Marine Who Killed "wounded" Insurgent Acted Wisely!

You have certainly heard, if not seen by now, the story out of Fallujah about the Marines searching for insurgents, finding two men in a building who were laying on the floor like they were dead. The marines yell at them repeatedly and they continue to feign death except even on camera it is obvious one man is breathing. The marines yell and finally a shot is fired and the Marine says, “He’s dead now.”

Of course there’s outrage by the chronically outraged who get outraged about anything that goes on in Iraq as long as it’s an opportunity to trash Americans. What is truly outrageous though is the lack of outrage by the chronically outraged liberals of this country at the murder of 59 year old relief worker Margaret Hassan. Her crime was giving aid and comfort to the Iraqi people and these insurgents who have no concern for the rule of law, rules of warfare or anything else, have executed her and won’t even return her body.

So let’s give some perspective here. An insurgent, who moments before had been trying to kill Americans, was shot and killed by a Marine who had been wounded by insurgents.

Please note, a cute little trick these suicidal murderers have been playing on our troops has been to play dead only to have our troops approach them only to get blown up or shot and killed by the pretender. What the Marine did was not only acceptable; it was mandated given the nature of this war. But in this day of embedded reporters and news reports with full audio and video broadcast worldwide seconds after the event, this Marine who was over there fighting for your and my protection may very well be ruined.

There needs to be America-wide outrage to have all the embedded reporters thrown out of Iraq and allow the military to do its job. War is war. It is not an athletic event with referees and this enemy is not bound by any rule of conduct other their own, demonic hatred. The sooner they are eliminated, the better off the whole world will be.

For those bind, deaf and dumb liberals who just can’t accept the nature of war, as an alternative to the blood shed they so loathe, let’s make ambassadors of them all and send them over there to have their little chat with these blood thirsty monsters. If they win the peace, great, and if they don’t, at least one problem will have been solved. Just be sure to send them with their own body bag.

Armageddon Here We Come!

I am driven to comment yet once more on the death of Yasser Arafat. That he is being treated like some kind of head of state is offensive. What is wrong with everyone? How can so many people not see this man for what he is—a murderous terrorist who is less concerned about an independent state than he is about exterminating the Jews? All one need do is go back and reread history and everything that has lead up to this point in the middle east. I devoted several shows to this single topic in the past due to its importance and I am dumbfounded by our country’s ignorance, naiveté or both as almost everyone I hear seems to believe that the key to peace in the middle east is giving the Palestinians a homeland of their own.

But this is not about liberty or homelands or peace; this is about raw, demonically inspired hatred of people who worship one god—small g—while hating a people who worship another God—big G. If you believe the Bible, you understand that any god but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is merely an idol and Paul writes centuries later to the church at Corinth that idol worship is tantamount to devil worship.

So any kind of foreign policy that has in view giving the Palestinians a homeland, will do NOTHING—I repeat nothing, to bring about peace. Only annihilation of the Jewish race will appease these terrorists. Why do you suppose every attempt at peace in the past and every treaty in the past has been broken followed by more and more terrorism against Israel? Not until the worshippers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are extinct and not until the worshippers of Allah have Jerusalem as their capital will there be peace. Things really are shaping up for the mother of all battles.

“And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." Rev. 19:11-16;
Armageddon we are coming.

Arafat is Dead!

Finally the waiting is over. Yasser Arafat is dead and while it may seem un-Christian, I say, “Good riddance and may the rest of his kind follow closely behind!”

Now before some uninformed, make that, ignorant, bleeding heart, Christian clacks their tongue in disgust thinking that’s no way for a Christian much less a minister to talk let me redirect your naïve world view by listening to what a fairly famous man once wrote about his enemies.

May the table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and a trap.
May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.
Pour out your wrath on them;
let your fierce anger overtake them.
May their place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
For they persecute those you wound
and talk about the pain of those you hurt.
Charge them with crime upon crime;
do not let them share in your salvation.
May they be blotted out of the book of life
and not be listed with the righteous.
Psalm 69:22-28;

The man was King David, you know , the one of whom God said
He is a man after my own heart. 1 Samuel 13:14;

Arafat is the man who more than any other is responsible for the dismembered bodies of babies, women and children, moms and dads, brothers and sisters whose only crime was to sit down at a neighborhood café for lunch or board a bus to go to school.

