The Point

• "Can You Buy Them on Ebay?" (mild language)
• "San Diego County clerk reassigns workers who object to gay marriage" (via Thunderstruck)
• "Grand jury probe of Tiller ends with no indictment"
• "US candidates practice their U-turns"
• "Mom fighting for children defends her 'white pride'"
• "New Cars in California Must Display Global Warming Score"
• "Denmark 'world's happiest nation'"
• "The Sentencing Project's response to George Will's column: 'More Prisons, Less Crime'"

Finally, a reason to be excited about the eventual winner of this year's presidential election.

Ok, the story is about the passing of Sir John Templeton, an honorable man.

But how could the Telegraph get Chuck so wrong?

In 1973 [Templeton] inaugurated the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, an annual award to remedy the Nobel Foundation’s omission of religion from its prizes. . . .

Winners over the years have included Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Alexander Solzhenitzyn, the Reverend Dr Billy Graham, and Charles Colson, the Watergate-burglar-turned-minister. Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Jews also qualified to win the prize. [emphasis added]

The what-turned-what?? Colson neither was a burglar nor is a minister. I'm getting a little verklempt. Discuss.

The Passover Plot, Gospel of Judas, and the Jesus Ossuary follow 2000 years of attempts to undermine the pillars of the Christian faith: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, the "Gabriel Revelation" can be added to the mix.

What is the Gabriel Revelation? It is a text, written on a stone tablet in the first century B.C., that purportedly refers to a suffering messiah that will die and rise again.

To Christian critics like Israel Knohl, the tablet confirms the theory that a suffering messiah was an established part of Jewish tradition well before the appearance of Jesus. Well, yeah: Genesis 3:15, Psalm 22, Isaiah 52 and 53 and Daniel 9:26 tell us as much, so what’s new?

According to the decipherers, the tablet refers to a messianic figure who is told he will be slain and “in three days you will live.” Such detail, it is argued, means that the Gospel writers penned this prediction in their narratives after the fact. Except that, as I have commented, the Gospels were “written within the lifetime of eyewitnesses, [so that] any fabrication on the part of authors to fudge the facts would have been readily contested by any number of hostile contemporaries.”

So why that added detail should raise eyebrows is more than a little perplexing, considering that there are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus recorded in the Old Testament centuries before His birth, the most astonishing being the precise year of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem predicted by Daniel (chapter 9:25-26) 300 years prior.

Lustful thoughts? Compulsive lying? Road-raging? Prone to murder? Drink two of these and call me in the morning. (H/T Thunderstruck)

(Image © Newsweek)

I'm not sure if the break was because the food was so bad, or maybe the working and living conditions were lousy, but it seemed they just weren't going to take it anymore.

So at 5:30 a.m. they decided to make their break -- they being fifteen camels, two zebras, and a number of llamas and potbellied pigs from a circus in the Netherlands.

You could say their ringleader, a giraffe, stuck his neck out by kicking a hole in their cage. They wandered as a group looking for something better, maybe a McDonalds or maybe a PETA member for asylum. Or just maybe they decided to try to find their chimpanzee buddy who is missing in California. We'll probably never know. They were all rounded up by Monday afternoon and are now back at the circus, but they're not talking.

(Image © RussiaToday)

Niggling lists of "must-haves" are getting in the way of love and marriage, according to rabbi and "Love Prophet" Shmuley Boteach. Here's an article by A.J. Kiesling discussing Boteach's ideas. 

Read and ponder.

(Image © Broganblog)

I'll be honest: Pit bulls scare me to death. If I were president, I'd push legislation to ban them -- that's how badly they scare me.

Nonetheless, I was intrigued by this article about efforts to rehabilitate the pit bulls that were tortured by Michael Vick and his dogfighting organization.

. . . The court gave Vick's dogs a second chance. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ordered each dog to be evaluated individually, not judged by the stereotype of the breed. And he ordered Vick to pony up close to $1 million to pay for the lifelong care of those that could be saved.

Of the 49 pit bulls animal behavior experts evaluated in the fall, only one was deemed too vicious to warrant saving and was euthanized. (Another was euthanized because it was sick and in pain.)

More than a year after being confiscated from Vick's property, Leo, a tan, muscular pit bull, dons a colorful clown collar and visits cancer patients as a certified therapy dog in California. Hector, who bears deep scars on his chest and legs, recently was adopted and is about to start training for national flying disc competitions in Minnesota. Teddles takes orders from a 2-year-old. Gracie is a couch potato in Richmond who lives with cats and sleeps with four other dogs.

What to do about the impending global meltdown?

