Laigle’s Forum

I hope you have already seen “Expelled,” but if not, do not hesitate to see it with your family.

Rev. Michael Bresciani shares his thoughts on Expelled, which already is causing a furor in the academic world. As I walked out of the cinema with my family after seeing the film, I realized that it was a watershed event. Academic history would henceforth be delineated between the pre-Expelled era and the post-Expelled era.

I think one of the most striking, and revealing, things about the movie was when Stein took a tour through a Hitler-era “hospital” for the mentally retarded, where in fact, many inmates were “culled” as unfit to live, sent to cyanide showers and then incinerated, Hitler’s Endlösung of choice. It reminded me of many related things in today’s America and today’s Germany.  For example: Terri Schiavo and how Obama said he regretted voting to keep her alive; the German government’s modern day holocaust against home-schooled children and their parents, etc. But the lady guide’s response when Stein asked her what she would say to the people who once ran this death hospital was the most revealing statement about our prevailing post-modern relativist ideology. She said she was not qualified to judge them. She woulnd’t admit that what had been done was evil. Why should she? Public education in the West has eliminated the only criterion for moral judgements of this kind: God.  Darwinism was the driver of change.

It was decided at the Nuremberg trials that people have the duty to reject evil even when they are ordered to perpetrate it by their superiors. Many nazis were convicted on that criterion. Incredibly, that way of thinking seems to be widely rejected in today’s Germany.

But it isn’t only Germany, is it?

We’re all in this together.  The prevailing theory of origins and the attendant relativist — nay, nihilist — ideology that motivated Hitler and Stalin is still driving the dominant institutions of Western culture.  Western moral development was stopped, or rather reversed, in the late 1800s.

Comes Ben Stein and challenges us to move forward. His movie Expelled is long overdue. It has been said that God is not always early, but never too late.

Donald Hank

Expelled the Movie - Ben Stein Exposes Flat World Academics

by Rev. Michael Bresciani

Ben Stein’s ‘Expelled’ could  properly be called ‘Exposed the Movie’ because
it is a nerve rattling jolt to academicians who are ready to bounce or
ostracize anyone who so much as mentions or has a dream in the night about
the theory of intelligent design.

No movie review in history as far as I know starts with instructions about
how to watch the film. Expelled is a documentary and contains hundreds of
interviews and deep conversations with some of the most highly regarded
minds of the time. It has a rhythm and a depth that requires full attention
and you may want to forgo the popcorn, soda and other distractions.

You will also discover something radically different about this film from
the audience reaction. It has been reported that people applaud sometimes
throughout the film and in some theatres it ends with audiences rising to
give it a standing ovation.

I found myself applauding along with other theatre patrons when I saw the
film. It was proof solid for me that while Americans are being asked to get
the nonsense of religion out of their heads the idea of an omnipotent
creator God is still firmly planted in their hearts.

Frivolous lawsuits are being thrown at the producers of the film from
animation companies and John Lennon widow Yoko Ono. Neither suit seems to
have any foundation but the flak from every academic quarter is ample proof
that a nerve has been touched. Is the film fair, is it reasonable, and is it
intelligent? Not only is the answer yes, yes and yes but the film is yet
something much more, something rarely found in a documentary. It is
emotionally charged.

Ben Stein is marvelous in the film. Known more as a comedian he doesn’t poke
fun at anyone and rarely resorts to humor throughout the documentary. It is
clear from the outset that he is not arguing or contending with others views
but only imploring them to seriously ponder their own unquestioned
assertions. He does this with a straight face and the fewest words possible.
The result is obvious; these questions are no joke.

Near the end Stein is found quietly standing alone with his own thoughts in
the middle of a holocaust museum. His thoughts are narrated in the
background and they are perhaps the most profound moments of the film. Stein
has conducted himself discreetly and some might say masterfully throughout
the documentary so at the films conclusion nothing is lost.

The heart of the movie is easy to see. Academics have for a generation now
fed us the idea that the big bang theory and the subsequent lightning
hitting the primordial ooze is the only way to go when it comes to the
question of how life began.

The rapid rise in intelligence in this generation has caused completely
unforeseen phenomena that academicians are not prepared for.  It is not just
faith in God that makes the question bubble to the surface but our own
enlarged understanding of the complexities and vast intricacies of our own
universe. The admonition to question all authority that academics so
blithely espoused to young minds a generation ago has returned to bite them
on the butt. It is the intelligent that are questioning the not so
intelligent refusal of the intelligencia to give some credence to
intelligent design; not doing so is just dumb.

This generation understands that when science leaves the area of repeatable
and observable phenomena and relies on speculation and ‘prior philosophic
postulation’ to explain the origins of life they have entered the realm of
faith. Physical evidence for evolution remains spurious, sparse and suspect
at best so speculation is all that is left to explain what took place four
hundred million years ago. The evolution crowd has been thumping “The
Origins of Species” with evangelistic fervor that makes the best Bible
preachers look tame by comparison. This is what Expelled is about.

The implacability of the evolutionists is compared to the Berlin wall
throughout the film. Nazism and communism are also alluded to for the most
obvious reasons. A party line must be held and enforced for any kind of
fascism to have a reasonable chance to survive. The cost of fascism has
always been the loss of freedom. Expelled centers in on this by likening the
refusal to include the possibility of intelligent design to incarcerating
intelligence not furthering it.

