OrthodoxNet.com - 2003 Articles Archive

Homeschooling Grows Up
Homeschooling parents have known the answer for years: "No problem here!" But critics demand proof. Today, the first generation of homeschooled students has "grown up," and there are enough homeschool graduates to begin to see how they are succeeding in their homes, in their work, and in their lives.

Nothing succeeds...like success
The French want to strike a deal with us. The Germans are saying nice things about us. And the Russians just might entertain a partnership with us. But wait a minute, I thought all these guys hated us? I think they still do, but something changed. Saddam Hussein has been captured. And now the countries who wouldn't do squat to remove him are tripping over themselves to strike a deal with the country that did.

Vatican Distances Itself from Pro-Saddam Cardinal
A cardinal who rebuked the United States for treating Saddam Hussein "like a cow" after his capture was expressing his personal opinion and not necessarily the view of Pope John Paul II, a senior Vatican official said Friday.

Why Christmas?
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ – the Messiah. What does that mean for you and me? It means God loves us. It means we can have a personal relationship with the God of all Creation. It means we can be forgiven of our sins – no matter how numerous or how bad they are – and start life anew.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
Orthodox Family Life web page with the Christmas Day Troparion and Kontakion, and additional information.

Equal Earthquakes with Unequal Results
Judaism and Christianity teach that with faith and action we can change tomorrow. Furthermore, if doing so can save even one life, we are indeed obligated to denounce fatalism and act decisively. Uniquely, Biblical civilization teaches a distinctive emphasis on the value of even one human life.

How the ACLU Grinch Steals Christmas
For 75 years, the Creche at Balch Elementary School in Massachusetts has been a Christmas tradition. But this year, something repugnant has been added to the tradition: a lawsuit from the ACLU to eliminate the nativity scene on the school lawn. It reminds us of an editorial cartoon from last December: "This missing nativity scene is brought to you by your local chapter of the ACLU."

Foiling those evil Grinches
How goes the annual battle to delete Christmas from schools and the public square? News is mixed, but on the whole, things are not going well for the Grinches.

Giving Thanks for America's Warrior Class
Thanksgiving has just passed, and the first American troops to deploy for the Iraq War are nearing their one-year anniversary overseas. That makes it a good time to remember some families in this country to whom the rest of us owe a great deal.

Martino?
As for Cardinal Martino, he has made clear on many occasions how bitterly he feels toward the United States on many fronts, not only in the case of Iraq. He has not been altogether prudent. He does not seem to be aware of how oddly his behavior comports with the far more nuanced and modulated views of those around him with greater authority than his.

Vatican and Kofi Annan Weigh In On Saddam
The problem with the Vatican and the U.N. and others who have no solution to fascism, terror, atrocities and mass murder is that they live in a dream world. And they are afforded that luxury by America, Britain and other free nations who stood up to Nazis, communists, Japanese imperialists and now the terrorists.

The Persecution of Christians in America
The controversy over the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama is just the tip of the iceberg. For decades Christianity has been on the defensive in America, and it's gotten so bad now that many of our public institutions are actively anti-Christian.

Sad day for freedom
The Supreme Court has just tied a gag around our mouths, and most of the intellectual class is delighted. Apologists obscure the crude reality of this repression by calling it "campaign finance reform." Well, you can call manure a cow pie, but it still stinks.

Dennis Prager: How I found God at Columbia
Most people come to believe in God through what I call the front door of faith. Something leads them to believe in God. Since that day at Columbia, however, I regularly renew my faith through the back door -- I see the confusion and nihilism that godless ideas produce and my faith is restored. The consequences of secularism have been at least as powerful a force for faith in my life as religion.

The Bush Haters
Did you know that the Democratic party in the U.S. relies more heavily upon large donations from millionaires for its finances than the Republicans? The Republican party takes in a much larger proportion of its funds from small and modest donations, because its backbone is formed by the small businessmen and "sole proprietors" (barbers, shopkeepers, plumbers, etc.) of the American heartland. The Democratic party gets its strength from the millionaires in the communications industry, Hollywood, and other new technological elites.

Democrats Sprout More Conspiracy Theories on Bush
Conspiracy theories continued to sprout among Democrats yesterday in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein. Some Democrats expressed alarm that the party was drifting out of the "mainstream."

November 2003

Episcopal Actions, Orthodox Reactions
Few would fault the clarity of the Orthodox response to the September marriage of Denis Gogolyev and Mikhail Morozev in the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God Chapel in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. The bishops defrocked the priest, bulldozed the church and burned the wreckage.

Dear American soldier in Iraq
Iraq is the battleground for civilization. That is why our enemies are throwing everything they can at you. If you help create the first free and tolerant Arab country in the heart of Islam, they are doomed. If we fail in Iraq, we are doomed. Our enemies know this. We need to know this.

Christians in Egypt: The humiliation continues
The Islamic religion is the foundation of Egyptian legislation. Today, no Christian can be prime minister, even though there have been Christian prime ministers in the past. Of the thirty-two ministers, only two are Christians: the finance minister and the minister of the environment. No city or village mayor can be a Christian.

Frontpage Interview: In Denial
Professors John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have written a new book, In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage, which demonstrates how the leftist academic establishment has ignored, denied and distorted the evidence that has come out of the former Soviet archives about the Cold War and American communism.

Bishops may punish politicians
Frustrated that so many Catholic politicians support abortion rights, the bishops of the United States said yesterday that they will begin evaluating whether they can impose sanctions against elected officials who vote contrary to church teachings.

Christian Europe: An Orthodox Perspective
"The continent of Christendom" is facing new realities and challenges. Values considered for centuries to be the bedrock of European existence are being questioned from many sides. Loss of faith, dehumanization, uncertainty and fear have radically shaken European self-confidence.

Worshipping Ourselves
The essence of modern culture is the denial of any authority beyond the self and its desires. That theme is explicit in many influential philosophical writings that shape what we now think of as modern societies. For centuries, the idea that societies should be organized in order to reflect the laws of nature or of God has been on the wane, being replaced by a new ultimate goal: the promotion of individual self-fulfillment.

