Easter Sunday

This morning I went to the Episcopalian Easter service. It was wonderful to be in a church in the Middle East...in Iraq, the home of Abraham, the probable site of the Garden of Eden...and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. This Easter I was particularly mindful of one of the significances of this event...the idea of new beginnings.

In Ephesians 4:22-24, Paul wrote:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

The whole passage is a wonderful reminder to Christians today of what our personal spiritual heritage is: we were corrupt folks, filled with deceit and lust. If we could lie our way out of a situation, we'd lie. If we could steal from the office supply cabinet, we stole. If we could gossip and stab our friends in the back, we gossiped and betrayed those closest to us. If we could fly away with our passions with little chance of getting caught or getting somebody pregnant, we'd be the first one in line on the pleasure cruise. To be honest, all of us were pretty miserable, despicable creatures.

Would you like a good visual of just how disgusting and repulsive we looked? Close your eyes and imagine Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Imagine him hanging on the cross. Have you ever pictured the crown of thorns? I used to picture a wreath of rose bush limbs, with tiny thorns. It sounded irritating to me, but it never seemed that bad. But then one day I actually saw something that was probably closer to what the crown of thorns were actually like...thin dark brown branches with thorns that were probably 1/2 an inch to an inch long. These thorns were not the tiny thorns of rose bushes. When they were pushed on the head of our Savior, they cut deeply into his forehead, his temples, and the back of his scalp. These wounds, though not life-threatening alone, caused a tremendous amount of bleeding, as head wounds usually do. The flesh on his forehead and scalp was torn by these thorns. Picture his body. His skin, ripped to the bone on his back. Gashes opening up to the stinging air on his arms, his stomach, his legs. His face bruised and bloodied from slaps and punches. Let your mind zoom in on his wrists and his feet. Study the trauma that was caused by the wooden nails being pounded through his joints.

Can you see the Savior hanging on the tree in this condition? Why would God allow this to happen? Why would God allow the Savior of the world to be beaten and punished so severely? Why would He allow His son to suffer this torture? I cannot say that I have the perfect theological explanation for this. But I've read, and believe, that it was to remind us of just how disgusting our sin is to God. As grotesque as the body of Christ looked on the cross, our sins appear just as disgusting to God. In fact, I would say we appeared worse than the bloodied body of the Christ.

Notice I said appeared. For the story of Christ didn't end, and was never intended to end, on the cross. It is what happened after the cross that separated, and still separates, the men from the boys. It is what happened after the cross that separates old from new...the Old Testament from the New Testament...the old you from the new you...the ugly you from the beautiful you...the condemned you from the redeemed you.

We civilized, intellectualized, modernized types sometimes get our focus all wrong. We want to prove the divinity of Christ by using His brilliant teachings. We want to prove that Christ is the way through comparative studies of Jesus vs. Mohammed, Jesus vs. Buddha, etc. Because we are certain of our faith, we think we can out-argue and out-debate any other theological position on the planet. And while, I admit, I know that Christ is the Messiah, hence I would be pre-disposed to believe that the logic is on our side, it doesn't matter. Because in the end, it is faith in the resurrection that marks us as Christians. Without the resurrection, Christ would have been simply another philosopher. Yes, His life is filled with wonders and miracles that add to the proof, to believers, of His divinity. And I am not making light of this. The miracle of the virgin birth, to believers, is proof of His divinity. But if that was where the story stopped...a virgin birth, a sinless life, miracles while He walked with humanity...Christ would have been grouped with every other decent philosophical leader. But that is not the end of the story.

Christ rose from the grave! He conquered death! He is the Son of God! And the resurrection is proof of all of this. With his resurrection came the salvation of humanity.

In the beginning of the above passage, Paul describes our old self. Liar, pervert, thief, murderer. But this is what we were. We were condemned to death. The resurrection changed all of this.

Because we know that Christ rose from the dead, we know that He is the Son of God. It is that simple. Our certainty of this is the pivotal point in Christianity. Our certainty of this is what enables us to shed the skin of our old selves and put on the skin of our new selves. We are born again, a new creature freed from all the stains and transgressions of our old selves. Where there was once darkness and doom ahead of us, there is now light and salvation. Fear has been replaced with hope and confidence. Shame has been replaced with joy.