Under the Creation Mandate, efforts to conserve natural resources, optimize energy use and efficiency, recycle, and reduce consumption and consumerism are examples of faithful stewardship. Problem is, say global warming alarmists, such voluntary measures are not sufficient to avert our cataclysmic inferno. Maybe that’s why An Inconvenient Truth pitchman, Al Gore, has not seen fit to reduce the energy consumption of his own residence, which is using 10 percent more energy than a year ago, enough to supply the energy needs of nearly 20 average homes.

What is needed, according to the climate change party line, are governmentally enforced controls like the Kyoto Treaty. But whether or not forced restrictions such as Kyoto are demanded by principles of Christian stewardship really depends on the answers to six questions:

Is the earth warming?
Is warming an overall bad thing?
Is human activity the primary cause?
Would forced standards sufficiently reduce global temperatures?
Would they be cost-effective?
Would forced standards not create more—or more severe—problems than they solve?

Click here for the "answers."

Last week, columnist Nicholas Kristof answered the questions, "Does aid work?" and "What can I do?" with a story about a girl and a goat.

. . . The tale begins in the rolling hills of western Uganda, where Beatrice was born and raised. As a girl, she desperately yearned for an education, but it seemed hopeless: Her parents were peasants who couldn’t afford to send her to school.

The years passed and Beatrice stayed home to help with the chores. She was on track to become one more illiterate African woman, another of the continent’s squandered human resources.

In the meantime, in Niantic, Conn., the children of the Niantic Community Church wanted to donate money for a good cause. They decided to buy goats for African villagers through Heifer International, a venerable aid group based in Arkansas that helps impoverished farming families. . . .

One of the goats bought by the Niantic church went to Beatrice’s parents and soon produced twins. When the kid goats were weaned, the children drank the goat’s milk for a nutritional boost and sold the surplus milk for extra money.

The cash from the milk accumulated, and Beatrice’s parents decided that they could now afford to send their daughter to school. She was much older than the other first graders, but she was so overjoyed that she studied diligently and rose to be the best student in the school.

In a culture where spoiling kids has become the norm, how do you raise kids with a healthy view of money?...

Click play above to listen.

For one way to teach this lesson, you can give an animal to a needy family through World Vision.

• "Does abortion 'cancel' a soul?" (adult themes/descriptions, profanity)
• "Conservatives Ready to Battle McCain on Convention Platform"
• "Obama backs late, mental-health abortion" (via The Corner)
• "Officers Have a Responsibility to Set an Example and Speak Up"
• "Prison baseball team gives inmates a focus beyond their cells"
• "The '60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire" (via Thunderstruck)
• "Doors Opening? Bit o' Lit for Reading Riders"
• "Toddlers who dislike spicy food 'racist'" (via The Corner)
• "Long-Lost Metropolis Footage Resurfaces"
• "A statement on the issues of the day"

While we're congratulating Catherine and her husband on their wedding, The Point also owes belated congratulations to Faith and her husband on the birth of daughter Morenna at Easter. If The Point's editor weren't quite so lax about reading interoffice memos (apologies to The Swedish One as well as to Faith), the congratulations wouldn't be quite so belated!

Have you ever been swept up in a story far beyond yourself?

Perhaps it hit my friend Laura Waters Hinson when she stepped onto the red carpet to receive a Student Academy Award for As We Forgive, a gripping documentary on reconciliation and forgiveness in genocide-torn Rwanda.

Perhaps it hit my friend Catherine Claire Larson as she walked down the aisle on Saturday to link lifelong hands with her best friend, now husband, barely two weeks after putting the finishing edits on a book that tells the same story as Laura's film.

Two friends. Two walks. One story.

In a way, this is a tribute to these friends who, in their own ways, have taught me so much about the story beyond. For Laura, it meant facing her own unforgiven, and now reconciled, past so that she could tell the miraculous story of two widows and and an orphan who forgave their enemies. For Catherine, it meant devoting countless hours of writing (and re-writing) during the months that most women would be planning their weddings to share these same stories in paper form. For both, it meant sacrifice and faithfulness.

". . . Nothing says 'founding fathers' like a 17-hour MSNBC 'To Catch a Predator' marathon, including two blocks of extra-special 'Predator Raw: The Unseen Tapes.' God bless America."

So wrote Lisa de Moraes last Friday in her look at "the marathoniest Fourth of July in television history," which convincingly made the case that U.S. TV network executives, by and large, haven't a clue how to celebrate their nation's birthday. "More often than not," de Moraes explained, "a network's marathon of choice has more to do with what it's got lying around on the shelves and the whole 'fun/mindless things to watch rather than having to talk to Uncle Bernie while waiting for the burgers to cook and the fireworks to start' programming strategy that has worked so well for so many on this holiday."

