The Gods of Liberalism are Ancient

J. Matt Barber's column today at CNS News points out a spiritual truth about liberalism.

He mentions a sermon he heard a few weeks ago at Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, VA by Pastor John Mabray:

In his sermon, Pastor Mabray illustrated that, although they've now assumed a more contemporary flair, the fundamentals of Baal worship remain alive and well today. The principal pillars of Baalism were child sacrifice, sexual immorality (both heterosexual and homosexual) and pantheism (reverence of creation over the Creator).

Ritualistic Baal worship, in sum, looked a little like this: Adults would gather around the altar of Baal. Infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity.

Amid horrific screams and the stench of charred human flesh, congregants – men and women alike – would engage in bisexual orgies. The ritual of convenience was intended to produce economic prosperity by prompting Baal to bring rain for the fertility of "mother earth."

To revisit the key point I bold-typed above, modern liberalism and ancient paganism are strikingly similar in their practice of child sacrifice, sexual license and reverence of creation over the Creator.

These are some points I know Pastor Steve Hickey at Voices Carry has preached and taught on before.

And, as Barber points out, the ancient gods are in ascension in America right now:

Nonetheless, the aforementioned pillars of postmodern Baalism – abortion, sexual relativism and radical environmentalism – will almost certainly make rapid headway over the next four to eight years, with or without help from the Christian left. The gods of liberalism have a new high priest in Barack Obama, and enjoy many devout followers in the Democratic-controlled Congress, liberal media and halls of academia.

There is indeed nothing new under the sun. The human race keeps doing the same old stupid thing and repeating the same old sins.

Which points out another area where liberalism is dead wrong: we aren't evolving up morally any more than we are evolving up biologically.

Rick Warren on Responsibility for Homosexual Behavior

Pastor Rick Warren has sometimes gotten a little cozier with some bad elements (e.g. terrorist sympathizers, abortion and homosexual apologists) than I care for, but he seems to be redeeming himself lately, even though President-elect Barack Obama has invited Warren to say a prayer at his inauguration (that alone would make a person of character wonder).

Newsbusters highlights one of those things that's restoring my trust in Warren.

In an interview with uber-liberal and Queen of Political Correctness Ann Curry, Curry pulls the usual "mainstream" media "aren't-you-a-hater" and "aren't-you-mean-for-believing-in-morality" tactic on Warren.

She essentially accuses Warren of being homophobic, to which Warren laughs (I don't know whether he's laughing at the implication that he might be afraid of sameness--which is what "homophobic" means--or whether he's laughing at the implication that he's afraid of homosexuals).

ANN CURRY: Your position [on gay marriage] has raised the spectre that you are homophobic.

Warren responds with a hearty laugh.

CURRY: You laugh, but that is why gay people are angry.

RICK WARREN: Well, I could give you a hundred --

CURRY: Are you homophobic?

WARREN: I don't know any church in America that's done more to help the gay community, particularly with AIDS, than Saddleback. But the hate speech against me is incendiary.

Indeed. Warren and Saddleback have been so "there" on the AIDS issue (as all good liberals are), that I have some mistrust for Warren because of this. I'll admit that I don't know the full details of everything Warren and Saddleback have done with regard to AIDS, but what I have seen appears more than a little short on recognition of the fact that according to the CDC the vast majority of AIDS cases stem from homosexual activity...and homosexual behavior is just that--a behavior, something that can be chosen or not chosen.

Which brings us to the next statement that redeems Warren in my book.

CURRY: If science finds that this is biological, that people are born gay, would you change your position?

WARREN: No, and the reason why is because we all have biological predispositions. I'm naturally inclined to have sex with every beautiful woman I see. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Indeed. The Bible teaches that, as fallen creatures descended from Adam and Eve, we are all predisposed to sin, and some of us have weaknesses for some sins over others.

But the Bible makes it equally clear that we are all culpable for all of our sins. There are no "my pet sins" clauses or exceptions in the Bible.

Newsbusters supplies a link to a video of Curry's textbook display of liberal apologetics and defense of PC dogma.

If Warren's uncomfortable coziness with liberal causes has resulted in this opportunity for him to speak an all-too-rare truth in the national limelight, then (provided he hasn't compromised truth behind the scenes) perhaps it's been a brilliant strategy, after all.

Lies enslave (as does the lie that homosexuals can't change), but the truth sets people free.

Ripped Away

By Marie Jon'

Imagine being suddenly ripped away from your home and left standing in an unfamiliar place that completely contradicted your way of life. The extreme pressures are overwhelming. You find yourself in a society that you were never raised to believe in and that no one can sufficiently explain. One could describe the feeling as an unfavorable.

I'm afraid that many people living in our country are feeling just this way. The horrendous, rapid pace of social change is throwing us off balance. It seems that we're living in a different place.

What has happened to America? Our social mores and values are being redefined. What can be done?

Christians have to resist these dramatic changes because they do not conform to the teachings of a loving yet firm God. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11:23)

At a recent Bible study class I was asked if I would be ready to die for my faith. My response was “absolutely not.” The thought of dying doesn’t appeal to me. However, I believe if that moment were to actually come, God would give me the courage to do it rather than denying my Lord.

Have you ever wondered if you had it in you to become a martyr, ready to die for your faith? While going through the prophecies of the Bible, I found an answer that gave me hope. It’s a powerful thought that provides an unmovable confidence. No matter what might come my way, I can face it. Here is that prophecy and true the story that helped me reach my conclusion.

There once lived a young man named Daniel, who was just eighteen years old. This exemplary teenager could inspire many to get up early on the Lord’s Day and attend their churches’ weekly Bible classes.

Total strangers approached Daniel. They meant him no good, to say the least. The city he once lived in was totally wiped out. All the beautiful homes that once stood in his neighborhood were left in smoldering ruins. He and his friends and neighbors were bound in chains and unwillingly taken off to a land where everyone spoke in a strange language and held strange customs.

And oddly enough, this uncanny happening was pre-told in the written Word. The Israelites knew it was coming. The dramatic fulfillment of an old prediction was made clear to them by the prophet Isaiah years before it happened. Look at 2 Kings 17-20; Isaiah predicted:

“‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord.”

