Chuck Colson – BreakPoint

Broken Genome Promises
Identifying the Weak

June 28, 2010

Ten years ago, then-president Clinton told Americans that mapping the human genome would “revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases.”

But as the New York Times reported recently, a decade after the mapping of the human genome, the “genetic map [has yielded] few new cures.”

The primary goal of the project—discovering the “genetic roots of common disease” and then finding cures—”remains elusive.” In fact, the Times reports, “geneticists are almost back to square one in knowing where to look for the roots of common disease.”

Unfortunately, there’s more to this story than yet another case of failing to live up to the scientists’ hype. That’s because while genetics’ potential to heal may be almost back to square one, the same can’t be said for its potential to harm.

Genomics may not be able to cure illnesses, but it can prevent illnesses by identifying those in utero who are genetically at risk.

Take the recent announcement that scientists had “uncovered dozens of previously unknown genetic mutations that contribute to autism in children.”

Notwithstanding what you may have heard, these findings bring us no closer to “curing” autism. On the contrary, the study shows how difficult it will be to “design drug therapies that work across a wide range of autistic spectrum disorders.”

Now it doesn’t take a genetics scientist to figure out the road we’re heading down. If we can identify fetuses who carry genetic markers for autism, but we can’t find a cure for them, what’s likely to happen? We’ll see an increase in abortions. Exactly what happened to people with Down syndrome—92 percent of whom now, after prenatal diagnosis, follow with an abortion.

There is no reason to believe that prenatal diagnoses of autism, or even a predisposition to autism, would be all that different. Prospective parents of children with less-challenging genetic prognoses abort their unborn children in a majority of the cases.

Raising an autistic child—whose dependence may extend beyond the age of 18 and whose needs can exhaust even the most dedicated and loving parent—is a scary prospect.

As I’ve also discovered, however, with my grandson Max, it can be a huge blessing.

Now this doesn’ t take into account expense. We know that keeping medical costs down right now is a national priority. So it’s easy to understand why parents are strongly encouraged to undergo genetic screening. The least-expensive way to care for people with special needs is to prevent them from being born. So the pressure will mount on parents to abort babies with genetic issues.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it was the “near future” depicted in the film Gattaca. That came out three years before Clinton’s announcement. Film director Andrew Niccol saw where our brave new world of genetic screening would lead. A tool to enhance human life could end up becoming a tool to eliminate it.

Folks, it comes down simply to this. Human life is either sacred, made in the image of God, and therefore worthy of our protection in all circumstances, or it is merely the result of chance, an accumulation of genetic material to be manipulated—or even eliminated—according to the dictates of science and the bottom line.

There is no in-between.

The writing of Vladimir Lossky is widely considered to be ‘difficult’ or ‘challeging’ but it is far less difficult than the subject matter to which he addresses himself. Indeed, with patience and curiosity (the necessary attitude of anyone who wishes to learn) the reader will find a breath-taking opening into the higher reaches of consciousness – where human consciousness touches the divine.

Please explore his introduction to Orthodox Christian mysticism.

 Read the whole article on Townhall.com  by Mike Adams

I have a former student who has found the perfect job. She’s working with troubled youths in a faith-based program that allows her to finally put her psychology degree to use – a full eight years after she graduated from college. She likes the job, but she called my office recently to vent about a boy who suffers from Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD).

I have a B.A. and an M.S. in psychology. But I must confess that I needed some explanation of ODD because it wasn’t yet a disorder when I studied psychology back in the 1980s. So I asked my former student simply to describe the behavior of the boy with ODD. The conversation went something like this:

Erica (not real name): He is constantly pitching a fit over nothing – or nearly nothing. He argues with everything I say and there is no such thing as a rule he does not question.

Me: So, in other words, the boy is a jerk.

Erica: No, he has ODD. I mean, he actively defies and refuses to comply with every request made by every adult. I mean that literally. And he does it just to annoy us and to upset us. But he won’t take responsibility for his behavior or his mistakes. It’s never his fault.

