Government

Speaking of Power Line, these are the concluding paragraphs of Power Line author John Hinderaker's against-the-grain-of-conservative-thought analysis of last week's Supreme Court decision in the Kelo case:

Today most significant development projects involve multiple uses and cooperation between public and private entities. While such projects can no doubt be subject to various abuses, they can also be enormously successful and of great public benefit--to take just one example, consider the spectacular renovation of Baltimore's inner harbor. Moreover, two factors minimize the danger that economic development projects pose to individual rights. First, they are carried out in the glare of publicity. Nothing in local government attracts more scrutiny or more criticism than such projects. Second, the Fifth Amendment requires that anyone whose property is taken for a public use be fairly compensated, and in practice, most takings are compensated generously. Thus, while condemnation can undoubtedly impose hardship on individuals, it is unlikely to result in gross injustice.

The principal threats to property rights lie elsewhere. In particular, regulatory actions often severely limit what an owner can do with his property. Unlike urban development projects, such regulations are often adopted in forums that are remote from, and unresponsive to, the political process. And what an owner generally hopes for in such situations is to be covered by the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of compensation for the loss of use of his property, which is automatic in the case of a condemnation.

So it is a good thing that the Kelo decision has focused attention on the erosion of property rights; but, despite the critical consensus that has formed among conservatives, it is far from clear that the case was wrongly decided.

I don't know if Hinderaker is right in his assessment of the positive value of such redevelopment efforts, but he is dead on in his description of the greater problem in his next-to-final paragraph.

Regulations and zoning are increasingly vehicles for governmental theft. Perhaps some time Tim will detail here the amazing story of Church of the Good Shepherd's years-long travail in seeking to put a church on a thirty-acre plot of land they purchased in central Bloomington. By the time governmental demands for rights-of-way, permanent easements, and donations to a local park were added to zoning and environmental demands, Church of the Good Shepherd was left with less than twenty percent of their purchase to build on.

They did the only sensible thing--sold, and purchased new land outside the city limits.

I think Hinderaker is right. We're straining at a gnat in the Kelo case, having swallowed a camel in our acceptance of so much regulation and restriction in the past.

At Christ the Word we've recently been encountering opposition from residents and township leaders in an area where we're seeking to purchase twenty acres for a future building. Our opponents have forthrightly declared themselves opposed to our purchase of the land--and the issuance of a special use permit by township authorities--simply because we're a church.

Increasingly churches are fair game for governmental interference and opposition. For this reason, the chronic trials of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, as they've sought simply to act as a normal Evangelical church with typical church programming and affiliated church-related educational institutions are battles by proxy against the entire American Church.

Christ Church has faced:

1) Preposterous and ongoing zoning charges

2) Alcoholic beverage denial (they wanted to serve communion in a service at a rented university building and were denied permission because they would be "serving alcohol to minors" forcing a change in worship location)

3) Overt, orchestrated opposition from governmental officials

4) Calumnies and libels in local papers--culminating recently in a newspaper article headlined "Neo-Nazi Christians make presence felt again in Northern Idaho"

Doug Wilson mentions on his blog the existence of a New Saint Andrews College legal defense fund in the course of a recent entry on the progress of Christ Church's "Trinity Fest."

NSA began distributing little stress balls, with the NSA logo, along with an inscription that read something like Moscow Zoning Complaint stress ball. A small donation to NSA's legal defense fund will get you one, and they come in lots of happy colors.

No address for the fund is given but it would be a worthy cause.

The following was written over a year ago as my own personal mental discipline in response to a certain teaching elder within my own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, coming out in a prominent national forum in favor of the repeal of all sodomy laws across our country. I have not published these thoughts on the blog or in any other forum. Now, though, I am putting them on this blog to assist others in fighting against this betrayal of God's Truth and the souls and lives of those vulnerable to sodomy. I would welcome E-mails from any who have additional sources or arguments to add strengthening this case.

