Christina’s Common Sense

Pat Robertson founded a fine university, but he’s still a major loose cannon and I’m hardly a fan of his. Now, I’m less of a fan.

Recently, Robertson joined the Christians embarrassing themselves by jumping aboard the environmental bandwagon with the likes of Al Sharpton. The two have even made a commercial for wecansolveit.org where they get all buddy-buddy on a beach talking about how important it is to protect the planet.

Now, before anyone accuses me of littering along the highway and driving a Hummer just to waste gas, let me defend myself. I do believe it protecting the environment. As a Christian, God has commanded me to be a steward of the environment. Plus, it’s not exactly in my best interest to live on a polluted planet. However, Christians need to realize that protecting the planet does not mean using the government to compel others to do it—and it certainly doesn’t mean allying ourselves with thugs like Al Sharpton to get it done.

And, though I’m not a basketball fan, let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Boston Celtics on winning their 17th NBA title on Tuesday, and their first in my lifetime.

Next time you go through I-95 in Philadelphia, keep your eyes peeled for a white sign with fluffy white clouds that says “Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone.”

It’s the truth, and Steve Rade of the Philadelphia Coalition of Reason will gladly attest to it.

Of course, the billboard has spawned a lot of dissent from the Christian community, with some Christians wanting the board taken down.

This is why people think Christians are bigots. When atheists want us to shut up, we talk about free speech. But when it’s our rear ends on the line, we cry and wet the bed. Christians need to let this billboard stand and use it as an opportunity to advance our ideas. We must not let our enemies use it as a chance to advance their idea that we are closed-minded anti-intellectual losers.

Under fire from, well, anyone with the IQ of their toilet bowl, Barack Obama has announced that he will resign from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The straw that broke the camel’s back, it seems, was Fr. Michael Pfleger (I’d like to know who ordained him, and why the Church keeps him around), who was a guest preacher at Obama’s now ex-church a couple of weeks ago. Pfleger sounded not unlike the white Jeremiah Wright with all his politicking (not to mention cursing) from the pulpit:

Obama has now withdrawn his membership from Trinity. However, the damage has been done. The revelations about this church where Obama blithely sat and learned these last two decades have shown Obama to be not the messianic figure everyone thought he was. He is now tainted as just another corrupt politician. The resignation from Trinity is not going to help. If anything, it’s going to look like a political move driven by ideology more than idealism. Which it is.

If I may boast a bit, I made it myself :).

You can tell it’s finals week because my posts are done late at night and are of little substance…

I’m not a fan of Chris Tomlin, but this is a really nice music video done for the movie Amazing Grace. If you have not seen it, I recommend you do—particularly if you’re interested in political activism and/or the intersection between faith and politics.

Also, I have changed my blog’s format as a result of the homepage not displaying properly on my screen and this being the most legible layout for such a situation. I hope it displays properly for you, and if it doesn’t I am trying to fix it.

If you’re considering voting for B Hussein Obama, this is one reason (and a pretty compelling one, in my oh-so-humble opinion) to reconsider your vote. I could carry on about it, but I really couldn’t say anything my friend Col. Rutter hasn’t already said. So I’ll simply exhort you to read the article.

The title of this post is the refrain from Paul Shanklin’s latest song regarding Obama’s Jeremiah Wright debacle. It’s also the basic response Obama’s had to this whole brouhaha.

This morning, Obama gave a speech regarding his relationship with Rev. Wright. He stated that he could no sooner disown Rev. Wright than his white grandmother who uttered racist slurs and said things he disagreed with. But his association with his grandmother is involuntary. He didn’t choose his grandmother. But his association with his pastor is completely voluntary. He could have left his church if he disagreed with the teaching. He could have confronted his pastor if he felt the teaching was faulty. Barack Obama did neither of those.

Obama’s strategy of talking without saying anything is about to backfire on him big time. He can’t sweet-talk his way out of this. He’s either willingly listened to Jeremiah Wright denounce America for 20 years or he really had no idea what his pastor was preaching. Neither of those options inspires a lot of confidence in a potential president.

This is a video of some of Obama’s (somewhat belated) denunciation of his pastor’s comments.

There is a Spanish adage: “Show me the company you keep and I’ll show you who you are.” (I should be able to say that in Spanish, but I zoned out most of my last semester of it.) You’re not exempt from this because you’re running for President, as Barack Obama is about to find out.

Lately lately some of Obama’s pastor’s remarks have made their way into headline news, as such things are wont to do during election season. Turns out that Rev. Jeremiah Wright has a history of preaching anti-American sermons, notably calling for black people to not sing “God Bless America” but “God Damn America.”

Obama is not responsible for his pastor’s words. But he is responsible for where he attends church. He’s attended this church faithfully for two decades. He and his wife were married there, their children were baptized there, and I’d say it’s a fair bet he’s heard many of this pastor’s sermons. Yet he still continues to go there every Sunday.

How is it that Pres. Bush is a religious nut for attending a mainstream Protestant church, but when Barack Obama sits under a pastor that preaches an anti-American message it’s no big deal? Obama wants to hold the highest office in the nation. Shouldn’t we wonder why he takes spiritual advice from someone who calls America the most evil nation in the world?

I think we should. But if Obama’s legion of followers are any indication, I seem to be in the minority.