The Nightmares of Choice
Remarkably little study has been done of the doctors, nurses, counselors, and other staff in abortion facilities. Only two scientific studies that look at a large number of people have been done by researchers who did not work in the abortion field.

October 2003

Not So Quiet on the Eastern Front
Not all Americans were in concert about the wisdom or moral character of this past spring’s invasion of Iraq, but among our country’s many religious groups it is arguable that none was more deeply divided on the subject of the Iraqi war than the Orthodox Church.

Communism versus God: Who Won?
How did "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" morph into, "You can’t invoke God at public high school graduations"? Through judicial activism: Fifty years of judicial activism have come between our Constitution and us.

Christians are New Targets for Suicide Bombers
The owner of "Maxime," the South Haifa restaurant bombed by Islamic terrorists is a Lebanese Christian. Many of the workers who got killed or injured are Lebanese Christians, as well. Al-Jazeera and many Arab media outlets missed that point, possibly intentionally.

No Excuses
The education establishment likes to blame poor parenting and rowdy and lawless students for educational mediocrity. Without a doubt, that's part of the problem, but incompetent, uncaring teachers are also a part of the problem.

North Korea's Gulags
The latest hallucination of geopolitics has it that if only we can make North Korea's Great Leader Kim Jong Il feel safe from the fate of Saddam Hussein, maybe he'll stop testing missiles and making nuclear bombs. So the experts--whose ranks have now swelled to include, alas, even President Bush--have been scrambling for ways to make Kim feel more secure.

A right to live, a right to die
The secular lives that most of us lead, no matter what our faith (or lack of it), can often keep us from seeking tough answers to hard questions. We have no absolute standards for guidance.

Christian soldier, Muslim soldier
There's something terribly wrong when an American soldier overseas can't receive Scriptures in the mail, but a Muslim chaplain can preach freely among al Qaeda and Taliban enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay.

Martyrdom of Terri Schiavo: Resisting the ministers of death
Terri Schiavo, in her courageous struggle against the ministers of death, is a witness for life. The public battle over whether she should live or die is a titan struggle between those who reference that higher truth, and those whose value of human life is determined by temporal expediency.

Ronald Reagan revisionism
When he was at full ideological and political strength, liberals couldn't lay a glove on Ronald Wilson Reagan. Now that he is in "the sunset of my life," as he poignantly wrote in his final letter to the American people on Nov. 5, 1994, the left is unleashing a distorted and inaccurate attack on Reagan in an attempt to rewrite history and smear a good man.

In Support of Reagan: Know Him by His Deeds
It is this reporter's opinion that the revisionists, the mythmakers and outright liars who write the histories of great men and women have distorted the biographies of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts and Sir Winston Churchill. Now, apparently, it's Ronald Reagan's turn in the bucket thanks to CBS.

Thank God for General Boykin
It is not factually wrong or religiously insensitive to point out that the United States is a Judeo-Christian country. We are. It is an uncontestable historic and cultural fact. We are also a country that strives in both law and habit to be impeccably tolerant and respectful to all other religions and to those who believe in no religion at all.

Muzzling the wrong dog
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a much decorated soldier, was wounded by the political correctness movement last week over comments he made comparing the war against militant Islam to a battle against Satan. Boykin, who is deputy undersecretary of Defense, had told evangelical Christian audiences that radical Islam threatens to destroy America "because we're a Christian nation."

A "Dr. Death" Runs for President
Former Vermont governor and physician Howard Dean touts his medical experience as a reason to support his run for the presidency — and well he should. Unfortunately, Dean's recent support of assisted suicide and euthanasia shows that he apparently doesn't believe in the Hippocratic values that have served doctors and their patients so well for 2,500 years.

Only those with beliefs can defeat those with beliefs
There are many explanations for the lack of support for America in the war of liberation in Iraq, a war of civilizations just as much as the wars against Communism and Nazism were wars of civilizations. But the overriding reason is that America has far more believers -- in religion and in their country -- than any other nation in the industrialized world.

Media double standard couldn't stop Arnold
One day before the allegations were printed, the Los Angeles Times published a poll showing that the majority of Californians supported the recall and 40% intended to vote for Schwarzenegger for governor, putting him over 10 points ahead of his nearest rival. Then -- bam! -- come the allegations.

September 2003

Egypt attempts to close Copt church
Egyptian state and central security officers and soldiers attacked a small historic Coptic church in Assiut during Mass, arresting several deacons and others, throwing communion bread on the floor and stepping on it with their boots.

American terrorism, environment-style
Terrorists are loose in America. Eco-terrorists. They, like al-Qaeda's adherents, threaten American lives and property.

When women marry, Democrats lose
It takes a particularly noble Democrat to promote marriage and family. The strengthening of these institutions is not in the Democratic Party's self-interest. The more people marry, and especially the more they have children after they marry, the more likely they are to hold conservative values and vote Republican.

The Cardinal & the Passion
As I watched this yet-unfinished version of the film ["The Passion"], I experienced moments of profound spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is a film that leads the viewer into prayer and reflection, into heartfelt contemplation.

Double standards at the LA Times
So after all these lectures about the privacy of sexual acts, why have I not heard journalism's ethicists admonishing the Los Angeles Times?

First tobacco, now fat
Greedy lawyers (pardon the redundancy) have been working steadily on a campaign to make restaurants and food manufacturers legally liable for the spread of obesity. Sadly, they are making progress.

Hollywood's favorite child molester
One of the most popular movies currently playing at the box office, "Jeepers Creepers 2," is a teen horror flick directed by a stomach-turning registered sex offender who was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old-boy he targeted, groomed, seduced, and filmed in pornographic home videos.

Taking back our country -- one way to begin
Here is a seemingly small project that any American who works at almost any company can initiate. If successful, it will send shockwaves through the country: Rename your company's "holiday" party a Christmas party.

Good news about marriage
In the last few years, there have been unmistakable hints of a marriage turnaround. Divorce rates have dropped modestly. Illegitimacy, while still inching upward, has leveled off.

