Wheat and Chaff

It is clear that the public discourse in this country simply does not allow for reality. I cite the Bill Bennett controversy as an example.

He is absolutely right- his comments were distorted. The only thing necessary to determine the rightness or wrongness of the statement that aborting all black babies would lower the crime rate, is simply to determine whether or not blacks have a higher crime rate than whites. This is objectively true, and therefore Bennett's statement is objectively true. The statement of itself says nothing about whether other costs incurred by doing such a thing would be greater or less than the benefits, and in fact, in the context the statement was made, he made it clear that it would be a terrible thing to do. He was using a hypothetical argument, a reducto ad absurdum, in order to refute another statement.

But none of the public comments on Bennett's statement have at all dealt with the factual truth of his statement. They simply call him a racist, and that's the end of it.

"Truth has fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter" (Isa. 59:14). If we do not deal in truth, then the hard-fought battle for equity will be lost. Blacks will never have equity in this country, and neither will anyone else, as long as we ignore truth. The postmodernist idea is that a statement is true if it has the desired effects. But the Bible passage quoted above says that it's the truth that causes the right outcomes, not the other way around. If minorities in this country want to be treated with equity, then they should be fighting for the truth, both about themselves and about others.

Last night Katie and I went to see the movie Valiant [fun movie for kids, by the way.] A lot of the movie is about these carrier pigeons trying to get away from the evil Nazi falcons, and to get back to base with their message.

As soon as the movie started to end, as the closing theme started to play, Katie jumped up from her chair and started running. I chased after her, but she was too fast. She ran all the way around the back of the theater on her little legs and then out into the lobby, and when I got out to the lobby, she was gone. A group of people was there laughing, and said "she went that way." So I ran outside.

She was standing by the van, and when I got there, she said, "I made it!"

The last two Sunday sermons are posted. One is on the subject of Paul's sermon at the Areopagus, about the "Unknown God." The other addresses the spirit of rebellion which animated the Greeks in Athens and the Jews in Corinth. The link is on the sidebar.

John at Powerline takes apart Bill Clinton's screed.

Last Sunday's sermon has been posted. It's from Acts 17, and it's titled "The Heart of a Soldier of Christ". The link is on the sidebar.

Good satire often says more than commentary:

"My approach would have been to just perpetuate the hopeless nature of it all," he says. "More images of desolation, more subtle implications of 'is this what your loving God wants?' Etc. etc. But no, between Randall Robinson, Harry Reid, Jesse Jackson, and my apprentice, Hillary, they've practically driven the people into the church house to pray that none of these people come to power."

Acts 17:16-17:
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

When Paul was distressed over the idolatry in the city, he first went to the synagogue and disputed with the Jews and the devout Greeks (those who had been taught and believed in Jehovah, but who had not yet become Jews by circumcision). Why go there? There were likely no idols in the synagogues.

But Paul knew that if the idolatry in the city were going to be combated, then the people of God needed to be enlisted. They needed to be taught the truth about Jesus Christ, because as Jews they were sidelined, knowing only the law and isolated by their Rabbinic practices. They were ineffective, and Paul knew it, for if they had been effective, the idolatry of Athens would not simply go unchallenged. Paul went to them to equip them to be effective in the transformation of their city.

The idolatry in America likewise goes largely unchallenged, because the people of God are not equipped to deal with it. It's not enough for a few individuals to write books and preach sermons against it. The people of God as a whole have to be involved in combating the teachings of Satan. They need to be trained. Our churches are full of people who might as well be Jews, who have some idea of right and wrong, but no understanding of the Gospel, and therefore no power to truly transform even their own lives, let alone their communities and families.

If the idolatry of our own cities is to be combated, the people of God need to come to a full knowledge of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Because we have a nation full of people worshiping the "Unknown God" just as they were in Athens, and they need to come to know the true God, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RazorsKiss has some choice words for the media:

Screw you all.

Greg Gutfeld has finally clued us in on the requirements to be a liberal pundit. And he should know- he's on the Huffington Post.

-do you see "looting" as a function of poverty?
- brought on by Bush's policies?
-do you think you and a looter might get along over a beer?
-as you both agree over the point you just made about poverty?
-do you press charges after he stabs you?

