Refuse the sedation given by Spin-Doctor, Barack Obama.
Refuse the intimidation by tyrant, Barack Obama.
Refuse the lies from prevaricator, Barack Obama.

On Language

Ever since the Logos was betrayed by errant mortals, and the evil deed was sealed at Babel, human language has suffered in all its forms. However, from my view as a 55-year-old philosopher and author, we seem to be torturing it nearly to death in recent years. One example is the acceptance of illegal (or undocumented) clusters of words posing as sentences. As I attempted to read an article in Psychology Today on dealing with difficult people (yes, this was a mistake from the onset), I was greeted by a seeming plethora of incomplete sentences, a breezy tone, and the decline of Western civilization.

What can one say, one do? Fight back and write back. Prize literacy; be different; make people miserable who care not royal fig for God's gift of language, spoken and written. Never give up on the Logos.

“What the Court did not do on its last day in session I will do on my first day if elected President of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare....Obamacare was bad policy yesterday. It's bad policy today. Obamacare was bad law yesterday. It’s bad law today.” – Mitt Romney

Doug Groothuis in Longmont, CO

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:15, we will be meeting for our study on Reasons to Believe. 

Dr. Douglas R. Groothuis, chairperson of the Philosophy Department at Denver Seminary will be teaching on The Argument from Morality to God.  Doug is world renown as the author of 12 books including Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (InterVarsity, 2011).  We will take a special love offering to help pay for Dr. Groothuis’ expenses.

Please bring your Bibles, notebooks, and a lunch if you wish.  We will have coffee and water for you. 

We are meeting at Front Range Christian Fellowship, 10667 Parkridge Avenue (Parkridge and Main), in the auxiliary house located across Parkridge from the church.  The church is easily found as it is across Main Street from the North Super WalMart.  Instead of turning right at the light on Parkridge into WalMart, turn left.  Front Range is on your immediate right.  You can park in the church parking lot and walk across the street to the ministry house.

We will see you there!

Glennis J. Henry

Legal Assistant

The Sonnesyn Law Firm

655 4th Ave. Suite B

Longmont, CO  80501

303.776.5077

sonnesyn@qwestoffice.net

A Nation in Peril

A nation, under God, that:

Kills its own unborn with impunity since 1973

Cannot secure its own national borders

Does not pay its own debts and thus
in-debts the next generations because of its fiscal irresponsibility

Fails to keep and reward a strong military to protect its freedoms and responsibilities

Sexualizes everything and
legitimizes the perverse by redefining marriage, and
re-invents what cannot be changed: created male and female

Conscripts its own children for statist indoctrination and
does not teach the essentials of Judeo-Christian civilization and
the essence of learning

Pits people against each other according to their incomes by incentives to envy

Thinks the state can be compassionate, when it takes what would otherwise
be given and used more profitably by all...

Has a plethora of churches that refuse to speak out and stand up for Truth,
come what may

Forgets or spurns its own best and founding principles

has no future
apart from repentance, reformation, and renewal
(Psalm 80).

Reality Check:

1. The Islamic Brotherhood is not "moderate." It is a ruse and well established doctrine of Islam to deceive the infidel. See Mark Gabriel, Islam and Terrorism and Inside the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist.
2. The Islamic Brotherhood fights for a Muslim world under sharia law: the entire planet. This is part of Islam.
3. Our President is either clueless or complicit in supporting this anti-Christian, anti-Western, anti-human rights group. It is probably the latter.

Why ObamaCare is unconstitutional and, as such, very dangerous to individual liberty. 

Analysis and Controversy

The accurate analysis of persons and ideas will elicit controversy in a fallen world, since so many are so wrong about so much so often.

The old plan and purpose of teaching the young what they truly need to know survives only in the private sector.

—Jacques Barzun

Scars

Recognizing things
for what they are
Will save you countless scares
but give you may more.

Pick your wounds, carefully.

The word "porn"

Twice now--twice mind you--I have seen the word "porn" used to mean "indulgence." The first, which frightened and disgusted me, was in Ross Douthat's book, Bad Religion. Just now I see the phrase on Facebook, "book porn," and it did not refer to dirty books. What is happening?

Apparently, pornography is now so common and so accepted as a form of sensory stimulation that it can stand in for non-sexual forms of enjoyment. This is simply sickening. Pornography is wrong, sinful, and degrading to all involved. It is pathetic voyeurism, which can quickly become addictive and pathological, ruining mind, lives, and marriages.

