Sunday Express says,on Saturday July 11,2009 'POLICE will be ordered not to charge Muslim extremists in many hate crime cases – to stop them becoming more militant.
Guidelines will tell forces to press for conviction only in cases of clear-cut criminal acts.
Officers will be advised not to proceed when evidence of lawbreaking is “borderline”.
Examples of crimes to which a blind eye may be turned include incitement to religious hatred or viewing extremist material on the internet.
Last night critics warned that the move could mean Islamic radicals being give the freedom to encourage violence.
Some saw the move as a politically correct attempt to appease extremists who hate Britain.
It could even mean officers tolerating many activities of Muslim preachers of hate like the hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza.
Tory MP David Davies said: “This sounds like abject surrender. Everyone should be equal in the eyes of the law.
“It doesn’t matter whether someone is suspected of incitement to hatred or shoplifting – they should all face the same risk of prosecution.
“There should be no special favours or treatment for any section of the community.”
Officials insist there is no suggestion that people who have clearly committed offences will avoid prosecution.
Instead, they want to avoid alienating Muslims on the fringes of extremism by dragging them to court over petty allegations unlikely to result in conviction.
One fear is that some young Muslims are falling under the influence of extremist preachers while serving prison sentences or on remand awaiting trial.
A senior Whitehall official said the guidance was being drawn up as part of a drive to use persuasion rather than the criminal justice system to fight extremism.
He added: “The aim is to stop people being dragged into extremism.
“We are not talking about letting someone off who has committed a clear offence, but where it is unclear if an offence has been committed.
“For instance, where there has been incitement or someone has been on the internet there can be a grey area where there is some discretion and it would be more sensible to avoid going down the criminal route.”
The Government’s counter- terrorism board is drawing up the advice, which will be sent to all police forces, including the Metropolitan, later this year.
The move follows an updated Home Office counter-terrorism strategy announced earlier this year. The new strategy urges preventative measures to win round potential extremists instead of arrest and prosecution.
“We need to be able to provide support for individuals who are drawn into criminal activity,” the document says.
Councils, community groups and the Government’s youth justice board will be among organisations expected to identify those drawn into extremism or at risk.
Social workers, teachers and other professionals will be asked to try to work with some Muslim youths to reduce the likelihood of them turning into extremists.
But the new strategy is likely to reduce the likelihood of prosecutions against Islamist extremists protesting against troops.
In Luton earlier this year, protesters displayed placards bearing the words “butchers” and “animals” at a homecoming parade for 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment. There were no arrests for incitement.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Preventing people becoming radicalised is a key priority for the Government. The police response needs to be proportionate to deal with crimes people commit while reducing the risk to public safety.”
The latest move represents a reversal of the policy introduced under Tony Blair in the wake of the terrorist attacks in London in 2005, when as Prime Minister he called for an overhaul of the criminal justice system to root out and prosecute extremists.
Past attempts to win over potential Muslim radicals have frequently run into controversy. Millions of pounds have been pledged to fund Muslim groups, drawing claims that they are receiving special treatment.'
And I thought the law was equitable? Enforcement it seems is not.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The Gospel of Oppression?
"Ron Kohlin writes,'Former president Jimmy Carter was once lauded for his Christian ethic and Biblical world view. It appears he has reached a point where he no longer holds those views. On July 15 he issued a statement detailing his reasons for leaving the Southern Baptist Convention. Today Charles Colson dedicated a column to Carter's statement. and points out that Scripture is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and not subject to the shifting winds of a fallen and depraved (my words, not his) society.
Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking for himself and some other religious leaders, made headlines issuing a statement that religion is used to oppress women. Carter says he severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention because its leaders "claim" that women must be subservient to their husbands, and may not serve as deacons or pastors.
Carter suggests that accepting these teachings pushes women into an inferior role to men. He also seems to draw a parallel between such teaching and the horrors of forced prostitution, genital mutilation, rape, and slavery.
The Washington Post/Newsweek blog "On Faith" asked my response. What I told them was that, with all due respect, I find Carter’s statement imprudent and presumptuous. His statement paints every religious tradition with the same brush.
It is true that some have abused Scripture in pursuing oppressive agendas, like arguments for slavery, apartheid, and the denial of rights to women and minorities. But these abuses cannot be supported by an appeal to God’s word, especially when Scripture is interpreted according to the grand tradition of the Church.
Scripture teaches that men and women play complementary roles. For example, the wife is to submit to her husband exactly as the Church submits to Christ. The husband is to give his life for his wife, as Jesus gave His life for the Church - hardly discrimination or oppression. So, please, let’s not confuse Christian teachings with the offensive practices of other faiths - such as radical Islam’s deplorable treatment of women.
In addition, Carter’s denunciation of the plain teachings of Scripture as "male interpretation of religious texts," transgresses the teachings of the Fathers, the Reformers, and reliable modern interpreters. God’s Word doesn’t have to conform to the declaration of man or the shifting philosophical sands.
Telling people what the Scripture ought to say is pure hubris. I have more confidence in 2,000 years of careful reflection on the ancient texts and the apostolic tradition than I do with the latest fad or somebody’s "aha" moment.
Most astonishing, Carter charges that biblical teaching about male headship is "in clear violation" of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Does he really imagine that God’s teachings must comply with the United Nations?
Finally, Carter says he is now a member of "an independent group of global leaders" working to address "major causes of human suffering." Well, I would like to remind the former President that the Church that has always led the fight to relieve human suffering. Early Christians rescued abandoned babies, tended the dying during the plagues, led the fight against slavery.
And we’re doing the same kind of battles today. Surely the former President hasn’t forgotten that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister.
When we see the press accepting such charges as distortions of our faith, we had better start doing a better job defending the church against such false claims.
So maybe unwittingly the former President has provided a teaching moment - an opportunity to set the record straight on which faith tradition has always defended human dignity and the rights of the most vulnerable among us.
Tell your neighbors and friends the true story. My recent book, The Faith, is a good resource.
Links to Carter's statement and Colson's commentary:
http://www.theage. com.au/opinion/ losing-my- religion- for-equality- 20090714- dk0v.html? page=-1
http://www.breakpoi nt.org/commentar ies/11991- the-gospel- of-oppression'
__._,_.___
Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking for himself and some other religious leaders, made headlines issuing a statement that religion is used to oppress women. Carter says he severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention because its leaders "claim" that women must be subservient to their husbands, and may not serve as deacons or pastors.
Carter suggests that accepting these teachings pushes women into an inferior role to men. He also seems to draw a parallel between such teaching and the horrors of forced prostitution, genital mutilation, rape, and slavery.
The Washington Post/Newsweek blog "On Faith" asked my response. What I told them was that, with all due respect, I find Carter’s statement imprudent and presumptuous. His statement paints every religious tradition with the same brush.
It is true that some have abused Scripture in pursuing oppressive agendas, like arguments for slavery, apartheid, and the denial of rights to women and minorities. But these abuses cannot be supported by an appeal to God’s word, especially when Scripture is interpreted according to the grand tradition of the Church.
Scripture teaches that men and women play complementary roles. For example, the wife is to submit to her husband exactly as the Church submits to Christ. The husband is to give his life for his wife, as Jesus gave His life for the Church - hardly discrimination or oppression. So, please, let’s not confuse Christian teachings with the offensive practices of other faiths - such as radical Islam’s deplorable treatment of women.
In addition, Carter’s denunciation of the plain teachings of Scripture as "male interpretation of religious texts," transgresses the teachings of the Fathers, the Reformers, and reliable modern interpreters. God’s Word doesn’t have to conform to the declaration of man or the shifting philosophical sands.
Telling people what the Scripture ought to say is pure hubris. I have more confidence in 2,000 years of careful reflection on the ancient texts and the apostolic tradition than I do with the latest fad or somebody’s "aha" moment.
Most astonishing, Carter charges that biblical teaching about male headship is "in clear violation" of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Does he really imagine that God’s teachings must comply with the United Nations?
Finally, Carter says he is now a member of "an independent group of global leaders" working to address "major causes of human suffering." Well, I would like to remind the former President that the Church that has always led the fight to relieve human suffering. Early Christians rescued abandoned babies, tended the dying during the plagues, led the fight against slavery.
And we’re doing the same kind of battles today. Surely the former President hasn’t forgotten that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister.
When we see the press accepting such charges as distortions of our faith, we had better start doing a better job defending the church against such false claims.
So maybe unwittingly the former President has provided a teaching moment - an opportunity to set the record straight on which faith tradition has always defended human dignity and the rights of the most vulnerable among us.
Tell your neighbors and friends the true story. My recent book, The Faith, is a good resource.
Links to Carter's statement and Colson's commentary:
http://www.theage. com.au/opinion/ losing-my- religion- for-equality- 20090714- dk0v.html? page=-1
http://www.breakpoi nt.org/commentar ies/11991- the-gospel- of-oppression'
__._,_.___
Drug vending machinesinstalled in 57 prisons
The Christian Institute says,'As part of the Government’s ‘harm reduction’ programme, methadone vending machines have been installed in 57 prisons at a cost of £4 million.
The technology will dispense methadone, a heroin substitute, to prisoners who will take it under the supervision of a health professional.
The approach has been criticised by Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Justice Secretary.
He said: “The public will be shocked that Ministers are spending more on methadone vending machines than the entire budget for abstinence based treatments.”
He added: “Getting prisoners clean of drugs is one of the keys to getting them to go straight.”
Mr Grieve continued: “We need to get prisoners off all drug addiction – not substitute one dependency for another. The Government’s approach of trying to ‘manage’ addiction is an admission of failure.”
Methadone-dispensing machines are planned to be eventually installed in half of the 140 prisons in England and Wales.
The machines deliver the drugs to prisoners identified by iris and fingerprint scanning.
In May the Government’s ‘harm reduction’ approach to tackling illegal drug use was dubbed a £10 billion failure.
Kathy Gyngell, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said the approach was trapping people in “state-sponsored addiction”.
In 2008, the Scottish Government said it would drop its harm reduction policy deciding to focus instead on “recovery and helping people live drug-free lives”.
Holyrood estimates that the drug problem costs taxpayers £2.6 billion each year. There are an estimated 22,000 drug abusers on the methadone programme in Scotland.
Professor McKeganey of Glasgow University’s Centre for Drug Misuse Research had attacked the use of methadone in drug treatment.”
He said: “I think far too much [money] is being absorbed by the methadone programme.
He added: “I think we need to refocus where that money is spent. We need to massively increase the availability of residential rehabilitation”.'
One would have thought prison was the ideal place for enforced cold turey. It appears the only cold turkey served is after Christmas.
Government policy is to pander to the addiction of criminals, not to try and cure these deviants.
The technology will dispense methadone, a heroin substitute, to prisoners who will take it under the supervision of a health professional.
The approach has been criticised by Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Justice Secretary.
He said: “The public will be shocked that Ministers are spending more on methadone vending machines than the entire budget for abstinence based treatments.”
He added: “Getting prisoners clean of drugs is one of the keys to getting them to go straight.”
Mr Grieve continued: “We need to get prisoners off all drug addiction – not substitute one dependency for another. The Government’s approach of trying to ‘manage’ addiction is an admission of failure.”
Methadone-dispensing machines are planned to be eventually installed in half of the 140 prisons in England and Wales.
The machines deliver the drugs to prisoners identified by iris and fingerprint scanning.
In May the Government’s ‘harm reduction’ approach to tackling illegal drug use was dubbed a £10 billion failure.
Kathy Gyngell, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said the approach was trapping people in “state-sponsored addiction”.
In 2008, the Scottish Government said it would drop its harm reduction policy deciding to focus instead on “recovery and helping people live drug-free lives”.
Holyrood estimates that the drug problem costs taxpayers £2.6 billion each year. There are an estimated 22,000 drug abusers on the methadone programme in Scotland.
Professor McKeganey of Glasgow University’s Centre for Drug Misuse Research had attacked the use of methadone in drug treatment.”
He said: “I think far too much [money] is being absorbed by the methadone programme.
He added: “I think we need to refocus where that money is spent. We need to massively increase the availability of residential rehabilitation”.'
One would have thought prison was the ideal place for enforced cold turey. It appears the only cold turkey served is after Christmas.
Government policy is to pander to the addiction of criminals, not to try and cure these deviants.
Let London dictate NIabortion law, MP says
©The Christian Institute says,'A Labour MP says Northern Ireland’s elected representatives should not be allowed to decide on abortion law in the Province.
Emily Thornberry, who represents a London constituency, was speaking at a Westminster Hall debate on the issue of the abortion law in Northern Ireland.
Abortion is only allowed in the Province if the mother’s life would be endangered by continuing with the pregnancy.
The Westminster Government currently has the power to change this law, but wants to hand it to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Miss Thornberry said: “I deeply regret that the powers devolved to Northern Ireland under the Good Friday agreement included those relating to women and abortion. That was a mistake.”
She added: “If we cannot grab back the power that we are about to devolve to Northern Ireland, the least that we can do is allow women from Northern Ireland to have access to abortion under the National Health Service.”
South Antrim MP Dr William McCrea said the real reason the debate had been called was that pro-abortion groups wanted the law to change before it passed into the control of Northern Ireland’s MLAs, who are largely opposed to abortion.
The claim was refuted by Martin Salter, the MP who secured the Westminster Hall debate. Mr Salter insisted it had “nothing to do with the legislative timetable”.
But Dr McCrea said pro-abortion campaigners knew that “once the responsibility is transferred, as part of the handover of policing and justice powers, it will be very difficult to make a change”.
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Goggins reminded MPs at the debate that all four major parties in Northern Ireland were opposed to a change in the law.
In response to this point Miss Thornberry argued that all the recent ‘gay rights’ legislation introduced in the Province was “imposed in the teeth of opposition from local politicians”.
But Mr Goggins said Northern Ireland’s MPs wanted the matter to be left to the people who lived there, referring to the main party leaders’ warnings that “any attempt to legislate here would undermine the devolution settlement that we have all worked so hard to achieve”. '© The Christian Institute
With these people you only have devolved government when it suits them.
Emily Thornberry, who represents a London constituency, was speaking at a Westminster Hall debate on the issue of the abortion law in Northern Ireland.
Abortion is only allowed in the Province if the mother’s life would be endangered by continuing with the pregnancy.
The Westminster Government currently has the power to change this law, but wants to hand it to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Miss Thornberry said: “I deeply regret that the powers devolved to Northern Ireland under the Good Friday agreement included those relating to women and abortion. That was a mistake.”
She added: “If we cannot grab back the power that we are about to devolve to Northern Ireland, the least that we can do is allow women from Northern Ireland to have access to abortion under the National Health Service.”
South Antrim MP Dr William McCrea said the real reason the debate had been called was that pro-abortion groups wanted the law to change before it passed into the control of Northern Ireland’s MLAs, who are largely opposed to abortion.
The claim was refuted by Martin Salter, the MP who secured the Westminster Hall debate. Mr Salter insisted it had “nothing to do with the legislative timetable”.
But Dr McCrea said pro-abortion campaigners knew that “once the responsibility is transferred, as part of the handover of policing and justice powers, it will be very difficult to make a change”.
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Goggins reminded MPs at the debate that all four major parties in Northern Ireland were opposed to a change in the law.
In response to this point Miss Thornberry argued that all the recent ‘gay rights’ legislation introduced in the Province was “imposed in the teeth of opposition from local politicians”.
But Mr Goggins said Northern Ireland’s MPs wanted the matter to be left to the people who lived there, referring to the main party leaders’ warnings that “any attempt to legislate here would undermine the devolution settlement that we have all worked so hard to achieve”. '© The Christian Institute
With these people you only have devolved government when it suits them.
BBC host: Britain needs marriage
The Christian Institute says, 'The presenter of a new BBC documentary on ‘broken Britain’ says the decline of marriage is to blame – but that social liberals will find that hard to accept.
John Ware, whose programme The Death of Respect goes out on BBC2 tonight, says the “post-war experiment in individualism” has left us with a fragmented society.
He said: “This started in the 1970s with the increase in unmarried parents, lone parents, cohabiting parents and step-parents.
“In its wake came generations of children who have been shifted from pillar to post.”
Mr Ware says that in the “rush to sweep away from the 1960s much that was bad”, Britain “also abandoned much that was good, including the institution of marriage.”
But despite “the evidence of marriage being generally best for children”, Mr Ware said the Government had “avoided debating” the issue.
He said: “Despite such authoritative warnings, ministers and their advisors seem reconciled to the relentless rise in family breakdown and single parenthood, seeing this as an irreversible social trend whose expensive consequences we will just have to crisis manage”.
Mr Ware said the only way to reverse the problem is to “accept that the fragmentation of society is closely linked to the decline of marriage.”
Mr Justice Coleridge, a leading family judge who features in Mr Ware’s programme, said the BBC had given it an 11.20pm TV slot because the content on family breakdown was deemed “too dark” for prime time.
He wrote last month of inviting a BBC researcher to spend the day watching a run-of-the-mill High Court case.
He said she was “stunned into silence and remained speechless” when he told her that “within the Royal Courts of Justice, there were 20 or so other judges engaged in similar cases”.
“Across inner London, well over 100 family courts were dealing with family breakdown that day, in one guise or another. Multiply that across the rest of the country, and you get some feel for the scale of the epidemic”, he commented.
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Top Tory defends new pro-marriage tax planCohabitees more likely to divorce‘Delay divorce to save marriages’ says reportTories’ new plan to shore up marriageUnwed dads are twice as likely to leave homeTop news now
CofE offers wedding and infant baptism in one go New York nurse forced to help in late term abortion Humanists call for faith funding cuts Gay activist welcomes Lords free speech win Top Tory defends new pro-marriage tax plan Article categoriesRecent news | Publications | MPs' votes | Apologetics | Contact | Support us
Copyright © BBC host: Britain
needs marriage
Mr Ware said we must “accept that the fragmentation of society is closely linked to the decline of marriage.”
Yes family breakdown IS behind broken Britain (11 July 2009)
BBC: 'family breakdown too dark for prime time' (19 June 2009)
Kids best with two committed parents (03 Feb 2009)
Kids most want to ban divorce (16 Dec 2009)
Thursday, 16 July 2009
The presenter of a new BBC documentary on ‘broken Britain’ says the decline of marriage is to blame – but that social liberals will find that hard to accept.
