JRHS Writing BLOG

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Do we Really Have Freedom of Religion?

This country was colonized on Judeo-Christian principals. Let us not forget who sought out this land, the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were running from the chains holding them back from religious expressions. They reached their destination, a new land and stepped foot off their ship, the Mayflower onto Plymoth Rock in 1620. Now our days, the government is taking away our rights that this country, the United States was founded on, freedom of religion.

It started when the liberals claimed religion is offending groups of people, so they thought up ‘the seperation of church and state.’ This was not an issue for our founding fathers, so why should it for us? Now that this unwritten rule has hindered our way of life, prayer and anything religious, religion is looked badly upon. For example, on behalf of a male student West Palm Beach Board of Education sued Boynton Beach Community High School, in February 2006, because they demanded every child had to recite the pledge of allegiance every morning. They two groups settled that the student would receive $33,000 and the teacher to be reprimanded. Is this right? No, it is not. This is our Country, anyone who lives here should be loyal to this Nation for the freedoms that we have received from those who spilled their blood. One way to do this is to solute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance that unites all of us. Is saying a few words going to hurt anyone

As a country, we hold the National Day of Prayer, but it seems like all the democrats and liberals go wild at that time, it is because eof their rule, seperation of church and state. They have put in a bill to ban this Day of Prayer because it offends the many people with no religion. Are we going to banned every holiday that offends a group of people? Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter will not be on the calenders if we get rid of religious holidays, but if we take away holidays that could be offensive, there would be many. You can count out Presidents Day because it could offend anarchists, Columbus Day is insulting to indiginous people, Martin Luther King Day for anyone who is not of color, Mother’s and Father’s Day people who grew up without parents. This has actually started to happen, Mother’s and Father’s Day has been banned from schools in Manhattan, New York.

As months go by and years pass, this citizens of this beautiful land have begun to take this country for granted. They have disregarded what this nation was built on, religion. By doing this, they have slowly, but surely taken away our rights and freedoms of religious expressions. They did not write the First Ammendment for nothing, but to keep in place our freedoms from people like the liberals, who try to take them away.

Savage, Michael. The Savage Nation. Penguin Group: New York, 2002.

Does Evil Exist?

Some thoughts on evil - possibly from Albert Einstein

Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well-known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question.

“Did God create everything that exists?”

A student bravely replied, “Yes he did!”

“God created everything?” The professor asked.

“Yes sir, he certainly did,” the student replied.

The professor answered, “If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.”

The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask you a question, professor?”

“Of course”, replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, “Professor does cold exist?”

The Professor replied “What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?”

The other students snickered at the young man’s question.

The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy.

Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton ‘s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is?

You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.

God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.

~Jax

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Hinduism: Consistently Inconsistent

People today have been entranced with the ideas of becoming one with the universe, an idea put forth by the Hindu religion. Upon studying Bickel & Jantz’s book ”World Religion & Cults 101”, I formulated the following essay to show some of the many contradictions found in Hinduism, and how Christianity answers to these ideas

Hinduism is the third largest religion of today, encompassing a large portion of Asia. There are more than 790,000,000 Hindus across the globe (13% of the world population). There are no definitive Hindu works, or prophets, because the entire religion was not established in one century, but slowly mutated across the ages into what it has become today. There are only a few ideas that all Hindus believes; these beliefs include: there are many gods (yet all is god and god is all), people are reincarnated after they die (based on a good and bad karma scale), and the whole point of life is to become one with the universe (god).

The world we live in is based on time. A day has a beginning, and an end. Therefore it stands to reason that this world too has a beginning, and an end. Hinduism has no true beginning, and an undefined end.

What is meant by no true beginning is that the origins of Hinduism can be traced to the Mohenjo-Daro society in northwest India about 4,000 years ago. During this time, there were no Hindu Gods, as to them, the universe was god. Then in 1500 B.C., the Persians invaded and merged their religion with the religion of the Mohenjo-Daro, thereby adding thousands of gods/idols into the belief system.

