Commentary Telling It Like It Is To Those That Might Not Want To Hear It & Links To News Around The Internet
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Student Seeks To End Summertime Mental Enslavement
While the case of a student suing his school on the grounds that summer homework ruined his vacation might not be the best use of the nation's overly burdened court system, the lad does have a bit of a point.
On what grounds, exactly, do schools have the right to compel students to complete assignments during those times of the year when students are not under the school's legal authority?
The school claims these requirements are not an undue imposition since they only apply to honors courses in which the plaintiff volunteered to participate.
While that might apply to this particular Wisconsin jurisdiction in question, it does not settle the matter on a broader philosophical level as some schools such as those in Prince William County, Virginia I wrote about way back in the mid 90’s do not make it an honor's only requirement but rather mandate that all students do book reports and such over the summer.
In the same spirit as that motivating Bill Clinton when he said he opposed tax cuts on the grounds Americans would not know how to spend their own money properly, educrats claim students not given assignments to do over the break would otherwise allow their brains to whither. What of it?
Since the brains belong to the students and under the custodianship of their parents, aren’t they free to do with them as they see fit when school is not in session? Besides, other than basic reading, who uses most of what they learned in school anyway?
Maybe if schools did not devote so many resources to intellectually dubious pursuits such as diversity appreciation, environmental awareness, and indoctrination in evolution, schools would have more than enough time to teach those essentials education propagandists insist there isn’t enough hours in the day (and hence the year) to teach.
For students still ensnared for whatever reasons in the clutches of the public education leviathan, these institutions for whatever reason, these institutions serve as centers of indoctrination in the ideology of total state control. For what other lesson do students learn from summertime homework than that, even when not on duty, their lives belong to those running the New World Order?
Copyright 2005 by Frederick Meekins
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Enterprise Cancelled
Seems now that this show is finally worth watching, it's having its warp drive yanked out from under it.
The show, I think, has had it's best season thus far as the "mini-arcs" combined the best aspects of stand-alone episodes and last year's on-going Xindi storyline.
Frankly, some of this year's episodes have presented some of the best Trek stories in the series, especially the conclusion of the Temporal War involving time traveling aliens aiding the Nazis, the trilogy examining Vulcan politics and spirituality, and the return of Brent Spiner as a mad geneticist in part responsible for the infamous Eugenics Wars.
But with Sci-Fi channel's Friday night lineup of "Stargate: SG1", "Stargate: Atlantis", and "Battlestar Galactica", I guess dinky little Enterprise couldn't keep up. Guess UPN needed more smutty comedies appealling to humanity's baser nature rather than something that stimulated thoughtful imagination.
Unless my calculations are incorrect, the upcoming 2005/2006 season will be the first without some kind of Star Trek on the air in 18 years.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Government Releases List Of So-Called "Real Colleges"
The government has released a database of schools accredited in a manner approved by the Department of Education.
The purpose of the database is to serve as a reference to protect employers from hiring those whose credentials come from so-called diploma mills. Often these schools require little more than a check to acquire a degree.
However, the database may also stifle the innovations in distance education that have arisen over the past few years since it equates "unaccredited" with "underhanded". Already the Washington DC Fox affiliate, WTTG Channel 5, is calling it a "List Of Real Colleges and Universities", making no distinction between the unaccredited schools that require a significant amount of work and those that merely accept your check and will even pad your grades based on what one is willing to pay.
Education bureaucrats and even a few misguided Congressional Representatives argue such oversight is necessary to protect the American people from those wielding faulty degrees. You know, the usual rubbish about Homeland Security and all.
But apart from certain professions such as medicine, does it really matter where someone has acquired their knowledge? Why should someone whose been to Harvard automatically be considered more intelligent than someone who has gained as much wisdom and experience (if not more and probably of better quality not intellectually contaminated by the radicalism of subversive academics)through a life of independent study and career experience in fields say such as business, government, or journalism? Who is actually more deserving of the appellation of "doctor"?
