Reflections on God … Man … Life
Opinions on contemporary political happenings and the workings of civil government.
Yesterday was Ronald Reagan’s birthday. He would have been 102. Many of us long to have a president like him again. To commemorate his presidency and to remind you of his insights, I hereby present an excerpt from one of his most famous speeches. In 1983, he spoke to the National Association of Evangelicals, where he blatantly called the Soviet Union an evil empire. He was correct. Yet, beyond that, I hope you can see the heart of the man… Read more »
In church last Sunday, my pastor spoke about people who are fundamentally narcissistic, which is just another way of saying people are principally self-centered, i.e., sinful. As he was going down a list of traits for the narcissistic personality, my wife and I immediately related it to our most prominent political figure. Here’s the list of the manifestations of narcissistic personality disorder. See if you can catch the drift to whom this might apply. According to a medical encyclopedia, narcissistic… Read more »
The view that the people, as a collective, are always right is fallacious. The voters make huge mistakes all the time. Yet so do kings and totalitarian rulers. What, then, is the solution? Our Founders came up with an arrangement that sought to minimize the sinfulness and foolishness of man. The federal republic they created, while not perfect, since there is no perfect system in this world, nevertheless has the potential to diminish the bad effects of man’s selfish tendencies…. Read more »
Iran continues its persecution of Christians. The latest victim is Saeed Abedini, who is now an American citizen. Last week, he was sentenced to eight years in prison by a judge known for his particularly harsh sentences. What did Abedini do to run afoul of the regime? In the early years of this new century, when he was still an Iranian citizen, he converted to Christianity and became a leader in setting up a network of house churches. This, in… Read more »
Two big events in Washington, DC, this week. The first was the presidential inauguration; the second will be the annual March for Life on Friday. The first got a lot of coverage; the second won’t get nearly as much. Yet the second event is far more significant spiritually. While the inaugural address gave lip service to the ideal of the right to life as stated in the Declaration of Independence, the March for Life is the public face for those… Read more »
One of the key ways to mislead people is to use the same words everyone else uses, but to give those words a different meaning without explaining to the listeners the new definitions. President Obama’s inaugural address needs to be interpreted in that way. He used “Progressive-Speak” to make his points, yet most Americans don’t understand this particular language. I feel it is my duty to be his interpreter. I won’t include the entire speech; it would be far too… Read more »
President Obama yesterday put forward his executive orders for curbing gun violence. There were twenty-three of them. I read through all twenty-three carefully. While I’m somewhat relieved that he didn’t go beyond the regular misuse of such executive orders—no sweeping new mandates this time—he nevertheless stepped over the constitutional boundary that separates the executive from the legislative. His orders, while not establishing new laws, which would be unconstitutional in itself, still added new spending in the billions. Unless that money… Read more »