Then as to the undefined conclusion of humanity, we must look at their ideas on reincarnation. Firstly, reincarnation is the belief that after death, a “living thing” will return as something else (possibly a human, bug, bird, grass etc.). An example of this idea is found in The Lion King the Disney Movie, when Mufasa tells Simba that there is a “circle of life”. Hindus believe in reincarnation according to the karma scale. In order to understand this, you must first understand what Karma is. It is, simply put, whether something is a good or bad deed. Something that gives a person good Karma would be giving money to the temple, while stealing would give bad Karma. If your Karma is good at your death, you will be reincarnated to a higher form of life, bad karma makes you lower. Eventually, however, you will reach a point of perfection and become one with the universe.

The followers of Hindu Religion are put into different Castes, or social class. The four basic levels in order from highest to lowest are as follows: Brahmins (Priests), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaisyas (merchants and artists), and the Shudras (slaves). These castes are considered unchangeable during life, so a person is born into their caste and have no ability to change it until they have been reincarnated. If a Viasyas man desired to become a Kshatriyas, he could not (according to their belief system) join the new class in this life. He must build enough good Karma in order that in the next life he would be reincarnated as the next level. With this sort of idea, it would follow that society aught to have less and less Shudras, while the higher classes should indefinitely grow until there are no longer and bottom classes.

According to this interpretation of life, people/society should be constantly improving. If one were to take a good look at society of today, and compare it with the 1600’s (or any era before now), you will see that there has not improvement, but deterioration. There should be an end of time, but if things are only getting worse, then according to a Karma based system, that end will not come in a deteriorating culture.

Christianity is unlike Hinduism in these respects. The Christian Religion has a definite beginning, and a promised conclusion of time. The Bible (the Christian definitive work) begins with the creation of the world by a single all powerful being. It is written by many people throughout time whose lives can archaeologically be proven, and has since it’s beginning, never been dis-proven (there are plenty of people who disagree with the Bible, but no one that can tangibly disprove anything that it says). Then, there is also an end to time in the form of the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Only after this life will perfection be established. This idea is congruent with the fact that this world is becoming worse, as Christianity never promises heaven here and now, but in what is to come.

Judical Reveiw

Judicial Review – A Misuse of Original Power

An essay based on Men in black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America, by Mark R. Levin

How have we arrived to the point where the Supreme Court has the authority to over rule the President and Congress? Well, the answer is that the judges have given themselves that power. If you read the constitution, nowhere will it state that the Supreme Court has the authority to intervene itself in every federal and state operation that is going on today.
The power has grown through a process called Judaical Review. “Judaical Review involves a court over turning an act of congress or of the executive branch on the grounds that the act in question contravenes the federal constitution” (Levin, 23). This is very unconstitutional. It gives them a right that they should not have access to. The ability to control what the President and the Congress says is not there job. They may think that that’s what they are there for but they are not, they are there for law and simple discretion. There is a reason why the President is president and that’s because he knows what he is doing.

As a rule, courts use the US Constitution as the central nervous system of all courts. Becoming a judge means that you agree with the Constitution. “Judges hold the US Constitution at a higher level then they hold the government and the act of legislator because it was adopted by the people” (Levin, 24). The judges say that they honor the constitution, but, in reality they don’t because, like mentioned before, they gave themselves the power and are not following the constitution. They’re misusing the power of the Constitution even though they may say they are they are not.
In conclusion, this is not good for our country – let’s hear Cassie’s opinion:

I don’t believe that this is right, nor is it constitutional. It is not the right of judges to over rule what the President or the Congress may say.
I don’t think it is right that they think that they have the power to give themselves powers that they don’t deserve. My opinion is that they should follow the Constitution in full and not just the parts they feel like following. Judges should be trained in a new way and respect the Constitution and not abuse it …

To be continued ………
Men In Black. Mark R. Levin. 2005
Written By Cassandra T
please feel free to comment

