The first, and most resounding lesson taught to us by GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, is that a black man can (literally) rise to whatever heights he so chooses. Be it conquering beautiful white women, or an impromptu flight in an experimental aircraft…they can do it all! One wonders why this theme is constantly taught to us by America’s new pastor: Hollywood? Perhaps the process of miscegenation and the deterioration of European Americans isn’t taking place fast enough? Get those pesky white folk out of the way (or at least reduced to a harmless minority) and society will be free for Satan to do with as he chooses. Don’t believe me o self-righteous one? Miscegenation and immigration are certainly used as tools to conquer the world for Satan. (See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK1pnCld … r_embedded And here: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053 … seats.html And here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geral … -pandemic/ )

Lesson two? GI Joe is no longer a “real American Hero,” but rather, a real “multi-national” hero! GO JOE! I’ve heard it said that the movies of today are reality ten years from now. What does this say about Hollywood’s opinion of world affairs? What meme is being implanted into the minds of the impressionable young children?

Lesson three? Scottish men who stick to family traditions are bad guys. I know that Destro’s heritage wasn’t explicitly linked with evil…but we’re talking about Americans here. Throw a few twos in a bucket, and they’ll get four without even being asked to calculate. How long will it be before the Scottish accent is stereotyped as evil? Already the upper-middle-class white male is painted as the villain in most movies…how much longer before all fond remembrances of old-Europe are re-vamped into bad-guy status?

Lesson four? Join the military! Support the military industrial complex! Forget all those lame notions about peace or Christian Just War theories…who needs them when you can be strong, fast, smart…have cool weapons, and hang out with some of the most beautiful women Hollywood has to offer?

Lesson five is probably the most important…it has to do with being well informed; something I hope my observations have helped you with. At least you know how a conservative white man viewed this film…

and hey, knowing is half the battle…

I often hear of Christians who struggle with depression.

Heck, I’m one of them.

I once ran across a link to a series of audio lectures by a Christian counselor. In order to combat depression, he says, you should make sure that you are taking care of your daily chores…chores like vacuuming, cleaning, and washing clothes.

I decided to give it a shot. I made a deal with God…if I could live righteously for one week, then He would reward me in some specific way the following Sunday.

During the weak, my vacuum cleaner broke; my *as seen on TV* steamer turned out to be junk; and my laundry card stopped working in the machines! (I ended up washing clothes in the bathtub, and drying them on a homemade line strewn across my living room.)

To make matters worse, I became discouraged, stopped my workout routine, and began drinking heavily.

Bad was piled on top of ugly, and by the following Sunday, depression had me firmly in its grip.

God taught me a lesson in all this.

You see; all week, I had the wrong attitude. I was trying to earn God’s blessings through my own righteousness! Imagine that! I’m a strong Calvinist, yet there I was, slaving away…trying to earn merit! I may as well have thrown on a robe and moved to Rome!

When your vacuum cleaner sucks, and your steamer blows…thank God that you have tools of dominion in your possession, and thank Him for the will to use them! (You wouldn’t be discouraged at their bad performance if you weren’t motivated to use them in the first place!) Thank God for adopting you as a covenant child of Christ!

When we finally let go of our desire to earn salvation…when we finally accept the merit of Christ…then we can give up our low self esteem and realize that God alone will sanctify us, set us on our path, and give us purpose in life! I feel sorry for those who are stuck in a theology that demands constant self-loathing due to an inability to live up to a desired standard. That man will never feel good about himself, or life.

Rejoice in your labor under the sun (find your God-given purpose)…and enjoy the little things in life…this is the cure for depression.

Soli Deo Gloria!

European people received Christ with fervor, leading to varied yet beautiful cultural expressions.

As we gradually traded the true God-man for a systematized corpse, the life blood of our culture became weaker and weaker until today, there is nothing left but faint memories.

The movie “Urban Cowboy” starring John Travolta is such a memory. It is a modern fairy tale, set in a time that is not so long ago, and not so far away.

There was a time when blue-collar cowboy culture had a legitimate standing in America. Women would flee the city proper in search of honky-tonks…hoping to find a cowboy to entertain for the evening. Popular songs (like “Stand by Me”) were recorded by country artists for a country crowd. (Today it’s the other way around.) The women, and the song, were included in “Urban Cowboy” without apology.  The authority and legitimacy of this culture are taken for granted.