Scripture:

Genesis 2:20-25 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

God ordained the nature and meaning of sexuality prior to the Fall, and no human authority may separate what God has joined together: sex is to be within species and heterosexual (between man and woman). This is a universal truth rooted in the Creation Order and therefore binding on all men across all time. This is the teaching of Genesis 2 and other texts having to do with sexuality, and marriage only builds upon what Genesis 2 declares.

Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.

As the Westminster Standards teach, sodomy is prohibited by the Seventh Commandment. If, despite the teaching of this Commandment, the man of God is justified in opposing and seeking the repeal of the civil authority's laws proscribing sodomy, are there any sins against this Commandment the civil authority may proscribe?

A recent commenter on this blog left notice of an internet petition drive requesting the State of Mississippi to reexamine the death sentence of Cory Maye.

We've written about Cory Maye before. Tim and I, as cousins to a dearly beloved (former) staff attorney for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court who suffered through petition after petition and uproar after uproar on behalf of manifestly guilty Pennsylvania cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, don't lightly suggest petitioning on behalf of a convicted murderer.

But the case of Cory Maye is an exception....

AT 11:00PM ON DECEMBER 26, 2001... Members of the Prentiss, Mississippi police force and the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force conducted a drug raid on the duplex apartment of Jamie Smith. Cory Maye lived in the other apartment that made up the duplex. Maye was not named in the police warrant for the duplex. Smith was arrested for marijuana possession. As the raid on Smith commenced, some officers went around to the other side of the duplex, in search of more contraband. They either thought the other side of the duplex was part of Smith's apartment, or they may have thought it was abandoned. The door was actually a door to Maye's home. Maye was asleep and awoke when he heard the rear door being smashed in. The rear door opened into the rear bedroom where Maye's 18 month old daughter was asleep. Fearing for himself and his daughter, Maye picked up his gun and fired at the intruders as they came into his daughter's bedroom. A bullet hit and killed the first officer to enter, Ronald Jones. When other officers shouted "Police," Maye ceased firing and surrendered to arrest. Maye is now on death row for the killing of a police officer.

Read further details of the case here.

And then, consider signing the petition here.

By any Christian and biblical, as opposed to nationalistic, evaluation of the righteousness of the United States in her conflict with middle eastern nations, we must not stoop to using the hypocritical criteria of a patriot who says, "My nation, right or wrong." As Christians we are different, called by God to "judge rightly." And a righteous judgment of our nation must start, not with others' sins against us, but ours against a holy God.

It's always easier to point a finger outside our home, community, or nation and to cry out against others' sins, but judgment must begin locally, and move out from there. This is the meaning of Jesus' statement about splinters and beams--we are to correct ourselves before we correct others.

As Christian citizens, then, we must look long and hard at our own nation when we consider the justice of our claims against Iran, Iraq, or Al Qaeda. As the Apostle Paul says:

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:1-4)

So when Christians cry down the wickedness of other nations and rulers without any mention of our own wickedness, I read it as nationalism uninformed by Scripture. And that's bad. Christians are not to judge their own and other nations as if the relations between nations are only a matter of who did what to whom on the international level.

When we want to condemn some combination of mid-east forces for bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon...

I'm not much for conspiracies as they're normally conceptualized--plots carried out by evil men who act in concert with one another while hiding their identities and intentions.

Why? Because a good conspiracy requires discipline and a lot of hard work, and the liberals I've known are too lazy for that kind of stuff.

But I do believe, intensely, in conspiracies planned and implemented by Satan using men as pawns in his insurrection against the Only True God. At times, I think we'd almost have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see the direction he's heading. One of those directions I've often written about in the past is the steady loss of religious freedom that is making it more and more costly for followers of Jesus Christ to live according to Scripture's principles.

Take the matter of churches' hiring practices, for instance: the state continues to fiddle around the edge of our religious freedoms by declaring that certain matters are simply a question of equality and justice--not moral or religious principles. The state claims to have an interest in assuring that churches and other religious institutions conduct their business in such a way as not to violate our current civil compact, particularly in matters where that compact is going through radical change.

