs have destroyed families, neighborhoods and schools. Then I became a hard-core conservative and felt that government had failed (still believe that) to deal with these issues and that people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and if they fail, too bad for them, they had their chance.
Now, I find myself moving into a new perspective. Communities need to solve their own problems by addressing issues government can't and shouldn't. Churches need to take the lead, because they can mobilized the physical and economic resources to meet immediate needs. But, and more importantly, they can build relationships to address the spiritual, emotional and moral needs that are at the heart of poverty, addiction and self gratification without responsibility that leads people to wrongly execute their rights to the detriment of themselves and others.
Well, that pretty much became another rant I guess. I need to keep on guard and not fall back into the judgmental stuff, which is all too easy to do.
here. This is yet another case of litigation between parents and schools over disciplinary action taken by the schools. Anyway, I slammed the parents in this case pretty hard. A commenter pointed out that the news articles I had based my post on left out some important facts. And, in a number of areas, he was right. Worse, my tone was harsh and unfair.
I still do not feel this should be viewed as a censorship case. A dispute at school over a battle of the bands event spilled over into a blog post in which a child threw an online tantrum calling school officials "douchebags" and asking people to send mass emails to administration officials. The school responded to the disrspect shown and now it is in litigation - which seems to be the new American way.
My frustration with such issues stems from recent efforts to try to organize volunteers to help out in a local school where discipline is a major problem (think knives, gang assualts, arrests, threats against staff and epidemic rudeness and disrespect). I am hoping to start up after school programs and eventually mentoring type programs.
My emotions on this swing back and forth wildly. On the one hand my heart aches for these kids who are obviously not taught simple manners and civility and have so many problems at home. On the other, I can't resist the urge to think these kids need a good swift kick at times. What is worse is we are a fairly small midwest communtity and you wouldn't think we'd have to deal with so much of this. As for the teachers and school staff, how can they do their real jobs when they are constantly dealing with disrespect, abuse, and even violence? And this is an elementary school.
Sometime's I want to throw up my hands and scream "If the parents would just parent, the school's wouldn't have to." Of course, we are talking about parents who themselves were from less than ideal homes, who deal with economic hardship, addictions, and some are just plain too selfish to invest in their offspring. Government gets involved: courts, family services, social workers, etc, but they cannot hope to deal with the basic moral root of the problem.
For years I've heard people say "you can't legislate morality" and yet that is exactly what we are being forced to do. It seems that without morality, you have no choice but to legislate it, or litigate it. But the moral compass that guides free people to live responsibly and in a civil manner cannot be imposed. So "freedom" becomes divorced from self control and we see the government forced to deal with things that people should have worked out on their own.
In my liberal days I felt that government programs could solve things, and elevate people to a better life. Wealth needed to be redistributed and then we'd see all sorts of social ills disappear. Well, that hasn't happened. Decades of such programs have destroyed families, neighborhoods and schools. Then I became a hard-core conservative and felt that government had failed (still believe that) to deal with these issues and that people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and if they fail, too bad for them, they had their chance.
Now, I find myself moving into a new perspective. Communities need to solve their own problems by addressing issues government can't and shouldn't. Churches need to take the lead, because they can mobilized the physical and economic resources to meet immediate needs. But, and more importantly, they can build relationships to address the spiritual, emotional and moral needs that are at the heart of poverty, addiction and self gratification without responsibility that leads people to wrongly execute their rights to the detriment of themselves and others.
Well, that pretty much became another rant I guess. I need to keep on guard and not fall back into the judgmental stuff, which is all too easy to do.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Sitting Out
Today is the special election to replace our Congressman; former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Hastert's resignation led to a special primary last month. It also led to today's election to determine who will hold Hastert's seat until January when we get to have yet another election between the same two candidates we are voting for today(aren't we lucky). So, ever since the Illinois primary we here in this district have been treated to endless mailings, automated telephone solicitations and radio spots for (or should I say more appropriately - against) Jim Oberweis and Bill Foster.
I've heard lots of people, in apparent frustration with politics, say there is no difference between this candidate and that. Well, when it comes to tactics, that is sure true in our race. The negative campaigning is utterly disgusting and the millions that both of these self-serving, power hungry men are spending so they can take and spend our money is nearly criminal. If either of these men actually gave a hoot for the people they hope to represent, they would show some honor in their public rhetoric. I'm not exaggerating here folks, the ads these two are running sound an awful lot like the kind of bickering and name calling that went on between my kids when they were younger (only their arguments actually had merit).