Expelled hones in on the loss of academic freedom, jobs, tenure and respect
for many of those interviewed in the film but it also provokes the larger
question of the number of young minds lost to this generation because of
what is fast becoming rigid Darwinian dogma. Move over inquisitors here come
the evolutionists!

One of the highlights of Expelled is the interview with famed atheist
Richard Dawkins. It may be the only time you will ever see Dawkins visibly
perturbed and almost at a loss for words. Ben Stein managed to pull what
might even be considered an admission from Dawkins that some intelligent
designer may have created everything but that he, she or it would have to
have evolved first. The double talk aside it is a moment well worth the
ticket price alone.

Most movies are rated on a scale of one to five or in some cases a scale of
one to ten. I will not rate this movie at all. What I will do is rate the
‘must see’ element of the documentary. Whether you are an evolutionist or a
believer of “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen
1:1) if you consider yourself even nominally intelligent the must see factor
for Expelled on a scale of one to ten is twenty.

For a list of theatres playing Expelled or further information visit
http://laiglesforum.com/wp-admin/ Rev Michael Bresciani is a
columnist for many online conservative, news and Christian sites and
magazines. Visit The Website for Insight at http://laiglesforum.com/wp-admin/

 In Defense of the CS Lewis’s Pagan Prince Caspian

By Anthony Horvath

When they appeared in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it was easy to look the other way in the face of the undeniable Christian imagery of Aslan dying and rising and conquering the White Witch.  Bacchus and Silenus, ancient pagan gods, dance with nymphs and dryads.  With Jesus so clearly figured, it was easy to ignore such things, but what to do when Bacchus and Silenus appear not once, but twice, in Prince Caspian, where such Christological imagery is not so obvious? 

Prince Caspian is the next book of Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia to be released as a movie.  It is due out in May.  Some Christians may raise the same concerns with CS Lewis as they did with the Harry Potter series.  With pagan gods prancing about in Prince Caspian, their warnings will generate attention.

Are we talking about the same CS Lewis whose writings were instrumental in the conversion of men such as Chuck Colson and Francis Collins and so many others?  If in fact Lewis is a closet Pagan we are confronted with the prospect that Paganism, witchcraft, Gnosticism, and more, likely infect every area of Christendom, as nearly all of Christendom claims Lewis as trustworthy.

Is it possible that the writings of the ‘apostle to the atheists’ actually smuggles in pantheism and Paganism?  There are some who believe exactly that.

I submit that there is an answer to this and that the answer has important implications for the Church.

It is common today to hear skeptics argue that Christianity is just a ‘borrowed’ religion, drawing its doctrines and miracles from other religions.  In fact, Lewis was persuaded to Christianity just because of such similarities. Though most similarities are strained to make the skeptic’s argument, no one denies that there are at least some similarities.  Do such similarities prove that there was ‘borrowing?’ Lewis has a different take.

He writes in his famous essay, “Myth Became Fact”:

“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact.  The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history.  It happens- at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences.  We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate.  By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth:  that is the miracle… To be truly Christian we must both assent to the historical fact and also receive the myth (fact though it has become) and with the same imaginative embrace we accord to all myths.  … God is more than a god, not less; Christ is more than Balder, not less.  We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology.  We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ and ‘Pagan Christs’: they ought to be there- it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t.  We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome.” [Italics his]

Many quotes from Lewis could be produced on the subject that would help truly flesh out his position, but this quote contains the general outline of the answer.  The power of Myth, that is, the power of Story to communicate realities to the human psyche that are not easily grasped by the abstract reasoning is profound.  God created us this way.  We are poets, musicians, lovers, writers, painters, fighters.  Mystery thrills us and adventure calls us.  Our stories abound with daring rescues and the slaying of dragons.  Myth moves us, all the more when it is true, as young Caspian declares upon learning from his tutor that the ancient tales he had been taught were actually true.

In Lewis’s Prince Caspian, Bacchus and Silenus emerge at Aslan’s call at a time when Narnia had essentially fallen to sleep and the old days like forgotten dreams.  Bacchus and Silenus go on a ‘romp,’ singing, dancing, and delighting in Aslan’s arrival which drove all creation into feasting and festivity.  This is what the arrival of Bacchus and Silenus signify, not secret pagan sympathies.  That there was glory in a feast was the insight of the pagans; that the glory was best administered under the twinkling eye of the Master of the Feast is the transcendent insight of Christianity.  Paganism is not more than Christianity, but Christianity is not less than Paganism.

Having settled the question of whether or not Lewis is a closet Pagan let us turn our attention to one of several lessons Lewis wanted to convey by referencing Bacchus and Silenus and their joyful antics.  To be honest, when most people think of Christianity they don’t think of words like ‘adventure,’ ‘thrill,’ ‘feasting,’ and the like.  This is a stumbling block for many people, including Christians themselves.  Christianity may be true but does it satisfy?

To many, words like ‘sterile’ or ‘sanitized’ or ‘legalistic’ or ‘moralistic’ would be the words that actually come to mind.  Who wants to become a Christian if it means giving up drinking, smoking, and sex?  What is so appealing about heaven if it just means sitting in a pew for eternity?  Many people in church are bored out of their minds right now.  Who wants that experience forever?  “No thanks,” many say.