Everything that took place was exactly as Isaiah had predicted. Sometime between 606 and 605 B.C., the Babylonian armies overtook the royal city of Jerusalem and laid it to destruction.

Daniel was just one member of the royal family who became a victim of another ruler of ancient times. The entire family was carried away in chains, along with Daniel’s neighbors. They were forced to march hundreds of miles across the burning desert to the city of Babylon. They felt humiliated because they were subjected to the shame of slavery.

Daniel was placed into servitude in the home of a pagan king. While most young men would begin living their adult lives, he became nothing more than a slave. Daniel felt helpless. What was there to look forward to?

However, as bad as that was, his personal situation could have been a whole lot worse. At least he was not put to work in the fields or forced to work in a rock quarry.

Daniel was given a job in the palace of the king. One of the first things he was asked to do was graduate from the Royal University of Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar had an extraordinary master plan for world domination. The king took the brightest and the best, and put them through his own universities so that they would learn to think like the Babylonians and rule over the conquered Israelites.

Over time, the king knew that the people of Israel would settle in to their new way of life. By using Daniel he felt assured his brilliant strategy would work. He counted on no uprisings against his Babylonian kingdom. Rather than beat, starve or use other cruel measures to isolate and alienate his captives, Nebuchadnezzar’s plan was to simply absorb them into the empire.

It is a plan that is being used today right here in the United States of America. It’s much easier for the ungodly to entice people into open sin by changing the way they think. It’s better than fighting them tooth and nail.

One way to achieve silencing any opposition is by telling our school age children that Darwinism is the be all and end all. There is no open debate allowed in the sciences for “Intelligent Design", neither in grade school, high school, nor universities of higher education.

Today, we sadly find ourselves in a rapidly changing world. Values are changing. The world is telling us that nothing is right or wrong, and that everything’s a matter of personal preferences.

Like the Trojan Horse, we allow the entertainment media into our homes. Today’s Pop music is seductive and devoid of morals. The melodies and the lyrics are no longer about boy meets girl and puppy love. It is any wonder why our society is spinning out of control?

Our teenagers are encouraged to become sexually active. Our public schools allow Planned Parenthood to pass out free condoms and birth control pills. However, babies are still being born out of wedlock, and worse, abortion on demand has hardened our society. There is no remorse connected with aborting an unwanted pregnancy.

While evil seems to chase God’s people, some lose their way and peacefully join the ranks of the secular progressive way of life. It's perfectly fine to allow the gay community to dictate to the rest of society regarding their version of marital Nirvana.

The Babylonian education program was much like our own public school system. They were lacking in the moral values of the God of the Bible. Our faith will not grow if we can't call the words of God to mind. America needs to become known as the people of the Bible. It’s our heritage, and we're losing it.

During the time of his captivity, Daniel exhibited special qualities of intelligence. Given the choice between working in the rock quarries all day or attending the best schools the Babylonians had to offer, the choice was a no-brainier. However, the Bible unfolds the rest of the story. In spite of the cushy living conditions, Daniel didn’t have it so easy. He faced much greater difficulties in the opulent palace.

One would believe that Daniel took a big sigh of relief, thankful that his prison sentence wasn’t any worse. But even at his young age, he had common sense and could see past the luxurious perks. Daniel recognized that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to change everything he stood for.

Little by little, Israelites were stripped of everything that made them Hebrews. They were unwillingly given new names. In our day and age, that doesn’t seem like a bad thing. People change their names all the time. Many immigrants took on slight changes to their last names as they entered Ellis Island. Not so in the ancient world. To change your name was to change your character. Your name represented who you were and what you stood for.

Parents chose their children’s names very carefully. They wholeheartedly believed that your name would dictate your course in life. Your name would help shape your character. The right name would give you a better chance at a good life.

The king of Babylon wanted to change the character of every Hebrew. So he simply changed their names and sat back to see the fruits of his labor. (Daniel 1:6, 7 NKJV):

“Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. to them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego.”

Originally, Daniel’s name meant, “God is my judge.” Hananiah meant “Jehovah (or Yahweh) is gracious.” Mishael means “the one who belongs to God,” and Azariah means “Jehovah helps.”

The young men were named as a special tribute to The Almighty. Because Nebuchadnezzar didn’t want them to remember their Hebrew religion, he removed their identity and gave them pagan names of Babylonian gods instead.

Belteshazzar became Daniel’s new name. The king brazenly believed he had won the battle over the human mind. His strongest weapon was the ability to make people accept the culture of the general population. The reason we find the city of Babylon all through Bible prophecy is because of its powerful symbol of religious confusion, especially in the last days.

The Book of Revelation describes a people who have become drunk with the wine of Babylon. People who will be alive to see the Second Coming of Christ are found immersed in false teachings and bad philosophy. Liberal doctrines lead them astray, thus their moral judgments will leave them seriously impaired.

Some Christians have taken a lesson from the Babylonians by mixing God’s truth with error. They are no longer able think for themselves. (Thessalonians2:7): “The mystery of iniquity doth already work,” and it’s happening today.

The ancient empire of Babylon was built on the ruins of the tower of Babel. After the flood, the human race became very haughty. They build a monument to their greatness. However, The Almighty put a stop to it by confusing their language. Even today, the word “Babel” or “Babylon” means unintelligible gibberish.

The Bible speaks of a special end time message that goes to the entire world. (Revelation 14:8 NKJV):

“And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”

The prophecy can’t possibly be referring to the literal ancient city of Babylon, because the old ancient city has been gone for centuries. God says that Babylon will never be rebuilt: Isaiah 13.

Just before the end time, however, ”spiritual” Babylon will prevail over the citizens of the world. They will find themselves in a state of religious confusion. The scriptures portray a very sad picture of where the human race is heading. Within the opening chapter of the Book of Daniel, one can envision the issues that Daniel was facing and we see a little glimpse of what we are going to face as time goes by.

The secular progressives of today are trying to woo us to their way of thinking, just as the Babylonians tried with an eighteen-year-old. Daniel was continually tempted; his lifestyle and religious beliefs were under fire.

