Gov. Palin Back Home

(Photo courtesy of ADN)

The Anchorage Daily News has an interview that can be seen at their website. In this interview we see the Governor in a casual setting at home with husband and children. She proves what many of us have said, that she was over-managed by the McCain campaign and if left to her own thoughts and resources she can more than hold her own. She demonstrates intelligence, kindness and patience, but is no one's patsy. This interview gives us a glimpse of a strong, centered woman who knows who she is and what she believes and is quite able to defend herself if given the chance. Many Christians will recognize in Mrs. Palin the "fruits of the Spirit" mentioned in Gal. 5:22. Our country needs many more leaders of such qualities.

We'll see more of Sarah Palin in this light tonight at 10 o'clock ET on FOX News Channel:
Greta Van Susteren Sits Down With Sarah Palin for First Post-Election Interview

Teacher Allegedly "Brands" Student With a Cross

Popular science teacher John Freshwater has the support of many of his students and their parents but has been canned by the Mount Vernon, Ohio school board for “branding” students on the forearms with a cross. At least that is the story as reported by the on-line news service Breitbart.Com (Report: Ohio teacher burned cross on kids' arms).

In fact, the image on at least one student’s arm was produced by a science demonstration of a high-frequency generator similar to devices used in medical offices for a number of non-invasive therapies. During application it produces a slight tingling and warm sensation and causes the blood vessels in the skin to dilate producing a reddening of the surface that may last a day or so. The claim of one student is that the image lasted “3 or 4 weeks.” In fact, it was the complaint of that one student that brought the school board and its Superintendent, Stephen Short , down on Mr. Freshwater. But this occurred after years of efforts by the school district to get the popular and well-credentialed teacher to heel to demands that he cease any mention of God or Creation in his classroom. A particularly troubling problem for the Superintendent was Mr. Freshwater’s insubordinate habit of placing his personal Bible on his desk during class. What might students think? What evil might such overt displays provoke in the minds of the innocent and impressionable children?

According to several accounts Mr. Freshwater has been at loggerheads with the administration for some time over issues pertaining to the First Amendment and has prevailed because he knows his rights and asserts them appropriately. Furthermore, “Freshwater has drawn consistent praise for his strong rapport with students, broad knowledge of his subject matter and engaging teaching style.”

It seems that the complaint about the demonstration with the high-frequency generator was made to order for the administration that has sought Freshwater’s dismissal for some time. One student complained about “branding with a cross” out of how many? Slight reddening of the skin hardly amounts to “branding.” I’d be interested to know how many tattoos and/or piercings this poor child has endured. It lasted “3 or 4 weeks” you say? Well, if my child had been “branded” as they have alleged, I assure you I would be able to state, without any ambiguity, the precise duration of the injury down to hours and minutes.

I trust the Alliance Defense Fund will be called to Mr. Freshwater’s defense and I’ll be sending them another generous donation. No word, as yet, about the ACLU taking this opportunity to defend our Bill of Rights.

Related links:
Students support teacher by taking Bibles to school
Student Backs Teacher In Fight To Keep Bible On Desk
Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding

Myth 1: Atheists Are Smarter

Part of a Series

BY Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams

March 23-29, 2008 Issue | Posted 3/18/08 at 12:08 PM

It is a common myth of our day, not surprisingly propagated by atheists, that religious believers are undereducated folk who have abandoned the use of reason in favor of blind faith.

So in his book Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris writes that because of the religious belief of its citizens, the United States appears to the rest of the world “like a lumbering, bellicose, dim-witted giant.”

It is not surprising, in fact, that two of the most prominent neo-atheistic authors, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, are British, representing an island known in our day for its religious indifference.

I have lived in Europe for 17 years, and there is no question that Americans’ unapologetic religiosity makes Europeans uncomfortable.

Yet many eminent thinkers throughout our history, such as Alexis de Tocqueville, have interpreted religious conviction to be America’s greatest strength.

To read more, go to National Catholic Register .

First Principles, Part 1

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House has written a small book called “Rediscovering God in America.” In this easy to read, informational best-seller we are informed of the beliefs and temperament of the Founding Fathers when laying the foundation of the fledgling United States of America. The task was no small undertaking. It involved thinking “out of the box,” though that idiom had yet to be coined. All previous governments, certainly in the West, had been organized around a monarch, some benevolent, some not so much. In most cases the king or queen was held as appointed by God as their ruler and so had the absolute authority to rule as they wished. The monarch was the source of any rights and privileges that the people enjoyed and these were subject to suspension or revision on the whim of the king. The idea of a basic individual right was novel and yet to be truly exercised until the time of the Declaration of Independence. Further, there were few responsibilities of the monarch toward his subjects, except in so far as they benefited the king and his court.

The exceptionalism of our country rests upon the assertion that all rights come from God bestowed on each individual; this is the “first principle.” These rights, as enumerated in our founding documents, are granted by our Creator and cannot be amended or suspended except by a legal process specified in the Constitution that is designed to help maintain order and security for all citizens and guarantee the God-given rights to all law-abiding citizens.

Was it a nebulous, figurative “god” or God, Jehovah of the Bible that the founders thanked and appealed to in the Declaration of Independence and other central documents? All the evidence is for the latter. Most of the framers of our government were unabashed, practicing Christian men, though some, like Jefferson and Franklin expressed some philosophical doubts in some of their writings. Even so, they recognized that the American experiment could only be validated by asserting God-given rights, thus subordinating government to the people. Neither Franklin or Jefferson ever claimed to be anything other than Christian.

If you search “separation of church and state” you will find numerous sites devoted to the “constitutional principle” of a “wall of separation of church and state.” Most readers of this blog are already aware that there is no such article or wording stated in the Constitution, yet there are innumerable organizations that will have you believe that it is the foundational principle of the Constitution. (The origins of the phrase are explained in this short piece by Robert Meyer at Renew America.) The “wall of separation” was used in a context virtually opposite of how it is currently used, in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists reassuring them that there could never be a religion sanctioned by the federal government. The Baptists were fearful that Methodists and Congregationalists (majority denominations) might become favored and too influential in civil matters in Connecticut. Jefferson purposefully did not address the Baptists' fear of state intrusion in religious matters.

But those wishing to eliminate any trace of our Christian heritage are determined to revise history and claim that the founders were mostly atheists (e.g., Franklin) or, at best, Deists (e.g., Jefferson), but at any rate they most assuredly were not Christians of the “born again” variety. Jefferson, Hancock, Madison, Franklin, et al didn’t take this God-talk seriously but used such language as a form of embellished rhetoric common at the time, such as “purple mountains majesty,” in which case the mountains aren’t really purple, are they?

“Rediscovering God in America” takes a close look at the beliefs of several of the founding fathers as expressed in their many letters and writings. Next, the reader is taken on a walking tour of several sites in Washington, DC including the Jefferson Memorial, the U.S. Capital and the Supreme Court, and others, and the expressly Judeo-Christian symbols and engraved words are pointed out and explained. Examples of the Christian references in writing and in the buildings and monuments of Washington will be the topic in Part 2 of this post.