The Great Question at Christmas

"... In his gospel Luke tells us who Jesus was .... Was he a man like every other man? Luke's answer is that he was not. Luke tells how the angel Gabriel went to Mary and told her that she was supremely blessed among women; that she was going to bear the Son of the Highest, and that he would be great. He would occupy the throne of his father David and of his kingdom there would be no end. Read it all in the first chapter of Luke's gospel. Mary was perplexed and asked how this could be since she was a virgin.

"Gabriel said: 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' (Luke 1:35).

"That is what Luke tells us and this means that Jesus came into the world. He was not just born like everybody else. He came out of eternity into time; he came from heaven to earth. This is Christianity. Whatever may be your moral and political views, the question confronting you is this: How are you related to the fact that the babe of Bethlehem is the eternal Son of God?"

-- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity, Vol. 1 

(Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), 8-9.

Ohio Democrat Proposes Draconian Homeschooling Legislation

"But the Home School Legal Defense Association has a different take, calling it the “worst-ever home school law” and saying Senate Bill 248 “is breathtakingly onerous in its scope.”

“It requires all parents who home school to undergo a social services investigation which would ultimately determine if homeschooling would be permitted. Social workers would have to interview parents and children separately, conduct background checks and determine whether homeschooling is recommended or not. If it is not recommended, parents would have to submit to an ‘intervention’ before further consideration of their request to home school.”

"That intervention would include individual and/or group behavioral counseling and classes on parenting, decision-making, personal or household finance and homeschooling – plus anything else the agency might decide is needed. Agency social workers would decide whether the intervention was successful, or not – and whether the parents will be permitted to homeschool their children."

Read more ... 

Army Cyber Command to Move to Fort Gordon

"The Army Cyber Command announced today that it will consolidate its network operations into a 179,000-square-foot facility on Fort Gordon and bring 1,500 active-duty military, government civilian and contract personnel jobs to the Augusta area."

Read more ...

Astonishing?

Phil Robertson

The Media Research Center, on their Facebook page, calls the response, over the past 24 hours, to Duck Dynasty's outspoken star, Phil Robertson's firing, "astonishing."

I can understand why they would say something like that. But what should be truly astonishing is the extent to which the bigoted, narrow-minded, holier-than-thou attitude of the religious left, most recently exemplified in the A&E Network's firing of Mr. Robertson, is taken as normal thinking.

Robertson's views are much closer to normal, and thankfully much more prevalent, than the views of those freaks at GLAAD. Just saying.

"Silent Night" is Offensive to the Religious Left

Well, I've got to start somewhere. So, there's this ...

School officials at Kings Park high school on the northern Long Island coast in New York have demonstrated their commitment to academic freedom by forcing their religious beliefs on their students. In the view of these hypocrites, the old Christmas hymn, Silent Night is offensive. Consequently, they have disallowed the hymn to be sung as originally written (John F. Young translated Joseph Mohr's "Stille Nacht" into English).

Offensive phrases include: "Holy Infant" and "Christ the Savior."

Kings Park high school has existed since at least 2007, but only now, as its students prepare for their annual Christmas concert, has its pharisaical leaders felt brave enough to declare--A&E Network-like--that the words to Silent Night must be banned.

"Welcome to the Kings Park Central School District," the district's website proclaims. 

"The Kings Park School District will provide an excellent education for all children. Students will be given the opportunity to develop academically, physically, socially, and emotionally, while learning the necessary skills to communicate effectively. This will be accomplished in a stimulating and challenging environment that maximizes every resource available."

Yeah, right. This will actually be accomplished by the school's censoring of historical texts.

In demonstration of the high school's official's higher learning, we are informed that their "intent was to avoid offending non-Christians." So they end up offending practically the whole audience.

No, their intent was to demonstrate to their students, to their students' parents, and to their community how enlightened they are, how superior they are to mere citizens. Their intent was to shove their own religious views down the throats of their aforementioned audience.

The article concludes by telling us that the school's principal later apologized and that officials promise that something like this "won't happen again."

Don't hold your breath.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones Interview (circa 1970)

This interview occurred after Dr. Lloyd-Jones' retirement from pastoring at Westminster Chapel, in London, for nearly 30 years. It is a remarkable interview, the like of which is seldom seen on live television these days. Ms Joan Bakewell, the interviewer, gave the doctor a pretty fair hearing ... and he took great advantage of it!

Post Doctrine 2015 ... Here's Hoping

"There are things that we have learned that make us a more effective force on the battlefield, and I think we want to go ahead with those lessons."  -- Gen. Robert W. Cone, commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, on why the Army should increase focus on Strategic Landpower.

General Robert Cone

Well said. But you won't find much about those words in a Doctrine 2015 publication. Apparently, the guidance is that there isn't enough room to write about them, that we have to cut down on the contents in order to make the doctrine more "accessible." So, no side stories. No snippets from history. No illustrative case studies or vignettes. No quotations from effective leaders. No interviews.

Like other good ideas half-way thought out, Doctrine 2015 will pass. When it is finally realized that all these new-fangled publications--ADPs, ADRPs, ATPs, and FMs with only tactics (not) and procedures (sometimes)--really haven't made all that much of an improvement in terms of actual doctrine, there will be a new campaign with new buzz words. When it finally dawns on the brass that Soldiers are getting most of their doctrinal information from social media--because who wants to click through six, eight, or a dozen publications for something--that old standby, the field manual will make a comeback. 

And maybe, the powers that be will actually be anxious to capture those valuable lessons learned in doctrinal publications once again. It could happen!