In today’s world, our morals have been thrown to the wayside. We are bombarded on a daily basis with the temptation to conform. Everything changes in direct opposition to the Word of God. The amazing thing is that it was all predicted in the book of Revelation: (Revelation 18:3, 4 NKJV)

“‘For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.’ And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’”

There is a Holy Spirit clarion call going out to America and to the world. Christian activism calls for a people who will stand tall and true. There is more at stake than ever before. Liberalism undermines America. It compromises our convictions, while many wander away from God. Secularism often equals atheism. They offer every evil under the sun without condemnation or shame.

In your heart, you know that this is true. There is a part of you that remembers what life was like when people still believed in their faith, and you know that you would like to stand up for what’s right. You have a desire to never throw in the towel.

If what you feel is righteous indignation, then hold fast. Cling to Jesus. You can walk away from every temptation that this world has to offer, and live a life with no regrets.

The story of Daniel tells us what we can do. Against all odds, anyone can stand for God. If only more Christians embraced the “Daniel approach” to life, maybe this world wouldn’t be in the compromising moral mess it finds itself in.

Men and women, with a strong determination and the help of the Word of God, must stand against the falsehoods of spiritual Babylon.

Become part of the answer, and not the problem. Begin today. Allow the voice of Jesus to call you to stand firm while ignoring worldliness. Understand that He is leading you to make something better out of your life. Get on your knees and pray that you may feel His gentle touch. Crave the kind inner strength that a young man once had in the palace of a pagan king.

Will you pray and ask God to help you stand firm?



The Ishtar Gate of Babylon was built during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II (604- 562 BC). The foundations of the gate were discovered between 1899 and 1914, including numerous glazed bricks and unglazed figures. The gate resides at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Related Reading:
Babylon: The Jewel of the Semites-Youtube
Exhibition in Berlin- Babylon
Take a tour of Babylon: Flickr Photos

Marie Jon' is a political/religious-based writer and founder of www.DrawingClose.org and www.PeoplePoliticallyRight.com — sister websites to RenewAmerica. Marie extends her hand of welcome; visit DrawingClose and receive your free gift of salvation by taking an online Bible study.

Marie's writings have appeared on many sites, including The New Media Journal, ChronWatch, and ABCNews, to name a few. Marie brings a refreshing and spirited point of view that is reflected in her writings. Marie is a nurse, a lay student of the Bible, and a patriot. She is an advocate for American troops serving abroad, as well as the Blue and Gold Star Mothers of America and their families. Marie enjoys Townhall.com radio, Rush Limbaugh, Bruce Elliott Saturdays 5AM-9AM EST and her friend Larry Elder.

Liars, Cheats and Thieves…But At Least They’re Proud of Themselves!

BY PAUL E. SCATES

The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country. -- Benjamin Franklin, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, 1749

Old Ben must be spinning in his grave. You see, for the past several decades those who run the educational establishment have churned out graduates who were indoctrinated with the idea that self-esteem is in no way tied to knowledge, performance or any other objective standard. Thus you get young adults who can’t write a paragraph or even speak a full sentence that is understandable except by others equally ignorant of English grammar and syntax. Think: text messaging, emoticons, stylized misspellings, etc.

In their misguided efforts to provide our youth with self-confidence, they have abandoned the traditional method of linking academic performance and achievement as the source of pride and self-esteem in favor of the “fog up a mirror” method. Haven’t heard of that method? It goes something like this: if you are breathing (determined by holding a mirror up to your nostrils; if your breath fogs up the mirror, it proves you’re alive), then you’re “special,” a “unique individual” who should be very proud of yourself, regardless of how you behave, what you know or understand, what you’re able to do, how you treat others, etc.

No performance standards, of course, for those are oppressive and exclusionary; can you imagine the damage to tender psyches that is involved if a child scores poorly on test, or (gasp!) even fails? To prevent such traumatic interruptions in their development, we have pass/fail grading, self-directed learning and individualized learning plans. You know, to accommodate the “unique learning styles” of each individual student.

One result of this approach, of course, is the rejection by young people of any and all standards. After all, if they’re told and shown repeatedly that it’s their individual opinion, belief and understanding that is most important, and that objective standards are arbitrary, meaningless rules, often based on bias (racial, cultural, gender, sexual orientation, et al), then challenging job performance standards, for example, or DMV requirements, traditional standards of attire, public behavior, language, etc., is a natural outcome.

Moral standards, too, such as character, integrity and honesty, are easily rejected as oppressive rules imposed by “dead, old white men” that no longer have “relevance.” That relevance, of course, is totally subjective, and each person determines for himself/herself if they want to subject themselves to such concepts. In the wholesale abandonment of religious beliefs by young people around the time they go off to college we can see the true impact of this radical individualism. When you consider that our Founders expressly stated that our democratic republic is fit only for “a moral and religious people,” the impact of that individualism is frighteningly apparent.

But is there any real proof that our young people are straying from traditional moral beliefs? According to the non-profit Josephson Institute, there’s plenty. For several years now they’ve taken a survey of high school kids about lying, cheating and stealing, and the decline of traditional moral standards is readily apparent in the responses. In their 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, the Institute said that responses from almost 30,000 teenagers “reveal entrenched habits of dishonesty for the workforce of the future.”

The responses from our next generation’s politicians, teachers, cops and corporate executives should alarm you. Overall, 30% of students admitted to stealing from a store during the past year, a two percent increase from 2006. Cheating in school is rampant, according to the survey, and continues to get worse: 64% said they had cheated on tests, an increase of four percent since 2006. Thirty-eight percent admitted to cheating two or more times.

The responses about lying are even worse: 83% of public school and private religious school students admitted to lying to their parents about something significant (78% of those attending independent non-religious schools admitted to lying).

"As bad as these numbers are,” the surveyors warned, “it appears they understate the level of dishonesty exhibited by America’s youth,” since more than a fourth of the students (26 percent) admitted they had lied on at least one or two of the survey questions! (What, you’re surprised?)

The most disturbing part of the survey, however, is that “despite these high levels of dishonesty, these kids have a high self-image when it comes to ethics.” Seventy-seven percent of the students surveyed said that when it comes to doing what is right, “I am better than most people I know.” And 93% of the students indicated satisfaction with their own character and ethics!