Bud (Travolta) moves to the city to find a job. He stays with his aunt and uncle in the mean-time, and they introduce him to the local country club. He meets Sissy, and the couple two-step their way into a marriage. But, as anyone with knowledge of Country music knows, their relationship was headed for rough pastures. An ex-convict ends up dividing Bud and Sissy. Pride runs wild as the married couple try to out-cheat each other, leading to a climactic bull-ride competition where Bud and his live-in girlfriend face off against the ex-con and Sissy. Will Bud’s blue-collar work ethic defeat the snake-in-the grass tenacity of the ex-con? You’ll have to watch the movie for yourself to find out!

While you watch, take special note of the way Bud and Sissy are contrasted with Uncle Bob and Corene (Bud’s relatives). As generations pass, the cultural influence of Christ gradually fades, and His beauty becomes less manifested. Aunt Corene notes at one point that Bud and Sissy “live like pigs!”  Bud’s relatives represent a Christ-like stability in Bud’s life. One only hopes that he and Sissy attain the same level of stability in their relationship.

Also, Bud’s relationship with his live-in girlfriend is interesting (as noted above.) She is a wild-woman…interested in sex for pleasure, and particularly interested in cowboys. Today, the same metro-chick is interested in the gangster wanna-be. At least the girl in “Urban Cowboy” had some romanticized sense of chivalry and virtue. When women of today seek their mate in a club, they look for ghetto-conformity. What romance is left? What brand of chivalry are they looking for?  If you’re going to be promiscuous, at least choose the cowboy over the gangsta! Oh how times have changed!

Honor, strength, and hard-work were glamorized in this culture. Guts, and integrity were held in high esteem. And, yes…as blasphemous as it may seem (to modern society)…when push came to shove…God almighty clearly lent strength to the main characters, and was a mighty presence in the background of the entire drama. (For example, Sissy was at pains to sleep with the convict, her conscience was really giving her a fit. In a few years, this scene may no longer make sense to the modern American…”why would she hesitate to have sex with him?” they will wonder.)

It seems that Europe has been truly looking for love in all the wrong places…and neglecting the savior that once made us so great.

(This movie gets 3 out of 5 stars on the Shotgun movie scale.  It’s got a lot of cussing, and is long-winded at points.  But the music is great, and the culture it displays tends to make one daydream about a better place…)

Should you with me deal sorrow Lord,

Then may it be of memories past…

And let not the evil hoards

Stick me with their pagan swords,

While tears stain cheeks of saints at last.

I lept from Rome into the dark

Where no man knows what waits

Upon my conscience and beating heart

I must stand and never part,

Though consequence be damned to fate!

Democrats and Bibles

Seldom a healthy mix,

What peaceful foibles

and war-born travels,

Land the church in an aweful fix.

With infants murdered in houses of mercy,

And perversion marching in the streets,

Can we with conscience bow or courtsey

Before a God who hates universly

these ideals we cannot defeat?

God, give me Rome

That I could trade

the horror of our present home

for power of the church alone

in place of a Christless facade!

- By Shotgun…who wishes we could all just get along…

The following is my review of a blog suggested by Keith C. Thanks Keith for the suggestion and chance for critique:

http://scienceblogs.com/primatediaries/ … isions.php

The author of this blog begins by unfairly stating the Christian’s case:

Morality is the final domain that theists cling to in order to justify the existence of God. They argue that, without a supernatural deity (or deities), there would be no reason for people to be kind with one another and we would be constantly at each other’s throats.

Maybe Bill Mahr, who seemingly worked hard to find the most uneducated Christians for display in his movie “Religulous”, could help the author find a Christian willing to make the above argument? So stated, it isn’t an argument a trained theologian would present. Nor is it (certainly) the “final domain” that we Christians “cling to” in order to “justify” God’s existence. (I wonder at the presumptuous tone of the author. Has he really investigated all Christian claims and considered all arguments? I’d love to read his critique of Van Til’s transcendentalism.)

The historic Protestant position is that…due to God’s common grace, no fallen man is as terrible as he possibly could be. Therefore, even pagan societies in the heart of Africa (who are without knowledge of systematic Christian ethics) aren’t as terrible as they could be.

The traditional moral argument is better stated thus: Given an ideological commitment to utilitarianism or other subjective ethical systems…there is no objective grounding for ethical statements and in such systems…were they adhered to consistently, one ethical position would be just as valid as another (the only commanding factor being the strength and ability to implement the desired action.) Thus, no atheist would be able to justify (in principal) any law…other than by an appeal to arbitrary emotional dispositions…dispositions like: “Well, I feel we should only allow actions that benefit society.” If they are strong enough to implement such emotional dispositions, then great.

