A Spiritual Reflection for Advent: 'The Comings of Jesus'

As part of my own preparation for the season of Christmas, I am going to post on the Sundays of Advent reflections from a publication entitled "All Things Made New: Homily Reflections for Sundays and Holy Days" by Harold A. Buetow, PhD, JD. Father Buetow has in recent years published an array of superb spiritual reflections for all the days of the liturgical calendar and the special occasions in one's life.

Father Buetow is a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn who spent thirty years on the faculty of The Catholic University of America and was Senior Staff Editor on The New Catholic Encyclopedia. He is the author of the two most important books on Catholic education -- Of Singular Benefit: The Story of U.S. Catholic Education and The Catholic School: Its Roots, Identity, and Future. His more recent spiritual reflections are published by Alba House and are available through Amazon (see widget to the right).

I was privileged to take two graduate courses from Father Buetow at Catholic University and he has been my good friend for over twenty years. I have no doubt you will find these reflections helpful and inspiring for your own spiritual journey.

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Is 63:16f.;64:1, 3-9 -- 1 Cor 1:3-9 -- Mk 13:33-37

The Comings of Jesus
By Harold A. Buetow, PhD, JD

A critic with a sense of humor once said of a play he disliked that he saw it under adverse conditions -- with the curtain up. For many people life itself is a shapeless play without any apparent plot or direction. Many of us just slide along in life. If we gave the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two-week vacation, we'd be startled at how aimless are our "busy" days. Reflection upon meaningful goals of life is made difficult by such pressures of modern living as how we're going to meet payments, the rampant secularistic outlook which suggests that this present world is all there is, the political approach which says that the materially good life is all we want.

Christian teaching goes against all that. In the Church's celebration of the mystery of Christ, during the closing Sundays of the past Church year we looked forward to the final coming of Jesus. Today, as we're beginning a new Church year, we do the same, in a marvelous mixture of end and beginning. Some, however, say that the Church's real "New Year" should be at Easter time, when the Lord makes all things new in his death and resurrection. Still others observe that there really is no "Church Year" as such, but that we simply have different liturgical seasons and celebrations. In any case, there are three cycles of readings, today we begin Cycle B, and Cycle B is the year of St. Marks' Gospel. Because of the analogy with Lent, Advent acquired a penitential character. The liturgical color is the color of penitence. But in Advent we're told to rejoice. So many would like to eliminate the penitential character of Advent. Advent should be a season when we renew our hope because of the coming of Christ.

As we reflect upon the period of waiting for Jesus' first coming at Bethlehem, as we begin to prepare for his coming now at Christmas, we also await his final coming into our lives. In other words, we celebrate his coming in history, his coming in mystery, and his coming in majesty. Knowing that he has already come as a child born of Mary gives us confidence. Amidst the overshadowing material preparations for Christmas, we begin our spiritual preparation for Christ's coming by way of the season of Advent.

Jesus' voice, through St. Mark's Gospel, stirs us to be watchful and alert (v. 33). The disciples had asked when the end of the world would come, Jesus didn't get specific about time, but his central teaching is that he will return in glory to usher in the end of the world. Because no one but the Father knows the precise time of any of the end events, it's necessary to be constantly vigilant. One thing is sure: No matter when Jesus' second coming to planet Earth, he will be coming to each of us at our death.

Jesus' one-line (v.34) parable about it tells of a traveling master who leaves his employees in charge. The moral of the story (vv. 35f.) is that we have to be on the alert not only about the end, but about our responsibility toward the present; Every moment has an eternal significance, so we should be on guard (v. 37). It's a message that's relevant to all times, but especially to our own, when some of our technological inventions remind us constantly that we live in the shadow of eternity. Troubled societies always ask questions about the end of the world. Ours is no exception. The fact always is that we're either going to go meet the Lord at death or when he appears in his glorious second coming -- whichever comes first, as the warranties say. These are fitting thoughts for Advent.

Equally fitting for the spirit of Advent are today's thoughts from Isaiah; thoughts given to his dispirited people around the end of their exile in Babylon of the need for a Redeemer for the human race's sinfulness. The passage opens and closes by addressing the Lord our father (vv. 63:16; 64:7), a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt when God had called Israel his son, his first-born (Ex 4:22). Because in this life we're all exiles, we make Isaiah's Advent prayer our own. No matter what one may see of sin in oneself and be disappointed, there's always encouragement: God rescues and saves -- but He does rescue and save. Even if you've hit bottom, there's the encouragement that there's no place to go but up.

When Isaiah saw Jerusalem hit bottom in ruins, he pleaded for God to tear the heavens open and come down (v. 19); the people of that time thought of the skies as a solid, plastic-like transparent vault, which would need breaking through for God to come to earth. At the same time Isaiah's prayer (64: 2-7), intended to be recited by all the people, confessed their guilt and admitted that God was right to have permitted the Exile as a punishment for sin. God hasn't heaped a heavy burden of sorrow upon sinners; He's simply allowed sinners to wallow in their own responsible guilt. By ourselves, we're like withered leaves carried to and fro by the winds of our guilt. (God's welcoming attitude is well expressed by the beautiful hymn, "Come back to me.")

St. Paul in today's Second Reading also provides an appropriate opening to the season of Advent. Paul was aware of the sinfulness of the Corinthians, even the Christians among them: pride, immaturity, faithlessness, and -- a very great problem -- the divisions within the community. Despite his knowledge that he was going to have to deal honestly with these problems, Paul diplomatically begins his letter warmly. He opens (v. 3) with a prayer for what have become the essential blessings of Christianity: "grace" -- what the nonreligious world might call "good health" or "good luck" -- and "peace," the Jewish "shalom," a special kind of all-embracing well-being that can come from God alone. This includes not only harmony among people, but also the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God: the kind of warmth we feel at Christmas.

In this opening of his letter, Paul addresses some Corinthian Christians who were boasting of their many gifts. None seemed to understand that gifts are things one doesn't deserve and can't earn. Among their gifts were the wonder-causing speaking in tongues, prophecy, proclaiming wisdom, teaching, and making public God's revelations. We can think of others that have been given to us -- music, for example, or the ability to work with one's hands, and all kinds of other talents. All of them aren't to be used for our gain, but held in trust for the honor of God.

Right up front, Paul states his own position about himself. Some Corinthians had had doubts about whether Paul was a true apostle, because other preachers were more dynamic than he. He reminds them that the very gifts they had from God were proof that his preaching had been effective (vv. 6f). Paul's reference to waiting for Jesus' full revelation (v. 7) is an excellent expression of the Advent spirit. Part and parcel of Paul's teaching is that the Lord will come in glory at the end of time. Until that time, all are to rely on God's gifts of faith, grace, and peace.

The Advent theme continues as Paul speaks of the "day of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Jewish Scriptures had often used the phrase, "The Day of the Lord." Paul and the other early Christians looked upon that day as the time when the Lord would return in his full glory; it would also be a day of judgment. Meanwhile, reminiscent of the spirit of encouragement in Isaiah, Paul reminds us that through all our problems and difficulties God is faithful, and has called us to fellowship with his Son (v. 9). That fellowship is very intimate: It means the life-giving union that exists among us faithful that arises from our union with Christ.

We can't call ourselves Christian and live our lives without a purpose. We wait for the comings of Jesus -- in everyday living, at Christmas, at our death, and at the end of the world. We're going to be held accountable for the eternal significance of every moment. All waiting involves some tension, even if it's simple waiting on a street corner for a friend. When waiting involves the very meaning of life, temptations can intrude themselves. In that respect, we're no different from the ancient Israelites who were tempted to despair before seemingly insurmountable difficulties, the Corinthians who were tempted to pride over their gifts, and Jesus' first apostles who were tempted to gloat in the power of the Second Coming.

The seventeenth-century Italian painter Salvator Rosa painted "L'Umana fragilita." It depicts a mother, an infant, and Death, who is represented by a winged skeleton. As the mother looks on passively, Death is forcing the baby to scrawl the following words on a piece of paper: "Conception is sinful, life is suffering, death inevitable." At an exhibit of that painting in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., modern cynical non-believers stood transfixed before this barren summary of their lives.

But Christians have what Isaiah promised: a new hope, a new light. And our waiting for Jesus isn't a despair-filled tension. So we live by faith, walk in hope, and are renewed in love so that, when the last scene of the drama of our life unfolds and Jesus comes to be our judge, we shall not merely know him, but come to him as a friend.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

The Impact of Same-Sex Marriage on Religious Freedom

From the Christian Examiner

At the heart of the arguments in favor of Proposition 8 are concerns about eroding religious freedoms that come about as the same-sex agenda is advanced. Below are some of the legal cases heard across the country as compiled by Rancho Santa Fe Attorney Charles S. LiMandri. Affiliated with the Thomas More Law Center, LiMandri was involved in the Mount Soledad cross case and the first case listed below. He has also been involved in the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign.

LiMandri’s list also includes source documentation, which can be found at his Web site at www.limandrilaw.com. Click on the resources link. The cases are listed in a Powerpoint presentation called “The Impact of Same-Sex Marriage on Religious Freedom.” The cases are listed on pages 4 to 11.

February 24, 2000: A professional printer refused to print material for the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives because he felt doing so would violate his religious beliefs. He was fined and ordered to print the material anyway. He took his case to the Ontario Supreme Court and then to the Ontario Court of Appeal and lost both times. His total legal bills exceed $170,000.

2001: An evangelical Christian employed as a prison guard in Canada placed an ad in the Saskatchewan Star Phoenix. The ad was a picture of two stick men holding hands, with a red circle with a bar superimposed on them. Below the picture were four Scripture references, but not actual Bible verses. He was convicted of a hate crime by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal. The judge suggested that using Bible verses in a newspaper ad like this could be construed as hate literature. Thus, there is now legal precedent in Canada that the Holy Bible is hate literature.

May 1, 2002: A Catholic high school in Whitby, Ontario was forced by the Ontario Supreme Court to allow a homosexual student to take his boyfriend to the graduation prom, even though the church-run school has strict prohibitions against condoning any kind of homosexual behavior.

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Geert Wilders: 'Our Culture Is Better'

Like Churchill before him, Geert Wilders is a prophet whose message is not yet heard by those with most at stake -- his fellow Europeans. He rightly sees a Western culture that is superior to that which threatens to overwhelm it, but it is a culture that has lost all vitality because it has lost touch with the Christian roots from which it rose. Indeed, the multiculturalist elites that are guiding Europe on its suicidal course cannot even admit the possibility that Western culture is superior to that of Islam and Sharia Law. The Wall Street Journal recently profiled Europe's courageous, lone voice.

By his own description, Geert Wilders is not a typical Dutch politician. "We are a country of consensus," he tells me on a recent Saturday morning at his midtown Manhattan hotel. "I hate consensus. I like confrontation. I am not a consensus politician. . . . This is something that is really very un-Dutch."

Yet the 45-year-old Mr. Wilders says he is the most famous politician in the Netherlands: "Everybody knows me. . . . There is no other politician -- not even the prime minister -- who is as well-known. . . . People hate me, or they love me. There's nothing in between. There is no gray area."

To his admirers, Mr. Wilders is a champion of Western values on a continent that has lost confidence in them. To his detractors, he is an anti-Islamic provocateur. Both sides have a point.

In March, Mr. Wilders released a short film called "Fitna," a harsh treatment of Islam that begins by interspersing inflammatory Quran passages with newspaper and TV clips depicting threats and acts of violent jihad. The second half of the film, titled "The Netherlands Under the Spell of Islam," warns that Holland's growing Muslim population -- which more than doubled between 1990 and 2004, to 944,000, some 5.8% of the populace -- poses a threat to the country's traditional liberal values. Under the heading, "The Netherlands in the future?!" it shows brutal images from Muslim countries: men being hanged for homosexuality, a beheaded woman, another woman apparently undergoing genital mutilation.

Making such a film, Mr. Wilders knew, was a dangerous act. In November 2004, Theo van Gogh was assassinated on an Amsterdam street in retaliation for directing a film called "Submission" about Islam's treatment of women. The killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, left a letter on van Gogh's body threatening Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the film's writer and narrator.

Ms. Hirsi Ali, born in Somalia, had renounced Islam and been elected to the Dutch Parliament, where she was an ally of Mr. Wilders. Both belonged to the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, known by the Dutch acronym VVD. Both took a hard line on what they saw as an overly accommodationist policy toward the Netherlands' Muslim minority. They argued that radical imams "should be stripped of their nationality," that their mosques should be closed, and that "we should be strong in defending the rights of women," Mr. Wilders tells me.

This made them dissenters within the VVD. "We got into trouble every week," Mr. Wilders recalls. "We were like children going to their parents if they did something wrong, because every week they hassled us. . . . We really didn't care what anybody said. If the factional leadership said, 'Well, you cannot go to this TV program,' for us it was an incentive to go, not not to go. So we were a little bit of two mavericks, rebels if you like."

Mr. Wilders finally quit the party over its support for opening negotiations to admit Turkey into the European Union. That was in September 2004. "Two months later, Theo van Gogh was killed, and the whole world changed," says Mr. Wilders. He and Ms. Hirsi Ali both went into hiding; he still travels with bodyguards. After a VVD rival threatened to strip Ms. Hirsi Ali's citizenship over misstatements on her 1992 asylum application, she left Parliament and took a fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Mr. Wilders stayed on and formed the Party for Freedom, or PVV. In 2006 it became Parliament's fifth-largest party, with nine seats in the 150-member lower chamber.

Having his own party liberates Mr. Wilders to speak his mind. As he sees it, the West suffers from an excess of toleration for those who do not share its tradition of tolerance. "We believe that -- 'we' means the political elite -- that all cultures are equal," he says. "I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You're not a xenophobe, you're not a racist, you're not a crazy guy if you say, 'My culture is better than yours.' A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better."

He acknowledges that "the majority of Muslims in Europe and America are not terrorists or violent people." But he says "it really doesn't matter that much, because if you don't define your own culture as the best, dominant one, and you allow through immigration people from those countries to come in, at the end of the day you will lose your own identity and your own culture, and your society will change. And our freedom will change -- all the freedoms we have will change."

The murder of van Gogh lends credence to this warning, as does the Muhammad cartoon controversy of 2005 in Denmark. As for "Fitna," it has not occasioned a violent response, but its foes have made efforts to suppress it. A Dutch Muslim organization went to court seeking to enjoin its release on the ground that, in Mr. Wilders's words, "it's not in the interest of Dutch security." The plaintiffs also charged Mr. Wilders with blasphemy and inciting hatred. Mr. Wilders thought the argument frivolous, but decided to pre-empt it: "The day before the verdict, I broadcasted ['Fitna'] . . . not because I was not confident in the outcome, but I thought: I'm not taking any chance, I'm doing it. And it was legal, because there was not a verdict yet." The judge held that the national-security claim was moot and ruled in Mr. Wilders's favor on the issues of blasphemy and incitement.

Dutch television stations had balked at broadcasting the film, and satellite companies refused to carry it even for a fee. So Mr. Wilders released it online. The British video site LiveLeak.com soon pulled the film, citing "threats to our staff of a very serious nature," but put it back online a few days later. ("Fitna" is still available on LiveLeak, as well as on other sites such as YouTube and Google Video.)

An organization called The Netherlands Shows Its Colors filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Wilders for "inciting hatred." In June, Dutch prosecutors declined to pursue the charge, saying in a statement: "That comments are hurtful and offensive for a large number of Muslims does not mean that they are punishable." The group is appealing the prosecutors' decision.

In July, a Jordanian prosecutor, acting on a complaint from a pressure group there, charged Mr. Wilders with blasphemy and other crimes. The Netherlands has no extradition treaty with Jordan, but Mr. Wilders worries -- and the head of the group that filed the complaint has boasted -- that the indictment could restrict his ability to travel. Mr. Wilders says he does not visit a foreign country without receiving an assurance that he will not be arrested and extradited.

"The principle is not me -- it's not about Geert Wilders," he says. "If you look at the press and the rest of the political elite in the Netherlands, nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn. This is the worst thing, maybe. . . . A nondemocratic country cannot use the international or domestic legal system to silence you. . . . If this starts, we can get rid of all parliaments, and we should close down every newspaper, and we should shut up and all pray to Mecca five times a day."

It is difficult to fault Mr. Wilders's impassioned defense of free speech. And although the efforts to silence him via legal harassment have proved far from successful, he rightly points out that they could have a chilling effect, deterring others from speaking out.

Mr. Wilders's views on Islam, though, are problematic. Since 9/11, American political leaders have struggled with the question of how to describe the ideology of the enemy without making enemies of the world's billion or so Muslims. The various terms they have tried -- "Islamic extremism," "Islamism," "Islamofascism" -- have fallen short of both clarity and melioration. Melioration is not Mr. Wilders's highest priority, and to him the truth couldn't be clearer: The problem is Islam itself. "I see Islam more as an ideology than as a religion," he explains.

His own view of Islam is a fundamentalist one: "According to the Quran, there are no moderate Muslims. It's not Geert Wilders who's saying that, it's the Quran . . . saying that. It's many imams in the world who decide that. It's the people themselves who speak about it and talk about the terrible things -- the genital mutilation, the honor killings. This is all not Geert Wilders, but those imams themselves who say this is the best way of Islam."

Yet he insists that his antagonism toward Islam reflects no antipathy toward Muslims: "I make a distinction between the ideology . . . and the people. . . . There are people who call themselves Muslims and don't subscribe to the full part of the Quran. And those people, of course, we should invest [in], we should talk to." He says he would end Muslim immigration to the Netherlands but work to assimilate those already there.

