AMERICA IS NOT CHRISTIAN???

“Obama is pushing an anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic archbishop says.”... “Dobson Slams Obama's Prayer-Day Absence.”

There seems to be a rather obvious direction this new president is going. But so what?
As America’s President Obama says, “America is not a Christian country....”

Some years ago, Dr. Charles Malik addressed the same topic in one of his book, "Christ and the Crisis." The "Cold War" was in full flower, and the good doctor told of his concerns.

"Surely every conceivable weapon should be employed in self-defense - military, political, diplomatic, economic, psychological. Now there are limits to self-defense, because mere self-defense could become self-defeating, and because, precisely in self-defense, one must at times pass to the offensive. What concerns us most here is the moral and spiritual weapon. And here too this dialectic of the defense and the offense is most apparent. Morally and spiritually... they make us feel guilty, and we supinely accept the terms of their debate. They talk in terms of capitalism," "imperialism," "colonialism," "monopolies," "profits, "exploitation," "means of production," - all purely economic, purely materialistic terms. And in answering them usually all we say is that the exploiting, capitalism of the nineteenth century no longer exists, imperialism has been liquidated, monopolies are now owned by the people, and as to profits, everybody now shares in them.

There is about this response a pathetic air of apology, a ring of feebleness, a sickly note of timidity....

This will not do. They should be answered, not apologetically, not on a materialistic basis, but in human, moral, and spiritual terms."

(Perhaps you are not acquainted with Dr. Malik. Charles Malik was a University Professor at The American University in Washington, D.C.. He received his B.A. from the American University of Beirut, and his M.A.and Ph.D. from Harvard. He was a Lebanese ambassador to the USA before his becoming president of the UN Security Council. Following that, he was elected as the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations.)

In a twist of fate that is bathed in irony, the American Christian Culture has one admiring source .

David Aikman--former Beijing Bureau Chief for Time Magazine, wrote in his book, "Jesus in Beijing,"some startling statements, made in a Beijing tourist's scene.

"We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don't have any doubt about this."

We don't have any doubt about this!

As Jounalist Aikman mentioned, "This was not coming from some ultraconservative from a think tank in Orange County, California, or from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. This was a scholar from one of China's premier academic research institutes, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing, in 2002.

CHRISTIANITY IS REALLY AMERICA’S STRENGTH AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN!

KOINONIKOS

BLASPHEMY

“Enough is enough. It is about time the laws were repealed”, said Mr. Mall, pointing to the widespread abuse of the blasphemy laws.
He urged the international community to pressure Pakistan into repealing blasphemy laws.

In a special report by Dan Wooding and Sheraz Khurram Khan of ASSIST News Service
In HARRAPA, SAHIWAL, PAKISTAN (ANS)
“A Muslim mob of 500 attacked a Christian village of Punjab province on May 1 at 11:00 am Pakistan time to avenge the alleged blasphemy....that they claim was committed by some five Christian men a few days ago.

Police arrested Christian men, including Ashfaq Gill, Naseer Masih, Harris Masih, Israr Wilson and Imran Masih on April 28 and April 29 after they were accused of tearing up pages of the Quran.
“An outraged Muslim mob invaded Christian village no. 90 near Sahiwal city to “kill” Christians,” the Voice of People UK’s Country Coordinator in Pakistan, Aneel Ashiq Chaudhry, told ANS by phone on May 1.

The Christian village is thought to be over 100 years old and most of the Christians still own lands despite the fact that some of them have sold their lands to Muslims.
Following an attack of Muslim mob in 1997 on Shantinagar, a predominantly Christian village in east-central Pakistan, Muslim extremists razed 800 homes and desecrated 13 churches in and around the town.
Possible loss of lives and damage to properties of Christians was averted due to intervention of the Police and Rangers, who dispersed the mob that included Islamists armed wi th weapons and clubs.
Police and Rangers are still patrolling the area to avert any possible eventuality during night.”

The same day Sunday, May 03, 2009, in a story by Sami Abraham of WASHINGTON:
“President Obama’s special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke is saying that Pakistan’s civilian government was fully capable of governing and resolving the issues being confronted by the country.”

Well maybe–but watch those blasphemy laws.

KOINONIKOS

A WORLDVIEW IN THOSE FIRST 100 DAYS.

PRESIDENT OBAMA REALLY DID PRETTY GOOD–depending on your worldview.

He actually got Congress to Give Him Things That Undermines Their Own Power.

-- Under the "economic stimulus" he was able to pass a $787 billion gift for his liberal special interest base–doing it so quickly that Congress voted for it before they were able to read it.
–He signed an appropriations bill loaded with 8,000 earmarks after campaigning on a pledge to end earmarks-- paying no political penalty–and not even a whimper from the media.

–He didn’t call it this but he was able to turn the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) into enormous machines for spending the equivalent of the entire federal budget for 2007–doing this without having to disclose where the money went.

COMING IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS?
We have the surprise offering of an out-of-control EPA forcing Congress to pass a $1 trillion to $2 trillion energy tax in the form of cap-and-trade legislation.

