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June 2010

Flag Day, Jun 14

We do not worship the flag any more than we worship the cross - a symbol of freedom.  Consider the Christian symbolism of folding the flag.  Find the 25 hidden symbols in Jack Dawson’s “Impressions of Old Glory.”

Early Christian America

Unsolicited

Received in May 2010: "I did not subscribe to this, you took it upon yourself to do that. Please remove me from this unsolicited mail ." Carl

Americans have developed a concept of privacy.  Partly spurred by Court decisions, the right to privacy has replaced the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage.  Privacy allows a doctor to legally kill an unborn baby.  Privacy eradicated laws prohibiting sodomy in every state of the union and presses us toward the legalization of homosexual unions.  We cringe when an unsolicited encounter demands our attention - even at the opportunity of sharing the Gospel or giving aid.

God honors the right to privacy.  He neither forces salvation upon unbelievers, nor does He force His Holy Spirit upon believers.  On the other hand, He did sacrifice His Son for our sins - unsolicited.  For if it depended upon us, we would not have sought God first.  God has blessed America with liberty and prosperity - unsolicited by citizens today.  I don't hear Americans saying, "I did not ask for liberty and prosperity, so stop it.  Remove me from these unsolicited blessings."  As we celebrate Independence Day on a Sunday this year, let us be grateful for what God sends our way - solicited or unsolicited.

We love Him, because He first loved us. (1Jn 4:19).


Worldviews in Conflict

Besides the obvious differences between Christianity and non-Christian worldviews, we also see a distinct contrast between particular views of Christ's second coming.  One of those is the interpretation of Christ's Millennial Kingdom.  Those who believe in a pre-Millennial Kingdom means they believe in a literal thousand-year physical-reign of Christ on earth prior to the consumation (2Pet3).  Those who believe in a post-Millennial or a-Millennial Kingdom believe in a figurative reign of Christ on earth - usually the Kingdom of Christ within believers (Luk17:21).  So what difference does it make what one believes about the future (eschatology)?  

The Jews believed in a Messiah but missed Him when He came 2000 years ago.  "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Mat24:37)  We don't know what kind of warnings Noah gave the people during the 100 years he built the ark, but the ark itself must have been an incredible, daily reminder that SOMEthing was going to happen.  Jesus gives us several signs of the times in direct response to a question in Matt 24 (et al) regarding His 2nd Coming.  Revelation gives us 28 different signs to ponder as the Time approacheth (7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 thunders, 7 bowls).  Pray for rapture, plan for tribulation.

Epicenter 2010 Conference

What: The eyes of the world are focused on the events in the Middle East, which is the epicenter of the dramatic events that are shaping our world and shaking our future.  Epicenter 2010 will help you understand today’s global crises in the light of Bible prophecy and give you practical ways to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, come what may. 

  • Why did only 18 countries out of 192 vote against the anti-Israel “Goldstone Report” resolution in the U.N. General Assembly in the fall of 2009?
  • Will the U.N. likely become an increasingly anti-Israel organization?
  • Why has Turkey – a NATO ally and long-time friend of Israel – suddenly turned against Israel and begun developing alliances with Russia, Iran and Syria?
  • Why is the White House pressuring Israel to divide Jerusalem and give up more “land for peace,” despite recent disastrous results in the “land for peace” formula?
  • Is the increasing international isolation of Israel we see unfolding predicted in Bible prophecies?
  • What does the Bible say will happen to a nation that blesses Israel?
  • What does the Bible say will happen to a nation that curses Israel?
  • What are real and practical ways to build a global movement of Christians to bless Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem at this critical hour?

When: Jun 25-26

Speakers: Greg Laurie, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Lt Gen William Boykin, Hormoz Shariat PhD, Tony Perkins, Moshe Yaalon, Joel Rosenberg, Kay Arthur

How: Sign up to host or watch the webcast.  www.epicenterconference.com 


Eugenics: The Dark Side of Darwinism, Part 2

Joe Renick
Intelligent Design Network
New Mexico Division
nmidnet@comcast.net

In Part 1, we saw how the concept of eugenics…the science of eliminating undesirable traits from human populations…arose as a natural extension of the science of breeding of domestic animals as understood within the more fundamental framework of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.  We also suggested that such an idea in the hands of utopian thinkers might have a bad outcome…like The Holocaust for instance.

