Reformed Hippie

Reason 9,999 for homeschooling your children… (except in California)… look at the following two pictures… these were also submitted in the same class, to the same teacher and both received passing grades. Where are the ACLU lawyers on separation of church and state. I don’t hear their suits getting into this fray. Where has common sense and decency gone in this world? Liberalism has chewed it up and spit it out.

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A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference. His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.

Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.

The lawsuit also alleges school officials allow other religious items and artwork to be displayed on campus. A Buddha and Hindu figurines are on display in a social studies classroom, the lawsuit claims, adding the teacher passionately teaches Hindu principles to students.

In addition, a replica of Michaelangelo’s “The Creation of Man” is displayed at the school’s entrance, a picture of a six-limbed Hindu deity is in the school’s hallway and a drawing of a robed sorcerer hangs on a hallway bulletin board.

Drawings of Medusa, the Grim Reaper with a scythe and a being with a horned head and protruding tongue hang in the art room and demonic masks are displayed in the metals room, the lawsuit alleges.

In today’s educational system this is the approach used… “freedom from religion” vs. “freedom of religion”. Art is supposed to be about expressing yourself through your art. We are a sum of our experiences. As some of our Presidential candidates have said, their religious convictions are the base of who they are. We cannot expect those candidates to abandon their core beliefs. Neither can we expect students to abandon their core beliefs.

The teacher and school overreached on this one. Students have a right to express themselves. Just like atheists and secularists are allowed to do.

Of course if this student had done created the “Piss Christ” () he would of won an award. That kind of religious piece is acceptable in the eyes of modern day progressives.

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Not really surprising…

In its first session since last week’s general elections, the new Iranian parliament is expected to discuss a law that will condemn to death anyone who decides to leave the Muslim faith and convert to other religions.

The parliament, also known as the Majlis, will debate the new law which has been presented by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under the proposed law, anyone who is born to Muslim parents and decides to convert to another faith, will face the death penalty.

Currently converts, particularly those who have decided to leave the Muslim faith for Evangelical churches, are arrested and then released after some years of detention.

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Well he set the record straight… I guess. This sounded to me like a traditional by-the-book political speech. It is just a rehash (or a summation) of all the things he has said about this issue for several days. I suppose the MSM will be fawning all over this speech for the next few days.  But after you get past the political speak and get to the meat-and-potatoes of it there is not much there that we did not already figure out.  His comments today have not changed my mind whatsoever about Obama’s qualifications to be President.

He has finally admiteed what he really knew before he denied that he knew it:

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

So now Obama admits he knew about Wright’s domestic and foreign policy views. This is the problem when a church allows the preaching of politics instead of the Bible. KEEP YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS OUT OF THE PULPIT! If you want to express your views to the masses get yourself a talk radio show or run for political office.

I don’t think that anybody is saying that Jeremiah Wright nor his church has not done good things for the community. However… doing good is just a part of a church’s ministry. And it is up to the ministry to ensure that reproach is not brought down up the church due to some deeds that people do. For example, in Romans 14:14-17:

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (15) But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. (16) Let not then your good be evil spoken of: (17) For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

The application of this is simple… if your brother in Christ believes that racism is wrong then do not preach or teach in racist terms. You risk offending people and you are inviting reproach upon your ministry and/or your church. It does not matter that 95% of what you do is good. People will vilify you because of the things you do wrong.

Above and beyond that, the statement that struck me as strange was that over the past week we have heard “Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.” From what I have seen on the various news reports, most blacks agree with Wright and think that he is a great speaker. Obama is passively agreeing with Wright by attending the church and remaining as a member. Period.

If you want to read the entire text of Obama’s speech, it is after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Jeremiah Wright was interviewed by Der Spiegel in March of 2007. In that interview, Wright was asked the following:

SPIEGEL: Do you think he will be President in two years?

Wright: No. Unless Barak pulls off nationally what he was able to pull off locally, and wins the hearts and minds of people who have been perennially anti-black. Racism is so deeply engrained in this country that he could be flawless in terms of his policies. But he’s still a black man in this country, which has a sorry history in terms of how it sees African-American males. That’s my 65-year-old, jaded perception of where this country is. I was pleasantly surprised in the Senate election. I would like to be as pleasantly surprised in the presidential election.

Jaded it is… is is an out-dated position. A position which would have been correct if this moment in time was prior to the 60’s or perhaps 70’s. But this is 2008 and Wright needs to get with the times. Obama was elected to the Senate. We have Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice who have attained prominent positions. Although by blacks the aforementioned people were too white to suit them.  They complain when blacks “make it” in the world and the complain when they do not.

