BBC says,'Senior civil servants, top NHS managers and judges will get a lower than recommended pay rise of 1.5% next year, Gordon Brown has announced.
The prime minister said the economic crisis meant the 2009-10 rises had to be lower than suggested by the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB).
However, all military personnel were awarded the recommended 2.8% rise.
Senior public sector staff should lead by showing "restraint," Mr Brown told MPs, who will get a pay rise of 2.33%.'
Words almost fail me. Telling others to show restraint while he feeds his lobby fodder.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Theology - christiansquoting.org.uk
All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass-- Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.--Archibald Alexander (1772-1851)
In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians -- Karl Barth
The theologian who has no joy in his work is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this science. --Karl Barth (1886-1968) (Quoted in his obituary, _New York Times_ [December 11, 1968])
Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged.-- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) In "Correct Quotes for DOS," WordStar International, 1991.
Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments. JOHN CALVIN
A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant. - STEPHEN CHARNOCK
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought. -- G KChesterton
What the denouncer of dogma really means is not that dogma is bad; but rather that dogma is too good to be true.G K Chesterton, _The Everlasting Man_
In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don't know it. G K Chesterton
It is indeed a fathomless mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and, the dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the real Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world. For it is not well for God to be alone. --G. K. Chesterton,_Orthodoxy_ ch. 8 (1908)
Doctrine is the framework of life - the skeleton of truth, to be clothed and rounded out by the living grace of a holy life. ~ Adoniram J. Gordon
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.-- Robert Heinlein
Theology, not morality, is the first business on the church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is the first target of divine criticism.
Michael Scott Horton, Beyond Culture Wars
The [Christian] "doctrines" are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed inlanguage more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), letter
What makes some theological works like sawdust to me is the way the authors can go on discussing how far certain positions are adjustable to contemporary thought, or beneficial in relation to social problems, or "have a future" before them, but never squarely ask what grounds we have for supposing them to be true accounts of any objective reality. As if we were trying to make rather than to learn. Have we no Other to reckon with?... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
Insofar as theology is an attempt to define and clarify intellectual positions, it is apt to lead to discussion, to differences of opinion, even to controversy, and hence to be divisive. And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias inherent in much of revivalistic Pietism... "Fundamentalism" in America, among other things, was a movement that tried to recall these denominations to theological and confessional self consciousness. But it was defeated in every major denomination, not so much by theological discussion and debate as by effective political manipulations directed by denominational leaders to the sterilizing of this "divisive" element. ... Sidney E. Mead in Church History [1954]
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.
--John Milton (1608-1674) _Comuso_ [1634], Line 476
Dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion. . . . Religion, as mere sentiment, is to me a mockery. -- Cardinal Newman
The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted. John Owen (1616-1683)
Berkoff writes to give ides about God but Calvin writes to give knowledge of God.-- J Packer
Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life.~Matthew Prior: Dr Sherlock
It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. -- Dorothy Sayers
Doctrinal rightness and rightness of ecclesiastical position are important, but only as a starting point to go on into a living relationship -- and not as ends in themselves. -- Francis Schaeffer
It is not for a moment that we can begin to get anywhere until the right doctrines are taught. But the right doctrines mentally assented to are not an end in themselves, but should only be the vestibule to a personal and loving communion with God. -- Francis A. Schaeffer, Letters Of Francis Schaeffer
To say we want no dogmas in religion is to assert a dogma.--Fulton J. Sheen, _Religion Without God_, 1928
From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls. - Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)
Our anthropology is intimately bound up with our theology. If God is dead, man is too. If we are not accountable, then we do not count. R. C. SPROUL
Christian communities that maintain their doctrinal identity and moral boundaries flourish in the modern world; Christian communities that fudge doctrine and morals decay. Contrary to much popular wisdom, the Christian movement is flourishing throughout the world. And in all instances, without exception, it is the Christian communities that eschew Lite approaches to doctrine and morals that are growing. ---- George Weigel, _The Courage to be Catholic_, 2002
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.--Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963)_Man, the Dwelling Place of God_
In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians -- Karl Barth
The theologian who has no joy in his work is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this science. --Karl Barth (1886-1968) (Quoted in his obituary, _New York Times_ [December 11, 1968])
Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged.-- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) In "Correct Quotes for DOS," WordStar International, 1991.
Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments. JOHN CALVIN
A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant. - STEPHEN CHARNOCK
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought. -- G KChesterton
What the denouncer of dogma really means is not that dogma is bad; but rather that dogma is too good to be true.G K Chesterton, _The Everlasting Man_
In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don't know it. G K Chesterton
It is indeed a fathomless mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and, the dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the real Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world. For it is not well for God to be alone. --G. K. Chesterton,_Orthodoxy_ ch. 8 (1908)
Doctrine is the framework of life - the skeleton of truth, to be clothed and rounded out by the living grace of a holy life. ~ Adoniram J. Gordon
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.-- Robert Heinlein
Theology, not morality, is the first business on the church's agenda of reform, and the church, not society, is the first target of divine criticism.
Michael Scott Horton, Beyond Culture Wars
The [Christian] "doctrines" are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed inlanguage more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), letter
What makes some theological works like sawdust to me is the way the authors can go on discussing how far certain positions are adjustable to contemporary thought, or beneficial in relation to social problems, or "have a future" before them, but never squarely ask what grounds we have for supposing them to be true accounts of any objective reality. As if we were trying to make rather than to learn. Have we no Other to reckon with?... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
Insofar as theology is an attempt to define and clarify intellectual positions, it is apt to lead to discussion, to differences of opinion, even to controversy, and hence to be divisive. And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias inherent in much of revivalistic Pietism... "Fundamentalism" in America, among other things, was a movement that tried to recall these denominations to theological and confessional self consciousness. But it was defeated in every major denomination, not so much by theological discussion and debate as by effective political manipulations directed by denominational leaders to the sterilizing of this "divisive" element. ... Sidney E. Mead in Church History [1954]
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.
--John Milton (1608-1674) _Comuso_ [1634], Line 476
Dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion. . . . Religion, as mere sentiment, is to me a mockery. -- Cardinal Newman
The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted. John Owen (1616-1683)
Berkoff writes to give ides about God but Calvin writes to give knowledge of God.-- J Packer
Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life.~Matthew Prior: Dr Sherlock
It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. -- Dorothy Sayers
Doctrinal rightness and rightness of ecclesiastical position are important, but only as a starting point to go on into a living relationship -- and not as ends in themselves. -- Francis Schaeffer
It is not for a moment that we can begin to get anywhere until the right doctrines are taught. But the right doctrines mentally assented to are not an end in themselves, but should only be the vestibule to a personal and loving communion with God. -- Francis A. Schaeffer, Letters Of Francis Schaeffer
To say we want no dogmas in religion is to assert a dogma.--Fulton J. Sheen, _Religion Without God_, 1928
From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls. - Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)
Our anthropology is intimately bound up with our theology. If God is dead, man is too. If we are not accountable, then we do not count. R. C. SPROUL
Christian communities that maintain their doctrinal identity and moral boundaries flourish in the modern world; Christian communities that fudge doctrine and morals decay. Contrary to much popular wisdom, the Christian movement is flourishing throughout the world. And in all instances, without exception, it is the Christian communities that eschew Lite approaches to doctrine and morals that are growing. ---- George Weigel, _The Courage to be Catholic_, 2002
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.--Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963)_Man, the Dwelling Place of God_
Monday, March 30, 2009
London Homelessness Prevention Officer told “say ‘God Bless’ and we’ll sack you”
Christian Legal Centre reports 'A HOMELESSNESS Prevention officer with Wandsworth Council has been suspended from work for nearly two months for encouraging a homeless woman with an incurable medical condition to look to God for help, after doctors told her they’d given up hope.
Duke Amachree, aged 53 who has worked for the local authority for almost 18 years was suspended on 28 January 2009 for discussing his faith with a client, and was told in an investigatory interview on 17 March that he should not raise the issue of religion at work. Not only was Mr Amachree told it was inappropriate to ‘ever talk about God’, he was also told that he may not even say ‘God bless’.
Mr Amachree, a member of the UK World Evangelism Church in London, was summoned to an interview as a result of a complaint made against him by a member of the public.
Mr Michael Phillips, a solicitor working with the Christian Legal Centre, which was consulted by the worker, said: “On 26 January, Mr Amachree met a client who was due to be moved out of her home because her landlord wished to sell the property. Doctors had told the client that she had an incurable illness and, as such, could only work part time. In general conversation, Mr Amachree asked the lady why she believed her condition was incurable, and in encouragement, commented that sometimes doctors do not have all the answers. So concerned was he that the lady was in despair and without hope, he suggested she put her faith in God. The lady, however, explained that she had tried religion and because she did not have any faith she was satisfied with what the doctors had told her and was able to move on. She smiled, thanked Mr Amachree and left.”
Two days later Mr Amachree was handed a letter informing him that a service user (the lady) had made serious allegations against him and he was therefore suspended.
Mr Phillips, who was present at the meeting, added: “On 17 March, Mr Amachree’s employers told him that ‘God had to be kept out of the workplace’. He was accused of crossing boundaries. The issue of religion, according to the interviewer, should not be raised in a housing issue. Mr Phillips, on behalf of Mr Amachree, queried this statement by asking if ‘God bless’ would be an appropriate comment. He was told that it would not be appropriate and that any complaint would again lead to an investigation.”
Mr Amachree is taking legal action against the Council. His claim is that their decision effectively ‘privatises’ Christian faith and is against his human rights. His case comes after a number of public sector workers have seen their employers forcing secularist views on them . The Christian Legal Centre, and its legal team has supported Caroline Petrie, the nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for a patient, a Christian magistrate forced to resign over his reluctance to place children into the care of homosexual couples; a Police Officer sacked for using the internal email system to respond to blatant pro-gay advertising in his force, and a myriad of cases where Christian foster parents have been refused the opportunity to care for children on the grounds of their faith and practice. CLC has instructed leading Human Rights barrister, Paul Diamond, to take up the case.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the CLC said: “We are supporting Mr Amachree in this case because it is absurd to think that any public body could be in a position to enforce a policy which means that you can’t even say ‘God Bless’ . This would effectively mean that faith would become entirely privatised. A Christian cannot leave faith out of any aspect of his or her life including work .”'
Duke Amachree, aged 53 who has worked for the local authority for almost 18 years was suspended on 28 January 2009 for discussing his faith with a client, and was told in an investigatory interview on 17 March that he should not raise the issue of religion at work. Not only was Mr Amachree told it was inappropriate to ‘ever talk about God’, he was also told that he may not even say ‘God bless’.
Mr Amachree, a member of the UK World Evangelism Church in London, was summoned to an interview as a result of a complaint made against him by a member of the public.
Mr Michael Phillips, a solicitor working with the Christian Legal Centre, which was consulted by the worker, said: “On 26 January, Mr Amachree met a client who was due to be moved out of her home because her landlord wished to sell the property. Doctors had told the client that she had an incurable illness and, as such, could only work part time. In general conversation, Mr Amachree asked the lady why she believed her condition was incurable, and in encouragement, commented that sometimes doctors do not have all the answers. So concerned was he that the lady was in despair and without hope, he suggested she put her faith in God. The lady, however, explained that she had tried religion and because she did not have any faith she was satisfied with what the doctors had told her and was able to move on. She smiled, thanked Mr Amachree and left.”
Two days later Mr Amachree was handed a letter informing him that a service user (the lady) had made serious allegations against him and he was therefore suspended.
Mr Phillips, who was present at the meeting, added: “On 17 March, Mr Amachree’s employers told him that ‘God had to be kept out of the workplace’. He was accused of crossing boundaries. The issue of religion, according to the interviewer, should not be raised in a housing issue. Mr Phillips, on behalf of Mr Amachree, queried this statement by asking if ‘God bless’ would be an appropriate comment. He was told that it would not be appropriate and that any complaint would again lead to an investigation.”
Mr Amachree is taking legal action against the Council. His claim is that their decision effectively ‘privatises’ Christian faith and is against his human rights. His case comes after a number of public sector workers have seen their employers forcing secularist views on them . The Christian Legal Centre, and its legal team has supported Caroline Petrie, the nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for a patient, a Christian magistrate forced to resign over his reluctance to place children into the care of homosexual couples; a Police Officer sacked for using the internal email system to respond to blatant pro-gay advertising in his force, and a myriad of cases where Christian foster parents have been refused the opportunity to care for children on the grounds of their faith and practice. CLC has instructed leading Human Rights barrister, Paul Diamond, to take up the case.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the CLC said: “We are supporting Mr Amachree in this case because it is absurd to think that any public body could be in a position to enforce a policy which means that you can’t even say ‘God Bless’ . This would effectively mean that faith would become entirely privatised. A Christian cannot leave faith out of any aspect of his or her life including work .”'
Sunday, March 29, 2009
if you would like to hear me
http://www.chelmsfordpres.org.uk/resources/sermons/various.html
My last two sermons.
My last two sermons.
The Credit Crunch
A Korean church asked me to preach on this.
Ex. 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
God was Israel’s saviour who had brought them out of Egypt. Would they now trust in Him to keep them, to provide for them? He is the Lord. He is their covenant God. Will they trust him? Sadly they often trusted in idols, false gods who were no gods but because they were the gods of powerful nations around them, God’s people were often led astray. Only exile cured them.
Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols. John Calvin
Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain. JOHN CALVIN
What are the idols people forge today?
Matt. 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Money is the number one idol of today’s world. There are others like the state which many look to for their care, or career, or family.
But the message from God is that the idol has feet of clay. It will fall. We have recently been seeing how this is true of our wealth. It promised so much but has failed. Ten years ago I started saving 100 ukp a month with a fund that promised much based on its track record. But when the investment matures, the 12k I had put in had become 10.5k. The idol not only has feet of clay. It may also shrink.
Jesus warned that if you rely on earthly treasure, you may lose it, Moth and rust destroy not your money but other things you treasure. In Africa he would have said white ants. Thieves break in and steal. The original means to dig through a house wall. Today you have more subtle thieves. A Madof may make off with your money. The pension fund may go bust or under perform or government may steal your money through inflation. We in fact have a much worse problem with this than the people of Jesus day. If they hid away their treasured shekels, they were made of silver and gold. What is our money made from? Paper. Our bank notes say, ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of XX pounds”. Well try taking your note to the bank of England and see if they keep their promise. No. Since the 1930s there has been no gold to back the notes. Our money is a mere invention by the state. First they removed the gold as backing, then later the silver from the coins. All our wealth is based on promises which may not be kept. Our financial system is based on trust and that trust is very fragile, hence the massive government intervention to save failing banks.
I am not an economist. An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.--Laurence J. Peter
I am not an economist so I do not come with financial expertise. Who does?
Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, "on one hand... on the other." --Harry Truman
We may scorn fortune tellers but spend a fortune on economists. Things are uncertain in this world. In Ps 73 we hear how the Psalmist envied the rich. I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. …This is what the wicked are like — always carefree, they increase in wealth
l I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. 18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. 19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! 20 As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.