Is education, after all, a measure of the knowledge one has acquired or how many hours one has wasted under the yolk of windbags that couldn't find employment doing anything else?
Some might not have much of a problem with the government decreeing which schools are or are not legitimate. But in this day when national security and the increasing complexity of life are constantly invoked to justify increasing levels of intrusion into our lives, what's to prevent a similar approach being taken in determining which churches are deemed acceptable in terms of promulgating governmentally sanctioned theology?
Copyright 2005 by Frederick Meekins
Monday, January 31, 2005
Billboard Of The Beast
Often in discussions of the the Mark of the Beast, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the technological aspects that will control all economic transactions and be a form of survelliance, one often forgets it is also a statement ultimately about who owns us.
Though this moron won't be going to hell for his stupidty and it could probably be said he is as dumb as those nether regions, this idiot that sold his forehead as a billboard provides a bit of prophetic insight into developments coming down the eschatological pike.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Students Suspended Over Homicidal Stick Figures
Aren't schools so much better since we have gotten rid of prayer and the Christian assumptions upon which prayer was based?
Instead of having the matter addressed at the classroom level since that might mentally scar the little darlings, we automatically call in the police.
Had the students said this was merely homoerotic art, they'd probably be heralded as creative geniuses and given a government grant.
So much more free now, aren't we?
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Nearly 85% Of Blacks On Food Stamps
This story first caught my eye in the Jan 2005 issue of the Futurist.
It is in reference to a Cornell University study so one can hardly blame it on right-wing Republican propaganda.
And speaking of Republicans, over the past several days, a number of Republicans (including President Bush) have stirred up a fuss that Blacks are cheated out of Social Security because on average they do not live as long as Caucasians and such.
From this story, it seems that particular ethnic group more than makes up for it in terms of other welfare entitlement programs though.
Are we going to release comments to the media that Food Stamps are a bad investment of White dollars and that we should instead go to a program of privatized nutritional accounts?
Some courageous academic or think tank scholar should do a study to determine if the reduced statistical longevity has anything to do with the larcenous activity younger members of this demographic are known to wallow in.
Maybe if they would behave themselves, there would be more of them around to collect their Social Security checks.
Maybe if their food stamp allowances were cut, they wouldn’t have as much time on their hands and thus have a better chance of making it to retirement since their time would be spent on work and self improvement rather than seeing how much trouble they can get into.
Interesting, isn’t it, how the government is eager to cut out a program you work to qualify for but seems bent on expanding the scope of unearned handouts?
Copyright 2005 by Frederick B. Meekins
Monday, January 24, 2005
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Teats For Tots: Holiday Season Gets Whole New Kind Of Ho Ho Ho
When shoppers head to the store during the Christmas season, it is assumed the price is borne by the party giving the gift. However, should these yuletide bequeathals originate from questionable sources, the price extracted can in fact be too high for the recipient.
Though allegedly an act of selflessness and altruism, the act of gift giving is as much about bringing praise and a sense of self-satisfaction to the giver. The act, in fact, bestows a degree of legitimacy upon the giver in the eyes of the receiver and can boost the ego or esteem of the party giving the gift.
This oft-denied reality bounced to the surface this past Christmas quicker than a Hooter girl on a trampoline when the even more ribald counterparts of these risque serving wenches attempted to create a favorable impression of their questionable profession.
In 2003, floozies from Teaser’s strip club distributed toys at the Statesville, North Carolina housing project. This past Christmas, however, administrators declined donations from these purveyors of the lust of the flesh.
The problem is not so much with these loose women and their patrons wanting to spread Christmas cheer to children who allegedly won’t have anything under their trees (apparently these people have never heard of dollar or thrift stores) but rather the way in which these seductresses have gone about doing so in the past.
Often those playing secret Santa deposit their gifts on the doorsteps of the economically challenged, never revealing their identities. No doubt that is why the word “secret” is emphasized; apparently there’s something about the concept ditzy blondes cannot seem to grasp as they distributed the gifts in such an ostentatious manner that they would make a pimp’s tailor blush.