Me: So, in other words, the boy is a jerk.

Erica: No, I said he has ODD. He’s also easily annoyed by other people. And he’s full of resentment and anger.

Me: So, in other words, the boy is a jerk.

Erica: No, there’s more to it than that. I know he has ODD because of the hateful words he uses when he’s upset. He is just so spiteful and so bent on gaining revenge against anyone he thinks has wronged him.

Me: So, in other words, the boy is a jerk.

Erica: I guess you’re right. He is a jerk.

In a previous article, entitled “Why Can’t We Reform our Criminals”, we talked about the upsurge of recidivism since the therapeutic mentality took over the task of transitioning criminals back into society. According to this group, it’s parents who didn’t attend every single soccer game, parents who didn’t tolerate their children’s individuality and let them be themselves, or in other words; parents who didn’t grant the kids’ every wish who are to blame. Plus, of course, another major factor is “Society” in general. We, as a society, just didn’t care enough, weren’t tolerant enough, and expected too much. Gasp… there was even competition in schools and – gasp – children were actually grade-ranked on their academic performance. So, there’s the root cause of crime. It’s not the criminals’ fault! It’s everybody else’s fault. It’s society’s fault.

However, typical of the therapeutic mentality, they’ve got it all upside down. Studies have shown that those who chose crime – yes, they chose crime, it wasn’t the only alternative – did so because of the very things that are now accepted as normal child rearing patterns. Let the children “be themselves,” don’t burden them with “unrealistic expectations” and when they inevitably make mistakes, don’t criticize them. Or at least blame the schools or society, but never, ever, ask the child to take responsibility for their own actions. Respect for parents and authority are just “old fashioned” notions. Instead, we should embrace the “progressive” notion that children already have within themselves all the knowledge they need. They don’t need the advice and counsel of grown-ups; they just need to be “empowered” to bring out their natural, inherent goodness. They won’t benefit from self-respect, but they’ll wither without self-esteem.

Read the rest of the article.

From Ashland to Portland, the Orthodox tradition is drawing Oregonians to its ancient depths

By Alice Tallmadge, Correspondent
The Oregonian, Sunday, April 9, 2000

EUGENE — The Saturday night buzz is revving outside the doors of St. Eugene Orthodox Church in the Whiteaker neighborhood. Motors race. Doors slam. Nearby taverns begin to fill with eager revelers. But inside the walls of the humble, dome-topped church, an otherworldly peace reigns. Pungent incense hangs in the air. Gold-flecked icons, lit by flickering tapers, line the dark red walls. Women, their long hair covered with scarves, stand on one side of the small nave, men on the other.

They take turns filling the room with plaintive, old-world chants. Other worshippers stand quietly, hands to their sides, heads bowed.

“This is how we worship, to stay concentrated in prayer,” said St. Eugene member Sarah Cowie. “We believe that, during the service, God pours himself out. If you get quiet enough in your mind, you can feel, palpably, his presence.”

The 70 or so members of St. Eugene aren’t immigrants from Russia, Eastern Europe or Greece. They are Eugene-area residents, most of them converts from Protestant sects, who have found solace and sustenance in a tradition that dates back 2,000 years to the early Christian church. Cowie and other St. Eugene members are among the growing numbers of Oregonians who are converting to Orthodoxy.

For years, St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Portland, established in 1895, was one of few Orthodox churches in the state. In the past 15 years, churches or missions have sprung up in Albany, Ashland, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Eugene and in several Portland neighborhoods. According to the Orthodox Church of America, an umbrella organization for certain Orthodox jurisdictions, at least 150 new parishes in the United States have sprung up in the past 20 years. Nationally, they estimate there are now 2 million to 3 million Orthodox believers.

Faith trumps understanding in the ancient, mystical tradition, which is steeped in rituals such as a sung liturgy, reverence for icons, fasting, sacraments and daily dedication to the spiritual life.