America's academic tyrants
Many of America's colleges and universities have become the modern leaders of racism and intolerance. Recently, we were treated to information about racism at the University of Michigan, where its academic elite gave students 20 extra points toward admission based solely on race.

Kangaroo Saves Farmer's Life
Another of God's creatures saves an Australian farmer. The eastern gray kangaroo named Lulu was hailed a hero Monday for saving the farmer by alerting the man's wife and leading her to where he lay trapped under a fallen tree branch.

Socialism kills
Eleven thousand unnecessary deaths occurred in France largely because socialism inevitably breeds hedonism, selfishness, and callousness. As ironic as it may seem, the fact is that socialism – i.e. cradle-to-grave state welfare – makes people worse.

Secular humanists rock foundations of Christian nation
The secularists are gloating. They got a court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building and another court order to suspend Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore who put it there.

Abortion Fallout
Abortion reaches far beyond the forty million pre-born children killed in abortion clinics. It fosters the culture of death that wounds our nation psychologically and spiritually.

Orthodox Bishops Statement on Same-Sex Unions
The Orthodox Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality, firmly grounded in Holy Scripture, 2000 years of church tradition, and canon law, holds that marriage consists in the conjugal union of a man and a woman, and that authentic marriage is blessed by God as a sacrament of the Church.

One Party Curriculum
What is so puzzling is why so many on our nation’s college campuses are so adamantly opposed to efforts to promote political balance. What are they so afraid of? Leftist faculty members know that the answer is embarrassingly simple: If conservative thought is allowed onto an equal playing field at our nation’s campuses, it is they who will wind up the losers in the marketplace of ideas.

The Democrats' counter-revolution
The Democratic Party has declared war on the centuries-long revolution of coalescing people of every ethnic, linguistic, racial and religious background into a new, non-ethnic entity known as American.

Caucasian clubs and race-based cookies
Two recent news items may represent the tip of an enormous explosion about to take place in this country. Many young Americans are not reacting to the dominant liberal message of dividing the country into racial and ethnic categories in ways that liberals had anticipated.

Enough Vietnam analogies
Bush reported how Fedayeen and terrorist scum have ambushed our soldiers. They've killed civilian aid workers at the United Nations; they've bombed the embassy of Jordan, a peaceful Arab country; and they've murdered a Shiite cleric and over 100 Muslims at prayer. But the actions of our enemies are rarely scorned by our media elite. Instead, they're reported as problems for, or mistakes by, the Bush White House.

Doctor and Daughter Slaughtered by Terrorists
Father and daughter were killed late Tuesday when a suicide bomber struck the cafe — one of two attacks that left 15 people dead. The father of six met Nava to impart some last-minute advice before her wedding, which was to have taken place Wednesday evening. Instead, mourners prepared for her funeral.

Losing bin Laden
During his presidency Bill Clinton had twelve (12) different opportunities to either capture or kill Osama Bin Laden. Some would say Clinton’s failure to take out this deadly terrorist is his real legacy.

August 2003

Trespassers on the Holy Mountain
The Church, its truths and traditions, represents a stumbling block to the EU’s growing ambitions for power. Against Judeo-Christian morality stands the EU’s doctrine of fundamental rights — a lengthy laundry list of Euro-socialist pieties, covering everything from terrorism (solved by building a “genuinely multipolar world”) to legalized euthanasia (“an extremely delicate subject”).

Anti-Muslim Discrimination?
Propaganda efforts to discredit the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the American people as being anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-foreigner by so-called "civil liberties" groups, are nothing more than a sophisticated campaign to cover up what is really going on within the world of Moslem extremists and their supporters.

Media bias on abortion is showing again
What if the women who helped make abortion-on-demand the law of the land changed their minds? They did. And what if no one cared? Apparently, no one does.

The Democrats' laboratory: The host organism dies
California is, in fact, a perfect petri dish of Democratic policies. This is what happens when you let Democrats govern: You get a state – or as it's now known, a "job-free zone" – with a $38 billion deficit, which is larger than the budgets of 48 states.

P.C. Insanity at the Pentagon
None of those arrested in the illegal-alien sweeps at our military facilities has been tied to Islamic terrorism. But the point being driven home by BICE is that if "well-meaning" immigration outlaws can penetrate our bases, so can far more nefarious con artists from abroad.

Ignoring Reality
A “peace process” would entail at least two groups moving, well, toward peace. Frankly, that’s the opposite of what’s actually happening in Israel.

Yes, Virginia, there is a religious war
Newly elected gay bishop Rev. Gene Robinson is being portrayed in the prestige press as a man of moral courage. But a man of moral courage would have stayed with his family, kept his vows, fought his temptations. Robinson ditched his family, dishonored his vows and disgraced himself.

Priest in Maryland: 'I Can No Longer Submit to Our Bishops'
An Episcopal pastor in Maryland is comparing his denomination to a "flying coffin doomed to destruction and despair" due to its pro-homosexual stand -- and says it will "carry more people to hell than it will save."

Failing an Important Test
A year and a half ago, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law. A quid pro quo was built in: The federal government would provide more money for public education (much more). In return, the states would insist that students meet certain minimum standards.

Liberal arguments: Still a quagmire
Liberals simply refuse to consider thoughts that would interfere with their lemming-like groupthink. They hold their hands over their ears like little children who don't want to listen to mother.

Old rhetoric in new times
The aging veterans of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s keep fighting the wars of the past with the rhetoric of the past, while the very different problems and opportunities of the present are either not addressed or are given prescriptions that fit an earlier time and a different disease.

The murders and the martyrs
Eleven-month-old Shmuel Zargari was buried in Israel this week with only his 14-year-old brother in attendance from his immediate family. His parents and three other siblings missed the funeral, having been grievously wounded by Shmuel's murderer, a 29-year-old Muslim cleric named Raed Abdel-Hamid Mesk, who believed Allah would invite him to paradise for self-detonating a Jerusalem bus packed with the Zargaris and other young families.

Anti-Christian litmus test
Senator Orrin Hatch sent shock waves through the liberal culture when he said, "the left is trying to enforce an anti-religious litmus test" against judicial "nominees who openly adhere to Catholic and Baptist doctrines."