Morality Was So Yesterday

Today’s society has changed and transformed from what it was at its original state. It seems that every generation deteriorates more and more, leaving a diluted morally weak society in the end. Since this conception of youth and young generations is an age old issue, it would seem that the world never really gets worse, it just seems to. This is not necessarily the case. Mr. Robert H. Bork wrote a book called, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. This book focuses on one of the many weaknesses within the American culture that has begun eating away at the roots of the nation. He believes that this deterioration of a moral society is due mainly to the era known as the Sixties. The main aspect in his introduction to this book speaks primarily on the subject of Modern Liberalism.
Modern liberalism can be taken from its original meaning and twisted to fit into American society today. Many conservative people view liberalism with a negative connotation. This, however, is a misconception of that phrase. Modern liberalism, according to Robert H. Bork, is defined as, “the latest stage of the liberalism that has been growing in the West for at least two and a half centuries…. [and includes] radical egalitarianism (the equality of outcomes rather than of opportunity) and radical individualism (the drastic reduction of limits to personal gratification)” (Bork, 5). These two components of liberalism, as you may think, do not work well together. They seem to clash and collide like oil and water.
Having a liberalistic attitude can be a very good lifestyle, as long as it’s in its original state of meaning. “Modern liberalism is very different in content from the liberalism of, say, the 1940s or 1950s, and certainly different from the liberalism of the last century. The sentiments and beliefs that drive it, however, are the same: the ideals of liberty and equality” (Bork, 6). The difference between the old and the new (which is seen today) is the moral factor. In its true state, morality should not be ignored, but rather included in the quest for individualism, liberty, and equality. In this modern society, the liberal aspect of that still stands, yet the moral factor has been shunned. Liberalism is seen today as a pursuit of anything desired; whether right or wrong. Many people use crime, sex, violence, and personal rights to immoral behavior to say that they are seeking equality and liberty. Instead, they are misusing the word liberty. Liberalism should not be an excuse for wrong doing, rather a reason for doing right. America has twisted the real meaning to justify its own fall towards ‘Gomorrah.’

Bork, Robert H. Slouching Towards Gomorrah. (1996)

Terrorism

Terrorism – a perspective you haven’t yet considered
A Summary and comment on Stephen F. Hayes’ speech at Hillsdale College, November 9, 2006
Many thanks to Imprimis, the National Speech Digest of Hillsdale college

What is his main thesis:

This is about many different points and facts about the terrorism from Iraq and Islam backgrounds.  It also tells of how we (America) were shown how the bombings and vicious attacks were from the Saddam loyalists and Islamic fundamentalists associated with the al Qaeda.

What examples does he come up with that illustrate his point?

From out of a blue trailer that was parked across the street from the hotel where there were 40 anti-tank missiles. There were 20 French and 20 Russian missles in the trailer. 29 of them were fired and 17 hit the building and only six of the 17 actually exploded in the building. A grand total of only 6 missiles out of the 40 did what they were suppose to do. In that process it injured 16 guests of that hotel. There had been many threats on this hotel for a while but nothing was done to prevent anything to stop it. there was many other attacks before September 11, 2001 and also threats. There were some threats given to the Pentagon, and the World Trade Center buildings that they were going to attack. Nobody did anything to prevent them. Saddam Husein endursed Osama Bin Laden since 1998. Even the CIA should have dealt with the threatening letters that were sent to American Pentagon and the Trade Centers. They were busy overlooking other problems. Like for an example training Filipino soldiers for fighting terrorists in the Philipinnes.

What is the overall conclusion of the article?

The overall conclusion of this article is that America should have gone in sooner before so many attacks which took its toll. If we did not wait and did what we were suppose to then Iraq would have been liberated sooner. Also would not have such a harder time finding Osama Bin Laden and his allies. Starting way back in the Persian Gulf War and with the President George H.W. Bush could have captured Saddam Hussein in the shortest amount of time as possible. Since we decided that pulling out early would be better for the kurds and the oil situation.