While these are clearly distorted views of what Christianity is all about, the Christian Church itself has played a large part in producing just such views by engaging in a ‘false spirituality’ that claims to be above the petty desires of the human soul.  Lewis calls us to a more robust understanding of what Jesus meant when he said that he came to bring life… and life to the fullest.  For Lewis, what is true certainly matters.  In Prince Caspian he suggests that truth is not found only in cold propositions but also in The Romp.  The Church would do well to consider what that might mean.

Anthony Horvath is the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries and Sntjohnny.com and the author the Birth Pangs series, which was reviewed on Worldnetdaily.com.

Expelled Movie Highlights Need to Understand Atheist Mindset… and Fast

MEDIA ADVISORY, April 21 /Christian Newswire/ — Athanatos Christian Ministry’s online apologetics academy is offering as one of its courses a study in atheism, in particular the ‘new’ atheism of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others.

“The outrage expressed by the atheistic community at Ben Stein’s movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” has been so palpable you could bottle it up and sell it as an energy drink. They are practically foaming at the mouth,” says Anthony Horvath, the executive director of the ministry and online academy.

Horvath continues, “The blogosphere reveals the utter disdain that the hard core atheists have for anyone who merely suggests that it might be possible to scientifically detect design. If all Stein’s movie accomplishes is revealing more publically what many in the scientific community have been saying quietly all along, that is a major accomplishment.”

The academy is offering the course “Studies in Atheism” to help people understand why the ‘new atheists’ think the way they do.

In fact, the launching of the academy acknowledges the fact that the Church itself needs to do more to prepare Christians for modern challenges- in particular, from ‘New Atheists’ like Richard Dawkins. He was featured prominently in the Expelled movie. Many Christians struggled with Dawkins’s book, “The God Delusion.”

“Needlessly,” says Horvath. “Very few educated Christians think that Dawkins even understands what Christians mean by ‘God.’ Perhaps the problem is that there aren’t enough informed Christians to know that.”

Horvath states that the “Studies in Atheism” course exposes participants to the writings and arguments of prominent and vocal atheistic spokespersons and lays out ways in which Christians can respond. This includes pointing out areas where the ‘New Atheists’ misrepresent Christianity.

The course, however, is not about understanding Christianity itself. Horvath urges other courses for that, including “Historicity of the Resurrection,” “Elements of Basic Christianity,” “Reliability of the New Testament Documents” the “Formation of the New Testament Canon,” “Biblical Greek,” and importantly, “Survey on the Historical Jesus.”

Horvath, who strayed into disbelief himself in college while studying to be a pastor, knows well the challenges to the Faith. The courses reflect Horvath’s ten years of experience in apologetics, primarily working with atheists. Future sessions will make available other courses of study.

The “Studies in Atheism” course begins April 30th and is enrolling now. Interested individuals are directed to the Academy portal page for the start dates of other courses.

The Academy portal page is www.athanatosministries.org/academy/

A Moral Case for Overthrowing Saddam

By PVBLIUS

America had a moral imperative to overthrow Saddam that had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps you may remember that in 1991, President Bush encouraged the Iraqis to rise up against Saddam Hussein, but promptly abandoned them and the Iraqi people were left again under Hussein’s rule, but this time with the sanctions applied against Iraq as punishment (see http://puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/news030412e.html for more details). The moral toll of our abandonment of the Iraqis is bad enough; but add to that the responsibility for the number of children (and adults) who died in Iraq under the sanctions who would not have died if we had kept our commitment at the time. A reasonable estimate of the number of children who died as a result of the Oil for Food sanctions is 350,000, and so it can be seen that a simple act of abandonment and political expediency by Bush Sr. had terrible results. As a nation, we followed Bush Sr. and abandoned the Iraqi people even though they heeded our push for uprising, and so the results and responsibility are ours.

Such wrongs require restitution, and simply the best way to do so has been to finally keep our previously neglected commitment to aid the Iraqi people in being free from Saddam. Some have argued that 4000 soldiers dead is a heavy toll , or the civilian dead is a heavy toll, or that we should be entitled to the Iraqi oil in payment for the Iraqi people’s freedom, but such ideas neglect the fact that we have the blood of many Iraqis on our heads. The soldiers who died did not die in vain, as those opposed to the war in Iraq claim - they died honorably by helping our nation to pay a long overdue debt to the Iraqi people.

Anticipating Reasons for Disagreement

Some may claim that 350,000 children couldn’t have died under UN sanctions. While the exact number of dead is not known, a number of estimates have been made on the number of dead children resulting from the Oil for Food embargo. The numbers range from over a million, to as low as 350,000. The 350,000 is considered a conservative and realistic number, and is still quite large (and does not include adults!). For an extensive evaluation of the estimates of childhood deaths, see http://www.reason.com/news/show/28346.html.

Others may say we are not responsible as a nation, and therefore the deposing of Saddam and the Iraq War were not justified. At a simple level, to deny our responsibility as a nation is akin to someone who fathers a child but refuses to acknowledge any responsibility for that child. Did our nation make a commitment to the Iraqi people it hadn’t kept? Did the Iraqi people rise up in good faith, expecting us to keep our commitment? Did an embargo get placed upon Iraq because we failed to help the Iraqis get rid of Saddam? Did the embargo result in the death of many people? If the rhetorical questions are not sufficient to establish our responsibility, consider the Biblical case of Saul, David, and the Gibeonites as reported in 2 Samuel 21.

