Shire Network News #142 has been released. The feature interview is with Douglas Murray, the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion think tank, who joins us for a talk about the latest report from his think tank. It’s a bombshell report on the attitudes of Muslim students in the UK. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News asking you to “Consider This!” Last week, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri put out an official audiotape. Yeah, yeah, no big news there, he does this all the time, “death to the infidels”, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But wait, this time there was a first; he spoke in English. That’s right; he wanted to speak to the Pakistani people directly, but since he doesn’t do Urdu (do you?), English was a good second choice. But even in English, the words were pretty much the same. “Your President stinks and his mother dresses him funny.” “Please oh please stop cooperating with the Great Satan.” “How do you like the results of my Berlitz classes?” The usual stuff, all with nothing more than a stock photo of their man Ayman on-screen. It’s almost like AQTV is in summer reruns.

Hey, don’t laugh; it appears that they really are. ABC reported last month that the media arm of Al Qaeda distributed old videos to jihadist websites. And get this; they didn’t bill them as reruns. Instead, they were previously released material translated into Urdu. Sounds like they’re stealing some ideas from US television network executives.

And since they’re translating into Urdu, I guess it’s only a matter of time until the latest al-Zawahiri blockbuster gets the overdub treatment. Whoever does it, I hope they credit him for it. (“Overdubbing courtesy of a scared Pakistani store owner with a scimitar to his throat. We apologize for any nervous jittering in the voice. Listener discretion is advised.”)

And those poor jihadist websites! I hope they didn’t pay full price for these warmed-over videos. There’s got to be a cheap iTunes-like place for 2-month-old hate speech. I mean, even I can to a “dollar theater” for second-run movies. Well, I’m sure that they did get a break. Those Al Qaeda guys are nothing if not sensitive to the little guy.

So that’s my “This Week in Hate Speech Video”. Join me next time, when I review the DVD “Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger; Together Again for the First Time”. Consider that.

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Douglas Murray, British Muslims, Islam, Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri

In California, the First Amendment is subordinate to the whims of the judges.  The Associated Press reports:

California’s highest court on Monday barred doctors from invoking their religious beliefs as a reason to deny treatment to gays and lesbians, ruling that state law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination extends to the medical profession.

What "treatment" was denied?  How was care withheld, as the AP headline claims?

Justice Joyce Kennard wrote that two Christian fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian have neither a free speech right nor a religious exemption from the state’s law, which "imposes on business establishments certain antidiscrimination obligations."

In the lawsuit that led to the ruling, Guadalupe Benitez, 36, of Oceanside said that the doctors treated her with fertility drugs and instructed her how to inseminate herself at home but told her their beliefs prevented them from inseminating her. One of the doctors referred her to another fertility specialist without moral objections, and Benitez has since given birth to three children.

Nevertheless, Benitez in 2001 sued the Vista-based North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group. She and her lawyers successfully argued that a state law prohibiting businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation applies to doctors.

So what we’re really talking about here is an elective procedure, not "care" nor "treatment" of some condition.  And the doctors did everything up to the point where their religious convictions wouldn’t let them continue.  Even then, they instructed Benitez how to do it herself. 

A detail you won’t find here but is brought up in the WorldNetDaily coverage, the case was dismissed when it was originally brought, but liberal Californians can be certain that, no matter the obstacles, their Supreme Court can be counted on to come through. 

But don’t doctors have constitutional rights, too?  Well the California Medial Association used to think so, but they changed their tune "after receiving a barrage of criticism from the gay-rights community."  We have the bullying tactics of the "tolerant" Left connect with the political correctness of the medical community, with the result being a trampling of the Constitution. 

This is what passes for the imprudent "jurisprudence" we find on the Left Coast.  This almost calls for a Constitutional amendment, except we already have one and it doesn’t seem to be working. 

Technorati Tags: California Supreme Court, Constitution, homosexuality, First Amendment, religious rights, Douglas Fenton, Christine Brody, Guadalupe Benitez

Don’t know how it got there, but this song was going through my mind this weekend, so I thought I’d plant it in yours as well.  :)  Video’s OK, but it’s the music that I’m really passing along.

In the continuing study of John 15, we came to verse 2 today.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Among the points, noting that God the Father does make the tough calls and cuts off those branches not producing and pruning those that do, is the question of what is spiritual fruit? 

First, fruit is Christ-like character, and here we see a parallel with Paul’s list of the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians.  And later on in John 15, Jesus talks about how one of these fruits comes about.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Our joy is complete when we follow Jesus’ example of following his commands.

Secondly, fruit is answers to prayer.  Again, John 15 points to this.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Thirdly, fruit is soul-winning.  Earlier in John, chapter 4, Jesus describes what doing his Father’s work entails; bring other to know Him.

