Non-speck

From the NY Times, and from a journalist who is careful to keep his distance from evangelical Christians, comes an observation that they deserve better than current public opinion gives them:

"In liberal circles, evangelicals constitute one of the few groups that it’s safe to mock openly. . . Yet the liberal caricature of evangelicals is incomplete and unfair."

Nicholas Kristoff then tells the story of a doctor he met in Angola who has spent 37 years at a rural hospital. He raised his family there, one child getting polio and another malaria, all of them subject to danger and malnutrition at times. Kristoff says that a disproportionate number of "aid workers" he's met (like Dr. Foster) are evangelicals, nuns, or priests.

Are Dr. Foster, his parents, and his grandparents (all missionaries) living insignificant lives of "speck-less-ness" as Bill Nye puts it? Or are they examples of ordinary Christians living meaningful lives of genuine goodness? 

Foreign save

To get into trouble in a foreign country is real trouble. You may not know the legal system and you don't have a local personal network to call on for help or advice.

American Eric Volz was charged with murder in Nicaragua; he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years. But after a year of working with investigators and lawyers on an appeal, the conviction was overturned. His wrote about it in Gringo Nightmare.

Other people turned to him, and the "David House" was organized to investigate and help. But it's expensive - he warns them it will cost $1-2 million.

About 3,000 Americans are arrested outside the U.S. per year. Evidence may be absent or overlooked when that government is angry at America. "Foreign prosecutions of Americans," they said, "are in effect a coercive policy tool used by less powerful governments."

(from NYTimes.com)

Cinderella

If you like your fairy tales de-constructed and re-imagined, like the Maleficent version of Sleeping Beauty or The Huntsman version of Snow White, you've had plenty of them. The new movie "Cinderella" is neither re-imagined nor twisted, but true to the story.

There's modern touches. "On occasion, the film pokes a little fun at conventional fairytale tropes, as in a scene when the ball is about to begin: The king chides his son for wanting to marry a woman he's seen only once in the woods, and Kit retorts that everyone else is expecting him to marry a woman after seeing her only once at a ball."

This beautiful heroine takes to heart her mother's dying message, "Have courage and be kind."

Kindness as a superpower, as director Kenneth Branagh puts it, must be done with a light touch to prevent sweetness from becoming cloying. Any fairy tale goodness will be cloying for some people, but Branagh has achieved that light touch - even the reviews are good.

Nuclear hurry

(cont'd)

There's a research team of Chinese scientists working to design a nuclear plant that can use the element thorium instead of uranium. (Thorium is more abundant.) They were originally given 25 years to complete their work, but the government notified them that their deadline has been reduced to 10 years. 

"In the past, the government was interested in nuclear power because of the energy shortage. Now, they are more interested because of smog," says a scientist working on the project.

 "The problem of coal has become clear," he said: "if the average energy consumption per person doubles, this country will be choked to death by polluted air."

(from theguardian.com)

China nuclear

American environmentalists have had second thoughts about their traditional opposition to nuclear. Reliable, local, no-carbon-emissions energy has a definite appeal.

Asia seems to be thinking the same thing. China has been making a move to cleaner energy that includes nuclear. "Chinese nuclear power is going gangbusters, with some two dozen plants under construction and another two dozen in the pipeline."

One problem - "they have a checkered record on industrial safety, [making] more than a few nervous."

"Ideally, if China had more regulators and a more open system, with nongovernmental organizations staffed with nuclear experts airing these issues in public, it would bolster confidence in China’s ability to handle the pace of its nuclear expansion . ."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Kids 4 sale

Terrorist group/army Boko Haram has forcibly taken a land area roughly the size of Belgium in northern Nigeria. They attack villages, raid schools, kidnap and murder, with one of the results being that a lot of people have lost their homes and so are displaced - about a million.

Half of them are children, many orphaned and living in refugee camps. They are vulnerable.

In response to a news tip, a CNN journalist and her team posed as customers to investigate whether trafficking was taking place. They got in touch with someone in the camps who sells kids, and negotiated a price of $500 for two children. Here is her story.

Speck

Someone else who seems to have the same view of humans as those "Nature is Speaking" videos is that entertaining "science guy," Bill Nye, honored as humanist of the year in 2010.  You and lots of other kids may have watched his PBS tv show, laughed and learned science after school. But lately he's revealed another side of his beliefs, a hardline atheistic outlook that most Americans don't share.

He sees humans and their place in the universe as . . well, here is an excerpt from his speech (at 5:08 in the video) at the American Humanist Association:

"I'm insignificant. ... I am just another speck of sand. And the earth really in the cosmic scheme of things is another speck. And the sun an unremarkable star. ... And the galaxy is a speck. I'm a speck on a speck orbiting a speck among other specks among still other specks in the middle of specklessness. I suck."

