When Church and Politics Collide, How Will We Respond?

Alliance Defending Freedom

A church—and a pastor—that doesn’t form consciences for such a calling will only ensure that those consciences are shaped by something other than the Gospel.

"The formative role of the Church is one reason the pro-life movement continues to resonate, with growing numbers, among young Christians. Abortion and human dignity are clearly not singularly “political” issues, but issues that demand political, ecclesial, and cultural reform and persuasion. Most importantly, this resonates because younger Christians recognize the Gospel as of first importance, and the pro-life movement has demonstrated why the life issue is a Gospel issue.

"As Christians, we can engage politics and culture without becoming either outraged or indifferent. If we believe we are on the losing side of history, we slide into the rage of those who know their time is short. We have no reason to be fearful or sullen or mean. We’re not the losers of history. We are not slouching toward Gomorrah; we are marching to Zion. The worst thing that can possibly happen to us has already happened: we’re dead. We were crucified at Skull Place, under the wrath of God. And the best thing that could happen to us has already happened: We’re alive, in Christ, and our future is seated at the right hand of God, and He’s feeling just fine.

Get Your Free Political Guide for Pastors and Churches

"When it comes to politics, every church and ministry must decide for itself how specific to be when it comes to biblical guidance and engagement. Our new legal guide Pastors Churches & Politics will help ministries navigate the laws surrounding tax-exempt status for religious organizations. It will equip ministries to identify what activities are permitted and prohibited by the IRS and its regulations so that you can both shepherd your people and protect your ministry." 

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Hillary Gets (More Than) a Little Help from Her Media Friends

Image by The Slammer 

Clarice Feldman  "Before the Internet when I wanted to keep track of a story, I had to clip articles and file them, often establishing over the years how much in error the press accounts had been. Now, a few clicks and there we have what we had remembered but not saved. It will come as no surprise to regular readers of the Washington Post to learn that one of their oped writers Ruth Marcus is easily exposed as a partisan spinner in a quick check of  a comparison of her treatment of Hillary Clinton and former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.

"This week, Marcus wrote an editorial critical of Donald Trump’s “unhinged calls” for a special prosecutor to look into the Clinton Foundation. She dismissed the claims that the Foundation was a “pay to play” operation." . . .

The most critical remark she can manage is to suggest that since Hillary is beset by “enemies” who apply a stricter standard to her, she should have been more careful.

An overview of Ms. Feldman's column shows the subjects she covers: 

1.) The Skolkovo Innovation Center

2.) U.S. Arms Exports to Bahrain

3.) Arms Sales to Other Clinton Foundation contributors

4.) Sale of U.S. uranium assets to Russia and helping Abu Dhabi

A tale of two movies

Dan Joppich  "One of the silliest movies ever to hit the theatres is coming out this weekend.  It’s a movie based on Obama’s and Michelle’s first date.  My only interest in this movie is to see if it exceeds the box office success of Dinesh D’Souza’s recent movie, Hillary’s America.

"I mention it here in contrast to an interview this week on NPR with another black pioneer and the release of a movie based on his life and career that had to be somewhat uncomfortable for the liberal interviewer.  The movie, Floyd Norman: An Animated Life, is about the first black animator at Disney Studios.  Everything about this gentleman’s life is counter to the liberal progressive meme.  No matter how the interviewer tried to spin some kind of black triumph moment from Mr. Norman, he just couldn’t.  The 81-year-old said flat out that he has never in his entire life experienced any form of racism.

"How can that be?  It was the fifties, and this was a Disney studio, churning out one racist movie after another.

"Maybe it’s not as unusual as the liberal black racial divide industrialists like Sharpton and J. Jackson would have us believe." . . .

49ers Colin Kaepernick must have watched too many of Michelle Obama's commencement addresses. UPDATED

NFL   Also covered at Breitbart California

Kaepernick

Perhaps he has watched too many of Michelle Obama's commencement speeches.