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It seems that the Trinity United Church of Christ has woke up… partially. It’s website “About Us” page has been revamped and the references to the “Black Value System” (as well as others) has been removed. It’s tone is much more subdued now. But its emphasis on black culture is still evident. The entire text is following the break.
As far as preaching goes however, the pastor Otis Moss is defending the churches statements and actions:

Otis Moss III, the current pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, used his pulpit to defend his congregation and its past minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., from a wave of controversy stemming from inflammatory statements made by Wright.

“We have listened and watched as the wonderful work of our church has been vilified this week,” he told about 3,000 congregants on Palm Sunday morning. “This week should be special for us because I guess we know a little something about crucifixion.”

There goes the poor beat down black person attitude. Jesus was crucified for spreading the good news and stating that he was the Son Of God… not encouraging black power. He also defended their “social gospel”…

“….The domesticated donkey says, ‘You need to stop talking that social justice stuff” and speak only of Jesus, Moss said.

It is obvious that the church and Obama are engaged in damage control. It will be interesting to see how Obama’s candidacy will be adversely affected by all this in the coming days/weeks/months. Read the rest of this entry »

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UPDATED: 03/17/2008
There appears to be some controversy over the statement made by Jim Davis, reporter for NewsMax, that “ In fact, Obama was in attendance at the church when these statements were made on July 22.”. Obama has since released some “proof” that he was in Miami on that day and spoke at a LaRaza conference at 1:30PM. I already knew that Trinity had an earlier morning service at 7:30AM… I suppose Obama could have flown out after service and arrived in time in Miami. However in Davis’ article he specifically said that Obama was there July 22nd. But now according to the Newsmax clarification he has backed off that date somewhat. They now say that this incident could have happened at any one of a number of times Davis attended services at Trinity during the month of July:

Clarification: The Obama campaign has told members of the press that Senator Obama was not in church on the day cited, July 22, because he had a speech he gave in Miami at 1:30 PM. Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama’s church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama’s attendance. Mr. Davis’ story was first published on Newsmax on August 9, 2007. Shortly before publication, Mr. Davis contacted the press office of Sen. Obama several times for comment about the Senator’s attendance and Rev. Wright’s comments during his sermon. The Senator’s office declined to comment.

While the specifics of this event may be cloudy and suspicious… I still firmly believe that Jeremiah Wright’s racial rantings were much more prevalent than we currently know and that Obama must have heard the pastor say these types of things. Perhaps the reason Obama cannot recall the events were because he was so used to hearing them and believing what the pastor was saying that the words did not stick out in his mind.

This story surrounding Obama has been percolating for a very long time and just boiled over this past week with the release of some old videos of Jeremiah Wright and his rants. And yet we have Geraldine Ferraro making what some might call racist remarks about Obama as well. Perhaps what this primary season on the Democratic side is going to boil down to is race. No matter how hard the candidates try to steer themselves clear of it, they cannot help but step into the mine laden field of race.

Some have questioned whether or not the statements by Wright while pastor of Obama’s church are fair game. But at the end of the day this is not about religion. Not about theological questions. But it is about politics. Secular stuff. Why? Because the supposed spiritual leader that Obama looks to for guidance is mixing race and politics with religion. This is why preachers who inject politics into their preaching are doing a disservice to the listener. Interlacing phrases such as “White America”, the “illegal war” and “Bush administration bullshit” have nothing whatsoever to do with the Bible or Christianity. They have no place at all in a house of worship. That is why these remarks are fair game… they are not religious… they are political or secular at best.

Calling this country the “United States of White America” is racist. And, according to one reporter, Obama knew what Wright said and accented to it while he was sitting on the pew at the time Wright said it. Obama admitted that he attended church in spurts (see "Obama armor starting to tarnish?").

As I said earlier this week ("Obama picked his church and his pastor"), it is no wonder that Barack and Michelle Obama’s views are skewed. No matter how educated you may be. They say you can repeat a lie long enough that you will begin to believe it yourself. Well you can listen to hate speak long enough that it will override what you know to be true. I firmly believe that these black centrist remarks have helped form Barack Obama’s thinking and eradicated the rational thinking of his wife.