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

We don’t all perform the same task each time; sometimes planting the seed, sometimes watering it, sometimes reaping the harvest.  But we should be laborers with Christ as part of the fruit He wants to see in us. 

The gardener’s cutting and pruning are done because he wants a return on his investment, and because he wants the branches to flourish.  That is what God the Father wants from us; flourishing.  His correction is meant to bring that about.

Technorati Tags: sermon notes, Gospel of John, Christianity, fruit of the Spirit

Shire Network News #141 has been released. For the second week, our guest is author and activist Ibn Warraq, who has been writing and speaking against Jihadi Islam for decades. His work on what the Koran really says, and what the core of Islam is really about is the kind of writing and thinking that Islam’s phobia of self criticism makes impossible from within Islam. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a commentary this week.  (Next week, for sure.)

Technorati Tags: Ibn Warraq, Islam, Shire Network News

I’ve meant to do something like this for a while; post a thought from the recent Sunday sermon.  Our pastor prepares notes with blanks to fill in to help memory retention, and they’re 3-hole punched to keep in a small notebook.  I’m going to (try to) post just a thought from the sermon here at the beginning of the week.

(I attend Lilburn Alliance Church with pastor Fred Hartley.  There is a link to the previous Sunday’s sermon on the main page of the web site, or you can subscribe to the podcast.)

The series our pastor is beginning a study of John 15, starting this week with just the first verse.  The NIV translation of this verse is, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener."  He covered the whole first verse, but I’m going to just touch on the first phrase of it.  The literal translation of that phrase from the Greek is "I, I am, the true the vine…."  No, that’s not a typo.  If you look at the Greek version, even if you don’t know Greek (and I don’t), you’ll see the first two words meaning "I" and "I am", and a short one-letter word preceding each of the next two words, being the definite article "the".  Again, I’m not a Greek scholar and I’m taking Pastor Hartley’s word for this, so feel free to comment if you find something different.

This construction of "I, I am" is (as I understand it) unique in Greek literature.  This is meant to convey the fact that Jesus is the "I Am" of the book of Exodus.  This is another of His many claims of divinity.  Jesus used this construct on at least 6 other occasions, including one that got the religious leaders perturbed.  (Again, the Greek translation shows this.)  For those that suggest that Jesus never actually claimed to be the divine Son of God, these instances are some of those where he did, in a language that his hearers would understand.

Then there is the construction "the true the vine".  Here, Jesus is claiming exclusivity, again using a language construct that his hearers understood.  He is not a true vine, one vine of many truths.  Instead he is the one and only vine that is true.  There are other vines, but none that are as eternally true as Jesus.  Again, this goes up against claims that Jesus is but one of the many ways to God.  He never spoke of any other way but Himself, and he spoke of Himself as the single path to God the Father, in ways that both the people he spoke to could understand, and even more plainly for the rest of us that don’t speak Greek.

I’ve had a few discussions with folks in the past, going back to the Bulletin Board Systems of old (pre-Internet, for you young’uns) where I’ve heard the claims about Jesus never intending to claim exclusivity, and the many ways in which people try to shoe-horn Jesus into their own religion or philosophy.  The problem is, and has always been, that Jesus didn’t ever allow for that in what He said.  He fully intended to stand alone and unique in human history, and efforts to incorporate His teachings, and He Himself, into the religions of others is a testament to the power in His words, and the deception of those trying to claim Him. 

Shire Network News #140 has been released. The feature interview is with author and activist Ibn Warraq, who has been writing and speaking against Jihadi Islam for decades. His work on what the Koran really says, and what the core of Islam is really about is the kind of writing and thinking that Islam’s phobia of self criticism makes impossible from within Islam. He’s the author of many books, such as Why I am Not A Muslim and editor of The Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, What the Koran Really Says, and Leaving Islam. His latest work is "Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism".

Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a segment this week, since I was on vacation.

Shire Network News #137 has been released. The feature interview is with Guy Earle, who committed the unpardonable sin of having a go at some hecklers at a show in Vancouver who were members of a protected class. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to "Consider This!"

This is a "Next Generation" update; stories that cover what’s going on in the world regarding the children, how they’re being brought up, brought down, pampered and hampered. 

We start with a doctor in Boston, Massachusetts that is prepping children as young as 7 for…a sex change.  Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatrician at Boston’s Children’s Hospital is taking in clients to give them drugs that delay the onset of puberty so these kids can decide what gender they really want to be.  So now, we’re doing with drugs what they used to do to boys in the middle ages in order to keep their high-pitched voices for the choir.  Only now, it’s "for the children".

