GOD’S MERCY AND PATIENCE IN NEW ORLEANS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Various emails to me ask where God’s mercy in patience was in Katrina.

I have answered that in part in prior posts:

http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9292.shtml and http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308603 and http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308487 and http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9281.shtml and http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9261.shtml.

Before speaking further to the divine mercy in patience, here’s an interesting email I just received with which I totallyagree . It is in response to my post regarding the debauchery planned for this Labor Day weekend when homosexuals were going to descend upon New Orleans for their "Southern Decadence" annual celebration. Of course, my post condemned the event.:

"Amen! It is eerie how this perfect storm hit the city of drunken
springbreak orgyfests and land of voodoo witchcraft. . .while at the same
time dealing a blow to the jugular vein of our energy supply at the very
moment of all-time oil scarcity.

"Not that my sins stink any less in God's nostrils. . .we're all sinners in need of salvation by Jesus Christ.

"But the USA has been begging for this. 9/11 was a wake-up call, but we
went back to business as usual. I pray this shake-up from God's finger
brings some true repentance.

"Drew"

Okay. Now to the divine mercy and patience.

God has such mercy that it is unfathomable. We all have sinned and come short of His glory. We all deserve punishment for breaking the divine statutes. But in His mercy He forgives those who in genuine sorrow for committed sins repent of their waywardness. They thereby receive His grace and love in forgiveness by which such persons, in thanksgiving, live the Christian life.

In other words, such disciples of Christ know full-well that they deserved the eternal damnation Jesus warned of as recorded in the Gospel records. But the Lord’s mercy was extended to their contrite souls upon repentance; therefore, instead of hell they anticipate heaven as well as the abiding daily presence of Christ’s Spirit.

God’s mercy is ever available; but stubborn souls, wanting to live for self and sin, ignore His mercy. Yet He waits and waits again. In His patience He waits, sometimes generation upon generation. But then finally there is a limit to His patience in mercy. When, in his perfect knowledge and wisdom, He concludes that there is no more waiting for the stubbornness of mankind to repent, He acts.

For instance, when Noah’s generation was given the opportunity to turn toward God’s mercy, that society had plenty of time to repent of their waywardness. But they refused to give up their evil; therefore, they went over the line of God’s patience in mercy. He acted with the floodwaters. Only eight righteous mortals were left alive.

When Sodom and Gomorrah were given ample time in which to repent of their homosexual lifestyles, righteous Lot's family being in their midst, that citizenry went over the line of God's patience in mercy. He acted with fire and brimstone.

These are the last days of the Church Age, according to numerous Bible scholars. Therefore, there are to be divine signs set loose by which warnings will attract global attention in the divine’s pursuit of repentant souls. In prophecy these rough times are known as "pestilence." Such pestilence is now with us on every hand. Such is increasing steadily.

Katrina came upon "the just and the unjust." It wiped out a citadel of sin cuddled inside an earthen bowl. How many times had God reached out by mercy in patience to redeem souls in that entire geography, only to have souls rebel? Only God knows.

Then there came the crossing the line of the Lord’s patience in mercy. So we now deal with the aftermath of that divine wrath. Yes, the innocent suffer along with the sinful. That’s the way things are down here. As Jesus said, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust."

Yet as I have written in another post, "What About the Saints in New Orleans?" http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308603, God has a pattern He is working through in the believers’ lives for this existence and the next.

The question now remains: Where else will the Lord strike in order to bring the world community to its senses before His judgment throne? Time will tell.

Stay tuned.

REACTION TO "DON’T REBUILD NEW ORLEANS"

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

I posted http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9315.shtml that held that rebuilding in the bowl called "New Orleans" is faulty logic.

To that came this response:

"I agree.

"NEVER rebuild New Orleans. I wonder: Will God even allow a rebuild? I am heartbroken for the innocent ones suffering but feel better from the scripture about the "just and the unjust." I read in the Bible that we are to rejoice in God ALWAYS, no matter WHAT the circumstances.

"I didn't know about New Orleans being Sin City until my sister told me tonight about a documentary she saw. Thank you, God, for that. I have been crying for days with my heart broken because of all the human suffering. That is a terrible thing; but so is a city known for SIN. New Orleans was a city where absolute EVIL absolutely ABOUNDED.

"I wouldn't ever want to or CHOOSE to go to a place where it is famous for sin and evil. I'd be too afraid to set foot there, much less LIVE there. God will lift up ALL the innocents after life on this world. It's what comes AFTER life in this world that counts. A decision is to be made and New Orleans is a PRIME example.

"Thank you for your article."

Then came this response from a fellow who created a web site for the express purpose of warning the public, particularly lawmakers, not to rebuild in the old geography of New Orleans:

"Your article moved me to create this web site in support of your opinion:

http://www.abandonneworleans.com/.

"Let me know if you approve. Also I'm open to posting anything additional you'd care to submit.

"J Morris Murphy"

And then this constructive recommendation:

"Mr. Swank,

"I do believe that we should rebuild New Orleans, but we need to move it about 50 miles north near the city of Gonzales, LA.

"The land in that area is above sea level and the Mississippi River would be available at that location in which a port could be constructed. Yes, I know that this would cost BILLIONS of dollars, but it beats rebuilding in a place that is already below sea level and continues to sink.

"Thank you, Robert"

DON’T REBUILD NEW ORLEANS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

It makes no sense.

And yet the courageous sounding continue with the age-old baptized mantra: "We will come back. We will rebuild."

That is commendable in that it is basically an emotional response to the New Orleans and environs tragedy. But it is not reasonable.

Are we going to rebuild a city that is going to go under again and again and again? The geography was warned over and over in the past by professionals who forecast that the bowl would fill up with flood waters one day. And now that apocalypse has come. We are experiencing the worst disaster in the nation’s history.

Would we rebuild in order to do a return of same in some year yet to be? Would that be fair to the upcoming generations let alone to our own logical present-tense see-throughs?

The whole time I was watching horrific scene by horrific scene, I kept coming to the same conclusion: Let’s not do that bowl thing again. Americans are proud people. They don’t like to be called quitters. They are achievers and go on with the show.

But all that has nothing to do with constructing a city once more in a bowl waiting for overflows. There is no guarantee that any system whatsoever could ward off floodwaters. We American planners always feel we have it safe and down pat. Sometimes we do. Then there are other times when we are proven to have imperfect plans.

The obvious logic in this whole mess is to say forthrightly to one another that we must learn from this not to be foolhardy in putting up another metropolis in the very same location that could be vulnerable to more mayhem in a short time to come? In a long time to come? In some time to come? Whatever, it’s not worth the gamble.

It’s the same toss of the dice in California. It makes no sense to me to build a house on the side of a potential mudslide. People do it. They take pictures of their grand homes and send them all over the place. They brag on their chances. And then calamity hits.

They go back and ask for the same mudslide spill all over again. I say that when they walk into the fan another time, they deserve every shredding they get. It's just not logical, and if Americans pride themselves on anything, it's that they are so downright logical. Not so.