His idea of how to do so, however, seems unlikely to win many converts: "You have to give up this stupid, fascist book" -- the Quran. "This is what you have to do. You have to give up that book."

Mr. Wilders is right to call for a vigilant defense of liberal principles. A society has a right, indeed a duty, to require that religious minorities comply with secular rules of civilized behavior. But to demand that they renounce their religious identity and holy books is itself an affront to liberal principles.

Mr. Taranto, a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, writes the Best of the Web Today column for OpinionJournal.com.

Children are Born Believers in God, Academic Claims

Children are "born believers" in God and do not simply acquire religious beliefs through indoctrination, according to an academic.

From The Telegraph
By Martin Beckford

Dr. Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind, claims that young people have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being because they assume that everything in the world was created with a purpose.

He says that young children have faith even when they have not been taught about it by family or at school, and argues that even those raised alone on a desert island would come to believe in God.

"The preponderance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural development of children's minds than we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"If we threw a handful on an island and they raised themselves I think they would believe in God."

In a lecture to be given at the University of Cambridge's Faraday Institute on Tuesday, Dr Barrett will cite psychological experiments carried out on children that he says show they instinctively believe that almost everything has been designed with a specific purpose.

In one study, six and seven-year-olds who were asked why the first bird existed replied "to make nice music" and "because it makes the world look nice".

Another experiment on 12-month-old babies suggested that they were surprised by a film in which a rolling ball apparently created a neat stack of blocks from a disordered heap.

Dr Barrett said there is evidence that even by the age of four, children understand that although some objects are made by humans, the natural world is different.

He added that this means children are more likely to believe in creationism rather than evolution, despite what they may be told by parents or teachers.

Dr Barrett claimed anthropologists have found that in some cultures children believe in God even when religious teachings are withheld from them.

"Children's normally and naturally developing minds make them prone to believe in divine creation and intelligent design. In contrast, evolution is unnatural for human minds; relatively difficult to believe."

Is GOP Heading Down the Wrong Path?

From OneNewsNow
By Jim Brown

The Family Research Council is expressing frustration that some of the new leaders of the Republican Party want social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage to take a back seat to an agenda of smaller government and lower taxes.

New National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas recently spoke at a fundraising dinner for the Dallas Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual group that supports same-sex marriage. Sessions reportedly said the GOP can no longer run on just "guns, God, gays [and] taxes." David Nammo, executive director of Family Research Council Action, believes Sessions is heading down the wrong path.

"People are trying to rebrand the GOP; they're trying to find a course for the future. They want to get back in power, and many of the voices that the GOP is listening to is [sic] telling them we need to be moderate, we need to jettison the social conservative issues, we need to not talk about life or marriage," he contends. "And if that is what the direction of the GOP is going to be, I think they're going to find themselves in the minority party for many years to come."

Nammo contends FRC is even more concerned about the strategy of rising Republican stars such as former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Steele, who may be in line to chair the Republican National Committee, recently told NPR that the GOP needs to be more inclusive of groups like the Log Cabin Republicans. Sanford, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said recently at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida that the GOP has alienated younger voters with its intolerance on homosexual issues.

America’s Moronic Iraqi Policy

From Chronicles
By Paul Craig Roberts

According to all accounts, the United States faces its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with $2 trillion in near-term financing needs for bailouts and economic stimulus. This is an enormous sum for any country, especially one that is so heavily indebted that it is close to bankruptcy. If the money can’t be borrowed abroad, it will have to be printed—a policy that carries the implication of hyper-inflation.

In normal life, a borrower who must appeal to creditors makes every effort to bring order to his financial affairs. But not the Bush regime.

The out-of-pocket costs of Bush’s Iraq war are about $600 billion at the present moment, a figure that increases by millions of dollars every hour.

In addition, there are the much larger future costs that have already been incurred, such as long-term care for the wounded and disabled U.S. soldiers, the replacement costs of the used-up equipment, interest payments on the war debt, and the lost economic use of the resources and manpower squandered in war. Experts estimate that the already incurred out-of-pocket and future costs of Bush’s Iraq war to be $3 trillion and rising.

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Alan Keyes Tells Us Why He Questions Obama's Presidency

From Essence
By Cynthia Gordy

The Constitution requires that, to be president, one must be a natural born citizen of the United States. Conservative Alan Keyes-who ran against President-elect Barack Obama in the 2004 race for the Illinois Senate, and in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign (Keyes ran on the American Independent Party ticket)-is challenging whether that is the case for our new president. In November, Keyes filed a lawsuit against Obama, the California secretary of state, and others, to stop California from giving its electoral votes to Obama until a birth certificate is produced proving that he is indeed a natural born citizen. ESSENCE.com talked to Keyes about where he thinks Obama was born, why he questions the birth records already provided, and if this whole lawsuit is just an overblown case of sour grapes.

ESSENCE.COM: What exactly do you want to accomplish with this lawsuit?

ALAN KEYES: I had read a little bit about the issues that were being raised about Obama back during the primary season. At first I thought, like a lot of people, "There's nothing to this. It's just a matter of fact. You can establish what the facts are." The Constitution specifies that a citizen who is naturalized, rather than born into the status of being an American citizen, cannot be president. That was done in the beginning because people feared a foreign takeover of the United States government by the process of immigration. Staid as it is, we again are in a situation where a lot of foreign entities have influence or control over U.S. policy.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I asked God for strength,
that I might achieve;

I was made weak,
that I might humbly learn to obey.

I asked for health,
that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity,
that I might do better things.

I asked for riches,
that I might be happy;

I was given poverty,
that I might be wise.

I asked for power,
that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness,
that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things,
that I might enjoy life;

I was given life,
that I might enjoy all things.

I received nothing that I asked for –
but everything that I had hoped for;

Almost despite myself,
my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Prayer by an
Unknown Confederate Soldier

Liberal Fascism and the End of Freedom

From Global Politician
By Ted Belman

Jonah Goldberg recently wrote the book “Liberal Fascism”. He was interviewed by Glen Beck and the interviews can be seen on YouTube.. There are six parts to watch.

Wikepedia defines “fascism”. It seeks to form a mass movement of militants who are willing to engage in violence against their political opponents and groups or individuals that the movement deems to be enemies. Fascists wish to solve existing economic, political, and social problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth by exalting the nation or race as well as promoting cults of unity, strength and purity. Fascism opposes the political ideologies of communism, liberalism and conservatism as well as political concepts and systems such as democracy, individualism, materialism, pacifism, and pluralism.

Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism (including collectivism and populism based on nationalist values);

In a Salon interview, Goldberg defined fascism. “I see fascism as a political religion. That doesn’t mean I think there’s some book, like a bible, that if you read it you will become a convert to this political religion. Rather I think it is a religious impulse that resides in all of us — left, right, black, white, tall, short — to seek unity in all things, to believe that we need to all work together to go past any of our disagreements and that the state needs to be, almost simply as a pragmatic matter, the pace-setter, the enforcer of this cult of unity. That is what I believe fascism is.”

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Democrat Education PAC Challenges Unions' Stranglehold

Albert Shanker, the legendary former leader of the American Federation of Teachers, famously stated that he would represent the interests of students when children begin paying union dues. And for decades the Democrat Party has championed the interests of education providers - teacher tenure, curricula light on content but heavy on liberal, social indoctrination, union contracts that pay the good and the unqualified equally and free teachers from accountability for results.

Now Democrats like Senator Mary Landrieu, New York Governor David Patterson, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are beginning to challenge the unions' stranglehold on their party. A new PAC is giving voice to the less organized but traditional Democrat Party constituency groups that actually care about students and their academic success. Education Week reports the David vs. Goliath story:

Democrat Education PAC Hopes for Its Moment Under Obama

By Alyson Klein

For years, the teachers’ unions were the key players in the political money game to help further education policy objectives.

But since its inception in 2005, Democrats for Education Reform, a political action committee based in New York City, has sought to use campaign donations to smooth the way for policies such as expanding charter schools and differential pay for teachers that are sometimes opposed by traditional Democratic constituencies.

Now the group, which helped raise about $2 million for Democratic candidates for president, Congress, and state offices during this year’s elections, is seeking to put its stamp on the presidential transition, suggesting legislative priorities, and floating potential hires for core education positions.

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US Catholic Bishops Offer Support to Mormons Targeted for Defending Marriage, Backing California's Proposition 8

The US Catholic bishops have offered their "prayerful support and steadfast solidarity" to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints in the face of attacks on the church and its members for working to pass California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage.

The support was offered in a November 21 letter from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, chairman of the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, to Thomas S. Monson, president of the Mormon Church. The letter follows.

Dear President Monson,

On behalf of the members of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I am writing to express prayerful support and steadfast solidarity with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in view of recent events.

We have watched with great distress in recent weeks as some members of society have reacted intemperately, and sometimes even violently, to the decision of the voters in support of Proposition 8 in California. We have been especially troubled by the reports of explicit and direct targeting of your church personnel and facilities as the objects of hostility and abuse. We pray that prudence and healing may prevail.

The members of the Committee offer you our profound gratitude for your role in the broad alliance of faith communities and other people of good will who joined together to protect marriage, while at the same time, witnessing to the honor and respect due to every human person created in the image and likeness of God.

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz
Archbishop of Louisville

Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage

Why the Pilgrims Abandoned Communism

From Free Republic

Many have credited Karl Marx with inventing what we now know as communism in the middle of the 19th century. The concept of communal living and dependence, however, came long before The Communist Manifesto. Over the centuries, the concept has been applied by different people in different places. While the reasons for applying the communal approach varied as widely as the people who attempted it, one thing did remain constant: failure. From Roman latifundiae to the Soviet Union, communism time and again proved the failure inherent in its concept. Americans do not need to look to distant lands and little known peoples for evidence of the failure of communism. They simply need to look back at one of the most celebrated groups of people in their history: the Pilgrims.

As most educated Americans know, Puritan Separatists, or Pilgrims, landed in Massachusetts in 1620. What many don’t realize is that the original economic system of their colony, Plymouth Plantation, was a form of communism. There was neither private property nor division of labor. Food was grown for the town and distributed equally amongst all. The women who washed clothes and dressed meat did so for everyone and not just for their own families. This sounds like the perfect agrarian utopia envisioned by Marx and Lenin. What happened to it? To find the answer to that question, one must turn to Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford. Bradford served as Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1620 to 1647 and chronicled in great detail everything that happened in the colony.

By 1623, it was obvious the colony was barely producing enough corn to keep everyone alive. Fresh supplies from England were few and far between. Without some major change, the colony would face famine again. In his chronicle, Bradford described what was going wrong and how it was solved (pardon the King James English):

"All this while no supply was heard of, neither knew they when they might expect any. So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advise of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of the number, for that end, only for present use (but made no division for inheritance) and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression."

With weak crops and little hope of supply, the Pilgrims divided the parcels among the families and told them to grow their own food. They found that those who would pretend they couldn’t work due to infirmity, weakness or inability (sound familiar?) gladly went to work in the fields. Corn production increased dramatically and famine was averted because communism was eliminated. Bradford’s account doesn’t end here; he goes on to describe why he believed the communal system failed. Understanding the reasons for the failure is just as important, if not more important, than learning about the failure itself. Governor Bradford wrote:

The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter than the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labours, victuals, clothes, etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it.

The communal system failed because it treated the older and wiser the same way as the young and brash. It failed because it rewarded the less productive as much as the more productive. It failed because members of the community found that they could do less and still get the same benefit. All of these problems arose in a very religious community in which gluttony and laziness were considered sins and drunkenness was rare. How much more would communism fail in a larger society where such problems are rampant! By returning to a system in which the older and wiser are respected, and by reorganizing so that one’s benefit was directly tied to his production, the Pilgrims ensured the survival of their colony. Governor Bradford, however, ultimately attributes the failure of the “common cause” to something much deeper:

"Upon the point all being to have alike and to do alike, they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them. And would have been worse if they had been men of another condition. Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them."

Governor Bradford is basically saying that communism failed because of the corrupt nature of humans. People are imperfect and sinful. The utopia Marx and Lenin dreamed of could only work if it were filled with perfect people- and no such infallible people can be found in this world. Furthermore, the communal system undermines the relations God instituted among men- marriage and family. With husbands growing food for other people’s children, wives washing other men’s clothes, and children doing chores for other families, the basic foundational social unit of society is undermined. Without that, no society can hope to survive.

Monica Lewinsky To Be Offered Job As Intern Coordinator?

The Price of Hillary

From Chronicles
By Srdja Trifkovic

No secretary of state will come to that office with stronger pro-Israel credentials or closer ties to the Jewish community than Sen. Hillary Clinton, Douglas Bloomfield assures his readers in The Jerusalem Post. Good for them, and for Bosnia’s Muslims and Kosovo’s Albanians; but for the rest of us Mrs. Clinton’s appointment as the third woman U.S. Secretary of State is hugely problematic. It heralds “the end of the world as we know it” in some ways, although neither she nor her coterie necessarily know what they are doing.

At the technical level, Hillary Clinton is likely to deepen the chronic crisis of the once-venerable institution at Washington’s Foggy Bottom, to which her two female predecessors have contributed in two different ways.

Read the rest of this entry >>

We Need Roots

If I had to choose one article that would sum up the theme and purpose I intend for my blog, it would undoubtedly be the following article by R. R. Reno, features editor of First Things, and a professor of theology at Creighton University. It is a profound article on the meaning of culture, patriotism, national loyalty, social capital, and man's restless quest for roots that was aptly summed up in Saint Augustine's observation:

Nos fecisti ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

We Need Roots

From First Things

By R. R. Reno

G.K. Chesterton was a sucker for romantic gestures. Lines of soldiers with swords crossed, flags rippling in the wind, cathedral bells tolling: These sorts of scenes moved him, as did visions of lovers pledging themselves to each other in the dusky darkness of a summer evening, monks prostrate on cold, stone, chapel floors as they take their vows, and the quiet, invincible resolution of solitary soldiers who face impossible odds. Life is better—richer, deeper, thicker—for our loyalties and loves.

I share this Chestertonian sensibility, which is why the new music from the English folk band, Show of Hands, gives me goose bumps.

Listen to the band’s bitter lament, “Country Life.” The accompanying video on YouTube features harsh black and white images that match the cutting lyrics.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Found! Obama's Birth Certificate

From WorldNetDaily
By Joel Barbee

New Anglican Church Will Form In US

From OneNewsNow

A federation of Anglican Christians will soon form a new Anglican church in North America.

That announcement comes from The Common Cause Partnership, a coalition of conservative Anglican churches upset with the liberal leanings and policies of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Early next month, Common Cause will release a draft constitution for a new Anglican church in North America. Robert Lundy with Common Cause says the decision has been at least 30 years in the making.

"We, as The Common Cause Partnership and...as sort of disaffected Episcopalians, Anglicans, feel it is the one step that we have to make -- and we will reach out to other Christians who are in the Episcopal Church and help them, and we hope that they reach out to us and work together for mission," Lundy shares. "But for The Common Cause Partnership and the 100,000 people who we represent, this is a step we feel that the Lord is leading us to take."

In June, the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON, met in Israel and drafted the Jerusalem Declaration, which outlined their Christian beliefs and goals to reform, heal, and revitalize the Anglican Communion worldwide.

The Sidwell Choice

The Obama family leads by example

From The Wall Street Journal

Michelle and Barack Obama have settled on a Washington, D.C., school for their daughters, and you will not be surprised to learn it is not a public institution. Malia, age 10, and seven-year-old Sasha will attend the Sidwell Friends School, the private academy that educates the children of much of Washington's elite.

AP

Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren attend Sidwell -- as did Chelsea Clinton -- where tuition is close to $30,000 a year. The Obama girls have been students at the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where tuition runs above $21,000. "A number of great schools were considered," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama. "In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now."

Note the word "selected," as in made a choice. The Obamas are fortunate to have the means to send their daughters to private school, and no one begrudges them that choice given that Washington's public schools are among the worst in America.

Most D.C. parents would also love to be able to choose a better school for their child, but they lack the financial means to do so. The Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program each year offers up to $7,500 to some 1,900 kids to attend private schools, but Democrats in Congress want to kill it. Average family income for kids in the voucher program is about $22,000.

Mr. Obama says he opposes such vouchers, because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom." The example of his own children refutes that: The current system offers plenty of choice to kids "at the top" while abandoning those at the bottom.

Gallup Poll Finds Americans Want Republican Party to Stay Conservative

From LifeNews.com
By Steven Ertelt

A new national Gallup poll finds Americans want the Republican Party to stay conservative -- which appears they want the GOP to keep its pro-life stance on abortion. The party has been pro-life for decades and has a longstanding platform calling for a Constitutional amendment to protect human life.

The new poll, conducted from November 13-16 finds 59 percent of Republicans want the party to become even more conservative with 28 percent saying it should stay the same.

Just 12 percent of Republicans want the GOP to become less conservative.

Nationally, 57 percent of Americans want the party to become either more conservative (37%) or stay the same (20%) with 37 percent wanting it to become less conservative.

Looking at the crucial group of independent voters, some 57 percent of them want it to either become more conservative (35%) or stay the same (22%) while only 35 percent want it to become less conservative.

And it is no surprise that Democrats are the only group to want the party to shed it's historically conservative viewpoints, with 56 percent saying so. Still, 25 percent of Democrats want the GOP to become more conservative and 13 percent want it to stay the same.