Instead of quietly distributing the gifts under the cover of evening, these ladies of the twilight showed up in limousines and scanty outfits. Those opposed to these titillating histrionics where accused of having a 1940’s mentality (certain aspects of which might actually do us some good).
But perhaps even worse and even more shocking is one of the sources of support for these women of questionable repute. Pastor Jeff Porter of the First Baptist Church of Statesville told the Record and Landmark that the holidays are when differences are to be set aside because “Christmas gives us the chance to cross barriers for the less fortunate. The Bible is full of times when folks of all backgrounds took one step closer to God by acting like Jesus.”
In other words, we ought to set aside our most cherished values and beliefs. Interesting, isn’t it, how those holding to traditional standards are expected to lower them rather then requiring those in the gutter to elevate themselves. The Bible is indeed full of examples where individuals of all backgrounds “took one step closer to God by acting like Jesus.”
However, such accounts of redemption were only accomplished by committing one’s life to the standards to which Christ has called us. It may come as a shock, but there is more to the Biblical message than the proto-Marxian redistribution of goods and property of the hippy Jesus promulgated by apostate ecclesiastical syndicates such as the National Council of Churches.
While Jesus did stress the need to assist the downtrodden, even more central to His message was the condemnation of sin throughout the course of His ministry. Thus, how can individuals claim to be acting in the Lord’s name when they don’t believe sin actually exists, for if they believed sin did they would not take their cloths off in public or advertise that they do so without embarrassment.
Jesus kept His pants on. Shouldn’t those eager to follow His example do the same?
Try as religious liberals might to excuse various transgressions such as homosexuality and fornication by obfuscating Biblical injunctions against these acts, there is little that can be done to deny the connection between acknowledging one’s sin nature and the shame of public nudity.
In Genesis 2:25, before falling into sin, it says Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. But after eating of the forbidden fruit, Genesis 3 tells us Adam and Eve realized they needed to conceal their bodies now that sin pervaded every aspect of their being.
Ever since that day our first parents felt the need to cover up their privates, only two groups have countered the moral need for clothing. On the one hand, there are the ignorant such as the National Geographic jungle savages who know no better and on the other are those who unabashedly flout the standards of propriety and decorum.
The deep theological ramifications of nudity in the current dispensation aside, is it really wise to glamorize careers in the sleaze racket as impressionable young eyes look on? If you have no problem portraying strippers and exotic dancers in a favorable light and as pillars of the community, would you like your daughter, sister, or mother to take off her clothes off for a living in front of a bunch of dirty old men?
Furthermore, would you feel comfortable accepting Christmas gifts from a stripper who goes out of her way to make sure you and your child know she is a stripper? If not, why not?
Interesting how the most effusive proponents of hedonistic solipsism become as prudish (sometimes even more so) as the rest of us when their own children are involved. Kind of like how Madonna won’t let her own children watch TV but has made a career of thrusting her own bosoms into the face of the American people.
It has been said there is no such thing as a free lunch. The same could be said of gifts as well. For even though such items do not cost the recipient anything in terms of money, they can extract a price in terms of the indebted loyalty they end up demanding.
Copyright 2005 Frederick Meekins
Friday, January 21, 2005
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Friday, January 14, 2005
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Inaugural Pomp More Important Than Public Safety To Bush Admininstration
Thus, in the eyes of the Bush Administation, Inagural pomp out ranks public safety.
If things are that bad, maybe we ought not have Inagural festivities.
After all, we're told the rest of the time how this is Post-9/11 world and we can't do other things we use to do.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Saturday, January 08, 2005
Friday, January 07, 2005
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Burning Away Our Liberties
As many have no doubt heard by now, the nutcase that set himself on fire in front of the White House was a government informant. From his actions, makes you wonder what else he might have been on the government payroll to do or manipulated into possibly doing by his Machiavellian handlers.