"Book porn"? No, God help us. "Book pleasure"? Yes, God bless us.

Endeavor

The Christian life should be a ceaseless quest to become serious about God. Impediments to this greatest of all endeavors are everywhere--within and without.

Yet God is ever where--and, for the Christian, is a teaching presence within as well as without.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:15, we will be meeting for our study on Reasons to Believe. 

Dr. Douglas R. Groothuis, chairperson of the Philosophy Department at Denver Seminary will be teaching on Deposed Royalty: Pascal's argument for Christianity.  Attached is a teaser, Chapter 8 of Doug’s book On Pascal.  Doug is world renown as the author of 12 books including Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (InterVarsity, 2011).  We will take a special love offering to help pay for Dr. Groothuis’ expenses.

Please bring your Bibles, notebooks, and a lunch if you wish.  We will have coffee and water for you. 

We are meeting at Front Range Christian Fellowship, 10667 Parkridge Avenue (Parkridge and Main), in the auxiliary house located across Parkridge from the church.  The church is easily found as it is across Main Street from the North Super WalMart.  Instead of turning right at the light on Parkridge into WalMart, turn left.  Front Range is on your immediate right.  You can park in the church parking lot and walk across the street to the ministry house.

We will see you there!

Glennis J. Henry

Legal Assistant

The Sonnesyn Law Firm

655 4th Ave. Suite B

Longmont, CO  80501

303.776.5077

sonnesyn@qwestoffice.net

Ten Reasons to Vote Obama

1. You want a global government--or at least global regulatory institutions--that eclipses American sovereignty and trump the Constitution.

2. You want tax money to support embryonic stem cell research; in other words, killing human embryos in the hopes that these lethal experiments will yield something good for those who made it into maturity.

3. You want more executive orders that contravene the other two branches of government.

4. You want Judges (federal and Supreme Court) who take the Constitution to be a wax nose that they can turn any way they want, given their liberated perspectives.

5. You want the American military to shrink to the point of no longer being the strongest in the world, thus moving us toward another Pearl Harbor. 

6. You want the first family to continue to flaunt tax dollars with their extravagant vacations. 

7. You want a President who cannot think on his feet and is petulant when anyone dares to challenge His Highness.

8. You want the state to reach deeper and deeper into your personal life, telling you what to eat, what medical treatments you may have, where you can drill, and much more.

9. You want incompetent, nasty, and corrupt Cabinet members such as Eric Holdier.

10. You want illegal aliens to receive amnesty and voting rights.

Communism

When Communism fell in Eastern Europe, millions of us rejoiced.

Our celebration was premature.

Two decades later Communism is back from the dead and, like a zombie from a B-movie horror flick, it is harder to kill than ever. But we are not helpless -- here's what you personally can do to help stop this deadly idea in its tracks.

Leftists all over the world are trying to reclaim Communism from the ash heap of discarded ideas. They're taking it mainstream and hoping you won't notice until it's too late.

But these leftists will only succeed if they can keep you from asking one penetrating question: "Why was the 20th century history's bloodiest?"

Those who have lived through the 20th century saw some of the world's worst ideas on display. Whole societies attempted to live by Nietzsche's mantra: "God is dead." The results were murderous.

Responsible for more deaths than even the Nazis, Communist regimes were the picture of tyranny and suffering. It's hard to imagine the terror that has resulted from Marx and Lenin's distorted understanding of humanity and the nature of the world.

So you think Communism is dead? Consider these facts.

A quick look at today's political landscape shows that like a zombie, the ideas of Marx and Lenin are back from the dead -- and harder to kill than ever.

Twenty-one percent of the earth's population is under Communist rule. Meanwhile, Europe's quasi-socialist economies are floundering, and the governments of emerging countries are steadily gobbling up more of the private sector. In the U.S. the state's encroachment in the private sphere grows daily, making our dysfunctional government even more powerful.

In a media environment hostile to the very mention of Communism, how do we spot these faulty ideas and warn others?

Equip yourself and your friends now with Summit's "Zombie Communism Package."

Thankfully, faithful commentators like Summit founder Dr. David Noebel, Dr. Fred Schwarz, Dr. Jim Bowers, and Curtis Bowers have highlighted the steady march of Marxist-Leninist thought into the 21st century, and we're offering their insights to you in the Summit Zombie Communism Package.

Your Summit Friend price for this package is $40 (it retails for $80), plus s/h for the 100 packages we have available. You receive:

Locked Out

I recently locked myself out of my own house. What a terrible feeling and condition that is.