That doesn't mean Americans view the party, which has nominated pro-life candidates in every presidential election since 1980, favorably.

The poll found just 34 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the party and a whopping 61 percent holding an unfavorable view.

"After suffering major blows in the election, the Republican Party is experiencing its worst image rating in a least a decade," the Gallup Poll reported.

Democrats, who have put forward pro-abortion presidential candidates in every election since 1980 and saw their most recent abortion advocate, Barack Obama, win narrowly earlier this month, are viewed more favorably.

Democrats have a favorability rating of 55 percent, about the same as last month.

Also, 91 percent of Democrats approved of their party and how it is operating compared with just 78 percent of Republicans.

The poll found the view Americans have of the Republican party tracks almost identically with the view they have of President Bush. With him out of the picture next year, the GOP can redefine itself and the Democratic Party will have to be content with hitching its fortunes to a President Obama.

Court to Decide Whether Campus Evangelism a Crime

From OneNewsNow
By Charlie Butts

The so-called "free-speech code" of Yuba Community College District is under federal court scrutiny.

California student, Ryan Dozier, decided to spend some time on campus sharing his faith and handing out tracts to fellow students, generating conversations about Christianity. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Heather Hacker comments on the situation.

"A campus police officer came over and told him that if he continued to do so without a permit that he would be possibly expelled or arrested, and so Ryan stopped immediately," she explains.

Hacker says Dozier thought the case was closed, but he was apparently mistaken. "Three weeks later he got a certified letter from the president of the college stating that his actions were the subject of a campus crime report," she adds. "Last time I checked, sharing your faith on a public college campus was not a crime."

But the letter informed him he could face expulsion if he shared his faith on campus again. ADF filed suit, and a federal judge has ordered the college to suspend enforcement of its highly restricted free speech policies until the lawsuit is resolved.

St. Paul's Cathedral Choir - "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing"

The Feast of Christ the King

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!
The heavens are not too high, His praise may thither fly,
The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!
The church with psalms must shout, no door can keep them out;
But, above all, the heart must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!

'Browbeating' Teacher Still Employed

From OneNewsNow
By Peter Chagnon

School officials in Fayetteville, North Carolina, have completed their investigation of a teacher following a classroom incident captured on film.

The Independent Women's Forum says the video shows an elementary school teacher browbeating a student for her support of John McCain in the school's mock presidential election. (See previous article)

"What do you all know about that war in Iraq? Talk to me because your daddy's in the military; talk. It's a senseless war," the teacher says on the video. "And by the way, Kathy, the person that you are picking for president said that our troops could stay in Iraq for another hundred years if they need to, so that means that your daddy could stay in the military for another hundred years."

Following outcry and media coverage of the incident, Cumberland County School Superintendent William Harrison launched an investigation. School officials refused to give OneNewsNow any details of the investigation results, citing a law that protects teachers in cases like this. But officials did say that the teacher, Diantha Harris, is still employed as a teacher in the Cumberland County School district.

According to media reports, the school district has received hundreds of phone calls about the incident, and the teacher involved has also received dozens of phone calls at home concerning the video. The Associated Press reported that Harris has said she regrets making the comments and that the student involved, along with her parents, has expressed support for the teacher.

Kenyan Ambassador: Obama's Birthplace in Kenya is "An Attraction...Already Well-Known"

All In The Family

From Free Republic

About twelve minutes into a Detroit radio station’s interview with Kenyan ambassador Peter Ogego, he is asked whether or not monuments will be erected in honor of Obama’s elevation to the United States presidency.

Ogego responds that a monument will be erected at Obama’s birthplace in Kenya, which is already a site of pilgrimage: “His birthplace is already an attraction…it’s already well known.”

Obama’s Kenyan grandmother has also asserted that he was born in Kenya, not the United States. The Constitution bars those born outside of US territory from becoming President.

There are also lawsuits pending — including one by Obama’s former Senate campaign opponent Alan Keyes — challenging Obama to provide proof of citizenship eligibility to take office. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has put this isssue on the docket for the Court to review on December 5th.

Public Schools Not Good Enough For Obama's Children, But You Should Stay Put

The Sidwell Friends School

In a long tradition of hypocritical, limousine liberals, the Obama's have sworn before the NEA and the AFT their unyielding opposition to allowing poor, inner-city families the freedom to seek out better schools for their children. "We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools; not throwing our hands up and walking away from them," he told them.

But when it comes to his own family, he's not about to subject his children to those schools:

Obama's Girls Will Attend Private School

By Lisa Tolin, AP

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen Sidwell Friends School for their two daughters, opting for a private institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

"A number of great schools were considered. In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama.

She said Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, "bring with them a number of security and privacy concerns that come with being part of the new first family — and the school they've selected is positioned to appropriately accommodate that."

Read the rest of this entry >>

WorldNetDaily Launches Petition to See the Birth Certificate

When Barack Hussein Obama was completing a trip to Hawaii, purportedly to visit his ailing mother, Gov. Linda Lingle placed the candidate's birth certificate under seal and instructed the state's Department of Health to make sure no one in the press obtains access to the original document under any circumstances.

While the MSM have ignored the issue, WorldNetDaily continues to ask why the President-elect refuses to end speculation about his eligibility to be President, and why the Governor of Hawaii has taken steps to seal Barack Hussein Obama's birth records. Obama does claim, after all, that his will be the most "transparent" of presidential administrations.

WorldNetDaily has posted a petition to answer the presidential eligibility question. Those wishing to sign the WorldNetDaily petition may do so here.

The Classics Alive and Well at Bowdoin

A DATE WITH HISTORY: Associate Dean of Faculty Development James Higginbotham poses here in front of the Mediterranean collection at the Bowdoin Museum of Art. Higginbotham said growing enrollment in Latin classes at Bowdoin reflects an increasing interest in the ancient world among students.

By Caitlin Beach
Orient Staff

Latin is not a dead language at Bowdoin. In fact, for all intents and purposes, it's alive and kicking.

In accordance with national trends, enrollment in Latin at Bowdoin has spiked in recent years. A Modern Language Association (MLA) study from 2002 to 2006 revealed that Latin enrollments at the collegiate level increased by 7.9 percent.

According to a recent New York Times article, secondary school enrollment numbers also reflect increased interest in Classical Studies. And as of last year, Latin had surpassed German as the third-most popular non-English language studied in American classrooms. This phenomenon, in turn, feeds into the upward trend in language enrollment at colleges.

Associate Dean for Faculty Development James Higginbotham, who has spent considerable time at Bowdoin as an associate professor of Classics, cites the cultural relevance of the language today as a reason for the sudden increase in study of a language that has been considered dead for centuries.

"Interest in Latin has always reflected students' broader interests in ancient culture," he said. "Studying the language is a gateway for appreciating a particular part of the past."

Currently, the Bowdoin Classics Department includes 22 declared majors over a span of three different programs: Classics, Classical Archaeology and Classical Studies. The department employs four faculty positions: one specializing in Latin language, literature and culture; a second concentrating on Greek language; a third focusing on classical archaeology and a fourth specializing in ancient history.

According to Associate Professor of Classics Jennifer Kosak, the department has long existed at Bowdoin as a cornerstone of the liberal arts curriculum.

"Latin and Greek have had a long history here as Classics was central to liberal arts education in the 19th and early 20th centuries," said Kosak. "It is no surprise to see that these languages have maintained a profound influence on education at Bowdoin today."

Kosak attributed the continuing strength of the department at Bowdoin to its interdisciplinary focus as well as the strength of the ancient Mediterranean collection at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

"Classics here is truly an interdisciplinary field in that language, literature, social and political history and material culture are all essential pieces in the study of the ancient world," she said.

Traditionally, student interest in 100-level classics and classical archaeology courses has remained strong over the years. Likewise, 200-level Greek and Roman history courses also enjoy consistently high enrollment numbers.

Over the past few years, the department has seen the majority of enrollment increases in the language sector, in parallel with national enrollment increases cited by the MLA.

"If I were to note an upsurge in any particular area of our enrollments in the past few years, it would probably be in elementary Latin," said Kosak. "Many students are eager to take a year of Latin in order to provide a base for their understanding of linguistic systems and of the impact of Latin on the development of English."

Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics Ryan Ricciardi noted a similar increase with enrollment in advanced Latin courses. Students with previous classical training often elect to enroll in advanced courses upon arrival at the College. Ricciardi noted that this phenomenon was similar at the University of Cincinnati, where she previously worked.

"The upward trend in enrollment is remarkably similar at Cincinnati," she said.

This increased student motivation to take Classics courses at the college level can be traced to a number of sources. Kosak noted that many students enroll in courses with hopes of furthering initial interests in classical mythology and history. Others have read Greek and Latin literature in translation and hope to learn more.

For Mary Kelly '10, it was the multi-faceted focus of Classics that piqued her interest. Kelly began taking Latin during her freshman year of high school and has continued to pursue the field at Bowdoin as a major.

"My decision to major in Classics was pretty much made when I came to Bowdoin," she said. "I met with [Henry Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek] Barbara Boyd as a pre-frosh, and the department as a whole really influenced my decision to come here."

"I like Classics as a major because it is inherently interdisciplinary," she added.

Like Kelly, many other Bowdoin students have elected to pursue studies in Classics, and Latin in particular, as a result of forays into the language during high school.

While the instruction of Latin has long been relegated to the halls of preparatory institutions and established public schools such as Boston Latin School, high schools across America have more recently continued to bolster their classical language curricula.

"Taking Latin serves as incredibly good preparation for the verbal sections of standardized tests," said Higginbotham. "Many secondary schools have begun to realize this."

In regards to secondary school instruction, Higginbotham noted that the number of students taking the Advanced Placement Latin examination has doubled over the past five years. He attributes this overall upswing in Classical education to "a new generation of teachers."

"These teachers don't have the stodgy reputation of the typical Classicist," Higginbotham said. "As Latin is taught increasingly as a living, dynamic language, students will become more interested."

It is this shift in focus, which regards Classics as a naturally dynamic and interdisciplinary field, that Higginbotham, Kosak and Kelly see as one of the major factors in the recent surge in enrollment, both across the country and at Bowdoin.

Back at Bowdoin, students in Ricciardi's Roman Archaeology course meet in the Zuckert seminar room of the Walker Art Building to examine ancient artifacts.

They crouch over small boxes, each containing a coin from antiquity. Using magnifying aids, they identify various coins as products of the reigns of Vespasian, Caesar and Marcus Aurelius.

It is firsthand experience such as this, says Higginbotham, which keeps student interest in Classics at Bowdoin thriving. He regularly takes students on excavations, giving them the opportunity for field experience at sites such as Pompeii and Paestum.

"I think that the curriculum here opens up a lot of possibilities to students," Higginbotham said. "Once they get past the grammar and fundamentals, there is a beauty inherent in Classical Studies that will carry many students forward."

—Seth Walder contributed to this report.

Supreme Court to Review Obama Citizenship Arguments

From WorldNetDaily
By Bob Unruh

A case that challenges President-elect Barack Obama's name on the 2008 election ballot citing questions over his citizenship has been scheduled for a "conference" at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Conferences are private meetings of the justices at which they review cases and decide which ones to accept for formal review. This case is set for a conference Dec. 5, just 10 days before the Electoral College is scheduled to meet to make formal the election of Obama as the nation's next president.

The Supreme Court's website listed the date for the case brought by Leo C. Donofrio against Nina Wells, the secretary of state in New Jersey, over not only Obama's name on the 2008 election ballot but those of two others, Sen. John McCain and Roger Calero.

The case, unsuccessful at the state level, had been submitted to Justice David Souter, who rejected it. The case then was resubmitted to Justice Clarence Thomas. The next line on the court's docket says: "DISTRIBUTED for Conference of December 5, 2008."

If four of the nine justices vote to hear the case in full, oral argument may be scheduled.

The action questions whether any of the three candidates is qualified under the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural-born citizen."

According to America's Right blogger Jeff Schreiber, there also was a development in a second case presented to the Supreme Court on the same issue.

His report said the Federal Election Commission now has waived its right to respond to a complaint brought by attorney Philip Berg.

"There are a number of reasons why the respondents here would choose not to respond. First, because the court only grants between 70 and 120 of the 8,000 or so petitions it receives every year, perhaps they just liked their odds of Berg's petition getting denied. Second, because they have made arguments as to Berg's lack of standing several times at the district court level and beyond, perhaps they felt as though any arguments had already been made and were available on the record. Or, perhaps the waiver shows that the FEC and other respondents do not take seriously the allegations put forth by Berg, and did not wish to legitimize the claims with a response," the blogger speculated.

"Another thing which is not completely clear is whether the FEC is filing for itself or on behalf of all respondents," he added.

"If it were just the FEC filing the waiver, I must say that I'm surprised," Berg told America's Right. "I'm surprised because I think they should take the position that the Supreme Court should grant standing to us. I think they have a responsibility not only to Phil Berg, but to all citizens of this country, to put forth a sense of balance which otherwise doesn't seem to exist.

"However, if this was filed by the FEC on behalf of the DNC and Barack Obama too, it reeks of collusion," he said, noting that the attorney from the solicitor general's office should be representing federal respondents and not the DNC or Obama.

But he noted that "questions surrounding this aspect of Obama's candidacy are seemingly beginning to see the light of day."

Just last week, WND reported on worries over a "constitutional crisis" that could be looming over the issue of Obama's citizenship.

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others filed a court petition in California asking the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office.

The disputes all cite "natural-born citizen" requirement set by the U.S. Constitution.

WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi even traveled to Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama's birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.

The biggest question is why Obama, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists as his campaign has stated, simply hasn't ordered it made available to settle the rumors.

The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii?

Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born. There have been other allegations that Obama actually was born in Kenya during a time when his father was a British subject.

The California action was filed by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation on behalf of Keyes, the presidential candidate of the American Independent Party, along with Wiley S. Drake and Markham Robinson, both California electors.

"Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, Petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal," the action challenges.

An Obama spokesman interviewed by WND described such lawsuits as "garbage."

The popular vote Nov. 4 favored Obama over Sen. John McCain by several percentage points. But because of the distribution of the votes, Obama is projected to take the Electoral College vote, when it is held in December, by a 2-to-1 margin.

The California case states, "There is a reasonable and common expectation by the voters that to qualify for the ballot, the individuals running for office must meet minimum qualifications as outlined in the federal and state Constitutions and statutes, and that compliance with those minimum qualifications has been confirmed by the officials overseeing the election process," the complaint said, when in fact the only documentation currently required is a signed statement from the candidate attesting to those qualifications.

"Since [the secretary of state] has, as its core, the mission of certifying and establishing the validity of the election process, this writ seeks a Court Order barring SOS from certifying the California Electors until documentary proof that Senator Obama is a 'natural born' citizen of the United States of America is received by her," the document said.

"This proof could include items such as his original birth certificate, showing the name of the hospital and the name and the signature of the doctor, all of his passports with immigration stamps, and verification from the governments where the candidate has resided, verifying that he did not, and does not, hold citizenship of these countries, and any other documents that certify an individual’s citizenship and/or qualification for office.

The "certificate of live birth" posted by the Obama campaign cannot be viewed as authoritative, the case alleges.

"Hawaii Revised Statute 338-178 allows registration of birth in Hawaii for a child that was born outside of Hawaii to parents who, for a year preceding the child’s birth, claimed Hawaii as their place of residence," the document said. "The only way to know where Senator Obama was actually born is to view Senator Obama's original birth certificate from 1961 that shows the name of the hospital and the name and signature of the doctor that delivered him."

The case also raises the circumstances of Obama's time during his youth in Indonesia, where he was listed as having Indonesian citizenship. Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, raising the possibility of Obama's mother having given up his U.S. citizenship.

Any subsequent U.S. citizenship then, the case claims, would be "naturalized," not "natural-born."

WND has reported other challenges that have been raised in Ohio, Connecticut, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Hawaii.

Vatican Official Warns of "War" Between Obama Administration and Catholic Church

From LifeSiteNews.com
By John-Henry Westen

The possible signing of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) by President-Elect Barack Obama would be "the equivalent of a war" an unnamed senior Vatican official recently told TIME magazine.

The startling comments make the second time this week that a Vatican official has forthrightly and in the strongest language condemned Obama's extreme policies on abortion. Speaking at the Catholic University of America a few days ago, Vatican Cardinal James Stafford labeled Obama's anti-life policies as "aggressive, disruptive, and apocalyptic," also noting that, "On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake" (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111703.html ).

With Catholic, but outspokenly pro-abortion individuals occupying two prominent positions (Joseph Biden as vice president and Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary) the specter of public excommunication or denial of communion for prominent members of the Obama Administration has arisen.

The focus of the Vatican’s concern, FOCA, is a bill that would do away with state laws on abortion, including laws mandating parental involvement, or banning partial birth abortion. FOCA would also compel taxpayer funding of abortions, and, of greatest concern to Bishops, would force faith-based hospitals and healthcare facilities to perform abortions.

Obama has in the past said that he would make signing FOCA one of the highest priorities of his presidency.

Last week at the meeting of US Bishops in Baltimore, Cybercast News Service asked Chicago Cardinal Francis George, the current president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, if voting for FOCA would bring a penalty of automatic excommunication for Catholic politicians. The Cardinal did not rule it out.