John Ware, whose programme The Death of Respect goes out on BBC2 tonight, says the “post-war experiment in individualism” has left us with a fragmented society.
He said: “This started in the 1970s with the increase in unmarried parents, lone parents, cohabiting parents and step-parents.
“In its wake came generations of children who have been shifted from pillar to post.”
Mr Ware says that in the “rush to sweep away from the 1960s much that was bad”, Britain “also abandoned much that was good, including the institution of marriage.”
But despite “the evidence of marriage being generally best for children”, Mr Ware said the Government had “avoided debating” the issue.
He said: “Despite such authoritative warnings, ministers and their advisors seem reconciled to the relentless rise in family breakdown and single parenthood, seeing this as an irreversible social trend whose expensive consequences we will just have to crisis manage”.
Mr Ware said the only way to reverse the problem is to “accept that the fragmentation of society is closely linked to the decline of marriage.”
Mr Justice Coleridge, a leading family judge who features in Mr Ware’s programme, said the BBC had given it an 11.20pm TV slot because the content on family breakdown was deemed “too dark” for prime time.
He wrote last month of inviting a BBC researcher to spend the day watching a run-of-the-mill High Court case.
He said she was “stunned into silence and remained speechless” when he told her that “within the Royal Courts of Justice, there were 20 or so other judges engaged in similar cases”.
“Across inner London, well over 100 family courts were dealing with family breakdown that day, in one guise or another. Multiply that across the rest of the country, and you get some feel for the scale of the epidemic”, he commented. ' © The Christian Institute
One is amazed the liberals at the Beeb broadcast this at all.
John Ware, whose programme The Death of Respect goes out on BBC2 tonight, says the “post-war experiment in individualism” has left us with a fragmented society.
He said: “This started in the 1970s with the increase in unmarried parents, lone parents, cohabiting parents and step-parents.
“In its wake came generations of children who have been shifted from pillar to post.”
Mr Ware says that in the “rush to sweep away from the 1960s much that was bad”, Britain “also abandoned much that was good, including the institution of marriage.”
But despite “the evidence of marriage being generally best for children”, Mr Ware said the Government had “avoided debating” the issue.
He said: “Despite such authoritative warnings, ministers and their advisors seem reconciled to the relentless rise in family breakdown and single parenthood, seeing this as an irreversible social trend whose expensive consequences we will just have to crisis manage”.
Mr Ware said the only way to reverse the problem is to “accept that the fragmentation of society is closely linked to the decline of marriage.”
Mr Justice Coleridge, a leading family judge who features in Mr Ware’s programme, said the BBC had given it an 11.20pm TV slot because the content on family breakdown was deemed “too dark” for prime time.
He wrote last month of inviting a BBC researcher to spend the day watching a run-of-the-mill High Court case.
He said she was “stunned into silence and remained speechless” when he told her that “within the Royal Courts of Justice, there were 20 or so other judges engaged in similar cases”.
“Across inner London, well over 100 family courts were dealing with family breakdown that day, in one guise or another. Multiply that across the rest of the country, and you get some feel for the scale of the epidemic”, he commented.
Share this page
Follow us
Headline Widget
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Related articles
Top Tory defends new pro-marriage tax planCohabitees more likely to divorce‘Delay divorce to save marriages’ says reportTories’ new plan to shore up marriageUnwed dads are twice as likely to leave homeTop news now
CofE offers wedding and infant baptism in one go New York nurse forced to help in late term abortion Humanists call for faith funding cuts Gay activist welcomes Lords free speech win Top Tory defends new pro-marriage tax plan Article categoriesRecent news | Publications | MPs' votes | Apologetics | Contact | Support us
Copyright © BBC host: Britain
needs marriage
Mr Ware said we must “accept that the fragmentation of society is closely linked to the decline of marriage.”
Yes family breakdown IS behind broken Britain (11 July 2009)
BBC: 'family breakdown too dark for prime time' (19 June 2009)
Kids best with two committed parents (03 Feb 2009)
Kids most want to ban divorce (16 Dec 2009)
Thursday, 16 July 2009
The presenter of a new BBC documentary on ‘broken Britain’ says the decline of marriage is to blame – but that social liberals will find that hard to accept.
John Ware, whose programme The Death of Respect goes out on BBC2 tonight, says the “post-war experiment in individualism” has left us with a fragmented society.
He said: “This started in the 1970s with the increase in unmarried parents, lone parents, cohabiting parents and step-parents.
“In its wake came generations of children who have been shifted from pillar to post.”
Mr Ware says that in the “rush to sweep away from the 1960s much that was bad”, Britain “also abandoned much that was good, including the institution of marriage.”
But despite “the evidence of marriage being generally best for children”, Mr Ware said the Government had “avoided debating” the issue.
He said: “Despite such authoritative warnings, ministers and their advisors seem reconciled to the relentless rise in family breakdown and single parenthood, seeing this as an irreversible social trend whose expensive consequences we will just have to crisis manage”.
Mr Ware said the only way to reverse the problem is to “accept that the fragmentation of society is closely linked to the decline of marriage.”
Mr Justice Coleridge, a leading family judge who features in Mr Ware’s programme, said the BBC had given it an 11.20pm TV slot because the content on family breakdown was deemed “too dark” for prime time.
He wrote last month of inviting a BBC researcher to spend the day watching a run-of-the-mill High Court case.
He said she was “stunned into silence and remained speechless” when he told her that “within the Royal Courts of Justice, there were 20 or so other judges engaged in similar cases”.
“Across inner London, well over 100 family courts were dealing with family breakdown that day, in one guise or another. Multiply that across the rest of the country, and you get some feel for the scale of the epidemic”, he commented. ' © The Christian Institute
One is amazed the liberals at the Beeb broadcast this at all.
MP wants Equality Bill toend Scouts 'God' pledge
The Christian Institute says,'An MP has attempted to use the Equality Bill to force the Scout Association to scrap the age-old tradition of new entrants pledging allegiance to God.
Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris says the Scout Association is discriminating against children and leaders who do not believe in God by requiring them to take the vow.
In 1997 the Scout Association published its Equal Opportunities Policy underlining that scouting is open to all.
Dr Harris, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, tabled an amendment to ban the pledge as MPs debated the Bill at Committee Stage. He later withdrew it.
His attempt was criticised by Mark Harper MP, who said: “The hon. Gentleman is creating fictional problems that do not exist in the real world and is asking us to deal with them.”
Dr Harris has also tried to use the Equality Bill to pull public funding from faith based organisations which cater only for those who share its faith, such as care homes, or to end them all together.
During the Equality Bill’s Second Reading debate Dr Harris opposed the idea of including religion as one of the equality duties it would impose on local authorities, a plan he called “highly controversial”.
He has called for Christian groups to lose public funding if they evangelise while carrying out social work, and has introduced his own Private Member’s Bill on the issue of royal succession which could affect the status of the Church of England.
The Bill has already proved controversial in a number of areas. Christian groups in particular are concerned about the effect it could have on religious liberty.
Don Horrocks of the Evangelical Alliance said last month that the new Bill “could potentially force Christian groups, by threat of legal action, to effectively have their faith identities emasculated so they are prevented from delivering their services in a Christian way”.
The Roman Catholic Church has warned that under the Bill an atheist cleaner employed at a Roman Catholic care home could sue on the grounds that they were offended by crucifixes on display in the buildings.
The Government has made clear that certain provisions in the Bill are intended to make sure churches can no longer insist that employees such as youth workers live lives consistent with the churches’ teaching on sexual ethics. ' © The Christian Institute
More statist secularist government.
Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris says the Scout Association is discriminating against children and leaders who do not believe in God by requiring them to take the vow.
In 1997 the Scout Association published its Equal Opportunities Policy underlining that scouting is open to all.
Dr Harris, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, tabled an amendment to ban the pledge as MPs debated the Bill at Committee Stage. He later withdrew it.
His attempt was criticised by Mark Harper MP, who said: “The hon. Gentleman is creating fictional problems that do not exist in the real world and is asking us to deal with them.”
Dr Harris has also tried to use the Equality Bill to pull public funding from faith based organisations which cater only for those who share its faith, such as care homes, or to end them all together.
During the Equality Bill’s Second Reading debate Dr Harris opposed the idea of including religion as one of the equality duties it would impose on local authorities, a plan he called “highly controversial”.
He has called for Christian groups to lose public funding if they evangelise while carrying out social work, and has introduced his own Private Member’s Bill on the issue of royal succession which could affect the status of the Church of England.
The Bill has already proved controversial in a number of areas. Christian groups in particular are concerned about the effect it could have on religious liberty.
Don Horrocks of the Evangelical Alliance said last month that the new Bill “could potentially force Christian groups, by threat of legal action, to effectively have their faith identities emasculated so they are prevented from delivering their services in a Christian way”.
The Roman Catholic Church has warned that under the Bill an atheist cleaner employed at a Roman Catholic care home could sue on the grounds that they were offended by crucifixes on display in the buildings.
The Government has made clear that certain provisions in the Bill are intended to make sure churches can no longer insist that employees such as youth workers live lives consistent with the churches’ teaching on sexual ethics. ' © The Christian Institute
More statist secularist government.
BBC ponders secular Thought for the Day
The Christian Institute says, 'The BBC Trust is considering opening Radio 4’s Thought for the Day feature to secular and humanist views.
The announcement, made by Radio 4’s controller Mark Damazer on a listeners’ forum programme, sparked criticism of the BBC’s attitude to religious broadcasting.
Mr Damazer said: “There may well be quite a strong argument for including secularists and humanists” but, he added, “it’s absolutely not a cut and dried issue”.
He said the BBC Trust “is currently considering this question and they will come to some kind of conclusion later on this year”.
Thought for the Day is a regular three minute religious slot on Radio 4’s Today Programme. Contributors represent a wide spectrum of faiths.
Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance said: “It strikes me that the secularists predominate in the other 2 hours and 55 minutes [of the Today Programme], so is it really asking too much for religion to just have a small chunk of dedicated time?”
The Trust agreed to review the status of Thought for the Day after receiving representations from listeners and secular organisations. Humanist groups have long campaigned for the slot to be opened to non-religious views.
In 2002 Radio 4 allowed atheist Professor Richard Dawkins to present an unofficial Thought slot after the main broadcast, and in January this year a non-religious “Thought for the Afternoon” was included on a Saturday afternoon programme.
Responding to Mr Damazer’s announcement, Prof Dawkins said: “This has been a long running issue. I did a spoof a few years ago as a kind of stunt but I hope that this does happen because religious people do not have the monopoly on morality and ethics.”
Hanne Stinson of the British Humanist Association said: “If it’s right to have a slot within the programme for people to have an ethical perspective on issues, then it should be open to all kinds of people.”
However, others have accused the BBC of caving in to lobbying from secular groups.
Revd Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney and a regular Thought for the Day contributor, said: “What is at threat here is whether this is a distinctive slot.
“Would you have secularists doing Songs of Praise? It just seems madness. This could be a way of destroying it through the back door, through political correctness.
“I think it is very easy for people to read the BBC as backing away from religious broadcasting.
“One of the main rules about the Thought for the Day slot is that contributors are not allowed to attack other faiths. If we had Richard Dawkins attacking and rubbishing religion, it would change the fundamental nature of it.”
A Church of England spokesman said: “We would strongly resist moves to add non-religious voices to one of the few protected spots in the schedule where religious views on issues of the day can be expressed openly. Thought for the Day is highly valued by people of all faiths and none.”
Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, said: “All faiths have been sidelined. Thought for the Day is practically the only place where you can hear religious thoughts and it is sad if this important outlet becomes marginalised.
“There is a market for faith and the BBC needs to learn that this is a respected institution which should not be diluted.”
A spokesman for the BBC Trust said that its General Appeals Panel expects to publish a decision on Thought for the Day in the Autumn.' © The Christian Institute All Rights Reserved
It takes a lot for me to agree with the Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui
The announcement, made by Radio 4’s controller Mark Damazer on a listeners’ forum programme, sparked criticism of the BBC’s attitude to religious broadcasting.
Mr Damazer said: “There may well be quite a strong argument for including secularists and humanists” but, he added, “it’s absolutely not a cut and dried issue”.
He said the BBC Trust “is currently considering this question and they will come to some kind of conclusion later on this year”.
Thought for the Day is a regular three minute religious slot on Radio 4’s Today Programme. Contributors represent a wide spectrum of faiths.
Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance said: “It strikes me that the secularists predominate in the other 2 hours and 55 minutes [of the Today Programme], so is it really asking too much for religion to just have a small chunk of dedicated time?”
The Trust agreed to review the status of Thought for the Day after receiving representations from listeners and secular organisations. Humanist groups have long campaigned for the slot to be opened to non-religious views.
In 2002 Radio 4 allowed atheist Professor Richard Dawkins to present an unofficial Thought slot after the main broadcast, and in January this year a non-religious “Thought for the Afternoon” was included on a Saturday afternoon programme.
Responding to Mr Damazer’s announcement, Prof Dawkins said: “This has been a long running issue. I did a spoof a few years ago as a kind of stunt but I hope that this does happen because religious people do not have the monopoly on morality and ethics.”
Hanne Stinson of the British Humanist Association said: “If it’s right to have a slot within the programme for people to have an ethical perspective on issues, then it should be open to all kinds of people.”
However, others have accused the BBC of caving in to lobbying from secular groups.
Revd Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney and a regular Thought for the Day contributor, said: “What is at threat here is whether this is a distinctive slot.
“Would you have secularists doing Songs of Praise? It just seems madness. This could be a way of destroying it through the back door, through political correctness.
“I think it is very easy for people to read the BBC as backing away from religious broadcasting.
“One of the main rules about the Thought for the Day slot is that contributors are not allowed to attack other faiths. If we had Richard Dawkins attacking and rubbishing religion, it would change the fundamental nature of it.”
A Church of England spokesman said: “We would strongly resist moves to add non-religious voices to one of the few protected spots in the schedule where religious views on issues of the day can be expressed openly. Thought for the Day is highly valued by people of all faiths and none.”
Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, said: “All faiths have been sidelined. Thought for the Day is practically the only place where you can hear religious thoughts and it is sad if this important outlet becomes marginalised.
“There is a market for faith and the BBC needs to learn that this is a respected institution which should not be diluted.”
A spokesman for the BBC Trust said that its General Appeals Panel expects to publish a decision on Thought for the Day in the Autumn.' © The Christian Institute All Rights Reserved
It takes a lot for me to agree with the Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui
Brazil footballers told: keep faith to yourself
The Christian Institute says,'Brazilian footballer Kaka is known for declaring his Christian faith on the pitch.
Christian players in Brazil’s football team have been ordered to stop making displays of their faith during matches.
Several of the national side’s players, including Real Madrid star Kaka, wore T-shirts bearing slogans such as ‘I belong to Jesus’ underneath their shirts during the Confederations Cup final last month.
But football’s governing body, FIFA, has now reminded the team that such displays on the pitch are against the rules.
FIFA wrote to the Brazilian Football Federation “to remind them of the relevant regulations, so that such incidents do not recur in the future”.
Brazil players prayed openly after their win against the USA last month and many wore Christian T-shirts in subsequent team photographs.
Their actions prompted calls from the Secretary General of the Danish Football Association for a ban on all religious statements from the game.
Jim Stjerne Hansen said: “Just as we reject political manifestations, we should also say no to religious ones. There are too many risks involved in clubs, for example, with people of different religious faiths.”
FIFA rules say: “Players must not reveal undergarments showing slogans or advertising. The basic compulsory equipment must not have any political, religious or personal statements.”'
Copyright © The Christian Institute All Rights Reserved
Seems to me a clear denial of freedom of speech.
Christian players in Brazil’s football team have been ordered to stop making displays of their faith during matches.
Several of the national side’s players, including Real Madrid star Kaka, wore T-shirts bearing slogans such as ‘I belong to Jesus’ underneath their shirts during the Confederations Cup final last month.
But football’s governing body, FIFA, has now reminded the team that such displays on the pitch are against the rules.
FIFA wrote to the Brazilian Football Federation “to remind them of the relevant regulations, so that such incidents do not recur in the future”.
Brazil players prayed openly after their win against the USA last month and many wore Christian T-shirts in subsequent team photographs.
Their actions prompted calls from the Secretary General of the Danish Football Association for a ban on all religious statements from the game.
Jim Stjerne Hansen said: “Just as we reject political manifestations, we should also say no to religious ones. There are too many risks involved in clubs, for example, with people of different religious faiths.”
FIFA rules say: “Players must not reveal undergarments showing slogans or advertising. The basic compulsory equipment must not have any political, religious or personal statements.”'
Copyright © The Christian Institute All Rights Reserved
Seems to me a clear denial of freedom of speech.
Central European Activists Hear Call to Hold onto Christian Ideals by Christian Democrat President
From: "Christian Peoples Alliance
" A huge political rally in East Central Europe marking twenty years of liberation from
communism has heard a call to hold fast to Christian Democratic ideals by the President
of the Christian Peoples Alliance party in Britain, David Campanale. Held in Tusnad in
northern Romania, the event was attended by 5,000 predominantly young people from
Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia and the republics of former Yugoslavia, as well as current
politicians in the European Christian Democratic movement, the European Peoples Party.
"As with the crises of a devasted Europe in 1945, the end of communism in 1989 and now
the global credit crunch in 2009, it is Christian Democrats who must step forward. Our
shared continent needs to hold fast to the ideals that have guided Europe from economic,
moral and political darkness towards hope and light. In doing so we must champion the
Christian Democratic values of social solidarity, greater equality, the rule of law and liberty."
David Campanale was the first politician from western Europe to speak at revolutionary
public meetings in Transylvania during the Romanian Revolution in Christmas 1989. An
idea he had at the time to convene an annual 'Open University' to discuss culture, arts and
political ideals around the future of Europe has now become one of the biggest festivals of its
kind in the region. This year the event was attended by President Basescu of Romania, former
Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban and Bishop Laszlo Tokes MEP, whose role in
Timisoara as a local Calvinist priest began the Romanian Revolution.
