As a practicing Lutheran, I am dismayed at the continuing evasiveness of the church leadership and their appointees on the Task Force on Sexuality in addressing the issue of where the church stands on the issue of endorsing homosexuality. Clearly the leadership of the church in Chicago wants to allow gay ordination and wants to support blessing of same sex unions, but they have been unable to get this culturally liberal position past the rank and file. The latest effort to ignore scripture, natural law and the will of the church membership is embodied in the latest recommendations of the Task Force on Sexuality on the subject of ordination of homosexual pastors.

In 2001, the church, responding to continued pressure from gay advocates, launched an expensive, multi-year, churchwide study on sexuality. The process is near a conclusion with the issuance of the Task Force’s final report and recommendations. The report, a proposed Social Statement on Sexuality, entitled “Gift and Trust” was issued on February 19. The “Recommendations on Ministry Policies,” issued at the same time, defy the previous will of the governed.

First of all, although the Task Force was specifically charged by the Churchwide Assembly in 2007 to come back with actual recommendations on Ordination, the Task Force chose to punt. It’s first two recommendations send back to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly (which will have representatives from the entire denomination) the question of “Do we (the Churchwide Assembly) want to actually respect committed homosexual relationships, yes or no.” Excuse me, the Churchwide Assembly voted 2 to 1 in 2005 not to create a ritual to bless committed homosexual relationships in any manner resembling marriage. The churchwide study revealed that the church population in toto rejected doing so by nearly 2 to 1. Only 23% of those surveyed actually favored blessing homosexual relationships and ordaining practicing homosexuals in committed relationships

Then the Task Force punted on the other critical question of ordination, throwing it back to this year’s 2009 Churchwide Assembly. Again, they asked – “What is the will of the Churchwide Assembly on ordaining gays in committed relationships?” – you take a vote, we can’t decide. Excuse me again, the Task Force was specifically asked to deal with this thorny question and make recommendations this year. They evaded their task even as they try to advance their obvious conclusion that we should ordain homosexuals. After all, once recommendations #1 and #2 are approved by the Chuchwide Assmbly (should they actually be approved, after all we can’t decide), the Task Force recommends endorsing Recommendation #4 which provides for “Structured Flexibility”, otherwise known as the “Local Option”. Local congregations and Synods can do whatever they want.   The Churchwide Assembly already decided this issue as well. In 2005, they voted not to change the prevailing policies prohibiting gay ordination. The vote was a clear majority against changing policies which would have actually required a two thirds vote to pass. Every amendment which was offered to liberalize the policies more crisply was defeated by nearly 2 to 1. Clearly, the church as a whole does not want to change its policies on sanctioning and blessing and ordaining those in gay relationships – committed, lifelong or whatever. 

What the Church has agreed upon, in both the votes of the Churchwide Assembly in 2005 and the continuing recommendations of the Task Force, is that they want the Lutherans (ELCA) to stick together, in spite of their differences on these critical issues. Agree to disagree; respect each others’ consciences, read the scripture, pray, do good works, and above all, abide in Jesus, his word and his way and his mission. 

So why am I dismayed:

·        Because the leadership will not let this matter rest, in spite of the clear will of the governed that says let the current policies stand. They are determined to keep re-opening the question until this church, as the Episcopalians have unfortunately done, embraces cultural relativism and the homosexual agenda.

·        Because the Task Force pretends to not have a consensus or is unable to take a tough stand. By throwing the matter back to the Churchwide Assembly, they have failed in their purpose.

·        Because the expense in time, money and emotion is sapping the church of energy and alienating many without being willing to bless and release those who may not agree with a firm policy position, no matter what it is. At least the Catholics stand for something, and if you don’t like it you can leave or, in some cases, they will kick you out.

·        Because our culture is under attack by relativists, post-moderns, the mainstream media, Hollywood, socialists and those who would undermine traditional values and the family. In the midst of all this, the Lutheran Church continues to allow a vocal minority to dictates its social agenda and is too weak to settle the matter once and for all.

The 2009 Churchwide Assembly may turn into another circus once again unless they enforce the rules, kick the rabble-rousers out and take a straight vote once and for all. Stop the studies; stop the obfuscation – what does this church stand for? I can’t belong to a church that doesn’t know what it believes or muffles it in fence-sitting theological language in a desperate effort not to offend anyone. By doing so, they offend us all, gay and straight, traditional and liberal.

Footnote 1: The people don’t want the homosexual agenda – only a virulent minority of elitists. These statistics are accurate, but have not been updated with the latest votes which continue the trend:

·        In Scandinavia, over 50% of births are out of wedlock. In Denmark, 60 % of first born children are born out of wedlock. These were once Lutheran countries

·        In the United States, more than 1 in 3 children is born out of wedlock

·        ELCA has 4.9 million members

·        A mere 14 openly homosexual seminarians or clergy serve in ELCA churches, according to the San Francisco-based Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries.