US House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) says the same thing. He told the Daily Herald in a Chicago suburb that "’it doesn’t make sense to me. And it’s a question that certainly we should ask.’" That answer was to the question whether or not New Orleans should be resurrected on the same spot.

As reported by Bill Walsh of The Times-Picayune’s Washington Bureau, Hastert’s remarks followed Congress cutting short its summer break in order to return to DC to tend to emergency business.

As one can imagine, illogical pride rose to the occasion to counter Hastert’s comments. Those in charge from Louisiana scolded Hastert for being so brash, so unfeeling, and so forth and so forth. Illogical pride has a way of getting just a bit too emotional about things important at times.

"’We help replace, we help relieve disaster,’ Hastert said. ‘But I think federal insurance and everything that goes along with it. . .we ought to take a second look at that.’

"Hastert questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city below sea level that will continue to be in the path of powerful hurricanes."

Now that makes sense.

And when it comes to those in California falling off their cliffs, knowing full well that one of these days or nights the cliffs could give way, don’t give them any moneys by which to build another monster house again on the slip side of existence.

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.


For More Information On This Story Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php


Story Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

SUCCESS FOR FEMALES IN AFGHANISTAN

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Females, once considered worth less than scum by Muslim males, are now coming into their own in Afghanistan, thanks to a democracy planting ongoing. There is no other answer but to recognize that it is because of the Bush administration and US assistance in that Muslim country that much progress is being made on numerous levels. The female advance is particularly interesting and laudable.

There are 582 females now running for office in the September 18 elections. That’s awesome beyond imagination. Yet it is fact.

Prior these very women were under threat from the Islamic killers international who wanted to snuff out any semblance of personal liberties. Now these women are courageous enough to put their names on ballots for public office in Afghanistan. It’s unheard of. It’s practically unbelievable; nevertheless, it is reality.

However, with the jubilation there are still Taliban holdouts who say they are going to slaughter any females who run for office. An Afghan woman UN election volunteer was attacked this summer in Kandahar province. She was able to escape unhurt, but the situation is a warning. The tussle continues. Freedoms do not come easily. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes perseverance.

Though the American liberals cannot seem to understand patience in time, let alone courage in perseverance, due to their constant litany of woes regarding the Bush administration democracy plantings, there are Afghans who do very much understand these personal qualities.

They cherish them and put them into action. While the likes of Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi continue their political tirades against the Bush freedom spread, those in Afghanistan stay the course. While Cindy Sheehans continue their political opportunism rants, Afghan women in particular see goals unseen by such blind feminists as the Cindy types.

So it is that these Afghan women expect to have their names there in plain sight, regardless of the threats from Muslim murderers global. They will not be daunted. And some of them expect to be elected to serve in a political office.

"Before U.S.-led forces ousted them from power in 2001, the Taliban barred women from working and girls from studying. Women were unable to travel without a male relative accompanying them and if they were caught outside without wearing an all-encompassing burqa, they were often beaten.

"’The militants phone me all the time, threatening to kill me. One day while driving, two men on a motorbike even pulled up next to me and pulled out a gun to intimidate me,’ said Shaheeda Hussain, an independent candidate in southern Kandahar city.

"’But I am determined to work for women's rights. I've been campaigning to other women in their houses and my supporters have pasted my posters on walls around the city,’ she said."

Would that American liberals had like courage. That they would learn from the grassroots patience in time experienced by these Afghan women who daily are under siege for standing their ground for personal liberties.

While American liberals enjoy every day such freedoms without question, they war against planting a democracy for the Afghans. While American liberals breathe in fresh liberty air every dawn, they set landmines for every Republican working night and day to assist those in other countries with the freedom spread.

It’s interesting the contrast, isn’t it?

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.


For More Information On This Story Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Story Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

WHAT ABOUT THE SAINTS IN NEW ORLEANS?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Here’s an overview about the evil in New Orleans: http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9292.shtml

And then there’s this: http://www.out2.com/copyroom/articles.asp?StoryKey=308487

Now what about the saints in New Orleans and surrounding areas?

There were a lot of evangelicals in those neighborhoods. There were a lot of Bible-preaching pulpits in those environs. There were those who read their Scriptures every day, prayed every day, tithed and gave love offerings to their churches. There were Sunday school teachers and ministers and lay preachers as well as scores of laypersons committed to the cause of Christ.

What about the retired missionaries in those houses under water? And the little children who sang the gospel choruses? And those teens who went to youth meetings every Friday night instead of shooting up? There’s got to be said something for the clean living folk down there in the hospitable South.

After all, there were Catholic priests who remained true to their vocation. And there were ordained deacons seeing through their weekly duties. There were nuns obedient to their vows.
There were also others who belonged to no local congregation but who held to morals and ethics commendable in the American tradition of upright living. In other words, their hearts were in the right place.

What about them? Now what do we do with the saints and God and calamity and sorrow and death and flattened homes and businesses?

Well, it’s like this: we don’t live in a perfect world, though the Democrats would like to have us believe that. When the Bush administration does not perform perfectly, the Dems go into a snit. They can’t perform perfectly but they would have everyone else do so.

It’s the same with the liberal media. They report on the Bush lack of perfection at every turn. Peter Jennings and Dan Rather were masters at that. But they themselves miss the mark by a long shot when it comes to truth and fact, so much so that it’s amazing such news anchors can live with their consciences.

So we live in an imperfect world. Why? Because, according to the Bible, our first parents disobeyed God. To disobey God is no light matter. That is for certain. Yet it’s hard for mortal to get that through the stubborn head for we are balking all the way to disobedience much of the time.

Nevertheless, with an imperfect world, we have hurricanes and tornadoes and floods and fires and little babies die in their cribs and saints perish in all sorts of unfortunate situations.

Jesus said that the "rain falls on the just and the unjust."

That’s right. When a tornado storms through a village, the saints’ houses are not circumvented. They get flattened along with the stripper’s and the robber’s and all those in between.

When cancer moves through a neighborhood, it strikes the saint as well as the godless heathen. That’s the way things are down here. "The rain falls on the just and the unjust."

Therefore, when Katrina swung through the South, Katrina moved through saints’ domains as well as the evil, hell-bent souls’ dwellings. But there is a difference in all this regarding the saints and the hell-bent. It’s this: the saints believe that "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called unto His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Therefore, the saints hold on to faith.

If the house goes, they keep the faith. If the property flattens, they keep the faith. If the father dies in the flood waters, the living keep the faith. For those who perish here on Earth, there is heaven for the saints. For the living going through trial, there is the undergirding presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now the hell-bent have no idea what all that verbiage is about. They just don’t read the language. It is foreign to them. It’s another nomenclature. That’s because, according to Saint Paul, the unspiritual cannot decipher spiritual matters. And that is so true when I read my email concerning my two posts mentioned at the start of this article.

The emails curse at me, call me stupid and hard-hearted plus more.

You see those sending those emails have no idea where I come from. They come from unbelief, having no understanding of the Bible’s hope. They know not Christ as personal Friend. They only have this material sphere to cling to.