Interestingly, these pyrotechnics weren’t the only street theater that transpired less than a week after the reopening of Pennsylvania Avenue to pedestrians. Those bent on fostering a nationwide siege-mentality did not have to wait long for the excuse they needed to turn the people’s boulevard into an off-limits thoroughfare once again.
Some will respond that, in this age of terrorism, we must accept changes to the way of life to which we were accustomed to in less dangerous times. Maybe so, but unless those alterations are in accord with clearly defined and publicly agreed upon rules, these measures are little more than a grab for power no matter how those in positions of authority make the situation sound.
Many of the so-called “security precautions” around the nation’s capital cannot be described any other way. A number, upon careful scrutiny, aren’t even based whatsoever on what civilized individuals classify as duly promulgated regulations but rather upon the arbitrary whims of petty bureaucrats intoxicated by their own delusions of self-importance.
Traditionally, government buildings and monuments in Washington have been admired as symbols of American justice and liberty. However, tourists exhibiting too much awe and enthusiasm for these physical manifestations of the nation’s might might come away from the experience now realizing these structures no longer adhere to the idealistic notions we have all been led to believe these agencies were allegedly created to safeguard.
WUSA TV 9, the Washington DC local CBS affiliate, reported tourists face possible arrest if caught photographing certain government buildings. Various agencies justified these punitive measures on the grounds of new regulations promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security.
Thing is, the Department of Homeland Security admits no such regulations exist prohibiting the photographing of government buildings. However, operatives within that agency insist it is acceptable for security forces to harass you as to what you are doing in areas open to the public.
Maybe some courageous patriot should remind errant authorities that in a free society citizens should not have to divulge such information unless they have actually done something wrong.
Yet even this reluctant admittance will not keep the enthusiasts of unbridled power from devising new ways of asserting their lust for domination over the American people. Even those loyal to our own system, but who endeavor to keep it within its intended bounds of authority, are not safe from these stifling tentacles.
In October, former Idaho Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage was pulled aside at an airport to receive an additional rifling through her person and possessions. She then inquired to see the regulation authorizing the additional scrutiny.
Her request was denied because the rule is itself deemed “too sensitive” to be looked upon by mere mortals (you’d think it was written across the Ark of the Covenant or something). Like a true patriot, Mrs. Chenoweth-Hage refused to submit and, at her own financial loss, decided not to fly.
Such regulations have little to do with security but are rather about conditioning the American people into accepting greater and greater intrusion into their lives. Today, we pliantly step aside to let the minions of the state fiddle with our belts or bra straps and to rummage through our underwear bags; where will it all end?
There have been threats of female bombers hiding explosives in their vaginas. Does that mean airport screeners will get to boff female passengers to make sure they aren’t concealing anything, with women and husbands objecting detained for not cheerfully placing evasive government directives over personal modesty?
Don’t laugh. Already one woman was forced a few years ago to take a swig of her own breast milk and a number of women have already filed complaints about the wandering hands of overly-enthusiastic security personnel. Pregnant women have been forced to disrobe in order to verify their gestational status.
As William Lind of the Free Congress Foundation remarked about the need to inspect footwear in light of suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid, thank God he did not have an exploding suppository. Can you imagine what they’d make us take off and look into if he had?
If we are not allowed to see the regulations pertaining to these procedures, how are we to determine what is and is not permissible under the audacious banner of “homeland security”. If we are to be a nation of law rather than of despots, shouldn’t such policies be open to public scrutiny?
Five or ten years ago would so-called Conservatives, Libertarians, or even semi-consistent Liberals let the government get away with refusing to allow citizens to see the very laws it uses to justify the curtailment of our liberties and way of life? How long until Americans will be forced to endure Fallujhan-style security measures with retinal scans on every corner, identification displayed at all times, and mandatory reliance on militarized public transportation? But more importantly, when that day finally arrives, will the average American even care?