So while a few networks dug out the patriotic movies and specials, MTV celebrated with a day of Real World: Hollywood, AMC with fourteen straight hours of Jaws. ABC Family went with a That '70s Show marathon on Friday; while on Saturday -- well, for weeks I've been seeing the ads on the network ("A New Kind of Celebration!") about celebrating the Fourth of July weekend with a Harry Potter marathon. How random is that? It's like celebrating Christmas by showing all six Planet of the Apes movies. (Wait, I think AMC actually might have done that once.)

I won't quarrel with Sci Fi's choice of a Twilight Zone marathon on the Fourth, only because I'm always up for another airing of the hilarious Nightmare at 20,000 Feet for any reason. It's also hard to argue with TCM's choice of a Hitchcock marathon -- who can argue with Hitchcock at any time? Besides, they did finish up the day with several hours of The Music Man, 1776, and other beloved holiday classics.

Alice Cooper may not exactly be the person who would first come to mind when thinking of the church lady or Sunday School teacher -- but when he's off the stage he's teaching the Bible.

From Contact Music (HT Thunderstruck):

Shock rocker ALICE COOPER is not a bad boy at heart - he occasionally teaches Bible lessons at his local church.

The reformed wild child, real name Vincent Furnier, dons menacing face paint when he hits the stage for a concert, but insists he is far from intimidating when he attends his weekly church service.

He says, "I go to Bible study on Wednesday mornings - I even teach sometimes - but I'll still get up on stage and be much scarier than Marilyn Manson."

And he has no problem balancing his religion with his career path - because he doesn't swear.

He adds, "It doesn't mean that, as a Christian, you can't be a rocker or an entertainer. It's your lifestyle. I never use bad language. That's not gentlemanly. Alice might slit your throat but he'd never use the F word."

Steve Beard of Thunderstruck and Good News Magazine wrote before about Alice Cooper and other "unlikely witnesses." Goes to show that you never know . . .

(Image © Contact Music)

Ian O'Connor says the robber barons--oops, I mean football barons--are fleecing would-be fans by charging them very large sums of money to put their names into a lottery to buy season tickets. 

Anyone stupid fanatical enough to put their money into this get-rich scheme will get what's coming to them: empty pockets.  But what I can't understand in any way, shape or form is why taxpayers are being fleeced to pay for stadiums--we'll never see a penny of the profits.  The local, state and federal government must be in cahoots with the barons--and like O'Connor, I'd call it PSL (Plain and Simple Larceny).

In August 2006, Congressmen Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and Michael McCaul (R-TX) all had D's. They worked hard, and by January of 2008, they had bumped their grades up to A's.

At least on Darfur-related legislation.

For four years, the Genocide Intervention Network, a grassroots nonprofit run mostly by twenty-somethings, has been putting pressure on politicians to do something about the genocide in Sudan. It all began when Mark Hanis, then a student at Swarthmore College, read about Darfur while flipping through the sports section. At that time, Hanis "didn't know if the Janjaweed militia was a person, place, or thing." But, after realizing that the conflict in Sudan was a full-blown genocide, his heritage as the grandson of four Holocaust survivors urged him to respond.

"It wasn't, 'Should I do something, or should I not do something?' It was, 'What can I do?' "

After graduation, Hanis and a few friends responded by drawing up the blueprint for a nonprofit that today makes congressmen squirm.

From Gene Cunningham's Basic Training website:

Do you get the feeling that we are on a runaway train? That history is moving toward a global meltdown? If so, you just may be right. There is a madness spreading throughout the world. And this madness is the consequence of society's all out rebellion against the God of the Bible.  ... As we observe daily the world reeling and staggering in the drunkenness of ... denial of our Lord, we do well to consider our own self-centered and self-indulgent lifestyles. This is a time for every soul to "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near ... Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."  (Isa 55:6-7).

From Fox News:

It’s estimated that 10 percent of the 3,000 middle and high school students in the Delaware Valley School District in Milford, P.A., are infected with an STD — including one confirmed case of HIV, Times Herald Record reported Friday.

On top of those figures, about two dozen teenage girls in the school system have tested positive for pregnancy.

A non-profit health clinic in Milford said they estimate more than 300 students contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the past year. Officials also told the paper students as young as 12 years old reported being sexually active. . . .

Dr. Keith Ablow, FOX News Channel's psychiatry correspondent, said he . . . was not surprised.

"Young people are desperately looking for anything that will make them feel human, as our culture plunges into the unreality of the Internet, technology and media," he said. "The easy way to try to convince yourself that you can still feel when nothing seems real is to have sex and experience pleasure and maybe even have a baby who can hold you and make you feel loved."

Dr. Ablow's summary makes a lot of sense, but I would humbly submit that there are more factors that go into it than just the virtual "unreality" of daily life. I think perhaps we're seeing more unexpected fallout from all the work our society has done to tear apart family structure and build counterfeits in its place. Human beings will always seek the love, security, and "humanness" that a stable family provides. Take away their models of healthy family relationships, and they will still try to create new families in any way possible -- even in ways that will damage and stunt their own lives and the lives of their children.