Who's saved by safe shooting?
It wasn't the pathetic degradation of the addicts that was tough to swallow, but rather the extremely creepy revelation that the gentle art of healing now includes such, well, harmful practices as "vein maintenance" and "injection techniques" as part of a Canadian government-approved effort to ensure "safe" drug use.

Friends and hypocrites
Europe is telling us to start stimulating job growth. Last time I checked, France was looking at 9.5 percent unemployment. The Germans are at 10.6 percent, Italy's at 8.9 percent, and Spain's battling a jobless rate of more than 11 percent. These aren't exactly the kind of folks who should be lecturing anyone on anything having to do with jobs.

What's so funny about abstinence, Al Franken?
Left-wing "comedian" Al Franken got tripped up by some big fat lies this week. He's sorry he got caught, but smugly silent about making fun of countless American kids who have taken abstinence vows.

Liberals in denial
To liberals, conservatives are not only close-minded, reactionary and regressive. They're hateful. You heard me right. Conservatives are no longer just uncompassionate. They're hateful and intolerant -- merely for opposing socialism and defending traditional values.

Flag Flap Angers University Students in Florida
Old Glory with its stars and stripes is an American symbol, but at one Florida university, flying the flag in class has become a college controversy. Liberal student leaders are upset because international students might be intimidated by the sight of an American flag in a college classroom.

After 30 years, ozone is recovering
For the first time, scientists have uncovered what they see as unambiguous evidence that Earth's sunscreen, a tenuous shield of ozone in the stratosphere, is slowly beginning to recover from the alleged 30 years of human-triggered loss.

Israel Without Apology
Why did so many well-meaning Israelis and Americans believe in the early 1990s that a reasonable settlement between Israel and the Palestinians was within grasp? One answer is that the Soviet empire had just collapsed, and the cold war was over.

The future of gay "marriage"
America is disfigured by high rates of sexual disorders, including unnecessary divorce, unmarried childbearing, sexually transmitted diseases, a pornographic culture, and the progressive normalization of alternative sexual lifestyles, along with the sudden real threat that courts will impose gay marriage.

Liberal Hypocrisy - Kennedy Opposes Wind Farm
Senator Edward M. Kennedy said clearly for the first time yesterday that he opposes a plan to build the nation's first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

A grand victory at the grand canyon
This country is in the midst of its second civil war. It only differs from the first civil war in that it is, thank God, non-violent. But the passions are as deep, and the stakes are just as high.

Recall: Revolt of the Common Man
Leftists hate the recall because they hate democracy. I’ve been rather amused by how panicked the Left Elite are with the prospect that Californians have taken control of their political system and are poised to kick a particular bum out of office.

North Korea blinks, but Bush gets little credit
Attacking terrorism requires resolve, patience and a recognition that victories occur out of sight, but failures take place publicly. The give-peace-a-chance crowd fails to recognize evil, and that evil only understands and respects force backed by conviction.

Time to fulfill promises on Cuba
The Cubans are finally rebelling. But it's the Cubans in Miami, not in Havana, who are up in arms. Simmering doubts in the Cuban-American community about President Bush's unexpectedly anemic Cuba policy have erupted into open discontent with the recent decision to apparently negotiate the return of refugees to Cuba to face potential summary trials.

July 2003

Mel Gibson's passion for 'The Passion'
Even before the release of the movie, scheduled for March 2004, Gibson is getting his wish. "Everyone who worked on this movie was changed. There were agnostics and Muslims on set converting to Christianity… (and) people being healed of diseases."

The NEA Continues Pro-Abortion, Liberal Agenda
Another significant minority was rebuffed when it urged NEA delegates to "stick to education issues and not promote abortion." The majority remained adamant in retaining the NEA's pro-abortion position, rejecting all pleas to be consistent with other NEA resolutions calling for tolerance, diversity and respect for religious views of all peoples.

Demonizing Those Who Cure Us
Pharmaceuticals are expensive. So Congress should "take a stand for affordable prescription drugs," says Rep. Gutknecht. But doctors' visits, heart-bypass operations, cancer treatments, and hospital stays also are expensive. Before Americans complain about the price of drugs, they should remember the benefits they are receiving.

According to "Researchers" Conservatives are "Disturbed"
Liberal denial about all things conservative has passed the bizarre and arrived at the absurd. What amazes about this "research" is the incredible bias against anything regarded as conservative. There is the presumption that no conservative idea is even worth considering and that to be conservative is to be psychologically disturbed.

Extreme Nonsense
The greens just need something to hype because a 1/10 degree increase in the global temperature doesn't grab people's imagination like, say, softball-size hale. Extreme weather is also a convenient talking point since, given its mercurial nature, some weather is always going to be extreme.

No media bias?
Whether the issue is abortion, gun control, affirmative action or a whole range of other controversies, too many in the media seem less concerned with letting their readers and viewers know what the arguments are on both sides than with promoting the liberals' views.

Tax Dollars Spent for 'Gay' High School in NYC
The first stand-alone public high school for homosexuals in New York City will open this fall with 100 "gay" students. The new Harvey Milk High School currently is undergoing a $3.2 million publicly funded renovation.

Liberal bunkum
Have you read about the university study that purports to show psychological links among Ronald Reagan, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Rush Limbaugh and other "political conservatives"? There's so much here, where should I begin?

Commit yourself to freedom!
Americans have to work every weekday from Jan. 1 until April 19 just to pay the various taxes and fees the government demands. For the first three-and-a-half months of the year, you're doing it only to hand your entire paycheck over every single week to Uncle Sam and his siblings.

Communism Threatens The World Once Again
American and Asian officials with access to the latest intelligence on North Korea say strong evidence has emerged in recent weeks that the country has built a second, secret plant for producing weapons-grade plutonium, complicating both the diplomatic strategy for ending the program and the military options if that diplomacy fails.

Don't like the tax cut, don't keep it!
There's nothing wrong with speeches, of course, just be truthful. Just say that you find the tax cut a huge waste, but be honest and say you'll keep your huge windfall. The hypocrisy here floors me. If the super rich have a problem, let them make a super donation.

