Here is the Problem with Obama's ISIS Policy

An article in the American Thinker today illustrates the problem with the American strategy to stop ISIS.  The article, entitled One Picture to Sum Up Obama's Idiotic Policy shows...well, just go and have a look. I'm sure you will see it quickly enough.

One can not know for sure what is going through Obama's mind, but one suspects that a fundamental sympathy with Islam, combined with pressure from Iran to treat ISIS with kid gloves is causing him to try to appear to be doing something while not really doing any real harm.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings Returns

James Arlandson has an article over at the American Thinker today entitled Will Breaking Moral Law Break America? Gentle readers, you should go read it whether you believe in natural law, or more traditionally in a Biblical basis for moral law. I believe the Bible itself does not prescribe a "religion" as such, but rather that man makes a religion out of what God teaches us as natural law. Certainly, you will find a great deal of self serving religion in the Bible, but as Christ pointed out, the commandments were made for man, and not man for the commandments.

Citing the ancient Greek play Antigone Arlandson notes that in her defense of her actions against the King's law, Antigone calls to the King's attention natural law, which not even the gods dare to break. The argument is the same as we now make for civil disobedience. Legislatures, and courts may declare certain things, but in breaking natural law, and requiring citizens to accede in the folly, they sow the seeds of disaster. A legislature may declare that from now on, pi equals a finite 3.14. But pi actually is 3.1416...ad infinitum. Perhaps for a small scale calculations, 3.14 yields sufficiently precise answers, but as the scale becomes large, the errors become similarly large, and eventually may become disastrous.

Arlandson then lists a number of areas where our legislatures and courts have declared things to be true despite natural law.  He makes the point that these things have been traditional for a reason, and that breaking with that tradition brings with it consequences that are as predictable as the sun rising in the east.  For example:

1. No, I don’t want to reopen the same-sex marriage debate, but the great unwritten, unshakable traditions teach us that a man and a woman, whether artificially or in person, are the only way for humankind to reproduce, whether actual or potential. Therefore nature has always favored the opposite-sex couple—humans didn’t irrationally favor them. Nature did. Humans just used reason and followed what nature taught them. Homosexuality in ancient Greece? Yes, but they also knew where babies came from and arranged conjugal marriages accordingly. Now, however, an unwise committee of neo-monarchs on the Supreme Court has broken everlasting, living wisdom

. Arlandson goes on to list six other areas where our political "leaders," to the applause of editors and academics have made declarations against natural law. We, as a society, are already reaping the nasty consequences, yet nobody seems to be willing to admit that these bad ideas should be changed. Instead, our politicians keep doubling down, making our inevitable disaster worse and worse.

I am reminded of a Rudyard Kipling poem entitled "The Gods of the Copybook Headings." Back when I was young, when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth, and we didn't have cell phones, personal computers, electronic calculators, twitter, facebook, or whatever passes for the latest fad. Instead, we used to have something called a "pen." A pen was a devise for marking on "paper." In order to make these marks legible, so that others could read them, it was necessary to practice what was termed "penmanship." The copybooks, in which penmanship was practiced, typically had uplifting sayings, from whence we didn't know. But we did recognize them as statements of profound moral teachings that were broken only with grave consequence.  You can find Kipling's poem here. I will quote the last stanza:

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

You can call it a prophesy if you want, I call it the predictable result of failing to head the gods of the copybook headings.

Lying for Islam

Today's post concerns a little understood doctrine of Islam called "Taqiyya," in which the Muslim is permitted, even encouraged. to deliberately lie to advance Islam. Of course, with a little thought one can quickly see that once a person internalizes this doctrine, it becomes very difficult to separate when one is lying for Islam, and when one is lying for purely personal gain. It is the exact opposite of our Christian doctrine wherein we are supposed to be truthful at all times. Indeed, the more I study the workings of Islam and the behavior of Muslims, the more I understand the attraction of the secular Left to it, for in both, every day is opposite day.

 Carol Brown has a piece on taqiyya over at the American Thinker today entitled The Taqiyya Factor. It is required reading for anyone who wants to navigate in this brave new America. Brown writes:

Taqiyya is an Islamic doctrine that allows Muslims to deceive non-Muslims. As in lie to them. Dr. Sami Mukaram, author of Taqiyya in Islam, writes: “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it… Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.”

