Monthly Archives: September 2009

New Atheists look better by comparison

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This entry is wrong, but typical. What is painful is that it is so stupid from a man reputed to know something and to have integrity.  Only one of those could possibly be true for the author of such a piece.  It is simply false and obviously false to anyone who reads the text of the OT that the Jewish treatment of the Samaritans was pleasing to God.

Much of what we find in the OT is, to use an NA phrase, “Iron Age tribalism”: our god is better than your god, and he told us to take your land, kill all of you, and keep the booty. When Christians respond that the OT also carries the injunction to “love your neighbor,” NA responds that one’s ”neighbor” in the OT is fellow Israelites. God is not telling the Israelites to walk on over to the Canaanites and “love them.” Rather, he is telling them to wipe them out and take their land.

Enns actually sides with this libel.  I suppose he will insist these were redacted insertions for a later time: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19.34).

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear (Deuteronomy 10.12-20).

What anti-intellectual morons are our new sophisticates.  They notice that God ordered the extermination of the Canaanites that remained in the Land and that is all they need to hear.  God preaches hate of all non-Israelites until Jesus comes to correct him.  There couldn’t possibly be any depth or complexity in the OT record.  We already know that it is Iron Age primitivism.

So Jesus is the answer to this?  Eternal conscious torture?  Yes, that will win the New Atheists over.  “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10.28).  Glad we’ve got Jesus to protect us from the Iron Age god of the Old Testament.

What reeks about all this is that it refuses to face up to the real offense of the OT ethics and face up to the real problem of God.  The New Atheists will face it, but not neo-whatever professors.

God kills children.  And in the case of the Canaanites and the Amalekits he made a special provision to do so by human agency.  It was always exceptional.  It climaxed in the book of Esther where those who allied with Haman the Agagite (from King Agag of the Amalekites) were destroyed (though many actually converted and became Jews–strange form of tribalism that would allow for that–but I’ll bet Enn’s thinks Esther is all fiction anyway).  It was never a standard practice in war or any other time.  On the contrary, Isrealites were to show love to non-Israelites.  When Saul killed Gibeanites (descendants of Canaanites who, due to their faith in the true God, tricked Joshua into a perpetual covenant with them), God cursed the land in retaliation.

But why are we engaged in the fantasy that there is any possible God who does not kill the innocent?  I just attended the burial of a baby God killed within days of her deliverance from the womb.  We see people being struck with decrepitude all around us, though we try to keep them out of site to be tormented by low-wage “health care workers.”  God kills every single human being to whom he gives life.  There are a few people who have resisted His inexorable attack for over a century but they will soon be gone.

The extermination of the Canaanites is a drop in the ocean of blood.  If it doesn’t detract from the general OT ethic that one should love the stranger as well as the native born as oneself, then the only thing left, is “the problem of evil.”  And in that context, it barely merits comment.

New Atheists are probably aware of cancer wards for children.  If we can preach an ethic of love in such circumstances, we can show the basic courtesy of the OT to not lie about its ethic of love.

The fact is, the United States own policy toward strangers (“illegal” aliens) is precisely a barbarous monstrosity that violates every principle of the civilized ethic found in the OT.

I have tried to stay away from the Enns mess because I can’t stand giving any credit to the machine that railed against him.  But there was no way I could read this and not comment. And I resent that he makes such bad guides look more credible by his own wandering from the path in such obvious and unjustifiable ways.  He’s not the only one to do this and he won’t be the last.  Pharisees and Saducees and all that.

PostScript: An awesome providence in blogging.

PostPostScript: Notice that Jesus’ reasoning about loving others is directly from the Deutoronomy 10, quoted above.  In Deuteronomy, Moses points out that God feeds and clothes the sojourners.  Jesus says:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

How community gets subverted by leadership

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You can’t have friends without rules. – 22 Words.

Excellent quotation by Tim Keller.  But it also opens up thoughts about how the principle gets abused.

If it is impossible to have a community without rules, then you can predict the end of a community–one that used to function–upon certain conditions.

For example, if it becomes widely recognized that the enforcement of the rules is done by unaccountable people for selfish reasons, the community will soon end.

If it becomes widely realized that accusations about breaking the rules can be made by some people without any truth to their claims.

Or when it becomes widely realized that “following the rules,” while used as a slogan, is in fact of no consequence compared to arriving at pre-ordained conclusions that are dogmatically asserted to follow from the rules when they actually don’t follow at all.

In these and many other ways, the sloganeering for the rules by community leadership can and often does cover rule-breaking that hollows out community until it implodes.

Guess who is suddenly asking for a bailout because the price of milk dropped?

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2004:

2007:

So sorry for the farmer, but any attempt to “prop up” milk prices is a direct robbery of the consumer who are also having to deal with the pop of the bubble.  The only way to get through this is to start acknowledging the market before it starts destroying our system of evasions.

Implosion then explosion: Why get excited about a large Romans commentary?

