In 1774, a young James Madison, while traveling through Culpeper County in Virginia – well before he became our fourth president – passed by a jail where a number of Baptist preachers had been incarcerated for nothing more than preaching without an official government license. One of these "criminals" preached from a window of the jail to any who would listen. Madison would never forget the dedication of those brave preachers – nor the audacity of the officials who had jailed them.

So profoundly moved was he by what he described as this "diabolical hell-conceived principle of persecution," that Madison would dedicate much of his life to defending religious freedom. He authored the "Memorial and Remonstrance," a summary of fundamental religious liberty cited in U.S. Supreme Court opinions, and the Virginia Bill of Rights, after which the United States Bill of Rights was modeled. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he proposed the wording of the First Amendment and his overall effort and influence earned him the compliment of "chief architect of the Constitution."

Media should jump off Rudd bandwagon - Andrew Bolt

As Media Watch has now revealed, 20 media outfits have accepted invitations from Rudd's office to send a reader, listener or viewer to join his summit. They include all the big ones: the ABC, Fairfax, Channel 9 and News Ltd. The Herald Sun first suggested one reader go to the summit to inject "real world" politics. But Rudd hijacked the idea and now even other summit critics are spruiking it as a lucky prize for their audiences -- a chance to air ideas rather than as a cynical stunt to co-opt opponents and present Rudd as the Great Listener. This is the media being dragged on to Rudd's bandwagon.

Example two is the media's abuse of the Opposition after the Liberals' Alexander Downer skipped a Question Time and the Nationals' Mark Vaile flew to Dubai on private business. The media was outraged. The Opposition MPs were "sulky-suits", "self-indulgent" and "bludgers". They should get back to work, jeered Rudd's Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke. We need rules about MPs earning cash on the side, lectured Rudd. Hear, hear, the pack gloated.

Excuse me. You want to see an MP earning money on the side? Look no further than Rudd, who earned almost $130,000 during his first three years in Parliament, helping businesses wanting to set up in China. An MP skipping Parliament to please rich patrons? Look again no further than Rudd, who went on a trip financed by the Beijing AustChina Technology company in 2006, missing not one but several Question Times. Where the jeers of "bludgers" then? The media holds the Liberals to harsh standards it never imposed on Labor.

Abortion: The Innocent Blood of Our Sons and Daughters - By John Piper

Flying over psalm 106 and all its horrors and failures that are so relevant for our modern age, is the banner of Jesus Christ as the final Savior of the world who has died for sins and conquered guilt and condemnation and death and hell—for everyone who cries out from the heart, “Save me, O Lord my God.”

Flying over this message about abortion is the banner of the cross of Christ. Its color is crimson. Because the blood of Christ takes away the sin of abortion and the sin of not caring about it. So I don’t just end today with the call for repentance and the offer of forgiveness. I begin with it. I want it to hover over your head while I walk you through this text.

The Unbelieving Poet Catches Glimpses of Truth - By John Piper

Since all humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and the work of God’s law is written on every heart (Romans 2:15), and the heavens are telling the glory of God to everyone who can see (Psalm 19:1), and God has put eternity in man’s heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and by God’s providence every person is set to grope for God (Acts 17:27), and in God we all live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), it is not surprising that even people without eyes to see the glory of Christ nevertheless have glimpses into the way the world really is, and then don’t know what to do with them.

The Existence of God - Regis Nicoll

Belief in God. Sigmund Freud called it a childish fantasy. Bertrand Russell compared it with believing that a celestial teapot was orbiting the earth. Richard Dawkins is fond to say that there are many things he disbelieves: woodland fairies, fire-breathing dragons, and Flying Spaghetti Monsters. God is just one more imaginary being he adds to the list.

Instead of tackling time-tested theological arguments for God, atheist popularizers dismiss Him to the realm of elves, trolls, and the Easter Bunny. It’s an evasive maneuver that plays well to those inclined to disbelief.

The 39 Major ProChoice Arguments and Their Refutations - by Randy Alcorn

Abortion in the Bible and Church History - by Randy Alcorn

There is a small but influential circle of prochoice advocates who claim to base their beliefs on the Bible. They maintain that "nowhere does the Bible prohibit abortion." [1] Yet the Bible clearly prohibits the killing of innocent people (Exodus 20:13). All that is necessary to prove a biblical prohibition of abortion is to demonstrate that the Bible considers the unborn to be human beings.

**Notes for Christians on Understanding "A Common Word Between Us and You"** - Mark Durie

A Common Word Between Us and You is a letter addressed to Christians by 138 Muslim scholars. It invites Christians to agree on certain ‘common ground’ with Muslims as the foundation of interfaith dialogue and mutual understanding, for the sake of peace in the world. Key points addressed in these notes include:

No Need to Change Abortion Law - Donna Purcell (GP)

WITH State Parliament resuming yesterday, it seems the member for Aspley, Bonny Barry, is still hell-bent on introducing a Private
Member’s Bill to decriminalise abortion in Queensland. Decriminalisation means abortion would be legal for any or no reason until the day of birth, a position only extremist ideologues would endorse.

Testing time ahead for Labor P-platers - February 2008 - by Andrew Bolt

HOW odd. The Rudd Government claims it will keep the test that we make migrants sit to qualify as citizens. But there's a catch.

Because the test fails exactly the people you'd expect, Immigration Minister Chris Evans now wants to change the questions. Yes, it's that simple and that stupid. Evans wants to make sure the kind of people who now rightly fail the test will pass it more easily, especially if they have no English. So why have a test at all? .