Sexual matters are the center of this oppressive use of civil authority today--particularly the normalization of sodomy. Does the free exercise of religion allow bigoted churches to call sodomy "sexual perversion" and refuse to hire a sodomite as their church organist or high school youth leader? Generally, the answer here in the U.S. is still "yes," but not for long--I guarantee it. The direction of Satan's conspiracy is clear to those who have trained themselves to distinguish good and evil. As the Holy Spirit says, "...solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14).

A week ago, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision in Petruska v. Gannon University that does not bode well for the peaceful life of the People of God. Good commentary on the significance of this bad decision may be found here and here.

Dissenting from the majority, Judge D. Brooks Smith wrote: "I disagree with the majority's fundamental premise that a church's choice regarding who performs particular spiritual functions is not necessarily a religious decision. Rather, in my view, such a decision is, by its very nature, a religious one.... (T)he process of selecting a minister is per se a religious exercise. A minister is not merely an employee of the church; she [sic] is an embodiment of its message."

Finally, here is a helpful database of decisions related to church autonomy under federal law.

(Thank you, Mark.)

(Tim) From John Knox's The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, this excerpt explaining why reformed pastors have nothing at all to say about the election of a woman to the presidency of these United States...

(Tim) When I read Jacques Ellul's False Presence of the Kingdom a number of years ago, I found it very helpful in giving me a Christian understanding of Church-state relations, and particularly the danger of the Church being compromised in her work and message by the influence and power of the state.

Any Christian pastor watching the ruckus over the sermons of Senator Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, this past few weeks should have quickly concluded that this controversy is significant, principally, in yielding one more step in the inexorable movement of the removal of truth and courage and boldness from the proclamation of God's Word in churches around our country. It's been a terrible moment when someone watching closely could literally watch the feminization of discourse taking huge steps forward, particularly in the public discourse of the Church and Her Word known as preaching. (And no, I'm not defending the particulars of Pastor Wright's sermons.)

If you haven't read this work by Ellul, buy it now and read it carefully. Ellul has the sort of mind and pen that probe and expose our hearts such that we are invigorated and feel as if we might be partaking of the air and wind of another more truthful and honest age.

Remembering Ellul's wonderful bracingness, I just found and read a short essay by him, from 1947, titled, "On Nuremberg." I post it here as an historical meditation on the depravity of man, and thus the necessity of the substitutionary atonement--Good Friday's priceless treasure of the cross and blood and death of Jesus Christ. Oh how we need that precious blood!

Think beyond ourselves, to the terrible bloodsheds Western civilization has been (and presently is) built upon...

(Tim w/thanks to Dan) Speaking of the loss of liberty, here's one of an almost-limitless number of articles that demonstrate where we're headed in these United States. Western European nations, Australia, and Canada are already far down the trail, but it's still a bit of a shocker here at home. "As to be hated needs but to be seen." In time, though, I'm afraid we'll all settle in and decide no Christian witness is at stake here, there, or anywhere.

I wonder whether Christians right now believe spanking their children is a basic act of biblical obedience? How many evangelicals would, as an act of conscience, oppose national or state laws banning it?

You think you know something about the churches David and I serve, right? Well, we just lost a woman who'd been at Church of the Good Shepherd for twelve years because...

(Tim) Now that our busy-bee legislators have made a law banning toddlers from riding in cars without a special car seat, we can guess what's next. Those terrible bunk beds out wreaking havoc each and every night. Watch out, our Nanny State is on the move and there's no stopping her. Sodomites kill one another and mother's murder their unborn babies with no fear of the civil authority, but bruises and bumps from bunk beds? Something's gonna be done.

NOTE: IF YOU'VE READ THIS ONCE ALREADY, CLICK THROUGH AND READ THE FINAL PARAGRAPH ADDED JUST LAST NIGHT. IT'S NEW AND IT'S AN EXCELLENT CONCLUSION. -TIM

(Tim) Two friends copied me on the following correspondence. I have chosen not to identify the person asking the question. The answer is given by Brian Bailey, an Indianapolis attorney who, with his wife Nicole and their children, are a part of Church of the Good Shepherd here in Bloomington.