Pro-life women shift to majority
The balance between pro-choice women and women who say abortion should be outlawed or severely restricted is shifting toward the pro-life side, bumping that group into the majority in the debate over reproductive rights, according to a new national poll.

Metropolitan Phillip's Statement Regarding Bishop Demetri
"I have directed Bishop Demetri to seek professional help. He is willing to do that and has already made arrangements for inpatient treatment at a well-recognized facility."

Orthodox Bishop Facing Sexual Assault Charges
If these charges are true, then this Bishop needs to be immediately defrocked and sent to a monastery for some serious long-term spiritual and Christian counseling; after he serves his sentence and/or pays a serious fine for such criminal behavior, of course. What a horrible example from such a prominent member of the Orthodox Church! Lord have mercy!

Liberal damage to black America is enormous
One of the most dangerous myths in our lifetime has been that liberalism and the Democratic Party are black America's best friends. For all of us who desperately want African-Americans to prosper, the destruction of this myth may be the single most important step to that end.

June 2003

Innocents die when we don't have capital punishment
Murderers who are not executed have murdered innocent people - usually fellow prisoners. And the very real possibility of escape from prison means that murderers threaten far more innocent lives than capital punishment does.

No arrogance like liberal arrogance
Liberals are certain that they know more, understand more, are more tolerant and more compassionate than anyone else. Therefore, there is no inclination for a liberal judge to allow democracy to determine society's values.

Soldiers on the Home Front
The Christian worldview values the nurturing of life as not just one of many choices God wants us to balance successfully, but as the ultimate privilege he wants us to embrace faithfully, even sacrificially.

You gotta serve somebody
The election by Episcopalians in New Hampshire of an openly homosexual bishop is a sign of the times. The world is living in a moral vacuum – and much of the church knows no better.

The End of the Boy Scouts in Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council self-destructed last week. Its executive board voted unanimously to include "sexual orientation" in its nondiscrimination code. The outrageous move came after years of intense pressure from radical homosexual and atheist rights groups in the area and nationwide.

How strange
Isn't it strange that the very same people who were prepared to give the U.N. weapons inspectors months and even years to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are screaming after just a few weeks that our failure to discover them is proof of a hoax?

Islamists burn to death Christian pastor, family
Military forces led by Sudan's militant Islamist regime burned to death a Christian pastor and his family in a massacre of 59 unarmed villagers, a relief group working in the area reported.

Is your weight the government's business?
If you assume that slimming us down is a proper goal of government, it's hard to see the objection to policies that show promise of actually working, as opposed to enriching lawyers or making a statement. But perhaps there is something wrong with the assumption.

We don't care, liberals
Seething with rage and frustration at the success of the war in Iraq, liberals have started in with their female taunting about weapons of mass destruction. The way they carry on, you would think they had caught the Bush administration in some shocking mendacity. (You know how the left hates a liar.)

Arafat Wins Again
Give Yasser Arafat credit. The man has always had a genius for destruction. And in the long twilight of his career, he hasn't lost a step.

May 2003

Christian Persecution in 'Palestine'
When Palestinian Rashid Hussein became a Christian, Yasser Arafat's police force called him in for questioning. After repeated harassment, and in fear for his life, Rashid lived in hiding for two years. According to the Voice of the Martyrs, the Christian population of the area has dropped from 15% to 2% in that period.

Cross-wearing woman sues over suspension
A teacher's aide who was suspended for refusing to remove a cross pendant she regularly wore to work has sued the education agency that employs her for allegedly violating her constitutional rights.

Anything into Oil
Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light Texas crude each year. This is yet another American innovation that could not only eliminate the United State's dependency on foregin oil, but also help build a cleaner and more prosperous world.

Dr. Laura Lets Loose on Public Education, Liberal Media
Schlessinger says it is no small wonder the science and math scores of American students pale in comparison to those in many Third World countries, when public schools are spending all their time on social engineering and days of silence for sexual behaviors that are against Biblical scriptures.

People Against the American Way
Leading the leftist juggernaut in its current attack on America’s defenders is the largest and most influential hate group in America, misnamed "People for the American Way." People for the American Way is a permanent campaign of fear and hate aimed principally at Christian conservatives but at every group that attempts to defend America against the assaults of the left.

United Way ends Boy Scout funding
The United Way of Miami-Dade discontinued its funding for boy scouting programs, saying the local Boy Scouts of America affiliate failed to abide by an agreement requiring it to help gay youths cope with their sexuality.

Liberals Meet Unexpected Resistance
Though many had anticipated a cakewalk for the media in undermining the war on terrorism, instead liberals are caught in a quagmire of good news about the war. Predictions that liberals would have an easy time embarrassing President Bush have met unexpected resistance.

Castro's bizarre enablers
The Left's infatuation with Communist dictatorships dies hard. Why else would intellectuals and Hollywood's finest still be supporting Cuba's brutal tyrant, Fidel Castro?

Ten years later
Professor Camarata has his own support group of more than 600 families of late-talking children, spread across the United States and extending overseas. He is spearheading research on children with extraordinary abilities who nevertheless may not speak a complete sentence until they are three or four years old -- or older.

Dopey ideas and expressions
How many times have we applauded those who "made a difference in the lives of others" and been admonished to do the same? On the face of it, that has to be one of the more mindless generalities of our modern era. After all, didn't Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Castro also make a difference in the lives of others?

Global warming: The French connection
Liberals don't care about the environment. The core of environmentalism is a hatred for mankind. They want mass infanticide, zero population growth, reduced standards of living and vegetarianism. Most crucially, they want Americans to stop with their infernal deodorant use.

Close the border for humanity's sake
THow many undocumented immigrants will die before the Bush administration realizes that the most humane act it can take is to close our southern border and thus stop smugglers from taking the calculated risk that financial profits outweigh the costs of getting caught?

Race Preferences and the Resurrection of George Orwell
One fact that must be acknowledged is that leftists never quit. For them, the war is never over. Ballot initiatives are speed bumps, not stop signs. When the people enact initiatives that leftists oppose, they simply shift the war to a new battlefield. In short, they redouble their efforts to find a way to negate the initiatives.

