Summertime

It's summertime and I'm gRinning from ear to ear, so it's time I told you about a laudable libation I loved in London labeled Hendrick's. Here's a write-up on it that does a better job than I, but here's my take: The gin is small-batched in the Glenfiddich distillery in Scotland. (I know...I know... gin should be from England, but what's an ironclad rule without exceptions? I mean - look at the apothecary bottle they use - it has to be good for you!) It has the raw juniper power of a Tanqueray or Gordon's, while being tempered with the subtlety of Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater's. With this kind of top-shelf quality, there are only three ways to serve it: on ice, G&T, or a dry martini (shaken, if you please). You garnish with cucumber, not lime (and don't even mention lemon, or your comments will be deleted!) - and the difference is ineffable.

Oh..if you've never had it, Pimm's is another delicious treat from the British Isles. It is gin-based, but only 27% alcohol (54 proof), as opposed to a regular gin (Hendrick's is 44% / 88 proof). The concoction is mixed with herbs, fruit juices, and citrus extracts to make a unique and enjoyable beverage. While it's okay straight, it's best as a low-alcohol cocktail - perfect for afternoon events. Try it classic or one of the endless variations of Pimm's cup. It really is deliciously refreshing in the classic form with the other drink of summertime, lemonade (1 part Pimm's, 3 parts lemonade).

Enjoy!

For Memorial Day Newton Presbytery Forgets Jesus

Here's a kicker for your Memorial Day weekend.

The Newton Presbytery has petitioned the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA) to say that Christians (um...I should say "the PCUSA") believe in the same God as Muslims. Here's the critical text.

2. State that the PC(USA) affirms that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship a common God, although each understands that God differently;

Now anyone who is a solid Trinitarian (that is, a Christian) can smell the horsehockey on this one. After all, James warned us that even demons believe that there's one God...and they shudder. This kind of faith, I guess, explains why their "About Us" page is so expansive, but their "Spiritual Life" page hasn't been updated in nearly 1 ½ years.

But what got me was a point buried in the rationale.

The Qur'anic message taught by Muhammad is that of a special regard for Christians and Christianity and the Qur'an is the only Holy Book other than the New Testament that describes the miraculous birth of Jesus. ¹⁶

^16. Qur'an, Maryam, Surah 19, 19–22.

Oh how thoughtful. They threw a bone to us fundies. Let me retort:

1. I'll bet that there are precious few who believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ who support this document. I could probably count them all on one elbow.
2. This same rationale (execrable exegesis) needs to be tested in reference to Jesus' propitiating death. Let's see what the Qur'an says: "And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger - they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain." Sura 4:157ƒ

They don't even talk about the same Jesus. If the PCUSA still believes Jesus is God, then this is not a common deity. Well... Arianism seems so in vogue with their "let's throw Jesus under the bus" attitude, I guess they'll swallow Docetism, too.

This is what happens when you make tolerance your god . . . Jesus Christ gets denied his rights!

Fun Facts on Life Insurance and the death of a church

Fun Fact:

On this date in 1761, the first American life insurance policy was issued. The policy was available to ministers for the Presbyterian Church. It was provided by the Presbyterian Synods in Philadelphia and New York who set up the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers. Nevertheless, it proved to be unpopular as many ministers considered "insurance" to be a form of gambling.

They're still at it - the Presbyterian Church continues to provide death benefits for its minister members, virtually uninterrupted for 250 years. The financial resources of previous generations lend strength to the Board of Pensions, funding its important work. Unfortunately, the denomination has rejected the theological resources of the previous generations. Jettisoning the Westminster Standards (and adopting a sloppy substitute) has resulted in precipitous declines of membership and - more important - missional thinking and acting.

To all my friends in the PCUSA, I say this: There is no death policy for a church. The only thing that can be done for a dying church is to proclaim Christ's Resurrection with unflinching courage and conviction. If you want metaphorical, narrative growth - proclaim a rhetorical resurrection. But if you want real incarnational, missional, personal growth - proclaim his resurrection and ascension in the self-same body that suffered and died for our salvation.

