The Record of Atheism

I enjoyed this guest editorial from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution yesterday. It is by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason Ministries. In it he addresses those who claim the worst atrocities of history have taken place in the name of God. Actually, those atrocities came to us courtesy of the godless . . .

The simple fact of history is that the greatest evil has resulted from the denial of God, not the pursuit of God. Conservative columnist Dennis Prager has noted, "In this (20th) century alone, more innocent people have been murdered, tortured and enslaved by secular ideologies —- Nazism and communism —- than by all religions in history."

Grab an older copy of the Guinness Book of World Records and turn to the category "Judicial," subheading "Crimes: Mass Killings." You'll find that carnage of unimaginable proportions resulted not from religion, but from institutionalized atheism. (The 2007 edition of Guinness does not contain those same categories.)

Guinness reports, "The greatest massacre ever imputed by the government of one sovereign against another is the 26.3 million Chinese killed during the regime of Mao Zedong between 1949 and May 1965. The Walker Report published by the U.S. Senate Committee of the Judiciary in July 1971 placed . . . the total death toll in China since 1949 between 32.25 and 61.7 million."

In the former Soviet Union, Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn estimated that state repression and terrorism took more than 66 million lives from 1917 to 1959 under Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev.

The worst per capita genocide happened in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. According to Guinness, "More than one-third of the 8 million Khmers were killed between April 17, 1975 and January 1979."

The greatest evil does not result from people zealous for God. It results when people are convinced there is no God to whom they must answer.

He also addresses things like the Salem witch trials, about which George Grant writes:

Though the Puritan clergy of Massachusetts had unanimously opposed the Salem witch trials, the episode was seen by them all as a terrible example of misdirected zeal. Thus, in December, 1696, they resolved among themselves to call for a general fast day to be held on January 15, 1697, "That so all of God's people may offer up fervent supplications unto him, that all iniquity may be put away, which hath stirred God's holy jealousy against this land; that He would show us what we know not, and help us, wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more." Judge Samuel Sewell and the jury of the trials all confessed their error and implored God's forgiveness and further direction. Though modern skeptics love to point to the Salem witch trials as a special blight on the church's character, rarely is the end of the story told in full.

In any case events like the witch trials, bad as they where, pale in comparison to the routinely unbridled bloodletting of those in opposition to God and the gospel. Let's keep the record straight.

Karate Photos

The boys', karate photos are now online. They are also accessible from the left-hand column. But consider yourself warned. Like Barney Fife, these hands are lethal weapons!

Thou Art the Way

The prayer book that our family is currently using included this evening the hymn "Thou Art the Way" by George Washington Doane (who was born the same year our first president died, thus his name). I was drawn to it because it is structured by John 14:6,"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." I don't remember ever hearing it before, but I like it.

Thou art the Way: to Thee alone
From sin and death we flee;
And he who would the Father seek
Must seek Him, Lord, by Thee.

Thou art the Truth: Thy Word alone
True wisdom can impart;
Thou only canst inform the mind,
And purify the heart.

Thou art the Life: the rending tomb
Proclaims Thy conquering arm,
And those who put their trust in Thee
Nor death nor hell shall harm.

Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life;
Grant us that Way to know,
That Truth to keep, that Life to win,
Whose joys eternal flow.

19th Century Prophet

"Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."

~ Mark Twain ~

It's not "Bush's War"

And no matter what we do we cannot get out of it. Sorry. That's just the way it is. If you won't listen to me, maybe you'll listen to these guys:

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Quran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."
--Omar Ahmad, Co-founder of CAIR


"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."
-- Hussein Massawi, Hezbollah leader

Poker seems to be on two or three channels every evening so maybe that's a language people can understand. Okay, I'm not sure exactly what hand these guys are holding, but they've raised and called. Are we in, or do we fold? These are the highest stakes possible, in case you've forgotten . . .


It's not just a game. It's war. And it's much more than "Bush's War." It's a war that has to be embraced by all of us, including the Church. For more on that, listen here or read here.

The Many and the Few

"Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus, love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!"

Thomas 'a Kempis from The Imitation Of Christ

You Can Say That Again!

This is a follow-up to the previous post. Guess who wrote to his wife that,

the pressing need is for great men "who when fortune frowns will not be discouraged." If there is a grievous flaw in how things are being run, it is the "stupid parsimony" of the Congress.

Given the political climate of the moment, it could be most any of today's fine military men. Alas, it was Colonel Henry Knox of Massachusetts and he spoke of those whose faith in General George Washington had faltered. I guess we've been doubting George since our nation's founding! Well, I don't think our our current Congress can be accused of "parsimony," but a charge of "stupid" would likely bring a conviction!

BTW, I've almost finished 1776. What a great read!

HR 511

While the gutless wonders in the Senate continue playing political games with "non-binding," "symbolic" votes on troop withdrawal and the like, the boys (and of course, Girl) in the the House, led by Sam Johnson of TX, are actually working on a real bill (i.e., a non-symbolic, binding one--HR 511) which pledges:

Congress will not cut off or restrict funding for units and members of the Armed Forces that the Commander in Chief has deployed in harm's way in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

I encourage everyone to support and publicize this effort. You can even contact the House at 202-225-3121 or go here to contact your congressman.