Recalling events of twenty years ago, David Campanale said his speech in the city of Sfîntu
Gheorghe (or Sepsiszentgyörgy) about the city's namesake and patron of England, St George
still rang true:
"Dragons of fear, consumerism, selfish individualism and the me-first culture all need to be
slayed. Not by force, but by vision inspired by the Christian ideals of love and political service.
Our continent is committing collective suicide because of the abandonment of the principle of
respect for life, the collapse of the married family and deepening inequality. According to the
European Commission, birthrate is now 1.53 per woman and the number of workers per
pensioner over 65 will halve from four to two by 2040. The economics of our continent is
unsustainable. It is up to us to champion a different and more humane future, just as Christian
politicans did at other times of crisis."
Other Christian politicians sharing the platform with the President of the English Christian
Democrats each agreed with the need to hold onto Christian ideals - including Shadow
Hungarian Foreign Secretary of FIDESZ, Janos Martonyi, 'MEP of the Year' Gal Kinga of
FIDESZ, Romanian human rights activist, Smaranda Enache, and Romanian MEP and former
Calvinist minister, Csaba Sogor. As elected politicians, their parties are members of the
European Peoples Party grouping in the European Parliament.'
ENDS
For more information:
press@cpaparty.org.uk or call 07873 625396 or visit www.cpaparty.org.uk
I should note Tokes was a Reformed bishop, not a priest.
" A huge political rally in East Central Europe marking twenty years of liberation from
communism has heard a call to hold fast to Christian Democratic ideals by the President
of the Christian Peoples Alliance party in Britain, David Campanale. Held in Tusnad in
northern Romania, the event was attended by 5,000 predominantly young people from
Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia and the republics of former Yugoslavia, as well as current
politicians in the European Christian Democratic movement, the European Peoples Party.
"As with the crises of a devasted Europe in 1945, the end of communism in 1989 and now
the global credit crunch in 2009, it is Christian Democrats who must step forward. Our
shared continent needs to hold fast to the ideals that have guided Europe from economic,
moral and political darkness towards hope and light. In doing so we must champion the
Christian Democratic values of social solidarity, greater equality, the rule of law and liberty."
David Campanale was the first politician from western Europe to speak at revolutionary
public meetings in Transylvania during the Romanian Revolution in Christmas 1989. An
idea he had at the time to convene an annual 'Open University' to discuss culture, arts and
political ideals around the future of Europe has now become one of the biggest festivals of its
kind in the region. This year the event was attended by President Basescu of Romania, former
Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban and Bishop Laszlo Tokes MEP, whose role in
Timisoara as a local Calvinist priest began the Romanian Revolution.
Recalling events of twenty years ago, David Campanale said his speech in the city of Sfîntu
Gheorghe (or Sepsiszentgyörgy) about the city's namesake and patron of England, St George
still rang true:
"Dragons of fear, consumerism, selfish individualism and the me-first culture all need to be
slayed. Not by force, but by vision inspired by the Christian ideals of love and political service.
Our continent is committing collective suicide because of the abandonment of the principle of
respect for life, the collapse of the married family and deepening inequality. According to the
European Commission, birthrate is now 1.53 per woman and the number of workers per
pensioner over 65 will halve from four to two by 2040. The economics of our continent is
unsustainable. It is up to us to champion a different and more humane future, just as Christian
politicans did at other times of crisis."
Other Christian politicians sharing the platform with the President of the English Christian
Democrats each agreed with the need to hold onto Christian ideals - including Shadow
Hungarian Foreign Secretary of FIDESZ, Janos Martonyi, 'MEP of the Year' Gal Kinga of
FIDESZ, Romanian human rights activist, Smaranda Enache, and Romanian MEP and former
Calvinist minister, Csaba Sogor. As elected politicians, their parties are members of the
European Peoples Party grouping in the European Parliament.'
ENDS
For more information:
press@cpaparty.org.uk or call 07873 625396 or visit www.cpaparty.org.uk
I should note Tokes was a Reformed bishop, not a priest.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wealth - christiansquoting.org.uk
God is not going to ask me how much I made. He will ask me how much I gave.
Riches are good if they are free from sin. Sirach 13:24
O Christian, never be proud of things that are so transient, injurious, and uncertain as the riches of this evil world! But set your heart on the true and durable riches of grace in Christ Jesus. ISAAC AMBROSE
MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York. - THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911
Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.-G.K. Chesterton A Miscellany of Men
Saving is a very fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you.-- Winston Churchill
When asked about the best and worst places on the earth, the Prophet said: "I don't know. But the Almighty God said to me that the best place is mosque and the worst place is market". -- Hadith.
Told that a certain man had acquired great wealth, a sage asked: "Has he also acqured the days in which to spend it?"--Solomon ibn Gabirol, 11th century
Many men hoard for the future husbands of their wives. --Solomon ibn Gabirol, 11th century
Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.--Johnson (1709-1784)
Riches are the pettiest and least worthy gifts which God can give a man. What are they to God's Word, to bodily gifts, such as beauty and health; or to the gifts of the mind, such as understanding, skill, and wisdom! Yet men toil for them day and night, and take no rest. Therefore God commonly gives riches to foolish people to whom he gives nothing else. --Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Antichrist is Mammon's son. - JOHN MILTON
The problem with the rich young ruler was not that he had riches but rather that the riches had him. Gary Neitzke
He swore that all other religions were gammon, And wore out his knees in the worship of Mammon.- Jared Oopf
If we want the whole world to be rich, we need to start loving wealth. In the difference between poverty and plenty, the problem is the poverty, not the difference. Wealth is good. You know this about your own wealth. If you got rich, it would be a great thing. You'd improve your life. You'd improve your family's life. You'd purchase education, travel, knowledge about the world. You'd invest in worthwhile things. You'd give money to noble causes. You'd help your friends and neighbors. Your life would be better if you got rich. The lives of the people around you would be better. Your wealth is good. So why isn't everyone else's wealth good -- P. J. O'Rourke
Why snatch at wealth, and hoard and stock it?
You shroud, you know, will have no pocket!
Betty Paoli, 1870
When we have gold we are in fear, we we have none we are in danger.-- John Ray English proverbs p 12 (1670)
Lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened by a belt about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was found afterward at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking --- had he the gold? or had the gold him? John Ruskin 1860
Regarding Christianity and public policy: "May I also say a few words about my personal belief in the relevance of Christianity to public policy - to the things that are Caesar's? The Old Testament lays down in Exodus the Ten Commandments as given to Moses, the injunction in Leviticus to love our neighbour as ourselves, and generally the importance of observing a strict code of law. The New Testament is a record of the Incarnation, the teachings of Christ, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. Again we have the emphasis on loving our neighbour as ourselves and to 'Do-as-you-would-be-done-by.' I believe that by taking together these key elements from the Old and New Testaments, we gain a view of the universe, a proper attitude to work and principles to shape economic and social life. We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth. 'If a man will not work he shall not eat,' wrote St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Indeed, abundance rather than poverty has a legitimacy which derives from the very nature of Creation. Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Church of Scotland General Assembly, 21.5.88
Nevertheless, the Tenth Commandment - 'Thou shalt not covet' - recognises that making money and owning things could become selfish activities. But it is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but love of money for its own sake. The spiritual dimension comes in deciding what one does with the wealth. How could we respond to the many calls for help, or invest for the future, or support the wonderful artists or craftsmen whose work also glorifies God, unless we had first worked hard and used our talents to create the necessary wealth? -- Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Church of Scotland General Assembly, 21.5.88
Creating wealth must be seen as a Christian obligation if we are to fulfill our role as stewards of the resources and talents The Creator has provided for us. - Margaret Thatcher, speech to a Conservative Women's Conference, London, 1981 in Andrew Thomson, Margaret Thatcher: The Woman Within, pp 68-69
How few, like Daniel, have God and gold together. --Bp Henry Montague Villiers
Riches are good if they are free from sin. Sirach 13:24
O Christian, never be proud of things that are so transient, injurious, and uncertain as the riches of this evil world! But set your heart on the true and durable riches of grace in Christ Jesus. ISAAC AMBROSE
MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York. - THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911
Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.-G.K. Chesterton A Miscellany of Men
Saving is a very fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you.-- Winston Churchill
When asked about the best and worst places on the earth, the Prophet said: "I don't know. But the Almighty God said to me that the best place is mosque and the worst place is market". -- Hadith.
Told that a certain man had acquired great wealth, a sage asked: "Has he also acqured the days in which to spend it?"--Solomon ibn Gabirol, 11th century
Many men hoard for the future husbands of their wives. --Solomon ibn Gabirol, 11th century
Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.--Johnson (1709-1784)
Riches are the pettiest and least worthy gifts which God can give a man. What are they to God's Word, to bodily gifts, such as beauty and health; or to the gifts of the mind, such as understanding, skill, and wisdom! Yet men toil for them day and night, and take no rest. Therefore God commonly gives riches to foolish people to whom he gives nothing else. --Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Antichrist is Mammon's son. - JOHN MILTON
The problem with the rich young ruler was not that he had riches but rather that the riches had him. Gary Neitzke
He swore that all other religions were gammon, And wore out his knees in the worship of Mammon.- Jared Oopf
If we want the whole world to be rich, we need to start loving wealth. In the difference between poverty and plenty, the problem is the poverty, not the difference. Wealth is good. You know this about your own wealth. If you got rich, it would be a great thing. You'd improve your life. You'd improve your family's life. You'd purchase education, travel, knowledge about the world. You'd invest in worthwhile things. You'd give money to noble causes. You'd help your friends and neighbors. Your life would be better if you got rich. The lives of the people around you would be better. Your wealth is good. So why isn't everyone else's wealth good -- P. J. O'Rourke
Why snatch at wealth, and hoard and stock it?
You shroud, you know, will have no pocket!
Betty Paoli, 1870
When we have gold we are in fear, we we have none we are in danger.-- John Ray English proverbs p 12 (1670)
Lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened by a belt about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was found afterward at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking --- had he the gold? or had the gold him? John Ruskin 1860
Regarding Christianity and public policy: "May I also say a few words about my personal belief in the relevance of Christianity to public policy - to the things that are Caesar's? The Old Testament lays down in Exodus the Ten Commandments as given to Moses, the injunction in Leviticus to love our neighbour as ourselves, and generally the importance of observing a strict code of law. The New Testament is a record of the Incarnation, the teachings of Christ, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. Again we have the emphasis on loving our neighbour as ourselves and to 'Do-as-you-would-be-done-by.' I believe that by taking together these key elements from the Old and New Testaments, we gain a view of the universe, a proper attitude to work and principles to shape economic and social life. We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth. 'If a man will not work he shall not eat,' wrote St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Indeed, abundance rather than poverty has a legitimacy which derives from the very nature of Creation. Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Church of Scotland General Assembly, 21.5.88
Nevertheless, the Tenth Commandment - 'Thou shalt not covet' - recognises that making money and owning things could become selfish activities. But it is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but love of money for its own sake. The spiritual dimension comes in deciding what one does with the wealth. How could we respond to the many calls for help, or invest for the future, or support the wonderful artists or craftsmen whose work also glorifies God, unless we had first worked hard and used our talents to create the necessary wealth? -- Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Church of Scotland General Assembly, 21.5.88
Creating wealth must be seen as a Christian obligation if we are to fulfill our role as stewards of the resources and talents The Creator has provided for us. - Margaret Thatcher, speech to a Conservative Women's Conference, London, 1981 in Andrew Thomson, Margaret Thatcher: The Woman Within, pp 68-69
How few, like Daniel, have God and gold together. --Bp Henry Montague Villiers
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Warfare spiritual- christiansquoting.org.uk
For the Christian, this world is an arena, not an armchair.
If you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation.... Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient. Sirach 2:1,4
It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong; the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil can be overcome by physical means. --Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) _Letters From New York_, Volume 1 [1843]
In heaven we shall appear, not in armour, but in robes of glory. But here these are to be worn night and day; we must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.-- William Gurnall
Take heart therefore, O ye saints, and be strong; your cause is good, God himself espouseth your quarrel, who hath appointed you his own Son, General of the field, called 'the Captain of our salvation,' Heb 2:10. WILLIAM GURNALL
When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith. Abraham Kuyper
One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the power behind death and disease and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong..it is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion and we are living in part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy occupied territory - that is what the world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage. C. S. LEWIS, Mere Christianity
Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought
The better fight.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 29.
Alas! Elisha's servant cried,
When he the Syrian army spied,
But he was soon released from care,
In answer to the prophet's prayer.
Straitway he saw, with other eyes,
A greater army from the skies;
A fiery guard around the hill,
Thus are the saints preserved still.
When Satan and his host appear,
Like him of old, I faint and fear;
Like him, by faith, with joy I see,
A greater host engaged for me.
The saints espouse my cause by prayer,
The angels make my soul their care;
Mine is the promise sealed with blood,
And Jesus lives to make it good.
John Newton ., More with us than with them , Olney Hymn 40
To relinquish any of the Psalms on the excuse that its sentiments are too violent for a Christian is a clear sign that a person has also given up the very battle that a Christian is summoned to fight. The Psalms are prayers for those who are engaged in an ongoing, spiritual conflict. No one else need bother even opening the book. ... Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms [2000]
[Christ] tells us plainly, and without any qualifications, that we are involved in a war in which there is no room for neutrals. Yet people attempt to evade His statement. Generally speaking, these are the very people who are the quickest in laying the blame upon God for all the sorrow and sin in the world. They argue that He could prevent it. They excuse their own do-nothing attitude by making of evil's apparent predominance a ground for doubt of His loving kindness. It never seems to occur to them to look for the cause in mankind. Hugh Redwood, Live Coals
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His Name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face*?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight, if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord.
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith they bring it nigh.** * or fight; ** or By faith's discerning eye
When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of victory through skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
Isaac Watts, Am I a Soldier of the Cross? 1721.
The whole charismatic idea of true spirituality and of the normal Christian life is painfully close to the idea of a life touched by magic: perfect marriages, obedient children, no sickness, no divorce, no poverty, no tragedies, no defeats, no death. 'No dice,' saith God." - Monte Wilson
If you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation.... Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient. Sirach 2:1,4
It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong; the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil can be overcome by physical means. --Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) _Letters From New York_, Volume 1 [1843]
In heaven we shall appear, not in armour, but in robes of glory. But here these are to be worn night and day; we must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.-- William Gurnall
Take heart therefore, O ye saints, and be strong; your cause is good, God himself espouseth your quarrel, who hath appointed you his own Son, General of the field, called 'the Captain of our salvation,' Heb 2:10. WILLIAM GURNALL
When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith. Abraham Kuyper
One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the power behind death and disease and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong..it is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion and we are living in part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy occupied territory - that is what the world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage. C. S. LEWIS, Mere Christianity
Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought
The better fight.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 29.
Alas! Elisha's servant cried,
When he the Syrian army spied,
But he was soon released from care,
In answer to the prophet's prayer.
Straitway he saw, with other eyes,
A greater army from the skies;
A fiery guard around the hill,
Thus are the saints preserved still.
When Satan and his host appear,
Like him of old, I faint and fear;
Like him, by faith, with joy I see,
A greater host engaged for me.
The saints espouse my cause by prayer,
The angels make my soul their care;
Mine is the promise sealed with blood,
And Jesus lives to make it good.
John Newton ., More with us than with them , Olney Hymn 40
To relinquish any of the Psalms on the excuse that its sentiments are too violent for a Christian is a clear sign that a person has also given up the very battle that a Christian is summoned to fight. The Psalms are prayers for those who are engaged in an ongoing, spiritual conflict. No one else need bother even opening the book. ... Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms [2000]
[Christ] tells us plainly, and without any qualifications, that we are involved in a war in which there is no room for neutrals. Yet people attempt to evade His statement. Generally speaking, these are the very people who are the quickest in laying the blame upon God for all the sorrow and sin in the world. They argue that He could prevent it. They excuse their own do-nothing attitude by making of evil's apparent predominance a ground for doubt of His loving kindness. It never seems to occur to them to look for the cause in mankind. Hugh Redwood, Live Coals
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His Name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face*?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight, if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord.
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith they bring it nigh.** * or fight; ** or By faith's discerning eye
When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of victory through skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
Isaac Watts, Am I a Soldier of the Cross? 1721.
The whole charismatic idea of true spirituality and of the normal Christian life is painfully close to the idea of a life touched by magic: perfect marriages, obedient children, no sickness, no divorce, no poverty, no tragedies, no defeats, no death. 'No dice,' saith God." - Monte Wilson
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Blackout: Violence in France
Brussels Journal says,
'The French Interior Ministry has issued orders to the prefects not to communicate to the media the crime statistics for the nights of July 13-15. A cartoon shows Marianne, the woman symbolizing the French Republic, watching the "official" weather report, “More sun tomorrow” it says, as it pours outside. Le Monde has a long article about the news blackout:
[...] Only the figures for the night of July 13-14 were published: "Some 500 vehicles" were burned, the worst ever recorded for the eve of the national holiday. Despite repeated requests to the Interior Ministry, and the DGPN [similar to the FBI], no figures were forthcoming for the night of July 14-15. These orders have been strictly applied. The different prefectures contacted by Le Monde refused to respond, citing "ministerial instructions." Regional news media reported the same problem. The daily La Provence issued an unofficial report that was much less favorable than 2008: 41 cars and a day-care center in Marseilles burned. […]
Other local papers describe the same problems. In Reims, the daily L'Union denounces the attitude of the authorities: "Yesterday morning, every journalist who came, even for the smallest piece of news, to the firemen, or gendarmes or police, heard the same answer: 'No fires'. In fact, the truth is quite different. Some of those we questioned admitted under their breath: 'We cannot say anything about the fires. We have received orders." In Lyons, the daily Le Progrès reports the same blackout: "Orders not to speak on the radio were given to firemen, gendarmes and police."
In previous years the radio network Europe 1 had systematically called the prefectures to verify the official counts. On January 1, 2008, the DGPN reported 372 burnt cars for New Year's Eve vs 746 reported by Europe 1. Finally the ministry of the interior admitted that there had been 878 fires. "Instructions" given to the prefectures henceforth forbid this type of verification.