The author of the blog arrogantly presupposes this definition of morality, without interacting with the history of philosophical speculation surrounding the position. He says this:

Moral behavior is little more than behaving in ways that are beneficial to the group rather than merely to yourself.

Says who? The author wants to arbitrarily stamp the term “moral” on actions that make him feel good…or align with an ethical philosophy he has arbitrarily chosen.

This is a subjective definition, dressed in objective clothing, and the discerning Christian will not let the author get away with it.

Consider this assertion:

“Dogs pee on brick walls.”

How would you discover if this were true or not? You’d have to go out and find a dog peeing on a brick wall! But then, the skeptic would demand that you prove it really is a dog! So, first, you’d have to properly define “dog” by appealing to a dictionary. But wait says the skeptic, why is the dictionary authoritative? You then appeal to majority opinion! “But wait!” demands the skeptic, how do you know the majority really approved? So, you appeal once more to another thing…then another…then another and another…

In order to prove A, you appeal to B. In order to prove B, you appeal to C…in order to prove C, you appeal to D…and so on ad infinitum! You’ll never be able to prove that Dogs pee on brick walls! (Scroungy mutts the world over bark happily at the news…at least until they read Van Til and find out that proof is possible after all!)

When a person makes an assertion that we as Christians disagree with, then…(in light of the above) we need to play the part of the skeptic. We need to dig into his assertion, and find out what lies beneath it. For example, in saying “Dogs pee on brick walls”…we are assuming what a dog is. We assume what a brick wall is. We assume we know what peeing is. Those are three “presuppositions” that must be true in order for the assertion to be true.

A presupposition is the term given to beliefs that stand behind various assertions. Any belief can be a presupposition. “There is ice in the freezer,” presupposes the belief that the “freezer is working properly.” It also presupposes the belief that “there was water in the freezer.” So the belief: “There is water in the freezer” is a presupposition…a presupposed belief that is taken for granted and implied by the statement: “There is ice in the freezer.”

When A is asserted, we need to look for what supports it (B). Then we need to look for what supports B, (C). We do this until we come to that final belief a person holds that is not authenticated by any supporting belief. If this belief is not self-authenticating in some way…then it is NOT the final link in the chain…we must keep searching.

In this sense (deconstruction), when we do “Presuppositional Apologetics”…we are searching for the ultimate or final presupposition that a person holds. The one belief that is at the very foundation of all his or her other beliefs. When we find it…we examine it, and see if it can authenticate itself, and see also if it is consistent with the rest of his beliefs.

I hope this helps clarify what a presupposition is, and how it is different from the mathematical concept of an “Axiom.” (Presuppositions can be axioms, and axioms can be presuppositions…but the two aren’t the same.)

“There is not a truth existing which I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world.” – Thomas Jefferson

Little girls across the nation are elated to discover their Biblical superpower! Playing the piano is a wonderful skill. God needs piano players after all. Many little boys can’t contain their grins the day they first pick up a hammer and use it for God!  The church needs carpenters as well!

From lawn-mowers and babysitters, to carpenters and piano players, Christian people grow into their gifts with righteousness and smug self approval following close behind. Oh how blessed is the American church!

But, infrequently, something goes drastically wrong! The angel that delivers Christian gifts is blown off course. That morning, an unfortunate child runs downstairs, flings open the front door, and on the porch, wrapped in a basket…is not the gift of piano playing, carpentry, or lawn mowing, but rather, something sinister, something terrible! They find the gift of apologetics!

There is no servant more hated than the apologist. Doomed to care for people that will despise him, the apologist roams web forums and chatrooms, looking for the chance to publicly defend the faith. A righteous anger burns within him when he hears falsehoods bandied about as truth…when the Christian God is painted as a joke, and Christ is spoken of in blasphemous terms! Indeed, he looks forward to the confrontation! When he’s not engaged in verbal battle, he is studying, preparing…always preparing. Honing his skills in order to best defeat the next principality.

The rulers of the air…foul beings who inhabit the high-places…they fear the apologist! Unfortunately, so do well meaning brothers and sisters in Christ who consider Christianity to be nothing more than “huggle-pouncing” and constant quotes from meaningless contemporary praise songs. These lambs fear any voice other than the messianic state (ruled by the powers of the air.) They spit at, curse, and despise the apologist, because their hearts are hardened against the truth. (The apologist is not a robot, without emotion.) Any honest pursuit of truth is a threat! It’s best to keep the average Christian’s mind addled by emotional fluff sold en mass from Christian book stores across the nation. They simply don’t want to hear certain truths!

