Category Archives: Christianity

UPDATED: The Founding Fathers Deconstructed (MT, Saint Or Sadist?)

Africa, America, Christianity, Colonialism, Founding Fathers, History, Intelligence, Morality, Propaganda

From today’s WND.COM column, “The Founding Fathers deconstructed”:

“The idea that the founders were flawed, sinful men like you and me is current among a hefty majority of Americans, conservative too. It is wrong. Quite the reverse. The founders were nothing like us. Not even close. I say this not as an idealist but as a realist.

” … Judging from their works and their written words, the American Founding Fathers were immeasurably better than just about anyone on earth today. That goes for that gnarled, somewhat stupid sadist Mother Teresa, whom Christopher Hitchens nailed in The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. And it applies to the moral role models selected for us annually, courtesy of CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The founders are matchless today both morally and intellectually – their actions bespeak a willingness to forsake fortunes and risk lives for liberty, a concept and cause alien to contemporary Americans, who are, mostly, bereft of both the mental and moral gravitas necessary to grasp it. … ”

The complete column is: “The Founding Fathers deconstructed.”

The Second Edition of Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society (the print edition can be purchased here) is now also available on Kindle.

UPDATE (Dec. 3): MT, SAINT OF SADIST? Just as I thought I had written an uncontroversial column, Rod writes to write me off as a writer, a human being, etc.:

He quotes my column: Judging from their works and their written words, the American Founding Fathers were immeasurably better than just about anyone on earth today. That goes for that gnarled, somewhat stupid sadist Mother Teresa, whom Christopher Hitchens nailed in ‘The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice.'”

First sentence quite good – second one horribly bad. Are you an atheist like Hitchens? Why would you appeal to such a God-hater as any kind of authority on the likes of Mother Teresa. And I wouldn’t think you should need reminding, but Mother Teresa is now outside the scope of your “… immeasurably better than just about anyone on earth today” – since she died 3 years ago. I can’t argue you observation of “gnarled”, or even “somewhat stupid” – but “sadist”; do you get that from Hitchens, or is this you own “somewhat stupid” idea. You had my rapt attention, and your article was making great sense – until you brought in Mother Teresa, out of the blue, I mean the “wild blue, way up yonder” out of the blue. …
I’ve been reading you for years on WND, and must say you are an excellent writer, and appear to have a brilliant mind. But you really lost it with this one. Hitchens book title is bad enough, then you pile on further insult with your “Hitchens nailed [her]” comment – are you trying to be more vulgar and disgusting that the somewhat stupid atheist, or are you just being stupid yourself.
One last thing – beauty is (truly) only skin deep. Yet you include your picture in the article – I suppose so we can all see how ‘beautiful’ you are on the outside. But in God’s economy, I daresay Mother Teresa is far more beautiful – one of the most beautiful in my lifetime. Her beauty radiates from within, just as your ugly heart is coming to the light through your vulgar words.
I guess you’ve concluded by now that you’ve lost a long-time fan.

Mother Teresa is held up as a universal paragon of goodness in it purest form. Hence the reference to her in the column. As someone who prefers facts to blind faith, indeed I do think Hitchesn—who hung out in Calcutta with Mother, and did his homework well—nailed this sister’s act (as in “detect and expose”).

More later (the parrots are demanding birdie bread with calls of “mommy, mommy”).

Later: If I am supposed to discard the facts because they were dredged up by an atheist (CH), I suggest that my reader question his adulation for a woman (MT) worshiped by former White House communications director Anita Dunn.

“My favorite political philosophers: Mao Tse-tung and Mother Theresa,” said the lizard-tongued Dunn.

I am absolutely sure that I share no heroes with Dunn. Picture a Venn diagram. There is no overlap between my mental/intellectual universe and Dunn’s.