What do I (myself) think about his point?
I think that we should get in there and give what is coming to the supporters of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington D.C. I would be in there right now if I were old enough and drop missiles on those American haters and terrorists I would be flying a F-117 Nighthawk. Forget what the Senators and Congress say about getting out of Iraq and the how the war is genocide to the muslims. They attacked us first and should never think about messing with the Country that was founded under Christian aspects.
Why have we waited so long to take control of the situation in Iraq and had to wait for the attacks on American soil to take action?

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

The Sixties were an era in American history that has had one of the most dramatic influences on American morality. Not only has it affected how we view ourselves but also how we feel about life, death, music, religion, science, marriage, education, and sexuality. This cultural revolution 40 years ago is the main reason why American values and beliefs are being threatend in today’s society.

The birth of the Sixties occured right after World War II. Men were coming home from the battlefield and starting families. Large families. This is now known as the Baby Boom, about 79 million births occured between 1946 and 1964. (Compared to the 43.6 million born during the Great Deppression, this is a huge increase). The baby boomers were a generation so large that they formed their own culture instead of being assimilated into the existing one.

This increase in population led to a monumental expansion of universities, this furthermore led the universities themselves to create their own cultural enclaves. When the sheltered teenagers of the Sixties generation left their homes, parents, and comfortable lifestlye to go to college, they were easily influenced by their liberal and leftist faculty members. Once the wheels in these students heads had started turning, there was nothing that could stop them. Even rebelling against the people that had taught them. They rejected everything that had previously been called normal. Experimenting with drugs, alchohol, sex, and anything and everything else that had been forbidden.

One key factor that enabled this to happen was the prosperity of their parents, who had survived the Great Deppression. These children had been pampered and spoiled and thought that money never ran out. This continual supply of cash allowed them to travely freely, buy whatever they wanted, and organize rallies and other politcal gatherings that helped their cause.

Perhaps the most important event that occured during the Sixties was the Vietnam War. (Many people even go so far as to say that this war was the sole cause of the student frenzy, civil disobediance and violence of the Sixties). This was because the war in Vietnam was a convenient and powerful metaphor that the boomers used to express their belief that American’s culture, society, economy, and policy were corrupt. They expressed these beliefs by boycotts, rallies, protests, and anything else that enabled people to notice them. This lack of support may have even led to the American loss in Vietnam. Bui Tin, a former colonel of the Vietnamese army, said “The American anti-war movement was essential to our strategy. Support for the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable” (Bork, 19).

The behavior of the 1960’s affected not only the outcome of the Vietnam war, but how we live daily. Those angry students are the ones that are calling the shots today. They decide our laws and who goes to jail. They are the ones in office and running for it. They destroyed the generations before them, are we going to let them ruin ours?

Bork, Robert H. Slouching Towards Gomorrah. 1996. 

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Death By Privacy

Today, legalized abortion is the “law of the land” because the Supreme Counrt decided in 1973 that it’s recently created constitutional right to privacy also gave them a “constitutional right” to abortion. But if you look in the constitution, you will not find a “right to privacy” as well as a right to abortion. This probably has to do with the fact that its not there! The creators of the constitution, or the “framers”, took no right to privacy because criminal acts (murder, rape, theft, etc) can be commited in privacy. Kind of obvious isnt it.

The modern argument for a right to privacy began in 1961 in Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dessent in Poe v. Ullman¹ The case was brought on behalf of a married couple, a single woman, and an obstetrition.

¹_Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497 (1961). The first legan mention of a “right of privacy” was in an article in the Harvard Law Review in 1890, written by Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, but it was about a different issue entirely: protecting people from an intrusive press.

--Pitu

In the court we trust?

