Echoes in Eternity

Alanis Morissette needs to update her song "Ironic" with some witty rhyme involving this story from Kenya. Of course, her song would no longer be ironic, since it would then actually contain real irony.

With apologies...

"It's like having 490 shillings when all you need is some food,
It's being an orphan outside an anti-poverty forum,
and realizing that it's not doing you any good."

This is an old article (originally printed in the British magazine The Spectator in December 2004), but so good that I had to link to it. I don't really know where Mark Steyn stands in his relationship with God, but he does seem to greatly appreciate what Christianity has done for this world and is able to read the signs of the times like few can. And as always, his wit is unparalleled. Enjoy!

John Stossel (best known for his work as correspondent on ABC's 20/20) has a great article about how foolish the plan to raise the minimum wage really is. If only Bush and the Republicans would have some guts and stand up to the Dems...unfortunately, that would be political suicide on this issue, so they will just go along with it. If right and truth are ever going to win in this country, we have to start with the hearts and minds of the people, and that means framing the debate. Or for that matter, having any debate would be nice. Most liberals and Democrats avoid debate like the plague.

As always, Mark Steyn provides another witty example of why he is quickly becoming my favorite columnist, even better than Dennis Prager and Ann Coulter. This article again involves Steyn's central theme of demographics and reproduction, but with a new take involving the Christmas Story.

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If Christianity is just a myth, then it is, so to speak, an immaculately conceived one. On the one hand, what could be more powerless than a newborn babe? On the other, without a newborn babe, man is ultimately powerless. For, without new life, there can be no civilization, no society, no nothing.
...
...
The Virgin Mary's pregnancy is not the only one in the Gospels. There's another that prefigures it, in Luke 1:13:

"But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John."

Zacharias is surprised to discover his impending fatherhood -- "for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years." If you read Luke, the virgin birth seems a logical extension of the earlier miracle -- the pregnancy of Mary's elderly cousin. For Matthew, Jesus' birth is the miracle. Luke, a physician, leaves you with the impression that all birth -- all life -- is to a degree miraculous and God-given, if only because without it there can be no world. The obligation to have children may be a lot of repressive theocratic hooey, but it's less irrational than the secular self-absorption of a barren Russia, Japan and Europe. And, if Christianity is a fairy tale, it's a perfectly constructed one, beginning with the decision to establish Christ's divinity in the miracle of His birth: As the song says, "And man will live forevermore because of Christmas Day."
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You can find this on Little Green Footballs, but I thought I would link to it directly. A bunch of young children from a class in Tennessee sent Christmas cards to our troops in Iraq. The selected ones are quite precious. "There is still hope in the world."

Matthew 12:21

This is a man who will truly deserve his reward in heaven... most American Christians can't even comprehend what it is like to truly suffer for Christ. Stories such as his make me wonder how God would ever accept me, one who has never suffered significantly for Christ, and perhaps never will. It also makes me wonder how it can be that Christians in this country have lost so much perspective that they DARE to preach a prosperity gospel. Such a self-centered, narcissistic message was not the one that my Savior brought to the earth 2000 years ago.

P.S. Ah, the Religion of Peace™ is at it again. A city in Somalia has made it a capital offense to not pray 5 times a day to Allah. Sheik Hussein Barre Rage (ironic name) said that those who don't follow the new edict will "definitely be beheaded according to Islamic law." Mr. Rage continued, "As Muslims we should practice Islam fully, not in part, and that is what our religion enjoins us to do." Well, on the bright side, you have to admire their religious conviction. Now, if only they would channel it in positive ways.

"Ghazna (Ghazni), one of the important cities of Khorasan, was the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire (962 to 1187), ruled by the Ghaznavid Sultans, after the fall of the Empire of the Nasher Khans. Tombs of many poets and scientists are located in Ghazni, for example the Tomb of Al Biruni. The only ruins in Old Ghazni retaining a semblance of architectural form are two towers, about 43 m (140 ft) high and some 365 m (1,200 ft) apart. According to inscriptions, the towers were constructed by the Mahmud of Ghazni and his son. Ghazni is also famous for its minarets built on a stellar plan. They date from the middle of the twelfth century and are the surviving element of the mosque of Bahramshah. Their sides are decorated with geometric patterns." (Taken from the Wikipedia entry about the Afghan city of Ghazni)

A millennia ago, Middle Eastern cities such as Ghazni served as the center of the scientific and mathematical world. The ancient Babylonians were the first to invent/discover algebra. 300 years before Christ, Euclid, an Egyptian, was known as the "father of geometry." Yet as we near the fourth millennial anniversary of the Babylonian's discovery of the algebraic rules governing math, mobs in Ghazni attack, torture, and murder anyone who dares to teach algebra to girls.

This growing chasm between the Islamic culture and modern technology and discoveries will only serve to increase the resentment that Middle Eastern Muslims have toward America and other advancing societies. In turn, that feeling of resentment plays a large part (besides religious reasons) in fueling the terrorism that is so rampant in that region today. The solution: education, infrastructure, and evangelism; probably in that order. As the Islamic culture (notwithstanding Dubai) plummets into a civilizational and technological freefall, evangelism appears to becoming even more difficult.

Every culture and people group in the world has eventually had significant portions of its population won over by the power of Christ's salvation; every culture, that is, except for Islamic ones. Even Communist China has seen significant inroads made in the last 20 years by the Christian church. However, the Biblical enmity between the Jews and the Arabs continues to this very day, with many Christian missionaries seeing few Muslim converts even after years of service in an area. Thus, it would seem that by improving their way of life, we might help them become more receptive to Christians and, more importantly, the Gospel. Every time that the U.S. military puts up another school or hospital in Iraq, the Arabs there are brought one step closer to catching up with modern day civilization and trusting the West more.

Just some thoughts...

The catchy title is borrowed from this article, another great one by Mark Steyn. Thousands of years later, "be fruitful and multiply" still applies.

This is the story of Marine Cpl Jason Dunham, who, in the next month or so, will be a recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Why can't the national media focus on the truly brave people, rather than degenerates like the Cindy Sheehan's of the world?

Everyone should read this excerpt from Mark Steyn's book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. I haven't read the book, but this portion is interesting...

I have started my own sub-blog to differentiate my posts from our family posts. I'll be moving my old posts over in the near future.

Darius