The facts, as illustrated by Hitchen, show that MT preferred “providence to planning” in her facilities and was far from humane to the poor she took in. Hitchen quotes, among others, a doctor, the editor of the acclaimed “Lancet,” who was alarmed at the intentional neglect of proper diagnosis and pain management at a MT operation. On Mother’s orders, lavish, well-appointed homes that were donated to her cause were stripped bare of decent mattresses or creature comforts. The heat turned off. Volunteers got TB.

As a matter of theology, MT insisted that the poor be left to suffer horrible pain (while she was always airlifted to receive medical care in the best western facilities). Salvation through suffering for the poor, but not for Mother. Hypocrite?

MT, moreover, had a sizable fortune, enough money to outfit many clinics in Bengal (or wherever she operated). But she pursued “suffering and subjection” for her charges and for those working for her. If a dying man got an aspirin from her, he was lucky. Her palliative philosophy was in direct opposition to that of the Hospice movement.

Unforgivable. “Hell’s Angel.”

Myron, Mother T. had close ties to a lot of very corrupt governments, so she was hardly the epitome of private charity. Her motto seemed to have been: “money has no smell.”

Rauff Revs Up The Muslim Message

Christianity, History, IMMIGRATION, Islam, Religion

The official Right in this country did not tell it like it is: Feisal Abdul Rauf, Chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, and the man behind the mosque in lower Manhattan, was picked by the Bush administration to serve as the American emissary to Muslim countries. Did you know this? I was under the impression that the Imam was B. Hussein’s pick.

I find nothing outrageous about the Imam’s opinion, also mine, that America’s adventurous foreign policy is a necessary condition for Muslim aggression. But that’s not the entire story. Rauff would never admit that our meddling abroad is far from a sufficient condition for Muslim aggression.

However, when Abdul Rauf, in this clip, soothingly says that Islam and America are organically bound, and then proceeds to describe the American Founding Fathers, without mentioning their Christian background and beliefs, as non-parochial men of faith—then I get the creeps.

Rauf sees the three faiths as enmeshed and America’s history as intertwined with Islam and Muslims. At least so he says. Taqiyya, anyone?

This man would make a good snake charmer.

UPDATED: The Warbots, The FLOTUS & Other Terrifying Things

Barack Obama, Christianity, Islam, Jihad, Media, Middle East, Military, Republicans, Terrorism, War

The first lady’s share of this week’s WND column, “The Warbots, The FLOTUS & Other Terrifying Things,” comes under the heading “PIMP MY FLOTUS”:

“A world away from her husband’s dirty little war was the first lady’s ostentatious sojourn to Spain. I must say that the Marie Antoinette metaphor for Michelle did not do it for me. Despite the motorcades and the session with the Spanish monarchs at their Marivent Palace – the mental imagine that I got was made in America; it came from reality TV or MTV. Shades of the shows ‘Pimp my Ride’ and ‘Cribs’ came to mind. Coloring my imagination was a vivid, prior mental image of the ‘sedate’ soiree the first lady held for Mexican President Felipe Calderon, down to the disco ball and the half-nude, pelvis-grinding Beyonce. (Bibi Netanyahu was confined to the cellar.)

Still sillier were demands our patrician pundits made (at least one of whom has touted one-time porn star Kim Kardashian as a role model because she does not imbibe) for Mrs. Obama’s dollars to be spent stateside, so as to boost the American economy. Michelle Obama’s income comes from taxpayers. The first family doesn’t produce anything; it only consumes American wealth. Somewhere in the U.S., productive activities have already been suspended to fund the POTUS, the FLOTUS and their lavish lives. It matters not where the first family spends the loot. …

Read “The Warbots, The FLOTUS & Other Terrifying Things.”

Read my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society.

The Second Edition features bonus material and reviews. Get your copy (or copies) now!

UPDATED: “BRING THEM HOME. BRING THEM HOME, NOW.” So says Vox Day, who perfectly captures the emotions evincied by women and children in this touching footage of “Troops Surprising Loved Ones”:

“There are few words sufficient to express the joy that one sees in the faces of the children and women in this video. But underlying that joy, one can also see an occasional glimpse of the stark terror of loss in which they have been living for months, if not years.”