Copyright 2005 by Frederick B. Meekins
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Peanut Butter Connoisseurs Ostracized As The New Smokers
One Indiana School requires those eating peanut butter to consume their victuals in a separate room because of one student with a peanut allergy.
If the tot is that sickly, why is he allowed to attend school at all?
Frankly, I am not too hip on the stinky slop some Asians eat. Does that mean they should be shunted away to a separte dietary facility? If some one is allergic to fried chicken and watermelon, does that mean Black kids should be sent to their own separate but equal lunchroom?
Where does this stupidity end? In the article, they are already concerned about what to do with the lactose intolerant kids who might get ahold of cheese from kids already brainwashed into being vegetarians: but since they are intolerant, perhaps they get whatever they deserve.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Friday, December 17, 2004
Monday, December 13, 2004
Broadcast Charity Drives Full Of Something Other Than Stuffing
Holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving are noted for their many traditions. Turkeys and football, decking the halls and all that stuff.
There is also the less noble tradition of conspicuous feigned compassionate charity on the part of local broadcast news outlets and the shame these glory hogs like to spread around during the holiday season in an attempt to lavish praise upon themselves as embodiments of enlightened progressive attitudes. However, in the light of such efforts, it would seem neither commonsense nor critical observation rank among the virtues heralded by these activist newsmen.
The thing about these charitable drives organized by TV stations is that these efforts would not be undertaken if the correspondents did not have a crew there to chronicle this fallacious eleemosynary in order to pat themselves on the back. At one of these celebrations of self-congratulation documented in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, one reporter interviewed an allegedly “underprivileged” woman with eight children.
Eight children. Mind you, it would be one thing if this woman had one or two kids and fallen upon hard times. In such a case, some kind of assistance might have been justified.
But eight children and unable to provide for herself? In all likelihood, that means she has spawned eight more times than she should have.
Advocates of social dependency and personal irresponsibility will snap, “Would you rather she abort her children?” No, I’d rather she’d exercise a little control and keep her pants on.
Unless she’s been raped eight times (highly unlikely), she should have never gotten herself into this situation. She is a human being, not a breeding sow; it’s about time she act as such.
The promiscuous schooled in the doctrines of “free love” and hedonism will gasp, “How dare you criticize this woman’s private life.” Maybe so, but as soon as this woman stepped forward for a public handout --- be it from either government or charitable institutions --- the matter ceased being a solely private concern.
Of course, one question (maybe eight in this instance) that few have the courage to raise in these cases is where are the fathers of these children. For in this era, most women --- unless they are remarkably devout and if so not likely not to require handouts --- don’t usually have that many children by one man.
Maybe broadcasters should plead with these copulating sleazebags to step forward to take personal responsibility for tossing their seed to the wind or do an ambush style interview with each of them as to why they think its everyone else’s responsibility to pick up the tab for their fleeting pleasures. It would also make for catchy holiday headlines: “Daddy, why don’t you love me this Christmas?”
After all, if you are the one having the fun, shouldn’t you be the one held responsible for the child’s welfare? It certainly isn’t that of those of us who go to work everyday and keep our noses to the moral grindstone.
Almost as politically incorrect is the observation that many of the indolent clamoring for the rest of us to fill their outstretched hands or suffer the wrath of public shame, humiliation and reeducation aren’t really “poor”. In this age of elastic definitions, poor no longer means being Ethiopian skinny or Appalachian toothless. Poverty, rather, is a conceptualization invoked when the slothful and their patrons in the social welfare racket believe they deserve a higher a standard of living than they are willing to exert an effort for in order to obtain.
A number of so-called “single mothers” I am aware of receiving public assistance as well as availing themselves of the bounty of annual school supply charitable drives instead squander the income freed by this misdirected philanthropy to purchase several hundred dollar handbags, go out partying at nightclubs, and on long, shellacked fingernails that would put a fighting cock to shame. Can anyone justify to me why I should pay higher taxes or increase charitable outlays so that the offspring of such women, who barely deserve the honor of being called mothers to begin with, might be able to have a Nintendo set or Nike basketball shoes?