When it’s gone, they’re gone. So they rail at me. I can take it for I’m just the messenger. It’s really God they’re angry about. They don’t like God for God calls them to morality, ethics and holy living. They don’t want that, so they rail and rant.

Now about those saints in New Orleans and environs surrounding.

They are going through the fire. They are badgered by life’s blows. They are flattened and scarred and homeless. But their God is greater than all of that and they know that. By faith they know that. And in time they will come through with their personal testimonies of how God led them through this terrible mess.

In the meantime, the hell-bent unbelieving atheists and agnostics and secularists continue to question whether or not there is a God, what kind of hell this world is that we breathe in, and why the Bush administration didn’t hold back Katrina.

So it goes, folks.

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

For More Information On This Story Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Story Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

HOMO ‘SOUTHERN DECADENCE’ THEN ‘PAGAN PRIDE DAY’

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Whew! I just got finished reading "Southern Decadence" web sites (http://www.frenchquarter.com/events/Decadence.php) inviting America to the homosexual bash this Labor Day weekend in New Orleans. The invitation goes like this:

"Southern Decadence may be most famous (or infamous) for the displays of naked flesh which characterize the event - which is only fitting, since New Orleans in early September is generally the closest thing you'll ever experience to walking around in a steambath outside of a health spa.

"The atmosphere of Southern Decadence has stayed true to its name and public displays of sexuality are pretty much everywhere you look. Like I said, you might want to leave your more prudish friends and family at home.

"However, if you're open-minded enough to plan on joining the crowds this year, it's not too late to find a place to stay. New Orleans is built around the hospitality industry, and there are usually plenty of accommodations available over Labor Day weekend in and near the French Quarter to suit every taste and budget.

"Don't just limit yourself to looking for places to stay in the French Quarter; there are plenty of lodgings available in the Central Business District and Faubourg Marigny, and you'll appreciate having somewhere quiet yet nearby to retire to when you need a break from the crowds.

"After all, the party in New Orleans never really stops - during Southern Decadence weekend or any time of year. August 31 - September 5, 2005."

After ingesting that, then I came upon an invitation to attend Pagan Pride Day in Florida. I had to ask myself: If Katrina is what’s present-tense, what’s next?

Pagan Pride Day is celebrated far and wide in the United States. Now Ft. Lauderdale is set for celebrating all that is anti-Christ.

And where will the event be held? In the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft. Lauderdale on 21st Avenue, of course.

That’s where the sanctuary will be turned into the unholy environs for celebrating the dark side of existence.

Naturally it will all appear as the light side of existence, just as Lucifer presents himself as the Angel of Light. Those who are students of the Bible know full well what’s going on at a Pagan Pride Day. However, the naïve are swept into its courses not realizing that they are enveloping their spirits in the unholy spirits.

Nevertheless, Broward County will be the high spot for a family picnic and food drive (bring non-perishable food items and clothing to donate to the Cooperative Feeding Program).

The date: September 24 from noon till dark.

The sponsor: Moon Path Chapter of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans.

The coordinator: Sophia Letourneau on behalf of "all Pagan-pathed individuals in the South Florida area."

Activities include Walking the Labyrinth, face painting for the kiddies, story tellers, and vendors with ceramics, drums, henna, jewelry, massages, psychic foretelling, Reiki healing, rune reading, sarongs, soaps, taro readings, and other merchandise.

Workshops are aplenty: Tea Room Fashion Show, Drum Circle, Photographing the Paranormal, Sympathetic Magick, Grounding Meditation.

All I can think of when reading this on the Internet (http://www.geocities.com/sophialinus/PaganPrideDay.html) is what happened to New Orleans.

That city was ready to open its arms this Labor Day weekend to the "Southern Decadence" (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Southern-Decadence-New-Orleans/) annual celebration of homosexuals "doing their thing" throughout the city and far reaches.

It had billed itself as "the biggest gay event in New Orleans, a five day circuit party and street fair celebration with many of the country's top DJs."


Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

For More Information On This Story Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Story Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

ISLAMOPHOBIA’ : THE NEW PSCYHO DISEASE?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Ali Sina’s "The Fall of Europe" as posted on FaithFreedom.org reveals that the Council of Europe now protects the only killing religion on the planet — Islam. The means by which to protect Muslim murderers global is a ban on "criticism of Islam."

"Anti-Islamism has been included in the text as a ‘dangerous inclination’ that has to be fought against upon the insistence of Turkey at the summit that 46 Council members attended," Selcuk Gultasli reported on zaman.com.

No wonder Turkey presented itself to the European Union as a totally secular nation not given to any religious preferences, thereby deserving a place in the EU alongside the other countries as a civil people. Turkey, very much Muslim though praising itself as uniquely secular, has now set the scope for criminalizing all who expose Islam for what it is — not so much a religion as a killing cult.

To tell truth about Islam in Europe will mean a jail sentence or worse. It’s come to that. This is the open door for the plotted Muslim takeover of all of Europe, while Muslims all along have infiltrated to do just that.

Sina reports the alarming occurrence: "An Italian judge, Armando Grasso, in city of Bergamo, ordered the best-selling writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her native Italy on charges she defamed Islam in her book ‘La Forza della Ragione’ (The Force of Reason).

"In it, Ms Fallaci argues that Europe is turning into ‘an Islamic province, an Islamic colony’ and that ‘to believe that a good Islam and a bad Islam exist goes against all reason’.

"Fallaci wrote that terrorists had killed 6,000 people over the past 20 years in the name of the Quran and said the Islamic faith ‘sows hatred in the place of love and slavery in the place of freedom.’"

Fallaci spoke the truth. These are facts, not her opinion.

"Adel Smith, president of the Muslim Union of Italy, sued the writer, claiming that Ms Fallaci’s book is offensive to Muslims."

What’s happening in Europe via the Muslim Union of Italy, could very well happen in America via the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The truth is that Islam is the chief planetary cult from hell’s fires. Allah is Lucifer. The Koran is not a holy book but an obscene manual instructing devotees to slaughter all non-Muslims. Mosques are meeting places to scheme the overthrow of all non-Muslims. Clerics are henchmen set on destroying all that is not Islamic. Mohammed was a madman who committed all sorts of sexual perversions and murder.

Is not the world to be told of this devilment? Is not the civil community to be informed of what is going on in our midst? Is it not time for political leaders of all freedom nations to stand against this worldwide killing cult?

There is no peace or love in Islam, though just yesterday I read in the Portland Press Herald, Portland Maine, a feature column devoted to Islam as a religion. Quoting a well-known encyclopedia, Islam was presented as a religion teaching its disciples love and peace.

I thought to myself that the metro newspaper, traditionally politically liberal from senior editors to local reporters, has fallen prey to the Islamic lie. How many other newsfeeds have fallen prey?

Any so-called religion that has a murder base must be obliterated. President George W. Bush and those of his executive officialdom must warn America of the Islamic intentions to take over the United States. No longer can Islam be referred to as a "peace religion." It is anything but.

