Extirpating God from Western civilisation

Atheists are continuing their crusade to expunge God from public life:

From here:

An atheist group is going to court to protest the presence of a six-foot tall statue of Jesus Christ on federal land, erected as a memorial for soldiers who died in World War II.

The lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin based Freedom From Religion Foundation, seeking to remove the religious memorial from a Montana ski resort, has been given a green light by U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen to move forward to trial.

What is still permitted is the displaying of images that are likely to offend Christians. This crucified Obama painting is on display at Bunker Hill Community College – partially funded by the government – and no-one has complained:

Farewell USA


I know it’s a cliché, but a democracy does get the government it deserves and, apparently, what the US deserves is a con man who has convinced the gullible that he can give them what they want: unlimited, unearned, undeserved hand-outs. God’s punishment to the Romans in Romans 1 was not to rain down fire from heaven, but to allow them to have what they wanted unfettered by God’s restraining morality; here we go again.

Not to worry, though: the fall of a civilisation is a reminder for Christians that we live in two kingdoms, the more important of which is a kingdom that can never be shaken: the kingdom of God.

The fall of America

My apologies to Nero for the comparison, but it begs to be made: Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Obama golfed while embassies burned.

The Roman Empire took about four centuries to fully disintegrate: the second sack of Rome occurred in AD 455 and Nero fiddled in AD 64.

I don’t think we have that long to wait before America falls: it is spending and aborting itself to death far too enthusiastically to totter on for another 400 years.

What both Rome and the USA have in common at the beginning of their disintegration is leaders who were callously indifferent to their citizens. Obama and his admirers go one step further: they blame the values of their own country – free speech in this case – for the vile deeds of their country’s enemies.

How long before the barbarian hordes are sacking North American cities? No-one knows, of course, but it can’t be too long: Islamists are strenuously testing the resolve of America – and they are finding that there isn’t any.

From here:

Last week, after issuing a statement at the White House about the murder of the American ambassador in Libya, President Barack Obama hopped aboard Air Force One and headed for Vegas. At a campaign rally to cap off his day, he spoke about the murdered ambassador and went on to say, “We are the one indispensable power in the world. And if we are going to see peace and security for our children and our grandchildren, then that means that this generation of Americans has to lead.”

As embassy after embassy is attacked, the United States does not look like an indispensable power. And it does not look like it because it has largely dispensed with its leadership in the Middle East.

[…]

The ability of protesters to attack with impunity American embassies, and for it to be taken in campaign stride by America’s leaders, is a sign of a new day in the Middle East. At the end of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France extended their influence as custodians of the region. After the Second World War and the creation of the State of Israel, the United States took over as the protector — of Israel, and later of Egypt, of Kuwait, of Turkey and even of Afghanistan against the Soviets. That period is over, and a new era is being born. At the moment it is only a post-American order. Will it become an era dominated by militant Islam?

A new day begins with the dawn’s early light. It is already past dawn, but what the day will bring is unknown, and fearfully so.

The disaster presidency

From here:

Whether it was the bitter cold or the wrath of Hurricane Irene, a major weather alert never seemed to be far away in 2011.

Tropical Storm Lee prompted President Barack Obama to pledge disaster aid to the areas of Louisiana battered by the storm last month.

That makes 90 disasters declared by the commander-in-chief, a new record in yearly disaster declarations – and 2011 isn’t even over yet.

And the biggest disaster has yet to be declared: Obama.

Bishop Mary Glasspool extols Obama’s virtues

From here:

Los Angeles—Praising the Obama administration for upholding the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) persons in domestic and international contexts, Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary D. Glasspool attended a June 29 White House reception and policy briefing in honor of LGBT Pride Month.

For those who might be confused, LGBT means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

The Anglican Church believes that the sexual urges of those in the first three categories are placed there by God. And obviously God doesn’t make mistakes.

It also believes that the last category contains people whom God plopped into a body of the wrong sex. So in their case, he does make mistakes. The theological term for this apparent contradiction used to be known as an antinomy, but that was too hard for Anglican theologians to understand – or pronounce – so now it’s called a muddle.

 

The blind leading the benighted

From here:

The heads of the National Association of Evangelicals and The Episcopal Church are among those newly named to President Barack Obama’s faith advisory council.

Obama announced on Friday his intent to appoint a dozen religious and secular leaders, including NAE president Leith Anderson and Episcopal Presiding Bishop the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to be of service to the larger community in this way,” Jefferts Schori said in a statement. “The ability to build partnerships between civic and religious bodies can only expand our capacity to heal a broken world.”

The question is, will Jefferts Schori – in just one year- manage to accomplish for Obama what she has wrought in four in the Anglican Communion: schism, mayhem, blight, litigation and omnipresent lamentation?

Obama, Tucson and Sarah Palin

I thought Obama did a moderately creditable job in his Tucson memorial speech: he was suitably sentimental, moderately maudlin, appropriately apolitical and only partially pompous.

