Category: Current Events

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Book Review Current Events Faith

The DaVinci Code

The DaVinci CodeYes, I’ve read the book.
No, I haven’t seen the movie (yet).
Yes, I enjoyed it–I’d even recommend it.
No, it’s history isn’t very accurate (including the facts page).
Yes, I tried to write a longer version of this post and the browser crashed (twice).
No, I’m not going to expose all the inaccuracies of the book.

Here’s a really interesting link about why people find The DaVinci Code fascinating.

The DaVinci Code is fiction, but a lot of people believe its inaccurate historical claims. The best look at the claims of the DaVinci code with response that I’ve seen was done by Ken Baugh at Frontline in late 2003. Go here and scroll way down (3rd from the bottom) to the “Beyond The DaVinci Code” series for responses to many of the claims made by the book. Also, if you have specific questions about The DaVinci Code and related topics, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.

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Current Events Faith Politics

Iraqi Air Force General Speaks

Georges SadaTonight, I heard Iraqi General Georges Sada speak about what God is doing in Iraq. Sada is an evangelical Christian, who was a top advisor to Saddam Hussein, and should have been killed many times for things that he told Saddam. He told many interesting stories about how he met Saddam (giving him a ride home in 1965, when he was carless and not in power) and how the stories that we hear about Iraq over here are not accurate depictions of how much of his country is today. Also, thousands of former Muslims are giving their lives to Christ now that it is legal for them to do so. Sada recently authored a book that explains Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction (both chemical and biological) and what he did with them before UN weapons inspectors returned in 2002. Even though the interview with him is over an hour long, when the audio is posted on the web, it will be a must listen. I’ll post a link when it’s available.

UPDATE: Download the audio here. MP3, 19.1 MB, 83 minutes.

Categories
Current Events Politics

UN wants Guantanamo Bay prison shut down

Guantanamo BayThe Washington Post reports that the UN wants the military prison at Guantanamo Bay closed down and all the prisoners either tried or released. Guantanamo Bay is something that makes me embarassed to say that I’m an American. We’re supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, but humiliating and possibly even tourturing prisoners is cowardly.

As a citizen of God’s kingdom first and an American second, I believe that we need to take a stand and tell our government that situations like that prison are not acceptable. Holding people for an extended time without trial is not the American thing to do, and it’s certainly not something that is pleasing to God. It’s time for our nation to repent of our mistake at Guantanamo Bay and to make things right with those people who were held there.

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Current Events

New terror alert levels

Threat Advisory
The current threat advisory system is inadequate. I mean, what does low, guarded, elevated, high, or severe really mean? I think this site has a good alternate interpretation of the system.

UPDATE: Even better terrorism alert system:
Sesamie Street Security

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Current Events Faith

War and Peace

JR, the pastor who founded Kairos Los Angeles has a challenging post on his blog. As someone who doesn’t show near enough love to the people around me, I really resonate with JR’s analysis of how things could have been instead of how things are. On a related note, I think Matthew 5:38-45 fits in with JR’s comments.

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Current Events

Playing with fire

President Bush has nominated John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court. Even though I was fine with Roberts’ original nomination, I question the wisdom of making a court outsider chief justice. Many previous court nominations have ended up acting very differently than the presidents who appointed them would have expected. While I think the chances of Roberts making a great justice are high, there’s also the possibility he could end up differently than expected. It’s playing with fire to appoint an unknown as the justice who runs the court.

Washington Post article

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Current Events

Beyond a reasonable doubt

MJ is free. The key words from the jurors were “beyond a reasonable doubt.” I’m glad that the circus is over and the spectators are leaving. Yes, Jacko has a lot of issues. I mean a 47 year old sharing his bed with pre-teens is just plain stupid. But the kid with cancer’s mother is extremely greedy and Jackson has no common sense.

It is funny to see how different people are reacting to the outcome. Here’s some IMs I had waiting for me when I got home last night:

(22:16:58) Anonymous: Look, Michael did not molest those kids.
(22:17:11) Anonymous: And even if he did, he was just giving them what they wanted
(22:17:41) Anonymous: You don’t go to Neverland and not want to get molested
(22:18:22) Anonymous: It’s like if you climbed in a bear’s cage at the park and got maimed
(22:18:38) Anonymous: everyone would just think you were an idiot
(22:18:46) Anonymous: Anyhow, MJ doesn’t molest children
(22:18:51) Anonymous: He empowers them
(22:20:48) Anonymous: no he does
(22:20:55) Anonymous: he holds sports camps and stuff
(22:21:31) Anonymous: http://adultfunsite.com/content/afs_mik.jpeg