Some bits of news have leaked through. An article at the conservative blog François Desouche (based on a report in the newspaper Le Parisien) describes the use of firecrackers against the police, in the suburb of Tremblay-en-France, department of Seine-Saint-Denis. This was the second time in a few weeks that police on patrol were drawn to a group of youths. Masked by their clothing they threw firecrackers and rocks at the police.
Also, in the city of Evry, four or five large packs of firecrackers were stolen by a group of hooded individuals who broke into the fair grounds thanks to the inadequate number of guards. Agnès Moutet-Lamy, the spokesman for the Socialist mayor made light of the event: "That can always happen. There's nothing to worry about." However, Jean-Charles Béraud, an expert in pyrotechnics, stated that firecrackers "can become a monstrously dangerous weapon. A mortar can be propelled 120 meters and create an explosion 80 meters in diameter. It can kill someone. Even one large firecracker can rip apart a hand."
Using the daily La Provence as its source, another article at François Desouche relates the violence in Marseilles on the night of July 14: A fire ravaged 5 hectares close to residences.
Two helicopters pouring water on the fire and a fierce battle waged by the marine firemen were needed to bring the fire under control. A day-care center was partially burned. A row of cypress trees bordering a nursery school went up in smoke. One individual was arrested as he threw rockets on the marine firemen who had come to put out a trash can fire. Fires were set in the four corners of one neighborhood, while trash cans and cars burned in others, notably with the help of Molotov cocktails. While the firemen went on one call after the other, the police fell into what appears to be an ambush. Bullets were fired at them and diverse projectiles were thrown in their direction. One policeman was slightly injured by a rock. The anti-crime brigade arrested one individual in possession of a 22-caliber rifle.'
'The French Interior Ministry has issued orders to the prefects not to communicate to the media the crime statistics for the nights of July 13-15. A cartoon shows Marianne, the woman symbolizing the French Republic, watching the "official" weather report, “More sun tomorrow” it says, as it pours outside. Le Monde has a long article about the news blackout:
[...] Only the figures for the night of July 13-14 were published: "Some 500 vehicles" were burned, the worst ever recorded for the eve of the national holiday. Despite repeated requests to the Interior Ministry, and the DGPN [similar to the FBI], no figures were forthcoming for the night of July 14-15. These orders have been strictly applied. The different prefectures contacted by Le Monde refused to respond, citing "ministerial instructions." Regional news media reported the same problem. The daily La Provence issued an unofficial report that was much less favorable than 2008: 41 cars and a day-care center in Marseilles burned. […]
Other local papers describe the same problems. In Reims, the daily L'Union denounces the attitude of the authorities: "Yesterday morning, every journalist who came, even for the smallest piece of news, to the firemen, or gendarmes or police, heard the same answer: 'No fires'. In fact, the truth is quite different. Some of those we questioned admitted under their breath: 'We cannot say anything about the fires. We have received orders." In Lyons, the daily Le Progrès reports the same blackout: "Orders not to speak on the radio were given to firemen, gendarmes and police."
In previous years the radio network Europe 1 had systematically called the prefectures to verify the official counts. On January 1, 2008, the DGPN reported 372 burnt cars for New Year's Eve vs 746 reported by Europe 1. Finally the ministry of the interior admitted that there had been 878 fires. "Instructions" given to the prefectures henceforth forbid this type of verification.
Some bits of news have leaked through. An article at the conservative blog François Desouche (based on a report in the newspaper Le Parisien) describes the use of firecrackers against the police, in the suburb of Tremblay-en-France, department of Seine-Saint-Denis. This was the second time in a few weeks that police on patrol were drawn to a group of youths. Masked by their clothing they threw firecrackers and rocks at the police.
Also, in the city of Evry, four or five large packs of firecrackers were stolen by a group of hooded individuals who broke into the fair grounds thanks to the inadequate number of guards. Agnès Moutet-Lamy, the spokesman for the Socialist mayor made light of the event: "That can always happen. There's nothing to worry about." However, Jean-Charles Béraud, an expert in pyrotechnics, stated that firecrackers "can become a monstrously dangerous weapon. A mortar can be propelled 120 meters and create an explosion 80 meters in diameter. It can kill someone. Even one large firecracker can rip apart a hand."
Using the daily La Provence as its source, another article at François Desouche relates the violence in Marseilles on the night of July 14: A fire ravaged 5 hectares close to residences.
Two helicopters pouring water on the fire and a fierce battle waged by the marine firemen were needed to bring the fire under control. A day-care center was partially burned. A row of cypress trees bordering a nursery school went up in smoke. One individual was arrested as he threw rockets on the marine firemen who had come to put out a trash can fire. Fires were set in the four corners of one neighborhood, while trash cans and cars burned in others, notably with the help of Molotov cocktails. While the firemen went on one call after the other, the police fell into what appears to be an ambush. Bullets were fired at them and diverse projectiles were thrown in their direction. One policeman was slightly injured by a rock. The anti-crime brigade arrested one individual in possession of a 22-caliber rifle.'
The Court of Conscience
From Kairos Journal
'As one sixteenth-century bishop reported it, “[Y]our heart would mourn to see the towns, villages, hamlets, manor places, in ruin and decay, the people gone, the ploughs laid down.”1 The cause of this misery was land enclosure, whereby wealthy farmers carved out property for their herds (and so themselves) by erecting stone fences in the commons. Small farmers lost their fields and were ruined.
One culprit was Richard Foxe, a prominent advisor to Henry VIII, “lord privy seal, bishop of Winchester, and founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.”2 One might think him immune from censure, but Cardinal Wolsey (c. 1475-1530) was unimpressed with Foxe’s high station. As chancellor, Wolsey ordered the enclosures destroyed,3 and even Foxe felt the sting of his ruling. He admitted his offense, claimed ignorance of the law, and offered to pay the fines.4
Of course, Cardinal Wolsey was not without his faults. He loved and conspicuously demonstrated wealth and power, involving himself in international intrigues on behalf of Henry VIII. He was the first English clergyman to wear silk.5 His ambition was to be Pope.6 Nevertheless, “[h]e was loved by the poor and hated by the powerful for his impartial administration of justice . . . [H]e opened his court to all who complained of oppression, and he fearlessly punished the guilty, however exalted.”7 This was his international reputation,8 and even the inspiration of poets.9
Such was proper for the chancellor, a position with lineage back to Roman times. It was there that an usher served ad cancellos, at the wooden screen dividing the crowd from the judges. Through the centuries his station improved, from escorting plaintiffs before the council, to serving as their secretary, to offering them advice to even himself judging.10 Charlemagne gave the office high status, and Edward the Confessor brought the tradition to England, where the chancellor became eventually the king’s “right-hand man” and “the most powerful official in the realm.”11 Beginning with Herfast, consecrated Bishop of Elmham in 1070, chancellors were generally clergymen until the Reformation, when the office went mainly to lawyers, such as Sir Thomas More.12
As the most literate of citizens, clergymen were the obvious choice for chancellor.13 Furthermore, bishops brought centuries of Christian instruction and ecclesiastical adjudication to the king’s court. Mindful of Jesus’ teachings, these chancellors were alert to the plight of the poor and weak. When the powerful or clever attempted to victimize these people, albeit within the bounds of strict legality, chancellors intervened. As Lord Chancellor Wolsey explained, the Court of Chancery came to be called the “Court of Conscience” because it executed “justice with clemency, where conscience [was] opposed by the rigour of the law.”14
Courts of Conscience exercised jurisdiction “over the affairs of infants, lunatics, married women, poor persons and, in a slightly different context, borrowers.”15 Following Christ, who was “no respecter of persons,” they introduced the notion of “equity,” from the Latin aequitas (leveling).16
Thus the chancellor injected decency into common law, that body of rules forged and polished in the courts of old, the basis of much Western law today.17 Those enamored of an absolute “wall of separation” between God and state should understand that the Word of God and God’s men were present at the very formation of the law they claim to cherish and serve. The courts should show reverence toward the Lord, for their very existence and nobility rest upon the painstaking efforts of His ancient ministers.
Footnotes:
1
A. F. Pollard, Wolsey (Longdon: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929), 86. The longer quote reads, “[Y]our heart would mourn to see the towns, villages, hamlets, manor places, in ruin and decay, the people gone, the ploughs laid down, the living of many honest husbandmen in one man’s hand, the breed of mannery by this means suppressed, few people there stirring, the commons in many places taken away from the poor people, whereby they are compelled to forsake their houses, and so wearied out that they wot not where to live, and so maketh their lamentation.”
2
Ibid., 10-11.
3
Ibid., 86.
4
Ibid., 85.
5
Will Durant, The Reformation, in The Story of Civilization, vol. 6 (New York: MJF Books, 1957), 528.
6
Elgin Moyer, Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church, revised and enlarged by Earle E. Cairns (Chicago: Moody Press, 1982), 440.
7
Durant, 529.
8
A Venetian ambassador once reported to his superiors, “[T]he cardinal had the reputation of being extremely just, that he favoured the people exceedingly, especially the poor, hearing their suits in person, seeking to dispatch them promptly, and requiring counsel to plead their causes without fee.” Pollard, 79.
9
Ibid. Poet John Skelton captured Wolsey’s courtroom behavior toward “blue bloods” in his work, “Why come ye nat [not] to courte?” In it he pictured Wolsey as shaking them by the ear and intimating them with dismissive speech.
10
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 1971), 376.
11
Philip S. James, Introduction to English Law (London: Butterworths, 1976), 24.
12
George W. Keeton and L.A. Sheridan, Equity (Milton, Oxon: Professional Books Ltd, 1976), 30, 35.
13
William Blackstone, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 3 (1768; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 47.
14
F. E. Dowrick, Justice According to the English Common Lawyers (London: Butterworths, 1961), 80.
15
Keeton, 33.
16
James 2:5.
17
Oxford’s Sir Carleton Kemp Allen has argued that principles of equity might have emerged without the chancellor’s influence. See Sir Carleton Kemp Allen, Law in the Making (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1964), 414. But this is just so much speculation. And Allen readily admits that the theological roots are obvious (Ibid., 446).'
'As one sixteenth-century bishop reported it, “[Y]our heart would mourn to see the towns, villages, hamlets, manor places, in ruin and decay, the people gone, the ploughs laid down.”1 The cause of this misery was land enclosure, whereby wealthy farmers carved out property for their herds (and so themselves) by erecting stone fences in the commons. Small farmers lost their fields and were ruined.
One culprit was Richard Foxe, a prominent advisor to Henry VIII, “lord privy seal, bishop of Winchester, and founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.”2 One might think him immune from censure, but Cardinal Wolsey (c. 1475-1530) was unimpressed with Foxe’s high station. As chancellor, Wolsey ordered the enclosures destroyed,3 and even Foxe felt the sting of his ruling. He admitted his offense, claimed ignorance of the law, and offered to pay the fines.4
Of course, Cardinal Wolsey was not without his faults. He loved and conspicuously demonstrated wealth and power, involving himself in international intrigues on behalf of Henry VIII. He was the first English clergyman to wear silk.5 His ambition was to be Pope.6 Nevertheless, “[h]e was loved by the poor and hated by the powerful for his impartial administration of justice . . . [H]e opened his court to all who complained of oppression, and he fearlessly punished the guilty, however exalted.”7 This was his international reputation,8 and even the inspiration of poets.9
Such was proper for the chancellor, a position with lineage back to Roman times. It was there that an usher served ad cancellos, at the wooden screen dividing the crowd from the judges. Through the centuries his station improved, from escorting plaintiffs before the council, to serving as their secretary, to offering them advice to even himself judging.10 Charlemagne gave the office high status, and Edward the Confessor brought the tradition to England, where the chancellor became eventually the king’s “right-hand man” and “the most powerful official in the realm.”11 Beginning with Herfast, consecrated Bishop of Elmham in 1070, chancellors were generally clergymen until the Reformation, when the office went mainly to lawyers, such as Sir Thomas More.12
As the most literate of citizens, clergymen were the obvious choice for chancellor.13 Furthermore, bishops brought centuries of Christian instruction and ecclesiastical adjudication to the king’s court. Mindful of Jesus’ teachings, these chancellors were alert to the plight of the poor and weak. When the powerful or clever attempted to victimize these people, albeit within the bounds of strict legality, chancellors intervened. As Lord Chancellor Wolsey explained, the Court of Chancery came to be called the “Court of Conscience” because it executed “justice with clemency, where conscience [was] opposed by the rigour of the law.”14
Courts of Conscience exercised jurisdiction “over the affairs of infants, lunatics, married women, poor persons and, in a slightly different context, borrowers.”15 Following Christ, who was “no respecter of persons,” they introduced the notion of “equity,” from the Latin aequitas (leveling).16
Thus the chancellor injected decency into common law, that body of rules forged and polished in the courts of old, the basis of much Western law today.17 Those enamored of an absolute “wall of separation” between God and state should understand that the Word of God and God’s men were present at the very formation of the law they claim to cherish and serve. The courts should show reverence toward the Lord, for their very existence and nobility rest upon the painstaking efforts of His ancient ministers.
Footnotes:
1
A. F. Pollard, Wolsey (Longdon: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929), 86. The longer quote reads, “[Y]our heart would mourn to see the towns, villages, hamlets, manor places, in ruin and decay, the people gone, the ploughs laid down, the living of many honest husbandmen in one man’s hand, the breed of mannery by this means suppressed, few people there stirring, the commons in many places taken away from the poor people, whereby they are compelled to forsake their houses, and so wearied out that they wot not where to live, and so maketh their lamentation.”
2
Ibid., 10-11.
3
Ibid., 86.
4
Ibid., 85.
5
Will Durant, The Reformation, in The Story of Civilization, vol. 6 (New York: MJF Books, 1957), 528.
6
Elgin Moyer, Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church, revised and enlarged by Earle E. Cairns (Chicago: Moody Press, 1982), 440.
7
Durant, 529.
8
A Venetian ambassador once reported to his superiors, “[T]he cardinal had the reputation of being extremely just, that he favoured the people exceedingly, especially the poor, hearing their suits in person, seeking to dispatch them promptly, and requiring counsel to plead their causes without fee.” Pollard, 79.
9
Ibid. Poet John Skelton captured Wolsey’s courtroom behavior toward “blue bloods” in his work, “Why come ye nat [not] to courte?” In it he pictured Wolsey as shaking them by the ear and intimating them with dismissive speech.
10
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 1971), 376.
11
Philip S. James, Introduction to English Law (London: Butterworths, 1976), 24.
12
George W. Keeton and L.A. Sheridan, Equity (Milton, Oxon: Professional Books Ltd, 1976), 30, 35.
13
William Blackstone, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 3 (1768; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 47.
14
F. E. Dowrick, Justice According to the English Common Lawyers (London: Butterworths, 1961), 80.
15
Keeton, 33.
16
James 2:5.
17
Oxford’s Sir Carleton Kemp Allen has argued that principles of equity might have emerged without the chancellor’s influence. See Sir Carleton Kemp Allen, Law in the Making (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1964), 414. But this is just so much speculation. And Allen readily admits that the theological roots are obvious (Ibid., 446).'
Experienced Community Paediatrician to be Removed from Adoption Panel after County Refused her Religious/Conscienc e Request
Christian Legal Centre reports,'A COMMUNITY paediatrician, with 18 years experience working with parents and children in Northamptonshire, is to be removed as a medical advisor to Northamptonshire County Council after asking to be able to abstain from voting on the ‘rare’ occasions when she would be asked to recommend children for adoption by same-sex couples.
Dr Sheila Matthews, who has been a medical advisor to the Adoption Panel for five years, believes her work is appreciated by social workers and all those involved with adoption in the county. She says: “I try to make fair and unbiased assessments and recommendations about the individuals who apply to adopt. My work involves preparing reports on the health of both children and adult applicants and giving advice on health issues to the Adoption Service. I am happy to carry out that role in full.”
However, as a professional doctor for the past 28 years, and as a Christian, she believes that it is “inappropriate to place children in a household with same sex parents as the best option”. She says: “Using my professional judgement and having done a lot of reading around the subject, I am satisfied that there are research findings which support my position that a same sex partnership is not the best family setting to bring up children. Therefore professionally and personally I cannot recommend placement in a same-sex household to be in the best interest of a child, despite what politicians may have legislated for, and as those on the Panel have a legal obligation to do what they believe is in the best interests of the child, then I cannot support a recommendation with which I do not agree. This conflicts with my professional, religious and personal integrity.
Dr Matthews decided that it was not appropriate to debate the broader religious, psychological and political issues of same sex adoption within the context of each individual application. She also does not wish to cause offence to any individual. She therefore sought what she thought to be a reasonable and appropriate compromise, and requested that in applications by same sex couples, she should to be allowed to abstain from voting (i.e. not vote yes or no ) on the recommendation. She was prepared to carry out all preparation of health reports required for Panel in an unbiased manner. There would still be a majority vote at Panel so this would not hinder the rest of the Panel making a recommendation and the decision to approve applicants lies ultimately with a senior member of Social Services. The Head of Services for Children, Young People and Families, Martin Pratt, after a meeting on April 22, wrote to Dr Matthews advising she could no longer continue in her role as a panel member and that another medical advisor should be identified. Dr Matthews, from Kettering, has asked for advice and support from the high-profile Christian Legal Centre, which has instructed leading Human Rights barrister, Paul Diamond, to represent Dr Matthews.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the CLC said: “This is a further example of how a well respected professional who holds conscientious views on sexual practice, informed by Christian faith, is being asked to choose between her faith and her job. Recent anti-discrimination legislation is having the opposite effect and devout Christians are suffering the consequences. This is not the mark of a free and civilised society where freedom of speech and religion is carefully guarded.’