I note that now Mr. Bush has not referred to Islam by "peace religion" rhetoric but called it an "ideology teaching hate." I think the Chief Executive has got the message and at present in code language is changing his nomenclature to convey a more realistic definition of Islam. May it continue — more baldly, more bluntly.

Christians who live by the Bible know how to interpret false teachings. They don’t accept all world religions as truth. They accept Christianity as the only true faith. That is because Jesus is regarded as deity and by His own statements has informed His disciples that no one comes to God the Father but via Him. Therefore, all other religions are false. More specifically, all other religions are plots of the devil to sideline mortals from the true salvation via Christ.

Therefore, biblical Christians, if living in Europe, would never be able to voice their conclusions regarding Islam. They could be hauled into court and sentenced to incarceration or death. The only reason that such insanity that is now present in Europe has not taken over America is because of the biblical believers' presence at the grassroots and in places of political power.

Some of these believers are known as evangelical Protestants or devout Catholics or knowledgeable Orthodox Christians. Others are Jews or persons of no particular denominational persuasion but who know the Bible as the divine revelation and therefore are aware of the false religions’ derivation coming from the devil.

Sina reports: "The conclusion draft of the summit included the notion of ’Islamophobia’. The inclusion of this notion in the European organizations' documents for the first time is described as the success of Turkey.

"The 3rd Council of Europe summit has for the first time mentioned ‘Islamophobia’ in the 9th paragraph of the Warsaw Declaration.

"The Council has reached the following decisions regarding the issue: Condemnation of any kind of intolerance and discrimination based on gender, race and religious beliefs in particular, including Islamophobia. . ., the fight against these within the framework of the Council of Europe and the use of effective mechanisms and rules to combat these problems.

"Thus, anti-Islamism. . .will be dealt with within the framework of legal proceedings. The Council reports will include anti-Islamist movements. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) will closely monitor these movements. ‘The Commission will record in which country anti-Islamism increases or how it is reflected.’"

Now we have detectives going throughout Europe seeking out any mention of anti-Islamic writings or speeches. Europe has been told in no uncertain terms to clam up regarding the frightening reality of Islam.

Islamics will then proceed to kill off the non-Muslims without hindrance. Islam will continue to spread its hellish lies, propagating its deceit machine without hindrance. Mosques will populate the continent while clerics have free swing at spreading their cultic practices.

In short, the murder scheme known as Islam has now been accepted as the means by which to slaughter all Europeans except Muslim immigrants.

This is the most insane move yet. And it’s lifted as high and holy by numerous nations who have stupidly embraced Turkey has an equal among equals.

America: take warning.

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

For More Information On This Story Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Story Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

NEW ORLEANS’ SIN BROUGHT DEVASTATION: ‘REPENT AMERICA’

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

"Southern Decadence" was set for New Orleans soon. It was to be a yearly hoopla celebrating practicing homosexuality as a legitimate, giddy lifestyle.

Thousands upon thousands were going to crawl all over New Orleans "to celebrate their sexuality," according to Methodist lay preacher Gary Hopkins of Ekklesia.co.uk (gary.hopkins@ekklesia.co.uk).

In other words, Sodom and Gomorrah were to be reenacted in broad daylight — and into the night haunts as well. It would be one high ol’ time of it in the southern scape.

Police would be forced to look the other way or fill the jails to overflowing. Decent citizens would cover their eyes to play hide-and-seek against the all-inclusive wickedness. Little children would be taken on hopefully safe excursions in order to escape the blatant evil parading their avenues. Businesses would money-shoot off the charts from homosexuals’ open wallets in festive abandon.

Then came along Katrina.

Now New Orleans is under water, bathing in sewage and devastation rather than providing downtown fountains for homosexual capers aplenty.

All of this has prompted Repent America to conclude that the biblical God had a heavy hand in the Katrina swing along. It’s an "‘act of God,’" they claim to media. United States-based, Repent America goes to the streets to preach repentance of sin, conversion to Christ as personal Savior, and thereby living the holy lifestyle according to the biblical message.

As far as Repent America is concerned, divine judgment has come upon a metropolis that was bent on making its environs open to hell’s demons. Therefore, God intervened. There will be no "Southern Decadence" skipping the light fantastic. Over and out. Done. Gone. Under water.

While emergency workers seek out the dead and trapped, Repent America preaches the gospel according to Jesus when He opened His public ministry with one word: "Repent." So it was with Peter on the Day of Pentecost while the Upper Room pray-ers were overcome with the Holy Spirit’s baptism. Preacher Peter opened his message in the Jerusalem streets with one word: "Repent."

Repent America brings the nation back to Jesus’ opening call and Peter’s declaration as this evangelical organization continues to warn souls of personal accounting at the Judgment Seat of Christ. They do so without apology. They do so at the chagrin of theological liberals. They do so at the mockery of lesbians and homosexuals who claim to be "Christian." Yet they do so, being accountable for their mission only to their biblical God.

Now the Louisiana governor has gone to the media to ask for prayers for the state and particularly for New Orleans. How very interesting that New Orleans, extending the welcome mat to sodomites, is now in need of prayer from the very God the perverts disdain.

It’s that way when disaster strikes. As long as skies are clear and people’s bellies are full, God can go hang. But when calamity hits hard across America’s face, statesmen, governors, mayors and news people call on God. What must God think about that kind of hypocrisy?

Repent America will not play the hypocrisy game but will keep to one mode for lifestyle — that of the biblical mandate. It is this, in both Old and New Testaments: "Be holy, even as I am holy." Those words are from the Creator.

One wonders what "Southern Decadence" organizers are pondering today and tomorrow and the next morrow. Will any moral sense break through their din? Only God knows. Nevertheless, Repent America will be there to warn them, beseech them to turn from their wicked ways, and live the holy life under God.

Repent America’s director, Michael Marcavage, said that "‘this act of God destroyed a wicked city. New Orleans was a city that opened its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same.

"’We must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long.’"

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

For More Information On This Story Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Story Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

NAVAL ACADEMY PRAYER: WHEN IT WORKS, DON’T FIX IT

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Sure thing.

In 1845, prayer at lunchtime was instituted at the US Naval Academy. It’s worked since then. Why fix what works? Exactly!

Therefore, the Academy powers-that-be have no intention of changing prayer time before eats. Grace will be offered to the heavens. After all, there are some places and peoples on this Earth that have no food for lunchtime. Those at the Academy do. They thereby give thanks for the food they are about to eat. Makes sense to me.

The chaplains offer the daily prayers. The chaplains are courteous and well informed regarding verbalizations in religious sentences when stated in public. Therefore, they don’t implant in any grace that which would offend or cause a quarrel. They are professionals at their trade and have performed quite well since the mid-1800s.

Carry on.

There are 4,100 midshipmen who profit from this recognition of the divine. They are together. They are united in cause. They are about to partake of the Lord’s provisions. Why not then offer a thanksgiving from the heart? It will continue, say officials, according to the AP.