A friend asks Brian this question: A commenter here at BaylyBlog linked to another blog about a woman in the Presbyterian Church in America (Missy Irons) who says she is in favor of homosexual marriage because it is their civil right. She claims that since we Christians are afforded protection through civil rights, then we shouldn't be hypocritical and deny them the same. (That's basically me paraphrasing a few of her blogs into one sentence, I'll admit). How would I respond? Is there any "secular" reason to oppose homosexual marriage?

Brian Bailey responds: I'm happy to take a stab at answering your e-mail...  I’ve numbered the paragraphs to streamline the response and give it more organization.

1.  The proponent of sodomite marriage as a civil right seeks to change the status quo across all previous cultures, eras, and places. Any earthling would admit sodomite marriage is a radical innovation peculiar to our post-20th century Western culture. The promoter has the burden to prove the existence of that right.

2.  To assert a right is necessarily to appeal to some source of authority beyond merely saying, This is the way I want things to be. The proponent must appeal to some source, beyond his predilections and preferences, for the alleged right to sodomite marriage. And to say that homosexual marriage is a civil right proves nothing. He must locate the source of the right.

3.  There are two, and only two, possible sources of a right: God or man.

4.  Historically, Americans have believed and declared that God is the ultimate source of their rights. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is not a theoretical construct or a way to lend solemnity to foundational legal documents. A people steeped in the knowledge that they live, move, and exist in God (Acts 17:28), that the truth shall set them free (John 8:32), and that Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15), will confess that God is the source of their rights.  See, e.g., Indiana Constitution, preamble (“TO THE END, that justice be established, public order maintained, and liberty perpetuated; WE, the People of the State of Indiana, grateful to ALMIGHTY GOD for the free exercise of the right to choose our own form of government, do ordain this Constitution.”)...

(Tim, w/thanks to Brian) If you, good reader, have never read G. K. Chesterton's essays on womanhood; if you've never allowed yourself to think thoughts contrary to our culture concerning woman's unique calling; if you've never noticed the patronizing attitude of evangelical feminists toward godly women of the church who cook, wash the feet of the saints, show hospitality, teach other women and children, and pray; if you've never taken particular notice of the transfer of charity from Christian women confessing their faith to well-paid female executives running nonprofits or working for government bureaucracies; if you've never had a wealthy female church member who serves as a county supervisor tell you not to worry about the poor in your community because "that's what we pay taxes for;" if you haven't noticed how the loss of constitutional government in these United States has produced bondage and bloodshed for her citizens; if you have never found yourself sickened over the naked pandering at the heart of every state of the union address and every campaign speech of our time; if you didn't hang out in the church parking lot yesterday, basking in the warm sunshine of an early Fall afternoon as you listened to a missionary couple's son explain...

(Tim, w/thanks to David) Years ago, a missionary friend who worked in Sweden admitted to me that he couldn't spank his children without fear of government action, so he hid whatever spankings he gave them. This news item ran in Portage, Wisconsin, just a few miles from where I served prior to being called to Bloomington, Indiana.

Brothers in Christ, we live in a wicked day. Already, aided by the civil authority, our minor daughter can contract with Planned Parenthood to hire a murderer to kill her unborn son or daughter. And the government helps her to hide it from her father and mother.

As I've always said, this is the most wicked aspect of our current baby-killing regime. A godly father or mother cannot protect their minor daughter from those seducing her to become a murderer. They may well never know.

Meanwhile, spanking renders Christian parents vulnerable to losing custody of their children. The normal Christian parent who uses the corporal punishment commanded by God (Prov. 13:24; 22:15; 23:13; 29:15; etc.) is always in danger of prosecution and loss of parental rights.

(Tim) Those inclined to think the posts critical of Barack Obama here on this blog are due to partisanship on the owners' part should know that neither David nor I have ever placed the slightest hope in a Republican presidential candidate. About nine years ago, I told Marvin Olasky I was concerned about his support of George W. Bush's presidential candidacy. In the end, I voted for him twice, but never with anything other than grim resolve.

