Sibby Online

Christian persecution exposed

From WorldNetDaily:

When Jordanian Khalid Saad abandoned Islam and became a Christian, his family set out to kill him. But he escaped repeated attempts on his life, held up in prayer by thousands of Christians around the world who learned of his needs through the newsletter of Voice of the Martyrs.

In Saad's situation, those prayers carried him through an assassination attempt that left 12 bullet holes in his car, several hit-and-run attacks, and an assault by a taxi driver who drove into him, knocked him down, and ran over his arm.

As the battle over the persecution of Christians worldwide rages – estimates are that 200 million Christians around the globe are subject at any time to punishments up to and including death simply for believing – so does the need for information for those who are not yet on the more violent front lines,

That's where the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, available through an online signup process, becomes important.

…

Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.

Stan Adelstein getting a butt kicking

South Dakota War College has two posts that hold Stan Adelstein accountable for his pro-Democrat support.

Here is the link to the first, and here is the second. Nice job by SDWC for bringing on the truth. And don’t forget to check the comments. For example we have Bill Fleming and Nicholas Nemec defending Adelstein, Both are far-left secular Democrat activists. The Drive-by media would be very misleading if they refer to Adelstein as a moderate ever again.

UPDATE: Here is a column that points out that Republicans like Stan Adelstein are not Reagan conservatives:

However, before the people who once formed the Religious Right can become the significant force they once were, they must learn from their mistakes. For one thing, they mistakenly believed that most Republicans shared Ronald Reagan's conservatism. Most don't. It has been money, not principles, that has always been at the heart of Republican and Democratic politics. Republicans have historically been the puppets of big-business, while Democrats have been the puppets of big-labor. It was Ronald Reagan who gave the GOP a semblance of righteousness. It was only a façade. Unfortunately, this misplaced trust allowed the Religious Right to be totally and thoroughly beguiled by conservative phonies George Bush I and II. At the end of the day, money, not righteousness, is in charge of both major parties. It's time that Christian conservatives understood that.

Secondly, if the people that made the Religious Right such a powerful force are to regain their credibility, they must come to understand that the strength of their cause is found, not in a political party, but in the adherence to constitutional principles. Hence, what we desperately need today is a constitutional reawakening. If Christians would be as determined and energized in electing men and women who will follow the Constitution as they were in electing Republicans, most of the issues they care about would be resolved.

Yes, in many ways, the Religious Right died with Jerry Falwell. However, the opportunity for conservatives, whether Christian or not, to be a powerful voice in government has never been greater. The two major parties are in meltdown. And there are millions of disenfranchised citizens from all faiths and persuasions that are thirsting for old-fashioned, commonsense, constitutional government. In this regard, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority is very much alive and well--and waiting.

And I think that also supports my point that we must shed the conservative label, as we no longer want to maintain the status quo in a defensive approach. Instead we must realize that American has gone way to far to the left, and we must go on the offense to restore traditional American values and principles.

Another Kranz drive-by on Thune

Bob Ellis reports on another David Kranz drive-by on John Thune:

So was this article intended to inform the reader about the issue of stem cell therapy...or was it intended to paint Senator John Thune as a mean, uncaring, cold, unscientific man who just doesn't care that there are people suffering out there, in need of cures that are just right around the corner, if only we could get these Bible-thumping moralists out of the way so we can use human embryos for medical research?

I suppose you have to commend the Argus for even bothering to mention that Thune supports adult stem cell research; for the Argus, I guess that qualifies as "balance." But they somehow "missed" perhaps the most pertinent and important fact about stem cell research: adult stem cell therapy has ALREADY helped people. There wasn't a single mention of that in the article.

While the Kranz piece makes it sound as if adult stem cell research only offers the hope of cures such as the claims made about embryonic stem cell research, adult stem cell research has reached the point that it's no longer just research: it's therapy that has already been used dozens of times.

It has restored vision to a blind man. A heart valve was also grown recently using adult stem cell therapy.

In fact, here is a list of successes adult stem cell therapy has ALREADY had. In case you're too afraid to look at it and see the truth, there are 72 maladies on this list. Meanwhile, the crickets are still chirping as we wait for even one success from embryonic stem cell research.

Here is another article with more detail about some of the treatments adult stem cell therapy has ALREADY provided while we wait for even one from embryonic stem cell research.

Adult stem cell therapy was also recently used to create insulin.