The people that have been serving in the Supreme Court have been trying to make themselves able to be the ones to make and pass laws since the time it came into being. They have the mind set that with there choices to how they think certain things should be in their eyes they are doing justice for all the people of the US. Well this is exactly the opposite of what they are really doing. over the years the members of the Supreme court have been following less of the constitution and more of the international views. With this happening they have and are finding ways, still, to bypass the rules in which they would normally have to follow in which the constitution proposes them to due so. Another reason why this is hurting and bringing down the American’s views and morals is that these people have no more ability to make these decisions then the common people of the US. In fact there have been many members in the supreme court that have been less fit to decide in a court case then the common citizen would be. Mental health, stroke (loss of memory), racism, discrimination, religion, financial trouble, and rigged court cases have all been factors in the leading causes for the downfall in the decision made by the people of the Supreme Court. One of the main ways the Supreme Court finds a way to make and change laws in favor of their views. By rigging a big deal case to turn out the way they want it to be, so that certain laws get brought up or new ones to be made. This means that the person being prosecuted could be walking away from a very large offense with only small offense charges, or non at all. This has happened more than once throughout the history of the Supreme Court. Examples of people who have served in the Supreme Court that have proven my point as being people who should not be running in America’s highest court system have been James Wilson, Robert C Grier, and Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marchall was considered a soap opera junkie, and spent a lot of his times within his chamber watching his TV. James Wilson had major financial problems and ran from the law for the rest of his life when he could not pay his debts. Robert C Grier slowly lost his mental health and in this condition he was the swinging vote in the Hepburn v. Griswold. Marshall left almost all of his writing opinions up to his clerks and half the time he never even bothered to overview them. He also stated in one of his speeches in Hawaii that the Constitution wasn’t fixed forever.

--The Third

The Supreme Court is not an authority that can be trusted to be fair and unbiased, the justices that serve on the Supreme Court are not elected by the people, once they are on, they are on there for good, and there is nobody to speak of who can hold them accountable. These justices are too sheltered to make rational decisions because they don’t have the perspective the common person has. The country is at the mercy of justices that we don’t know whether or not they can be trusted to care for the country.

--Ben Morgan

The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (U.S. Constitutional Amendment 1).” Our forefathers thought that religious faith was important to our system of government and believed in the protection of religious minorities and looked to avoid the threat to religious liberty that might arise from a nationality established church.

There is one conclusion we can draw: The Supreme Court has simply abolished your right to freely exercise your religion in public. And I think that unless the courts are called to account on this, religious freedom in this country in seriously endangered. (to be continued)

--Pitu

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Untouchable Power: The Supreme Court

There is a power in our nation’s government today that remains unchecked: the Supreme Court. Although the court is responsible for making some of the most important decisions in our country, the judicial power stands nearly absolute. The justices on the Supreme Court are appointed to serve a lifetime, but who are these people?  The selected judges are given the task of making decisions and judgments based on our nation’s Constitution, but in the present age, many justices do not strictly follow these guidelines. It is the responsibility of the people of America to consider if in this flawed system there can possibly be a solution or a better approach.

The Supreme Court is the only branch of government that is unchecked by other government branches. The only power that the legislative and executive bodies have over the Supreme Court is the power of appointment and if necessary, impeachment of those unfit for duty in the court. In 1803, the Supreme Court made a decision in the case of Marbury v. Madison in which they ruled that the Court has the power to judge the constitutionality of Presidential and Congressional actions and, if they think necessary, overturn them. In this way, the Supreme Court has taken greater power over our government than it was ever designed to have. The Court can essentially veto acts of the President and Congress, but the executive and legislative branches cannot, in turn, veto the acts of the Supreme Court. In this way, the Court has been given great, unchecked power in our government.

In the Supreme Court, the leaders are not elected by the people of America, but rather appointed by the current President at the time an opening arises. Justices are brought to power in this way so they will not be politicians, simply judges. Keeping this line clear is essential to the function of the Supreme Court. The justices should only be subject to the Constitution, not the swaying of a political party.