"The excommunication is automatic if that act is in fact formal cooperation, and that is precisely what would have to be discussed once you would see the terms of the act itself," responded Cardinal George. When asked for more, he added: "The categories in moral theology about cooperating in evil, which make you complicit in the evil even though you don't do it yourself, are material cooperation, which is usually remote and therefore doesn't involve you in the moral action except in a very auxiliary and minor way, and formal cooperation, which would involve you even though you are not doing it, in the way that makes you culpable.

"So we would have to take a look at each case, and at each law, to determine whether or not the cooperation is material or formal. We've never done that."

Cardinal George has, however, personally analyzed FOCA and expressed his grave concerns about the legislation. In a message to the Obama Administration at the end of the USCCB meeting George wrote on FOCA, saying it would, "outlaw any ‘interference’ in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country."

The Cardinal added: "FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities." (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111209.html )

In light of this possible attempt to revoke conscience rights under the Obama administration, Catholic League president Bill Donohue has urged President Bush to enact regulations, already in draft for months, which would protect the rights of doctors, nurses and health workers from being discriminated against if they refuse to perform or assist in abortions, as well as other morally contentious procedures. "At stake are the religious rights of these professionals," said Donohue.

"To put it differently, were FOCA to become law (it needs to be reintroduced in the House), the culture war that the Vatican official was referring to would come to a boiling point," he warned. "In practical terms, this would mean the closure of every Catholic hospital in the nation: No bishop is going to stand by and allow the federal government to dictate what medical procedures must be performed in Catholic hospitals. Make no mistake about it, the bishops would shut down Catholic hospitals before acquiescing in the intentional killing of an innocent child. Were this to happen, it would not only cripple the poor, it would cripple the Obama administration."

Donohue concluded: "It is for reasons like these that the Catholic League urges President Bush to move with dispatch in instituting rules protecting the religious rights of all health care workers. If Obama wants to undo them, it will set up a confrontation he will surely regret."

See the TIME article:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859856,00.htm...

See the Cybercast News article:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14369

The Next Time: Huckabee's Book Tour

From GOP Catholics

Perhaps the reason for some of the negative headlines about Huckabee's new book, Do The Right Thing, has to do with a simple fact.

The GOP leadership knows Huckabee is the biggest threat to insider politicians like Mitt Romney for 2012 and wants to stop him before the nomination literally starts falling Huckabee's way.

The leaders of the social conservative movement who helped nominate the closet liberal John McCain by refusing to help one of their own in Mike Huckabee, have realized their mistake of presuming to know who was "viable" and who was "not."

This time around, the conservatives in the party will know whom to support and avoid the fracturing which almost destroyed them during the last primaries. We must show out in force for Mike Huckabee's upcoming national book tour and show the GOP leadership and the media whom we the people want as our next nominee.

For those of you living in Iowa, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina and South Carolina, I would especially urge you to come out and show your support for Huckabee in these very important primary states.

Alabama
Birmingham, AL
Monday, 12/11 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Books A Million / Brockwood Village, 757 Brockwood Village, Birmingham, AL 35209
(205)870-0213

Alabama
Dothan, AL
Saturday, 11/29 - 8:00-9:00 AM
Books A Million, Northside Mall, 3489 Ross Clark Circle #54, Dothan, AL 36303
(334)712-1341

Arkansas
Bentonville, AR
Friday, 11/21 - 7:00-9:00 PM
Sam's Club** Free Pass, 3500 Southeast Club Blvd., Bentonville, AR 72712
(479)621-5537

Arkansas
El Dorado, AR
Tuesday, 11/25 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Walmart Supercenter, 2730 Northwest Ave., El Dorado, AR 71730
(870)862-2128

Arkansas
Ft. Smith, AR
Wednesday, 11/26 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Books A Million (Pavilions Store), 4145 Phoenix Ave., Ft. Smith, AR 72903
(479)484-5833

Arkansas
Little Rock, AR
Wednesday, 11/26 - 6:00-8:00 PM
Barnes & Noble,11500 Financial Ctr Pkwy., Little Rock, AR 72211
(501)954-7646

Florida
Brandon, FL
Sunday, 12/7 - Church Signing
Bell Shoals Baptist Church, 2102 Bell Shoals Rd., Brandon, FL 33511
(813)689-4229

Florida
Orlando, FL
Monday, 12/8 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, Colonial Plaza Market Center, 2418 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32803
(407)894-6024

Florida
Panama City, FL
Friday, 11/28 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Borders Super Store, 15575 Starfish Dr., Panama City Beach, FL 32413
(850)636-3181

Florida
Pensacola, FL
Friday, 11/28 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, The Cordova Crossing, 1200 Airport Blvd., Pensacola, FL 32504
(850)969-9554

Florida
Sarasota, FL
Friday, 11/28 - 7:00-8:00 AM
Books A Million, Gulf Gate Mall, 6591 S. Tamiami Trial, Sarasota, FL 34231
(941)922-7804

Florida
Southwest Ranches, FL
Sunday, 12/7 - Church Signing
Abundant Living Ministries, 14221 SW 72nd St., Southwest Ranches, FL 33330
Phone TK

Florida
Tampa, FL
Friday, 11/28 - 9:00-10:00 AM
Inkwood Books, 216 S Armenia Ave., Tampa, FL 33609
(813)253-2638

Florida
The Villages, FL
Friday, 11/28 - 11:30 AM-12:30 PM
Barnes & Noble, Lake Sumter Market Square, 1055 Old Camp Rd., The Villages, FL 32162
(352)430-3029

Georgia
Albany, GA
Saturday, 11/2912:00-1:00 PM
Books A Million, Albany Mall, 2601 Dawson Rd, Ste 3, Albany, GA 31707
(229)889-0507

Georgia
Macon, GA
Saturday, 11/29/083:00-4:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, The Shoppes at River Crossing, 5080 Riverside Dr., Macon, GA 31210
(478)474-0161

Georgia
Norcross, GA / Atlanta, GA
Sunday, 11/30 - Church Signing
Victory World Church, 5905 Brook Hollow Parkway, Norcross, GA 30071
(770)849-9400

Iowa
Cedar Rapids, IA
Thursday, 11/20 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, Northland Square, SC333 Collins Rd NE, Bldg 1, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
(319)393-4800

Iowa
Des Moines, IA
Thursday, 11/206:00-8:00 PM
Sam's Club ** Free Pass, 1101 73rd St., Des Moines, IA 50311
(515)255-2252

Kansas
Kansas City, MO
Friday, 11/21 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Rainy Day Books, Unity Temple On The Plaza, 707 W. 47th Street, Kansas City, MO 64112
(913)384-3126

Kentucky
Lexington, KY
Tuesday, 12/22 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Joseph Beth, 161 Lexington Green Circle #B, Lexington, KY 40503
(859)273-2911

Louisiana
Bossier City, LA / Shreveport, LA
Tuesday, 11/25 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Walmart Supercenter, 2536 Airline Dr., Bossier City, LA 71111
(318)747-0173

Michigan
Birmingham, MI / Detroit, MI
Wednesday, 12/3 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Borders, 34300 Woodward, Birmingham, MI 48009
(248)203-0005

Michigan
Grand Rapids, MI
Wednesday, 12/3 - 7:30-8:30 PM
Schuler Books (Grand Rapids), 2660 28th St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512
(616)942-2561

Michigan
Lansing, MI
Wednesday, 12/3 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Schuler Books (Eastwood), Eastwood Towne Center, 2820 Towne Center Blvd., Lansing, MI 48912
(517)316-7495

Mississippi
Oxford, MS
Monday, 12/1 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Square Books, 160 Courthouse Square, Oxford, MS 38655
(662)236-2262

Missouri
Springfield, MO
Friday, 11/21 - 4:00-5:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, 3055 South Glenstone, Springfield, MO 65804
(417)885-0026

Ohio
Cincinnati, OH
Tuesday, 12/2 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Joseph Beth, 2692 Madison Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45208
(513)396-8960

Ohio
Columbus, OH
Tuesday, 12/2 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, Easton Town Center, 4005 Townsfair Way, Columbus, OH 43219
(614)476-8480

Oklahoma
Edmond, OK / Oklahoma City, OK
Saturday, 11/22 - 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Best of Books, Kickingbird Sq, 1313 E Danforth Rd., Edmond, OK 73034
(405)340-9202

Oklahoma
Tulsa, OK
Saturday, 11/22 - 7:00-8:00 AM
Barnes & Noble, Southroads Shopping Center, 5231 East 41st St., Tulsa, OK 74135
(918)665-4580

South Carolina
Aiken, SC
Saturday, 12/6 - 1:00-2:00 PM
Walmart Supercenter, 2035 Whiskey Rd., Aiken, SC 29803
(803)648-9197

South Carolina
Columbia, SC
Saturday, 12/6 - 3:00-4:00 PM
Books A Million, Harbison Shopping Center, 275-1 Harbison Blvd., Columbia, SC 29212
(803)749-9378

South Carolina
Greenville, SC
Friday, 12/5 - 6:00-7:30 PM
Costco, 1021 Woodruff Rd., Greenville, SC 29607
(864)297-2560

South Carolina
Rock Hill, SC
Saturday, 12/6 - 9:00-10:00 AM
Books A Million, Manchester Village, 540 John Ross Parkway, Rock Hill, SC 29730
(803)985-5362

South Carolina
Spartanburg, SC
Friday, 12/5 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Sam's Club** Free Pass, 200 Peachwood Centre Dr., Spartanburg, SC 29301
(864)574-3480

Tennessee
Chattanooga, TN
Sunday, 11/30 - 3:00-4:00 PM
Books A Million, Hamilton Village, 2020 Gunbarrel Rd, Ste 205-A, Chattanooga, TN 37421
(423)894-1690

Tennessee
Memphis, TN
Monday, 12/1 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Davis Kidd, 387 Perkins Road Extended, Memphis, TN 38117
(901)683-9801

Tennessee
Nashville, TN
Sunday, 11/30 - 6:00-7:00 PM
Davis Kidd, The Mall at Green Hills, 2121 Green Hills Village Dr, Ste 281, Nashville, TN 37215
(615)385-2645

Texas
Amarillo, TX
Sunday, 11/23 - Church Service
Address TK
Phone TK

Texas
Arlington, TX
Saturday, 11/22 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Costco, 600 West Arbrook Blvd., Arlington, TX, 76014
(817)417-1603

Texas
College Station, TX
Monday, 11/24 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, Lone-Star Pavilion, 711 Texas Ave., College Station, TX 77840
(979)764-8955

Texas
Dallas, TX
Saturday, 11/22 - 7:00-8:00 PM
Borders, 10720 Preston Rd., Dallas, TX 75230
(214)363-1977

Texas
Houston, TX
Monday, 11/24 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Books a Million (Pavilions Store),1201 Main St., Houston, TX 77002
(713)353-5496

Texas
Killeen, TX
Sunday, 11/23 - 6:00-7:00 PM
Hastings Books, 2200 E Veterans Memorial, Killeen, TX, 76549
(254)680-5313

Texas
Lubbock, TX
Sunday, 11/23 - 2:00-3:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, 6707 Slide Rd., Lubbock, TX 79424
(806)798-8990

Texas
San Antonio, TX
Thursday, 12/11 - 2:00-3:00 PM
Barnes & Noble,18030 HWY 281N, Ste #140, San Antonio, TX 78232
(210)490-0411

Texas
Texarkana, TX
Tuesday, 11/25 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Books A Million, Central Mall, 3501 Mall Dr., Texarkana, TX 75503
(903)838-3848

Texas
The Woodlands, TX
Monday, 11/24 - 5:00-6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble, The Woodlands Mall, 1201 Lake Woodlands Dr, #3008, The Woodlands, TX 77381
(281)465-8744

Virginia
Arlington, VA / Washington, DC
Wednesday, 11/19 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Costco, Pentagon City, 1200 South Fern St., Arlington, VA 22202
(703)413-2324

Virginia
Bristol, VA
Friday, 12/5 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Books a Million, 16700 Highlands Center Blvd., Bristol, VA 24202
(276)669-2115

Virginia
Lynchburg, VA
Thursday, 12/45:30-6:30 PM
Barnes & Noble, Wards Crossing, 4024-C Wards Rd., Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434)239-8688

Virginia
Roanoke, VA
Thursday, 12/4 - 8:00-9:00 PM
Books a Million, Cross Roads Mall, 1515 Hershberger Rd., Roanoke, VA 24012
(540)366-6682

West Virginia
Charleston, WV
Thursday, 12/4 - 12:00-1:00 PM
Books a Million, Dudley Farms Plaza, 212 RHL Blvd., Charleston, WV 25309
(304)746-2984

Bad Omen for Border Security: Napolitano May Run DHS

From American Patrol Report

According to the Arizona Republic, "Gov. Janet Napolitano is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, multiple news agencies reported late Wednesday."

Napolitano opposes the border fence and supports a guest worker program.

There is very strong evidence that the border fence has helped cut smuggling to such a degree that Mexican drug cartels are fighting over remaining corridors. "The drug cartel war in Mexico is the direct result of our border security measures, especially fences and barriers, and, as we finished the job, they will eventually burn themselves out," said Glenn Spencer of APR.

"Americans will find it difficult to believe that Obama would push a guest worker program when millions of them are unemployed, but that looks like where we're headed," Spencer said.

"This is a very bad omen for the people of Arizona and the entire nation," Spencer said. "I now understand why the Arizona Republic ran a ridiculous report that ladders were being used on the border," he said.

Spencer said American Border Patrol would work to get its border assessment report to the Senate Committee that will consider Napolitano's appointment.

Why Europe is Secretly Afraid of a Socialist America

From American Thinker
By James Lewis

Suppose you've been living under the protective wings of a benevolent superpower for sixty years. And suppose you've used that big half century to take off on an endless vacation -- spending all your tax money to buy votes for the socialist Ruling Class. It's been one long, grand, drug-infested, sex-drenched, self-indulgent, tabloid party scene. Any time danger threatens you look to Washington for protection. The rest of the time you noisily abuse those Yankee imperialists, merely to boost your fragile ego. Corruption has become pervasive.

Read the rest of this entry >>

The Homosexuals' Tyrannical Agenda

After scores of municipalities, counties and states have overwhelmingly rejected the radical homosexual agenda, it is becoming clear that the movement is about much more than recognizing “gay marriage.”

The fascist attacks on Christians in San Francisco, Michigan and elsewhere demonstrates that they seek to silence free speech. The vehicle of choice is so called “hate crimes” legislation. Such “hate crimes” may involve preaching of the gospel, condemning sodomy from a pulpit, or writing a blog post or letter to the editor. Such legislation, recently passed in Colorado, may even prevent the publication and sale of the Bible in that state.

Canada and Europe give us a good view of where the homo-fascists would take America. In Canada a publisher, clergymen, or ordinary citizen can be hauled before the nation’s Human Rights Commissions to account for what they think and say. James Allan, a University of Queensland Professor of Law describes the situation as follows:

“Here is a little known fact about Canada. It is today a country where you can say or write things that are true and yet still be brought before a tribunal.

“That tribunal can fine you; it can order you to pay money to the people who complained about your words; it can force you to issue an apology; it can do all three.

“That’s not all though. The people who complained will not need to hire a lawyer.

“Their costs will be picked up by the state, by the taxpayers.

“You on the other hand, will have to hire a lawyer to defend yourself. And there will be no award of costs at the end, so that even if you win, you will still be out of pocket to your lawyers tens of thousands of dollars.

“Of course, you will not win.

“Why? Because in the entire history of these Canadian tribunals, hearing these cases, those people like you who have been hauled before these tribunals have never won - not one single time [on cases citing Section 13.1 of the Human Rights Act - the hate crimes provision].

“The complainants always win.”

Indeed, a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission has imposed a lifetime ban on a local Catholic’s freedom to publicly criticize homosexuality. He responded to the Court’s order as follows:

"This fine is for telling the truth [that] homosexual sodomites can change their behaviour and be set free from their sin and depravity through the forgiveness of sins and shed blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

The following video demonstrates how truly tyrannical the homosexualists are prepared to be should they ever have the power of law on their side:

Who ARE the Obama Voters?

Documentary filmmaker John Ziegler interviewed a dozen Obama supporters at the polls on election day to find out what they know and how the media influences them. But if you think that is too anecdotal and unscientific, the How Obama Got Elected website reports that a Zogby poll "asked the very same questions (as well as a few others) with similarly amazing results."

Christian Prayer Group Sexually and Physically Assaulted by Homosexual Mob

San Francisco Castro District residents seek vengeance for vote on Proposition 8

From LifeSiteNews.com
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

A mob of homosexuals sexually and physically assaulted a group of Christians praying together in the city's Castro District last week, in apparent retaliation for the recent defeat of homosexual marriage in California.

The Christians, a group of Evangelical Protestants who regularly go to the predominantly homosexual Castro District to sing songs and pray with passers-by, say they were holding hands and singing "Amazing Grace" when a angry mob began to shove and kick them, steal their belongings, pour hot coffee on their faces, and sexually assault them.

"We'd been there for a couple of nights just singing worship songs, people would come up and stand with us and join us, we got to pray for some people," said one participant in an account filmed at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxojbyAQGI), "but on Friday night it just was different."

"We started worshipping, it was kind of like you would walk into someone's living room, and people are just hanging out with a guitar, worshipping Jesus, just really peaceful," she continued. "And a man came up after we'd been there for a little while and just began yelling and swearing at us and commanding us to get out of the Castro District, and our leader went up and he said 'why are you here?' and she said 'we're here to worship God and we're here because we love you'."

