Leaders speak with an authority accorded to them by their position. When Barack Obama gave the Ohio State University Commencement Address, he did so as President of the United States. With the authority of that office behind him, it will be few students that would question his direction to reject cynical voices. What are those voices saying? Continue reading …

As we in the United States move further and further away from a Judeo/Christian worldview and morality the easier it is to be anti-semetic. This is not really anything new for the Jewish population. All through history nations have practiced racism against Jews. I like Tevia’s question to God in “Fiddler on the Roof,” about being the chosen people. “Why don’t You choose somebody else for a while?” This is the one kind of bigotry which seems to be very acceptable among the politically correct today. This isn’t overtly stated but the cliche, “what you are doing speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying,” comes in to play. There seems to be great concern in the United States by politicians, Liberal news media and those leaders within the “Emergent” movement of the church, that American citizens will commit more hate crimes against Muslims in retaliation to the acts of Islamic terrorists. I recently heard an interview about hate crimes and the guest claimed that about 13.4% of hate crimes are committed against Muslims whereas 65.4% of the hate crimes committed were anti-Jewish. In other words, there are approximately 5 times more likelihood of a hate crime against a Jew than a Muslim but that seems to be ignored by the Left. (These statistics are from the 2010 Hate Crime Statistics in the “Religious Bias” category). The PC crowd regularly expresses concern about the possible rise (not the actual rise) of Anti-Islamic attacks but it is rare if ever that we hear any concern about anti-Jewish attacks. Continue reading …

It is difficult to watch or listen to the news, talk shows or pick up a newspaper or magazine that does not at least comment on the question of same-gender “marriage.” What has not to my knowledge been mentioned, even by conservatives who are speaking out against same-gender “marriage,” is the false premise which has been used to market this idea to the public. The essential claim is that gays are being denied their Constitutional right to marry. The appeal to Constitutional rights can really play well. It plays well among Liberals and Progressives because the claim gives it the air of credibility, especially because so few of them have any inkling of what the Constitution actually says. For that reason they may not even be aware that the essential claim is false. Continue reading …

The Roman Catholic Church went through the process and ritual of selecting the next Pope, the head of that institution. By all accounts Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man who has chosen the name, “Francis” has great humility. He cooked is own food, rode the bus rather than having a limo and doesn’t even wear flashy shoes. He is very concerned about the poor but the liberal media is in utter shock! The new pope is not in favor of same gender marriage or abortion. Not even contraception. Imagine, they hired a Roman Catholic to head the church! At times I thought some of the news personalities were going to become apoplectic. On one of the FOX shows Juan Williams expressed his dismay at the Pope’s lack of being up with the times and it was pointed out that the Pope is Roman Catholic and a requirement in taking the position is a pledge to uphold and defend the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Juan than said that lots of American Roman Catholics favor same gender marriage and abortion. The host then pointed out that the Church is NOT a democratic institution. Perhaps part of the problem is that our President and Congress also swear to uphold and defend the Constitution but once sworn in ignore their commitment and go on to do whatever they want in violation of the Constitution. Honesty, integrity and fidelity are not highly valued commodities among liberals and progressives. Continue reading …

I had a phone call last week in response to one of the Snarky Apologist YouTube videos about Jehovah’s Witnesses. The caller started, “You are really mean in your presentation. Can’t you focus on issues without attacking others?” I listened and didn’t point out the obvious, that they were emotional and attacking me. After a few minutes I responded with a stock statement I have been using for years now, “You may be right. I may be mean. I may even be short and fat but the real issue is, where are we wrong?” The caller hesitated for a moment, not sure what to do with the response. I then pointed out that the video did address actual issues and even though they became emotionally worked up over the material that doesn’t mean that we resorted to an emotional attack devoid of facts. We ended up talking for nearly an hour and they are in the process of verifying a number of issues we covered.

A few days later I had a call from someone that has been reading our book on Bill Gothard. The caller said they really had wanted to drop by the office to talk because they wanted to tell me face to face that our writings are mean-spirited and even though they disagree with Bill Gothard that does not mean we should be so mean-spirited in the way we write. After listening for a while I responded with Continue reading …

As I sit here on a very snowy New Years Eve here in Quincy IL, it occurs to me that we have had a great year here at MCOI.  Somewhere along the way, the Lord has added to our numbers. Some of those people have found the Facebook page through the blog but more likely it was the other way around. We have currently 195 people and organizations that “like” us in the Facebook kind of way at least. We’ve had some stimulating discussions. We’ve raised a few eyebrows and hopefully the tenor of what passes for public debate. Not bad for a little outfit that operates on a shoe string budget (and if you know where we can sell these shoestrings for some actual money, please let us know!).

So in the tradition of . . . well,  every prime time morning TV show, let’s hop into the way back machine and take a look at some of the memorable posts from this year.

By far the biggest topic this year was the election. We had several posts and though MCOI is a non-partisan organization, we are not ostriches with our head in the sand. Don started us off this year with what he dubbed the first political question of the season in “‘Tis the Season to be Political”: Continue reading …

I have to admit, this started out to be a very different blog than it ended up. Like many, I was discouraged at the results of the election. Yes, I know that God is in control and uses even government for His purposes but sometimes those purposes are to punish His people or the nations in which His people dwell and they suffer as well. To be perfectly honest I am not a big fan of suffering.

I know that politics is messy business and corruption abounds in the hallowed halls of Congress and the White House. Special interest groups are working hard to persuade the Federal Government to use the club of legislation to beat down the opposition. But that is how government works in a Democratic Republic. We vote for candidates that most closely align with our worldview and values and trust they will at the very least protect us from those who have a different view. Continue reading …