AP Lies Again

I am fed up. I cannot trust what I read in my newspaper to be factual. I discovered the bias during the Iraq war. Then I discover out and out lies during the election. Now the AP is at it again.

Now they report that Judge Greer was told it would be better to leave his Baptist Church. When in fact he may have left due to unfavorable editorials in Florida Baptist newsletters. The AP made sure that the church and pastor were shown in the worst light, and Judge Greer as the innocent victim. It may not be quite like that.

I have refrained from posting on this, because someone is sure to respond what about FOX news? I can understand and accept bias,(i.e. Dan Rather-bye Dan) but distortion of fact from a news agency is wrong. The AP serves every major newspaper and TV, radio news dept. in our country.
Go to the link below for more AP silliness.

AP News Gives you a choice of truth

Purposefully Driven

Or "The Sound You Hear is a Stone Hitting the Ground"

Rick Warren was on Larry King this week. I caught the show late Saturday night. I had my knives sharpened ready to carve up this commercially driven best selling author. I looked behind him in his office with Purpose Driven books stacked up neatly as if to say "buy me".

I have watched other evangelicals on Larry King in earlier shows, granted they all did not have the show to themselves, but I must say, Rick fared very well. I was more impressed with him than the others. Is it because he is more comfortable in front of the camera? Possibly, but he refuses to have his services televised at Saddleback. He does not want to be considered a televangelist. (Neither would I)

The show mainly was centered on the Atlanta hostage situation and the Schiavo case. The pastor was humble concerning the first subject and clear on his beliefs concerning the second. In other words he did not straddle the fence. He was apolitical as well, while mentioning the values voter, he did not mention the president.

What should be encouraging to the more social concerned out there, is that Warren has started 3 foundations, dealing with AIDs, hunger, and the situation in Rwanda. He is apparently putting his money to good use. He has given his 25 years of salary back to Saddleback, is tithing at 90%. (the skeptic would say he is bragging, but if he does not disclose this fact, a skeptic would accuse him of hoarding riches), lives in the same house and drives a 4 yr old Ford.

I could go on but one should read the transcript for themselves to form their own opinion. I know my opinion has changed. It is very ironic that most of the people buying his book have given little thought, for instance, to the AIDs epidemic in Africa, and now their money is making it's way there, thanks to Warren. He probably doing more than Wallis, Jackson and Oprah, but will still be mocked by social liberals, because he is a .........Southern.....Baptist. ugghhh

Read for yourself here: Rick Warren on Larry King Live

The Passion of the pull the tubers

The article below talks about how passionate we are about certain things.

The article explains how people who try to save life are passionate about it. This is what I understand. I see it all the time. A burning house that may contain a child is no barrier for the firefighter who so desperately wants to save that child. Oh how great the guilt when you think, " If I had just entered another way maybe we could have saved them...........". The pain of having to tell relatives there is nothing more we could do.....we were too late. Or watching someone die who could live if they had just been closer to a hospital or it had not been too foggy for a Medi-flight helicopter to take off.

This passion to save life I understand. What motivates those who cheer a decision to end life, when so many of those argue to save the lives of murderers and rapists? I guess if you give me an all or nothing choice, I would choice save to both, but since it may not be so cut and dry then why choose the path that we have chosen?
In Love With Death

Letting the Courts Decide

Let's see ......Roe v Wade.....Terri Schiavo......

Some people are being critical of our politicians injecting themselves into the Terri Schiavo case.

I thought that is what we elected them to do? Judges have a role, politicians have a role, we as Christ followers have a role. I get confused when people fuss about politicians cutting programs that help people then whine when they try to save helpless people like Terri Shiavo and 3rd trimester unborn children. Some say it is between Mr. Shiavo and God or between the mother and God. Some say it is the state's call, some say it is the judges call. But aren't we leaving someone out of the equation?

When we say leave it to God, what does that mean?

For more discussion go here. http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/jca/terri-schiavo.htm

Justice is color blind...except to green

Something that has started to bother me of late, is the way that wealthy people always get off and poor people always fry. I am talking about the state of our justice system. The one where if you can afford a team of attorneys you can literally get away with murder. (or sleeping with young kids ) However, if you are poor and have to rely on a public defender you will probably get the death penalty on circumstantial evidence. There was a man on death row recently exonerated with DNA evidence, who was convicted because he had bad teeth. The real killer had the same bad teeth. He had been on death row for around ten years. We in Oklahoma know a lot about incompetent DNA testing. Every case in the last 15 years is suspect where forensic lab work was done by a certain chemist.