Whether grim resolve is enough to do the trick with me tomorrow has yet to be seen. This cycle I'm leaning toward flaming out in a better direction--maybe, say, giving myself to the audacity of hope and pushing the button for Chuck Baldwin...

(Tim) Writing as a pastor concerning his own nation's election of a new president several weeks ago, Brother Conrad Mbewe of Lusaka, Zambia, says precisely what ought to be said today to Christians in these United States as we look at God's choice of Barack Obama to lead us. I hope you'll read it.

(Tim, w/thanks to Brian) The Christian Law Association reports: "For years Crestwood Baptist Church has unashamedly declared the Gospel of Christ and the Word of God through the display of Scripture on the marquee in front of their church. Tragically, this common practice for churches has now come under attack. In the days leading up to the Presidential election, Crestwood Baptist Church displayed Proverbs 29:2, '...when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn,' on their marquee...

"Nearly a week after the election, while jogging past the marquee, a nationally syndicated news reporter took notice of the verse, erroneously assumed it was the church’s attempt to slander a particular candidate, and reported his biased opinion on CNN news. This unmerited report sparked animosity towards Crestwood and its pastor, Phil Edge, who have received numerous emails and phone calls demanding an explanation for his alleged attack on the results of this recent Presidential election."

A couple comments: First, confessing Christians must play hardball to protect our nation's First Amendment rights. We'll lose, but we must go down fighting. We don't live in the Roman Empire; it's our Constitution and we are its stewards.

So, for instance, the actions of the IRS in the past decade have been egregious governmental intrusions into the work of the church. Our government has been rattling its saber

(Tim, w/thanks to James) Of the stuff I've come across, this is about the best summary of the significance of our recent coronation of President-elect Barack Hussein Obama. Giving grace for it coming from a Brit who's not got perfect pitch about our country, it's something pretty close. For instance, here's what he says about Jessie Jackson's tears in Grant Park: "No wonder that awful old hack Jesse Jackson sobbed as he watched. How he must wish he, too, could get away with this sort of stuff."

A teaser...

(Tim) If pornography is the drug our government uses to keep men passive, gun control leaves us compliant. Imagine the Revolutionary War with only Redcoats allowed to own muskets and you get the idea. And this from a man whose parents forbid him to play with guns, who registered for the draft as a conscientious objector, and who's never owned a gun. Actually, no gun except a potato gun I made out of PVC a few years ago.

So yes, I'm in favor of defending the Second Amendment against the relentless attacks it suffers. In defense of that amendment, here's an anouncement just received from Fran Griffin, the wonderful woman who administers Joe Sobran's e-publications. Let's all buy the book:

Here's an exciting way to help derail the anti-Second Amendment forces in Washington: A Second Amendment Book Bomb on December 15, Bill of Rights Day.

The idea is to have as many people as possible buy Stephen Halbrook's excellent new book, The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, on the same day (or over the next few days). Click on the link above--Amazon's offering it for just $19.

If a huge number of people buy the book on the same day, this could catapult it to best seller status, which would stun the Obama camp. Obama claimed to support the Second Amendment during his campaign so he wouldn't lose blue collar Democrats, but he is really very much opposed to it.

Happy Bill of Rights Day!

Fran Griffin

(Tim) Justice of the peace in tow, Suleman's father was chasing the hospital with a shotgun until "the hospital made it clear it had nothing to do with getting Suleman pregnant."

Honest. That's exactly what the newspaper reported.

And by the way, did you notice that the state is "investigating" to see if laws were broken by this mother carrying her children to term? Sitting in the fridge, they were, prior to nestling into their mother's womb.

The headline is "Octuplets' birth spawns outrage from public."

Listen, if people are angry at the cost of the octuplets and ready to tar and feather the mother...

(Tim) From my incomparable tutor in all things political for over thirty years, Joe Sobran, I learned of the existence of the Tenth Amendment, but also of its impotence in the hands of the crooks who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court in recent decades. Also from Sobran, I picked up the habit of never, ever, ever referring to "the United States," but always and only "these United States."