This leader of the PLO, a terrorist group as lethal and demonic as Al Queda and the Taliban has been murdering innocent people for decades. If there’s a hall of infamy for people who should have bypassed their time on earth and gone straight to hell, Arafat is right there with, Stalin, Hitler, Bin Laden, and Sadam Hussein.

Ah, but mindful of the axiom that one should never speak ill of the dead I will end with about the only good thing I can think to say about this man and that is, “He’s dead.”

LTTE from Ginny Cripe-Williams: Evangelicals Rock

> Contrary to post-election reporting lately that "Evangelicals" gave Bush a > second term, it seems rather, that in an effort to explain why such a good, > strong candidate could have possible lost to such a bad, unpopular > candidate, the media is finally paying a proportionate amount of attention > to a group that has always been influential and has always clamored for a > representational piece of the spotlight.> > It is not that those sneaky evangelicals mobilized suddenly, it's that the > media can no longer marginalize and ignore a group that has long been more > representative of the nation than anyone in the media would like to admit. > Furthermore, the constant belittling by the sage media of everyone in this > group as uneducated on every possible front really could only serve as > fodder to get out the vote, become even more vocal and turn such unfounded > reasoning on its head.> > In the wake of Bush's victory, Evangelicals have not so much set an agenda > (Greg Hitt, Evangelicals set their agenda, Nov.11) as maintained the agenda > that they have been fighting for throughout multiple administrations. > Perhaps the liberal media was finally scared into realizing that a group > other than minority far-flung liberals actually has some clout, and a voice > that no longer can be ignored.> > > G. Williams> Jacksonville, FL>

Christians Are More Despized Since Election

Hostile attitudes towards Christians have escalated with the re-election of George W. Bush. Regular fare in our local newspaper are letters to the editor like the one by a man who sounds like someone who has known only a caricature of the Christian faith and believes it to be normative. He sarcastically notes the “good old Judeo-Christian laws and values” critically citing only portions of verses here and there drawing conclusions that are absurd.

He quotes, Numbers 14:18 severing the middle of the verse from the entire verse itself disdainfully noting only the portion that states, “…visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.” He purposely omitted the first part of the verse that says, “The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty…” In its entirety, it’s a different verse altogether.

He then cites several proverbs regarding the discipline of children predictably making the leap from “sparing the rod and spoiling the child” to equal, beating the tar out of your children. With wild exaggeration he proceeds to utter fiction referring to the “untold millions of beaten, bloody and bruised children at the hands of their parents and women by their husbands.” Is this how we are viewed by the unbelieving community? My wife of 32 years and my three grown children would take strong exception to such a characterization. Is this part of what Jesus meant when he said, "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of me”? (Matthew 5:11)

He concludes proclaiming people with a sincere, religious faith to be “the same as the terrorists who fly bombs into buildings…” and that both Christians and terrorists, “all belong on the same cell block.”

Unfortunately this is not an uncommon view of Bible-believing Christianity today. Satan has run a very successful disinformation campaign and tragically there always seems to be a token fanatic here and there who validates such caricatured ideas.

But at its core, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, we believe there are certain absolute truths that are non-negotiable regardless of epoch. But we do not see everything as either black or white as we are often accused.

It just so happens that our culture is so far removed from our Judeo-Christian heritage that many of the clear absolutes in the Bible, which were clearly understood and accepted as life’s norms by the majority of society, have long been forgotten, rejected, revised, or relegated to some heap of irrelevant antiquities.

Where does it leave a people of faith? If you read your Bible you see pretty clearly that such hostilities against people who believe and worse, who dare speak about their beliefs, will become the focus of ridicule.

Our challenge is to remain resolute, and unbending in those areas that matter, yet gracious and tolerant in those areas that do not. And while some have difficulty distinguishing between the two, comprehensive study of the Holy Scriptures is the only rule for dividing personal preference from inspired truth.

Christians are called to be ambassadors of Christ—peace-makers in Jesus’ name-- but not at the expense of truth. And because of that, we will continue to be an irritation to a world that wants to define truth for itself. So as the hostilities grow, let’s just make sure the accusations are—as Jesus said—uttered falsely, and not deservedly because we are obnoxious, or arrogant or rude.