These prayers, furthermore, are considered by Commander Rod Gibbons as "devotional thoughts." Indeed we all could stand a few moments daily for devotional thoughts. We are bombarded with everything but devotional thoughts; therefore, on with devotional health for the soul. Devotional never hurt anybody.

Of course, liberals who despise God, the biblical deity in particular, got in a snit over noontime prayers at the Academy.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals stated in 2003 that such devotions at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA were cutting through the First Amendment. Of course, devotions at the Institute were not cutting through any First Amendment rights; but liberals enjoy misinterpreting that amendment in particular. They take what is stated and prostitute its wording to state just the opposite.

The ACLU and Anti-Defamation League have requested the Navy to halt prayers before meals. However, Academy heads disagree. In other words, so goes the fight. Or as the gospel hymn sings it: "Onward, Christian Soldiers, marching as to war. . ."

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

For More Information Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Article Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

STABBING BODY PARTS UNITES MUSLIM CULTISTS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

That’s right. While Sunnis and Shiites are warring at one another in New Iraq, elsewhere they are united in stabbing their bodies with knives.

That goes on in such so-called "orders" as the Sufi and Kasnazani. These Muslims thrust knives into various parts of their bodies in order to prove that their divine is real and powerful and healing. So it goes when dabbling with the demonic powers and calling it "divine."

According to Reuters reporters Andrew Hammond and Seif Fuad, the devotees stand still, then quietly poke a sharp knife somewhere — maybe the cheek or scalp or leg or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Wherever the knife thrusts in, then out, or stays put for the public to witness for several days or weeks at a time, that’s where the spirits are working to prove themselves.

Such are the pastimes of various Islamics. It does not matter whether they are Sunni or Shiite or any other Islamic division, it all works for knife throwing good, so they say.

They call it "mystical." Christians call it "of the devil."

"Within the confines of Sufi gatherings the Islamic sects mutilate each other to get close to God," Reuters reports.

Where are these meetings for mutilation? The one focused upon by Reuters was in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq. And so the beat goes on.

The chieftain takes his disciples into his own power zone in order to instruct them in how to stab the flesh. It is his life’s vocation to "mortify the flesh of other Muslims."

As one fellow stabs his cheek with a knife, another lodges a knife in his head. Circling them are devotees moving to and fro to the swooning Sufi tunes of sort, thus producing a "hypnotic daze."

The gist of the whole proceeding is to get closer and closer to deity. For these persons, deity is the Koran’s Allah. The Koran’s Allah, by the way, is the one who stipulates that all non-Muslims must be slain worldwide. Even cowardly Muslims who refuse to kill off non-Muslims must be slain in the process of taking over the planet for Islam.

Furthermore, if Muslims get in the way of non-Muslims being slaughtered, that’s all right for the cause demands it. That’s why Muslim suicide enthusiasts in New Iraq did not mind blowing up their own Muslim neighbors for that was what had to happen in order to do away with non-Muslim "infidels."

When understanding that the Koran Allah is so ruthless as to reveal himself as Beelzebub and not the biblical Creator God, then it does not take much reasoning to conclude that this same Allah oversees the mutilation of human flesh in various Islamic sects. All the more Islam reveals itself not as a religion among world religions but as a killing, mutilating cult.

More and more world leaders in freedom-based countries such as England and Australia are concluding Islam to be a threatening cult, thereby telling Muslims to get out, go home, and never return. They don’t belong in a civilized culture.

Daniel Pipes writes (http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=7899) most specifically about this expulsion in his column, "Islamists, Get Out!"

Christians come upon such demonic displays on the mission field as well as home base America, for instance. Where there is the demonic presence, there is disdain for the human body. On the other hand, Christians read in the Bible that the human body is to be regarded with care as the temple of the Holy Spirit; therefore, mutilation of the body is abhorrent to Christians.

When missionaries come upon persons in other cultures who are converted to Christ, missionaries note that such converts stop mutilating their bodies. They then consider the flesh to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit rather than the unholy spirits.

The Islamic tangent-sects give themselves away then as being not of the true biblical God but of the devil. The devil can in fact perform miracles such as Islamic cultists experience. For example, the mentors and disciples point to the wounds healing quickly or there being no sensation of pain when stabbing. They then say this is proof that God is at work.

The opposite is what is happening. The devil can perform miracles, just as Jesus warned would occur increasingly so at the close of the Church Age prior to His Second Coming. Jesus warned His disciples to beware of "signs, wonders and miracles" coming forth from the devils set loose upon the Earth. (Further detail is recorded in the Second Coming passages of Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.)

Sufism is one of the Islamic cultic movements of Islam. A more legalistic cultic conclave is the Sunnni Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia. There are various gradations of bodily torture in the demonic gatherings, each carrying a different name.

"’Body piercing with knives, skewers, drinking poison, eating glass and taking electricity -- these are all signs of being blessed by God,’ Ahmed Jassem said. ‘When the knife comes out, the dervish (apprentice) is healed straight away. This is the blessing of God and power of the order.’

"’Once they wrapped an electric wire around my body and ran electricity through it, but I didn't feel anything. I got closer to God through this,’ said Qusay Abdel-Latif, a doctor from Basra in south Iraq."

Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.

For More Information Visit: truthinconviction.us/weblog.php

Article Submitted By: joseph_swank@yahoo.com

HOW CAN A GOOD GOD ALLOW A HURRICANE?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

So many dead. So many grieving. So many distraught.

Where is God? Where is the good God?

Good God created all things sound and pure. Then He placed our first parents in paradise — the Garden of Eden. There, however, was a stipulation. They dared not touch a particular tree. That obviously was to test the mortals-with-free-will obedience quotient.

All other creatures on Earth were programmed by instinct. Only Adam and Eve were gifted with free will — the awesome power of choice. In that, at least, was their image of deity upon their very own natures — the power to think, to make decisions.

Yet, sadly, our first parents disobeyed God to follow the Lie. The Lie told them God really didn’t mean what He said. It was all a ruse. Good God would overlook their eating of the forbidden fruit. After all, He is good God.

However, good God is not only mercy but also justice — eternally so. If He were not, none of us would want to know Him let alone worship and obey Him.

In His mercy and justice, God dealt with Adam and Eve’s disobedience. In His mercy, He did not slay them. He permitted them life and forgiving grace — but a temporary span on Earth, not the eternity He had originally planned. In His justice, He disciplined them by casting them out of Eden. Further, Eve would give birth in pain. Adam would dig out a living by the sweat of his brow.

Earth fell when our first parents disobeyed God. In that, mortal’s body and soul fell, hence there being sickness followed by death as well as meanness, madness and murder, anger, animosity and anxiety.

Further, when Earth fell due to Adam and Eve falling for the Lie, the globe itself came upon its own calamities. They were not originally intended by good God. They were the result of mortals’ disobedience, hence floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and, yes, earthquakes.

Earth’s calamities should then remind us that mortals are indeed frail, fragile creatures in need of the Power above and beyond themselves. Mortals are temporary creatures of a spiritually fallen planet. Mortals are in need of a merciful, comforting God.