In the 50s and even into the 60s, our schools were preparing America’s youth not only to think and reason, but also to recognize the benefits to self and society of moral and behavioral standards developed through the experience of thousands of years of human history. However, in less than four decades the liberal/socialist educational establishment has succeeded in destroying those standards in the minds of many young Americans.

Franklin said it is the principle object of almost all governments to endow and support schools in order to “…supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country.” Qualified? Serve? Honor? Only if everyone in the past three generations are planning to pursue careers in politics, where those words apparently have terribly different meanings than they hold for ordinary Americans.

Formerly a liberal and an atheist, Paul E. Scates served as a Marine in Vietnam and is a lifelong student of American history, politics and culture. A former contributor to national website TooGoodReports.com, he writes his staunchly independent Conservative and informed Christian commentary for his fellow ordinary, working Americans, the “we, the people” who are ultimately responsible for preserving our Constitutional liberties.

A Call to Repent for Obama Vote by Another Catholic Priest

A Catholic priest in Modesto, CA, Rev. Joseph Illo, sent his parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church a letter telling them they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because Obama supports abortion.

This is the second priest we've heard about recently who has said something like this.

It is heartening to see many leaders in the Catholic Church starting to take a strong stand in holding elected officials who claim to be Catholic accountable for their public policy stances. And now we're seeing Catholic leaders starting to hold average parishioners accountable for how they exercise their vote.

It's too bad it's taken this long, but it's great to see those who confess Christ taking a stand of accountability to Christ's teachings. While some in the Protestant world are doing this, many more should follow the example of courageous leaders like Rev. Illo.

Abortion not only destroys human life created in the image of God, it destroys human life, period. The unborn child has from the moment of conception human DNA. That human DNA is unique from all other people on earth, making the child not a part of its mother's body she is free to discard, but a separate and unique human being.

The only scientific difference between the unborn child and the child outside the womb is a matter of development. If the lesser-developed child inside the womb has less innate value than the one outside the womb, then it should follow that the toddler has less value--and less human dignity--than the fully-developed adult. Do we accept this contention?

The reporter in the video below has a lot of gall, asking "if it's morally wrong to use the pulpit to preach politics."

When the pastor is addressing clear moral issues, this is akin to asking, "Is it morally wrong to speak against immoral issues from the pulpit?" Think about that for a second...

READ MORE...

Nun Claims God is Pro-Abortion

It's bad when Christians not only fail to live up to the teachings of the Bible, but give a testimony in opposition to that teaching. It's even worse when such decayed theology comes from a leader in the Christian community.

LifeSiteNews features a commentary by Judie Brown concerning a letter written by a nun to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

According to the article, God is apparently pro-abortion:

GOD IS PRO-CHOICE

"Even though Catholic bishops are already pressing President-elect Barack Obama on the issue of abortion, it is time they begin to realize that 54% of Catholics who voted for him do not agree with the bishops telling people how to vote.

"Obama may be pro-choice, but so is God. God gave everyone a free will and he does not pressure people into using that free will to do what is right. Obama promised to do what he can to prevent abortion. What more need he do when so many other pressures to make changes are upon him?

"Yes, abortion is the killing of an innocent life. So is war and violent killing on the street. I have often seen many starving babies in hospitals in Honduras and witnessed their pain. In these cases, abortion might have been the lesser of two evils, and even the most merciful alternative.

"I challenge our bishops to dwell more on unjust economic issues that both create and perpetuate the need for children to die of starvation, and for women to choose abortion. It would be better to aim at eliminating poverty rather than focus only on abortion. Poverty in our country and the world at large is a disgrace that cries to heaven for vengeance.

"Sr. Arlene Welding, SSSF; Campellsport, WI"

I have a few questions for Sister Welding:

1. You said: "Even though Catholic bishops are already pressing President-elect Barack Obama on the issue of abortion, it is time they begin to realize that 54% of Catholics who voted for him do not agree with the bishops telling people how to vote." When did the morality of an issue suddenly become determined by majority vote?

2. You said: "Obama may be pro-choice, but so is God. God gave everyone a free will and he does not pressure people into using that free will to do what is right." God does indeed graciously give us a choice of whether to choose right or wrong. However, where do you find ANYWHERE in the Bible that God (a) doesn't care which we choose, or (b) that making the choice for evil is free from negative consequence--ostensibly something everyone would want to avoid?

3. You said: "Yes, abortion is the killing of an innocent life. So is war and violent killing on the street." By this logic, if war and violent killing on the street make abortion morally acceptable, couldn't we just as easily take that logic to mean that, if we accept abortion to be morally acceptable, then violent killing on the street is also morally acceptable?

4. You said: "I have often seen many starving babies in hospitals in Honduras and witnessed their pain. In these cases, abortion might have been the lesser of two evils" Though forced starvation is morally reprehensible, how do you reason that starvation (where human life remains) is more less morally acceptable than murder (where human life does NOT remain)? Also, how do you reason that death (where there is no possible remedy) is superior to starvation (where there are possible remedies)?

5. You said: "It would be better to aim at eliminating poverty rather than focus only on abortion." This is a disingenuous statement, as both Catholic and Protestant forces are well known for fighting poverty and hunger around the world; they are not focusing only on abortion. Further, why do you assume one must be done at the expense of the other?

This nun is obviously possessed--at best--of a fundamental lack of common sense. She is also dangerously bereft of moral discernment. It's hard to imagine how she managed to get through her religious training to become a nun with such a severe lack of moral compass.

Perhaps the more likely explanation for her moral bankruptcy is one common to many Christians--even Christian leaders: rather than following Christ's admonition to be "in the world, but not of the world," she has allowed her thinking to become conformed to the dark and twisted wisdom of a fallen world.

Each of us will be held accountable for the things we laud and promote. But those in positions of authority where others look to them for guidance will be held to an even higher standard.

If this nun doesn't get right with her God before it's too late, it won't be pretty. Promotion of or even ambivalence toward the taking of innocent human life is no small matter.

Repairing the Foundations of a Nation Under Assault, Part 2

Previously I discussed the need to rebuild America's foundation at the most basic level in order to save this "last best hope."