Some news just leaves me without words: like this. (HT Thunderstruck)

Zimbabwe is everywhere in the news these days, thanks to the posturing and outrageous behavior of President Mugabe and his merry band of thugs. Did they really think, in today's media-driven world, that anyone would believe the legitimacy of an election won by literally clubbing one's opposition? Apparently so, showing just how out of touch they are.

Of course, in our image-saturated world, it takes something outrageous to capture our collective attention. Mugabe and his cohorts have been at this for awhile, just in quieter, less newsworthy ways.

I started reading about Zimbabwe several years ago when an online nonfiction book club I belong to featured a memoir by an American journalist who had been stationed in Zimbabwe. In Love in the Driest Season, Neely Tucker told the story of how he and his then-wife adopted a baby girl who had been left to die under a tree. He told of their desperate persistence to get her adoption approved while conditions in Zimbabwe quickly deteriorated and before foreign journalists were expelled from the country. Even while writing about a baby on the brink of death and a country on the brink of chaos, Tucker somehow drew a portrait of Zimbabwe that captured my imagination and started me on a quest to read more about the country and its people.

If you want a quicker, snapshot view from the literary lens of Neely Tucker, check out his essay that appeared in the Washington Post on Tuesday. Then pray for the people of Zimbabwe. Their situation is desperate right now. For all our whining about $4 for a gallon of gasoline, at least we're not experiencing an inflation rate of 4 million percent with no food available to buy even if we could afford it.

(Image © The Washington Post)

I'm used to hearing the national anthem at a baseball game, but at the mall?...

Click play above to listen.

CLH, “Patriotic Shopping?” The Point, 28 May 2008.

For some of us, the date of Senator Helms' death seems rather fitting.

SEAL Petty Officer Monsoor is one to remember on this day. Regardless of your stance on the war, if you can watch this, and maintain a dry eye, I pity you.

Jesse Helms died today at age 86. God rest his soul. Here's one of my favorite photos of the great man.

(Image © The Jesse Helms Center)

Some 13-14 years ago, I knew this girl who absolutely radiated joy. I didn't know her well; we had mutual friends. But in a way, everyone knew Ramey -- or, at the least, knew who she was.

Her eyes sparkled when she sang on the stage -- the stage I last remember her owning was the one at the cramped Upper Room. And what a voice -- enviable. I think the angels were green with envy when she sang. And not just raw talent; that joy she possessed came out in her voice.

As the years after college passed by, I had no doubt she would only bring more light into the lives of so many others. I learned recently that is precisely what she did, marrying her college sweetheart and having a beautiful little boy -- not surprisingly, they named him Judah. From the little I remember of her, that seems so apt.

One example of how Ramey spreads light:

Ramey in the room just puts a smile on your face. She spontaneously breaks into song. And she's always befriending strangers. Recently, she met an older woman at a gas station and chose to pay for her fill-up. The two ended up praying, and Ramey gave her a CD of her praise music. Ramey carries a stack of her music with her at all times, just in case she comes across someone who might need it.

The other news I learned about her, though, broke my heart. And in a sense, it also is not surprising. Because as we know, the enemy doesn't like light to spread in this fallen world. And he is doing what he can to put out Ramey's light. And he's failing -- miserably.

As we celebrate our country's birthday today, Chuck Colson reminds us to pray for those who guard our freedom:

It is easy to grow weary over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for me, a former Marine, I ache for the families of the men and women who have paid the ultimate price. But I also know why our military personnel are doing what they are doing. They enlisted, as I did many years ago, to defend our nation and to defend liberty. And in Iraq and Afghanistan, they truly do see themselves as liberators. . . .

Sure, we all want these wars to be over. But while they last, so long as our fighting men and women are in harm’s way, they deserve our full support: from the President, to the Congress, to the media, to the people in the pews.

I hope you will join me today on this 4th of July, the birthday of American independence and freedom, in praying for the safety of the members of our armed forces who are in harm’s way. They deserve no less, and much, much more.

(Image © USA Today)

Ever wish God would just write the answer to your prayer in the sky?...

Click play above to listen.

“Pilot Runs Out of Fuel, Prays, Lands Near Jesus Sign,” MSNBC, 21 May 2008.

• "Long Island case turns spotlight on hundreds trapped as slaves"
• "A Past Written in Blood"
• "Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin?"
• "Is Obama's Gay Marriage Stand Incoherent?"
• "Public Safety Official Orders Cooperation in Jail Investigation"
• "The Google Ogle Defense: A Search for America's Psyche"

Posting will be light tomorrow. Have a happy and blessed Fourth!