The words enraged the man, who was soon followed by others. Although the group did no preaching, the mere presence of Christians praying in the Castro District was enough to provoke a frenzy of violence.

"A few men came and they brought a large piece of cloth and covered us with cloth and cornered us into a corner, and they started swearing at us and yelling at us and just filled with hatred, and the crowd grew larger and larger and larger until it ended up being a few hundred people and the bars had emptied out, and we're completely surrounded by people yelling at us," the participant recounted.

"And all of a sudden, me and another friend had hot coffee poured on our faces, and I thought they were pouring boiling water on us until I could smell the coffee, and the girl next to me, someone reached in and took her Bible and she went and said 'I'm sorry that's mine, can I have it back please?' and he hit on her head with the Bible, pushed her onto the ground and began kicking her."

According to the account, members of the crowd began to shove the group and blow whistles in their ears. They took photographs and said "we know who you are, we're going to kill you". The group made a circle with the women protected inside. That was when "it got bad, it got perverse," the participant said.

Although the videotaped participant did not elaborate, a YouTube member who posted a video of the violence included anonymous testimony from a participant claiming that "they were touching and grabbing me, and trying to shove things in my butt, and even trying to take off my pants - basically trying to molest me. I used one hand to hold my pants up, while I used the other arm to hold one of the girls. The guys huddled around all the girls, and protected them."

After police arrived in riot gear, the mob reportedly became even more agitated, and began to violently lunge at the prayer group, seeking to go between the officers, who had formed a protective line. That was when the videotaped participant said she thought she was going to die.

The police then reportedly insisted in escorting the group out of the Castro District, stating that it was necessary to preserve the lives of the prayer group members. A video on YouTube records the final minutes of the escort, showing angry homosexuals screaming curse words, threatening the Christians, and attempting to force their way through the protective line of police (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRxFoBSPng - photos on this page taken from the video).

San Francisco's KTVU reports that one opponent of Proposition 8 claimed that "their rights were respected. They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood."

The television station explicitly attributed the anger of the homosexual mob to the recent victory of Proposition 8, the California referendum that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), told LifeSiteNews that America is beginning to see the real face of the homosexual movement in the aftermath of the Proposition 8 victory in California.

"Basically I think what we're seeing is that the homofascist element of the larger gay movement is coming out of the closet, and they're emboldened by what they perceive as injustice, but I'm hoping and I'm praying that their antidemocratic behavior educates America and helps Americans wake up to what this movement is all about," LaBarbera said.

"If you do a little logic test and flip it around and if you had a video of a bunch of Christians or let's just say conservatives, sexually molesting and chasing some gays out of a city, you'd better believe there would be a national outcry," he added.

LaBarbera said that his website continues to receive more page views as interest grows in his organization, which is exclusively committed to combating the homosexual political agenda in the United States.

Estonian Spy Scandal Shakes NATO and EU

Western Secrets for Moscow

From Spiegel Online

By Holger Stark

For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU -- and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels.

Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear's world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information.

Although Simm was arrested with his wife Heete in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Sept. 21, this spy story -- which has been largely kept under wraps until now -- primarily concerns the European Union and NATO based in faraway Brussels. Since Simm was responsible for dealing with classified information in Tallinn, he had access to nearly all documents exchanged within the EU and NATO. Officials who are familiar with the case assume that "virtually everything" that circulates between EU member states was passed on to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR -- including confidential analyses by NATO on the Kosovo crisis, the war in Georgia and even the missile defense program. Investigators believe that Simm was a "big fish."

Read the rest of this entry >>

Vermont School Sends Students Out of Classroom to Say Pledge of Allegiance

MSNBC: A sixth-grade student was assigned to go around to the four classrooms before classes started, gathering anyone who wanted to say it [the Pledge] and then walking them up creaky wooden steps to a second-floor gymnasium, where he led them in the pledge.

Jim DeMint on John McCain: “He Betrayed Republican Principles”

John McCain met with Barack Hussein Obama today and announced that he will work closely with the in-coming administration. As Rush Limbaugh put it: "That scares the hell out of me!"

One Senator who will not be working to facilitate big government, socialist solutions to every problem facing the nation is South Carolina's valiant, conservative US Senator, Jim DeMint. In speaking to GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach on Friday, Senator DeMint made clear that it was the McCain campaign's failure to offer principled, conservative alternatives to those advanced by the socialists that led to his defeat.

Peter Hamby:

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (CNN) — South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint on Friday became one of the first high-profile Republicans to publicly criticize John McCain following his electoral defeat, blaming the Arizona senator for betraying conservative principles in his quest for the White House.

The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own "brand," which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

"We have to be honest, and there's a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I'm afraid I even have to mention John McCain," he said.

DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain's record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.

"McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver's seat," DeMint said. "His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn't fit the label, but he was our package."

Illegal Aliens Prepare to March on Washington

From OneNewsNow.com

A California-based immigration reform activist hopes supporters of illegal immigration will follow through on their plans to stage huge rallies in Washington, DC, on January 21, to push the incoming Obama administration for amnesty.

The two groups that call themselves the National Capital Immigrant Coalition and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement recently held a news conference at Washington's National Press Club to announce a "mass mobilization" by illegal immigrants scheduled to take place the day after Barack Obama becomes the nation's 44th president.

The groups are calling on Obama for "just and humane immigration reform" and "a pathway to legalization." Rick Oltman, the national spokesman for Californians for Population Stabilization, says the bigger the crowd, the better.

"I can only hope that it will be a fantastic success in terms of organizing and people showing up because every time we have seen a bunch of ungrateful, whining illegal aliens marching in the streets with signs in foreign languages and foreign flags, the American people have gotten another vision of what unrestrained immigration means to the country," he contends.

Oltman believes, once again, these groups are trying to blur the distinction between legal immigrants and illegal aliens by speaking about them as if they are one group.

'I'm Pagan and I Vote'

From OneNewsNow.com
By Dr. Paul Kengor

Old Town Alexandria, Northern Virginia — Jogging through this gorgeous, historic town the first Saturday after the Tuesday vote, which elected the most leftist presidential candidate in American history, it isn't difficult to see how the typically Republican state of Virginia went Democrat in 2008. The sheer volume of "Obama-Biden" signs in the windows of BMWs and million-dollar townhouses is stunning, surpassed only by dogs on leashes — and in direct contrast to the conspicuous lack of children.

Likewise, the bumper stickers on Lexuses on cobblestone streets offer a tutorial on the force of liberal migration to Northern Virginia. They shout out a visceral hatred of George W. Bush — plus much more. As I ventured closer to the DC border, one particular bumper sticker caught my eye: "I'm Pagan and I Vote."

That, too, is telling — and worthy of careful consideration, especially given its failure to register among the press. Once again, in this presidential election, non-religious Americans came out in large numbers, and again cast ballots overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee. As these citizens become more bold and vocal — evidenced by the spate of bestselling atheistic books in the last few years — they can no longer be ignored.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Europe Is Obama's First 'Global Test'

From American Thinker
By Soeren Kern

President-elect Barack Obama is already facing his first global test. And it's not coming from the usual suspects like Iran or North Korea, but from America's "allies" in Europe.

European leaders have congratulated Obama on his election victory by sending him a six-page letter in which they benevolently "offer" the United States a "partnership of equals" in order to address global problems in the post-Bush era.

That's right: Europeans are calling on Obama to "accept" Europe as America's equal on the global stage. The idea behind this new man-to-man relationship with Washington was hatched by (surprise, surprise) France, which currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says the reason for establishing an equal transatlantic partnership is that "the world has changed." Europe has suddenly realized that the United States "is not the only one concerned by the world's problems. The European Union has become more resolute.... We don't want to play a secondary role any more," says Kouchner.

Read the rest of this entry >>

The World Has Never Seen Such Freezing Heat

From The Telegraph
By Christopher Booker

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)

Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.

Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.

Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge

"I Heard A Voice"




"Ubi Caritas"

Diocese of Charleston: Shepherds vs. Wolves

The supporters of the culture of death and its champion, Barack Hussein Obama, have taken great delight in Monsignor Martin Laughlin’s repudiation of Father Jay Scott Newman’s statement that "voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.”

Father Newman acted as a courageous shepherd of souls, knowing that his remarks would be misunderstood and ridiculed by many, but as an alter Christus and good shepherd he was obliged to speak out on behalf of those entrusted to his care. Father Newman has an international reputation as a scholar and homilist and his parish has a national reputation for its beautiful, reverent liturgies. Father Newman and his parish have won many converts to the faith – people who see in this courageous pastor someone whose life is totally dedicated to Jesus Christ and who is ready to “lay down his life for his friends.”

The sensus fidei of Catholics across the Internet is overwhelmingly in support of Father Newman. Faithful Catholics recognize the enormous charity inherent in Father Newman’s remarks. Here is a man willing to jeopardize his standing in the Church, his good name, and endure public ridicule for the sake of the souls entrusted to his care and their eternal salvation.

As the story below indicates, even Monsignor Laughlin and his spokesperson were supporting Father Newman just a few days ago. What happened in the interim? Could the Diocese have received a phone call from a Cardinal or an Archbishop, or perhaps many messages from the many bishops who have been too cowardly to speak clearly and forcefully on the greatest moral issue of our day? The ones who routinely make equivocal statements so as to not jeopardize what they care about most, the almighty dollar. The ones who politely applauded when, just this past year, the Holy Father exhorted:

“it falls to you (the bishops) to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.”

How should we weigh Monsignor Laughlin’s contradictory statements against the clear pastoral teaching of Father Newman? Like Father Newman, Monsignor Laughlin is a pastor who is the temporary administrator of the Diocese. He is the apparatchik of a diocese that has had 45 allegations of sexual abuse, paid $2,546,000 for settlements, and $646,000 for counseling and legal fees.

As Philip Lawler points out in his superb book, The Faithful Departed, 'Only a small minority of American priests — 2–3 percent, by most calculations — were ever accused of sexual abuse, whereas the vast majority of bishops were involved in the cover-up efforts.”

Monsignor Laughlin has quickly accommodated himself to a culture that puts institutional interests above the people it should serve. He talks about diverting “the focus from the Church’s clear position against abortion,” but given the delight that the pro-aborts are taking in his latest statement, what pro-abortion Catholic won’t feel justified in voting for pro-abortion candidates now that Father Newman’s clear statement has been contradicted? According to Monsignor Laughlin, lay Catholics are free to act as their individual consciences dictate, but their pastor is not.

Recent history has made painfully clear that wolves have frequently found their way to positions of authority in the Catholic Church. Fortunately, the great outpouring of support for Father Jay Scott Newman proves that most faithful Catholics know their shepherds from the wolves.

Bishops React to Priest who Told Obama-Supporting Catholics to Confess before Receiving Communion

From LifeSiteNews.com

A South Carolina Catholic priest who advised Obama supporters in his flock not to receive Communion before going to confession elicited polarized responses from the Catholic community - ranging from outrage at a misuse of authority to warm praise for championing Church teaching on abortion. Today LifeSiteNews.com spoke with bishops Gracida, Vasa, and Chaput, all known for their outspokenness on political issues, about the priest’s actions.

Following Obama's election, Fr. Jay Scott Newman wrote a letter to parishioners stating, "Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

Therefore, as Fr. Newman writes, "Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

Fr. Newman, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, explained to local news that he will not refuse Communion to individual parishioners, as Church law would require in the case of a pro-abortion Catholic politician or other well-known public figure. Instead the priest is simply exhorting all Catholics who supported Obama's pro-abortion ticket not to approach the altar. (To see Fr. Newman's full letter, go to: http://www.stmarysgvl.org/ourparish/2008-dedication-of-the-l...)

St. Mary's is considered the mother church for upstate South Carolina Roman Catholics, with 7,500 registered members.

“Personally, I think it is valuable to have this discussion in the secular media because, many times, many Catholics don’t go to Mass, and so they come at this issue from a secular viewpoint,” said diocesan spokesman Steve Gajdosik to the Greenville News.

“I think to Father Newman’s credit, he isn’t afraid to tackle tough issues. And sometimes there is a lot of pressure to conform and just be nice and go along.”

Fr. Newman's sentiments aligned with those of Msgr. Martin Laughlin, the diocese's administrator.

"We must not be guided by the so called 'lesser of two evils' or attempt to justify the acceptance of intrinsic evil for some greater good. We may never embrace evil," Msgr. Laughlin had written in an October letter, in which he called abortion "an affront to human dignity."

Archbishop Burke, formerly archbishop of St. Louis, MO and the current Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, had said in an interview just before election day that for a citizen to not "support and vote for the candidate who most supports the inalienable dignity of innocent and defenseless life" is "to participate, in some way, in the culture of death which pervades the life of the nation and has led to so much violence.”

Bishop Emeritus Rene Henry Gracida of Corpus Christi, TX, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) his reaction to Fr. Newman's letter "is one of admiration and awe. I find nothing in what he has written that is at variance with the Magisterium of the Church. He is to be congratulated."

Bishop Vasa of Baker, OR told LSN that, while Fr. Newman was correct to say that voting for Obama constitutes a material offense against moral teaching, it would nonetheless be impossible to "to ascertain with any degree of certainty the sinfulness of the action of any particular voter" as many voters may or may not have been aware of Obama’s extreme stance on abortion.

In a further statement, Fr. Newman appears to agree with Bishop Vasa. Newman said his statement on the "enormously complex subject" could be easily distorted when taken out of the context of his fidelity to normative Church doctrine. Within this context, he said, "no one could conclude that a vote for Senator Obama is in itself or by itself a mortal sin.

"But from that same teaching, though, we must conclude that a vote for a pro-abortion candidate can be a mortal sin if the intent is to support abortion, that abortion is not merely one issue among other important issues, and that no Catholic should endorse a pro-abortion politician if a plausible pro-life alternative is available." (http://www.stmarysgvl.org/ourparish/2008-dear-friends-in-chr...)

Bishop Chaput, one of the most outspoken bishops on political matters, declined to comment on Fr. Newman's letter, stating only that Charleston diocesan administration had authority to speak on the matter.

"Praise God for priests with mettle enough to put what's right and good for their flocks before what is politically expedient," said Jim Sedlack, Vice President of the American Life League. "We pray more men like Fr. Newman will stand up and enforce Canon 915." Canon 915 deals with the subject of the distribution of Communion to those who are obstinately persisting in grave sin.

Numerous U.S. bishops issued a sustained volley of statements throughout the months prior to the presidential election condemning Catholics who supported pro-abortion candidates; these statements often contained thinly veiled references to Obama, considered by many to be poised to become the most pro-abortion president in history.

Prior to his election to the pontificate, Cardinal Ratzinger had written to U.S. bishops saying that Catholics indiscriminately receiving communion without discerning their worthiness "is an abuse that must be corrected," and that voting for a pro-abortion candidate without proportionate reason incurred moral guilt that disqualified a Catholic from receiving communion (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/050419a.html).

The Coming Kulturkampf

From First Things
By Richard John Neuhaus

Many who do not embrace the Christian faith nonetheless have a high appreciation of the importance of Christianity to the cultural and social order. Theirs is an instrumental view of religion. Edward Gibbon caught the idea nicely, and in his usual caustic manner, when describing the religious cults of the Roman Empire. He says the common people viewed them as true, the philosophers viewed them as false, and the rulers viewed them as useful. Today’s political class in America has in recent decades undergone a conversion, so to speak, to the usefulness of religion.

At the level of electoral politics, that conversion moved a large part of the base of the Republican party from the country club to the churches beginning in the 1980s, and more recently the Democrats have been playing catch-up with energetic programs of “religious outreach.” Not that it seemed to have helped Senator Obama very much. Church-going voters, both Protestant and Catholic, went with strong majorities for John McCain. What did come as a surprise, although it should not have, is that no more than a third of Catholics are church-going Catholics. In other words, only a minority of Catholics is within the orbit of the Church’s teaching and moral influence.

Nonetheless, in the limited sphere of canvassing for votes, we have come a long way from the situation described in my 1984 book The Naked Public Square. It is understandable that citizens who are religious—which for public purposes in America means mainly Christian—are gratified to be taken seriously by the movers and shakers of the political order, which is frequently thought to be “the real world.” This does not mean that Christian truth claims are taken seriously, but Christianity, like the popular cults of the Roman Empire, is recognized as being useful.

More thoughtful Christians cannot help but view this circumstance with deep ambivalence. Christianity entered history as a revolutionary philosophy, a radically different understanding of cosmic reality, of the dignity of the human person, and a new proposal of nothing less than the story of the world centered in the life, death, resurrection, and promised coming again of the one who is both true God and true man, Jesus Christ. It is a very considerable demotion for Christianity to be treated as a useful appendage to the political competitions of the earthly city that is the Babylon of our exile. St. Augustine’s City of God promised ever so much more than that.

Any time is the right time for Christians to think anew about the perennial question of Christ and culture. Christ in the phrase Christ and culture always means Christ and his Church. Christ and the Church constitute a distinct society within the surrounding culture that is Babylon. At least that is the depiction in the New Testament and the Great Tradition of Christian teaching. In this community, the promised not yet keeps breaking into the now. The surrounding Babylon assumes many different cultural forms that may be viewed as different cultures. To look at the larger picture of the relationship between Christ and culture is, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a dizzying experience.

The cultural world of most of us is chiefly Europe and the Americas. We do well to keep in mind, however, that the majority of Christians, and the most expansive growth of the Christian movement, is today in the Global South, led by Catholics and those who are described as evangelicals and Pentecostals, although many indigenous movements do not fit easily into our familiar categories. Only God knows what world Christianity will look like a hundred years from now, which is just as well.