Since justices are not politicians, they are appointed to a lifetime position in the court. Although this avoids elections and regular complete changes in the justices, it also allows unfit judges to continue in their powerful positions until death, retirement, or in extreme cases, impeachment. In the past, our country has seen in the Supreme Court justices that have been insane, mentally and physically unstable, spies, racists, the physically abusive, delusional, and thieves. These are the people that our country then grants unbalanced power to decide our most important and influential legal issues.

The role of the Supreme Court justices is to make rulings in legal decisions based on the law our founding fathers established in the Constitution. However, many justices, politicians, lawyers, and citizens alike are now questioning the relevance of this historical document in the present day. Some justices, known as originalists (or strict constructionist), closely follow the laws and principles that are outlined in the Constitution; however, some believe that it is outdated and not applicable to our current times. These justices, known as activists (or loose interpreters), consider the broad principles of the Constitution, but add personal beliefs, values, and interpretations. Of such activists, Mark Levin writes in his book on the Supreme Court, Men in Black, “judges have abused their constitutional mandate by imposing their personal prejudices and beliefs on the rest of society” (Levin, 10). Activists who base decisions outside the precise meanings in the Constitution are making judgments through a different moral and legal standard than those on which this country was established.

In the presence of these flaws in the Supreme Court system, Americans must decide if there can be another approach to the Court and the addressing of national legal decisions. In my opinion, we cannot improve this system. It is not the system that is flawed, but rather the people. Man is imperfect and our nation’s government is imperfect, yet it is arguably the best government in the world. I think that the Court should not necessarily have all the power that it was granted in the Marbury v. Madison ruling, but that case is closed and the judgment has been made. It is important for Americans to be aware of Supreme Court happenings and their rulings as well as to promote Constitutional thinking. We must look back to the principles on which this mighty nation was established and not create new standards based on personal beliefs. If the Supreme Court does not base our country’s most important legal decisions in the Constitution, they will soon destroyed our foundation, leaving no basis on which to make judgments in the future.

Works Cited:

Levin, Mark. Men in Black. Washington D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2005.

Are all monotheistic religions the same?

World Religions & Cults 101

Monotheism is a word that is becoming widely used, and heard continually throughout today’s quickly expanding religions. Are all monotheistic religions the same? Do they have anything in common? What kinds of differences can be found in them? What makes it impossible for the different religions and their respective followers to get along?
The definition of Monotheism given by the authors of World Religions & Cults 101 is “A religion that believes in a singular god, who on the normality is all powerful and in control of everything”. Each religion has a different twists to this definition, giving it a unique belief.  The definition however applies to them all. But even if different religions share the same definition, and even if they supposedly share the same God, that does not mean that they can all be lumped together into one.
There are three main monotheistic religions today: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Some historians try and lump Judaism and Christianity together, but the gross difference between them calls for their seperation into two different parties. True, Christianity did come out of Judaism, but they are severely different in beliefs. Christians believe that God is all powerful, and in control of the universe; same as the Jewish believe. But while the Jewish community is still awaiting the Messiah, and still are using the traditions that have been passed on for generations, Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He came to die for our sins, and so free us from eternal damnation in Hell.
Islam, however, claims that Jesus Christ did come to earth, but that he failed his mission. They say that Muhammad, the chief prophet of Islam, was the “new christ”, who was sent by Allah to complete what Jesus supposedly failed to do.
As you can see, even though these three religions all are monotheistic, and all acknowledge that there is only one true God, they all differ immensely. We must be cautious not to confuse these all together.

Jax

Scheming In The Dark

This is an original allegory by Ben Fortin.

He waits, sitting in the darkness.  He wears the blackness of night as a cloak.  He himself looks as if he produces the dark cloud.  The only light in that place comes from his eyes.  Two points of gleaming blood red.

