Calvin College BOT Get’s It Right

The news in this post is already way past old, but as it is tangentially concerned with the CRC and as I am ordained in the CRC I thought I would put my fork in on this item.

The following links give the skinny on the progression of the controversy between the Calvin College faculty and the Calvin College Board of Trustees (BOT).

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/08/calvin_college_has_had_to_conf.html

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/08/calvin_college_professors_call.html

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/10/calvin_college_agrees_to_furth.html

The short version is that the Calvin BOT sent out a letter to the faculty impressing upon them that they were not to teach anything that could be construed as gay advocacy. One can only presume that the BOT sent out such a letter because they had reason to believe that such a letter was necessary. Upon receipt of the letter the faculty took exception to what they believed was a heavy handed draconian squelching of their academic freedom. As such the official faculty organization squealed loudly under such oppression. As a result the BOT, while not rescinding their original dicta, did agree to examine how CRC church teachings relate to academic freedom.

Just a few observations,

1.) Three Cheers for the BOT for doing the right thing.

2.) The cry for Academic freedom is a smoke screen. Would the faculty senate have squealed about Academic freedom if the BOT had sent a memo to the faculty impressing upon them that they were not to teach anything that could be construed as polygamy advocacy? Necrophilia advocacy? Bestiality advocacy? The squealing sound one hears from the faculty is indicative that the letter hit its mark. No doubt certain faculty members were pushing gay advocacy. So, this has very little to do with academic freedom and a great deal to do with code pink making inroads at Calvin.

3.) The gay advocacy thing is not limited to Calvin College in the CRC. CRC publications like “The Banner” is forever subtly engaging in gay advocacy. Maybe someone ought to send a letter to them.

4.) This is the way that change always happens in a denomination. Whatever change that is desired to be pursued is first brought up in some official format. That official format is then officially censored. After being censored people who are sympathetic to those who first brought it up start screaming that, “We need to have a conversation about this.” The ensuing conversation then becomes the thin wedge that is used to eventually pry the desired change into place. This sometimes takes years to happen. In my estimation elements within the CRC, having established Women in office, are now on the next campaign to legitimize “Christian” homosexuality.

5.) In my estimation, were the BOT really serious about this they would summarily fire any faculty member who, privately or publicly, was engaged in gay advocacy. Shoot, being fired for such a reason would be a badge of honor in the current academic climate and would assure the fired person of another job within days.

6.)Former Calvin academic and well known historian George Marsden felt he had to weigh into the Calvin imbroglio cautioning “against making lists of positions faculty may not advocate. Militarism and abortion could also be considered confessional issues.” Marsden went on to say,

“There are too many possible issues. You’re stirring up controversy you don’t have to have.”

People need to realize that all because Marsden speaks the world need not listen. Marsden has been significantly wrong at times in his academic career (see Gary North’s Political Polytheism) and there is no reason to think that he is not wrong once again.

I would note though that abortion certainly is a confessional issue. Would Dr. Marsden contend that it is acceptable for faculty members to be abortion advocates?

7.) In a cautionary word to parents who care what I think, I would strongly advise against sending your children to Calvin college. First, their economics department, philosophy department, and their sciences are all messed over, shot through with non Christian presuppositions. Second, the campus life leaves much to be desired. If you’re going to send your children to Calvin you might as well spend that money by sending them to a top flight “secular” school.

The issue of homosexuality and the CRC is one that I suspect we will be seeing more of in years to come in the CRC.

For all you Bayly blog readers that are coming over here

This is exactly what I said to Tim Bayly,

“I don’t care if your best friend is a minister in the first church of Satan. That comment was out of line, and I do take umbrage for myself and a good number of other faithful ministers and laymen who are trying to fight the good fight.

I’ll chill out when you learn how to write about matters you’re apparently clueless about.”

As you can see there is no profanity here which Bayly’s deletion strongly implies.

You’ll also notice I didn’t say his friend was a minister at the first church of Satan. I put the comment the way I put because Tim Bayly had suggested that all because his best friend is a minister in the CRC therefore I shouldn’t be put off by his denigrating comments. That observation was completely irrelevant to anything I said and I put the phraseology the way I did to draw attention to its irrelevancy.

And yes … I am ticked off. It’s hard enough laboring in the CRC without the hyperbole sloshing Tim Bayly taking potshots from the sidelines. As I told him, there remain many faithful ministers and laymen in the CRC and for him to suggest that the CRC is completely bereft of faithful ministers is just stupid on steroids.