A majority of Americans have forgotten our historic roots of freedom, personal responsibility, and limited government. It's not enough anymore just to point out the need for a return to traditional Americanism; too many people don't understand what that means and lack the capacity for analytical thought. We must go back to the basics and explain why traditional Americanism is good and why the modern trend toward socialism is bad. People in our self-centered culture must be educated as to "what's in it for them" before they can move on to acting and voting in a manner based on "what's in it for society" or better still "what's right."

We will need to educate our fellow Americans because the institutions which have historically done so--the institutions of education and journalism--have demonstrated they are no longer willing to do so. Traditional Americans must therefore work in and within those institutions to foster change. We must also engage our fellow Americans on a personal level--at work, at church, across the back yard fence, and at the ball game.

But educating and providing facts is still not enough. Fundamental change is needed in the hearts of the American people. Since leaving our roots, we have spawned generations who have not cultivated a moral compass. We will not return America to societal greatness unless we cultivate a strong moral compass in the people.

PART 1

People also no longer understand the relationship between private morality and public behavior. Since the days of Bill Clinton we've been told that it doesn't matter if someone is a scoundrel and dirtbag in their personal life; what matters is whether they're a good leader.

But we saw with Bill Clinton that his "private morality" or lack thereof dragged the nation through the mud hole of his depraved infidelity. We also saw him lie to the American people--not only about his unzipped fly but about policy issues--almost every time his mouth opened. He lied about seeing black churches burning in Arkansas, reducing the size of government (he gutted the military while bloating the bureaucracy), lied about reining in the welfare state (congressional Republicans did this), and he lied about reducing spending (again, congressional Republicans did this). It was almost impossible to keep up with his lies and lack of faithfulness to the people he was elected to serve.

And in the same way he was derelict in his duty to be faithful to his wife, he was derelict in his duty to protect the United States...

READ MORE...

Repairing the Foundations of a Nation Under Assault, Part 1

Many conservatives are not afraid to speak their mind and even speak up in the public arena for their values. But almost none of us (myself included) are consistently doing what must be done to positively impact our decaying culture.

Many of us grew up having been taught the founding principles of our great nation. Often our parents told us of our country's noble ideals and the things that make America great. If we grew up several decades ago, we might even have been lucky enough to be taught some of this in public school.

People who recognize the great founding principles of the United States, understand the inestimable value of personal freedom and responsibility, and cherish our heritage of limited government are usually known as "conservatives."

Even if we weren't taught these things as children, some of us have learned somewhere along the way that the liberal policies proffered by the Democrats (really Marxist policies) are antithetical to the principles of Americanism. People who didn't know this to begin with but later came to realize it are usually described as "liberals who were mugged by reality."

Sadly, few are learning these lessons today, and few have for decades.

Our public education system has acquiesced to if not embraced liberalism and has foisted that ideology on our children even as it has attempted to erase the history of our Christian heritage and origins of limited government.

Our media establishment sold out lock, stock and barrel to liberalism decades ago. From the movies to television to music to journalism, there is only a constant stream of revisionist history, derision of traditional values and shameless promotion of liberalism as the ultimate and only reality. Moral ambiguity is the best we can hope for in almost all media fare.

This flood of propaganda has proven very effective in producing one or more generations that are almost entirely ignorant of their heritage, oblivious to world history, and lack even the basic analytical skills necessary to sift truth from lies.

This brainwashed culture is what we face in the arena of ideas to day, and it is what conservatives must deal with as we try to turn our culture around from its headlong plunge toward the abyss.

We don't have to like it, but we must acknowledge it, deal with it, compensate for it...and then overcome it.

READ MORE...

Men Without Chests in Washington and on Wall Street

Ken Connor's column today at TownHall.com begins with one of my favorite quotes.

It is from a C.S. Lewis book called The Abolition of Man:

We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful.

When Lewis talks of "men without chests," the "chest" refers to that area between the head and the heart (or perhaps belly--signifying "want"--is more apt) that combines intellect and emotion into a coherent and useful force for good.

Connor uses it very aptly to begin his discussion of the current financial meltdown.

We have spent the last 15 years or so decrying morality and virtue, and then we claim surprise that we would find corruption and malfeasance in our government-managed financial industry.

We have spent the last 15 years or so saying that private moral standards have no bearing on public service, and then we are indignant when those same private moral failings manifest themselves publicly.

What is wrong with us?

Your Legacy to Society: Cost or Contribution?

American Minute from William J. Federer

He entered Yale College at age 13 and graduated with honors. He became a pastor, and his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God," started the Great Awakening, a revival that swept America, uniting the colonies prior to the Revolution. He became President of Princeton College. His name was Jonathan Edwards and he was born OCTOBER 5, 1703.

Jonathan Edwards married Sarah Pierrepont, and according to A Study in Education and Heredity by A.E. Winship (1900), their descendants included a U.S. Vice-President, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 65 professors, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers and 100 missionaries.

This same study examined a family known as "Jukes." In 1877, while visiting New York's prisons, Richard Dugdale found inmates with 42 different last names all descending from one man, called "Max."

Born around 1720 of Dutch stock, Max was a hard drinker, idle, irreverent and uneducated. His descendants included 310 paupers, who, combined spent 2,300 years in poorhouses, 50 women of debauchery, 400 physically wrecked by indulgent living, 7 murderers, 60 thieves, and 130 other convicts.

The "Jukes" descendants cost the state more than $1,250,000.

William J. Federer is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and president of Amerisearch, Inc, which is dedicated to researching our American heritage. The American Minute radio feature looks back at events in American history on the dates they occurred, is broadcast daily across the country and read by thousand on the internet.

TV Entices to Risky Behavior

As we frequently talk about the sad state to which television and movies have fallen, word of a new study sheds light on the effect of the moral decay promoted in the media.

LifeSiteNews says a new study from researchers at the University of California published in the Journal of Communication found that portrayals of risky sexual behaviors altered people's expectations about such encounters.

Those with less experience and exposure to such behaviors in the past were more susceptible to an altered expectation.

This would tend to make sense, since innocence is often more corruptible than the attitude of someone who has "been around the block." While someone more experienced with moral compromise may indulge in it even more, they might also be more familiar with the cold, hard reality of some of the negative consequences of that behavior.