Then appearing all at once, his servants arrive in response to his call.  They surround him, but keep their distance in fear of The Dark One. “Yes,” he says with a powerful and terrible voice.  “You are all the ones that I have called.  I have summoned you for a purpose.  We are running out of time.  I watch the Earth.  I see what the people do.  They will eventually destroy themselves.” “He,” the Dark One say’s in disgust. “ Is preparing for the end.  I feel it.  Our days of freedom are growing short.”

The mob of servants then begin to scream and curse.  “He might control the bog events, but we are not powerless.  We can take much of his so called childrem with us.  Even though our days are numbered, we can still fight him and have some revenge before the end.”

A shadowy servant ventures forward. “But what if He tricks us?  What if he changes His mind and cuts the days shorter than He wrote in the bood?”

“Fool!” The Dark One roars. “Don’t you know that He doesnt change He keeps his promises!?” All his servants start to back away from him.

“Here is why I have summoned you.  Each of you has shown creativity and diligence in our battle against the light.  Because our days of freedom are running low, we must intensify our efforts.  I need more captains for this war.  All of you are hereby promoted to higher levels of service.” Some of the shadowy creatures bow, others give off hellish shrieks.

“Our master plan remains intact. We must distract the simple ones of the Earth from their most valuable possession.  And what is the most important thing they possess?”

“Their Souls!” Croak dozens of the shadows.

“Exactly. Their souls will exist somewhere forever.  We know that He wants them to be cleansed by his son.  He wants them to live with Him in paradise for eternity.  All of you must concentrate your efforst on distracting the humans away from their souls.  We need to divert their attention to things that don’t matter, and keep them from thinking what’s after death.  That will surely bring them to us.”

“That is the battle plan.  Let us discuss strategy.  To influence the humans on a large scale we must control television, radio, books, magazines, music and the internet.  I believe we already have contol over most of these.  We need to hint dark thoughts to the ones that writeand make decisions.”

“And don’t forget pleasure! As long as the humans’ sou;s dwell in bodies we can tempt them to live for physical pleasure.  Use the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.  Show them new pleasures daily.  In doing thisthey will be satisfied enough to not think about where their soul is going.”

“You are wise, O Lucifer.” Says one of the shadows.  “Don’t call me that!” Roars the Dark One.  His eyes glowing brighter like when blowing on embers from a fire. “That was my old name.  It was my name up there.  It means light bearer, and I rejected it.  I manifest myself as an angel of light when it is necessary.  But now I am Lord of Darkness.” There is a moment of silence before the Dark One begins again.

“Another obstacle exists.  Experience shows that some humans who are near the end of manage to escape us.  The same goes for men at war.  When death is near, they worry about their souls.  But the worst are the old ones. They warn the younger ones to do the same.  Sometimes they quote his book to the younger generation.  We cannot allow this!”

“To stop this, try to seperate families by putting in the youths mind that their elders are old-fashioned.  Keep the truth out of their minds by making themt hink He is a myth and the Bible is just a story book.  Do this and we’ll have them.” The creatures then begin to laugh.  “We Will sugger, but not alone.  Work harder then ever as the end draws near.  But don;t be too obvious.  Remember, we don;t wat them to believe in Him but we don’t want them to believe in us, either.  After all, if people don’t realize we exist, our task of deceiving them becomes child’s play.  Now Go!

“Yes, O Dark One.” Squeals the mob of creatures.  As they turn they extend black shadowy wings and disappear, leaving the Dark One alone.

“Yes,” he say’s to himself.” I will have my vengeance now, while there’s still time. We won;t get them all. But we will ensnare many.  Not until too late will they realize that He is very real and that the wages of sin means eternal suffering.  Yes, it will be much too late.”

Islam: Teaching Unity… But Practicing What?

The Following essay was formulated by Mark Moran upon reading “World Religions & Cults 101” by: Bruce Bickel. The subject is Islam, and their civil war

The religion known as Islam is the second largest religion in existence upon our world, with over one billion Muslims stretching across every continent. One of the reasons for their great success is the belief in unity, and their enforcement of their beliefs on those under their control. There is however one major problem. There has been a civil war going on amongst the Muslims since the time of their great prophet Muhammad’s death. This conflict takes place between the Sunni majority, and the Shi’ite minority.