The Gibeonites were a nation of Hivites that feared the oncoming Israelites and tricked the Israelites into making a covenant for safety. The covenant could be argued to be illegal as the Israelites were not to make a covenant with any of the peoples in Canaan, but to drive them out. However, they were expected by God to keep their commitment once it had been made. Likewise, our leader made a commitment to the Iraqi people, and God expected us to keep it, even if the circumstances around it are not in keeping with our law or government structures.

You may say: “Ah, but two wrongs don’t make a right. We shouldn’t have gone to Iraq without declaring War, and therefore we should leave as quickly as possible.” Again, consider the actions of David with the Gibeonites. Hundreds of years after the covenant was made, David was told by the Lord that a famine has hit the land because of Saul’s attempts to exterminate the Gibeonites. David asked the Gibeonites how the crimes could be atoned for, and they desired to execute seven of Saul’s descendents. Note that the Law in Deuteronomy 24:16 does not allow for children to be put to death for the sins of their fathers; yet David, at the request of the Gibeonites, handed over seven of Saul’s descendants to be put to death. If it was against the Law, why did the Lord honor David’s actions by again hearing the prayers of the Israelites and ending the famine? (An excellent commentary on the Gibeonite situation can be found at: http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/1021.htm)

Perhaps such a situation strikes you as counterintuitive, but consider the Lord’s sending His own Son as a sacrifice on the cross. God used the actions of sinful leaders to accomplish a good in that the death of Jesus paid for the penalty of sin. What you see in these examples is that keeping and honoring a commitment is incredibly important to the Lord, and restitution for a broken commitment is of great importance to Him as well. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the restitution process that is occurring in Iraq (even if inadvertently accomplished by sinful man) is pleasing to the Lord, and therefore important to us!

Homosexuality 101:

Dr. Julie Harren Hamiltion tells you what you need to know but aren’t supposed to.

http://www.homosexuality101.com/

Libraries turn to gaming to attract “readers”

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/13/arts/State-of-Libraries.php

A FRIEND of Laigle’s Forum sent this in:

BAM–this is one of the many things that DHS, HPHS and every other high school in the country needs!

http://www6.district125.k12.il.us/clubs/truthseekers/default.html

Spread the word! Post it! Tell your kids to start one!

This is the high school club that is sponsoring the Ben Stein film Expelled at a local multi-plex theatre.

For those of you who are out of state, this is a large and excellent suburban high school in IL.

Massive oil reserves found in North Dakota

http://motownsports.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-57591.html

This just in from Nancy Goettman: 

Alan Keyes to announce break with GOP in Hazleton, PAApril 13, 2008

  HAZLETON, Penn. - Former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes has chosen April 15 to make a major announcement of his intentions, following indications he has broken with the GOP.

A life-long Republican who has increasingly cited the party’s failure to match conservative rhetoric with actual performance in the political arena, Keyes said he will reveal his reasons for departing the GOP at a press conference scheduled for 8:30 pm ET, at the Best Western Genetti Inn in Hazleton, PA.

The event will be video-streamed live at Keyes’ website, http://www.alankeyes.com/.

Keyes added that he is looking to the Constitution Party as a possible home for his future efforts in politics, including a potential run for president in the 2008 general election.

“No other ‘third party’ is as well-established as the Constitution Party,” said Keyes. “They’ve been around since 1992, and have built a significant grassroots presence among patriotic, Constitution-minded citizens - with a registered membership of over 350,000. Conservatives have a home in the CP that they can find nowhere else, given the decline in the Republican Party’s credibility as a voice and vehicle for conservatism.”

Regarding his potential third-party candidacy for president in the fall, Keyes said, “I believe people deserve a choice. They certainly deserve a conservative choice - something neither John McCain, Hillary Clinton, nor Barack Obama can offer voters. All they can offer is empty promises based on liberal track records.”

Symbolic of Keyes’ break with the Republican Party is a caricature of the GOP logo - upside down - on the front page of his website.

The Constitution Party will hold its nominating convention April 23-26 in Kansas City.

According to Dan Smeriglio, a Keyes supporter who is helping to arrange the event, the former Reagan administration diplomat chose to make his announcement in Hazleton because of the town’s strong stance on illegal immigration.

“I understand a good portion of his speech next week will center on illegal immigration,” Smeriglio said. Smeriglio and a group he represents, Voice of the People USA, have been vocal in opposing illegal immigration since Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta introduced the Illegal Immigration Relief Act in 2006 - thrusting Hazleton into national prominence in the movement to stem illegal immigration.

Keyes - who has a Ph.D. in government from Harvard and wrote his dissertation on constitutional theory - served as Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, as well as Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, where he represented U.S. interests in the UN General Assembly.
 

Stand your ground

By Helen Valois

Deputy Grassroots Coordinator

“You’ve convinced me that you are going to help put Hillary Clinton
or Barack Obama in the White House.”

This is how a friend of mine tried to wrap up a political discussion last weekend.  The circumstances were unusual, even if the comment was not.  Usually, you’ll find a lone Keyes backer being numerically outgunned by a bunch of RINOs.  In this case, the sole McCain supporter found himself faced with an enthusiastic and well-informed circle of Keyes people.