Therefore, when earthquakes and hurricanes take lives, spring forth wails of woe, and cover the planet with depression, they remind us of history’s beginnings. They remind us of the awful state the planet is in due to mortal going his and her own way apart from good God. They remind us to call out for mercy, for divine help, and for a hope that is beyond and above the earthquakes, winds and fire.

An earthquake is not God’s fault. A hurricane is not God’s fault. It is mortals’ fault — from the start, that is. Adam and Eve’s lineage have had to deal with their disobedience ever since they went for the Lie. That should surely underline for all thinking mortals how truly crucial it is to obey an Almighty God, falling at His feet for mercy and grace, beseeching Him to redeem Earth’s tragedies into a meaning that only eternity can fully explain.

The hope? The hope in a spiritually fallen world is still the good God. There really is no other alternative other than despair and finally spiritual and / or physical suicide. Hope comes from reaching out in faith to good God, calling upon His everlasting arms, and finding Him there — no matter the tragedy, the loss, and the perplexity.

In that, good God has the last word for those in faith. In that, good God then is their Almighty One placing His period at their last sentence.

God Himself acted out before us how to deal with this spiritually fallen planet. He came to earth in Jesus. He taught and loved and healed. Then the jealous enemy spiked Him to the cross. Murder. Injustice. Madness. Meanness. Cruelty.

Yet from that zenith of calamities came His resurrection. And from those lips — now alive and loving — come the words: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall not die. Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will open, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me."

Till the close of Earth’s history, tragedies will continue to spill themselves over the face of the planet — since Adam and Eve first fell for the Lie. But out of every tragedy, faith can lift the arm of hope toward good God. In doing so, victory is assured through the tears. Eternity will prove it to be true.

CONFUSED RELIGION IN ARMED FORCES

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

It can get confusing.

For the evangelical or fundamentalist, it’s not confusing at all. Both hold to the Bible as divine revelation — the Word of God. To the devout Roman Catholic, it’s not confusing either. If it’s in line with Vatican approval, it’s appropriate religion.

However, for the Protestant theological liberal, just about anything goes — from Unitarianism that writes its own religion as its moves along to New Age thinkers who endorse eastern religions as legitimate faith. The same with some breakaway liberal Catholics.

For those of the Orthodox Christian faith, it’s what tradition has put in place that provides them with their faith footing. Therefore, though they are in America in the minority numbers-wise, they have a centuries-old heritage that is definitely there for their belief system.

However, in the American armed forces there are other world religions than the Christian faith with its tripod of Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox. There are adherents of other religions and no-religion.

Then there is the Muslim religion which some regard not so much as a religion among world religions as a killing cult. It’s the only world religion that espouses killing off non-adherents as "infidels." All other world religions allow for those who disagree with their tenets; Islam does not. Islam seeks to rule the planet via the Koran’s Allah. That means non-Muslims must be slaughtered, even cowardly Muslims who will not kill non-Muslims must be slaughtered.

It can thereby be quite confusing to those in charge of religious expression within the armed forces units. To the religiously naïve, it may appear simple — just worship deity as one pleases. But to those who have to draw up the religious guidelines to keep the peace, it can be especially complicated.

Therefore, the personnel in charge have come to grips with the complexities. They have put down "the rules of the game." They are trying to be charitable and fair at the same time. In other words, the last thing the armed forces need concerning worship and religion is a fighting field.

According to Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times, "The U.S. Air Force has issued new religion guidelines to its commanders on that caution against promoting any particular faith - or even the idea of religion over non-religion - in official communications or functions like meetings, sports events or ceremonies.

"The guidelines discourage public prayers at official air force events or meetings other than worship services, one of the most contentious issues for many commanders."

Within the worship context, a religion may express itself according to its tenets. But for public events such as sports events, meetings and ceremonies, it can get messy.

Would, for instance, a Christian want to bow his head in prayer when a mosque cleric petitioned Allah and quoted from the Koran? If that were an evangelical or fundamentalist present in the assembly, it would be most difficult for that believer to hold his peace while giving oblation to a foreign deity, in fact an enemy deity.

It is the same for a Jew who hears a prayer offered "in Jesus’ name." The Jew does not regard Jesus as deity. Yet the prayer for which he bows his head is offered in Jesus’ name. Now that is according to the New Testament record; therefore, the Christian is most happy for the prayer to be offered in the name of Jesus. However, it is another matter for the Jew standing to his feet in the same event as the Christian.

"The guidelines allow for ‘a brief nonsectarian prayer’ at special ceremonies like those honoring promotions, or in ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that include ‘mass casualties, preparation for imminent combat and natural disasters.’"

In other words, a "nonsectarian prayer" can be offered with heads bowed as the one reciting the petition uses such generic religious terms as "Lord" and "God" and ends the prayer simply with the words "in Your holy name, Amen."

Even then, those theologically liberal Protestants who have twisted the biblical data so as not to tolerate a "lordship deity" because such connotes too much power — smacking of military might — given to the divine, the term "Lord" may not be tolerable.

And to those feminists who attend the prayer, such persons may be offended by referring to deity in traditional masculine terminology. They may want "She" instead of "He" and even some desire "She/He" or "He/She."

The Air Force Academy is at the forefront recently regarding new, updated guidelines. These rules are to stretch to "the entire air force as well."

"’We support free exercise of religion, but we do not push religion,’ said Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, a navy veteran, who was hired this year as a special assistant to the secretary and chief of staff of the air force, and who helped write the guidelines."

At the same time, for the devout biblical Christian such as the evangelical, fundamentalist, practicing Catholic and Orthodox, to leave out a reference to Jesus in order to accommodate Muslims, for instance, may be repulsive.

Further, the diluting of the prayer and any other spiritual reference in the public gathering may be so near the zero point that these conscientious believers consider the exercise to be next to meaningless or close to blasphemy in accommodation.

KATRINA: GOD’S POPULAR IN A HURRICANE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

"’Have God on your side, definitely have God on your side,’ Nancy Noble said as she sat with her puppy and three friends in six lanes of one-way traffic on gridlocked Interstate 10. ‘It's very frightening.’"

That’s the quote according to AP reporters overseeing Katrina passing through.

I thought how interesting it is to note people’s expressions concerning deity when faced with calamity. I think it’s especially fascinating to note such persons’ comments when these very individuals live in America.

Yet the ACLU and team would make the United States another godless Europe — secularized to the hilt. However, when disaster strikes or threatens, mortals call out for God.

When 9 / 11 struck us to our knees, Congresspersons of both parties met on the Capitol steps to sing “God Bless America.” We heard more about God during those days than in a decade of Billy Graham crusades.

Yet when the winds die down and the waves recede, it’s back to waging the war for God’s presence in a nation that has had a God-base to it all along. That base is totally ignored by the atheists, agnostics and secular-prone who hit the headlines with their anti-God rhetoric.

But after awhile when another disaster potential hits across someplace in America, God surfaces once again to the top of soul and brain. Mouths open wide to cry out for divine intervention.

Even there in New Orleans one of the women was wearing a T-shirt with a gross saying scrawled across the front of it. She told a reporter that if she were going to die, she didn’t want to die in that T-shirt!