"Under Nye's outlook, even humanity's advanced abilities, like our moral codes and selfless altruism, are not special gifts that show we were made for a higher purpose."

Human speaks

(3rd of three)

There's a pretty good chance I'm missing something in these "Nature is speaking" promotional spots.

The implications are clear:

• we humans are not really important
• nature is at least as important as we are
• "Mother Nature" doesn't care for us at all
• we are weak, insignificant and vulnerable as a species
• we've taken more of earth's resources than our share

Of course, the point of the campaign is to motivate all us humans to take better care of earth's natural resources. And I agree that it's our responsibility and joy to do that.

But does telling us that we are no more significant in the grand scheme of things than, say, chipmunks, motivate or empower you or me to get that done? Is shaming a good strategy? Add threats - a strategy of shaming plus threats.

Ocean speaks

(2nd of three)

Harrison Ford is the voice of The Ocean in this one. He tells us that this planet is not ours, it does not belong to humans. And that The Ocean once covered the planet and - threat warning - The Ocean can cover it again.

Moreover, The Ocean doesn't "give a d--- about humans."

Tone = menacing.



 



Nature speaks

(1st of three)

Conservation International has a new campaign, "Nature is Speaking." Celebrities like Julia Roberts and Harrison Ford donate (or not) their skills. They have probably never acted the part of an inanimate object before, but they do now in very short videos - objects like trees and oceans.



All the videos end with: "Nature doesn't need people. People need nature." Right, we all really do depend on nature for air, water, food, and much more.

But this is a little different from other nature films. The tone is not cheerful, not fun, not refreshing - it's menacing. "Mother Nature" in her Julia-Roberts-voice says, "I have fed species greater than you and I have starved species greater than you." Delivered with a slightly eerie sound track, that could be a threat.

Coffee

A few cups of coffee is good for you in a number of ways. That's the gist of the latest studies, and it's consistent with earlier studies coming to the same conclusion.

Drinking a few cups a day has been linked to reduced risk for:  skin cancer, MS, diabetes, Alzheimer's, liver disease, Parkinson's, and more. It's even linked to longer life.

Wait, define cup of coffee. In these studies it's 5-8 ounces including caffeine but not including whipped cream, caramel, chocolate, etc. (they contribute to the good experience of going to the coffee house, but not to your good health).

A few people react to coffee with sleeplessness or high blood pressure. But, as CNN says:  "For many of us, coffee is a blessing. And as long as you avoid its pitfalls, current science seems to be saying you can continue to enjoy it, guilt free."

(Ten Commandment series will be back on April 17)

CO2 & GDP

Diversity of opinion over "climate change" runs the gamut. At one of the extreme ends of that range is the claim that "economic growth" necessarily increases CO2 emissions, thereby hastening global disaster.

Economic growth, roughly equivalent to GDP growth, means "the increase in the market value of the goods and services produced . . . " A growing economy means a better standard of living for people.

Here is the conflict:  that claim above demands that economic growth STOP and that standards of living FALL, or the world will be damaged beyond repair. That's radical.

But wait, there's good news: new information may challenge the claim:

In the year 2014, the global economy grew but carbon (CO2) emissions didn't. Why is this good news? Because apparently it is possible to grow the economy and still lower the CO2. Maybe everyone can win.

Maggie #2

(cont'd)

The Zabbaleen live in the midst of trash (photos & story at  www.dailymail.co.uk). It's their livelihood in Cairo, Egypt. As a Christian minority, they were not allowed to do anything but dirty jobs hundreds of years ago, and now they have known nothing else for generations.

www.urbanpeek.com

Using the skills she developed in her profession, "Mama Maggie" started "Stephen's Children" and nearly 90 community centers in the "garbage slums" that serve both Christians and Muslims. She's done this for 20+ years.

Her ministry includes schools and job training, and her message is forgiveness and love.

Remember those 21 Christians beheaded by Islamic State on the beach in Libya recently? According to Dr. Martin Makary who met Maggie Gobran while on a medical mission, seven of them were children from her schools.

Maggie

(first of two)

"Garbage slums" are home to tens of thousands in Cairo, Egypt.  People live there, raise children there, and earn income there . . by processing garbage.

Maggie Gobran, by contrast, grew up enjoying a life of privilege in Cairo, and pursued a university and business career. But her life changed when she visited the garbage slums. A Coptic Christian, she felt that God called her to help them.

“God wanted to promote me,” she relates. “He said ‘leave the best, the smartest, and go to the poorest of the poor.”

A book has just been published about her work among the poor of the garbage slums. Listen to Maggie talk about her passion to love these children here.