Byrd droppings
Byrd, who in his salad days spent more time in white sheets than in camouflage uniforms, just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand that the respect and admiration America's soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have for this president is deep. He's grown too cold and cynical after 50 years in Washington to realize that the affection this commander in chief has for his troops is genuine.

Man faces jail for killing rattler in self-defense
A Michigan man who killed a poisonous snake he says was threatening nearby children has been found guilty of "killing a protected reptile or amphibian without a state permit" and faces a possible jail sentence, reports the Ann Arbor News.

Burn families, barbecue chickens
How does contemporary society produce frightening moral idiots in such enormous numbers? The most important reason is secularism. As G.K. Chesterton said about a hundred years ago: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything." Those prophetic words restated what the Psalmist wrote 2,500 years before: "Wisdom begins with fear of God."

UN Diplomats Loot Their Own Restaurants
When the Food Workers Union stages an impromptu walkout at the U.N., the diplomats start looting for lunch and booze. The walkout left thousands of U.N. employees scrounging for lunch — eventually, the masses stripped the cafeterias of everything, including the silverware.

April 2003

God-Free School Zones
If public schools do lose their antireligious bent, perhaps-school teachers will even be able to spark serious inquiry into major events shaping the world today, such as the ideas in President Bush's many public speeches. It's hard to imagine how they can do that now with Mr. Bush ending each speech with "God bless."

Teacher's Aide Suspended for Wearing a Cross
A teacher's aide is challenging her one-year suspension without pay for wearing a cross necklace, which officials say violates a Pennsylvania Public School Code prohibition against teachers wearing religious garb.

Will the 'true' imperialist religion please stand up?
Media organizations from CNN to The New York Times have all recently admitted to years of lying about conditions in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. They explain that they faced either losing "access" or subjecting their Iraqi employees - and, of more relevancy, themselves - to Saddam's torture chambers.

The moral bankruptcy of NOW
Want to know how to put a member of the NOW in a tizzy? Ask her to define "fetus." She will tie herself in knots before she will admit that it's just a medical term for a child in the womb in the later stages of a pregnancy. Ah, there's the rub!

Laci Peterson case tied to Roe debate
The head of the National Organization for Women's Morris County chapter is opposing a double-murder charge in the Laci Peterson case, saying it could provide ammunition to the pro-life lobby. "If this is murder, well, then any time a late-term fetus is aborted, they could call it murder," Morris County NOW President Mavra Stark said on Saturday.

Marching with Western values
What the Iraqi battlefield during the past two weeks has demonstrated beyond any possible argument is the moral superiority of Western culture. Armies march not just on their stomachs, but with their values.

God in the Newsroom
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof dropped a bombshell in a recent column: He wrote, "nearly all of us in the news business are completely out of touch with a group that includes 46 percent of Americans."

Health care hysteria
Don't get caught up in the health-care hysteria. If Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton get their way, you will lose freedom to make your own health-care decisions. Worse yet, you will empower government to meddle in yet another aspect of your private life.

One last touch by the angels
A TV show like no other ends its glorious run.

Stripped of Spiritual Comfort
I am a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. Some Orthodox Christians calling themselves "The Council for the Orthodox Peace Fellowship in North America" have circulated an antiwar declaration harshly condemning the U.S. government's policies in Iraq. In this "peace statement" the authors call all soldiers who kill in battle murderers, no matter what the cause.

The Phony Charge of Imperialism
To hear opponents of the war on Iraq tell it, America has become the new Rome: a swaggering empire bent on imperialistic conquest. We’ve heard it all before. It was, in fact, the most oft-repeated charge against both the United States and Britain at the outbreak of World War II.

To America's Soldiers
I want to thank you for my existence. I want to thank you for your sacrifices, and for your courage, because without your heroism, this world would indeed be a different place. Were it not for the brave soldiers who liberated my father from Dachau, and my mother and her family from the Nazi slaveholders, I would not be here today. Nor would millions of others, all of whom remain indebted to you.

Human livestock
The anointed want to eliminate stress, challenge, striving, and competition. They want the necessities of life to be supplied as "rights" -- which is to say, at the taxpayers expense, without anyone's being forced to work for those necessities, except of course the taxpayers.

Four legs good, two legs bad
The folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals aren't so much animal lovers as people haters. PETA top dog Ingrid Newkirk made news recently when she sent a letter to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat complaining about a Jan. 26 bombing in which terrorists blew up a donkey in an attempt to bomb people in Jerusalem.

Columbia Professor Wants US Soldiers Dead
De Genova told a campus "teach-in" last Wednesday that he wanted to see the U.S. defeated in Iraq and suffer "a million Mogadishus" — a reference to the 1993 Somalia ambush that left 18 Americans dead.

The War Has Refuted The Opposition
Once again the left is proved wrong. In less than two weeks of fighting to liberate Iraq, we have brought to light enough facts to destroy every argument the left has made against the war. (But don't expect this to put a crimp in its self-righteous arrogance).

Iraqi cells disgorge dark secrets
At the infamous Abu Ghareb prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the relatives of missing Iraqis comb through the detritus, hunting for clues to the fate of their relatives and best friends.

CNN: The News We Kept to Ourselves
Over the last 12 years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized lives.

US Marines Free 150 Iraqi Children from Prison
More than 150 children held in a prison celebrated their freedom as US marines rolled into northeast Baghdad. "The children had been imprisoned because they had not joined the youth branch of the Baath party," he alleged. "Some of these kids had been in there for five years."

Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel says Iraq war justified
Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel said the war on Iraq is justified and blamed unnamed European countries for failing to prevent it through pressuring Saddam Hussein.

'He's Gone! He's Gone!'
Iraqi Kurds flooded the streets of northern Iraq on Wednesday, rejoicing in the downfall of President Saddam Hussein — a leader who had gassed them and executed them by the thousands.

March 2003

Time to throw out 'myth' of recycling
Throw away the green and blue bags and forget those trips to return bottles — recycling household waste is a load of, well, rubbish, say leading environmentalists and waste campaigners.