The rich and their riches will perish. Do not base your life on earthly treasure. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
1Pet. 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Here is the true prosperity gospel. If we belong to God through Christ, we have been born again to an inheritance our father has set aside for us in heaven, an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
Have you such an inheritance kept by God for you through his son ar are you trying to line your own nest for the future.
A rich man died and someone asked what he left. ‘All of it’ came the reply.
This does not mean you do not care about money and how you use or save it. It does not mean you do not buy insurance or provide for your family. It means you put God not money first.
I t means that you commit your future to God, for his provision. It seems to be no no random co-incidence that this command to put God not possessions first is followed by the admonition not to worry.
Matt. 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
We all tend to worry for the future is uncertain . But here Jesus gives us reasons not to be anxious about earthly things. How wil we get buy we worry, enough to eat drink, take care of life’s necessities. Jesus says get these things in perspective. Are they the really important things in life? Is there not something more fundamental, your relationship with God, his kingdom and his righteousness? Get your priorities right. Are you right with God? Are you putting him first? Worry puts self first. Worry is another form of idolatry. Instead of God at the centre of your life it is you and your needs. If you know who God is and he is at the centre of your like you do not need to worry. You can cast all your cares on him for you know he cares for you. He will provide.
An undivided heart, which worships God alone and trusts him as it should, is raised above all anxiety for earthly wants. Geikie
Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short God and His will for us.--Billy Graham
Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Matt. 6:28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
You are precious to him. He is the God who provides for and cares for his creation. Why do you not trust him. Why so little faith in him? Luther said he learned about faith from his dog. His dog did not know how he would get his food but he knew who provided it. Luther said if only he trusted God like his dog trusted him, God could do great things with him. We
need a dogged trusting relationship with a heavenly father.
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. --George Mueller (1805-1898) _Sign of the Times_
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Your father knows and cares. I was brought up in a working class home. My father lost his job through illness and could never return to his trade. Was I worried? No. I trusted my father. Was he worried? Perhaps. But he had faith in our heavenly father who provided a new and better earning career for him. My point is I the boy was not worried because I trusted my father. Do you trust your heavenly one? That is the way to be rid of anxiety.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of faggots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are required to bear it. -- John Newton (1725-1807)
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of faith. You can't change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.
There are two days in every week we should never worry about, two days that should be kept free from fear and apprehension. One is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its aches and pains, its faults and blunders.Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday.We cannot undo a single act we performed, nor erase a single word we've said Yesterday is gone. The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow, with its impossible adversaries, its burden, its hopeful promise and unknown performance.Tomorrow is beyond our control.Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds ...but it will rise ... and until it does.We have no stake in tomorrow, for it is as yet unborn.This leaves only one day: TODAY! Anyone can fight the battles of just one day.It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives people mad.It is the remorse of bitterness for something that happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Make TODAY the best day it can be, and live one day at a time!
O Lord! how happy should we be, If we could leave our cares to Thee, If we from self could rest; And feel at heart that One above, In perfect wisdom, perfect love, Is working for the best.
For when we kneel and cast our care Upon our God in humble prayer, With strengthened souls we rise, Sure that our Father Who is nigh, To hear the ravens when they cry, Will hear His children's cries.
O may these anxious hearts of ours The lesson learn from birds and flowers, And learn from self to cease, Leave all things to our Father's will, And in His mercy trusting still, Find in each trial peace! Joseph Anstice (1808-1836)
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.-- Ps. 55:22
Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared. --Proverbs 3:25-26
Be anxious for nothing- but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. -Phil. 4: 6-7
I have a better Caretaker than you and all the angels. He it is who lies in a manger ... but at the same time sits at the right hand of God, the almighty Father. Therefore be at rest. -- Martin Luther , letter to his wife Kate: 1546, eleven days before his death.
Pray, and let God worry. -Martin Luther [b. 11/10/1483], in the last letter written to his wife Katy, before his death on 2/18/1546]
Ex. 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
God was Israel’s saviour who had brought them out of Egypt. Would they now trust in Him to keep them, to provide for them? He is the Lord. He is their covenant God. Will they trust him? Sadly they often trusted in idols, false gods who were no gods but because they were the gods of powerful nations around them, God’s people were often led astray. Only exile cured them.
Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols. John Calvin
Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain. JOHN CALVIN
What are the idols people forge today?
Matt. 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Money is the number one idol of today’s world. There are others like the state which many look to for their care, or career, or family.
But the message from God is that the idol has feet of clay. It will fall. We have recently been seeing how this is true of our wealth. It promised so much but has failed. Ten years ago I started saving 100 ukp a month with a fund that promised much based on its track record. But when the investment matures, the 12k I had put in had become 10.5k. The idol not only has feet of clay. It may also shrink.
Jesus warned that if you rely on earthly treasure, you may lose it, Moth and rust destroy not your money but other things you treasure. In Africa he would have said white ants. Thieves break in and steal. The original means to dig through a house wall. Today you have more subtle thieves. A Madof may make off with your money. The pension fund may go bust or under perform or government may steal your money through inflation. We in fact have a much worse problem with this than the people of Jesus day. If they hid away their treasured shekels, they were made of silver and gold. What is our money made from? Paper. Our bank notes say, ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of XX pounds”. Well try taking your note to the bank of England and see if they keep their promise. No. Since the 1930s there has been no gold to back the notes. Our money is a mere invention by the state. First they removed the gold as backing, then later the silver from the coins. All our wealth is based on promises which may not be kept. Our financial system is based on trust and that trust is very fragile, hence the massive government intervention to save failing banks.
I am not an economist. An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.--Laurence J. Peter
I am not an economist so I do not come with financial expertise. Who does?
Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, "on one hand... on the other." --Harry Truman
We may scorn fortune tellers but spend a fortune on economists. Things are uncertain in this world. In Ps 73 we hear how the Psalmist envied the rich. I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. …This is what the wicked are like — always carefree, they increase in wealth
l I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. 18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. 19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! 20 As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.
The rich and their riches will perish. Do not base your life on earthly treasure. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
1Pet. 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Here is the true prosperity gospel. If we belong to God through Christ, we have been born again to an inheritance our father has set aside for us in heaven, an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
Have you such an inheritance kept by God for you through his son ar are you trying to line your own nest for the future.
A rich man died and someone asked what he left. ‘All of it’ came the reply.
This does not mean you do not care about money and how you use or save it. It does not mean you do not buy insurance or provide for your family. It means you put God not money first.
I t means that you commit your future to God, for his provision. It seems to be no no random co-incidence that this command to put God not possessions first is followed by the admonition not to worry.
Matt. 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
We all tend to worry for the future is uncertain . But here Jesus gives us reasons not to be anxious about earthly things. How wil we get buy we worry, enough to eat drink, take care of life’s necessities. Jesus says get these things in perspective. Are they the really important things in life? Is there not something more fundamental, your relationship with God, his kingdom and his righteousness? Get your priorities right. Are you right with God? Are you putting him first? Worry puts self first. Worry is another form of idolatry. Instead of God at the centre of your life it is you and your needs. If you know who God is and he is at the centre of your like you do not need to worry. You can cast all your cares on him for you know he cares for you. He will provide.
An undivided heart, which worships God alone and trusts him as it should, is raised above all anxiety for earthly wants. Geikie
Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short God and His will for us.--Billy Graham
Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Matt. 6:28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
You are precious to him. He is the God who provides for and cares for his creation. Why do you not trust him. Why so little faith in him? Luther said he learned about faith from his dog. His dog did not know how he would get his food but he knew who provided it. Luther said if only he trusted God like his dog trusted him, God could do great things with him. We
need a dogged trusting relationship with a heavenly father.
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. --George Mueller (1805-1898) _Sign of the Times_
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Your father knows and cares. I was brought up in a working class home. My father lost his job through illness and could never return to his trade. Was I worried? No. I trusted my father. Was he worried? Perhaps. But he had faith in our heavenly father who provided a new and better earning career for him. My point is I the boy was not worried because I trusted my father. Do you trust your heavenly one? That is the way to be rid of anxiety.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of faggots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are required to bear it. -- John Newton (1725-1807)
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of faith. You can't change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.
There are two days in every week we should never worry about, two days that should be kept free from fear and apprehension. One is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its aches and pains, its faults and blunders.Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday.We cannot undo a single act we performed, nor erase a single word we've said Yesterday is gone. The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow, with its impossible adversaries, its burden, its hopeful promise and unknown performance.Tomorrow is beyond our control.Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds ...but it will rise ... and until it does.We have no stake in tomorrow, for it is as yet unborn.This leaves only one day: TODAY! Anyone can fight the battles of just one day.It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives people mad.It is the remorse of bitterness for something that happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Make TODAY the best day it can be, and live one day at a time!
O Lord! how happy should we be, If we could leave our cares to Thee, If we from self could rest; And feel at heart that One above, In perfect wisdom, perfect love, Is working for the best.
For when we kneel and cast our care Upon our God in humble prayer, With strengthened souls we rise, Sure that our Father Who is nigh, To hear the ravens when they cry, Will hear His children's cries.
O may these anxious hearts of ours The lesson learn from birds and flowers, And learn from self to cease, Leave all things to our Father's will, And in His mercy trusting still, Find in each trial peace! Joseph Anstice (1808-1836)
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.-- Ps. 55:22
Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared. --Proverbs 3:25-26
Be anxious for nothing- but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. -Phil. 4: 6-7
I have a better Caretaker than you and all the angels. He it is who lies in a manger ... but at the same time sits at the right hand of God, the almighty Father. Therefore be at rest. -- Martin Luther , letter to his wife Kate: 1546, eleven days before his death.
Pray, and let God worry. -Martin Luther [b. 11/10/1483], in the last letter written to his wife Katy, before his death on 2/18/1546]
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thatcher - christiansquoting.org.uk
The closer you got to Margaret, the more attractive you found her character because you heard about the small kindnesses to individuals, the consideration she showed to people whom nobody had heard of. - William Deedes in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p108
The grocer's daughter - French President Valery Giscard d'Estang on Margaret Thatcher, Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p187
Even her closest allies were not safe from her sharp tongue. "I remember",says Deedes,"Airey (Neeve) walking out of a meeting saying that he'd never been spoken at so rudely in his life before." (That superlative was impressive from a man who had been in Colditz.) - Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p108
We're a cavalry regiment led by a corporal in the Women's Royal Army Corps - An unidentified Conservative leader on Margaret Thatcher as their newly elected leader, quoted by Cecil Parkinson in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p125
... she ( Margaret Thatcher )is democratic enough to talk down to anyone - Austin Mitchell
An appalling person to work with but she was a wonderful person to work for. - Matthew Parris in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p105
I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, and my fai hair gently waved: the Iron Lady of the Western World! - Margaret Thatcher , speech in Finchley 31 Jan 1976, after the Red Army newspaper had given her the name.
I an the rebel head of an Establishment government - Margaret Thatcher quoted in Hugo Young, One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher p. 242
It was the religious writing of that High Anglican C.S.Lewis which had most impact upon my intellectual religious formation.--Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power, Harper Collins,1995, p40
The grocer's daughter - French President Valery Giscard d'Estang on Margaret Thatcher, Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p187
Even her closest allies were not safe from her sharp tongue. "I remember",says Deedes,"Airey (Neeve) walking out of a meeting saying that he'd never been spoken at so rudely in his life before." (That superlative was impressive from a man who had been in Colditz.) - Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p108
We're a cavalry regiment led by a corporal in the Women's Royal Army Corps - An unidentified Conservative leader on Margaret Thatcher as their newly elected leader, quoted by Cecil Parkinson in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p125
... she ( Margaret Thatcher )is democratic enough to talk down to anyone - Austin Mitchell
An appalling person to work with but she was a wonderful person to work for. - Matthew Parris in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First Lady, p105
I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, and my fai hair gently waved: the Iron Lady of the Western World! - Margaret Thatcher , speech in Finchley 31 Jan 1976, after the Red Army newspaper had given her the name.
I an the rebel head of an Establishment government - Margaret Thatcher quoted in Hugo Young, One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher p. 242
It was the religious writing of that High Anglican C.S.Lewis which had most impact upon my intellectual religious formation.--Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power, Harper Collins,1995, p40
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thanksgiving - christiansquoting.org.uk
(That all the People may with united Hearts on that Day express a just Sense of His unmerited Favors -- Particularly in that it hath pleased Him, by His over ruling Providence to support us in a just and necessary War for the Defence of our Rights and Liberties; ...by defeating the Councils and evil Designs of our Enemies, and giving us Victory over their Troops -- and by the Continuance of that Union among these States, which by his Blessing, will be their future Strength & Glory. --Samuel Adams on behalf of the Continental Congress, November 3, 1778
Thanksgiving) 'Twas founded be th' Puritans to give thanks f'r bein' presarved fr'm th' Indyans, an' . . . we keep it to give thanks we are presarved fr'm th' Puritans. Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Doole
Thanksgiving) 'Twas founded be th' Puritans to give thanks f'r bein' presarved fr'm th' Indyans, an' . . . we keep it to give thanks we are presarved fr'm th' Puritans. Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Doole
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Terrorism - christiansquoting.org.uk
Breaking the link between terrorism and religious ideology is difficult.- Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5's director-general, at the Royal United Services Institute conference in central London 16 June 2003
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The English Claim of Right
"We declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations the interests of the English people shall be paramount.
We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:
To assert the right of the English people to live in a sovereign nation state of England, free of foreign control;
To agree a scheme for a Parliament for England;
To mobilise English opinion and ensure the approval of the English people for that scheme;
and to assert the right of the English people to secure the implementation of that scheme."
Cick on the title to sign up to The English Claim of Right
We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:
To assert the right of the English people to live in a sovereign nation state of England, free of foreign control;
To agree a scheme for a Parliament for England;
To mobilise English opinion and ensure the approval of the English people for that scheme;
and to assert the right of the English people to secure the implementation of that scheme."
Cick on the title to sign up to The English Claim of Right
Temptation- christiansquoting.org.uk
All the water in the world, however hard it tries, can never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside, and all the evil in the world, the blackest kind of sin, can never hurt you in the least, unless you let it in.
If you have been tempted into evil, fly from it. It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.
The devil's boots don't creak..
Flee temptation and don´t leave a forwarding address.
The stomach is easier filled than the eye. -- German Proverb
My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed. --Francis Asbury
Whatever good is to be attained, struggle is necessary. So do not fear temptations, but rejoice in them, for they lead to achievement. God helps and protects you. St. Barsanuphius
The heart of man is revealed in temptation. Man knows his sin, which without temptation he could never have known; for in temptation man knows on what he has set his heart. The coming to light of sin is the work of the accuser, who thereby thinks to have won the victory. But it is sin which is become manifest which can be known, and therefore forgiven. Thus the manifestation of sin belongs to the salvation plan of God with man, and Satan must serve this plan.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation
Only he who flings himself upward when the pull comes to drag him down, can hope to break the force of temptation. Temptation may be an invitation to hell, but much more is it an opportunity to reach heaven. At the moment of temptation, sin and righteousness are both very near the Christian; but, of the two, the latter is the nearer.... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929)
Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself. --Rita Mae Brown
Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon,
That shall eat with a fend.