Dr Matthew’s professional concerns informed by her faith and scientific evidence about the ‘best interests’ of placing children in ‘same-sex’ households are upheld by Dr Dean Byrd, an international expert from the USA who gave evidence in the case of the Family Magistrate Andrew McClintock who had similar concerns to Dr Matthews about placing children into same sex households. Unless the matter is resolved Dr Dean Byrd will be called to give evidence on Dr Matthews’ behalf. He will say that the current adoption procedures in the UK are ‘social experiments’ at best, and at the risk of children’s emotional and psychological well-being, in order to be politically correct. Dr Matthews’ professional conclusions are in the ‘best interests of children’.
Dr. Dean Byrd, an academic, practitioner and President of NARTH (Highland, Utah). In a recent UK Employment Tribunal case, he appealed against UK Governmental research; Dr Byrd has conducted three decades of research on optimal development of children, and claimed UK Government research to be an unbalanced view. Fathers and Mothers are not inter-changeable. Gender matters for children. His world-wide research concludes that children in same sex unions have outcomes as poor as those of fractured heterosexual families; placing an ‘at risk’ child in a further ‘at risk’ situation makes the situation worse. The current UK adoption policy reinforces poor outcomes and promotes poor lifestyles.
If you would like to donate to support the Christian Legal Centre in this case we would be very grateful.
Andrea Minichiello Williams
020 7467 5421
Christian Legal Centre
http://www.christia nlegalcentre. com'
The persecution grows.
Dr Sheila Matthews, who has been a medical advisor to the Adoption Panel for five years, believes her work is appreciated by social workers and all those involved with adoption in the county. She says: “I try to make fair and unbiased assessments and recommendations about the individuals who apply to adopt. My work involves preparing reports on the health of both children and adult applicants and giving advice on health issues to the Adoption Service. I am happy to carry out that role in full.”
However, as a professional doctor for the past 28 years, and as a Christian, she believes that it is “inappropriate to place children in a household with same sex parents as the best option”. She says: “Using my professional judgement and having done a lot of reading around the subject, I am satisfied that there are research findings which support my position that a same sex partnership is not the best family setting to bring up children. Therefore professionally and personally I cannot recommend placement in a same-sex household to be in the best interest of a child, despite what politicians may have legislated for, and as those on the Panel have a legal obligation to do what they believe is in the best interests of the child, then I cannot support a recommendation with which I do not agree. This conflicts with my professional, religious and personal integrity.
Dr Matthews decided that it was not appropriate to debate the broader religious, psychological and political issues of same sex adoption within the context of each individual application. She also does not wish to cause offence to any individual. She therefore sought what she thought to be a reasonable and appropriate compromise, and requested that in applications by same sex couples, she should to be allowed to abstain from voting (i.e. not vote yes or no ) on the recommendation. She was prepared to carry out all preparation of health reports required for Panel in an unbiased manner. There would still be a majority vote at Panel so this would not hinder the rest of the Panel making a recommendation and the decision to approve applicants lies ultimately with a senior member of Social Services. The Head of Services for Children, Young People and Families, Martin Pratt, after a meeting on April 22, wrote to Dr Matthews advising she could no longer continue in her role as a panel member and that another medical advisor should be identified. Dr Matthews, from Kettering, has asked for advice and support from the high-profile Christian Legal Centre, which has instructed leading Human Rights barrister, Paul Diamond, to represent Dr Matthews.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the CLC said: “This is a further example of how a well respected professional who holds conscientious views on sexual practice, informed by Christian faith, is being asked to choose between her faith and her job. Recent anti-discrimination legislation is having the opposite effect and devout Christians are suffering the consequences. This is not the mark of a free and civilised society where freedom of speech and religion is carefully guarded.’
Dr Matthew’s professional concerns informed by her faith and scientific evidence about the ‘best interests’ of placing children in ‘same-sex’ households are upheld by Dr Dean Byrd, an international expert from the USA who gave evidence in the case of the Family Magistrate Andrew McClintock who had similar concerns to Dr Matthews about placing children into same sex households. Unless the matter is resolved Dr Dean Byrd will be called to give evidence on Dr Matthews’ behalf. He will say that the current adoption procedures in the UK are ‘social experiments’ at best, and at the risk of children’s emotional and psychological well-being, in order to be politically correct. Dr Matthews’ professional conclusions are in the ‘best interests of children’.
Dr. Dean Byrd, an academic, practitioner and President of NARTH (Highland, Utah). In a recent UK Employment Tribunal case, he appealed against UK Governmental research; Dr Byrd has conducted three decades of research on optimal development of children, and claimed UK Government research to be an unbalanced view. Fathers and Mothers are not inter-changeable. Gender matters for children. His world-wide research concludes that children in same sex unions have outcomes as poor as those of fractured heterosexual families; placing an ‘at risk’ child in a further ‘at risk’ situation makes the situation worse. The current UK adoption policy reinforces poor outcomes and promotes poor lifestyles.
If you would like to donate to support the Christian Legal Centre in this case we would be very grateful.
Andrea Minichiello Williams
020 7467 5421
Christian Legal Centre
http://www.christia nlegalcentre. com'
The persecution grows.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Pupils told: regular sex is good for you
'A new leaflet, entitled Pleasure, says health promotion experts focus too much on encouraging ’safe sex’ and not enough on enjoyment.
It has been circulated to teachers, parents and youth workers.
Under the heading “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”, the leaflet says: “Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?”
One of the authors of the leaflet, Steve Slack, Director of the Centre for HIV & Sexual Health at NHS Sheffield, claimed that as long as teenagers are fully informed about sex and are making their decisions free of peer pressure and as part of a caring relationship, they have as much right as an adult to a good sex life.
The booklet has been endorsed by Brook and FPA (formerly the Family Planning Association), two sexual health charities who advise the Government on its sex education policies.
But family campaigner Dr Trevor Stammers said the leaflet would encourage ‘risky’ behaviour and an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.
“It is unbelievable that this is being sent to schools”, he said.
“I’d like to know what scientific evidence there is to back this up. There are an awful lot of overpaid and under-occupied health promotion officers around who are obsessed with sex.”
He added: “If the NHS wants to promote a healthy heart, as it says it does in this leaflet, it should put the money into reducing smoking and alcohol”.
“Underage sex is as dangerous as underage drink and usually leads to sexual ill-health”, he continued.
Last week it emerged that a £6 million project aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy had actually increased conceptions among the girls involved.
The failed project, which involved giving teenagers information about sex and providing free condoms, led to calls for the Government to scrap its policy of tackling the problem of underage sexual activity with increasing levels of sex education.
Columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote: “By any reckoning, it is a monumental failure. Yet I predict that all those on the Left will yet again insist that only more sex education will help free these young women.
“They will insist that only this can free them from the fate that otherwise awaits them, repeating the cycle of teen parenthood through future generations.
“But how can this be right? It makes no sense to me at all, repeating a prescription that is manifestly failing.”'
Copyright © The Christian Institute All Rights Reserved
It has been circulated to teachers, parents and youth workers.
Under the heading “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”, the leaflet says: “Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?”
One of the authors of the leaflet, Steve Slack, Director of the Centre for HIV & Sexual Health at NHS Sheffield, claimed that as long as teenagers are fully informed about sex and are making their decisions free of peer pressure and as part of a caring relationship, they have as much right as an adult to a good sex life.
The booklet has been endorsed by Brook and FPA (formerly the Family Planning Association), two sexual health charities who advise the Government on its sex education policies.
But family campaigner Dr Trevor Stammers said the leaflet would encourage ‘risky’ behaviour and an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.
“It is unbelievable that this is being sent to schools”, he said.
“I’d like to know what scientific evidence there is to back this up. There are an awful lot of overpaid and under-occupied health promotion officers around who are obsessed with sex.”
He added: “If the NHS wants to promote a healthy heart, as it says it does in this leaflet, it should put the money into reducing smoking and alcohol”.
“Underage sex is as dangerous as underage drink and usually leads to sexual ill-health”, he continued.
Last week it emerged that a £6 million project aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy had actually increased conceptions among the girls involved.
The failed project, which involved giving teenagers information about sex and providing free condoms, led to calls for the Government to scrap its policy of tackling the problem of underage sexual activity with increasing levels of sex education.
Columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote: “By any reckoning, it is a monumental failure. Yet I predict that all those on the Left will yet again insist that only more sex education will help free these young women.
“They will insist that only this can free them from the fate that otherwise awaits them, repeating the cycle of teen parenthood through future generations.
“But how can this be right? It makes no sense to me at all, repeating a prescription that is manifestly failing.”'
Copyright © The Christian Institute All Rights Reserved
Christian Teacher facing sack for expressing Christian beliefs on homosexual practice to Colleagues is re-instated after threat of Legal Action
Cristian legal centre says,
'Kwabena Peat's Story : Suspended For Questioning Equality Policy at School
A SENIOR London teacher, suspended and threatened with the sack for expressing his Christian beliefs at work will be back at work next term.
Kwabena Peat, 54, was suspended after he complained that a staff training day was used to promote homosexual rights, and to marginalise and label those who disagreed with homosexual practice. His case follows a number of others which have left Christians feeling sidelined in the workplace.
Mr Peat, who is head of year at a North London secondary school, walked out of the compulsory training session along with several other colleagues. The session included a presentation by Sue Sanders, a co-founder of the Schools Out organisation which promotes a radical homosexual agenda in schools, in which she questioned whether heterosexuality was “natural”.
Mr Peat states there was no opportunity for those with a different point of view to respond. He wrote to three staff who organised the event and complained about the “aggressive” presentation of homosexual rights. His letter also referred to his Christian beliefs about the practice of homosexuality – that sex should be between a man and woman within marriage.
The recipients of the letter said they felt “harassed and intimidated” by it. Following an investigation, Mr Peat was suspended.
The committed Christian said he fully expected the training session to provide information to help teachers handle homophobic bullying, but the guest speaker had gone much further. He said: “She started promoting homosexual lifestyles and suggesting those who had objections should sort out their prejudices. She asked us ‘What makes you all think that to be heterosexual is natural?’ It was at that point I walked out.”
Mr Peat, supported by the Christian Legal Centre challenged the school’s employment procedures and informed the school that claiming the letter ‘harassed’ staff was ludicrous as the teachers to whom he complained about the event were all senior to him. He also told them he believed the charge ‘gross misconduct’ was disproportionate to any alleged ‘offence’ that they claimed to have taken place. The CLC instructed leading human rights barrister Paul Diamond to advise the teacher and as a result, Mr Peat told the school he was prepared to take them through Industrial Tribunal, and if necessary, to seek a Judicial Review of the Human Rights of Christian Teachers via the High Court if necessary.
The school’s appeal panel, meeting last Friday, week agreed the charge of ‘gross misconduct’ to be disproportionate, and Mr Peat will return to work when the new term commences in September.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the Christian Legal Centre said: “Although we consider this a great victory for common sense, the School is still seeking to control Mr Peat’s views and behaviour by not allowing him to talk about what has happened, both within the school or via the media, which has been very supportive. Mr Peat was discriminated against for expressing his Christian faith and his invitation to consider Christianity was deemed ‘harassment’. What kind of society are we living in when a legitimate orthodox Christian view as expressed by Mr Peat is construed in this way?
“I am delighted that CLC has secured another success, and that Mr Peat can return to work. It must surely be deemed unacceptable that highly trained teachers should be discriminated against and face dismissal for seeking to protect children. Mr Peat simply expressed a Christian viewpoint and objected to the school undermining parental rights regarding the education of their children on sexual ethics. He should be applauded for challenging the new political orthodoxy in an attempt to protect children rather than face such harsh intimidation”.
Mr Peat is not available for media interviews in order to comply with the school’s request.
If you would like to make a donation so that CLC can continue to support cases such as Kwabena Peat’s we would be very grateful.'
'Kwabena Peat's Story : Suspended For Questioning Equality Policy at School
A SENIOR London teacher, suspended and threatened with the sack for expressing his Christian beliefs at work will be back at work next term.
Kwabena Peat, 54, was suspended after he complained that a staff training day was used to promote homosexual rights, and to marginalise and label those who disagreed with homosexual practice. His case follows a number of others which have left Christians feeling sidelined in the workplace.
Mr Peat, who is head of year at a North London secondary school, walked out of the compulsory training session along with several other colleagues. The session included a presentation by Sue Sanders, a co-founder of the Schools Out organisation which promotes a radical homosexual agenda in schools, in which she questioned whether heterosexuality was “natural”.
Mr Peat states there was no opportunity for those with a different point of view to respond. He wrote to three staff who organised the event and complained about the “aggressive” presentation of homosexual rights. His letter also referred to his Christian beliefs about the practice of homosexuality – that sex should be between a man and woman within marriage.
The recipients of the letter said they felt “harassed and intimidated” by it. Following an investigation, Mr Peat was suspended.
The committed Christian said he fully expected the training session to provide information to help teachers handle homophobic bullying, but the guest speaker had gone much further. He said: “She started promoting homosexual lifestyles and suggesting those who had objections should sort out their prejudices. She asked us ‘What makes you all think that to be heterosexual is natural?’ It was at that point I walked out.”
Mr Peat, supported by the Christian Legal Centre challenged the school’s employment procedures and informed the school that claiming the letter ‘harassed’ staff was ludicrous as the teachers to whom he complained about the event were all senior to him. He also told them he believed the charge ‘gross misconduct’ was disproportionate to any alleged ‘offence’ that they claimed to have taken place. The CLC instructed leading human rights barrister Paul Diamond to advise the teacher and as a result, Mr Peat told the school he was prepared to take them through Industrial Tribunal, and if necessary, to seek a Judicial Review of the Human Rights of Christian Teachers via the High Court if necessary.
The school’s appeal panel, meeting last Friday, week agreed the charge of ‘gross misconduct’ to be disproportionate, and Mr Peat will return to work when the new term commences in September.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the Christian Legal Centre said: “Although we consider this a great victory for common sense, the School is still seeking to control Mr Peat’s views and behaviour by not allowing him to talk about what has happened, both within the school or via the media, which has been very supportive. Mr Peat was discriminated against for expressing his Christian faith and his invitation to consider Christianity was deemed ‘harassment’. What kind of society are we living in when a legitimate orthodox Christian view as expressed by Mr Peat is construed in this way?
“I am delighted that CLC has secured another success, and that Mr Peat can return to work. It must surely be deemed unacceptable that highly trained teachers should be discriminated against and face dismissal for seeking to protect children. Mr Peat simply expressed a Christian viewpoint and objected to the school undermining parental rights regarding the education of their children on sexual ethics. He should be applauded for challenging the new political orthodoxy in an attempt to protect children rather than face such harsh intimidation”.
Mr Peat is not available for media interviews in order to comply with the school’s request.
If you would like to make a donation so that CLC can continue to support cases such as Kwabena Peat’s we would be very grateful.'
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Missions and Masturbation
Missions and Masturbation
By John Piper
September 10, 1984
Masturbation is the experience of sexual orgasm produced by self-stimulation. Virtually every man and almost as many women have tried it. It is a regular practice of most single men.
One of the major forces preventing young people from obeying the call of God into vocational Christian service is defeat in the area of lust. A teenager hears a challenging call to throw himself into the cause of world evangelization. He feels the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He tastes the thrill of following the King of kings into battle. But he does not obey because he is masturbating regularly. He feels guilty. He can hardly imagine witnessing to a pretty girl about the eternal plight of her soul, because he has so habitually looked at girls naked in his imagination. So he feels unworthy and unable to obey the call of God. Masturbation becomes the enemy of missions.
Is masturbation wrong? Let me address the issue mainly for men. I cannot imagine sexual orgasm in the loins without sexual image in the mind. I know there are nocturnal emissions, which I regard as innocent and helpful, but I doubt that they are ever orgasmic apart from a sexual dream that supplies the necessary image in the mind. Evidently God has constituted the connection between sexual orgasm and sexual thought in such a way that the force and pleasure of orgasm is dependent on the thought or images in our minds.
Therefore in order to masturbate, it is necessary to get vivid and exciting thoughts or images into the mind. This can be done by pure imagination or by pictures or movies or stories or real persons. These images always involve women as sexual objects. I use the word “object” because in order for a women to be a true sexual “subject” in our imagination she must in reality be one with whom we are experiencing what we are imagining. This is not the case with masturbation.
So I vote no on masturbation. There may be other reasons why it is wrong. For now I rest my vote on the inevitable sexual images which accompany masturbation and which turn women into sexual objects. The sexual thoughts that enable masturbation do not help any man to treat women with greater respect. Therefore masturbation produces real and legitimate guilt and stands in the way of obedience.
Three encouragements to single men:
1. You are not alone in the battle.
2. Periodic failure in this area no more disqualifies you from ministry than periodic failures of impatience (which is also a sin).
3. Pursue the expulsive power of a new affection. I walked by a whole section of “photography” books at the Walker Art Center last Thursday empowered by the better pleasure of feeling Christ conquer the temptation to look.
For the sake of your power,
Pastor John
© Desiring God
By John Piper
September 10, 1984
Masturbation is the experience of sexual orgasm produced by self-stimulation. Virtually every man and almost as many women have tried it. It is a regular practice of most single men.
One of the major forces preventing young people from obeying the call of God into vocational Christian service is defeat in the area of lust. A teenager hears a challenging call to throw himself into the cause of world evangelization. He feels the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He tastes the thrill of following the King of kings into battle. But he does not obey because he is masturbating regularly. He feels guilty. He can hardly imagine witnessing to a pretty girl about the eternal plight of her soul, because he has so habitually looked at girls naked in his imagination. So he feels unworthy and unable to obey the call of God. Masturbation becomes the enemy of missions.
Is masturbation wrong? Let me address the issue mainly for men. I cannot imagine sexual orgasm in the loins without sexual image in the mind. I know there are nocturnal emissions, which I regard as innocent and helpful, but I doubt that they are ever orgasmic apart from a sexual dream that supplies the necessary image in the mind. Evidently God has constituted the connection between sexual orgasm and sexual thought in such a way that the force and pleasure of orgasm is dependent on the thought or images in our minds.
Therefore in order to masturbate, it is necessary to get vivid and exciting thoughts or images into the mind. This can be done by pure imagination or by pictures or movies or stories or real persons. These images always involve women as sexual objects. I use the word “object” because in order for a women to be a true sexual “subject” in our imagination she must in reality be one with whom we are experiencing what we are imagining. This is not the case with masturbation.