·        Of 28,000 respondents to the Task Force study

§         56% oppose blessing and rostering (ordination)

§         23% favor blessing and rostering (ordination)

§         21% are in the middle or have no clear opinion

·        Best estimates are that 2-3 % of the population may characterize themselves as homosexual

·        In 1996 Congress passed the “Defense of Marriage Act” by 85 to 14 in the Senate and 342 to 67 in the House and Democratic President Clinton signed the bill

·        38 States, including North Carolina, have passed state laws protecting marriage

·        In November, 2004, 11 out of 11 states passed referenda and constitutional amendments banning gay marriage by majorities ranging from 57% in Oregon to 86% in Mississippi. The overall popular vote in these contests was an average 70% against gay marriage.

Footnote 2: 

The original Report of the Task Force in 2005 was a marvel of Lutheran obfuscation. The best commentary to date was made by veteran Lutheran observer Garrison Keillor (Prarie Home Companion) who said:

After three years, the Task Force “puts out a report which nobody can understand which says that essentially nothing has changed, and yet some things have changed, but we don’t approve of that and yet if you went ahead on a basis of conscience and did what you wanted to do, don’t worry about us coming after you because we wouldn’t do it. It’s sort of a don’t ask, don’t tell, never mind position.”

“And out comes the report and nobody can really be that angry about it because its made up of all this mish mash, this beautiful mish mash and these sentences that are like extruded marshmallow.”

“And so peace is kept on the basis of confusion. A Lutheran art to achieve strength through indirection and vagueness.”

A Prarie Home Companion, “The News From Lake Wobegon,” January 22, 2005

I have voted for John McCain, Sarah Palin, Pat McCrory and Elizabeth Dole. All are conservative, experienced leaders with demonstrated good judgment.

With McCain, we get a man we have known for over 40 years, a public servant whose personal history and career are documented and transparent. He is a war hero, a recognized national leader, and someone who has proven he will put principle above party. Obama is simply the least experienced and least qualified candidate for President which either major party has nominated in my lifetime. We do not know his life, we do not know his principles, and he is an image without substance. There are four areas of consideration for me. In all areas, McCain stands for what is core to American values and tradition, while Obama does not:

Security

McCain:

·        Attended the Naval Academy

·        His father and grandfather were distinguished Naval officers

·        Commanded a fighter plane squadron in the Navy and was in the Navy for a good part of his career

·        Was a POW for over 5 years

·        Served as Pentagon liaison with Capitol Hill

·        Led the rapprochement with Viet Nam, while advancing the cause of MIAs

·        Chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years

·        Took initiative to solve the illegal immigration problem by crafting and sponsoring an unpopular bill on “comprehensive immigration reform” (which I opposed by the way, but I respect his leadership in tackling the issue)

·        Advocated for and helped formulate the strategy for the “Surge” which has helped turn the tide in Iraq

·        From day one, will be respected, not tested by our enemies and allies

·        Senator and Mrs. McCain are proud to be Americans

Obama:

·        Will invite foreign challenges and crisis because of his pacifism and lack of experience. He is perceived as weak and will, according to “foreign affairs expert” Joe Biden, invite an international crisis of the magnitude of the Cuban Missile Crisis within 6 months of beginning his administration

·        Wants to negotiate at the Presidential level with enemy country leaders without pre-conditions

·        Hasn’t a clue on foreign affairs and national defense

·        Will coddle our enemies

·        Believes in the UN and internationalism, not a prudent nationalism and American sovereignty

·        Cares more about what European countries and the middle eastern street think about us than what will protect our children

·        Has no personal experience of nor respect for the military forces and operations of the United States

·        Has a vast network of connections with radical Islamists in the United States

·        Actively supports suspension, severe limits and taxes on the right to bear arms

·        Refuses to document his American citizenship - either through his actually having been born on Hawaiian soil, not Kenyan, and by failing to produce evidence of re-adopting U.S. citizenship after having been a documented citizen of Indonesia

·        Had his Harvard Law education partially paid for by Khalid al-Mansour who apparently raised the money from Saudi Arabia. Al-Mansour is a radical anti-American Islamist who is an American

·        Has substantial un-explained campaign funding through foreign credit cards and other avenues which are un-traceable. There is evidence of substantial middle eastern involvement in funding his campaign

·        It is not clear how proud Senator and Mrs. Obama are to be American

Economics

McCain:

·        Believes fundamentally in the free market

·        Believes in policies that support capital formation

·        Wants to control and reduce government spending

·        Is opposed to new taxes and wants to reduce and simplify them overall

·        Headed the Senate Banking and Commerce Committee for several years

·        Wants government out of the way of small business

·        Supports a health care solution which will work with free markets and minimize government intervention and control