“A trillion here--a trillion there, pretty soon we’re talking real money.” Scoop Jackson

“* Just two weeks ago, the President presided over an unprecedented bureaucratic power grab when his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. This seemingly innocuous decision opens the door to wholesale regulation of American life by government.
* President Obama has kept congressional Democrats marching with him in lockstep. House Democrats tow the party line an amazing 94 percent of the time and Senate Democrats vote Democratic 91 percent of the time.” Newt Gingrich

KOINONIKOS

WHY IS IT?

ONE MAN’S WORLDVIEW & TRUTH CLAIM

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?"
“Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation?
Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth?
That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?

President John Quincy Adams, July 4th, 1837 when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts

TRUTH CLAIM

TRUTH CLAIM

There is nothing wrong with sex–I have 4 kids. I’ve been married longer than many of you have lived. The issue I’m raising about sex isn’t about whether sex is great. I believe it is great and is a gift of God. Sharing this in marriage with your life partner has very profound meaning in life. I believe the sex drive comes from God, but I also believe our culture has become too absorbed in it. Isn’t life more than that?.
Are we only muscle and bones? Extrapolating that–are we just a biological accident trapped in a body controlled by instincts?
There should be more than sex that drives us.

Let me lay something else on your mind.
I believe something that drives us–in fact how we act–how we think or feel is how we view the world.

So what is our worldview?

WHAT IS A WORLDVIEW?

I BELIEVE OUR WORLDVIEW is our adopted set of truth claims that purports to paint a picture of reality;
This picture is really how we view reality and make sense of life and the world.
And as mentioned in a previous blog, something that drives how we act–in fact how we think or feel--how we really view the world. We may say different things about our beliefs, but this is how we really believe. This is our truth. What you do with these TRUTH CLAIMS forms your “ WORLDVIEW”
SO WHAT IS TRUTH?

SEX: IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

Our interests seem to be focused that way. Viewing the number of clicks on different blogs makes me wonder. So what’s wrong with that? At the least, sex definitely attracts our interest, and all the more if the writer is female. Again–so what? Sex is a natural thing, and really beautiful in the right circumstances. But that’s the problem, it often leads to abuse–sometimes very bad abuse.. Viewing some of those “stings” on T.V,. reminds me of a pack of male dogs chasing after a female dog in heat. Obviously we’re not all like that, and I don’t believe any person is like a dogs, nor an animal--man is made in the image of God.

The truth of it–maybe I should have written “Sex: is that all life is?”

Really aren’t we allowing our thinking–our minds to become absorbed in something that is really very very temporary–almost minute. Isn’t life more than that?.

I believe something that drives how we act–in fact how we think or feel is how we view the world.

What is our worldview?

Are we only muscle and bones? Extrapolating that–are we just a biological accident trapped in time?

LIVING LIFE IN A POST-CHRISTIAN WORLD

I recently received a letter from a sceptic who had decided to “abandon the faith,” and be “honest” about life. I know this topic can take on a broad view like looking at religion or a much narrower view like looking at a church experience. I have lived in both of those world too. As I understand the letter-writer, he was abandoning the Christian Faith.
Many years ago, in 1973, actually during the Watergate period, the late William F. Buckley Jr.was a quite well known intellect. For a number of years he had a TV talk show program on PBS. Buckley would often have some well known personality along with a panel of intellects. He had a series of TV discussion interviews with Malcolm Muggeridge. The discussion brings out some interesting points about Christian ity.
Malcom Muggeridge was also quite well known. He had been a journalist of some 50 years. During that time, he had been the editor of “Punch”–a British weekly magazine (1841-1992) which used humor and satire to make its point. Using his writing and journalist talents, Muggeridge had been a ardent socialist. He lived as a controversial figure - known as a drinker, heavy smoker and womaniser in earlier life. However, some of his best work came as a result of finding faith late in life, eloquently expressed in broadcast and in writing, and fighting energetically on moral issues.”


This particular exchange took place in London, in August of 1973

MR. BUCKLEY: Is it the notion of the clergy you speak of that they won't otherwise be noticed unless they come out for free ping-pong or whatever?
MR. MUGGERIDGE: Well, they won't otherwise have anything to say, because, for the most part, they’ve lost their, faith, I mean, the faith in Christianity as a transcendental view of life has dimished enormously in all....they've either got to go out of business altogether or look around and see some earthly equivalent of that, something they can hold up-“
...That change is really the most--it's much more important, in my view, than, for instance, Marxism, or than the Russian revolution or the Chinese revolution. This is the total collapse of transcendental Christianity, but what is even more fascinating is. where do you find this transcendental Christianity,raising its head again? You find it in the communist countries, among the dissidents, of whom, obviously, Solzhenitsyn is a classic example.”
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a political prisoner of the Soviet Union for some 20 or more years. He wrote “The Gulag Archipelago” and “One Day in the Life Of Ivan Densovitch.” Before he left that country, he wrote an open letter to the Soviet government. He wrote:"I'm not against the Soviet regime as such. I'm not against dictatorial government. I don't think that by dismantling a dictatorial government you will automatically achieve freedom.
What I am against is the ideology Marxism, which gives the notion that men can satisfy their aspirations in worldly terms. That is the great fallacy, that is the great illness, and that the only answer is Christ.”

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