It is no accident that at the moment that Christ rose from the grave there was a bright light. That light still shines brightly for those who know that Christ is the Son of God. That light guides us through the darkness of this world even today. The light of Christ bathes our body, even now, and purifies our souls from our sins. It is our beacon to freedom. When the Messiah rose from the grave, he paved the way for our resurrection. Truly, this is the Son of God.

Wake Up America...Islam is At the Gate

The other day I read this prescient short story by Dan Simmons, thanks to a link provided by Little Green Footballs. I will not spoil the story for you. I found the following passage to be particularly enlightening:

“Let’s imagine,” said the Time Traveler, “that on December eighth, Nineteen forty-one, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke before a joint session of Congress and asked them to declare war on aviation.”
“That’s absurd,” I said.
“Is it?” asked the Time Traveler. “The American battleships, cruisers, harbor installations, Army barracks, and airfields at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in Hawaii were all struck by Japanese aircraft. Imagine if the next day Roosevelt had declared war on aviation . . . threatening to wipe it out wherever we found it. Committing all the resources of the United States of America to defeating aviation, so help us God.”
“That’s just stupid,” I said. If I’d ever been afraid of this Time Traveler, I wasn’t now. He was obviously a mental defective.“The planes, the Japanese planes,” I said, “were just a method of attack . . . a means . . . it wasn’t aviation that attacked us at Pearl Harbor, but the Empire of Japan. We declared war on Japan and a few days later its ally, Germany, lived up to its treaty with the Japanese and declared war on us. If we’d declared war on aviation, on goddamned airplanes rather than the empire and ideology that launched them, we’d never have . . .”
I stopped. What had he called it? Category Error. Making the problem unsolvable through your inability – or fear – of defining it correctly.

President Bush has made a Category Error. What is worse is that he has persuaded most Americans, even those who support our efforts in the war, to repeat and believe this Category Error. The biggest failure of our war is that we have incorrectly identified who we are fighting. We have been brainwashed into thinking that we are fighting a small group of crazy extremists that have perverted, in President Bush's words, a peaceful and noble religion. This is a costly mistake.

It ignores that fact that Muslims all over the world are growing more extreme and increasingly demanding rights above and beyond any of the constitutional guarantees of the true democracies throughout the world. In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, and numerous other places, Muslims have immigrated and have or have attempted to establish communities that have their own legal systems. These communities are completlely segregated from the culture around them by design. They have no desire to assimilate.

In the United States, planned Muslim communities are springing up throughout the major cities. David Kennedy Houck wrote a very informative piece titled The Islamist Challenge to the U. S. Constitution in the Middle East Quarterly. Regarding one such community in Little Rock, Arkansas, he wrote:

In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.

The planned community is also troubling, Houck writes, because:

The group has foreign financial support: it falls under the umbrella of a much larger Islamic group, "Islam 4 the World," an organization sponsored by Sharjah, one of the constituent emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[5]

He further notes that the emirs of the UAE are known to support radical interpretations of Islam.

The Achilles Heel of American democracy, in fact all democracies, is that it is crucial that we respect the rights of minorities. That is what separates civilized societies from uncivilized societies. It is not an accident that democracies are strongest in nations with Judeo-Christian values. It is a part of our religious heritage to be tolerant and respectful of those who disagree with us. (The cynic will be quick to bring up the Crusades. I say...get over it. The Crusades were a thousand years ago. I am talking about American democracy and 2006.) Our nation has bent over backwards to accomodate diversity and differences of opinion.

On the other hand, this value is not reciprocated by Muslims. Muslims believe they are superior and that Jews, Christians, and any non-Muslim are inferior. I challenge you to read the Koran. Mohammed encouraged his followers to treat non-believers as second-class citizens. In fact, if you want to know what Mohammed's marching orders were for the soldiers of jihad, it was:
1. Kill all infidels until they submit to Islam
2. You may spare the women, but take them as captives
3. Steal all of their property that you can
4. The infidels that submit to your superior status must pay a tax if they refuse to convert to Islam.
5. Infidels must pay a property tax if they are to retain it
6. Jews and Christians count as 1/3 of a man
7. Any other type of infidel counts as 1/15 of a man

I encourage every American and European to read the pronouncements by bin Laden, Zawahiri, Zarqawi and the rest of the leaders of the Muslim world. Their words directly reflect what is written in the Koran and it does not bode well for us. As I have mentioned in previous posts, Muslims do not view the Koran the same way that Christians view the Bible or Jews the Torah. Muslims believe that every single word written by Mohammed is the absolute truth. The Koran is sacred in a manner that westerners cannot even comprehend. The violent, murderous words of Mohammed are just as true today for Muslims as they were back in 700. Our liberal eyes will not permit us to understand this horrifying truth.