Spack says that the permanent infertility is worth the trade-off, because, as he says, these kinds of kids are deeply troubled and have a high level of suicide attempts.  OK, so now, instead of addressing this deep troubling, we indulge their confusion?  Drug addicts are deeply troubled, too.  I suppose the next thing is giving them free needles and free drugs.  Oh, wait, they’re already doing that, especially in Canada.  Well, then, it’s be like giving cutters, those who inflict pain on themselves, clean razor blades.  Ah, nope, already been proposed by the Royal College of Nursing.  OK, something that even liberals would…ah ha, got it!  It’s like giving cigarette smokers free cigarettes!  They may not be as deeply troubled, but many do die early from the addiction, and as liberals like to remind us, even it saves just one life, it’s worth it.

Anyway, there are number of other doctors at prominent hospitals against it, so we have ways to go on this front.  Stay tuned.

In other news, the National Children’s Bureau in Britain has issued guidelines for nursery workers to be on the lookout for racist behavior in children.  This include things like a 3-year-old turning up their noses at unfamiliar foreign food.  I’m sorry, but when my kids were younger, they all had a penchant for saying "yuk" to unfamiliar food of any sort, foreign or not.  I don’t think they could tell what was domestic and what wasn’t.  Three-year-olds don’t ask, "Is that an imported cheese?  I’m sorry, but I only buy American; Wisconsin, specifically."  Nurseries are encouraged to report as many incidents from this 366-page guide as possible.  The guide says, "Some people think that if a large number of racist incidents are reported, this will reflect badly on the institution. In fact, the opposite is the case."  Heh, indeed.  It means more money for this government program to strain at gnats with.

Moving over to Germany, a new bill, which has the backing of dozens of big-time German politicians, would lower the voting age…to 0.  Babies could voice their opinions on the economy, and toddlers could weigh in on their education.  If you want to pass a bill on military deployment, you’ll have to get that crucial 3-10 year-old demographic on your side.  Again, not likely to happen soon — they tried before as recently as 3 years ago — but as with other efforts "for the children" and against disenfranchisement, it’s not dead yet.

And finally, from Pakistan, we have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that 2000 women took a group vow last Wednesday.  They raised their voices in unity.  "I am woman, here me roar."  The bad news is that these burqa-clad Islamic women all vowed to raise their children to be Jihadis. 

Well it could be worse.  It could be a bunch of gender-confused kids going out to vote to send themselves out to holy war against people who call them "racist" for saying "yuk" to pork.

Consider that.  (Well, no.  Don’t.)

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, children, Dr. Norman Spack, Boston Children’s Hospital, National Children’s Bureau, Britain, racism, Germany, Pakistan, jihad

Often on the Shire Network News podcast, we’ll satirize extremist Islam by reading a new story and replacing the word "Muslim" with the word "Christian".  Upon hearing this, the listener (it is hoped) understands how really extreme extremist Muslims are because, for all the similar and worse treatment Christians are accustomed to, you never hear about mass groups of extremist Christians beheading someone who drew an unflattering cartoon of Jesus. 

Indeed we have our Eric Robert Rudolphs, our lone gunmen outside abortion clinics, but the very fact that we know the first, middle and last names of these guys says there aren’t nearly as many of them as there are mobs of extremist Muslims killing teachers, killing anyone over cartoons, and burning churches.

But the BBC, not content to sticking to the "art imitating life" method of fiction, decided to try to paint a little non-existent moral equivalence on their TV canvas.

A recent episode of the series Bonekickers displayed a graphic scene depicting a moderate Muslim being beheaded by a supposed “extremist Christian”.

It’s being reported that BBC1 has received several telephone complaints from it’s viewers over the episode and earlier this week the corporation stated they ‘regret’ viewers had found the scene ‘inappropriate’, but defended their decision to show it.

Viewers were apparently shocked when actor Paul Nichollswas was seen using a sword to hack off a moderate Muslim’s head in an unprovoked attack.

Nichollswas plays a member of the fictional group called the White Wings Alliance. The fictitious group is far-Right evangelical group of Christians inspired by the Crusades.

Instead of being "ripped from the headlines", as some TV episodes like to advertise, this seems to be the result of a late-night session of "Mad Libs", mixing what’s really happening with nouns and adjectives describing Christians.  "Give me an angelic adverb."

The BBC, responding to criticism, insists that the story, in and of itself, is internally consistent, because…well…this sort of thing is believable.

We regret that some viewers felt the beheading scene was inappropriate. It appeared half way through episode one of Bonekickers, by which time the character’s ‘extreme fundamental belief’ had been revealed, providing the audience with a good build up to the scene in question.

This storyline looked at religious fundamentalism within a fictional Christian group, and one character in particular who took his beliefs to an extreme. His ignorance and misguided behaviour lead to the beheading of a peaceful Asian Muslim character in the drama. His actions are clearly condemned by leading Muslim and Christian clerics. The drama also has the balance of a Christian character that has a deep faith which she uses humbly and only for good.

