Valentine's Day 2009 Post

Well instead of multiple posts today I thought I would write a single post containing what I would like to say today. We are only about 6 weeks into 2009, but there has been so much going on.

The first thing I would like to write about today is that I thank God to see my 34th Birthday today. I'm very grateful. I still remember seeing the statistic when I was 17 in high school that said that I had a better chance to be dead or incarcerated by 25 being a black male in Oakland,CA than earn a degree from University of California. God said "No." At age 34, I have 3 college degrees, two of them from the University of California, Berkeley. I have a beautiful wife, Mitsouky, and wonderful daughter, Makayla, and a son, Mathias on the way. There is much to thank God for. I have a picture of picture of us at the top left and a picture of Makayla on the top on the right.

All that being said 4 things have happened in the news that deserve comment.
One of those is that there was a devastating fire in Australia. We need to pray for them. I have never heard of anything so horrendous ever in my lifetime. I mean we have forest fires in California all the time, but I have never seen anything like it.



Next, I have read an interesting article called The Elephant in Room: Intimidating the Critics of Islam. It makes some very interesting points. It turns out that -

last month's story about a Dutch court's ruling that Geert Wilders [pictured on the right] was "inciting hatred and discrimination" - and that "it is in the public interest to prosecute" him - understandably didn't make the American news.

I was amazed when I read the reason why:

...he's a member of the Dutch parliament, and his precise villainy was releasing a 15-minute film. Entitled Fitna, it suggests a direct link between certain verses of the Koran and acts of terrorism.

Not to be outdone, the United Kingdom this week banned Wilders from entering the country. Its reasoning: His "presence in the U.K. would pose a genuine, present, and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society." A letter from the home secretary went on to tell Wilders that "your statements about Muslims and their beliefs, as expressed in your film Fitna and elsewhere, would threaten community harmony and therefore public security."

I was floored. I think one characteristic of a cult is that a cult discourages scrutiny and investigations of the claims the organization makes. I'm not insinuating that all Muslims do that. In fact some so-called Christians do the same. If you can't explain what you believe and why you believe it, I think you need to re-think your claims. We are seeing in European countries such as the Netherlands and in England a fear of any criticism of Islam being seen as racism or persecution of the people who practice it. In trying to protect them from persecution, these governments are curtailing the freedoms of Christians. Christianity says many different things completely opposite from what Islam says. By saying that Christians cannot say things opposite to what Islam says or for Christianity to raise objections to Islam is effect silencing Christians. Why should we care in America? Simple. Some people are trying to do the same thing here. Christianity is open to investigation and invites scrutiny by anyone. Ask whatever you want. It's been 2000 years, there is no way anyone can raise an objection or ask a question that there is not an answer. Some well-meaning Christians and some not-so-well-meaning "Christians" have said that asking questions show a lack of faith. I disagree. More importantly, God disagrees. Christians believe that the Bible was written under God's inspiration. Therefore we must accept that the following came from God in 1 Peter 3:15-16:

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

We are obligated and mandated to provide a reasonable defense for the faith which we have pledged our lives.

And now for the last thing. Today, I saw an article on AOL.com that reports that a 13 year-old boy in Britian has become a father to a baby, and the mother is 15. The article talks about the boy not knowing what "financial" means when he was asked how he was going to financially support the baby. Apparently, teenaged pregnancy is just as big a deal in Britian as it is here. It seems like the decision to help the situation there is to start offering basic sex eductaion to kindergarteners. As the father of a two year-old girl, I don't want that here. I'm amazed that there are boys at the age of 12 and 13 are even considering sex. When I was that age I did not know what sex is and at two, I really don't want my daughter to be thinking about it either. I think education is important and needed. The question is what should be taught? I have never seen an educational program for sex education that was Biblically based (meaning teach what the Bible teaches about sex, not what it teaches about salvation) being tried in public schools. I think that would work to change our whole society for the better.

Here are two video. It can be found in the following article.