Godblog

The two faces of the ACLU

After the ACLU got a homosexual group officially recognized at a high school in Washington State, it’s now filed a friend-of-the-court brief essentially asking that case to be struck down, because a Christian club is now using that case to be recognized itself.

“This goes to show how far the ACLU will manipulate the legal system to further their radical agenda,” said Chandler, a litigation specialist who is working on the case.

“They are backtracking,” Chandler said. “They used these laws to get what they wanted -– equal rights for the gay-straight alliance -– and now that they’ve gotten that, they want to retract it so the Bible club doesn’t get the same benefits.”

[…]

“The ACLU is obviously engaged in religious bigotry -– in cases concerning homosexual groups, they argue that Prince fully applies, but now, when it clearly applies, using the ACLU’s own standard, to a religious club, they are seeking to overturn the Prince decision,” he said.

The ACLU continues to prove it is no friend of the Christian when it comes to religious liberty. The ACLU is engaged in an agenda, it would appear, to guarantee freedoms to everyone except Christians.

The modern Four Horsemen: The Fourth Horseman

Today we wrap up Chuck Colson’s look at the “Four Horseman” of this, our modern age, with this final quote from his speech, “The Enduring Revolution”:

The fourth modern myth is radical individualism. The fourth horseman brings excess and isolation.

This myth dismisses the importance of family, church, and community; denies the value of sacrifice; and elevates individual rights and pleasures as the ultimate social value.

But with no higher principles to live by, men and women suffocate under their own expanding pleasures. Consumerism becomes empty and leveling, leaving society full of possessions but drained of ideals. This is what Vaclav Havel calls “totalitarian consumerism.”

A psychologist tells the story of a despairing young woman, spent in an endless round of parties, exhausted by the pursuit of pleasure. When told she should simply stop, she responded, “You mean I don’t have to do what I want to do?”

As author George Macdonald once wrote, “The one principle of hell is ‘I am my own.’”

Revelation 6:7-8 tells us “And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living being say, ‘Come and see!’ And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”

The great sin which was the downfall of Lucifer, and led to his and a third of Heaven being cast out, was the sin of selfishness. I’ve read that to be a practicing Satanist, one doesn’t have to belong to the Church of Satan. All one has to do is to totally live for oneself, with no regard to anyone or anything else. How many of us are guilty of that at one time or another?

Ultimately, if this is the way you live your life, you will find yourself in Hell. Most people have this image of Hell as a place of fire and brimstone, with the Devil and his demons forever taunting them. Many people have said, oftentimes as a stab to harshly judgmental Christians, that they would rather be in Hell with their friends, than in Heaven with the likes of them. What these poor souls don’t realize is that Hell isn’t going to be a place where you will be with anyone. You will be utterly and absolutely alone. Worst of all, unlike here and now, where when even alone the Spirit of the Living God is present with you, in Hell you will be completely removed from the presence of God Himself. That is what Hell will truly be, and why one should fear, not embrace, it.

The modern Four Horsemen: The Third Horseman

From “The Enduring Revolution”:

The third myth is the relativity of moral values. The third horseman sows chaos and confusion.

This myth hides the dividing line between good and evil, noble and base. It has thus created a crisis in the realm of truth. When a society abandons its transcendent values, each individual’s moral vision becomes purely personal and finally equal. Society becomes merely the sum total of individual preferences, and since no preference is morally preferable, anything that can be dared will be permitted.

This leaves the moral consensus for our laws and manners in tatters. Moral neutrality slips into moral relativism. Tolerance substitutes for truth, indifference for religious conviction. And in the end, confusion undercuts all our creeds.

The modern Four Horsemen: The Second Horseman

From “The Enduring Revolution”:

The second myth of modernity is the promise of coming utopia. The second horseman arrives with sword and slaughter.

This is the myth that human nature can be perfected by government; that a new Jerusalem can be built using the tools of politics.

From the birth of this century, ruthless ideologies claimed history as their own. They moved swiftly from nation to nation on the strength of a promised utopia. They pledged to move the world, but could only stain it with blood.

In communism and fascism we have seen rulers who bear the mark of Cain as a badge of honor; who pursue a savage virtue, devoid of humility and humanity. We have seen more people killed in this century by their own governments than in all its wars combined. We have seen every utopian experiment fall exhausted from the pace of its own brutality.

Yet utopian temptations persist, even in the world’s democracies — stripped of their terrors perhaps, but not of their risks. The political illusion still deceives, whether it is called the great society, the new covenant, or the new world order. In each case it promises government solutions to our deepest needs for security, peace, and meaning.