Let me say it again, in case I wasn't clear before: embryonic stem cell research, which destroys human embryos (i.e. human life) has yet to yield a single success. Meanwhile, adult stem cell research is ALREADY curing illnesses and injuries.

The Argus Leader piece somehow failed to point out this simple but absolutely pivotal difference in stem cell research.

Instead of telling the truth, Kranz’s far-left propagnada spurs this kind of reaction, as found at a comment to the Kranz column:

I'll say it loud and clear. This is cutting edge technology that could cure some types of paralysis and many kinds of diseases that are now considered hopless.

What we DON'T need are the pro-life Morality Police sticking their completely unwanted noses into the issue, thereby preventing research that could make the lives of thousands of seriously sick and otherwise permanently injured individuals whole once more.

I'll say three things here. One, I'd bet hard money that more than a few of these Holier Than Thou zealots would be chomping at the bit for a cure if they were in the same position of, say, the late Christopher Reeve. I'd bet if they were quadriplegics, their over the top, outdated and unwanted morality would go out the window in a heartbeat.

Bet me.

The embryos that would be used aren't viable for life in the first place, but the rabid pro-lifers don't want you to know that.

Two, live and let live. Take your archaic pro-life morality and go somehere else, preferably a place VERY hot. Medical science can do wonders if the Morality Police would stay on their own side of the fence for a change.

See the kind of rage and anger the Drive-by media creates. If this person would stop and think that there would be no science if God hadn’t created it, instead of drinking the pro-Democrat Kool-Aid of David Kranz.

Pro-choice education

Bob Ellis has a very extensive post on public education that has a very sound reason to consider school vouchers as the only method that provides a truly "free" education:

If you believe your child should be educated in a private school that carries the secularist bent to the hilt, you could do that (though our public schools are already about 90% of the way there). If you are a Hindu and want your child educated in a private school that reinforces your Hindu worldview, you could do that. If you are a Christian and want your child educated in an environment that reinforces your values, you could do that. Or if you want your child educated in a values-neutral environment (if such a thing is possible), then you could send your child to one that was trying to provide that kind of environment.

A "free" education would still be accessible for all, regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof. And since the taxpayer-funded vouchers would be available to all, without regard for religious affiliation or lack thereof, there is no way whatsoever to logically argue that the First Amendment is being violated by respecting one religious establishment over another, which was essentially the intent of the First Amendment with regard to religious establishments.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Of course, the social engineers who depend on the public schools as their engine to manufacture good little socialist drones won't like it. And neither will education establishment bureaucrats. And neither will the teacher's unions.

But those aren't "real people," anyway. They aren't the ones with "skin in the game," other than feathering their own nests. They aren't the ones who have to watch their children get a poor excuse for an education, where they can graduate into the adult world barely able to read and knowing nothing of history. They aren't the ones who have to watch their children go off to a secular institution that will work systemically to sanitize their child of any faith or moral values they try to instill in their offspring.

The Map

A father wanted to read a magazine but was being bothered by his little girl, Shelby. She wanted to know what the United States looked like. Finally, he tore a sheet out of his new magazine on which was printed the map of the country. Cutting out all the states, he gave it to Shelby, and said, "Go into the other room and see if you can put this together. This will show you our whole country today." After a few minutes, Shelby returned and handed him the map correctly fitted together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly. Oh," she said, "on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus back where He belonged, then our country just came together."

Hillary joins mainstream coalition

Not really, but as South Dakota War College posts on the Adelstein/Katus potential race for the South Dakota Senate, I found this column by Judge Roy Moore regarding Hillary Clinton’s preschool plan. Remember Adelstein’s fellow Mainstream Coalitin members Senators Tom Dempster, Ed Olson, and Dave Knudson pushed for government preschools during the last South Dakota legislative session. With Hillary now joining in, perhaps we can now understand just how radical and extreme the Mainstream Coaltion really is, or was. Here is the introdruction to the Moore column:

Last week, U.S. Sen. and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton unveiled a new proposal to fund state pre-kindergarten programs for all 4-year-old children in America. Calling the benefits of these pre-kindergarten programs "astonishing," Clinton claimed such programs would not only reduce child behavioral problems, but would also make children less likely to enter special education programs, drop out of school or enter the welfare system.

However, pre-kindergarten programs have been around for many years, and such grandiose claims have been refuted by several studies on the effectiveness of such programs. The truth is government-run pre-kindergarten programs are another huge burden on taxpayers, and, in fact, they are detrimental to children and our country.