Any discussion of Christ and culture immediately brings to mind H. Richard Niebuhr’s classic book of that title. Recall his typology of the ways in which the relation between Christ and culture, meaning Christianity and culture, has been understood over the course of history. Niebuhr suggests that there are essentially five ways: Christ against culture, the Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ transforming culture. While Niebuhr’s typology is suggestive and therefore useful, it is also seriously misleading on several scores. I confess that, after some years, I stopped using it in classroom teaching when I found that I was spending more time in arguing with Niebuhr than in letting him guide the discussion.

Nevertheless, Niebuhr is certainly right that the questions of Christ and culture have been constant in Christian history from the apostolic era to the present, and will be until our Lord’s promised return in glory. Barrels of ink have been spilt in trying to define what is meant by culture, and I do not presume to have anything like the final word on the subject. By culture I mean the historical ambiance, the social context of ideas and habits within which the Church proclaims and lives the gospel of Christ. This includes the dominant moral assumptions, the widely held aspirations, and the beliefs and behaviors that characterize economic, political, religious, and educational life, along with the institutions that reflect and support those habits, beliefs, and behaviors. Admittedly, that is an awful lot to stuff into the category of culture. But then, culture is an awful lot. One might go so far as to say that culture is to us what water is to fish: It is more assumed than analyzed.

There is something that we call American culture. Although the phrase is hotly contested, we speak of “the American way of life.” People who think there is no such thing as American culture usually learn they are wrong by the simple expedient of living for a time in a country with a different culture. In a society so vast and various as America, there are many subcultures and even countercultures. Indeed, the proponents of unbounded pluralism would persuade us that there is no longer an American culture; that what was American culture has been displaced by a maddening mix of subcultures and each of us lives in the subculture of his choice. This view is prominent among those who feel marginalized, constrained, or oppressed by the prevalent patterns of life in America, and they often tend to think that the demise of an American culture is a very good thing.

People who have a more comprehensive appreciation of world history, however, along with those who have the experience of living in other and very different societies, know that there is such a thing as American culture. Precisely in its being a capacious and hospitable culture with a marked respect for pluralism, it is American culture. Although it includes many non-Europeans, American culture is in the main an extension and reconfiguration of European culture, which is to say it is part of the culture of the West. And today it is, for all its confusions and contradictions, the strongest and most vibrant part of the cultural tradition of the West.

The challenge of Islam in its militant form of Jihadism powerfully reinforces our awareness that we are part of the West and, however ambiguously, the Christian West. As atheism in our culture is a distinctly Christian atheism, so the critique of our culture is a distinctly Christian critique. We live in an ambiguously Christian Babylon.

Gibbon’s jibes notwithstanding, Christians do want to be useful in their Babylonian captivity. They follow the counsel of the prophet Jeremiah who urged the children of Israel to seek the peace of the city of their exile, for in its peace is also their peace. The great danger, then and now, is that, in being useful to the city of their exile, they forget the New Jerusalem, the city of their destination. It really is not terribly gratifying to be a “religious vote” eagerly sought by the partisan factions of Babylon when we remember that he called us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

This awareness that Christians are different, and different in ways that make a very big difference, will, I expect sharply increase in the months and years ahead. For all of President-elect Obama’s wafting language about bringing us together, healing divisions, and so on and so on, if he seriously intends to follow through on his extremist abortion views, we are headed for the intensification of an American version of the Kulturkampf that Bismarck came to rue. The focus is on FOCA, the Freedom of Choice Act, that Obama says he wants to sign on his first day in office. This act would eliminate the very modest restraints and regulations established by states, provide government funding for abortions, and in its present form, require religiously sponsored hospitals and clinics to perpetrate abortions or go out of business.

The aggressor in the opening phases of this Kulturkampf is the Obama administration. The initial response to the aggression was evident in the meeting of Catholic bishops this week in Baltimore. There were refreshingly bold statements by bishops, and by Francis Cardinal George, president of the conference, on the imperative to protect the integrity of the Church’s teaching and to employ every legitimate means to resist the further advance of what John Paul the Great taught us to understand as the culture of death. Some bishops even invoked the venerable tradition of martyrdom, sounding very much like the successors to the apostles that they are.

The Christ against culture model does not come naturally to Catholics. The Church is much more disposed toward conversion, providing moral guidance, and the transformation of culture. The Christ against culture model is never chosen, but sometimes there is no choice. Pushed to the wall by the Obama aggression, it seems evident that most of the Catholic bishops are, in the words of Paul to Timothy, prepared to “fight the good fight.”

In this contest of coming months and years, it seems certain that cooperation between Catholics and evangelical Protestants will be greatly strengthened. And their efforts will enlist the support of many other Americans who are only now awakening to the fact that the unlimited abortion license imposed by Roe v. Wade and its proposed expansion by its hardcore supporters is indeed unlimited. If President-elect Obama does what he says he wants to do, this champion of national unity will preside over one of the most divisive periods in American history.

Richard John Neuhaus is editor in chief of First Things.

ABC Radio Networks and Governor Mike Huckabee to Launch The Huckabee Report

A few of us may remember that after Ronald Reagan came close to capturing the Republican nomination from an incumbent Republican President, Gerald Ford, he began a series of nationally syndicated radio commentaries. We now know that those thoughtful essays spelling out his vision for freedom, limited government and economic opportunity were entirely his own work, written in his own hand. And they were critical in building a national network of supporters who shared his hopeful, conservative vision for America.

Now, in addition to his highly rated Fox News program, Governor Mike Huckabee has signed with ABC Radio Networks to do similar commentaries. According to ABC, "The Huckabee Report will be broadcast weekday mornings and afternoons and provide listeners with the top news stories of the day while also drawing on Huckabee’s experiences as a former governor and presidential candidate. The short form news features will launch on January 5, 2009."

“My first job at the age of 14 was reading the early morning news, sports, weather and even commercials at our local radio station, so in a sense, this is an opportunity for me to return to my roots,” said Governor Huckabee. “I worked my way through high school and college in radio and loved every minute of it. The team at ABC Radio Networks has a stellar reputation for syndicating news programming and I’m pleased that I’ll be partnering with them as I reach out to Americans across the airwaves.”

ABC Radio Networks has 4,400 affiliate radio stations reaching more than 105 million listeners each week.

Radical Homosexuals Plan Day of 'Intolerance'

From OneNewsNow.com
By Charlie Butts

Activist homosexual leaders are planning a day of protest this Saturday over losing the traditional marriage battles in three states.

The homosexual movement for special rights has become louder, and in some cases violent, in the aftermath of losses at the ballot box in Florida, Arizona, and California.
Florida Family Association notes the increased intensity in rhetoric from the self-proclaimed "champions of tolerance" and diversity. The National Day of Protest's logo is a clenched fighting fist and features phrases such as "Fight the H8" (Fight the Hate) and "Ready to Rumble."

Florida Family Association notes the irony in that the homosexual movement that formerly preached diversity and tolerance has now become increasingly disorderly and aggressive, even intolerant, of supporters of traditional marriage by vandalizing property and staging protests at and inside churches. Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel says the demonstrations ought to be taken seriously, especially this Saturday.

"There have been threats of church burnings. There have been threats of violence, even murder against Christians," he explains. "There has been vandalism already of a number of churches."

According to an alert issued by the Florida Family Association, the "radical gay leaders" have two goals in mind through the upcoming protest: one being to normalize homosexuality in all areas of American society, and the second being to "silence everyone who disagrees with them." The notice adds that the homosexual activists are refusing to accept the final vote as an expression of the will of America's people.

"It really amounts to homo-fascism, and so what we're seeing [is] they don't want to let the democratic process play out," Barber adds. "These people are anti-democracy, clearly."

Florida Family Association also believes the radical homosexual agenda is "unapologetically 'me' centered" and does not feature discussions about what is best for families, children, or the common good of society. Barber points out the Bible's contrasting view. "Scripture says specifically, of people who are trapped in the homosexual lifestyle, ...that they are given over to a reprobate mind," he concludes. (See Romans 1:27-29)

ACLU Silencing Praying Coaches

From OneNewsNow.com
By Charlie Butts

Are public school coaches permitted to pray silently alongside their players? The Rutherford Institute is taking this question to the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision.

Coach Marcus Borden ran into trouble with a new policy at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey, which stated that coaches cannot recognize prayers initiated by their players because coaches are public employees and their participation would violate "separation of church and state." Borden told WorldNetDaily that he simply wants to bow his head during the prayer out of respect for his students and his team.

John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute says the school's policy would nullify a tradition that has been part of the high school's pre-game routine for the last 25 years.

"But in our case, all Coach Borden wanted to do was to bow his head silently as the students prayed in the locker room -- sometimes what they call 'take an eagle.' They'd go down on one knee, and he's standing outside behind the circle of players," he explains. "He's not influencing them. He's just listening and really just doing what coaches have done -- since Knute Rockne, by the way."

The Institute won on a lower level, but the ACLU convinced the school district to appeal. "It's a very important case. We've had a lot of people file briefs on our behalf," Whitehead adds. "I think the Supreme Court's going to hear this case. It's going to really set the tone for what can be done in public schools."

Whitehead believes this policy, if it stands, will strip high school teachers and coaches across the nation of their First Amendment and academic rights.

Anti-Prop. 8 Activists Aim Racial Slurs at California African-Americans - Both Homosexual and Straight

Blacks Voted for Proposition 8 70% to 30%, According to Exit Polls

From LifeSiteNews.com

Amid the rampant homosexualist protests in California, following the victory of Proposition 8, reports are pouring into homosexual blogs of same-sex "marriage" supporters directing their bile against the African-American community, aiming racist and threatening remarks even against blacks who are themselves homosexual.

Exit polls showed that African-Americans supported Proposition 8, the true marriage ballot measure, 70% to 30%.

One reader of Rod 2.0, a leading gay blog by an African-American, reported that when he joined the large homosexual protest outside Westwood's Mormon Temple, protesters called him a "nigger" at least twice.

"It was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks," wrote the commenter.

"YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men (sic). If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger. Someone else said same thing to me on the next block near the temple ... me and my friend were walking, he is also gay but Korean, and a young WeHo clone said after last night the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them."

Another African-American reader from Los Angeles reports that he and his boyfriend, also black, were harassed about their race despite their prominently carrying "No on 8" signs.

"Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, 'Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!'" he relates.

When the man pointed out the sign he carried, "One of the older men said it didn't matter because 'most black people hated gays' and he was 'wrong' to think we had compassion,'" he says. "I guess he never thought we were gay."

Jasmyne Cannick, another popular African-American homosexual blogger, said last week that within three days of Proposition 8's victory she received several calls from homosexual and straight blacks who described being called “niggers” and "being accosted in their cars and told that it was because of 'you people gays don’t have equal rights and you better watch your back.'"

Homosexualist leaders have called upon their constituents to cease the racist attacks.

Kathryn Kolbert, President of the liberal People For the American Way Foundation, said that homosexuals should not blame blacks, saying that "responding to that hurt by lashing out at African Americans is deeply wrong and offensive — not to mention destructive to the goal of advancing equality."

Instead, she suggested that the cultural influence of religion is more to blame. She claims that religious leaders swayed the black community against same-sex "marriage," and convinced them to break away from the "civil rights" banner now hoisted by homosexuals.

In response, Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., told LifeSiteNews.com that "it is absolutely no secret that African Americans support the sanctity of life and marriage," adding that this fact is "something that America needs to know."

Blacks support the true definition of marriage rather than "equal rights" for homosexual unions, King said, because homosexual "marriage" is not a legitimate civil rights issue - contrary to some who say blacks have hypocritically abandoned the fight for equal protection under law.

"Certainly and obviously procreative marriage - between one man and woman - is God's best plan for raising children," said King. "We as African Americans cannot possibly be missing the boat by understanding that the sanctity of marriage is the best way to be sure that the human race thrives."

Anti-marriage protesters have also attracted media attention for targeting individual supporters of Proposition 8.

Scott Eckern of the California Musical Theatre, a true marriage supporter, resigned from his position as artistic director when homosexual "marriage" advocates began attacking Eckern and boycotting the theater. Eckhern had privately donated $1000 to the "Yes on 8" campaign.

Blogger Clyde Fitch launched one of many invectives against Eckern, calling him "an enemy of all that is good in America.

"You deserve not only to be fired, you should be viciously attacked using words and nothing but words by the men and women of the American theatre. And then you should go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under. Slime."

Upon his resignation, Eckern apologized for the "hurt feelings" his actions caused, but did not apologize for his commitment to true marriage.

The Bee also reports that Scott Purves, of Purves & Associates, a Davis insurance company, described someone picketing his business earlier this week with a sign reading, "Purves Family Supports Homophobia."

"If this had gone the other way, I can't imagine the backlash if people protested and called the other side names," said Purves. "People would be angry and rightfully so."

Conned Again

From Chronicles
By Paul Craig Roberts

If the change that President-elect Obama has promised includes a halt to America’s wars of aggression and an end to the rip-off of taxpayers by powerful financial interests, what explains Obama’s choice of foreign and economic policy advisors? Indeed, Obama’s selection of Rahm Israel Emanuel as White House chief of staff is a signal that change ended with Obama’s election. The only thing different about the new administration will be the faces.

Read the rest of this entry >>

"Pastor to Presidents" Replaced by Gay Bishop

A conservative Christian activist says it's a sad omen for the Obama administration and the United States that Barack Obama has been seeking guidance from the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop.

The Times of London reports that the president-elect sought out New Hampshire homosexual bishop Vicki Gene Robinson for advice three times during his presidential campaign. Robinson, whose ordination in the Episcopal Church has caused a deep rift within the Anglican Communion, was reportedly sought out by Obama to discuss what it feels like to be "first."

Robinson notes in their three private conversations, Obama voiced his support for "equal civil rights" for homosexuals and described the election as a "religious experience." Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, believes Obama's consultations with Robinson show the true tenor of his upcoming administration.

"It looks like Billy Graham has been replaced by a gay bishop. We're moving to, perhaps, our first anti-Christian president; it's beyond post-Christian. Gene Robinson advocates homosexuality as part of the Christian experience," he explains. "Now Bible-believing Christians cannot accept that. Homosexual practice is sinful, as taught by the scriptures. This man [Obama] pretends to be faithful to Christianity, even as he works very hard to undermine it."

LaBarbera suggests Robinson may possibly replace Jeremiah Wright as one of Obama's main spiritual advisers. Wright was Obama's Chicago pastor for 20 years before disassociating with the controversial preacher during the presidential campaign.

Nation's Top 50 Catholic High Schools Announced for 2008

Saint Joseph's Catholic School in Greenville, SC, has again been
named one of the nation's 50 best Catholic high schools.

The National Catholic High School Honor Roll ( http://www.chshonor.org/) announced its fifth selection of the best 50 Catholic secondary schools in the United States. The purpose of the Honor Roll is to recognize and encourage excellence in Catholic secondary education. It is a critical resource for parents and educators that distinguishes those schools that excel in three categories: academic excellence, Catholic Identity, and civic education.

This year's list includes 10 new honorees as well as eight schools that have earned recognition in each of the Honor Roll's five years of existence. 2008 honorees range from newcomer schools such as Knoxville Catholic in Tennessee, to repeat honorees such as Bishop Machebeuf Catholic in Denver and Holy Spirit Preparatory in Atlanta. Texas and Michigan led with six schools selected, followed by California, with four schools. Nine different religious orders sponsor honorees, including the Jesuits, Legionaries of Christ, and Norbertines.

To see a list of the top 50 schools, as well as lists of the 10 honorable mention schools in each category, visit http://www.chshonor.org.

The Honor Roll is an independent project of the Acton Institute, an international research and educational organization. It is produced in consultation with an advisory board comprised of Catholic college presidents and scholars. Advisory board member Very Rev. David M. O'Connell, President of Catholic University of America, said the Honor Roll's evaluation method is indispensable. "Catholic schools must examine themselves on a regular basis using a well-rounded approach that assesses adherence to the Church's educational calling," he said. "The Honor Roll strengthens schools by encouraging high standards and vibrant Catholicism."

In its five years, the Honor Roll has seen more than 50 percent of America's nearly 1,300 Catholic high schools participate at least once. This year nearly 300 schools completed the three detailed surveys that measure a school's adherence to the Church's educational mission. Each school also receives an evaluation to see how it compares to other schools nationwide.

The best schools demonstrate a balanced excellence, which includes an active Catholic culture, sound college preparation and integration of Church teaching in all departments. These schools also display sound moral, catechetical and civic formation that prepares students for vocations in the world as political, religious, scientific, and business leaders.

School Choice for the Obama's

When Barack Hussein Obama addressed the National Education Association to spell out his plans "to invest" more of your money in public education, Dennis Van Roekel, President of the National Education Association proclaimed that Obama "gets it."

But when it comes to putting his children where his mouth and your money is, Obama is not willing to trust his own reforms and proposed massive increases in federal spending. Public schools may be fine for the "little people," but the Obama's will do what all the other liberal hypocrites in Congress do, find private schools for their children. Sure, they will placate those that the education establishment really serves -- teachers and administrators -- but they will not risk the lives of their two girls on the chance that massive increases in funding might accomplish what they have never accomplished before.

And those unable to get out like the Obama's? Did you really expect change you could believe in?

