I have a few peripheral fascinations in life and one of them would be the Titanic. I never saw the James Cameron film. Oh I did pay for a ticket and sit in one of the comfortable seats with every intention of watching the movie but I walked out about a half hour into the film. I watched the 1958 black and white version A Night To Remember when I was a child.....and I watched it again for the umpteenth time last night.
With a little research I came up with this quote from the main female character in the Cameron film..."...there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me...in every way that a person can be saved." It reminded me of a real life quote from the sinking of the Titanic. I've written about this before. John Harper was a British Baptist pastor and passenger on the Titanic. He was headed to America as a guest preacher and possibly to accept a call at a famous American church. He was travelling with his six year old daughter for he was a widower. After he placed his daughter in a lifeboat it is reported that he shouted "women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats."
It is also reported that as he swam up to other people, and as hypothermia was setting is, he challenged them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a meeting of survivors in Ontario, Canada a few years after the disaster. One man stood up and testified how John Harper swam up to him twice as he was holding on to debris and said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." John Harper with no life vest for he had given it to another sank to his death. The man giving this testimony was rescued by a returning lifeboat. He told the gathering this..."I am the last convert of John Harper." Yes, I walked out of Cameron's film and will never view it.
I believe that the sinking of the Titanic was a message to Britain and to America. Everyone thought that the great ship was unsinkable. Two world wars followed. The space shuttle Challenger had a multi-cultural crew...male and female...scientist, military and civilian...Caucasian, Asian, African-American...Christian, Jewish and Buddhist. Those iconic pictures of the breakup of the Challenger are still hard to look at.
We don't seem to learn from disasters but we do sometimes learn when we are in them and this world has disasters ahead of it. May the church include preparation in its everyday duties and be encouraged with the same words that Paul gave those on his stricken ship... only as they point to eternal life...."Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship."
Dupes
A Western Pennsylvania high school made the Fox News Todd Starnes commentary when it reviewed and rejected a student's 'closing exercise' at the high school's graduation ceremonies. The student's prepared remarks were deemed to be unlawful because they constituted the form of a prayer. A national law firm..."dedicated exclusively to protecting religious freedom for all Americans" has since entered the controversy on behalf of the student.
On the surface it might appear that decisions such as this are simply attempts to follow the law and retain the integrity of the Constitution of the United States. What could possibly be wrong with that.....patriotic Americans concerned that their beloved constitution might be trampled upon? Such is far from the case but one would have to look well below the surface to see what is really involved.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair was a household name when I was growing up. It was her lawsuit, Murray v. Curlett, that led to the Supreme Court putting a stop to reading the Bible in public schools. O'Hair was born in Pittsburgh, not far from the high school in the news today. A film was released on O'Hair's life and her son William J. Murray, who had become a Christian, was critical of it in that the film didn't mention her..."affiliation with the Communist Party."
For the communist dialectic to succeed, God had to be expunged from all of public life. The word dialectic itself, as used by Karl Marx and expanded upon by Vladimir Lenin, denoted the transient nature of class struggle. In other words it takes great planning and patience. Consequently America's belief in and dependence upon God must be chipped away at on every side. Over time the backbone of the American public would be broken and Communism would prevail albeit in what might be a form not readily recognizable as that of Lenin's.
We see the results of this expunging of religious belief in the utter chaos enveloping just about every sector of American life today. Murderers often kill themselves after their heinous acts, for they are not concerned about what happens next. Whole generations can become adrift without purpose and without hope because God has been kept from them. Ethics disappears in government, in corporate America, in the media, in education, and even in science. Truth, as we all know, has become but a buffet where you take only what you want. Political correctness serves the communist objective of inhibiting if not eliminating free speech, and we see this every day from the Progressive blitzkrieg, or 'lightning war', on American values, its way of life, and its self-defense against the many and ravenous wolves dressed in sheep's clothing.
A graduating high school student is usually 18 years old. One would think that a high school administration would be proud to exhibit the thoughts of a healthy and vibrant mind that it, the school system, had just done its part in educating.... such as in the case with the aforementioned graduating student, for it is a good school system. This should have been a moment to celebrate.
The political and cultural situation in America has deteriorated so much that it is no longer representative of the Socratic method. It's now dominated by the Alinsky method of scheme, lie and coerce. The family is the primary educator but 'abolition of the family' is a tenet of Communism, while yet another tenet is to suppress individualism. This subversive movement is also subterranean in that even those who serve its purpose are often if not usually unaware of what they are in effect doing. The key word in the confusion over the much ballyhooed phrase...'the separation of church and state' is 'dupes'. These are those who promote that which they may not understand and therefore have no idea that they are indeed.... 'dupes.'