Moore presents some studies that support his position:

Such vivid speculation has been disproved by independent studies that actually find little or no difference between the academic, social and intellectual development of children who attend such programs and those who do not. Even those studies that have measured some positive effects from pre-kindergarten programs did not find that those effects remained beyond the first grade.

A commonly claimed benefit of these programs is that they reduce delinquency, but a comprehensive survey at Yale of the studies done on these programs found a "general lack of positive impacts in this area." As for Mrs. Clinton's claim that these programs reduce school behavioral problems, studies show exactly the opposite: at least two major studies have found children who attended these programs over time actually had more behavioral problems than those who did not attend. One study concluded these programs "seem to have little or no effect on children's intellectual development or school performance, and they might have negative behavioral consequences for young children."

Such survey results should not be surprising. Young children deserve and need more time with their parents at ages 3 and 4. Public schools, which have failed to teach children basic math, reading and analytical skills in the K-12 years, do not need or deserve an extra year or two to reach the same results.

Moore brings up the real agenda of those who push for government preschools:

Why, then, do social liberals like Hillary Clinton push so hard for the expansion of preschool programs? Perhaps they understand the truth of Proverbs 22:6 better than most parents: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." When the mind of a young child is subjected to state control before fundamental concepts and basic beliefs are formulated, the child is much more likely to learn a liberal social and political philosophy with the state as his or her master. Creation and God-given rights are more easily replaced with evolution and government-granted rights. Totalitarian regimes like those of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin knew well the value of a "youth corps." As Hans Schemm, leader of the Nazi Teacher's League, once observed, "Those who have the youth on their side control the future."

So the Mainstream Coalition agenda to remove morals from the legislative process was only the beginning. They are actually for removing moral values all together. And the Drive-by media calls the Republican members "moderate". BS, they are just as extreme as the secular far-left of the Democrat Party. Remember how the Democrats defended Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica?

And since I am on the subject of Bill Clinton, I have been hearing South Dakota Democrats mocking us for the allegations made against Ted Klaudt. Hldebrand’s bigoted blogger even mocked family values. No Republican, including myself, are justifying the alleged actions. If they are true, justice needs to be done. This is unlike the Democrats who justified the actions of Bill Clinton. They even justified lying under oath if it regards immoral sex acts. The Democrats care more about power than they do about justice or family values.

And such is the case today. Under America’s justice system, you are innocent until proven guilty. And you also deserve legal representation. Those premises don’t seem to mean much to former Democrat Legislator Mel Olson. Here is what Denise Ross is reporting:

Former legislative leader Mel Olson, D-Mitchell, says on the record what other lawmakers only will say off the record: "It was a mistake."

He’s talking about House Speaker Tom Deadrick, R-Platte, appearing as the lawyer for recently former Rep. Ted Klaudt, R-Walker, during Klaudt’s initial court appearance on charges that he raped his foster children, who also happened to have served as legislative pages.

Ross also quoted Olson:

Where’s the outrage, is what I’m hearing. It appears the Republican Party put their official stamp on rally-around-Ted-Klaudt.

I have the highest respect for Tom Deadrick, but at a minimum, it makes them, Republicans, look hypocritical. You can hear crickets from the Republican Party now that it’s one of their own. It’s banging shutters and tumbleweeds.

So, the hell with innocent until proven guilty. No one is justifying the alleged acts. And as I mentioned earlier in regard to Bill Clinton, it is the Democrats who have justified immoral sex acts. Who are they to judge anybody else.

And Mel Olson is also, or was, a member of the Mainstream Coaltion. So maybe the only Mel Olson is getting is impression from fellow GOP members of that organization.

And as those who charge Klaudt with conflict of interest for being a legislator and receiving funds from the State of South Dakota’s Foster care program. Mel Olson was a legislator and also received funds from the State as an employer of the public education system. And I wonder what his position is on universal government preschools? And is anyone going to question how much did the government's sex education agenda played into the mindset of those young girls' willingness to go along with such alleged acts? And should we also address the Mainstream Coaltion's agenda of removing morality from the public square in America?

Mr. President, do your job

Here is another screw up from President Bush:

Opponents of the controversial immigration deal forged by the White House and a bipartisan group of senators in private meetings "don't want to do what's right for America," President Bush said in a speech today.

"The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place," Bush told students and instructors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga.

The president argued the proposal, which offers a path to citizenship for the more than 12 million illegal immigrants, will make "it more likely we can enforce our border—and at the same time uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America."