The Four Horsemen of our age

I just read a speech delivered by Chuck Colson in 1993 to the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Colson was accepting the Templeton Prize, and this speech was the accceptance address. I was especially struck by his usage of the Four Horseman as a literary device, and thought I would share one a day. From “The Enduring Revolution”:

Four great myths define our times — the four horsemen of the present apocalypse.

The first myth is the goodness of man. The first horseman rails against heaven with the presumptuous question: why do bad things happen to good people? He multiplies evil by denying its existence.

This myth deludes people into thinking that they are always victims, never villains; always deprived, never depraved. It dismisses responsibility as the teaching of a darker age. It can excuse any crime, because it can always blame something else — a sickness of society or a sickness of the mind.

One writer has called the modern age “the golden age of exoneration.” When guilt is dismissed as the illusion of narrow minds, then no one is finally accountable, even to his conscience.

The irony is that this should come alive in this century, of all centuries, with its gulags and death camps and killing fields. As G. K. Chesterton once said, the doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy empirically validated by the centuries of recorded human history.

It was a holocaust survivor who exposed this myth most eloquently. Yehiel Dinur was a witness during the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Dinur entered the courtroom and stared at the man behind the bulletproof glass — the man who had presided over the slaughter of millions. The court was hushed as a victim confronted a butcher.

Then suddenly Dinur began to sob, and collapsed to the floor. Not out of anger or bitterness. As he explained later in an interview, what struck him at that instant was a terrifying realization. “I was afraid about myself,” Dinur said. “I saw that I am capable to do this … Exactly like he.”

The reporter interviewing Dinur understood precisely. “How was it possible for a man to act as Eichmann acted?” he asked. “Was he a monster? A madman? Or was he perhaps something even more terrifying … Was he normal?”

Yehiel Dinur, in a moment of chilling clarity, saw the skull beneath the skin. “Eichmann,” he concluded, “is in all of us.”

Jesus said it plainly: “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man” (Mark 7:20).

WalkAmerica 2005

It’s that time of the year again, when I pimp my readers for donations to a worthy cause. At the end of this month, my wife and I will be participating in the annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica in Dallas. We’ve both registered to raise money for the event, so I’m asking for donations, which you can contribute by going to my WalkAmerica web site.

Our son, now a healthy 20-month-old toddler, was born 9 weeks premature and spent 6 weeks in the Neonatal ICU. During that time, we witnessed the good things done by the March of Dimes first hand. We’d appreciate any support you can give to this great event. Thanks!

Million Bible Challenge

Michael Hyatt relays the success of Thomas Nelson’s Million Bible Challenge. The target is now five million Bibles by Easter 2006!

Andrew Manzione, your father is looking for you

John Manzione is trying to locate his son Andrew, with whom he has had no contact in 18 years. If you know Andrew, or if for some reason Andrew is reading this, here is John’s e-mail address.

QuickVerse Mac

Another Bible software title is coming back to the Mac, as QuickVerse has announced a Macintosh Black Box edition, due around the first of June. The new version is even being optimized to take advantage of new features in the upcoming Tiger release of Mac OS X.

QuickVerse Mac will incorporate at least two new elements found distinctively in Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4, also known as “Tiger” is on schedule to be released mid-April, 2005).

1) A “Verse Widget” to find any Book/Chapter/Verse in any Bible translation, and 2) Spotlight links for searching through any/all QuickVerse Mac books.

A cheaper, smaller feature set, White Box edition will also be available. Coming on the heels of the Logos announcement, this is more good news for Mac-using Bible students.

[Via Macsimum News.]

World Vision Indonesian earthquake relief

World Vision is one of the many organizations helping with the recent Indonesian earthquake, which left as many as 600 dead and hundreds, possibly thousands, homeless. If you would like to contribute to the distribution of Family Survival Packs to the survivors, you can donate to the SAVEFund. If you would like to help with the long-term rebuilding efforts, you can donate to the HELPFund.

I have no affiliation with World Vision, other than having been a donor in the past.

Be Unto Your Name

We sang one of my favorite songs today during worship. I first heard “Be Unto Your Name” on the Revival in Belfast CD, by worship leader Robin Mark. I think this CD is a favorite of our worship leader’s as well. I can usually tell when we’re going to sing something from it, from the instrumentation on stage.

[Two of the above links require iTunes.]