Thus, for example, when a Muslim commits an act of outrageous jihad, yelling "Alahu akbar" as he kills someone, the MSM routinely quotes some Islamic figure as complaining about a "backlash against Muslims."  That there has never been a backlash doesn't stop them from complaining about one.  Remember when that special snowflake Muslim woman wanted to have her driver's license photo taken while wearing a burqua that covered her face entirely.  When the State of Florida refused, she complained of being "discriminated" against.  Of course, to "discriminate" means to single out one person for special, usually extra legal, treatment.  In this case, she was being treated the same as everyone else who obtains a driver's license in Florida, thus was not being discriminated against.

Brown again:

The obvious problem with lying is that once you know a group of persons will intentionally deceive, everything they say or do is called into question. And therein lies one of the rubs with Muslims. How can any non-Muslim know when a Muslim is telling the truth or telling a lie? We can’t. For the sake of self-preservation, one must err on the side of caution and maintain skepticism at all times. Because taqiyya can only work if the person being lied to is uninformed.

As Daniel Pipes wrote (emphasis mine): “…Taqiyya has been used by Muslims since the 7th century to confuse and split 'the enemy'. A favored tactic was 'deceptive triangulation'; to persuade the enemy that jihad was not aimed at them but at another enemy. Another tactic was to deny that there was jihad at all. The fate for such faulty assessments by the target was death.”

Brown asks how any nation can survive such an onslaught. Clearly, we must be sure of our Christian heritage, and its doctrines, and we must be ready at a moments notice, Put on the "Armor of God," but also be prepared to defend your life and the lives of those around you. In yesterday's post, I pointed out that we Christians are called to defend ourselves and those we love, but self defense can only be justified when you are being physically attacked, and must stop the moment the attack stops. Revenge is the Lord's. More importantly, we must be prepared to resist those who would conquer and subjugate us.  Martin Luther left behind a summary of his teaching on the Bible in the form of The Large Catechism. While this was written in the 1500's, remember that God's truths are unchanging from age to age, and that human nature has no history. If your particular denomination has no such document, may I recommend Luther's as a good place to start.

The older I get, the less of a religion I make of Christianity. For outside the writings of the Jewish priesthood, the Bible teaches not a religion, but how to get along in this world in a moral manor. The Good News, of course, is that God has come into the world to take our eternal punishment for us, and freed us to do his will in the world.  But the first thing one has to do is tell the truth, at least as one knows the truth.

 Grace and peace to everyone who reads this from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Update:  Victor Hanson Davis has an article at Townhall entitled The Fiction of "Truth." The article deals with whoppers the Left tells to advance their twisted agenda, but as I pointed out above, I think this is part of the reason the Left is attracted to Islam. Both can only advance by lying about their true purpose and deceiving us until it is too late. It may be unpopular to speak about the Devil in today's world, but evil does exist. In a former time, it was thought that the Devil signed pledges from people in blood to give their eternal souls over to him for something they wanted today.  But the Devil is much subtler than that,  Instead, he convinces people that the only way they can achieve what they want is through lying.  Of course, these people never ask themselves the important question: if lying is necessary to achieve our goals, how good are our goals in the first place?

A Lutheran Take on Gun Control

I have to start getting ready to go to the Doctor's office for my semiannual checkup.  The Doctor likes to make sure I am still alive, and of course, collect a fee.

Meanwhile, I will send you over to the Armed Lutheran to read an excellent explanation of where Martin Luther stood on gun owners.  You will find it at The Lutheran Perspective on Gun Rights.

 For those not steeped in the Lutheran church, and I find many today who are refugees from other faiths, Martin Luther was a monk, a priest, and a serious and devout scholar of the Bible. At a time when the only translation of the Bible that was available was the Latin Vulgate, and most people could little read their own language, let alone Latin, and at a time when books still had to be copied laboriously by hand, the Gutenberg press was yet to come, the priests and monks could largely tell people whatever they wanted them to hear. In an attempt to reform certain practices that had grown up in the Church, and which were decidedly non Biblical, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Whittenberg castle church on October 31, 1517.  In honor of this event, the Lutheran Church still celebrates Reformation Sunday at around that time each year.