However, even that often doesn't make a difference.

"Even when behaviors are negatively portrayed, audiences may be motivated to model them anyways," the authors conclude. "We hope this research stimulates greater care in the application and testing of psychological theories to the study of media content and effects."

Of course, human beings are not animals or automatons. Human beings have a free will and can choose whether or not to emulate behaviors they see in media, so media responsibility only goes so far.

However, our culture has been in moral free-fall for decades, with few parents or other authority figures instilling a strong moral center in young people. This ethical void leaves many young people susceptible to these enticements, with no internal moral standards with which to resist such allures.

The responsible thing to do, of course, would be not only a return to strong moral teaching by parents and other authorities, but also restraint on the part of pop culture and media.

Since the latter isn't going to happen without the former, it's time for parents and authorities to get to work repairing the breached walls of our society.

Planned Parenthood Takes Out the Trash

You might recall that a couple of months ago, a Planned Parenthood group produced some sleazy videos under the guise of "sex education."

OneNewsNow reports PP has finally taken this garbage down after many complaints:

"We're calling it a victory," Walker contends. "All the pro-life pressure that has been slammed against Planned Parenthood in the past couple of months about this disgusting site that's being marketed to our kids -- the pressure's finally gotten to them and they've taken the site down."

Walker believes people often do not voice objections because they assume it will not make a difference. "This is just another example of people calling, and their voices are heard," she adds.

Even if they had ignored the call to do what is right, people who know the truth still have a responsibility to speak up.

However, this shows that many times the world will still listen. We've just become too lazy to speak up, or too afraid someone might call us names.

Good people should be encouraged by this--and speak up next time!

Morality...When it Suits Me

Voices Carry points out the interesting and rather funny change in tune from the "can't legislate morality" Leftists in the face of the financial meltdown the United States is staring in the face.

Pastor Steve says that even ultra-liberal Barack Obama understands the proper role of morality in public policy, from Audacity of Hope:

"To say men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality."

Of course now that greed (and a little "overlooked" politically correct government affirmative action lending regulation) on Wall Street has produced a financial train wreck, we hear the Leftists crying out for the lack of morality in the financial industry.

It is true that immorality has had a great hand in producing this problem...as it has family breakdown, educational mediocrity, and pretty much every other problem our society faces today.

It's interesting how Leftists trash and malign every shred of morality they encounter...until the lack of it can be blamed for problems in something they already hate: capitalism.

Perhaps what they mean is, "You can't legislate morality that interferes with the immorality I want to do."

If that is the case--and I'm sure that it is--we should just be clear about that.

And weigh it accordingly when considering public policy that can clean up and heal the broken landscape that has become our American society in the past 50 years.

An Abortionist Begins to See the Humanity of His Victims

Pastor Steve at Voices Carry talks about the testimony from CNS News of former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino who lost his daughter to a traffic accident.

Through the tragedy of this loss, Levatino apparently started taking a closer look at things in his life:

“What do you do after a tragedy? You mourn for a while and you try to get back into your routine. I don’t know how long after her death I had to do my first D&E abortion. I remember reaching in and literally ripping out an arm or a leg and looking at it in the clamp and I got sick. When you start an abortion you can’t stop. If you leave anything behind, you [can] bet your patient is going to come back infected, bleeding or worse.

“I soldiered on and I finished that abortion.”

But, Levatino said, something had changed.

“For the first time in my life I really looked at that pile of goo at the side of the table, and all of a sudden I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose, and I didn’t see the $600 wad of cash that I made in 15 minutes, and I couldn’t think about what a great doctor I was because I took care of her problem. All I could see was somebody’s son or daughter.”

For people who have been living a life of sin, evil and wrong, and have left that life, there is usually a moment of mental, emotional and moral clarity which comes like a freight train and hits like one (and believe me, I've been in the path of that train).

It sounds as if Levatino met that train, and it forever changed him.

Thank God I was never a party to aborting one of my children back when I was promiscuous (didn't have any then, also thanks to God's mercy), but I gave hearty approval to those who did abort their children, and a few that I knew personally.

And while that train I mentioned that hit me was primarily carrying the freight of my drunken, foul-mouthed, promiscuous lifestyle, some time after that came the smaller train of realization that I had been wrong for giving approval to abortion. That train was smaller because my complicity was less than the other one, but it hit hard nevertheless.

I realized that the Bible really does affirm life at all stages of development, and condemns the taking of that life.

I realized that science also points to the humanity and the life of the unborn child.

When the Bible and science both agree (which they usually do), a person has a choice: you can ignore the truth and keep embracing the lie, or you can admit you were wrong and allow your heart and mind to change.

Somewhat like Levatino, where I once only saw a morally neutral "choice," I now understood the life of a human being hung in the balance--and was being ended in an abortion.

One thing about these "trains" of clarity, though: yes, they hurt when they hit...but unlike a real train, they leave you in better shape afterward. For the first time, you can see things clearly. For the first time, you're free of the burden of a lie.

The reason I talk about abortion so much, beside the fact that it is one of the most important issues of our day, is because I know what it's like to be on the pro-abortion side...and now I know how wrong that is. The very least I can do now is try and counter the message I once gave.

Also, I was lied to and misled by the "mainstream" media and other liberals, and I let my complacency keep me prisoner to that lie until I took the initiative--at a friend's prodding--to investigate the matter for myself.

I hope to help other people who are willing to examine the truth get the information they need to break free of that lie.

Everyone deserves to live free of lies...and unborn human beings deserve to keep the life that God gave them.

Morality and liberalism, John Edwards style

BY STAR PARKER
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
COALITION ON URBAN RENEWAL & EDUCATION

Certainly we've not heard the last about the John Edwards scandal. Despite the former presidential candidate's public statements of remorse, there remains far too much that doesn't add up.

For instance, we're being asked to swallow a bizarre story that a member of his campaign staff is the father of Edwards' mistress's child. Either John Edwards is not done lying to us or we don't fully appreciate the scope of the behind-the-scenes moral depravity of his self-righteous campaign.