It is interesting that he had nothing to say about our arguments themselves.  A good guy at heart, he conceded the moral and civic points that we raised.  Then, disappointingly, he fell back on the same old “lesser-of-two-evils” approach that the Republican leadership has been serving up for decades now.  The idea that the only way to win is to concede defeat at the very outset, by backing a candidate who doesn’t stand for conservative principle in the first place, has itself come to fruition in the presumptive nomination of John McCain as the Republican candidate for 2008.  Is this not, in and of itself, enough to convince us at last of the wrong-headedness of this approach?

This type of thinking constitutes textbook “enabling behavior,” in the vernacular of popular psychology.  Just as the wife of an alcoholic is supposed to “save the family” by calling in sick for her hung-over husband, we conservatives are being pressured to “save the White House for Republicans” by facilitating the socialist mentality.  “What are you trying to do, get me fired?” the husband demands, if she mentions any qualms.  It is easy to see that, if he did lose his job, the fault would be his own and not hers.  Why then can we not see that it is up to the politician to earn the conservative vote, and not up to the conservatives to put into office a politician who has chronically failed them? 

The pressure to be political enablers needs to be staunchly resisted.  The once-great Republican party has, in nominating John McCain, crossed the line from viable to suicidal, and many well-intentioned Americans know it.  That is why they are saying they will not vote for him, even at the cost of not voting at all.  Yet to allow the RINOs to effectively disenfranchise us is not acceptable, either.  So, where do we go from here?

Before we look ahead, let’s look back.  The Republicans are the heirs of the Lincoln legacy, but what does that truly mean?  During the era of slavery, there was a party - the Democrats - that refused to stand against the ungodly and un-American evil of its time.  There was another party - the Whigs - that let its opposition to slavery be watered down to the point of irrelevance.  It was in this context that a third party known as the Republicans providentially arose.   

Lincoln didn’t make it his life’s objective to rehabilitate a dying political party.  During the nineteenth century crisis of the Republic, he saw to it that American identity and sovereignty - as well as the dignity and life of every American - was, in principle, preserved.  There were challenges, and unspeakable sacrifice, but Lincoln’s cause was ultimately the cause of God Himself, and it was God who saw it through.

In our own time, we have again seen the American mission assaulted not only from without, but also from within.  Socialism renamed “liberalism” has been foisting an ersatz version of our country’s character upon us, while the existing party structure has proven unable or unwilling to stand in the gap.  God, however, is still able to achieve His designs for this world, and it is with Him that we must finally cooperate.

Alan Keyes, as you know, has ended his lifelong affiliation with the Republicans.  This is a step the Ambassador has not taken lightly, and neither should any of us who are considering a similar move.  He has chosen to seek the presidential nomination of the Constitution party, and he asks that you prayerfully consider supporting him in this path.

Many of you took the time to respond to the questionnaire we sent out regarding whether or not Alan ought to go third party.  The overwhelming majority of responses were in favor of his doing so.  You wrote:

• Alan has always been the best choice, and the Constitution Party is an exciting, hopeful option for the millions of disappointed Americans who do not know another choice exists.
   
• I will vote for Dr. Keyes based on his life’s work and not on his party affiliation.
   
• I have always voted Republican, but today we have no “life” protection under their party.  It is a fearful thought to envision life under the domination of any current (major party) candidate.
   
• Either way, I am supporting Alan Keyes for President of the United States of America.  I have voted for him before and I will continue to vote for him until elected.
   
• As a Republican it is hard not to fall in line, but if Alan Keyes joins the Constitution Party and runs as its candidate, I will not only vote for him; I will switch my party affiliation.
   
• Understanding all that he stands for, I will vote for Alan Keyes no matter what!
   
• We the people have no choice in this election.  As soon as Alan Keyes makes it formal and runs on a third party ticket, I will be joining that party with him.  True patriots have no choice.

Dr. Keyes has frequently noted that he is running for President because principled conservatives are being offered no way of participating in politics in this country without violating their own beliefs.  To say that Alan is the “best choice” expresses this fact, yet inadvertently masks another reality.  As Americans and as believers, we recognize that there are things that lie beyond the reach of our own decisions.  Keyes truly is the choice about which we have no choice; a vote in acknowledgment of that which cannot - strictly speaking - be voted on in the first place.  We too hold certain truths to be self-evident.  Among them are the fact that the lesser of two evils is still evil, and that if John McCain fails to be inaugurated next January, he and the Republican leadership will not need to look beyond the frames of their own mirrors in determining exactly who is to blame.
 

A reminder

Please donate what you can to help, as Alan travels to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, to announce his future plans - at a press conference to be streamed live on Tuesday at 8:30 pm ET - and as he also travels with his staff to the Constitution Party Convention a week later in Kansas City.

Thanks so much for your financial support!

You can contribute by going to www.alankeyes.com/donate.php

 EU flag over Buckingham Palace creating a furor

By Donald Hank

No Union Jack is in sight atop the home of the royal family. But if the following web site is a reflection of the reality over there, things are really heating up.

Click here to see the blue flag (no, it’s not the Union Jack!) and read the comments

For those who haven’t been following this issue here, citizens of the UK have been denied the opportunity to vote on whether or not to allow their constitution, which dates back to the Magna Carta, to be replaced (superceded) by the EU Constitution.

That is because powerful politicians have signed on to various treaties over the years that, bit by bit, took away the sovereignty of the Brits, who would almost certainly nix the EU Constitution if they could.

How could this happen, you ask?

