Conservative Musings

Obama McCain Together

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest California has managed to get both presidential candidates on the same stage at the same time.  Barack Obama and John McCain will be at Saddleback on August 16th.

Intriguing.  I'm afraid, tho, that it'll somehow be much like being interviewed by the MSM....softball questions for Obama, hardball for McCain.  I'd actually like the idea, if I didn't have this underlying fear.  With no "seperation of church and state" folks hollering yet, I'm even more concerned.

-Colonel Steve

Obama's Need For "Whiteout"

Lately, Barack Obama must be looking for a bottle of Whiteout, that old correction fluid used in the good old days of typewriters.  He seems to be using some of that, as he addressed a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  As Hugh Hewitt put it, "It is a certain that Obama wants to airbrush Pastor Wright and his views from the candidate's biography."  Right along with the Washington Post's help.

Lest we forget, Obama seems to also wish a blackout on his prior comments on late term mental health abortions.  He quotes recently in a Relevant magazine interview: "Now, I don't think that "mental distress" qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.."  Now he's backpedaling a little (covered by "clarifying" his comments) by saying that:

"Mental distress is not an illness." (campaign senior spokesman Linda) Douglass said. "He absolutely believes and has always said there has to be a health exception for serious physical and mental illness."

Basically stating that abortions are ok if mentally ill, but not ok during just mental distress.  These nuances are going to haunt him among the abortion-for-all-reasons group of the pro abortion side.  Which seems to be mostly all of them.

-Colonel Steve

More Important Than Faith?

I found this particular discussion rather amusing:

You wouldn’t think religion would matter much in this presidential election. There would seem to be so many more pressing issues: oppressive gasoline and food prices; a president widely regarded as a failure; a foreign policy that has us adrift in the world and mired in an unpopular war. Why would faith be an issue?

Religion not mattering much?  More pressing issues like gasoline and food prices?  Not when you compare temporary things with where one will spend eternity.

The columnists' answer is that it's in our genes.  They have that right in a way, but for a different reason.  We were all designed by our creator to seek Him.  Seeking Him we surely do.  So it's no surprise to me that religion tops those other temporal things that many would think were more important.

-Colonel Steve

Minimizing Life

The argument made for abortion for years has been that human life doesn't start til birth.  The next step in that argument is in defining conscienous. So argues Peter Singer, in an August 2007 editorial:

Opponents of abortion think there is a very compelling reason for denying freedom in these circumstances. They regard abortion as murder. Killing an embryo or fetus, they say, takes an innocent human life.

Defenders of a woman's right to choose sometimes challenge this claim. They deny that the embryo or fetus is a human life. The abortion debate then focuses on the question, "When does a human life begin?"

I think this is the wrong question to ask. In a strictly biological sense, the opponents of abortion are right to say that abortion ends a human life.

When a woman has an abortion, the fetus is alive, and it is undoubtedly human – in the sense that it is a member of the species homo sapiens. It isn't a dog or a chimpanzee.

But mere membership of our species doesn't settle the moral issue of whether it is wrong to end a life. As long as the abortion is carried out at less than 20 weeks of gestation – as almost all abortions are – the brain of the fetus has not developed to the point of making consciousness possible.

So, according to Peter Singer, being conscious is the new definition of a worthiness to live.  We are now placing ourselves at the same level with all other animals and plants.  Even to the point that now, in Spain, apes will be extended rights along side their human counterparts.  Another move that has Peter Singer's backing.

(HT: World on the Web)

-Colonel Steve

America's Confused Religious Believers

America, when it comes to religion, seems to be a rather confused bunch.  Consider some of these statements.

Twenty-one percent of self-identified atheists said they believed in God. Ten percent believe in hell.  (Sounds more like a believer to me.)

At least half of Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses accepted the assertion that religion causes more problems than it solves.  (Then why be part of the problem?)

The survey finds that 70 percent of those nationally who have a religious affiliation believe that many religions can lead to eternal life.  (Then why believe your particular system?)

That last one never has made much logical sense to me.  Many confuse a religion's stand of "my way is the way" with a requirement to make everyone that particular religion.  That kind of stuff happens in Muslim countries, but not here in a country found on Christian principles.  Principles of free will.

Any religious doctrine that muddles the water by saying that every system is ok really isn't much of a doctrine at all.  Why believe it if anything is ok?  I respect a doctrine that takes 2 stands:

1. Ours leads to eternal life alone, and
2. We will respect yours.  We disagree, but we will respect and dialog with you.

-Colonel Steve

If We Have To Allow Religious Groups.....

then we're not going to allow anyone.  So says the Clermont County Public Library of Ohio.  This ruling by their library board came after a financial seminar was requesting use of their public meeting rooms.  Since this particular financial seminar uses biblical quotes, the board initially said no.  When pressed by a lawsuit, they shut down use of the rooms by anyone.

Such a sad decision for the taxpayers of Clermont County Ohio.  The library board is certainly NOT looking out for those paying the library's bills.

-Colonel Steve

Dropping Numbers

Southern Baptists are reporting their baptism numbers dropping.  This after many mainstream denominations have been loosing members for years.

The suggestion is that the cause is one or both of two issues.  One is that churches are not as successful as they once were at outreach.  The other is that society's population slowdown is reaching Southern Baptist's "biological growth".

Either way, the major U.S. evangelical denomination has its work cut out for it.  Figuring out how to reach today's generation is a must.  Sticking with the old ways doesn't seem to be cutting it.

-Colonel Steve

Voting After Death

Life after death has been debated for centuries.  Common wisdom tells us nothing is certain except death and taxes.  Now it looks like the right to vote after death is being put to practice.

-Colonel Steve

Quote of the Day

"This is a dangerous time in America, the freest country in the world, where you have to whisper your thoughts." - Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, in reference to being silenced by his Cardinal, Francis George.

Get used to it Father.  Join the club of conservatives, who have been likewise silenced on their pulpits.  Look at the guide put out by the Americans United for Church and State.  You think the statements made in this guide has EVER been enforced towards liberal candidates?  Can you say "no way"? Consider this statement from the website mentioned above:

Church endorsements of candidates and statements of opposition to candidates are strictly forbidden and can result in revocation of a church's tax-exempt status.

You think your comments about Hillary Clinton just might be "statements of opposition to candidates"?  Yet I don't see these guys knocking on your door, or Trinity United Church of Christ's door.  If anything close to this was done in support of a conservative candidate, I don't think we'd have to wait long for these folks to get noisy.

-Colonel Steve

Dear Obama, Visit My Church

Dear Barack Obama,

Since the news has come out that you have formally resigned from your church home, maybe you should consider visiting mine.  Sure, my church may be miles from home for you, but I'm sure you can stop here a few times between campaign stops.  Oh, and those very capable Air Force One pilots do know their way here.

Sincerely,
-Colonel Steve