Truth--and Brains--In Short Supply

The necessity to be well informed has never been more pressing. You see as the commonly understand values of truth, honesty and integrity are redefined by practicality, truth becomes more elusive. In other words, there is such rampant lying going on now-a-days through our primary sources of information that you can no longer afford to turn on a TV or Radio and listen to just one station or person. How many of us have sent on the e-mail plea with a picture of a child asking that if you have seen this child to contact authorities and it turns out to be bogus? Integrity is in short supply which makes it very difficult to know what is true.

We used to be self-governing to a degree meaning we understood the importance and definition of telling the truth. Such self-policing grew thin and we had laws against libel and slander. Today, try and bring a suit much less get a conviction for either one. Today, anyone can say whatever they want and rarely be called to account; and if they are, rarely is anything ever done.

Remember Dan Rather’s fake document fiasco? Rather is still CBS’ top dog. And the kinds of slanderous statements that were made this election year were downright scandalous but so what? The answer seemed to be only to respond in kind.

Then we had so-called exit polls which are supposed to give us a feel for the way the election was going. Or was it? Maybe it was a way of skewing the election. It is clear that the exit polls were way off the mark—and many believe intentionally to try and influence voting on the West coast.
All of which means it is more incumbent on everyone to do your own homework instead of listening to someone like me, on the radio. I’m not saying I can’t be trusted, but I’m human and I have my own biases and sometimes I just get bad information. So don’t trust anyone! For at the end of the day, God is not going to be too concerned about who told you what; he’s going to ask what you did with brains and the time he gave you. Why not start now?

Open letter to Senator Arlen Specter

Dear Senator,

Before the celebrations over the continuation of a leader with moral vision have even subsided, I heard that you have already "warned" the president not to appoint Supreme Court nominees who might seek to undo a woman's so-called, right to choose.

Senator, with all due respect, it strikes me that this is the same litmus test, albeit in reverse, that liberal democrats always decry whenever it's time for the president to exercise his constitutional right to appoint judges. It is strange how a litmus test is fine for some but not others.

The fact is, any Judges nominated will either be pro-life or pro-choice. How can you force the president to your particular judgment of particular values? I am certain this president will appoint judges who will respect the rule of law and who will adjudicate on the basis of the laws as written rather than creating laws according to their whim as some current judges are fond of doing.

With all respect for your many years of service Senator, there was good reason why Tom Daschle was "fired." "We the people" are weary of judges ruling by fiat rather than by American legal precedent. (I qualify "precedent" due to Sandra Day O’Connor’s recent statements to Georgetown Law School regarding looking to international law for legal precedent to be used in American law review. That is absolutely chilling.)

For all the talk of uniting the country, you have certainly started off on a dubious note. I hope you'll reconsider your obstructionist overtures.

Respectfully,

William Cripe

The Future of America

Well it is finally over; at least for another couple years when it starts up again. Like Christmas advertising, electioneering seems to get earlier and earlier each year. Never-the-less, no more stump speeches; no more debates, and no more twisting and mangling of truth with impunity. Perhaps the brightest spot of this whole time has been the lack of materialization of all the horror stories swirling about voter fraud and intimidation. Still, there is a foreboding tempest on the horizon. We are clearly living in a post-Christian era; when commonly held values and social mores were, well, “common.” That is not the case today which is why we have commercials that can be proven to be fallacious if not salacious and no one is called to account. Today anyone can truly say anything and there are no repercussions. Civility is a thing of the past.

Post-modernism—whose foundational tenet is that there is no such thing as transcendent truth, only moment by moment practicality with an occasional consideration for the common good, rules the day. This is why lying, cheating, and stealing have become so rampant. If your cause is a good cause in your estimation, then anything you have to do to bring that cause to fruition is fair game. The only real offense is if you get caught, and then you just play the “Your persecuting me” card or the latest buzz word of this past election—“You’re disenfranchising me. How dare you!” It is not going to get better.

So for the Christian, we cannot slumber for the days are short. In a mere three years—give or take—we will go through this all again with no incumbent making it even dicier, and perhaps more desperate, all the way around. We have seen the future in this election; cruelty, lying, wickedness, duplicity and deception. We need to pray more than ever and we need to exemplify the mind of Christ daily. Otherwise, we too will succumb for such are our hearts.