I asked myself, “Why not, lady? You were in it while you were breathing. Why not brag on it while under water?”

It’s because her conscience started perking when she thought of dying, giving an account of her earthly sojourn and facing the Almighty in judgment. It wouldn’t, in other words, be cool to be sporting that kind of rude, crude saying on the front of her belly in a solo audience with God.

It never fails. When America is having a high ol’ time of it, God can get lost in the back bleachers. But when America is being sliced somewhere somehow, God plays a significant role in coming through to save and rescue.

So now with Katrina, nothing’s changed. Once again God is recognized, believed in, called upon and even beseeched as savior in the midst of flood waters a-coming. How very interesting, isn’t it?

All the while, I wonder what God thinks about all this teeter-totter attention given and not given the One who oversees all taking place upon His footstool.

BLAIR PLEDGES TO GET TOUGHER ON MUSLIM THREATS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants tougher policies and follow through in ridding his country of Muslim murderers global. He’s not satisfied with the current policies that he considers too soft on criminal types.

This then points the finger at Home Secretary Charles Clarke. Blair, according to Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent for the Telegraph News, is poised to replace Clarke if the latter does not up the grade on corralling the malcontents bringing potential harm to British citizens.

Once again, the freedom-based nations are faced with the gradation of ousting the Islamic killers international who hold to making Islam the rule for the planet. This is going on in every democracy in the world. Leaders are in a quandary as what laws to put in place and what policies to place in cement in order to head off further slaughtering schemes.

Sleeper cells are known to exist in the free world. These are circles filled with Muslim killers potential who have been mentored in bombing schools, churches, and entire neighborhoods. They are fed by 4000 Muslim web sites that provide data in how to carry out the Koran dictates to slay every non-Muslim, the latter considered “infidels.”

Therefore, when Blair seeks to get tougher on the threat in his own country, he needs alongside him government ministers who are of like mind. At present it is said that Clarke is too easy on criminal types, does not want to imprison, and would rather be less radical in his approach to the Muslims thought to be possible terrorists.

“Tony Blair regards Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, as far too soft on crime and is planning a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle before Christmas to make his Government more radical, his biographer has claimed,” Helm reports this past weekend.

One of Blair’s aides told media that the Prime Minister has never been that keen on Clarke’s abilities. “’He finds him too tame.’” That’s the latest word on the relationship between the two men.

Clarke has a profile of being not all that impressed with putting persons behind bars. He has a history of siding with attorneys. And Clarke has a reputation for being “worried about criminalizing antisocial behavior.”

The Prime Minister indicates that he does not need an individual of that type in a position that calls for heavy-handed follow through to tough policies recently put in place. Blair has let it be known that the “rules of the game have changed.” That is, Britain will not tolerate any more blow-ups, no more intrusions into British civility and is prepared to oust any troublemakers major.

Blair is more than willing to put antisocial behaviorists in prison — the sooner, the better. Clarke is not all that ready to do that, hence the tension between the two.

All the while, freedom-based nations’ leadership wrestles with what to do with the killing cult named “Islam.” Are Muslims to be interned? Are they to be deported? Are they to be corralled and then informed singly what their fate is? Are Muslim professionals to be put on the same par as known terrorists, considering that every Muslim is under Allah’s dictate to kill non-Muslims or be slain by zealot Muslims?

The questions add up to the fact that there is a major confrontation taking place between worldwide Muslims and non-Muslims. In other words, we have entered World War III.

MEMO TO CINDY: RE-ENLISTMENTS ARE UP!

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

While Cindy Sheehan makes a mockery of her enlisted son's death, truly
revealing her politically opportunistic motives, others like son Casey are
going forward for freedom's sake. They are signing up for defending the
peace. They are re-enlisting to help others live out liberties personal.

We can thank the Boston Herald for sharing the encouraging news for other
major newspapers gave this optimistic coverage scant if zero attention.

The Herald reported that the recruiting and retention goals for the armed
forces is "one of the most significant stories of the summer." Yet it has
gone footnoted or sliced off the page by most of the media. Again, thank
you, Boston Herald.

Can it be that the Cindy Sheehan shenanigans have out-balanced reality
regarding America's moral base, patriotic quotient and determination to
win out over the evil forces attacking democracies worldwide?

So liberal media gives photo shots of Cindy and other detractors while men
and women continue to put their names on the dotted line to be a proud
part of the US troops' impact.

"The Army is meeting its recruiting and retention goals for active-duty
soldiers. Remarkably, units under the most pressure in Iraq are heavily
oversubscribed for re-enlistment," the Herald reports.

"Oversubscribed for re-enlistment!" Someone should print a large banner
with those very words on it, then plant it right across the road from
Sheehan's ditch home outside Crawford.

All the while, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Los Angeles
Times gave but a whisper to the young adult allegiance to the red-white-
and-blue. What should have been news feed major is that in July recruits
totaled 109 percent in Army enlistments. This is the "second straight
month above target. In aggregate, the four services were 4 percent over."

There's another banner display for planting directly across the road from
Sheehan's campout. Read it and be proud: "Four services = 4 percent over."

Once again, America is reminded of the liberal news clot that refuses to
be fair to the New Iraq reality let alone the Bush administration. What
logic is there in giving Sheehan such stroke-by-stroke play while there
are so many positive impacting details to relay to the US?

Instead, we get this drama queen reciting her mantras as the goddess of
anti-Bush enthusiasts. It's for show, people. It's an egocentric play-out
in a slow summer news flow.

"The enlistments ought to prove that America's young men and women still
believe in their country and its difficult mission in Iraq, despite all
that Cindy Sheehan and her band of like-minded demonstrators can do."

Sometimes we true-blue Americans who stand by our moral base while
championing our nation's long-held values wonder what's going on for the
future's sake. With the liberal inundation of warped newscasts, we don't
get truth except from the conservative, reality-grounded reporters.

Therefore, when truth does shine through as with these enlistment and re-
enlistment stats, we loyalists can rightfully cheer. And we can keep the
hope.

The Boston Herald continues with detail: "Every one of the Army's 10
combat divisions has exceeded its re-enlistment goal for the fiscal year
so far. The 1st Cavalry Division was at 136 percent; the 3rd Infantry
Division at 117 percent. As author Ralph Peters noted, 'This is
unprecedented in wartime.'"

"The troops are not doing this for the bonuses - only 60 percent get re-
enlistment money, and the great bulk of those are $12,400 a year or less.
They are not doing it for loot and booty, to impress the old crowd back
home, or to learn a trade.

"They are risking life and limb because they care passionately about the
job. We wonder what we have done to deserve soldiers of such devotion.
They deserve all the best we can give them, in equipment, sound policy and
honor."

Thank you, Boston Herald.

NO BUSH DISMAY OVER IRAQI COMPLEXITIES

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

In his weekly radio address, US President George W. Bush gave no hint of being befuddled by the complexities attending the New Iraq constitution planting.