Look around you: Americans too have a long history of having policies shoved down their throats by politicians, some elected but many not. The Council on Foreign Relations acts in some ways like an arm of the government, setting policy, much of it highly unpopular, behind our backs. This trend heated up when we were forced to accept Most Favored Nations status for China. The people didn’t want this, would not have voted for it, but our leaders suddenly took the ball and ran with it, and next thing you knew, we had betrayed Taiwan and jumped in bed with the Red Chinese, their-and our-worst enemies in that region, and are becoming poorer every day as a result.

Next came NAFTA. You didn’t vote for it. But unelected zealots in the CFR pushed for it and eventually, they found a stooge to sign it and now you have a treaty that was touted originally as bound to favor the US, but wound up increasing our trade deficit, making us all poorer. Then there was an open-border policy, amnesty for illegal aliens, CAFTA, and now the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership) and soon a truck route to deliver Chinese goods all over North America in Mexican trucks, and now the latest trick: a military partnership that grants Canadian military personnel authority over you and me.

What are we losing, you say?

Sovereignty, and economic power.

Why?

Because powerful people many of whose names are unknown to us, are deeply entrenched in high places, and they are protecting their own personal interests at the expense of citizens, enriching other nations, most of which are hostile to us, for their own gain but also out of a Marxist zeal to see our wealth redistributed to poorer countries.

The Great American Experiment has been hijacked.

Suddenly, Americans in the know feel a great deal of solidarity with the British, because we are all in the same boat.

The people who gave the world the Magna Carta now joins the people who founded the most powerful nation on earth in ceding their power back to a few powerful men.

But by the looks of the above-linked web site, the rich and powerful have not figured out how to make them like it.

Nor have our rich and powerful figured out how to make us like the three candidates they have foisted upon us.

Tom Cox ” fires” the GOP

Fellow conservatives and constitutionalists: Have you noticed as I have, that when you vote for the lesser of two evils for President, you still get evil?

 I have threatened to vote third-party in the past, but the fear tactics of the Republicans have pulled me back at the last minute. This year is different. I am watching the Constitution Party (CP) very carefully. If they nominate Dr. Alan Keyes as their candidate for President, I will vote for him, even if I have to write him in

 Keyes is the only guy in the whole field with the backbone and principles to restore the federal government to its Constitutional functions and limits. The Democrats and Republicans lost interest in the Constitution long ago, and are content to squabble over power until the nation goes down the drain.

 The Libertarians are OK on some issues, but they are clueless on national defense and sovereignty. Defending personal freedom is meaningless if our nation is attacked and destroyed.

 This was a great country, once, and it can be again, but only if we act soon. Stop choosing between evils. Check out the Constitution Party, http://www.constitutionparty.com/

 Tom Cox
Charlotte, TN

Apologetics Critical to Homeschoolers, All Christians, Says Academy

MEDIA ADVISORY, April 14 /Christian Newswire/ — Athanatos Online Academy offers course modules about the facts of the faith to supplement curriculums for churches, homeschool organizations, while remaining available to individuals.

The academy offers an Apologetics Certificate program as well. The academy home page is www.athanatosministries.org/academy.

The apologetics academy offers affordable, short term courses that are easy to plug in to existing programs.

Executive Director Anthony Horvath explains, “If you’re studying the conditions that led to the fall of Rome you’re also talking about the same context in which the New Testament came into its final form. Our courses on the creeds or the New Testament canon would help students see the relationship between Christianity and history. That is something we are convinced homeschooling families are interested in.”

Horvath explains that apologetics is consistent with the incarnation and a rejection of Gnostic ways of thought, “God didn’t have to come in the flesh. He is the one that stepped into history and challenged people to believe the miracles which they saw with their own eyes. God answered the problem of pain and suffering by entering into the human experience. He could have dealt with us apart from our senses, but he didn’t.”

Horvath argues that people are confused about apologetics, “Many people think apologetics and they think arm twisting. But apologetics can just be setting the facts straight. But apologetics also represents a way of thinking, too. Jesus said to love God with your heart, yes, but also with your mind. Homeschoolers understand this.”

The online academy is not about convincing nonChristians to become Christians but to equip Christians with the facts and evidences for Christianity so that they can more effectively minister to family, friends, and others that they meet. Horvath argues, “We need informed Christians because uninformed Christians tend to fall away completely- or at least their children tend to. It helps when you understand where Christianity fits into other areas of study.”

The academy’s courses are two to five weeks long and do not have a burdensome workload. Much of the reading material is available on the Internet but the academy aims to expose people to the writings of top Christian scholars, too.

The Academy is in session four times a year and the next session begins April 21st. The academy is enrolling now. Group rates are available.

The academy page is www.athanatosministries.org/academy

You may contact Anthony at 202-280-7971 or press@athanatosministries.org

Commentary by Don Hank

HILLARY and McCain in defense of Americans: You aren’t bitter, just bigots

Obama recently suggested that religion, guns and border security are for “bitter” rural people.

Hillary countered this by saying Pennsylvanians are resilient. Clinton, known for her elitist views on everything, also accused Obama of being an elitist.  But she didn’t defend rural Americans on the religion, guns or border security issue.

John McCain, who has been out of touch with voters throughout his career, says Obama is out of touch with Americans. McCain didn’t take issue with Obama on the religion, guns or border security remark either.

So while neither of the other candidates explicitly takes issue with Obama on his religion, guns and border security statement, both apparently agree that we bigots aren’t necessarily bitter.