* * * * *

For three decades following its introduction in 1869 by Francis Galton, eugenics existed as little more than a somewhat bizarre topic of discussion in social and academic circles. It likely would never have progressed much further than that had it not been for extensive financial support provided by philanthropies such as the Carnegie Institution and the Rockefeller Foundation who funded the eugenics research of some of America’s most respected scientists at such prestigious universities as Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Princeton.  During the early decades of the 20th century eugenics gained the support of our nation’s social, political and academic elite, being championed by Progressives such as Woodrow Wilson, Margaret Sanger and Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Even the United States Supreme Court endorsed eugenics. In the High Court’s infamous 1927 decision Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind…. Three generations of imbeciles are enough."  

Years later, the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials would quote these very words of Holmes in defense of their social “cleansing” policies. 

Following the Supreme Court’s decision on eugenics, cruel laws were passed in 27 states opening the floodgates for thousands to be coercively sterilized or otherwise persecuted as subhuman. The victims of this movement were poor Whites, Blacks, Jews, Native Americans and Mexicans, epileptics, alcoholics, petty criminals, the mentally ill and just about anyone else who did not conform to the concept of a white, blond, blue-eyed Nordic “Master Race”.  Yes, that’s right.  The concept of the Nordic “Master Race” did not originate with Hitler.  It came from the U.S. and was cultivated in California’s universities decades before Hitler came to power. 

U.S. and German eugenic scientists enthusiastically collaborated in their work and while it was clear that the Americans were leading the way in research, soon it was the Germans who led the way in large-scale applications of that research as social policy where eugenics was written into German National Socialism, i.e., the Nazi Party.  American scientist vigorously approved the progress in Germany and lamented their own inability to do the same in America.  The Third Reich persecuted the Jews and American eugenic scientists cheered.  They forcibly sterilized over 200,000 individuals (after which they quit counting) deemed to be “unfit” and American eugenic scientists cheered.  They gassed 100,000 aged, mentally disabled and otherwise “useless” people and still American eugenic scientists cheered.  It was not until the massive genocide of the Jews and the hideous eugenic medical experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz (who, incidentally was funded by Rockefeller before he went to Auschwitz) were revealed at Nuremberg that the American eugenic scientists were finally silenced. 

 They may have been silenced but they did not give up. 

The connection between Darwin and Hitler is hotly debated.  Darwinists would like to distance themselves from Hitler and certainly do not want Darwin implicated in Hitler’s dirty work.  But the logical pathway from Darwin to eugenics…whether it was implemented in the U.S. or in Germany…was direct and simple, just a matter of connecting the dots.  In Germany, having embraced the American vision of the Nordic Master Race, the transition from eugenics to genocide was just a matter of making the connection to one more dot…and then the killing began.    

* * * * *

It is difficult for us today to understand how such an outrageous practice as eugenics could be given legal sanction by the U.S. Supreme Court and enacted into laws in over half the states in our nation.  It is one thing to take reasonable measures to improve domestic stock but what social or moral principle could justify a similar program for humankind where fundamental human rights to life and liberty were trumped by government mandate?  The answer lies in understanding the mind of the early 20th century Progressive thinkers.   

From the perspective of the elite Progressives of that era it was a time like no other time in human history.  It was the dawning of a new age.  Mankind in his long journey down through the ages had finally come to an understanding of his true nature and the fountain of that understanding was science.  For the first time in history, Man knew who he really was.  It was like a rebirth.  The work of The Enlightenment, inspired by reason and scientific discovery, had freed mankind from the shackles of ignorance and religious superstition.  It was the Progressive thinkers alone who fully understood the significance of this Great Liberation and with this new vision of the future they would lead mankind into the utopian promised-land.   

