Kirsten Powers, a former atheist, is "Pursued by God" perhaps via the writings of C.S. Lewis

I am gratified to hear the Kirsten Powers has allowed Jesus into her life. As a fellow Christian I can applaud her decision. You will forgive me however if I am a little skeptical of her claim that "God pursued me" as it is almost a verbatim copy of the claims made by one of the English speaking world's greatest and most published Christian apologists, C.S. Lewis, about how he came to Christ. My instincts tell me that perhaps Ms. Powers is cynically using a little 'poetic license' in the telling of her story for its dramatic value. I hope I am wrong and I am inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt; on the other hand, the well-educated and erudite Ms. Powers would have been more than aware of the writings of C.S. Lewis. That being said it probably can be argued that the phenomenon of fundamentally moral, if not religious, people being 'pursued' by God is a more common occurrence than we know and that Ms. Powers came to this experience completely independent of any reading of C.S. Lewis. For the sake of her immortal soul I hope the latter is the case. http://youngcons.com/kirsten-powers-how-a-liberal-democrat-and-former-atheist-came-to-know-jesus-christ-as-her-savior/

Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, A Defender of the Faith?

Putin says leaders should unite to end anti-Christian persecution?? Whatever Putin's political motivations for his 'new found' discovery of his Christian faith, which he probably has not practiced since he was a toddler in Sunday school (if ever), you can be sure his motivations are multi-faceted and determined to protect Russian culture from its greatest threat. The changing demographic dynamics in Russia and throughout much of the planet are witnessing the exponential explosion of Muslim birthrates concurrent with shrinking birthrates in the Christian populations. The non-Muslim populations are getting old and are not having sufficient children to take care of them while the burgeoning under 20 population is largely Muslim. This is true not only in Russia but increasingly in much of the world. Putin understands that the pre-Soviet era in Russia saw much larger birthrates in Russia when the Russian Orthodox Christian church was still influential than it ever has since either under communism or post-communism and the oligarchs. Many world leaders, including Angel Merkel the Chancellor of Germany, are waking up to the threatening reality of their shrinking populations concurrent with the loss of the Christian religion. Merkel famously said recently regarding the demographic changes in Germany, "The problem is not too much Islam, the problem is too little Christianity. Even former Labour Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair, once an avowed secularist, has 'rediscovered' his Christianity since leaving office. He had now become a leading advocate of inter-faith dialog. A dubious pursuit at best. Britain, like much of Western Europe is under threat from their growing Muslim populations. Many, are slowly waking up to the two-pronged threat of losing the influence of Christianity on Western culture to be supplanted by the dark and evil faith of Islam. Yes, they are waking up but is it too little too late? http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/high-tide-and-turn/2013/aug/2/putin-world-leaders-should-unite-end-anti-christia/

Bill Cosby and his Philosophical Inheritors including Bill O'Reilly and Don Lemon

The breakdown of the nuclear family in the Black community in the U.S. and Canada has reached epidemic proportions with all the negative fallout in terms of violence and urban decay this entails. The Black comedian, Bill Cosby, has been speaking on this issue for at least a decade and has taken a lot of flak for his courage and his honesty that the race baiters like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the New Black Mangy Jackals do not want to address. This past week political independent and 'white' talk show host, Bill O'Reilly, set a new standard by isolating and condemning precisely the self-destructive behavior that Blacks indulge in which keeps their community impoverished and violent. A 73% birth rate out of wedlock tops this list. Now, liberal Black CNN news anchor Don Lemon demonstrating a considerable amount of personal courage (considering that he works for a mushy, PC, liberal network) is speaking out on the self-destructive behavior of the Black community with some strong recommendations on how to change their behavior. All this honesty and forthrightness is encouraging but I fear good intentions without the backbone of ethical principles necessary to hang your hat on, runs the risk of evaporating up in vapors. The Black community needs to go back to Church and reestablish Christian and family values in the home which even still could take a generation. The journey of a thousand miles, however, begins with the first step. Equally, the White community could help their Black brothers and sisters a great deal by setting an example and re-engaging with their Christian faith as well. A faith informed nuclear family centered upon a married man and woman could go a long way to correcting much of society's ills. http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/07/27/nr-lemon-no-talking-points.cnn.html

The Moderation of Stephen Harper Meets the Ideological Unsoundness of Jonathan Kay