Looking for ways to strengthen your congregation for meeting the great ends of the Church? Become a member of the Westminster Fellowship! (They'll even let Calvinist Anglicans like myself in...hey, it was our collegiate church!)

More Bad News for the Climate Clamorers

The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (headed by homeschool champion Dr. Robinson) has released an updated accounting of their research showing that CO2 is not the devil that the greenieweenies are telling us it is. It has already garnered over 31,000 signatures of American scientists - including nearly 4,000 climatologists.* (Wherefore art thou, consensus?) Draconian measures of carbon emission reduction in science, technology, and industry will do nothing to change whatever is happening in the climate - primarily because that is not the initiator, as ice core samples have shown. RealClimate is hard at work telling us that we should trust them when it comes to the recently announced decade cooling trend (based on their analysis of 50 years data). Ironically, they tell us that shortly after they published a warning not to trust short-term trends in the system. In the scientifically approved timescale for earth's climatic history, that's a pretty short stick. Dr. Robinson's work spans recorded history and delves even deeper.

To my readers in the ecotheology movement, (which takes up everyone from ECUSA to Quakers, religious anarchists and anabaptists, and reminds me mostly of the radical anabaptists of the 16th & early 17th c.) whom I've recently taken to affectionately calling the Collared Greens, I say this: why would you advocate for the destruction of the one thing that has shown itself capable of increasing the quality and quantity of human life (viz. energy affluence)? Even if you think we should lay off the fossil fuels (something I would advocate), why not put your energy into advancing nuclear power? If we hadn't had the environuts scaring us witless about it, we could have saved gigatons of carbon being spewed into the atmosphere - and provided electricity to some of the most remote places on the planet. Electricity means refrigerated food, non-dung-cooked food, medical equipment, and information availability for self-improvement. But no...we're too busy denying the real messiah and playing our own hand at taking his place... uggh!

It's a moral issue for "conservative" Christians, too. This falls squarely within our covenantal stewardship. We just tend to agree with the science over the long term than the stuff that comes from the past 20 years.

Come to think of it, we do that with our theology, too.

*The role of relevant scientific expertise is still a hot-topic when it comes to global warming. (Pun intended.)

Story of my life

I feel very sorry for those who go to seminary unwed.

h/t Scott Adams

Public Letter to My Betters

I just checked my online balance at the bank. It looks as though Congress' "let's get re-elected through buying votes from the hoi polloi" faction has used the police power of the state to take profits away from you and give them to me as a "stimulus package." I can't say that it won't come in handy with all the recent expenses of buying a new home, paying for a new baby, homeschooling my children, etc. But I still think it's not right - especially since Congress tries to play as though they've been generous with their own money.

If you want to stimulate an economy, the least effective way is this so-called stimulus package. This takes money that has been generated by hard-working business people (at a rate that is the highest of all developed nations) and gives it to people who are less productive (or in my case, had no federal tax burden). It is sinful, the way this government takes the earnings of citizens at the point of a legislative and litigious gun. If you want an economy to grow (more jobs, more production, and more consumption), it makes much more sense to make more money available to those who have proven that they know what to do with money. That's a biblical principle that shows true again and again.

Anyway, thanks to my generous employers (and entrepreneurs like them who are penalized by Congress for being productive) for this leg up. I'll conclude with Sir Winston Churchill's famous dictum:

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Speech, House of Commons, November 11, 1947.—Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963, ed. Robert Rhodes James, vol. 7, p. 7566 (1974).

Precipitous Climate Change

Unfortunately for the greenie-weenies (the ones who want to strip you of your freedoms under the aegis of representing Gaea) that change is coming in the form of a rapid cool-off of the planet. This is in spite of increased levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

Here's a chart showing the rapid drop:

Why? Some want to say that the anomaly is due to La Nina. Well...that might be part of the answer. But if you really want to see something scary, look at the Sun. It looks like a new-born babe. That's bad, folks. The sun should look like a pimply teenager, dotted with sunspots. And as geophysicist, astronautical engineer, and NASA Astronaut Phil Chapman reports, that's extremely bad news indeed.