The Tale Of Two Quotes

Let me get this straight … A President with a Muslim name, who bowed to the Muslim Sheik of Saudi Arabia, is on the record as saying, regarding this Ft. Hood shooting, “I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,” but on the Cambridge break-in the President who has consistently vilified white people could instantly say without a shred of evidence, “It’s fair to say that the Cambridge police acted stupidly.”

These two quotes speak volumes. The first quote fits into the multicultural politically correct narrative that pagan America is telling. The second quote fits into the oppressive white people narrative that reparations America is telling.

Around The Horn

“Shhh…. Don’t Mention That He Is A Arab Muslim”

The guy who shot up Fort Hood yesterday is a Arab and is a member of the Islamic faith — a well known “religion of peace.” However, please note that even though we’ve now been told that he was shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”), there still hasn’t been anybody questioning the wisdom of allowing Muslims into the US military or even into US society. If one wonders about the brutality of a Islamified Western culture I encourage them to go take a walk into certain sections of London or Paris. Ask Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh about Islamic brutality in the West. Ask Salmon Rushdie about Islamic brutality in the West. Ask Aasiya Hassan of the Buffalo New York area about Islamic brutality in the West.

Because of the West’s mad desire for ethnocide, seen in its embrace of multiculturalism, Europe will be an Islamic continent by the end of this century. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the “religion of peace” shooter at Fort Hood, is a warning to America and that warning is, “Muslims will not fit into Western culture.” Now, this is obvious to anybody who has half a stroke impaired brain in their head but the multiculturalist leftists are so bound and determined to sanitize the Christian influence of the West and of America that they will go to any lengths, including blinding themselves about the nature of Islam, in order to completely and irreversibly de-Christianize the West. Actually, if such a thing as poetic justice existed both the Maj. Nidal Malik Hasans of the West and the John Kerry’s of the West would be given Arizona and be told to “be fruitful and multiply, if you can.” The leftists and the Muslims certainly deserve one another.

For those not in the know, “Allauh Akbar” is what members of the “religion of peace” often shout just before they blow themselves up, along with a host of their enemies. It is what the members of the “religion of peace” shout when they read the Koran as it tells them to kill the infidel. It is what they say after eating their after dinner mints.

There might be another explanation for why Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan slipped his noodle. It seems the poor man got a double whammy for life. Not only was he a Muslim (his first life whammy) but he also was a shrink by trade. Personally, if I had to guess between a Muslim and a Shrink as to who was more demented I would be hard pressed to reach a conclusion. I can’t imagine any living soul combining those two dementia’s into one living being.

“Well, You Are Forced To Have Car Insurance Aren’t You?”

Back in his State of the Union Address President Obama gave us an analogy between the prospects of a mandated by the Federal Government health care and a mandated by the State auto insurance.

“Unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek, especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions, just can’t be achieved, That’s why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance — just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.”

Just recently the Senator who filled Obama’s Senate seat said in response to a question,

CNSNews.com: “So, in general, if a person doesn’t want health insurance, do you think they should be required by the government to actually have to get it?”

Senator Burris: “Under state law, we have every one required to have automobile insurance. Now, think about that. And so under this here, we’re providing in the legislation where every one would be able to acquire health insurance. If they don’t get it, then that would–certainly they’re trying to provide some type of a provision for them in case they’re sick so that they will be covered and they won’t be a burden on the system. So, that’s the same thing proportionally to automobile insurance. I mean, it’s comparable.”

Now, pushing this analogy between required auto insurance and required health insurance is only one of a host of reasons why I think these people shouldn’t be leading a live in facility for the mentally challenged let alone leading this country. People like Obama and Burris put the capital “S” in STUPID.

The analogy doesn’t work,

1.) It is not true that every one has to have auto insurance. Only people who have the privilege of owning and driving automobiles have to have auto insurance.

2.) Therefore for the Obama/Burris analogy to fit, the reasoning must be that only people who have the privilege of owning and moving around in their bodies have to have health insurance. Do they really want to make a comparison between the mandate to have auto insurance if you drive a car and the mandate to have health insurance if you breathe? Is the state really saying that, “just as we won’t allow you to drive a car around if you will not get auto insurance, so we will not allow you to live if you will not get health insurance?” Or similarly, “just as if we catch you driving a car without auto insurance we will severely penalize you by taking away your privilege to drive, so if we catch you walking around without life insurance we will severely penalize you by taking away your privilege to be alive?”

I don’t care what Ivy League school these people were “educated” in, they are all as dumb or dumber than a box of Barbara Boxers.