What I can't understand is how the people they hire to be voice talent in their radio spots are willing to prostitute themselves for such ridiculous tripe. These things aren't too far from the types of parodies of campaign ads I recall from Saturday Night Live back when I still allowed cable television into my home. I don't want either of these low characters representing me.
So far I can sum up their campaign material with the following:
Jim Oberweis: Bill Foster wants to personally kill our soldiers, fund Al Qaeda and has even made a pact with Satan to raise your taxes to pay for public works projects in Hell.
Bill Foster: Jim Oberweis is secretly an agent of the Chinese communist regime and all of the milk in his dairy business comes from illegal immigrant cows; and further more, he's a really mean, big fat liar
I've actually received three calls within a 15 minute time span today from the Illinois Republican party reminding me how important it was for me to go out and vote for Oberweis in the special election today.
The way I see it, there is no lesser of two evils to vote for in this race. So, instead of voting, I will spend today on other pursuits. This morning several of us from church prepared breakfast for folks at our local homeless shelter, I have some work to do on another church project, I want to spend time with my kids, and then I don't know what else. But the thought of wasting even half a minute casting a ballot for either Jim Oberweis or Bill Foster is about as appealing aswatching Michael Moore eat.
I've heard lots of people, in apparent frustration with politics, say there is no difference between this candidate and that. Well, when it comes to tactics, that is sure true in our race. The negative campaigning is utterly disgusting and the millions that both of these self-serving, power hungry men are spending so they can take and spend our money is nearly criminal. If either of these men actually gave a hoot for the people they hope to represent, they would show some honor in their public rhetoric. I'm not exaggerating here folks, the ads these two are running sound an awful lot like the kind of bickering and name calling that went on between my kids when they were younger (only their arguments actually had merit).
What I can't understand is how the people they hire to be voice talent in their radio spots are willing to prostitute themselves for such ridiculous tripe. These things aren't too far from the types of parodies of campaign ads I recall from Saturday Night Live back when I still allowed cable television into my home. I don't want either of these low characters representing me.
So far I can sum up their campaign material with the following:
Jim Oberweis: Bill Foster wants to personally kill our soldiers, fund Al Qaeda and has even made a pact with Satan to raise your taxes to pay for public works projects in Hell.
Bill Foster: Jim Oberweis is secretly an agent of the Chinese communist regime and all of the milk in his dairy business comes from illegal immigrant cows; and further more, he's a really mean, big fat liar
I've actually received three calls within a 15 minute time span today from the Illinois Republican party reminding me how important it was for me to go out and vote for Oberweis in the special election today.
The way I see it, there is no lesser of two evils to vote for in this race. So, instead of voting, I will spend today on other pursuits. This morning several of us from church prepared breakfast for folks at our local homeless shelter, I have some work to do on another church project, I want to spend time with my kids, and then I don't know what else. But the thought of wasting even half a minute casting a ballot for either Jim Oberweis or Bill Foster is about as appealing aswatching Michael Moore eat.
Pure Evil
In Matthew 7:20 Jesus warns against false teachers by saying we will know them by the fruit they bear. Here in DeKalb we saw false religion this past month when Westboro Baptist church proclaimed their gratitude to their god for the NIU massacre. No one would doubt that their words and deeds constitute bad fruit.
Now, see the fruit of another hate group, one that the MSM has a little harder time portraying as hateful:
Now, see the fruit of another hate group, one that the MSM has a little harder time portraying as hateful:
Who are these people and why are they celebrating? These are Palestinians, and they are jubilant over the murder of 8 and wounding of 10 at a Jerusalem religious school. Like NIU this was a school shooting. Unlike NIU, this was not a "senseless act" but a planned act of political/religious terror. Like Westboro Baptist, the act was celebrated by some. Unlike the Westboro Baptist band of cretins who turn out by the dozen, the Palestinians mustered celebrants by the thousands who hailed the attacks and called for more!
Yet, I know many who would criticise WBC but would have less harsh words for the Palestinians. Look at the picture closely. Notice the absolute glee on the faces of these people over innocent blood shed on behalf of their faith. Look at the poor child in the arms of the man with the pistol, doesn't your heart break for a child raised in such a culture of evil, violence and death?