Saving art

Ancient monuments and art of various Middle East cultures has been destroyed and more is in danger. Since governments and the U.N. move slowly, local people have been doing what they can to preserve them.

A large collection of ancient mosaics in the middle of a battle between the Syrian government and rebels is still intact only because locals piled sandbags  around the museum that houses it.

Last summer in Iraq, two Christian monks in "Erbil digitized ancient manuscripts in case Islamists destroyed the originals." One of them, Father Najeeb Michaeel,  told NPR, “. . these books [are] my children.”

Some antiquities are destroyed, some are looted and sold on the black market - yet another source of money for the Islamic State. "Revenue from antiquities looting is becoming a more significant funding stream for ISIS, many Middle East experts believe . . "

"[L]ooting is a major form of employment for those living under ISIS," according to a Boston University archaeologist.

Easy giving

What a good idea from a customer of this pizza shop - and well-done, Mason Wartman, for carrying out the good idea. Everyone wins with this cool twist on charitable giving.

Escaped

Not everyone in those Christian villages of northern Syria was captured. We now have one family's story of escape.

Nuri lived with his wife and three children in Tel Tamer. He woke up before dawn last week and realized that "Daesh" had come (Arabic for IS). They were setting explosives on the bridge and shooting at the Iraqi army.

When he saw men, women, and kids being hauled onto trucks, he left off watching to wake up his family and hide them. As daylight came, they started walking east, getting an occasional ride in a truck. They eventually made it across the Iraq border to be with relatives. 

But 1400 families were not that lucky - after being run out of their villages, they're now homeless and sleeping on the floors of churches, schools and hospitals. They can't go home.  This is how "the Islamic State militants are using swift terrorist raids to empty this area of northern Syria of Christians."

I think a new "Label" category is called for but I'm not sure what it should be. IS War, maybe?

It's good to know about one family who escaped.

Evidence

If you, or anyone else, want to believe in atheism, you or they certainly can. God has made you a "free moral agent," and you have the right to believe what you choose.

You may also choose faith in God - without leaving your brain behind. Sometimes we hear someone (could be a scientist) say that science has proved God doesn't exist, or that only ignorant people believe in God. That is simply untrue.

Watch this video summarize exciting discoveries of the last couple decades that make a strong case for belief in God:

Ransom?

There's more information on that Islamic State kidnapping story from a few days ago.

It seems that between 262 and 350 people were captured - not 150 - from as many as twelve Christian villages in northern Syria. Homes and churches were burned or vandalized, and all Christians have fled their homes.

Nineteen have been released, and there's speculation that ransom money may have been paid.

Ransom money - a horrible dilemma. If you don't pay it, bad things will be done to the victim. If you do pay it, you fund the kidnappers to capture more victims and do more bad things to them.

Books too

Destruction of everything that Islamic State doesn't approve of included the ancient sculpture in yesterday's post . . plus 100,000 books and manuscripts at libraries. 

Head of United Nations' UNESCO says it has been “one of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history.”

She added: “This destruction marks a new phase in the cultural cleansing  . . that seeks to wipe out the cultural diversity that is the soul of the Iraqi people.”

At Mosul University (Iraq), the colleges of law, phy ed, political science, languages, social science, were all closed when Islamic State took over last summer. Their libraries were looted and vandalized. 

What to do with that now empty college space? Easy. "The classrooms of the closed colleges and departments are now the sleeping quarters for Isis fighters, and are used as storage for their weapons cache."

(from theguardian.com, U.S. edition)

ISIS & art

(first of two)

CNN reports something not-to-be-overlooked in Iraq. Yet another crime to lay at the feet of ISIS is its destruction of priceless art.

Drills and hammers were used to ruin museum treasures. According to William Webber of Art Loss Register, some of it looked like plaster breaking apart in this video, but he says it's actually a fragile stone.

Historical sites are also a worry, and the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah was destroyed last summer.

Why? They are "attacking anything that's pre-Islamic or that they don't agree with in Shia areas or in Christian churches," says Webber.

God-given

(cont'd from last Tuesday's post)

Jay Richards has some wisdom to add to that argument between Chris Cuomo and Judge Roy Moore on the moral foundation of our rights as human beings (last Tuesday's post, "God-given").  

Cuomo's claim was that, “Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man.” It's a condescending tone, as if the claim has been proven, everyone knows it, and the judge won't admit it. 

Not so. Throughout American history, human rights were considered important because they were given by God, as written in the founding document of America, the Declaration.

Jefferson said it in the Declaration. Dr. M.L.King used this thinking in his letters from a Birmingham jail. And we use the transcendent standard of natural law (from "nature's God") when we say any law is unjust.

"Sever the idea of rights and equality from its foundation, and all we have left is bare opinion, and raw power."