The Great Separation

Oklahoma Pastor Slain.

Horrific - This is a stunning crime of hatred:

Slaying details of Oklahoma City pastor shocking
SLAIN PASTOR WAS DISCOVERED NUDE IN A ‘CRUCIFIX POSITION’ AT ANADARKO CHURCH

Police found the mutilated body of the Rev. Carol Daniels in a "crucifix position” behind her church altar last Sunday, The Oklahoman learned from sources close to the investigation.

Sources confirmed that Daniels’ bloodied corpse appeared to have been left in the form of a cross with both arms outstretched to the sides. Sources also said investigators were disturbed by two other facts at the crime scene....

Be sure to be in prayer for her family and this community.

Oh, if you follow the link there is a news cast report on the page.

Thought on Hate Crime Legislation

Coming quickly with four horseman - Last night, as I lay my head down to sleep following a busy weekend and a good Bible study at church on 1 Peter 4, a thought came to mind about hate crime legislation. And no, it's not that it's a redundant term since crime involves hate of someone or something, like law.

My thought was:

Hate crimes legislation is designed not to enable justice among the people but instead it is designed to engender fear and produce inequalities.

Amazon Bans Gang Rape Video Game.

After the fact - When did perversion become common place and marketable?

I saw this article over the weekend. It makes me ill to know that someone out there thinks it would be loads of fun to simulate gang raping a woman, virtual or not.

Here's the article link:

Rapelay virtual rape game banned by Amazon 

In Rapelay, gamers direct a character to sexually assault a mother and her two young daughters at an underground station, before raping any of a selection female characters.

The game was intended for release just in Japan, but was on offer to British buyers through Amazon Marketplace, the section of the online store's website open to third-party sellers.

But Amazon has now withdrawn the game after complaints from users, deeming it to be inappropriate. "We determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item," a spokeswoman said.

Frankly I am shocked that it took complaints from users of Amazon for them to find this material "inappropriate."

Not only is it inappropriate, but it's detestable and frankly I think it could be argued that it's a harm upon society.

God does not want us to dwell upon such things let alone act them out in our house again and again with a video game so that we become numb to such a horrible act.

It saddens me to think about what kind of society we are becoming.

Manhunt Going Down in My Town.

Who can sleep? - It's 11:11 pm Eastern and there's a sheriff helicopter buzzing overhead and I can look out my window and see a cop car with lights flashing on the corner.

There is definitely some kind of manhunt going down. They've got my street locked down from the looks of it. For the past hour sirens have been sounding all over the neighborhood.

I even heard a fire engine ten minutes ago.

I'd like to go out and find out what's going down but I don't think that they would like that.

And since it's very dark out, I think I'll just stay put and see if the thwap-thwap of the chopper blades can lull me into a peaceful sleep. \

:-/

Update: 01-27-2009:

Took me a while to fall asleep with the police lights bouncing off my blinds and the helicopter doing sweeps. But I eventually I did.

I have no idea what happened though. The news this morning was silent on the events of last night.

Oh, well, life thankfully goes on.

Religion is Compared to Smoking in Public Place.

Light'em if you got 'em. - Good grief, it's amazing what papers will print in their opinion pages. The nwfDailyNews has an opinion article where the writer compares religion to smoking. It's apparently a reaction to A lawsuit brought upon the Escambia schools for having prayer in schools.

The writer of the opinion piece, Religious addiction, draws the analogy that religion is like smoking in public places. And so, like the laws governing smoking in public places, religion should also be eradicated in public places.

Religion is like smoking. In moderation, it can be very satisfying; in excess, it becomes an addiction. Those of us who don't smoke or practice a religion just want to go about our lives being smoke-free and religion-free. Smoking laws and religion laws do not stop their practitioners from doing either - they just protect those of us who think the habit is unhealthy, yet still allow those who want to do so to continue in their own environment.

Of course the problem I see with this analogy is that there are a number of people not satisfied to keep people from smoking in public places, they also insist that people be kept from smoking in their cars and in their homes. I wonder if that same path will eventually be taken for those practicing religion?

The Great Separation continues.

Muslim Kiddie Show Encourages Cutting off Hand of Theiving Bunny.

Is this a religion of peace? - Here is a link to the religion that the enemies of America wish to force by violence upon the world.

WND | Children TV viewers: 'Chop off his hand'.

A children's television program broadcast by the recognized terrorist organization Hamas welcomed child viewers to decide the fate of a thieving pink bunny, whom the children sentenced to having his hand chopped off for his crime.

The children's program is titled, "The Pioneers of Tomorrow."

You can find the video clip here.

A Weapon Against the Family.

Garbage in, Garbage Out - Here's a great article well worth reading concerning pornography and the argument of free speech. It's by Alan Sears:

Pornography Pretensions:

The defenders of the indefensible work hard to persuade us – and, perhaps, themselves – that pornography is nothing more than the harmless indulgence of “consenting” adults to color outside the lines of convention. “You can’t legislate morality,” they say.

But the truth is, you can’t legislate anything else.

Pornography is one of Satan's biggest tools when it comes to destroying the family structure in society. It strikes at the heart of the man primarily and focuses him on his own selfish desires. It perverts the image of women that God desires us to have and it chains man to sin leading down an ever darker road and ultimately death.

In a related article, WND reports:

Can you see me naked now? Cell phone giant wants skin: Virgin Mobile donates clothing every time 5 people watch you undress.

Virgin Mobile's "Strip2Clothe" website displays the campaign slogan, "You take off yours, we donate ours" and "Somewhere someone out there needs clothes more than you." It promises to make a clothing donation to homeless youth every time five people watch the striptease videos.