The New York Post has the story about Washington, DC's newest private school family:

MICHELLE LOOKS FOR A CLASS ACT

By Jennifer Fermino

Future Mom-in-Chief Michelle Obama flew into DC ahead of her husband yesterday on a reconnaissance mission to scope out private schools for her two daughters.

She headed first to the tony Georgetown Day School, an ultra-progressive prep school where students and their teachers are on a first-name basis.

"She's so tall. Oh, my gosh," said an awed eighth-grader, Ellie Lasater-Guttmann. "And she's prettier in person."

If Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, are enrolled at Georgetown Day, Michelle will bump into plenty of friends at Parent Association meetings.

The school, which is pre-K through 12th grade, is brimming with the offspring of several key Obama aides, and a rumored future attorney general, Eric Holder, is a trustee.

The Obamas are widely believed to be deciding among three schools - and the contest has Washington's prep-school parents riveted.

The other two contenders are Sidwell Friends and Maret.

"There's a frenzy going on in terms of speculation. It makes me want to vomit," one Maret parent told The Atlantic.

At a private dinner party several weeks ago, Beth Dozoretz, a major Democratic Party donor, handed Mrs. Obama a handwritten note from her daughter, a fourth-grader at Sidwell, pushing her school, the magazine reported.

The youngster wrote about how much she loved her school, which counts Chelsea Clinton and Tricia Nixon as alumnae.

After Georgetown, Michelle headed to Sidwell, a liberal Quaker school that many consider the front-runner in the heated Race for the Schoolhouse.

Joe Biden's youngest son goes there, and it has got the Secret Service drill down pat from the relatively recent Chelsea days.

But the candidate who won the White House on a platform of change might find the school too Clintonesque.

Many of Bubba and Hillary's close pals - including Mark Penn and Mandy Grunwald - send their kids there.

Still to be visited is Maret, a college-prep school with an emphasis on sports.

The president-elect's senior foreign-policy adviser, Susan Rice, sends her kids there.

The DC public schools made an unsuccessful push for Chelsea Clinton back in 1992, but it seems unlikely the Obama girls will end up in a city school. The last presidential child to attend public schools was Amy Carter.

Malia and Sasha are currently enrolled in the rigorous University of Chicago Laboratory School, which boasts of concentrating on character development as much as its curriculum.

Veterans - Armistice - Remembrance Day

In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced and celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars" was over.

In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown soldier was buried in each nation's highest place of honor (in England, Westminster Abbey; in France, the Arc de Triomphe).

These memorial gestures all took place on November 11, giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m..

Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was "the War to end all Wars," November 11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe.

Realizing that peace was equally preserved by veterans of WW II and Korea, Congress was requested to make this day an occasion to honor those who have served America in all wars. In 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11 as Veterans Day.

A law passed in 1968 changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.

We remember with prayerful thanks all those, the living and the dead, here and abroad, who served the cause of freedom. May we never lose the freedom so many died for. We will always remember them.

A Tough Message Catholics Need To Hear

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

Bring Back the Gold Standard

From the Brussels Journal

Does the financial crisis make clear that capitalism, the free market and the classical liberal ideology are failing? Of course not, whatever social democrat ideological veterans might proclaim. Socialism and its derivatives have been morally discredited since the fall of the Berlin wall and there is no chance for them of getting back. People get a grasp that there is something wrong with the way the system works for now, but not with the system itself, as a recent poll by FT/Harris suggests.

What has been the ultimate source of the financial crisis hurting the world economy? To understand this, one has to consider on what the world economy is founded and that is still the U.S. Dollar. This rock of confidence has been originating from Western-European civilisation, deriving from mediaeval Bruges, the first financial center of its time, dubbed as “the cradle of capitalism”, where the Flemish van den Beurze family has borrowed its name for the “bourse” institutions emerging in the world’s later financial centers Antwerp, Amsterdam, London and New York. A protestant classical liberal culture has culminated in the founding of the new world, where nothing less than the absolute individual freedom was deemed sufficient for humanity and where without any doubt the highest level of civilisation has been reached, to the regret and envy of the less developed cultures outside the new world still suffering from oppression and jealousy. The American money has out-competed all rivals in becoming the sure rock for the tired, the poor and the huddled masses, also those outside the new world, to rely on.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Obama and Vouchers

From the National Center for Policy Analysis

According to public opinion polls, 65 percent of adult African-Americans and 63 percent of adult Hispanics favor the use of school vouchers, and more than half of minority adults give higher marks to their local police than their public schools. Yet, the number of minority students that are quitting the education system is staggering, says the National Journal.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics:

• In 2006 nearly 11 percent of African-American students between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of school -- almost double the rate for white students.
• The dropout rate among Hispanics was 22 percent.
• Higher dropout rates also mean higher unemployment: in 2006, more than half of all African-American dropouts and more than one-third of Hispanic dropouts were not in the labor force.

The fundamental problem with the voucher debate is that it is always seen as an either/or proposition. For Republicans, it is the panacea to all the education woes; for Democrats, it is something that will destroy public education. So what does the future hold for them now with President-elect Obama?

Obama argues that voucher-based initiatives fund mostly faith-based schools, violating separation of church and state. But faith-based institutions may participate in voucher programs as a result of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, in which the Supreme Court ruled that students may study at any private or public school as long as aid is awarded directly to the parent or guardian and not the school.

Some critics argue that voucher programs drain funding that could be used to reform and improve public schools. But others counter that under voucher programs state aid allotted to public schools would move with the student regardless of whether he or she attends a public or private school. It's really no different than any other change of school; you want the money to follow the child, says the Journal.

Has Obama Already Appeased the Russian Bear?

US and Poland Sign Anti-Missile Defense Pact

From BBC News

US President-elect Barack Obama has not given a commitment to go ahead with plans to build part of a US missile defence system in Poland, an aide says.

He was speaking after Polish President Lech Kaczynski's office said a pledge had been made during a phone conversation between the two men.

But Mr Obama's foreign policy adviser, Denis McDonough, denied this.

Russia opposes the US scheme and has announced plans to deploy missiles on Poland's border as a counter-measure.

On Friday, EU leaders said the decision would not contribute to creating a climate of confidence or to the improvement of security.

'No commitment'

In a statement published on his website on Saturday, Poland's president said Mr Obama had "emphasised the importance of the strategic partnership of Poland and the United States and expressed hope in the continuation of political and military co-operation between our countries."

"He also said that the missile defence project would continue," the statement added.

When asked about the declaration, McDonough said that the US president-elect had had "a good conversation" with Mr Kaczynski about the American-Polish alliance and discussed missile defence, but "made no commitment on it".

"His position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defence system when the technology is proved to be workable," Mr McDonough told the Associated Press.

In the past, Mr Obama has said he wants to review the plans for a missile defence system in central Europe to ensure it would be effective and not target Russia.

But the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says the Russian government believes the plan to locate 10 interceptor missiles in northern Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic will do exactly that.

In his first state of the nation address on Wednesday, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said Moscow would neutralise the system by deploying short-range missiles in its western enclave of Kaliningrad on Poland's border.

The US military insists the shield is incapable of destroying Russian rockets and is designed solely to guard against missile attack by so-called "rogue states", such as Iran.

Emma Whiteley and William Dutton - "The Lord's My Shepherd"

Emma Whiteley and William Dutton were BBC Radio 2 Young Choristers of 2007.

And here's an awesome encore:

Your Children Belong To The State, Comrades

Here it comes -- the assault on American liberties and the idea that government is "of, by, and for the people."

We were accused of being irresponsible and vitriolic when we suggested that the incoming national regime will be fascist and abusive of individual liberty. But only days after the election, the new regime has made clear their intentions -- all American youths will be required to become the indentured servants of the state. They will learn before they finish high school that they exist to serve the almighty state.

Go ahead, check it out on Snopes, but they've got that covered. It's controlled by the new regime too.

According to the website where the regime's manifesto is detailed, our new masters will:

Integrate Service into Learning

• Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation's Schools: Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. They will develop national guidelines for service- learning and will give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience. Green Job Corps: Obama and Biden will create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields.
  

• Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
  

• Promote College Serve-Study: Obama and Biden will ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.

Questions remain as to whether "all schools" includes home schools, private schools, and faith-based schools. What penalties will be imposed on a mother refusing to allow her 12 year old to perform his service in the Obama Youth? If parents refuse the state's claims on their child, will that child be taken from them? And do you think that those whose religion is government will allow a student to perform his service to the state through his or her local church?

This is only the beginning, Comrades.

Vatican Official Bans Biden and Other Pro-Abort "Catholics" from Receiving Communion

Catholic politicians who defend abortion in the public sphere should not receive Communion "until they have reformed their lives", a leading Vatican official has said.

In an interview with the magazine Radici Christiane, the prefect of the Apostolic Signature, Archbishop Raymond Burke, said there was often a lack of reverence at Mass when receiving Communion.

"Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege," he warned. "If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege."

To illustrate his point, Archbishop Burke referred to "public officials who, with knowledge and consent, uphold actions that are against the Divine and Eternal moral law. For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenceless human lives."

The archbishop said that "a person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life."

He added: "If a person who has been admonished persists in public mortal sin and attempts to receive Communion, the minister of the Eucharist has the obligation to deny it to him. Why? Above all, for the salvation of that person, preventing him from committing a sacrilege.

"We must avoid giving people the impression that one can be in a state of mortal sin and receive the Eucharist.

"Secondly, there could be another form of scandal, consisting of leading people to think that the public act that this person is doing, which until now everyone believed was a serious sin, is really not that serious — if the Church allows him or her to receive Communion.

"If we have a public figure who is openly and deliberately upholding abortion rights and receiving the Eucharist, what will the average person think? He or she could come to believe that it up to a certain point it is OK to do away with an innocent life in the mother's womb," he warned.

Archbishop Burke also noted that when a bishop or a Church leader prevents an abortion supporter from receiving Communion it was "not with the intention of interfering in public life but rather in the spiritual state of the politician or public official who, if Catholic, should follow the divine law in the public sphere as well".

The archbishop said it was "simply ridiculous and wrong" to try to silence priests, "accusing them of interfering in politics so that he cannot do good to the soul of a member of his flock," he said.

The archbishop said it was also "simply wrong" to think that faith must be reduced to the private sphere and eliminated from public life. He encouraged Catholics "to bear witness to our faith not only in private in our homes but also in our public lives with others in order to bear strong witness to Christ".

The Obamanation Under Construction: Indoctrination in the Schools

Glenn Beck played excerpts from this video on his radio program today. It is a Swedish made documentary on the indoctrination that occurs daily in America's public schools. The dialogue that occurs in this Fayetteville, North Carolina classroom is not an exception, just a small glimpse of the Obamanation under construction.

The video switches to English at the 15 second point:

Diantha Harris: We want to talk about the presidential election. Ok, what I want to ask you, who are you pulling for? Raise your hands.

(Kids seen dutifully raising their hands one states ‘Obama’)

Diantha Harris: You’re pulling for Obama

Diantha Harris: (Speaking to another student) Who you’re pulling for? And if you’re pulling for John McCain, that’s fine say him as well. Who are you pulling for?

Student’s answer: Obama.

Another student: John McCain

Diantha Harris: Oh Lord John McCain!

Another student: John McCain

Diantha Harris: Oh Jesus, John McCain! Ok, Now I want to ask you something. (to the girl who is ‘pulling’ for McCain) Why are you pulling for John McCain. Now it’s ok! But why are you pulling for John McCain?

Student: I think it’s because of my parents are going for him too.

Diantha Harris: Ok, your parents are going for him. (Now to another student) Why are you pulling for Barack? (pronounces it differently) Or Barack?

Student: Because I just want a black president sometime.

Diantha Harris: Ok, you want a black president. Addresses another student.

Student: The reason I want to pick Barack Obama is because he is making good changes, in the good country and stuff like that.

Diantha Harris: So he’s making good changes for our country. (Shaking her head affirmatively) Ok, now can you tell me just a little bit more like, like what type of changes?

Same student: Like, …..not having um, a fight between Iraq, and having soldiers killed.

Diantha Harris: Shaking head up and down) So in other words, B-a-r-a-c-k is going to end that war (shaking head up and down) in Iraq. (Speaking to the classroom) What do you all know about that war in Iraq? Now talk to me, because your dad is in the military!

(Same female student who supports McCain shown noticeably biting lips)

Diantha Harris: Talk!

(Female student shown again but doesn’t speak)

Diantha Harris: It’s a senseless war! (shown staring at her) And by the way Kathy (the girl’s name), the person that you’re picking for president said, (Harris seen shaking head) that our troops could stay in Iraq for another hundred years if they need to! (emphasis added),

(Kathy shown biting lips and looking nervously in silence, while kids stare at her smiling, laughing and smirking)

Diantha Harris: So that means that your daddy could stay in the military for another hundred years!

Update: Diatha Harris (the documentary makers spelled her first name incorrectly) teaches in the Cumberland County (NC) Public Schools.

Her School Board: http://www.communications.ccs.k12.nc.us/Board/BOE.htm

Her School: http://www.mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us/faculty_and_staff.htm

Apparently you can email her directly from the school’s website. You can use your 1st amendment rights as an American to let this woman know what you think of her educational techniques!

Email Diatha: http://www.mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us/email/diathaharris.htm

"Daddy Promised Us a Puppy and Gave Us This Rabid Attack Dog Instead"

The Telegraph has the disturbing profile of Rahm Emanuel:

President-elect Obama had a shortlist of one when it came to choosing his White House Chief of Staff; Rahm Emanuel, a politician so ferocious that even his own mother calls him by his nickname of "Rahmbo".

If the Democratic Congressman accepts the job as Mr Obama's enforcer, Mr Emanuel, universally characterised as a foul-mouthed attack dog who can end the career of anyone who stands in his way, will serve as a perfect counterpoint to the sugar-coated Mr Obama.

Mr Emanuel, 48, who served as an aide to President Clinton, has proved in the past that he bows to no-one when it comes to getting the job done, as Tony Blair discovered when he visited the White House at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998.

As he prepared for a public appearance with the president, Mr Blair was warned by Mr Emanuel: "This is important. Don't **** it up."

Read the rest of this entry >>

The Opportunity Presented by Catastrophe

In 1975 Ronald Reagan addressed CPAC, the annual conference for conservative activists. His speech followed the Watergate scandal, President Nixon’s resignation, President Ford’s highly unpopular pardon of the former President, and the resulting disastrous Congressional elections of 1974. In those elections Republicans lost 49 seats in the House of Representatives, giving Democrats more than two-thirds of all seats. In the Senate, Republicans lost four seats, giving Democrats a 61 to 38 margin. It was, like our own day, a dark hour for the Republican Party. But the advice President Reagan gave was the key to his own triumph and a conservative resurgence.

I don‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party”—when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

President Reagan understood that when the Republican Party runs a Democrat-Lite candidate, promising less of the same, against a Democrat, the Democrat invariably wins. In a dangerous era, where the Constitution, individual liberty, and free enterprise will be challenged as never before, Republicans can champion the highest ideals of our republic and her people, not by offering less of the wrong prescription, but by rejecting it outright.

If we are to defend the principles and institutions of our republic, Republicans need to understand what it means to be a conservative Republican. We need to find leaders who have read Burke, Kirk, de Tocqueville and Hayek, who have thought deeply about the great philosophical issues of our time. We need to return to the true, Republican ideals of strict Constitutionalism and the conservative nationalism of leaders like Senator Robert Taft. We need leaders who have read the farewell addresses of Presidents Washington and Eisenhower and who understand the dangers of ever growing international entanglements and the threat of the military industrial complex.

We need to find leaders who, like President Reagan, not only believe with all their heart that conservative principles are the greatest guarantee to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but who can also communicate those sublime ideals in powerful, positive and winning ways.

We have endured catastrophe at the hands of a leader who pretended to be a conservative, while growing the size of the federal government by 60%, who believes that American exceptionalism means preemptive war and attempting to democratize Mesopotamia, who involved the federal government in areas such as education, expressly reserved by our Constitution to the states, who has nationalized banks, left our economy in shambles, and left the nation with the largest deficits in our history. Is it any wonder that Americans have rejected such “conservatism?”

Americans have consistently rejected moderate Republicans promising less of the same. They rejected President Ford, they rejected President George H. W. Bush after he squandered all that President Reagan had built, they rejected Bob Dole, and now they have rejected the Republican most inclined to “reach across the aisle” to cosponsor some of the most wrong-headed legislation with the Senate’s leading liberals.

The establishment Republicans who opposed President Reagan and are now attempting to destroy Governor Palin, will not go quietly. But one thing we can do to ensure no more Democrat-Lite presidential nominees, is to change party rules to allow only enrolled Republicans to vote in Republican primaries. Senator McCain would not have been the Republican nominee without winning the crucial South Carolina primary. But it was Democrat votes that provided his margin of victory. Governor Huckabee was the choice of Republican voters.

The years ahead should give Republicans an extraordinary opportunity to rediscover forgotten principles and to clarify what our party truly stands for. The differences are stark and fundamental. Do we preserve the old republic and its constitution, or yield to those who believe it is “defective?” Do we stand for individual liberty and free enterprise, or differ on the details of a new, socialist model? Do we stand boldly for life, from conception to natural death, or accommodate those who would even let those babies surviving abortion die? Do we uphold God’s natural law regarding marriage, or allow it to be “redefined?” Do we fight for the free speech of talk radio, or allow it to be silenced?

If Republicans reject the “pastel colors” and fight for the Constitution and the old republic, the heavy keel of public opinion will guide our way and ensure our ultimate victory.