A Horse Is A Horse, Of Course, Of Course …

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091105/ap_on_re_us/us_horse_molester

This guy is serving jail time for getting to cozy with a horse on more than one occasion. The article says the perp is being jailed for “abuse to the creature.” So, what passes for abuse to a horse is not abuse in the slightest when the same “coziness” is pursued by two men.

But perhaps the difference is, is that two men can give consent to their mutual abuse while poor Sugar (the name of the horse that is being assaulted) can’t give consent, even though she is 21 years old.

I’m not sure, given the legal logic that is used today, why this guy is being jailed. He didn’t hurt anyone. It’s just people’s opinion that his sexual preference is aberrant, and besides, where are all the calls for the compassion and understanding we must have for this man?

American Funerals

Several years ago I took some part time work with a funeral home to help supplement my pastor’s income. The people who owned the Funeral home were gracious and they made sure that I never had a conflict of schedules. They understood where my priorities were and worked with me accordingly. The work was different. At times I would drive the hearse transporting the deceased from one funeral home to another. At other times I would pick up the deceased from the place where they had died and bring them to the funeral home. There would be times I would help with the parking and times I would deliver the flowers after the funeral service. It was all the stuff you would expect to find in working with a funeral home.

However I didn’t last more than a year doing this part time work. It wasn’t that they were dissatisfied with me. Nor was it that I was dissatisfied with them. It wasn’t the nature of the work that had me walk away from a little extra income. It was the depression I was struggling with that had me quit. Now, one might think it was a depression brought on by my being around death that had me quit, but it wasn’t that. The depression that drove me to quit the funeral home was the constant barrage of funeral sermons I was hearing. I got to the point I just couldn’t handle seeing people leave funeral after funeral with no idea what the Gospel was. More than that I had got to the point that I couldn’t handle the silliness that was going on in the name of Christ.

At one funeral the Pastor quoted the famous passage,

“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

He then proceeded to eulogize the deceased by saying,

“Paul had many interests in his life and in heaven Jesus has a room for him for all the interests that he had. There will be a voluntary fireman room for him. There will be a ‘Dad’ room for him. There will be a sportsman room for him. etc. etc. Jesus has been very thoughtful this way.

At another funeral where the deceased had been involved in a tragic auto accident the Pastor climbed into the pulpit and the first words out of his mouth were,

“I want everyone who is sitting here and who can hear my voice to know that God didn’t have anything to do with this accident. God didn’t want this to happen and this isn’t God’s fault.”

At yet another funeral a female minister led the congregation in hand holding with the person next to them while she sang Bette Midler’s “The Rose.”

Eventually, I couldn’t take any more and I told my Funeral employer that my emotional well being was being adversely affected by all the funeral messages I was subject to and I had to quit.

I thought I had seen it all until today. Now, keep in mind my observations having nothing to do with the deceased and everything to do with the Clergy officiant. The deceased and his family were and are fine people.

Today I was at a Funeral and the minister got towards the end of the service and he said,

“Now I want everybody to uncross their arms and legs.” (Insert shuffling noises while most people are uncrossing arms and legs while others go out of their way to cross arms and legs.) “In ancient Judaism they never prayed with arms and legs crossed because it was thought that such a posture would block the effectiveness of the prayers. I want everybody here to get the full measure of the prayer so go ahead and uncross your arms and legs. Now, before we pray I want you to take your right hand and pretend you are reaching up into heaven and are pulling a gold coin out of a treasure chest.” (Insert spectacle of 200 people in a funeral home reaching with their right hand upward into ‘heaven’s treasure chest’ in order to pull out a gold coin. Now insert my fear that his next statement was going to be something like … “You do the Hokey Pokey and you shake it all about — that’s what its all about.”) He continued instead, “now, take that coin and pretend it is a memory and put in the pocket over your heart. That is your special memory of ______ that you will always have in your heart with you.”

Look, I try to be a reasonable man. I really try to listen to things with as much charity as possible. But a man can only take so much. Here we had a room full of people face to face with eternity and he is busy having people grab imaginary gold coins out of an imaginary heavenly treasure chest all the while making sure our body posture doesn’t get in the way of God’s ability to answer prayer. There was no mention of Christ. There was not mention of the Cross. There was no mention of resurrection. There was no mention of sin. There was no mention of grace and forgiveness. There was no mention of anything except the Chakra points of prayer.

If I were a pagan at a funeral like this, I guarantee you I would never ever darken the door of a church. If I were a pagan at a funeral like this I would never ever have anything to do with Christianity.

And now, I’m working on not being depressed again.