Guided by the Holy Spirit--my bullet

How would you feel about seeing armed security guards at church? Fortunately for the members of New Life church in Colorado Springs, they had one. A gunman, the same killer who had slaid two college students involved in Youth With a Mission, entered the sanctuary and killed two sisters and wounded their father and two others before armed volunteer Jeanne Assam ordered him to surrender and give up his weapon. When he refused, Ms. Assam opened fire and—in her own words—the Holy Spirit guided her to kill the assailant. Watch the video of her description of events here.

By contrast, the Rev. Al Meredith refused to place guards at his Baptist church, saying “I want the church to be a welcome place for sinners.” Seven people died in 1999 in a violent attack on a Wednesday night teen prayer meeting.

UPDATE: His name is MEREDITH. MEREDITH!

It seems that on the one hand, Rev. Meredith is right. God promised us that he would command his angels concerning us, to keep us in all our ways. Does it show a lack of trust in the Lord to post security in the sanctuary?

On the other hand, what message does it communicate to worshipers, especially the newcomer or visitor? Does it say to them “Sinner, keep out?” or does it say “We care enough about you to want you to be protected and safe, no matter the cost?”

It seems like these random murderers think that the choicest victims for their slaughter are those they perceive to be defenseless. A strange, unwanted teenager shoots 9 people dead in a women’s clothing store in an Omaha mall. An evil, diabolic killer takes his assault weapons into a classroom building at Virginia Tech, where he knows it is a “gun free” zone. Another of Satan’s minions brutally kills helpless Amish girls in a one-room school house.

Gun-control advocates fail to realize that limiting the second-amendment rights of law-abiding citizens only increases the possibility of murder or other armed assault because of the perceived helplessness and powerlessness of the victim(s). In the case of the New Life church, the legal, concealed weapon of a volunteer security guard may have prevented an even worse tragedy from occurring.

"I've got a Golden Compass in my hand!"

(Disclaimer: I have not seen “The Golden Compass,” and I probably will not. I didn’t see “The Da Vinci Code” either. However, I have seen “Lord of the Rings,” “Chronicles of Narnia,” and all of the “Harry Potter” films.)

“The Golden Compass,” the first movie based on Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, opened this weekend amid controversy. Many potential viewers have heard of the overt atheistic worldview of the author, and have stayed away from the film. Box office reports show that “The Golden Compass” earned about 26 million on its opening weekend, which was still good enough for first place for the weekend, but extremely weak in comparison to the opening of “Narnia” two years ago with 65 million.

UPDATE: weekend number 2's box office is even more dismal. 9 million, far behind "I am Legend" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Chipmunks made 45 million, more than "Compass" has made in 2 weeks of release.

Spokespersons for the film indicated that they didn’t know whether the controversy surrounding “Compass” hurt their receipts or whether it’s just a bad year for the movie industry. However, one of the stars of the film, Sam Elliott, unwittingly showed why so many have sounded the alarm. He said, “If there's one thing that I want people to take away from it, it's about exercising one's free will without fear of reprisal," Elliott said. "To me that's what it's all about."

There you have the atheistic worldview in a nutshell. Atheists hate the idea of “God” because they do not want to be held accountable.

Elliott also said, “I think more people will see the movie or read the books than would have otherwise if he hadn't stirred this up.” He may have a point. The review in the Daily Telegram only gave it 1 ½ stars (out of 4). I recall when my sons were in the Tecumseh Civic’s production of ‘Children of Eden” that the producer said that he welcomed controversy because it would sell more tickets. So perhaps “Compass” would have sold even fewer tickets had there not been all the publicity about its subversive atheism.

I’m sure that some of you have seen it. What did you think? Is all of the hubbub just unnecessary? Much of what I have read says that although “The Golden Compass” itself may be relatively innocuous as far as a fantasy film goes, the greater danger is that parents will unwittingly buy the toys, the video games, the books, and be drawn into the author’s atheism gradually. It’s kind of like the old saying that if you put a live frog into a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out, but if you put him in a kettle and gradually heat it to boiling, he’ll stay in the water until he’s cooked. “The Golden Compass” is like that frog who gets used to the water temperature and doesn’t notice the danger until he’s dead.

On the other hand, perhaps, knowing the author’s worldview, we could watch “Compass” and discuss it profitably. Haven’t we done that with other literary or dramatic works? Wouldn’t there be some value in identifying the subtle attacks of the foe together, so that when we face them in our university classes on our own, we’ll be better prepared?

By the way, I have noticed that our school website no longer has a golden compass with the word “Reorient” as its focal point!

UPDATE: Comments are now being moderated.
UPDATE: Comments are not being moderated. Post away!

Time for an update

In news from Venezuela, voters there have rejected Hugo Chavez' plans to change the constitution to enable him to be president for life. Initial reports seem to indicate that el presidente has not decided to claim that the imperialistic Americans were responsible, and that he will accept the voters' decision. We shall see.

In election news, polls from Iowa have shown Mike Huckabee surging into the lead over Mitt Romney. The media hasn't really done any stories about Huckabee since they consider him a long shot to win the Republican nomination. However, just in case, they are ready with the death blow to his candidacy. It turns out that not only is he pro-life, he doesn't believe in evolution. See how the intellectual left reminds us of the "wisdom" valued so much by the ancient Greeks? Dismissive of Paul when he began to speak of the resurrection, the Gospel itself was to them just so much foolishness.
Video of Huckabee here.

UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous poster, I provide this link to Rolling Stone magazine. Warning regarding language! Just see what we who oppose abortion and believe in creation are considered by the "cool" people of the world.

I read a blog commenter who declared that "Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism are essentially the same." In fact, here's a book quite popular with Amazon customers that asserts the same thing. Written by a son of a Presbyterian minister, "American Fascist: The Christian Right and the War on America" argues the thesis that "one more attack on the order of 9-11" will make fundamentalist Christians overthrow democracy in the United States. Rrriigght.

In the "Christian fundamentalists are the same as Islamic fundamentalists" department comes the story from the Sudan of the British school teacher who allowed her students to name the class teddy bear Muhammad. After a trial in which she was found guilty of insulting religion, Ms. Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in a Sudanese jail--but she was at least spared flogging. Demonstrators were outraged. They thought that was too lenient, and demanded her execution. So the good news came this morning that, under political pressure from the UK, the president of Sudan has pardoned Ms. Gibbons on the condition that she leave the country.

Christians are the fascists? Sounds like a clear case of projection to me.