So I vote no on masturbation. There may be other reasons why it is wrong. For now I rest my vote on the inevitable sexual images which accompany masturbation and which turn women into sexual objects. The sexual thoughts that enable masturbation do not help any man to treat women with greater respect. Therefore masturbation produces real and legitimate guilt and stands in the way of obedience.
Three encouragements to single men:
1. You are not alone in the battle.
2. Periodic failure in this area no more disqualifies you from ministry than periodic failures of impatience (which is also a sin).
3. Pursue the expulsive power of a new affection. I walked by a whole section of “photography” books at the Walker Art Center last Thursday empowered by the better pleasure of feeling Christ conquer the temptation to look.
For the sake of your power,
Pastor John
© Desiring God
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Christian Teacher facing sack for expressing Christian beliefs on homosexual practice to Colleagues is re-instated after threat of Legal Action
Christian Legal Centre reports,;A SENIOR London teacher, suspended and threatened with the sack for expressing his Christian beliefs at work will be back at work next term.
Kwabena Peat, 54, was suspended after he complained that a staff training day was used to promote homosexual rights, and to marginalise and label those who disagreed with homosexual practice. His case follows a number of others which have left Christians feeling sidelined in the workplace.
Mr Peat, who is head of year at a North London secondary school, walked out of the compulsory training session along with several other colleagues. The session included a presentation by Sue Sanders, a co-founder of the Schools Out organisation which promotes a radical homosexual agenda in schools, in which she questioned whether heterosexuality was “natural”.
Mr Peat states there was no opportunity for those with a different point of view to respond. He wrote to three staff who organised the event and complained about the “aggressive” presentation of homosexual rights. His letter also referred to his Christian beliefs about the practice of homosexuality – that sex should be between a man and woman within marriage.
The recipients of the letter said they felt “harassed and intimidated” by it. Following an investigation, Mr Peat was suspended.
The committed Christian said he fully expected the training session to provide information to help teachers handle homophobic bullying, but the guest speaker had gone much further. He said: “She started promoting homosexual lifestyles and suggesting those who had objections should sort out their prejudices. She asked us ‘What makes you all think that to be heterosexual is natural?’ It was at that point I walked out.”
Mr Peat, supported by the Christian Legal Centre challenged the school’s employment procedures and informed the school that claiming the letter ‘harassed’ staff was ludicrous as the teachers to whom he complained about the event were all senior to him. He also told them he believed the charge ‘gross misconduct’ was disproportionate to any alleged ‘offence’ that they claimed to have taken place. The CLC instructed leading human rights barrister Paul Diamond to advise the teacher and as a result, Mr Peat told the school he was prepared to take them through Industrial Tribunal, and if necessary, to seek a Judicial Review of the Human Rights of Christian Teachers via the High Court if necessary.
The school’s appeal panel, meeting last Friday, week agreed the charge of ‘gross misconduct’ to be disproportionate, and Mr Peat will return to work when the new term commences in September.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the Christian Legal Centre said: “Although we consider this a great victory for common sense, the School is still seeking to control Mr Peat’s views and behaviour by not allowing him to talk about what has happened, both within the school or via the media, which has been very supportive. Mr Peat was discriminated against for expressing his Christian faith and his invitation to consider Christianity was deemed ‘harassment’. What kind of society are we living in when a legitimate orthodox Christian view as expressed by Mr Peat is construed in this way?
“I am delighted that CLC has secured another success, and that Mr Peat can return to work. It must surely be deemed unacceptable that highly trained teachers should be discriminated against and face dismissal for seeking to protect children. Mr Peat simply expressed a Christian viewpoint and objected to the school undermining parental rights regarding the education of their children on sexual ethics. He should be applauded for challenging the new political orthodoxy in an attempt to protect children rather than face such harsh intimidation” ./
Kwabena Peat, 54, was suspended after he complained that a staff training day was used to promote homosexual rights, and to marginalise and label those who disagreed with homosexual practice. His case follows a number of others which have left Christians feeling sidelined in the workplace.
Mr Peat, who is head of year at a North London secondary school, walked out of the compulsory training session along with several other colleagues. The session included a presentation by Sue Sanders, a co-founder of the Schools Out organisation which promotes a radical homosexual agenda in schools, in which she questioned whether heterosexuality was “natural”.
Mr Peat states there was no opportunity for those with a different point of view to respond. He wrote to three staff who organised the event and complained about the “aggressive” presentation of homosexual rights. His letter also referred to his Christian beliefs about the practice of homosexuality – that sex should be between a man and woman within marriage.
The recipients of the letter said they felt “harassed and intimidated” by it. Following an investigation, Mr Peat was suspended.
The committed Christian said he fully expected the training session to provide information to help teachers handle homophobic bullying, but the guest speaker had gone much further. He said: “She started promoting homosexual lifestyles and suggesting those who had objections should sort out their prejudices. She asked us ‘What makes you all think that to be heterosexual is natural?’ It was at that point I walked out.”
Mr Peat, supported by the Christian Legal Centre challenged the school’s employment procedures and informed the school that claiming the letter ‘harassed’ staff was ludicrous as the teachers to whom he complained about the event were all senior to him. He also told them he believed the charge ‘gross misconduct’ was disproportionate to any alleged ‘offence’ that they claimed to have taken place. The CLC instructed leading human rights barrister Paul Diamond to advise the teacher and as a result, Mr Peat told the school he was prepared to take them through Industrial Tribunal, and if necessary, to seek a Judicial Review of the Human Rights of Christian Teachers via the High Court if necessary.
The school’s appeal panel, meeting last Friday, week agreed the charge of ‘gross misconduct’ to be disproportionate, and Mr Peat will return to work when the new term commences in September.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of the Christian Legal Centre said: “Although we consider this a great victory for common sense, the School is still seeking to control Mr Peat’s views and behaviour by not allowing him to talk about what has happened, both within the school or via the media, which has been very supportive. Mr Peat was discriminated against for expressing his Christian faith and his invitation to consider Christianity was deemed ‘harassment’. What kind of society are we living in when a legitimate orthodox Christian view as expressed by Mr Peat is construed in this way?
“I am delighted that CLC has secured another success, and that Mr Peat can return to work. It must surely be deemed unacceptable that highly trained teachers should be discriminated against and face dismissal for seeking to protect children. Mr Peat simply expressed a Christian viewpoint and objected to the school undermining parental rights regarding the education of their children on sexual ethics. He should be applauded for challenging the new political orthodoxy in an attempt to protect children rather than face such harsh intimidation” ./
I feel a lot better now
Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to
All Persons of European Descent
Whereas, Europeans kept my forebears in bondage some three centuries toiling without pay,
Whereas, Europeans ignored the human rights pledges of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution,
Whereas, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments meant little more than empty words,
Therefore, Americans of European ancestry are guilty of great crimes against my ancestors and their progeny.
But, in the recognition Europeans themselves have been victims of various and sundry human rights violations to wit: the Norman Conquest, the Irish Potato Famine, Decline of the Hapsburg Dynasty, Napoleonic and Czarist adventurism, and gratuitous insults and speculations about the intelligence of Europeans of Polish descent,
I, Walter E. Williams, do declare full and general amnesty and pardon to all persons of European ancestry, for both their own grievances, and those of their forebears, against my people.
Therefore, from this day forward Americans of European ancestry can stand straight and proud knowing they are without guilt and thus obliged not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry.
Walter E. Williams, Gracious and Generous Grantor
All Persons of European Descent
Whereas, Europeans kept my forebears in bondage some three centuries toiling without pay,
Whereas, Europeans ignored the human rights pledges of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution,
Whereas, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments meant little more than empty words,
Therefore, Americans of European ancestry are guilty of great crimes against my ancestors and their progeny.
But, in the recognition Europeans themselves have been victims of various and sundry human rights violations to wit: the Norman Conquest, the Irish Potato Famine, Decline of the Hapsburg Dynasty, Napoleonic and Czarist adventurism, and gratuitous insults and speculations about the intelligence of Europeans of Polish descent,
I, Walter E. Williams, do declare full and general amnesty and pardon to all persons of European ancestry, for both their own grievances, and those of their forebears, against my people.
Therefore, from this day forward Americans of European ancestry can stand straight and proud knowing they are without guilt and thus obliged not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry.
Walter E. Williams, Gracious and Generous Grantor
Monday, July 13, 2009
Change and repent, bishop tells homosexuals
A senior Church of England bishop has called on homosexuals to repent and "be changed" in comments that have infuriated equality campaigners.
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent, daily Telegraph
Published: 9:35PM BST 04 Jul 2009
The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has defended traditional biblical teachings on homosexuality and said the Church should not be "rolled over by culture".
Dr Nazir-Ali spoke as tens of thousands of people, including Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, joined the annual Pride London march to celebrate homosexual culture. A war of words broke out between Labour and the Conservatives over the issue of homosexuality last week after a minister accused the Tories of having a "deep strain of homophobia" running through the party.
Tomorrow, a new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes, backed by Dr Nazir-Ali, will get under way, which critics have claimed is an attempt to create a "church within the church".
The organisers said The Queen, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, had sent a message to the leaders of the movement saying she understood their concerns about the future of the Anglican Communion. Next weekend the General Synod of the Church of England is meeting at York University. The following week, the Episcopal Church in America is expected to endorse liturgies for single sex marriage and allow more homosexuals to be made bishops.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said: "We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
"People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
"The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
"We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed."
The bishop added that it is not just homosexuals who need to repent, but all who have strayed from the Bible’s teaching.
He said: "We want to hold on to the traditional teaching of the Church. We don’t want to be rolled over by culture and trends in the Church. We want a movement for renewal. We need a reformation of the Church and the life of the Communion."
Dr Nazir-Ali, who is resigning from his post in September, said there was a need for the new evangelical movement, called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, because the Church is already divided.
"We’re two different sorts of religion," he said. "One has a view of God and the Church and Christianity that is completely different from the other."
Derek Munn, the director of public affairs for Stonewall, the homosexual campaign group, criticised Dr Nazir-Ali’s comments.
"It is unfortunate that in 2009, a church leader should continue to promote inequality and intolerance," he said.
"Stonewall knows that most people of faith are accepting of lesbian and gay people. We also know that many lesbian and gay people who are themselves religious believers are not well served by some of those who claim to speak on their behalf."
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the president of the Inclusive Church, a liberal grouping in the Church of England, said: "Homosexuality is not a sin. It is the way many people love each other and is a gift from God. Ordinary people in the pews know this. And they are a lot more theologically aware than the handful of narrow- minded bishops who want to play politics with the Anglican Communion."
Dr Nazir-Ali’s views, which he will repeat in a speech at tomorrow’s gathering, will be seen as a direct challenge to the authority of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he tries to keep the Anglican church together.
Dr Williams secured an uneasy truce over homosexuality in the dispute at last year’s Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. However, this will be shattered if the American Church passes controversial votes on homosexuality which would defy the archbishop’s pleas for restraint.
Tomorrow’s gathering will be attended by some of the Church of England’s most senior figures, including the bishops of Exeter, Birmingham, and Chichester.
Archbishops from around the world will also be present, including the Most Rev Henry Orombi, the Archbishop of Uganda, who last year challenged the Archbishop of Canterbury’s right to lead the Anglican Communion.
Many other Church of England bishops have signalled their support for the new alliance, which describes itself as "a home of focus and support for orthodox churches" opposed to liberal leadership.
The Rev Paul Perkin, a leading evangelical and vicar of St Mark’s Battersea Rise in south London, said the coalition was not intended to be "schismatic", but was needed to support "beleaguered evangelicals and orthodox parishes" across Britain.
"Evangelicals have often been ignored in the past when it comes to decision making," he said.
"This should make people sit up and think and take notice. This represents a sea change in where the life and strength in the parishes lies."
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on private correspondence from the Queen.
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent, daily Telegraph
Published: 9:35PM BST 04 Jul 2009
The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has defended traditional biblical teachings on homosexuality and said the Church should not be "rolled over by culture".
Dr Nazir-Ali spoke as tens of thousands of people, including Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, joined the annual Pride London march to celebrate homosexual culture. A war of words broke out between Labour and the Conservatives over the issue of homosexuality last week after a minister accused the Tories of having a "deep strain of homophobia" running through the party.
Tomorrow, a new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes, backed by Dr Nazir-Ali, will get under way, which critics have claimed is an attempt to create a "church within the church".
The organisers said The Queen, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, had sent a message to the leaders of the movement saying she understood their concerns about the future of the Anglican Communion. Next weekend the General Synod of the Church of England is meeting at York University. The following week, the Episcopal Church in America is expected to endorse liturgies for single sex marriage and allow more homosexuals to be made bishops.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said: "We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
"People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
"The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
"We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed."
The bishop added that it is not just homosexuals who need to repent, but all who have strayed from the Bible’s teaching.
He said: "We want to hold on to the traditional teaching of the Church. We don’t want to be rolled over by culture and trends in the Church. We want a movement for renewal. We need a reformation of the Church and the life of the Communion."
Dr Nazir-Ali, who is resigning from his post in September, said there was a need for the new evangelical movement, called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, because the Church is already divided.
"We’re two different sorts of religion," he said. "One has a view of God and the Church and Christianity that is completely different from the other."
Derek Munn, the director of public affairs for Stonewall, the homosexual campaign group, criticised Dr Nazir-Ali’s comments.
"It is unfortunate that in 2009, a church leader should continue to promote inequality and intolerance," he said.
"Stonewall knows that most people of faith are accepting of lesbian and gay people. We also know that many lesbian and gay people who are themselves religious believers are not well served by some of those who claim to speak on their behalf."
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the president of the Inclusive Church, a liberal grouping in the Church of England, said: "Homosexuality is not a sin. It is the way many people love each other and is a gift from God. Ordinary people in the pews know this. And they are a lot more theologically aware than the handful of narrow- minded bishops who want to play politics with the Anglican Communion."
Dr Nazir-Ali’s views, which he will repeat in a speech at tomorrow’s gathering, will be seen as a direct challenge to the authority of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he tries to keep the Anglican church together.
Dr Williams secured an uneasy truce over homosexuality in the dispute at last year’s Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. However, this will be shattered if the American Church passes controversial votes on homosexuality which would defy the archbishop’s pleas for restraint.
Tomorrow’s gathering will be attended by some of the Church of England’s most senior figures, including the bishops of Exeter, Birmingham, and Chichester.
Archbishops from around the world will also be present, including the Most Rev Henry Orombi, the Archbishop of Uganda, who last year challenged the Archbishop of Canterbury’s right to lead the Anglican Communion.
Many other Church of England bishops have signalled their support for the new alliance, which describes itself as "a home of focus and support for orthodox churches" opposed to liberal leadership.
The Rev Paul Perkin, a leading evangelical and vicar of St Mark’s Battersea Rise in south London, said the coalition was not intended to be "schismatic", but was needed to support "beleaguered evangelicals and orthodox parishes" across Britain.
"Evangelicals have often been ignored in the past when it comes to decision making," he said.
"This should make people sit up and think and take notice. This represents a sea change in where the life and strength in the parishes lies."
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on private correspondence from the Queen.
Wandsworth Council have today sacked London Homelessness Prevention Officer after previously threatening 'say 'God Bless' and we'll sack you'.
Article Published: 6th July 2009
A HOMELESSNESS Prevention officer with Wandsworth Council was today dismissed from work 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. Even the woman had said that she did not want him to lose his job.
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 might try putting her trust 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 today and on previous occasions, 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. I, 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. Today they have reached their verdict and carried out their threat of dismissing him. This is a clear manifestation of secular intolerance."
Mr Amachree will take his employers to an Employment Tribunal. 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 and unjust 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 ."
© Christian Legal Centre 13th July 2009
A HOMELESSNESS Prevention officer with Wandsworth Council was today dismissed from work 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. Even the woman had said that she did not want him to lose his job.
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 might try putting her trust 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 today and on previous occasions, 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. I, 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. Today they have reached their verdict and carried out their threat of dismissing him. This is a clear manifestation of secular intolerance."
Mr Amachree will take his employers to an Employment Tribunal. 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 and unjust 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 ."
© Christian Legal Centre 13th July 2009
AN OBITUARY PRINTED IN THE LONDON TIMES.
Interesting and sadly true.
'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, 'Common Sense', who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouth wash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault..
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement ...
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust. His wife, Discretion, his daughter, Responsibility, his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights; I Want It Now; Someone Else Is To Blame; I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, 'Common Sense', who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouth wash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault..
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement ...
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust. His wife, Discretion, his daughter, Responsibility, his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights; I Want It Now; Someone Else Is To Blame; I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Taqiyya
World Magazine reports,"WikiIslam defines taqiyya as "sanctified hypocrisy." That's generous. At least a half dozen verses of the Quran instruct Muslims to practice deception, or to lie, when it serves the purposes of Islam. Taqiyya means "guard," as in guarding oneself against unbelievers, which can include lying to them or deceiving them. "We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them," according to authority Abu Al-Darda. In one passage (Sura 16: 106) Allah allows Muslims to go so far as to deny their faith when under "compulsion," as long their heart remains "firm in Faith."
The practice is so deeply embedded in Arab culture and the Muslim world that one has to wonder how Western leaders can negotiate with leaders like Ahmadinejad, steeped in taqiyya. "You go quickly to the bottom line, or the heart of the matter, or you ask for my gut reaction," a Pakistani friend once told me, "while we prefer to beat around the bush, to talk in circles, to redirect."
Daniel Shayesteh recently told me, "A Muslim cannot be a real Muslim if he does not use taqiyya." Shayesteh knows: Born in Iran, by age 9 he could recite the entire Quran in Arabic (Iranians speak Farsi, and just a fraction outside the clerics know Arabic). As a young man he joined Hezbollah and plotted against Westerners, but during an encounter with Iranian Christians in Turkey he became one. He says Iranian leaders are using taqiyya not only against the West but as a crowd-control device among their own people when they believe their religion is threatened.
In another prominent example a year ago, two members of Hamas pledged their support for Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas over Hamas figures. They did it to win release from prison, which only Abbas could negotiate. Later, as one senior Hamas leader explained, "A Muslim is permitted to say things that oppose his beliefs in order to prevent damages or to be saved from death."