Westboro is universally condemned by civilized people and do not have the backing of any Political leaders. But in Palestine, religious and political leaders joined the celebration and leaders of nations expressed their support. The massacre was not even condemned by the UN Security council (remember, it should be pronounced phonetically as in "unsecurity council") could not bring itself to condemn the Jerusalem murder because Libya blocked the resolution.
Westboro receives no funding from our government, but we send millions to fund the Palestinian terrorists via the "Palestinian Government."
How long before we recognize evil and treat it accordingly?
Monday, March 03, 2008
God's Up To Something!
Wow! It's been an incredible couple of months here in our area and this past weekend all kinds of pieces fell into place, involving so many people that the only conclusion is that God is on the move in DeKalb!
To lay the ground work for all this I have to go back two years to a gang shooting that occurred in our town. We are a university-town stuck in the midst of Illinois farm country and everything seems pretty rural. But we are only 60 miles from Chicago and about 30 miles from the edges of the Western Suburbs. Along the Fox River there are some cities like Elgin and Aurora which clearly struggle with some poverty and gang issues. But when a 15 year old boy shot and killed a nineteen year old in downtown DeKalb, it took many of us by surprise.
The school district and police department held a community forum on the gang issue and attendance was high. It was informative but not much action took place. I had stumbled on the MySpace site of the victim's girlfriend and after clicking on the links to some of her friends I was shocked and deeply saddened by the attitudes and actions they wrote of.
At church I would speak of this new awareness of this need in our community. But, all I knew was that the church (and here I mean the collective church, not one building) needed to get out beyond the walls of our buildings and minister. There were needs here I had never seen before.
At this same time I began to hear more and more from a co-worker who also worked with BD kids at our high school, the stories of broken homes and abuse were gut-wrenching. Then, there was a stabbing in the afternoon right on a main thoroughfare through town. This was a block away from my two youngest kids' elementary school, where my wife worked at the time. The building was on lock down as a result.
With my two oldest are in the high school and we hear of fights occasionally. My wife now works at another elementary school, and it turns out to be the school with the highest percentage of low income students in our district. More heartbreaking stories, more awareness of the need and more helplessness.
In my men's group I would speak of these things often. Asking for prayer seemed the only thing I could do because knowing what to do seemed impossible. Then came a men's power breakfast at the main campus of our church, which is located in those Western burbs. One of the speakers was the director of Riverwoods Christian Center. This ministry works in the poverty stricken areas of the far western suburbs, dealing with the plight of the poor, broken homes and gangs. That evening I called to schedule a meeting.
Since that January meeting I have become more aware of poverty and of community development ministries. Tony at Riverwoods put me in touch with Kirsten of Community Christian Church in Naperville who heads up that church's ministry in the East Aurora School District: Community 4:12.
The ball was rolling now and there was no stopping it! With the support of Dan and Larry on our pastoral staff I was connected with Cory, who heads up Community Impact ministry at our campus. We met with the principal of my wife's school and within the next two months we will begin partnering with that school to serve these kids who are "the least of these" in our community!
But it gets even better! While all this was going on I was unaware that God was moving amongst the other churches in our community. For months now a group of more than 20 churches have been working to start a DeKalb/Sycamore affiliate of Love In The Name Of Christ. This ministry will pool the resources of Christ's Body in our communities to reach out to those in need, develop relationships with them and eventually seek to implement comprehensive community development.
Friday night and Saturday we had training for this ministry and over the next few months the board will be formed and an executive director hired. At the training I heard from people over and over again "there are so many needs in this community" and "we've needed this for a long time."
Well, it is clear to me that while I was praying and grappling with this issue in my own heart, God had others out there doing the same thing. With all those people praying and thinking and seeking, God began to put pieces into place and now we are seeing the work He has been up to! I cannot even describe how wonderful the feeling was to be in room with people from dozens of churches all responding to this need and pulling together to serve the One Lord we all worship separately each week in our churches.
This is going to change DeKalb, I believe and know that. A month ago I wrote about how this process has changed my attitudes and even my old focus on politics. This morning I found this in I Samuel 10:6-7:
I have changed, and clearly the collective Body of Christ in DeKalb and Sycamore has been experiencing similar things. God has stirred His people to action and I can't wait to see what He's going to do next. This is going to be awesome!