An old flame of mine who happens to be a PhD astrophysicist specializing in solar physics has told me that she's concerned about her observations of decreasing solar-magnetic activity. While we had been in an expected cyclical upspike (as documented in Dennis Avery's Unstoppable Global Warming), it's now time to get ready for a mini-ice-age. It's that scary, folks.

ATTENTION OBAMA

It's really not as hard as you think. On the right, we don't accept everything they say. You don't have to, either.

Bizarro World...er...church

As requested, I've worked my Photoshop-phu on that Bizarro pic so descriptive of the PCUSA's GAPJC ruling on the Janie Spahr case. (Okay...this wasn't done out of a sense of camaraderie. I was just feeling left out when Holston Presbytery endorsed minister, John Shuck, started name-calling.)


Shouldn't you just go ahead and rename the organization the Presbyterian Smirch?

Why We Need to Stay in Iraq

I hate war. I hate senseless killing.

I believe - on the basis of demonstrated 20th century history - that an American withdrawal from Iraq will only result in more war and more senseless killing.

Frankly, the question of whether or not we should have been there in the first place is still unsettled for me. But I have no questions about our continued presence. If you have doubts about it, start by reading Arthur Herman's article on the aftermath of withdrawal from Vietnam.

Meet the Robinsons

Vicky "Mean Gene" Robinson, the non-celibate sodomite Episcopal prelate of New Hampshire, is marrying his 20-yr lover in a June ceremony, shortly before the decennial Lambeth Conference. He claims that the date has nothing to do with offending the already alienated primates of 4/5ths of Anglicans worldwide. He says it's to provide protections for his "spouse" and children. However, in his November 27th speech at Nova Southeastern University, he gives the real reason: "I always wanted to be a June bride."

Can anyone reasonably believe that this man thinks of anyone other than himself and his agenda in these decisions? Even if we were to grant that homosex is biblically permissible (even for a bishop), what about his divorce and his alcoholism?

Planned Parenthood promotes racism and rape

For years, allegations of racism and genocide among pro-aborts have been raised in sectors of the pro-life community. These allegations are normally dismissed as the rantings of crackpots, even when it comes in the form of well-reasoned and documented arguments. But a recent string of student-led investigations have started to reverse that trend. See Michelle Malkin's coverage of undercover sting on Planned Parenthood abortion mills. Apparently, Planned Parenthood is ecstatic to get your money in order to kill black babies. And it's about time black leaders (especially church leaders) stood up and spoke out!

By the way, Planned Parenthood also loves to cover up statutory rape. Maybe one day a loving, woman-affirming PP representative will ask your 15 year old daughter to "Figure out a birthday that works." That doesn't sound very feminist to me.

If you're interested in protecting the rights of women and minorities, start by protecting the fetus (roughly half of which are XX and is disproportionately applied to minorities). Because abortion is murder.

Join up: LEARN

PS: in case you missed the Yale art student kerfluffle....

Histrionic Historians Hate Herbert's Heir

The History News Network has reported the findings of an "unscientific poll" of "professional historians" to conclude that George W. Bush is the worst president ever. Now I know that W isn't troubled. Unlike some presidents (or candidates) he's never taken his marching orders from opinion polls (unscientific or otherwise). Word on the street is he gets his orders from either Ole' Scratch hisself or the military industrial cabal.

Anyway, there're plenty of good reasons not to even report this "fact finding mission" not the least of which are as follows:

1. Academia is glutted with post-hippie anti-war PhDs...people who kept re-upping their matriculation to avoid working and or war. It's not that I'm for war - especially not this war. However, it's important to keep in view that the most formative years of many of these folk's lives were spent in protesting Vietnam and Bush just gets their vinegar in a tussle in ways that other presidents have. (PS, it's not about deaths of American soldiers since nearly as many died under Clinton - during "peacetime"!)
   