Eventually, Luther was excommunicated and, more by default, founded the first protestant denomination. The Armed Lutheran takes paragraphs out of Luther's Large and Small catechism (which when I was young, every child of the age of 12 or so began studying for two years before we could take first communion) and supplements these with his own understanding. Obviously, guns were not common, though they had by then been invented, but the principles remain the same. Essentially, to not defend life when you have the power to do so is to spit on God's great gift of life:

Then there is the Lutheran interpretation of the Fifth Commandment: You Shall Not Murder. This is often interpreted, incorrectly, as “You Shall Not Kill” and used to support pacifist teachings which are not Christian. There are two meanings to this commandment, one civil and one spiritual. In the civil realm, God grants governments the authority to take life when waging just wars or executing criminals for their crimes.

In the spiritual realm, this means that we are not to “murder” our neighbors in our hearts with thoughts, words, or hands. Keep in mind that our “neighbor” is everyone else, not just the guy living next door.

In Luther’s Large Catechism the commandment is compared to a wall, or a fortress around our neighbors, so that we do not hurt or harm him. When arguments and tempers flare, “God — like a kind father — steps in ahead of us, intervenes, and wishes to have the quarrel settled so that no misfortune comes from it and no one destroys another person.”

“For where murder is forbidden, all cause from which murder may spring is also forbidden.”

Note that I said that if you have to power to defend life, but do not do so, you are guilty of murder as well. What then of regulations and laws disarming citizens? Are not those who vote for such laws, and who agitate for such laws also guilty of murder? I should think so, if they do not provide means to defend the people gathered in these "No Gun, Victim Disarmament Zones". The Armed Lutheran seems to agree.  And what of business like the Aurora theatre?  The company board of directors and the management are guilty by the same reasoning:

Anti-gunners are fond of blaming gun rights groups like the NRA whenever there is a mass killing. The truth is, from a Lutheran perspective, those who support civilian disarmament are guilty of murder. Those who voted for so-called “Gun-Free” schools, are as guilty of the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary as the shooter was. The owners of the theater in Aurora, Colorado are as guilty as the shooter was. Moms Demand Action and Mike Bloomberg and the companies they shame into banning guns will all be guilty if and when a murder occurs in one of those businesses.

In short, God gave us life. It’s a gift we must cherish and protect. God forbids us from killing in anger or malice. He calls on us to defend life against those who would take it. He condemns those who take innocent lives and those who refuse to defend them.

Can anyone confirm FBI spending $80 million for a new gun?

An intriguing article appeared at the American Thinker today entitled Why is the FBI Spending $80 million on a New Gun? by Jonathon F. Keiler. But I haven't been able to find it at any other gun site I frequent. Does anyone know if this is true? Spending $80 million for yet another 9mm pistol purchase seems over the top.  It also seems that a number of FBI special agents do not need to be armed most of the time, as there work seldom takes them into harms way.  Also, if it is a 9mm they now want (again) they can buy Glocks for, what...$450 a piece?  That would only be $4.5 million.

Go read the article, but note that I am taking it with a grain of salt until I can confirm.

So called Interfaith Dialogs are not

Dr. Mark Christian is a convert to Christianity who used to by a Muslim Imam.  He knows whereof he speaks, so I take him at his word when he says that Islam is dangerous.  I also take him at his word when he says:

It should come as no surprise, then, that among Islamic apologists, the divinity of Christ is a heresy offensive to Allah.  You see, if Jesus is divine, then Allah and the God of Abraham cannot be one and the same.

But I am getting ahead of myself. First, you need to read the whole article, which is over at the American Thinker, and entitled Interfaith Dialog: Increasing Understanding or Compromising Faith? As Christians, we find there are a great many temptations to compromise our faith, because one does not want to seem to be a bad neighbor. The culture war of the Left with its sexualization of nearly everything, is destruction of the nuclear family, celebrity worship, its philosophy of material wealth above all, its insistence on irrationality over reason and evidence, becomes a distraction from the things that are truly important.

Christian writes further that:

Do Muslims believe we worship the same God? Perhaps, but the contrasts between Allah and the God of Abraham are too stark to ignore. The Christian God commands us to love one another regardless of faith. Allah requires his followers to kill those who do not submit to Islam. There are myriad contrasts equally jarring, but there's no reason to go into all of them here.

Either God and Allah are different beings, or both God and Allah are schizophrenic deities incapable of maintaining even a modicum of consistency. I would expect that neither Christians nor Muslims would find themselves comfortable with the latter description.

Our God is the same from age to age, a consistent being no matter what.  Allah, on the other hand changes as his movement grows in power into an all devouring beast.  This is reflected in his "holy book" the Koran, and gives rise to the practice of taking more recent pronouncements to have more weight than older ones.  Note too that taqiyya, the doctrine of lying in order to advance Islam is sanctioned.  Does God ever tell you to lie?  For Islam, and the Islamists, the pursuit of these things is for one purpose: to either convert us to Islam, or to kill us.