Something more real

One of the tradition’s most powerful attractions to Westerners is its rejection of immediate gratification and living only for the self, said Cowie. She converted 14 years ago after spending years seeking a tradition that would satisfy a spiritual longing she herself could not describe. Orthodoxy offered something different, she said. Something bigger. Something more real.

“It’s very, very deep,” she said. “The people who are attracted to Orthodoxy are people… who are looking for something more, who see the shallowness of our materialistic society.”

Orthodoxy doesn’t ignore the mind and the intellect, Cowie said, but sees the intellect as being seated in the heart. “There is a mystical presence that actually draws us on.”

A hunger for meaning

Youths seem to be drawn to the ancient tradition. When Cowie’s daughter was a teen-ager, Cowie gave her free rein to decide for herself which religious tradition spoke to her. Her daughter, now 21, is an Orthodox nun in a California monastery. “Our children are staying with the church,” said Cowie, who teaches parenting classes at a Eugene nonprofit agency.

The Rev. Michael Boyle, a priest at St. Eugene, said that for some youths the church fills a void that entertainment and other social institutions do not. “Younger people are hungry for authentic Christianity. They are dying inside for something that is real, authentic and that challenges them to have a spiritual life as a Christian,” he said. “Orthodoxy has not lost the mystery. It does not try to answer every question that comes up. It’s real. People feel God.”

The tradition’s emphasis on ritual, prayer and self-examination spoke to an unmet spiritual hunger Rebecca Jaquette and her husband had both felt for years. Like Cowie, Jaquette had experimented with different Christian approaches to worship before she found Orthodoxy. Brought up Presbyterian, “I felt like I didn’t have any tradition,” Jacquette said. “My husband and I knew how to speak ‘Christian-ese,’ but inwardly we felt we were just going through the motions. We didn’t know what we were really doing with our lives.”

From the moment they began attending Orthodox services in Portland, something felt right, Jaquette said. “And as we continued in it, we felt we were worshipping more fully, that we found a place where there was a rhythm to life that was really important.” Now members of St. Eugene, the couple is happy to have rituals and traditions to pass on to their two children, ages 5 and 6 months. “This is what they will know,” Jaquette said.

A split at the beginning

The Eastern and Western Christian traditions split apart in what is known as the Great Schism of 1054. The two branches took very different routes. Whereas the Roman Catholic tradition adhered to a strict hierarchy headed by the pope, the Orthodox Church stayed away from placing one individual at its head. Over the centuries, a host of Orthodox jurisdictions developed. Different ethnic groups, including Greeks, Serbians, Albanians and Russians, added their own customs to the traditional rituals. Still, at the core, “we are all of the same faith,” Evangelatos said.

Michael Spezio, a UO graduate student and a Presbyterian minister, has studied Orthodoxy and has traveled to Mount Athos, a Greek peninsula populated only by monks living in centuries-old monasteries. Spezio said he has come to understand what Orthodoxy contributes to the broad spectrum of Christianity. “I have an appreciation for the mystery that moves through the tradition,” he said. “They don’t seek to intellectualize every last thing. The seek to experience, but not to dissect that experience.

Incorporating the senses

Despite its focus on spirituality, Orthodoxy doesn’t reject the physical realm, said St. Eugene member Catherine Larson. During services the five senses are nourished and purified: candles for sight, incense for smell, bread and wine for taste, kissing of icons for touch, chanting for sound. Church members often fast, but they also join for feasts and communal meals.

“The beauty and theology of Orthodoxy seems more elemental, more practical,” she said. Unlike Catholicism, Orthodox priests who intend to serve parishes must be married before they are ordained.

St. Eugene, said the head priest, the Rev. David Lubliner, is named after a 4th-century Egyptian saint who is celebrated for his selfless hospitality and kindness. “Emperor Constantine called him one of the three great lights of the world,” he said. The church, which also houses a small bookstore, plans to continue its patron saint’s hospitality. It will open a drop-in tea house and plans to help cook for the group Food Not Bombs, which prepares meals for the homeless several times a week.