·        Supports “all of the above” approach to domestic energy production, including nuclear power and clean coal technology

Obama:

·        Wants bigger government which will control more of our lives

·        Laments the fact that the Supreme Court has not mandated redistribution of wealth as a “civil right”

·        Believes capital is an evil influence

·        Has lied about his tax and spending plans which do not add up. The lapse of the Bush tax cuts which will occur in 2010 will affect all tax payers. The Bush tax cuts themselves provided cuts to all brackets, not just the highest income earners. In addition to these increases,  there is a special wealth tax contemplated for those earning over some number – we know not what. It may be $250K (Obama), $200K (Biden), $120K (Richardson), or $42K (Obama). Obama’s “tax cut” actually includes an outright cash distribution to the 40% who pay no income taxes.

·        He is driving his campaign with the winds of class warfare

·        Is effectively driven by a socialist ideology documented in his Marxist studies at Columbia, his community organizing in Chicago, his votes in the Illinois Senate and his position as most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate.

·        Will drive us towards a government-run health care system which will reduce choice and degrade quality

·        His proposed “Universal Voluntary Public Service” program will be a taxpayer funded indoctrination vehicle for left-wing confrontational politics and community re-alignment

·        Supports “green” energy only. Dislikes fossil fuels and nuclear power

Culture

McCain:

·        Supports the traditional family

·        Has American roots and perspectives. He grew up in America in an American family. His father and grandfather were Naval officers of distinction

·        Believes in a judiciary which will interpret the law, not legislate from the bench

Obama:

·        Will appoint judges throughout the federal judiciary who redefine how society should operate, not interpret the constitution

·        Favors homosexual unions, marriage and adoptions

·        Favors all flavors of abortion, including late term abortion and letting babies who survive abortion die in the trash bin without medical care

·        Opposes parental notification for underage abortions

·        Believes in a communal culture

·        Has demonstrated a fascist, vindictive approach to government control reminiscent of dictatorship – the investigations of Joe the Plumber and the tossing of reporters from the Dallas News, the New York Post and the Washington Times off his plane as soon as those papers endorsed McCain. His staff is vindictive and obsessive.

·        Has agitated for and funded radical political activities in Chicago schools

·        Is a cultural mixture – black, white, mixed racial, American, Indonesian, Kenyan, Christian, Moslem, socialist, capitalist – fundamentally ambiguous and only defined for situational political advantage

Character

McCain:

·        Has a lifelong record of service to our country

·        Demonstrated with his courage and principled choices during 5 ½ years in the Viet Nam POW camp that he had America’s interests and his fellow American soldiers’ interests at heart. He did not put himself first.

·        Has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to go against the grain in the Senate and in the Republican Party over matters of principle. Has demonstrated collaboration with Democrats including Kennedy and Feingold.

·        Has adopted and raised a child from the far east who had significant health problems

Obama:

·        Has lied about his relationships with Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, the convicted Tony Rezko and numerous others

·        Has vast undocumented chapters in his personal history

·        Has changed his positions since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee on everything from leaving Iraq, the surge, public finance of his election, gun rights to nuclear power. Says whatever he thinks will get him elected without regard to what he said a month ago

·        Has repeatedly lied about his religion. He was raised as a Moslem, just as I was raised as a Catholic. He is now a Christian, just as I became an atheist but am now a Lutheran. I don’t lie about it. He spent 20 years in Jeremiah Wright’s church in Chicago, the man who married him and baptized his children, but he claims he never heard a word of Wright’s racist, anti-American “liberation theology”. This is not credible coming from a smart man

·        Has provided no information on what he wrote or did as Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Why has there been no data on this?

·        Spent large parts of his undergraduate years choosing Marxist and radical friends and studying left wing ideology

·        Has documented his own extensive cocaine, alcohol and marijuana use as a youth in Hawaii and while an undergraduate. While this was a big issue for previous politicians, it is not even considered in evaluating his character in today’s pro-Obama media

·        Has never gone against the Chicago political machine which spawned him

·        Has had shady personal real estate dealings with the convicted Tony Rezko

·        Has left his brother behind in a shack in Kenya and left his aunt in public housing in Boston

·        Preferred to vote “present” rather than taking a stand on issues in the Illinois Senate

Sincerely,

A Conservative from North Carolina

 The Outrage of the Day for Thursday 5/10/07

Japan's first "baby hatch" where parents can drop off unwanted infants anonymously opened Thursday despite opposition from the conservative national government.  The baby hatch, modeled on a project in Germany, went into operation at a Roman Catholic hospital 560 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Now there are three ways to get rid of your baby.

