More and more it's getting to be less acceptable to do or say anything that somebody even THINKS looks like it's in any way promoting Christianity. People are oh so fast to jump on the bandwagon of religious liberty as long as it involves ANY religious belief other than Christianity. Say a word against Buddism, Zen, Voodoo, Islam, You name it, and you will find yourself on the wrong side of lawsuits and public outcry. You'll be told that you aren't being tolerant of other people's beliefs and that they have the right to practice their faiths.
The problem with this is that it's getting to be more and more of a one way street. This kind of attitude is being applied more and more to anyone EXCEPT Bible Believing Christians. Why the double standard? There are many reasons, but the one that comes to mind is the fact that of all religions, Bible Believing Christianity insists that we will be held accountable for our sins by a righteous God who doesn't play favorites. Christianity insists that there are firm, unmoveable definitions of right and wrong. Christianity knows that not only is sin a real thing in EVERY person's life, but that The only way to escape it is to accept and trust in Jesus.
Because we belive this to be true and because the fate of unbelivers is something so unthinkable that we do not want anyone to suffer it, we preach this message of Jesus. For us to simply sit idle while people go about a life that will earn them nothing except eternity in the lake of fire is a direct violation of what Jesus specifically ordered us to do:
Matthew 28:18-20, ""
For a Christian to tell others about the love of God, salvation, righteousness and the coming return of Jesus as the triumphant king is not only an expression of the love of God, it is also NOT an option.
The fourth grader in this first story is only sharing the love of God. She's not forcing anyone to accept it or believe it and she's not asking or expecting the school authorities to endorse it.
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STUDENT SUES TO DISTRIBUTE RELIGIOUS FLIERS
A fourth-grader and her mother claim a school district violated the girl's constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection by refusing to allow her to distribute "personal statement" fliers to other students because they carried a religious message.
Full Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/10/29/forbidden.flier.ap/index.html
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Harry Potter is in the news again. This time because it's being used as part of an English test and therefore being pushed on people who actually want nothing to do with it. And then there is another sad part about this story and that's the fact that Reuters put it in their "Oddly Enough" section where they put so-called 'oddball' stories. Something like this is NOT 'oddball', it's a deadly serious matter concerning the spiritual well being of our children.
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Reuters
Pupil Appeals Harry Potter 'Witchcraft'
Mon Nov 1, 9:12 AM ET
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African schoolboy appealed to education authorities after refusing to answer an exam question on Harry Potter because he believes the best-selling children's books promote witchcraft.
Eighteen-year-old John Smit did not answer a comprehension question on a review of one of J.K. Rowling's books on the boy wizard, worth 30 percent of his English exam.
Full Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=6676548 - - -=\-=\-=\
What more can be said about 'Google Desktop' except: "Don't get it yourself and avoid doing anything important or saving important information on a computer that has it installed!"
Google's new PC search tool poses risks
By Associated Press
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
NEW YORK -- People who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and Web searching have a new privacy risk to worry about: Google's free new tool that indexes a PC's contents for quickly locating data.
If it's installed on computers at libraries and Internet cafes, users could unwittingly allow people who follow them on the PCs, for example, to see sensitive information in e-mails they've exchanged. That could mean revealed passwords, conversations with doctors, or viewed Web pages detailing online purchases.
"It's clearly a very powerful tool for locating information on the computer," said Richard M. Smith, a privacy and security consultant in Cambridge, Mass. "On the flip side of things, it's a perfect spy program."
Full Article:
http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=49858
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Another example of something that is started with apparently good intentions but can eventualy grow into something genuinely Orwellian. The problem is that it's very hard to undo things like this, which makes it even more a thing to stop before it starts.
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October 28, 2004
Cameras to Keep Watch in Hollywood
By Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer
In a new step for crime fighting in Los Angeles, the Police Department plans to start installing surveillance cameras on city streets, beginning with Hollywood Boulevard.
Five video cameras will train their electronic eyes on one of the world's most famous ( and infamous ) streets as early as January. And if all goes according to plan, there eventually will be 64 cameras on Hollywood, Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards and Western Avenue.
Full Article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-me-watching28oct28,0,161235.story?coll=la-editions-valley
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Yet again, we're taken on another step down the infamous "Slippery Slope".
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CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE
Oct. 27, 2004 - 8:30 p.m.
Homeland Intelligence Chief Hughes Warned Civil Rights Would Have to Be 'Abridged' to Prevent Another Terror Attack
By Justin Rood, CQ Staff
Eight months before the White House appointed him the Homeland Security Department's top intelligence official, retired U.S. Army Gen. Patrick M. Hughes told a public forum at Harvard last year that the government would have to "abridge individual rights" and take domestic security measures "not in accordance with our values and traditions" to prevent terrorist attacks in the United States.
"What I'm about to say is very arrogant -- arrogant to a fault," said Hughes, a former chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in previously unreported remarks at a March 2003 Harvard University forum on "Future Conditions: The Character and Conduct of War, 2010 and 2020."
"Set aside what the mass of people think. Some things are so bad for them that you cannot allow them to have them. One of them is war in the context of terrorism in the United States," Hughes said, according to a transcript obtained by CQ Homeland Security.
"Therefore, we have to abridge individual rights, change the societal conditions, and act in ways that heretofore were not in accordance with our values and traditions, like giving a police officer or security official the right to search you without a judicial finding of probable cause," said Hughes.
Full Article:
http://www.cq.com/corp/show.do?page=crawford/20041027_homeland
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