Sound harsh, unbelievable even?  After all, that nice Muslim you know who prays five times a day, doesn't drink, and speaks with perfect, if accented English seems harmless enough.

If you still don't believe it, try the Gatestone Institute site What we learned attacking Christians by yet another Christian convert from Islam, who again was an Imam. Note that this listing isn't a one off, but is a continuing, month by month series, each installment of which is mind numbing to the point that you just can't read it any more.

So, what's to be done?  Obama intends to seed the U.S. with jihadi terrorists by slipping in some 10,000 to 20,000 of them and spreading them throughout cities across America.  Since nothing has yet been able to stop him from doing exactly as he pleases, and the Congress and the Courts appear to wish to hand him everything he desires, we must take action.  We must begin carrying arms with us, and of course, obtain training in their use.  In this regard, too many in our congregations think that because Jesus taught love, that therefore defense of self and others somehow is anathema to Christians.  Let John Calvin set you straight:

We do not need to prove that when a good thing is commanded, the evil thing that conflicts with it is forbidden. There is no one who doesn’t concede this. That the opposite duties are enjoined when evil things are forbidden will also be willingly admitted in common judgment. Indeed, it is commonplace that when virtues are commended, their opposing vices are condemned. But we demand something more than what these phrases commonly signify. For by the virtue of contrary to the vice, men usually mean abstinence from that vice. We say that the virtue goes beyond this to contrary duties and deeds. Therefore in this commandment, “You shall not kill,” men’s common sense will see only that we must abstain from wronging anyone or desiring to do so. Besides this, it contains, I say, the requirement that we give our neighbor’s life all the help we can … the purpose of the commandment always discloses to us whatever it there enjoins or forbids us to do” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1, Book 2, Chapter viii, Part 9).

(A Hot Tip to the The Captain's Journal) As noted in Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, there is a time for everything, and now is the time to prepare. The middle East is already gone.  We may be able to rescue some, but many have already been killed.  It may also be too late for Europe, though the recent run on guns in Austria gives one hope.  America may be the final remnant, and we will be in a rear guard action at that.  Yes, all things are possible if we stand with God.  But that means that we must begin to get into spiritual condition as well.  "  Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.…" Ephesians Chapter 6.

The Heavens Display God's Glory

Jerry Newcombe asks the questions which has haunted the 20th Century, and seems to be a continuing controversy in the 21st century: does science disprove God?  You can go read it at Townhall.com in a piece by the same title here. Newcombe writes:

A Pew Research Poll released last week reports that fifty-nine percent of Americans see science and religion in conflict. But they also found that, “highly religious Americans are less likely than others to see conflict between faith and science.”

I’m not a scientist, and I don’t play one on TV. But it’s amazing to me to see how some scientists like to claim that somehow science has disproven God.

I was trained as an engineer. I had to use mathematics, physics, and chemistry to do my work. I used a number of sub specialties of physics as well, including structural mechanics, hydraulics, some gas dynamics, and so on.  As a student, immersed in the study of these various topics, and attempting to manipulate them in ingenious ways to design something that makes peoples' lives better, I will admit that it can seem as if science has all the answers.  But after you leave school, and have time to contemplate what you have learned, it becomes fairly clear that all of these tools are built on an assumption:  that the universe is rational.

Therefore one can posit that our God is a rational God, who does not change his mind on a whim.

Therefore, the laws of the universe are discoverable.

Science is the tool by which we can discover these laws.

Belief in the rationality of the universe is first and foremost, an act of faith.  Everyone ultimately has a faith that the world will act the same today as it has in the past.  You would be very surprised and probably scared if you jumped in your car, and it started floating away, right?  But, just as a hammer is a tool to pound things with, but it has no meaning beyond its usefulness when one needs to pound something, so science itself conveys no meaning.  It is a tool to explain what is happening.  One must ask the next question:  why is the universe rational?  That question can lead one on a journey to true faith in God.

Newcombe again:

Alfred North Whitehead said that Christianity is the mother of science because of “the medieval insistence on the rationality of God.” A rational God had made a rational universe, and it was the object of the scientists to---in the words of the great astronomer Johannes Kepler---“think God’s thoughts after Him.”