The past few years, Church of the Good Shepherd has had an influx of Texans who move here for a few years to complete their doctorates at IU. Most of them plan to return to the motherland so, half-seriously, I've told them of my wish that Texas would secede so I could move there...

(David--with thanks to Douglas Wilson for his suggestion that other pastors preach to President Obama as he recently did.)

Sunday, June 7, 2009
2 Timothy 2:8, 9

Last Sunday morning while we were gathered in worship a gunman entered a Lutheran (ELCA) church in Wichita, Kansas and shot to death the nation’s most famous abortionist, a man whose specialty had long been the dismemberment of late-second and third trimester infants, while he was serving as an usher.

A notorious murderer met what is certain to become a notorious end. By the goodness of God the witness of the Church was not entirely silenced in Dr. Tiller’s life. He had been excommunicated by his previous congregation, a church of the Missouri Synod Lutheran denomination. And so the judgment of God had been declared; not every watchman was silent, not every shepherd proved a hireling.

(Tim) Below is an excerpt from Philip Gourevitch's history of the Rwandan genocide, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families. This book should be read by every believer committed to opposing the slaughter of the feeble, elderly, newborn, and unborn upon which our civil compact has been built for decades, now.

A few years ago, a godly Rwandan was preaching to us here at Church of the Good Shepherd and he took the occasion to rebuke us, saying we Americans had no authority to condemn Rwanda's genocide when we were slaughtering 1.3 million children in our own nation, year after year, with no sign of the bloodshed ending.

Truth is, many, many denominations, churches, elders, and pastors have endorsed the slaughter of the unborn here in these United States. And even among those pastors who claim to be pro-life, precious few are anti-abortion. Like the Rwandan priests and pastors, many of us...

(Tim, w/thanks to my Mary Lee) The July 18, 2009 issue of World ran an article about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's confession of adultery. The article is worth reading, especially if you're a frequent traveler, rich, or influential. Wealth is deceitful and pride goes before the fall.

Three statements stuck out to me.

First, why am I not surprised that YWAM's Virginia rep knew nothing about YWAM's ownership of the Fellowship's $1.8 million C Street home, and that when World asked them for clarification, the Fellowship declined to respond?

Second, the article admits it's common for politicians to have no church home or to skip church. This is increasingly true of missionaries, also, so here at Church of the Good Shepherd we've begun to implement standards with the missionaries our church supports. They must be a part of a local church, where they work, as well as hold permanent membership in an evangelical Bible-believing church that they and the church recognize as their home church.

Third, to the degree that Gov. Mark Sanford had a church, he claimed it was an evangelical congregation called Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. He sometimes attended an Episcopal congregation when he was working in the capital, but Seacoast is his home church.

So, when Gov. Sanford publicly confessed to adultery, how did his Seacoast pastor respond?

Here's...

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous, So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong.  - Psalm 125:3

(Tim) Government funding always means more government control. Always. And today, that cannot possibly be good news.

More government control will lead to less compassion (for single mothers, for instance), responsibility (for single fathers, for instance), justice (for unborn children, for instance), mercy (for the homeless, for instance), truth (for children educated in government schools, for instance) and freedom for citizens forced to foot the bill for government's aborting those very virtues her subjects hold dear.

This is the reason compassionate, responsible, just, merciful, and truthful Americans are joining Libertarian ranks in droves. They've read Paul Johnson's Intellectuals and learned that the sort of leaders profiled by the New Yorker and the NYTimes Magazine will talk about love for the people and national compassion while demonstrating an astounding selfishness in their own personal lives.

Need I list examples?

Hillary Clinton of It Takes a Village fame? Her husband, Bill? The latest entrant into the race for that moral squalor called the Office of Governor of the State of New York, Rudy Giuliani? Our resident global-warming prophet safely ensconced in his carbon-spewing mansion (except when he's flying in his carbon-spewing coporate jets), Al Gore?

Democrats won this last election by hoodwinking young and middle-aged "Christians" who had been softened up to the deception by years of being inoculated against all discernment by ear-scratchers like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren. Their pastors had turned them into easy marks for Barack Obama's lies.

But among those who saw through President Obama's lies...