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Someone just wrote something that made me grasp the dynamic here.  Most people in the PCA and other Reformed denominations live out their lives hearing sermons on about ten percent of the Bible.  Galatians, Romans, forays into the other Gospels, some other Epistles and then back to Romans.

So the material for preaching has effectively shrunk.  This creates a market for more material. So when someone writes a commentary on Romans that promises to be really really long, that is a real help.  Having shrunk the Bible, a longer one is then created to fill the need.

A thick Romans commentary helps fill the Bible shaped void in a Christian’s heart.

Divorce law is a transcript of God’s righteous character

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Many Protestant exegetes argue that God simply failed to prohibit sinful divorce rather than establishing a permission to divorce under certainl circumstances.  They argue that God simply mandated that such sinful divorces be documented officially.

This argument is unconvincing for several reasons, not least because God himself divorces in exactly that way.

It is like Honduras is Steve Wilkins and the State Dept is the SJC

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The Department of State announces the termination of a broad range of assistance to the government of Honduras as a result of the coup d’etat that took place on June 28. The Secretary already had suspended assistance shortly after the coup.
The Secretary of State has made the decision, consistent with U.S. legislation, recognizing the need for strong measures in light of the continued resistance to the adoption of the San Jose Accord by the de facto regime and continuing failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras.

The Department of State recognizes the complicated nature of the actions which led to June 28 coup d’etat in which Honduras’ democratically elected leader, President Zelaya, was removed from office. These events involve complex factual and legal questions and the participation of both the legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the military.

Restoration of the terminated assistance will be predicated upon a return to democratic, constitutional governance in Honduras.

The Department of State further announces that we have identified individual members and supporters of the de facto regime whose visas are in the process of being revoked.

A presidential election is currently scheduled for November. That election must be undertaken in a free, fair and transparent manner. It must also be free of taint and open to all Hondurans to exercise their democratic franchise. At this moment, we would not be able to support the outcome of the scheduled elections. A positive conclusion of the Arias process would provide a sound basis for legitimate elections to proceed. We strongly urge all parties to the San Jose talks to move expeditiously to agreement.

Thus sake Darth State Department.

Translation:

We have you addicted to aid and now we’re sending you into withdrawal.

We think it is right to punish the poorest in Honduras most severely for crimes the powerful didn’t even commit.

We are the judge, jury and executioner and your constitution says what we say it does.

We would never want to be perceived as meddling in an important country like Iraq, but you are our bitch.

We will now harrass anyone in our reach with the Visa regime.

We will go to war with any popular candidate you vote into office.

You should not have crossed us; get back in line.  We’re the grasshoppers and you are just ants.

Delores Umbridge should never be disobeyed.

Palpatine is not happy with you!

La Gringa’s Blogicito: Honduras needs help from you

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We need all the help from American citizens to make your government see the error of the foreign policy that Hillary Clinton is applying with respect to Honduras. It is not possible to stand at the side of Chavez and against the democracy of Honduras. Please ask ALL of your friends to call massively to Hillary with the following message:

Call the State Dept. at 202-647-5171. Deliver the following message:

Secretary Clinton, please DO NOT follow the recommendation of the State Department.

DO NOT legally define the constitutional presidential succession in Honduras as a military coup.

DO NOT cut off aid to Honduras.

Please forward this message to anyone you know who you think will take action.

via La Gringa’s Blogicito: Honduras needs help from you.

Keep your needles away from me

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This manufactured panic is so idiotic, you almost wonder, if America ends up in camps, if that doesn’t prove we deserve it.

Consider this story, with an introduction and then numbered points.

The introductory paragraphs are the usual panick-mongering about how much danger we are in and then,

1. No cause for panic.

So far, swine flu isn’t much more threatening than regular seasonal flu.

So what are you scaring us for?

But then look at the numbered points 4-6 and then 7 ask yourself about the priorities they demonstrate, here are 4-6 in summary:

4. Get the kids vaccinated.

5. Get your shots early.

6. Immunity takes awhile.

An now comes number 7:

7. Vaccines are being tested.

Health officials presume the swine flu vaccine is safe and effective, but they’re testing it to make sure.

The federal government has begun studies in eight cities across the country to assess its effectiveness and figure out the best dose. Vaccine makers are doing their own tests as well.

They presume.

Has the world gone mad?  Because I think the spreading pharmafascism insanity looks far more dangerous than the virus.  And has the government already granted Pharma immunity from liability about this stuff they want shoved into children?

It is tragic that pro-aborts use this to comfort themselves, but it still needs to be contemplated.

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bombing

hat tip (with strong disagreement that there is anything remotely ambiguous about abortion)

By the way, I have no problem with being anti-abortion and pro-war if the alternative is absolute pacifism.  Both involve defending the innocent. But, as I’ve said before, there is no tradition in Christian history of a Just Bombing Theory and Just War Theory is abused until that is admitted.  And America has never used war as a last resort for dire threats.  It has used it as a policy option to teach others to obey us.