At the Friday night Love INC training, Pastor Larry Breeden prepared to close us in prayer and he said something to this effect: "It is leap day today. What kind of image does that create in your mind? Imagine leap day, 2012 and this room filled with community leaders and them saying 'thank goodness for Love In The Name of Christ, where would we be without it.'"
To lay the ground work for all this I have to go back two years to a gang shooting that occurred in our town. We are a university-town stuck in the midst of Illinois farm country and everything seems pretty rural. But we are only 60 miles from Chicago and about 30 miles from the edges of the Western Suburbs. Along the Fox River there are some cities like Elgin and Aurora which clearly struggle with some poverty and gang issues. But when a 15 year old boy shot and killed a nineteen year old in downtown DeKalb, it took many of us by surprise.
The school district and police department held a community forum on the gang issue and attendance was high. It was informative but not much action took place. I had stumbled on the MySpace site of the victim's girlfriend and after clicking on the links to some of her friends I was shocked and deeply saddened by the attitudes and actions they wrote of.
At church I would speak of this new awareness of this need in our community. But, all I knew was that the church (and here I mean the collective church, not one building) needed to get out beyond the walls of our buildings and minister. There were needs here I had never seen before.
At this same time I began to hear more and more from a co-worker who also worked with BD kids at our high school, the stories of broken homes and abuse were gut-wrenching. Then, there was a stabbing in the afternoon right on a main thoroughfare through town. This was a block away from my two youngest kids' elementary school, where my wife worked at the time. The building was on lock down as a result.
With my two oldest are in the high school and we hear of fights occasionally. My wife now works at another elementary school, and it turns out to be the school with the highest percentage of low income students in our district. More heartbreaking stories, more awareness of the need and more helplessness.
In my men's group I would speak of these things often. Asking for prayer seemed the only thing I could do because knowing what to do seemed impossible. Then came a men's power breakfast at the main campus of our church, which is located in those Western burbs. One of the speakers was the director of Riverwoods Christian Center. This ministry works in the poverty stricken areas of the far western suburbs, dealing with the plight of the poor, broken homes and gangs. That evening I called to schedule a meeting.
Since that January meeting I have become more aware of poverty and of community development ministries. Tony at Riverwoods put me in touch with Kirsten of Community Christian Church in Naperville who heads up that church's ministry in the East Aurora School District: Community 4:12.
The ball was rolling now and there was no stopping it! With the support of Dan and Larry on our pastoral staff I was connected with Cory, who heads up Community Impact ministry at our campus. We met with the principal of my wife's school and within the next two months we will begin partnering with that school to serve these kids who are "the least of these" in our community!
But it gets even better! While all this was going on I was unaware that God was moving amongst the other churches in our community. For months now a group of more than 20 churches have been working to start a DeKalb/Sycamore affiliate of Love In The Name Of Christ. This ministry will pool the resources of Christ's Body in our communities to reach out to those in need, develop relationships with them and eventually seek to implement comprehensive community development.
Friday night and Saturday we had training for this ministry and over the next few months the board will be formed and an executive director hired. At the training I heard from people over and over again "there are so many needs in this community" and "we've needed this for a long time."
Well, it is clear to me that while I was praying and grappling with this issue in my own heart, God had others out there doing the same thing. With all those people praying and thinking and seeking, God began to put pieces into place and now we are seeing the work He has been up to! I cannot even describe how wonderful the feeling was to be in room with people from dozens of churches all responding to this need and pulling together to serve the One Lord we all worship separately each week in our churches.
This is going to change DeKalb, I believe and know that. A month ago I wrote about how this process has changed my attitudes and even my old focus on politics. This morning I found this in I Samuel 10:6-7:
The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.
I have changed, and clearly the collective Body of Christ in DeKalb and Sycamore has been experiencing similar things. God has stirred His people to action and I can't wait to see what He's going to do next. This is going to be awesome!
At the Friday night Love INC training, Pastor Larry Breeden prepared to close us in prayer and he said something to this effect: "It is leap day today. What kind of image does that create in your mind? Imagine leap day, 2012 and this room filled with community leaders and them saying 'thank goodness for Love In The Name of Christ, where would we be without it.'"
Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the earth,
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
"Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
---Psalm 46:8-11
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