Chaucer
Full wise is he that can himselven know. -- Chaucer The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.
The devil is always suggesting that we compromise our high calling by substituting the good in place of the best. --William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924- ) _Credo_ [2004], "Life In General"
Unwillingness to accept God's "way of escape" from temptation frightens me - what a rebel yet resides within.-- JIM ELLIOT
As the Sandwich-Islander believes that the strength and valour of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptations we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
She was a weak woman - too highly elated in prosperity, too easily depressed by adversity - not considering that both are situations of trial .
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) "Walter Wilson," in "Sketches of American Character," 1829.
No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good. There is a silly idea about that good people don't know what temptation means.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) The Screwtape Letters
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him,for he cannot bear scorn. Martin Luther
In the worst temptations nothing can help us but faith that God's Son has put on flesh, is bone, sits at the right hand of the Father, and prays for us. There is no mightier comfort.--Martin Luther
Almost every night when I wake up the devil is there and wants to dispute with me. I have come to this conclusion: When the argument that the Christian is without the law and above the law doesn't help, I instantly chase him away with a fart.--Martin Luther (1483-1546), Luther's Works, Volume 54, Table Talk_ [1967], Number 469)
In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. But by all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. Therefore, Jerome, joke and play games with your wife and others. In this way you will drive out your diabolical thoughts and take courage
Be of good courage, therefore, and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you with these thoughts, at once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of merriment. Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more, play, jest, or even commit some infraction in defiance and contempt of the devil in order not to give him an opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall be overcome if we worry too much about falling into some sin.
Accordingly if the devil should say, "Do not drink," you should reply to him, "On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount." Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me. --Luther
I know well that when Christ is nearest, Satan also is busiest. --ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE
I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian,--that I have overcome this or that lust so long,--that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace,--so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation--nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark. As long as powder is wet, it resists the spark; but when it becomes dry, it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, He deadens me to sin, so that, if lawfully called through temptation, I may reckon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh for a sense of this!" -- ROBERT M M'CHEYNE
Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book IX, 307 - 08
The devil... the prowde spirit cannot endure to be mocked. --Thomas More
Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.--John Owen
Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.... John Owen (1616-1683)
It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow -- La Rochefoucauld
One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence. ... Francois de Sales (1567-1622)
It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength. We do not have a power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have already seen. There can be a victory, a practical victory, if we raise the empty hands of faith moment by moment and accept the gift. „This is the victory that overcometh the world. God has promised, and the Bible has said, that there is a way to escape temptation. By God‚s grace we should want that escape.- Francis Schaeffer
Learn to say "no." It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. -- C.H. SPURGEON
Satan watches for those vessels that sail without convoy. GEORGE SWINNOCK
Forbidden things have a secret charm. --Tacitus
I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much. Mother Teresa
Be not afraid that thou art tempted, for the more thou art assailed by temptations, the greater friend and servant of God do I hold thee, and the greater love do I bear thee. Verily, I say to thee, let no man deem himself the perfect friend of God until he have passed through many temptations and tribulations... I am ready to endure patiently all things that my Lord would do with me.-- Ugolino of Montegiorgio (d.1274), The Little Flowers of St. Francis
How soon are we broken on the soft pillow of ease! Adam in paradise was overcome, when Job on the dunghill was a conqueror. - THOMAS WATSON
It is most desirable, to have neither poverty nor riches; but still you cannot be without temptation, unless you would go out of the world.- John Wesley, letter: DECEMBER 1, 1773
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life,the stronger the enemy's temptations.----John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997
If you have been tempted into evil, fly from it. It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.
The devil's boots don't creak..
Flee temptation and don´t leave a forwarding address.
The stomach is easier filled than the eye. -- German Proverb
My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed. --Francis Asbury
Whatever good is to be attained, struggle is necessary. So do not fear temptations, but rejoice in them, for they lead to achievement. God helps and protects you. St. Barsanuphius
The heart of man is revealed in temptation. Man knows his sin, which without temptation he could never have known; for in temptation man knows on what he has set his heart. The coming to light of sin is the work of the accuser, who thereby thinks to have won the victory. But it is sin which is become manifest which can be known, and therefore forgiven. Thus the manifestation of sin belongs to the salvation plan of God with man, and Satan must serve this plan.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation
Only he who flings himself upward when the pull comes to drag him down, can hope to break the force of temptation. Temptation may be an invitation to hell, but much more is it an opportunity to reach heaven. At the moment of temptation, sin and righteousness are both very near the Christian; but, of the two, the latter is the nearer.... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929)
Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself. --Rita Mae Brown
Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon,
That shall eat with a fend.
Chaucer
Full wise is he that can himselven know. -- Chaucer The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.
The devil is always suggesting that we compromise our high calling by substituting the good in place of the best. --William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924- ) _Credo_ [2004], "Life In General"
Unwillingness to accept God's "way of escape" from temptation frightens me - what a rebel yet resides within.-- JIM ELLIOT
As the Sandwich-Islander believes that the strength and valour of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptations we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
She was a weak woman - too highly elated in prosperity, too easily depressed by adversity - not considering that both are situations of trial .
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) "Walter Wilson," in "Sketches of American Character," 1829.
No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good. There is a silly idea about that good people don't know what temptation means.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) The Screwtape Letters
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him,for he cannot bear scorn. Martin Luther
In the worst temptations nothing can help us but faith that God's Son has put on flesh, is bone, sits at the right hand of the Father, and prays for us. There is no mightier comfort.--Martin Luther
Almost every night when I wake up the devil is there and wants to dispute with me. I have come to this conclusion: When the argument that the Christian is without the law and above the law doesn't help, I instantly chase him away with a fart.--Martin Luther (1483-1546), Luther's Works, Volume 54, Table Talk_ [1967], Number 469)
In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. But by all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. Therefore, Jerome, joke and play games with your wife and others. In this way you will drive out your diabolical thoughts and take courage
Be of good courage, therefore, and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you with these thoughts, at once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of merriment. Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more, play, jest, or even commit some infraction in defiance and contempt of the devil in order not to give him an opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall be overcome if we worry too much about falling into some sin.
Accordingly if the devil should say, "Do not drink," you should reply to him, "On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount." Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me. --Luther
I know well that when Christ is nearest, Satan also is busiest. --ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE
I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian,--that I have overcome this or that lust so long,--that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace,--so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation--nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark. As long as powder is wet, it resists the spark; but when it becomes dry, it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, He deadens me to sin, so that, if lawfully called through temptation, I may reckon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh for a sense of this!" -- ROBERT M M'CHEYNE
Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book IX, 307 - 08
The devil... the prowde spirit cannot endure to be mocked. --Thomas More
Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.--John Owen
Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.... John Owen (1616-1683)
It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow -- La Rochefoucauld
One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence. ... Francois de Sales (1567-1622)
It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength. We do not have a power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have already seen. There can be a victory, a practical victory, if we raise the empty hands of faith moment by moment and accept the gift. „This is the victory that overcometh the world. God has promised, and the Bible has said, that there is a way to escape temptation. By God‚s grace we should want that escape.- Francis Schaeffer
Learn to say "no." It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. -- C.H. SPURGEON
Satan watches for those vessels that sail without convoy. GEORGE SWINNOCK
Forbidden things have a secret charm. --Tacitus
I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much. Mother Teresa
Be not afraid that thou art tempted, for the more thou art assailed by temptations, the greater friend and servant of God do I hold thee, and the greater love do I bear thee. Verily, I say to thee, let no man deem himself the perfect friend of God until he have passed through many temptations and tribulations... I am ready to endure patiently all things that my Lord would do with me.-- Ugolino of Montegiorgio (d.1274), The Little Flowers of St. Francis
How soon are we broken on the soft pillow of ease! Adam in paradise was overcome, when Job on the dunghill was a conqueror. - THOMAS WATSON
It is most desirable, to have neither poverty nor riches; but still you cannot be without temptation, unless you would go out of the world.- John Wesley, letter: DECEMBER 1, 1773
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life,the stronger the enemy's temptations.----John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997
Monday, March 23, 2009
Telephone - christiansquoting.org.uk
There are worse things than getting a call for the wrong number at 4 AM. It could be the right number.- Doug Larson
Teeth- christiansquoting.org.uk
Uneasy is the tooth that wears a crown.
Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache - Mae West
Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache - Mae West
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Teacher - christiansquoting.org.uk
You may teach what you know, but you can only reproduce what you are.
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Brooks Adams "The Education of Henry Adams"
A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. Thomas Carruthers
If you would know anything thoroughly, teach it to others. Tryon Edwards
Behind almost every great man there stands either a good parent or a good teacher. - Gilbert Highet
Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp without depriving ourselves of any flame. --Jane Porter
He taught me to teach myself, which is the greatest thing a teacher can do. - Isaac Stern (1920 &endash; 2001)
It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others and less trouble. Mark Twain
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Brooks Adams "The Education of Henry Adams"
A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. Thomas Carruthers
If you would know anything thoroughly, teach it to others. Tryon Edwards
Behind almost every great man there stands either a good parent or a good teacher. - Gilbert Highet
Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp without depriving ourselves of any flame. --Jane Porter
He taught me to teach myself, which is the greatest thing a teacher can do. - Isaac Stern (1920 &endash; 2001)
It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others and less trouble. Mark Twain
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tea - christiansquoting.org.uk
I view the tea-drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frome, an engender of effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and maker of misery for old age.~William Cobbett (1762-1835), The Vice of Tea-Drinking
The tea drinking has done a great deal in bringing this nation into the state of misery in which it now is, it must be evident to every one that the practice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble, and unfit to encounter hard labour or severe weather, while . . . it deducts from the means of replenishing the belly and covering the back. Hence succeeds a softness, an effeminacy, a seeking for the fireside, a lurking in the bed, and, in short, all the characteristics of idleness.William Cobbett , Cottage Economy 1822
The tea drinking has done a great deal in bringing this nation into the state of misery in which it now is, it must be evident to every one that the practice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble, and unfit to encounter hard labour or severe weather, while . . . it deducts from the means of replenishing the belly and covering the back. Hence succeeds a softness, an effeminacy, a seeking for the fireside, a lurking in the bed, and, in short, all the characteristics of idleness.William Cobbett , Cottage Economy 1822
Friday, March 20, 2009
Christian Minister attacked by Muslims
Christian Legal Centre says 'A Christian minister from Heston United Reformed Church, West London, has been assaulted by three Muslim men who ripped off his cross and warned: ‘If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs.’
The Reverend Noble Samuel, a Pakistan-born Christian, 48, was educated by Christian missionaries and moved to Britain in 1994. He holds debates with Muslims on his TV Gospel show. The incident occurred, as he was driving to his studio one morning to do his programme. A car pulled over in front of him and a man got out as if to ask him directions.
.
Rev. Samuel said: ‘He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door. He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel.
Then he grabbed my cross and pulled it off and it fell on the floor. He was swearing. He said that if I went back to the studio they’d break my legs’. The other two men came from the car and took my laptop and Bible.’
Despite the attack and threats, Rev. Samuel is determined to carry on with the hour-long Asian Gospel show that is broadcast on the Venus satellite channel from studios in Wembley, North London. Venus Channel’s management condemned the attack during the show.
He expressed his fears for safety, along with his wife Louisa, 48, and his son Naveed.
The Metropolitan Police are looking for the three suspects and taking the matter seriously.
In June 2008, two full-time evangelical ministers, Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, were threatened with arrest and warned they risked being beaten up if they continue to spread their Christian message in a ‘Muslim area’ in Birmingham.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2058935/Police-advise-Christian-preachers-to-leave-Muslim-area-of-Birmingham.html
The Christian Legal Centre is supporting Rev. Samuel.'
This happened a few miles from me.
The Reverend Noble Samuel, a Pakistan-born Christian, 48, was educated by Christian missionaries and moved to Britain in 1994. He holds debates with Muslims on his TV Gospel show. The incident occurred, as he was driving to his studio one morning to do his programme. A car pulled over in front of him and a man got out as if to ask him directions.
.
Rev. Samuel said: ‘He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door. He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel.
Then he grabbed my cross and pulled it off and it fell on the floor. He was swearing. He said that if I went back to the studio they’d break my legs’. The other two men came from the car and took my laptop and Bible.’
Despite the attack and threats, Rev. Samuel is determined to carry on with the hour-long Asian Gospel show that is broadcast on the Venus satellite channel from studios in Wembley, North London. Venus Channel’s management condemned the attack during the show.
He expressed his fears for safety, along with his wife Louisa, 48, and his son Naveed.
The Metropolitan Police are looking for the three suspects and taking the matter seriously.
In June 2008, two full-time evangelical ministers, Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, were threatened with arrest and warned they risked being beaten up if they continue to spread their Christian message in a ‘Muslim area’ in Birmingham.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2058935/Police-advise-Christian-preachers-to-leave-Muslim-area-of-Birmingham.html
The Christian Legal Centre is supporting Rev. Samuel.'
This happened a few miles from me.
More trumpet blowing
Click on the title. Vote for me and boost my rating on Amazon. Customer Reviews: 341
Reviewer Rank: 214 Helpful Votes: 1509
Still trying for the top 100.
I am now selling too as maigemu2. If you go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/shops/index.html?ie=UTF8&sellerID=A29Q72GBEFKJLF you will see what I am selling
Reviewer Rank: 214 Helpful Votes: 1509
Still trying for the top 100.
I am now selling too as maigemu2. If you go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/shops/index.html?ie=UTF8&sellerID=A29Q72GBEFKJLF you will see what I am selling
Islamification of Britain
Labour Party MP Shahid Malik has predicted the total Islamification of Britain and a Muslim prime minister, “Allah willing”, within the next thirty years.
The remarks were made at the October 2008 “Global Peace and Unity” conference held at the Excel London centre, but were deliberately withheld from the video coverage released of that event.
The video speech in which Mr Malik made his remarks has now been released on the internet—nearly five months after the event.
The suppression of the video was clearly designed to try and limit the damage to the ruling Tory and Labour elite, whose immigration policies have led to the situation where a Muslim cabinet minister can confidently predict the total Islamification of this nation.
In his speech, Mr Malik said that he was “proud of the achievements of the Muslims of this country since 1997.”
Referring to Muslim members of the British parliament, himself included, Mr Malik went on to say that: “In 1997 we got our first Muslim MP. In 2001 we had two Muslim MPs. In 2005 we had four Muslim MPs. In Sha’ Allah [Allah willing], in 2009 (or) 2010 we’ll have eight or ten Muslim MPs. In 2014 we’ll have 16 Muslim MPs. At this rate the whole parliament will be Muslim.”
Mr Malik then realised that he had let the cat out of the bag by being too honest, and in an embarrassed tone, he backtracked slightly, saying that was not his intention “in case any members of the press are present.”
The crowd showed no signs of reacting to his remark, and, filled with confidence, he then resumed an explanation of how Britain is to be totally Islamified.