UPDATED: Hillary: ‘Terror Has No Religion’ (Quranic verse 5:32)

Christianity, Crime, Islam, Jihad, Religion, Terrorism, The West

REALLY? I vehemently disagree with Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who uttered this fatuity in her tribute to the “10 medical aid workers who were killed in the northern Badakhshan Province,” among whom were six Americans.

TERROR, THY NAME IS ISLAM.

The deceased were members of the International Assistance Mission. According to Dirk Frans, the organization’s director, “The team had trekked about 100 miles into the mountains of one of the poorest and most remote areas of Afghanistan. The Americans were identified as Cheryl Beckett, 32; Brian Carderelli, 25; Dr. Thomas Grams, no age given; Glen Lapp, 40; Tom Little, 61; and Dan Terry, 63.”

CHARITY IS EUROPEAN AND PREDOMINANTLY CHRISTIAN.

“Also killed were Mahram Ali, 50, and man identified only as Jawed, 24, both of Afghanistan; Daniela Beyer, 35, of Germany; and Dr. Karen Woo, 36, of Britain.”

HILLARY: “Before their deaths, they had spent several days treating cataracts and other eye conditions in Nuristan Province. At their next stop, they planned to run a dental clinic and offer maternal and infant health care. They were unarmed. They were not being paid for their services. They had traveled to this part of Afghanistan because they wanted to help people in need. They were guests of the Afghan people.

CLEARLY NOT VERY WELCOME GUESTS.

As columnist Krauthammer said on FoxNews, this act was about destroying The Other, by which Chuckie meant the non-Muslim, the Christian.

And I would add that the “despicable act of wanton violence,” which sundered such gifted lives was about destroying goodness and nobility—qualities that are thin-on-the ground in that blighted part of the world.

An irony: I am quite positive that these good people were also extreme liberals who believed that the societies to which they took their good works were better than the ones from which they came.

Being someone who, contrary to what Glenn Beck preaches, does not believe in giving up her life so easily—or perhpas it is part of the extreme value we Jews place on life—I think it’s a sin not to protect your Mission with zeal. It’s a sin to be cavalier with the life of The Other, all the more so with your own life.

Let’s say these saintly Christians cared less about those who depended on them back home, as compared to their Christian love for The Other. What good are you to those you serve if you don’t guard your invaluable life and scarce skills and abilities with the zeal with which you serve G-d and The Other?

Beats me.

UPDATE (Aug. 10): Myron, did Hilary say that “the Quran teaches that taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity, and saving one innocent life is like saving all humanity”?

That Quranic verse (5:32) “once piqued my curiosity because of a similar sounding Talmudic saying.” As its official version has it, this ayah declares that, ‘Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.'”

Prompted by Dr. Daniel Pipes, I examined (and wrote about) the context of the passage in The Meaning of the Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, only to find that the” likes of Hillary, and other fans of Islam, routinely ‘”decontextualized” it. The Qur’an actually says the following:

“On that account: We ordained

For the Children of Israel

That if anyone slew

A person—unless it be

For murder or for spreading

Mischief in the land—

It would be as if

He slew the whole people:

And if anyone saved a life,

It would be as if he saved

The life of the whole people.

Then although there came

To them Our Messenger

With Clear Signs, yet,

Even after that, many

Of them continued to commit

Excess in the land.”

The verse apparently concerns the dread-Jew. At the very least it’s fair to say this Quranic ayah is considerably less humanistic and universal than depicted by Madam Secretary, as “The Whole People” refers to the Ummah only.

“Devoid of the killing component, the Talmudic version simply and unequivocally states that, ‘To save one life is like saving the world.’ Contrary to the Quranic Ayah, it doesn’t whittle down humanity.” There is no ambiguity about the Talmudists’ use of “the world.” They meant humanity. Islam reserves the ruling for its own.

The column quoted here is “More Fatwa Fibs.”