Examples are turning up in the West too, as so-called moderate Muslim groups put a gloss on the teaching of controversial topics like jihad. "
I believe one can therefore only trust a Muslim as far as you know their personal integrity. Friendship is the key. Is your friend as bad as this?
The practice is so deeply embedded in Arab culture and the Muslim world that one has to wonder how Western leaders can negotiate with leaders like Ahmadinejad, steeped in taqiyya. "You go quickly to the bottom line, or the heart of the matter, or you ask for my gut reaction," a Pakistani friend once told me, "while we prefer to beat around the bush, to talk in circles, to redirect."
Daniel Shayesteh recently told me, "A Muslim cannot be a real Muslim if he does not use taqiyya." Shayesteh knows: Born in Iran, by age 9 he could recite the entire Quran in Arabic (Iranians speak Farsi, and just a fraction outside the clerics know Arabic). As a young man he joined Hezbollah and plotted against Westerners, but during an encounter with Iranian Christians in Turkey he became one. He says Iranian leaders are using taqiyya not only against the West but as a crowd-control device among their own people when they believe their religion is threatened.
In another prominent example a year ago, two members of Hamas pledged their support for Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas over Hamas figures. They did it to win release from prison, which only Abbas could negotiate. Later, as one senior Hamas leader explained, "A Muslim is permitted to say things that oppose his beliefs in order to prevent damages or to be saved from death."
Examples are turning up in the West too, as so-called moderate Muslim groups put a gloss on the teaching of controversial topics like jihad. "
I believe one can therefore only trust a Muslim as far as you know their personal integrity. Friendship is the key. Is your friend as bad as this?
War - christiansquoting.org.uk
Always remember to pillage before you burn.
Only God can forgive bin Laden; our mission is to arrange the meeting. - Apocryphal; seen on Usenet attributed to a Marine overheard in the Pentagon Dining Room
God blew and they were scattered. -Inscription, on the English medal for the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588.
The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene. -Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) _Crises of the Republic_ [1972], "On Violence"
Oh why was I born for this time? Before one is 30 to know more dead than living people.- Lady Cynthia Asquith, _Diaries 1915-18, 1968
You heroes, who shed your blood and lost your lives. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, so rest in peace. There is no difference as far as we're concerned between the Johnnies and Mehmets who lie side by side in this country of ours. You mothers, who sent your sons to a far away country, wipe the tears from your eyes for your sons are now lying in our bosom and are at peace. After having lost their lives in this land, they have become our sons, as well.-Ataturk at Gallipoli
If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans. -Otto von Bismarck
While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight˜I'll fight to the very end! - General William Booth
We have too many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. -General Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981) _Armistice Day speech to the Boston Chamber of Commerce_ [1948]
Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.- Jimmy Carter, 39th US President, On Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, address to the nation 4 Jan 80
War is not 'the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.-G.K. Chesterton ILN, 7/24/15
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. -G.K. Chesterton ILN, 1/14/11
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.-Winston Churchill, Speech at White House, June 26, 1954 in New York Times 27 June 1954, p. 1
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. but if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the light of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour. -Excerpt of Speech given by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons as the The Battle of Britain Begins, 18 June 1940
Let us learn our lessons. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent or arrogant commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant fortune, ugly surprise, awful miscalculations - all take their seat at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war.-
Winston Churchill - "My Early Life" (1930)-Stimson, what was gunpowder? Trivial. What was electricity? meaningless. This atomic bomb is the Second Coming in Wrath." Winston Churchill, July 1945, according to Lewis L. Strauss (1962), _Men and Decisions_, p. 186
The Great War differed from all ancient wars in the immense power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought. All the horrors of all the ages were brought together .... Every outrage against humanity or international law was repaid by reprisals often on a greater scale and of longer duration .... When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and these were of doubtful utility. -- Churchill, _The World Crisis_
This is no ordinary war, but a struggle between nations for life and death. It raises passions between nations of the most terrible kind. It effaces the old landmarks and frontiers of our civilization. - Winston S Churchill, The Times, 1 November 1914
For the best part of twenty years the youth of Britain and America have been taught that war was evil, which is true, and that it would never come again, which has been proved false. For the best part of twenty years, the youth of Germany, of Japan and Italy, have been taught that aggressive war is the noblest duty of the citizen and that it should be begun as soon as the necessary weapons and organization have been made. We have performed the duties and tasks of peace. They have plotted and planned for war. This naturally has placed us, in Britain, and now places you in the United States at a disadvantage which only time, courage and untiring exertion can correct. -- Winston Churchill, Dec. 26, 1941 - speech to the United States Congress
Christians need to focus attention on the issues surrounding just war. The President must respond to the terrorist attacks forcefully and quickly. The Bible teaches that the government has the power of the sword to preserve order and do justice. At the same time, the power of the sword has to be tempered by the restraints of the just war doctrine. Beginning with St. Augustine some 1600 years ago, Christians have thought and written about the appropriate use of military force. Today we need to be the ones who insist that the response to the terrorist attacks be proportionate, that it doesn't create a greater evil, and that civilians are not targeted. I have been watching the television and I have yet to hear the question of just war raised. If we don't bring these issues into public discourse, no one will. The fact is that this country is hurting and grieving. It is perplexed, frustrated, and confused about what needs to be done next. This is the time that we can come alongside and offer compassion, mercy, understanding, and good instead of evil. And we can contribute to the public debate that will inform our nation's actions in a way that reflects God's standards of justice.- Chales Colson - "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" 17th September 2001
„It is an odd thing, Mr. Ireton, that each man wages war believing that God is on his side.YI'll warrant God should often wonder who is on his.-- Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England (1599-1658), to one of his lieutenants before the 1645 Battle of Naseby, in which Cromwell‚s „New Model Army Iron Sides utterly defeated the Royalists
God made them as stubble to our swords. -- Oliver Cromwell after victory at Marston Moor, 2 July 1644
No one would be foolish enough to choose war over peace--in peace sons bury their fathers, but in war fathers bury their sons. Croesus of Lydia
Even as it reels from last week's election returns, the atheist left continues to insist that George Bush has engaged the nation in a modern crusade because of his faith in the Christian God. They believe this in part because their godless relativism somehow does not prevent them from believing that Manichean evil exists in the form of Republican politicians, and partly because they subscribe to the theory that religion is the primary cause of the wars that have plagued human history. [...] A more systematic review of the 489 wars listed in the Wikipedia's list of military conflicts, ranging from Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars to the 1969 Football War between Honduras and El Salvador, shows that only 53 of these wars &endash; 10.8 percent &endash; can reasonably be described as having a religious nature, even if one counts each of the 10 Crusades separately. If there is a god responsible for this ever-present bloodshed, it is Mars, not Jehovah or Jesus Christ. --Vox Day, God, George Bush and war
In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.-Durant's Lesson's of History p 81
It is appallingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity. Albert Einstein
The essence of war is fire, famine, and pestilence. They contribute to its outbreak; they are among its weapons; they become its consequences.- Dwight D. Eisenhower
To live amongst men who would give their last fag, their last bit, aye, even their last breath if need be for a pal--that is comradeship, the comradeship of the trenches. The only clean thing borne of this life of cruelty and filth. It grows in purity from the very obscenity of its surroundings.
An English private quoted in John Ellis , Eye Deep In Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I
We were very surprised to see them walking, we had never seen that before...The officers went in front. I noticed one of them walking calmly, carrying a walking stick. When we started firing we just had to load and reload. They went down in their hundreds. You didn't have to aim, we just fired into them.
German machine gunner, the Somme, John Ellis' _Eye-deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I_
The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations. David Friedman
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. Hermann Goering:
The idea that war should be conducted within a moral framework may seem like a quaint medieval practice, but as speech separates humans from the apes, so morality separates civilisation from the barbarians.-Emmanuel Goldstein
No matter how hard we try words simply cannot express the horror, the shock, and the revulsion we all feel over what took place in this nation on Tuesday morning. September 11 will go down in our history as a day to remember.--Billy Graham, Speech, "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance" (14 September 2001)
We've always needed God from the very beginning of this nation but today we need Him especially. We're facing a new kind of enemy. We're involved in a new kind of warfare and we need the help of the Spirit of God. The Bible's words are our hope... --Billy Graham, Speech, "National Day of Prayer anRemembrance" (14 September 2001)
I also visited two Casualty Clearing Stations at Montigny…The A.G. reported today that the total casualties are established at over 40,000 to date. This cannot be considered severe…--Sir Douglas Haig, diary, July 2, 1916, at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme
The three greatest scourges of the 20th century ˜ Nazism, Japanese militarism, and Soviet Communism ˜ were defeated through war or continued military resistance. More were killed by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao outside of combat than died in World Wars I and II. War, as Sherman said, is all hell, but as Heraclitus admitted it is also "the father of us all." Wickedness ˜ whether chattel slavery, the gas chambers, or concentration camps ˜ has rarely passed quietly into the night on its own. The present evil isn't going to, either.-- Victor David Hanson
...the most important question of the moment is not so much the practical difficulties of military action or intelligence gathering techniques, but the question of whether we are clear and confident of why we must now fight with unmitigated ferocity&emdash;with what some might even call "fanaticism." And it is just here that the split on the Left in America is most significant. The fever swamps of the multicultural Left, besotted with "post-modern" theory which rejects both the idea of reason and progress, cannot escape the "moral equivalence" between America and its terrorist enemies. Such people, as Churchill once put it in another context, are unable to choose between the fire brigade and the fire. Older liberals, who still have faith in reason and progress as it came down from the Progressive Era, recognize this for the repugnant nihilism that it is. Time magazine essayist Lance Morrow, not known for ferocious or spirited pronouncements, has it right when he wrote: "Anyone who does not loathe the people who did these things, and the people who cheer them on, is too philosophical for decent company." -- Steven Hayward, "A Churchillian Perspective on September 11", _On Principle_, December 2001, http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/onprin/v9n5/hayward.html
No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. - Robert Heinlein
Casualties? What do I care for casualties?
Major-General A. G. Hunter-Weston, 'The Butcher of Hellas', who lost three divisions during one assault on the cliffs of Gallipoli; the landings began on 25 April 1915.
You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. - Henrik Ibsen (1828 &endash; 1906)
It is unfortunate, that the efforts of mankind to recover the freedom of which they have been so long deprived, will be accompanied with violence, with errors, and even with crimes. But while we weep over the means, we must pray for the end. --Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey Presents the Living Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, 1940
Man's greatest joy is to slay his enemy, plunder his riches, ride his steeds, see the tears of his loved ones and embrace his women. &emdash; Genghis Khan
Outlawing all atomic weapons could be a magnificent gesture. However, it should be remembered that Gettysburg had a local ordinance forbidding the discharge of firearms. -Homer D. King
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.~Martin Luther King, Jr.
The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerilla wins if he does not lose.-- Henry Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, Jan 1969
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)...Sura 9:5 (Translation of Yusuf Ali)
Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, (which is Islam that abolishes all other religions) of the people of the Book, (meaning the Jews and the Christians) until they pay the jizya (the tax imposed upon them) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued. (with humiliation and submission to the government of Islam.)- Sura 9:29 reads: " (Commentary in parenthesis is from the Tafsir Al-Jalalein. i.e., Al-Jalalein Interpretation of the Koran.)
I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them." ( Sura 8:12 Yusuf Ali)
The peaceful two [John Lennon & Yoko] argued, reasonably enough, that if everyone stayed in bed, occupying themselves in growing their hair, there would be no wars. - Bernard Levin, 'The Pendulum Years' 1976
If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful.--C.S. Lewis
Dean Acheson took Oppenheimer into the Oval Office and introduced him to Truman. Oppenheimer said, 'I have blood on my hands.' Truman claims that he responded to Oppenheimer by saying, 'Never mind, it will all come out in the wash.' Then Truman cut short the interview... Acheson was called back into Truman's presence... Truman shouted 'Never bring that idiot here again.' - Leona Marhsall Libby _The Uranium People_:
Military glory--that attractive rainbow thatrises in showers of blood. --Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
I know that the LORD is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the LORD'S side. -- Lincoln, reply to a clergyman who said to Lincoln that he hoped "the Lord was on our side, Francis B. Carpenter, _Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln_, p. 282 (1867).
Ludendorff: The English soldiers fight like lions.
Hoffman: True, but don't we know that they are lions led by donkeys.
Alan Clark "The Donkeys," about the First World War.
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. Robert Lynd
When the crusades of the Middle Ages are remembered at all, it is usually with disdain and derision. In a post Enlightenment word, the concept of religious warfare is odious, largely because most people no longer believe that one's religious beliefs are relevant to one's view of the world or place in it. Instead, modern wars are fought for political and ideological causes, like democracy or nationalism - ideas that would not seem worth the shedding of one drop of blood to most medieval men and women. ....Rather than fighting for a patriotic vision of a nation state, thousands of medieval Europeans marched off to fight for Christ. If both cases, the soldiers felt similarly about their causes. They were willing to sacrifice their lives to defend what the held most sacred. Thomas F Madden, A Short History of the Crusades, p1
Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is the end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponents heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. It is the point where the means and the end meet and merge. Terror is not a means of imposing decision upon the enemy; it is the decision we wish to impose upon him. - S.K Malik, The Quranic Concept of War, p.59. Pakistan 1979
People of Baghdad, remember for 26 generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set one Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. This policy is abhorrent to Great Britain and her Allies for there can be neither peace nor prosperity where there is enmity or misgovernment. Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.- Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, March 11, 1917 after the deceptively easy march into Baghdad
Men are at war with one another because each man is at war with himself. --Francis J. Meehan
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice--is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.
John Stuart Mill, "The Contest in America," pp. 208-09, in John Stuart Mill, Dissertations and Discussions (Boston: William V. Spencer, 1867).
President Clinton said today the the United States owed Japan no apology for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, and that President Harry S. Truman had made the right decision to use the bombs. -- New York Times, April 8 1995.
Modern [Secular] warfare has become total, sparing almost no one and few institutions. In World War II, more civilians were killed than combatants. The saturation bombing of civilians was standard operating policy by the Germans and the Allies, culminating in the senseless bombing of Dresden in 1945, a German city with no military targets, where at least 135,000 civilians, and possibly a quarter million, perished in huge fire storms that were created when almost 2,000 bombers dropped 650,000 incendiary bombs on a defenseless city swollen with refugees from the east. Gary North, "The Demographics of Decline," Moses and Pharaoh, Institute for Christian Economics, 1985, p. 359.
War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil. -- George Orwell
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homocidal maniac.". - George Orwell
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903-1950) _Polemic_ [May 1946], "Second Thoughts on James Burnham"
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owen, Killed in action, Ors, 4 November 1918, One week before the armistice.
Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him? Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees (1660)
When cruelty is inflicted on innocent people, it discredits whatever cause. Ronald Reagan
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit softly.--Theodore Roosevelt
Weakness is provocative, - Donald Rumsfeld
There are a lot of people who say he hates our freedoms, as you said, or hates our liberties, and hates us for what we are, rather than what we do.That is a very common piece of analysis. And I think it is entirely wrong. Bin Laden has resonance in the Muslim world because he has focused his dislike for the things we do, not what we are.
It is a very clear policy. None of it has to do with ephemeral things or slogans. It has to do with very clear-cut, concrete things. And I think that is why he is so effective in the Muslim world. He has picked a numbers of items that, whether you are, however you term it a moderate, a conservative, or a liberal Muslim, there is a certain amount of sympathy for the goals bin Laden has enunciated.
Any individual who continues to tell the American people that Osama bin Laden is simply a more lethal than usual gangster, or that he only represents the lunatic fringe of the Muslim world, or that this war has nothing to do with religion, as long as they keep spouting that sort of analysis, they will be giving the American people the wrong idea
We're clearly engaged, if not in a war against Islam, in a war against a substantial number of Muslims who are mad at us for policy reasons," he continued. "It's a war that's not going to end any time soon. And we really need to at least appreciate the motivation behind it before we're going to be able to cope with it and ultimately defeat it. - CIA Bin Laden specialist Michael Scheuer, formerly, Anonymous, author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror from a VOA interview http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-11-17-voa73.cfm
If we let the international police action against terrorism degenerate into a civilizational war of the West versus Islam, we are heading toward catastrophe. The last thing we need is a counter-jihad to respond to the jihad invoked against us by the pals of Bin Laden. Bin Laden has set a trap for the United States. Let us not walk into it. ~Arthur Schlesinger Jr, (Sept 23, 2001)
War's legitimate object is more perfect peace - William Tecumseh Sherman
We do not have to fear atomic bombs; but we do have to fear godless men. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _Thoughts For Daily Living_ [1955]
As we talked, I noticed a fellow mortarman sitting next to me. He held a handful of coral pebbles in his left hand. With his right hand he idly tossed them into the open skull of the Japanese machine gunner. Each time his pitch was true I heard a little splash of rainwater in the ghastly receptacle. My buddy tossed the coral chunks as casually as a boy casting pebbles into a puddle on some muddy road back home; there was nothing malicious in his action. The war had so brutalized us that it was beyond belief. -- E. B. Sledge, _With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa_, 1981
If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism. Thomas Sowell
At no time has the world been without war. Not in seven or ten or twenty thousand years. Neither the wisest of leaders, nor the noblest of kings, nor yet the Church--none of them has been able to stop it. And don't succumb to the facile belief that wars will be stopped by hotheaded socialists. Or that rational and just wars can be sorted out from the rest. There will always be thousands of thousands to whom even such a war will be senseless and unjustified. Quite simply, no state can live without war, that is one of the state's essential functions. ... War is the price we pay for living in a state. Before you can abolish war you will have to abolish all states. But that is unthinkable until the propensity to violence and evil is rooted out of human beings. The state was created to protect us from evil. ... In ordinary life thousands of bad impulses, from a thousand foci of evil, move chaotically, randomly, against the vulnerable. The state is called upon to check these impulses--but it generates others of its own, still more powerful, and this time one-directional. At times it throws them all in a single direction--and that is war. --"Father Severyan", in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's _November 1916_
One has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead." J.R.R. Tolkien in his Preface to the Lord of the Rings
The enemy started to advance in mass down the railway cutting, about 800 yards off, and Maurice Dease fired his two machine-guns into them and absolutely mowed them down. I should judge without exaggeration that he killed at least 500 in two minutes. The whole cutting was full of bodies and this cheered us all up. Lieutenant K. Tower, Royal Fusiliers, 1914
This government holds the view that any general bombing of an extensive area wherein there resides a large population engaged in peaceful pursuits is unwarranted and contrary to the principles of law and humanity. - U. S. government, 1937, responding to the Japanese bombing of Nanking, according to Len Giovanetti and Fred Freed (1965). _The Decision to Drop the Bomb_, p. 37.