Response to a Jonathan Kay Article in the National Post: Embittering paranoia is stubborn vice Harper can’t seem to shake: I think that 'embittered and paranoid’ as the ideologically unsound JK terms it, is the condition of being a conservative not only in Canada but the U.S. as well. To say that conservatives and conservative values are under attack north of the Rio Grande is to be the master of the understatement. Whether it is the fiscal conservative posturing of a candidate Romney during the 2012 campaign to his unapologetic capitalism with which he governed his laudable career, both fiscal and entrepreneurial conservatism were derided to the point of the absurd by Obama and his Marxist goons. Equally rational social conservatism as expressed as a resistance to unfettered late term abortion and a condemnation of the genocidal Planned Parenthood organization, or government funded contraception, or the resistance of Roman Catholic organizations to the forced funding of contraception in their health care plans in contradiction of their beliefs, was termed by the Democrats as a 'War against Women'. Indeed President Obama, by the most balanced accounts a far Left radical, has engaged in a non-ending war against capitalism and conservatism since assuming power in 2008, the list of details being far too long to go into here. Equally, Prime Minister Harper since forming his first of two minority governments and now his majority government has long been accused of having 'a radical conservative ( read fascist) agenda' which to date has never materialized and could not be further from the truth based on the actions of this fundamentally moderate and cautious man. Like most successful Canadian politicians Stephen Harper expressed strong ideological criticism against the government when he was out of power but has successfully and dutifully governed from the centre after assuming power. In short, conservatives have a right to be embittered even paranoid. Embittered because they know they are right and that they embody the economic and social vision which made the U.S. and Canada two of the richest and freest of nations and yet they are constantly confronted with the opaque, godless, unwashed extremist hordes of the Left who yearn to live in a totalitarian anti-capitalist world based on the collectivist values of the ultimate nanny state. Paranoid because the conspiracies against sound conservative principles are multiplying like fungi in the shade growing on an ever-growing mound of bull dung. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/07/19/embittering-paranoia-is-stubborn-vice-harper-cant-seem-to-shake/

John Stuart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody, the would be pressure cookers bombers of the B.C. Parliament were recent Muslim converts, not merely Al Qaeda inspired.

People do not 'self-radicalize' in a vacuum but always have an ideological underpinning and in recent years the ideological underpinnings of the lion's share of terrorist attacks or attempted terrorist attacks have invariably been tied to Islam. The RCMP may have been 'sexing up the story' by making Al Qaeda references, I acknowledge that, but equally, the ‘perps’, John Stewart Nuttall, 38, and his partner Amanda Marie Korody, 30 were recent converts to Islam and yet the RCMP and Christy Clark studiously avoided mentioning that damning fact as well. It took Nuttall’s lawyer, Tom Morino, to admit that “his client had converted to Islam and embraced the Muslim faith" but Mr. Morino added the caveat that, "the alleged offences are “absolutely unrelated” to any mosque group or any other established organization. ‘I am not aware of any mosque with which he is affiliated’.” It appears that Islamophilia, which is now rampant in Britain, most of continental Europe and now in the U.S., since the gross incompetency which is the Obama administration, has now come to Canada and resides with the official statements of the R.C.M.P.. Islamophilia means in essence that Islam and its adherents are above reproach and all the terror as well as honour killings, female genital mutilation, and rape and groom gangs aimed at young non-Muslim girls that some Muslims perpetrate, is in recent times progressively more often given a generic source. God help us. http://www.timescolonist.com/police-thwart-plot-to-bomb-canada-day-crowd-at-b-c-legislature-two-arrested-1.340077 http://www.timescolonist.com/surrey-couple-charged-in-legislature-bomb-plot-lived-simple-life-landlady-says-1.340597

Reflections on the Cartoon of an Exploding Jihadi posted by Tarek Fatah in Facebook