"San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has willingly immersed himself into controversy by refusing to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems are wrongdoings against African Americans and minorities in the United States.

"His latest refusal to stand for the anthem -- he has done this in at least one other preseason game -- came before the 49ers' preseason loss to Green Bay at Levi's Stadium on Friday night.

" 'I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.' "...

"By taking a stand for civil rights, Kaepernick, 28, joins other athletes, like the NBA's Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and several WNBA players in using their platform and status to raise awareness to issues affecting minorities in the U.S.". . . 

Right: NOT Kaepernick

Update:

49ers Fan Has A Flaming Message For Colin Kaepernick  . . . "He added: ‘People die every single day defending that flag you refuse to stand for and I won’t stand for that.’

" ‘This jersey was the worst $50 investment I have ever had … you should never play in the NFL again, move to Canada.’ "

You're right . . .

. . .  I do obsess over Hillary, Obama and today's Democrats.

Because I fear them and their effect on our nation along with America's history and culture. 

The Tunnel Dweller (Right, in 1958)

Hillary’s a terrible liar — and it could doom her presidency

John Podhoretz  "The singular Nebraska politician (and later New School president) Bob Kerrey once observed of a fellow moderate Democrat: “Bill Clinton is an unusually good liar. Unusually good.”

"I don’t think this is something people would say about his wife.

"That Hillary Clinton is a liar is now inarguable. Indeed, it’s gotten so inarguable that people who dare argue she isn’t a liar are almost certainly lying, too — though, perhaps, only to themselves, to keep their spirits up.

"The problem for Hillary’s apologists is that she’s so incredibly bad at it.

"Bill’s brilliant lies provided cover for his defenders. Hillary’s lousy lies make her defenders look like fools. The pair of revelations in the past week demonstrates this." . . .

A very, very bad sign for Hillary

Thomas Lifson:  "The run-out-the-clock strategy for dealing with the Clinton Foundation and email problems that the Hillary camp leaked to Politico absolutely depends on an uninformed electorate dismissing the charges without any investigation. They must, in other words, accept that this entire imbroglio is nothing but right wing extremism, and brush it aside as unworthy of further attention. That is what Hillary has consistently done, lying at each step.

"A supportive media is essential to the success of this strategy, of course. Serious consideration must be ghettoized in media that can be dismissed as conservative, and therefore stupid, paranoid, racist, and…well…conservative." . . .

Obama’s Iran Strategy Creates Support for the Islamic State. His refusal to support Iran's Green Revolution was contemptable

Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker  "Despite the obvious fallacy in Donald Trump’s recent statement that President Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton were the “founders of ISIS”, Hudson Institute scholar Michael Doran’s February 2, 2015 essay “Obama’s Secret Iran Strategy” demonstrates that a very flawed U.S. policy towards Iran actually helped create Sunni support for the radical Sunni Islamic State. Due to what former Senior Director at the National Security Council Elliott Abrams terms Obama’s “ideology”, the administration not only failed to comprehend Iranian culture and the absolutist theological nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- a blunder already begun in the Carter White House and perpetuated through all subsequent administrations -- but also compounded the error by believing that the mullah regime could be enticed to moderate its behavior." . . .

Why Obama Let Iran's Green Revolution Fail 

Iran though is a very different story. Obama from the beginning of his presidency tried to turn the country's ruling clerics from foes to friends. It was an obsession.

And how has that worked out for the world?

. . . "But Obama wasn't just reluctant to show solidarity in 2009, he feared the demonstrations would sabotage his secret outreach to Iran. In his new book, "The Iran Wars," Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon uncovers new details on how far Obama went to avoid helping Iran's green movement. Behind the scenes, Obama overruled advisers who wanted to do what America had done at similar transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and signal America's support." . . .

" . . .Obama ended U.S. programs to document Iranian human rights abuses. He wrote personal letters to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assuring him the U.S. was not trying to overthrow him. Obama repeatedly stressed his respect for the regime in his statements marking Iran's annual Nowruz celebration."