“I am confident, as Britain’s first Muslim minister, that, In Sha’ Allah, in the next thirty years or so, we’ll see a prime minister who happens to share my faith,” Mr Malik said, in reference to the growing Third World population and immigration figures.
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/200..."
The remarks were made at the October 2008 “Global Peace and Unity” conference held at the Excel London centre, but were deliberately withheld from the video coverage released of that event.
The video speech in which Mr Malik made his remarks has now been released on the internet—nearly five months after the event.
The suppression of the video was clearly designed to try and limit the damage to the ruling Tory and Labour elite, whose immigration policies have led to the situation where a Muslim cabinet minister can confidently predict the total Islamification of this nation.
In his speech, Mr Malik said that he was “proud of the achievements of the Muslims of this country since 1997.”
Referring to Muslim members of the British parliament, himself included, Mr Malik went on to say that: “In 1997 we got our first Muslim MP. In 2001 we had two Muslim MPs. In 2005 we had four Muslim MPs. In Sha’ Allah [Allah willing], in 2009 (or) 2010 we’ll have eight or ten Muslim MPs. In 2014 we’ll have 16 Muslim MPs. At this rate the whole parliament will be Muslim.”
Mr Malik then realised that he had let the cat out of the bag by being too honest, and in an embarrassed tone, he backtracked slightly, saying that was not his intention “in case any members of the press are present.”
The crowd showed no signs of reacting to his remark, and, filled with confidence, he then resumed an explanation of how Britain is to be totally Islamified.
“I am confident, as Britain’s first Muslim minister, that, In Sha’ Allah, in the next thirty years or so, we’ll see a prime minister who happens to share my faith,” Mr Malik said, in reference to the growing Third World population and immigration figures.
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/200..."
Tax - christiansquoting.org.uk
The primary requisite for any new tax law is for it to exempt enough voters to win the next election.
President Reagan has noted that there are too many economic pundits and forecasters and has decided on an excess prophets tax.
A socialist and your taxes are both soon wasted
WORK HARDER!... Millions on welfare depend on YOU!!!
Where there's a will, there's an Inheritance Tax.
A fine is a tax on doing wrong; a tax is a fine on doing well.
Harbour, n. A place where ships taking shelter from storms are exposed to the fury of the Customs.The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. --Edmund Burke
Those who steal from private individuals spend their lives in stocks and chains; those who steal from the public treasure go dressed in gold and purple. -- Marcius Porcius Cato (The Elder)
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." --Winston Churchill (1903)
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor. --William Cobbett
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing. -Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619 &endash; 1683) (attrib.)
I don't like the income tax. Every time we talk about these taxes we get around to the idea of 'from each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs'. That's socialism. It's written into the Communist Manifesto. Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what's happening to him. --Andrews T. Coleman Commissioner of Internal Revenue, U.S. News & World Report (May 25, 1956)
When Barbary Pirates demand a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'tribute money'. When the Mafia demands a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'the protection racket'. When the State demands a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'sales tax'.? --Jeff Daiell
The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless.--James Dale Davidson, of the National Taxpayers Union
The one thing that hurts more than having to pay income tax is not having to pay income tax.-- Thomas R. Dewar
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.-- Albert Einstein
IAs all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. here is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever. --Ben Franklin Addressing the Constitutional Convention (June 2, 1787)
I think that I shall never see
A tax form plain enough for me.
A form that I can understand
without a lawyer near at hand
to guide this poor benighted me
so I won't own a pen-al-ty.
A form that I will not detest
or take as more than awful jest.
A form with pages I can read
and fill out ea-si-ly with speed
Such forms weren't made for fools like me
Nor ever God who made a tree.
(San Francisco Examiner, 1989)
The age of the quiet taxpayer is peacefully drawing to its close &endash; the time when we, as politicians, can happily put our hands into taxpayers' pockets and draw out at will is passing and will continue to pass with greater speed.-- Frank Field The Times 21.5.97
All taxes are a drag on economic growth. It’s only a question of degree.--Alan Greenspan
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss."--Robert A. Heinlein, _Time Enough for Love_ p.366
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. Papers, 1:545
Thee avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.- John Maynard Keynes
If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation. - Rush Limbaugh (1951 &endash; )
Nothing in life is certain except Negative Patient Care Outcome and Revenue Enhancement. -- William Lutz, _DoubleSpeak_
The only thing worse than paying income tax is not paying income tax. --Donald Macleod
It is perfectly possible...to revive even in our day the fiscal tyranny which once left even European populations in doubt whether it was worth while preserving life by thrift and toil...You have only to take the heart out of those who would willingly labor and save, by taxing them ad misercordiam for the most laudable philanthropic objects. -- Sir Henry Sumner Maine The Prospects of Popular Government
It makes not the smallest difference to the motives of the thrifty and industrious part of mankind whether their fiscal oppressor be an Eastern despot, or a feudal baron, or a democratic legislature, and whether they are taxed for the benefit of a Corporation called Society, or for the advantage of an individual styled King or Lord. -- Sir Henry Sumner Maine The Prospects of Popular Government
A Progressive is one who is in favor of more taxes instead of less, more bureaus and jobholders, more paternalism and meddling, more regulation of private affairs and less liberty. In general, he would be inclined to regard the repeal of any tax as outrageous. --H. L. Mencken Baltimore Evening Sun (1/19/1926)
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is yo lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors. --John Stuart Mill
To lay with one hand the power of government on the property of a citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals ... is none the less robbery because it was done under the forms of law and is called taxation. --U.S. Supreme Court Justice Miller, Loan Association vs. Topeka, 20 Wall, (87 US) 664 (1874)
Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them only because 'they necessitate further inroads' upon the capitalist system and are 'unavoidable' as a means of bringing about socialism. --Ludwig von Mises (1958)
Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Some persons find this claim obviously true: taking the earnings of N hours labor is like taking N hours from the person; it is like forcing the person to work N hours for another's purpose. Others find the claim absurd. But even these, IF they object to forced labor, would oppose forcing unemployed hippies to work for the benefit of the needy. And they would also object to forcing each person to work five extra hours each week for the benefit of the needy. But a system that takes five hours' wages in taxes does not seem to them like one that forces someone to work five hours .... -- Robert Nozick, ANARCHY, STATE, UTOPIA (p.169)
Taxpayers are people who don't have to take a civil service examination to work for the government. -Red O'Donnell
Patrick Henry should come back to see what taxation WITH representation is like. - Bob Phillips
The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take a civil-service exam. --Ronald W. Reagan
A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul - George Bernard Shaw
Dear IRS,
Please remove me from your mailing list.
Snoopy
What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin. - Mark Twain
President Reagan has noted that there are too many economic pundits and forecasters and has decided on an excess prophets tax.
A socialist and your taxes are both soon wasted
WORK HARDER!... Millions on welfare depend on YOU!!!
Where there's a will, there's an Inheritance Tax.
A fine is a tax on doing wrong; a tax is a fine on doing well.
Harbour, n. A place where ships taking shelter from storms are exposed to the fury of the Customs.The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. --Edmund Burke
Those who steal from private individuals spend their lives in stocks and chains; those who steal from the public treasure go dressed in gold and purple. -- Marcius Porcius Cato (The Elder)
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." --Winston Churchill (1903)
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor. --William Cobbett
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing. -Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619 &endash; 1683) (attrib.)
I don't like the income tax. Every time we talk about these taxes we get around to the idea of 'from each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs'. That's socialism. It's written into the Communist Manifesto. Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what's happening to him. --Andrews T. Coleman Commissioner of Internal Revenue, U.S. News & World Report (May 25, 1956)
When Barbary Pirates demand a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'tribute money'. When the Mafia demands a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'the protection racket'. When the State demands a fee for allowing you to do business, it's called 'sales tax'.? --Jeff Daiell
The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless.--James Dale Davidson, of the National Taxpayers Union
The one thing that hurts more than having to pay income tax is not having to pay income tax.-- Thomas R. Dewar
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.-- Albert Einstein
IAs all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. here is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever. --Ben Franklin Addressing the Constitutional Convention (June 2, 1787)
I think that I shall never see
A tax form plain enough for me.
A form that I can understand
without a lawyer near at hand
to guide this poor benighted me
so I won't own a pen-al-ty.
A form that I will not detest
or take as more than awful jest.
A form with pages I can read
and fill out ea-si-ly with speed
Such forms weren't made for fools like me
Nor ever God who made a tree.
(San Francisco Examiner, 1989)
The age of the quiet taxpayer is peacefully drawing to its close &endash; the time when we, as politicians, can happily put our hands into taxpayers' pockets and draw out at will is passing and will continue to pass with greater speed.-- Frank Field The Times 21.5.97
All taxes are a drag on economic growth. It’s only a question of degree.--Alan Greenspan
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss."--Robert A. Heinlein, _Time Enough for Love_ p.366
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. Papers, 1:545
Thee avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.- John Maynard Keynes
If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation. - Rush Limbaugh (1951 &endash; )
Nothing in life is certain except Negative Patient Care Outcome and Revenue Enhancement. -- William Lutz, _DoubleSpeak_
The only thing worse than paying income tax is not paying income tax. --Donald Macleod
It is perfectly possible...to revive even in our day the fiscal tyranny which once left even European populations in doubt whether it was worth while preserving life by thrift and toil...You have only to take the heart out of those who would willingly labor and save, by taxing them ad misercordiam for the most laudable philanthropic objects. -- Sir Henry Sumner Maine The Prospects of Popular Government
It makes not the smallest difference to the motives of the thrifty and industrious part of mankind whether their fiscal oppressor be an Eastern despot, or a feudal baron, or a democratic legislature, and whether they are taxed for the benefit of a Corporation called Society, or for the advantage of an individual styled King or Lord. -- Sir Henry Sumner Maine The Prospects of Popular Government
A Progressive is one who is in favor of more taxes instead of less, more bureaus and jobholders, more paternalism and meddling, more regulation of private affairs and less liberty. In general, he would be inclined to regard the repeal of any tax as outrageous. --H. L. Mencken Baltimore Evening Sun (1/19/1926)
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is yo lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors. --John Stuart Mill
To lay with one hand the power of government on the property of a citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals ... is none the less robbery because it was done under the forms of law and is called taxation. --U.S. Supreme Court Justice Miller, Loan Association vs. Topeka, 20 Wall, (87 US) 664 (1874)
Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them only because 'they necessitate further inroads' upon the capitalist system and are 'unavoidable' as a means of bringing about socialism. --Ludwig von Mises (1958)
Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Some persons find this claim obviously true: taking the earnings of N hours labor is like taking N hours from the person; it is like forcing the person to work N hours for another's purpose. Others find the claim absurd. But even these, IF they object to forced labor, would oppose forcing unemployed hippies to work for the benefit of the needy. And they would also object to forcing each person to work five extra hours each week for the benefit of the needy. But a system that takes five hours' wages in taxes does not seem to them like one that forces someone to work five hours .... -- Robert Nozick, ANARCHY, STATE, UTOPIA (p.169)
Taxpayers are people who don't have to take a civil service examination to work for the government. -Red O'Donnell
Patrick Henry should come back to see what taxation WITH representation is like. - Bob Phillips
The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take a civil-service exam. --Ronald W. Reagan
A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul - George Bernard Shaw
Dear IRS,
Please remove me from your mailing list.
Snoopy
What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin. - Mark Twain
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Books read in March 2009 (5)
1. What Is a True Calvinist? (Basics of the Reformed Faith) by Philip Graham Ryken
Not according to the author, one who holds five particular doctrines. Ryken says the true Calvinist has a God centered mind, a penitent spirit, a grateful heart, a submissive will, a holy life and a glorious purpose. A warm, easy to read bookl
2. What Is the Christian Worldview? (Basics of the Reformed Faith) by Philip Graham Ryken
The author tells us a worldview is the way we look at all of life to make sense of the world. His Christian perspective is centered on the God who is there and is not silent. Crearion tells us the way we were. The fall tells us we live in paradise lost. Grace is a work in progress from God. There is glory to come, paradise consummated Gospel good tidings are no matter of mere religion but all of life is lived under God's rule.
3. What Is a Reformed Church? (Basics of the Reformed Faith) by Stephen Smallman
This booklet gives the historic reformation roots of Protestant churches of the Calvinist tradition. he gives six themes. Scripture, the sovereignty of God, the covenant, the law of God, church government and sacraments and the kingdom of God. It is unashamedly Presbyterian in its understanding of what it means to be reformed so would serve as a good introductory booklet for any such church.
4. What Is Biblical Preaching? by Eric J. Alexander
The writer sees no more urgent priority than to summon the church to a restoration of the place biblical expository preaching should hold. He teaches that biblical preaching is fundamental in importance, spiritual in essence, didactic in nature, expository, systematic, pastoral, clear in structure and with relevant contemporary application. It was taught at a conference of ministers but is suitable for all Christians to understand what id true preaching.
5. Honest Money: The Biblical Blueprint for Money and Banking by Gary North
This is the best book I have read on money and economics. It is also one of the most depressing. North gives a history of money and establishes that the state is the real counterfeiter with unbacked currency. He gives simle explanations of money and economics particularly the bad consequences of our fractional reserve banking. It may be 23 years old but it is still up to date in critical analysis.
Not according to the author, one who holds five particular doctrines. Ryken says the true Calvinist has a God centered mind, a penitent spirit, a grateful heart, a submissive will, a holy life and a glorious purpose. A warm, easy to read bookl
2. What Is the Christian Worldview? (Basics of the Reformed Faith) by Philip Graham Ryken
The author tells us a worldview is the way we look at all of life to make sense of the world. His Christian perspective is centered on the God who is there and is not silent. Crearion tells us the way we were. The fall tells us we live in paradise lost. Grace is a work in progress from God. There is glory to come, paradise consummated Gospel good tidings are no matter of mere religion but all of life is lived under God's rule.
3. What Is a Reformed Church? (Basics of the Reformed Faith) by Stephen Smallman
This booklet gives the historic reformation roots of Protestant churches of the Calvinist tradition. he gives six themes. Scripture, the sovereignty of God, the covenant, the law of God, church government and sacraments and the kingdom of God. It is unashamedly Presbyterian in its understanding of what it means to be reformed so would serve as a good introductory booklet for any such church.
4. What Is Biblical Preaching? by Eric J. Alexander
The writer sees no more urgent priority than to summon the church to a restoration of the place biblical expository preaching should hold. He teaches that biblical preaching is fundamental in importance, spiritual in essence, didactic in nature, expository, systematic, pastoral, clear in structure and with relevant contemporary application. It was taught at a conference of ministers but is suitable for all Christians to understand what id true preaching.
5. Honest Money: The Biblical Blueprint for Money and Banking by Gary North
This is the best book I have read on money and economics. It is also one of the most depressing. North gives a history of money and establishes that the state is the real counterfeiter with unbacked currency. He gives simle explanations of money and economics particularly the bad consequences of our fractional reserve banking. It may be 23 years old but it is still up to date in critical analysis.