The website asks that there be no cursing or full nudity. "Think bathing suit, not birthday suit," it says. However, several entries feature young women dancing in bras and panties.

The Great Separation continues.

Video Game Mayhem, Violence, and Barbarism.

Garbage in, Garbage puked out over all society. - The video game industry and those excited about huge profits in the finance industry are all agog over the latest installment of "Grand Theft Auto IV".

Having once worked in the retail side of the video game industry for more years then I care to remember, I have long since proclaimed the dangers and depths of depravity that the industry is delving into which are impacting our society.

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman has a notable commentary over at LifeSiteNews.com that is worth reading, particularly if your a parent with video game playing kids.

The debut of "Grand Theft Auto IV", a highly-realistic video game in which players "win" by committing violent criminal acts, is notable for several reasons, but most importantly because of what it says about a society that is engaged in an orgy of self-destruction, and cannot even recognize what is happening.

The Grand Theft Auto series makes the player into a criminal who wins points by stealing cars, assassinating rivals, killing police, running over pedestrians, and even murdering a prostitute with a baseball bat rather than paying her. It is, in short, a game that glorifies brutal criminality and enables players to fantasize their participation in mind-numbing barbarism.

Hoffman notes how one video game player waiting in line to get a copy reacted to the big release day of the game. The gamer stabbed a passer-by. You can read about that episode on the Telegraph.

Not to be out done by Londoners, I suppose, another punk in San Diego attacked store clerks on the big release day of the game. Mercury News has that story.

What does the Scripture offer as advice when it comes to our entertainment choices? Here's a good verse worth looking into:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” (Php 4:8 NIV)

The Great Separation continues.

A Spirit of Violence Permeates the Land.

Repent! - By now only those who are disconnected from all forms of media, aka, those hermits living in a cave, have yet to hear about the cheerleaders who spent thirty minutes gang banging a fellow student. Bad enough as kidnapping and abusing a person is, it is even more horrifying to me that they would post the video to the Internet with the obvious intent of glorifying the deed.

What kind of human beings are these girls? And what do they think of the rest of humanity that they would display their sin proudly to the rest of the world?

But this is not an isolated incident. We hear more and more reports along these lines as this item that I just spied today: 'Fight Club' Busted at Local High School.

Or there's this item of a young mother's terribly violent murder of her six year old daughter: Mom stabbed girl because of demon.

Did you happen to see the terrible news about the two-year-old girl beat to death with a video game controller by her mother's boyfriend?

Looking at these stories, music and movies, and the youth that I deal with in the ministries at my church it has become clear to me that there is a spirit of violence that is soaked into the hearts and minds of men and women in our land.

I'm reminded of this Scripture.

“Say to the people of the land: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: They will eat their food in anxiety and drink their water in despair, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there.” (Eze 12:19 NIV)

From what does this attitude, this spirit, come?

Some will say, and perhaps with some validity that it is economic pressures, though the teenagers I'm sure are not experiencing such pressures. Some may say one of their problems is excess.

Others might say it is a reaction to the stress of a world at war, and that too may have some truth, but the reality is that war with terrorism across the ocean does not effect the daily lives of people here in America.

I believe that one of the primary reasons for this violence is that society has been told that life is an accident, via the mantra of evolution. Add to that the promotion of abortion and that the life within a woman's womb is said to be mere tissue until it escapes into the air and I find a nation of people unconcerned about life, about people, and about themselves.

In essence man has said there is no God, and our children, unknowing to their condition, are reacting in violence to the hole in their spirit that aches to be filled with the love of God, Jesus Christ.

As a nation and as individuals we must repent of the violence in our lives and seek the forgiveness of Jesus or I fear our land is in for much darker times.

Illegal to Feed Animals in Florida Town.

PETA would be proud - Well, according to the law just passed in a small Florida town it just became illegal to feed any animal.

Here's a link to the news article by Anne Lindberg: Duck if you feed wild animals.

You've got to love that title.

The ordinance springs out an intense dislike by several folk in the city for the Muscovy Duck which populates the city. These ducks are not considered wildlife. Several folk, including a council member wanted to make it illegal to feed the ducks because they consider the ducks a messy nuisance. So a new ordinance was drafted to fine anyone for feeding them some crumbs.

Here's how the new ordinance reads:

"It shall be unlawful for any person in the town to feed or distribute grain or food of any kind or nature to any wild flock of birds, fowl, including chickens or ducks, livestock or mammals of any kind or nature, whether or not they tend to assemble or herd themselves together in a concentrated area."

So, the way that reads to me - and admittedly I am no lawyer and just a common sense kind of dude - anyone with a bird feeder in a tree must stop putting bird seed in it or face a fine. And oh my, if you're the type to sit on the bench and throw a peanut to a squirrel, you better look over you're shoulder and see if the police are watching.

Good grief, I just realized I could get fined in this American city for sitting at the edge of one of it's numerous lakes for the pleasure of feeding the turtles some bread.

But not only that, this ordinance appears so broad to me that it now becomes a violation to feed pets. For surely, a dog or a cat meets the qualification of being a mammal.

Apparently, one of the council people thought PETA made a good source for designing this ordinance as he read from one of their propaganda brochures.

Of course PETA might not be so happy to hear that it appears one of the Kenneth City's police officers was accused of pepper spraying one of the Muscovy Ducks.

You know what one of the problems with government officials is? They feel they must be passing some law in order to justify their existence.

I wish I could say April Fools. But this town apparently isn't joking and April is a long way off.

Updated thought 2007/11/20:

It occurs to me that it could very well be illegal for restaurants to serve food within the confines of Kenneth City based upon the way this ordinance reads. People are mammals. Hmm... strictly speaking I guess mom's can't feed their kids breakfast before sending them out to school either.