Coincidentally, the church is situated at the site of another establishment that served wayward pilgrims on the path of life. The former Icky’s Teahouse welcomed social outcasts, runaway youth, substance abusers and anarchists, once even holding a benefit concert for Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

Today the just-completed stucco church, which took church members two years and hundreds of hours of mostly volunteer labor to build, nuzzles up close to Whiteaker’s social diversity. To the south is an AA social club. To the north a dance studio thuds with flamenco initiates. Nearby is a row of artists’ studios, a Mission homeless shelter, local railroad yards and a notorious drug and skin market strip. St. Eugene will be a place of peace in the center of that swirl, Boyle said, both for its members and anyone on the street looking for a place of rest.

“I know that, through prayer, grace is sent, and that grace resides in the physical building itself,” he said. “As people enter from the street, they sense it. They sense holiness, something different than anything they’ve sensed before. And that is part of our purpose, to bring down that grace from heaven.”

Why is America in a free fall? What can we do about it? These four sermons present a powerful case for how we have misunderstood the source of our problems. While many pointed the finger at President Bush, so now many point it at President Obama. But do we look only at human leaders because we no longer believe that evil has a supernatural dimension? Watching the horrors of Nazi Germany, C. S. Lewis warned against the dangers of dismissing the devil. Looking at modern America, Mangalwadi also points the way back to living and flourishing as a people under God.

Watch 5-minute video of Dr. Mangalwadi introducing the subject.

“Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi’s intelligent and refreshing insights peel back the political, social, and moral issues of America and reveal a deception that runs deeper than our sociocultural roots. No longer can we take America’s goodness for granted. In four lectures originally given at our church in May 2009, Mangalwadi left us asking if we will allow America to become a nation seduced by Satan or if we will learn from the past and take a stand for righteousness.”

—Pastor Duane Vander Klok, PhD, Resurrection Life Church, Grandville, Michigan

“Vishal has the courage to ask the tough questions and the rare ability to make the complex accessible to the masses. It is telling when I struggle with my kids over first dibs to his materials!” —Hank Hanegraaff, President of the Christian Research institute and host of the Bible Answer Man Broadcast

Obama administration violating separation of church and state, in the name of  ”Social Justice”

David Noebel sees a real violation of church and state unity:

I’ve been thinking … well, I’ve been reading and thinking. I’ve been reading Erwin Lutzer’s latest work, “When A Nation Forgets God: Seven Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany.” Published by Moody Publishers, the Moody Church pastor analyses how the church in Germany fell under the sway of Adolf Hitler. Here’s the bad news: “By far the majority of the Lutheran churches sided with Hitler and his spectacular reforms.” The good news: “But a minority, under the leadership of Bonhoeffer and Niemoller, chose to pull away from the established church to form the ‘Confessing Church.’”

I find it disturbing that the Obama administration is trying to use churches, including evangelical churches, for its own political purposes.

The May 3, 2010, issue of The Weekly Standard carries an article by Meghan Clyne entitled “The Green Shepherd,” describing how the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is seeking to enroll gullible Christian churches in its efforts to control the climate – paraded under the guise of fighting poverty and injustice.

One of the “Green Shepherds” chosen by the Obama administration to deceive evangelicals is none other than the Rev. Jim Wallis!

Clyne’s article’s subtitle summarizes the administration’s underlying political goal: “The White House wants churches to advance its climate change agenda.” She points out that while Wallis wrote in December 2006 that “Republicans shamelessly politicized the faith-based initiative,” Wallis himself is now “a member of Obama’s faith-based council and has also met with congressional Democrats to help them frame their policies in more morally appealing terms.” These Wallis-trained Democrats will in turn make “inroads with religious voters.” Sound similar to Hitler’s making inroads with the Lutherans of his day?

Here is Students for a Democratic Society’s Jim Wallis, defender of Fidel Castro and a party to the proliferation of Communist revolutions throughout Central America, moving amongst the evangelicals and deceiving them left and left. Wallis has been a radical ever since he graduated from Michigan State University. (If you’re interested in more commentary on Wallis and his Sojourners magazine, see “Barack Obama’s ‘Red’ Spiritual Advisor” article on Summit Ministries’ website.)