Talking- christiansquoting.org.uk
Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff;
and, nudge me when I have said enough.
To do all the talking and not be willing to listen is a form of greed. - Democritus of Abdera, 4th-5th century B. C.
Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice. -Stanley Horowitz
If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.- JOHN OWEN
It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow-necked bottles: the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out. ~Alexander Pope, Miscellanies Vol 2 (1727)
A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted. - Francis Quarles
There is nothing so annoying as to have two people talking when you're busy interrupting. - Mark Twain
I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments. ~ Oscar Wilde, The Remarkable Rocket.
An old saying has it that there are three things we should not discuss in polite company: sex, politics and religion. We don't follow this advice when it comes to sex and politics. Sexuality, especially in the context of relationships, is an everyday topic of conversation. Office and national politics are discussed constantly. The third theme alone is missing. Next time you're at a party, try sidling up to someone, drink in hand, and ask, "So what do you think about God, anyway?" You will quickly find yourself alone. Everyone has his or her own ideas about God, we are told. But that is equally true of sex and politics. The truth seems to be that most of us have lost the knack for talking about the deepest issues of life. This lack impoverishes our conversation and, ultimately, our lives as well. -David J. Wolpe
and, nudge me when I have said enough.
To do all the talking and not be willing to listen is a form of greed. - Democritus of Abdera, 4th-5th century B. C.
Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice. -Stanley Horowitz
If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.- JOHN OWEN
It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow-necked bottles: the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out. ~Alexander Pope, Miscellanies Vol 2 (1727)
A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted. - Francis Quarles
There is nothing so annoying as to have two people talking when you're busy interrupting. - Mark Twain
I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments. ~ Oscar Wilde, The Remarkable Rocket.
An old saying has it that there are three things we should not discuss in polite company: sex, politics and religion. We don't follow this advice when it comes to sex and politics. Sexuality, especially in the context of relationships, is an everyday topic of conversation. Office and national politics are discussed constantly. The third theme alone is missing. Next time you're at a party, try sidling up to someone, drink in hand, and ask, "So what do you think about God, anyway?" You will quickly find yourself alone. Everyone has his or her own ideas about God, we are told. But that is equally true of sex and politics. The truth seems to be that most of us have lost the knack for talking about the deepest issues of life. This lack impoverishes our conversation and, ultimately, our lives as well. -David J. Wolpe
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Talent - christiansquoting.org.uk
Don't hide your light, or you may burn yourself!
Teach your students to use what talents they have; the woods would be silent if no bird sang except those that sing best.
Those talents which God has bestowed upon us are not our own goods but the free gifts of God; and any persons who become proud of them show their ungratefulness. - John Calvin (1509-1564)
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.- Degas
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. - Jonathan Swift, 1667 - 1745
Teach your students to use what talents they have; the woods would be silent if no bird sang except those that sing best.
Those talents which God has bestowed upon us are not our own goods but the free gifts of God; and any persons who become proud of them show their ungratefulness. - John Calvin (1509-1564)
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.- Degas
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. - Jonathan Swift, 1667 - 1745
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tact- christiansquoting.org.uk
Tact is the ability to tell a man he has an open mind when he has a hole in his head.
Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in. -Farmer's Almanac
A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur coat.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock.
Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your way.
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in. -Farmer's Almanac
A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur coat.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock.
Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your way.
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
Monday, March 16, 2009
New Immigration Rules increase burden on Churches
CCFON Article Published: 13th March 2009 says,
'On 27th November 2008 the Home Office changed the rules for people entering the UK as ministers of religion, non-pastoral religious workers, visiting religious workers and voluntary workers, which will affect any Church or Christian organisation that brings in people from overseas to spend time as interns or church workers.
Ministers of Religion (including missionaries and members of religious orders) now have to apply under Tier 2 of the new system. However, the migrants will need sponsoring organisations and these organisations, (i.e. churches or Christian organisations) will have to apply for sponsorship licences.
Migrants who were classified under the old immigration rules as non-pastoral religious workers, visiting religious workers and voluntary workers will have to apply under Tier 5 of the new Points Based System as temporary workers in either the charity worker or religious worker category. This will mean that churches and Christian organisations will have to apply for sponsorship licences under Tiers 5 as well. The full details are set out in the UK Border Agency’s Guidance for Sponsor Applications.
This is a departure from previous practice and unless the sponsoring organisation has applied for a licence the person will be turned back. To complicate matters there has been considerable delay by the Home Office processing some of these applications. Until those applications have been processed and the licence issued then foreign workers should be advised to delay coming to the UK. There has been a number of most unfortunate cases where Christian workers have been turned back on arrival at the airport because they did not comply with the new points based system.
Further Information is available at:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguidance/
The following examples indicate how the new Immigration system affects Christian leaders, speakers and worship leaders who regularly come in and out to speak at conferences and meetings in the United Kingdom.
On 1 March 2009, Don Francisco, an American Gospel singer, flew to the UK to visit friends and join rehearsals for the production ‘Why Good Friday?’ based on his music and written by Brian Harries. He was detained at Heathrow and then flown back to the states on the grounds that he did not have the right paperwork. Don has been ministering in the UK for over 30 years. He said:
‘I have travelled all over England and the UK for over 30 years. My wife and I love the UK very much. We have many, many dear friends there. It is deeply saddening to us and to the thousands who receive our newsletter that this has happened. Our office has been flooded with letters of shock and apology’.
A team of US church volunteers were deported from Scotland by immigration officials who told them they needed work visas to give food to the homeless. The volunteers from Arkansas, who had each raised almost £1,500 to fund the trip, had planned to spend 10 days working in homeless hostels in Edinburgh. But they were detained after arriving at Edinburgh Airport last Sunday and sent home on the first available flight.
Although the 11 volunteers, who were all in their early twenties, would not have been paid, under new Home Office rules charity workers must be sponsored by a UK organisation in order to obtain a temporary work visa. While the Scottish church group that arranged the trip had paid £400 for the necessary sponsorship certificate, it had not been processed in time.
Craig Johnson, 28, an associate youth pastor with the Harvest Time Church in Arkansas and the leader of the team, said he was astonished by the decision.
‘It was the last thing we expected when we touched down on Scottish soil. We were coming over to do God’s work and were treated in a less than Godly way’, he said.
‘It just floored me that I can stay for six months without a visa but if I want to volunteer to work in a soup kitchen for a couple of nights to help a church, I need to have a visa. That was what blew me away. I mean, we were hardly a threat to national security’.
Johnson said his church had been involved in several missions to other European countries but had never encountered similar problems with immigration officials. He said: ‘We take a team to Europe every year but I think it will be a while before we consider Scotland again’.
Johnson added that the volunteers had raised more than £16,000 to fund the trip and that much of the money had been donated by friends and families.
‘I now have to explain to my superiors what happened and try to work out what to say to the parents of the individuals who came with us and the people who supported them’, he said.
Reverend Andrew Smith, superintendent of the Assemblies of God Churches in Scotland, who had organised the trip, said he had paid £400 to sponsor the visit under UK Border Agency rules but that the paperwork had not been processed in time.
‘I went to the airport and tried to explain that we had already applied to be a sponsor and had paid the necessary £400. I also have paperwork showing that the UK Border Agency had received the application by February 10’, he said.
‘I really hope this doesn’t have a lasting impression of Scotland on these young people who were coming here to do unpaid work for a very good cause. The whole episode has been rather embarrassing’.
Last week Michael Connarty, the local Labour MP, described the decision to deport the volunteers as ‘outrageous’, adding that he would raise the matter with the Home Office.'
Out idiot authorities refuse to discriminate between gospel workers and
suspect imams then apply pettyfogging rules.
'On 27th November 2008 the Home Office changed the rules for people entering the UK as ministers of religion, non-pastoral religious workers, visiting religious workers and voluntary workers, which will affect any Church or Christian organisation that brings in people from overseas to spend time as interns or church workers.
Ministers of Religion (including missionaries and members of religious orders) now have to apply under Tier 2 of the new system. However, the migrants will need sponsoring organisations and these organisations, (i.e. churches or Christian organisations) will have to apply for sponsorship licences.
Migrants who were classified under the old immigration rules as non-pastoral religious workers, visiting religious workers and voluntary workers will have to apply under Tier 5 of the new Points Based System as temporary workers in either the charity worker or religious worker category. This will mean that churches and Christian organisations will have to apply for sponsorship licences under Tiers 5 as well. The full details are set out in the UK Border Agency’s Guidance for Sponsor Applications.
This is a departure from previous practice and unless the sponsoring organisation has applied for a licence the person will be turned back. To complicate matters there has been considerable delay by the Home Office processing some of these applications. Until those applications have been processed and the licence issued then foreign workers should be advised to delay coming to the UK. There has been a number of most unfortunate cases where Christian workers have been turned back on arrival at the airport because they did not comply with the new points based system.
Further Information is available at:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguidance/
The following examples indicate how the new Immigration system affects Christian leaders, speakers and worship leaders who regularly come in and out to speak at conferences and meetings in the United Kingdom.
On 1 March 2009, Don Francisco, an American Gospel singer, flew to the UK to visit friends and join rehearsals for the production ‘Why Good Friday?’ based on his music and written by Brian Harries. He was detained at Heathrow and then flown back to the states on the grounds that he did not have the right paperwork. Don has been ministering in the UK for over 30 years. He said:
‘I have travelled all over England and the UK for over 30 years. My wife and I love the UK very much. We have many, many dear friends there. It is deeply saddening to us and to the thousands who receive our newsletter that this has happened. Our office has been flooded with letters of shock and apology’.
A team of US church volunteers were deported from Scotland by immigration officials who told them they needed work visas to give food to the homeless. The volunteers from Arkansas, who had each raised almost £1,500 to fund the trip, had planned to spend 10 days working in homeless hostels in Edinburgh. But they were detained after arriving at Edinburgh Airport last Sunday and sent home on the first available flight.
Although the 11 volunteers, who were all in their early twenties, would not have been paid, under new Home Office rules charity workers must be sponsored by a UK organisation in order to obtain a temporary work visa. While the Scottish church group that arranged the trip had paid £400 for the necessary sponsorship certificate, it had not been processed in time.
Craig Johnson, 28, an associate youth pastor with the Harvest Time Church in Arkansas and the leader of the team, said he was astonished by the decision.
‘It was the last thing we expected when we touched down on Scottish soil. We were coming over to do God’s work and were treated in a less than Godly way’, he said.
‘It just floored me that I can stay for six months without a visa but if I want to volunteer to work in a soup kitchen for a couple of nights to help a church, I need to have a visa. That was what blew me away. I mean, we were hardly a threat to national security’.
Johnson said his church had been involved in several missions to other European countries but had never encountered similar problems with immigration officials. He said: ‘We take a team to Europe every year but I think it will be a while before we consider Scotland again’.
Johnson added that the volunteers had raised more than £16,000 to fund the trip and that much of the money had been donated by friends and families.
‘I now have to explain to my superiors what happened and try to work out what to say to the parents of the individuals who came with us and the people who supported them’, he said.
Reverend Andrew Smith, superintendent of the Assemblies of God Churches in Scotland, who had organised the trip, said he had paid £400 to sponsor the visit under UK Border Agency rules but that the paperwork had not been processed in time.
‘I went to the airport and tried to explain that we had already applied to be a sponsor and had paid the necessary £400. I also have paperwork showing that the UK Border Agency had received the application by February 10’, he said.
‘I really hope this doesn’t have a lasting impression of Scotland on these young people who were coming here to do unpaid work for a very good cause. The whole episode has been rather embarrassing’.
Last week Michael Connarty, the local Labour MP, described the decision to deport the volunteers as ‘outrageous’, adding that he would raise the matter with the Home Office.'
Out idiot authorities refuse to discriminate between gospel workers and
suspect imams then apply pettyfogging rules.
Sympathy - christiansquoting.org.uk
Those who have never been ill are incapable of real sympathy for a great many misfortune. Andre Gide
What people really need is a good listening to. Mary Lou Casey
Canvassing for the Tadcaster West ward in a Selby District Council by-election, I struck up a conversation with a local pensioner. She asked me which party I was standing for and when I told her the Conservatives she replied: "Oh my dear, I know just how you feel. I'm a Jehovah's Witness.
JULIET PECK, The Times 6.5.98
What people really need is a good listening to. Mary Lou Casey
Canvassing for the Tadcaster West ward in a Selby District Council by-election, I struck up a conversation with a local pensioner. She asked me which party I was standing for and when I told her the Conservatives she replied: "Oh my dear, I know just how you feel. I'm a Jehovah's Witness.
JULIET PECK, The Times 6.5.98
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Swearing - christiansquoting.org.uk
Profanity is the weapon of the witless.
The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low, that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.--George Washington
The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low, that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.--George Washington
Friday, March 13, 2009
Islamist insurgency threatens Christian community in Pakistan: Will you help?
The Christians of Pakistan, already vulnerable and beleaguered, are now in serious danger from a rising tide of radical and violent Islamism. As they fear for their very future, will you help to sustain them by your prayers and gifts?
A Christian leader from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province told Barnabas Fund last week how the Taliban are trying to enforce their interpretation of Islam on the whole nation. “That is why the religious minorities fear for their safety and their future,” he said. He described how Christians, desperate to blend in for safety’s sake, are beginning to dress like Muslims and the Christian men to grow beards so that they look like Muslims.
Parts of the North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, are now almo st ungovernable, as a wide range of militant Islamic groups are currently engaged in violent insurrections. Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, pleads: “Please pray at this time for the Christian minority in Pakistan, especially those in the North West Frontier Province, where the Taliban are gaining increasing power and enforcing an extreme version of sharia (Islamic law). Sharia is inherently biased against non-Muslims and also prescribes the death sentence for Muslims who choose to follow Christ. The position of the Christian community is increasingly vulnerable. They need your prayers.”
The Christian community in Pakistan is drawn mainly from the poorest parts of society, and many Christians do very menial work. They are despised by the majority society and often discriminated against. Sometimes they are subject to violent attack, especially Christian women and girls. A slow process of Islamisation over recent decades has gradually eroded their rights and liberties, and in the current situation this process looks set to continue at a far more rapid pace.
Children at a Christian school in Pakistan supported by Barnabas Fund
Barnabas Fund has been sending aid to Pakistan’s Christians for many years. Current projects include:
• monthly food parcels for needy Christian families
• a school providing education for impove rished children in a Christian environment
• health care and health education among Christian women
• assistance for pastors and evangelists
• legal services for abused and exploited Christians
• a refuge for Christian girls and women
At this time of crisis for the churches of Pakistan, we are sending additional support to protect and sustain our brothers and sisters. Please help us to do this by donating to project 41-980 (Helping Christians in Pakistan). In these financially difficult times, please remember our brothers and sisters who are far worse off than we are.
Donate Today
Please click to donate online using our secure server (Please quote project reference 41-980).
If you prefer to telephone, dial: 0800 587 4006 from within the UK or +44 1672 565031 from outside the UK (Please quote project reference 41-980).