Until this moment in history utopia had only been a distant dream.  Now, it was on the horizon, it was within sight and the path was clear.  Darwin had made the greatest discovery in history and from that discovery emerged the principles of eugenics and through eugenics mankind would attain his destiny of evolutionary perfection, not in millions and millions of years, but within a few generations.  They had seen the future and that future was white, blond and blue-eyed - the Nordic Master Race. The utopian Progressives using the science of eugenics would put the finishing touches on Humanity. 

They had no idea that they were unleashing a monster which would produce an outpouring of evil on mankind such as had never before been seen in all of human history.  

This was a dark and shameful moment in the history of mankind.  But it did provide an unforgettable answer to the single most important question the eugenicists never asked. What happens when you uproot science from a guiding moral philosophy?  

You get Auschwitz.  

* * * * *

We have known since Nuremberg what happened when eugenics came to Germany.  But only recently through the work of outstanding journalist (see Edwin Black’s book “War Against the Weak” at http://www.waragainsttheweak.com) have we come to understand what happened when eugenics came to America.  We may wonder just how far the eugenics program in America might have gone if it had not been derailed by collateral damage in America that occurred when the Allies took down The Third Reich in Germany.  What was their agenda and how did they intend to advance that agenda?  The vision of a white, blond and blue-eyed future was well established in the American universities but how do you implant that vision in the culture?  Easy.  Introduce eugenics ideology (under the pretense of science of course) into the curriculum of public schools and through that means the eugenics message would spread throughout American culture.       

But could such a thing actually happen in America?  Consider these excerpts from an early-20th-century biology textbook.  

“Improvements of Man.--If the stock of domesticated animals can be improved, it is not unfair to ask if the health and vigor of the future generations of men and women on the earth might not be improved by applying to them the laws of selection.”

 

“Eugenics.--When people marry there are certain things that the individual as well as the race should demand.  The most important of these is freedom from germ diseases which might be handed down to the offspring.  Tuberculosis, that dread white plague which is still responsible for almost one seventh of all deaths, epilepsy, and feeble-mindedness are handicaps which it is not only unfair but criminal to hand down to posterity.  The science of being well born is called eugenics.”

 

“Parasitism and Its Cost to Society.—Hundreds of families such as those described above exist today spreading disease, immorality, and crime to all parts of this country.  The cost to society of such families is very severe.  Just as certain animals or plants become parasitic on other plants or animals, these families have become parasitic on society.  They not only do harm to others by corruption, stealing, or spreading disease, but they are actually protected and cared for by the state out of public money.  Largely for them the poorhouse and the asylum exist.  They take from society, but they give noting in return.  They are true parasites.”

 

“The Remedy.--If such people were lower animals, we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading.  Humanity will not allow this, but we do have the remedy of separating the sexes in asylums or other places and in various ways preventing intermarriage and the possibilities of perpetuating such a low and degenerate race.  Remedies of this sort have been tried successfully in Europe and are now meeting with success in this country.”    

The name of this biology text book was “A Civic Biology” by George William Hunter, the textbook that was in use in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 at issue in the famous Scopes trial.   

Yes, public schools at that time were, under the pretense of science, indoctrinating American school children into the same eugenic ideology that was being exported to Hitler’s Germany. 

* * * * *

Today you will not find anything about eugenics in public school biology textbooks but its foundational principles…in the form of evolutionary biology…are still solidly entrenched in the biology classroom.  Darwin, through his naturalistic account for the emergence of man, provides the scientific basis for the materialistic worldview and it is only within this framework of thinking that one can justify eugenics.     

Eugenic practices in America were finally ended, not following the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46, but in the 1970’s.  This says something about the extent to which these ideas were embedded in our society.  It also suggests that as a nation, we still have some semblance of a moral compass.  But the story does not end here.  The Hitler fiasco may have given eugenics a bad name but the eugenic ideology and the dream of a white, blond, blue-eyed Nordic Master Race lives on in America.  It just has a new name… human genetics.   