If the rest of us have to squeak by on Ramen noodles and Budding Beef, so should those thinking they deserve better and expect you to pay for it.
As any good parent will tell you, there is more to love than giving an undisciplined child everything they want. Likewise, the greatest gift we might be able to give those claiming to be downtrodden this holiday season is the responsibility of fending for themselves for awhile.
Copyright 2004 by Frederick Meekins
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Monday, December 06, 2004
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Tom Clancy Predicts Nuclear Attack
WUSA TV 9, the Washington DC Metro Area CBS affiliate, did an interview with author Tom Clancy.
The famed techno-thriller was consulted to determine what he considered to be the next terrorist threat.
In his estimation, he predicted Islamic radicals procuring the nuclear parts of Russian atomic buoys to be used as the components of a dirty bomb.
While overall the piece was informative and admitting that Clancy can be a bit gruff in interviews at times, the story is out of line in deriding Clancy for being a “right-winger” and for insinuating he deserves hate mail for conjecturing terrorist Muhammad Atta was a homosexual.
Friday, December 03, 2004
Unwrapping Innocence
Earlier this year, I wrote a column about the impropriety of airing prophylactic advertisements during Saturday morning children’s programming. Aficionados of the moral debauchery into which our nation is descending snapped classic animation is no longer directed at young children but rather towards libertine post-adolescents with less control over their urges than barnyard animals. Some unable to muster a rational argument instead chose to disparage my personal appearance.
Even if the viewing public must concede dominion of old favorites to these reprobates, does that mean we must stand by and yield all quality programming to those who want to drag us down to their level?
Typically, broadcasters have had a tradition of airing quality programming during the Christmas season. Usually, parents don’t have to expend much moral anguish as to whether or not the innocence of their children will be compromised through viewing these often cute or touching shows.
However, as in regards to the older Saturday morning adventures of yore now under new custodianship, it is my contention that the ethical peril lies not so much with the content as it does with the commercials.
The American Girl series of books have received considerable acclaim as quality literature depicting the lives of young girls during the nation’s early years in a manner reminiscent of Little House On The Prairie or Anne of Green Gables. As with other successful literary properties that have come before it, this one has made the transition from bookshelf to film as a new television movie produced for this special time of year titled “Samantha: An American Girl Holiday”.
Sounds like a night of enjoyable, worry-free TV, doesn’t it? Such an assessment would be incorrect.
While the movie was itself well-done and will no doubt become a Christmas classic and hopefully spawn sequels, many parents --- at least in the Washington Metropolitan Area watching channel 50 --- were no doubt flustered when they either had to avert the attention of young eyes and ears or face having to answer questions about birth control pills or feminine hygiene products.
Call me old fashioned or out of touch, but I think a parent should be able to sit down to watch a children’s show without having to explain what a tampon or maxipad is to a seven year old. Furthermore, what’s the point of advertising these things anyway since they have a captive market to begin with whose demand is not going to fluctuate any appreciable degree due to persuasive advertising.
Disgruntled feminists cannot dismiss such criticisms as sexist, chauvinist, misogynist, or what ever other label they might throw around certain times of the month to intimidate cowering males. Most women I know of frankly find those kinds of commercials embarrassing. Even NBC anchor Brian Williams, hardly a pawn of the religious right, revealed on The Sean Hannity Show how he did not like such intimate matters discussed during commercial breaks.
In the movie, the grandmother chides Samantha for inquiring about the private life of the family servants. While contemporary social relations shouldn’t be characterized by the same degree of contrived hyperformality, a little Victorian modesty might do everyone a bit of good and would be a gift this season that would give the whole year through.
Copyright 2004 by Frederick Meekins
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
New Bolshevik Flag Weds Elements Of History's Deadliest Movements
Stumbled across this ominous looking banner. It was taken at the congress of the National Bolshevik Party in Moscow.
