Obama’s Infidelity

Barack Obama’s ‘lost’ brother has been found, living in a shantytown in Kenya on “less than a dollar a month.” George Obama is the 26 year old half brother of Barack, born to his father and a woman named Jael. George says he is embarassed by his poverty, living intentionally as a recluse to avoid answering questions about his famous surname.

George has met his older, famous brother only twice, most recently in 2006 when Obama travelled to Nairobi. Their encounter was brief, lasting just a few minutes. “It was like meeting a complete stranger.”

For all of Obama’s talk about using your money to help “the least of these,” is it plausible to ask whether he shouldn’t be using his own money to help his own brother? God says Obama’s treatment of his brother makes him “worse than an infidel”:

1 Timothy 5:8
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

McCain Surges

John McCain has wiped out Barack Obama’s 7-point margin and has pulled ahead in the race for president by 5 points according to a new Zogby Poll. Of course McCain’s turn around is credited to his “attacks” on Obama, rather than on the real story. While Obama vacationed in sunny Hawaii, John McCain showed real leadership and a presidential response to the crisis in Georgia.

Also interesting to note is that McCain leads by 9-points on the question of which candidate can better manage the economy.

I noted in an earlier post that the Saddleback Civil Forum reset the clock on this campaign and it seems to be true.

A Mormon as VP?

John McCain will announce his Vice-Presidential pick on or before August 29th. With all of the speculation that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is on the short-short list, I’m reposting the excerpts from the interview I did with Ravi Zacharias from July 2007 on the subject of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism:

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zacharias_ravi.jpg Internationally renowned Christian apologist and theologian Ravi Zacharias raised a bit of controversy in evangelical circles back in November of 2004 when he accepted an invitation to speak at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, UT.  He chose for his subject “The Exclusivity and Sufficiency of Jesus Christ.” I asked Dr. Zacharias recently if he were at all concerned about the potential for a Mormon becoming president in the person of Mitt Romney:

What we want is a politician who will understand the basic Judeo-Christian world view, and on the basis of that  the moral laws of this nation are framed, and then run this country with the excellence of that which is recognized in a pluralistic society: the freedom to believe or to disbelieve, and the moral framework with which this was conducted: the sanctity of every individual life.

If we are looking for a minister to run this country just look back and see what havoc sometimes has happened when the church got aligned totally with the state. That’s not what we want. We want political leadership that is wise, political leadership that frames itself on the moral framework of God and recognizing that you cannot dictate political ideaology to all of humanity. That’s why Jesus refused to run for office, that was not what his mission was about. His mission was to change hearts.

But as you look back at the book of Kings and Chronicles you see one difference between every king: either they followed the Lord with their whole heart and blessing came; or they turned their backs upon God and then the entailments were there. And that’s what will happen to this country.

Would we rather have someone who is a total secularist? Is that what people are asking for? Are we looking for someone who would run this the way he would run a bishoprick or something? I think we should ask the hard questions of everybody, be it Mitt Romney or anyone else and see if the framework of the value of human life and the moral framework of the Judeo-Christian world view, (which is the only moral framework under which this country could have been framed. It was not framed under a Hindu framework. It was not framed under a Muslim framework, not framed under a Buddhist or a naturalistic framework) that we are all created equal, that liberty and justice and all of those terms that I’ve given only make sense within the Judeo-Christian world view.

Created? Equal? Naturalism does not tell us we are equal. Naturalism does not tell us we are created. Liberty? Islam does not believe in the total liberty of the individual. Equal? Hinduism believes in the caste system. The Judeo-Christian world view is the only world view that could frame this country. And so I think as we elect, we go before God and see out of the candidates who will be the best one to represent the values and at the same time be a good leader for the country whose first responsibility should be to protect its citizens.

This is a great country and the challenges we face are immense to a point where this country could be totally mangled with the onslaught of a rabid atheism ala Christopher Hitchens, Samuel Harris, Richard Dawkins, those kinds of vociferous, acerbic writers in our time who would like to strip the notion of God completely from our culture. For Sam Harris to actually say if he had a magic wand to eradicate religion or eradicate rape, he would eradicate religion tells you the kind of mindset, and his book is in the top ten bestseller list of the New York Times. There’s a rabid atheism out there and there’s a rabid Islamic extremism out there and the secularism combined with that. I’ve responded to Sam Harris in a book which will be released in the early part of next year. I’ve said to him basically his choice is not going to be between religion and secularism. His choice is going to be between Islam and Christianity. Secularism has no staying power and has proven itself in Europe today. Europe is on the decline and on the demise and it’s only a matter of time before Islam would take a foothold there unless the Christian world view reemerges.

I’m taking back my blog

Several months ago at the request of some commenters here I removed the requirement for moderator approval of comments. It has gone very well until the last few days when comments began to get personal in nature.

Therefore I am restoring the moderator approval of comments posted here and I have blocked one commenter from ever commenting here.

Your comments will post after I have read them to ensure against personal attacks.

This about sums it up…

The best summary of the Saddleback Civil Forum comes from a comment left at Hugh Hewitt’s blog:

dantana writes: Saturday, August, 16, 2008 11:35 PM
McCain by a TKO
No surprise.

Obama is a post modern college prof who is the product of the antiseptic ivory tower.

McCain is a 70 year dude who has spent a lifetime getting his butt out of tough situations and grappling with reality.

No contest.