Some defend remarks such as these saying that the black movement began in churches across the country. They site Rev. Martin Luther King’s sermons in church. But Kings speeches were not filled with racist diatribes against whites or demeaning the government or blaming the country as a whole for all its ills. Instead he called for all races to come together. We are all one people. In contrast Wright’s views are completely opposite.

I believe that Wright’s views have been assimilated by Barack Obama and the other parishioners. It is sad. Too bad Obama did not condemn this attitude years ago. But Obama needed to pull in the black vote to help him politically. He could not be seen as alienating blacks. So instead of taking action earlier regarding Wright and Trinity church he waited until the light was focused so sharply upon them that he was left with little choice. Only then he did so out of political expediency… when he was forced to do so for his own political agenda.

Just like we did not need David Duke (former Klansman) as President, we do not need Barack Obama as President or Vice President of the United States.

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Here is Barack Obama’s response to the fierce controversy over Jeremiah Wright’s comments over the past twenty plus years. We can now see what has influenced Michelle Obama’s view that America is “just downright mean”. Looking at the the Obama’s it seems to me that they have done pretty well in this mean America. True, life is not fair… we will always have the rich and the poor. But that is a worldwide problem. Even though Barack and Michelle are educated and very smart… it is not hard to believe that your views can be skewed after being under the influence of a pastor such as Wright for so many years.

In this interview, Obama seems to be back on his heels a couple of times. Very nervous, unsure of himself and struggling to find the right words. This is in contrast to his campaign speeches where his oratory prowess is wowing the audiences. Of course no one is holding his feet to the fire during his speeches either.

Here is my take on all of this. Wright and his church are those who live in the past. Instead of looking forward to what race relations could be he is always taking everybody backwards. The church has a sense of entitlement. They believe that America owes them something. Forever it appears. And yes Wright was brought up in racially divisive times. But he is passing on, not the history of those times, but the black rhetoric of entitlement to the younger generation. That is obvious by the congregation standing and cheering Wright on. This does a disservice to the younger generation. Wright and the church’s endorsement of Farrakhan speaks volumes. It says that the church and pastor are fundamentally racially divisive, America hating people who like for nothing more than blame America’s problems on herself.

All in all, it is very difficult to believe that Obama did not know about Wright’s views. By his own admission Obama would attend church in spurts so this is why he may have never “personally” heard Wright say these things. And it does not matter how many seminaries one speaks at or how many books they write. When they do not hold to the Biblical standards they are wrong. Obama now says these statements are wrong. It will be interesting to see what Wright’s replacement will be saying from the pulpit now that all of this is out in the open. And if things do not change it will be interesting to see whether or not Obama will quit the church as he has stated.

Too politically correct for my taste.

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I have thought long and hard about this… I was even thinking about posting the video here for people to view. But I decided against posting the video and instead will just put down my thoughts here. The furor over the remarks that Jermiah Wright has said over the past several years needs to be soundly repudiated by all Christians.

In a statement to ABC News, Obama’s press spokesman Bill Burton said, “Sen. Obama has said repeatedly that personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics, whether they’re offered from a platform at a rally or the pulpit of a church. Sen. Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Sen. Obama deeply disagrees. But now that he is retired, that doesn’t detract from Sen. Obama’s affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done.”

That is the first problem… Bill Burton is not running for President… Obama is. And he is the one who should go on national TV and repudiate Wright for those remarks. And here is why…

Personally I do not know Obama. Since I do not know him I must evaluate what I see and hear about him and look to the company he keeps. One of those things that I see and hear is that he attends the Trinity United Church of Christ based in Chicago. All of that is good. Obama attends a Christian based church. One point for Obama.

Then his pastor appears on FoxNews one night and begins rambling on about white Christianity and black Christianity. RED FLAG! Read your Bible. Christianity is color blind. Skin color is not mentioned in the New Testament. Instead of unifying people the pastor joins in finding reasons for division. Just the opposite of what Reverend Martin Luther King preached. Minus one for Obama.

Then passages come up where the pastor of the church says he has damned America in God’s name and blamed the U.S. for provoking the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by dropping nuclear weapons on Japan in World War II. He also blames America for supporting Israel since 1947. THIS ONE EARNS TWO RED FLAGS because (1) this political rhetoric does not belong behind the pulpit and (2) Jesus was a Jew… why shouldn’t we support God’s chosen people? Now we fully understand why Michelle Obama is “for the first time in her life” proud of America. A black person is now being considered by the country. Blacks are having their day in the sun.

So now I have Obama as a -3. Obama chooses to attend (and I assume) support a church who’s pastor preaches at times, not from the Bible, but race-baiting, hate mongering and antisemitic sermons. America has made great strides towards eliminating racism… Wright is throwing those strides back 50 years.

Remember David Duke? The white raciest David Duke. The ex-Klansman Duke. Speaking of Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential run Duke said Jackson’s election “would be the greatest tragedy ever to befall this country” and that “the white majority in this country are losing their rights”. Clear thinking Americans (which leaves out the KKK) soundly denounced Dukes racist rhetoric. Almost every election he entered he lost except for one.

The bottom line is this… the members of the Trinity United Church of Christ should revisit their Bible. Race baiting, hate mongering and antisemitism have no place in Christianity let alone in church. Where is the love for all mankind? This is not something to wink at nor ignore. Obama picked this church. If I was a card carrying member of Trinity I would find another church. If I were a card carrying member of a predominantly white church that preached white supremacy I would find another church. By attending this church Obama is passively placing his stamp of approval on the pastor and the church. And if you do look at the videos you see the congregation on their feet, praising what Wright is saying. The members fuel the flames. I promise you… if any preacher came to our church and attempted to preach Wright’s theology or David Duke’s theology, they would be quickly escorted from the platform. Non-Biblical teaching/preaching is intolerable.

Instead Obama insists on putting his former pastor in some official advisory capacity in his campaign. Obama need to run, not walk away from Jeremiah Wright.

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Americans have become accustomed to living in a convenient society. Most pride themselves by living their lives according to a moral standard. And when their desires conflict with the moral standards they set for themselves it is more convenient for them to change the moral standards. Just for the sake of living their life the way they want to.

For instance… generally it used to be that marriage was taken seriously… much more so than today. Forty years ago if you wanted to get a divorce you had to file divorce proceedings and prove that you deserved a divorce. You didn’t get a divorce back in those days just because you wanted one… just because it made life convenient for you. Once you were married you had to stay married unless there was a legitimate reason for not being married.

Since that logic did not fit the lifestyle of a lot of Americans we devised the “no fault” divorce… just fill out the paperwork, pay the court fees and you can be divorced. Period. So now marriage is made convenient… we do not take the time to get to know each other as well as we should. Instead passion rules the day and if our marriage does not work out then we get a divorce and try again later with another partner. Sad.

The same holds true today… we have those who hold that the homosexual lifestyle is ‘normal’ and that we ought to allow gay marriages. We have abortions on demand that are legal in this country. We have those who want to legalize pot. Like I said… if the moral standards do not fit our lifestyle then we just conveniently change the standard.

But the hard question to answer is… where does this line of thinking stop. Where do we finally draw a line in the sand and declare that enough is enough? When do we make a stand?

The crop of candidates for President this year are not helping either. Obama wants same-sex marriages. Oh I know that he says he believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman… but he is favor of calling them unions, civil partnerships or whatever you want to call it. Whatever name you attach to it the result is the same… two people living together as a husband and wife under the same roof. And no matter what name you attach to this it is still wrong. In fact Obama came out this weekend at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio in favor of gay marriage…

“I don’t think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state… If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.”

Well the Sermon on the Mount does not speak to question. It has nothing to do with it. And the passage in Romans is not obscure. The Book of Romans is just as fundamental a part of Christianity as the rest of the Bible is.

Obama also re-stated his pro-abortion abortion stance this weekend…

“I think that the bottom line is that in the end, I think women, in consultation with their pastors, and their doctors, and their family, are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington. That’s my view… Again, I respect people who may disagree, but I certainly don’t think it makes me less Christian. Okay.”

Go ahead and have sex. Don’t worry about the consequences. And if the lady becomes pregnant she can just abort the child. Wrong. Again it is adjusting the moral standards to fit people’s desires to do what they want, when they want it. Abortion encourages promiscuity by eliminating the consequences of people’s actions. It devalues human life and interferes with God’s plan of procreating. It has also been proven of late that abortion brings shame, heartache and deep regret to the mothers of those unborn children. No… abortion is wrong and anyone who believes otherwise needs to reevaluate their Christian walk.

When we have high profile politicians making statements like these it weakens our moral standards and gives opponents of morality justification to do as they please.

You can go on and on with theological discussions to justify virtually any position that you want to take. But the bottom line is this… do you want to take the chance that you are right by supporting homosexuality and/or abortion come judgment day? Think about it. What if you are wrong! Think of the consequences.

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