Who killed Rachel Corrie?
We are told ad nauseam that Rachel Corrie was a "peace activist." So let it be said once and for all that most of these people are moral frauds. Why? Because "peace activists" routinely protest only against peaceful countries.

Where Helen Thomas's heart lies
The crusty ex-journalist-turned-White House heckler had only one thing on her mind when her favorite news stations, al Jazeera and Iraqi state TV.

Bush's Faith
President Bush admits that he begins each morning by reading a book of evangelical sermons. Faith has long been an integral part of his life. A strong belief in God helped Bush let go of a drinking problem in his youth and move toward an absolute moral reference point. "Christ changed my heart," Bush said during a 1999 presidential debate.

Why We're Fighting in Iraq - Tribute
This is a tribute that reminds all of us why our men and women are risking their lives half-way around the world to protect all our freedoms and insure a more peaceful future for all Americans.

Blame the Jews?
Let it be shouted from sea to shining sea: America is uniquely great and uniquely blessed because more than any other country it asks, "What is right?" when making foreign policy and because it has always blessed its Jews.

When the truth is a casualty
Some media outlets want the war in Iraq to go poorly for the Bush administration for political reasons. Thus, the more chaos and uncertainty that war headlines and stories can produce, the better the ultimate outcome will be as far as they're concerned.

Iraqi civilians feed hungry US marines
Iraqi civilians fleeing heavy fighting have stunned and delighted hungry US marines in central Iraq by giving them food, as guerrilla attacks continue to disrupt coalition supply lines to the rear. Iraqis: He said they told him: "We welcome you. What is your name? We will pray for you."

Saddam Hussein - Tales of the Tyrant
The tyrant must steal sleep. He must vary the locations and times. He never sleeps in his palaces. He moves from secret bed to secret bed. Sleep and a fixed routine are among the few luxuries denied him. It is too dangerous to be predictable, and whenever he shuts his eyes, the nation drifts.

Human shields-turned-hawks
They arrived as Saddam apologists willing to die for the despot—but they left Iraq weeks later with changed hearts and a determination that Saddam must go. Many of the human shields who had arrived with much fanfare to “stop” the United States and Britain were swayed by the strongest supporters of Saddam’s ouster: the Iraqi people.

Embedding reporters: a brilliant Bushian stroke
Operation Iraqi Freedom has spawned a new use of the word "embed" - in the sense of attaching media types to coalition military units for on-site reporting of action. The Bush administration's decision to embed 500 reporters is yet another brilliant stroke.

Muslim-American Soldier Kills His Own
An American soldier has died in a grenade attack carried out by another US serviceman at a military camp in Kuwait. Fifteen troops were also injured when the soldier, named as Sergeant Asan Akbar, lobbed three grenades into tents housing commanding officers from the 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania.

'You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious'
US Marines welcomed with tears and thanks. "You just arrived," he said. "You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave."

Tom Daschle = Hypocrite of the Century
And the "Hypocrite of the Century" Award goes to (drum roll please)..... Tom Daschle, Senate Democratic Leader.

Liberals Cite Nazis for Support Against War
There was no more eloquent testimony to what liberals mean by "American arrogance" than an article in the March 10 New Yorker, which nonchalantly quoted a Nazi in support of the proposition that Americans are jingoistic, imperialist rednecks. Amid page after gleeful page of European venom toward Americans, Columbia University professor Simon Schama quoted the anti-American bile of a renowned Nazi-sympathizer.

See men shredded, then say you don't back war
This is what Saddam does to his own people: "There was a machine designed for shredding plastic. Men were dropped into it and we were again made to watch. Sometimes they went in head first and died quickly. Sometimes they went in feet first and died screaming. It was horrible. I saw 30 people die like this."

Throw a net over this woman
You might think members of Congress would be smart enough to avoid making the mistake Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., made just a few weeks ago when she rationalized the motivations of Osama bin Laden, suggesting his humanitarian efforts around the world were more impressive than those of the United States.

Michael Moore booed trashing Bush at Oscars
Michael Moore, whose anti-gun film "Bowling for Columbine" won the Academy Award tonight for Best Documentary, accepted his Oscar by attacking President Bush amid boos from the star-studded audience.

45 nations join 'coalition of willing'
In an effort to counter criticism that an invasion of Iraq represents a largely unilateral decision by the U.S., the State Department yesterday released a list of 30 countries that have agreed to be named publicly as members of a "coalition of the willing" in support of the U.S. plan, while identifying about 15 others that have given their backing privately.

Saddam Hussein has got to go
As the United States now prepares to oust Saddam with military force, it is worth considering why Iraq - along with North Korea and Iran - presents such a threat to our national security.

At least get your story straight!
Since the anti-war movement has made such great efforts to spew their "give peace a chance" propaganda, you would think they would have taken a little more time to fine-tune their message.

Dead Americans
The government of France is fighting an undeclared war with the United States. The result will be the needless deaths of American soldiers in the Gulf. And the more Americans Saddam manages to kill, the greater President Chirac's satisfaction will be.

Dan and Saddam
If one is not going to ask a dictator anything approaching the truth about his actions, why bother interviewing him? Isn't the whole thing morally compromised and journalistically meaningless?

February 2003

PETA Campaign Sinks to New Low

In its newest assault on common decency and common sense, PETA has decided that the killing of chickens for food is equivalent to the Jewish Holocaust in both its scope and cruelty. This is just one more "moral equivalence" play from this particular organization that attempts to equate the value of human life to that of a chicken or any other animal (rats included).

Blue Is True
If you care about the environment, your symbolic color should be blue not green.

When have millions of Europeans ever been wrong?
Europe believes in socialism, while America believes in capitalism. This difference can hardly be overstated. Most Western Europeans believe in socialism as fervently as religious Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in their respective religions. To many Americans, socialism is only an economic system, but for Western Europeans it has largely replaced Christianity as their faith.

An unconventional Arab viewpoint
I've been really bugged, especially since Sept. 11, 2001, by all the self-proclaimed Arab-American and Muslim-American spokesmen I see on the talking-head shows. What bugs me is the way they show no appreciation for just how tolerant and open-minded and non-judgmental the American people really are toward them and the Arab and Muslim world.