I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. John Wayne
I always say that, next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.--Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)
Only the winners decide what were war crimes. Gary Willis
No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.-- Woodrow Wilson, speech, 1911
Only God can forgive bin Laden; our mission is to arrange the meeting. - Apocryphal; seen on Usenet attributed to a Marine overheard in the Pentagon Dining Room
God blew and they were scattered. -Inscription, on the English medal for the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588.
The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene. -Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) _Crises of the Republic_ [1972], "On Violence"
Oh why was I born for this time? Before one is 30 to know more dead than living people.- Lady Cynthia Asquith, _Diaries 1915-18, 1968
You heroes, who shed your blood and lost your lives. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, so rest in peace. There is no difference as far as we're concerned between the Johnnies and Mehmets who lie side by side in this country of ours. You mothers, who sent your sons to a far away country, wipe the tears from your eyes for your sons are now lying in our bosom and are at peace. After having lost their lives in this land, they have become our sons, as well.-Ataturk at Gallipoli
If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans. -Otto von Bismarck
While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight˜I'll fight to the very end! - General William Booth
We have too many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. -General Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981) _Armistice Day speech to the Boston Chamber of Commerce_ [1948]
Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.- Jimmy Carter, 39th US President, On Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, address to the nation 4 Jan 80
War is not 'the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.-G.K. Chesterton ILN, 7/24/15
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. -G.K. Chesterton ILN, 1/14/11
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.-Winston Churchill, Speech at White House, June 26, 1954 in New York Times 27 June 1954, p. 1
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. but if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the light of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour. -Excerpt of Speech given by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons as the The Battle of Britain Begins, 18 June 1940
Let us learn our lessons. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent or arrogant commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant fortune, ugly surprise, awful miscalculations - all take their seat at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war.-
Winston Churchill - "My Early Life" (1930)-Stimson, what was gunpowder? Trivial. What was electricity? meaningless. This atomic bomb is the Second Coming in Wrath." Winston Churchill, July 1945, according to Lewis L. Strauss (1962), _Men and Decisions_, p. 186
The Great War differed from all ancient wars in the immense power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought. All the horrors of all the ages were brought together .... Every outrage against humanity or international law was repaid by reprisals often on a greater scale and of longer duration .... When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and these were of doubtful utility. -- Churchill, _The World Crisis_
This is no ordinary war, but a struggle between nations for life and death. It raises passions between nations of the most terrible kind. It effaces the old landmarks and frontiers of our civilization. - Winston S Churchill, The Times, 1 November 1914
For the best part of twenty years the youth of Britain and America have been taught that war was evil, which is true, and that it would never come again, which has been proved false. For the best part of twenty years, the youth of Germany, of Japan and Italy, have been taught that aggressive war is the noblest duty of the citizen and that it should be begun as soon as the necessary weapons and organization have been made. We have performed the duties and tasks of peace. They have plotted and planned for war. This naturally has placed us, in Britain, and now places you in the United States at a disadvantage which only time, courage and untiring exertion can correct. -- Winston Churchill, Dec. 26, 1941 - speech to the United States Congress
Christians need to focus attention on the issues surrounding just war. The President must respond to the terrorist attacks forcefully and quickly. The Bible teaches that the government has the power of the sword to preserve order and do justice. At the same time, the power of the sword has to be tempered by the restraints of the just war doctrine. Beginning with St. Augustine some 1600 years ago, Christians have thought and written about the appropriate use of military force. Today we need to be the ones who insist that the response to the terrorist attacks be proportionate, that it doesn't create a greater evil, and that civilians are not targeted. I have been watching the television and I have yet to hear the question of just war raised. If we don't bring these issues into public discourse, no one will. The fact is that this country is hurting and grieving. It is perplexed, frustrated, and confused about what needs to be done next. This is the time that we can come alongside and offer compassion, mercy, understanding, and good instead of evil. And we can contribute to the public debate that will inform our nation's actions in a way that reflects God's standards of justice.- Chales Colson - "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" 17th September 2001
„It is an odd thing, Mr. Ireton, that each man wages war believing that God is on his side.YI'll warrant God should often wonder who is on his.-- Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England (1599-1658), to one of his lieutenants before the 1645 Battle of Naseby, in which Cromwell‚s „New Model Army Iron Sides utterly defeated the Royalists
God made them as stubble to our swords. -- Oliver Cromwell after victory at Marston Moor, 2 July 1644
No one would be foolish enough to choose war over peace--in peace sons bury their fathers, but in war fathers bury their sons. Croesus of Lydia
Even as it reels from last week's election returns, the atheist left continues to insist that George Bush has engaged the nation in a modern crusade because of his faith in the Christian God. They believe this in part because their godless relativism somehow does not prevent them from believing that Manichean evil exists in the form of Republican politicians, and partly because they subscribe to the theory that religion is the primary cause of the wars that have plagued human history. [...] A more systematic review of the 489 wars listed in the Wikipedia's list of military conflicts, ranging from Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars to the 1969 Football War between Honduras and El Salvador, shows that only 53 of these wars &endash; 10.8 percent &endash; can reasonably be described as having a religious nature, even if one counts each of the 10 Crusades separately. If there is a god responsible for this ever-present bloodshed, it is Mars, not Jehovah or Jesus Christ. --Vox Day, God, George Bush and war
In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.-Durant's Lesson's of History p 81
It is appallingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity. Albert Einstein
The essence of war is fire, famine, and pestilence. They contribute to its outbreak; they are among its weapons; they become its consequences.- Dwight D. Eisenhower
To live amongst men who would give their last fag, their last bit, aye, even their last breath if need be for a pal--that is comradeship, the comradeship of the trenches. The only clean thing borne of this life of cruelty and filth. It grows in purity from the very obscenity of its surroundings.
An English private quoted in John Ellis , Eye Deep In Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I
We were very surprised to see them walking, we had never seen that before...The officers went in front. I noticed one of them walking calmly, carrying a walking stick. When we started firing we just had to load and reload. They went down in their hundreds. You didn't have to aim, we just fired into them.
German machine gunner, the Somme, John Ellis' _Eye-deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I_
The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations. David Friedman
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. Hermann Goering:
The idea that war should be conducted within a moral framework may seem like a quaint medieval practice, but as speech separates humans from the apes, so morality separates civilisation from the barbarians.-Emmanuel Goldstein
No matter how hard we try words simply cannot express the horror, the shock, and the revulsion we all feel over what took place in this nation on Tuesday morning. September 11 will go down in our history as a day to remember.--Billy Graham, Speech, "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance" (14 September 2001)
We've always needed God from the very beginning of this nation but today we need Him especially. We're facing a new kind of enemy. We're involved in a new kind of warfare and we need the help of the Spirit of God. The Bible's words are our hope... --Billy Graham, Speech, "National Day of Prayer anRemembrance" (14 September 2001)
I also visited two Casualty Clearing Stations at Montigny…The A.G. reported today that the total casualties are established at over 40,000 to date. This cannot be considered severe…--Sir Douglas Haig, diary, July 2, 1916, at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme
The three greatest scourges of the 20th century ˜ Nazism, Japanese militarism, and Soviet Communism ˜ were defeated through war or continued military resistance. More were killed by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao outside of combat than died in World Wars I and II. War, as Sherman said, is all hell, but as Heraclitus admitted it is also "the father of us all." Wickedness ˜ whether chattel slavery, the gas chambers, or concentration camps ˜ has rarely passed quietly into the night on its own. The present evil isn't going to, either.-- Victor David Hanson
...the most important question of the moment is not so much the practical difficulties of military action or intelligence gathering techniques, but the question of whether we are clear and confident of why we must now fight with unmitigated ferocity&emdash;with what some might even call "fanaticism." And it is just here that the split on the Left in America is most significant. The fever swamps of the multicultural Left, besotted with "post-modern" theory which rejects both the idea of reason and progress, cannot escape the "moral equivalence" between America and its terrorist enemies. Such people, as Churchill once put it in another context, are unable to choose between the fire brigade and the fire. Older liberals, who still have faith in reason and progress as it came down from the Progressive Era, recognize this for the repugnant nihilism that it is. Time magazine essayist Lance Morrow, not known for ferocious or spirited pronouncements, has it right when he wrote: "Anyone who does not loathe the people who did these things, and the people who cheer them on, is too philosophical for decent company." -- Steven Hayward, "A Churchillian Perspective on September 11", _On Principle_, December 2001, http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/onprin/v9n5/hayward.html
No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. - Robert Heinlein
Casualties? What do I care for casualties?
Major-General A. G. Hunter-Weston, 'The Butcher of Hellas', who lost three divisions during one assault on the cliffs of Gallipoli; the landings began on 25 April 1915.
You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. - Henrik Ibsen (1828 &endash; 1906)
It is unfortunate, that the efforts of mankind to recover the freedom of which they have been so long deprived, will be accompanied with violence, with errors, and even with crimes. But while we weep over the means, we must pray for the end. --Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey Presents the Living Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, 1940
Man's greatest joy is to slay his enemy, plunder his riches, ride his steeds, see the tears of his loved ones and embrace his women. &emdash; Genghis Khan
Outlawing all atomic weapons could be a magnificent gesture. However, it should be remembered that Gettysburg had a local ordinance forbidding the discharge of firearms. -Homer D. King
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.~Martin Luther King, Jr.
The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerilla wins if he does not lose.-- Henry Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, Jan 1969
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)...Sura 9:5 (Translation of Yusuf Ali)
Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, (which is Islam that abolishes all other religions) of the people of the Book, (meaning the Jews and the Christians) until they pay the jizya (the tax imposed upon them) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued. (with humiliation and submission to the government of Islam.)- Sura 9:29 reads: " (Commentary in parenthesis is from the Tafsir Al-Jalalein. i.e., Al-Jalalein Interpretation of the Koran.)
I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them." ( Sura 8:12 Yusuf Ali)
The peaceful two [John Lennon & Yoko] argued, reasonably enough, that if everyone stayed in bed, occupying themselves in growing their hair, there would be no wars. - Bernard Levin, 'The Pendulum Years' 1976
If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful.--C.S. Lewis
Dean Acheson took Oppenheimer into the Oval Office and introduced him to Truman. Oppenheimer said, 'I have blood on my hands.' Truman claims that he responded to Oppenheimer by saying, 'Never mind, it will all come out in the wash.' Then Truman cut short the interview... Acheson was called back into Truman's presence... Truman shouted 'Never bring that idiot here again.' - Leona Marhsall Libby _The Uranium People_:
Military glory--that attractive rainbow thatrises in showers of blood. --Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
I know that the LORD is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the LORD'S side. -- Lincoln, reply to a clergyman who said to Lincoln that he hoped "the Lord was on our side, Francis B. Carpenter, _Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln_, p. 282 (1867).
Ludendorff: The English soldiers fight like lions.
Hoffman: True, but don't we know that they are lions led by donkeys.
Alan Clark "The Donkeys," about the First World War.
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. Robert Lynd
When the crusades of the Middle Ages are remembered at all, it is usually with disdain and derision. In a post Enlightenment word, the concept of religious warfare is odious, largely because most people no longer believe that one's religious beliefs are relevant to one's view of the world or place in it. Instead, modern wars are fought for political and ideological causes, like democracy or nationalism - ideas that would not seem worth the shedding of one drop of blood to most medieval men and women. ....Rather than fighting for a patriotic vision of a nation state, thousands of medieval Europeans marched off to fight for Christ. If both cases, the soldiers felt similarly about their causes. They were willing to sacrifice their lives to defend what the held most sacred. Thomas F Madden, A Short History of the Crusades, p1
Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is the end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponents heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. It is the point where the means and the end meet and merge. Terror is not a means of imposing decision upon the enemy; it is the decision we wish to impose upon him. - S.K Malik, The Quranic Concept of War, p.59. Pakistan 1979
People of Baghdad, remember for 26 generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set one Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. This policy is abhorrent to Great Britain and her Allies for there can be neither peace nor prosperity where there is enmity or misgovernment. Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.- Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, March 11, 1917 after the deceptively easy march into Baghdad
Men are at war with one another because each man is at war with himself. --Francis J. Meehan
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice--is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.
John Stuart Mill, "The Contest in America," pp. 208-09, in John Stuart Mill, Dissertations and Discussions (Boston: William V. Spencer, 1867).
President Clinton said today the the United States owed Japan no apology for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, and that President Harry S. Truman had made the right decision to use the bombs. -- New York Times, April 8 1995.
Modern [Secular] warfare has become total, sparing almost no one and few institutions. In World War II, more civilians were killed than combatants. The saturation bombing of civilians was standard operating policy by the Germans and the Allies, culminating in the senseless bombing of Dresden in 1945, a German city with no military targets, where at least 135,000 civilians, and possibly a quarter million, perished in huge fire storms that were created when almost 2,000 bombers dropped 650,000 incendiary bombs on a defenseless city swollen with refugees from the east. Gary North, "The Demographics of Decline," Moses and Pharaoh, Institute for Christian Economics, 1985, p. 359.
War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil. -- George Orwell
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homocidal maniac.". - George Orwell
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903-1950) _Polemic_ [May 1946], "Second Thoughts on James Burnham"
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owen, Killed in action, Ors, 4 November 1918, One week before the armistice.
Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him? Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees (1660)
When cruelty is inflicted on innocent people, it discredits whatever cause. Ronald Reagan
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit softly.--Theodore Roosevelt
Weakness is provocative, - Donald Rumsfeld
There are a lot of people who say he hates our freedoms, as you said, or hates our liberties, and hates us for what we are, rather than what we do.That is a very common piece of analysis. And I think it is entirely wrong. Bin Laden has resonance in the Muslim world because he has focused his dislike for the things we do, not what we are.
It is a very clear policy. None of it has to do with ephemeral things or slogans. It has to do with very clear-cut, concrete things. And I think that is why he is so effective in the Muslim world. He has picked a numbers of items that, whether you are, however you term it a moderate, a conservative, or a liberal Muslim, there is a certain amount of sympathy for the goals bin Laden has enunciated.
Any individual who continues to tell the American people that Osama bin Laden is simply a more lethal than usual gangster, or that he only represents the lunatic fringe of the Muslim world, or that this war has nothing to do with religion, as long as they keep spouting that sort of analysis, they will be giving the American people the wrong idea
We're clearly engaged, if not in a war against Islam, in a war against a substantial number of Muslims who are mad at us for policy reasons," he continued. "It's a war that's not going to end any time soon. And we really need to at least appreciate the motivation behind it before we're going to be able to cope with it and ultimately defeat it. - CIA Bin Laden specialist Michael Scheuer, formerly, Anonymous, author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror from a VOA interview http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-11-17-voa73.cfm
If we let the international police action against terrorism degenerate into a civilizational war of the West versus Islam, we are heading toward catastrophe. The last thing we need is a counter-jihad to respond to the jihad invoked against us by the pals of Bin Laden. Bin Laden has set a trap for the United States. Let us not walk into it. ~Arthur Schlesinger Jr, (Sept 23, 2001)
War's legitimate object is more perfect peace - William Tecumseh Sherman
We do not have to fear atomic bombs; but we do have to fear godless men. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _Thoughts For Daily Living_ [1955]
As we talked, I noticed a fellow mortarman sitting next to me. He held a handful of coral pebbles in his left hand. With his right hand he idly tossed them into the open skull of the Japanese machine gunner. Each time his pitch was true I heard a little splash of rainwater in the ghastly receptacle. My buddy tossed the coral chunks as casually as a boy casting pebbles into a puddle on some muddy road back home; there was nothing malicious in his action. The war had so brutalized us that it was beyond belief. -- E. B. Sledge, _With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa_, 1981
If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism. Thomas Sowell
At no time has the world been without war. Not in seven or ten or twenty thousand years. Neither the wisest of leaders, nor the noblest of kings, nor yet the Church--none of them has been able to stop it. And don't succumb to the facile belief that wars will be stopped by hotheaded socialists. Or that rational and just wars can be sorted out from the rest. There will always be thousands of thousands to whom even such a war will be senseless and unjustified. Quite simply, no state can live without war, that is one of the state's essential functions. ... War is the price we pay for living in a state. Before you can abolish war you will have to abolish all states. But that is unthinkable until the propensity to violence and evil is rooted out of human beings. The state was created to protect us from evil. ... In ordinary life thousands of bad impulses, from a thousand foci of evil, move chaotically, randomly, against the vulnerable. The state is called upon to check these impulses--but it generates others of its own, still more powerful, and this time one-directional. At times it throws them all in a single direction--and that is war. --"Father Severyan", in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's _November 1916_
One has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead." J.R.R. Tolkien in his Preface to the Lord of the Rings
The enemy started to advance in mass down the railway cutting, about 800 yards off, and Maurice Dease fired his two machine-guns into them and absolutely mowed them down. I should judge without exaggeration that he killed at least 500 in two minutes. The whole cutting was full of bodies and this cheered us all up. Lieutenant K. Tower, Royal Fusiliers, 1914
This government holds the view that any general bombing of an extensive area wherein there resides a large population engaged in peaceful pursuits is unwarranted and contrary to the principles of law and humanity. - U. S. government, 1937, responding to the Japanese bombing of Nanking, according to Len Giovanetti and Fred Freed (1965). _The Decision to Drop the Bomb_, p. 37.
I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. John Wayne
I always say that, next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.--Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)
Only the winners decide what were war crimes. Gary Willis
No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.-- Woodrow Wilson, speech, 1911
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