. . . ""Instead, Obama spent his presidency misunderstanding Iran's dictator, assuring the supreme leader America wouldn't aid his citizens when they tried to change the regime that oppresses them to this day."

Why do not more people realize the shame Obama has brought on America because of his failure to support this Revolution? One man-one man alone- has shaped the Middle East and made Iran the major power there. This man is feckless and a disaster in his foreign policy.

Dr. Drew Booted From TV Show After Questioning Hillary's Health

America, land of freedom of expression, except for climate change and anything against a Democrat.

Newsmax

"Dr. Drew Pinsky, the physician and addiction specialist who hosted a popular medical-advice show on a sister network of CNN, has been fired after negatively speculating on Hillary Clinton's health and medical care.

"CNN reports Pinsky and the cable network "have mutually agreed" to air the final episode of HLN's "Dr. Drew on Call," which ran for six years, on Sept. 22."

"Earlier this month, Pinsky appeared on KABC radio's "McIntyre in the Morning" and revealed he and another doctors had reviewed medical evaluations of Clinton's health that had been released by her campaign.

"Based on the information that she has provided and her doctors have provided, we were gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care," Pinsky said in a transcript of the show provided by the Washington Free Beacon.

" 'Both of us concluded that if we were providing the care that she was receiving, we'd be ashamed to show up in a doctor's lounge. We'd be laughed out. She's receiving sort-of 1950-level care by our evaluation." . . . Read more 

Victor Davis Hanson on "Diversity: History’s Pathway to Chaos "

Victor Davis Hanson  . . . "The propaganda of history’s multicultural empires — the Ottoman, the Russian, the Austro-Hungarian, the British, and the Soviet — was never the strength of their diversity. To avoid chaos, their governments bragged about the religious, ideological, or royal advantages of unity, not diversity. 

"Nor did more modern quagmires like Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Rwanda, or Yugoslavia boast that they were “diverse.” Instead, their strongman leaders naturally claimed that they shared an all-encompassing commonality. 

"When such coerced harmony failed, these nations suffered the even worse consequences of diversity, as tribes and sects turned murderously upon each other.

The Balkanization Of America   

... America has been successful because we have become one people. There is a "social glue" of a common language, a shared history, uniting symbols that tie us together. We live under a common flag, which we honor, and salute.

American Dhimmitude: The Road From Amnesty (From 2006)  . . . "If, however, we surrender to the illegal-alien will to power - by caving in to their demands for passage of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty - we would be following Europe into our own version of dhimmitude, wherein a decadent host civilization capitulates to the chauvinist assertions of outsiders."

University of Chicago tells freshmen: Don’t expect ‘trigger warnings,’ ‘safe spaces’ or disinvitations of controversial speakers

The Volokh Conspiracy  Excerpts here:  
 "I wanted to join those who are praising the University of Chicago letter to incoming freshmen:
       Dear Class of 2020 Student:

Once here you will discover that one of the University of Chicago’s defining characteristics is our commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression. This is captured on the University’s faculty report on freedom of expression. Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn, without fear of censorship. Civility and mutual respect are vital to all of us, and freedom of expression does not mean the freedom to harass or threaten others. You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own. . . .

In Response to France's Burkini Ban, People are Demanding a Speedo Ban for Fat Men

PJ Media  "In the wake of recent terrorist attacks by radical Muslim extremists in France, beaches have begun banning burkinis—full-body swimwear worn by Muslim women—at public pools and beaches because they've been deemed a security risk. The first ban was imposed in Cannes on the French Riviera and they've now spread to 14 other cities. Tensions over the minimalist dress code escalated this week when someone snapped pictures of police officers in Nice reportedly forcing a Muslim woman in Nice to partially disrobe.

"Now, some people are wondering whether other swimsuits that make people uncomfortable should be banned. This guy will be the first to go if Paul Webb has his way:" . . .