Of course not. Mr. Bush is a realist. So are all the others — both in America and abroad — who realize that we live in a complicated world. Only the liberals dream of living in oversimplistic bliss. The rest of us wrestle daily with one complexity or another. Therefore, we expect the same on the large scale of things.

The United States of America did not come together without conflict. It did not happen in a day or week or month or year or several years. The Union took time and sacrifice and differences of opinion and debate and lots of patience. Only those who persevered over time gave us the nation we enjoy today. Thanks be to God there were those who refused to quit.

So it is with New Iraq.

Mr. Bush and colleagues realize that there is no snap answer, no magic wand, to plant a democracy in a geography that knew nothing but blood letting and torture under Saddam Hussein. When this liberty nation of New Iraq is firmly set in place, it will be the first time such opportunities have been provided such citizens in a Muslim culture.

And it will all be thanks to Mr. Bush and patient supporters who don’t throw in the towel.

No thanks to the Cindy Sheehans and Democratic Party nay-sayers, plus no thanks to all the liberal media reporters who have contested the President at every turn. No thanks to the liberty nations’ heads who balked at liberating the Iraqis from Hussein’s hellish grip.

Thanks only to the committed brave young and old who believed in the freedom spread begun during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"’Iraqis are working together to build a free nation that contributes to peace and stability in the region, and we will help them succeed,’ Bush said in his weekly radio address."

According to Jennifer Loven of AP, Mr. Bush remained poised in his delivery, holding faith, keeping steady, and encouraging the truly patriotic of this fine country. If anyone knows the give-and-take in government, it is the one who sits in the Oval Office.

Therefore, as Mr. Bush surveys the dialogue taking place, for instance, regarding the New Iraq constitution, he appreciates the interweaving. It’s part of democracy in the making. Only dictatorships force everything in place overnight.

Mr. Bush and followers appreciate the imperfections in an imperfect world as ours. The political and religious liberals demand perfection yesterday, though they themselves cannot produce it.

The Democratic party is at the front of the line when it comes to pressing for perfection from the Bush administration though the Democrats cannot produce a national platform for the nation’s security and safety. All they can produce is hate speech and constant criticism of anything set forth by the Republicans.

Mr. Bush’s shining character quality is confidence. He has confidence in God. He has confidence in his own judgments. He has confidence in his colleagues. He has confidence in America’s heritage and dedication to liberties personal. He has confidence in New Iraq’s future.

Therefore, as the AP reported: "In his radio address, Bush showed only confidence that the problems would be overcome, saying a new democratic constitution ‘will be a landmark event’ in the Mideast.

"’Like our own nation's founders over two centuries ago, the Iraqis are grappling with difficult issues, such as the role of the federal government,’ he said. ‘What is important is that Iraqis are now addressing these issues through debate and discussion - not at the barrel of a gun.’

"Bush says the U-S will not abandon Iraq."

That’s vintage President Bush. Thank you, sir.

CHRISTIANS SUE UNIV OF CA RE EVOLUTION, AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

It’s not only the texts, but the students who study those texts. The students from Christian schools who use certain textbooks are not even welcomed at the front door of the University of California. They are sub-standard students, according to UC. They are not up there with the rest of the academic crowd. They are provincial, in other words.

It’s because the Christian schools teach God creating all things that UC considers them sub-standard. It’s because the Christians criticize Darwin and the full-of-holes theory of evolution. It’s because the Christian schools have their pupils studying American history textbooks that accent the truth about Christianity’s influence on our early days in this country.

Because of the Christian approach to creation and United States beginnings, UC considers those schools to be out of line with what UC wants for a student body. Therefore, outright discrimination has been leveled against Christian high school graduates who apply for entry into UC.

Once again, liberals have the upper hand. It’s not logical, especially in the case of evolution when that particular teaching, regarded as secure and complete in itself, is so utterly flawed that only the liberally brainwashed would entertain it as a legitimate theory let alone fact.

Of course, when evolutionists are confronted with that kind of analysis of their prized possession, they go berserk for they have catalogued their own evolutionary doctrines, nomenclature, definitions, drawings, graphs and purported historical evidence via anthropology and archeology and so forth. When one attacks a file as thick as that, there are bound to be sparks flying all over the place.

However, what the evolutions don’t understand is that Christians have the same thick file. It’s just that it is directly counter to the evolutionists, even though there are some evangelicals who attempt to reconcile evolutionary theory with the biblical data. This is part of the evolutionary brainwashing that has infiltrated into the evangelical community in some locales.

However, to those who have studied the flawed evolutionary material, realizing it comes up so very short as to have no academic legitimacy, the biblical data is all that is needed. In fact, it is data that was accepted as the only detail prior to the mid-1800s. Thinkers for centuries believed in God as creator of all things from nothing. That was it.

Then came along Charles Darwin with his Origin of the Species. Christians regard that intrusion as demonic. It has been planted by the dark forces to sidetrack faith in Creator God.

Therefore, the tussle continues in such situations as the Christian schools and the UC there on the West Coast. And so it will continue for years to come.

It’s the same with American history beginnings. The liberals who want to secularize America are intent on rewriting American history. They have done it in countless texts now foisted on classrooms.

But the Christians won’t buy into that robbery of truth. Therefore, the Christian schools have courses such as "Christianity’s Influence on American History." To such courses, the UC says Nay.

Once again, the tussle goes on. It won’t let up. The Christians won’t budge. The secularists won’t budge. And the students in the meantime are victims of the crossfire.

The bottomline for the evolutionists is that they have a theory that is so utterly mistaken and misshapen that it’s intolerable to the intelligent mind. All that Darwin "discovered" were the similarities in creation that Creator God brought into being.

The bottomline for the secularists is that they have a plot to make the USA another godless European settlement void of faith entirely.

It’s sad that the fight must be waged; nevertheless, that’s the world we live in. And so it will wage.

May God bless America with the truth regarding Creator God as creator of all things and Christianity’s influence on American history.

LAWMAKERS: GIVE US THE GAS-CAP

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

It’s time for lawmakers to provide the grassroots with a gas-cap in every state. This gas price hike is out of hand.

America must not get so caught up with summer time pleasures that we miss the call on this one. So it’s August and we’re crashing in on every last minute escape before autumn shows her face. There’s a top priority item facing us right now.

It’s the gas price hike outlandish.

Therefore, each state should do as Hawaii has already done. Each state should put in place price controls so that Americans are not driven off the road.

Hawaii informed media that price controls are going to be cemented in at $3 a gallon limit in September. As Hawaii goes, so must go the rest of the Union or we’re going to be had royally.

Massachusetts is seriously considering the gas price cap, according to Boston Herald’s Jay Fitzgerald. Governor Mitt Romney has let it be known that he’s communicating with top legislative leadership regarding the measure.

But what if the oil companies and feds take the states to court? So what, Massachusetts State Senator Michael Morrissey stated: "Even if (a local cap) was pre-empted by federal law, so what? Let them take us to court."

Right on.

The more publicity the better. But to linger is to stupid us make. And we don’t like to be stupid, whatever.