1.  Abort - preferably late and violently

2.  Dump the child in a trash bin after giving birth - preferably in a motel laundry room with your 17 year old boyfriend present

3.  Fly to Japan and dispose of the child humanely where Nuns and nurses can take care of him properly.

For the morally sensitive, this presents quite a dilemma.  As a student of philosophy, I could certainly make arguments in several directions regarding which is the preferable path.  After all, the baby hatch is better than the laundry room bin.

There are apparently many abortions in Japan.  The birth rate is dwindling. 

And so our society has come to this.  It is really just a drive by adoption.  And we all know adoption is better than abortion.  It's kind of like returning the books to the library in the bin outside - better to do that than be late another week waiting to get inside and pay your overdue fine with the librarian.

I believe in God's will.  I don't believe birth control is wrong, unlike the Catholics (I grew up Catholic.)  I think it is highly ethical to prevent conception if you aren't prepared to father or mother a child.  If you have a child, you have a moral obligation to care for her.  If you can't, for whatever reason, you have a moral obligation to arrange the best foster home possible.  While the end result of a hatch adoption may be acceptable for the child, the perpetrator falls woefully short on moral performance.

But what does it say about the society in Germany and Japan that we find this acceptable?  This would never happen in America.  Oh, I forgot, half our society thinks the most important civil right in the constitution is an implied right (based on privacy) to kill babies.   Be sure to vote for Hillary so that your constitutional rights can be protected. 

Nicoloas Sarkozy, France's President-Elect, was criticized by political enemies Wednesday after refusing to apologize for a post-election luxury yacht trip amid violent protests over the election result.

Sarkozy whisked his wife and son off for a tour around Malta a day after his election Sunday.  "I have no intention of apologizing",  "I'm taking two and a half days.  I don't think anyone can argue with that."

Former Socialist Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou called Sarkozy's escapade "scandalous" and "indecent."

Let's see, the Socialists lose, their "scum" youth throw violent riots in the street, it is the winner's fault, and he should forgo a much deserved vacation after difficult campaigning to wring his hands over the violence caused by those who lost.  Perhaps they need a dialogue - can't we all just get along?

As usual, the left has everything backwards.  The perpetrators are to blame, not the President-Elect.  Throw the rioters in jail - better yet, use rubber bullets.

 

Media companies support offensive “ho” language routinely. They broadcast it on music stations that play popular music and profit from it by producing music content of rap and heavy metal artists.

There is a double standard in media companies like CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Universal, the record companies and among Hollywood and New York media executives like David Geffen.

"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision (to fire Don Imus).

Black rap “artists” routinely use offensive and violence-inciting language, language which is racist and derogatory to women. The term “ho,” a street pronunciation of whore, is the poster child for the cultural achievements of rap music. It is black male rappers who have popularized this language.

Without doing the research (and I am hoping someone like the Media Research Center will do so), I am sure that these media companies and executives have many rap artists in their portfolio of material and are making money off of this very same language which CEO Moonves claims to deplore. Sean Hannity has divulged that no less a feminist and friend of African-Americans than Hillary Clinton received $800,000 from a fund raising party four weeks ago at the home of a rap producer and poet who wrote a single song with 24 uses of the n word.

Why are the media companies so irresponsible on this and why is Don Imus, who has made outrageous comments every day for 30 years taking the “rap”? Why is there a double standard among the liberal media crowd and black activists? Let’s deal with the black rappers too. I’m sure the young women whom Mr. Moonves is so worried about listen to a lot more rap music than they listen to Imus in the Morning. If their sensitive ears can’t take him, why can they take the music on the airwaves and on the cds that is equally offensive, no, more so. Please mainstream media, owners of nasty cd producers, how about some investigation into your own “sins”?

The manifest strategy of all the liberal commentary on the Republican candidates and the recent Republican debate is to try to drive a wedge between any candidate with a strong chance and their natural constituency.  The media wants to scare the religious right with Romney's Mormonism and scare the values traditionalists with Giuliani's reasoned stance on abortion. 

Guess what.  Romney, as all Mormons, shares a strong belief in God, family, hard work and traditional values.  Mormonism is a valid religion, not a cult.  Why is the liberal media, who are so loathe to criticize anyone Muslim or Wiccan, nor even point out their religion, suddenly so frightened by diversity, one of their most treasured values.  Actually they're not; they're just trying to fracture Republicans.

Giuliani fights against obscene artistic displays using public money and really does care about both life and the conscience of moral agony, decisions which need to be made in Fear and Trembling, with full counsel of spouse/partner, clergy, doctor and family. 

And McCain supports the Iraq mission because of his substantial foreign policy and defense experience, not out of some blind adherence to the current administration - whom he has been very willing to challenge when appropriate.

Don't let the liberal media create the agenda for the Republican debate.