Nevertheless, with the cheering, clapping and sporadic booing, the whole thing had more the aura of circus than pensive pondering on mankind’s mortality.

It really was a political rally in disguise; it even had a gay hero.

Obama’s plea for a kinder, gentler political discourse – or as he would put it, a toned down rhetoric (how I hate that overused cliché) – is, of course, in vain. The left is so hormonally belligerent, it wouldn’t recognise gentility no matter what  teleprompter inspired dulcet tones Obama invoked to penetrate its malice in the hope of infusing sense into the dark colonic cavity that houses the left’s brain.

There is evidence of this on the following video – removed from youtube, but thoughtfully preserved by me for your edification – on how Sarah Palin is a latter-day impersonator of the Edenic serpent.

[flv:https://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/videos/TwitterPalin.flv 700 480]

What happens now Obama is no longer blaming George Bush for everything?

He is blaming Fox News:

“I think Fox is part of ….the (news) tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.

But as an economic enterprise, it’s been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his No. 1 concern is, it’s that Fox is very successful.”

Leaving aside the obvious facts that every news network has a “point of view” and is run “as an economic enterprise”, how can anyone seriously claim that, in a nation that has free speech, a news network’s point of view is what is destroying US growth? Does it make policy, bail out banks, create trillions of dollars of debt?

No, it reports – as objectively as any other news outlet – news and peddles ideas; just like CNN and MSNBC. I think ideas are what ultimately change things for better or worse and if ideas from the right are starting to resonate, perhaps it is because when Obama chanted “change you can believe in” he didn’t have any of his own that actually work.

Ground Zero Mosque: an Irishman has a better grip on what’s going on than Obama

First the truth about jihad: it really is a military imperative:

It is disturbing to note that the President Obama and his advisers are now routinely saying things about Islam and American history that are, basically, not quite true.

John Brennan, the president’s top counter-terrorism adviser recently called jihad a “legitimate tenet of Islam,” and stated that “[we do not] describe our enemy as ‘jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community…”

However, a more knowledgeable voice, the respected historian Bernard Lewis, finds that “the overwhelming majority of [Islamic] classical theologians, jurists, and traditionalists…understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense.”

Second, the truth about Islam: it is an all encompassing ideology that is political, militarily aggressive and advocates killing those who don’t submit to it:

The Ayatollah Khomeini has said: “Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. . . . But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. . . . Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers … Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”

Third, Obama is in a state of advanced delusion about the historical role of Islam in the US:

In a recent editorial entitled “Obama’s Islamic America – What country is he talking about?” The Washington Times says, “President Obama says Islam has always been part of America, which raises the question, does the president know something about American history that we don’t? …. Mr. Obama said the rituals of Ramadan ‘remind us of the principles that we hold in common and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality. And here in the United States, Ramdan is a reminder that Islam has always been part of America….’

The Washington Times says “That Islam has had a major role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings may come as a surprise to Muslim women. Young Afghan girls who are having acid thrown in their faces on the way to school might want to offer their perspectives….Most puzzling is the President’s claim that ‘Islam has always been part of America.’ Islam had no influence on the origins and development of the United States. It contributed nothing to early American political culture, art, literature, music or any other aspect of the early nation.”
The Washington Times’ version of history is not as nice as Mr. Obama’s. It does, however, have the advantage of being far closer to the truth.

Fourth, the Cordoba Initiative is disseminating lies:

The Cordoba Initiative, the group behind the Ground Zero Mosque, also have a penchant for rewriting history and making dubious statements. Their website says: “Despite what many think, Islam and the West have a long history of coexistence and harmony. For nearly 800 years, the city of Cordoba in Spain endured as a shining example of tolerance among the three monotheistic religions.”

This is a complete falsification of history. Sadly, Islam and the West do not have a long history of harmony, as the Crusades and almost continuous conflict for 1400 years testifies. The Cordoba Initiative harks back to the Caphilate of Cordoba as a paradise of religious tolerance. It was in fact an imperialist Islamic state which had invaded and occupied Spain, a state in which Jews and Christians were either second class citizens or slaves until the native Spanish Christians repulsed Islam from Iberia in 1492.

Yet the Cordoba Initiative continues: “there is a close similarity between the values expressed in American secular documents and those characterizing Islamic Law…”
The idea that Sharia Law bears any real resemblance to the United States’ constitution, with its Enlightenment, common law and Christian-based values is beyond parody. It is, for example, reported that Imam Rauf, the man behind the Cordoba Initiative, will not sign a document saying that apostates from Islam should not be killed. Such killing is an accepted  tenet of Sharia law. However, I can’t recall reading that in the US Constitution.

Fifth, Obama is a weak leader, the last thing that the US needs at the moment:

Last Friday the president said that Muslims’ right to religious freedom “includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan.” If that’s his opinion, fair enough.

However, the very next day he said: “I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there…”
Except, very obviously, he was.

Perhaps the good that will come out of all this is that it will wake everyone up to the fact that a president who won’t comment on the wisdom of building a mosque at ground zero shouldn’t be president.