The conflict began when Muhammad, the highest prophet in the Islam religion died. Many of his followers believed that only a man of Muhammad’s bloodline should lead the Muslim world. The followers of this idea became known as Shi’ites, and to this day make up about 20 percent of the Muslim population. The other eighty percent of the people however believed that Muhammad’s successor should be chosen by the people. Those who believed this became known as Sunnis. To this day they have been at war with each other, with blood shed becoming an everyday event.

Upon the destruction of the World Trade Centers in New York City by Islamic extremists, the Muslim world split even wider. Some claimed that it was God’s justice on America, while others condemned the actions as extremism. Muslim clerics were preaching love, but the world could see only hate. So which is it? Upon research in the Koran (Muslim definitive work written from Muhammad’s teachings), the authors of “World Religion & Cults 101” found that there is very little reference of love, with a large amount of violence being encouraged.

In modern Iraq, the majority of the fighting takes place not between Americans and Extremists; it is the Sunni muslims who hate the Shi’ite muslims (and vise verso) that are causing the largest toll on human life. On the day that this article was written, two Sunnis strapped bombs to their bodies, and rushed into a Shi’ite market place. There were 150 people wounded, and 42 killed out right. There was no military target involved, no Americans killed; just regular people who followed the Shi’ite Muslim religion.

When comes the point when people see the truth? How many lives need to end before the world takes action? It is my belief that something must be done to stop the constant murder. The hate needs to end. 

Liberalism: Tearing Down Our Nations Morals

Over the past fifty years, there have been drastic changes in the culture that we live in. While in previous decades it was not appropriate for a couple to be seen sharing the same bed on television, organizations like the ACLU have openly defended the right to owning child pornography. This is but one example of how our nation has gone from one extreme to another. What can be the source of mental pollution on Americans today? It is the rise of liberal thinking in politics and the media which has helped to produce the moral decline of the American people.
A serious problem with the liberals that are changing the way our nation thinks is that their priorities are out of order.  One very obvious issue is that of gay marriage. The rise of homosexuality in the US has become so apparent. The question of whether or not gays should be allowed to marry has been an ongoing issue for several years now. As homosexuals have become open about their “gayness”, the gay lifestyle has become widely accepted among the populous. Liberals are now trying to force our nation to accept homosexuality as “normal”, which is not a good sign for the future. If we change our culture and laws just appeal to homosexuals, then what will happen when a group of people want to legalize incest? What about polygamy? Bestiality? I know, it might not sound fair to compare a gay couple with a man and his pig, but, honestly, we need to look int the future and see where all this is going. Of course, we need to accept gay people for who they are, but accepting a person is not the same as saying that what they do is absolutely fine.
The bottom line is that we need to keep our focus on what is important, which is preserving what is decent in America. The liberals need to be contained before they tear down our nation’s morals completely. If our nation has no morals, then how can we possibly progress as a country? It is a serious issue, and must be addressed now.

The Rider

The Rider

Written by: Tim Foote, November 2006

Today should be a day to rejoice

But as I look out the window

The fog is so thick I can barely see

The figure of the lone rider

Coming and going as she pleases.

Her long coat and large hat is as

Black as her soul.

Her laugh echoes through the foggy hills

The crucifix and her horse beside her.

Where ever you go her voice,

Is there to haunt you.

The face of the lone rider is of sheer beauty.

It is said if you look into her eyes long enough,

The beast inside of you will enslave you.

At any time she can ride off into the sunset

And live the life she is supposed to live,

But she chooses to stay near the hills.

To haunt the souls of many,

By her beauty and charm.

Many times I pity her

Cause I see how far she can roam ‘veryday,

But her faith hinders her,

To see the bigger picture of life.

She is stuck behind her beauty

Until she travels towards the setting sun.