But there is a small light breaking through the clouds…shining down hope onto the browbeaten apologist. When one sincere lamb of God opens her heart to Christ, and sees the beauty inherent in the service provided by Mr. Apologist, thanks will pour forth. It’s a glorious sound. A precursor to the honor and acceptance these forlorn warriors will receive in paradise. Upon hearing it…the Apologist, of any denomination, from any theological tradition…cannot help but smile.

Thank you very much (o) Mr. Apologist (o) for doing the jobs, that no body wants to.

John Knox: In very deed, Madam, that book* was written most especially against that wicked Jezebel of England.

Queen Mary: But ye speak of women in general?

John Knox: Most true, Madam.

Queen Mary: But yet ye have taught the people to receive another religion than their Princes can allow. How can that doctrine be of God, seeing that God commandeth subjects to obey their Princes?

John Knox: Madam, as right religion took neither original strength nor authority from worldly princes, but from the Eternal God alone, so are not subjects bound to frame their religion according to the appetites of their princes. Princes are oft the most ignorant of all others in God’s true religion, as we may read in the Histories, as well before the death of Christ Jesus as after. If all the seed of Abraham should have been of the religion of Pharaoh, to whom they were long subjects, I pray you, Madam, what religion should there have been in the world? Or, if all men in the days of the Apostles should have been of the religion of the Roman Emperors, what religion should there have been upon the face of the earth? Daniel and his fellows were subjects to Nebuchadnezzar and unto Darius, and yet, Madam, they would not be of their religion; for the three children said: “We make it known unto thee, O King, that we will not worship thy Gods.” Daniel did pray publicly unto his God against the expressed commandment of the King. And so, Madam, ye may perceive that subjects are not bound to the religion of their princes, although they are commanded to give them obedience. **

Shotgun: Queen Mary tries to tie in her gender and religion with the authority of the state. This is similar to what various feminists try to do today, though theirs is a different religion, and a different state. Their religion is the religion of humanism, disguised in Christian garb. And their state is the American state; where Satanism masquerades in language of democracy and equality. Knox eloquently places this feminist in her place by pointing out that our Religion is not of the world, nor do our heros pay homage to the trends and whims of contemporary society. We are God’s men…and Godly women will support us and love us. Feminists will get put into their place.

*Knox’s “Treatsie Against the Regiment of Women.”

** http://www.ccel.org/ccel/knox/blast.iv.iv.html

Forgive me my dear father for not writing sooner. A most scandalous and ill-natured rumor has reached my ears, and I write to inquire as to the truth of it. I’ve heard tell from the servants, as well as from correspondence with my dear sister Julia, that you disapprove of my relationship with Mr. Crawford. I’m sure that I’ve heard wrong, and a day or two will clear up the matter. I eagerly anticipate your response and hope that it will alleviate my suffering. I’m so certain that it would since no father of mine would be so muddle-headed as to deny the wisdom of love.

It’s true father, Mr. Crawford has won my heart in ways my husband Mr. Rushworth never could have. Mr. Rushworth is dry, and uninteresting. He glides about on whims of fancy that shock even Julia (who, as we both know, is disposed to imaginations.) And father, I don’t want you feeling as if your judgment has been defied in the marriage, or that your previous consent is being scorned in some way. This is far from the truth and I’ve attempted to absolve you of this burden by sneaking out of Sotherton with Mr. Crawford as quietly as possible. I trust that my comings and goings were observed by no one other than perhaps the maidservant.

More ways to help with my suffering should not be wanting father, if I know anything of your virtue. I’ve heard something more from Julia, this concerning Fanny Price, who I am to understand, is currently visiting her parents in Portsmouth. In her comparison of our two houses, I heard that she’s alluded to Dr. Johnson’s celebrated judgment as to matrimony and celibacy, saying that “though Mansfield Park might have some pains, Portsmouth could have no pleasures.” Is not this a shame father? Portsmouth is of the lower classes and I wouldn’t want Fanny being accused of racism! Can we condone her thinking more highly of Mansfield Park than of Portsmouth? I realize that this must be a painful revelation father, and I highlight it only because I know how dear Fanny is to you. I want you to know that I am also aware of how well you approve of Mr. Crawford and now you can rest knowing that I have saved him from the love of a possible racist!

I long to be at home with Mr. Crawford and I hope this letter finds your sentiments in my favor without delay. In terms of my finances, Mr. Crawford has seen to my comfort, though I could wish for thirty extra pounds, and I know how you would fret if I were not comfortable, and so I mention here only briefly (in order to lessen your angst father.) I remain forever, and truly yours. – Maria