Houck discusses this lack of reciprocity on the part of Muslims:

There is precedent of Islamists taking advantage of liberal flexibility to more extreme ends. Canada provides a useful example into how Islamist groups can exploit liberal legal tolerance. In 1991, Ontario, Canada, passed a seemingly innocuous law called the "Arbitration Act."[8] This act permitted commercial, religious, or such other designated arbitrators to settle civil disputes outside the Canadian justice system so long as the result did not contradict Canadian law. Like U.S. authorities are beginning to do now, Canadian legislators decided to give religious groups the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they would still hold national law to be paramount.

After the passage of this act, Muslim enclaves in Canada began the process of instituting Sharia law in their communities. Canadian Muslim women began very vocal protests over this because they had everything to lose if Sharia was implemented. In 2003, the Canadian government rescinded the provision that permitted religious arbitration.

Muslims in the United States have also been busy. As Houck notes:

As the Muslim community in the United States grows, an increasingly active Islamist lobby has submitted numerous white papers and amicus briefs to legislators and courts arguing for the religious right of Muslims to apply Shari‘a law, particularly in relation to family law disputes.[13]

We have a very big problem in the United States. Muslims are using our legal system to grant themselves a separate but equal status. If you were to ask any Muslim if he or she would like America to be an Islamic nation, you would get an almost universal assent. The movement is afoot to radically alter everything that we believe in as Americans. If we sleep too long, we may awaken very soon, as they already are in a suburb outside Dearborn, Michigan, to the sounds of the Call to Prayer. Wake up America...Islam is at the gate!

There Must Be Hope

Since the uprising of illegal immigrants across the fruited plains of America (fruit picked by illegal immigrants' hands, no doubt), I have been mightily disturbed. I have been disturbed by several things:

1. the sheer magnitude, in terms of numbers, of illegals that hit the city streets.
2. the overt anti-Americanism of the illegals- people who are illegally taking advantage of the blessings our Creator endowed on the United States.
3. the cowardliness of Democrats and Republicans in failing to take a stand to defend our borders, our institutions, our economy, our values, and our culture.
4. the overt persecution by school administrations against students who exhibit patriotism for the United States, while condoning the exhibition of patriotism for Mexico and other Latin American nations by students who are either illegal immigrants or children of illegal immigrants.

The nearly unbelievable numbers of illegal immigrants that took to the streets, and still are, is mind-numbing. You would think that this display of contempt for our political process would have awakened a sense of urgency in the leadership of our nation. In the midst of a war, in which our enemy, Muslim terrorists, have stated that they are using our porous borders to infiltrate our country in order to commit terrorist acts, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants protested against making the United States safer from a terrorist threat. That is the bottom line of these protests. That should be the focus of the leadership of our nation. Instead, the focus is on the plight of these poor, well-behaved, outstanding citizens, as Diane Feinstein or Barbara Boxer (I can't remember which of the two) called these illegal, non-citizen, aliens in a press conference. When we have a Senator of the United States calling illegal immigrants citizens, we've got big problems. When we have a Senator of the United States more concerned with the plight of illegals than with the security of our borders, we've got even bigger problems.

To make matters worse, these poor, well-behaved, outstanding illegals were trashing the very nation they have come to for refuge. The amount of anti-American signage was absolutely appalling. If Americans were confused or unsure of how illegals view this great land, particularly the southwest and mountain states, the protesters left little doubt. They view the American southwest and mountain states as occupied land. One sign said it all...All Europeans are illegal on this continent since 1492. So the obvious learning point here is that our beloved illegals are not coming to this nation to assimilate and take advantage of the blessings God has showered on the United States. They are returning, in their minds, to the Motherland, Aztlan...the mythical home of the Aztecs. In the mind of the illegals, they are not illegal aliens...we are. This, in part, explains why the vast majority refuse to assimilate to the American culture. In fact, they have demanded, and we have acquiesced, that we assimilate to their culture. Spanish is practically a recognized second language throughout most of the southwest. We have accomodated their seperatist demands.