Perhaps, though, we lock ourselves out from the truth. Thus, we feel panicked and helpless, because we cannot enter where we belong. But there is a Key: the Bible.

Clowns

Most people give away respect far too liberally-- and then we are left with a world filled to the brim with highly respected clowns.--Sarah Geis.

My Letter to Harper's on one of their essays

Dear Editor:

Barabar Ehrenrich's essay, "The Animal Cure," exhibits poor reasoning and bad history. She dismisses belief in gods by presupposing philosophical materialism and by appealing to cognitive science to explain the origin of this false belief. Appealing to very speculative theories in cognitive science is of no more help than Freud's old projection argument against religion. They are both stellar examples of the genetic fallacy: an idea can be discredited merely by citing its psychological origin. However, there may be natural reasons why someone attains a true belief in the supernatural. Only if the existence of a supernatural realm is independently defeated by argument should one try to explain how this supposedly false belief arises. Further, what if we find the cognitive science basis for belief in atheism? Would that, in itself, discredit it? Concerning history (Christianity's approach to animals), neither the Bible nor any of the historic creeds or counsels of Christianity equate animals with demons. Rather, animals are creatures of God, although not made in the divine image as are humans. God pronounces them "good" in The Book Genesis.

Best,

Doug Groothuis

Say the Pledge Today, Flag Day

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Section 4 of the Flag Code states:

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.", should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute."

Preaching--Apologetics!

Christian Apologetics was given a short and sweet review in Preaching Magazine.

Apologetics on Line

My Denver Seminary webinar, "Bringing the Truth to Life," is now available to the general public.

Another argument for jazz--and much more.

Become a connoisseur of the good;
don't settle for being a spectator of the superficial.

Book Review; Jonah Hadadd, Leaving Dirt Place: Love as an Apologetic for Christianity

With the Bible as their guide, Christians make the audacious claim that God is love, and that God demonstrated is love toward us by becoming Incarnate in order to reconcile us to God through the perfect life, sin-cancelling and demon-defeating death, and glorious historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. Therefore, the concept and reality of love vibrates at the living center of all Christian thought. This titanic claim should not be taken for granted; neither should the concept of Christian love languish amidst clichés and intellectually superficial invocations.

While many apologetics books and articles have defended the love and power of the Christian God in relation to the miseries of this fallen world (addressing “the problem of evil”), few writers have made love itself a profound apologetic for the Christian worldview. This largely neglected task is the burden of this unique and much-needed work by Jonah Haddad. In a poetic yet philosophical approach, Haddad explains the vexed question of the very meaning of love. He then investigates which worldview best explains the objective existence of love by carefully and fairly assessing each “live hypothesis” (William James) available to answer this query.

While humans speak of love, yearn for love, give love, receive love, and have their hearts broken (and break other hearts) by the manifold betrayals of love, the very fact of love is often unexplained or (worse yet) explained away by philosophies that cannot bear its bitter-sweet weight. Haddad, however, does not shrink from this daunting task, but rather marshals the theological and philosophical resources required to set for a compelling case that only the Christian vision of existence can give love its proper meaning, value, and significance—even (or especially) amidst all the tears, blood, and fears of a world “east of Eden.”

Love is an inescapable mystery that has stymied many of the best of philosophers, poets, and prophets. Yet love finds its answer—philosophically, theologically, and existentially—in the person of a crucified Jew, who, two thousand years ago, manifested the greatest love of all and who gathers all other loves under his suffering arms. As George Herbert wrote in the concluding lines to “The Agonie” (1633):

Love in that liquour sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as bloud; but I, as wine.

Warning

Folks: My gmail account was hacked. I just changed my password. If you get anything strange from "me," then verify it. I friend got an email which said, "It's 9:30 and way past my bed time..." That was a tip off!

Jazz Grace

It was pure wonderment. On May 31 and June 1, at The Jazz Showcase in Chicago, I heard the Pat Martino trio perform two shows each night. My friend has claimed front row seats (although the legendary club--in Chicago since 1946) did not officially allow it. We came at about 7:00 for the 8:00 show and heard the band doing a sound check. We instantly recognized Pat's pure, clean, rapid lines. While we waited to go in, we spoke with long-time jazz promoter, and jazz snob/curmudgeon, Joe Seagal, who provided to be charming in his own acerbic way. The outer waiting area was filled with posters and tickets from groups that Mr. Seagal had promoted over many years, including Dizzy Gillespie ("He's my man," said Joe), Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and more luminaries.

