Very Interesting…But Stupid!

Cross-posted from Where I Stand

The Idaho liberal blog, 43rd State blues has a post up about Charlie Sheen making observations on 9-11:

"It seems to me like 19 amateurs with box cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75% of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory. It raises a lot of questions." [...]

Well, Charlie they’re not exactly amateurs. They’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this, though in a pre-9/11, pre-air Marshal era it didn’t take a lot of work, other than training on using precision to crash the airplane.

"There was a feeling, it just didn’t look any commercial jetliner I’ve flown on any time in my life and then when the buildings came down later on that day I said to my brother ‘call me insane, but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?"

Okay, Charle, you’re insane. More to the point, who on Earth cares about the half baked suppositions of an actor whose main qualification for making his judgment is playing a City Bureaucrat on ABC. Apparently, the people on 43rd State Blues as well as a bunch of people that voted in a CNN poll which really proves they’re a lot more conspiracy theorists out there than we think.

*The title is in response to that of the original 43rd State Blues piece, "Very Interesting" The title is actually a line from the TV Classic Laugh In.

The Destruction of Black Marriage

From the Washington Post, Joy Jones has a great piece on the decline of marriage. Ms. Jones writes of her own responsible intentions and the results:

But as a black woman, I have witnessed the outrage of girlfriends when the ex failed to show up for his weekend with the kids, and I’ve seen the disappointment of children who missed having a dad around. Having enjoyed a close relationship with my own father, I made a conscious decision that I wanted a husband, not a live-in boyfriend and not a “baby’s daddy,” when it came my time to mate and marry. My time never came.

She writes of a classroom experience where she was teaching a group of 6th graders about Career Exploration. She saw so many boys interested in being a good father, she offered to bring in married couples to talk about being married and she got this response:

“Oh, no,” objected one student. “We’re not interested in the part about marriage. Only about how to be good fathers.”

And that’s when the other boy chimed in, speaking as if the words left a nasty taste in his mouth: “Marriage is for white people.”

He’s right. At least statistically. The marriage rate for African Americans has been dropping since the 1960s, and today, we have the lowest marriage rate of any racial group in the United States. In 2001, according to the U.S. Census, 43.3 percent of black men and 41.9 percent of black women in America had never been married, in contrast to 27.4 percent and 20.7 percent respectively for whites…I was stunned to learn that a black child was more likely to grow up living with both parents during slavery days than he or she is today, according to sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin.

Jones then goes on to given a pretty good explanation of why these marriages aren’t happening. Essentially, according to Jones, Black Women are looking to get married in their 20s, while Black Men aren’t interested in it. By the time Black men realize the benefits of marriage, many Black Women aren’t looking anymore, as they’re not interested in committing to someone who brings a pretty sorted past–and not much else into a marriage.

As Ms. Jones hit on, this isn’t just a racial problem. The percentage of White households headed by two parents has gone from 91% to 80%.

What’s happened has been a serial disrespect for marriage. As marriages are dissolved for light and transient causes and others choose together without marriage, the concept of marriage has been torn down to the point that while those boys in the classroom see a need to be good fathers, they don’t understand that the best thing they can do is to provide their children intact homes with both a mother and father present.

This attitude will continue to multiply as long as we as society wink at quicky marriages, no-fault divorces, and cohabitation. And its not helped by the idea that marriage exists as an equal opportunity grant of tax deductions.

Our Social Engineers have greatly bungled their attempts to redesign our society. Their result has been a society and culture that despite all the new found “freedom” is much less happy, safe, and secure than previous ones.

When can a social experiment be said to have failed? How many children in broken homes will it take for some to realize we’ve gone too far? How long until the church wakes up and takes this issue seriously?

Willisms has some more statistics on this issue and I reccomend his post on this.

38 Years Later A Man Takes Responsibility

From the Washington Times, the story of a man taking responsibility for his actions, 38 years after he desserted from the Marine Corps:

“When I was 18, I wasn’t aware that duty and honor would mean as much to me as they do now,” said Allen Abney, 56, this week in this southeast British Columbia town.

“Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have done what I did 38 years ago,” he said. “It wasn’t worth it, all the pain I caused my family.”

Mr. Abney was arrested March 9 while crossing the border into Idaho, something he had done countless times before, but he said that was the first time he was asked for a birth certificate as identification. When the customs agent asked him to pull over, Mr. Abney said, he knew he was in trouble.

After a night in custody in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, two Marine investigators took him to a cell in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“I was read my rights and told of the charges,” Mr. Abney said. “I was once again a Marine.”

He said he was issued combat fatigues and boots, given a haircut and told to trim his mustache to military standards or shave it off altogether. Despite the strain, Mr. Abney said he was treated with respect.

“The [Marine Corps] is one of the finest military organizations in the world,” he said. “Good or bad, they take care of their own, and I feel privileged to have shared some time with those fine young warriors.”

I wish Mr. Abney all the best. Its clear that he’s grown up quite a bit and regrets his actions. Its refreshing because most people in his position would make themselves out as heroes or victims of a crazed military system or Richard Nixon. He basically said he was wrong and also respected how the Marines worked to resolve this in such a professional manner.

This was a situation where everyone showed class under difficult circumstances. Well done.

A Reminder of Christ

This past week, the imprisonment of Abdul Rahman made international headlines and created a furor over the Afghan government’s plan to execute him. It must be noted that there are thousands upon thousands of Abdul Rahmans in the world. While enjoying strength in the United States, Christianity is still the most persecuted religion on Earth.

The difference this time is that the world had just finished expending blood and treasure to secure the liberty of the Afghan people. To then turn around and execute a citizen for the simple act of changing religions was an abomination to the conscience of the coalition nations.

In the videos of Rahman, we saw something that can be missed, basic Christianity. In America, we’ve allowed the basic fundamentals of Christianity to be obscured. Indeed, American Christianity can be as philosophical as the religion of Ancient Greeks.

We have a lot of issues we love to argue about. We see churches splitting over issues as vital and important as worship styles, the use of pews instead of theater seats, and dress codes. We have the Prayer of Jabez, the Purpose-Driven Life, the Power of a Praying series, marriage guides, classes and programs upon programs, and nearly every program has a rebuttal book (or more) written by a less successful writer explaining why they believe first writer was of the devil. We have Christian novels, Christian movies, Christian Radio, and Christian Television.

Now, I’m not saying all these things are bad. Far from it. However, they’re not what matters most. Abdul Rahman reminds us that understanding Christianity doesn’t require a degree, just simple faith and courage. Few people in history have had such common access and knowledge regarding the great truths of Christian scripture as American. The question is, What have we done with them? Sad to say, in most cases, not much. So much great preaching and teaching is ignored as we’ve hardened ourselves against familiar truths.

Too often, we turn to the Church for entertainment. There are contests held for America’s best preacher or its most exciting choir. Yet, Rahman reminds us that the Christian Faith is not about entertainment or comfort, but commitment and being willing to stand up for Christ no matter what the risk or price.

As we approach the Easter Season and remember Christ’s sacrifice, let us think also of the Abdul Rahmans of the world. The Persecuted Church has chosen the path of righteousness though it lead to suffering, rather than the pleasures of sin for a season. If we really know anything about God, if we understand Christ’s sacrifice, than how can we choose to do anything else?

Abdul Rahman