The Few, The Proud, The Customer Maniacs

The KFC in Conyers has completed its makeover and there is now a sign out front such as the one pictured to the left. Customer maniacs? I can't remember ever encountering one of those at KFC or just about anywhere else for that matter, can you? I can only think of a couple of exceptions--the weekday crew at Chick-fil-a and most of the ladies at Office Depot (both in Conyers). Are there any other places out there with "customer maniacs?"

Two "P's" in a Pod

The Christian Post is reporting that "Carter, Clinton Join to Reshape Baptist Image." I'm sure Baptists are overjoyed to have these two shining stars on board to make them "look better"--one best known for his infidelities in the Oval Office and the other most recently noted for authoring a book about Israel which has led to the resignation of 14 members of his Presidential Center's Board of Councilors due to the book's confusion of "opinion with fact, subjectivity with objectivity." Nothing like having a couple of certified liars for PR men!

This Goes Way Beyond the Episcopal Church

Kudos to Os Guiness and Rev. John Yates for their opinion piece in the Washington Post. They were commenting on the vote by several Virginia churches to leave the Episcopal Church. Here's a snippet:

"The sola scriptura (by the Scriptures alone) doctrine of the Reformation Church has been abandoned for the sola cultura (by the culture alone) way of the Modern Church. No longer under authority, the Episcopal Church today is either its own authority or finds its authority in the shifting winds of intellectual and social fashion--which is to say it has no authority."
"We remain Anglicans but leave the Episcopal Church because the Episcopal Church first left the historic faith. Like our spiritual forebears in the Reformation, "Here we stand. So help us God. We can do no other."

Here's to the troops . . .

Remember them constantly in your prayers.

Drew's Latest

"Polly"

Context! Context! Context!

Everyone is familiar with the real estate maxim, "Location! Location! Location!" Well, location is important in more than real estate. I have in mind the context (which is a location of sorts) in which things take place. Context gives perspective, assigns importance, and provides the means for evaluation. A simple example should show this. Imagine a groundout to first with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning. What a stinker! Now, imagine the same groundout in the same inning, but with a runner on second base and no outs. Now we're talking! What a difference! Or what if your quarterback took the snap and knelt down three straight plays? In the first quarter you'd be ready to fire people! But if he did that running out the clock in the fourth quarter you'd be elated!

I have in mind not baseball or football, but the question of what to do in Iraq. Conventional wisdom believes that the President wants to enact "The Surge," a ramping up of troop levels to more effectively quash the current terrorist violence and to more rapidly accomplish the vitally important task of readying more of the Iraqi army. The opposing argument seems to be, "Get out of Dodge!" (as Tanya Roberts would say).

I don't pretend to know the best course of action. I just want Iraq and as many other countries as possible to be places that are inhospitable to Muslim radicals. The thing that we in the West fail to realize is that YOU CAN "LEAVE THEM ALONE," BUT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO GO AWAY! These folks have a looooooong view of things. Our leaders (and we) are stuck in these ridiculous two and four year election cycles! What a joke. Our enemeies (and that is exactly who they are) have a DECADES and CENTURIES view of this war. They know that it is as simple as demographics--the Western population is shrinking, and the Muslim population is exploding. They also know that one of these days they will have their hands on some sort of nukes. These things currently seem unavoidable, and the terrorists know all they have to do is outlast fools who worry only about the next election and the idiots that vote for them. Looking around I would say outlasting us is a rather simple thing to do.

Argue as you like for what to do about Iraq, but please give it some context! What is in the short run "best for our troops" may in fact be very much worse for them, and all of us, in the long run. I hate to imagine the context of these arguments in 50 years if we fail to put them in the proper context now.

Kylie's Corner

I want you to meet Kylie. She is the daughter of Drew and Racquel Barry and the older sister of Christian. (Drew, of course, played basketball at Georgia Tech in a former life.) Kylie was diagnosed a couple of years ago with a very aggressive form of cancer. Honestly, at the time her condition was most serious:

On October 7th, 2004 a tumor, about the size of a softball, was found in Kylie's abdomen and she was diagnosed as having Neuroblastoma. The tumor was connected to Kylie's adrenal gland and wrapped around several major arteries. A biopsy of the tumor revealed that the cancer is N-MYC amplified. This means Kylie's cancer is considered "unfavorable" and aggressive.

I was checking for news of her on the internet recently and found Kylie's Corner, which gives updates on her progress. And I do mean progress! As Drew posted on October 18, 2006:

Kylie is looking and feeling like a normal healthy child. I can't believe how far she has come. To think we just had the D-Day anniversary and where she was 2 years ago, I can only say God is AWESOME!! Raquel and I have grown in our walk with Christ so much the past 2 years. Without our faith in the Lord I do not know how we would be dealing with all this cancer stuff. I will admit I am cautious when it comes to Kylie's disease because I read so many stories of relapse but in my heart I know God has completely healed my little girl.

Pray for the Barrys and check out Kylie's Corner.

The Perfect (tongue firmly in cheek) Praise Song

Just replace "baby" with "Jesus" in Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" and you get this rapturous perfection of a praise chorus. (I know this is so because God revealed it to my wife a couple of days ago while we were driving on the Covington bypass.) I guarantee a church somewhere has tried this:

We've come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you Jesus,
I have to praise you like I should

We've come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you Jesus,
I have to praise you like I should

I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you like I should

I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you

We've come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you Jesus,
I have to praise you like I shouldddddd

I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you like I should
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you

UPDATE!!!!

Wow. I had forgotten how horribly low budget and bad the video for "Praise You" was. If you dare you can watch it below: