By now, I suspect, all cable news junkies and most of the celebrity obsessed populace has heard of the dismissal of the FOX News giant, Bill O’Reilly, due to sexual harassment allegations and accusations . I am not going to recapitulate all the evidence and innuendo that has surrounded his release because that is easily researched through your search engine online. The fact is, there is a significant part of the population that is cheering for his demise as well as a significant part that is convinced it’s a smear campaign to eviscerate a powerful conservative voice. I suspect those of us who are but mere mortals neither connected to celebrity politicians or journalists will forever be guessing what the real facts might be in this debacle. That being said, it is neither judging nor condemning to analyze the situation and offer some “no-spin” lessons we might walk away with in the midst of another moral circus. After all, as O’Reilly would often say analyzing in the Factor’s “no-spin zone”, “I too, am your humble correspondent and it’s time the spin stops here.”
Current Events
The Dismemberment Bill and Stopping the Killing
I literally hate writing this blog. To write a critique of the South Carolina House Bill entitled, “SC Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act” (H3548), feels at a visceral level very wrong. Yes, dismemberment abortion to a second trimester baby in the womb through surgical cutting or ripping is about as cruel, barbaric and ghastly a procedure as could be imagined by any sane person. A “gut” reaction to any thinking, moral person is to yell “stop it” now. But here is the problem…the same could be said for a half-dozen other ways to exterminate a baby in the womb and we simply cannot find the moral outrage or courage to look at this whole death industry and say, “stop it” now. In fact, upon reading the bill, you will find that it contains the usual exceptions: life of the mother, rape, and incest, as well as specifically excluding suction methods for abortion and extraction. I can only assume that this would maintain intact saline abortions (otherwise known as “salting out”) which after insertion of the chemical into the mother’s amniotic fluid sac and waiting an hour the pre-born baby is effectively burned to death and removed. No less ghastly and barbaric procedure, but apparently not gruesome enough to be enjoined in H3548.
You Can’t Beat Something With Nothing
Gary DeMar, the insightful reconstructionist writer, first introduced me to the colloquial political phrase, “You can’t beat something with nothing”. What that means is that there comes a moment when critique and analysis of “Babylon’s problems” are no longer enough. To perpetually evaluate rulers that are committed to a Babylonian system of ruling becomes redundant and futile. Yes, the rulers of this age are predominantly deceived and the kingdoms of this world will ultimately collapse. This is self-evident by the testimony of Scripture as well as the record of history. The ash heap of once great nations is tall enough to make the point uncontested. My point is that there comes a moment when we shift the conversation from how tentative and corrupt Babylon and it’s rulers are, to what will replace these systems and rulers when the whole thing collapses (and it will collapse)?
The NFL Smiles All The Way To The Bank
Like millions of other red-blooded, American sports fans…I love football. In many ways it has challenged baseball as the American past-time. (My apologies to all the baseball purists.) Between college football and the NFL, August through February have become some of the best months of the year for sports enthusiasts. I cannot deny that I enjoy watching a football game whether I have a vested interest in the teams or not. The sport has done much to provide an entertainment product that is even transcending the male gender bias as more and more women are tuning in to watch. And this remarkable ascent is culminated in the final game of the year called, “The Super Bowl”. It is amazing to think that the first Super Bowl, 51 years ago, wasn’t sold out. Today, if you can even find a ticket, the price of that seat almost demands a bank loan. The Super Bowl is not simply a game to decide the championship team, it has become the sports Mardi Gras which literally consumes a week and has captured the scheduled Sunday. On that “Super Sunday”, everything revolves around “the game”. Church services, family gatherings, sports bars, individual parties, and the like. Life is ostensibly suspended for the big game. And let’s not forget the commercials which cost advertisers millions of dollars per 30 seconds. You have to give credit where credit is due, the NFL has marketed and moved its way into a financial goldmine.
I Support Israel…But Israel Needs Jesus
About the time you think the Obama administration could not act any more stupidly, they find a way to dispel that notion. Today, social media (and main stream media) has exploded over this administrations abstention at the U.N. Security Council meeting concerning settlements on the West Bank and the follow-up slap by Secretary of State John Kerry who ostensibly suggested that Israel give up it’s “Jewishness” to be at peace with its neighbors. Where to begin? What could be added to the onslaught of blog’s and articles eviscerating Obama and Kerry for pulling the proverbial diplomatic rug out from under a long time ally, Israel?
Perhaps simply this…
I support Israel…
But Israel still needs Jesus.