How sweet of them to come, at least conditionally, to our defense.

Hear the two pots and the kettle spouting off here.

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OPRAH supports Vagina Monologue author Eve Ensler

At the LYNCUP site, I had introduced readers to feminist icon Andrea Dworkin, quoting passages from her book Woman Hating that openly and unambiguously endorse adult-child sex. I had pointed out the hypocrisy of this woman, considered an authority on domestic violence, not just sanctioning but actually endorsing something that is obviously a form of violence against children. If you remember nothing else, please remember that there is an unbroken bloodline between the older feminists and the social “change” advocates of today (gay agenda, domestic violence industry, GLSEN, liberal/progressive educators, psychologists, media, Hollywood, etc), as Americans for Truth makes clear in an article on Eve Ensler, the author of Vagina Monologues, the obscene play intended for young people. The article exposes a conversation Ensler had with a 6 hear old girl, asking her intimate questions about her vagina. Ensler too has advocated adult-child sex.

Oprah, who operates a school for girls, likes and supports Ensler.

These are the kind of people who are having increasing influence on public education, having made great strides in all states, but particularly in California, where educators are required by law to endorse homosexuality; Massachusetts and Montgomery County, Maryland, where homosexuality is endorsed in the early grades; and almost all public schools throughout the US, which are poised to celebrate a Day of Silence intended to support homosexuals, who are supposedly being abused, but where in fact Christian kids are the ones who suffer raw assaults on their faith at every turn. David Parker’s son was beaten by gay activists for his father’s Christian stand.

For Christians, every day is a day of silence.

What can you do?

If your school is celebrating the DOS on April 25, call the superintendent or principle and explain why this is unfair to Christian kids, that homosexual kids are more protected than kids from traditional families, that by granting a special day only to this special group, the school is in fact politicizing education, and that in any case, it is disruptive, adding still another distraction.

If they won’t listen, keep your child home that day, and make it a day of prayer and fasting.

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UK Constitution to be scrapped, without the people’s permission

It is happening here in the US as well. It is called the New World Order and, as the name suggests, it is Brave New World translated to reality. Remember how Bush Sr. talked incessantly of this New World Order, sounding more like a wizard than a president? Mr. McCain, one of its implementers, may be our next president.

Though conservatives reject McCain, Big Brother has chosen him to take us another step toward the North American Union, the replacement of the US Constitution. Once that happens, the perfidy will be complete.

For a glimpse of what awaits our country, click here.

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MORE on Britain’s national crisis

When a government turns criminal, people need to take on a moral code of their own. In Britain, youngsters used to seeing their government behaving lawlessly, are assuming that immorality is acceptable. Who is left to judge them?

Click here for Jeff Randall’s “spot-on” article “In a land without morals, it’s no wonder children are killing each other.”

There’s a crisis on our streets, especially in London, and it has nothing to do with the cost of housing. As the blame game is played out between ministers and bankers over why mortgages are suddenly much more expensive, the price of life in parts of Britain’s inner cities has hit rock bottom.

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OLD hippies never die…

Did you know that Muslims are victims of us?

Click here for “Victims on Parade at NYU ‘Academic Freedom Conference’”

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I, Sir, am a rightwing Christian bigot! (Whap! bam!)

Thinking about his next item, I couldn’t help remembering the Steve Martin movie The Jerk, where Steve Martin is confronted by a bigot who tells him he will help keep away the n…gers, and Steve indignantly says, “I, Sir, am a n….ger!” and proceeds to punch his lights out.

It seems the folks at Next Theatre blog consider grassroots Americans hate mongers for opposing the presentation of the play Angels in America at Deerfield High School. They counter with an article at their blog NextTheatre entitled Rightwing Christian bigots attack Deerfield High School, referencing a parent who “was so horrified that she formed North Shore Student Advocacy to lend legitimacy to her hatemongering, fear-peddling campaign against the devils at Deerfield.”

The leftwing elitists recommend sending a letter of support to the superintendent of the Deerfield District.

Friends, let’s counter this the way we successfully countered the slime attack on state rep. Sally Kern when she opposed the gay agenda in her state.

Here is how:

Email Superintendant George Fornero at gfornero@dist113.org and tell him the real bigots are the ones who are attacking universal standards of decency. Tell him decency is not a construct of Judeo-Christianity, as is rumored lately in elitist circles, but in fact is and has been accepted everywhere in the civilized world, except at Deerfield High School, for thousands of years, and you are not about to give up decency without a fight. Tell him to stand down from his untenable attack on decency or turn over the job to someone who will.

Oh, and you can tell him that if some parents object to decency, they might want to send their kids to a private school that endorses age-inappropriate subject matter such as obscenity and explicit sex scenes and language in books, plays and the like.

Commentary by Don Hank 

HILLARY and McCain in defense of Americans: You aren’t bitter, just bigots

 UPDATED AT:

http://laiglesforum.com/2008/04/14/help-fight-homo-elitists-in-school-uk-betrayed-more/

GOP! YOU’RE FIRED!

by Tom Cox, Save America Summit

Ronald Reagan started his political life as a Democrat. When he realized the Democratic Party was wandering to the far left, he became a Republican. He’s supposed to have said something like, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”

I can identify fully with that position. I’ve been a Republican for almost twenty years, but no more. After two terms of a president who ran as a conservative, but governs as a liberal, I’m done with the Republican Party and their stinking pachyderm mascot.  