The more I reflect upon this ostensibly simple cartoon the more it affects me. On one level of course it is just a simple sight gag and for anyone with even a cursory understanding of the confused motivations of political Islam it is both immediately amusing but equally sublime. The cartoon works well because it clearly sums up a profound truism. At a deeper level however, upon reflection, this cartoon takes on for me the nature of a Japanese Zen Buddhist koan or riddle. Why is the exploding Jihadi the enemy of Islam? Well the more you think about it the more reasons you discover. For the sake of arguement we will operate on the assumption that Islam, despite its deeply problematic political component, is a genuine faith. 1. According to most religions and spiritual philosophies doing violence to other human beings to the point of death is murder and the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill (murder)'. It is integral to both divine and humanistic conscience. When one murders, even allegedly by divine commandment, one is acting against God. 2. At the level of the sacred however murder takes on an even deeper significance. When you murder you both destroy your relationship with God and you eliminate another person or persons relationship with God. Such an act has ramifications throughout eternity. 3. When a Jihadi murders in the name of Islam he most importantly takes away a persons freedom of choice and that really goes to the heart of the problem of political Islam. It is a central tenet of most faiths that God gave man the freedom of choice. One either chooses to have a relationship with God with the moral and eternal implications of that choice or one chooses to deny God and thus His morality and His offer of eternity. During the life of the prophet Muhammad and for several centuries after his death, Islam was spread by invading armies. Conquered peoples were given a choice of whether to accept Islam or to be put to the sword. Not much of a choice. Those who were permitted to live without submitting were subjected either to Dhimmitude (second-class citizenship status and obligated to pay a special tax) or they were enslaved. Again, not much of a choice. Compare the spread of Islam to the spread of early Christianity. For the first three centuries after the death of Christ, Christianity was spread by wandering disciples telling of the 'good news' of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection for the Salvation of Mankind. The early converts to Christianity were appealed to through their reason and their spiritual need for meaning. Many others rejected the message of Christianity and without consequence at the temporal level because that again was their choice. No armies were ever associated with Christianity until after Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire. Since the Reformation, Christianity which is a messianic faith, continues to proselytize but never under duress because that is contrary to the freedom of choice on matters of conscience that God has given man. Consider also Judaism, which is strictly speaking a messianic religion in that it holds to a (yet to come) Messiah but in the broader sense of the word it does not have the messianic impulse in that it does not proselytize its faith nor its Messiah. One can choose to become a Jew but it is purely a matter of choice and the process can be complicated. Or Hinduism which is a faith of many Gods and Goddesses and feels no need to proselytize because its generally tolerant pantheism acknowledges that there are perhaps infinite paths to the Godhead. A similar condition of tolerance and non-proselytizing exists for the spiritual philosophies of Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Indeed, of all the major faiths and spiritual philosophies, it is only Islamic adherents who believe and claim that according to the Quran they are obligated spread the word of Islam by force if necessary and to destroy those who ridicule or reject Islam; thus, removing their freedom of choice. This is particularly the case with the 'Jihadi' proponents of supremacist political Islam. If Allah, is truly God, then clearly something went wrong with the development of Islam even during the life of the prophet Muhammad. In the course of its development Islam went from claiming in Verse 256 of Al-Baqara in the Quran, "there is no compulsion in religion", which was a 'Revelation' that Muhammad received while still living in Mecca and was still non-violent to this passage based on a further 'Revelation' which Muhammed had in Medina after he started leading armies to attack his enemies, to wit: Quran (2:191-193) "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]... but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah." Furthermore, "The historical context of this passage is not defensive warfare, since Muhammad and his Muslims had just relocated to Medina and were not under attack by their Meccan adversaries. In fact, the verses urge offensive warfare, in that Muslims are to drive Meccans out of their own city (which they later did)." From that point onwards in Islam's development as a religion it ceased to adhere to the eternal commandment of God that man had the freedom to accept or reject God and that no man had the right to exact revenge against another man because of that choice. Islam has been on the wrong side of God and the wrong side of history ever since. Getting back to our little exploding 'Jihadi' in the cartoon above, well he set himself up. He asked God to go against His own commandment that there be no compulsion in religion or in other words that a man should always have freedom of choice, when he asked God 'to blow up all of Islam's enemies". Bad mistake as he set himself up in opposition to God. https://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf

PROTESTOR ARRESTED IN TORONTO FOR MOCKING ISLAM

Protesters were arrested in Toronto today for simply mocking Islam. It is okay to protest against Israel or the U.S. or the Canadian government including the breaking of store windows and the burning of police cars without being arrested. Protest against Islam however and you will soon be arrested. In this particular incident even after the arrest the police sustain a double standard. They take away the Caucasian Eric Brazeau in a police van but they release the equally involved other organizer, Ron Banerjee, who is a Hindu of East Indian origin. Apparently even among protesters there are degrees of culpability depending on your race and/or religion. This police action should be roundly condemned. http://www.blogwrath.com/canada-islam/protestor-arrested-in-toronto-for-mocking-islam/4025/