If You Can Keep It

From the Western Standard (Canada)

By Adam T. Yoshida

Certain friends (and, naturally, enemies as well) of mine are eager for the “fall of the American Empire.” They chortle with glee at the present economic troubles of the United States. They delight in the basically declinist views of Senator Obama and imagine an end to American exceptionalism – an America that “rejoins the world” after the Bush years. Well, to borrow from George Bernard Shaw, they may be about to learn that there are two tragedies in this life – one is not getting your heart’s desire, the other is getting it.

Yes, America is down. Yes, the United States has troubles. But what my friends fail to understand is that the present situation is not at all analogous to the fall of the Roman Empire. (Indeed, of course, the fall of the Roman Empire was not even the end of all of that – Byzantium endured for another thousand years). The very real prospect with which we are faced is not the fall of the American Empire but rather of the American Republic.

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The Moment To Decide

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.

Code Words for the Base?

Or do all the comrades speak like this?

OBAMA:

"I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here, but we’re going to have to work. We’re going to have to struggle. We’re going to have to fight"

CHAIRMAN MAO:

"The ill wind of opportunism is falling, the righteous wind of socialism is on the rise.By the end of this year the victory of socialism will be greatly assured. Naturally there will be many struggles ahead and we must struggle hard.'

Obama Promises to Bankrupt Coal Industry -- "Soaring Electricity Rates" for All

Once again Barack Hussein Obama has shared with his friends in San Francisco his contempt for the untermenschen in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Indiana. Promising to bankrupt the coal industry on which thousands of jobs depend and which supplies half of our electrical power, he's let us all know just in the nick of time about the soaring rates for electricity we will all pay to finance his radical environmental agenda.

Here's what the Ohio Coal Association has to say about the candidate with one platform for Ohio and Pennsylvania and another for Hollywood and San Francisco:

Ohio Coal Association Says Obama Remarks Make It Clear: Obama Ticket Not Supportive of Coal

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire--USNewswire/ -- Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association (OCA), today issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks from Senator Barack Obama about the nation's coal industry.

"Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America's coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.

"These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like 'I haven't been some coal booster' and 'if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them' are extraordinarily misguided.

"It's evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state's voters.

"Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short- sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation's coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to 'bankrupt' our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.

"In addition to providing an affordable, reliable source of low-cost electricity, domestic coal holds the key to our nation's long-term energy security - a goal that cannot be overlooked during this time of international instability and economic uncertainty.

"Few policy areas are more important to our economic future than energy issues. As voters head to the polls tomorrow, it is essential they remember that access to reliable, affordable, domestic energy supplies is essential to economic growth and stability."

The Ohio Coal Association (OCA) is a non-profit trade association representing the interests of Ohio's underground and surface coal mining producers. The OCA represents nearly 40 coal producing companies and more than 50 Associate Members, which include suppliers and consultants to the mining industry, coal sales agents and brokers and allied industries. The Ohio Coal Association is committed to advancing the development and utilization of Ohio coal as an abundant, economic and environmentally sound energy source.

Neuhaus on the Election and Freedom of Religion

The following reflection by Father Richard Neuhaus is an excellent summation of why this election is pivotal and of such great concern to people of faith.

Why this Election is About the Freedom of Religion

By Richard John Neuhaus

One can argue that every presidential election is a “historic” election. But some are more historic than others. Daniel Henninger had a provocative column yesterday making a strong case that this one is a “tipping point” between America continuing as an entrepreneurial society or going the way of the European “social democracies.” He cites the late Senator Pat Moynihan who said the big difference between Europe and America is that the former gives priority to equality and the latter to liberty. I’m not sure that Henninger is right in saying there would be no turning back after four or eight years of President Obama and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress imposing their passion for a government-directed program of redistribution and social coordination, but the future he depicts is both plausible and ominous.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Thatcher's Historic Trip To Poland

We know now of the extraordinary, coordinated efforts that were underway in the 1980's, among Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to free the enslaved peoples of Europe. Their efforts to foster a "new human relationship" in Polish society among church leaders, workers, farmers and intellectuals, received an enormous boost twenty years ago this month during a visit to Poland by Prime Minister Thatcher.

At a state banquet, Thatcher lashed out at General Wojciech Jaruzelski, stating that Poland's depressed economy would improve only after freedom and liberty were restored. She also insisted upon visiting the birthplace of the Solidarity Movement, the Gdansk Shipyard and the union's leaders. In an emotionally charged visit, Thatcher told 5,000 workers, "Nothing can stop you!" And indeed, nothing did.

The following June, Poland held the first free elections ever seen in the Communist bloc. Solidarity, with the help of two smaller parties, swept to power, and six months after that the Berlin Wall came crumbling down.

The following video recounts Thatcher's historic visit to Solidarity and the Polish shipyard workers:

Libera - "Be Still for the Presence of the Lord"

Be still for the presence of the Lord

The Holy One is here

Come bow before Him now

With reverence and fear

In Him no sin is found

We stand on holy ground

Be still for the presence of the Lord

The Holy One is here

Be still for the glory of the Lord

Is shining all around

He burns with holy fire

With splendor He is crowned

How awesome is the sight

Our radiant King of Light

Be still for the glory of the Lord

Is shining all around

Be still for the power of the Lord

Is moving in this place

He comes to cleanse and heal

To minister His grace

No work too hard for Him

In faith receive from Him

Be still for the power of the Lord

Is moving in this place

Be still

Be still

Spreading the Wealth Around

GOP Internal Polls (NJ, CA, MI, PA) Show Possible Landslide for McCain

Hat Tip to The Patriot Room blog for some astounding news that I pray is true. They and a number of other blogs are reporting on a discussion that was broadcast by the Quinn and Rose Show, a radio program on which GOP internal polling was discussed. The gist of the discussion is that an historic movement away from Barack Obama and to John McCain is underway. The audio file is very slow to download but well worth the wait. The link is here.

The polling is focused on 15 to 20 states. The polling shows "undecideds breaking for McCain by 4 to 1.

• New Jersey: McCain leads 48 to 43, with 7% undecided.
• Michigan: McCain leads 44 to 42, with 10% undecided.
• California: Obama leads 44 to 43, with 9/% undecided, 3% for Barr.
• Pennsylvania: McCain leads 55 to 33, with 10% undecided. In Pennsylvania Obama only leads among Democrats by 47 to 37, with 14% undecided.

The two reasons Democrats are citing for voting for McCain are because Obama is "cheating" and "attempting to buy the election."

If this proves to be true, it will be one of the greatest testaments to the goodness, wisdom and decency of the American people ever manifested in our history. Despite all the concerted efforts of the media and political elites, and the millions spent to move America to an agenda we have always rejected, Americans, in the quiet of their hearts, have seen what the Obama campaign is really about. Should we be shocked that even Democrats see their party's nominee as an American-hating liar, fraud and cheat, who will say or do anything to hide his core beliefs, his closest friends and associates, his radical, Marxist ideology, and his commitment to undermine the Constitution, the freedoms and institutions of our country?

If these extraordinary numbers are true, God has heard the fervent prayers of millions, and not the hate-filled injunction of Obama's pastor that America be damned.

The Gay Mafia That's Redefining Politics

From TIME

By John Cloud


A few weeks before Virginia's legislative elections in 2005, a researcher working on behalf of a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors telephoned a Virginia legislator named Adam Ebbin. Then, as now, Ebbin was the only openly gay member of the state's general assembly. The researcher wanted Ebbin's advice on how the men he represented could spend their considerable funds to help defeat anti-gay Virginia politicians.

Ebbin, a Democrat who is now 44, was happy to oblige. (Full disclosure: in the mid-'90s, Ebbin and I knew each other briefly as colleagues; he sold ads for Washington City Paper, a weekly where I was a reporter.) Using Ebbin's expertise, the gay donors — none of whom live in Virginia — began contributing to certain candidates in the state. There were five benefactors: David Bohnett of Beverly Hills, Calif., who in 1999 sold the company he had co-founded, Geo-Cities, to Yahoo! in a deal worth $5 billion on the day it was announced; Timothy Gill of Denver, another tech multimillionaire; James Hormel of San Francisco, grandson of George, who founded the famous meat company; Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., the billionaire grandson of the founder of medical-technology giant Stryker Corp.; and Henry van Ameringen, whose father Arnold Louis van Ameringen started a Manhattan-based import company that later became the mammoth International Flavors & Fragrances.

The five men spent $138,000 in Virginia that autumn, according to state records compiled by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. Of that, $48,000 went directly to the candidates Ebbin recommended. Ebbin got $45,000 for his PAC, the Virginia Progress Fund, so he could give to the candidates himself. Another $45,000 went to Equality Virginia, a gay-rights group that was putting money into many of the same races.

On Election Day that year, the Virginia legislature stayed solidly in Republican hands; the Democratic Party netted just one seat. But that larger outcome masked an intriguing development: anti-gay conservatives had suffered considerably. For instance, in northern Virginia, a Democrat named Charles Caputo (who received $6,500 from Ebbin's PAC) had beaten a Christian youth minister, Chris Craddock, by an unexpectedly large margin, with a vote of 56% to 41%. Three other candidates critical of gays were also defeated, including delegate Richard Black, who had long opposed gay equality in Richmond. Black had had no single donation as large as the $20,000 that Ebbin's PAC gave his opponent. "This was my ninth election campaign, and it wasn't unusual to have homosexuals involved," says Black, who now practices law. "But it was different, certainly, in degree. There had not been a concerted influx of money from homosexuals as a group before."

The group that donated the money to use against Black and the others is known as the Cabinet, although you won't find that name on a letterhead or even on the Internet. Aside from Bohnett, 52; Gill, 55; Hormel, 75; Stryker, 50; and Van Ameringen, 78, the other members of the Cabinet are Jonathan Lewis (49-year-old grandson of Joseph, co-founder of Progressive Insurance) and Linda Ketner, 58, heiress to the Food Lion fortune, who is running for Congress against GOP Representative Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina.

Ketner's is something of a long-shot bid — her district has been reliably Republican for years — but recently Congressional Quarterly described her "suddenly strong run" against Brown as "the biggest surprise" in this year's House races. Ketner, who was invited to join the all-male Cabinet as a way of diversifying it, declined to discuss her role in the group.

Among gay activists, the Cabinet is revered as a kind of secret gay Super Friends, a homosexual justice league that can quietly swoop in wherever anti-gay candidates are threatening and finance victories for the good guys. Rumors abound in gay political circles about the group's recondite influence; some of the rumors are even true. For instance, the Cabinet met in California last year with two sitting governors, Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Democrats; political advisers who work for the Cabinet met with a third Democratic governor, Wisconsin's Jim Doyle. The Cabinet has also funded a secretive organization called the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which a veteran lesbian activist describes as the "Gay IRS." MAP keeps tabs on the major gay organizations to make sure they are operating efficiently. The October 2008 MAP report notes, for example, that the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force fails to meet Better Business Bureau standards for limiting overhead expenses.

According to the online databases Opensecrets.org and Followthemoney.org, the seven members of the Cabinet have spent at least $7.8 million on political races since the beginning of 2004, although their true level of giving is doubtless far higher, since Followthemoney.org — which is run by the nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics — does not capture all contributions to PACs (for instance, the Cabinet money that went to Ebbin's PAC in 2005 doesn't show up on the website). The Cabinet spends at least as much each election cycle as does the PAC run by the Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest gay political group. And yet the Cabinet has operated in stealth, without accountability from watchdogs. (The Cabinet does not subject itself to MAP analysis.)

Cabinet spending shows up in races all over the country where pro-gay candidates have a good shot. For instance, Bohnett, Gill and Van Ameringen have given $143,000 this year to New York Democrats, who are within two seats of controlling the state senate. A Democratic New York legislature would likely approve equal marriage rights.

The Cabinet's Gill and Stryker have seen their money achieve remarkable results in their respective states, Colorado and Michigan. Stateline.org (a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts) reported that in 2006, Stryker gave "at least $6.4 million to candidates or political committees in at least a dozen states, including Michigan, where he can boast that Democrats gained a majority in the state house for the first time in 12 years." Some Cabinet members also donated tens of thousands of dollars in certain Iowa and New Hampshire races in 2006, when Democrats regained control of both states' legislatures. Those states' Democratic majorities now ensure that, among other things, efforts to amend the Iowa and New Hampshire constitutions to ban same-sex marriage will fail.

And yet the Cabinet is noteworthy not only because its treasure begets political influence but also because its very existence shows how dramatically the culture wars — and liberal politics as a whole — have changed in the past decade. Next summer gays will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the 1969 Manhattan demonstrations that began when cross-dressers angry about police raids at the Stonewall bar began throwing bottles and punches. Today, though, the street movement is basically defunct. And increasingly, the center of gay power is moving out from Washington toward the interior — toward powerful foundations like those run by Stryker in Kalamazoo and Gill in Denver. Since the beginning of 2001, Stryker's foundation, which is called Arcus and has offices in both the U.S. and the U.K., has given away $67 million, about three-quarters to gays and about one-quarter to apes. (Stryker, who got a pet monkey as a gift when he was young, is a major donor to the conservation of ape habitats.)

The Cabinet is emblematic of a larger shift on the left since 2004 in the direction of big-money politics, a shift most clearly seen in Barack Obama's refusal of public financing for his campaign. The Cabinet is only one of several flush, members-only liberal groups that have formed since 2004, the most famous (and richest) being the Democracy Alliance, whose sponsors include billionaires George Soros, Peter Lewis (father of Cabinet member Jonathan) and Pat Stryker (sister of Cabinet member Jon).

That raises questions: What does a civil rights movement look like in an era of massive wealth? Can you still inspire a grass-roots movement when all the street troops know that the billionaires can just write bigger checks? And is it possible that the left has become a movement as coldly obsessed with money as it always assumed the right was?

Gays may see the cabinet as powerful, almost numinous, but its own members see themselves as largely unorganized and highly independent. "It's a group of people who like and respect each other and their opinions," Ray Mulliner, a longtime Hormel adviser, told me recently. "It's nothing more than like-minded donors getting together to share strategies." When I mentioned that similar organizations on the right had received press scrutiny — I was thinking of the Arlington Group, a coalition of movement conservatives — Mulliner angrily rejected the comparison: "You have no reason to be curious about this. You're going to write a piece that's going to start a fire that needs to get put out, and it's going to cost a lot of money to put it out," he said.

The Cabinet first came together three or four years ago, according to Van Ameringen, as a "meeting place" for donors who wanted to use their money with greater strategic acumen. Gill got the idea for the group after he and Lewis attended a Democracy Alliance meeting. The donors felt they could accomplish more for gays if they shared information rather than operate as "silo" givers. Some members were frustrated that the established gay movement in Washington hadn't made greater progress in a society rapidly coming to see homosexuality as a mere variation rather than a moral degeneration.

Today it's difficult to find a gay organization that has not enjoyed the Cabinet's largesse. In 2007, for example, Stryker's Arcus Foundation gave away $11.8 million as part of its Gay and Lesbian Program. The money reached both big-name groups like the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (which got half a million dollars) and little organizations like the Actors Theatre Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich., which got $25,000 to produce a play called Seven Passages: The Story of Gay Christians.

The web of connections among the Cabinet members is complex. All the other members have donated the maximum amount allowed to Ketner's congressional campaign. Gill, Lewis and Stryker employ political advisers — respectively, Denver attorney Ted Trimpa; Paul Yandura, who worked in the Clinton White House's political-affairs office; and Lisa Turner, a former political director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — who regularly speak with one another and with others who work for Cabinet members.

There's nothing illegal about the Cabinet's coordination of its members' giving, according to Lawrence Noble, campaign-finance expert with the Washington-based firm Skadden, Arps. The contributions would be illegal only if the members agreed to give up control of their donations entirely or coordinated them directly with a campaign. There's no evidence of either; several people associated with the Cabinet made clear that its members make their donations without anyone's review. And yet as the National Review's Byron York has pointed out, Americans were horrified to learn during Watergate that Richard Nixon's friend Clement Stone had donated an outrageous $2 million in cash to the President's campaign. Cabinet members have spent at least five times that amount in various races in the past four years; the Soros-backed Democracy Alliance has spent probably 50 times that amount.

Still, it's hard to argue that the left in general and gays in particular should sit on their hands while foes outspend them. Strategically, the Cabinet makes sense; most people who defend its secrecy offer a Machiavellian understanding of ends and means. "I could lose a lot of sleep about it, and I do wonder why they have abandoned [gay] organizations that have a 35-year track record in order to have their own operations," says a seasoned Washington gay activist. "But if that's the way the rules of the game are being played, I need to maneuver within what the realities are."

The larger question is what role wealthy groups like the Cabinet will have in reshaping the politics of the left. There's been a great deal of (largely self-congratulatory) talk among liberals about the progressive movement's success in using new technologies to harness the netroots, to use the fashionable liberal argot. But there has been less reflection about what impact the great gobs of Sorosian money will have on the movement. Michael Fleming, a Los Angeles political macher who advises Cabinet member Bohnett, worries that rank-and-file gay people — the ones who might have picked up a rock at Stonewall — are increasingly relying on billionaires to cut checks. "Where is the outrage?" he asks.

The answer is that outrage has given way to smugness, the kind of self-satisfaction conservatives displayed after electoral successes in 1980 and 1994. Groups like the Cabinet and the Democracy Alliance suggest a new kind of moneyed progressivism, one that shows little of the class discontent that animated earlier strains of leftist thought. Is this a sign of maturation — throwing of