The worst accomodation has come at the hands of our elected leadership in the national and state governments, to include President George Bush. Rather than strengthening our border to the point where illegal crossings are too costly for illegals, we develop programs that actually encourage illegal immigration. We have laws that allow the offspring of illegals to become citizens if they are born in our country, laws that force state governments to provide education, health benefits, and even in-state tuition for illegals...all catering to a population that is not supposed to be here in the first place. The really sad truth is that illegal immigrants receive more benefits than I do from the government. Not that I particularly want benefits from the government, but I find it ridiculous and offensive that my tax dollars support people who are here illegally. And now that the illegals have shown their true colors, I am really angry that my tax dollars are supporting people who sincerely desire to take over a significant part of the country that I have fought for. And despite this, President Bush blithely announces that these people are necessary for our nation's economy. I'm sorry, but I have a problem with this.

When I was a kid, you know who did all the work that illegal immigrants are now doing? High school students. In South Carolina, during the summer break, high school students worked the tobacco farms, the restraunt jobs, the cleaning jobs, etc. The full-time labor jobs were done by high school dropouts or high school graduates who had no desire to go to college. The myth that Americans will not do the jobs that illegals do underlies all the rhetoric for the guest worker proposals or amnesty proposals. It is true that Americans will want more money than illegal immigrants, but the economy would adjust to this change. It will take some time and some pain but Americans are best suited to solve America's problems. To rely on a virtual fifth column, an enemy within, to keep our economy rolling along is national suicide.

The Democrats and Republicans have refused to seriously guard our border. Instead of taking the problem head on, they choose the path of least resistance, which ultimately creates more trouble. We know that Muslim terrorists have used our weak borders to come into the country. If this doesn't call for a military operation, than what does? Why have we not deployed our troops along the borders? The Mexican smugglers, with the aid of the Mexican Army, have increasingly turned to violence to get their illegal cargo, whether drugs or humans, through. We will not be able to secure our borders without the aid of the military. The military has the equipment and personnel, already on hand, to tackle this problem. I know that liberals shudder at the suggestion of this. These poor people are just trying to feed their families! Well, so are Americans. And Americans are also trying to stop terrorists from coming into our nation, aided and abetted by Mexicans and other Latin American countries. What Democrats and Republicans refuse to see is that crossing our borders illegally has become an act of war. When the Mexican Army fires on our border patrol, it is an act of war. When the Mexican Army and the Coyotes smuggle terrorists into our nation, it is an act of war. When illegals come across the border with dreams of creating Aztlan, it is an act of war. When protesters in the streets of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado call for taking over parts of our country and breaking away from the United States, it is an act of war.

But let's be honest, shall we? The truth is that both Republicans and Democrats are looking at illegals as future voters...and they are pandering to them. This is despicable. It is despicable because illegal immigration is a threat to our nation. What President Bush is doing with illegal aliens reminds more of Clinton than it does the President Bush that I admired in his first term. Clinton sold Comminust China, an enemy nation, the technology they needed to improve their satellite communications for their military weaponry. He did this in exchange for money to the Democratic Party. President Bush is selling out our nation's security, albeit in a non-treasonous way (unlike Clinton), in exchange for political power for the Republican Party. This is in total contradiction to the logic and arguments he used to promote his war on terror and the passage of the Patriot Act. The contrast in President Bush's actions on these issues is astounding. I am wondering if he noticed the signs these peaceful demonstrators were carrying. Did he actually pay attention to the demands of the illegals? Did he note the secessionist fever that permeated the crowds? Does he even know what Aztlan is?

So where did this idea of Aztlan come about anyway? Look no further than your tax-supported public education institutions, from elementary school all the way to the universities. The source of hatred for America was originated by Americans. I have been teaching in public schools, from the middle school level to the high school level, for ten years. In those ten years, I have refused to rely on textbooks. I have used them as outlines for my courses, but the real information that I wanted to impart to my students did not come from them. The vast majority of the social studies textbooks are written by liberal authors with an anti-American slant. The focus is not on the great things we have accomplished as a nation. Rather, it is on the evil America has done to its poor, its minorities, and to the rest of the non-English speaking world. Since most teachers are liberal, they regard the textbooks as gospel. Since the 1960's, American public schools have been feeding our children and university students a steady diet of anti-Americanism, activism, cynicism, socialism, reverse racism, secularism, and a whole list of other -isms that do not bode well for our nation. Ward Churchill is a classic product of the American university system. He lied about his ethnicity by claiming he was native American, he plagiarized his books, he plagiarized artwork, he threatened people, including women, he praised the 9/11 highjackers, and despite all this, he remains as a darling among the university elite. Why is this? The answer is quite simple...he says what the rest of the ivory tower snobs believe. If Ward Churchill had been a conservative professor and was caught doing all the things that he did, the university snobs would have booted him out a long time ago. But the man, little boy really, still gets paid to go speak at university forums.