2. Academia has long had a left-leaning bias, especially in the humanities and social sciences. One national survey of more than 1,000 profs shows that Democrats outnumber Republicans by at least 7 to 1 in the social sciences and humanities. (Aren't these the guys that whine incessantly about underrepresentation in important sectors of life? What - it's okay to look different, so long as we all think alike?)
   
3. Most importantly: this isn't the work of historians. Historians have to have the passage of time in order to see how certain policies worked themselves out in the political and economic and social ramifications. That takes time - something that they don't have yet. Give us twenty or thirty years and then ask the question.*

If I want a prognosticator, I'll talk to a political scientist or my stock broker. If I want history, I'll have to look backwards. Unfortunately, the judgment of history isn't likely to be available to us for at least 25 years.

* I take the same issue with those who laud Reagan as the greatest president of all time. While he was truly great and enjoyed enormous bi-partisan popularity, I still don't think enough time has passed for us to see him in comparison to other universally-acknowledged "greats".

BEAT TO THE PUNCH. H/T Aric

The Caliphate says NO MOVIES FOR YOU

Well, the cultural troglodytes that keep up the war (fitna) of terror are doing their best to make sure no one else sees the 15 minute expose on Islamic terror in the Netherlands. I'll keep posting links to where the movie is hosted. Right now, it's on Geert Wilder's state-sponsored website, so maybe there will be better security.

See FITNA here!

The Film They Don't Want You To See

It's getting taken down on most sites that try to host it, so see Fitna today...before the "religion of peace" kindly reminds host-servers that death-threats can be executed (pun intended).

UPDATE: Their site keeps getting hacked by Isamonazis. Keep checking in on it. They are putting it on Google and continuing to update and overcome the anti-free-speech attacks of the Religion of Peace™ (or the Religion of Blowing You to Pieces©)

Medieval Help Desk

And all the Luddites lament!

Paradigm shift, anyone?

Not sure I'll be blogging anymore until Easter Monday, so make sure your Resurrection Celebration is God-honoring!

Maundy Thursday is now Mandatory

Today, most of the Latin-derived churches are celebrating Maundy Thursday. The name comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means "command." It refers to the Last Supper, when Jesus said:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13)

This isn't a command to "like" one another but to LOVE. He didn't say "tell people that all belief systems are equally salvific as a means of showing how friendly you are" (love means telling them that apart from Christ, they're bound for Hell). It's not a command to seek institutional unity at the expense of truth. It's a command to love as Jesus describes Christian love.

Attention, Church (especially those who have existed as either an implicit or explicit established institution):

Jesus gave us the marching orders, and we need to be on about it.

In other words, sh*t or get off the pot (else you may end up like this poor woman). The legacy churches desperately need to be dethroned. And for you pastors out there: quit letting your lay leaders get away with just sitting around doing nothing. You're only making their inactivity more acceptable. And you are depriving yourself of great joy.

Same thing for you lay leaders: if your pastor isn't feeding you a steady diet of the God's Word, then don't enable them. Demand they hie to the study and come out when they've heard from God. Demand that they lead by example. Don't let a numpty waste your time with fables.

Guns, Guts, Glory, and Government

Keep an eye on the upcoming SCOTUS decision in DC vs. Heller. It's going to decide whether the US Constitution grants rights to individuals, or only collectively. It's also going to decide whether any subordinate judicatory can abridge those rights.

The issues involved are much bigger than the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. But the longer I live, the more I see that our 1st Amendment rights - all of our rights - are based on our ability to thwart those who would take those rights away from us without just cause. Frankly, I'd rather have a government afraid of its citizenry than the obverse.

Catch that Calvinism

I just got an Easter card from a friend. It's lovely and well rendered, graphically. Take a look at it here. Do that before you read the rest of the post.





Now....can anybody guess why I find this card disheartening? Two thumbs up to the first contestant that gets it right!

Satan is wearing long johns

I just agreed with Keith Olbermann!