If you prefer to send a cheque by post: Click this link for addresses of our regional offices. (Please quote project reference 41-980).
Please Pray
1.Pray for Christians in Pakistan, that the Lord will keep them safe in the midst of violence and instability. Pray that they may be enabled to maintain a consistent Christian witness.
2.Pray for the restoration of order and good governance in the regions bordering Afghanistan, and that the progress of militant Islamist groups in Pakistan will be checked and then reversed.
3.Pray against the further Islamisation of Pakistani society, that the freedom of the nation’s religious minorities will be safeguarded.
A Christian leader from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province told Barnabas Fund last week how the Taliban are trying to enforce their interpretation of Islam on the whole nation. “That is why the religious minorities fear for their safety and their future,” he said. He described how Christians, desperate to blend in for safety’s sake, are beginning to dress like Muslims and the Christian men to grow beards so that they look like Muslims.
Parts of the North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, are now almo st ungovernable, as a wide range of militant Islamic groups are currently engaged in violent insurrections. Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, pleads: “Please pray at this time for the Christian minority in Pakistan, especially those in the North West Frontier Province, where the Taliban are gaining increasing power and enforcing an extreme version of sharia (Islamic law). Sharia is inherently biased against non-Muslims and also prescribes the death sentence for Muslims who choose to follow Christ. The position of the Christian community is increasingly vulnerable. They need your prayers.”
The Christian community in Pakistan is drawn mainly from the poorest parts of society, and many Christians do very menial work. They are despised by the majority society and often discriminated against. Sometimes they are subject to violent attack, especially Christian women and girls. A slow process of Islamisation over recent decades has gradually eroded their rights and liberties, and in the current situation this process looks set to continue at a far more rapid pace.
Children at a Christian school in Pakistan supported by Barnabas Fund
Barnabas Fund has been sending aid to Pakistan’s Christians for many years. Current projects include:
• monthly food parcels for needy Christian families
• a school providing education for impove rished children in a Christian environment
• health care and health education among Christian women
• assistance for pastors and evangelists
• legal services for abused and exploited Christians
• a refuge for Christian girls and women
At this time of crisis for the churches of Pakistan, we are sending additional support to protect and sustain our brothers and sisters. Please help us to do this by donating to project 41-980 (Helping Christians in Pakistan). In these financially difficult times, please remember our brothers and sisters who are far worse off than we are.
Donate Today
Please click to donate online using our secure server (Please quote project reference 41-980).
If you prefer to telephone, dial: 0800 587 4006 from within the UK or +44 1672 565031 from outside the UK (Please quote project reference 41-980).
If you prefer to send a cheque by post: Click this link for addresses of our regional offices. (Please quote project reference 41-980).
Please Pray
1.Pray for Christians in Pakistan, that the Lord will keep them safe in the midst of violence and instability. Pray that they may be enabled to maintain a consistent Christian witness.
2.Pray for the restoration of order and good governance in the regions bordering Afghanistan, and that the progress of militant Islamist groups in Pakistan will be checked and then reversed.
3.Pray against the further Islamisation of Pakistani society, that the freedom of the nation’s religious minorities will be safeguarded.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Student facing 20 years in hell
Afghan court secretly sentences student whose cause was taken up by The Independent. His crime? To download article on women's rights
Click on tiltle for link.
We need to establish a free and just Afghanistan. The barrier is ISLAM.
Click on tiltle for link.
We need to establish a free and just Afghanistan. The barrier is ISLAM.
English Premiership's top twenty to qualify for Champions League next season
NewsBiscuit says,'The allocation of Champions League places to English clubs is to be increased from four to twenty next season it was revealed at a press conference this morning.
"We want to maintain this competition's reputation for bringing together the elite in European football." explained a UEFA spokesman "Clearly clubs such as Middlesbrough, Fulham or Hull provide a better test for the top English teams than the likes of Real Madrid or Juventus. Consequently we have taken the decision to phase out the involvement of sides from countries such as Spain, Italy, France and Germany ...and the other European nations."
During a heated 'questions and answers' session at the end of the press conference journalists challenged the spokesman over these plans, pointing out that a competition featuring solely the top English clubs would duplicate the Premiership and diminish the appeal of the Champions League.
"On the contrary," the spokesman responded "this will continue to be a far more prestigious competition than the Premiership. When Chelsea played Man Utd in the Champions League final last season it was a far bigger occasion than any of their league encounters. All we are trying to do is to create the kind of excitement that occurs in the later rounds of the Champions League - when the English teams face each other - throughout the whole competition."
Responding to the news, Everton manager David Moyes said "This can only be a good thing for the English game. If teams such as ourselves are competing against Europe's elite week in, week out, it can only improve our standards. Of course we'll probably need to field a weakened team in the Champions League games as the need to stay in the Premiership will be even greater now in order to guarantee us Champions League football again the following season."
"We want to maintain this competition's reputation for bringing together the elite in European football." explained a UEFA spokesman "Clearly clubs such as Middlesbrough, Fulham or Hull provide a better test for the top English teams than the likes of Real Madrid or Juventus. Consequently we have taken the decision to phase out the involvement of sides from countries such as Spain, Italy, France and Germany ...and the other European nations."
During a heated 'questions and answers' session at the end of the press conference journalists challenged the spokesman over these plans, pointing out that a competition featuring solely the top English clubs would duplicate the Premiership and diminish the appeal of the Champions League.
"On the contrary," the spokesman responded "this will continue to be a far more prestigious competition than the Premiership. When Chelsea played Man Utd in the Champions League final last season it was a far bigger occasion than any of their league encounters. All we are trying to do is to create the kind of excitement that occurs in the later rounds of the Champions League - when the English teams face each other - throughout the whole competition."
Responding to the news, Everton manager David Moyes said "This can only be a good thing for the English game. If teams such as ourselves are competing against Europe's elite week in, week out, it can only improve our standards. Of course we'll probably need to field a weakened team in the Champions League games as the need to stay in the Premiership will be even greater now in order to guarantee us Champions League football again the following season."
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Superstition - christiansquoting.org.uk
Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.-Edmund Burke (1729-1797) _Reflections on the Revolution in France_ [1790]
Superstition--what is it but distrust in God! -Mary Cholmondeley _Let Loose in Dracula's Brood_
The inferior man‚s reasons for hating knowledge are not hard to discern. He hates it because it is complex because it puts an unbearable burden upon his meager capacity for taking in ideas. Thus his search is always for short cuts. All superstitions are such short cuts.-H. L. Mencken, "Homo neanderthalis", The Baltimore Evening Sun, June 29, 1925
Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember: it didn't work for the rabbit!= R. E. Shay
No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread. -Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Superstition--what is it but distrust in God! -Mary Cholmondeley _Let Loose in Dracula's Brood_
The inferior man‚s reasons for hating knowledge are not hard to discern. He hates it because it is complex because it puts an unbearable burden upon his meager capacity for taking in ideas. Thus his search is always for short cuts. All superstitions are such short cuts.-H. L. Mencken, "Homo neanderthalis", The Baltimore Evening Sun, June 29, 1925
Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember: it didn't work for the rabbit!= R. E. Shay
No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread. -Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Threat of the Homosexual Agenda to Your Freedoms
By Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.
http://robgagnon.net/HomosexualAgenda.htm
March, 2009
'Most people have not been closely following the implications of the promotion of the homosexual agenda in other Western countries, especially Canada and Sweden, or even in selected areas of the United States. Here are some results that would follow from granting homosexual marriage or its legal equivalent and making "sexual orientation" a specially protected civil rights category for "hate speech" and "non-discrimination" laws.
(1) Go to jail for "hate speech." If a "Human Rights Commission" finds that you have made public statements that "incites hatred" against homosexual persons, you may go to prison. Ultimately, even ministers of the gospel will not be exempt.
This past June in Sweden a Pentecostal minister, Ake Green, was sentenced to a month in prison for referring to homosexual practice in a sermon as a "horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society." The public prosecutor commented: "Collecting Bible [verses] on this topic as he does makes this hate speech." The Swedish parliament has already given initial approval to a constitutional amendment that would prohibit any speech that "implies unfavorable treatment" to homosexual persons, with a prison sentence of up to two years.
Even highly placed church officials face the specter of prosecution. In the Catholic Church, Belgian Cardinal Gustaaf Joos faces an anti-discrimination lawsuit for remarks that he made in 2003 about homosexuality and the Church's teaching in a Belgium magazine. Madrid Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela is facing a suit in Spain for preaching against homosexuality in a sermon he gave in 2003.
In 2000 Dutch authorities even contemplated bringing charges against Pope John Paul II after he declared a homosexual rally in Rome to be "an offense to Christian values." They backed off only when they were forced to concede that the Pope had "global immunity."
In Oct. 2003 Anglican Bishop of Chester, England, Peter Forster, was investigated by police by making the following "hate" comment in an interview with a local newspaper: "Some people who are primarily homosexual can re-orientate themselves. . . . We want to help them, but I don't offer it as a pancea." The police chief declared that the comments were "totally unacceptable" and compared the remarks to offenses against ethnic minorities "generated by hate and prejudice."
Just three weeks ago in Philadelphia eleven people belonging to a Christian evangelistic group called "Repent America" were arrested for singing hymns and carrying signs ("Homosexuality Is Sin; Christ Can Set You Free") at a homosexual celebration called "Outfest." They were charged with "ethnic intimidation" under Pennsylvania's "hate crime" law ("sexual orientation" and "gender identity" were added to the law this past summer). This, along with a charge of "criminal conspiracy," and other trumped-up charges, could result in a prison sentence of up to 47 years.
(2) Lose your job for not supporting "coming out" celebrations at work or for "discriminatory" speech outside of the workplace. That's right, you can even be fired from your job for statements made outside your place of employment. Chris Kempling, a public school teacher and guidance counselor in British Columbia, Canada, was suspended for one month, without pay, for writing allegedly "discriminatory and derogatory statements against homosexuals" to a local newspaper. What kind of terrible statements did Kempling write? Things such as: "Gay people are seriously at risk [of sexually transmitted disease], not because of heterosexual attitudes but because of their sexual behavior"; and "Homosexual relationships are unstable, 'gay' sex poses health risks and many religions consider homosexuality immoral."
In a decision against Kempling handed down this past February by the British Columbia Supreme Court, Justice Ronald Holmes stated that "discriminatory speech" made outside the workplace can be punished by one's employer if one belongs to the "teaching profession" or "any [other] profession" (i.e., a white-collar job).
In 1998 Annie Coffey-Montes, a New York Bell Atlantic employee for 20 years, was fired for attempting to remove herself from the e-mail list of GLOBE (Gay and Lesbians of Bell Atlantic), which advertised "gay pride" parades, "coming out" parties, and homosexual dances. After a year of petitioning her supervisor to have her name removed, she responded to one GLOBE e-mail with: "Please take me off this email. I find it morally offensive. God bless you." She ended by citing Romans 1:27. Coffey-Montes was fired for "creating a hostile work environment."
In 2001 Albert Buonanno was fired from AT&T Broadband of Denver for not signing a "certificate of understanding" stating that he would "fully value sexual orientation differences."
In Oct. 2002 Rolf Szabo, a 23-year employee of The Eastman Kodak Company was fired when he responded to an e-mail requiring supervisors to promote a "Coming Out Day" for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees with the following: "Please do not send this type of information to me anymore, as I find it disgusting and offensive. Thank you."
In 2003 Richard Peterson at Hewlett-Packard's office in Boise, Idaho, posted at his cubicle two Bible verses critical of homosexual practice in response to a poster of two homosexual man placed near his cubicle. He was fired for not "accepting [the company's] values."
(3) Be fined and pay heavy legal fees for daring to criticize, or not supporting with your business, homosexual practice. Two incidents in Canada give a good indication of where things are headed. Canadian print shop owner Scott Brockie was ordered to pay a fine of $5000 because he refused to print homosexual advocacy materials for the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives.
In attempting to defend himself in the courts, Brockie not only incurred over $100,000 in legal expenses beyond his legal defense fund, but was also ordered by the Ontario Court of Appeal this past year to pay the $40,000 incurred by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for prosecuting him. Hugh Owens, a Canadian correctional-center guard, was fined $4500 by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission in 2002 for taking out an ad in a local newspaper that responded to a "Gay Pride" celebration.
The ad reproduced a bumper sticker that Owens had created, showing two male stick figures holding hands, with a line through the picture, and the mere citation of four references from the Bible against homosexual practice (no quotations). Owens, who had to represent himself because he could not afford legal representation, may yet have to pay the prosecuting expenses of the Human Rights Commission.
In California businesses that don't offer benefits to homosexual couples are denied state contracts, irrespective of the business owner's religious beliefs. Moreover, perceived workplace discrimination against "transgendered" persons (both transsexuals and transvestites) makes businesses liable to a $150,000 fine.
(4) Have your children taken away from you if you teach them "homophobic" ideas. In 2003 Dr. Cheryl Clark was ordered by a Denver Circuit Court judge and later in 2004 by the Colorado Court of Appeals not to say anything to her adopted daughter that her ex-lesbian partner might construe as "homophobic." In California potential foster parents who express disapproval of homosexual practice are disqualified from foster care.
Adoption qualifications will one day screen potential parents on the basis of their stance toward "sexual orientation differences." Where is this ultimately headed? It is not hard to imagine. Suppose your child wonders whether he or she is bisexual, homosexual, or transgendered-not a far-fetched possibility given the coercive promotion of bisexuality, homosexuality, and transgenderism in the school systems and the higher percentage of orientation confusion among adolescents. If your child then tells the school guidance counselor that you regard homosexual behavior as sin, the counselor will report the matter to your state Child Protective Services and your child will be removed from your home. The state will reason: Would we tolerate black children raised in the homes of Klu Klux Klan members?
(5) Have the school systems teach your children that you are a hateful bigot. In California all public schools, as well as private and religious schools that receive state money, must have curricula that "foster appreciation" for sexual orientation differences.
An example of the kind of material that children can be subjected to includes a presentation sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) called "Cootie Shots." In one of the skits a young boy declares how wonderful it is to dress "in Mommy's high heals." "What's wrong with being like a girl? . / . . . They are swine, I am the pearl. / And let them laugh and let them scream. / They'll be beheaded when I'm queen."
In a GLSEN video, "It's Elementary," a resource promoted to elementary school teachers, an 8-year old girl reads her essay to her class stating that those who accept the Bible's teaching on homosexual practice are stupid. The teacher gives her essay an award.
In 2002 the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that neither parents nor school boards could prevent public school children, even in kindergarten and first-grade, from being instructed in the classroom about the acceptability of homosexual relationships. This is what is coming to America. If you are fortunate enough to have your children embrace your values in sexual ethics they will marginalized as the moral equivalent of racists and humiliated in the classroom.
(6) Other Consequences. The ramifications of making "sexual orientation" a nationally protected civil rights category are endless. Here we can only mention briefly a few other consequences.