Wallis’ ability to deceive reaches high into evangelical circles. For example, an article posted on the Sojourners blog entitled “Beyond Charity: Living a Life of Compassion and Justice” written by the wife of Willow Creek Pastor Bill Hybels says the following: “The battle against injustice is a tough and ugly war. While I am proud that Willow has entered that war, the truth is we have just begun to fight. … I look forward to the day when we as a church will be known for being the greenest church on the planet, not just because we enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, but because we know that climate change is a justice issue.” Included in her suggested reading list is Jim Wallis and his Sojourners magazine.

This idea that climate change is a justice/injustice issue is 100 percent in synch with the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which “envisions the ‘partnership’ between government and religious institutions as a means of spreading the administration’s environmental warnings, rather than just a way to help churches feed the hungry and clothe the poor.” No wonder Clyne closes her article with the comment, “Perhaps it’s only reasonable that global warming activists would turn to God for help as the scientific case for their position collapses.”

But let me be blunt and suggest that Mrs. Hybels would be better informed if she would read Theodore Dalrymple’s “Life at the Bottom,” Peter Bauer’s “Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion” and Thomas Sowell’s “Intellectuals and Society.”

In fact, if she were to read Sowell’s work she would discover at least one secret to lifting the poor out of poverty, which we can assume is her desire in attaining “social justice,” since she never clearly articulates what she means by the term. Writes Sowell, “Under new economic policies beginning in the 1990s, tens of millions of people in India have risen above that country’s poverty level. In China, under similar policies begun earlier, a million people a month have risen out of poverty.”

Unfortunately this is not welcomed news by the radical left because these economic policies are capitalistic and hence politically incorrect. Sowell quotes French writer Raymond Aron who admits that intellectuals want to see prosperity only “through State intervention” and “the revolutionary code” and hence are resentful over such capitalistic victories. Better poor under socialism than well off under capitalism seems to be their motto!

Indeed, a fellow lecturer told me of his recent trip to Cuba where “social justice” reigns supreme. Everyone in Cuba works for the government and receives $15 a month (doctors receive $18) which barely buys beans and rice and a little cooking oil. The 500 pastors he taught for a week said that Cuba today is an island prison and no one can escape. People are starving even though their waters are alive with fish, but no fishing boats are allowed since they would be used to escape from paradise to the evil United States.

This is the Cuba the Rev. Jim Wallis and his Sojourners crowd hold up as an example of “social justice.”

This Saturday morning, June 26th, there’s going to be a lunar eclipse—and for many residents of the USA, it’s going to be a big one. Check it out on the NASA website. 

The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship

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The past millennium brought unprecedented improvements in human health, nutrition, and life expectancy, especially among those most blessed by political and economic liberty and advances in science and technology. At the dawn of a new millennium, the opportunity exists to build on these advances and to extend them to more of the earth’s people.

At the same time, many are concerned that liberty, science, and technology are more a threat to the environment than a blessing to humanity and nature. Out of shared reverence for God and His creation and love for our neighbors, we Jews, Catholics, and Protestants, speaking for ourselves and not officially on behalf of our respective communities, joined by others of good will, and committed to justice and compassion, unite in this declaration of our common concerns, beliefs, and aspirations.

Our Concerns

Human understanding and control of natural processes empower people not only to improve the human condition but also to do great harm to each other, to the earth, and to other creatures. As concerns about the environment have grown in recent decades, the moral necessity of ecological stewardship has become increasingly clear.

At the same time, however, certain misconceptions about nature and science, coupled with erroneous theological and anthropological positions, impede the advancement of a sound environmental ethic. In the midst of controversy over such matters, it is critically important to remember that while passion may energize environmental activism, it is reason—including sound theology and sound science—that must guide the decision-making process. We identify three areas of common misunderstanding:

Read the rest of the Declaration on the Cornwall Alliance website.

“Reaction, Resentment, and Inner Stillness” – Part 2

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