In a media world where folks are falling all over themselves to not portray Muslims as the bad guys (as they did in the movie version of "The Sum of All Fears", for example), the BBC goes out of its way to concoct a truly unbelievable scenario.  Might some extreme group identifying itself with Christians someday behead somebody?  It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but right now beheadings are pretty much a signature of extremist Islam.  Even revealing a character’s "extreme fundamental beliefs" is not nearly enough to explain this, as there are plenty of extremist Christians, and yet no Muslims have lost their head over it.

Could this be an attempt at a "White Man’s Burden" role-reversal?  In that movie, the societal elites are blacks, and whites live in the ghettos.  The plot is an attempt to look at race relations from the other side of the social ladder, but the BBC doesn’t seem to have put that much thought into this, based on their response.  The best they can come up with is a "speaking to both side" sort of moral equivalence.

The killing and the method used reflected the flawed beliefs that the character had. It does not attempt to condone or glamorise such a violent act in any way. The drama seeks to highlight the consequences of a misguided fundamentalist taking his beliefs to violent extremes.

One might draw the conclusion that this is a "White Man’s Burden" aimed at Muslims, trying to elicit a response from them to the action from a Christian, and then giving them pause to reflect on it.  Of course, admitting that could get you thrown into a Human Rights Tribunal.  No, this is most likely liberal writers tossing barbs at their favorite whipping boy, and ignoring current events (for fear of losing their heads).

(Hat tip: The Jawa Report.)

Technorati Tags: BBC, Islam, Christianity, Muslim extremists, Bonekickers, Tom Clancy, The Sum of All Fears, White Man’s Burden, Hollywood, liberal media

Shire Network News #136 has been released. The feature interview is with Dr. Mordechai Kedar, of the Arabic Department of Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. While appearing recently on Al Jazeera talking about building apartments in Jerusalem, he decided not to take the role of a piñata as expected by the show’s host. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to "Consider This!"

With all due respect to the host of this show, who comes from the land we broke away from 232 years ago, I’m going to touch a bit on Independence Day in these United States. 

This quote from John Quincy Adams was brought to my attention recently.  He was writing to his wife Abigail about how he thought Independence Day would be celebrated in the years to come.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.

Well, we seem to have the pomp and parade, fireworks and barbeques down pat.  Some sporting events, like Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race, are exclusively on July 4th.  But it’s this clinginess to guns and religion that one US presidential candidate would, no doubt, find beneath him.  Thanks to the Heller Supreme Court decision, it now appears that individuals can celebrate Independence Day, not just "well-regulated militias".

In the intervening years since Adams’ prediction, and indeed hope, America has been there to fight for freedom in other places as well.  Imagine that; a country strong enough and with the right frame of mind to consider more than just its own well-being, but the well-being of other nations.  The American "empire", if you want to call it that, has been unlike any other.  Instead of entering a country and annexing it or taking it over, we come in, get rid of the bad guys, and, instead of installing our own government in perpetuity, we install voting booths.  Granted, it’s not always been that way, and we have certainly made our share of mistakes, no doubt.  But on balance, compared to other nations of our size and strength throughout history, I believe we’ve been an overall force for good and liberty in the world. 

And, quite notably, very often with our former enemy, England, by our side.  If our Founding Father’s had been told that someday the US and the UK would be BFFs, they’d ROFL.  Well, if they did any text messaging.

And to sound so utterly un-PC — something which we major in on Shire Network News — I believe we are this force for good precisely because we cling to our guns and our religion.  The guns represent individual liberty and individual rights.  They show that we are willing to fight for our ourselves and for what we believe in; both individually and as a nation. 

But this nation also clings to its religion, and while there is the freedom to practice any or no religion, much of our foundational ideas came from Judeo-Christian principles, including, by the way, that religious freedom, as well as concern for others as much as oneself.  Clinging just to guns, without that religious component, would have made us no different than the Romans or the Huns or the Nazis.  But we have also gone into Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, western Europe, and yes, even Vietnam, with the purpose of holding back oppression in other countries.  We could just hunker down behind our borders, clinging to our guns, but there is more to being a good neighbor that just waiting for the bad guys to show up here.  No, we can’t police the world, that much is certain.  But there are things we can do. 

Again, it is true that we’ve not always kept those two things in their proper proportions, sometimes leaning more on the guns that we should.  But we do eventually return.

Thomas Jefferson was a guy that I would have some religious disagreements with.  But there is a quote from him on one of the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC that I can buy into and, I think, brings this all together.  So, consider this:

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . . ."

Happy Independence Day, all you Americans.  Cling to your guns if you will, but cling tighter to your religion.  Consider that.

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, cling to guns and religion