The march of the illegals provided our public school administrations with yet another opportunity to display their anti-Americanism. When patriotic students in Colorado decided to display American flags to counter the obnoxious and defiant Mexican flag-wavers, school administrators in Longmont banned the flags and ultimately suspended the American flag-wavers...but not the Mexican patriots. In the Orwellian world of liberals, free speech only applies to those who say what the liberals want to hear. Since, to most educators, America is evil, anyone who waves an American flag is also evil, bigoted, ignorant, and unworthy of the right to exercise free speech. These same administrators will fight to the death to claim that the Mexicans have the right to display their hatred for America, but true patriots do not have the right to display their love for America. American patriotism, to educators, is a sure sign of ignorance, bigotry, and ethnocentrism. Hatred for America, to educators, is a sign of enlightenment, dignity, and truth. I will add this caveat...not all educators are liberal and unpatriotic. But the sad truth is that most are. Oh, they will claim that they are patriots. But they believe that the highest form of patriotism is dissent, protest, and activism.

But in the midst of all of this disappointing news, there is still hope. For one, I believe that America is becoming more conservative. Multi-culturalism is on its last, dying breath. And my belief is based on something so real and so terrible. We are seeing the true colors of other cultures, particularly the Muslim culture. The adherents to Islam are demonstrating, in no uncertain terms, that other cultures are not as good, or equal to ours. Ethnocentrism might not be a bad thing after all. With every beheading and violent riot over stupid cartoons in the Middle East, light bulbs are coming on across America. We are starting to see that there really are inferior religions and cultures. We still hear supposedly learned people, including President Bush, saying that Islam is a noble and peaceful religion. But the facts are the facts. Islam is violent and highly ignoble. The myth of the moderate Muslim is fading fast. Sharia is being exposed for what it is...a tyrannical, misogynistic, brutal, religious legal system that is contrary to everything that Christians and Americans believe. I have to be honest...I don't like saying this. I know that it comes across as intolerant and racist to some. But the truth is that it is Islam that is intolerant.

The march of the illegals is also opening up eyes in America. I read some excellent articles by Cubans and Mexicans who strongly opposed what they saw occuring in these demonstrations. It is these legal immigrants that President Bush insults the most. I was encouraged by the students who were willing to defend their flag and their country to the point of being suspended. I am hoping that Governor Owens will step in and call the offending administrations to the carpet over this. I was also encouraged with the overt anti-Americanism of the protesters. I didn't like it. But it was encouraging in the sense that now we all know what we are dealing with.

Perhaps I am simplistic, but I believe that we can solve this problem. But it will only happen if the Federal Government decides to recognize the threat that illegal immigration poses for our nation. We must put the military on border patrol. The border patrol agents can then be freed to round up illegals and deport them. I do not think we need to deport 11 million people. But I believe we need to start vigorously deporting people on a regular basis. If your local sheriff can have a quota for speeding tickets for his deputies, the Border Patrol can have a quota for deporting illegal aliens. The cost does not have to be prohibitive. We are talking man-hours and bus rides to the borders. We don't have to fly these people to Mexico. But deportation will not work if we do not deploy the military to patrol the borders. I think it is criminal to throw our hands up and grant amnesty to 11 million people. We must mean business. We can have hope if our elected officials will pull their head out of the sand and act. With deportation and sealed borders, the illegal population will decline slowly. This will give our economy time to adjust to the changes. Again, there is no way we can deport 11 million people. But there is a way to seriously reduce the number and close our borders to infiltration. Will it stop it completely? Probably not, but it will certainly stop the flood.

This is not an argument to completely stop immigration. It is an argument to completely stop, or at least seriously curtail illegal immigration. I am not anti-immigration. We are a nation of immigrants. But we must be a nation of legal immigrants who desire to assimilate. We must stop pandering to illegals. We must get rid of all the Spanish language requirements we have inaugurated at the demands of people who are not even supposed to be here. We must be optimistic that Americans will do the work that illegals do and believe in the character and culture that made this country great. Surrendering to illegal immigrants is surrendering the optimism that has permeated our culture for most of our existence. We cannot allow this to happen.