When we were let in, I greeted Pat, who was standing on stage. I mentioned that we can come from Denver and that I had written him a card containing my booklet Are All Religions One. After jogging his memory, he caught on and thanked me. I also mentioned reading his autobiography, In the Moment. He seemed warm and unassuming.

The first show was superb, with the band playing standards and originals by Pat. Sitting on a bar stool, Pat flew up and down the fret-board, playing long, mellifluous lines of post-bob jazz brilliance along with Pat Bianci on Hammond B-3 organ, and young drummer whose name I forget (he was hot, though).  Past never ran out of ideas, and freely mixed his solos with legato runs and chords. He uses very heavy gauge strings and picks hard, but with the sense that he is hold the pick as one would hold a demitasse cup. The venue was, sadly, not filled. It seated about 100, and we estimated about 60 souls there. There was a warm response, but no encore.

During the break, I asked Pat if his group played "Sonny," a pop tune that he has played off and on for years. He said, "No. This groups hasn't played it, but who knows?" I took hope in that proviso. It is jazz, after all. (We just got a puppy named Sunny, so it has some significance in that sense).

After another swinging, mind-boggling, heart-warming set, the group played the last number. After a standing ovation (from only about 30 people), Pat turned to both accompanists and asked, "Sonny?" After both nodded, he launched into a phenomenal version of that warm and happy tune. It warmed my heart and feed my aesthetic yearnings more richly than anything in recent  memory.

On June 1, Pat was greeted by a larger crowd, but we still had front row seats--due to the kindness of our waitress, the lovely Camilla (who also gave me four olives in my dirty gin martinis that night). Pat played standards and originals, and smoked through every piece. The man never lets up and never errs. He does things that no other jazz guitar player can do. At the end of the second set, while greeted with a standing ovation, Pat pointed to me and called out "Sonny" to the band. I was stunned and ebullient. That night we exchanged business cards. I thanked him for the beautiful music and told him that he never ran out of ideas. He said we should stay in touch "for years to come," and assured me that I should look him him if I am ever in his home town of Philadelphia. I said the same about Denver, although Pat has not played in this area for fifteen years.

I was also delighted to initiate two friends into the higher and sublime mysteries of live jazz performed by a modern master, who has been playing since the early 1960s. (Pat is 67.)  Craig, my sugar daddy, who sponsored the whole trip as a gift (since I never have holidays) was swinging and buzzing for days afterward. Another friend, Drew, knew nothing of Pat, but was overwhelmed by his virtuosity.

There is aesthetic goodness in the world; and musical geniuses can be humble and friendly. For this, I give thanks to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift. The Jazz Philosopher experienced a jazz holiday that he will take to his grave with thanksgiving.

All law is based on a vision of morality. The source of law, then, is the God of any society.

Strategy for the Kingdom

Folks: I am trying to increase my number of FB "friends," strictly for ministry purposes. (And there are some old friends I'd like to follow, too.) I want to get the word out on apologetics, ethics, culture, and more. So feel free to invite your friends to contact me. I am also on Twitter and have several blogs.

President Reagan on D-Day

This speech is eloquent, true, and heart-felt. I exhort you to take 10 minutes and watch with full attention. I miss Ronald Wilson Reagan.

In the last several years, America has flirted with abandoning the "sacred values" of freedom. Today, the 68th anniversary of D-Day, President Barack Obama gave no speech today about American heroism and our commitment to freedom and against tyranny...

Normandy Speech: President Reagans Address Commemorating 40th Anniversary of Normandy/D-Day 6/6/84
President Reagan's Address at a United States-France Ceremony

Doug Groothuis on Hosea

I am teaching on a prophetic theme from the book of Hosea at Wellspring Anglican Church in Englewood, CO, on June 17. Services begin at 9:00 and 10:35 AM. I am limited to 25 minutes. My theme will be "The Responsibility of Knowledge" (4:6).

Homeless to Chef

Here is a story about Dirk, who went from homelessness to being a chef by the grace of God. He is a member of my church, Wellspring Anglican Church, Englewood, CO.

Think on This

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.--Romans 12:9-13.

Jazz Heaven

I am talking with Pat Martino, jazz guitarist virtuoso, as the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, on June 1. Pat is not only the greatest living jazz guitarist, but a warm, kind and approachable man. I saw four shows from May 31 to June 1.