Sunday's sermon is posted. It compares the Jews of Thessalonica and the Jews of Berea. The Thessalonicans were prideful and envious, being more concerned with position and prestige than the truth, but the Bereans had a hunger for knowledge and were motivated by the truth of Scripture rather than petty personal concerns.

Link is on the sidebar.

From the OPC email forum, an email (reprinted with permission) from a chaplain in the Army:

Regarding the slow response by the Fed. govt in New Orleans, I think it is important to remember that the Fed. Govt took the unprecidented step of declaring the region a disaster area prior to the hurricane. That allowed FEMA to preposition and it released money to local govts in advance as well. Monday the hurricane hit, no action was possible. Tuesday, New Orleans seemed to have missed the worst of it and attention shifted to Gulfport and Biloxi. Ntl Guard troops and local law enforcement went into New Orleans as they usually do after a hurricane. Wednesday, New Orleans was clearly flooding and the situation was worsening. Typically, this is when the governor of the state calls up additional Ntl guard troops. It is not typical for Federal troops to become involved in state disasters. There are all kinds of issues with Federal Troops taking arms or action within the boarders. National Guard is what Governors use in their own states. By Thursday it was clear to the world that the relief efforts were in chaos. The police force in New Orleans had basicly entered a self defense mode and the Ntl Guard was not able to get the job done. Federal assests were moving toward the disaster area. Friday, the first hint of improvement came as First Army assests began to become involved.

It is easy to blame the Federal Government for this but the Feds have typically played a financial role while the local and state governments provided the physical assests. This is different and the President has shifted to this new need but it has crossed over several taboos to do so.

In SC, when Hugo hit, the SC ntl guard did the work. FEMA helped with those who needed $ for recovery. The same happend with the hurricanes in Florida.

None of this helps with the suffering of those in New Orleans but it is important to know who failed in what roles when the blame begins.

UPDATE:
Just for clarificaton. The Ntl Guard troops are indeed under the control of the state government. No one could have anticipated the desertion of the local police in the face of dangerous looters and the difficulty the Ntl guard had getting in to the people of New Orleans. We sent a small group of regular Army folks to Mobile to help coordinate with FEMA. Two days ago they received a change of mission and are now in Gulfport. They certainly did not pack for that since this sort of support has never been needed before. Personally, I think the President is moving effeciently. Every hour of suffering is terrible but the book for disaster relief is being rewritten with this hurricane.

Blessings,

Michael E. Cannon
CHAPLAIN (MAJ) USAR
5/87th DIV (TS)

I really do agree with Joe from Evangelical Outpost far more than I disagree, recent posts on creation notwithstanding. For example, he's got some good thoughts on looting:

Before we can answer the question, though, a few necessary premises need to be established. First, the inability of the government to enforce order does not negate our duty to obey the law. Criminal actions are neither permissible nor excusable just because they occur at a time of disorder and crisis. On the contrary, they are even more heinous for being committed at a time when our fellow man is most vulnerable.

Second, it makes no difference whether the item is a loaf of bread or a big-screen TV, when we take property that does not belong to us we committing theft. Our need for an item – even if it is essential for our survival -- has no bearing on either the criminality or the morality of the action. Before you disagree, ask yourself this question: if a person in Detroit needed food or medicine as much as someone in New Orleans, would we look the other way while they broke into Wal-Mart and took what they needed?

I couldn't agree more. We in America think we're rich enough and powerful enough to avoid reality, and this week is teaching us different. Governments forever have known that you simply cannot allow looting and rioting, or it turns into full-scale chaos. If they'd just shot some people right off the bat, we would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble.

I just realized earlier today that the blogger RazorsKiss, with whom I have interacted a fair amount in the past, was in Gulfport, Miss, which was apparently devastated by Katrina. He was liveblogging the hurricane up until Monday morning, and that was it. My prayers are with you, RazorsKiss. Hope you got out OK.

Update: He did. Praise God.

I haven't said much about this. Plenty of others are saying plenty, some of it good and most of it worthless. For the record, here's my brief thoughts on natural disasters, recorded at the time of the tsunami. One comment strikes me now as timely:

It's also tempting, I think, for us to say to ourselves, "those were Godless dark-skinned foreigners that died. Nothing like that could happen here in America." I think Scripture answers that quite effectively:

Luke 13:
2 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things?
3 "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
4 "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

God be with those who suffered in the south. I chose to give to PCA Mission to North America, but there are many worthy charities, of course.