I voted twice for George W. Bush. I bought the GOP’s line that a conservative/Constitutionalist has nowhere else to go, and that not voting for Bush was, in effect, voting for Gore or Kerry. I hit the limit of my capacity for self-deception with the apparent success of RINO McCain, a dim bulb in a decrepit chandelier of lackluster “front runners” for the GOP nomination.

Enough. As the Republican Party abandons its core values of Judeo-Christian morality, fiscal prudence and respect for the Constitution, it has abandoned me.

At home, we have federal tax dollars being tamped down bottomless rat holes by a federal government that makes LBJ’s “Great Society” look positively tight-fisted.

The expansion of government into what passes for “public education,” these days, is a sop to the powerful teachers’ unions, who will expand their membership, and ratchet up their contributions to the Democrats. The school systems are hooked on federal funds (read: “taxpayers’ money”) that they receive in exchange for bureaucratic micromanagement of their already-failed methods and processes.

The colossal prescription drug welfare program will be a money sink to make New Deal make-work projects seem positively frugal, but this hold-up of the taxpayers will get a big thumbs-up from the multinational pharmaceutical companies - who will donate to the re-election campaign funds of lawmakers who pass laws to help them line their pockets.

Our “War on Terror” (which is like calling World War II a “War on Blitzkrieg,” or a “War on Kamikazes”) has blood and treasure flooding the sands of Afghanistan and Iraq, but we can’t seem to identify the enemy, despite its best efforts to identify itself - the fascist dogma of Islam, a totalitarian socio-political system masquerading as a religion. What hope do we have of winning a war, if we don’t know who we’re fighting?

We have thousands of miles of unprotected national borders to our north and south, with a perpetual tidal wave of foreigners pouring through them daily. Border Patrol agents who try to do their jobs wind up in prison, and illegal aliens wind up on welfare.

There is a lot more, but the above is enough to make my case for firing the Republican Party. When you throw in John McCain, who thinks conservatives and Constitutionalists are unwashed rubes at best, or troublemakers and insurrectionists at worst - well, even an unwashed rube like me gets the message.

The conservative/Constitutionalist core of the Republican Party has been treated in the last few decades just the way Democrats treat American Blacks - as a voting bloc that can be catered to and lied to just enough, leading up to an election, that they will reliably vote with the bloc, and then be ignored and/or abused until the next election cycle is coming.

Democrats worship abortion, which kills Black babies at a much higher rate than their proportion of the population. Democrats perpetuate the failed public school system that does its best to keep Blacks ignorant and isolated from the opportunities America offers to those who help themselves to a better life through productive work.

And yet, the Blacks keep coming back to the Democratic Party, because they buy the fear and loathing that the Democrats are selling. “Republicans are racists! They’ll re-institute Jim Crow, throw poor people in debtors’ prison, and appoint Klansmen to the Supreme Court!”

Conservatives and Constitutionalists keep voting for Republicans, because — well, because they buy the same boogie man story, with different characters, but the same, scary plot.  ”Just imagine what a Democrat president and Congress would do to the country! They’ll socialize medicine, impose racial quotas that hurt whites, spend the country into poverty, leave our borders, defenseless, appoint incompetent federal judges, take away our firearms, abolish free speech, blah, blah, blah.”  

Wait a minute. Didn’t a Republican president already do a lot of that, with or without a Republican majority in Congress?

I’m done with the Republican Party. I’m moving up to the Constitution Party, where I feel much more at home. If the Republican Party left you, I suggest you check the Constitution Party out, at their Website: http://www.constitutionparty.com/. Send those pachyderms packing. Their walking papers are long overdue.

Tom Cox
Charlotte, TN

ASIF is ba-a-a-a-ack!

And he is still on his damage-control jihad. Notice what he says about truth. Truth-o-phobia is a malady affecting millions, nay, billions, starting with the Left but also affecting Muslims, by their own confession, as you can read with your own eyes. No wonder the two are such close allies in their joint jihad against Western culture.

But in his latest message, he makes some good points. If you were a Muslim and basing my opinion on the USA on Hollywood, what would you think of us?

There is something both groups can do.

Click here and scroll to near the bottom for Asif’s comment and our response. Then add your own. Be nice but firm.

SEND this link to your pastor…

…but protect your ears.

The silence may be deafening:

Click here for Dr. James Kennedy’s stirring message to our apostate churches.

JOHN McCain to taxpayers: Now you can pay your neighbors’ mortgages too

It is so sweet of John to have thought about his fellow Americans in these difficult times. Now, instead of just having to deal with our own finances and grappling with soaring gas and food prices, we can lend a hand to our neighbors by helping them pay their mortgages. I can’t wait to get started.

Might I say that I too have had hard financial times, many of them.

Know what I did each time that happened? Foolish me, I rushed right out and didn’t buy a house because it never occurred to me that the government would bail me out if I couldn’t pay the mortgage!

I could kick myself now for being so brash.

When will I learn my lesson: that bad decisions are for me to make and the government to fix?

Donald Hank

McCain’s plan would benefit the government and original lender by giving them certificates for part of the loan’s original value. If the homeowner sold for more, he or she would benefit along with the government and the original lender.

“It is built on the reality that homeowners should have an equity capital stake in their home,” he said. “Homeowners would end up with a 30-year mortgage and an equity stake in their home. The new lender would re