Let's assume for the moment that no legal infractions occurred and that Edwards' lapses were exclusively moral. What is the relevance of this behavior to his qualifications as a political leader and possible president?

Scandals in the private lives of politicians are, sadly, hardly rare. There is a line of reasoning that suggests it's prudish to see them as relevant to the man's fitness for his job.

As put in a recent op-ed by a university journalism professor: "history is full of courageous leaders who in their private lives were terrible and abusive spouses and parents -- depressives, drunks, bullies. Individuals have a way of partitioning their lives, handling one set of duties commendably and another abysmally."

I would argue that for liberals, typified by John Edwards, such partitioning of private from the public is highly unlikely, if not impossible.

Why? Because to be this kind of liberal you've got to stand traditional morality on its head.

Traditional morality is a bottom-up process. It starts at the individual level. The Ten Commandments are addressed to "thou," not "We the People." It begins with individuals taking personal responsibility for the moral tone of their own lives and the social reality that results is the collective product of that individual behavior.

Traditional guidelines are to love our neighbor, our brother. Not mankind. The focus is specific and individual, not vague and abstract.

But liberal politics are top-down. Despite the pretense about being driven by caring about people, unique individuals are at the end of the liberal food chain. Liberal politicians make broad pronouncements about our "social" problems and propose social engineering programs that will allegedly fix them.

Candidate John Edwards called poverty "the great moral issue of our time." And his antidote for solving this moral crisis was massive government programs with the modest objective of eradicating poverty in 30 years.

How particular individuals who happen to be poor actually behave, which is where the real moral issues lie, is of marginal interest to this liberal mindset. Their interest is the grand solution from above that will supposedly change the condition of the poor individuals below, who are viewed as innocent bystanders in their own lives.

It never seemed to interest Edwards that Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in 1965, and more than 40 years and $10 trillion or so later, it accomplished nothing.

When I was on welfare, I'd deal with indifferent bureaucrats who had little interest in me personally. They were just doing a job, no different from any civil servant in the post office or the department of motor vehicles. But behind the faceless bureaucracy was a grand liberal vision. For me, it was all irrelevant. It was just a system to work to get a check.

Ironically, Edwards' marketing of his "moral" crusade was his Two Americas pitch. Get people on board by inspiring envy, chucking the 10th commandment out the window. And use political power to finance the massive programs with other people's money, which can be reasonably viewed as theft.

In an interview last year, Edwards was asked what he thought would most outrage Jesus about American life today. His response: "Our selfishness; ... our focus on our own short-term needs." Not only was this guy, in the midst of an adulterous affair, oblivious to his own hypocrisy. He saw himself as master of the universe, who had to lecture the rest of us about how we behave.

So it shouldn't surprise anyone that during a campaign defined by pronouncements of morality and compassion, Edwards was being immoral and cruel to the real individuals around him and closest to him.

For liberals, individuals are footnotes to their own grand schemes and ambitions.

Star Parker is president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education and author of the new book White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.

Prior to her involvement in social activism, Star Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles, California. After receiving Christ, Star returned to college, received a BS degree in marketing and launched an urban Christian magazine. The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, yet served as a springboard for her focus on faith and market-based alternatives to empower the lives of the poor.

Mental Patient Stuck in Chair Dies On Tape

"Mental Patient Stuck in Chair Dies On Tape
Man Left Untended For 22 Hours, Report Says
Posted: 10:43 am EDT August 20, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A mental patient died after workers at a North Carolina hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours without feeding him or helping him use the bathroom, said federal officials who have threatened to cut off the facility's funding.

The state sent a team Tuesday to help Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro draft new procedures to ensure patients receive proper care.

An investigator's report released Monday found that 50-year-old Steven Sabock died in April after he choked on medication and was left sitting in a chair for close to a day at the facility about 50 miles southeast of Raleigh. Surveillance video showed hospital staff watching television and playing cards just a few feet away.

Federal officials have threatened to cut off funding because of Sabock's death and a report that a physician punched a patient after the teen bit the doctor."

Read the entire report at WNEM.

The cruelty of some is ever amazing. I simply can't get use to the mentality that deems life so worthless and compassion too burdensome to keep on hand.

HHS Moves Forward With Right of Conscience Protections

Despite the howling of liberals for more than a month, the Bush Administration has gone ahead with plans from the Health and Human Services Department to provide greater protection for health care workers in facilities receiving federal dollars to exercise their right of conscience not to provide goods or services that could result in the loss of life of an unborn child.

From Fox News, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt says

"Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a medical degree," said Leavitt. "This nation was built on a foundation of free speech. The first principle of free speech is protected conscience."

The proposed rule, which applies to institutions receiving government money, would require as many as 584,000 employers ranging from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes to certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Violations could lead to a loss of government funding and legal action to recoup federal money already paid.

Abortion rights supporters served notice that they intend to challenge the new rule.

The Christian Medical Association, the nation's largest faith-based association of healthcare professionals, applauded this step today.

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens said, "These regulations are desperately needed to protect First Amendment rights and implement federal law in what is becoming a jungle of coercion in healthcare. Two of five of our members indicate they have been subjected to pressure and discrimination in the healthcare profession simply because they adhere to life-affirming, patient-protecting standards of medical ethics such as the Hippocratic Oath.

"Clearly, unless we act now to protect the right of healthcare professionals to make standards-based ethical decisions, patients will be penalized with less access to healthcare. If current trends of coercion are allowed to continue, patients will not be able to find physicians who share their life-affirming values."

CMA Senior Vice President Dr. Gene Rudd, an Obstetrician-Gynecologist, said, "Vital issues including abortion, assisted suicide, end of life decisions and other important ethical matters must not be matters of coercion but of conscience."

Those intent on receiving abortions and abortifacients could still seek those goods and services elsewhere, even within that facility if other health care workers were present who didn't have those same moral reservations.

Nothing in the new regulation in any way changes a patient's right to any legal procedure," he said, noting that a patient could go to another provider.

"This regulation is not about contraception," Leavitt added. "It's about abortion and conscience. It is very closely focused on abortion and physician's conscience."

