Careful Thought

Far lefty Media Matters is complaining about an ABC memo that shows top advertisers bailing out left and right from the failing Air America radio network.

An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America , originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show , indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the adverstisers [sic] insist that “NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming.” Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy.

Corporate America developing a backbone?  About time!

An interesting, though hardly surprising, look at the the death throes of Europe-As-We-Knew-It. This piece from Canada Free Press highlights three factors in Europe’s not so gradual suicide: surrender to Islam, the death of Christian faith and a plummeting birth rate.

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically: “We are watching the world of yesterday.”

Europe is turning Muslim. As Broder is sixty years old he is not going to emigrate himself. “I am too old,” he said. However, he urged young people to get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable.”

Many Germans and Dutch, apparently, did not wait for Broder’s advice. The number of emigrants leaving the Netherlands and Germany has already surpassed the number of immigrants moving in. One does not have to be prophetic to predict, like Henryk Broder, that Europe is becoming Islamic. Just consider the demographics. The number of Muslims in contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families. Today Mohammed is already the most popular name for new-born boys in Brussels, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other major European cities.

Broder is convinced that the Europeans are not willing to oppose islamization. “The dominant ethos,” he told De Volkskrant, “is perfectly voiced by the stupid blonde woman author with whom I recently debated. She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death.”

Continue reading “The Death of European Civilization”

Like the new/old design?  Phin from Apothegm Designs is doing a makeover.

Dang.  I missed the Niceville Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival .

The view out our front door this morning.  Ten inches of heavy wet stuff on the ground and another 8-10 expected.  Gotta love Colorado!  The power went out for an hour or so - just long enough to make it interesting.

Barry at Southern Knight links to a piece on the Khaburis Manuscript , a copy of a second century (c. 165 AD) New Testament.  The copy itself was carbon-dated to be around a thousand years old,  making it the oldest known certified copy of the New Testament, sort of.  (The oldest extant copy of the New Testament is the Codex Sinaiticus , dated to 330-350 AD.)

The Khaburis scribe copied the book in an obscure Aramean script known as Estrangelo. 

[Estrangelo] was developed at the School of Edessa (100AD) in order to record the Teachings of Y’Shua. The word, Estrangelo, actually means “to write the Revealed Message.”

The scribe would have been in ancient Nineveh (present-day Mosul, Iraq), according to the Colophon signed by a Bishop of the Church at Nineveh. In the Colophon, the Bishop certified (with his inverted signature and seal) that the Khaburis was a faithful copy of the second century original.

The details of the finding of Khaburis read like an Indiana Jones story.

In the early 1960’s two Americans, Drs. Norman Malik Yonan and Dan MacDougald, Jr., set out to locate an intact Aramaic New Testament. Their hope was to uncover the meaning behind Y’Shua’s Aramaic words, by which he was able to “drive out demons” and cure mental illness.   [I don't recall references to "curing mental illness" in Scripture and I'm pretty sure my translation doesn't have 'drive out demons' in quotes.  - Steve] 

Continue reading “Oldest Certified Copy of New Testament”

From Dhimmi Watch : 

Surprise, surprise — an unusual comment from a Christian leader, and an entirely predictable response. “O’Brien urges Muslims to say sorry for 9/11,” by Eddie Barnes in The Scotsman , with thanks to all who sent this in:

THE leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has called for Muslims to apologise for the 9/11 and 7/7 bomb attacks, declaring that the public should not have to live “in fear of attack” from believers of the Islamic faith.In a move that has provoked a storm of outrage, the cardinal claims that, as the Pope apologised for the offence caused last month by his comments on the Islamic faith, so Muslims should now step up and say sorry for the attacks carried out in the name of their faith.

O’Brien said: “There have been no apologies for the shooting of the nun [in Somalia after the Pope made his remarks], let alone for 9/11 or the London bombings. I would like to see some reciprocal moves from the Islamic side. We shouldn’t have to live in fear of attack from Muslims.”…

Last night, the cardinal’s views on Islam had stirred up a new controversy, with Muslim leaders furious at the comment. They claimed that as the terrorist attacks were carried out by extremists, mainstream Muslims who had already condemned the actions had nothing to apologise for.

Exactly which mainstream Muslims apologized for the attacks?  I must have missed it.

I’ve wondered about this.  If man disappeared from the scene overnight, how long would it take for evidence of his existence to disappear?  The UK TimesOnline gives a breakdown.  This is a secular view that presumes no role for God, and , I think reveals an environmentalist mindset that considers man a dangerous parasite that is best exterminated, but the piece is mildly interesting.  (Click on the picture for a full view.)

From Purgatorio by way of Evangelical Outpost .  I agree with most, though I certainly haven’t read all. 

These are books that have influenced evangelicalism that one should generally steer clear of due to errant theology, outright heresy, just plain lousy writing, being extremely dated or trendy, your own time stewardship or a combination thereof. I’m not saying these shouldn’t be read at all, some cover issues that need to be addressed, but don’t go here for soul food.

In No Particular Order:

1. The Satan Seller - Mike Warnke
2. Good Morning Holy Spirit - Benny Hinn
3. Left Behind (In all its permutations) - Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins
4. Your Best Life Now - Joel Osteen
5. Letters to a Skeptic - Gregory Boyd
6. Wild at Heart - John Eldredge
7. I’m OK, You’re OK - Thomas Harris
8. The Ryrie Study Bible
9. The Scofield Reference Bible
10. The Weigh-Down Diet - Gwen Shamblin
11. Living Positively One Day At a Time - Robert Shuller
12. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture - John Shelby Spong
13. Absolutely Free - Zane Hodges
14. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith - Marcus J. Borg
15. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why - Bart D. Ehrman
16. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant - John Dominic Crossan
17. The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the AUTHENTIC Words of Jesus - Robert W. Funk
18. Christ Versus Religion - Witness Lee
19. The Prayer of Jabez - Bruce Wilkinson
20. The Laws of Prosperity - Kenneth Copeland
21. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart - Peter J. Gomes
22. The Late Great Planet Earth - Hal Lindsey with C. C. Carlson
23. Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
24. The Openness of God: The Relationship of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will - Richard Rice
25. A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity - Spencer Burke
26. Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts Manual - Bill Gothard
27. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation - Gustavo Gutiérrez
28. Revolution - George Barna
29. The Bible Code - Michael Drosnin
30. Discovered: Noah’s Ark - Ron Wyatt
31. The Purpose Driven Life - Rick Warren
32. Effective Biblical Counseling - Larry Crabb
33. Battlefield of the Mind - Joyce Meyer
34. The ELCA Gender-Neutral Hymnal
35. The Lost Message of Jesus - Steve Chalke
36. The God Who Risks: A Theology of Providence - John Sanders
37. The Grace of God and the Will of Man - Clark H. Pinnock
38. The Oneness of God - David K. Bernard
39. Woman Thou Art Loosed - T.D. Jakes
40. Jerusalem Countdown - John Hagee
41. What Love is This? - Dave Hunt
42. Chosen But Free - Norm Geisler
43. King James, His Bible, and Its Translators - Laurence Vance
44. Jonathan Edwards 1703 - 1758 A Biography - Ola Elizabeth Winslow
45. Uprooting the Spirit of Fear - Creflo A. Dollar
46. The Beautiful Side of Evil - Johanna Michaelsen
47. Tithing: A Call to Serious, Biblical Giving - R T Kendall
48. Experiencing the Presence of God - Charles G. Finney
49. Why Churches Die - Ergun Caner and Mac Brunson
50. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith - Anne Lamott

I would add Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.  Any others?

Haven’t done one of these in awhile, so here goes…

1. Where do you live? Colorado Springs, Colorado.

2. What’s the most recognizable geographic or architectural feature visible from where you’re sitting? Easy - Pikes Peak. It dominates the local area.

3. Favorite and worst features of the area in which you live. Favorite: I can be in the mountains in half an hour. Worst: I have to drive through downtown traffic to get there.

4. Best local restaurant you’ve discovered recently. Jer-Bears. It’s a hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop place with the best sandwiches. It’s a little slow, but we haven’t tried anything there we don’t like.

5. Do you follow local politics? Not generally, though a local county attorney just called a county commissioner a “ narcissist, sociopath and crackpot enabler “. Yee-hah!

6. How’s the weather? Excellent. We typically get 300+ sunny days year and just enough snow to make it interesting.

7. And the traffic? Not terrible, but it’s getting worse. During rush hour it takes me 15 minutes to get to work.

8. Best local sports team? Colorado Springs Sky Sox (AAA baseball) or Colorado College Tigers hockey team.

9. If finances weren’t an issue would you stay in the same town? Probably. Colorado Springs is a good town.

10. During a non-rush hour period, how long would it take you to drive from the northernmost edge to the southern edge of your city/town? East to west? North to south - probably 20 minutes. East to west - 45 minutes to an hour.

Pass this to: Karen , Barry , and Hokule’a .

Tags: localizer, meme