Yes, we already have a system that has created a "great immigrant tradition of the United States of America". So do your job Mr. President and enforce the law. Hold the "illegal immigrants" accountable to the law, and allow those immigrants who want to come to America "legally" the same privilege that we have done in the past. Giving amnesty to those who are violating the law is not doing "right for America".

Unwelcome in Rapid City

Based on how Joey Cox was treated on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology campus and how he is being treated by the Rapid City Journal’s web site by activists of the South Dakota Democrat Party, perhaps the same sign should be made "Unwelcomed in Rapid City". And the far-left in the South Dakota Democrat Party will blame the resulting drop in tourism on President Bush and the high gas prices:

A newspaper in the greater St. Louis area is calling for officials in suburban Granite City, Ill., to cancel their war against pro-life protesters from the Small Victories ministry, whose members have been battling a major abortion behemoth.

The city of Granite City recently lost a long-running federal court battle to ban the pro-lifers from appearing with their anti-abortion posters at local parades, an effort Small Victories spokeswoman Angela Michael told WND is valuable because it is one of few opportunities of reaching many of the region's politicians.

Now the editorial board from the nearby Belleville, Ill., News-Democrat is calling for a halt to Granite City's attacks.

Under a headline "Unwelcomed in Granite City," the newspaper said, "They should put up a new sign at the entrance to Granite City: 'Welcome (unless you're a hooker or her John, homeless, a redneck with a couch on your porch or an anti-abortion protester).'"

Far-left eats it’s own

Anti-American Cindy Sheehan gets eaten by the anti-American far-left:

Cindy Sheehan, the so-called "Peace Mom" who gained national attention protesting President Bush's Iraq war policy by remaining camped in a ditch near his Crawford, Texas, ranch, has issued a resignation letter as the face of the American anti-war movement.

"Good-bye America," Sheehan writes in her online diary, "you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it."

Sheehan says she came to her "heartbreaking conclusions" this Memorial Day morning, saying, "These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now."

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called "Face" of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such "liberal blogs" as the Democratic Underground. Being called an "attention whore" and being told "good riddance" are some of the more milder rebukes.

Sheehan's son, Casey, was among the American casualties in Iraq, and Mrs. Sheehan, as WND exclusively reported, referred to the terrorists fighting U.S. troops as "freedom fighters."

Inside Islam

Bob Ellis has a very detailed and interesting post on the Rapid City South Canyon Baptist Church presentation of Islam. Excerpts:

The study on Islam by Dr. Richard Wells at South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City was very good tonight. Attendance was good and there was a fair number of notable faces present.

Dr. Wells began the evening by introducing the audience to several books from which he referenced, quoted and read. The Qur'an, of course, was one. Others were the Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, The Truth About Mohammed, and What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East. I believe all but one of these were written by Muslims, and the remaining one was written by one of the foremost authorities on Islam in the West; I just forget which one was which.

…

Wells also challenged the notion put forth by many, including President Bush, that Islam is a "religion of peace." Reminding us all of what we see on TV and in the newspapers almost daily (despite all the "religion of peace" talk), Wells said the dominant desire of the Muslim world is the total annihilation of the Jews. Why, you might wonder, do Muslims hate Jews and the state of Israel so much?

Because the mere existence of Israel brings to light something Muslims find hard to accept, Wells said: that the Islamic world is inferior (Wells was reading from "What Went Wrong?" here).

To illustrate his point, Wells asked the audience if they could name any cars manufactured in Islamic countries? He asked if anyone could name any imported goods manufactured in Islamic countries? There was silence.

Wells reminded the audience that Israel just regained statehood not quite 60 years ago, and that it has been surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned by the Muslim world...and that it's continued existence is "a humiliation to Islam of the first order" (I believe he was quoting from "What Went Wrong?" here).

…

Wells wrapped up the evening by reading from the Concise Encyclopedia of Islam (which was written by a Muslim, he said). He read the definition of "jihad" which the Qu'ran teaches, as "a divine institution of warfare to extend Islam into the non-Islamic territory."

He also read a passage which said "In colonial times [which was the Western colonial time, such as when Britain was in control of Palestine] when Islamic countries were not under Muslim control, this was an anomalous condition from the point of view of Islamic law." In other words, it was an illegitimate condition, or an aberration, for Muslims not to be in total control. What this means is that Islam refuses to coexist with others unless the population with which they live accepts a state of second-class citizenship.

Part 2 will be next Sunday night at 6:30 pm at South Canyon Baptist again. If you're in the Rapid City area, you won't want to miss it.