The truth about Christians in 'Palestine'
There's a new propaganda effort under way designed to convince churches in the U.S. that Israel, not Yasser Arafat's the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states, is victimizing Christians in the Middle East.

A Time for War
When evil is opposed, it can be defeated. This is history's lesson. But if the United Nations, France, Germany and those "peace activists " among us and overseas will "see no evil, " they are doomed to have history repeat itself in a new holocaust.

Christianity in the prison system
America's prisons are often depicted by left-wing critics as a big business ("the prison-industrial complex") profiting on the basis of racism and cruelty. Along comes a program designed to soften prison's edges, and what's the response of one liberal group? To try to close it down with a lawsuit.

What the world would like the president to say
I now realize that we Americans who think in terms of good and evil are simpletons. We should think, as the professors do, in multicultural terms and, therefore, render no moral judgment over Iraq or any other nation except Israel. Who am I to declare any regimes an "axis of evil"?

Protests: Give tyranny a chance
To march against the war is not to give peace a chance. It is to give tyranny a chance. It is to give the Iraqi nuke a chance. It is to give the next terrorist mass murder a chance. It is to march for the furtherance of evil instead of the vanquishing of evil.

Sodom and Gomorrah University
Thank goodness for conservative college student journalists. They bravely blow the whistle on the cultural rot plaguing the nation's institutions of higher learning. And they alert the public to the ugly truth about campus hedonism, which is downplayed by clueless administrators, admissions flacks and faculty enablers.

Why Hollywood Hates Conservatives
The Left hates President Bush and conservatives. They will always hate conservatives and it is silly to think otherwise. Hollywood is leading the charge of the Left, to indoctrinate students and brainwash them into believing that conservative thought is evil thought.

Anti-Israel, Anti-American Rally In London
These earnest seekers of peace, with so many signs denouncing George W. Bush and Tony Blair, had nothing to say to Saddam Hussein; no request to please co-operate with the UN inspectors. Not one small poster asking Saddam to disarm or destroy his weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps somewhere in that million people there were some bravely asking him to "Leave Iraq and prevent war," but I could not find them.

Don't waste your money on an expensive college
Our colleges are dominated by "post-moderns" and other nihilists for whom seeking truth is regarded as a reactionary fraud, not an academic ideal. For these professors, deans and presidents, the primary purpose of the university is to mold students in their images -- people alienated from America and from God.

Islam's Other Victims: Africa
To Bishop Dolli it may seem incomprehensible that the U.S. has intervened militarily and politically to "save" the Moslems in Bosnia and Kosovo from non-existent genocides allegedly perpetrated by their Christian neighbors while it remains indifferent to the very real genocide of Christians that has been perpetrated by the ruling Moslems in Sudan for two decades.

'New' Europe stands with America
"New Europe" represents not just America's likely allies in the event of a military strike against Iraq, "new Europe" expresses an ideology, philosophy, and appreciation of freedom through strength. "New Europe" understands America, what she stands for, and that America's national interests coincide with theirs.

January 2003

America under siege
America's enemies within turned out in force on Saturday in Washington DC and San Francisco under the auspicies of the Communist Workers World Party operating under its front organization, A.N.S.W.E.R. Once again the demonstrators pretended to be peace activists, who found violence abhorrent and a willing media played along with the charade.

Post-abortive Women Break Silence
Because abortion is legal. It's a part of our culture. And people assume because abortion is legal, it's safe and it's an OK choice.... Our culture does not give us the permission to feel bad about this choice, nor the permission to grieve about it.

In London, police write letters to criminals to stop
A British police force announced Friday it has come up with a new measure to combat crime -- a polite letter asking persistent offenders to mend their ways.

Mel Gibson under attack for Jesus film?
Actor-director Mel Gibson said tonight he's under attack for making a realistic movie about the suffering, sacrificial death of Jesus. Asked if he believed there was a direct correlation between this investigation and his work on "The Passion," a film he is making in Aramaic and Latin for authenticity, Gibson said: "I think there is."

Honor Guard Fired for Saying 'God Bless'
Cubbage, 54, was fired from his job as an honor guard at a New Jersey veterans' cemetery last year for saying "God bless you" at gravesite flag presentations. Cubbage regularly said "God bless you and this family, and God bless the United States of America" after the standard lines of the flag presentation.

Diversity With a Twist
The reality of diversity on campus is not to promote any true notion of diverse views – such as the founding fathers had in mind with full-bodied freedom of speech and an unencumbered and vibrant press – but to enforce a code of politically correct thinking. Diversity has become the enforcement arm of George Orwell’s prophecy of Big Brother watching over us, making sure people line up with the stylish fads of the elite.

Death sentence hangs over Arab Christians
When Saeed and Nasser Salame, Arab brothers and residents of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, converted from Islam to Christianity, they didn't know it would cost them their homes, their friends – possibly even their lives.

Methodist Pastors, Laity Seek Bishop's Removal
The group has filed a complaint, calling for the removal of United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago, who openly rejects Jesus Christ's blood atonement and bodily resurrection, calls the virgin birth a myth, and equates literal belief in the Bible to "idolatry."

You can't ignore the evidence
The report by United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix confirms there's only one remaining reason to delay military action against Iraq: to give our military a little more time to complete its final preparations for the strike. But to suggest that we need to give sinister Saddam more time to comply with U.N. resolutions is insulting to our intelligence and potentially dangerous to America's fighting forces.

From denial to sadness
With the 30th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision coming up next Wednesday, is it a positive sign that many abortion supporters have learned from the Japanese and no longer pretend?

Conservatives may have talk radio...
The reason the liberal message is not being heard, despite liberal control of almost all public organs of communication, is that it is incoherent. The message, not a lack of messengers, is the contemporary liberal problem.

Axis of stupidity
Time magazine was a rare voice of honesty amid the claptrap. "In January, Bush said the three states were seeking weapons of mass destruction and posed a grave and growing danger." On the evidence, Time said, "he's right."