Good links

Several good things to read!

The evil work of terrorists (not militants, as some journalists describe them) in Beslan was horrific. The WSJ has a good editorial pointing out that it should be hard to justify specifically targeting children in a school, and that we need to foment a worldview shift on terrorism as the British did for slavery in the 19th century. Dennis Prager again points out that it is only Muslims who are doing such things (even if it is only a minority of Muslims):

With the psychopathic cruelty at a Russian elementary school, have we reached
the point where people of goodwill can ask serious questions about Muslims and
Islam? Or are any challenging questions still to be dismissed as "Muslim
bashing" or, even more absurdly, "racist," as if religion were a race?
The
truth is that everyone with a conscience has questions about Muslims and Islam.
But the most powerful religion in America, the religion of tolerance, has
rendered it almost impossible to ask any such questions. Most people are so
afraid of being branded intolerant that the most natural and goodhearted
questions are only posed by the handful who have the courage to do so (usually
conservative Christians).

Kevin Miller has great suggestions for anyone is leadership roles who is struggling with information overload. Recommended.


I am praying that President Bush will win the election by a large margin, so there is no doubt about his credibility with the electorate. I'm encouraged in read Brendan Miniter's reasoning for why Bush will win at least 53% of the vote.

But I'm concerned about the Bush Administration pushing for more federal spending on non-defense needs. The federal involvement in education is unconstitutional, though a pragmatist like George W. Bush sees that it may be necessary to prevent the wholesale implosion of public schooling. Terence Jeffrey has a nice column explaining his concerns about how we are setting up a fiscal civil war in the next generation.

Ben Shapiro helps us understand the slippery slope of the religion of tolerance:

"The new religion of tolerance provides a slippery slope into moral oblivion.
All activity must be tolerated, since sympathy for friends and family trumps
traditional morality. With tolerance for sin comes acceptance of sin, and with
acceptance, promotion. With Roe vs. Wade, Americans grudgingly tolerated
abortion.
With tolerance came acceptance: Those who received abortions
were no longer seen as immoral. Instead, they were the moral equals of ordinary
mothers. Finally, abortion was promoted as a valuable alternative to pregnancy
completion -- and those who condemned abortion were slandered as sinners.
When Republicans passed the partial-birth abortion ban last year, Sen.
Barbara Boxer of California complained that such policy was immoral: "What I
think is immoral is to take your views ... or my views ... and force them on the
people of this country," she stated. "It is disrespectful, it isn't right, and
it isn't what America is about."
The same progression holds true for gay marriage: tolerance, acceptance and promotion. The first step is always tolerance, and tolerance must be attained by appealing to sympathy. The easiest way to gain sympathy for social liberalism is to point out close friends or relatives participating in sin, and then dare us to condemn their actions."

Those concerned about educating children should review the 1910 expectations for eighth graders.

Finally, for all Christian men and especially for pastors, there is Eugene Peterson's wonderful essay, Lashed to the Mast. Do not miss this.