* Adoption agencies will not be able to give any priority to heterosexual married couples over homosexual couples because that would be discrimination. It makes no difference that the child is exposed to a homosexual environment and would be more inclined from this to experiment in homosexual behavior. It makes no difference that the vast majority of homosexual relationships will be not be long-term and monogamous.
* Christian groups on college campuses that do not allow practicing, self-affirming homosexuals as leaders will be charged with discrimination and kicked off campus.
* Professionals who have affiliation with such "discriminatory" groups as the Boy Scouts or the Salvation Army will be subjected to censure. Already, for example, the American Bar Association is considering prohibiting judges from involvement with any organizations that "discriminate" on the basis of "sexual orientation."
* Christian colleges and seminaries that are suspected of "sexual orientation" discrimination-whether in hiring professors, allowing any faculty to say in class that homosexual practice is sin, or failing to provide "domestic partner benefits" to homosexual employees or "married student housing" to homosexual students-will be denied access to federal student loans. Eventually accreditation will be affected since the Association of Theological Schools cannot permit institutions to perpetuate the "moral equivalent" of racism.
* In order to protect themselves from federal lawsuits or civil suits, corporations will need to prove that they do not discriminate on the basis of "sexual orientation" by adopting affirmative-hire programs for self-professed GLBTs (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered persons). It will not be good enough to have an "orientation-blind" policy.
The Bottom Line
The one political concern where the greatest sea change in the federal government's policies is likely to come is not in social programs for the disadvantaged, the environment, taxes, or even the Iraq War. No, the greatest change is likely to come on the issue of homosexual advocacy and the oppressive hand of the federal government against those who resist the false conclusion that homosexual practice is a normal, natural, and acceptable form of behavior that society should promote. It is on this issue that there is a serious prospect of radical abridgement of your religious and civil freedoms, to the point of being fired or imprisoned. What could be more alarming? Every Christian has a civic responsibility to engage the political process with a view to preventing such tragic results.'
by Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, gagnon@pts.edu
http://robgagnon.net/HomosexualAgenda.htm
March, 2009
'Most people have not been closely following the implications of the promotion of the homosexual agenda in other Western countries, especially Canada and Sweden, or even in selected areas of the United States. Here are some results that would follow from granting homosexual marriage or its legal equivalent and making "sexual orientation" a specially protected civil rights category for "hate speech" and "non-discrimination" laws.
(1) Go to jail for "hate speech." If a "Human Rights Commission" finds that you have made public statements that "incites hatred" against homosexual persons, you may go to prison. Ultimately, even ministers of the gospel will not be exempt.
This past June in Sweden a Pentecostal minister, Ake Green, was sentenced to a month in prison for referring to homosexual practice in a sermon as a "horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society." The public prosecutor commented: "Collecting Bible [verses] on this topic as he does makes this hate speech." The Swedish parliament has already given initial approval to a constitutional amendment that would prohibit any speech that "implies unfavorable treatment" to homosexual persons, with a prison sentence of up to two years.
Even highly placed church officials face the specter of prosecution. In the Catholic Church, Belgian Cardinal Gustaaf Joos faces an anti-discrimination lawsuit for remarks that he made in 2003 about homosexuality and the Church's teaching in a Belgium magazine. Madrid Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela is facing a suit in Spain for preaching against homosexuality in a sermon he gave in 2003.
In 2000 Dutch authorities even contemplated bringing charges against Pope John Paul II after he declared a homosexual rally in Rome to be "an offense to Christian values." They backed off only when they were forced to concede that the Pope had "global immunity."
In Oct. 2003 Anglican Bishop of Chester, England, Peter Forster, was investigated by police by making the following "hate" comment in an interview with a local newspaper: "Some people who are primarily homosexual can re-orientate themselves. . . . We want to help them, but I don't offer it as a pancea." The police chief declared that the comments were "totally unacceptable" and compared the remarks to offenses against ethnic minorities "generated by hate and prejudice."
Just three weeks ago in Philadelphia eleven people belonging to a Christian evangelistic group called "Repent America" were arrested for singing hymns and carrying signs ("Homosexuality Is Sin; Christ Can Set You Free") at a homosexual celebration called "Outfest." They were charged with "ethnic intimidation" under Pennsylvania's "hate crime" law ("sexual orientation" and "gender identity" were added to the law this past summer). This, along with a charge of "criminal conspiracy," and other trumped-up charges, could result in a prison sentence of up to 47 years.
(2) Lose your job for not supporting "coming out" celebrations at work or for "discriminatory" speech outside of the workplace. That's right, you can even be fired from your job for statements made outside your place of employment. Chris Kempling, a public school teacher and guidance counselor in British Columbia, Canada, was suspended for one month, without pay, for writing allegedly "discriminatory and derogatory statements against homosexuals" to a local newspaper. What kind of terrible statements did Kempling write? Things such as: "Gay people are seriously at risk [of sexually transmitted disease], not because of heterosexual attitudes but because of their sexual behavior"; and "Homosexual relationships are unstable, 'gay' sex poses health risks and many religions consider homosexuality immoral."
In a decision against Kempling handed down this past February by the British Columbia Supreme Court, Justice Ronald Holmes stated that "discriminatory speech" made outside the workplace can be punished by one's employer if one belongs to the "teaching profession" or "any [other] profession" (i.e., a white-collar job).
In 1998 Annie Coffey-Montes, a New York Bell Atlantic employee for 20 years, was fired for attempting to remove herself from the e-mail list of GLOBE (Gay and Lesbians of Bell Atlantic), which advertised "gay pride" parades, "coming out" parties, and homosexual dances. After a year of petitioning her supervisor to have her name removed, she responded to one GLOBE e-mail with: "Please take me off this email. I find it morally offensive. God bless you." She ended by citing Romans 1:27. Coffey-Montes was fired for "creating a hostile work environment."
In 2001 Albert Buonanno was fired from AT&T Broadband of Denver for not signing a "certificate of understanding" stating that he would "fully value sexual orientation differences."
In Oct. 2002 Rolf Szabo, a 23-year employee of The Eastman Kodak Company was fired when he responded to an e-mail requiring supervisors to promote a "Coming Out Day" for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees with the following: "Please do not send this type of information to me anymore, as I find it disgusting and offensive. Thank you."
In 2003 Richard Peterson at Hewlett-Packard's office in Boise, Idaho, posted at his cubicle two Bible verses critical of homosexual practice in response to a poster of two homosexual man placed near his cubicle. He was fired for not "accepting [the company's] values."
(3) Be fined and pay heavy legal fees for daring to criticize, or not supporting with your business, homosexual practice. Two incidents in Canada give a good indication of where things are headed. Canadian print shop owner Scott Brockie was ordered to pay a fine of $5000 because he refused to print homosexual advocacy materials for the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives.
In attempting to defend himself in the courts, Brockie not only incurred over $100,000 in legal expenses beyond his legal defense fund, but was also ordered by the Ontario Court of Appeal this past year to pay the $40,000 incurred by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for prosecuting him. Hugh Owens, a Canadian correctional-center guard, was fined $4500 by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission in 2002 for taking out an ad in a local newspaper that responded to a "Gay Pride" celebration.
The ad reproduced a bumper sticker that Owens had created, showing two male stick figures holding hands, with a line through the picture, and the mere citation of four references from the Bible against homosexual practice (no quotations). Owens, who had to represent himself because he could not afford legal representation, may yet have to pay the prosecuting expenses of the Human Rights Commission.
In California businesses that don't offer benefits to homosexual couples are denied state contracts, irrespective of the business owner's religious beliefs. Moreover, perceived workplace discrimination against "transgendered" persons (both transsexuals and transvestites) makes businesses liable to a $150,000 fine.
(4) Have your children taken away from you if you teach them "homophobic" ideas. In 2003 Dr. Cheryl Clark was ordered by a Denver Circuit Court judge and later in 2004 by the Colorado Court of Appeals not to say anything to her adopted daughter that her ex-lesbian partner might construe as "homophobic." In California potential foster parents who express disapproval of homosexual practice are disqualified from foster care.
Adoption qualifications will one day screen potential parents on the basis of their stance toward "sexual orientation differences." Where is this ultimately headed? It is not hard to imagine. Suppose your child wonders whether he or she is bisexual, homosexual, or transgendered-not a far-fetched possibility given the coercive promotion of bisexuality, homosexuality, and transgenderism in the school systems and the higher percentage of orientation confusion among adolescents. If your child then tells the school guidance counselor that you regard homosexual behavior as sin, the counselor will report the matter to your state Child Protective Services and your child will be removed from your home. The state will reason: Would we tolerate black children raised in the homes of Klu Klux Klan members?
(5) Have the school systems teach your children that you are a hateful bigot. In California all public schools, as well as private and religious schools that receive state money, must have curricula that "foster appreciation" for sexual orientation differences.
An example of the kind of material that children can be subjected to includes a presentation sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) called "Cootie Shots." In one of the skits a young boy declares how wonderful it is to dress "in Mommy's high heals." "What's wrong with being like a girl? . / . . . They are swine, I am the pearl. / And let them laugh and let them scream. / They'll be beheaded when I'm queen."
In a GLSEN video, "It's Elementary," a resource promoted to elementary school teachers, an 8-year old girl reads her essay to her class stating that those who accept the Bible's teaching on homosexual practice are stupid. The teacher gives her essay an award.
In 2002 the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that neither parents nor school boards could prevent public school children, even in kindergarten and first-grade, from being instructed in the classroom about the acceptability of homosexual relationships. This is what is coming to America. If you are fortunate enough to have your children embrace your values in sexual ethics they will marginalized as the moral equivalent of racists and humiliated in the classroom.
(6) Other Consequences. The ramifications of making "sexual orientation" a nationally protected civil rights category are endless. Here we can only mention briefly a few other consequences.
* Adoption agencies will not be able to give any priority to heterosexual married couples over homosexual couples because that would be discrimination. It makes no difference that the child is exposed to a homosexual environment and would be more inclined from this to experiment in homosexual behavior. It makes no difference that the vast majority of homosexual relationships will be not be long-term and monogamous.
* Christian groups on college campuses that do not allow practicing, self-affirming homosexuals as leaders will be charged with discrimination and kicked off campus.
* Professionals who have affiliation with such "discriminatory" groups as the Boy Scouts or the Salvation Army will be subjected to censure. Already, for example, the American Bar Association is considering prohibiting judges from involvement with any organizations that "discriminate" on the basis of "sexual orientation."
* Christian colleges and seminaries that are suspected of "sexual orientation" discrimination-whether in hiring professors, allowing any faculty to say in class that homosexual practice is sin, or failing to provide "domestic partner benefits" to homosexual employees or "married student housing" to homosexual students-will be denied access to federal student loans. Eventually accreditation will be affected since the Association of Theological Schools cannot permit institutions to perpetuate the "moral equivalent" of racism.
* In order to protect themselves from federal lawsuits or civil suits, corporations will need to prove that they do not discriminate on the basis of "sexual orientation" by adopting affirmative-hire programs for self-professed GLBTs (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered persons). It will not be good enough to have an "orientation-blind" policy.
The Bottom Line
The one political concern where the greatest sea change in the federal government's policies is likely to come is not in social programs for the disadvantaged, the environment, taxes, or even the Iraq War. No, the greatest change is likely to come on the issue of homosexual advocacy and the oppressive hand of the federal government against those who resist the false conclusion that homosexual practice is a normal, natural, and acceptable form of behavior that society should promote. It is on this issue that there is a serious prospect of radical abridgement of your religious and civil freedoms, to the point of being fired or imprisoned. What could be more alarming? Every Christian has a civic responsibility to engage the political process with a view to preventing such tragic results.'
by Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, gagnon@pts.edu
Suicide - christiansquoting.org.uk
Samson crushed himself and his enemies to death beneath the ruins of a building. He can only be excused on the grounds that the Spirit of the Lord, who wrought miracles through him, had bidden him to do so. But, apart from such men excepted by the command of a just law in general or of God, the very Source of justice, in a special case, any one who kills a human being, himself or another, is guilty of murder.
Augustine, City of God, Book 1, Chapter 21, Image Books, Doubleday,1958:
It is significant that in Holy Scripture no passage can be found enjoining or permitting suicide either in order to hasten our entry into immortality or to void or avoid temporal evils. God's command, "thou shalt not kill," is to be taken as forbidding self-destruction, especially as it does not add 'thy neighbor,' as it does when it forbids false witness, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor,' However, no one should think he is guiltless when be bears false witness against himself, since the duty to love one's neighbor is measured by the love of oneself, as it is written, "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." --. Augustine, City of God, Chapter 20
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. - Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1955)
It's the arsehole's way out- Andy McNabb ex-SAS on suicide.
I've always found it fascinating that the suicide rate of handicapped people is far less than of those not handicapped.- Michael Levine
Suicide is belated acquiescence in the opinion of one's wife's relatives.- H.L. Mencken
The thought of suicide is a powerful solace: by means of it one gets through many a bad night. -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886], "Maxims and Interludes," No. 157
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you:
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
Dorothy Parker
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
William Shakespeare. Hamlet. Act i. Sc.2
Augustine, City of God, Book 1, Chapter 21, Image Books, Doubleday,1958:
It is significant that in Holy Scripture no passage can be found enjoining or permitting suicide either in order to hasten our entry into immortality or to void or avoid temporal evils. God's command, "thou shalt not kill," is to be taken as forbidding self-destruction, especially as it does not add 'thy neighbor,' as it does when it forbids false witness, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor,' However, no one should think he is guiltless when be bears false witness against himself, since the duty to love one's neighbor is measured by the love of oneself, as it is written, "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." --. Augustine, City of God, Chapter 20
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. - Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1955)
It's the arsehole's way out- Andy McNabb ex-SAS on suicide.
I've always found it fascinating that the suicide rate of handicapped people is far less than of those not handicapped.- Michael Levine
Suicide is belated acquiescence in the opinion of one's wife's relatives.- H.L. Mencken
The thought of suicide is a powerful solace: by means of it one gets through many a bad night. -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886], "Maxims and Interludes," No. 157
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you:
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
Dorothy Parker
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
William Shakespeare. Hamlet. Act i. Sc.2
Monday, March 09, 2009
Suffering- christiansquoting.org.uk
If God wants people to suffer, he sends them too much understanding.-Yiddish Proverb
When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool. -Chinua Achebe (1930-____): "Arrow of God," 1967.