In our post-modern times where the intellectual elite reject the notion of Natural Law and hold that there is no rational basis for absolute truth or morality, we would do well to keep an eye on California and never forget that when science is uprooted from a guiding moral philosophy it becomes an uncontrollable monster.  The horrors of the Third Reich demonstrated that this is no idle speculation.  


My "Country" Tis of Thee

For Father's Day, a few country hits of note this month.  

  • #2 on the charts: The Man I Want To Be by Chris Young
    God I'm down here on my knees
    Cause it's the last place left to fall
    Beggin' for another chance 
    If there's any chance at all
    That you might still be listenin'
    Lovin' and forgivin' guys like me

  • Watching You by Rodney Atkins
    We got back home and I went to the barn
    I bowed my head and I prayed real hard
    Said, “Lord, please help me help my stupid self.”
    Just this side of bedtime later that night
    Turnin’ on my son’s Scooby-Doo nightlight.
    He crawled out of bed and he got down on his knees.
    He closed his little eyes, folded his little hands
    Spoke to God like he was talkin’ to a friend.
    And I said, “Son, now where’d you learn to pray like that?”

    He said, "I’ve been watching you, dad ain’t that cool?
    I’m your buckaroo, I want to be like you.
    And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.
    We like fixin’ things and holding momma’s hand
    Yeah, we’re just alike, hey, ain’t we dad?
    I want to do everything you do; so I’ve been watching you"

  • #24 on the charts: This Ain't Nothin' by Craig Morgan
    He was standing in the rubble of an old farmhouse outside Birmingham
    When some reporter stuck a camera in the face of that old man
    He said "tell the folks please mister, what are you gonna do
    Now that this twister has taken all that's dear to you"
    He just smiled and said "boy let me tell you something, this ain't nothing"

    This ain't nothin' time won't erase
    And this ain't nothin' money can't replace
    He said you sit and watch your loving wife fifty years fighting for her life
    Then you hold her hand til her heart of gold stops pumping
    Yeah boy that's something,
    So this ain't nothin'

  • #30 on the charts: A Father's Love by Bucky Covington
    He was saying, "I love you"
    The only way he knew how

  • #21 on the charts: Little White Church by Little Big Town
    If a few more good women would say "no" ....
    No more calling me baby
    No more loving like crazy
    Til' you take me down to the little white church


Persecution in Las Cruces

Over the last several months a dispute has risen between the City of Las Cruces, Sonoma Springs Church, and me that is increasing in intensity.  I believe it is now time to explain the issue from my perspective to the whole community.  The dispute between the city, Sonoma Springs, and myself concerns three issues.

  • Signs approved and erected.  City claims they are illegal.

  • Personal lawsuit instead of dealing with the church.  Update (6/5/10): City plans to drop personal charges and refile against the church.

  • Business license demanded (affects all churches in Las Cruces).

Read the rest of the story, contact City Officials, and pray.

Timothy Smith, tsmith@sonomasprings.org, www.sonomasprings.org


NM Primary Election Results

Candidates for the General Election, Nov 2.  

http://204.12.117.77/county0.htm

We need a Governor like AZ:

The Remarkable Rise of Jan Brewer by J. R. Dunn

Brewer was born in Hollywood, California in 1944. Her father, a civilian employee of the Navy who worked as a supervisor at a Nevada munitions depot, was forced to retire for health reasons due to exposure to chemicals. The family returned to California, where her father died only a year later.

Brewer moved to Arizona after her marriage to Dr. John Brewer. She became involved in politics through a route not unusual for women: concern over her children's education. Disgusted by what she saw at the school board meetings, Brewer decided to run for a seat on the board in the upcoming election. But when a legislative seat opened up, she ran for that instead, winning the election and taking office in 1983.


Events

Adventures in the Sandias - day-hikes Jun-Oct

Summer Fun in Albuquerque

20th Annual Christian Heritage Speech Competition - Nov 13
     Topics are now posted at chsc.nmsciencefoundation.org 

NM Science Foundation
Community Impact News (CINews)
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