Why Johnny Can't Multiply - Regis Nicoll

If you’re wondering why your child finds math akin to reading Sanskrit on fossilized bark, the culprit could be “reformed math.”

In 1989, the National Education Summit established goals for public education. Among them: “By the year 2000, United States students will be the first in the world in mathematics and science achievement.” Soon afterward, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) crafted and unveiled new standards for math instruction.

In contrast to the traditional methods aimed at computational accuracy and individual mastery using time-tested algorithms, reformed methods emphasized group participation and thought processing. The NCTM standards also called for “mathematical equity”; namely, that the goals for math instruction reflect social justice issues, like the politics of race and gender.

Saint Maxine Loses Courtesy - December 2007- by Andrew Bolt

McKew, the former ABC TV host, became an instant Labor darling by beating prime minister John Howard in his own seat of Bennelong ... "I think Paul Keating got it right, you know, this election has wiped away the toxicity," she declared.

Earth to McKew: You make a liar of yourself. Calling your defeated opponent toxic, brutish and a horrible absolutist is hardly proof that this election has wiped away the toxicity. Rather the reverse. ... .

Rudd Faces hard Labor - November 2007- by Andrew Bolt

KEVIN Rudd as prime minister will be a control freak, and not just because that's the way he obsessively ticks.

He'll be a control freak because he has little choice: he's a friendless leader promising what some in his Labor team don't want to deliver.

More Trouble for Naturalistic Origins

For years it has been thought that Einstein’s theory of gravity (general relativity) required a fatal attraction around super-massive objects, causing the creation of black holes—dreadful objects where nothing, not even light, can escape their greedy grasp. The idea that physics predicts stellar objects that gobble up everything in their gravitational web has spawned a spate of sci-fi speculations about spacetime rips, time-tunneling, and multiple universes.

Partial-birth Abortion: A Clash of Worldviews - Bill Haynes - Senior Policy Analyst for Cultural & Worldview Studies, American Center for Law & Justice

Thirty years ago, on January 22, 1973, a major culture shift took place in the United States. With a devastating stroke of a pen the United States Supreme Court shifted the law away from the major worldview that had occupied the thinking of our country since its birth. The decision, Roe v. Wade, made legal the termination of pregnancy by abortion across the nation. It was argued that this would only result in early first trimester abortions - history has proven otherwise. The results of that decision are still being felt today. In the latest reporting data from the Centers for Disease Control there have been approximately 42,036,175 abortions (5) in the past 30 years in the U. S. since Roe v. Wade.

USA: Pray for the Third Wave - By John Piper

The end of abortion as a business is in sight when the prolife movement is not only joined by, but led by, the African-American and Latino Christian Community. I call it the Third Wave. ... The First Wave of the modern prolife movement was the Catholic Church. In the late 60’s, as abortion “rights” were argued for in New York and California, many Catholic doctors, ethicists, and laypeople understood the horrifying truth of abortion and began to organize.

... In the late 70’s, the Second Wave arose. The Evangelical Church joined the Cause. One rushing tributary formed when Francis Scheaffer and C. Everet Koop produced a book and film called Whatever Happened to the Human Race? Evangelical pastors and lay people were awakened to the biblical and historical call to cherish and defend innocent human life.

Abortion-relevant References from Scripture and Church History - by Randy Alcorn

Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit." (Job 10:8-12)

The Impotence Pandemic

Pornographically Induced Impotence is now a national pandemic, raking in untold billions for pornographers and their satellite businesses as well as from the marital discord and despair it produces... What percentage suffer from pornographically induced impotence is unknown. For pornography emasculates indiscriminately. It castrates men of every race, religion and "orientation," atheist and orthodox, rich and poor, conservative and radical, young and old, svelte and paunchy, handsome and unappealing, scientist and sky cap, the clever and the obtuse, en masse.

The Chilling Effect of Ignorance

Is history just repeating itself? In the Protestant Reformation, men like Martin Luther, John Wycliff and John Huss were persecuted or killed for translating the Bible into the language of the people so that men and women would understand its clear meaning. This contradicted the official position of the powerful but corrupt church at Rome. By bringing the word of God directly to the people, these reformers were undermining the self-appointed role of the pope as the only acceptable interpreter of the Scriptures.

What God Hath Joined Together - by Stephen Baskerville

The advent of "no-fault" divorce has given rise to a system that strips fathers of their children, accelerates the breakdown of families, and makes a mockery of the marital contract.

Same-sex marriage is a symptomatic threat to families, compared to the more fundamental effect of "no fault" divorce. "Commentators miss the point when they oppose homosexual marriage on the grounds that it would undermine traditional understandings of marriage," writes Bryce Christensen of Southern Utah University. "It is only because traditional understandings of marriage have already been severely undermined that homosexuals are now laying claim to it."

Redeemed, 10 Ways to Get out of a Gay Life - by Charlene E. Cothran

As the publisher of a 13 year old periodical which targets Black gays and lesbians, I have had the opportunity to publicly address thousands, influencing closeted people to ‘come out’ and stand up for them selves, which is particularly difficult in the African-American community.

But now, I must come out of the closet again. I have recently experienced the power of change that came over me once I completely surrendered to the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a believer of the word of God, I fully accept and have always known that same-sex relationships are not what God intended for us. .

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Food 4 Thought

Various Authors

When Preaching Becomes a Crime - Judge Roy Moore (USA)