With the rash of cases being reviewed and rulings being challenged with DNA tests, I would be hard pressed, if I were governor in any state with capitol punishment, to allow any more men or women to be executed.

As far as a solution to the inequeties of our judicial system, I don't have one yet. But I sure would hate to have an innocent man's blood on my hands. I am not ready to say that I am totally against the death penalty, anyone who had to clean up the mess left by Timothy McVeigh, Nichols and Al Qaeda would tell you that someone should die for acts that heinous.

I wonder if most church going people would agree with me? If we are going to err should it not be on the side of protecting innocent life? Even if the chances are remote, there could still be the chance that we are killing innocent people. It seems it was religous leaders who asked a tyrant to break some guys legs so they wouldn't be a distraction during their religous feast. Seeing three guys hanging on crosses, kind of dampens the festive mood.

Acting Christian, Christianly, or Christlike

A dangerous and widespread error is the belief that everything religious comes from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus and the apostles of the early church discerned connections and opened up abysses of which most people who call themselves Christians have no inkling.

Without the spirit of mammon there would be no war. In the grip of this spirit, love can be purchased and bodies thrown into the gutter and corrupted. Because of the mammon spirit, lying is carried to extremes – the lying people do to each other in business, in relationships between the classes, and in the dialogue between the nations. “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Making life dependent on financial circumstances, mammon gains control and overrides all other relationships.
-----Eberhard Arnold http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/ea/TheDecision.htm

I also read from Phillip Berrigan who pointed out that Corporations now have all they have ever wanted. Unions are beaten down with little power or influence, our government is leaving them (corporations) alone and multi national companies have no loyalty to any nation or workforce, just to one thing...mammon.

I have always considered myself to be somewhat of a free market libertarian, but I think Congress passed anti-trust laws for a good reason. Corporations rule the world now, they are not beholden to the U.S. or the U.N. They continue to merge and lay folks off. Shut down profitable factories here and open up even more profitable factories in third world countries, where they can pollute and pay folks minimum wage for skilled labor. We need to get a handle on these immoral practices, even if it means isolationist policies for a while. Our trade deficits are at record levels and our high paying jobs are leaving the country at a record pace.

What does this have to do with Christanity? How do we as Christians vote with our pocketbook and at the polls? Do we consider corporate morality ever? Do corporations lie to us and sell us dangerous products for profit? Is it coincidence that it appears that big business and evangelicals are on the same political side and if they are, is this biblically correct? How are we being salt and light concerning these issues?

As a compassionate conservative I knew at some point I would have to draw the line. My only fear is that no one else who considers themselves conservative is paying attention.........

The Gospel According to "Wifeswap"

First off I apologize to you Google searchers, this is not what you were looking for. (old joke, but could not resist)

Secondly, I will admit it. I am hooked. It's a show with an intentionally provocative name, as a "good" Christian I should probably boycott it, but it is like good car wreck I've got to look.

The producers have hit on a theme the last few weeks that seems to be working. Conservative christian vs. Atheists and or liberal and or hippy family. It really shows how different our families in America are. Our values, our division of labor within the home, economic sitiuations, racial differences and parenting differences.

Sometimes the Christians don't come off too well. Of course if I had a camera in my home 24/7 I doubt the cause of Christ would be advanced a great deal either. Especially if you put some liberal whack job in my home telling me there is no God , Jesus was just a carpenter, and our country stinks.

The one real redeeming quality of the show is that everyone learns something. Either how good they had it, but did not realize it, or how they could change certain habits and behaviors to make things better in their own homes. Like the old Indian (or Native American) saying goes, Don't criticize a man till you have walked a mile in his moccasins, or something like that. Or maybe you don't really know someone till you have done that.

I have to ask myself am I like the too strict parent or the too leniant parent? The workaholic dad or the lazy dad? The neat freak or the slob? The loving husband or distant preoccupied husband? Sometimes I don't like the answer. So I guess there is some value in reality TV after all.