As always, new folks are encouraged to participate in the Word for Wednesday meme. If you’re interested, click on the WFW tab at the top of the page for details. Personally, I’d be delighted to welcome some new Christian bloggers into the mix.

I’ve been snooping around the internet a little lately, far from my normal haunts, and I came across a post on FrontpageMag about “The Christian Muslim Summit” currently playing out at the Washington National Cathedral.  The article by Faith J. H. McDonnell is titled Guess Who’s Coming to the Cathedral? and begins this way:

If you were counting on a robust offensive (or even a mild defense) from U.S. churches to stop in its tracks the incursion of Islamism in America, perhaps you should save up to pay your jizya (tax imposed on non-Muslims, dhimmis, for the right to exist). Many churches in America are neither willing nor prepared to counter the influence and infiltration of Islamism in their own congregations, let alone in the wider civil society. Rather than fear the judgment of the Almighty, these churches fear the label “Islamophobic.”

The path of political correctness is not limited to the church, of course.  It’s blatant in government and mainstream media, and came into glaring focus in the military after the Ft. Hood shooting:

His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan’s “anti-American propaganda,” but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.

Society at large can be forgiven for swallowing lies they’ve been force-fed for decades, but Christians – Christians should know better.

Christians must know they are not going to be loved by everyone they meet.

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
because of this the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;
if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake,
because they do not know the One who sent Me.
(John 15:18-21)

Christians must know they are not called to make friends with the enemies of Christ, but to speak the truth with love.

What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light;
and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul;
but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Matthew 10:27-28)

And Christians must know that embracing Islam is denying Christ.

Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men,
I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
But whoever denies Me before men,
I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 10:32-33)

The Gazette in Schenectady also has a blog post, and reporter Jeff Wilkin spoke with Al:

Roney said he was both humbled and amazed by the public support. He said he has e-mailed and telephoned listeners in the past; he appreciates the strong connections apparently made with people who stood up for him on a cold winter morning.

“That’s one thing that is really making this a lot easier to get through,” Roney said late Monday afternoon.
“Who gets that?” he said of the rally. “People will go home and tell their wives, tell their kids and then get into line at the unemployment office.
“It’s kind of humbling to see that anybody would really take time out from their days to go out and do that.”

And, Al, if you read this:  Over 300 people have searched your name in google and landed on my previous post about you.  Most were local, but others searched from as far away as California and British Columbia.

You are missed.

Now parents have another issue to ignore. [Thanks to Pamela Geller who broke this story.]

• Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda of change.
• OFA is launching a national internship program connecting students all over the country with our organization on the ground – working to make the change we fought so hard for in 2008 a reality in 2010 and beyond.
• Winter 2010 internships (dates are flexible depending on your school’s schedule)
• The Internship requires a commitment of 12 hours per week
• Credit must be approved by your school ahead of time

Thus begins an application being given to high school students, recruiting them to take a ten-week course on community organizing.   It includes the following recommended reading:

• Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky
• The New Organizers, Zack Exley
• Stir It Up: Lessons from Community Organizing and Advocacy, Rinku Sen
  
• Obama Field Organizers Plot a Miracle, Zack Exley, Huffington Post
• Dreams of My Father Chicago Chapters, Barack Hussein Obama

In other words, Obama is doing exactly what he said he would do.  He’s taking over the minds of young Americans, creating the political machine of the future, and using tax-payer-funded public schools to do the job.

You gotta give it to him: Obama knows how to organize.

If this doesn’t motivate you to get your kids out of the public school system, and home school them,  then you are beyond hope … and change.

Washington (CNN) – A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

Does this mean that the independents and the Republicans think the Bush era – with the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretaps, and torture – didn’t threaten our rights?

I’ve got a headache.

Al served us well, covering local issues that no one else would even mention, and he will be sorely missed in the capital region.

To WGY:  I no longer have a reason to tune in to 810.  Hope that helps your ratings.

Monday’s rally is scheduled for Monday from 9 a.m. to noon — the hours during which Roney’s show aired. WGY is located at 1203 Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham.

3/1 update on the rally, including a quote from Al Roney, here.

If I were in a position to influence that collapse, I’d be a rich woman.

This, according to the NY Times, is what’s currently happening to Greece.

As Greece’s financial condition has worsened, undermining the euro, the role of Goldman Sachs and other major banks in masking the true extent of the country’s problems has drawn criticism from European leaders. But even before that issue became apparent, a little-known company backed by Goldman, JP Morgan Chase and about a dozen other banks had created an index that enabled market players to bet on whether Greece and other European nations would go bust.

Last September, the company, the Markit Group of London, introduced the iTraxx SovX Western Europe index, which is based on such swaps and let traders gamble on Greece shortly before the crisis. Such derivatives have assumed an outsize role in Europe’s debt crisis, as traders focus on their daily gyrations.

A result, some traders say, is a vicious circle. As banks and others rush into these swaps, the cost of insuring Greece’s debt rises. Alarmed by that bearish signal, bond investors then shun Greek bonds, making it harder for the country to borrow. That, in turn, adds to the anxiety — and the whole thing starts over again.

It’s  universally accepted that debt is required for people or businesses or nations to function, but with every loan the borrower gives up a certain measure of freedom.  I think it’s better to do without.

The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
(Proverbs 22:7)

There’s an old Bob Dylan song that keeps coming to mind these days titled The Times They are A-Changin’.(lyrics here.)  Adopted as an anthem for the political and social upheaval of the sixties, it seems suited once again as a reflection of our times.

Regulars may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as often as usual, and I suspect that trend will continue.  The winds of change have been blowing around here, too, and I seem to be going in a different direction.  I have no intention of abandoning the Word for Wednesday or this blog – but I’m going to do my best not to miss the leading of the Holy Spirit, either, and that requires a more focused concentration.

What about you all?  Anybody have the feeling that God is trying to prepare us for something different?  Here’s an older version of the song, and a scripture passage that seems relevant.

There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)