Students of history will note it melds elements of both the symbols of Communism (the hammer and sickle) and the color scheme of the Nazi flag.
Bringing these two movements together does not bode well for freedom loving people everywhere, but yet one you are not likely to hear much about in the mainstream media.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Not Your Granny’s Presbyterians
Among Christian denominations, Presbyterians have a reputation for sobriety and decorum. However, as denominations and churches try to out do one another in the rush to appear the most “authentic” and “with it”, that noble reputation might be coming to an end.
On the website of Covenant Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America is a section where websurfers can listen to audio files addressing a wide variety of issues and topics. Finding one on tattooing, I thought I’d hear a rational discourse against this popular form of personal disfigurement since Presbyterians are renowned for their skill at argumentation.
Much to my surprise, the lecturer, Margie Haack of RansomFellowship.org , gave an exposition on tattoos literally making them of little more consequence than applying makeup up or toning one’s muscles. Haack deceptively lumps all of these under the politically correct banner of “body modification“.
While doing a satisfactory job explicating the various emotional traumas tempting individuals to do something like this to their bodies, her message is woefully inadequate in extolling the shortcomings and dangers of these ghastly scribblings. No where does she even suggest tattoos might be something questionable yet eraseable (at least in the metaphysical sense) under Christ’s redeeming blood.
In fact, the only guilt trip was laid on those daring to retain the traditional Judeo-Christian reluctance to the practice. Throughout, Haack criticizes Christians leery of those branded in this fashion, likening the attitude to racial prejudice. But the last time I checked, the individual has no choice over their race; getting tattooed is a matter of personal volition.
Might most Christians raised properly or later schooled in correct deportment pull back from individuals exhibiting these markings since there might be something wrong with tattooing? After all, most of those with an affinity for this form of decoration aren’t exactly known for their reputations as upstanding members of the community.
Haack attributes these pangs of conscience to misguided middle class values. Interesting, isn’t it, how these attacks on decency always boil down to this argument.
Haack further undermines traditional Biblical teachings on this issue by equating Scriptural injunctions against the practice in question with other Old Testament legal provisions no longer observed under the dispensation or covenant of grace of the New Testament such as dietary restrictions against pork, garments of mixed fabric, and other hygienic or ceremonial matters. While some rules such as those dealing with diet have been rescinded elsewhere in the Bible, ceremonial ones fulfilled by Christ’s coming, and others specified for the particular cultural and historical setting of ancient Israel, many still serve as moral principles and commands conductive to personal health and well being.
For example, nothing much is going to happen to you if you occasionally enjoy some pork or shellfish. However, it only takes one prick of a dirty tattoo needle to get hepatitis (ask Pamela Anderson) or AIDS.
When that happens, I suppose all the pro-tattoo clergy, academics, and otherwise unproductive intellectuals will turn around and lecture all of the unenlightened clods of the middle class why it is now our Christian obligation to put more into the collection plate or have taken out in taxes to alleviate suffering that could have been prevented in the first place.
Interestingly, Mrs. Haack goes on to create the impression that somehow Christians are spiritually superior if they deface themselves with this religious graffiti. Haack justifies tattoos all in the name of Jesus since some early and medieval Christians had them.
While we must study the past or be doomed to repeat it, that does not mean it is the end all in terms of doctrine and practice. After all, if everything had been peachy keen from day one onward, there wouldn’t have been much need for a Reformation, would there?
Haack also provides example of cotemporary Christians who have exhibited their “spirituality” through being tattooed. Specifically, she mentions Jeremy Huggins whom she is careful to point out is a graduate of Covenant Seminary and whom mentions in his own lecture about blogging archived on Covenant Seminary’s webpage his enjoyment of smoking and whiskey. My haven’t we come along way; I remember back in my Christian school days you played it down if you liked “The Simpsons” for fear of running afoul of authorities.