But that will not be good enough for the advocates of complete sexual license. They showed that when a pharmacist in Montana exercised his conscience, they showed it again in Wisconsin, and showed it vehemently in South Dakota during the 2008 legislative session when liberals came up with such a twisted bill to quash pharmacists right of conscience that it actually made the pharmacist sound like an agent of the government.

It isn't about rights for the Left. It isn't about access for the Left. It's about using the brute force of government to force the backwards, superstitious, religious, moralist Christians to capitulate their moral convictions. It's about wiping away all vestiges of moral condemnation for their immoral acts so they can (they hope) soothe their hurting consciences.

Some thought when we began throwing off the objective moral values of our Judeo-Christian foundations that we would inherit more freedom. But when you abandon objective values, then the debate over whose concerns receive the highest regard quickly degenerates into "might makes right."

At this point in the devolution of our civilization, "might makes right" involves whoever can convince the majority to see it their way--or more often, whoever can convince a group of black-robed oligarchs to see it their way.

Eventually, though, even that won't satisfy, and we will likely slip away from the enlightened way of handling differences we've known in this nation for over 200 years, and degenerate into the "corruption, intimidation and violence makes right" that still rules so many nations of the earth.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

Just like in the Garden of Eden, we will have traded some simple restrictions and a life of peace, in exchange for a broken promise yielding the yoke of bondage and turmoil.

We never seem to learn.

Homosexual Rights Trump Religious Rights

Lesbians in California are attempting to use government power to force doctors to artificially inseminate them, regardless of the doctors' moral or religious objections.

From CNS News:

Justices on the California Supreme Court unanimously held Monday that Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, who work at the North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group in Vista, Calif., could not use the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of religion and free speech to be exempt from a lawsuit filed by Guadalupe Benitez, a lesbian.

In the unanimous decision, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote: “Do the rights of religious freedom and free speech, as guaranteed in both the federal and the California Constitutions, exempt a medical clinic’s physicians from complying with the California Unruh Civil Rights Act’s prohibition against discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation? Our answer is no.”

If these women want a child this badly, they should seek children in the legitimate manner: marry a man and have him impregnate them.

Just because they don't like the correct way of doing things doesn't mean society, doctors or morality should bend to accommodate their rebelliousness.

The Hippocratic oath says to do no harm. This would do harm to children intentionally born into a situation where they are robbed of a father. This action would cause these doctors to violate a medical tenet that goes back thousands of years and transcends any one religious belief.

These doctors also have a moral conviction about the natural way for creating a family, and for the welfare of the resulting children themselves.

These homosexual women are entitled to have any nutty idea that enters their head, but they are not entitled to force others to accommodate their nutty ideas--especially when what they are demanding is contrary to the good health and welfare of the resulting children.

This would also involve using government power to force a person (the doctors) to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

Given that this is California, there is no doubt that these women could easily find a doctor as morally bankrupt as themselves who would perform the procedure. But it isn't about that; it's about their agenda to undermine societal morality and force others to accommodate their perverted agenda. Homosexual activists don't simply want tolerance; they demand complete acceptance and legitimacy from all corners of society.

Our society once recognized that individuals have the right to believe whatever they want, and to do whatever they want so long as that action doesn't infringe on the rights and welfare of another.

That wisdom has been thrown out the window in favor of an authoritarian system which says that, if one can enlist the power of government, they can force someone else to serve them and meet their desires. This philosophy is based on the transient morality of the moment and whoever can successfully get the power of government on its side at the moment.

Ultimately, such a philosophy which ignores transcendent moral values leaves everyone in jeopardy. You might win your battle in this area today, but someone else may come after you tomorrow...and if they can successfully convince government power to back them, then you're toast.

Better that we should return to the Judeo-Christian worldview of transcendent moral values that our great nation was founded on.

Video: Analysis of Saddleback Civil Forum

From the Wall Street Journal, featuring Daniel Henninger who writes the Wonder Land column.

Sioux Falls School District Makes a Good Choice

Todd Epp at SD Watch and his friends at Planned Parenthood are upset that the Sioux Falls School District allowed the Alpha Center to buy an ad in the School Directory.

Apparently the Planned Parenthood gang are for choice when that choice involves killing your baby...but not for the Alpha Center to choose to pay for an ad in a publication.

Apparently the Planned Parenthood gang are for choice when that choice involves ending the life of an innocent child in the womb...but not for the school district to choose to accept an ad.

Apparently the Planned Parenthood gang are for choice when that choice involves a woman permanently severing her bond to her child...but not for a young woman to choose life for her child.

Todd says

I can’t imagine the District would allow Planned Parenthood to run such an ad in an information school-sponsored publication like a directory.

Let's certainly hope not. There's more than a little difference between an organization that (1) promotes life, (2) promotes healthy choices, (3) promotes responsibility, (4) promotes healing...and an organization that (a) promotes killing innocent human beings, (b) promotes acts that wreck women's health, (c) promotes promiscuity, (d) glosses over its harmful agenda with a varnish of "choice."

Would you condemn a school for running an ad that warned young people away from alcohol...or would you expect them to also run an ad from a local liquor store?

Would you condemn a school for running an ad that warned young people away from tobacco...or would you expect them to also run an ad for Marlboro?

But as Voices Carry points out, Planned Parenthood has already been getting their message into America's classrooms--and with more than just an ad that students may pay 2-seconds' attention to. They've been doing it with condom-based sex education classes that sometimes even include references to sexually aggressive Planned Parenthood materials.

The founders of our nation understood that an education is far more than simply cramming facts inside a young mind, that an education should also teach the youth how to be good moral people:

Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main ends of his life and studies; to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning and see that the Lord only giveth wisdom. - John Harvard, Harvard University

Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God. - Gouverneur Morris, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

The Christian Religion is the most import and and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed - Noah Webster

Religion, Morality, and Knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.- Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787

For too long our society has pretended that if there are two sides to an issue, one of them can't possible be "right", only a matter of preference.

For too long our society has pretended that there is no good and bad, only preference.

And in this pretenders game, the lives of countless men, women and children have been shattered beyond measure.

It's time good people and people in authority got down off the fence and took sides--the side of right.

It's time to stop being ashamed of what is right, and do what is right.

The Sioux Falls School District showed good judgment and should be commended for it.