I'd like to recommend an exceptional book on this overall topic. Paul Kengor is a professor of political science and a best-selling author whose expertise is so often sought out that you have probably read an article written by him at one time or another.
Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century
With a little research I came up with this quote from the main female character in the Cameron film..."...there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me...in every way that a person can be saved." It reminded me of a real life quote from the sinking of the Titanic. I've written about this before. John Harper was a British Baptist pastor and passenger on the Titanic. He was headed to America as a guest preacher and possibly to accept a call at a famous American church. He was travelling with his six year old daughter for he was a widower. After he placed his daughter in a lifeboat it is reported that he shouted "women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats."
It is also reported that as he swam up to other people, and as hypothermia was setting is, he challenged them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a meeting of survivors in Ontario, Canada a few years after the disaster. One man stood up and testified how John Harper swam up to him twice as he was holding on to debris and said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." John Harper with no life vest for he had given it to another sank to his death. The man giving this testimony was rescued by a returning lifeboat. He told the gathering this..."I am the last convert of John Harper." Yes, I walked out of Cameron's film and will never view it.
I believe that the sinking of the Titanic was a message to Britain and to America. Everyone thought that the great ship was unsinkable. Two world wars followed. The space shuttle Challenger had a multi-cultural crew...male and female...scientist, military and civilian...Caucasian, Asian, African-American...Christian, Jewish and Buddhist. Those iconic pictures of the breakup of the Challenger are still hard to look at.
We don't seem to learn from disasters but we do sometimes learn when we are in them and this world has disasters ahead of it. May the church include preparation in its everyday duties and be encouraged with the same words that Paul gave those on his stricken ship... only as they point to eternal life...."Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship."
Dupes
A Western Pennsylvania high school made the Fox News Todd Starnes commentary when it reviewed and rejected a student's 'closing exercise' at the high school's graduation ceremonies. The student's prepared remarks were deemed to be unlawful because they constituted the form of a prayer. A national law firm..."dedicated exclusively to protecting religious freedom for all Americans" has since entered the controversy on behalf of the student.
On the surface it might appear that decisions such as this are simply attempts to follow the law and retain the integrity of the Constitution of the United States. What could possibly be wrong with that.....patriotic Americans concerned that their beloved constitution might be trampled upon? Such is far from the case but one would have to look well below the surface to see what is really involved.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair was a household name when I was growing up. It was her lawsuit, Murray v. Curlett, that led to the Supreme Court putting a stop to reading the Bible in public schools. O'Hair was born in Pittsburgh, not far from the high school in the news today. A film was released on O'Hair's life and her son William J. Murray, who had become a Christian, was critical of it in that the film didn't mention her..."affiliation with the Communist Party."
For the communist dialectic to succeed, God had to be expunged from all of public life. The word dialectic itself, as used by Karl Marx and expanded upon by Vladimir Lenin, denoted the transient nature of class struggle. In other words it takes great planning and patience. Consequently America's belief in and dependence upon God must be chipped away at on every side. Over time the backbone of the American public would be broken and Communism would prevail albeit in what might be a form not readily recognizable as that of Lenin's.
We see the results of this expunging of religious belief in the utter chaos enveloping just about every sector of American life today. Murderers often kill themselves after their heinous acts, for they are not concerned about what happens next. Whole generations can become adrift without purpose and without hope because God has been kept from them. Ethics disappears in government, in corporate America, in the media, in education, and even in science. Truth, as we all know, has become but a buffet where you take only what you want. Political correctness serves the communist objective of inhibiting if not eliminating free speech, and we see this every day from the Progressive blitzkrieg, or 'lightning war', on American values, its way of life, and its self-defense against the many and ravenous wolves dressed in sheep's clothing.
A graduating high school student is usually 18 years old. One would think that a high school administration would be proud to exhibit the thoughts of a healthy and vibrant mind that it, the school system, had just done its part in educating.... such as in the case with the aforementioned graduating student, for it is a good school system. This should have been a moment to celebrate.
The political and cultural situation in America has deteriorated so much that it is no longer representative of the Socratic method. It's now dominated by the Alinsky method of scheme, lie and coerce. The family is the primary educator but 'abolition of the family' is a tenet of Communism, while yet another tenet is to suppress individualism. This subversive movement is also subterranean in that even those who serve its purpose are often if not usually unaware of what they are in effect doing. The key word in the confusion over the much ballyhooed phrase...'the separation of church and state' is 'dupes'. These are those who promote that which they may not understand and therefore have no idea that they are indeed.... 'dupes.'
I'd like to recommend an exceptional book on this overall topic. Paul Kengor is a professor of political science and a best-selling author whose expertise is so often sought out that you have probably read an article written by him at one time or another.
Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century