It is revealed that Huggins has a Hebrew word emblazoned across his chest and a Greek phrase etched into his back to remind him of his reliance upon God. If that’s what it takes to jog his memory, his faith must be pretty weak.
If these inscriptions are on sections of his anatomy not normally gawked at by the church going public, then why are we even being told about them? Could be it that those like Rev. Huggins feel guilty about what they have done to themselves, and instead of seeking forgiveness, they try to drown out the shame with applause and accolades from today’s doctrinally fickle congregations?
Since these human billboards advertise their intense religious devotion, it won’t be long until those with tattoos come to be seen as more dedicated to their God than those not decorated in this manner. Eventually in much the same manner as Christians who did not care to view “The Passion” were pressed for a reason as to why they did not want to see the movie, those without tattoos will be hounded by taunts such as “Jesus was scarred for you. Don’t you love him enough to be scarred for him?”
Interestingly, this unsightly body vandalism in a sense serves as a roadmap to certain questionable trends underway within the Presbyterian Church in America. This denomination, once noted for its sticktoitiveness to propriety now, from the attitudes conveyed on their flagship seminary’s website, would rather Christian young people drink, smoke, and turn their bodies into human sketchpads than read Left Behind novels.
Much of the ministry within this denomination is targeted at the highly educated. While that is commendable since this segment is often overlooked in terms of witness, maybe Presbyterians need to worry more about winning approval of the Lord rather than that of slovenly college professors and students.
I ask you what would you rather your children do? Are you going to be so pleased with you own sense of tolerance when your daughter or son comes home having put your broadmindedness into practice?
Furthermore, why should I listen to some preacher prattle on about the “evils” of some young adult activities such as dating (as is the case in the now pervasive Josh Harris I Kissed Dating Goodbye syndrome) or as to why I ought to drop more into the collection plate when the pastor looks like a cheesy roadside advertisement for his own lack of self-discipline especially if he does not readily display a sense of repentance over such an obvious shortcoming?
It has been said youth is fleeting; the indiscretions of it are not. As such, you should not do much of anything you would not want to catch your granny or grampy doing since, try as we might to put the passage of time out of our minds, one day each of us will be one of those elderly souls that have to dispense advice to the young whether they want to hear it or not.
Copyright 2004 by Frederick Meekins
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Kjos Ministries Links To Review Of Pilgrims & Puritans
My cyberspace contacts inform me Kjos Ministries has linked to the review I wrote last year of a book on the Pilgrims and Puritans.
This was quite a pleasant surprise since I have enjoyed listening to Berit Kjos speak over the years about the socialist/New Age infilitration of the nation's educational system in prepartion of the New World Order.
I guess this makes me a third or fourth tier celebrity now. Now if there was only some way to get rich off such notoriety.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Sunday, November 21, 2004
On-Line Audio Resources Regarding The Da Vinci Code
I have been listening to a number of online sermons lately addressing The Da Vinci Code. With the popularity of this novel and a blockbuster movie expected, Christians will need to know how to refute this somewhat esoteric and arcane subject matter. I hope you find these informative.
“The Da Vinci Code” by Norris Belcher, Church Of The Open Door, Westminster, Maryland
“Analyzing The Da Vinci Code” by Jonathan Sampson, First Baptist Church Of Park Texas
“An Overview Of The Da Vinci Code” by Phil Fernandes, Institute of Biblical Defense
“The Fallacies of the Da Vinci Code” by Phil Fernandes, Institute of Biblical Defense
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Prince Charles: "My Poop Doesn't Stink"
It has been leaked in a memo about the lack of promotion opportunities in the employ of the British royal family that Prince Charles believes those of us further down the social ladder ought not aspire to higher station in life.
According to the Prince of Wales, ""People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability."
While correct that this attitude is often the result of social utopianism rampant throughout the modern school system, to put it bluntly, what did he ever do to earn his privilege other than crawl out of his mother's uterus?