Suffering isn't ennobling; recovery is. - Christiaan H. Barnard
We are never ripe till we have been made so by suffering.~Henry Ward Beecher
If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.-Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)
Suffering, once accepted, loses its edge, for the terror of it lessens, and what remains is generally more manageable than we had imagined.- Lesley Hazelton
Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.- Thomas a Kempis
In a sense it (Christianity) creates, rather than solves, the problem of pain, for pain would be no problem unless side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is righteousness and loving. C. S. LEWIS, THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.- Thomas Merton
Virtue will have naught to do with ease.... It demands a rough and thorny path. -Montaigne
Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.- Mary Tyler Moore
The cross symbolises a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one. The old does not give way to the new without trying to overcome it.- Reinhold Niebuhr
Suffering passes; having suffered never passes. -Charles Pegúy (1873-1914)
Never to suffer would never to have been blessed. Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
..show yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring; - in patience possess your soul: they lose nothing who gain Christ. I commend you to the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus. - Samuel Rutherford, Letters, II. To LADY KENMURE, on the occasion of the death of her infant daughter, ANWOTH, Jan, 15, 1629
I know you are in grief and heaviness; and if it were not so, you might be afraid, because then your way would not be so like the way that our Lord saith leadeth to the New Jerusalem. Sure I am, if you knew what were before you, or if you saw some glances of it, you would, with gladness, swim through the present floods of sorrow, spreading forth your arms out of desire to be at land. - Samuel Rutherford, Letters IV. To LADY KENMURE, ANWOTH, Feb. 1, 1630
Unhurt people are not much good in the world. -Enid Starkie
It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced.- Leo Tolstoy
Suffer all, and conquer all.-John Wesley (1703-1791)
Gladly shall I come whenever bodily strength will allow to join my testimony with yours in Olney pulpit, that God is love. As yet I have not recovered from the fatigues of my American expedition. My shattered bark is scarce worth docking any more. But I would fain wear, not rust, out. Oh! my dear Mr. Newton, indeed and indeed I am ashamed that I have done and suffered so little for Him that hath done and suffered so much for ill and hell-deserving me.-George Whitefield (1714-1770), letter to John Newton
The need to let suffering speak is a condition of all truth. - Theodor AdornSuccess in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. - Sloan Wilson (1920- )
When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool. -Chinua Achebe (1930-____): "Arrow of God," 1967.
Suffering isn't ennobling; recovery is. - Christiaan H. Barnard
We are never ripe till we have been made so by suffering.~Henry Ward Beecher
If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.-Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)
Suffering, once accepted, loses its edge, for the terror of it lessens, and what remains is generally more manageable than we had imagined.- Lesley Hazelton
Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.- Thomas a Kempis
In a sense it (Christianity) creates, rather than solves, the problem of pain, for pain would be no problem unless side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is righteousness and loving. C. S. LEWIS, THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.- Thomas Merton
Virtue will have naught to do with ease.... It demands a rough and thorny path. -Montaigne
Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.- Mary Tyler Moore
The cross symbolises a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one. The old does not give way to the new without trying to overcome it.- Reinhold Niebuhr
Suffering passes; having suffered never passes. -Charles Pegúy (1873-1914)
Never to suffer would never to have been blessed. Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
..show yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring; - in patience possess your soul: they lose nothing who gain Christ. I commend you to the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus. - Samuel Rutherford, Letters, II. To LADY KENMURE, on the occasion of the death of her infant daughter, ANWOTH, Jan, 15, 1629
I know you are in grief and heaviness; and if it were not so, you might be afraid, because then your way would not be so like the way that our Lord saith leadeth to the New Jerusalem. Sure I am, if you knew what were before you, or if you saw some glances of it, you would, with gladness, swim through the present floods of sorrow, spreading forth your arms out of desire to be at land. - Samuel Rutherford, Letters IV. To LADY KENMURE, ANWOTH, Feb. 1, 1630
Unhurt people are not much good in the world. -Enid Starkie
It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced.- Leo Tolstoy
Suffer all, and conquer all.-John Wesley (1703-1791)
Gladly shall I come whenever bodily strength will allow to join my testimony with yours in Olney pulpit, that God is love. As yet I have not recovered from the fatigues of my American expedition. My shattered bark is scarce worth docking any more. But I would fain wear, not rust, out. Oh! my dear Mr. Newton, indeed and indeed I am ashamed that I have done and suffered so little for Him that hath done and suffered so much for ill and hell-deserving me.-George Whitefield (1714-1770), letter to John Newton
The need to let suffering speak is a condition of all truth. - Theodor AdornSuccess in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. - Sloan Wilson (1920- )
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Success - christiansquoting.org.uk
Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.
Success is just a matter of luck -- ask any failure.
A sense of duty and responsibility leads to a successful life... not brains....
There are two rules for success in life.
Rule 1: Don't tell people everything you know.
The dictionary is the only place where SUCCESS comes before WORK.
No one ever attains success by simply doing what is required of him. --Charles Kendall Adams
The world isn't interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship. - Raul Armesto
Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. Roger Babson (1875-1967)
There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every one can in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less of an exception to the general rule. --Samuel Butler
Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world except money. - Johnny Cash (1932 &endash; 2003)
Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.- Coco Chanel (1883-1971) In "McCall's Magazine."
Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes - they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice. - Agatha Christie (1890-1976)Remembered Death, 1945.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill
The secret of success is constancy of purpose.&endash;Benjamin Disraeli
Success is relative: it's what we can make of the mess we have made of things. -T. S. Eliot
Maybe life is a grindstone; whether it polishes you or wears you down depends on what you're made of. Kay Fletcher
Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you'll have left is your character.--- Vince Gill
The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.-- Goethe
We will either find a way, or make one. Hannibal.
Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit. - Conrad Hilton (1887 &endash; 1979)
Many people dream of success. To me, success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.... Soichiro Honda, Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life by Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune.; but great minds rise above them. Washington Irving
It is certain that success naturally confirms in us a favourable opinion of our own abilities. Scarce any man is willing to allot to accident, friendship, and a thousand causes, which concur in every event without human contrivance or interposition, the part which they may justly claim in his advancement. We rate ourselves by our fortune rather than our virtues, and exorbitant claims are quickly produced by imaginary merit.-- Samue Johnson: Rambler #172
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. --Samuel Johnson
Nature gave men two ends - one to sit on and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most. George R. Kirkpatrick
Success didn't spoil me; I've always been insufferable. Fran Lebowitz
The desire for success lubricates secret prostitutions in the soul. Norman Mailer
The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me. - Howard Nemerov (1920&endash;1991)
Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but to leave the result to God. --Alan Paton
Women are rarely as successful as men ˆ they have no wives to advise them. -- Bob Phillips
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. --- Colin Powell.
I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.--Jonas Salk
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory is a benediction. -- Bessie A. Stanley (b.1879)
Success is a journey, not a destination. Ben Sweetland
The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation. - Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910
Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. - Sloan Wilson (1920 &endash; )
I couldn't wait for success so I went on ahead without it. -- JONATHAN WINTERS
Success is just a matter of luck -- ask any failure.
A sense of duty and responsibility leads to a successful life... not brains....
There are two rules for success in life.
Rule 1: Don't tell people everything you know.
The dictionary is the only place where SUCCESS comes before WORK.
No one ever attains success by simply doing what is required of him. --Charles Kendall Adams
The world isn't interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship. - Raul Armesto
Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. Roger Babson (1875-1967)
There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every one can in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less of an exception to the general rule. --Samuel Butler
Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world except money. - Johnny Cash (1932 &endash; 2003)
Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.- Coco Chanel (1883-1971) In "McCall's Magazine."
Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes - they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice. - Agatha Christie (1890-1976)Remembered Death, 1945.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill
The secret of success is constancy of purpose.&endash;Benjamin Disraeli
Success is relative: it's what we can make of the mess we have made of things. -T. S. Eliot
Maybe life is a grindstone; whether it polishes you or wears you down depends on what you're made of. Kay Fletcher
Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you'll have left is your character.--- Vince Gill
The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.-- Goethe
We will either find a way, or make one. Hannibal.
Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit. - Conrad Hilton (1887 &endash; 1979)
Many people dream of success. To me, success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.... Soichiro Honda, Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life by Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune.; but great minds rise above them. Washington Irving
It is certain that success naturally confirms in us a favourable opinion of our own abilities. Scarce any man is willing to allot to accident, friendship, and a thousand causes, which concur in every event without human contrivance or interposition, the part which they may justly claim in his advancement. We rate ourselves by our fortune rather than our virtues, and exorbitant claims are quickly produced by imaginary merit.-- Samue Johnson: Rambler #172
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. --Samuel Johnson
Nature gave men two ends - one to sit on and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most. George R. Kirkpatrick
Success didn't spoil me; I've always been insufferable. Fran Lebowitz
The desire for success lubricates secret prostitutions in the soul. Norman Mailer
The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me. - Howard Nemerov (1920&endash;1991)
Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but to leave the result to God. --Alan Paton
Women are rarely as successful as men ˆ they have no wives to advise them. -- Bob Phillips
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. --- Colin Powell.
I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.--Jonas Salk
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory is a benediction. -- Bessie A. Stanley (b.1879)
Success is a journey, not a destination. Ben Sweetland
The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation. - Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910
Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. - Sloan Wilson (1920 &endash; )
I couldn't wait for success so I went on ahead without it. -- JONATHAN WINTERS
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Exiled cleric preaches at London primary school
Christian Institute reports.'A London primary school played host to a meeting of Muslims at which an extremist preacher called for Britain to become an Islamic state.
Omar Bakri spoke for 40 minutes by telephone from Lebanon, where he is in hiding from security forces seeking his arrest over his alleged involvement in training terrorists.
He told the group gathered at Sudbury Primary School in North London:“The existence of the Islamic state is a necessity for justice to be established, a necessity for the people in order to keep away from personal desire and greed.”
He added: “I believe the way forward is Islam. It is time to go back to basics. I believe Islam is the future.”
Previously, when asked if he condemned the followers of Osama bin Laden, the Syrian-born cleric said: “I condemn Tony Blair. I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims.”
Nicknamed “the Tottenham Ayatollah” for his extremist activity in the Eighties and early Nineties in Britain, Mr Bakri has blamed the Government and the British public for the 7 July bombings.
News of the primary school meeting comes days after Ed Husain, Co-Director of Muslim think-tank Quilliam, warned that British mosques were “run by men who are physically in Britain, but psychologically in Pakistan”.
A Quilliam Foundation survey showed that 97 per cent of imams were from overseas, with 92 per cent educated abroad, largely in Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Almost half the mosques failed to provide facilities for Muslim women, and 44 per cent were not giving a lecture in English before weekly prayers.
The research follows news last month that the Muslim population in the UK grew by 500,000 in the last four years, now standing at 2.4 million.'
This is just up the road from me. Who are these people? Why are they allowed to meet in a school?
Omar Bakri spoke for 40 minutes by telephone from Lebanon, where he is in hiding from security forces seeking his arrest over his alleged involvement in training terrorists.
He told the group gathered at Sudbury Primary School in North London:“The existence of the Islamic state is a necessity for justice to be established, a necessity for the people in order to keep away from personal desire and greed.”
He added: “I believe the way forward is Islam. It is time to go back to basics. I believe Islam is the future.”
Previously, when asked if he condemned the followers of Osama bin Laden, the Syrian-born cleric said: “I condemn Tony Blair. I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims.”
Nicknamed “the Tottenham Ayatollah” for his extremist activity in the Eighties and early Nineties in Britain, Mr Bakri has blamed the Government and the British public for the 7 July bombings.
News of the primary school meeting comes days after Ed Husain, Co-Director of Muslim think-tank Quilliam, warned that British mosques were “run by men who are physically in Britain, but psychologically in Pakistan”.
A Quilliam Foundation survey showed that 97 per cent of imams were from overseas, with 92 per cent educated abroad, largely in Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Almost half the mosques failed to provide facilities for Muslim women, and 44 per cent were not giving a lecture in English before weekly prayers.
The research follows news last month that the Muslim population in the UK grew by 500,000 in the last four years, now standing at 2.4 million.'
This is just up the road from me. Who are these people? Why are they allowed to meet in a school?
Parents face prosecution over 'gay' education class protest
Sara Dixon in The Times
'PARENTS who took their children out of school to prevent them being taught about lesbian, gay and transgender relationships are facing prosecution.
Around 30 pupils from an east London primary school were absent from a week of special lessons to highlight non-heterosexual partnerships.
To mark the event some students watched a special adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet retitled Romeo and Julian.
Stories covered in the lessons at George Tomlinson School included a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before falling in love with one of their brothers and the tale of Roy and Silo - two male penguins who fall in love.
The protesting parents said the content was more appropriate for secondary school pupils and now they face possible court action.
Some of the parents said they informed the Leytonstone school they were removing their children for the week.
Pervez Latif, whose children Saleh, ten, and Abdur-Rahim, nine, attend the school, said both Christian and Muslim parents objected to the theme linked to Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month.
Mr Latif is quoted as saying: “I didn’t want my children to be learning about this.
“I wrote a letter to the chairman of the governors explaining that I would be taking my children out of school and he wrote back saying that there was no other option.”
He added parents were informed of the lessons by newsletter.
Sarah Saeed, 40, also took her eight-year-old daughter out of school during the week. She claims she told the school she would remove her daughter if they went ahead with their plans.
She is quoted as saying: “It is not an appropriate age for the children to be learning such matters.
“She has a 100 per cent attendance record otherwise. This is the only time and this is the only choice I had.”
Officials at Waltham Forest Council said there were unauthorised absences from George Tomlinson School when it covered topics relevant to lesbian, gay and transgender history.
They said action had been taken against the protesting parents but are currently refusing to say how they plan to punish them.
Mr Latif reportedly said his wife feared it could end with them having to defend their decision in court as their children are being treated as truants.
To deal with truant pupils Waltham Forest Council can make parents can sign a contract, impose fines or bring them to court.'
Schools teach peversion and parents are threatened. It's a queer world out there.
'PARENTS who took their children out of school to prevent them being taught about lesbian, gay and transgender relationships are facing prosecution.
Around 30 pupils from an east London primary school were absent from a week of special lessons to highlight non-heterosexual partnerships.
To mark the event some students watched a special adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet retitled Romeo and Julian.
Stories covered in the lessons at George Tomlinson School included a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before falling in love with one of their brothers and the tale of Roy and Silo - two male penguins who fall in love.
The protesting parents said the content was more appropriate for secondary school pupils and now they face possible court action.
Some of the parents said they informed the Leytonstone school they were removing their children for the week.
Pervez Latif, whose children Saleh, ten, and Abdur-Rahim, nine, attend the school, said both Christian and Muslim parents objected to the theme linked to Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month.
Mr Latif is quoted as saying: “I didn’t want my children to be learning about this.
“I wrote a letter to the chairman of the governors explaining that I would be taking my children out of school and he wrote back saying that there was no other option.”
He added parents were informed of the lessons by newsletter.
Sarah Saeed, 40, also took her eight-year-old daughter out of school during the week. She claims she told the school she would remove her daughter if they went ahead with their plans.
She is quoted as saying: “It is not an appropriate age for the children to be learning such matters.
“She has a 100 per cent attendance record otherwise. This is the only time and this is the only choice I had.”
Officials at Waltham Forest Council said there were unauthorised absences from George Tomlinson School when it covered topics relevant to lesbian, gay and transgender history.
They said action had been taken against the protesting parents but are currently refusing to say how they plan to punish them.
Mr Latif reportedly said his wife feared it could end with them having to defend their decision in court as their children are being treated as truants.
To deal with truant pupils Waltham Forest Council can make parents can sign a contract, impose fines or bring them to court.'
Schools teach peversion and parents are threatened. It's a queer world out there.
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